Global Game Jam 2011

Our second Global Game Jam was a mixed experience. The event itself was as fun as the last one, our team was a little bigger than last time. We had three coders, a game designer, and a graphics artist.

Last year we started the production of our game almost immediately but then we had a working idea we really liked from the start. This time there was a little broader limits of the game. It was about extinction. We didn't really want to make a game about creatures killing each other and committing genocide because there isn't really anything interesting or new in the idea. So we spent the first 4-6 hours brainstorming different ideas and in the end we started making two games.

The first game was a board game, it was supposed to use phone as a narrative device. Most of the game would have been interaction between the players in a world that had suffered a major catastrophe. Players are the last members of human species and the conditions they are in are getting worse turn by turn. In the end they all die. The game was called The Last. And due to me getting ill after the first 30 hours or so it was hastily turned into analog game. Cards replaced the phone but the main interaction was still the role-playing between players.

The other game was called Genos Locos. The Phone created a random specie that was unique to that particular game, and when the game ends either player pulls the plug(ends the game) or the creatures die away, the digital specie is gone forever. These creatures grew into a more complex form that consisted of about 10 tiles or cells. And the offsprings inherited genes from their parents. They would randomly mutate a little which would change the color or pattern on them. The goal of the game was to keep them alive as long as possible and in some ways direct the evolution of the specie.

What was disappointment though, we only had five minutes time to show one game, ten minutes total. These games weren't really up to be presented in that time and we barely had the time to explain the basic ideas behind the games. Maybe we bit more than we could chew. Maybe next year...

Long time no write

Updating blogs and such really doesn't seem to be one of my strongest points. Anyway, after last update I had work practice and we made some more games. I worked in a familiar team, the same I've almost always worked at, and we got our first game published! Our main development platform has been and possibly will be Windows Phone 7 Mobile devices. At least for now, and we are considering porting games on other platforms when time allows.

The game is called Break the aliens and it's out now for windows phone 7. It's a mix of breakout and space invaders and there is a trial available. I worked as a lead programmer in our team for the whole work practice and my main focus was the gameplay mechanics and overall code structure.

We also had a prototype of a rocket game that used Farseer Physics Engine. The goal of the game would have been to create a rocket as cheap as possible to get the payload to space. Project was scrapped because it didn't have much appeal as a game.

Latest project is still unnamed and it has been postponed time after time because of school assignments, that seem to take up way more time than I initially thought. But more on that on a later date.

KAJAK3D to the world

First 3D-game in the works, first mobile game in the works, and first commercial game in the works all the same game. Busy summer coming.

Nothing much going on

Some trouble with the engine so I changed the game idea into a "everyday shooter" type game, or
a modernised "phobia II" if you don't know the first one. Experiencing a little hurry and took forever to get the mouseposition working so probably coding an modelling rest of the week.

Installed 3dsmax 2011 day before yesterday and it loves to do funny stuff i hate, like making parts of a mesh disappear if I apply two or more materials into it.

Current Projects

Currently I'm working on a small advance wars like strategy game with C++ and KAJAK3D, which is our schools engine, for two school courses, AI and game programming. I made a four player Pong with it a little while ago for a different course. other than that I have mostly been trying new stuff and studied collisions and game physics.
I've also tried to spark a new game project using XNA with my friends and I've thought of building a simple 2D-Engine for XNA to be used in our games.
Also I'm trying to learn how to use tracker software so I could make my own game music.

Nanobots

This is or was our game for the imagine cup, but due circumstances it was quite unfinished when we entered it into the first round. It's more like a tech demo I coded but hopefully we will finish it even if it doesn't make it's way to the second round.
The tail is made of individual objects that get the position to follow, which is on the piece that comes before it. Because of that it looks very fluent.



Check the "techdemo" on youtube to see it in action.

Lost Flame

This was our project for the Global Game Jam. It was coded and designed in four man team in a little less than 48 hours. And it made into the top three in our school. The basic idea was to guide the flame to the goal using an inaccurate map, The flame shrunk all the time and the player had to find oil to make the flame bigger, and avoid water for shrinking effect. I was bit more on the designing side on this one as we had an excellent programmer in the team. I programmed the player, some level elements, the behaviour of the darkness around the player and lots of the basic elements like the camera, balancing the difficulty and controlling the animation. We used XNA on this one as well.



Again, some gameplay footage on youtube.

And you can download the game from here