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[Udderdude]

Will have to check some of these out later.

[ZeppelinCaptain]

WELCOME TO MYSTERY SUNDAY  

download: http://bit.ly/195kM4b
version (doesn't work in Firefox): http://bit.ly/19yNNHC



 

[Udderdude]

lol

[CowMainia]

aww man all these games actually looked awesome but then realized it was a .exe so i cant play it on my mac  i hope they can be ported to mac somehow

[Excy]

Oh, wow! Pictures! Haha, they look awesome.

Also, underpants/trunks - http://i.imgur.com/9eABHms.jpg

[ZeppelinCaptain]

And on the seventh day.. He made another game! No time for resting, when you're a creator!

Download the juicyness of number 7 here: http://bit.ly/1egcIRq
Browser version (doesn't work in Firefox): http://bit.ly/1gkFvq3

This game features an asteroidish control scheme, and making things unholey, and then avoiding unholey bubbles.



And as something BRAND NEW, you can now play the game directly from your browser, so you don't even need Windows anymore, and you don't need to download dangerous zip files! This is for you, cowmania! I'll try to convert the rest later as well.

lol

I think you might have won, or something  

In all seriousness, regarding Mystery Sunday: yesterday was the first day where I had a really hard time coming up with a good idea, so after some time, I just decided to let loose and start making a wacky game, not knowing where it would lead. And it lead to... that.

I was then very scared of today, because of the possibility that my "writer's block" would continue today, but luckily something appeared in my mind and took shape as game number 7! Despite some collision bugs (I have a hard time getting rid of those in GM), I think I made a pretty entertaining game today. Try it out for yourself and tell me what you think!

Also, underpants/trunks - http://i.imgur.com/9eABHms.jpg

NO NO NO   Those are OBVIOUSLY viking helmets...

[CowMainia]

yay! lol

[Excy]

NO NO NO  Those are OBVIOUSLY viking helmets...

Heh. I can't unsee.

[ZeppelinCaptain]

EIGHT DAYS A WEEK! IS NOT ENOUGH TO SHOW I CARE!

But more than enough to make a game, so here's another one: http://bit.ly/19dN1h7
Browser version (doesn't work in Firefox): http://bit.ly/17lTdBX

It's about placing blocks for the dying sun to jump on. You move in a grid, and you place blocks by moving into a field and waiting there, but you can only have 6 blocks in the grid at a time! Instructions are in-game.



This might be the prettiest game I've made so far this month  

Today I felt pretty disappointed with yesterday's idea. It wasn't very original, and it was a very "safe" project for me (although it still ended up a bit buggy...). I realized that this is not a month for safe projects, it's a month for taking some risks and doing things I haven't done before. So I decided to make something I've never made before: a grid-based game.

I think it turned out to be my favorite so far. AND I had a blast making it, because I wasn't just wading through programming steps that I've taken many times before. So although it's a lot harder to get an idea for something brand new, it's definitely worth it!

Although it is very different, the block creation mechanic is definitely inspired by Starseed Pilgrim's growing blocks. Have you played that game? It's amazing: http://www.starseedpilgrim.com/

But as always, please play the game and tell me if you like it or hate it. Or if you just want to put a hat on it.

[ZeppelinCaptain]

A cat has nine lives. A penguin only has one. Make it count!

Game number nine (the second game to feature penguins) is up: http://bit.ly/1bHC7pF
Browser version (doesn't work in Firefox): http://bit.ly/1blR8ZO

This game is about saving a penguin from black holes and icicles, by moving a black hole around with the mouse! They ain't got nothing on my realism.



This time I wanted to do something controlled with the mouse, and I had an idea with gravity rumbling around in my head, that I just couldn't get out. But I had also received a personal request from a friend to make a game with a penguin in it. So I made a game about playing with gravity AND penguins! Everyone is happy!

Since the idea was very quick to implement this time, I experimented a bit more with how many icicles to start with, and how fast to introduce more, and I think I hit a sweet-spot (although the third comes too late, but that doesn't really matter, since most people don't make it very far with 2), to make it enjoyable for beginners for a while, while still introducing more challenge before it gets boring.
The challenge level is something that I have to judge very quickly on these games, so some of them end up being too hard (like number 5), and some increase difficulty too slowly (like number 4).

[ZeppelinCaptain]

10 games done, I am a third of the way   (okay, I'm like 0.333333 game from being there...)

Get the 10th beast here: http://bit.ly/1ccNC55
Browser version (doesn't work in Firefox): http://bit.ly/GIhMSF

This one is in-browser playable!  

It's about removing red balls with green balls by clicking strategically. It's also about a social commentary about saying please too much.



My first puzzle game! It actually wasn't meant to be a puzzle game, but it ended up being one, which is totally awesome. I was going to make it more action-packed with the red ones being dangerous or something, but this was much better.

It only has one level, but you can try to lower your amount of clicks! I think there are actually some possibilities in taking this idea further with more levels and variation, but, alas, I only had 40 minutes!

The first couple of times that I playtested it, it seemed perfectly balanced, but then I finished it, exported it, and I suddenly realized a really easy way to beat it, and my best score went from 13 to 3. I wish I had noticed this flaw before, since I could have fixed it pretty easily. Oh well, I hope you don't notice in your first play  

IF you play, that is.

This project is still fun for me personally, but I wonder if anyone here really cares anymore, since there have been no comments the last two days, and the penguin one has gotten 0 plays through 24 hours. It won't stop me, but I think it's kind of sad, since I am sharing this project for a reason (for people to enjoy the games and to learn a bit from my mistakes as well!)  

So please play the games guys! They only take 2 minutes each, they are not too shabby, if I may say so myself, and I LOVE comments  

[ZeppelinCaptain]

Ocean's Eleven. ZC's Eleven. What's better? You're the judge  

Judge game number 11 here: http://bit.ly/17tA549

Keys weren't working in the HTML5 version, so only Windows today, sorry.

It's about controlling the speed of orbs.



This one started out way differently in my head, with multiple light-blue and purple orbs, and all the orbs being multi-directional, but that was just really complicated. I was kind of sad that I had to cut out features (just like in a real project!), but it made a lot more managable and fun. It's still a challenging game, but hopefully in a good way.

I am generally against instructions in games, and I love it when games don't tell you what to do, but just throws you in there to figure it out by yourself. For these small games, it's usually better to give some quick instructions though, but with this one, I figured it would work to just put the controls there, and let people experiment and explore.

As always, please do try the games and tell me if you think anything about them! I try my best to make them original, so you are guaranteed a unique experience  

Work music today was Trolle Siebenhaar:

. It's perfect.

[ZeppelinCaptain]

I still get excited every single time I create a new project and set a new number after "October 2013 Games". Today it was 12, so I have apparently made as many games in this month as Jesus had disciples.

I guess this one is my Judas, then? Get the traitor here: http://bit.ly/16DxuZv
Browser version (doesn't work in Firefox): http://bit.ly/GW57vl
Firefox version, without instructions or death message (Instructions: use left/right arrow keys to move clockwise or counter-clockwise): http://bit.ly/19z5Nlk

It's about moving in a circle, while avoiding blocks.



This is the game this month that I have used the most time making, and it is the most polished so far. I like this one a lot!

I realized while making this one that counting how many blocks are left gives a huge boost in motivation while playing it, because you can see that mysterious reward coming. That's probably not something new for most people, but it was something that just suddenly clicked in my head.

I put a lot of work in the difficulty curve on this one! In the beginning it gets harder and harder and you die at some point, just like most of the other games. But if you make it past a certain point (42 blocks), something new is introduced to challenge you further, and it serves as a checkpoint, so that you don't have to start all over if you die after that point. This way, beginner players can just stay in the first stage of the game, while better players don't have to play through all the easy stuff when they die at a later point, but they still have to survive each stage in one go!

Basically, it's just different stages, kind of like in Super Hexagon, but without being able to improve your score in the first stages, and with increasing difficulty in each stage. I think Super Hexagon's way of doing difficulty is the best way for these kinds of games, but it's only possible if you somehow know that people will stick with your game, even if it has a static difficulty throughout the first stage (eg. by being a well-known developer). Note that I'm not talking about level of difficulty, only the curve of difficulty.

Finally: I swear that I got this as an original idea, and that the resemblance to Duet gameplay is a coincidence. That game does look great though! Check the trailer out:

[Udderdude]

That last one spawned a zillion dialogue boxes until Firefox gave up because it ran out of Windows GUI resources .. wtf man D:

http://rydia.net/udder/!crap/wtf.gif

[ZeppelinCaptain]

That last one spawned a zillion dialogue boxes until Firefox gave up because it ran out of Windows GUI resources .. wtf man D:

Wow, I have no idea what's up with that. Sorry, I'll try to fix it immediately!

EDIT: Okay, it seems that the dialogue boxes that I use for instructions are broken in Firefox... This seems to be the case for all of the games, so until I have time to replace all of the boxes with something else, the browser versions will be Chrome and IE only. I'm very sorry about that, I'll put up a warning. Thanks for the heads up, though!

[ZeppelinCaptain]

Was I scared to make unlucky number 13, you ask? I am never scared      

Download number 13 here: http://bit.ly/163550I
Browser version: http://bit.ly/1gd0o8M
This time it actually works in Firefox!

It's about moving stripes in order to change the speed of dots and get them across the screen. I don't think it's humanly possible for me to make a game without dots or circles  



Possibly the ugliest game so far   It's not bad though.

I went back and forth a lot on this idea. It started out with checkered areas (instead of the final stripes) and each area changing the direction. It didn't really work though, so it slowly evolved towards this. I played around with the sizes of the fields, since it was hard to actually make this just a little challenging, without it being impossible, or making it feel like you had no influence at all.

I am tired of people not playing my games. I did know that there would not be much audience for these kinds of quickly-made games, but no audience at all? Oh well, I'll keep on trucking. Please do play them and tell your friends! And if any of you have any idea as to where to post these games, please tell me! I want to share them, not only make them for myself.

Also, if you are viewing this thread, but not playing the games, then please tell me why!

I almost didn't get around to making this, because of being too occupied with Michael Brough's 868-HACK. It's crazy good.

[ZeppelinCaptain]

A fortnight has passed, and 14 games have been made. I am extremely happy with being able to say that 

Get number 14 right here: http://bit.ly/GXdFD2
Browser version: http://bit.ly/1bRvhhr
This one also works in the fox of flames!

It's about protecting your brother, by shooting X'es that are constantly attacking him. Stay close to him to move faster.



This one has the cleanest visual design so far (imgur doesn't really do it justice. Anybody know any good free image hosting that doesn't compress the images as much?). I'm slowly figuring out some tricks of minimalism.

I am very happy with today's game. Nice difficulty level, nice visuals, cool simple mechanic and even a minimalist narrative. Enjoy, and if you disagree, tell me!

Game was pretty much done in my head from the get-go, so I don't have much to say about the idea process. Programming-wise it was pretty straight-forward as well, although I had to stop and think a bit for the math I use for increasing the spawn rate of enemies over time. The repeating alarm for their spawn ended up having this formula: 200/((score/50)+1).
I halved the size of all objects at some point during the process, and it had a really nice effect on the game, both in terms of gameplay and in terms of reducing claustrophobia.

Work music for today was Rangleklods:

[ink.inc]

Anybody know any good free image hosting that doesn't compress the images as much?).

tumblr or deviantart

[ZeppelinCaptain]

Anybody know any good free image hosting that doesn't compress the images as much?).

tumblr or deviantart

Thanks a lot for the recommendations, I'll check those out and maybe replace some of the images. Also, thanks for checking out the thread, may I ask what you think of the games?

[ZeppelinCaptain]

15 games about circles and dots and avoiding things. The world MUST be a better place by now.

Download the latest greatest here: http://bit.ly/GXexY4
Browser version: http://bit.ly/16L9svL
Works in FF (and in all the other browsers as well, of course)!

It's about dodging things without being able to see them. Pressing space reveals the position of all enemies and yourself, but it also adds another enemy.



This one has a very interesting mechanic, and I think I managed to implement it in a way so that it was used deservingly. The balance between not adding too many reds, and still knowing where they are is really cool, and I like the panic that spreads when you realize that you have way too many reds.

I am also generally fascinated by centering gameplay around what the player sees, since playing with that is a very powerful way of creating interesting effects in games (okay, that was an incredibly vague sentence, but I have a hard time explaining it properly.)

I wanted to clearly distinguish the player and the enemies, so that you aren't in doubt when you "flash". The background also had to be very simple, to create as little visual noise as possible.

Other than that, the game is pretty simple, so I don't have much to say.