I message the http://boardgamedesignlab.com/ and it went out in his weekly email.

96 joined so far!

Over 100 now! Thanks for getting in touch with the above. I'm looking forward to seeing what people produce for this.

OP, have you posted to https://boardgamegeek.com and http://www.bgdf.com/ ?

No I haven't posted there, but I don't have accounts with those sites. If you have an account there feel free to spread the word!

Thanks! I fixed the link.

I did not specify the paper size as I think some countries have different standard paper sizes? For example, we use A4 here in the UK, but not sure if that's the case for the US.

[CLICK THIS LINK TO GO TO THE JAM PAGE ON ITCH.IO FOR SIGN UP & MORE INFO]

CLICK  THIS LINK TO GO TO THE JAM PAGE ON ITCH.IO FOR SIGN UP & MORE INFO

ABOUT

Create a printable game using one 1 sheet of paper. No coding experience required! Just grab a sheet of paper and get designing. Use Twitter Hashtag #PaperJam2017

You can follow me @Stuart_Lilford on Twitter to be updated about any rule changes or news related to this jam.

RULES

- Use only ONE sheet of paper, but BOTH sides CAN be used - so that if you print the game on both sides of paper it only uses one sheet (The reverse side of the paper could be used for the instructions for your game, but this isn't a requirement).

- The game can be single player or it can be multiplayer. Note: for multiplayer games, you are allowed for the game to require multiple copies of the same print for each player, just as long as there is no difference between the prints. Only ONE sheet of paper can be used. You can also have multiple players using one print.

- You are allowed to require players to do anything with the paper (fold it, tear it, write on it, anything) as long as it still only uses one sheet of paper.

- You can use any materials or software you like to produce your prints, PhotoShop, pencils, markers, paints, MS Paint, Microsoft Office, anything you like!

FAQ

Q: Are teams allowed?

A: Yes

Q: Can I participate with more than one game?

A: Yes

Q: Can you require your players to use dice or coin toss?

A: Yes

Q: Can I make a printable table-top RPG?

A: Yes. Any story/narrative/role playing games are fine.

Q: I don't understand something/My question isn't featured here.

A: Post something on the Jam Community Forum or get in touch with me on Twitter(@Stuart_Lilford)

Just submitted this for the indie showcase at Develop: Brighton. Kind of feel like my chances are slim with all the awesome indie games currently in development, but worth a shot right?

If you haven't already, I encourage you to submit your game. Submissions are open to all indie developers on all platforms (including VR).

Submit here: http://www.developconference.com/indie-showcase-competition

I've just redone the presskit page for Splodey Vaders and have used some of the data from that to update the first post for this devlog. Please check it out and offer me some feedback!

I also took the time to install presskit() to my site and have one for Scared Square Games:
http://www.scaredsquare.com/press/index.php

and one for Spldoey Vaders:
http://www.scaredsquare.com/press/sheet.php?p=splodey_vaders

again, any feedback on these would be greatly appreciated.

Next things for me to do:

• Look into localising the game
• Create a bunch of GIFS for promo purposes
• Think about making a trailer for the game
• Establish a release date

As always, you can see my current tasks over on the public Splodey Vaders Trello: https://trello.com/b/jTalmHfR/splodey-vaders

Thanks

Game news site wordsaboutgames.net covered Splodey Vaders in their recent Podcast:





They also wrote some kind words on a round up from Play Expo on their site:

"Splodey Vaders is a classic shoot ’em up with a twist. From what started as a riff on Space Invaders, developer Stuart Lilford threw in a smattering of Asteroids and shook things up. It’s got some great aesthetics, with a real Game Boy vibe."

- https://wordsaboutgames.net/2017/04/19/play-expo-leeds-round-up/

[Splodey Vaders Update #06: Play Expo]

Splodey Vaders Update #06: Play Expo
I've not posted an update in a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy! Check out below for what I've been up to.

 

LEVELLING UP & UNLOCKS – This is something I wanted from the start and had pretty much decided to drop, but then, against my better judgement, I went and implemented it into the game. At its core, the game is a high score chaser. You have a game, get a score, and then try to beat it on your next go. But I wanted the game to be more than that. I wanted a reason for people to keep coming back to the game other than just to beat their high score. I’ve been playing a lot of Downwell recently and that game has a levelling up system which is tied to unlocks that I really liked and so I’ve decided to add a similar system. The unlocks are purely aesthetic (you can unlock new colour palettes for the game – which was a pain in the arse to implement, or you can unlock new ship designs – less of a pain in the arse). You level up as you earn XP which is tied to the score you achieve, the higher the score the more XP you gain. People who have played the game with the new system seem to really like it and although the unlocks are purely visual, players seem to enjoy choosing and changing these to their favourite ones.

I actually got in touch with the developer of Downwell to ask if I could include Downwell’s colour palette in the game! He said yes :D what a cool guy.

ACHIEVEMENTS & LEADERBOARDS– One requested feature was to include a leaderboard, so that you could see what kind of high scores people were getting. I added this along with achievements into the game. There are currently 5 achievements in the game (5 is the minimum amount of achievements required by Google), these are:

• Achieve a Score of 500
• Achieve a Score of 1000
• Achieve a Score of 1500
• Achieve a Score of 2000
• Kill a total of 10,000 Vaders

As you can see I was feeling particularly creative on the day I added achievements into the game. That last one exists because Google offer an option to have incremental achievements which increase by a percentage every time you perform an action in the game. The maximum number you can have for this though is 10,000 which is why I went for this number. Achievements and Leaderboards are functional on both Android and iOS

iOS BUILD – Oh yeah! I coughed up the £70 required by Apple in order to have the privilege of developing for the platform (Google charge around £12) and spent a nightmarish evening trying to get the game working on my iPhone 5. Here are some of the things I needed to do in order to make this happen:

• Register as a developer
• Add my iPhone as a test device
• Create and upload a certificate request to be a developer
• Create and upload a certificate request for distribution
• Download and verify developer certificate
• Download and verify distribution certificate
• Upgrade to the latest version of macOS
• Download Xcode
• Download Application Loader
• Own a Mac
• Have files shared between Mac and PC using Game Maker

There were probably a bunch of other things I needed to do, but yeah it was a tiresome process and a version of the game is working on iOS. Yipee!

PAUSE MENU

Another often requested feature is the ability to pause the game. If you tap the top half of the screen the game will pause and you can press play to start the game back up again.

Play Expo Leeds

I showed Splodey Vaders at an actual gaming event like a proper developer and everything! The event was great. Tons of people played the game and I got some really great feedback. I remember reading a quote which said something like if you want people to treat you like a big shot developer, then act like a big shot developer, so that's what I did. I took the game on a big screen TV (which I borrowed from the college I teach at), I had a huge poster printed out (also done at college), I had a bunch of freebies made up (some cool badges and stickers) and held a high score tournament where the highest score won a copy of Halo: The Graphic Novel, which I bought years ago and never read. The winning score was 2090, a great score. Loads of people said they liked the game and one little girl kept coming back to try and get onto the leaderboard (she managed it early in the day, but was soon knocked off, bless her) her Dad downloaded the game on Android there and then, so hopefully she's still enjoying the game at home. Here are some choice snaps from the event:

The ‘I Suck At Games Podcast’

I think I’ve decided to knock this on the head. It was a good little distraction while it lasted and I love the idea of doing a podcast, but one of things I enjoy about the podcasts I listen to is the back and forth between presenters and although I’ve enjoyed some podcasts that have a single host, I think I would prefer to record one with someone else. I also think that people would rather hear me talking about game development and what I’ making rather than my thoughts on games that I’ve played. Thirdly, I don’t get a lot of free time to play games these days as I’m choosing to spend my time making them instead. So there’s a bunch of reasons why I’ve stopped this, but as I said it was fun while it lasted. I’ll leave the episodes up on soundcloud in case anyone wants to have a listen. Here's Episode 2 about my experiences with VR:

https://soundcloud.com/user-824468362/tracks

What’s next?

The thing is, I could keep updating Splodey Vaders forever. There is still so much I want to do with the game. Power ups, mainly, but also multiple enemy types, different wave formations, animated sprites, etc. Plus the list of little tweaks and fixes here and there seems endless. I've decided to heed the advice from some fellow developers and just release the game. The people that have downloaded the Alpha and played it like it, the folks at Play Expo said some really nice things about it and I feel that it's ready to just get out there. As soon as the iOS version gets approved by Apple I'll be setting a final release date and then pushing for marketing/reviews/let's plays. I will most likely continue to update the game after release with some of the things mentioned above, but the game is done and needs to be out. I've been working on it for too long and it's time for a change. Hopefully the next blog post you see will be one with a final release date for the game. WATCH THIS SPACE!

[PLAY SUPER DIARRHOEA BABY]

There comes a point in the development of (some) games, where it stops being fun. You get bored of working on the same game over and over again and your brain is subconsciously looking for something to tear you away from working on this project anymore.

You want to just work on the game and get it finished, but your brain is sat in the office in your head eagerly sketching ideas down for a new game. Your brain spends a lot of energy on this and puts together a very convincing PowerPoint presentation of a series of game pitches along with bullet points on “Why you should ditch your current project and work on this game idea instead”. Your brain is very good at this pitching process.

Splodey Vaders recently reached this point in its development. I went to the Trello page for the game and created a new column which I labelled “Not Gonna Happen ” and in it I began to transfer all of the things that weren’t absolutely vital to the game being finished. This included addition enemy types, power ups, unlockables. The only thing left in the MUST column is making sure that ads are showing up for all users, making sure the player can pay to unlock ads and to improve the Android store page (the game now has an android store age by the way). The aim was to get the game finished as soon as possible.

Then one night my baby daughter did a poop in the bath. The next couple of days afterwards I finally gave in to my brain and worked on something new. This became Super Diarrhoea Baby, which you can play in browser. SDB is a little one click collect against the time limit game. It was fun to make and has shut my annoying brain up for the time being. Now I can focus properly on Splodey Vaders and get the game DONE!

PLAY SUPER DIARRHOEA BABY

What's happened since the last update?


Reading through the last blog update under the ‘What’s next?’ heading is a very sobering experience for me.

• Produce new art assets – this didn’t happen and probably isn’t going to happen.
• Adding longevity by including unlocks – this hasn’t happened either, but still might happen.
  
• The current focus is on the PC version – Nope! Mobile version is now the priority

But it’s not all bad! I made a store page on Google for the Android version of Splodey Vaders and released a build of it there (currently in Alpha), so you can play the game right now if you want to. The build is pretty stable and I’ve had some great responses from people playing the game. Most things work like they should including IAPs which I’ve even sold a couple of! The game has some new music by an ex-student of mine Joshua Mbewe (@laxcitymusic) which sounds awesome, I fixed a bug where the player would disappear from the screen occasionally. Advertisements are functional and I finally decided on what to do when the player lets a Vader go past them on the screen (this alone probably deserves its own blog post which I may do sometime in the future). All in all the game is coming along okay and there are a couple of exciting things on the horizon for 2017. Here's a video of the game's main music track by Josh.

What is next for Splodey Vaders?

There’s a few minor bugs to fix that were found during testing and I need to fine-tune a couple of graphical elements, then the game will be pretty much done! I have a few stretch goals which include the following:

• Animated Enemy Sprites
• Google Play – Achievements/Leaderboards functionality
• Unlocks for added longevity (this one is pushing it)
• Transitions

As always you can check the Splodey Vaders trello page to see what’s currently going on and how the project has evolved from the start. I also need to update the Play Store page with better game images and video.

Hoping the get the game to a release version early 2017. It will be coming to Android and possibly the Apple App Store. After that I’ll be looking to port Super Diarrhoea Baby to Android and iOS too! And don’t be a stranger, say Hi, download the Alpha build and let me know what you think! I’m @Stuart_Lilford on Twitter.

[MORE NEWS FROM GAMAYO]

Wow! Was it really APRIL when I last posted about this game? Well I will blame that on the fact that I am a full-time lecturer at a college and it was the back end of the academic year, which is the busiest time for us due to marking and visits from external moderators and such, but you don't want to know about that, you want to know about the GAME! Work on the game is slow as I've also been on holiday and it's difficult to juggle work, home-life (which includes a wife and 10 month old baby daughter) with games development, plus there's games to play, TV shows to watch and books to read, there just isn't enough time in the day. Here's what's been happening since the last post:

MORE NEWS FROM GAMAYO

Although GaMaYo was a while ago now, there have been a few things posted online since my last update. You may recall I mentioned I was interviewed and that interview is now available online for your viewing pleasure (if you're into that sort of thing). You'll be able to see how much of a dork I look and sound like. But seriously, there's some gameplay footage as well as some info about the game revealed in the interview, so take a look.





There were also a bunch of photos released from the evening. You can see them all here (scroll down on the page), but I've selected a few choice ones below:

I hadn't built high score saving into the game yet and wanted a way to retain the score if I had to close the game down for any reason. My genius solution was to just write the top scores down on a white board with Twitter handles next to it.

I was quite proud of the crowd that the game was attracting. All the people at the front of this photo (and a few behind) were all watching/queuing to play Splodey Vaders. I felt a little rushed off my feet at times, which is a good thing.

Here is an action shot of someone sat enjoying the game with me stood in the background like a goofball holding the Android version. I'm not sure why, but I appear to be watching the screen intently.

WHAT'S HAPPENED TO THE GAME SINCE THE LAST BLOG UPDATE?

Quite a lot actually. You can keep up-to-date with all the main changes on the games Trello page, but here's the low down on the main additions.

Integration with Game Jolt High Scores - Game Jolt users will be able to sign into Game Jolt within Splodey Vaders and post their high scores to leaderboards. This was a little tricky to get working right and I'm still not 100% happy with it, but it works for now. This will hopefully pave he way for the inclusion of achievements/trophies in the future.

Lots of BORING front end stuff - Splodey Vaders now has a menu rather than jumping straight into the game. There's all the amenities such as stats, settings, credits, etc. Really exciting stuff.

The game will save your high score - Not only that, but it will also save your stats too. There's also a menu option to delete all saved data on the game, so you can start a fresh.

WHAT'S NEXT?

There a few more menu and score tweaks to be made, but after that I'll be looking to produce some new sprites and artwork for the game. The current Metroid and Galaga rip offs were only ever meant to be placeholder, but I just haven't got around to updating them yet.

I want to game to be a little more than an arcade shooter with no overarching goal other than 'Achieve High Score', so I'll be looking into adding longevity by including unlocks such as new ship designs, special power ups and enemy types. This will work something like how in Super Crate Box, when you unlock character designs and new weapons.

I've also been thinking about the release of the game. The current focus is to complete the PC version first and release this on online stores like itch.io and GameJolt. Although I originally intended this game to be free, I feel as though with the additional features I'm looking to add, I'm going to charge a small fee. Current thoughts are that the game will cost around $2.00. It would be good to hear what people think about this. I've wanted to release a comercial game for a long time now and I feel that Splodey Vaders could be a game worth paying money for (even if it is super cheap).

Please tweet or email me if you have any questions about the game and also follow me on there as it's where I post the most updates on the game.

[What’s Next?]

I showed  Splodey Vaders off at GaMaYo last week. GaMaYo stands for Game Makers Yorkshire and is a networking event held twice a year where game developers from across the region and beyond get together, have a few pints and play each other’s games. I've been to GaMaYo a few times and have even shown some games there, but never on one of the big screens like I did at this one. It was a great experience and I recommend anyone to give it a try if you've got a game people can play. At one point there was even a kind of queue for Splodey Vaders, which was awesome. A big thank you to everyone who came and played.

I got some great feedback for Splodey Vaders from a bunch of people. Most of the comments where positive with some people seemingly becoming addicted, which was great. These people from Clubit TV came round and did a quick interview with me about the game, though I haven't seen any of it surface online yet. I was showing the PC version on the big screen, while walking around shoving my NVIDIA Sheild into peoples faces to play the Android version.

What’s Next?

I want to get the game uploaded to Game Jolt, ideally in a state which integrates with Game Jolts high score system, so that users can compete to become top of the leader board. I also need to get the game to save your score after you shut it down rather than resetting every time. After that, I want to update the sprites for the player and the Vaders (the current sprites are placeholder) and make them animated. There’s all kinds of additional features planned, but as usually, you can check what’s planned on the game’s Trello: https://trello.com/b/jTalmHfR/splodey-vaders

[Score Multiplier]

As I mentioned in the original post about Splodey Vaders, I’m planning on showing it at an event targeted at local game developers. I’ve never done anything like this before, other than Adventure X back in 2011. I plan on writing a post detailing how the event went, but before then I wanted to write an update on the progress of the game and outline some key features:

Score Multiplier

In Splodey Vaders when you shoot a Vader, they Splode. When they Splode, chunks of Vader go flying around the screen. If a Vader chunk hits another Vader, they Splode. This mechanic allows the player to create chain reactions where there are explosions happening all over the screen and multiple enemies are being killed. In the early stages of development, you would receive 10 points if you hit a Vader. If the chunks from that Vader hit another Vader, then you would get a score multiplier. This would times whatever the current score multiplier was by 10, in this case, giving you an extra 100 points. If the chunks from *that* Vader hit *another* Vader, then it would times the score multiplier by 10 again, giving the player 1000 points. This could get out of hand very quickly with some players getting scores of 10,000,000+. I decided to add a cap to this and reduce the amount your score can multiply by. If you shoot a Vader you still get 10 points, but if the chunks from that Vader hit another Vader then you get a multiplier of X2, giving you 20 points. You can then get X5 and X10 score multipliers by causing chain reactions with Vader chunks (you also get a nice pop up and sound effect telling you you’ve done so). All subsequent Vaders hit would be capped at X10 meaning that the maximum points you can get from any one Vader Sploding is 100. The score multipliers and chain reaction of explosions is a core part of the game. I also made the score pulse whenever you add to your score as an added visual que that you are earning points.

Trails

Sort of related to the score multipliers is the trail effects added to the Vader chunks. These can be different colours and the different colours correspond to whichever multiplier you have achieved. Initial chunks have a blue trail and if they hit any Vaders, the player will receive X2 score multiplier. The chunks from that Vader will have a red trail and the player will receive X5 score multiplier. The chunks from that Vader will have a white trail and the player will gain X10 score multiplier. The pop up text you receive for X2, X5 and X10 are also colour coordinated to match with the trail colours.

Controller Support

I’ve never added controller support to a game before, but it was incredibly easy to do in Game Maker. I decided to make it so that you can use D-Pad, either Analogue stick, shoulder buttons, trigger buttons or face buttons for movement to allow the player freedom of choice.

Penalties

In the game, Vaders can go past the bottom of the screen and it’s not game over. It’s only game over if you get hit by a Vader or a chunk from a Vader. However, I wanted to add some form of penalty to the player for letting a Vader get past. My initial idea was to have the Vader respawn at the top of the screen, but slightly faster and moving towards the player’s location like a homing missile. This idea came from Super Crate Box, where enemies will respawn at the top of the screen faster than before. This doesn’t penalise you in terms of your score for letting enemies past, but if you DON’T shoot them, the game will become harder. I also toyed around with the idea of having Vaders explode when they reach the bottom of the screen, but this proved too difficult to avoid the chunks firing out of the Vader. At the moment, nothing happens when the Vaders go past the bottom of the screen, the only penalty is the loss of potential points you could have got had you shot the Vader, but I may change this later on.

Difficulty

A lot of players seemed to find the game too hard to begin with. To combat this, I’ve made the base speed of the Vaders slower, made less Vader chunks fly out when they explode and reduced the maximum speed that a Vader chunk can have making it easier to avoid them. After showing the game to groups familiar and unfamiliar with the game I think I’ve found a good balance.

Other Changes

• Fixed bug where text was misaligned
• Made it more obvious when you die (red flash appears)
• Stopped the infinite Vader spawning on Game Over
• Improved Game Over Screen
• Background speed now increases with game speed
• Fixed bug which caused all objects (including the Vaders and Player Ship) to disappear when Score Multiplier text faded out.

If you want to see the current road map for Splodey Vaders, I’m using Trello to track changes, fixes and features for the game. It’s an awesome site that allows you to easily track the development of a project. Splode Vaders Trello: https://trello.com/b/jTalmHfR/splodey-vaders

What Next?

Well Ga Ma Yo is on Thursday and I’ll be showing the game off there and hopefully gaining some good feedback from the cornucopia of developers there. After that I’ll be creating a PC version ready to make available on websites like Game Jolt and itch.io. The next major features to be added will be saving high scores after a session and beyond that some art updates and maybe different enemy types and power ups! In the meantime, here's a video which shows off some of the gameplay from Splodey Vaders:

[A GAME BY STUART LILFORD]

An explosive twist on an arcade classic

A GAME BY STUART LILFORD

Splodey Vaders is an Arcade Shooter where the Vaders splode into flying chunks which you have to avoid. Shoot your way through space and watch as bits of Vader hurl into each other to cause chain reaction splosions.

FEATURES

• RETRO VISUALS! - A whole FOUR colours!
• EASY TO CONTROL! - Your ship autofires, so you only have to worry about dodging and aiming
• FUNKY 8 BIT SOUNDS! - Music and Sound Effects that compliment the game's graphics
• KILLER COMBOS! - Blast your enemies and watch as they explode into chunks and watch further as those chunks hurl into other enemies to cause chain reactions.
• LEVEL UP AND UNLOCK! - Level up as you build up your score. Unlock new colour palettes and ship designs.
• SAUCEY STATS! - The game monitors stats such as deaths, kills and combos!

PLATFORMS

Googleplay/Android
App Sore/iOS
PC (coming soon)

RELEASE DATE

TBC

CLICK HERE FOR DEVELOPMENT BLOG

VIDEO





"Splodey Vaders is a classic shoot ’em up with a twist. From what started as a riff on Space Invaders, developer Stuart Lilford threw in a smattering of Asteroids and shook things up. It’s got some great aesthetics, with a real Game Boy vibe." - wordsaboutgames.net

 

 SCREENSHOTS


 








HISTORY

I currently teach Game Design to 16-18 year olds as my full time job. One of the Units I teach focuses on getting the students to make a game by themselves. The first lesson usually revolves around making a basic clone of Space Invaders using Game Maker: Studio. Game Maker: Studio is a great 2D engine for budding Game Designers to learn to make games without any prior programming knowledge and Space Invaders is a great introductory game as the mechanics are pretty basic and easy to implement. While delivering this session in early 2016 and the students were away crafting their own Space Invaders clones, I continued to tinker around with the basic game mechanics as the students watched on the projector. One student asked about particle effects and I used this as an opportunity to show them how to create them by demonstrating an enemy exploding into a bunch of chunks. As I tested this, I instinctively tried to dodge out of the way of the exploding chunks (even though there was no functionality to harm the player). The idea popped into my head to make a game mechanic out of this and the basic premise of Splodey Vaders was born. I had to teach this same lesson another 3 times (to different classes) and iterated on the basic premise in each lesson until I imagined the game working on mobile devices, where I reduced the controls to moving left and right. My daughter was around 4 months old at the time I started Splodey Vaders. She was our firstborn and so it was a bit of a crazy year, but I managed to scrape some time together here and there to develop the game. She's 18 months old as I write this and the game is just about finished. It will be my first mobile game to be released on Android and iOS and I'm really looking forward to see what people think.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION



MUSIC

By Joshua Mbewe (Laxcity Music)

EMAIL

[email protected]

TWITTER

@Stuart_Lilford

 

Original Post:

I'm back! After an almost 6 month hiatus from game development after the birth of my daughter, I'm now slaving away over a laptop to try and scramble a game together.

But wait, what happened to Subtraddition and Gravity Box?

Those games are on hold at the moment. I decided that as my time to develop games is limited, I'd rather produce short polished experiences than longer ones that I never complete. Who knows, maybe in a few months time, I'll announce another new game, while Splodey Vaders remains unfinished, but for now I think the experience is small enough for me to manage it's production. Which brings me on to what Splodey Vaders is about.

What is Splodey Vaders about?

Splodey Vaders is kind of a mix between Space Invaders and Asteroids. I teach game design to college learners and one day I was teaching the fundamentals of scripting in Game Maker. As the students were building on the basic Space Invader forumla they had learnt, I was doing the same thing. I started by making the Invaders explode when hit by a bullet and I thought "maybe you should have to avoid the debris from the explosion" and the basic premise for Splodey Vaders was born.

Splodey Vaders is an Arcade Shooter. Shoot the Vaders that appear from the top of the screen, but also avoid the chunks of blown-up Vader that appear after they explode upon death.

Key Information

This game will be released on PC and Android at some point this year.

The game will be free for android, but will contain banner adverts.

After Subtraddition and Procedrill, I've grown fond of the gameboy style four colour-palette, so I've adopted the same idea for Splodey Vaders.

Where is it at

The game is currently in a pre-alpha stage. The main idea behind the game is there and it's working, but there are still things left to be designed.

Check out the blog post on Scared Square Games to see vines of early stages of the game (including one of my baby daughter playing it on a tablet).

You can actually see the games current To-Do list on Trello, if you were wondering about that sort of thing.

What's Next?

I'm hoping to show the game off at a local game dev event in April, so between now and then I want to polish the game to a stage where it looks professional to the public eye. So, which me luck!

[Subtraddition Update #02: Should I retain the Gameboy inspired colour palette?]

Subtraddition Update #02: Should I retain the Gameboy inspired colour palette?

Most of the changes made to Subtraddition over the past few weeks have been aesthetic. I’ve redesigned the first world layout and spent a lot of time playing around with pixels to make it look nice. As I’ve said before, I’m no artist (I’m no programmer either) so trying out different designs for tiles sets was pretty challenging. This is what the game looks like now:

This screenshot is by far the best looking screenshot I have taken of the game so far. The bridge alone went through 3 iterations before it got to its current look and I'm quite pleased with how the game is coming along visually.

But there’s something I’m worrying about internally. Mainly: Should I retain the Gameboy inspired colour palette? I initially went with this style as I wanted to practice using only 4 colours and the Gameboy palette seemed like a good place to start. I always intended on keeping this palette, but lately I’ve been asking myself questions like “Should I allow the game its own identity rather than piggybacking on something already known” to more absurd ponderings such as “If I ever wanted to port this game to a console, would publishers want to avoid the game as it has associations with Nintendo?”

Strangely enough, Just as I was about to write this update I posted the above screenshot on Twitter and someone responded with “I love the atmosphere the color palette creates (Gameboy-inspired? Nice!). So the game is already getting people liking it due to how it looks.

I sort of feel in my gut that I should probably just keep the colour palette I’ve been using as there are commercial games out there which use these colours and the game is looking good, but I'd like to open it up.

There a poll you can vote on here!or just comment below.

A note on worlds

I mentioned ‘worlds’ earlier, so let me explain how levels are structured in Subtraddition. You start in the Start Zone which will mainly exist to teach the player the basics of the game. From here you navigate to the Hub Zone which contains all doors leading to the game’s main Worlds. There are 3 Worlds and within each world there are 5 rooms/levels which contain a core game collectable. Each room/level will be it’s own unique challenge to complete, but if the player finds themselves struggling they can exit and try out one of the others and come back later. There are 15 unique room/levels in total and I will probably try to include some sort of final level as the games climax, but I’ve not thought that far ahead.

Enemy Sprite Update

I'd like to do a post about the different enemy types that are found in Subtraddition (they're not traditional enemies. They're not alive or anything. Mostly just objects that can kills you) but for now, I'll just show off some updates sprites. First is a weird fire breathing head thing. Before the update it was just a brown square that fired red squares (and no I don't mean the Russian vodka), now they conform to the colour palette and the fireballs are even slightly animated. This GIF would have looked better if the other sprites were updated, but still.



Next is the thwomp block. Before the update, these were just red squares with a scary face drawn on them. Anyone recognise the new sprite from somewhere?



How about that screenshake! Screenshake is something I've added into the game to make it feel as though there's a lot more going on in the game world than there actually is. I was inspired by this talk aptly named talk "

" from Jan Willem Nijman of Vlambeer. Worth a watch for some ideas on how to help your game better connect with players.

There are lots of other visual updates I'd love to tell you about, but I'm hoping to write something about how I created some of the tile sets within the game and I'll cover a lot of it in that. I also implemented some parallax scrolling into the game which makes the game look and feel a lot better.

What's next?

My current to do list contains a few more aesthetic changes including finally adding a door into the game (currently you walk into a big white rectangle) and creating some decorative background and foreground tiles to make the levels less boring. After that I'll mostly be fine tuning the start level and Level 1, so that I can hopefully send the game out to people to try out.

It's not been long since I introduced Subtraddition, but I've updated a few things since that I'd like to share. Firstly, a new tile set. The area is supposed to look like a mossy cave. I'd like to do a post on how I created the tileset at some point in the future.



Next I finally updated the sprite for the checkpoint instead of it looking like a horrible pink box (see above GIF). The idea is that the sphere is a resurrection stone and when you die you are resurrected at the shrine. The GIF below only shows the shrines being activated and not put into practice.



I mainly started working on the visuals for the game because I was generating level designs and it was becoming very time consuming and I felt that my brain needed a break from it. I updated the images for the tiles in the  first area, the block that you can move around and the spikes (these feature a lot in the game). Now that the checkpoint doesn't look so much like a hideous pink obelisk I think I will get back to getting the level layout completed for the rest of the game.

 

[Hang on, I thought you were making a game called Gravity Square or something?]

I’m making a game! I started working on it just after Christmas I think? Anyway I was toying around with the idea of making a puzzle platformer and then I started working  on a prototype and now I’m going to be making it into a full game.

This is the core mechanic of the game:

The game is being made with Game Maker: Studio.

Hang on, I thought you were making a game called Gravity Square or something?

Gravity Box is currently on Hiatus at the moment. For some reason as we got closer to Christmas I started to lose interest in working on it and ultimately stopped all together. This isn’t to say I don’t want to make the game at all… I’m just more motivated to work on this puzzle platformer game. Plus I’ve since learned a lot about game development that I can use to create a better version of Gravity Box than the one that I was working on.

So what’s so special about this new game?

With Subtraddition I actually made a small prototype last year before I started working on Gravity Box. The prototype saw you placing blocks to help you navigate the level and as I worked on it more, the more I began thinking up puzzle/level designs for the game. I was also really inspired by playing Fez around that time and loved the sense of exploration that the game made you feel as a player. I also began to think about old platformers I used to play as a kid that I loved like Banjo-Kazooie and Jak and Daxter. Essentially, Subtraddition caught the attention of my imagination more than Gravity Box ever did and I think that’s why I’m running with it instead.

What is it about?

The core mechanic as shown above, is that it’s a 2D puzzle platformer in which you can remove and place certain blocks within the level in order to allow you to use them as platforms and reach new levels. They’ll also do other stuff like protect you from damage, reach new heights and jump across distances you would otherwise be unable to reach.

The game is also about exploration. You start of in a starter level, which leads into a hub world with multiple levels and multiple puzzles to solve and a butt-tonne of secrets.

Subtraddition Key Features

4 COLOURS – I’m doing the art for the game and as I’ve said previously I’m not that great at art. I mean, I do okay… I get by. So I felt that limiting myself to only 4 colours would mean that I had less chance of making it look shit than if I made a colourful mess with a bunch of colours. I’m also working to quite a small resolution, so I’m practicing my pixel art with this game. I find that it helps to give yourself restrictions/limitations as otherwise you can overscope.

SECRETS – After my recent playthroughs of Fez, I loved how the game is filled to the brim with secrets. Although my game won’t be anywhere near the scope of Fez, I still like the idea of including little hidden secrets that will reward the player for exploration. Which brings me on to my next point:

EXPLORATION – As I mention above, one of the things I love about video games is exploration. It unfortunately means that it takes me a lot longer than it should to complete games. I mentioned to someone the other day that it took 6 hours to complete Gone Home and they were all like “SIX HOURS :O … You can beat the game in 10 minutes!” But I like to take it slow and explore every nook and cranny of the world. I was the same with Bioshock Infinite. I’d spend ages just wandering about looking at stuff and this is something I’d like players to want to do in Subtraddition even though I suppose it largely depends on the type of player.

Where is it at?

Subtraddition is coming along nicely. I’ve almost completed the level designs for 2 out of the 3 worlds that the game will contain. I’m currently working on updating the graphics for the game and implementing tile sets into levels. Navigation works, the character movement works, the block removal/placement works and there are a few levels to run around in with puzzles and platforming to complete. I have no idea how long the game is going to take, but I’m using every spare minute I get before the big life-changing event happens. September is my deadline! More updates soon.

In other news...

A couple of our games are being placed on Indie Game Stand's Free Games section. You can find Time Stone HERE and Entrapment will be on there soon.

You might have seen the recent " game" announcement and yes, it was an over-elaborate metaphor for me and my wife having a baby! It's our first child, so I'm going to have a lot to learn about becoming a father. It also means that my hobby game dev stuff will most likely be taking a lengthy break come September.

BONUS ART TEST FOR SUBTRADDITION DUDE:

I went with number 12.

[Introducing: Gravity Box]

Originally posted on http://www.scaredsquare.com/

Introducing: Gravity Box

So this is what I’ve been working on since the release of Entrapment. It’s an idea that I’ve had for a little while now and something totally different from my previous releases. For starters it’s not an adventure game, it’s a physics puzzle game. Secondly it’s not being made with Adventure Game Studio, it’s being made with Game Maker: Studio.



Why I’m making it

At one of my previous jobs I used to work in sales and I hated every minute of it. Every day was the same mixture of repetitive, monotonous phone calls and tedious boring paper work. My only solace was an hour-long dinner break that I had, in which I would sit and play games on my iPhone.

The type of games that I like to play on iPhone or any touch screen device are games that I think suit touch screen the best: Puzzle Games. I’m not saying that a Platformer, RPG or Action game can’t be done well on a touch screen (there are many games), I’m saying that these types of games aren’t best-suited for a touch screen platform. If someone were to say to me, you can play Sonic using a game pad or a touch screen, I would opt for a game pad every time. The genre that I feel suits a touch screen really well are puzzle games. I think Adventure Games do pretty well on that type of device, but I would still rather play it with a mouse. Also tower defence is pretty good on there. Anyway…

So on my lunch times I would sit and play games such as Where’s My Water and Cut the Rope and it was around this time that I started thinking of a game design that would work really well on a touch device and this led me to start thinking about Gravity Box.

What it’s about

Gravity Box is a game where the only thing the player can do is to change the direction in which gravity is pulling. For example, if the player swipes upwards on the touch screen, then all of the physics enable objects in the level will be pulled upwards. If the player swipes to the right, then gravity will pull all of the objects to the right.

This is the only thing that the player is able to do to affect what is going on in the level, much like how in the early stages of Where’s My Water, the player can only move away dirt. That’s it. The aim of each level is to alter the gravity in order to guide a box through the level to the exit, but it won’t always be simple.



Key features

Here are some important things about the game:

Focus on Level Design

The key focus of the design behind gravity box is going to be making sure that each level is unique, fun, challenging and engaging.

Lots of Levels

The current goal is 100 with around 20 already designed. I’ll perhaps maybe add even more into the game if I come up with additional mechanics that warrant more levels.

Sci-fi storyline

Although Gravity Box isn’t an adventure game and is essentially just about flining a box around various rooms, I’ve still managed to come up with an idea for a story. I don’t want to give too much away just yet, but some things that inspired the story are the movie Event Horizon and the adventure game 7 Days a Skeptic.

Quick level restart

I’m currently working on a prototype for the game. If the player dies, the level resents itself straight away in a similar way to Super Meat Boy or Flappy Bird. I think that this is a key thing to take forward with the design.

Puzzle Mechanics & Progression

With early testing I can already see that the game is currently WAY TOO HARD! One thing I want to do well with Gravity Box is to ensure that new puzzles mechanics are introduced in a way that the player can easily understand them before progressing them onto levels where the same mechanic is used in a more difficult way.

Its current state

I recently finished a build which has 20 levels in it. This is a prototype version, but it has many of the core puzzle elements which I want to include in the final game. Next thing I want to look at is maybe the art style. I’ve already got a few ideas around this and want to try them out before committing to one. I’d also like to implement some form of Interface.

Why I’m talking about it now

Tom Francis is the developer behind Gunpoint and who is now working on Heat Signature. As soon as he started developing Gunpoint, he started to talk about it and this helped him with promotion, feedback and keeping motivated. I’m hoping that writing about it will do the same for Gravity Box and I hope to release GIFs, Videos and developer diaries along the way. So if you’re interested, make sure your following Scared Square Games in some way. You can do this using one of the methods shown underneath the ‘Get Social’ heading near the top of the site.

Want to help?

I’m looking for people to play the aforementioned prototype and offer some feedback. The game is currently Windows only, but if you’re interested then get in touch!

[email protected]

I'd like to form a discussion around what a College Games Development course should be. When I say College, I mean it in the British sense, so 16-18 year old students.

What would you want to see taught?
What activities would you include?
What kind of talks would you want to see organised?
What trips would you want?

And anything else you could think of? If you wanted to create the most awesome game development course ever, what would you include?

Hi there

Our website is coming along nicely and we're looking for some feedback on it. So hop on over and if you notice anything you want to comment on then let us know (play our game's while you're there  )

www.scaredsquare.com

Thanks

 
(I Love Fez)