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This is our newest WIP game called BFF or Die. It's local co-op puzzle-action in a maze! This time I’ve teamed up with programmer Andrzej Zachera and artist Alicher Baynazarov.

Multiplayer games tend to be based on competition. This game will instead be about collaboration.

The idea is that you have a good time being part of a team, planning your strategy together and enjoy the feeling of winning together. We have a solid gameplay mechanic in place where you help each other to navigate a maze, collect the energy and escape alive. It's a lot of fun in 3 or 4 player where each person has different machines they can use.

Download the demo for PC, Mac and Linux: http://honey-tribe-studios.itch.io/bff-or-die-early-access

(http://www.honeytribestudios.com/press/bff/splash_640x360.jpg)

Latest Vids:

Saturday at Insomnia Games Festival, i53
(http://www.honeytribestudios.com/press/bff/i53_intro_sat_640x360.jpg)
 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVifdH-TLAc)

Friday at Insomnia Games Festival, i53
(http://www.honeytribestudios.com/press/bff/i53_friday_thumb_640x360.jpg)
 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJqM77kj1sg)


Dev Video Diary 001: Basic Gameplay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d-UeFmBxLQ

Here's the 2nd dev diary video. We took an early build of BFF OR Die to MultiClash, a local multiplayer gaming event at Scenario Bar, London.

What we want with this game is for people to have fun being a team and to enjoy winning together. So it's great to see this working out. Multiplayer games tend to based around killing or defeating each other. So we want to make something different where the fun comes from the collaboration and communication.

In the first part of the vid you see clips of people playing and then I show some screen capture footage of the latest build. We now have some scenery graphics and some new gameplay mechanics.

(http://www.honeytribestudios.com/press/bff/bff_multiclash1.png)
 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC097Apd0-U)

I like the concept, but I'm neck deep in some particle work here so I couldn't really pay attention to what was being said on the video  :P. Was intreaged though. Will watch later.

Ok cool. When your particles are more tamed feel free to post any feedback. Half the point of showing peeps these early builds is so we can fix any design flaws nice and early :)

Cheers,
Shaz

Yeah, this looks cool. Any ideas as to what the characters are going to be, and how complex the game is going to be? Will it just be maze stuff, or will there be more to it?

Cool, glad to hear you like the basic concept. This is what we're discussing now. There are 3 of us making it and we all want to make into a very solid gameplay experience. So we're thinking of different ways to keep it fun as you progress through different levels. e.g different monster behaviors, traps and stuff like that. Not yet sure if we'll stick to the maze as the only type of arena and expand on that in different ways or have additional gameplay sections.

We're thinking it will be a time machine idea and you visit different time periods. But we have yet to decide on the details.

One idea was a brother and sister invent a time machine but it goes haywire and they get stuck in the past and the parts and/or energy of the machine get scattered in time. So you have to collect them in order to gradually move closer to the characters' present (our future).

Another idea is that time traveling aliens are visiting Earth like a family holiday or school trip and end up getting into all kinds of trouble. So we could go in a comical direction.

Either of those sound interesting to you?

But whatever we decide on, the focus will be to make the players feel good about being a team and to have a lot of fun winning together.

The time machine one sounds interesting, and the characters could (in a plot-logical way) go back to different places as well as times to solve puzzles. Maybe you could also give each character one or two specific abilities, allowing you to maximize co-op potential (i.e. player A can jump, but player B can distract away from spotlights).

Yeah definitely, the split abilities is what makes it fun. The players need each other in order to win.

I'm thinking, rather than give each character different abilities, they will be different depending on their location. So if you control the light you can do certain things. Or if you are maze-walking you can do certain things. Makes it easy to switch roles that way.

And then when we make it 4 player we'll think of different machines that have distinctive roles. e.g a crane that can pick up and move hazards around the maze.

Here's a new video update. We changed a bunch of stuff based on feedback from people playing it at MultiClash. So we now have:

Better controls
Simplified buttons
Control pad support
New scenery art
A new monster type
A new way of completing the levels

(http://www.honeytribestudios.com/press/vid3screen.jpg)
 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kla3-MngcI)

See if we can make it 4 player for the next update...!

Here's a preview of one of the main characters. As you can see we're having a fictitious, non-Earth species at the center of the story. They are time travelers. At the moment we are thinking of them as historians who document the goings-on of species from around the known universe. Although that may change...

Our artist Alex drew 34 different character sketches and we picked our favorite five. Should have the full 3D model of this first one in the game soon!

(http://www.honeytribestudios.com/press/bff/bff_update_04.jpg)

We now have 4 player mode working! I took the game to MultiClash 2 and London Indies to test out 2, 3 and 4 player modes.

The party game aspect is working out really well. It's great to see the reactions of people as they play. There's a great tension as each team member relies on the others. So there's a visible release of tension when the level ends, sometimes with satisfaction and celebration or sometimes with amused exasperation at having *nearly* won.

Video Diary 004:
(http://www.honeytribestudios.com/press/bff/BFF_vid4_screen.png)
 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tne1s3DKMaw)

Update 006: Radius Festival
(http://www.honeytribestudios.com/press/bff/bff_radius_youtube.jpg)
 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCn7dkA9NF0)

I took the latest build to Radius Festival in London. Glad to say it went well. Players were having fun with it and getting into the collaborative aspect. So a lot of strategy discussions as they played.

I did notice most teams were a bit too good now that the level progression curve has been smoothed out. So while I was there I edited the Unity file to make the levels harder with more/faster monsters and more energy to collect.

The vid is from the live stream in the evening. We were going to do a 4 player demo with Alan Zucconi, Mike Bithell, James Wood and Philippa Warr. But one of the controllers decided to stop working. So Alan and Mike just sat there and hugged instead.

Update 007: Insomnia 52
(http://www.honeytribestudios.com/press/bff_youtubeSnap_insomnia.jpg)
 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf1uVkZ9M-w)

Recently I took the demo of BFF or Die to Insomnia 52, the biggest gaming festival in the UK. Around 100 people played the game over 3 days. It's the first time I've seen a large amount of gamers play it. Before now I've mainly play-tested at local developer events.

I'm glad to say people had a lot of fun with it. The team work aspect to the multiplayer mode went down really well. You'll see from the vid that people communicate and plan strategies a lot together. Which is what we're trying to promote through the design. We want people to feel like a team and enjoy winning together. Also there are a lot of laughs and surprises and overall people of different ages were very engaged.

Update 008: We Released the Demo...!

We now have a playable demo for PC, Mac and Linux. You can get it from our page on itch.io. I like the pay-what-you-want model and it seems like a good place for indies to host their files.
http://honey-tribe-studios.itch.io/bff-or-die-early-access

The latest vid is a compilation of player reactions from the various meetups and events I've taken the game to.

(http://www.honeytribestudios.com/press/bff_vid8_snap.png)
 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M2kiqxPUCM)

I took the latest build to Insomnia Gaming Festival, i53. There is now a better mix of puzzle and action. I noticed at i52 that there was a particular puzzle level that had players very absorbed. So I've added more puzzle levels and also levels which mix puzzle and action. Our programmer had made a kind of text based puzzle creation tool but I only realised recently when asking him how I can change a particular level! So when I found out I had to go through and change a bunch of levels :)

The reactions at 53 was great again. People are having a ot of fun and enjoying the co-op aspect. Also good to see a wide variety of people wanting to play, adults, teens, kids and parents too.

A number of parents went out of their way to tell me how valuable it is to have a video game that can actually play and enjoy with their kids. The whole idea of the game is that it brings people together and they totally get that after playing.

We still need to work on how to teach new players the mechanics and controls. It's definitely getting better but not yet done. But probably anyone on this forum will be able to figure it out.

Download the demo for pc, mac or linux: http://tiny.cc/bff

Friday at Insomnia Games Festival, i53
(http://www.honeytribestudios.com/press/bff/i53_friday_thumb_640x360.jpg)
 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJqM77kj1sg)

Here’s a dev diary vid from the Saturday of i53. Once again it was really nice to see a wide range of people having a good time and getting into the teamwork aspect. A few times some younger people sat down to play while their parents were going to stand and watch. I always try and get the parents to play too. Often they end up enjoying it just as much as the kids. One dad in particular who you’ll see in the vid was loving that it’s a game he could understand, enjoy, and play with his son as a team. Although at first he didn’t want to play, hearing his feedback afterwards was great. BFF or Die is a game that aims to bring people together so I was liking how much that came across to him.

Saturday at Insomnia Games Festival, i53
(http://www.honeytribestudios.com/press/bff/i53_intro_sat_640x360.jpg)
 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVifdH-TLAc)