Category «Contest»

Me Against The Mutants – Day ~3

This post is part of the PITMAN Birthday Sale Week - check it out HERE!

So, this is the follow-up to the first posting from Sunday. In it I explained that we're doing a roguelike in (less than) seven days, and what was the basic idea behind it: an infinity generator.
As we are also busy building our current game, TRI, we could not invest the time to make a full roguelike. We will try to make at least a game where you can walk around and hit some enemies and find some bling. :-) But currently, all that could be implemented is the procedural creation of the dungeon, the walking player and - tada! - the infinity device.
Yes, it is now possible to draw a rectangle inside the game via mouse. The character can be moved with the WASD keys, so he can simply walk into the rectangly area and be trapped in the INFINITY. Just click again to remove the rectangle. Try it out for yourself:

[kml_flashembed publishmethod="static" fversion="10.0.0" movie="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10650964/7drl2012/test_002/7DRLCE2012.swf" width="490" height="350" targetclass="flashmovie"]

Get Adobe Flash player

[/kml_flashembed]

(Press R in order to generate a new world.)

So, this is kind of bland right now. With the rects you can trap yourself, have an interesting view on the screen, see yourself (and yourself, yourself and yourself), and get out of and into the building (as it has no doors to the outside). This doesn't do much for the gameplay, not yet. I want to have enemies which can get trapped inside the rects and beaten up thanks to them.

I had the infinity working pretty soon after my last post, but then I realized they wouldn't work with enemies. So I spent half a day with refactoring and rewriting some parts of the code, fixing bugs and introducing new ones, until it worked again exactly as before. ;-) At least I can now potentially add enemies, which will happen in the next days, because after Saturday, 13 o'clock, the game has to be finished in order to be a legit 7DRL.
Although we will try to do an all-nighter from Friday to Saturday, this probably won't suffice for a truly full game. The enemy AI will be very basic and there won't be that much interaction possibilities. Yet the potential for a bigger game is still there (we think), and if we're not going for the out-of-challenge 10DRL we will work on it later perhaps.

Tell us what you think! Is this a prototype worth turning into a full game?

Me Against The Mutants – Day 1

This post is part of the PITMAN Birthday Sale Week - check it out HERE!

As planned long before, we take part in the 7-Day-Roguelike-Challenge 2012, and currently are making a roguelike with AS3/Flashpunk. With less time at our hands, we wanted to have a smaller scope than last year (when we did "Pitman Krumb"), which basically means: no 3D (but pixel art instead), no big story or anything, only one dungeon and RPG elements next to zero. Think "3DRL" instead of "7DRL". Still, there should be at least one interesting gameplay mechanic, and this will be the INFINITY.

Before I explain this Infinity thing, here is the rough premise: In "Me Against The Mutants" you play a liquidator, trying to get rid of the radioactive material lying around everywhere and, which wasn't really part of the job, killing some mutants. You can walk around and hit enemies - simple as that.

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But as you're pretty weak, mostly weaker than the mutants stumbling around, you get a device ... the Infinity Generator. With it you can create rectangles which extend to infinite space (think Portal, but top-down 2D). At least that is the plan, currently I don't know a) if I can implement this device and b) if it really works as main gameplay. But this was another goal of us - the game should be a little bit experimental. This is true for me (programming the Infinity device) as it is for Jana: we never did a (more or less) full 2D game together, so there is enough new material for both of us to learn.

Right now, after ~10 hours of developing (we started Saturday, 13:37 local time), the following things work:

  • A dungeon gets generated. As the world in itself always has the same elements - a big forest, with some kind of building in the middle - this is how it always looks, but slightly different every time you start the game. The shape of the building varies, and the number of rooms. I did a small test of the dungeon generation algorithm beforehand, you can have a look at it here.
  • Different graphics for forest, building, walls.
  • The main character (four directions) walks around - not finished.

And that's it. Not very much, I expected to be faster programming-wise, but using a middleware I'm still not 100% proficient in is always holding me back. And as I don't use the Entity system of Flashpunk as it was meant to be used, it feels much less high-level, and I have to rethink many things; I even get the feeling that I do some things for the first time, which isn't that much fun.

So, even though I wanted to have the (basically) working game after this weekend, I might want to put more work into it during the week.

And while you're here, check out the other 7DRLs in the making! 

The BIG PITMAN Birthday Sale Week!

Yes, that's right! On 10th of March the Seven Day Roguelike Challenge 2012 started, and this means our beloved little Roguelike PITMAN is becoming one year old! You don't know what it is? No problem, watch a trailer right here!

In order to celebrate this meaningful date we start a sale for this whole week of roguelike joy! Also, come back daily, as there might be some extra specials for you waiting here. :-)

Saturday, 03/10/12: PITMAN is 66% off on: IndieCity! Special for today: An insightful interview with both Jana and Friedrich on truepcgaming.com about the development of PITMAN, and some general tidbits!

Sunday, 03/11/12: PITMAN is still 66% off on IndieCity! Special for today: The first longer posting about our 7DRLC 2012 entry, "Me Against The Mutants"! It offers insights of the development process and has screenshots!

Monday, 03/12/12: PITMAN is now 66% off on IndieCity AND LittleIndie! Special for today: An extensive interview from Jana with Andreas Podgurski, administrator of Little Indie, about indies, German indies, indie indies, Little Indie and achievements. Read it in English or German!

Tuesday, 03/13/12: PITMAN is still 66% off on LittleIndie! Special for today: We put nearly all our games' music in one big .ZIP! Download it, listen to it, be amazed! (Not necessarily in that order.)

Wednesday, 03/14/12: PITMAN is now 66% off on LittleIndie and Indievania! Special for today: A little break from all the stress this week - have fun! :-) (That is DRM-free and can be enjoyed best by turning off your computer, your monitor, and going for a walk in the park!

Thursday, 03/15/12: PITMAN is now 66% off on Indievania and Desura! Special for today: A new update from our 7DRL Challenge entry: read about the process and play a first prototype!

Friday, 03/16/12: PITMAN is STILL 66% off on Indievania and Desura! Special for today: So you all bought and played this little roguelike called PITMAN, correct? You also died a lot, amirite? Enemies and hunger every time, huh? Well, don't fret no more, here comes the ultimate guide to help you out!

Saturday, 03/17/12 + Sunday, 03/18/12: PITMAN is not only 66% off on Desura, but also 50% off on iTunes! Special for today: Mindfuck in your browser!

Come back after the weekend for some kind of post-mortem!

GGJ Leipzig 2012 – What a weekend!

The event I was planning since September finally took place. For everybody who couldn't join the Global Game Jam or was quarreling if a game jam is "useful": You really missed a very intense weekend full of fun and games to play and develop! Among 246 locations in 48 countries with 11182 jammers who made 2301 games!!!

We were 17 jammers in Leipzig who produced 7 games at the HTWK.

Our own entry:

Inclosssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssure, a Snake clone, where you have to surround your enemies to neutralize them.

https://www.youtube.com/?v=JEF90o-YZkU

You can download it here: PLAY!

A very nice video about our Leipzig Jam (in german):

https://www.youtube.com/?v=G0veRzuo0xE

More articles (in german):

Impressionen von Rico Bartsch (Teilnehmer): Lesen
Bericht von Andreas Reschetilowski (Teilnehmer): Lesen
LVZ-online: Lesen + Bilder

The other's games:

Bjoern Room - Artsy Not Game

Tactival Snake - Strategy Game

Ferocious Firefly - Action Game

Falcon Fight - Android

Snakearrow - Puzzle Game

You are your walls - Tactic Game

How to survive a GAME JAM?!

The Global Game Jam is the event to be part of, soon. So we collected some points you should consider, especially when this is your first game jam:

1. KNOW YOUR TOOLS
- Don't try out new tools - use engines, frameworks and things you know (or even invented).
- Use programs like GameMaker and Unity or frameworks like FlashPunk and LÖVE2D which were built to make games.
- There are several tools to make your life easier, like sprite editors, level editors, etc.

2. THINK SIMPLE
- Try not to make a whole game, instead experiment with ONE gameplay feature.
-> Or: Remake a simple game, but with a new twist or a different style.

- Also graphics should be a simple as possible.
-> Think also about drawing footage on paper and scan it. Be creative!

3. WORK IN TEAMS
- Try to not work alone, shared fun is double fun!
- Communicate to others what you can do best (programming, graphics, etc. - or even subsets: pathfinding algorithms, pixel art animation, etc.). Team up with like minded people with other skill sets.
- Talk to your team members and find out what they're interested in.

4. TAKE A BREAK
- Breath, eat, sleep. Go out for a walk. You have three days, use them well, but not only for working.
- Talk to other teams! Look what they are doing. Show your work. Don't get stuck with yourself!
- Sleep! Ideas and solutions to problems come up better when you are fresh minded!
- Don't just eat sugary stuff and pizza. Bring also fruits and vegetables with you, and don't forget to drink much. Or you will just feel full and immobile.

5. MISTAKES ARE OKAY
- Your first idea turns out to be stupid? No problem! Start anew, instead of trying to work around (and painting yourself into a corner). Remember: "If you realise you're riding a dead horse - dismount!"
- Don't immediately start with your first idea.

6. DON'T PANIC
- Most important lesson! There are plenty of game jams over the year. This doesn't need to be the best game you ever did. Just relax and enjoy being part of it!

If there are more suggestions you would like to add, write them in the comments! We would be pleased to hear your experience.

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