June's Game: Paddle-Putt Island

Paddle-Putt Island

June's game was done as a collaboration between Calalaera as the Senior Programmer, and myself in the Junior Programmer role. It was done completely in C++ using CodeBlocks and SFML. 

Paddle-Putt Island can be thought of as a spiritual successor to Golf, the well-known Atari 2600 game from decades past. The playable, one level demo gives a nod to greyscale mode. The full game will contain the following:

• Nine holes
• Eight bits of glorious colour
• Weird and wacky level design
• In-jokes up the wazoo
• Easter eggs, of which greyscale mode will be one
• And expansions to come!

We are also working on release date DLC which will be made available once Paddle-Putt Island gets through Steam Greenlight. This DLC will be another 9 hole course which will, we hope, put the "silly" in "silly golf".

Go take a look at the demo online - or better yet, play it yourself!

Please let us know what you think of the game. We realise that this game will not appeal to the majority of people. Rather, it is specifically aimed at those who enjoy very simple retro games. 

April's Game: Spring to Space

Spring to Space

This month's game for the One Game a Month Challenge is called "Spring to Space" and comprises three levels. The game starts deep underground and your goal is to jump up to the moon, hence the title. Each level has enemies to avoid, hit one and you restart the level. There is no way to kill the enemies, avoiding them is your only option. Once you reach the highest point of the level and go through the portal, the next level will start.

You may have noticed that the graphics are very simple placeholders in this game instead of the more polished sprites in most of my previous games. The reason for this is simply because I've spent the last three weeks trying to learn the basics of the Construct 2 game engine. For some reason, I've found it to be quite difficult to get my head around. Since I didn't want this month to go without a game however, I took what I had learned and tried to make something simple and working.

You can find the game in my public Dropbox folder. Simply download the zip file, extract the contents and double click on the springtospace.exe file. This release is for Windows only. If you have Linux or OSX, let me know and I will release versions for them as well. Be warned that I've only tested the Windows version though.

This next month I'll be learning more about the Construct 2 game engine so hopefully next month's game will be better.

Are Game Devs Getting Lazy?

Computerandvideogames.com published an article today talking about the upcoming new game in the Call of Duty series, Call of Duty: Ghosts.

After reading the article, the following question came to mind: "Are game developers and designers getting lazy?"

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy FPS war games as much as the next bloke, but I can't help but notice how similar they all are - especially in long running series like Call of Duty and Modern Warfare. The story lines often feel as though they are tacked on afterthoughts, put there only to very loosely tie the events together. This results in the game feeling shallow as though the designers just wanted a game in which you go from checkpoint to checkpoint killing everything that gets in your way.

"The game is said to be set in the future, but a major plot event forces the characters to use modern day weaponry."

Part of me wants to give Infinity Ward the benefit of the doubt here. I'm not a professional game critic and thus haven't seen any game play or information other than what can found on the internet about this game. Saying that, the above quote from the CVG article makes me think that the reason they've made this "major plot event" is because they couldn't be bothered to design and code new weapons, opting instead to just reuse the weapons and code from previous games.

If they're going to do that, why not go all the way and force the characters to use World War 1 or 2 weaponry or, even better, American Civil War era weaponry (i.e. muskets, muzzle loaders and flintlocks)? Do something unexpected; keep the series fresh.

Will I buy this game, despite my apprehensions? Probably, but I won't pay full price for it, instead waiting until it goes on sale or is available cheaply pre-owned. Unless of course, Infinity Ward makes this game really stand out from the rest.

1GAM Month Three

March's game is being done in C++ and is proving to be very educational. The more I work on it, the more I learn and the more comfortable I'm becoming with the code and syntax. Saying that, my bf is helping me and has basically walked me through everything, giving hints and suggestions to try to encourage me to think up the code with minimal "cheating".

Today we finally got the game pretty much up and running. I say "pretty much" because some things aren't coded in completely yet and there are of course a few bugs to work out. It works enough to have enabled me to get a screen shot of the game though.

The game is called "Chest Work", which is a pun/word play on the phrase "Guess work" and is a very basic old-school roguelike which uses ASCII characters to represent people and items. In this instance, 'R' is the rogue character, 'C' is a locked chest, 'c' is an opened chest, 'T' represents an armed trap, and 't' is an unarmed trap.

As the game starts you find yourself in a room which contains 6 chests and 3 traps all randomly placed around the room. Some chests are trapped, some are just merely locked. All contain treasure. You have 3 lives. Traps which you fail to disarm take away one life. Fail to disarm the trapped chest however and it's an automatic game over.

As of today, all that's left to do is the coding for the traps and bug zapping. With a bit of luck and some hard work, it'll be done by the weekend!

February's Game: Water Calamity

This was a close one, but today I finished this month's game.

Several things contributed to my tardiness at getting the game done. My son was off school for a week (half term break), I had lots of various appointments, was ill for several days. Mostly though, I just lost the drive to work on the game and kept putting it off which caused me to have less motivation and so on through and endless loop. Today though, I said "Enough is enough!"

I pledged to do this to improve my skills in coding and to prove to myself that I could make 12 simple games. My ambition in doing the One Game A Month challenge and the reason I'm taking a course in game development is so that I might eventually be able to start a career from a hobby. I'm not going to get anywhere by just sitting around playing games all the time, no matter how much I'd like to do so!

"Water Calamity" was originally called "Water Catastrophe", but due to a brain blip on my part while I was making the splash screen/overview/instruction page, the name got slightly changed. The story behind the game is this:

The petting zoo has run out of water. You must drive the van to the nearest watering hole and fill up the water tank and bring it back to the zoo.

Seems pretty simple, right? Not really. The van uses up fuel quite quickly; so quickly, in fact, that you will run out of fuel long before you reach the watering hole. Don't worry though - the van can be refuelled simply by running over junk food that is conveniently strewn along the road. Also, once you get to the watering hole, you'll find that the local wildlife don't really like you taking all of their water! They quickly run after you, into the van and try to drink the water before you get back to the zoo. This time there are even more conveniently placed rocks in the road. Run over them and the local wildlife gets thrown out the back of the van, bouncing across the road like their rear ends are made of rubber. If you make it back to the petting zoo, the animals there greet you happily. The End.

Just like last month, you can play the game on Steam (you need to download GameMaker in order to play, but there is a free version)  or download the exe (the exe only works on Windows). Again, there isn't a web browser (HTML5) version because when I tested it, it was super buggy, doing all sorts of weird things that did not happen at all on either the Steam Workshop or downloadable exe versions.

Please play the game and let me know what you think!
 

1GAM Month 1 Feature #5

This is the final feature for the month of January. In two short days February will be upon us and all of us who are taking part in the one game a month challenge will start building new games. Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!

January's Game: Circus Calamity!!

With just over a week to go before the month is behind us, I am happy to announce that I have finished my first game for the OneGameAMonth challenge.

It is, to put it simply, a game. It is called "Circus Calamity" and is a very simple point and click game. The object of the game is to click everything that moves (except for the bombs - you don't want to click them, trust me) until they go away. Click enough and you'll get a nifty surprise bonus item! What do you do with this nifty bonus item? You click it, of course! (What, you were expecting something else?)

Since I am not (yet) fluent in any programming languages, this game was done using GameMaker and the graphics and music were found free-to-use on various websites.

To play the game, you have two choices. If you own GameMaker on Steam, you can find the game here or you can download the exe here. The exe only works on Windows; if you don't have Windows, I do apologize.

My next few games will probably be made in GameMaker again. Hopefully before the year is out, I'll be far enough in my C++ course to be able to make a simple game outside of GameMaker. We'll see, I guess.

Roll on February!

1GAM Month 1 Feature #4

Zombie Forever by BillySpelchan

The 4th feature for OneGameAMonth is strategy game Zombie Forever by BillySpelchan.

Zombie Forever is a turn-based game wherein you play a zombie. Your goal is to turn other people into zombies to create a massive zombie army. Obviously, the humans don't want to be part of your army, so they fight back. The game ends when either everyone is a zombie or when all the zombies are dead.

You control your zombies using the arrow keys on your keyboard. Attacking is done by walking into people. Movement is limited to one space for every hit point you have, so 3 hp equals 3 spaces per turn.

This is a pretty good game which requires quite a bit of strategy to play. The only thing that didn't "work" for me was that you have to be careful when moving as you can damage your own zombies if you bump into them. Once you get used to the movement mechanics though, avoiding running into other zombies isn't too difficult.

With just over a week left in the month, January's challenge is nearly at its end. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's games!

1GAM Month 1 Feature #3

Undead Stones by PistillPhil

The 3rd feature for the One Game A Month Challenge is Undead Stones by PistillPhil.

Undead Stones is a simple one player game where the player controls a wizard's apprentice who wakes up to find that the place has been over run by skeletons. The only problem is she only knows one spell and all it does (after several tries) is freeze the fiends in their tracks!

The controls are easy: W, A, S, D to move the character and the arrow keys to fire the spell in a given direction. The challenge is to freeze the skeletons before they run into you. Get hit too many times, and the game is over.

While the game itself is enjoyable to play, there are a few things that can be done to improve upon it. On my monitor, the game is too big, rendering the score impossible to see. Also, the ending could be more concrete. Currently "game over" is signified by the room being over run with the undead, yet you can still move around and fire your spells. Even with these minor problems though, the game is quite re-playable.

Keep up the good work everyone! 

1GAM Month 1 Feature #2

 

Shapes by BeigeTurner

This weeks One Game A Month feature is Shapes by BeigeTurner. This game was chosen randomly from the uploaded games on the 1GAM website.

Shapes is a simple shape-sorting game aimed at very young children in which you drag shapes to their corresponding holes with the mouse.  The graphics are simple but colourful and the game-play is easily self taught.

In total there are 4 levels with the shapes getting slightly more complex as you progress. If you drag a shape to the incorrect hole, it is flung back onto the board and you get another try.

Overall the game is fun and educational, though I feel adding sound effects and music would add to the appeal and hold the interest of the target audience longer.

As always, if you would like a review of your game here, simply at mention me (https://twitter.com/MuirDH) with a link before Tuesday the 15th! First person to do so gets the feature!

1GAM Month 1 Feature #1

Fire Power by Chris Willoughby

The first One Game A Month feature is Fire Power by Chris Willoughby.  This game, according to Chris, was done as a "warm up" exercise for the challenge.

Fire Power is a simple click-and-drag game in which you're a god. In the upper left corner of the screen you have a power bar and three icons which signify different powers: fire, water, and earth. The goal is to keep your power bar full and reach ever higher scores by wreaking havoc on the earth below you. Simply click on a power and set fire to the forests, flood them, or bury the area in dirt.

If Chris's actual submissions are anything like this game, we're in for some nice treats over the next 12 months!

Next week I will start featuring proper 1GAM submissions. If you would like a review of your game here, simply at mention me (https://twitter.com/MuirDH) with a link before Tuesday the 8th! First person to do so gets the feature!

One Game A Month

2013 marks the start of a new adventure in my life. I have enrolled in Train2Game, a distance learning course, in order to learn how to code video games (i.e. Game Development).

 In the spirit of learning, I have joined up to the One Game a Month Challenge in the hopes that doing so will  give me more knowledge, contacts, and confidence in my work.

You're probably wondering what this challenge is all about. In a nutshell, you make one game a month, every month, for a year. Which means by the end of December 2013, I will (theoretically) have 12 completed, playable games.

The first few games that I make will be done in Game Maker. This is primarily because I have yet to learn any programming languages. Hopefully in the months to come I will be able to start making games using Python and C++, but that's then and this is now. For now, baby steps.

Already I have a list of game ideas for each month. This list will not be posted here however - not because I don't want to share, but because the list will probably change as the year goes on. However, I will say that the first several planned games are based on the Game Maker game tutorials that Train2Game students make at the beginning of the course. My plan is to take these games and polish them up a bit, changing the mechanics slightly, adding bosses, levels and various bonuses. Think of them as a stepping stone of sorts - building on what I already know so that I can reach a higher level for the next game(s).

Also, in the spirit of goodwill (the 1GAM motto is "Be good to each other"), I will feature one game per week on this blog. The first person to @ mention me on Twitter (@MuirDH) each week with a link to a playable game (WIPs are allowed as long as they're playable) will get their game reviewed and featured on this blog. For clarity, since the 1GAM challenge officially starts on the 1 January 2013 (Tuesday), each week will start on a Tuesday. I will post reminder tweets each Monday so no one forgets.

Happy gaming!