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[muku]

Re-using existing tool is definitely a great idea! For my game Vessel-IV for the Cockpit compo, I also used Inkscape exclusively as a level editor. I used polygonal shapes as the level geometry, small color-coded circles represented entities like the player and the enemies, and paths for patrolling enemies were defined using paths (is that the term? I forget) in Inkscape. It worked a charm and saved me lots of time. Probably I wouldn't even have finished the game if I had to do my own editor on top of the game. (I hate writing editors.)

[Alex Vostrov]

I've mentioned that Infested Planet is the progeny of an earlier game that I worked on - Attack of the Paper Zombies.  What I didn't speak about is where AotPZ came from.

Origins

Two years ago I was inspired by Petri Purho to start making one-week games.  All of the free games that you can find at my blog are a result of that effort.  Of course, the one-week restriction went away fast.  The immediate cause was the game "Tank Brigade".  I was so unhappy with the way that it turned out that I decided to never release a game that I wasn't happy with.

The result of that choice were longer and longer development times.  "Circuit Breaker" took several weeks and "Pandora's Gearbox" several months.  At that point I fished around for a game to tackle.

Zombies

After working on "Pandora's Gearbox" I was exhausted.  The game was the largest product that I ever made and I expended a lot of emotional energy creating it.  All I wanted at that point was a nice one-week game.  I was worried about the ballooning development times and wanted to get back to small games.

I had an engine that I threw together for one of the TIGSource competitions.  The game was never finished, but I had code for guys running around on a rectangular grid.  "Here's an idea," I thought, "I'll use the engine and throw something together quickly."  I was vaguely interested in the thought of several people holding off zombies till the dawn.  You'd barricade yourself in the house and set traps, then the zombies would come.

I plugged away at it for a month or so, but the game just wasn't fun.  Something wasn't working and I had no idea how to fix the problem.  I was slowly losing motivation to work on the thing.  Several months had gone by at this point and I was getting distracted with other things, like iPhone development.

Stubbornness

A reasonable person would axe the project at this point and start something new.  It turns out that's not the type of person I am.  I have a pathological fear of abandoning projects.  It's the flip side of my 10-year streak of incomplete, half-finished and abandoned games that came before the one-week game effort.  Because I disliked the idea of entering that state again, I kept working on the zombie game.

At some point sheer stubbornness prevailed.  I kept throwing ideas at the game and eventually some of them began sticking.  By that point the game was nothing like my original idea.  Gone was the premise of a zombie-filled night or the desperate fight to last until the dawn.

The game that resulted from my efforts was fun and innovative.  I'm pretty happy that I managed to hit this particular vein of entertainment.  Still, I can't recommend this method of design to others.  It's a bit like prospecting for gold, failing to find it, but digging deeper anyway.  Later on you've dug a tunnel to China and decide to build a high-speed transit system.

[Alex Vostrov]

It's been one month since I switched to full-time game development.  This is probably a good time to look back and reflect.

Things I Didn't Expect

While I was making games after work, I thought that I would feel very differently if I was a full-time game developer.  Turns out that it's a fairly subtle change.  I don't run around thinking "OMG! I'm a full-time game developer!"  The thing that's been most noticeable to me is that it's easier to get work done.  When you're to one setting the high-level goals, it's much simpler to find motivation.

On the other hand, I'm still not happy with how much I get done in a day.  It's a bit of a paradox.  For the last few days I've used up every spare bit of time for game development.  On the other hand, I'm not certain how much "useful work" I've accomplished during that time.  A lot of it feels like I'm spinning my wheels and kicking up dust.

Things That Changed

I originally went into Infested Planet planning for it to be a really short brush-up of AotPZ.  In the course of the project, I've realised that in order for me to be able to show the game to others with pride, I needed to expand its scope.  I'm not sure if this move towards perfectionism is a good thing in the long run, but I'll give it a shot.  I can't take the same shortcuts that I used to when my games were free.

Things I Plan to Change

In the past few weeks I've developed a really bad habit of obsessing about the game.  Because I've made it priority #1, it's encroached on a lot of other things that I want to do.  For example, my exercise routine has become patchy since I started using the time for game stuff.

I feel that this is a self-destructive habit in the long run.  The first reason for this is that a lot of the "non-game" stuff contributes to my game development indirectly.  For example, exercise is important for energy and general well-being.  Another habit that's been suffering is reading - if I keep skipping it, I won't be able to come up with creative game ideas any more.  The second reason for boxing in the game work is that it tends to consume itself.  In the past couple of weeks I've lost sense of the greater project goals - the daily work is becoming mechanical.

I feel that a lot of programmers pride themselves in being able to work 80-hour weeks.  Maybe I'm just a wimp, but I can't run a creative business like that right now.  I want to use my time well, but in a sustainable way.

[j0d1]

I've developed a really bad habit of obsessing about the game.

I share the pain. Sometimes I feel like I'm a drug addict.

[Alex Vostrov]

Hi, my name is Alex and I'm a videogame developer...

------------------------------

Carlos and I just experienced a bit of an art crisis.  We were working on the level backgrounds, but all of our ideas just weren't sticking.  We'd create a mockup of what a level should look like, and it would end up being icky.  We were spending more and more time on the question.  It got to a point where this one problem was encroaching on other art tasks and generally threatening the game schedule.

The difficulty in making art for a game like Infested Planet is that there are so many constraints.  It has to look good, but not too cartoony.  The background and walls have to be interesting and not have visible tiles.  The art needs to emphasise important elements like capture points.  We were trying to satisfy all of the constraints and coming up empty.

Thankfully, we managed to slay this particular dragon.  Carlos just handed me a mockup for the walls and background with a new, cleaner art style.  This means that we have to re-do the existing game art that we have so far.  Thankfully, it's not that many things to change.  It's also going to be a bit tricky for me to code this, since the random maps have to look as good as the campaign maps.  Still, I think that it's worth to put some extra work into this area.  I want Infested Planet to look as good as possible.

[Alec S.]

Man, this is looking really nice.  I really like the concept behind it.   I look forward to seeing more.

[Alex Vostrov]

Disclaimer

I’m a bit hesitant to reveal game mockups, for a couple of reasons.  For one thing, the art in the game could change and end up looking quite different.  I don’t want to set up expectations and disappoint anyone.  Also, the mockups are quite rough.  They’re meant to give Carlos and myself an idea of what we’re aiming for.  People might look at the art and conclude that the final game is going to look worse than it actually will.

Finally, I don’t know how fair it is to Carlos, our artist.  I bug him to complete these things very quickly, so they’re not really reflective of his talents.

Fun Stuff

That said, I think that you guys understand how things work.  We’re doing open-heart surgery on the game right now and it’s not pretty.  If all you want to see is the finished product, you should probably check in a couple of months.  On the other hand, if you’re curious about the intermediate steps, come along.

Here’s the original mockup that Carlos made for me a month ago:



I like a couple of things about this picture.  The interface is much better than the original game.  The mockup also shows one of the cool things about the game – huge swarms of baddies.  Finally, I like the idea of breaking up background monotony with randomly scattered objects (circles in the picture, but maybe rocks and debris in the final game).

As you can see, the walls and the colours were still being worked on at this point.  In fact, we still haven’t decided 100% completely on the final look.  Let’s look at the latest mockup:



As you can see, the colours are quite different, and Carlos has removed the outlines to go for a more “natural” look.  There are several things that are great about this picture.

I like the internal texture of the rock walls and the idea of having little crystals stick out of the side.  The gray “rock” floor adds variety to the background.   I’m thinking of how to code it up right now.  The red thing in the middle is supposed to be dead enemy blood, but I like to think of it as a wall too.  It almost looks like cooled volcanic rock with those spikes.

There are a few things that we still have to figure out in the picture above.  The colours still need some experimentation, in my opinion.  The plain gray may become too boring over time.

Summary

Overall, I really like the picture above.  There’s still tweaking to be done, but it gives me a good idea of what I have to code.  The next step is to actually implement it in the game.

I try to be flexible when I translate mockups into reality.  I like to provide hooks for the artist to play with the art assets.  That way the mockup is just a launching point for exploration and not an ironclad specification of how things should be.

[Alex Vostrov]

Today I’m tackling the topic of micromanagement in RTS games.  It might surprise you that I’m working hard to scour all traces of micro from Infested Planet.  That doesn’t seem to go well with the “arcade strategy” idea, does it?

I strongly dislike micromanagement in RTS games.  Maybe it’s because my fingers aren’t particularly nimble, but I find it to be more of an annoyance than anything else.  Consider the history of micromanagement in strategy games.

Origins

Historically, most RTS games have had an atrocious user interface.  Think of the first popular RTS – Dune 2.  You couldn’t even select multiple units together.  The player had to command each one of them individually.  Into this world came games with spellcaster units.  The first Warcraft is a good example of this.  Because game designers of that era couldn’t care less about UI, the spell abilities were naturally manual.

This is the real origin of micromanagement in RTS games.  It was not a feature, but rather a by-product of the designers’ laziness.  The trend continued with Starcraft and was capped off by Warcraft III.  By that point, even Blizzard had tacitly conceded that things needed fixing.  They added the ability to automate certain abilities.

Purpose

Let’s step back a bit and ask ourselves why we play RTS games.  Surely it’s for the strategy component.  Many other games do twitch and reaction gameplay better.  You could build an interesting game focusing on unit managment, but that game would have to focus on that single thing.  Compared to FPSs and fighting games, RTS micro is laughable right now.

On the flip side, if the game is about being a commander, like Infested Planet, why do I have to babysit my troops?

Infested Planet

Because Infested Planet is a Real Time Strategy game, I’m thinking long and hard about the unit management.  For example, an early version of the game asked the player to toss individual grenades.  After playtesting, I decided that this was way too fiddly.  I didn’t want the players to worry about every single grenade toss.  I merged the grenade tossing into a general “Heavy Weapons Area” that allowed marines to go nuts with heavy weapons.

This is the approach that I’m taking to the whole game.  Your role is to make command-level decisions, not to babysit your units.

[Alex Vostrov]

So here I am, working on the game, minding my own business, when I see THIS.  Since when is Valve interested in space marines?  I thought that was Blizzard’s turf.

Of course, the graphics are gorgeous and it’s free.  Bleh!  How am I supposed to compete with this?



Is this the untimely doom of Rocket Bear Games? <dramatic music in the background>

To be honest, I’m not too worried, for a couple of reasons.

Awesome Name

Ok, this one is only half-serious.  I feel that “Infested Planet” is a lot more creative.  Carlos came up with that when we were brainstorming.  Of course, I also had to talk him out of using “Swarm” somewhere in the title.  Whew.

Time

By the time my game is finished and released, Alien Swarm will probably be a long-forgotten memory.  People will be hungry for more alien-zombie killing action!

More Enemies

I think that the first level of my game has 10x more enemies than what their videos show.  I doubt they could draw the gigantic crowds that I do with the fancy graphics engine of theirs.

Less Strategy

There’s nothing wrong with action games (I love TF2, for example), but Infested Planet is definitely an RTS.  Alien Swarm seems to be an action game with minor tactical elements.  You can see this in how they talk about it (4-player co-op).  If you watch the videos, the game definitely looks to be on the twitch-reflex side of the fence.

No Mutations

Of course, I don’t know this for sure, since the game comes out tomorrow, but I doubt that Alien Swarm has my mutation system.  That’s what makes Infested Planet fun and replayable.

Campaign Mode

I crush Alien Swarm in this department.  They seem to have focused on multiplayer, and neglected any sort of single player.  That’s too bad, because most people don’t play multiplayer.

Infested Planet will have a replayable campaign mode that you can run through multiple times.  I have all kinds of neat ideas for it.

Summary

In summary, Infested Planet and Alien Swarm are two different games.  Heh, who would have guessed?  I’m going to be checking the game out tomorrow, and you should too if it looks interesting.  You can’t beat the price.

Who knows, maybe this will even help me.  I’m going to be stealing visual effects from them, and maybe there will be a surge of interest in killing large hordes of baddies

[Alex Vostrov]

Over the last two weeks, we’ve been working hard to improve the visuals in the game.  One reason is that I want to release a trailer to let people know about the game.  It’s a lot easier to show the game off if the graphics look good.

I’m not done making the graphics better – we’re maybe 50% of the way there.  Still I thought that it’s interesting to show you where we’re at right now.  First, I’d like to remind you of what the game looked like originally:



Yay for programmer art!  I thought that I did ok with AotPZ, but it’s not nearly well enough.  Let’s fast forward to today (keep in mind that a lot of the art is still unfinished, like the bottom bar):



Just yesterday, I put in a lot of the new sprites into the game.  Carlos has been working hard on them for the past week.  You can see the new hive and tower images on the above screenshot.



I’ve made so that you can have different types of walls.  It really makes the game more lively.



If you look carefully, you’ll see that there are shadows under the buildings and units.  This was something that I threw together in an hour yesterday, just to see how it looks.  I like it quite a bit, actually; I might spend more time to make it look better.

Well, that’s what I’ve been up to for the past week.  After I finish off the map graphics, I’ll move onto effects like explosions and animation.

[Alex Vostrov]

I’m back!  One of our competitors – goes by the name of Blizzard – tried to sabotage my productivity with a cunningly designed piece of software.  Thankfully, I’m all over it now and back to working on the game.

One of the fun things about Infested Planet is mowing down huge crowds of enemies.  Playing off of that,  I decided to make things a bit more over-the-top.  A couple of days ago I added a decal system that allows me to “paint” the floor of the level.



Now dead enemies don’t just vanish in a red puff.  This allows you to see where really big battles happened and makes the game look a little bit better.

[KM]

This game really reminds me of Crimson Land, which was a very fun indie game where you survive wave after wave of Spiders and Dinosaurs (yeah, deadly combination). You could level up and try and last as logn as you possibly could. Good times.

This game you're making looks like a bunch of carnal fun. :D

By the way, who's doing the music for the game?

[ZereoX]

As I was reading through the thread, I saw this picture. I just went . The first thing that popped in my head was PixelJunk: Shooter. This game will be awesome.

Thanks, Alex Vostrov.

ZereoX.

[Paul Eres]

Infested Planet is a pretty unconventional real time strategy game.  Compare it to something like Starcraft.

- You don’t produce units
- You don’t have to gather resources
- You fight hundreds of enemies with only a few units

are you sure this isn't a "RPG" rather than an "RTS" then? i mean, from your description here and in your posts it feels more like a RPG to me: you have a small party (5 marines) and you buy them upgrades and fight hordes of monsters. that's exactly like most RPGs, and very different from most RTSs. what are the RTS elements of the game? e.g., why is this an RTS and not an RPG? i know that genres don't matter so it's somewhat of a stupid question, but i'm just confused about why you are calling this an RTS game when it seems designed much more like an RPG.

[iPope]

I think its much more of a Tactical RPG with RTS elements, the acronym now being TRPRTS. It stands for Tactical Role Playing Real Time Strategy.