Monday, December 3, 2012

Charity Game Jam (miniLD) + Thoughts on the IndieSpeedRun

Two weekends ago I participated in a (very spontaneous) mini ludum dare. It was the 48th MiniLD and a bit of a special one. Organised by McFunkyPants (Christer Kaitila) this MiniLD was also a charity game jam for the Make a Wish Foundation. It was amusing to see both of the goals surpassed a good 12 hours before the LD even began. The reset higher goal (when the LD did start) was also surpassed by the end of the weekend, which was even better to see!




I haven't participated in a miniLD before, they never really appealed to me as much as the more major LD's do, but the mixture of having that weekend (for the most part) free, the charity aspect, the epic theme (NES style) and the buzz surrounding the LD, I couldn't resist entering.

The theme for the miniLD was 'NES', as in the retro Nintendo Entertainment System. I've been pretty keen on retro/pixelated games lately, so it was certainly something I felt excited to get into.
The day before the LD, I started working on the template. There was a 2D overlay provided for anyone using flash/html5/unity, but nothing (of course) for the BGE which I was pretty keen on using (as per usual). So I went about making my own template for the 'Funkytron' (made-up retro console & monitor for the miniLD), and since I was working in Blender, I figured Id might as well attempt something more 3D.
The results of the 2D template to 3D conversion:




With the template sorted I then had the challenge of setting up a game to run on the screen of the Funkytron monitor itself. The BGE VideoTexture module seemed like the obvious (and seemingly only) choice to make this possible.

The plan was to create a low-res/pixelated type of game (with 3D elements) to be played as a 2D game via projection onto the 2D screen of the 3D monitor in a 3D scene (which would also have interactive elements)
Adding to the complications... I wanted to have the game playable in-browser using the Burster plugin which I hadn't ever used. 

The final game I manged to put together over the weekend (missed out on a good 14 hours of the LD due to a friends going away party) turned out ok. It was inspired mostly by GTA2, ie the 'mini-game' is a top-down game based in a city, with a player you can control to run around and cause havoc, I've named it 'Super Theft Auto' for now, but will probably change the title in the future.


What went 'badly'/wrong:

  • There were a couple of features I didnt have time to implement, like a proper car system (including being able to steal & drive a car - kinda important for a GTA2 clone!)
  • Spent too much time working on the city level, should have simplified to allow more time to focus on other important things
  • The graphics went a fair bit beyond the NES theme/restrictions, I wanted to keep it closer but it just didnt work out in the end
  • Rushed a lot of the road textures, resulting in lots of bad seams - theres a lot of texturing to completely overhaul 
  • Using modules Id never used in combination before - caused a lot of grey areas to pop up, taking a lot of time to solve (or in some cases not solve) - ie trying to get a shader to work on the videotexture output - which didnt work out in the end, costing me an hour or two
  • Burster - the plugin worked well for the most part, but due to security issues it doesnt allow the use of external modules, file I/O or various other functions, this generally complicated a few things and required me to re-write/re-structure a bunch of code which again took time! There was also the fact that mipmaps cant be disabled using Burster, so all textures had to be scaled up a large amount in order to get them to be 'crisp' - more time gone!

What went well:

  • Overall I actually got the basics of a game working, you could shoot people and so on, adding to your score, it was something playable at least - and being able to play it in-browser is also a huge plus
  • The 2D sprite system works very well and was easy to modify (thanks to SolarLune for that)
  • Some neat NES tunes quickly made by AniCator 
  • The 3D Screen with 2Dish game projected onto it worked much better than Id expected, its a very cool effect and I hope to take advantage of it to make this game more 'unique'
  • Got the basics down for a game Id like to work on developing!


So heres a link to the game page (which has been updated since the miniLD version): 


You can play it in-browser, but will need to first download the Burster plugin and install it. Theres links and instructions on the page and its a small download. 
Theres also a template available, listed on the page I just linked to. The template is the Funkytron setup and mini game test scene I initially made, all setup to work using the VideoTexture module and Burster plugin, would be a good basis for anyone wanting to achieve the same effect. 

As far as plans for Super Theft Auto go, I'm certainly planning to develop it further. Its the kind of game I was initially trying to make back in Highschool, I remember attempting it a few times using Flash - but of course faking 3D elements in flash is tricky and I had no luck at all being a complete beginner. 

My main issue currently with the game is trying to do something 'unique', I dont want to end up with a boring clone of GTA2, but I want to keep some of the elements which made GTA2 such a good game. 
I've been undecided about the main '3D scene' which the player and computer reside within too, it seems pointless right now and just adds a level of abstraction from the player and the mini-game, not to mention some brain-numbing effects if you move the 3D camera while trying to focus on the game on the screen. 
But (thankfully) a few nights ago I had an 'epiphany' which solved all the main issues/concerns and produced one core idea/concept the game could revolve around. It effectively gives the 3D part of the 'overgame' a strong and relevant purpose - which is exactly what I wanted, rather than having to remove it due to being pointless/problematic. 
I'll develop this idea futher... So no details right now, but its got me pretty excited about the future of this game!


On Indie Speed Run:


Seeing a ton of negativity in the game-jam/Indie community regarding the recently announced Indie Speed Run being run by the Escapist. 
Cant say as I agree with *most* of it.
I'll quickly address a couple of the more popular opinions/perspectives about it which I disagree with and find the most concerning:


"Indie Devs who are in debt and trying to start their careers, pay $25 to have Escapist make money on your game!",
"You Have to pay $25 to take part/enter"
The idea of paying to enter a game jam, to many, seems to be offensive for some reason. Lets be serious here, its $25. It might be a lot for some, understandably, but whats the worst case scenario? - You choose to not participate. Some evil corporation isnt trying to force you to do this, theres no gun to your head. There's other game jams to be had anyway, and currently there seems to be several happening every month, I know I cant keep up with every-single-one going on at the moment. But I would argue that the $25 entry fee could be worth it for many, depending on the benefits which could potentially come from the game-jam, Indie Speed Run is no exception in this case, theres several benefits which Im yet to see coming from something like Ludum Dare.
The idea that this whole event is all about Escapist making money off your game is just unreasonable as well. They clearly outline the rules and rights you and your game have. If you dont agree with it, again... No gun being held to your head, you can make decisions for yourself about whether or not its something you want to enter.
Also clearly, if you're in debt and struggling to pay the rent, Id hope you'd be trying to make the right decisions - ie not spending that $25 on a game-jam (or that extra bottle of wine you probably shouldn't be buying right now) Its all just common sense when you get down to it. 


"Commercializing game jams is just completely wrong and missing the point.. please don't participate in it!"
This seems to be a typical overly-dramatic response, not particularly based on anything other than something about 'missing the point' (further addressed below). I'm not going to bother with the 'commercializing game jams' part, that's just completely over the top... 


"It goes against the ideas/principles of a GameJam"
From my understanding, the idea/principle of a game-jam is to make a game

"game jam is a gathering of developers, artists, and other creatives over a short time during which a collective effort is made to make one or more games."

Whether or not you have to pay to enter, of if there's a panel of judges instead of a community voting scheme, there's no judging at all, the game-jam is run by some larger corporation or company who offer a cash prize (or any other prize for that matter) - the fact is, you're making a game! Nowhere is it stated as some 'global law' that any of the above cannot or should not happen. And we've see it happen already, this isn't the first time any of the above mentioned has happened in regards to a game-jam.
Think back to the 'shitstorm' that surrounded the Kongregate post-LudumDare contest during LD24 earlier this year - all completely unnecessary amounts of drama and negativity. If anything, I would argue the response was damaging for both game-jams and the indie game-dev side of the industry. Will we see another contest like Kongregate contest (or anything similar) happen alongside a Ludum Dare or similar game-jam in the near future? -Doubtful, after the outpouring of anger and close-mindedness we saw last time I wouldn't blame a company for shying away from the idea, just to save themselves the backlash.
To me it feels like a loss of opportunity. There's chances in these kinds of things for little known indie game devs to get more publicity, to be seen by those already established in the industry, to enter into healthy competition with others and potentially win money for a game they've put time into - a horrific thought, I know. 

"The winners get a cash-prize"
I know some people are probably going on with the argument 'the prize for a game-jam is the game you make, the experience you have and ultimately the self improvement'  - and I get that, its the reason why I participate in game jams. I'm yet to even enter a game-jam or anything similar which offers cash prizes, or a panel of famous game devs to ponder over your game. But I can at least can appreciate the value in this kind of a game-jam and I'm sure its just a matter of time before I participate in one (I'm pretty keen to enter this Indie Speed Run if I have the time later in December). 
They go against the norm of what we're used to seeing with a game-jam or similar event, but because of that they offer benefits beyond the norm and I feel disappointed when people respond with close-minded fear-mongering attitudes which generally get no one anywhere.

Its about time to let the indie game dev/jam side of the industry open up and mature to these kinds of opportunities. 

/rant

Saturday, November 3, 2012

September - October 2012 [Updates]

Not much has been going on other than University the past two months. Next week is the start of end-of-year exams - so holidays are in sight. I guess this post will just be a roundup of the past 2 months worth of random projects & works.

So as far as current projects go, I've felt a lot of motivation towards this sci-fi horror game, to the point that I've put plans in motion to have it appear at the Indie Games Room at AvCon 2013. Every year I go to the IGR I end up wishing I entered a game, bout time to step up and actually do it. At least 1 game is the goal, if anything decent comes from a Ludum Dare I'll consider throwing that in as well.
Some old & new screenshots of some SciFi level assets:

A mockup SciFi hallway with experimental shader(s)

 
Staircase section
Modular floor panels with added
details (such as spinning fans)


Ludum Dare 24 was missed, due to a pretty heavy workload at Uni that weekend. But Ludum Dare 25 is almost a month away, nicely placed before the Christmas New Years rush. So all going well I'll be enjoying 48 hours of madness starting on the 14th of December.

On the 3D printing front a new (and pretty major) order has been placed, theres some interesting non-Minecraft items in this lot, including a Raspberry Pi case I've been wanting to print and design since my Pi arrived. Theres also a few other interesting items which could lead on to some more business opportunities  and of course a couple of new Minecraft figurines. The Enderman has been requested more times than I can count...

Solar flyby - ingame
I also started working on a Millennium Falcon mod for Kerbal Space Program, inspired by some images I saw a while back where people had imported full 3D models of ships from Aliens and Prometheus and so on into the game so people could fly them.
I didnt want to just import some model and set it up to be pilotable, instead Id rather have a set of parts to build a ship from, not to mention the ability to spontaneously de-assemble. Its much more effort, but Id say its worth it - especially for a ship like the Millennium Falcon.
At this point in time the low poly is done and imported into the game (which took a ton of work to setup all the node positions), I'm now working on the high poly mesh for normals, AO and texture baking. Once exams are over its one of the projects I want to focus on and wrap up first.


Armour Platin'
Greebles ahoy


Thursday, June 21, 2012

Ludum Dare Results + Current Projects

As the Ludum Dare results unveiling date approached I thought a lot about how well I imagined my game 'Darkness Creeping' would fair in terms of overall position etc.
I had a hunch it would do well, and potentially score highest (out of all the categories that is) for the Mood category. I thought Id get into the top 50 for Mood - at least.
And if I did, Id be satisfied and happy about my first complete Ludum Dare entry.

So I was pretty shocked when the results were finally announced, to find that Id scored 5th position for the mood category. This meant that for one of the categories Id actually made it into the top 5. This was way beyond what I expected!


Overall I placed #125, which was also surprising when you consider there were just over 1400 entries. This put me in the top 10% of entries overall, very please with this result!
You can see for yourself at the main results page here:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/

So with that out of the way I look forward to participating in Ludum Dare 24 in August.


[snip]


So Ill soon have a month of holidays before the next semester of uni starts up and Ive realized I have a ton of work I want to get done during that time. In summary I have this major project to 'manage/maintain' and improve, a WIP game to continue working on (the failed Ludum Dare entry from mid-2011), a Zelda animation I'm super-keen to finish and (hopefully) a Kerbal Space Program video series to start at some stage. Im also considering entering into the next Operation Moonfall contest as well... Throw AvCon + normal life ontop of that, and July will be one busy month....

-Thats all for now.



*Edit*
I did just realize I had another large-ish project go public earlier this month (also 3D printing related), and I completely forgot to write a post about it.
So I will cover that one here soon enough.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Ludum Dare #23 summary

So! This time round, I actually completed a game for Ludum Dare. Was quite a moment, its no easy task to make a (somewhat) playable game in 48 hours.

I present, 'Darkness Creeping':




The theme for this LD was 'tiny world', which at first threw me off. Id mentioned in my previous post that I was intending to make a dark, atmospheric kind of horror game. And the theme 'tiny world' didnt quite fit. But with some thought, I decided to implement a feature which let the player 'take over' and control the little cockroaches I planned to have running around the floors (the kind of little detail I love to have in games), so while playing as a cockroach you can experience their own 'tiny world'.
This would be integrated into the puzzles for the game to keep things interesting.

Making the 'controlling' feature took much longer than Id expected, need to brush up on my python a bit it seems. But then other features took much less time to implement.
I also stumbled across one of my favorite features of the game, completely by accident. Id turned on 'rigid body' for the collision box for the player, and enjoyed actually playing as a character which could fall over. A few tweaks later (lots of dampening so you wouldn't fall over every time you walked over a bump), and with a self-righting mechanism to get back up, and the idea came together. A lot of people have commented on how it adds to the game, making you actually feel like a frail weak character.
At the end of the game it makes the end-boss even more challenging (I evilly put a bunch of rocks all over the hallway floor, so in the situation that you have to run away from something big and scary, your in for a bad day)



So overall I was happy with what I got done. The game itself is a bit glitchy in various ways, and I had to update several times after the LD was finished in order to make it playable. The main issue is BGE's collisions, which put simply are terrible. I later found out that scaling the scene up larger made the collisions better (wish Id known this before!). Also the BGE's slow performance started to show. The game isnt very optimized, although having said that, Im impressed that the armature system has been improved so much for realtime applications. I successfully had 40+ cockroaches all running around (animated and with armatures) along with a couple of spiders, with little hit on the fps.

Heres a timelapse of the entire 48 hours, its focused on only one of my screens (I have a 2nd screen, which was used for everything not related to the main work in creating the game)



Voting for this Ludum Dare is 1 day away from finishing, Ive had a lot of good feedback (and a bunch of valid complaints), so it will be interesting to see how my game ranks. I even found the other day, on the front page of the LD site, that someone had featured my game in their favorites - which is awesome to see.
Overall I expect the mood category to be the area I scored best in, possibly innovation as well. Might do decently in graphics as well, since Im one of the few who made a 3D game for this LD (most people stick to 2D games)


The main LD page for the game is linked below. You can download and play the game from there, and Ive made the source files available as well. 

[Darkness Creeping]

Anicator was nice enough to feature the game on the front page of his wip Blender games site bGame as well:  http://bgame.anicator.com/games/game.php?id=84




And finally, to see how I progressed though the LD, heres all the posts I made this time round:


Looking forward to the next Ludum Dare!

Monday, April 16, 2012

2012 so far

2012 has been a busy year so far, Ive been trying to focus a lot more on uni, and so this blog has suffered because of that (was hoping when I started this blog, to be posting at least once a week!)

I have been working on one major project however, late last year (December I think) I dropped all other projects to pursue this 'secret one' which Id been working on since the final months of 2011. I don't want to say too much about it until its closer to being ready - for fear of being caught unprepared, but it is Minecraft related and involves 3D printing - a LOT of 3D printing.
The whole thing should be 'public' early May (fingers crossed). I initially aimed to have things done by mid April and was on track until some computer issues arose...



My laptop GPU nuked itself for a 2nd and final time (the first time it went bad I pulled the whole laptop apart & ended up putting a bolt through the motherboard to hold the heatsync down... That amazingly worked (initially), and it kept my loyal little laptop running fine for another week or two)

Either way, I have a super modern and exciting (not to mention expensive) laptop on order, which should last out the remainder of my studying years at uni, and should arrive before this weekend - just in time for.......

.....Ludum Dare 23
In my last post I talked about Ludum Dare 22 (and the failure my 'attempt' of a game was)
This time round I have 2 other LD's worth of mistakes under my belt, and a more structured plan of attack. It will be interesting to see what theme it will be this time round, as of writing this post, round 1 voting has started. Theres been some interesting themes in the first round, and I feel like I'm leaning towards making a horror or creepily atmospheric game this time round, so hopefully the theme will be geared towards that initial idea/plan of mine.

I'll be screen-capturing the whole thing this time too (for a full 48 hour timelapse on my youtube channel)
So, third time lucky??



Previously, in March, I also finished a Minecraft based video - 'Minecraft [Real Life] EPIC Creeper Explosions' which I filmed and then spent a week editing in both Blender and After Effects. The video itself was a test for various things leading up to my bigger Minecraft project mentioned at the start of this post, plus it gave me an opportunity to tap into the Minecraft community and get some more Minecraft based subscribers on board.
The video was featured on episode #50 of the Minecraft Monday show (@ 8:08) [link], and the Minecraft daily show #217 [link]

(we'll be seeing more of the Minecraft Monday show with this other project as well, more on that in the near future)

On a more technical note, the video also provided an opportunity to test Blenders newly implemented camera tracking module. The results weren't as good as Id hoped given the amount of time I had to spend on the video, but it was good to finally do some camera tracking in Blender!
I also discovered that as of Blender 2.61 there has been a AE exporter built in, so this project gave me a chance to give that a spin as well - and it worked exactly as Id hoped. I was able to track a shot in Blender, insert 3D elements and render it out. Then using the script I imported the camera data into AE, and continued working on the shot from there. Its the first time Ive used Blender and AE so closely together, and it was great to see the process made so efficient with the inclusion of this script in current and future versions of Blender.

The finished product:



The node rendering setup:


Camera tracking:


Creeper footage breakdown:


Intro footage breakdown:




I had a couple of other things to mention, but since this post has already become quite large I'll save it for another later this week (I'll be trying to get back to posting a blog update at least once a fortnight from now on)
So that's all for now.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Wrap-up of 2011

Well, 2011 is well and truly over. The past couple of months have been quite busy, I had my final exams for the year, then of course Christmas and NYE.

The main thing Ill mention in this post is what I got up to in December - Ludum Dare 22, a 48 hour game contest held 3 times a year. Its a contest with some big names from the game industry in it, such as Notch (the creator of minecraft)
This was my 2nd time doing the compo, and ultimately my 2nd failure to produce a game worth submitting.



I made several posts during the contest, listed below in order:

-Lets do this (But for goodness sake no kittens!!)

-And we’re off! (Finally)

-Half-ish time report

-Game over man, game over.

The main issue I encountered, just the same as my previous attempt during Ludum Dare 19, was that I spent way too much time on unnecessary details and a lot of the time got stuck battling with issues instead of finding quicker ways around or ditching ideas completely. I also could have planned a lot better, working on gameplay first and other details like the environment later depending on time.
Its something I hope to work on, leading up to the next Ludum Dare (#23) in April 2012. Im determined to at least finish something for the next compo.





Looking at Ludum Dare more optimistically though, I did get something out of it - other than sleep deprivation.
Throughout the 48 hours I spent some time developing a story for the game temporarily titled 'Adrift'. The story started out relatively simple but after a while it developed further, into something I feel strongly about completing. Its exactly what Ive been wanting to do lately anyway, since I havent really had a decent game project for well over a year and have been itching to get back into working with BGE.
So, at least I got a new game to work on out of the Ludum Dare experience this time round!

Im hoping to have some of the basic gameplay systems of 'Adrift' done by the time April comes around, so Ill be working on it on and off until then.


And just to wrap up 2011, heres a (cliché) list of my favourite movies and games from 2011:


Movies of 2011:
-Super 8
-Real Steel
-Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
-Rango
*Edit!* - Melancholia

Most played Games of 2011 (not necessarily released in 2011)
-Minecraft
-Amnesia the Dark Descent
-Limbo
-Skyward Sword
-Portal 2
-Oot3D (3DS)
-MarioCart 7 (3DS)
-Links Awakening (3DS)




Thats it for 2011 (finally) for my next post, Ill discuss some of my plans for 2012 and some work Ive already done this year.