He is fat, and also a wizard. A+++++++++ would play again.

I'm looking for an artist with a love of chivalry, the Victorian Era and shooting ladies with cannons to provide polished art for my Indiecade submission, Courtship Cannons: Fire The Pleasantries!. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, my artist had to bow out.

The game is in a very playable state, and is currently undergoing playtesting. (You can grab the latest build here [XNA 4.0]).

Game Description

In Courtship Cannons: Fire The Pleasantries!, you play as a gentleman cannoneer who attempts to woo upstanding ladies by firing complements at them out of cannons. It's a two-player dueling game that plays a bit like tug-of-war mixed with Worms (check the videos in the media section for more information).

Players can obtain different power-ups to turn the tides (or screw their chances with ladies). It is a two-player competitive-only game that, upon completion, will contain a quick-duel mode, a tournament mode, and a power-up modification menu (Fox-only, no items, Final Destination).

Job Description

I'll need an artist to create a backdrop, animated cannoneers (proper gentlemen, no doubt  ), cannons, cannonballs, varying fine ladies, a slick-ass menu, powerup icons, and particle effects (as well as a bunch of stuff that I'm probably forgetting) in a style that reeks Victorian. I'll be acting as Art Director, but as long as the style is slick and consistent with the theme, you'll be free to extend your creative tentacles.

You should be familiar with organizing spritesheets and the goings on with game-related art (which I'm sure is a non-issue for most of you).

Payment!?

Alright, this is where I'm not sure what forum this thread should live in. Please delete this if I've posted this in the wrong location.

You'll be working under an alternative payment system. I want to pay you for your art! You'll receive full credit of all the art you create for the game, but it will be owned by The Game Studio.

The ideal payment would be a round-trip ticket to Indiecade on October 6-9 in Los Angeles, CA, should we be nominated. Should we not be nominated or a plane ticket for you would be hella-spensive, I can pay an agreed upon amount upon completion of work. I'm not trying to rob you, and I definitely want to compensate you for your time, I'm just not made of money. I'm a reasonable gentleman, so we can discuss further if need be.

Timeline

Unfortunately, the deadline looms. The game will need to be submitted by June 15th, so art should be finished by June 9th at the latest. I don't make the rules.

Media

Here's some media. Make sure you enjoy the game (or are at least on-board with the concept) before applying. I want someone who's as passionate about this idea as I am.

Play the game! [XNA4.0])

Here's a video of the most recent build.

Here's a longer video with more gameplay.

Contact Information

If you're interested in this opportunity, you may either email me at contact at thegamestudio dot net, or send me a PM on the forum. Either way, it would be great to hear what you've worked on previously and a link to some of your more recent (or most applicable) work.

I'm looking for an artist with a love of chivalry, the Victorian Era and shooting ladies with cannons to provide polished art for my Indiecade submission, Courtship Cannons: Fire The Pleasantries!. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, my artist had to bow out.

The game is in a very playable state, and is currently undergoing playtesting. (You can grab the latest build here [XNA 4.0]).

Game Description

In Courtship Cannons: Fire The Pleasantries!, you play as a gentleman cannoneer who attempts to woo upstanding ladies by firing complements at them out of cannons. It's a two-player dueling game that plays a bit like tug-of-war mixed with Worms (check the videos in the media section for more information).

Players can obtain different power-ups to turn the tides (or screw their chances with ladies). It is a two-player competitive-only game that, upon completion, will contain a quick-duel mode, a tournament mode, and a power-up modification menu (Fox-only, no items, Final Destination).

Job Description

I'll need an artist to create a backdrop, animated cannoneers (proper gentlemen, no doubt  ), cannons, cannonballs, varying fine ladies, a slick-ass menu, powerup icons, and particle effects (as well as a bunch of stuff that I'm probably forgetting) in a style that reeks Victorian. I'll be acting as Art Director, but as long as the style is slick and consistent with the theme, you'll be free to extend your creative tentacles.

You should be familiar with organizing spritesheets and the goings on with game-related art (which I'm sure is a non-issue for most of you).

Payment!?

Alright, this is where I'm not sure what forum this thread should live in. Please delete this if I've posted this in the wrong location.

You'll be working under an alternative payment system. I want to pay you for your art! You'll receive full credit of all the art you create for the game, but it will be owned by The Game Studio.

The ideal payment would be a round-trip ticket to Indiecade on October 6-9 in Los Angeles, CA, should we be nominated. Should we not be nominated or a plane ticket for you would be hella-spensive, I can pay an agreed upon amount upon completion of work. I'm not trying to rob you, and I definitely want to compensate you for your time, I'm just not made of money. I'm a reasonable gentleman, so we can discuss further if need be.

Timeline

Unfortunately, the deadline looms. The game will need to be submitted by June 15th, so art should be finished by June 9th at the latest. I don't make the rules.

Media

Here's some media. Make sure you enjoy the game (or are at least on-board with the concept) before applying. I want someone who's as passionate about this idea as I am.

Play the game! [XNA4.0])

Here's a video of the most recent build.

Here's a longer video with more gameplay.

Contact Information

If you're interested in this opportunity, you may either email me at contact at thegamestudio dot net, or send me a PM on the forum. Either way, it would be great to hear what you've worked on previously and a link to some of your more recent (or most applicable) work.

I've been working on a new game for XBIG and PC called Courtship Cannon: Fire the Pleasantries!! It's still in development, but you can view the

.

The basic gist is that you're an English gentleman trying to win the hearts of young ladies by firing complements at them. WITH A CANNON.



It plays like a real-time Worms/Tank Wars game as you fight over the heart of these women by showering them with praise, and aims to be a fun, competitive game. It's 2-players, for twice the fun!

Port 6969. 

> Puzzle game+ Avoidance Platformer
One player is playing a standard falling-piece game (Tetris, Puyo, et cetera), while the other player is attempting to not get crushed. The puzzle player is trying to get the most points, but the platformer player can disrupt him by placing a limited number of blocks or interacting with powerups that exist in the falling pieces.

Bounce Bounce Bounce Bounce

Bounce bounce bounce bounce your way to a high score! Put some spin on the ball and curve your way through waves of enemies! Collect powerups and avoid bullets! It's as easy as bounce bounce bounce bounce!Bounce along with a bouncing beat by Cartoon Bomb and try to keep up!

This is part of The Game Studio's "Game-A-Week" series.

Play it on Kongregate now!

This looks like a great resource. I'll check it out right away.

Does anyone have any personal tips or things learned from experience worth sharing?

I'm wrapping up a couple of projects, and I'd like to announce them to the world. How does one write a proper press release (or, one that will be taken seriously), and who do I send it to?

Additionally, is there a wiki or anything with a big listing of game journalists who accept submissions like this?

[RED CHASER]

RED CHASER

BRAN NEW GAME, Y’ALL. It was based off of the tutorial game I wrote about in another thread. You can play it on Kongregate now! It was created in under 24 hours, and features music from Cartoon Bomb. Here’s some deets:

You are an AWESOME RED SQUARE. Every other square IS AN ASSHOLE, so DON’T TOUCH THEM, or it’s GAME OVER. But, it’s no biggie, because AS SOON AS YOU LOSE IT’S TIME TO PLAY AGAIN. Yeah, you’re so cool, thinkin’ you’re still doing awesome. YOU’RE NOT ANYMORE. YOU LOST. SORRY,DAWG.

Yeah, I freaked my shit out for a good hour, changing my code and reuploading about ten times (which probably delayed the scores even longer).

Glad to see it's working! Fun game!

I'm getting the notification that I'm getting a high score. When I was working on Space Junk, the table wouldn't show up for an hour or two. Here's what I did in FlashPunk (and it worked!).

So, Flash is pretty bad (especially when using a preloader) at knowing what the stage is sometimes. This problem is increased two-fold when you're talking with an API that is supposed to know whatever is going on at where (that sentence made as little sense as the Kong API does).

SO.

If you've got a preloader preloadin' your shit, you'll totally want to connect to the API then (the sooner, the better!). Here's my Preloader.as:

Code:

package
{
import flash.display.DisplayObject;
import flash.display.MovieClip;
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.events.ProgressEvent;
import flash.utils.getDefinitionByName;
import flash.text.TextField;
import flash.display.LoaderInfo;
import flash.display.Loader;
import flash.net.URLRequest;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.system.Security;

[SWF(width = "640", height = "480", bgcolor="0x111111")]

/**
* Preloads shit.
* @author Zachary Weston Lewis
*/
public class Preloader extends MovieClip
{
private var s:Sprite, p:Sprite, r:Sprite;
public function Preloader()
{
trace("Starting.");
addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, checkFrame);
loaderInfo.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.PROGRESS, progress);
// show loader
s = new Sprite;
s.graphics.beginFill(0xff00ff);
s.graphics.drawRect(0, 340 - 40, 640, 80);

addChild(s);

p = new Sprite;
p.graphics.beginFill(0xff00ff);
p.graphics.drawRect(0, 240 - 40, 640, 80);

addChild(p);

r = new Sprite;
r.graphics.beginFill(0xff00ff);
r.graphics.drawRect(0, 140 - 40, 640, 80);
GameProperties.GAME_STAGE = stage;
addChild(r);
api();
}

private function api():void
{
//Set up our... API?

// Pull the API path from the FlashVars
var paramObj:Object = LoaderInfo(GameProperties.GAME_STAGE.loaderInfo).parameters;

// The API path. The "shadow" API will load if testing locally.
var apiPath:String = paramObj.kongregate_api_path ||
 "http://www.kongregate.com/flash/API_AS3_Local.swf";

// Allow the API access to this SWF
Security.allowDomain(apiPath);

// Load the API
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(apiPath);
var loader:Loader = new Loader();
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, loadComplete);
loader.load(request);
GameProperties.GAME_STAGE.addChild(loader);
}

// This function is called when loading is complete
private function loadComplete(event:Event):void
{
// Save Kongregate API reference
trace("LOADED");
GameProperties._API = event.target.content;

// Connect to the back-end
GameProperties._API.services.connect();

// You can now access the API via:
// kongregate.services
// kongregate.user
// kongregate.scores
// kongregate.stats
// etc...
}

private function progress(e:ProgressEvent):void
{
// update loader
p.x = -640 + 640 * loaderInfo.bytesLoaded / loaderInfo.bytesTotal;
s.x = 640 - 640 * loaderInfo.bytesLoaded / loaderInfo.bytesTotal;
r.x = 640 - 640*loaderInfo.bytesLoaded / loaderInfo.bytesTotal;

}

private function checkFrame(e:Event):void
{
if (currentFrame == totalFrames)
{
removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, checkFrame);
startup();
}
}

private function startup():void
{
// hide loader
stop();
loaderInfo.removeEventListener(ProgressEvent.PROGRESS, progress);
var mainClass:Class = getDefinitionByName("Main") as Class;
addChild(new mainClass(stage) as DisplayObject);
}

}
}

Something good to know is that GamePropertites just as a bunch of static variables and constants. Also, GamePropertites._API is cast as a "*". So, I just connect to the API and shove that shit in there.

NOW. AND THEN, SO.

Once the player begins the game, I load up GameWorld and start tracking stats. Here's how I submit stuff (I update my stats every 15 seconds, just to prevent timeouts and stuff. Depending on your game style, you may want to only submit once a game. I like sending a bunch of shit, because if you get one bad submit, you don't lose everything.)

THIS:

Code:

private function updateScore():void
{
_submitTimer += FP.elapsed;
GameProperties.STAT_TIME_ALIVE += FP.elapsed;
if (_submitTimer > GameProperties.STAT_SUBMIT_TIME)
{
//Submit some shit.
submitScores();
resetScores(false);
}
}

private function submitScores():void
{
var _api:* = GameProperties._API;
if (_api != null)
{
trace("=======================================");
_api.scores.submit(GameProperties.WORLD_PLAYER_SCORE);
_api.stats.submit("Add_RoundsFired", GameProperties.STAT_ROUNDS_FIRED);
_api.stats.submit("Add_RamKills", GameProperties.STAT_RAM_KILLS);
_api.stats.submit("Add_DamageTaken", GameProperties.STAT_DAMAGE_TAKEN);
_api.stats.submit("Add_DamageDealt", GameProperties.STAT_DAMAGE_DEALT);
_api.stats.submit("Add_TreasuresOpened", GameProperties.STAT_TREASURES_OPENED);
_api.stats.submit("Add_OverloadedTurrets", GameProperties.STAT_OVERLOADED_TURRETS);
_api.stats.submit("Add_MisslesDowned", GameProperties.STAT_MISSLES_DOWNED);
_api.stats.submit("Add_ExperienceGained", GameProperties.STAT_EXPERIENCE_GAINED);
_api.stats.submit("Add_BossesKilled", GameProperties.STAT_BOSSES_KILLED);
_api.stats.submit("Max_BossesKilled", GameProperties.STAT_BOSSES_KILLED_SEQUENTIAL);
_api.stats.submit("Add_PointGuardsKilled", GameProperties.STAT_POINTGUARDS);
_api.stats.submit("Add_LastShadowsKilled", GameProperties.STAT_LASTSHADOWS);
_api.stats.submit("Add_QuadroniansKilled", GameProperties.STAT_QUADRONIANS);
_api.stats.submit("Add_HellfiresKilled", GameProperties.STAT_HELLFIRES);
_api.stats.submit("Add_DefendersKilled", GameProperties.STAT_DEFENDERS);
_api.stats.submit("Add_SpittersKilled", GameProperties.STAT_SPITTERS);
_api.stats.submit("Max_EnemiesKilled", GameProperties.STAT_ENEMIES_SEQUENTIAL);
_api.stats.submit("Max_TimeAlive", GameProperties.STAT_TIME_ALIVE);
_api.stats.submit("Max_Highscore", GameProperties.WORLD_PLAYER_SCORE);
_api.stats.submit("Max_Level", GameProperties.PLAYER_LEVEL);

}
}

private function resetScores(init:Boolean):void
{
if (init)
{
GameProperties.STAT_BOSSES_KILLED_SEQUENTIAL = 0;
GameProperties.STAT_ENEMIES_SEQUENTIAL = 0;
GameProperties.STAT_TIME_ALIVE = 0;
}
else
{
GameProperties.STAT_BOSSES_KILLED_SEQUENTIAL += GameProperties.STAT_BOSSES_KILLED;
GameProperties.STAT_ENEMIES_SEQUENTIAL += GameProperties.STAT_POINTGUARDS + GameProperties.STAT_LASTSHADOWS + GameProperties.STAT_QUADRONIANS +
GameProperties.STAT_HELLFIRES + GameProperties.STAT_DEFENDERS + GameProperties.STAT_SPITTERS;
}
GameProperties.STAT_ROUNDS_FIRED = 0;
GameProperties.STAT_RAM_KILLS = 0;
GameProperties.STAT_DAMAGE_TAKEN = 0;
GameProperties.STAT_DAMAGE_DEALT = 0;
GameProperties.STAT_TREASURES_OPENED = 0;
GameProperties.STAT_OVERLOADED_TURRETS = 0;
GameProperties.STAT_MISSLES_DOWNED = 0;
GameProperties.STAT_EXPERIENCE_GAINED = 0;
GameProperties.STAT_BOSSES_KILLED = 0;
GameProperties.STAT_POINTGUARDS = 0;
GameProperties.STAT_LASTSHADOWS = 0;
GameProperties.STAT_QUADRONIANS = 0;
GameProperties.STAT_HELLFIRES = 0;
GameProperties.STAT_DEFENDERS = 0;
GameProperties.STAT_SPITTERS = 0;
_submitTimer = 0;

GameProperties.PLAYER_LEVEL = 1;
}

So, that is things.

My guess is the preloader thing. Also, gotta' give it time to work its magic. Also, make sure you type 'em in the website right.

-"Hadoboirudoakushonshutingugemu"
This is your dog's name, he sells you weapon upgrades.

I lol'd. Seriously.

Can't wait to see some concept art. I like the idea of a cigarette timer.

So, did anyone make a game for the actual BoingBoing competition?

I did. You can play it!

[F]

@Zachary: Yeah, the rope length is something I'm going to need to be able to edit and tweak specifically, so that sound about right. Your code looks retardedly more simple than I thought this was going to be.

Could you explain to me what each of these values stand for? F is a force equal to k and x which are... what? And what exactly is the K constant, the restitution/springiness of the string? What does changing K have on the effect of this system? Last question: what is v?

Thanks!

EDIT: Aaaand thanks too, Farbs! I think I've got more than enough info to rip myself up some code now, you guys are awesome, thanks for the quick replies!

K is the spring constant. This will be constant (derp).
x is the displacement from rest. Stretch a spring 2 inches, x will be 2 inches.

The higher K is, the more force will be applied per displacement. So, if K is higher, the spring is stiffer.

V is the velocity of the objects, but I skipped some steps: Since force = mass x acceleration (and the masses are considered to be constant), you can simplify it down to setting the acceleration to the force. Then, you apply acceleration each tick.

Code:

a = f / m
v += a

You should be looking at Hooke's Law. It states that the force is equal to the displacement in the system times a constant.

F = -kx

What you'll want is a distance before the "spring-ness" begins. After that distance, you'll apply a force to the characters based on how far away it is.

Psuedo-code idea:

Code:

const int ROPE_LENGTH
const int K
Entity a, b;

function gameLoop()
{
  //Check our distance.
  if(distance(a,b) > ROPE_LENGTH)
  {
    //Figure out the force on the system.
    //Get our displacement.
    int x = (distance(a, b) - ROPE_LENGTH)
    //Apply Hooke's Law
    int f = K * x
    //Now, slap equal but opposite forces on the bitches.
    a.v += f/2
    b.v -= f/2
  }
}

That's where I'd start. I don't think you need damping, just a simple spring should work. You just need to keep the rope-length in mind.

Also, if the objects are of differing mass, you'll want to vary the forces applied to them based on their masses (asses, heh).

I would like to generate weighted random numbers based on a base value, but I'm at a loss as to how to go about doing this.

Example:

In an RPG, whenever I kill a monster, I want to generate a random number of gold pieces for the player to collect between 1 and 1000; however, I want this number to be weighted based on the level of the enemy. If the enemy's level is 1, I want the random number to lean more toward dropping only 1 gold piece; if the enemy's level is 100, I want the random number to lean more toward dropping all 1000 gold pieces.

Any help would be great.

I'll just go ahead and leave these here...





Hope you like mazes.

I also want to make a brief update regarding the development of the game. I purchased an XBOX360 for testing and stuff. I've gotten another project running on my XBOX successfully, but it seems as if some of the libraries we're using in Monolith to save and load maps (ISerializable, I'm looking at you  ) aren't part of the XNA framework.

If we had a development XBOX from the get go, this would be a problem. It's actually not too big of a problem anyway, since the saving and loading functionality is pretty well encapsulated by my loader class, but it is kind of a disappointment not being able to click "Deploy" and play some Monolith.

I suppose that's the most interesting thing that's been going on in Monolith as of late. Well, that and getting the map editor in a few people's hands to see what they come up with (spoiler: they don't understand that a rope connects to a block and is not designed to float in midair). As always, we'll keep you posted with new builds and features both here and on our development log (if I can ever get Timbo to post on the damn thing).

Yeah... I've got two weeks left of class, but after that, we're good to go.