TIGSource Forums

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Since this summer, my good friend Pierre-Luc Poirier (Technobeanie on Twitter) and I have been working on a game called Slimeful, which is going to be awesome - but this is not the game I'll be talking about today -  this is a spin-off we'll call Slimeful: Greedy Piggy Chase!

We decided to switch gears for about a month and contribute to the Mount Royal Game Society (http://mrgs.ca/) trimester game jam once again, this time with a simple multiplayer arena game. We're aiming for a fast paced, Pac Man-style party game that's all played on a large fantasy-themed map. Our buddy Ian Girard also joined the project, effectively doubling our programming army! Woot!

(http://static.squarespace.com/static/5005bb9c84ae929b37209ca1/t/508474dd84ae0236022b6a2f/1350857950907/TestGigaDungeon.jpg?format=750w)

Up to 4 players will roll their slime around the map collecting coins. To add these coins to your score, you need to cash them in by catching the flying piggy bank(s) that's just floating about the world.​ Combat will consist of a simple dash move and one or two power-ups. The cool risk and reward mechanic is that getting hit makes you lose all coins you've collected but not put in the bank!​

(http://static.squarespace.com/static/5005bb9c84ae929b37209ca1/t/508476d3e4b02e0cbd1e9e40/1350858452040/TestGigaDungeonB.jpg?format=750w)

​At first, the map looked pretty much exactly like a Pac-Man map. It felt wrong and lame, so I started drawing a different map...

(http://static.squarespace.com/static/5005bb9c84ae929b37209ca1/t/508477a884ae0236022b6daf/1350858666134/TestGigaDungeonB2.jpg?format=750w)

The second mock-up is where I started thinking this was a pretty good idea - we could make a world filled with classic RPG zones like a cemetary, a castle, a forest and so on. I played around with the idea of one-way jumps too, but we quickly dismissed those.

I sent that mock-up and the design sketches (first pic) to Pierre-Luc and Ian, and they jumped on board! We were then off to a fantastic game-making adventure.​

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We then thought the strict grid-based movement was not necessary, so we opened up the map a little bit to have more freedom of movement. This is the first draft for a more complete map, with slow terrain (purple), dangerous terrain (red), and intermittent dangerous terrain (marked with an A) like a dragon breathing fire or something. I also started placing spawn points for coin clusters and power-ups. We're hoping to force player movement by cycling through spawn points at random during the game and by having the piggy bank fly above collision boxes.

(http://static.squarespace.com/static/5005bb9c84ae929b37209ca1/t/50848ba7e4b0f4598aa99d24/1350863784027/UnitySnapshot.jpg?format=750w)

I left for the New York Comic Con for a few days and came back to a good prototype of the game, with many of the main features​ integrated - controller support, 4 character movement, dash move, coins, timer, player selection screen, flying piggy...​ These guys did some great work there! :)​

(http://static.squarespace.com/static/5005bb9c84ae929b37209ca1/t/5084806fe4b02e0cbd1eb21c/1350860912378/Map2.jpg?format=750w)

We realized the map was a little too dense, so I went and made a new one. I also added a bubble over each slime to show how many coins each slime has collected - that way players can hunt the richest!

(http://static.squarespace.com/static/5005bb9c84ae929b37209ca1/t/50848ac484ae0236022b9496/1350863557042/Map4b.jpg?format=750w)

And now we're here in the Neverpants studio, jamming our way through this game! I've started doing UI assets, I updated the map with even more breathing space and brought back the alternating damaging areas (orange).​ Ian and P-L have integrated a ton of new features - sword power-up, death and respawn, power-up spawn points, and so on. We got our first 4 player action on in a very early map while having pizza, and it's getting there! Yay!

We'll be posting more about Greedy Piggy Chase really soon as I develop the art for the map and start animating the slimes, coins and flying piggy! We're planning to finish this in about a month or two and release/play it in gaming events!

 :gentleman:

Sounds cool! You guys seem to go the right direction. I'm definitely following this :handthumbsupL: :)

I can tell you exactly what I'd do if I played this game; sit in front of one of the other player's cash-in spot and never move except to attack them when they get close to it.  Just make that one player's life suck.

Yeah, I'm a prick.

The cash-in spot (the piggy) is the same for every player, and it is always on the move! Plus it flies over obstacles so it's actually a lot of work to follow it all the time!   :)

We knew camping could potentially be an issue, so we try to force the players to move around the screen by having dynamic interactions with the world :D

Sounds like a really cool idea and I'm loving the mockups already! I hope it goes well.

This could be awesome, I love multiplayer games. Can't wait to see how it goes.

yesssssss
Also, I'm not sure about this, but what if the person who dashes LAST wins, instead of the person who goes first? Could lead to some interesting standoffs, though depending on speed it might just end up with the guy who initiates it always losing.
Or maybe winner is the guy who has the most coins and is therefore heavier- would add some reward to carrying a bunch of coins around, maybe. Or go for a midground between the two so you don't just have one unbeatable titan lumbering around.

Also goshdarnit dom I love literally everything you do you are pretty much my idol

This looks really interesting, and your dev sketches look really cool. I look forward to this :)

Looks amazing. I love your sketches as always.

But how do the piggies fly? Are they balloons? Do they have wings? Are the coins made of liquid helium that then makes them float? My brain burns with questions.

I'm loving this!  I'm always a big sucker towards these pac-man / bomberman type games.  Any plans for network play?

Sounds cool, yeah. Bomberman / Pac-man gameplay could always be expanded on. I trust the style will end up being great, as well!

This looks hilariously fun. Could be awesome.

Make it awesome. :noir:

Thanks everybody for all your good comments on our game! You guys are awesome!

I can only say right now that some of your questions will be answered really soon (as some of them are already in the game design).

Yeah! :handmetalL:

Couple of sketches around this game!

(http://static.squarespace.com/static/5005bb9c84ae929b37209ca1/5084925fe4b02e0cbd1ed79d/50849260e4b066390d158d4d/1350865504398/Sketch1.jpg?format=750w)

(http://static.squarespace.com/static/5005bb9c84ae929b37209ca1/5084925fe4b02e0cbd1ed79d/5084925fe4b02e0cbd1ed79e/1350865503564/Sketch2.jpg?format=750w)

(http://static.squarespace.com/static/5005bb9c84ae929b37209ca1/5084925fe4b02e0cbd1ed79d/5084925fe4b0f4598aa9acac/1350865503709/Sketch3.jpg?format=750w)

(http://static.squarespace.com/static/5005bb9c84ae929b37209ca1/5084925fe4b02e0cbd1ed79d/5084925fe4b0f4598aa9acad/1350865503797/Sketch4.jpg?format=750w)

Have a good day gents, ladies and slimes!

Your sketches and design docs looks better than the actual game. *You* are doing it wrong.

I hope the in-game graphics look as good as the development drawings!

BTW: Slimes aren't that cute, why not try something more like an animal? :)

I hope so too. Stuff shown here is all placeholder.


We're doing slimes because our next game, Slimeful, is all about slimes!

(http://static.squarespace.com/static/5005bb9c84ae929b37209ca1/t/50875cd3e4b00c0d4e13227e/1351048404649/Screentest.jpg?format=750w)

Work in progress for the map art. Still a lot of work to do  :epileptic:

Wow, that looks pretty damn good already.

I like the "cave drawing" on the rock, and the flowers around the statue. They're nice little details that are usually absent.

Beauiotful!

Thanks guys!

Fun fact #135: The drawing on the rock is from our studio's logo!
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Are you planning to add any mobility power-ups (speed-up, etc)?

Good question.

Carrying lots of coins slows you down a bit, so banking coins in the pig will technically speed you up, giving you another reason to chase the pig down often. It's not exactly what you meant, but it shows how speed is a very important factor in the game.

We're also playing around with how the sword and staff power-ups work - they will probably add a bit of speed to the character's movement. I'm thinking we should have only 1 or 2 power-ups tops, to keep it easy to understand.

Really diggin' those sketches!  :-*

Any advice how to do artwork in this style? :p

Looking great. 

Is there going to be a reward for returning lots of coins at once, a high risk high reward thing?

(http://static.squarespace.com/static/5005bb9c84ae929b37209ca1/t/50900f2ae4b047ba54de2959/1351618348947/Slimes.jpg?format=750w)

Work in progress menus:

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Player activation screen:

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Hah, that looks really cool. Do the hats do anything? Or do they just differentiate the slimes? Can you pick your own, or does each slime have its own hat?

Dom! It's been so long since I've seen your work!

We used to be friends on LiveJournal. (I was ninja__attack.)

Your stuff looks amazing! Keep it up!

Hats depend on the number of players and which player you are. You can't choose them yet, maybe someday if the game catches on!


Hey thanks! The LJ days are so far in the past now, you guys were a great motivation and support! :)

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We're almost there! We'll be presenting the game at the Mount Royal Game Society on Wednesday, then we'll take our time to polish the game for a while!

Took quite a long time for me to produce the background art for the game - I really wanted it to be detailed and colorful - but it was worth it. I'll probably tweak it and add some details in the coming weeks, when I have a bit more time.

(http://static.squarespace.com/static/5005bb9c84ae929b37209ca1/t/5098b0f0e4b0f629c2af0c5a/1352184051570/Details.jpg?format=750w)

I took some time to do some animation too - slimes exploding! It's sort of a placeholder, ince I don't have time to do proper animation... But it's still kinda funny!

(http://static.squarespace.com/static/5005bb9c84ae929b37209ca1/t/5098b1fae4b07a4c81afee33/1352184315108/SlimeDeathAnimGreen.gif?format=300w)

We tested the game a bit, but only amongst our team (and with my girlfriend!), so I'm expecting some issues will pop up when fellow devs test the game out on Wednesday. We'll do a round of tweaks and patching up in the next couple weeks, then we'll be ready to show it again at some other event!

I'm jealous of those devs. This seems like a good game to sit down with my girlfriend and/or family and have some insane fun playing.

Any chance of a release date or public testing coming soon? :P

We're taking our time on this one - we'll present the game in any event that shows interest, we'll put it in Montreal's Arcade Royale cabinet and we'll gather as much hands-on feedback as we can. We'll fix and tweak it for a while, then we'll start thinking about how we should release Greedy Piggy Chase to the public. We also need to fix and test controller support and various screen resolutions before releasing it.

One last big crunch time today, hopefully I can add a couple animations and polish a couple assets!

Random idea : Let the player choose to be a monster who doesn't collect coins, but instead exists soley to get in the other player's way and can drop traps, shoot fireballs etc.  Possibly give the player the option to do this after being defeated by another player.

Lookin' good. Maybe add some particle effects- purple stuff bubbling, water running with fish jumping, etcetera. Also, the purple stuff looks a little out of place in the center town- maybe replace it with spikes?

I like this idea. Sounds like the Zombie mode in the Bomberman games where you would ride around in a cart on the edge of the map chucking bombs at the remaining players.

EDIT: By the way, the game's looking great, and I love the style and colors. The red roofs seem a little off to me, though - maybe they're too bright with not enough contrast. Otherwise, it's great.

Oh my god, I loved doing that. It was too funny sometimes.

I'll put in another vote for the idea.

Just wanted to say that it's super awesome seeing the work you put in to help all the games get a little extra exposure on top of putting in the time to work on your own games.  :gentleman:

Love the illustration-y style! The death animation could be pushed a bit, but you've already made note of that. 'Til then, I'll just feast my eyes on all the delicious colours!

Thanks guys! Thanks for the suggestions - right now we're resolving bugs and integrating animations, so we won't do any major change today! We'll think about them for the future of this game!

We're crunching hardcore tonight, hoping the game will be playable and bug-free tomorrow at the Mount Royal Game Society!

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The game's pretty much done! We showed the game on Wednesday and it's a success! We've had a bunch of players try it out, shouting at the screen and waving those controllers around, so I believe people were enjoying it a whole lot!  We're working on making this game part of the arcade cabinet at the Prince of Arcade in Montreal next tuesday, which is the next big step for Greedy Piggy Chase! We feel this game is perfectly suited for arcade cabinets and big screen gaming in indie game events!

 :beer:

Here's another scene!

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The purple and the red are eye-burning. I'd consider toning them down a bit ;)

I agree on the colors..

Also, I love this idea, there needs to be more games like this!
This game also makes me more confident in the game my team and I are working on which is sorta in the same genre, we're aiming to make a really fun 4 player couch-multiplayer mode :)

Have you thought about releasing this on OUYA? It would be an instant buy for me.

Looks pretty good.

On what platforms are you planning to publish the game? Would be nice to see the game for PC :D

Yes, with AI computer players.  Don't know if you have that at the moment, but it seems like you're rushing to get it complete, so I'd guess not.

Looks amazing :) Woooow I adore that art style alot  :-*
You have to finish it soon so we can play it :D

And plz tell me that there gonna be AI controlled player so I can play it for longer time :D

This looks stunning! Love the latest artwork.

Holy crap, this looks lovely! But yeah, a little less purple and desaturate the red a tiny bit would help make it look even better imo.

Thanks guys. We're working on some quickfixes for the Arcade Royale launch on November 13th, at the Prince of Arcade (http://mrgs.ca/2012/11/prince-of-arcade-2/) party, and we're planning a couple of larger fixes for the days or weeks after that. We played the game a bit today on the awesome 4-player arcade cabinet we're building here in Montreal (our own Winnitron, basically), and it was freaking awesome. It looked like this:

  :handjoystick:  :crazy: :handanykey:  :handjoystick: :crazy: :handanykey:  :handjoystick: :crazy: :handanykey: :handjoystick: :crazy: :handanykey:

Also, thanks for the heads up, I'll tone down the reds and purples for sure!

Games like this really benefit from random events.
Like a dangerous monster appearing or a treasure chest appearing.
Stuff that changes the rules of play and mix things up, like when you eat a powerpill in pacman you go from hunted to being the hunter. With 4 players that kind of stuff is hilarious :)

(https://static.squarespace.com/static/5005bb9c84ae929b37209ca1/t/50a29331e4b0fb028bff28c7/1352831793068/EventPoster.jpg?format=750w)

If you're in Montreal,
come to the Prince of Arcade (https://www.facebook.com/events/413416385392229/)
and try out Greedy Piggy Chase!

Thanks a whole bunch to everyone who showed up and all the awesome dudes and dudettes who tried out Greedy Piggy Chase! It was amazing!

 :gentleman:

I wish I was living near Montreal :( To try the game :(

I really really LOVE the art and ideas behind this project :)
love slimes too!

Have you thought about bringing this to OUYA?

The art style is certainly very polished and cute. I hope the gameplay matches it!

Any news at all? Haven't heard anything in 2 months. Still looking forward to playing it! :handjoystick:

The news are as follows! We're planning on expanding the game before releasing it - the multiplayer mode we have is solid, super fun, but releasing a local multiplayer-only game on PC just felt off. Who will really be able to play this game with friends on a PC, with 4 controllers? Not a lot of people. So we thought we'd create a single player mode to go with it, a sort of arcade, pac-man or super crate box type of thing with the same gameplay as the party mode. The design is settled, we knew what we were going to do, and then... I lost my job! So I can't spend too much time on Greedy Piggy Chase at the moment - I gotta focus on things that'll bring me some money to pay my rent!  :droop:

What are you coding it in?  Sorry if this was answered, couldn't find it in the thread.

I'm sorry to hear you lost the job :(
Btw the game looks very good, I want to suggest to consider also an Online Multiplayer mode which can make the game more appealing, nowadays people are used to play through the Web (or at least in LAN using services like Tunngle) even if they live in the same room :D