Postmortem: Thanksgiving Turkey Tower Toss #IndiesVSPewDiePie

Competition Version Released

Post-Competition Polished Version Coming Soon

Thanksgiving Turkey Tower Toss was the game I made for the 72 hour Indies VS PewDiePie game jam at Game Jolt. Here are the good, the bad, and the ugly that came out of it.

Time Management: Even though I was relatively more busy that weekend, I did get a good chunk of the time I did have to make the game. Unfortunately, I did waste some time here and there, and sometimes, I think I spent too long testing. I only divided my tasks effectively halfway through the 72 hours.

Game Design: A (light) physics-based was a bit of a gamble, but i think it paid off in originality. What didn't make it in the game jam version was the Garden Gnome Carnage mode I really wanted to put. That will come to the post-competition version. I really should have focused more on designing and implementing the level generation, and designing the enemies. The Thanksgiving theme was the only one I could think of. Planning this game was better off than my previous games, thus the level of finish that it has, but not by much. The achievements was almost an afterthought, but made the gameplay substantial.

Gameplay: The gameplay was a lot better than my previous jam games and a bit more intuitive, too, using only arrow keys and Space. I also had my best final boss (in the form of a mecha PewDiePie) coded, with missiles and a machine gun. I plan to do a whole game with just bosses and complex enemies, because they are so interesting. The GCC component did not get in, yet. The SSB style to eliminate enemies didn't seem as compelling to me. Will have to change that. 

Sounds: After this jam, I now believe sound effects can make or break a game. I had a lot of sound effects and music. Since I didn't get to collaborate with anyone, I used random music generators and voiced my own sound effects using Audacity. I don't regret using 

Graphics: Graphics should have been a bit bigger. Or at least zoomed in enough to see the details. I did get some auto-tiling done, which made the game so much better to look at. I don't think anyone could tell those were Pilgrims, because they were so small!

Overall, it was better planned and better implemented than my previous jam games. And I think it's the only jam game I want to really expand further.

InDev: Offgrid, Wormhole Eilis, and Aethernoughts

It's been awhile since I actually posted something of a game design nature. The truth is, I have been so busy with school, the VDP society, scholarships, and work that I just don't have the time to make games.

There are, however, ideas that are baking in my machine when I do find the time. These are simply in the ideas stage.

Offgrid is a cyberpunk, open world "survival" game. The player character is a sort-of on-the-run hacker in a heavy surveillance society. Unlike most cyberpunk games, nations are not ruled solely by corporations (though they are still important), but have an NSA-like supragovernment. The player theoretically wants to go offgrid, that is, untraceable, so he is tasked with erasing information about himself. If the player makes a wrong move, he becomes hunted by a government hunter or a team of hunters, and must race against time to promptly disappear. Offgrid will have proper networks in-game (servers, routers, terminals, hubs, etc.) that control various aspects of the city and almost all equipment (cameras, cars, traffic lights, etc.) and will properly simulate true networks. Inventory and HUD, almost anything can be hacked or tampered with. I'm not sure if I will provide some sort of programming mechanism (maybe crafting) to create your own in-game virus and software, but that is an idea. I'm not sure currently what art style I want to use for Offgrid, though a 2.5D perspective may be best.

Offgrid Planned Features:
2.5D perspective
Simulated, realistic networking system
Survivalist gameplay
Hack everything and be hacked

Wormhole Eilis is a top down cross between X COM: Enemy Unknown and The Jeluvian Project, with sprinklings of  Pacific Rim and Lovecraft. Each turn is a ten second sliver of time with gridless movement. The player controls a special ops squad, but then may get a proper gigantic mecha to handle the more colossal nameless threats. It probably will be set in the near future, humanity will not have everyday, practical space travel, but have mecha for military applications. I'm not sure if it will be a government agency or squad, I dislike the nominal government agency type feel. A militia or terrorist thing won't work. I'm not much for a corporate, fraternal, or religious paramilitary either. So... that pretty much cover anything? (Just thought of a university based group, a school-based research paramilitary sounds cool) The wormhole in question will be open in a place in the ocean, quite possibly the Bermuda Triangle. I don't want any cyberpunk elements creeping here on purpose.

Wormhole Eilis Planned Features:
Topdown
Giant mecha and monsters
Squad-based tactical strategy gameplay
Gridless movement

Aethernoughts was originally going to be a hard science fiction space carrier simulation, but I relegated that in favor of a steampunk/aetherpunk space/sky carrier simulation. The player is in control of a space carrier and can manufacture fighters, weaponry, and so on. The universe is filled with these carriers. Each carrier is an independent mini-city state (own economy, religion, diplomacy, etc.) and most are not hostile unless provoked. I am weighing whether or not I should lean towards more of the strategy side like a MOBA, or more on the simulation side for this. I imagine this will be touch based, as I am trying to penetrate the iOS and Android market. There will be no Pay-To-Win. Star Citizen, Forgotten Futures, Auralux, Pax Brittanica, Planetary Annihilation, the original MMO concept of End of Nations, FTL, Iron Sky, and Leviathans are my inspirations for this one. Depending on the final scale (solar system or planetary), carriers can fight ground forces and traverse asteroid fields.

very early screenshot

Aethernoughts Planned Features:
Topdown
Customizable independent city-state steampunk skyship
Open world/universe
Real time strategy and simulation hybrid
Deploy craft, ground forces, superweaponry, harpoons, pods, etc.
Board other skyships
Kraken and space whales!

So those are the three I am working on in my sparest of times. All of them are being worked on in Game Maker: Studio.

I also just released TitanFlap, playable online and on mobile.

InDev: Grandfather Paradox Part #1

"In 195X, two warring factions: the Imperiarchy and the Republicorp, are in a stalemate. Only one way to break this: time travel."

Paradox, Grandfather is a game I'm making for Experimental Gameplay: Time Manipulation for August and September. Details are subject to change. Note that the link provided for the download provides only a mockup prototype without gameplay, yet.

The game is set in an alternate past, where the Imperial States of Ohio (the Imperiarchy) and the United Sozist People's Republicorporation (the Republicorp) are embroiled in an apocalyptic Cold War in 195X. The weapon that caused this war is not the atom bomb, but the time machine.

The Imperiarchy decides to end the war by eliminating time travel in the past. The Republicorp travels back to prevent that alternation in history, then the Imperiarchy decides to stop the Republicorp from going... and so on.

The game is made to be a casual RTS, inspired by Relic of War and the Achron RTS. In the battlefield, the player is given two views. The first view shows 192X view of the battlefield. The second view is the present, or 195X, of the battlefield.

The factions must send units from 195X to 192X, but also can fight in 195X. Only in 192X can mission objectives be met. There is a Time Indicator in which the player can change so the player can send units any time in 192X. For example, if the Imperiarchy captures the "Grandfather"(revealed in a future InDev) in 192X, the Republicorp can rewind the Time Indicator and send troops to prevent his capture. Or the Republicorp can drag the time indicator and place troops in the future to stop the capture at the extraction point.

That is all for now! Gotta get back working. :)

Tower Defense Doesn't Make Sense

Tower defense. It just doesn't make sense to me. But then, nothing in video games do if you really looked hard enough. Especially if you're an indie.

Tower defense is a genre of video games that concerns putting towers to inhibit and delay advancing waves of enemies that usually travel along a path to a main base. Some innovators of the genre include multiple lanes of advancing waves, playing as the advancing army instead of the tower builder, flying enemies, random paths, random towers, and whatnot. It is almost a brother to real time strategy, howbeit without movable units.

However fun to play, though, it just doesn't make sense!

Why would an advancing army ignore the towers in the way? Why don't they just destroy them when they encounter it, like all good RTSes. Its like the creator is making fun of your intelligence of tactics and strategy. No one is dumb enough to do that!

But I guess that's what makes tower defense games a bit more popular than normal real-time strategy games. RTSes make you think about how to attack and defend from a smart AI. Thinking is hard work.

In contrast, tower defense has only one strategy for the enemy AI, advance blindly onto the battlefield to the main base, ignoring all defenses! If that was an RTS commander, he would get slaughtered quickly.

So in essence, tower defense games are replays of the same thing over and over again, a failed and foolhardy AI attack in an RTS.

Maccabees to Pharisees to Paul

A story of fundamentalism: past, present, and future...

The Past:

Their name meant "Hammer". They were ancient revolutionary heroes of post-Captivity Israel. All looked up to them as martyrs, as leaders. They were faithful to God. They were synonymous of patriotism for their country.

They were called the Maccabees. They are the pride of Israel. They fought against the Hellenizing influences and emerged as the ruling body.

Generations passed. The original Maccabean revolters died. They passed their Law down to their children, and grandchildren. They instructed them to keep it.

The children of the Maccabees are now called "Pharisees". Known for their strict laws and adherence to the Torah, they were feared. They were on the highest religious pedestals.

But when Jesus came, He condemned them as hypocrites. "The descendants of the Maccabees, hypocrites?", the Pharisees wondered as they looked on at the unrecognized Messiah.

How in the world did the most respected degenerate into this condition?

1. Forgetting the Purpose

The Pharisees knew their Law. They debated in the finer points of the Torah. They added extra rules just to keep themselves from going near the fence.

They got... carried away.

Carried away in that they focused on the new rules instead of the underlying purpose. The finer points they had down, the weightier matters... not so much.

2. Faking It And Not Making It

The term Pharisee is synonymous to hypocrisy today. While they prayed in the corners in front of crowds for show, nothing was done for spiritual substance.

3. Carrying on the Name Rather than Building on It

The Pharisees relied on the previous reputation of the Maccabees, and instead of improving that reputation, have tarnished it. Yet they remained dependent on that name to inspire them and make excuses and remind the people of glories past. While they carried the name, they refused to build a better name.

4. Concerned with Power

Power is not graceful. At least, humanly speaking, power is not compatible with grace(oh, the wonder of the divine paradox intertwining both in Jesus!). We have so-called power structures, also known as hierarchies based on merit, "works", if you will. As one gains merit, one climbs the "corporate" power ladder, so to speak. While graceless power structures are necessary in governments and places of employment, it must be less so in our churches. The Pharisees grew increasingly concerned about control and manipulation of others for their own benefit rather than helping and loving.

5. Tightly-Knitted Clique-ing and In-Grouping

While the Pharisees accused Jesus of hanging out with the less desirable people of society, which consisted of tax collectors, prostitutes, the disabled, the diseased, and so on, they did not do anything to attempt to reach out to the same people and kept to themselves. Jesus did not condone the sins of the same crowd, however, His fellowship with them pushed the others to repentance and righteousness. The Pharisees used righteousness as a wall to safeguard their group; Jesus used it as a door.

Were the Pharisees more righteous than Jesus when the Pharisees forbade the sinners to join their little Sanhedrin, but the Saviour let them in into His circles? NO! Were the Pharisees immune to corruption now that they have quarantined themselves from the world? NO! They merely multiplied the power of corruption within themselves.

The Present:

Their name meant a strong stand for Christ. They stood tall in the battlefield against Modernism and Liberalism.

They were the Fundamentalists.

Today, they are reduced to a catchphrase that is associated with terrorists, fanaticism, and scandalous hypocrisy. How did this change come about?

We left our "old time religion", the pure religion talked about in James 1:27.

We focused on our rituals that disguised themselves as "standards", and left our real convictions.

We formed our own cliques and groups, to the point that we are accused of being a secret society and a cult.

We left our first love.

The Future:

A Pharisee rose up among the ranks. He persecuted those that strayed from the Torah with such zeal that he would be the equivalent of Hitler back then.

His name was Saul of Tarsus. You now know him as the Apostle Paul.

He calls himself the "Pharisee of Pharisees". Why do we then know him now as the greatest Christian who have ever lived?

Thus is my theory. If Fundamentalism should produce another "Pharisee of Pharisees"....

One who is trained in the Scriptures...

One who is zealous for the church...

I pray that he would shed the corrupted present shell of Fundamentalism and embrace its new future, a Fundamentalism emphasizing both the Son and Word of God and empowered by the Spirit of God.

A real Fundamentalism. A Fundamentalism that is based on Truth, both inside and out.

Indie Games and Economics: Why The Economic Downturn Is Good for Indies

As I was studying economics, I came across the fact that indie games are inferior goods. That is, inferior goods have an inverse relationship with the economy; the more the economy lowers, the more of the inferior good is bought. In contrast, a normal good is sold more when incomes rise, and not vice versa.

Why is this? It is because that indie games are seen as an substitute product compared to commercial games. The more the economy recedes, the less income that people receive, and the more people will be attracted to indie games, which are often priced lowly.

When the economy rises once more, the "Year of the Indie" will end, unless independent game developers will change the way consumers of average America view their games.