TIGSource Forums

Since we spend a lot of time here making games I felt it would only be natural to create a thread for this.

(http://www.errantsignal.com/img/wariowarediy.PNG)

For those not in the know:  WarioWare DIY is essentially a game about making games.  Picture MarioPaint, WarioWare, and GameMaker having a baby and that would give you a very rough idea of what we're talking about here.  Players can create WarioWare style microgames that last from 5-10 seconds or less.  They can make their own art, music, and animations and use a simplified visual scripting language to lay out how the game plays.

It can be really constrained... but at the same spending your lunch break making a simple wacky microgame to show off can be way more rewarding than actually playing other games.

So has anyone else picked this up yet?  Should we start keeping track of friend codes so we can all share games?  I can write up impressions if anyone's on the fence - I was going to do that here but I didn't want the post to be "CHRIS REVIEWS WARIOWARE", I want to focus on what anyone else has made, if anything!

I would love to know some things, namely;

How long does it take to make a game?

and

If you have no programming skill, is it still simplistic?

There were ads splattered for this everywhere at GDC this year and I've heard good things.  I think this is a rare exception where someone should review this mainstream game on the front page since its basically a game-making app.

It's Mario Paint but beefier. The "programming" is event based and even more simplistic than KnP. Remember, this is a game that is being marketed to children as well as everyone else, so it's got to be pretty simple. Nintendo's been making tutorial videos. They should give you an idea of how complex it is.

I have a Wii, I have a DS... and I have never played any Wario title since Warioland in my old GameBoy! Should I give them a try?

The only thing they have in common with the Wario Land games is Wario himself. The WarioWare games are collections of seconds-long microgames that are usually pretty zany and off the wall. The original GBA game is nothing short of brilliant, and Touched! was pretty good as well. I don't have much experience with the others in the series, though.

YES, DAMNIT!

WarioWare is TITS. I'm loving DIY myself. Easy to learn and fun to use.

Thanks! I'll go take a look around the internet.

http://media.ds.ign.com/media/142/14286495/vids_1.html
this has all of the ones thus far.

bout' time. i've gotta show this to my friends because they want to know how to make games but i don't think they want to take the time to learn.

and as for me.  :handmoneyL::addicted::handmoneyR:

As a person who does know how to program is it very basic and restrictive or can you make complex things if you spend the time?

It's very restrictive.  It's more designed to facilitate kids and those with no programming experience the ability to create WarioWare style games rather than being a powerful game engine unto itself.

It's definitely less robust than Klik and Play or GameMaker.  And because it's not a real language you need to do some awkward things to get advanced concepts into the game.  For example:

Time is only perceived as either "AT PRECISELY X TIME" or "AT A RANDOM TIME BETWEEN A AND B".  You can't say "FOUR SECONDS AFTER A, DO B".  There are hacks to get around it, though - you can cycle through an animation and trigger on that animation's completion.  So A triggers the animation for C and B triggers off of C's animation being complete.

Also, objects only have two variables - their animation and their "switch."  So if you want something to have 3 clicks of health until it dies, you need 1 animation at great health, 1 at bad health, and 1 at almost dead.  When you click it you don't check a health variable, you check what animation is playing and trigger logic off of that.

That said, it's a pretty neat-o tool to have in your pocket.  I made a game where a pirate tries to swat you with a sword and you have to knock the sword away!  And now I'm making a game where you have a very short time to prep a rocket's cockpit for launch.

Think of it as a neat way to make game-doodles.  It's the portable game-development version of Mario Paint.  You'll be disappointed if you go in expecting to make a Picasso, but if you always thought you could make a wackier game about picking your nose then you're not more than an hour or two away from proving it.

That's a cute way to enforce giving the player proper feedback.

I might have to check that out. Also you just know that there's gonna be some people making more "adult" games, as well as people who will recreate the Mona Lisa perfectly, only to have the rest of the game about picking her nose.

This kind of thing doesn't feel out of place in WarioWare game.  ;D

That would actually be quite a bit of fun. I think I'll pick this game up.

There are already "adult" games created...in the Japanese version anyway.  Melly sent me some entertaining youtube videos of them; yeah, pretty much as stereotypical as you would guess.

And seriously, it's not really restrictive in a bad way at all.  Constraints lead to better design,and heck, we're talking about 10 second games here too.  That's what's so great about this, the fact that it's got these really interesting constraints that still allow for a huge amount of interesting things to be done.

As I've said in that other thread, this is a day one purchase for me when it comes out in Europe.

I'm afraid I'll spend so much time with the editor, I'll neglect "real" game development in favor of it though.  :biglaff:

Actually, there are some pretty serious tutorials in the game.  The Dojo alone will keep you busy for a few hours as you "solve puzzles" related to game design.

The tools don't seem that "open" at first, but you can actually do some pretty tricky things.

But no buttons and a time-limit is on everything.  Still, if you can think of a "game doodle" that is stylus-driven, it's perfect.  Add 18 doodles together and you got yourself a genuine experience.

This is the result of creativity on an otherwise bland game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA42f_IaTl0

This seems like a neat idea!  Maybe Nintendos toying with the idea of releasing a game engine :)

I'm a bit confused, however - are you able to share the games you made with someone else?

Yeah, with Wi-Fi.

There's a very interesting interview with the developers over at Iwata asks (http://nintendods.com/iwata-asks-chapter.jsp?interviewId=5&volumeId=1&chapterId=1). The videos on the official site look very intriguing too.