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[Poya]

Connectorium is a game about systems. It revolves around the basic concept that the world around us works through connections; that nothing works in complete isolation. Currently the game is intended for release on iOS as well as PC/Mac and is targeted towards kids, though I'd argue that it's not your typical kids game. I think the concept can be applied to a much more mature audience.

The story follows Nina who wakes up one morning to a world where all connections have gone missing. Her quest to solve the mystery takes her to various people who will need her help to reconnect/relink various systems. Each level consists of a number of items. The player connects pairs of items with a simple mouse/touch drag motion. Additional context and information is also given as the player finds more connections. A score is given based on the number of correct/incorrect connections discovered.

Some of the subjects covered include music, physics, agriculture, school system, family, and biology.

You can check out a somewhat outdated demo here. A couple of newer screenshots (more on my blog):

Here is the style I'm looking to use for the cut scenes:

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

I'll be updating here from time to time with my progress. I also regularly post on my dev blog:

http://gamesforsoul.com
http://facebook.com/GamesForSoul
http://twitter.com/GamesForSoul

[eyeliner]

Nice concept. You have to take care with the drawings in the icons, some of them can be hard to discern. That digestive tube is hard to figure out. Do the icons have tooltips?

[eigenbom]

Cool!

[Poya]

Thanks!

eyeliner: Excellent point. So yes when you click on an item, you get its name above it, as well as a sound effect. Of course that has its own issues (what does the blood stream sound like anyway), but it should help with recognition.

In an ideal world, I'd have an artist helping to make unambiguous icons with animation. In the real world, given the lack of a budget, I have to draw everything myself (static images) and the results are mediocre at best . I might have to do a pass through at the end and try to redo anything that is obviously misleading.

[sabajt]

seems like a great, simple mechanic that could go a long way with some creativity.  i like the cutscene too.  looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

[peous]

you get its name above it, as well as a sound effect

Hard to find an approrpiate sound for guts  !

Just joking; nice concept !
Maybe you could post a message on paid or unpaid work to find an artist!

[Poya]

Update #1:

I have been pretty busy with writing the first draft of the story. It certainly needs a lot of work, but at least I have a draft to work with. On the subject of writing stories, I wrote this blog post on #AltDevBlogADay:

http://www.altdevblogaday.com/2012/04/27/once-upon-a-time/

I also added one new level, the school, which puts me at 7 levels (the story calls for 9 or 10 if I can manage it). What's strange about the school level, with entities like students, desk, books, teacher, classroom, etc, is that there are just too many connections. I have 16 so far and that's being conservative. What that means is that the final result has quite a few arrows and a bit tangled looking. The best way would be to think of a alternative way of displaying the connections, but at this point I think my time is better spent just simplifying the level and moving on.

I have also been working on a new dolly-camera system for the cut scenes. Basically you specify a few way points and camera angles (which I can get Unity to display visually very nicely), and the script automatically creates the required bezier control points to move the camera through the way points smoothly. Works a lot better and more cinematic than the previous efforts.

Here are a few new drawings from the cut scenes:

             


I feel like the actual sketches are kind of OK-ish, but coloring is really quite difficult. I mean look at all the brown in that last image! Eeeek... I'm also avoiding all shading as I think that'll be a can of worms for me.

New post about my progress on the blog:
http://gamesforsoul.com/2012/04/its-that-time-of-the-month/

[Poya]

Update #2:

Amongst other things I've been working on the main menu for the game. There are quite a few things to consider, which I've written about in more detail in this blog post:
http://gamesforsoul.com/2012/05/more-menu-more-music/

Here are some screenshots:

Not very pretty, but it's a start.

I also recorded a couple of piano tracks for the story parts of the game. For me it's honestly a much more productive and natural process than making orchestral tracks using samples. This is mostly because I've played the piano for many years and it's much easier to get what I want out of it.

Here is the main theme:

http://soundcloud.com/gamesforsoul/connectorium-theme

[Poya]

Update #3:

In the past week I completed another draft of the story. It still needs work and time is not on my side. I'm definitely looking for places/people/resources to get constructive and practical feedback on the story to tighten it up, so if anyone has any ideas, I'd really appreciate it (keeping in mind this is a children's story).

I've also had a huge dilemma about the length of the game, and my time constraints. I really wanted to be at least feature complete by the end of May. As this time is quickly approaching I realize it is a difficult goal to achieve. The game was originally going to have at least 10 levels. Right now I have roughly 8 levels completed and I'm pretty much decided on keeping it at that. It's short to be sure, but I feel it's more important to finish in a reasonable time frame. The problem is that I can't just add levels later on, because the story and the levels are very much tied together and the ending of the story depends on the levels played. So it can't simply be an update to the game later on. I'm hoping if the game has any form following/user base, to release a level designer which would allow both parents and older children to easily create their own custom levels (not related to the story) and even share them. That seems to me like the most natural extension of the game.

I've also been working on a simple tutorial for the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmojnnJxWMo
http://gamesforsoul.com/2012/05/on-making-a-game-tutorial/

And finally some new drawings for the cut scenes. I've been experimenting with very simple shadows for the first time in InkScape. I like the results, especially the soft shadow on the tent...it definitely gives the images more depth. I'll need to go back and do it to some of the previous drawings too.

[Poya]

Update #4:

Time for another update. I have been working on this game full time for just under 3 months now, and this week for the first time I had trouble staying motivated. Nevertheless I managed to make some progress. I'm kind of at that point where I see the end, but I'm also experiencing how the last little bit can take a long time.

Here I wrote in more detail what has been happening and what I need to do next. In short I have been focusing on drawings for the cut scenes. I love games that have an involved story and as such this is the direction I've taken then game in, but in retrospect it has meant that I'm doing more drawing and less programming. This is something I definitely need to learn from for my next game: how can I tell more story with less art, so that I can focus more on the gameplay. I think it is partially also due to the fact that Connectorium is a children's game and I can't be too reliant on text.

I have also been thinking about my options with regards to voice-acting. Recording it myself is one option, and I definitely have access to equipment and people with interesting voices. What I don't have is experience, the right space, and most importantly time. So I have been thinking about places like voices.com. If I can get the whole story recorded by someone for under $200, I think it'll be worth it. It does mean that I have to have the story completely finalized before recording it, as re-recording is probably not an option.

Here is a new music track which is a simple variation of the main theme (also on my soundcloud page)

http://soundcloud.com/gamesforsoul/connectorium-theme-cheeky


As usual here are a few pieces of art and also a couple of screenshots (larger versions on my blog). The school level has a lot of connections (not all shown here). The white item is the "teacher" which I haven't got around to drawing yet.

[Poya]

Update #5:

It's been weeks since I updated here... and in that time I've been pretty busy. For the most part I have been finishing all the drawings that were needed for the cut-scenes. While I hadn't planned to, I ended up spending more time on the cut scenes than on the game itself, mostly because I can program fast, but drawing is slow. Nevertheless lots of improvements and tweaks have been made to the game too. I also improved my camera dolly system in Unity 3D, to allow more control over the way points, and the speed of the camera (as it turns out, moving at a constant speed along a bezier curve is a non-trivial problem).

Right now I'm putting the final pieces of the puzzle together before releasing a Beta. The main outstanding item is getting the story narrated. I found an excellent resource for this:

http://voiceactingalliance.com/

Even though many people on this forum are not professionals, you can still find some good talent.

So yeah, look out for the beta in the coming weeks. Kind of excited about the prospect of having a completed game on the App Store. Just as a way of sharing something, here is the more-or-less finalized track that is used during the levels:

http://soundcloud.com/gamesforsoul/connectorium-pat-knows

[DustyDrake]

Wow, I'm horrible at the demo!
 

[James Rossi]

Oh hey, I auditioned for you! I like that game song, nice and simple. Does it loop well? It sounds like it might be a bit of a jarring transition from the end back to the beginning.

[Poya]

DustyDrake: Wow that demo is pretty old. The farm level trips up any adult who has tried it. I even simplified it a bit by removing the "weed".

James: Hey! Small world (or internet). I bet there are at least a few people frequent both forums

About the music: it's not the best loop I admit, but it kind of works. The pause between the end and the beginning of the next loop fit the rhythm of the music (4 beats). There is actually more to this piece (I wrote it on the piano), but don't have the time to do all the instrumentation.

[Poya]

The game is finally in Beta phase!! Here is a trailer you can check out. I'm very much looking for beta testers (only testing iPad for the initial release). Extra bonus points if you know children that you can test it with.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvJpmEMKllM
Blog Post: http://gamesforsoul.com/2012/08/connectorium-beta-is-here
Beta Sign up: http://tflig.ht/GPJ2xL