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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsTough Coded: Online. You vs The Game Master. Now on Steam Greenlight!
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Author Topic: Tough Coded: Online. You vs The Game Master. Now on Steam Greenlight!  (Read 22297 times)
Little Nando
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« on: June 10, 2013, 04:49:12 PM »

Tough Coded: Live
by Little Nando




**LATEST NEWS**
The game is UP on Steam Greenlight!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=934043721

FINALLY Tough Coded: Online has been released. First SEASON is going on right now.
Next show coming Wednesday 8th March 2pm PST
Final is happening during SXSW Twitch Stage, at 4pm-ish PST, will be streamed on Twitch as well!

For those of you who want to play ONLINE the shows from the comfort of your home, add yourself to the BETA MAILING list at http://www.toughcoded.littlenando.com
There you'll get the builds to play via e-mail.

Also check the official website for Season 1, at http://www.toughcoded.littlenando.com/season-1

Here's a link to the latest show on VOD at beam.pro https://beam.pro/littlenando?vod=1120032
And a Youtube example of how shows run, here:




STAY TUNED FOR MORE!!!
 Gomez Gomez Gomez Gomez Gomez

----PAST NEWS

***NEW SHOW CONFIRMED DURING "TOKYO GAME SHOW" at SOWN, SENSE OF WONDER NIGHT***

18TH SEPTEMBER 2015


Check the streaming, live, here!
http://expo.nikkeibp.co.jp/tgs/2015/exhibition/english/exhibit/sense.html

PAST SHOWS:Nordic Game Jam 2015
http://nordicgamejam.org/2015/01/dont-let-the-jam-start-without-a-good-party-first/
Screenshake 2015
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/screenshake-2015-indie-game-festival

Selected for:
IndieCade Nights 2013
Presented alongside Chipzel
AMAZE 2014
Indievelopment 2014
Pocketgamer Party @ GDC 2014
8bitSF @ GDC 2014

SIGN UP TO BETA TEST THE GAME HERE



OFFICIAL WEBSITE
http://toughcoded.littlenando.com/



New Vimeo Teaser Trailer






New Vimeo Trailer HERE






Lots of Pics at Facebook, here
https://www.facebook.com/toughcoded

++ UPDATE ++

Live Performance of Tough Coded @ IndieCade 2013






New Official Facebook's and Twitters!!

http://www.facebook.com/toughcoded
http://www.twitter.com/toughcoded
http://www.littlenando.com

New Gameplay Video!


LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xvGDT9gDAs

New LIVE Gameplay Videos in La Plata's GameJam 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF5LDFVz97Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOPYH_3GtLM

HOW DOES IT WORK

Here’s a brief explanation of how Tough Coded: Live works. The game is set up in a party, alongside a DJ. And the game is executed, live, by another person. A GameJockey, or Videogame DJ, what have you. The Videogame DJ must wear a mask, a’la Daft Punk, and is the “Game Master”, he/she decides WHEN the bad bosses come in, controls the atmosphere, the speed (slow-mo effects), weapons, power ups, etc.etc. Two random gamers in a party hook up and play against each other in a head-to-head shmup competition that lasts roughly a song. Once the song finishes, the score appears and the controls are given to two new challengers, and so on.

Quick video showing live gameplay footage of how the live version works up on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHUUTY8lqiM


----
Original Post

New Gameplay Video!










Hey Tigsourcees!
I'm Little Nando, a movie director turned into game designer, developing a game called "Tough Coded".
What I'm aiming for is to develop a game that is a perfect crossing between classic old-school SHMUP games and RPG games from the golden NES era... Like, GUN NAC and Dragon Warrior. The one-liner: "An In-Your-Face SuperFamicom on Steroids Shmup Meets RPG Live Experience" Tongue



It will feature a Flash-Gordon/esque, Tron-esque, story of a guy sucked into an ATARI by mistake, and he then must save the world (our world) from inside it before being able to get out.

There will be two modes: a STORY mode, and a LIVE mode.

The "LIVE" version, which will be executed by a Game Master (or GameJockey, in this case, myself), in a two player hear-to-head competition mode, against to Dubstep or Chipstep music. This is a feature I'm very excited about because I used to be a VJ for some long years, for Creamfields, JunkieXL, Hernan Cattaneo, and the such, so I know my way around VJing stuff, and am really looking forward on executing the game on indie game design party thingies... Smiley

This is some of my VJ stuff: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL50DAD8C7A68EAD77
This a short film I made in the past, which I'm using as inspiration for the aesthethic (not the plot): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8Y4959T3Oc









And this is another short film I directed a few years back for Shots Magazine: http://vimeo.com/15057008

Not long ago I begun a Tumblr showing a little bit of the thinking behind the game, and I plan on updating every week, uploading art, gameplay videos and builds. More to come soon!! Smiley

My Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/NandoSarmiento
My rambling Tumblr: http://little-nando.tumblr.com


Smiley
« Last Edit: May 28, 2017, 06:41:27 PM by Little Nando » Logged

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« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2013, 07:20:38 PM »

Sounds like a cool project! I hope it goes well Smiley
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Little Nando
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« Reply #2 on: June 11, 2013, 05:10:41 AM »

Thanks Andy! That means a lot coming from you. Smiley I'm very excited. I hope you like all the updates as I move forward.  Wizard
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Little Nando
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« Reply #3 on: June 16, 2013, 07:44:07 AM »



Link to gameplay video:






Here's a very ugly, rough video of the first "showable" version of the game. As you can see, you play with the mouse in this version. I did this because I had originally visioned this game being developed for the iPad directly, but then I changed my mind as most shmups are very sucky to play on touch screens, mostly for the controls. Anywho, this was a very very quick version of the game concept I made in just 3 hours a sunday afternoon, to show myself that the concept of a SHMUP meets VJ SET could work. It was apivotal moment in the development of the game. I thought that making a shmup to DUBSTEP music would really rock. And I wanted to try this thing where sometimes, during the music, there´s SLOW-MO moments, where... everything, in a very "Matrix" sort of sense, goes superslow, to the beat of the music. Just because it was cool. I did this very quick prototype to show Tomas Garcia, a friend and partner in my company, that the game could be really cool to play. So I did this and sent it right away. He was psyched, and it gave me all the more energy to keep on developing! You can see a quick gameplay footage of this first prototype on the link above!! Smiley  Wizard
« Last Edit: June 16, 2013, 08:16:13 AM by Little Nando » Logged

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Little Nando
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« Reply #4 on: June 19, 2013, 12:18:13 PM »

For the game to really feel "RPGy", I had to really study lots of RPGs, from different systems. NES, SegaCD, SNES, etc.. For some reason I had never played RPGs when being a kid, so decided to start now. And, they really grew on me! I was an instant fanatic! I wanted the menus in-game to feel pretty much RPGy, so I took to myself to study all of the great RPGs... Final Fantasy, Ultima series, Dragon Warrior, Lunar... etc. These are some of the menus I used for inspiration.

The feeling of going through a typical NES RPG inventory is awesome, I wanted to really achieve that, so I really had to look on these designs carefully... to really get the essence. This is what I'm looking at now!


















« Last Edit: June 16, 2015, 04:15:53 PM by Little Nando » Logged

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« Reply #5 on: June 19, 2013, 04:16:18 PM »

sounds neat
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« Reply #6 on: June 19, 2013, 08:05:40 PM »

To crop it to indie-dev scale, you might wanna look into The Binding of Issac, Geometry Wars, and HydoraH (for shmup influence) as well as Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World (for JRPG influence); although the mix of shmup/RPG is a very hard one to craft, and is rarely successful. Not to say I wouldn't try!
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Little Nando
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« Reply #7 on: June 20, 2013, 05:14:15 AM »

To crop it to indie-dev scale, you might wanna look into The Binding of Issac, Geometry Wars, and HydoraH (for shmup influence) as well as Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World (for JRPG influence); although the mix of shmup/RPG is a very hard one to craft, and is rarely successful. Not to say I wouldn't try!

Cool! Thanks for the input! And yeah, I just just bought Breath of Death VII and Cthulu Saves the World, so am going to look into those now! I haven't checked HydoraH yet, I´ll look into that. Thanks!! Smiley Soon I'll post some tests of how it actually works, the mash-up of RPG and Shmup, that is... hope you like it!
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« Reply #8 on: June 25, 2013, 05:33:03 AM »

At this moment, I decided to stop a little bit with the actualy core gameplay mechanics, and started focusing a little bit on the writing and the art. Specifically... the font. The type. In-game. So I tried LOTS of fonts. Like... every pixel font out there I could find. And I was between these two, ArcadePixel, very typical, famicom kinda type... and the Willow game type (Willow from NES). Which is much more... medieval. This took DAYS for me to figure out, and in the end I chose the ArcadePixel one...

I worked on the art a lot, using only some placeholders from other games, of course. But not for the vanity/visual candy purpose of it. But instead, the information. I wanted to test out how the info would appear on screen, how much it should take from it, etc.etc. Also, I very quickly realized that Willow was a cool type, but it was hard to read very fast. And my game requires very fast reading (I don't want any long boring RPG texts, everything will be quite quick bursts of information, cool short phrases, and that's all), so the ArcadePixel font was better for that.

Also, the text is a bit stupid and quirky, not that serious. But sometimes the game DOES get serious, so I wanted to chose a font that would really work for both moments, serious and stupid ones. Here I tried mostly idiot/snappy phrases. I always loved the tone of Monkey Island and the wiseass comebacks of all characters in most Lucasarts games of the 80s, so I wanted to try a font that would suit that tone as well...

Anywho, I did lots and lots and lots of tryouts. Here they are!
My inspiration mostly for the RPG menus was Dragon Warrior I, for NES

Dragon Warrior Font:



Clash at Demonhead Font:



Ultima Font:



Willow Font:



Celtic Font:



Zig Font:



Zig Font (Bold):



Also, some idiotic pics of me playing Final Fantasy on NES.... smoking pipe Smiley





« Last Edit: June 16, 2015, 04:16:28 PM by Little Nando » Logged

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« Reply #9 on: June 25, 2013, 05:44:13 AM »

I suggest playing Guardian Legend on nes, because its game your game is based on.
Also, if its SuperFamicom, why there are nes, almost atari like graphics? Also, the fact its inspired by Super Famicom means you can buy it only in Japan or play it on emulator?
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« Reply #10 on: June 25, 2013, 01:11:21 PM »

Cool! Checking out Guardina Legend on NES. Just saw some vids on youtube, couldn't see the RPG element, I'm gonna play it later tonight though Smiley Thanks!
In terms of the graphics, right now the game looks very *atarish*, but eventually the pixel graphics will be more diverse. It'll feature a bunch of resolutions, all at once, like, Commodore, TurboGraphix, NES and SNES stuff, all jumbled together at the same time. Not sure how that´ll look, but that´s the idea for now Smiley
The game will be available to download on PC everywhere, without the use of an emulator, and possibly an iPad version I´m struggling with (controls on tablets for shmups generally suck, but there are a few intersting things around the corner though). Thanks for the input!!
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« Reply #11 on: July 01, 2013, 03:50:58 PM »

OK, new stuff. So, I continued to work on the menu gfx. These are a bit old and have an outdated font, (Willow), since I decided later to use the ArcadePixel font. Anyway, here they are!













In most RPGs you have a set of variables, like, HP, MP, XP, Level, etc. For my game, I was trying some other variables that I thought would be great to have. One is called Consciousness Factor, which multiplies your SP (Spirits), which would be the equivalent of your MP (Magic Powers). The SP (Spirits) can be both negative or positive, kind of like Black and White magic. But if you have positive Spirits, that means you don't have negative spirits. And the other way around. The SP (Spirits) is actually how you¥re feeling in the game, if you're moody, if you're drunk, if you're in love, if you hate everything that's around you, etc.etc. And the consciousness factor MULTIPLIES your SP.

Your consciousness factor could be altered by eating a mushroom, smoking marihuana, getting drunk or simply drinking too much coffee (just like in real life!!).  Durr...?

I thought it would be great to work on something like this, so I started drafting out how the menus could work, using the font Willow, from the game Willow in NES. I understood pretty quickly that there was A LOT information to be had at one same time up on screen, which sucked. So I invented this sort of menu windows that only open up when you need them. Like, prices for stuff, and descriptions, and stuff like that. Still, it was a lot of information, and for a shmup, all this felt too brainy so I had to sum up and simply some of it (still working on it).

Also, I was having a rough time trying to write prototype descriptions for the things. I tried various ways of setting the prices and costs for stuff before you use them, trying to add a narrative for it... For instance, instead of saying that a piece of ham adds +2 HP to your life, I tried stuff like "Nothing better than momma's cooking to add 2 hp to my good spirits", etc.etc. Again, I felt this was a good idea, but still, it was too brainy and it took too much of the screen and too long to read. I'm still struggling with this to see what would be best to do...

I know that HARDCORE RPG gamers wouldn't be minded at all for something like this. But shmup gamers would definitely hate this (too much data for an action game). So I really need to find a balance between both things.

Plus, the more complex I build this menus, the more time it would take for me to build stories, which is the whole point of me doing videogames... So I need to find an "easy way out" so I can really start working on the stories and not the menus! :S

I also played around with some Spell names... like, Georgecloonify and Healthy Torrent... Not sure what will those spells be, but am sure something quite trash and out of the ordinary  Hand Any Key

Hope u like!

-EDIT-
Also, I did a new post on my Tumblr! Here: Smiley
http://little-nando.tumblr.com/post/54342874151/tough-coded-if-your-gonna-do-something-do-it-right
« Last Edit: June 16, 2015, 04:17:15 PM by Little Nando » Logged

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« Reply #12 on: July 01, 2013, 07:49:37 PM »

fuckyeah
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« Reply #13 on: July 02, 2013, 03:25:38 AM »

thx! Tongue
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« Reply #14 on: July 08, 2013, 07:42:14 AM »

Two NEW gameplay vids!!

FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO:





FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO:



 Gomez

So, this is when, again, everything came together pretty nicely. I already had developed some shmup-dubstep levels that I liked. Those could be the ACTION levels, or the CHALLENGE levels. What I needed to prototype was a normal, RPG level, that feels a bit like a shmup. So this is what I came up with. The player is moving forward, like any normal shmup, and it slows down automatically when overlapping an element/action item, be that another character, a door, an object to pick up, etc.etc. I also threw away the idea of making an iOS version (for now), and decided to focus on a gamepad or keyboard version, just for PC for now. Why? Simply because I tried the mechanics on the iPad, and I connected a PS3 controller to my PC and... shit, the iOS version sucked. Very quickly realized this is NOT a game for a tablet. This SCREAMS for a gamepad. So, forgot about the iPad, and tatooed the gamepad on my neck.

I also tried a menu, very normal menu with some options, and some RPG data. Again, this was all very prototype-ish just to show myself that it could potentially work.

As for challenges and ACTION levels, what I thought was that it would be cool for bad invaders jump on you, and give you the change to "flee" and not challenge them, just like it happens in Clash of Heroes (a game I absolute --LOVE--). It´s great to give the player the option to jump into an action level or not. This happens in most RPG games as well as you move around in maps, giving you a chance to upgrade / level up, get more coins, etc.etc. for the rest of your adventure.

For the moment, when you open a menu, everything stops, like, pauses, freezes, in the background. I didn´t feel too happy about that. So I tried some other stuff later...



Check out the new gameplay videos!
Feedback appreciated!! Smiley
« Last Edit: June 16, 2015, 04:17:44 PM by Little Nando » Logged

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« Reply #15 on: July 13, 2013, 04:21:36 PM »

Okay, so, I've been working a bit on a teaser poster for the game! And in 3D! Here's some pics on the process Smiley)) hope you like. Happy saturday!!  Gomez











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« Reply #16 on: July 13, 2013, 05:46:26 PM »

Another Argentinean! Keep up the good work mate.
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« Reply #17 on: July 14, 2013, 09:51:17 AM »

Hey, Thanks!!
Gracias!!  Gomez
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« Reply #18 on: July 20, 2013, 09:04:24 AM »

Before moving forward with the Consciousness Factor, and SP negative and positive thingies, and XP, HP and your typical RPG thingies, I decided to code out something I called the "Spirits Calculator". Which basically sets out the whole mathematics behind the game, in terms of Leveling Up, XP, and mostly, SP use (Spirits). SP would be the equivalent to MP in most RPG games, the only thing is that SP wears out, and when you reach ZERO, it starts going negative. And when you reach X amount of negative SP, you're allowed to do some other sort of Dark Magic. Meaning, that when your spirits are high, positive, you can do GOOD positive white magic. And when your spirits are waaay down, when, for instance, something bad has happened to you (like losing a lot or possibly breaking up with your girlfriend), you're allowed to do BLACK magic, which is bad, negative stuff, since your SP (spirits) would be below zero.

But, in order to make sure this would really work (in terms of balance in game), I had to do this quick "Spirits Calculator" to see if whilst playing the game something like this was remotely possible/balanceable. If this goes out of balance, the whole game would be quite easy, difficult or, basically, stupid...

Here's some pics of the "Spirits Calculator" I coded to test these out!











The conclusion, in the end, was that this was useful, BUT, that I would have to "direct" the experience too much. Meaning, that I would have to suddenly, for story reasons, give the player lots of SP or remove lots of SP, so that the player can try and play with different sorts of magic and try all powers there would be. This seemed like a cool idea to me. So I'm thinking I'll be heading this route Smiley


« Last Edit: June 16, 2015, 04:18:49 PM by Little Nando » Logged

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« Reply #19 on: July 26, 2013, 05:02:23 PM »

Now, I wanted to bring all these RPG elements to the ACTION levels, or the CHALLENGE levels. Meaning, the inventory, some animated texts, etc. So this is what I tried. What I really liked here is that the game never stops... when you open the inventory menu, everything goes in SLOW MOTION... I liked that. But it had an issue, with the loops and the sincronization of the music (it wouldnt be cool to have the music keep going in the background and stuff happening behind, if you're focusing on your inventory and next moves). So this really sucked. So, before I came up with a solution for this, I decided to simply shut the music down when you open the menu. Which, of course, sucks big time. I came up with a solution for that thank God later, but it was a TON of work... first conceptually, then program-wise... So, here's the first try I did on simply shutting the music down when an inventory comes up (sucks a bit though).



Youtube Link


« Last Edit: June 16, 2015, 04:18:34 PM by Little Nando » Logged

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