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[Little Nando]

I decided to do more font tests... since I wasn't very much convinced on my initial selection. Basically, the humor and tone of the game is a bit dramatic, and a bit monkey-islandesque. Meaning, lots of ironic remarks, stupid jokes, etc. So, the font really had to embody that. Using a very serious font would make the game dull and boring to read... and, using a very "quirky" font wouldn't allow any dramatic connection between the player and the main character in the game. My personal humor tends to do that, it's a mixture of serious stuff and very comical stuff. It's something really hard to balance out, sometimes. So, what I decided to do, was to try several fonts in several situations, some comical, some serious. For instance, the phrase "And suddently, I thought of Alice" would be dramatic, serious... a moment when the main character remembers his lost love, etc. And a phrase like, for instance, "Whoa! Shut your word-hole!" would be mostly comical. What I had to do is find a font and palette overall for the menus that would work for both, so this is what I've been trying:

[Games Inquirer]

The game's graphics seem to simulate a limited color palette so maybe the text boxes should be colored differently so that they don't seem like they waste too many colors?

[Little Nando]

The game's graphics seem to simulate a limited color palette so maybe the text boxes should be colored differently so that they don't seem like they waste too many colors?

Hey! Yeah, that's half and half correct. The game will simulate a NES game of the golden years, BUT, in terms of color and amount of colors I'm using 256, so there shouldn't be a problem with that. Still, you're right in what you're saying. The colored boxes don't work, anywho. I was inspired by some Final Fantasy boxes that used bright blue as background color... so I was eager to try that. In the end I went down with regular black colored boxes... Thanks for the input!

[Little Nando]

I kept going at the font, but now with a closer to final palette. In the end I decided to go for the most ordinary, famicom looking font, ArcadePixel... even though I sometimes think that the Willow font could work as well... But I think the reasons I chose the ArcadePixel one are two: 1) it's the one you can read faster, in comparison to the others, and I really really need fast texts for the actions sequences (and in order for the players not to fall asleep) and 2) the tone of the arcade pixel font is very neutral. Mostly, I think, because when we were kids we used to play both dramatic AND comedy games on our NES... Famicom, what have you. And all games were done with this same font (or most of them, for that matter). So that our brain can perfectly accept a joke/comidic phrase or a dramatic phrase coming from this font. Not the same happening with Willow, which, is not easy to read "in speed", plus, it feels way too medieval for my taste. Which might be good, since the story does have RPG and sort of medieval elements with the weapons, swords, shields and the such. But still, it wasn't doing it for me. The Naive font looked cool, but it was too trendy for me too. And too "japanese rpg" too. Which isn't bad, but again, not working for me. Here are the tests.

ARCADEPIXEL FONT







WILLOW FONT







NAIVE FONT







 

[Little Nando]

YOUTUBE GAMEPLAY LINK! WATCH!  




As for the menu, I also very quickly realized that I had to make it appear in different places depending on where the character is on screen... if not, the inventory menu would complete hide/be over the character. I decided that it would be cool to have an inventory full of weapons, and stuff. And, shmup games are ALL about weapons. It felt kinda cool to go look for weapons inside your inventory. It made the gameplay a bit more "brainy". And, this inventory system would allow for the player to use bombs, look for items that are not particulary weapons, and do a full story/adventure game system... Plus, special spiritual powers, etc.etc. Here's a little run on the inventory, using some Castlevania chip music for the background... Also, all MENUs are very much inspired on DRAGON WARRIOR, and Final Fantasy... but mostly Dragon Warrior. Really loved playing that game as investigation for this project...

[Games Inquirer]

Looks all kinds of rad dude

[Little Nando]

Hey thanks GI ) 

[Tuba]

I like where this is going...

[Little Nando]

Hey thanks so much Tuba Glad you like it...  !!

[Little Nando]

Working on the first builds, I very quickly realised that I had to create some sort of "VJ triggering" to trigger effects, like, slow motion, asteroids, send a wave of enemies, a boss, weapons, etc. Programming them one by one, based on a counter, or a time counter, actually... would take loooots of time, and it's not very fun to code. So, what I decided to do, is to build this "Keyboard VJ Recorder" where I record, against a time counter+music, what keys I type in, and when. Then load it on a list file, and then play it against the music whenever a level starts. This made my life wayyy easier. Since I used to be a VJ for pubs, night clubs, and so forth, it's easy for me to simply "VJ" a song to the rhythm. So now, all I have to do to design a level is simply listen to some music, and record my VJ input. Then just hit play, and watch the level go live in full motion, all synced to the music. Neat huh?? Since I'm no serious programmer myself, I'm quite impressed I was able to pull this one off!! Here's a small video of how the VJ recorder works:





Enjoy the weekend!

[Little Nando]

Great news! Tough Coded: Live was selected for Indiecade 2013!!! Alongside great games like Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime and Crypt of the Necrodancer. And not only that, Tough Coded was selected to be executed live with CHIPZEL doing the music... live as well!! Chipzel = awesome gameboy musician who did the score for SuperHexagon!! So excited!!

Check the full festival line up for their Night Games here!!

http://www.indiecade.com/2013/festival_nightgames/

Indiecade will be held in LA, from October 3rd throughout the 6th. For more info go here! http://www.indiecade.com/

Since I'm currently am in Argentina, and have another event that same night, a very good friend of man, SuperRockstar Game designers Fernando Ramallo (very well known for his IndieFunded-game Panoramical, and also fellow Argentinian) will be executing the game live as the "VideoGame DJ"! So that would be a VERY cool night. Don't miss it if you're in LA!!! Check Fernando's project here: http://www.panoramic.al/

There's now an official Tough Coded Twitter and Facebook, plus, I bought a .com, finally, for LittleNando... so here are all the new links!!

http://www.facebook.com/toughcoded
http://www.twitter.com/toughcoded
http://www.littlenando.com

[Fervir]

This sounds really neat, I'll have to check out the rest of the posts

[Little Nando]

Hey, thanks Fervir!!! Am going to upload lots of updates and lots of videos these next few days right before IndieCade!!! Lots of things I´ve been working on. Thanks for the kind words!   

[Little Nando]

For the Title Screen of the game, or... title logo, actually, I've always had the Back to the Future type and colors in my mind. Plus, I wanted to do something like the Mega Man IV title screen. I stumbled upon titlescream.com once and got pretty much inspired by sooo many NES title screens out there. Also this tumblr, which is amazing: http://nestitlescreens.tumblr.com/

I very roughly, very quickly did the logo type on vectors, in 3D Studio Max, just to do a cool camera angle afterwards and extrude the type a bit. Then I painted it pixel by pixel inside MMF. The result is horrible. I'm going to hire someone for this, I hope...
I also liked the IV, Episode IV thingie, from the Mega Man title screen, and Star Wars... So I just left it there



In Argentina, Cospel is the token you use to call on old street phonebooths... :S

[Little Nando]

So, I decided to test out the competition game, the Live version of Tough Coded, in my office. Here are some pics.

The Live Version of Tough Coded is pretty simple.
You hook up TWO XBOX Controllers to a laptop, and a keyboard
2 random players in party pick up a control, and battle against each other in a two-player kinda shmup game
A Videogame DJ (this is what I'm calling it now) executes the game

The VideoGame DJ executes the game JUST LIKE a VJ executes a VJ set for any DJ. He changes the colors of the backgrounds, he changes the speed of the game (slow motion, stop gameplay, etc.) and decides when the bad guys appear, among other things.

The ULTIMATE bad-boss is the Videogame DJ, in this case "LITTLE NANDO", and that's me

The Videogame DJ should wear a MASK when he plays. A daft-punkesque kinda mask.

Each competiton lasts the length of a song (the Videogame DJ decides when levels begin and end). The Videogame DJ can execute music himself OR the music can be executed by someone else, like a DJ or whatever.

Before each level begins the videogame DJ can select a super power up he can use a limited number of times during each competition.

Here's a video showing how this works, overall !!





I stuck a GOPRO cam on my head so people could understand what I'm doing, with a little picture in picture there to show how I executed the game with a keyboard.

Eventually I'd love to get a MIDI set or something to execute it. Keyboards suck. Too 90s. Too.... Windows... heh.

Also, here are some vids of the guys in PepperMelon's office playing!!




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mll14GGkLKM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVXgUkZhLV8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf6okofTJoI

[Little Nando]

Here's another video of me executing the game live, this time to Back to the Future's song Power of Love. The game is best played with catchy music or very hardcore dubstep... although I'm currently working on some modes to play with very ease music... not so violent. More on that very soon

LINK:

[Little Nando]

So, I got my first gig! My pal Ramza Pilgrim (@SirRamza) is a cool dude that does these big Otaku/Cosplay parties in Argentina called FANDOM NIGHTS, and he sometimes showcases indie games and does small competitions, like Street Fighter tournaments, and the such. He gave me a very small space to try the game out for the first time with REAL people. And the experience was great! I executed the game right beside random parachuting gamers, who didn't realize until the very end that there was a VIDEOGAME DJ executing the game! Once they found out I was executing the game, they wanted to kick my ass! (because I kept making them lose). It was tons of fun to see the direct reaction of people to the game.

Also, before going to the party, in a forum for the party on Facebook this girl, called Aixa, started talking about, dunno, something. The party was that same night. And I offered to create her as PLAYER 2 of the game, because right up until then, I didn't have a design for player 2. She said YES and sent me a picture of how she was going to dressed to the party. Since Multimedia Fusion 2 is a program very easy to use and code, I was able to create the art and code for Aixa, Player 2, in just a few hours, before going to the party.

Right then I realized the impact and the power the game has. This sort of thing is quite cool for the average gamer (to play as himself in a game) and it's a very cool way to create community. The night was very fun overall and I was able to write up lots of things as feedback to improve the game!

Here are a few pics of that jam!

[Little Nando]

Weirdly enough, on a same weekend, I scored two new gigs. One, for some friends in UNLP (La Plata university, which is about 100km away from Buenos Aires) and La Plata Game Jam, a very indie gamejam organized by the good folks at INTIVA and Gamester. I was invited to showcase Tough Coded Live in both events. The weekend was amazing, the gamejam was super fun and the guys provided some excellent feedback for the game! Plus, I VGDJed  (videogame djed) the game along CAMILLE ANDROID ( who is a very cool musician from La Plata. We had tons of fun and some friends made some videos! Here they are:









Link to Tana Camille's music:
https://www.facebook.com/CamilleAndroid?fref=ts

[Little Nando]

Tough Coded ROCKED IndieCade, with Fer Ramallo (creator IndieFunded Panoramical) VideogameDJing the game, and Chipzel scoring the tunes live! It was a real treat! Check the video below!!

LIVE VIDEO ON INDIECADE LINK




More videos and Vines up on my Tumblr:
http://little-nando.tumblr.com/post/63728704224/tough-coded-chipzel-rocked-indiecade-with-fernando


Enjoy!

[Little Nando]

New short n' sweet post on my Tumblr, regarding showcasing Tough Coded: Live on Trimarchi, the biggest design event in Latinamerica, in front of an audience of 4000 people!!

Check here!

 

http://little-nando.tumblr.com/post/64145415245/tough-coded-in-trimarchi-how-about-showcasing-the-game