Check it out for yourself. You’ll be surprised at how two people can communicate with out talk or written word. Very nicely done.

http://www.makeourway.com/

Survival of the Fittest - Wave 4

In this game, the player must shoot square parent objects.  When a parent is destroyed, it spawns for children.  Those children then seek out other parents.  If they reach the parent, they add their attributes to the parent, making it stronger and more dangerous.

There are three types of parents and children, which bear strengths in different attributes:

• Blue – Increased strength.  Can with stand more shots from the player.
• Green – Increased speed.  Faster than the other types.
• Red – Attack ability.  Fires shots at the player.

The concept is based on an idea another designer shared with me.  I put my own twist on it.  All in all full development took about 28 hours of actual work put in over a week’s time.

Enjoy!

Download Survival of the Fittest

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Controls:

Move – WASD
Left Mouse Button – Fire

I’ve been wanting to post this for awhile.  Below you will find several prototypes I created in GameMaker to prove out the ideas I wanted to see in the final version of 1942: Joint Strike.  But first let me write a mini-postmortem about the prototype development.

1942 arcade game

At first, I had a difficult time deciding on the final mechanics for Joint Strike.  The initial plan proposed for the game was too ambitious for the time remaining in the project.  Also, the initial plan I felt had departed a bit too far from the legacy of the franchise.  The 1940s series had many incarnations over the past years, and with each version new ideas were introduced and old ideas were tossed away or modified in some new way.  I reviewed videos and played each of the previous versions:

- 1942
- 1943: The Battle of Midway
- 1941: Counter Attack
- 19XX: The War Against Destiny
- 1944: The Loop Master.

1941 Counter Attack

Each had its own personality, but it wasn’t until I played 1941 that I felt I knew what Joint Strike would become.  1941 had the pacing and the flavor of most of the series, but also had the visual and gameplay variety we needed for our game.  I had decided Joint Strike was to be sort of a love letter to the series.  It was to have familiarity with all the former version, but remain different enough it could stand on its own within the 1942 legacy. I then took elements from 1943, 1941, 1944, and 19XX that would be utilized in the final product.

I did want to add one thing that was new to the series to make it different from the rest, the Range Multiplier.  In previous games of the 1940s series, it was exciting and risky to sit your plane right below a target and unload all your weaponry into it.  I wanted to encourage and reward this behavior.  The Range Multiplier accomplished this goal.  The closer you are to a plane when you destroy it the higher the multiplier applied to your score.  So, if a plane is destroyed half a screen away you may get your score increased by 2x, however if you are right next to the plane the multiplier is 16x.  With this system I hope we would see players taking risks to get higher scores and would get just enough small variations in score to make leaderboards super competitive.

The prototype was developed in phases as I applied different concepts from the various legacy games.  I had just started learning GameMaker and luckily one of their tutorial programs was a 1942 ripoff.

GameMaker Shooter Tutorial
*controls listed below

That became the starting point for the development of the prototype.  I first wanted to see if the Range Multiplier would feel fun.  It had to be a small layer of challenge for hardcore players but not be a necessary element average players would need to master to have an enjoyable time.  To truly explore this mechanic I had to drastically change the movement of the enemy planes in the tutorial and speed up the base movement of the player plane.   All in all I was happy with the results.

Prototype 1
*controls listed below

Next powerups needed to be added.  This meant the inclusion of the ever-present red planes to spawn the powerups from.  I initially played with the legacy concept of shooting powerups to change their type.  In the final product, I decided to have the powerup type change over a timed interval.  It wasn’t fun having the powerups floating around the play space and stopping your shots.  I also included the charge shot which I believe made an appearance in both 1941 and 19XX.

Prototype 2
*controls listed below

Now I wanted to add in something that was similar to the 19XX homing missile mechanic.  In 19XX, you could charge your attack and unleash a special shot.  If that hit a target, this would cause a lock on, and anytime the player fired after that, special homing missiles would hit the lock on target.  This allowed players to incur extra damage on special targets of their choosing.  It also help defeat bosses quicker.  I wanted something similar without stealing the exact mechanic.  I then thought of the Missile Meter.  The faster you kill enemies the faster the Missile Meter fills.  Once filled, players earn a single missile attack.  Multiple missile attacks could be earned, but you had to kill groups of enemies quickly.  So, I implemented that next.  I also added bombs.  What’s a top down shooter without the bomb that destroys everything?

Prototype 3
*controls listed below

At this point I think I had everything I wanted, except the game wasn’t widescreen like it would be on 360 and PS3.  So, I made the aspect ratio change and did some edits to the HUD.  The other was somewhat pedestrian and I wanted something more compact.  The final game was going to be 2 player so I didn’t want the HUD to take up too much space.   In the final game the UI artist did a much better job putting all the information together than I did.

Prototype 4
*controls listed below

1942 Joint Strike Prototype

My goal was to have something playable prior to the time our engineers go the game up and running on our development hardware.  I was able to meet this goal.  It took about 4 weeks to put the final prototype together.  I only worked on it a day or two during the week and most of the weekends.

All in all, I think it came out pretty well.  I spent most of my time figuring out how to spawn enemies, which in turn helped with how we set up the scripting system in our development environment. It was somewhat tedious, but gave the flexibility to make moment to moment changes easier.

I didn’t get the level pacing quite the way I wanted it to be, but it was just a prototype.  I didn’t want to spend too much time making a full level with final tuning.  It proved out most of the game concept.  My desire was to give the team a sense of what the final game should be like, I think the final version I created accomplished that.

This was my first real project utilizing GameMaker.  I was very happy with the results.  It is a tool that allows me to work on a low level without getting too bogged down with too many details.  I was able to test out concepts I thought would work early.  I was then able to speak confidently with the team about features I wanted.  This made development go smoothly on such a short schedule.   I hope to do this again in the future.

Check out the final released game to see how it all turned out.

Tutorial Controls:

Move – Arrow Keys
Fire – Space Bar

Prototype Controls:

Move – W, A, S, D
Fire – Up Arrow
Charge Shot – Hold Up Arrow then release
Missile – Right Arrow
Bomb – Space Bar

Meanwhile, the people who supplied the tools are still close to the systems.  It will be easier for them to make adjustments to the systems.  Better than asking them to make changes 6 months later when the intricacies of the code are not as clear.

This methodology is typically contrary my natural instincts.  I’d much rather have all the proposed systems online.  Then like a puppet master, I tug and pull at different strings until the game get the feel I’m looking for.  This method is not always best given a short schedule and clients who evaluate every step.

Moving forward it is best to keep the vision and heart of the game always within reach, regardless of the state of the development.

Treasure is one of the best in the business.  It’s been awhile since they have done something that intrigues me.  I guess it would stand to reason a remake of one of their BEST games gets me giddy like a schoolgirl.  I’m still waiting for their other masterpiece to show up online.  Back when I was coaching wrestling I’d hold gaming parties.  Guardian Heroes was always a hit.  I just loved hearing the yells of excitement and the groans of loss.  The kids were engaged within a few moments of start.

I remember testing this game.  I remember my colleague doing the translation for the game.  It’s one of the better game translations.  Thinking back on it, who lets testers rewrite game scripts?  Well, that is a testament to the guys who did it.  But still, kinda ballsy.  It worked out well.

What is most amazing about Guardian Heroes is how well the gameplay holds up over time.  I challenge anyone to name a multiplayer brawler with the depth Guardian Heroes sports.  Guardian Heroes taught me complete multiplayer balance is silly.  Wild and crazy fun is king.  Giant Plant rules.

I look forward to playing online with the world soon.

When we last left off… I had just started my new game idea.  I’ve made some initial progress.   I have the player character’s base abilities in.  Well, like 2 of them.  I have now moved on to making the enemy move around.  That is my new challenge.  What I’ve realized is that I shouldn’t build the enemy from scratch.  I’ve done all this collision and jump magic work for the player character, why would I rewrite that.  So, Plan B…which really should have been Plan A.

Build with modularity in mind.  I’ve heard this before, and but I needed to start it that hard way for it to make sense.  I’m not sure how I can break out my player character code into modules or scripts that can be shared.  That is the next big chunk of work that must happen.  Hopefully I can do that soon.  We’ll see how it goes down.

I got an article from a friend that will help with solidifying my engine architecture.  I have a programming background, but I haven’t really been a programmer.  I’ve been focusing on design more.  This is an attempt to marry both those experiences.  I’m not the strongest in either but hopefully this will strengthen my skills in both areas.

Once the curtain is pulled back on game inspiration one can find their mind blown by the truth.  Looking at Pokemon now I can see how insects fueled this amazing property. It solidifies the idea that game designers should not just be avid game players, but also students of life.  We should generate systems from concepts around us.  Not just expand on the game ridden paths of before.  Game inspiration shouldn’t just come from what was done before. We should seek to look outside of previous genres and look at the physical world and history for inspiration.

Skill players and tourists imply the experience the players wish to have with the game. Skill players are one who play to get good at a game. Achievement hunters, I believe, would fall under this category. Competitive players of games like Street Fighter, Starcraft, or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

Tourists, on the other hand, are people who like experience the major bells and whistles of a game. They like to revel in the “back of the box moments”. They play games like Call of Duty for the spectacle of it all. In Grand Theft Auto, they may be the player who likes to run over people with cars and agitate cops without trying to complete the story. They are more apt to participate in the cool moments as opposed to breaking apart the game system and understanding its intricacies.

Wholesale and Premium Players draws attention to the purchasing choices played make. Wholesale players look for value in their dollar. They want a game that gets them more hours per dollars. While Premium players are looking to get more experience in a smaller window of time for more money.

If you read the article you will find my interpretation is a bit broad and somewhat terse, however the subject is still sounds. This interpretation put in perspective why reviews typically down play premium player games. Very rarely will you find a game higly rated that is high on spectacle but low on game length. That will lose points for being “too short” even if the game content is compelling. Reviews are written from the perspective of guiding the readers purchasing dollars. As American consumers, we are greatly concerned with stretching our money to the fullest. Unfortunately this ties our hands as developers.

Our creations are not critiqued on a level playing field. As the article suggests, if we can redefine the types of players we have we can than gives critiques that cater to the appropriate parties. Reviews for skill players who are premium player or tourists who are wholesale players. Any combination we desire. That would be something.

I’ve started working on a project again.  A branch off the “action prototype” with the purpose of making a new game.  It’s an idea I’ve had for awhile.  I’ve been scared to really pursue it before, however now I’m making a bit of progress.

I’m trying not to think on it too much.  The more I think about it the more I talk myself out of it.  When I think of all the little things that need to be done to make the game complete I get discouraged.  I want to make the engine easy to understand but really that just delays the creation process.  To make progress, I must continue to move forward even if the implementation is ugly.  I can always go back and clean it up. I must remember that.

Marcus