You know, there are some games where you set out with a massive design document and squiggly graphs and development methodologies and the whole nine yards, and there are some where you don’t; you sort of build one thing to see if it works, and then you keep on adding and adding until, over time, youve got a game on your hands. Something far, far removed from what you first set out to do.
The platformer I’m working on – working name: Down Under – seems to be going that way.My initial view was something vaguely resembling Abuse, which was dark and had lots of creepy-crawlies headed your way. Today Down Under took a turn towards Knytt – colourful backgrounds, which nevertheless seem to fit perfectly, and more static enemies than I planned to put in. I’ve worked out an approach to destructible terrain and how to use it as a major element of gameplay [taking cover and so on]. Scribbling ideas in the back of my Maths textbook, trying to see if I can pack lighting effects into this. Each level will definitely have kill counters and timers – and they’re going to be used for online Speedrun and Destruction highscores.
Monthly Archives: December 2011
Status report: The wee sprite moveth PT 2
Right. Despite my not having any experience whatsoever in making a platformer, I’ve cobbled together satisfactory movement – left, right, jump, run-jump and all that – with working collisions and gravity; in short, the essence of a platformer.
My initial problem was with collision – I would run up against the wall, press the other direction and whoops – the player sprite ended up with one foot jammed in the wall.
This was entirely due to the sprite’s centering. I Game Maker, you can set the center of each sprite as it’s point of origin. In my case, I use a variety of sprites – the left running animation, the left standing still sprite, and the right run and the right standstill. The torso shifts. Naturally.
My problem: the arm is an independent obect which points to the mouse cursor, Abuse-style. So, to anchor the arm to the body, I had instructed it to attach itself to player_object.x, player_object.y at all times. I the then point of origin of the left and right sprites to *slightly [about 3 pixels difference]* different x-coordinates to make sure that the player’s arm, is perfectly aligned with the shifted torso. Unfortunately, due to this 3-pixel origin difference the player’s foot would shift imperceptibly into walls and the collision code would freeze the player.
Headache. Yes, the tutorials would have helped, but I refuse to look at them. For now. Part of the fun is figuring out the solution.
Setting the x-value to the center of the sprite solved the issue, but had the arm hanging onto empty air because the player’s torso shifted about when changing directions. So . . . simple enough: I left the arm as it was and, depending on which sprite was used, I made the player object draw three fine lines from itself to the arm. Now it looks awesome! When trying to run against a wall, the arm extends; since the lines are drawn, it looks exactly like the arm is still attached and the player is “pushing” at the wall.
I messed about with it a bit and turned off the gravity for the arm. The guy now looks like a mini-Mr-elastic when jumping; the arm stretches and zap! pops back into place. Not bad 
One MASSIVE problem I’m having, is that whenever I jump and land while holding the left / right arrow key, the player actually runs on a 1-2 pixel wide layer ABOVE the floor. Let go of the button, or tap it again, or press another button, and the player descends to the floor again. I’ve tried setting gravity on Key Press – doesn’t work.
Hmm . . .
I’ll figure it out.
Tomorrow.
Oh, and I made a new background.
Like this:
THE PS VITA vs the smartphones
The PS Vita is here. Or rather, it’s in Japan, two months ahead of it’s worldwide debut. I am not going to type at length about its hardware, or features, or other device specifics – there’s already an excellent, in-depth review of the Vita at Joystiq here. Simply put, the PS Vita is a not-exactly-pocket-shaped portable console, built roughly along the lines of a PSP and packed with enough hardware to blow a PS3 out of the water. It’s a dedicated, portable console.
Unfortunately [or fortunately] times have shifted since the gameboy era. Let’s consider the iOS and Android platforms: Iphones and Ipads have flooded the market. Android devices are on the rise. Developers who have not been previously able to break into the high-end mobile gaming sector due to strict regulations imposed by the likes of Sony and Nintendo, and also because of the cost of development kits, have jumped onto these smartphone platforms and are releasing wildly. Result? We’ve got Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, selling millions of copies, and and hundreds of thousands of other, innovative games on these smartphone platforms. More games than Sony or Nintendo ever had.
And there’s the fact that millions of people have an Iphone. Or a similar smartphone. Which, put simply, is a larger customer / player base that these dedicated console manufacturers have. The relative ease of use of developing and releasing games has led to lots of games on smartphone platforms that LOTS of people own. User for user, there’s more people gaming now on smartphones than portable consoles.
Which has the PS Vita outnumbered.
There will always be gamers who go for handhelds like the Vita. While mobile phones are getting better, Sony’s handhelds are getting even better in terms of hardware and features. But in terms of sensibility, Sony is simply pouring money into a dead end. Handheld consoles won’t die soon – but eventually, a few years from now, they will. Phones are catching up. 12 MP cameras, folks. Even Sony’ genius engineers will hit the line: there’s only so much power you can pack into a mobile device while keeping it affordable.
A far better option, from both a developer perspective AND from a business viewpoint, is to cross over. Handheld consoles are becoming closer and closer to smartphones – touch interfaces, WiFi, 3G, digital camera – while phones head towards console-quality VGA cards and dual-core processors. Why not get ahead of the other manufacturers by combining Sony’s industry experience and tech prowess to bring true portable gaming to a smartphone? Sony tried it with the Xperia Play. It wasn’t so successful, but it’s a start – there’s no other mobile manufacturer on the planet with as much game hardware and software development experience as Sony. Plus, Sony[Ericsson] has a name for top-notch mobile phones. More people recognize the Walkman series, for example, than the PS portables. There’s more market for a smartphone that plays “Wow! Sony’s games, dude,” than there is for an expensive, dedicated mobile console that drains its batteries within 4 hours.
An even better fact? This opens up top-notch mobile gaming to more developers. Sony could very well implement something like the XBLA / XBLIG system – where Sony’s publications, and highlights are separated from “the pool” of games being released. Sony’s platforms would get top-notch content from the likes of Gameloft, while maintaining a pool of indies they can keep an eye on. Win-win, folks.
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. And outdo ‘em.
Status update [a small one]
No work done today, none at all. Yesterday night’s work – the character runs, animations are working, everything’s A-OK. The arm rotates nicely as well; it’s amazing what good animation brings to a platformer. I’ll have to crack out my copy of the Game Maker‘s Companion to perfect the side-collsion masks. Over and out.
Like this:
Thoughts on Abuse, and . . . the wee sprite moveth
Image via Wikipedia
True to Abuse-esque gameplay, I now have fluid running animations, an arm that moves independently of the body, and general platforming left-and-right motion up and running. Not a lot, but I’m taking this one in short steps.
Of course, development of anything Abuse drew me into playing the game, which is a true masterpiece. For those who don’t know, Abuse is a run and gun platformer from the early days, as in from the DOS days. Here, read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abuse_%28video_game%29
What’s amazing is that the game is still more fun than many contemporary titles, foggy DOS graphics and all. Never mind the paper-thin plot. The graphics, small as they are, are incredibly detailed – the animations a superb – and the game inspires a genuine sense of action and horror. The game has weight, in a way that even Metal Slug does not. Those early developers had one thing right. They knew their graphics weren’t much, so they focused on making the gameplay as tight as possible – something modern developers could learn from. We tend to lose ourselves in terms like “HD graphics” and “Co-op play” and entirely forget that the game is about GAMEPLAY, not marketable design hooks.
Warning: my game will NOT be as good as Abuse – because the only things I’m gonna take from this game is the fluency of the animations. Doing anything else would turn my small project into a lame Abuse-clone, which I don’t want to do. I’ve decided on a direction – one-room-per-level gameplay, possibly with a Karoshi twist to it: the goal is to kill yourself.
Or perhaps the goal is to destroy things explosively and make it through the level as fast as possible. In which case I can integrate online highscores for a) fastest time through a level and b) Most amount of damage caused per unit time.
The second option sounds good.
Like this:
New project: Down Under
I’ve always been a fan of ABUSE [the game, nothing else] and a few days I hit upon an idea: what about a minimalistic ABUSE-esque platformer / shooter, split into levels? No sidescrolling, nothing as fancy as the Maze [though I might have to belay that idea], just solid one-room-a-level action.
Well, I’ve got a small single room and the player sprite [again, ABUSE-esque], up and running, so let’s see where this one goes. One thing: minimalistic graphics, aka my familiar themes of darkness and black / white terrain / characters. Remind me no to make this too complex.
Let’s see where we go with this one . . .
We’re in IndieGameMag! :D
I came back from Trincomalee to a very pleasant Christmas surprise – Cris Priestman over at Indie Game Mag has [very generously] posted about the Maze. One small step for indie gamedev, one giant step for 4250! Thanks, Cris!
Design thoughts from Karoshi
Yesterday, I went over to my friend’s place to study. What actually happened was that we ended up playing Karoshi.
For those who don’t know, Karoshi is probably one of the most unique games ever made. Because . . . .get this – the goal is to die. That’s right. In every other video game you try to stay alive. Here it’s the easiest thing in the world to stay alive. It’s the dying that’s the problem. Every level has a unique mechanic and can only be completed with your pixelated death.
OK, so that right there is a radical rethinking of all the game designs we’ve come to love. Within the framework of a small puzzle / platformer, Karoshi manages to be a game where every level is different in some way, while staying remarkably cunning. You end up overheating your brain. There’s this . . . .”no, there HAS to be a clue, this is Karoshi” feeling, and when it all clicks into place it’s like . . .. “oh, shit. Who would have thought of that?”
I’m not one to gush; the graphics suck. But that right there is simply awesome gameplay; even the graphics highlight it’s brilliance, because the game shines with even the most basic of platformer art. S’like Portal; a radical rethinking of everything that stays accessible. I decided that I’ll do my best to think like these developers and work outside the box for gameplay mechanics. 2Dcube, I salute you.
My thoughts on 2D, and why it’s here to stay
Image via Wikipedia
Every year, new breakthroughs make for ever more detailed 3D graphics. What started out with the Quake and Doom engines have given us the likes Frostbite 2, CryEngine 3, and Unreal Engine 3 – giving us high performance graphics rendering that makes 3D look *almost* real. The combined effort of which has been to make 3D the “in” thing ever since it came out.
In the face of it all, one would expect 2D to be relegated to the video game museums, or at least to indies just starting out in game development. While the second has indeed happened, 2D has not died out at all; it’s game hanging in there from the dawn of video games.The indie revolution has only made it more popular, making it acceptable for hardcore gamers to be seen playing 2D games. As a prime example, we have Limbo on the Xbox360. Not only is it on the bocks-exckss, it’s the number one indie selling title. Contrary to what you might think when you see the latest games, 2D has not, and will never, die out.
The reasons for my confidence? Read on.
1) We’ve mastered 2D. The game industry has come a long, loooong way since the days of Pong. We’re now at a state where pretty much anything you imagine in 2D can be built, which allows for some pretty awesome stuff – like the new Rayman by Ubisoft, or Shank by Klie Entertainment / EA. The industry’s mastery of 2D means that if the entry barrier into 2D game development has been reduced to almost nothing [we live in the age of Game Maker and Unity, after all]. Follow this train of thought logically and we get more high-quality 2D indie games than the entire industry in the 80′s. The knowledge, the “how-to-make” is already out there.
2) It’s easier to express yourself in 2D. No kidding, Sherlock. While 3D is pretty much the only thing if you’re building the next Deus Ex, it’s a fact of life that it’s far easier for a developer to get his/her ideas out cleanly in the 2D medium. A lot of wonderful RPGs would never have been done in 3D – hey, we don’t all work a Square Enix. Fact: it’s easier to make a 2D game. Lesser budget, lower development time and effort. Turn anything 3D and the effort required multiplies astronomically.
This loosely applies to art styles as well. Imagine Rayman Origins in 3D. It would have looked awesome. It would have been epic. It would also have been a nightmare to build. And as for playing, I wonder how that’ll go. Shank, for example, is much better off in 2D than in 3D. . It’s the art style, which fits in perfectly with the 2D side view.
3) It’s a different type of game.
Ever noticed how view good 3D puzzle platformers there are, compared to the number of 2D ones? While there’s no arguing with GlaDOS, the fact is that 2D is in many cases suited far better to platforming, while 3D is the best at pushing the player into intense action like racing or getting shot in the face. This works both ways; GTA V in 2D would NOT have been good at all compared to the 3D thing – but there are certain genres which lend themselves better to 2D.
So if you’re an indie developer, don’t be disheartened; there’ always a place in this world for 2D. If it’s good enough, like Limbo [or the Maze, haha] , that place is gonna be pretty damn big.
1.6 pushed out; 600 downloads; 4250 update
Patch 1.6 for the Maze has been released, and in the meantime the Maze has rocketed past 600 downloads. I’ll probably treat myself to a cake or something when it hits 1000 downloads. True success comes in quadruple digits.
And now for the Vpet, aka the hypertamagotchi, or whatever the others are calling it now. Chamara Silva, the guy who initiated and invited me to CA Games, has teamed up with us for the art. True to form, I see no news whatsoever from the other members of the team. Typical 4250 problem. I’m going to have to go get this sorted out now.
