Archive for the ‘Technical’ Category

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Social Game Development

Monday, June 7th, 2010

I did a tiny little research on nowadays game development using Javascript(1) and decided that when HalmaStar becomes beta, the game I will create next will be multiplayer tile-based action-puzzle-solving scroller with most of the levels developed by players themselves.

The game will consist of multiple objects of different types where each of them interacts with each other in a specific way. For example, there will be avatars of different players, solid blocks, collectibles, different types of dangerous objects, etc.

Some games to take inspiration from are Electric Box, Bomber Man, Load Runner, and especially Supaplex.

The main features:

  • Level-based
  • Level editing, drafts, publishing
  • Voting for the best levels
  • Attribution and Flattr button of a level-creator at each level
  • Leaderboards: best players, best contributors
  • Some levels are for single mode, can be played offline
  • Some levels need collaboration to be solved
  • Some levels are competitive and only one player of a group might finish them in one go
  • Playable on mobile phones or other handheld devices
  • Facebook app
  • Django, Javascript, Ajax used
  • Funny attractive minimalistic animation
  • Developed no later than till July 2011 (having in mind that I will be doing that during my free time).

Maybe that will be the reincarnation of a game I started developing many years ago. I remember I couldn’t finish it then, because of some technical limitations of BASIC programming language or probably my incompetence in managing computer memory. Now as tools, technologies, and computers improved, and I have more than 8 years of experience in programming, I shouldn’t face any similar issues.

(1) I took the first glance at the possibilities of Javascript game engines: Akihabara, gameQuery, gamejs, and Javascript 2D game engine. I should review them in detail, analyze, and compare later. But that’s a theme for another post.

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HalmaStar Screenshots #0003

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Have I already mentioned that all wishes become true? Just a day after my decision to decrease the number of my working hours, I talked to my bosses and here I am working just three work days per week developing web, whereas I can spend the rest two for my own game development(1) and education.

I started achieving progress in larger steps. I have already made a playable version which is being tested at the moment and looks like this:

HalmaStar Screenshot #3

There is still a lot to do till publishing, e.g. player joining and profile management, a list of people online, player avatars, help for newbies, etc. But it feels very good, because of obvious progress, especially after positive feedback from friends.

(1) Actually, I have a four-day weekend, where I code or party at nights and sleep at days.. occasionally. :cool:

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Sunday Celebration: Village Business

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

They say: “Grow delicious fruits and vegetables and raise adorable animals on your very own farm!”. But this is what you get: “Buy many images for money, lay them in your square field, return back in many hours, sell the images and you’ll get even more money. Buy many images for money, lay them in your square field…” That’s one of many facebook-based cloned games by Zynga company with rural decorations this time and it’s called FarmVille.

FarmVille

Game developers usually get surprised how such a primitive grinding game has more players than twitter has tweeple. Farm village engages the rational ones by simple strategies what images to choose to get maximal profit in minimal time. It engages the irrational ones by attractive childish graphics and animation and the ability to arrange their farms as cozy, interesting, or esthetical as possible. Some players exploit the unexpected possibilities of the game while creating their farm art. Some people get caught by marketing tricks like facebook statuses about the game, various actions and invitations, ads in other games by Zynga, podcasts, twitter statuses, adaption to actual holidays (Halloween, Christmas, Easter), etc.

FarmVille is a community-based game. Recently Tony Ventrice defined the following purposes of such games in Gamasutra:

  • Create permanent community (offer collaboration)
  • Create the feeling of continuous discoveries (prompt player progress and self-expression)
  • Spread the game virally (prompt players to invite friends)

There isn’t much community-forming in the game. You are just offered to invite neighbors whose farms you’ll be able to fertilize so that they get richer crop. Also you can give your neighbors animals, trees, and different decorations from a reserve of gifts, where the amount of gift choices grow up with the increasing level of your village business experience. What I don’t like is that you can give others different presents that you don’t really have and can’t take yourself (as well as you can’t fertilize your own fields). The game is symbolized a lot already, but giving presents from some strange reserve makes it even more unrealistic. On another hand, this ensures that players won’t sell virtual goods to each other what usually happens in multi-player gaming.

The avatar of the game makes no sense. It just slows all the activities down, because if you want to plough and sow a field, the avatar has to go to it first. I found out that if you frame your avatar with a fence, the fields are ploughed and sowed immediately. So you have to limit yourself for productivity (like in real life). If you visit your neighbors, you will never find them at home. You’ll find there only abandoned farm full of crows and weeds, which you can clear and get virtual money for that.

The business model behind FarmVille is this: the game is free for most of the players, but a few percent of biggest fans buy virtual money for real money at their free will, to be able to develop their village business in larger scope.

There is almost no interaction among different objects in the game except the area they take (animals can’t go over the area which is laid with an image, e.g. a field, a tree, or a fence). When you achieve quite high level or buy virtual money, you can get tractors or harvesters which make the work much faster as you don’t have to click on each field, but that works only while you have fuel. The game would be much more interesting, if rabbits would nibble the uncovered trees, unframed cows and horses would trample down or eat the crop, animals would need food, the manure of animals could be used to fertilize the fields, etc.

Frame yourself for productivity

Having in mind that FarmVille is still in beta, there is a hope that it will be more interesting in the future. If you have several months, you can try farming as is now. But if you have no time and still want to have fun, play the platform game this weekend (surprise surprise! :D ).

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HalmaStar Screenshots #0002

Saturday, August 29th, 2009

Lately, my webserver provider sent me a message that the order for a year is about to end and that I have to pay for the next year. The Chinese Checkers website on that webserver has been holding just the logo for the whole year. The company of another webserver where I keep this blog, sent me a coupon of 75 € for advertising at Google Adwords. I have an ad, but still no project to advertise. I won’t promote my personal blog, will I!? So I have lots of encouragement and motivators, just the time is what I am lack of…

Anyway my creative work doesn’t stand still. I learned the basics of Gimp. Whenever I find some free hours among the sessions my work and spare time, I sit down and glue the graphical design together.

Page design

I changed the typeface of the logo. It’s much more lively and playful now. The Asian motives of the letters fit with the Manga-styled face of the star better that the old bitten typeface.

The website design will be of a space theme. At the moment there are just stars pasted all around. But probably later I will also add satellites, rockets, and even some absurd objects, let’s say, a wooden chair flying in the space. I am still thinking how to layout the textual elements like chats, titles, descriptions, collected points, etc. so that they fit in the main design. It’s also not clear how to layout the blog and forum as I don’t have experience in creating webdesign, but still I want something unique.

Berlin planet

All the planets will be different. At the moment I am only drawing the planets of Berlin and Vilnius. WTF? Since when Vilnius has been a planet!? As I’ve written in the first part, planets will uncover the identity of different capitals of Europe. That’s why I was asking for public opinion what things symbolize Vilnius for Lithuanians.

For liveliness each player will be represented by an avatar of the same color which marbles he’s using in the Chinese Checkers. I wanted to have single-colored unisex-styled dress. I was thinking about some overalls or cloaks.. Fortunatelly, Viktorija was doing her diploma about cloths which were sexless enough, futuristic, and original. The best part here is that she agreed that those textile designs will be used in my game and sent me the photos and sketches.

Persona

I am moving forward in turtle steps. Maybe I’ll finish in, let’s say, 10 years. It would be better to do that sooner, because I decided to find a girlfriend when I finish this project… As I was jealous of the relations of two couples visiting me recently. :D

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Inspirations for Level Designers: “Vilija”

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

After crossing the pedestrians’ bridge over the river Vilnele, I climb the snowy hillside up. Then I go by the wire fence until I reach an unraveled hole in it. I go through it, pass the opened drains, and step inside through squeaking door. I am starting a new column in my blog. It will be about astonishing places which waken imagination for the creators of adventure, action, and horror games. Scary abandoned unexpected spaces, strange details, and mystic lighting will show what labyrinth of rooms your game character could be running in, what textures to use for covering your models, and how to adjust the lights..

A huge spool of thread lightened by the sun in the evening

It’s evening. The beam of sunlight through a window drowns half of the visible territory. Somebody might hide not only in the dark, but also behind the beam of light. The mystery is created not by the darkness, but by the penetration of light in the darkness cautiously touching things scattered all over the place.

Pigeons perching on the frame of a window

Pigeons being the new settlers of the house are watching me through the open or “opened” windows. Take a look at the light projected through the windows on the wall.

Kubrick-style-like corridor

Suddenly, I discover a white Kubrick-styled marble corridor. Plaster ceiling is broken and fallen down on the ground. They create me associations with the “Spring” by M. K. Čiurlionis. When you go on the pieces of the plaster, they clatter like metal faces in the Jewish Museum in Berlin. This room contrasts sharply with the rest of the factory. Is it a corridor to the baths of the chiefs? The door is locked. I hear steps and barking dogs. Somebody is putting a key into the door from the other side… Let’s run!

Ramps for extreme adventures

Urban activities make the building reborn in a new form. I roll over the ramps prepared by BMX bikers. Hurry up!

Wide spaces divided rhythmically by pillars

There is a lot of wide space, monotony, and rhythm. No matter how fast you run, you seem to stand in the same location..

Molded ceiling

The molded ceiling can be used as an example of texture. Do you feel that smell?

Holes in the ceiling

Of course, there is much water inside, because the roof has holes in it. Are those chimneys or holes for ventilation? Should we try running away through them like people did in the labyrinth of “The Cube“? It’s quite high. We should probably find some shelves, put them on each other, and then help each other to reach the holes. Oh! I can’t squeeze through them. You go up and wait for me!

Icy ground

This office is all covered in ice. I slip and bruise my elbow.

A window

The communist-styled window of this office gives me a hope that I can still get out of here until it gets dark outside…

Ghosts

Ghosts appear on my way. If you want to catch a view by a photo camera in twilight without flash, you need to do a long delay. If something moves in the shot at that moment, it will become pale and blurry as a ghost in the final photo. Theoretically it would be possible to make a ghost-like view in 3D by adding transparency to a model and making copies of it while it’s moving, where each copy would disappear little by little increasing the transparency. I’ll try that at some point in the future, when I start learning 3D modeling and animation. I turn aside…

Mysteriously creepy hall

Oh no! Everything has just started. My heart is bumping.

Location: textiles factory “Vilija”, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Time: January, 2009.
While writing, I was listening to music tagged “creepy”.

Others also were there:

  • Wd40 – correctly photoshopped moods.
  • JOG – the diversity of stuff found there.

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Sunday Celebration: the Last Descendant of Space Invaders

Sunday, July 19th, 2009

The main dish from the Sunday menu is a shmop “Broken Garden“. The author K. Thor Jensen gonna create 12 games in a year. This one is the fourth.

Broken Garden

Airplanes of strange shapes (I’ll keep my associations to myself) are called by the names of mythological sinners. They are Adam (the first man created by God), Eve (the first woman created by God), Cain (The first son of Adam and Eve), Lilith (ex of Adam. I’m not sure what kind of creature she was), Judas (the apostle of Jesus), and Satan (angel-manipulator). You choose one and then shoot at all the armies of angels in order to come back to the Gardens of Eden.

Each airplane has one normal and one super gun. The game is divided by levels, where the opponents are shot, and their fragments are collected as experience points. The protagonist has a few lives. Each level ends with a boss, i.e. a large airplane called by the name of archangel Gabriel. After finishing the boss and completing the level, you can buy an additional live or enhance one of the following features for your experience points: the power or speed of your normal gun, or the power or charging speed of your supergun.

If you multiply all you choice options, you get a lot of variations how to complete the game. The choices encourage you to replay and try different combinations.

The gameplay is almost the same as in the shmup “Xevious” which is of my age. But it doesn’t directly propagate wars among people. In worst case, you could see through the symbols inducing to fight for your rights, no matter what powers try to weaken you. The fiction is original, unexpected, and even shamelessly sacrilegious from the perspective of some religions.. I’m interested how it will end up so I’ll try to reach that Garden.

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Sunday Celebration: Charge Yourself!

Sunday, July 12th, 2009

Games can be divided by verisimilitude into these categories (1):

Level 3 solved

Electric Box uses animated icons to illustrate the law of conservation of energy which states that any form of energy can be transformed into another form. You can transform electricity to light, steam, wind, laser, or stream of water, and then transform that to back to electricity. The gameplay is like in the TIM – you have to lay out the things from inventor to a gridded field so that the energy from the source of electricity reaches the target.

The main strategy for playing could be finding pairs of things which use the same material for the energy transformations to electricity (for example, a lamp uses electricity when shining and then solar energy generator creates the electricity) and laying them at electricity cables supporting correct directions (for example, water drops down, steam goes up. wind blows horizontally, and light spread in four directions).

Animation and several moving objects like a conveyer, a magnet, and fan make this puzzle game look dynamic. Nevertheless, it would be absolutely possible to play this game on a gridded cardboard using cards with symbols. Probably, the prototype was created like that.

I completed almost all game, but got stuck in the last level and, in addition, I found a bug there where a convey carrying objects goes through some other objects in a strange specific case.

Bug in level 15

The creators foresaw that 15 prepared levels will be too few and made it possible for players to create levels themselves. You can try some custom levels of other players or my own masterpiece (copy the code and paste into the input field which will apear when you click on the link “Enter Code”):

Creating custom levels

Once I told to myself that if I have a house somewhen in the future, it will certainly use renewable energy from the sun, wind, stream or surf of water. Electric Box reminds me that dream.

(1) According to the book “Half-real” by Jesper Juul.

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Sunday Celebration: Play to Play

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

Today I try to catch your attention to parkour. WTF? Parkour! That is an urban sport of running and jumping created by some French. Check this video to see what it is:

You’ll be able to run on roofs, jump, swing, go hand on open cornices, slide under obstacles, jump from one wall to the other, run on walls, and do other tricks as a real parkour master in the game Mirror’s Edge 2D.

Running

Doesn’t that remind you anything? Yup! This game was created by the same Brad Borne, who did the Fancy Pants Adventures: World 2 showed here last week. The gameplay of Mirror’s Edge 2D is almost the same. The same physics engine is used, just pretty tweaked. Just another graphics, another style, and another animation is integrated. The presentation is closer to reality.

Swinging

Games researcher Jesper Juul wrote in his book “Half-Real“:

From a rules perspective, the most crucial role of fiction is to cue the player into understanding the rules, and this easily leads us to assumption that games are themable, that the representation and fiction of any game can simply be replaced with something else. Since an attractive feature of games is the way they challenge their players, games do not need an interesting fictional world or any fictional world to be considered interesting, but this does not mean that fiction is irrelevant for player experience or game quality.

Collecting evidences

The business model of the game is also interesting. The three-level Flash-based Mirror’s Edge 2D is a promo of a much more complex and expensive Mirror’s Edge. I haven’t seen such a business model before.

Sliding under obstacles

At the same time, Mirror’s Edge 2D extends the fictional world of Mirror’s Edge, as Animatrix extends the Matrix trilogy.

Running on walls

For replayability, it is optionally suggested to collect different elements spread over the space. They are folders with discrediting information, suitcases, and logos of the game. Also it is possible to compete with other players by the time of game completing. At some point it will be even possible to win a laptop!

Going hand

That’s it. I recommend you to play it. And now I go to listen to street music. Maybe I’ll even play some.

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Sunday Celebration: Power in the Pants

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

If the stickman had no colorful pants, he wouldn’t probably be able to run as fast as Sonic and jump from wall to wall as the bunny from Tiny Toon. This Sunday, I suggest you a funny game Fancy Pants Adventure: World 2 with all the functions an active side-scroller has ever needed.

FPA World 2: Logo

The game with FancyPants has no exclusive graphics. The proportions of characters are far away from reality (i.e. bees are bigger than mayor of the Squiggleville). The story of the game is ridiculous (FancyPants goes to the angry rabbit to get his ice-cream back). Also the view lags from time to time. But there are a few things that are done totally cool. They are consistent motion animation, sounds, and game physics engine.

FPA World 2: running under momentum

The guy can run so fast that he doesn’t fall when running in a loop upside-down. The hero can fall on his back and slide under all obstacles. It’s no problem for him to hang on rocks or get through a strained rope using hands as for the Prince of Persia. If necessary, FancyPants will jump on the walls as Jacky Chan or will kick snail shells and cowered spiders not worse than Beckhem. If I only had such pants…

FPA World 2: hanging on rocks

But that cannot be true. The game creator Brad Borne says in his website:

Yep, that’s right, all the physics in my games are faked. That’s probably why they’ll glitch out if you push them too hard, but a ‘realistic’ physics engine won’t make a game good, in fact, unless it’s one of those two-wheeled-vehicle-2d-platforming games, a realistic physics engine will probably take most of the life out of your game.

FPA World 2: flying on bees

You’ll complete the game for the first time just to see how it finished. You’ll do that second time to execute the additional tasks. There are hideouts and trophies to collect in the game. Also you’ll find a snail in each level which you can kick to a special hole to get new pants of some color. All achievements are registered in cookies, so you don’t have to register. You can come back anytime and play again.

FPA World 2: jumping from wall to wall

Go, but don’t forget that it’s Monday tomorrow.

P.S. Don’t hesitate to vote in the new poll.

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Sunday Celebration: Puzzled Out

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

Usually while playing we are used either to impersonate the characters and control them till the end of the game, or to solve some impersonal puzzles which get more difficult in time, and everything what you learn in the beginning is used later. This time I will show you a game consisting of about 20 mini puzzles which are almost not related to each other. That’s ClickPLAY!.

ClickPLAY! Obstacle Course

You have to do some task in each level in order to find a button “Play” and to click on it. You control everything just by mouse. You need either to click or drag some objects. By the first clicks you try everything how it works. Then you realize the task (or not). Then you try to solve the problem. That’s like an IQ test, but with funny animation.

ClickPLAY! Bowling Ball Bash

The game trains your observation, reaction, logical thinking, and memory. Sometimes some special knowledge is required. For example, you’ll need to sort four kinds of spices in one of the levels. If you are no expert of English folklore, you’ll probably won’t guess that the names of the spices are words from a song. Try to google.

ClickPLAY! Mega Squeal

Every mouse click is counted. The less you do that, the better. Players done less than some amounts of clicks, get golden, silver, or bronze cups. Also they are suggested a form by the third-party MochiAds to log the amount of clicks. The leadership board is integrated with facebook. The login to facebook happens through facebook.com, then MochiAds gets some specific token by which it can recognize the logged in user, using facebook API (so there is no fear that your password is stolen). Then you can compare your results with the results of your friends. The counting of points induce replay and aiming for better achievements.

ClickPLAY! Facebook Integration via MochiAds

Try it.

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