Review Of The Best Game of 2015: Undertale

Website (Demo and $9.99 Full Game)

"The RPG Where Nobody Has To Die" -Undertale trailer

Modified post from No Game Plays: The Unheard-Of Indie Games.

Undertale is an unheard-of indie video game. Well, kind of. Those that are internet savvy will eventually come across an Undertale meme or video. But it hasn't caught on, like, say Minecraft. Not yet.

To those that don't know, Undertale is an extremely popular PC video game that came out of nowhere and captured and broke many hearts.

I bought the game when it reached the highest score on Metacritic. It has been my first video game purchase since months. My first impression before I bought it was, it looks like a bad RPG Maker game. (So it was a surprise to learn later it was made in Game Maker: Studio, my go-to tool for making games)

I can't say much about Undertale without spoiling it, and the internet has done that already, but I can say that Undertale is best played without much prior knowledge of it. The innovative shoot-em-up system for RPGs, the Fourth Wall breaks... these aren't what makes Undertale great. Good, yes, but not great. What makes it great is how it ties things together.

The fandom can be toxic. Better avoid them until after playing Undertale to its fullest.

Undertale has made me cry and I still listen to the music. The game gives me Determination.

As a Game Maker: Studio user and fellow game designer, hats off to, Toby Fox. Undertale is the type of game I aspire making. Not in terms of popularity, but in the terms of its visceral experience.

Go, play it. This is the best game of 2015, hands down.

Publishing HTML5 Games on the Chrome Web App Store

Without further ado, I present you my app in the app store, TitanFlap!

1. Host your HTML5 app in a website that you own. No Dropbox, Use iframe on a website if you have to. Submit website to Google Webmaster to verify your ownership.
2. Zip up a manifest.json and icon_128.png file. The icon_128.png must be a 128x128 PNG image icon for your app.
3. Go to Chrome Developer Dashboard and sign into your Google account. Upload the zip file.
4. Fill the remaining information and hit "Publish".

App URLs must be domain and subdomain level website names that you own and end it with "/" or there will be a path error.

Web URL must have the same domain as the App URL, and is the path for your app. 

Example manifest.json file, use Notepad or similar program.

{
  "name": "TitanFlap",
  "description": "Commence TitanFlap!",
  "version": "1",
  "manifest_version": 2,
  "app": {
    "urls": [
      "http://neogenerationgames.webs.com/",
      "http://www.neogenerationgames.webs.com/"
    ],
    "launch": {
      "web_url": "http://neogenerationgames.webs.com/prototypes.htm"
    }
  },
  "icons": {
    "128": "icon_128.png"
  },
  "permissions": [
    "unlimitedStorage",
    "notifications"
  ]
}

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.

Midwest Homeschool Convention

Had such an awesome time at the Midwest Homeschool Convention in Cincinatti! It was my very first time, and though it wasn't what I expected, I wasn't at all disappointed.

We arrived on Thursday, April 4. Beforehand, we visited the Newport Aquarium to look at fishies.

The first session I attended was the Historical Clues to Great Spelling by Barbara Beers. She taught on how the Latin, Germanic, and French and other language influences created the nuances in our English language. Grammar structure, pronounciation, plurals... everything starts to make sense once you know the history of the words.

The next session I attended was Biblical Worldview As It Relates to Science, hosted by Creation.com ministries. Kinda a repeat of what I already know, but reiterations are good. I had to stand up the whole time since the room was packed. Basically, the difference between Creationism and Evolution is not evidence, but the interpretation of evidence.

The last session for Friday that I attended was Professor Carol Reynolds's Russia in the Dark Age of Communism. She talked about her dream on living in Russia, and how her folk tale perceptions of it was shattered when she arrived as an American professor working in the country in the heat of the Cold War. She talked about the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church and how Communism sought to replace and eradicate religion. Professor Carol, who loves music, also taught some musical history of the Russians. It was one of the most interesting classes I attended in my life.

I bought a book called The Writing of God. It's about the real Mount Sinai in Arabia, across from the Sinai peninsula, not on it. The lady on the booth was very shrewd in selling it to me. But I don't regret it. It has some interesting archaeological pictures and essays.

So the first day ended, but the fun was only beginning! Onward to Friday, April 6th.

We woke up a bit late, so we missed the morning session, but I went straight to the class titled Throwing Light on the Dark Side: Good Vs. Evil in Contemporary Literature by storyteller Jim Weiss. He talked about how evil is presented in fiction and real life. He introduced to us the idea of mythology and how its a reflection of a culture's true beliefs, with one example as George Washington's cherry tree. Evil is manifested in four ways: a pure evil, evil with a different perspective, deliberately chosen evil, and banal evil. He then proceeded to relate it to works such as the Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, the Twilight series, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Shakespearean plays, and other works of fiction.

Afterwards, I headed to the Ed Zaccaro's session, Ten Things All Future Mathematicians and Scientists Must Know. It was a reminder that math and science are ways of objectively looking into something and how statistics are manipulated to deceive us. It was also a point that many solutions are counter-intuitive, and that causes and correlations must be discerned among other things.

Attorney David C. Gibbs III of the National Center for Life and Liberty spoke on Bodly Standing in a World of Compromise. He reminded us that the only way to change our nation was to bodly proclaim the gospel. To do so, one must must actively tell and convert a person to Christ, and actively disciple them enough so that they would then go and convert and disciple others.

Homeschool Programming, Inc., a small business by a husband and wife team, did a session on Creating Android Applications. It was a bit boring, as you can probably tell if a computer programmer showed you how to code something simple in a monotone voice, but I did learn something about Android emulators and the market share of Androids compared to iOS devices. I think I should focus in on Android apps with Game Maker instead of the iPod.

I then met my good friends the Proffitts from CollegePlus! I got a sudden call from Bridget telling me to find them at the CollegePlus! booth. We went to the Bible Bee booth, because Bridget worked for the Bible Bee, and met a of their few friends. They went and hanged out with us as we walked around the exhibition hall. Then we had a dinner of pizza, kinda expensive(although the food in the convention was really expensive as well).We caught up with the ending of a session from John Stonestreet, the one who does the Worldviews Course at CollegePlus! He spoke on New Spirituality: Engaging with New Age, Eastern Religions, and Neo-Paganism. He showed quite an interesting movie trailer about "The Secret" and dissected it.

So we ended the day with just hanging out, going to different booths and shops at the exhibit hall. We didn't go to the Tim Hawkins comedy show because we heard that his jokes were getting less funny. And I kept getting teased on my April Fool's joke on getting engaged. XP

And the final day, Saturday, April 6th....

On about 9:45 to 10 AM, I was supposed to meet the Spydog of GMC Jam fame, but due to lack of wifi and miscommunication, we weren't able to. :( Still, I might meet him next year.

I proceeded to go to another of Jim Weiss' sessions, again. This time, he was speaking on G.K. Chesterton and how he influenced C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. He ended with a narrative retelling of his mystery short story "The Blue Cross". The story was very engaging, and I wonder how I ever missed this author! Unfortunately, I don't have much time nowadays with reading, so I don't know if I should look for his books.

I got a text from the Proffitts to meet them after one of the twins takes the Medical Transcriptionist class. She needed the job, but I warned her, since I tried to take that job before. So we agreed to meet at the CollegePlus! booth again afterwards. I went to Thomas Purifoy's session, Why Every Christian Needs to Understand Economics. He reminded us that economics are the choices man makes with limited resources as a steward of God's kingdom. Mr. Purifoy then proceeded to give us a model of history as a struggle between the Augustinian city of God and city of Man, where economics of one conflicted with the other. In the end, I got a free economics DVD.

Meeting again with the Proffitts and one of their friends Kaitlyn(Caitlyn? Katelyn? *shrugs*), we decided to attend the Teen Track session Keeping Cool Under Fire: Handling Objections with Grace and Truth. Scott Klusendorf did a roleplay on being a pro-choice supporter, which made me almost mad... and then I realized it was a roleplay. -.- He gave us pointers on how to graciously debate by asking the Columbo questions: "What do you mean by that?", "How did you come to that conclusion?", and "Have you considered the implications of your view?". I'll find this very useful in the future.

Took a small break at the Starbucks. The twin sisters didn't go to the coffee shop much, but I recommended that they get a frappe. We then went back to the Junior Ballroom to hear Sean McDowell speak on the factual evidence for the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Along with the cold, hard, historical facts, I learned about his once having doubts about the faith. I did learn that the resurrected Jesus did show Himself to people that did not believe on Him, including Saul and James, His half-brother.

Another break, then finally the last session. It was Mr. Klusendorf again, but this time, he spoke on Moral Relativism. Basically, the philosophy is self-refuting. He also spoke on the 'intolerance of the tolerance crowd'. I'm glad for the Christian speakers equipping us with tools to engage our culture.

I had to say goodbye to the Proffitts (but hopefully I'll see them in two weeks). Then the finale... An Evening With Dr. Ron Paul! We got as close as we could to watch Dr. Ron Paul speak. As the Prime Minister and Chairman of the homeschooled Valiant Defender's Party, it was one of the most inspiring political speeches I have heard. Sadly, I didn't have a recording device, and the event wasn't recorded. I then understood why he stood on his foreign policy as he did, and that he's going to start a new homeschooling curriculum. He encouraged us, the young people, to get involved locally and to spread the message.

Ending the night and today on Sunday, we started for home. We did attend Fellowship Baptist Church, the home of the Fellowship Tract League for the morning service. It was a very awesome weekend, one that I will remember the rest of my life. I thank God. :)

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!

InDev: Saphruby Mockup

I am in the process of making this for Experimental Gameplay: November and December TEMPERATURE. Not going to post much, but use your imagination. I hope I can use Stencyl or Construct for the final, if not, back to good ole' Game Maker.

The mechanic obviously has the player pressing the keyboard.

Happy Thanksgiving!

InDev: Grandfather Paradox Part #2

"The Grandfather holds the watch to his gaze. Soon..."

Another blog post in developing Paradox, Grandfather. It is a casual time travel RTS game, or it probably can be more accurately called an RTT (Real Time Tactics) game.

Previously, I introduced the basic gameplay and the two main warring factions. But there is a special "faction", so to speak (Actually, two, if you count the neutral civilians as a faction). The Grandfather "faction" is the source of the blessings, or woes, of time travel in this world. It is composed of the Grandfather unit and his various incarnations. In 192X, he is a young man, who invented the time travel machine and set into motion the events culminating into the war between the Imperiarchy and Republicorp. In 195X, he is an old man, armed with a steampunk army of sorts.

The Grandfather "faction" only let's you play with one unit directly, the Grandfather. You can even control him with the WASD keys and shoot with the mouse button. He can enter any time machine. You have to avoid the Imperiarchy and Republicorp from killing you, or stealing your plans, or otherwise messing with history.

You can upgrade the Grandfather unit. He can be armed with a Chronogun that erases units from existence. When he is still, he is cloaked and invisible. His speed can also be upgraded. But he is weak constitutionally, so take care when manuevering into areas of heavy fire.

The Imperiarchy and Republicorp factions are with through five equivalent units each through four attributes. They are all infantry units. I did not want to add in vehicles and things to the lineup, although in another future version of the game, I might. Possibly the post-experiment version.

Now, I will explain the time travel system, more. In Skirmish battles, after winning, it saves the game, and you can load it, and play against yourself, as if trying to alter history. Or you can play as yourself, and finish in a lower time limit. The Campaign will work the same way. It will be interesting, or at least I hope so.

I decided to cut off the Campaign until the post-experiment version, which I might sell. The version for EGP will include only the Skirmish mode.

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. :)

Multiple Parenting Theories In Game Maker

In Game Maker, there is a system for objects called "parenting". Each object is allowed one parent. The "child" object may inherit events from the parent object. Also, the child objects are treated like their parents, but their parents are not treated as their children.

So, my goal in this blog post is to create a way for a child object to have multiple parent objects by GML(Game Maker Language) code. This, if successful, will be advantageous for many things while programming, including much more flexibility.

The Father-Mother Theory
The primary, default parent object of the child will be called the "father" object. A child can also have a secondary parent called the "mother". When a child executes events, it does so it executes the father's events first, then the mother's.


Pros: event handling is seamless
Cons: mother parent does not affect instance finding functions

Dual Object/Overlay Theory
Each child has a primary parent, and also a secondary parent. It creates the secondary parent as an invisible overlay instance. This helps so that the instance finding functions can still find both somewhat seamlessly.

Pros: instance finding functions(howbeit modified)
Cons: event handling complicated between two objects, double the memory needed

Combined Theories
Simply, combining both theories.

Pros: instance finding functions, event inheritance
Cons: event handling may conflict between the two objects, double memory needed


Here is the file:
http://gamejolt.com/open-source/games/other/multi-parenting-for-gm/8092/

5Buttons Experimental Gameplay: Neenjah Inna WearHauz

"A neenjah inna wearhauz, you've gotta bee kiddin'!"

This was a very interesting competition for game designers. I played around with a few ideas, finally settling to base my gameplay on a game called Lazarus, with a control twist. The competition only allowed for the number 1-5 buttons to simulate the control scheme of Unita Zero.

My entry is aptly named "Neenjah Inna WearHauz". You play a ninja trapped... in all places... a warehouse. For some reason, boxes are falling and you can only stop them by pressing the "STOP" buttons on either side of the screen. To do so, you need to climb your way on the boxes, but avoid being squished. The player starts on "3" and can jump to the right by pressing "4". He can then jump again by pressing "5". Likewise, he can jump back to the left by jumping on "4". And so on and so forth. If the player has reached either "1" or "5", he can press the button again to jump in the previous direction("1" makes the player jump left indefinitely, while "5" goes to the right indefinitely).

Overall, it was tough designing for a platform I have never seen or heard of before. I hope the players will like it!

5Buttons Competition: http://experimentalgameplay.com/blog/2011/12/5-buttons-competition-in-decemberjanuary/

My entry Neenjah Inna WearHauz: http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/other/neenjah-inna-wearhauz/7019/