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TIGSource ForumsCommunityJams & EventsCompetitionsVersus (Moderator: Melly)a cure for friendship [SORT OF FINISHED]
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Pencil_In_Pain
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« on: February 02, 2011, 01:23:11 PM »

"Good friends game together, to death"






OK, I had this stupid idea for a shock therapy game, so I put together "a cure for friendship", an unispired button masher and tendinitis strengthener.

How to play?

Two players in one keyboard. Fill your electricity gauge as fast as you can. Once at full capacity, you can unleash a therapeutic shock discharge on your opponent. Be super quick on your charging for a combo.

Player 1 charges his gauge with "Q" and throws discharges with "W"
Player 2 charges his gauge with "O" and throws discharges with "P"

The first player to deplete his opponent's affection bar, wins.

How can I help?

See, We know there isn't a lot of gamplay here. The game is pretty much done, but We'd love to listen to your suggestions on how to expand the concept or make It more interesting.

Did you find a typo? Do you think some text could be rephrased? Tell us.

Also, if you feel like contributing some music, you're welcome to do so. Have a couple loops there We could use? 8bit comedy style music prefered, but hey, never look a gift horse in the mouth. Credit granted. (Reetva already made a nice loop for us)

Where to download? (Updated 09/02/2011)

HRRRRRR: http://www.mediafire.com/?zftulv4tsa6hqtc
« Last Edit: February 09, 2011, 01:23:17 PM by Pencil_In_Pain » Logged

george
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« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2011, 07:32:01 PM »

I am crying with joy.

However I couldn't get the PLUS key to work. This is on windows XP...ctrl worked fine.

Maybe add different death animations? Exploding corpses?
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ink.inc
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« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2011, 07:52:52 PM »

This has an exceptional title.
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reetva
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« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2011, 08:01:06 PM »

I made you a (very) short loop you could use.  Just something I whipped up in ten minutes, nothing fancy.  I can expand upon it if you want.
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« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2011, 08:04:32 PM »

Button mashing is easy when you use 2 fingers to press the button back and forth. You should have different Wario-Ware style minigames themed around lab testing and each one you complete delivers a shock to decrease the friendship meter. That way, no tendonitis + fun game!
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FinalSin
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« Reply #5 on: February 03, 2011, 05:13:35 AM »

How about placing the discharge buttons on the opposite side of the keyboard from the charge button. That way there's a physical element?
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Pencil_In_Pain
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« Reply #6 on: February 03, 2011, 11:24:45 AM »

Updated the first post with a new build. There's a couple new tweaks and a small unlockables system. Hopefully that will add some meat to the whole thing:

- Changed the control scheme
- Added Reetva's fantastic loop and a couple extra sound effects
- Added a time limit of 1:00 for matches
- Fixed the unlikely case of a tie
- Added unlockables screen and 4 unlockables.

   -"Ice Level" (Play 5 games in a row)
   -"Casual Fridays" (Play 10 games in a row)
   -"Golden Heart" (Don't do anything)
   -"Yeah, me too" (Both players got vultures, at least 1 time)

Quote
I couldn't get the PLUS key to work.

Damn numpad. It should work now.

Quote
I made you a (very) short loop you could use

Whoohhoo! Thank you very much, Reetva! I already included It in the latest build.

Quote
You should have different Wario-Ware style minigames

Yeah, the collection of minigames was the original idea. That'd be great but I don't think I have the time, so I'm concentrating on this one for now.

Quote
How about placing the discharge buttons on the opposite side of the keyboard from the charge button.

Hmmm... that could be either a lot of fun or a total mess. I'll give It a try though.

Thank you very much for your input, guys!



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Pencil_In_Pain
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« Reply #7 on: February 07, 2011, 02:11:30 PM »



 Well, hello there!
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ink.inc
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« Reply #8 on: February 07, 2011, 03:19:01 PM »

oh

oh baby
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reetva
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« Reply #9 on: February 07, 2011, 04:52:18 PM »

Aw yiss.

I am just going to leave this here.  Perhaps to be used when one or each player is at low health?
« Last Edit: February 07, 2011, 10:32:38 PM by reetva » Logged

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Pencil_In_Pain
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« Reply #10 on: February 08, 2011, 12:58:00 PM »

I am just going to leave this here.  Perhaps to be used when one or each player is at low health?

Fantastic! This one is even better than the first one. The game includes a randomly triggered boss fight and an ending now. I think this tune will fit them perfectly. Thanks a lot for your help. It's much appreciated.
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« Reply #11 on: February 09, 2011, 01:22:02 PM »


Hand Point Righthttp://www.mediafire.com/?zftulv4tsa6hqtc

I just edited the first post with the newest build and some eyecandy. I'm calling this pretty much done. However, I'd still prefer to wait for a couple of days before posting in the finished entries thread (just in case some weird bug pops out or I decide to make some late changes).

Very simple game here. I guess It's more of a toy than anything else. I know the setting is kind of disturbing, but also wanted to mention the game never rewards players for electrocuting each other. You can easily get to the end of the game without harming your opponent at all.

Besides, this latest version includes:

- Added a randomly triggered boss encounter
- Added Reetva's second music loop for boss fights
- Added an ending
- Corrected a couple typos
- Added three new unlockables:
   - Tesla Coil (Play 20+ games in a row)
   - Mousetrap (Defeat the boss)
   - D&Diagnosis (Play 15+ games in a row)
   - Doc is your friend (Play 25 games in a row and finish the game)

Enjoy! My Word!

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tzachs
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« Reply #12 on: February 28, 2011, 01:01:14 PM »

Too bad I played the game first and then read the thread...
We played two games in a row, it was nice (and the graphics were pretty) but we didn't know there was more to it so we stopped...
If the unlockables (or at least some of them) had the 'mission' written and not just question marks, we might have played more. Or at least, if the first unlockable would come after two plays, that would have possibly lure us in.
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Pencil_In_Pain
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« Reply #13 on: March 02, 2011, 07:30:16 AM »

Quote
we didn't know there was more to it so we stopped...

Yeah, maybe you're right. I thought of leaving the 'objective' texts written on the different unlockables, so players knew what to do, but at the same time, I didn't want to spoil them.

However I'm still glad you played and enjoyed a couple of rounds. Thanks for your comment and the input. It's much appreciated.
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Hayden Scott-Baron
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« Reply #14 on: March 19, 2011, 01:48:15 AM »

Increpare, Terry Cavanagh, Sophie H and I tried this game for a while.

We only noticed the achievements after we'd been playing for a while, and when we went back into the game it had forgotten them.
We spent a long time looking for depth in the controls that didn't seem to be there.
It was surprising that there was no fail state for mashing too often, or any sort of real strategy.
No-one felt any satisfaction from winning. :/
Graphics are nice though, probably what kept us hunting for gameplay.
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« Reply #15 on: March 25, 2011, 05:27:21 PM »

Ok, we were going through all the games a few days ago and played this one a little. I'll try to relate the experience we had.

Everyone liked the instruction screen. We all agreed: it was clear, informative, and the most creative we had seen. When we started the game, though, a sort of hush fell over the room. There was kind of an uncomfortable pause as people digested what they saw. One person said meekly to themselves, "So I press this and then this..." There were some hums and grunts as we started playing. And then one person declared, "This is kind of creepy." And that seemed to be the consensus of the room. We played a few times anyway, about four rounds I think, and then moved on to the next game. Too bad! I thought it looked great and not creepy in the least.

As you said in the first post, the gameplay is pretty much button mashing. From the visuals, it seems like it should be more about psychology or, perhaps, experimentation. What if the game was about the choice: do I shock the other player or not? If the players had some incentive to not press the button, it might make things more interesting.

The question is: how do you give the players incentive to both press and not press the button but also make the outcome unclear so they have to think: "Should I shock the other player or not?" The source of (at least some of) the uncertainty should be the other player. So that what they are really thinking is: "Is the other player going to shock me?"

I think the best way to do this might be to give both players a prompt -- some piece of information -- for them to think "will the other person shock me based on this information?" That way, it's not just a pure rock-paper-scissors guess.

See, We know there isn't a lot of gamplay here. The game is pretty much done, but We'd love to listen to your suggestions on how to expand the concept or make It more interesting.

Careful what you wish for! I've been running through ideas that might be more interesting than button mashing.



Idea 1.

The first idea had "timed rounds." If neither player shocks the other at the end of the round, they both get a large reward. If someone does shocks the other, the person who does the shocking get a small reward.

This could be made more interesting by making the rewards random or unknown or both. And by varying the rewards based on subject behavior. So, for example, if they are both always waiting for the time to run out, the reward for shocking someone could be increased.

But the problem with idea is is: if both players get the same amount of reward (no matter how large), it's really no reward at all. The only real metric is the difference in player score, which wouldn't change. (Maybe this large reward should be given to a random player -- with a "probability meter" that shows the probability of either player getting the large reward?)

I couldn't quite get this idea to work. It certainly could work, but it needs much more tweaking.



Idea 2.

This evolved out of idea 1. I think it's a little closer to the mark.

Suppose the game was broken into rounds.
Players alternate roles. Let's call them subject A and subject B.
Subject A can shock themself or the other person.
Subject B can choose to redirect the shock or not.

If subject B does not redirect, then whoever subject A selected gets shocked.
If subject B redirects, then the person subject A did not select gets shocked.

It kind of sounds like the poisoned drinking game in The Princess Bride, actually.

Anyway, to make it more interesting the intensity of the shock could vary and be partially unknown to the players.

Suppose a lab technician holds up two white cards (think figure skating judges' cards). They both have a random number on them but we can only see the number on one. (Kind of like blackjack, I guess).

After both subjects select an option (double-blind), the hidden card is revealed and the sum of the two cards is the intensity of the shock. That is how much "life" or whatever is subtracted from the person who gets shocked. First person to run out of this pool of "life" loses.



Ok, I should stop there! This turned into a mountain of text that's probably not clear at all. Sorry guys, that escalated quickly. It's a neat concept, I could go all night... Thanks for the opportunity for a brainstorming session! Always fun.
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Pencil_In_Pain
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« Reply #16 on: March 26, 2011, 09:30:53 AM »

Hey, thanks for the feedback, guys. Please, take this as a quick prototype, or a sketch If you prefer. If I ever did a sequel or a rewrite (which is highly unlikely), It'd probably be very different. It's great to see comments and suggestions popping out though. I am by no means a game developer, so they're always interesting and much appreciated.

Let's see. I'll do my best to explain with my poor english.

First of all. Let me say I'm happy to see people disliked the game and the situations depicted in there. "A cure for friendship" is intended to be an uncomfortable game. Uncomfortable to look at and uncomfortable to play (I mean, physically uncomfortable). So I'm glad to see people found It disturbing (indeed, It is), or even became frustrated and quit playing.

Quote
What if the game was about the choice: do I shock the other player or not? If the players had some incentive to not press the button, it might make things more interesting.

Actually, you can decide not to shock the other player at all (you'll even unlock an achievement). The game doesn't care who shocks who. As long as you wait for 25 rounds you'll get to the end. All you have to do is press "next" 25 times. (Someone pointed 25 rounds is too much and I agree. My fault. It'd be much better if the game was shorter).

Quote
Idea 1 & Idea 2

That's some interesting mechanics you've got there and these would make for a better gaming experience, for sure. Like you said, the trickiest part is rewards. Do you really want to reward players for shocking each other? If you introduce rewards, you're giving players more gameplay (which is good), but you're also introducing a reason to "hurt" each other.

In "a cure for friendship" there's boss fights (against a CPU controlled enemy) and also an achievement based on mutual shocking (I shock you but you have to shock me in return, which is more or less fair).

But those are intended to be collaborative mechanics.

Remember the prompt screen, when you quit playing? "Good friends game together to death". See "A cure for friendship" fails at being a good game for It's lack of mechanics or strategy but also fails at being a Versus game because It's collaborative. It's always been intended to be a coop game in disguise.

I'm not sure I was succesful to make players notice, but that was the reason behind the game, all the time. No matter how harsh and disturbing It is, you have to play together, not against each other.

Wow. Long post. Thanks a lot to those who played and sorry to put you through this. You're brave guys and gals!  Coffee


 
« Last Edit: March 26, 2011, 10:55:00 AM by Pencil_In_Pain » Logged

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« Reply #17 on: March 28, 2011, 04:14:26 PM »

Hey, thanks for the thoughtful comment. I didn't realize earlier that the game doesn't actually reward players for shocking each other. That makes things interesting! Even though we played this for one of the shortest amounts of time, it turned out to be one of the more thought provoking for me.

Another thought I had, the game could collect statistics on player behavior and send them to some kind of central server. So everyone who plays is actually also part of a statistical experiment!
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