I really like the idea of having the Easter island heads (I was imaging robots, but who cares at that resolution!) flash before they shoot. I had a really hard time trying to balance how often they would fire.

They always shoot in the cardinal direction most lined up with you, which can make them pretty deadly. I think if they flashed white a second before they shot it would help a lot. I also considered just having them shoot a random direction to keep them from being to cheap...and they are more likely to fire as you clear more rooms.

Thanks!

Dropbox Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rgpfc88hbwwlvid/Phobos-1.0.0.4.zip

My first game! I've worked on dozens and dozens of others peoples games, mostly on the publishing side. This is the first game I've ever made on my own. It's not much, but I'm really proud to have finished it.

Move with the WASD keys and fire with the arrow keys. You'll have to kill all enemies in the room before the doors open. See how long you can last! Difficulty scales up as you play.

Notes: I built this in the free version of GM:Studio so I was working within the limitations they provide. Hence the very small number of room types, etc. I'd love comments on the design, difficulty, fun-ness. Less interested in comments on the art because, well, clearly I'm not much of an artist. But hey, if you have something to say please say it.

This was a big learning experience for me and a lot of fun. I know it's far from perfect but I'm excited to carry what I learned into a next game as soon as I can. But first I'd love you feedback. Thanks!

This was fun I always like games that are tight and focused. Couple things:

-Given that the sword is essential and is always within one room of where you start, it might as well be in the room where you respawn. If there was an exploration aspect, or the need to avoid danger until you find the sword then maybe it would make sense to have it spawn randomly, but currently it just adds an extra layer. Put it in the starting room and you still get the Zelda moment of opening the chest with minimal distraction from playing the game.

-I wanted to be able to open the chest from either side.

-You ought to give the hearts and fairies the same collision rules as the player. It sucks when you need a heart piece and it's sitting in the water after spawning from a dead guy.

-I had to end task after winning the game to exit.

-Given the narrow scope of the game (which is totally fine given the limits of the contest) I think it's actually slightly long.

-The Satan battle is fun. Simple pattern but his health keeps it tense sense you have to run around quite a bit before you'll kill him. I nearly died getting stuck trying to move through the single tile walkways around the outside though.

I'm developing the concept for a project inspired by a game I played a long long time ago. I remember the game, but I can't remember the name and thus can't play it to refresh my memory. Can you help me track it down?

Here's what I remember:

You play on a board of hexes. Each turn you either place a hex of your color next to a hex you already control, or you can click an opponent's hex (if they are within one hex of you maybe?) causing that hex and any non-blank hexes adjacent to that one to change to your color.

Play continues until one player rules the whole board.

The boards had different layouts, including 'holes' where no one could play. I think the default color was purple for player 1.

Being such a simple game I'm sure there are probably a million versions or variants of this, but I need names. Help!

Many thanks

Holy hell these are incredible. They are like what I imagine Miyazaki would make if he made flash games (art style aside), particularly with the non-violent emphasis.

I especially loved the music from High Delivery.

Saw a pre-screen. Very entertaining. Didn't know anything about it going in, came away pleasantly surprised.

Bug: After I updated most recently, the game fails to start about 60% percent of the time. The splash page comes up, but after a while it bounces back to ipod home. Usually the second try works fine, but occasionally it takes three.

I've got an iPhone 3G.

This is my favorite iPhone game ever, so mostly I'm thankful it works at all, but it is pretty annoying. Anyone else seeing this?

Purchased! Think of me next time you put air in your tires or do something else that costs less than a dollar.

Also, 60 levels with more to come? Awesome. I'll pimp this game to every iPerson I know.

Awesome advice, thanks. The pay as you go deal is probably a good one for me, since I'm not doing this for traffic.

That being said though, I am willing to pay more for the sake of easy setup, if anyone has suggestions for that route as well.

Finding the fun in this game is an exercise in letting go of everything you've ever held dear about video games, the most important one being the idea that success = fun and death/failure = not fun.

As a single player game it is hard, interesting at times, frustrating at times. It can feel cheap. Personally I think it works pretty well for the most part.

As a multiplayer game its fucking awesome, if you don't intend to win. I've played through the first three worlds with my girlfriend and her two little sisters, none of whom are gamers of any sort. At first it pissed me off having to play with them, but somewhere in there I stopped worrying about it and started having a blast. The game is actually really well designed for compensating play. I can beat a really hard section that the girls just can't, and if they really don't want to deal with it they can bubble and waggle to me and we can continue.

In multiplayer, death can be a necessary part of the gameplay, like occasionally suiciding to get big coins or whatever. We also often accidentally kill each other, but we quickly learned that we had to let it go or we would kill each other in real life.

I haven't had this much fun playing video games with other people in a long time. Moreover, I've seen my girlfriend (who has never before expressed interest in playing a game) actually tell my to shut up so she can concentrate on trying to get past a hard part without my help. It's awesome. As far as I'm concerned, it beats the hell out of listening to 12 year olds use racial slurs and call each other fags on my 360.

Not a perfect game, but perfect for playing with a group (as long as no one takes it too seriously)

So I got laid off last Friday. Happy thanksgiving.

Now it's time for me to start a gaming blog. I already write editorials for kokugamer.com, and I have spent the last 1.5 years working on a kids MMORPG that, sadly, no longer requires my services. I've learned a lot in this job and I want to talk about it. I want to build a platform for myself as a writer and develop a web presence, both for my own sanity and for finding future employment.

Rather than just grab something on wordpress or whatever, I would prefer to buy a domain name and establish myself there, to use as a place for editorial writing, game dev blogs for my own work, and my other creative endeavors.

But I don't know what to do. There's sites where you can register domains, sites that host, sites that seem to do both. Then there's actually getting the blog up and running. It seems that you can run wordpress on your own site, but I can't figure out how to do that.

I know a bunch of you guys have your own domains, so I would love it if someone could point me towards totoreals, or provide an explanation of all this insanity. To be clear, I don't own a domain yet, that's part of the process I don't entirely understand. I feel like a complete idiot when it comes to getting content on the internet. I'm not even convinced I properly embedded that link earlier in the post.

Thanks for your help, and for you Americans, happy thanksgiving.

Also I now have 450+ useless business cards. I am considering building a large bird out of wire and using the cards as feathers, or modeling a vast but tiny city from business card buildings, but other suggestions are welcome. Perhaps I can post pictures of my creation on the blog?

Not the first to post this news I find. Mod can feel free to delete. Back to playing 

The playable alpha of everyone's favorite one man MMO is out:

http://news.quelsolaar.com/#home

To play, you have to provide a 3 euro donation (4.50 US), which appears to grant you 30 days of playtime.

The game is still very alpha, and Eskil himself notes you shouldn't donate unless you are willing to be disappointed. There doesn't appear to be any sound in the alpha, but most features appear to be working.

The game is as beautiful as ever, but confusing. I've managed to figure out how to build some stuff, shoot things, etc. It can be difficult to tell whats going on sometimes because the whole hand painted look can make things a bit muddy. Still, exploring the world is like dreaming awake, and the staircases to nowhere, lakes at the bottom of deep chasms, strange mountain formations etc are all hauntingly beautiful.

Thoughts?

Hey guys, let's get drunk together, or at least have lunch. If you are participating in an activity and TIGers are welcome, post it here.

My current activity is going to sleep, hoping tomorrow more people will be out on the town. Let me know what you guys will be up to tomorrow.

Also, if any TIGers are interested in engineering, world building, or art jobs, stop on by the Cartoon Network's FusionFall booth tomorrow or thursday, as we're looking for some contract people.

 

So work is paying for my pass (including summits, if I choose), and flights, but only two nights in the hotel. So if I go to the Tuesday and Wednesday summits, I'd leave Thursday evening.

I've heard Thursday night is a fun time, and that Thursday has a lot of fun socializing, networking, etc. Would it be worth it to pay out of pocket for a hotel room Thursday night for the extra time? I'd like to go to the summits, the indie in particular, but I also primarily do audio so that would be great too.

Is there anything I definitely shouldn't miss, should miss? It's my first time.

[EDIT] Spelling

If you shoot PACO you will die of loneliness in the deep abyss of space...

Glad to see so many people are interested. This project is not dead! I just got back from vacationing in the Virgin Islands, so obviously I haven't been working on this. My tan, however, is kickass.

I'll post a real update as soon as possible. Also, once I figure out the script I'll be sure to PM one of you guys for help with the translations.

Thanks!

Bought it. Read the first 30 or so. I really like how he says something like "Engineers no everything about one thing, but architects know something about everything"

Reminds me of game design. I've known very technical designers, but I've always preferred the more "creative" designers, people interested in art, poetry, music, science, etc.

Also, a very zen book. I like the brevity of each entry. Easier to digest, and each entry seems like a starting point for your own thoughts rather than a chapter that guides you through an idea from beginning to end.

Having no real exposure to architectural theory, I have a hard time spotting the ideas that might be more controversial, but I suppose it's best to think of the theories presented as ideas that may work in many different situations, rather than as rules.

Interesting stuff. I'm flying tomorrow, looking forward to having it on the plane.



 

Bells are most certainly forbidden.

Awesome zombie idea. Actually that was my first idea too, but I didn't think I could handle the scope.

I wanted to make an apocalypse simulator: players could choose alien invasion, zombie uprising, nukes, etc. Or combine disasters for a super bad day.

If you go the zombie route, it would be great to see players use everyday objects and found weapons for melee, like the blade from a paper cutter and hammers, scalpels, etc. I love L4D, but in the zombie uprising I really wouldn't know what to do with an assault rifle...

Always say yes for more roguelikes!

I love learning foreign languages, so this game sounds awesome.

I made an abortive attempt at making a roguelike that teaches you Simplified Chinese characters once: http://nil.cjb.net/liumang/

That screenshot hurts my eyes! Also, it says wang  :D

After Terrible Spanish Spaceship becomes a raging success, you can write the "Chinese Extension Package: Yearning for Learning"