Megastructure Meanderings
Megastructure Transport System
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: 8tracks, megastructure, mix, music
Balloons
In honor of our third anniversary, I made us a little two-button, two-player game. Keep afloat using the balloons, and catch a flying Chloe for extra bonus points.
Play after the jump.
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: anniversary, arcade, balloons, chloe, flash, flixel, gamegift, pixels, pixlizr, punes, two-button, two-player
pixlizr – sprites made easier
Introducing the PIXLIZR (currently v0.2).
PIXLIZR v0.2
a pixelized Eli
Updates to come soon, including XML support.
For more info and downloads, see the new Tools page.
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: announce, art, clanlib, pixels, pixlizr, sprites, tools
Ludum Dare 19: “Lost Races’ Artifacts Recovery”
According to Daniel, my Ludum Dare concepts are hit-or-miss. As of now, I have participated in four Ludum Dare 48-hour game development competitions, and it’s hard to gauge if I have improved or not.
For Ludum Dare 19, our theme was “Discovery”.1
Much time was spent finding a suitable game idea before I actually started working on it. The reasons are many and varied, and I won’t get into them here. Suffice to say, my gigantic ego cannot bear the thought of choosing a “normal” mechanic, or one that may be used by others during the competition. This is where Daniel’s “hit-or-miss” principle comes into play. Before the project gets rolling, the driving force is that I’d rather have a badly-made game with an interesting mechanic or concept, than a well-made game with a trivial or obvious mechanic.
Of course, after it’s all over, and the score cards and criticism come pouring in, I realize I would have done better if I had made a simpler game. Indeed, I would rather have made a good, fun game, even if the mechanics had been obvious or even trivial.
In any case, the game I made is called Lost Races’ Abandoned Artifact Recovery, and you can play it here. You can also see feedback and rating (scores will be published when the voting round is over).
If you are interested in the concept, I wrote a Coroner’s Report, which is more about the technical details, but also manages to flagellate me nicely.
Thanks to all who provided feedback, and to anyone who played my game. As always, Ludum Dare is a learning experience, and I look forward to the next one.
1It occurs to me that there must be a better system for theme voting. As it works today, anyone can “upvote” or “downvote” any number of themes. This dull sword layers vague clouds of desires, and the thickest point becomes the chosen theme. As soon as “Discovery” appeared on the final list, it was fairly obvious it would be chosen, because who doesn’t want a game about discovery? (One year ago, it was “Exploration”.)
It might be wise to limit the number of upvotes per round per person, or to have voters order the themes from highest interest to lowest. This way, only the themes that invoke the deepest resonance with the voters will float to the top and get chosen. It is my opinion that this will increase each vote’s weight, and reduce the generic, flat themes chosen.
Mt. Brawlalot – competition results
Audio: 8th place
Humor: 10th place
Everything else: wayyyyy out there!
This game was definitely not innovative. Innovation was not one of my goals this time around – mostly because of the theme (“Enemies as weapons”). Another excuse I have for not being innovative was my worry that I wouldn’t manage using the Unity platform, so I decided to keep it simple.
Similarly, I did not intend to put much into graphics, and the game looks appropriately. Nothing is animated, the textures are ill-fitting and simpleminded, and basically everything is a barely-modified box or sphere. (The audio, however, came out pretty much as I hoped.)
One of the goals for this competition was to make a fun, humorous game. I went for light-hearted sounds and flavor text, instead of the heavier, mysterious atmosphere from You are me now. The feedback tells me I succeeded in making it lighter and funnier.
However, the big lesson I learned here was that “funny” does not mean “fun”. Most responses to the game were positive when it came to their initial reaction, but the controls were so bad that nobody could actually bear playing it more than one or two rounds.
(See feedback on the entry page.)
And so we arrive at my weakest point of all: control schemes. All three of my attempts at the Ludum Dare competition have resulted in badly-controlled games. This is something I should work on before the next competition.
Thanks to everyone who played my game, I hope to make something better next time.
In: Personal projects, Uncategorized · Tagged with: analysis, ante-mortem, competition, game, ludum dare, post-mortem
Atop Mt. Brawlalot – Ludum Dare #18
My entry for the 18th Ludum Dare 48-hour game development competition was called “Atop Mt. Brawlalot”. It is the story of one brave individual, who resolves to fling any opposition from the mountain, rather than give in.
The theme of this competition was “Enemies as Weapons”.
The physics are quite wonky, but it is “broken in a good/funny way” as one commenter says. I like that, and yes, I feel it was broken properly.
Links to download on the official submission page.
Also notable were Yoni’s first ever LD entry, and Daniel’s second.
In: Personal projects · Tagged with: brawling chompers, competition, game, ld48, ludum dare, unity
You are me now – Ludum Dare #17
Here is my entry for the 17th Ludum Dare competition!
The theme of the compo was “Islands”.
It is called “You are me now”. You may need to click on the game to give it focus before playing. Hopefully, all instructions are given in-game.
If you get stuck, you may need to backtrack a bit.
(original LD entry) | (source) | (post-competition auto-analysis)
(intro/extro music) | (island theme music)
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: 48-hours, competition, flixel, game, islands, LD, ld48, ludum dare
Distant Chimneys
In preparation for next week’s Ludum Dare (#17), I have been working on atmospheric effects. The results are here, in what I call “Distant Chimneys”. There is little in the way of gameplay, but I’m pleased with how the background and ambient effects turned out.
The music was made with Musagi (another Dr. Petter creation), instruments created in Absynth.
I feel very comfortable with Flixel, which I will probably use for the competition.
Play Distant Chimneys after the jump.
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: ambience, chimneys, dynamic sprites, effect, flixel, game, LD, mood, music, practice, sound, wind
Cherrybrush sketches
Megastructure sketches I drew using Cherrybrush (by the amazing Dr. Petter).
