Development Diaries

spiral's picture

Thoughts on my "Week of Games" experiment

so a little over a week ago, I decided to embark on a experimental (for me) game-making project, in the hopes it would lead me out of the creative funk I've been in for a month. the plan was to make one game a day, with a sheer time limit of one hour per game, for 7 days in a row. of course, I'm not going to pretend this is some kind of new idea I just came up with- incredibly fast paced "trainwreck" games were one of the first ideas behind Glorious Trainwrecks! what is new is getting myself to stick to this one-hour rule.

sticking to a short schedule has always been difficult for me, so I wanted to see if I could re-approach fast paced game design in a rigourous way. over-commitment has been a thorn in my side, as I regularly want to take breaks from large projects by making something short and scrappy, but so often they end up becoming another large, time-consuming project when I keep coming up with more ideas for it without limiting the potential scope. so the result is I either put a prior project on hold, or I effectively cancel something I had suddenly become very passionate about. yowch!

thankfully, my Week of Games experiment was very successful, and I feel like I learned a lot along the way. I'll be spending the rest of this post detailing my process for making each game, my thoughts on how it went, and concluding each with the lessons I've gotten out of it. also, if you got here without seeing the games first, you can find them here!

1) Monday: "Monday"

to kick off the first game, I decided I would write something in Twine 2, to avoid any possible technical issues from a more complicated engine. I didn't want to hesitate while I tried to come up with a subject, I just wanted to immediately start making *something*, which in this case quickly became a simple Choose Your Own Adventure story from the perspective of Garfield the cat. you know, because Garfield hates Mondays! haha, what a silly cat!

since I don't actually like Garfield, I had no personal investment in the material, so if the story ended up being a total flop when time was up, I wouldn't feel bad about it. in the end, I wrote about 10-15 minutes worth of text, which is a great pace for the work of just one hour! it was an easy process, because I made up everything up on the spot. it's a very silly game, but it was fun to make, which is exactly what I wanted to get out of this experiment.

CONCLUSION: writing nonsense works well if the only ending you have in mind is an arbitrary time limit, because that way you don't have to worry about fitting in some kind of arc. it just happens, and then it's over!

2) Tuesday: "Tuesday"

similar to the previous game, for Tuesday I had an immediate association that I then fit the rest of the game around. Underworld's song "Spoonman" has a sample of somebody saying "Tuesday", so I made a minute long re-arrangement of the song focusing on that sample. from there, I had a restraint on what the game itself would be- it would last as long as the music.

continuing the theme of the day, I decided the goal would be finding Tuesday. I put down a random klipart background and spread out copies of it into a 10-by-10 grid, creating the playing field. I started replacing as many grid squares as I could with different klipart backgrounds to create a textured and diverse world. Some of the images were sourced from a calendar, so that finding the square labeled "Tuesday" could be the winning condition.

unfortunately, I planned the scale of the game quite badly. 10-by-10 seemed like a nice size at first, but I eventually realized that it was demanding I gather 100 unique pieces of art to fill it completely! I had to repeatedly redo the grid dimensions until it was a reasonable size. this cost a lot of time, leaving the remaining art choices and all of the coding in a rushed state. most of the tiles are the default I set, and the ending conditions do the exact opposite of what I intended. oh well!

CONCLUSION: planning out an appropiate scale for the scope of your time committment is difficult, but necessary. this was a good lesson to run into for what was supposed to be a very simple game, because one of my biggest problems is how often I plan games that are *way* bigger than they have any need to be!

3) Wednesday: "Cycle The Recycling!"

on Wednesday morning, I helped my mom take all of the recycling we had laying around the basement to a recycling depot. during the ride back, I was thinking about making a game to reflect the experience. after my lesson from yesterday, I knew I had to make something simple. so the plan was to have recyclables randomly fall from the ceiling, leaving it up to the player to drag each item over to the appropiate bin (e.g., plastics, glass). it would be a cute little game, as well as educational!

however, I ended up spending most of my time searching for real life photos to use as graphics! I love the look of the game, and I am glad for the work I put into it, but after implementing basic physics and a scoring method, I didn't have time to actually let the player control what was happening. all you can do is watch the bottles, cans, and broken electronics bounce into each other and fall into the bins. but it's kind of fun to watch, and hope for luck to be on your side and correctly "cycle" the recycling!

CONCLUSION: finding / making a visual aesthetic you like for a game is a considerable task not to be taken lightly. if you don't have assets on hand to use immediately, be prepared for work.

4) Thursday: "Help Nikki Shave"

CONTENT WARNING: discussion of dysphoria

for Thursday, following the reality of yesterday's game, I decided I would follow it up with something more personal- in this case, my difficult experiences with shaving. I used to not mind my facial hair, but when I decided to try out shaving my whole face, I realized that I liked it better that way. more recently, I had to confront the fact that my facial hair causes me dysphoria, which I had been avoiding admitting. it felt good to imagine processing that through a game where the player helps me shave.

unfortunately, the initial result only made me feel worse. my first approach was to use a real photo of myself, and distort my appearance with klipart to prevent it from being *too* real. when the hour was up, I immediately rushed to share it on Twitter, as I had for the previous games. unfortunately, in my excitement with having completed a game, I ignored my own feelings. the way I had made myself look in the game was frankly ugly, which worsened my dysphoria, instead of helping me process it. I deleted the tweet, and said I was putting this game on hold to re-evaluate it. I needed to treat my image with care and self-respect for the game to succeed.

I revisited the game later and redid the art in ms paint. decky, one of my partners, helped with the drawing and art direction, which I'm very grateful for. instead of an exaggeration of physical traits I dislike, the game now shows an abstract but much more comfortable representation of myself and my facial hair. I feel good about it and in the end I'm glad I had this idea, and that I spent extra time making it better for myself.

CONTENT WARNING OVER

CONCLUSION: making a game handling a personal/serious subject is not something to be taken lightly, especially if there is a tight time limit on it. also, taking care of yourself is more important than the performance of sharing something in public.

5) Friday: "A Conversation"

after having been immersed in Clickteam for several days, I wanted to try out a different engine to test out part of an idea I had laying around, an "everything simulator" that lets you type anything and creates a consistent state based off of the keywords you give it. I guess it'd basically be an interactive Inform 7, but whatever! anyhow, I chose to try making A Conversation in Twine 1. I was going to use Twine 2, but it gave me technical challenges for retrieving player input that I didn't want to grapple with for my one hour!

I wanted to make a simple but technically rich simulation of a conversation between two characters of the player's choice, allowing them to have each character speak/think/act out whatever they choose to write. I'm happy with the result and while it demands a lot of creative input from the player to accomplish anything, it was a neat little experiment and I'm pleased I was able to complete it so quickly. that said, I *did* spend some time planning the design of it before I started the timer, and I went beyond the original time limit to properly implement the pronoun selection mechanic. I didn't want to be stressed out by trying to design an engine on the fly, and hey, pronouns are important!

CONCLUSION: in-depth technical design is best handled outside of tight deadlines, as creative foresight is often needed to work around/with limitations.

6) Saturday: "Frogger 2 Advanced: The Greater Quest"

some of you probably know that I am a fan of the Frogger series. I find it fascinating that every game in the series recreates the entire Frogger universe. one of my favourite examples is the dreadful GameBoy Advance port of Frogger: The Great Quest. the GBA version turns the pre-rendered cutscenes into static screenshots with abrupt dialogue snippets. the uninspired 3d platforming gameplay of the original is turned into a banal 2d platformer, while retaining some of the awful collectathon traits. the best part is that if you don't find *all* of the special Ruby Stones or whatever junk, you get a bad ending that they made up just for this port. wow! I can't imagine being that cruel.

anyhow, I had the idea of making a classic "trainwreck platformer", and position it as another GBA port of a sequel to the original Frogger: The Great Quest. hence, my awkward title is meant to turn "Frogger 2: The Greater Quest" into "Frogger 2 _Advanced_: The Greater Quest". another aspect of the joke is that there are about four different, official "Frogger 2" games, and each has almost no familiarity with the game it is apparently a sequel to.

CONCLUSION: through this week's journey, I have finally found myself getting over a flaw (from my perspective) of my game design. specifically, I'm finally capable of making a complete, but absurd to play, trainwreck game in just an hour! woohoo!

7) Sunday: "You Can Only Shy 80 Times"

I probably spent more time on this than all the other 6 combined, but I'm fine with that! after my mostly-positive experiences with making games at a ridiculous pace, I was thinking about ways to turn it into a more regular practice for myself. such as, say, spending one day a week making a new game that I would finish within that day. so I'm going to excuse breaking my only rule of "finish in one hour" with this game, by saying that it's the first attempt at that! not that I need to excuse it in the first place. but anyhow.

I planned out exactly what I wanted the game to be before I opened up the Clickteam editor, which made putting it together a very focused task. the only goal I had was to make a sensible example of the parody title, which is a riff on another game I helped make, "You Can Only Die 80 Times". what does it mean to "shy"? well, that's if somebody says hi and you don't respond! how do you know how many times you've done it? a shyness meter! the rest of the game made itself from there. well, other than the day/night cycle I implemented for some reason.

a lot of my time was spent dealing with a significant technical issue: I wanted the speech bubbles to follow the character who it belongs to, making it clear who is saying what. for some reason, I found this conceptually simple task impossible to implement correctly, which was frustrating. and I was too invested in what I wanted the game to be to let it be unplayably broken! however, when I finally gave up on this one detail, and saw what it was like to have the speech bubbles remain static, I actually preferred it that way. so that was a good save.

also, when I picked out some nice midi music and set it to shift between two different soundfonts based on the day/night cycle, I was so enthused about the result that I made the decision to not put in an abundance pf silly sound effects. while I always enjoy that process, I think it would have only been a distraction from the bliss of the music. going against my typical / initial ideas made for a better experience! as a final aside, the player character (or "PC") is a "player chair"! get it?

CONCLUSION: if you are running into a block, whether technical or creative, try subverting the expectations that are forming the block. maybe it'll be better that way, maybe not! either way, it's good to experiment with going against your own expectations. as they say... "rules are made to be broken" - the matrix

Kate B's picture

In 2019 I will bring the juice.

In 2019 I will make games faster than you can play them. I will make games like I'm gonna die cause I always fear that I just might

MY GUARANTEES:
- I will bring the juice
- Everything will be bigger, louder, more emotive than before
- Make games like I'm gonna die
- Make music like I'm gonna die

I will make juicier games. Games that get to the core of what I'm feeling.... Games that take no prisoners. Games that turn the weirdness slider all the way to max... Yes!!! We're doin' this

qrleon's picture

2018 LÖVE Platformer Project(s)

So I've been interested in making some platformers in LÖVE / Love2d for a while, but haven't produced much of anything so far, until this month. To get the ball rolling and reduce procrastination, I started writing more: jotting notes on paper, keeping a personal diary, and writing up public-facing devlogs with weekly goals. (Warning: unfocused ramblings about platformers). I found that writing about ZZT here helped a lot in the summer.

It is my intention to get something playable out the door between now and the end of the year. It would be a mistake to take on something larger than I can realistically pull off, so I've put my current ideas on the backburner, and I'm setting a goal to make something small but wholly realized in about two weeks. This would help me find issues in my current codebase, get familiar with packaging LÖVE games, and also give me something tangible for my efforts.

I wrote up an idea that has been in the back of my mind for a while, started a simple XM soundtrack, and outlined how gameplay would work yesterday. But I'm realizing today that I won't have the energy to pull it off in two weeks. So back into the cabinet that one goes. Started on another idea, but upon review, its workload requirements are also too high for this timeframe. Think smaller, damn it!

I need to take a few steps back. There are platformers with very little to them that are still very enjoyable. I'll post some more once I've got something that's scaled appropriately.

NedStormFish's picture

my first update on my "first" game

out4.gif

He can punch, and he can HURT. Excited to make more.

Avail the beneficial uses of safety gloves in industries!

The place of work can produce many hazards for your hands and fingers, whether from chemicals, cuts or chemical burns. No single glove can offer suitable protection for every work condition, so it is vital to assess the hazard for each assignment and choose the safety gloves that provide particular safety.When you produce ultra-sharp equipment like Micro plane does, injuries from rasping, slicing, and chopping are probable. Fingers and knuckles can end up in the technique. Thus, it is advised to use the high-quality work gloves bulk when working in the hazardous situations. The Buy Safety Gloves online are used for:
• Chemicals and Biohazards:
Whenever there are hazardous chemicals being handled there is the possibility of a chemical burn. Chemical and biohazardresistant work gloves bulk form an absolute obstacle around your hands.
• Cuts, Punctures, and Abrasion Hazards:
There are barely any industries where cuts, scratch hazards, and punctures are not a risk.From the oil field labour to cell phone tower riggers, workings to doctors,sheet metal and glass handlers in frequent other industries need consistent safety against these industry hazards. Thus, they need cut-resistant work gloves bulk.
• Impact Injuries:
Wavering a hammer on a site, affecting grave objects, or working in a mechanics garage are just a few conditions that put hands at risk of crash injuries. Thus, any kind of job where the hands might be crushed or hit by apparatus, equipment, or provisions requires consistent, impact-resistant safety gloves.
To know more about thework gloves home depot, visit the website

danyburton's picture

3d render of table made out of sticks

I am going to make a 3d render of a table that is made out of sticks. The sticks come from mangrove trees and the inside of the tree flesh is like a mushroom texture or like foam but then inside that there is a white core like a bloody bone. That is what the tables will be made from and you can then go to a restaurant made from this style. This will not serve any purpose to the game except maybe giving you some health (and there will also be a puzzle in the restaurant, but it will be distinct from eating at it). The purpose of this then I do not know, but it seems like a very good experience to include in my opinion. Some things in my opinion should not be gamified, because when a section has a purpose, it then feels like it has died after it's purpose has been exhausted so if you want something to be nice forever, you can not give it any purpose, or I guess you can give it a purpose that is not expendable.
I think that at this joint the ideal food would be a watery looking soup containing some bits of fish floating since that just seems like what they would eat at this joint. Also maybe you can eat a crab since there are some crabs at this island you can catch and there is a woman who I forget the name of who you must battle at a different point in the game who catches the crabs right outta the beach with some long skewer thingies.
Obviously also there has gotta be some great music in the restaurant too, and I think that I am going to need to perform the music live for the right kind of effect. Most of the league of piss music has been made in the tracker program renoise, but I have grown rather sick of trackers, I just haven't thought of a better way of making the music yet. Using trackers is pretty much the complete opposite of live performance and you can tell that when you listen to the music in the games as it tends to be rather stunted. The upside of using renoise though is that it has a lotta cool sounds and all that since it's built in wavetable synth is quite nice and etc.
I used to have one of those melodion things that my great uncle gave me. It would have been really good for this I reckon, but I have moved to a different country now and do not have it so I can't do that. I do have a keyboard / synthesizer which I could use and probably will use.
there will also be a ghost

YOUHAVEBETRAYEDME's picture

HELLO SMILE

emoji-smile-cry-1.jpg

THE BODY IT BEGS

Kate B's picture

Multiplayer/Multimedia/Multi-stuff

Just remembered one thing I wanted to explore a lot when I came here and moved onto smaller more experimental works was multiplayer. I think local multiplayer is pretty underutilised in AAA games. It's still there obviously, but I think it's like... It should be used more, cause it can turn an average game into a very good game, and a short game into a game you play for days at a time. I know I've sunk days into things like Skullgirls, which I otherwise wouldn't if I was playing it by myself.

The other thing I am exploring is multimedia. Games that are like... The stuff you found on old promo CDs or educational CDs back in the old days, and they resembled websites rather than games. I'm not sure what genre I'd categorise them as.

I tried exploring the multimedia genre by looking into long-forgotten genres like "animated storybooks" "activity centres" and stuff like this. I think it's a genre that was always aimed at kids but I reckon you could do more with it. Like that third example is not a kid's game. Anyway I threw this idea for an animated storybook together where I wanted it so there was a room with a few things you could click on.

What I like about these games is it's not clear who the protagonist is or even what the plot is or who you are. Are you playing in the second person, ie A cursor following the protagonist on their adventures? Are you the protagonist controlling yourself with a cursor? Are you just someone reading a book? Are you controlling the reader AS A character? Are you playing in the first person? ARE YOU PLAYING IN THE FIFTH PERSON???

I've been thinking about music too and what I like about the medium of music is that it is THE medium if you want to deal with disparate concepts rather than characters. If you make a song, it doesn't need characters. Otherwise every song would be kind of a novelty song. And thinking about this with relation to video games makes me wonder: Are video games un-evolved as a medium to the point we could be making more games about CONCEPTS rather than characters, but we are still borrowing from film to the point we think they're required?

I feel like... Can you imagine what music would sound like if it only borrowed from literature and tried to tell a story, for example? Is that what we're doing with games right now?

Anyway, I'm thinking of various games that move away from the idea of characters, or even "the player" as a character who exists in a world, and thinking of more weirder structures where it's less clear- using the above examples as my starting point, and I have come up with something. It's something that'll probably be finished just before the year is out- and that's a good time to release it, as it'll be the denoument of the first part of these studies

I'm also not doing it yet- I'm working on a smaller game first, it's called LEGACY OF REALMS I: REALMS OF DARKFYRE and it's as silly as it sounds. It looks like this. I'm pleased with the flat shading it has. I'm also doing music for this game, it's got a bangin' metal soundtrack

Johny L.'s picture

I couldn't keep on my promises.

Even if somebody hasn't ever noticed my latest blog posts here in the nearly-dead Glorious Trainwrecks site, and with the Klik of the Month Klub not getting activity as it used to be, i'm once again speaking up about my plans for another Mr. Cat game.

If you're asking that Sergeant Duck game... No, Sergeant Duck isn't happening either. Everytime i try to bring up another Mr. Cat there's always the usual thing that drags me away from development, it's called procrastination, and it's a thing which i've never found its name until now which has been always going around for many years. Memes have been always spinning around my head, and a swarm of game and project ideas have prevented me to write the story of Sergeant Duck. As i said before, this game is a sort of "dark and edgy" spin-off of the Mr. Cat series which focuses on a never-seen before character, existing inside the Mr. Cat universe, and the game would go on a storytelling gameplay akin to Konami's "Policenauts". Considering i've never ever continued to work on my game's story anymore, i'll reveal certain aspects of the story...

The story starts with a sort of Vietnam War-ish backstory which a sort of army of cats known as the Vanskan Cats, also known as a rock band, is attacked by aggressive Shiba Inus, race of dogs who desire glory on the nation of Vanska. Following this, a nuclear warfare led by rebel forces bomb Vanska, and few days after its bombing, a person belonging to the Papadakis family, Dave, was recognized to have lead the assault and for murdering the president of Vanska. Thus led the animals to rebel against humans. As we switch to the perspective of Sergeant Duck, as a child, his family is killed and captured by security drones/robot. Only Sergeant Duck was able to escape the prison, but after finding his son dead from a prison camp, he tries to find fortune and through time, he would eventually find truth why animals have turned against humans.

Kind of really unforgiving story, eh? I would tell that all the Mr. Cat games so far had been made without the need of writing down a story, so the sequence had to be made by mind, considering how jokey the Mr. Cat games are.

May or may have more hypothetical plans for a Mr. Cat IV, one that would be made in RPG Maker, or just restart the game with Fusion 2.5.
But unfortunately, times have changed and i really no longer use Fusion 2.5 as my primary game dev tool, considering i've switched to GameMaker Studio and making games in there feels more "serious" to me.

Or maybe. Mr. Cat IV isn't truly happening.

Syndicate content