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): 

http://www.delta-edge.com.au/SuperTheftAuto/

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 - 

"A 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

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

The Past Month

*Warning - Massive post*

Ive been meaning to post at least once a week, apparently not for the past 4 weeks. Time flies :/

Over the past month a few interesting things have happened. Heres a summary:

----The first ever Blenderheads meetup took place in Adelaide.

I got to meet some very cool people who Id known and talked to online for several years. This included Ben Dansie who worked on Sintel, and Lee Salvemini who runs CGMasters (http://www.cgmasters.net/)
It was also great to catch up with the guys who run Monkeystack again (I did work experience with them at the start of 2010), they were very kind in hosting the event in their studio.
We had a pretty relaxed dinner and chat initially, then some people did presentations (including me) about work they've recently done or a particular area of Blender.
Lots of interesting things were discussed and my only issue with the night was that it ended so quickly, I felt like we all could have talked for days (even though the meetup went for several more hours than planned)

Theres a thread for organizing the event on Blenderartists here. This is where all future meetings will be organized.
Blendernation Post

On the forum thread Ben did a nice writeup about the events of the night, he explains:

The recent Blender User Group meeting in Adelaide was a great success. Big thanks to Michael, Lee, Duann, Alex and Levon for sharing and again to Monkeystack for hosting.


After a pleasant round of chitchat and greetings, I got the ball rolling with a demonstration of the Cycles renderer with an emphasis on characters. (Slightly embarrassing side note, my drivers weren’t actually up to date for CUDA on the night so “only” showed off the CPU rendering.) Michael then continued on by showing some very high res Cycles renders (up to 7k from memory!) and talking about his findings as he pushes Cycles in its current form.


Lee gave an overview of creating the trailer for the CG Masters Rigging DVD – animation, rig controls, adding titles and the sequencer. Also of note were his recent efforts in talking to local schools about the potential to use not only Blender but the growing training material as well. This is certainly something I’m keen to keep an eye on.


Duann then shared about his work with Shapeways and gave a general overview of what the company can offer artists. Some really cool examples were shown including a very neat little walker. After some further questions and discussion, Alex shared his experience with getting a Shapeways print made and painting it. Neat trick – simulate the model falling in the BGE to see if it will stand on its own when printed!

To cap off the night, Levon shared some of his work on various projects and those of us who were left (rather long but enjoyable night) had a quick chat about future meetings.

Further meetups are more than likely going to happen, we all agreed that 2-3 months between meetups was a good amount of time.
My presentation was pretty unorganized and was on the topic of one of my current projects (the one hinted in a past post with a node setup) - it involved some 3D printing testing, Id only finished getting the presentation video together the morning of the meetup, next time I hope to have something more detailed prepared.


----Space Shuttle Atlantis launched - The end of the era of Space Shuttle flight

Might be a strange thing to mention here, since its not *really* related to my current work. But I did have a trip to America planned for this year - at the start of July - to see in person the final space shuttle launch. Unfortunately exams and money became an issue, so I wasn't able to see it in person, but I did watch it live online which is better than nothing.
Id planned to do some kind of mini documentary on the space shuttles, their history and my trip to America and back again, using a lot of footage Id take myself. Im thinking of doing something different now however, perhaps a 3D animation of some sort as a tribute to the 30 years of Space shuttle operation. We'll see...


----Ive purchased an 'Eleven'

Which is basically an Arduino-compatible microcontroller board designed and produced in Australia. Very nerdy, very cool, very fun.
Its a rather powerful little device, which lets you program microcontrollers. I have several little projects planned, and some larger ones. I might take on some graphics related projects with it, but a lot of them will be electrical engineering and programming based. Ill probubly end up posting stuff about it on here as well. One project relates to the next topic Ill mention below:

----I attended Avcon

Avcon is the Adelaide Video Game and Anime Convention. It happens once a year and is pretty much one of the only events in South Australia for geeks to get their geek on.

It was a pretty interesting weekend all round, lots of *interesting* cosplayers however (some terrible of course, but some surprisingly awesome)
This guy took the place of one of my favourite outfits for the event, it was something I was looking to do, but didnt have the time (and couldnt be bothered anyway)

SSSSssssssSSssssssss........

All that aside, I plan on definitely coming in costume next year.

Another highlight of Avcon was the indie games room (pretty much the main reason I attend the convention), its a place for indie developers (or even hobbiests) to display their games, and have them played for pretty much 48 hours straight by thousands of people. Its a great place to network, and I met several people there over the course of the weekend who were good to network with.
Next year I hope to have something to display in the Indie games room. Something to work towards...


----Operation Moonfall began


This one kinda came out of nowhere, but Im not surprised. In an interview only a couple of days ago, Eiji Aonuma stated that if fans made enough noise about it then Majora's Mask would be remade for the 3DS (MM3D) like Ocarina of time (Oot3D) was.

This was quite exciting to be heard, coming right from one of the top guys at Nintendo, the fact that theyre actually considering remaking Majoras Mask.
This is a game which has firmly sat in my top 3 games of all time, ever since I played it way back in the 90's on my N64.

I had plans myself, before hearing of any of this, to make it heard that MM3D needs to happen, and many other fans have been voicing this since Oot3D was announced as well. So to put it simply, I need to get my plans up and running a lot faster now, since now is clearly the time to make as much noise as possible.
Either way, Nintendo will be recieving a message from me in the near future, heres a sneak peak at part-of-something-to-do-with-it:

I should probubly drop the link to the main site as well while Im at it. So here it is - http://operation-moonfall.org/
Theres a petition to sign, and a facebook group to join + twitter feeds to follow.


Thats about it for the wrap-up of the past month. I have done the occasional 3D work, but not as much as I had planned and Im back to Uni as of this week as well, so finding time for this stuff is even harder again.
The Ludus Cinematic is still not 100% finished, hit a snag when all my file allocations messed up in Premier Pro and I effectively had to re-import everything to the timeline again from scratch (very frustrating)
The problem was caused by the way Id imported the files, and the way they were named after being dumped from UDK.

Hopefully this doesnt happen again...