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.

Postmortem: Nativity

A celebration of the true meaning of Christmas.

Nativity: http://gamejolt.com/games/other/nativity/10880/

I was tired of all the games for Christmas that promoted the ultra-commercialistic Santa Claus Kringle. Where are the media that celebrated the true meaning of Christmas? (I realize the previous sentence may be oxymoronic in nature.) And so Nativity was born, no pun intended. It is actually a continuation and a finishing of the game I started last year or so.

Gameplay:
Not really much gameplay. It's supposed to tell a story on why it was necessary for Jesus to come to Earth, and thus the journey of Nativity is punctuated by flashbacks in the past and "flashforwards" in the future, making it a huge sequence. It's more of an interactive story, and so, only the characters may be controlled by the Arrow Keys or A and D to move the characters. It's probably the first game that I drew out the landscape for platforming instead of using blocks.

Graphics:
The graphics are a mix of colored and black and white silhouettes. I added in light effects for the angels and for the star of Bethlehem. Small objects are colored to distinguish them, as with the fruit and the gifts of the wise men.

Sound:
We Three Kings of Orient Are is the piece that plays once throughout the game. I aim to replace it, since it doesn't seem to fit in some instances. I was thinking of using a thunder effect for the flashback, but only the music is the only sound that plays in-game currently.

Merry Christmas!

Postmortem: Conspiracrat

A game of secret machinations. One is never ready to pull the strings of the web of secrecy.

Conspiracrat: http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/strategy-sim/conspiracrat/9163/

I made Conspiracrat as an afterthought for the Game Jolt Official Contest. I really couldn't have spent enough time on it due to me having an exam in the middle of the week. I almost made it to the deadline, but I plan on improving the game, since it shows promise, especially in the Artificial Intelligence and some possible and future multiplayer additions.

The game is a turn-based strategy. You control a secret Society in pursuit of power. To do so, you must take control of Organizations around the space. Organizations can also take control of other Organizations, creating a network. Each Organization may have a total of 5 Members, who can sway the Organization to your purpose.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is a bit lacking right now. I blame myself for not giving enough feedback to players. I also haven't implemented the "Specials" system for each Society that the manual boasts. That said, with the right balance, you can play the existing game right now and engage in a conflict of powers. I need to make it so that the mouse can move around the map. A mousewheel, which laptops lack, is needed for zooming in and out, but it is not necessary. There is a glaring lack of options given to the player. Also, the "Member" part of the game is not as well developed as I'd like. For example, the "Advancing Rank" system of the Members work, but not to any advantage for the player, ironically. I'm not entirely happy with the Society goals, either. The game needs much balancing to make it any more fun. The achievements are a bit unlockable right now, but it should be an easy fix. The interface system was not as intuitive as I planned. I will cover the artificial intelligence in another section of the postmortem.

Graphics:
The graphics were on purpose simplistic and minimalistic, a black and white effect, with a few colors thrown in. That was done because of time constraints, but also on a more philosophical point. It suggests that the Societies have dogmas that are really varied, as shown by the color, instead of a black and white approach. Well, something like that.

Music:
I used royalty-free music from Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech. I found a piece of music that fits each Society to a tee. I used the Supersound DLL to play them as Ogg Vorbis sounds after converting them from MP3s. The music is largely dark and mystical.

Sounds:
The game only uses beeps for feedback. My old computer speaker's do not run anymore, and I have to have them replaced. I used another computer to test the music and sounds, which is the one I'm writing in right now.

Artificial Intelligence:
The Artificial Intelligence is horrible compared to what was planned. I planned it so that the AI can hold diplomacy with the player and other AI. However, due to time constraints, I can't, but I will, hopefully. Also, the AI right now is largely a simple decision tree, and not even that. Although I am glad to say it doesn't cheat like some other strategy AI.

Multiplayer:
There is no multplayer in this game (yet). There was supposed to be. There was in the beginning stages of the game there was hotseat multiplayer. But I went in favor for the AI playing against a single player. I'm still looking if I can turn this into an online multiplayer. We will see.

What I Did Wrong:
I did not put multiplayer.
I did not put enough sounds for feedback.
I did not put a well developed AI.
Lots of gameplay features planned that did not appear or appear subtly, yet.
I did not focus much on the Members part, where the Double Agents and backstabbing come to play.

What I Did Right:
I picked fitting and awesome music.
I got every basic thing in the game at least in beta.
It's finished, somewhat. It's definitely playable to a point.
It has a better interface system than some of my older games.

Well, I had fun making this game! I did have Game Jolt's Good Ol' Fashioned Fun Time TM in the process. I promise updates, because I like the premise and theme. I hope I can make it a bit more like a puzzle game and a psychological, mental one at that.

The Elitinati is watching.
Aeterna Veritas is marching on.

Postmortem: The Chase Unrequited

The Chase Unrequited: http://www.kongregate.com/games/gmx0/the-chase-unrequited

I created this game for a special someone for Valentine's Day.

Music:

I didn't have time to browse for a better fitting music than the Carpenters' love song "Close To You". My mom liked it, so I was forced to keep it. Alternatively, I am willing to experiment with "Fur Elise" or classical love pieces.

Gameplay:

The gameplay itself is a clone of "qrp", which was created by "th15" from wyrdysm.com(He created the popular Battleships Forever). Basically, you move the guy around with the Arrow Keys, trying to "catch the girl", so to speak. The girl avoids you like crazy. My addition to this is the "Moods" that floats around the character's head to indicate their emotion.

Graphics:

I used the graphics from "Unrequited", the sort-of-prequel to this game.

What I Did Wrong:

1. The Flash port is not totally the same as the original. It is very close though.

2. I did not have better, smoother graphics.

3. I did not have more characters and gameplay as originally planned. I did not differentiate it enough from "qrp".

4. I did not get extensive testing before finishing. It may have a harder difficulty.

5. The game was not optimized as best as I could.

What I Did Right:

1. I finished on time. I met my deadline of Valentine's Day 2012, not 2013.

2. My Flash port succeeded compared to my only previous port(Shark Week to HTML5)

3. I kept the gameplay simple, though puzzling enough. There's more than one ending!

Play Now: http://www.kongregate.com/games/gmx0/the-chase-unrequited