Plan for John Kabus (BobTheCBuilder)
by John Kabus (BobTheCBuilder) · 06/13/2005 (3:30 am) · 4 comments
This weekend my brothers (Alex and Ross) and I participated in Game-in-a-Day 13. This was our first official GID (I once hung out in a GID as an observer, but didn't participate), and although we've done basic rapid prototyping before, we've never tried to include art content and full game play, so shooting for a full game not only sounded challenging, but a lot of fun. :)
Experiences During GID
These are some of our overall experiences while participating in GID:
Team Building - well it's not surprising that every time we work together on a project our skills and roles become better honed and defined, but it's interesting to see how much your team's skills broaden in only a 24 hour period. Personally I highly recommend participating in GID as a team building exercise, any practice in game design/development is beneficial, and at only one day, participating in GID takes very little time.
Fast and Flexible - GID game design really equates to 'prototype+basic polish' in 24 hours, which provides enough of a working demo (internal demo) to start heavily tweaking game play and to start drawing attention to the project. Because the game is still technically a prototype I find it's far better do things quickly than to worry about every little detail (being careful not to paint myself into a corner - it's a happy medium; fast and flexible).
Expect Complications - this is obvious but often overlooked. Getting content into any engine involves a number of different tools and applications, not planning for some difficulties or incompatibilities causes frustration, so allot some amount of time for 'tweaking' content (good all around advice).
Entertaining - on so many levels GID was a blast. Game creation aside, the conversations and the projects going on during GID were very entertaining. I made the mistake of getting too involved in game creation and only checked up on the GID irc 'room' (Tom this one's for you ;P ) 3 or 4 times, missing a lot of the conversations, but I'll make sure to pay more attention next time around. :)
TGE is for all Game Types - I can't tell you the number of times someone's posted 'Torque is only good for FPS...' in regards to creating casual or puzzle games. Let me just say that this is absolutely untrue. The project we created is a 3D casual/puzzle game based on the Torque Lighting Pack (aka Torque Lighting Kit) with practically no changes to the source code - almost all of the changes were made to the TGE script files and in only a few hours (remember the whole thing was completed in 24 hours)!
Our Fusion Project
The theme for GID 13 was 'fusion', we really liked the theme and decided to stick with it (you're free to do anything during GID, the theme is only to provide a starting point).
The project is based on the Torque Lighting Pack (aka Torque Lighting Kit) and is practically stock - almost all of my changes were made to the TGE script files (see 'TGE is for all Game Types' above :), and we started with no existing assets other than the two TGE textures used in the 'reactor'.
The prototype we produced went over very well with the casual gamers we rounded up to play test it - apparently we hit on a very natural and simple game play. Based on the positive responses we're continuing work on this project. :)
Our game's basic premise is to keep the fusion reactor running by assembling atoms before the energy in the reactor drops too low. As the levels progress the reactor's energy drops more rapidly. When an atom is completed the reactor's energy level increases (adding more time to the game).
The game features six sided atoms with randomly generated holes in each face (based on 8 different game pieces). The atoms are rotated to change the face that's pointing at the viewer. The current game piece is displayed in the bottom left of the screen, when a matching piece is dropped (by pressing the 'drop' button) into a hole in the atom's face energy is added to the reactor. If the piece doesn't match the hole the piece is skipped and the reactor loses energy (in addition to the energy already lost over time).
What makes this different from a basic prototype? Well we've added some polish to help finish off the game (though it's still in a prototype state), some of the features we've added are:
-Lighting (glowing) that shows how close the current atom is to completion
-Reactor energy system (time left in the game)
-Scoring system
-In-game music and sound effects
-GUI
-Cool transition between atoms
Video of the game in action (8M)
Remember this was done in 24 hours, with no existing work or assets to start with - not bad. :)
Anyway GID was a blast, we're already looking forward to the next event. For anyone considering joining in, definitely try it out, it's well worth the time spent.
-John Kabus
Synapse Gaming
Experiences During GID
These are some of our overall experiences while participating in GID:
Team Building - well it's not surprising that every time we work together on a project our skills and roles become better honed and defined, but it's interesting to see how much your team's skills broaden in only a 24 hour period. Personally I highly recommend participating in GID as a team building exercise, any practice in game design/development is beneficial, and at only one day, participating in GID takes very little time.
Fast and Flexible - GID game design really equates to 'prototype+basic polish' in 24 hours, which provides enough of a working demo (internal demo) to start heavily tweaking game play and to start drawing attention to the project. Because the game is still technically a prototype I find it's far better do things quickly than to worry about every little detail (being careful not to paint myself into a corner - it's a happy medium; fast and flexible).
Expect Complications - this is obvious but often overlooked. Getting content into any engine involves a number of different tools and applications, not planning for some difficulties or incompatibilities causes frustration, so allot some amount of time for 'tweaking' content (good all around advice).
Entertaining - on so many levels GID was a blast. Game creation aside, the conversations and the projects going on during GID were very entertaining. I made the mistake of getting too involved in game creation and only checked up on the GID irc 'room' (Tom this one's for you ;P ) 3 or 4 times, missing a lot of the conversations, but I'll make sure to pay more attention next time around. :)
TGE is for all Game Types - I can't tell you the number of times someone's posted 'Torque is only good for FPS...' in regards to creating casual or puzzle games. Let me just say that this is absolutely untrue. The project we created is a 3D casual/puzzle game based on the Torque Lighting Pack (aka Torque Lighting Kit) with practically no changes to the source code - almost all of the changes were made to the TGE script files and in only a few hours (remember the whole thing was completed in 24 hours)!
Our Fusion Project
The theme for GID 13 was 'fusion', we really liked the theme and decided to stick with it (you're free to do anything during GID, the theme is only to provide a starting point).
The project is based on the Torque Lighting Pack (aka Torque Lighting Kit) and is practically stock - almost all of my changes were made to the TGE script files (see 'TGE is for all Game Types' above :), and we started with no existing assets other than the two TGE textures used in the 'reactor'.
The prototype we produced went over very well with the casual gamers we rounded up to play test it - apparently we hit on a very natural and simple game play. Based on the positive responses we're continuing work on this project. :)
Our game's basic premise is to keep the fusion reactor running by assembling atoms before the energy in the reactor drops too low. As the levels progress the reactor's energy drops more rapidly. When an atom is completed the reactor's energy level increases (adding more time to the game).
The game features six sided atoms with randomly generated holes in each face (based on 8 different game pieces). The atoms are rotated to change the face that's pointing at the viewer. The current game piece is displayed in the bottom left of the screen, when a matching piece is dropped (by pressing the 'drop' button) into a hole in the atom's face energy is added to the reactor. If the piece doesn't match the hole the piece is skipped and the reactor loses energy (in addition to the energy already lost over time).
What makes this different from a basic prototype? Well we've added some polish to help finish off the game (though it's still in a prototype state), some of the features we've added are:
-Lighting (glowing) that shows how close the current atom is to completion
-Reactor energy system (time left in the game)
-Scoring system
-In-game music and sound effects
-GUI
-Cool transition between atoms
Video of the game in action (8M)
Remember this was done in 24 hours, with no existing work or assets to start with - not bad. :)
Anyway GID was a blast, we're already looking forward to the next event. For anyone considering joining in, definitely try it out, it's well worth the time spent.
-John Kabus
Synapse Gaming
#2
06/13/2005 (5:45 am)
That looks like a clever little game, good work
#4
Welcome to GID and I am glad you had a lot fun! Quite polished product you've got there. :)
06/13/2005 (11:15 pm)
(Erf, something keeps eating my replies...) I haven't see the video yet, as I'm on slow dialup and haven't got much time tonight, but I will check it out later! Sounds like an awesome concept, similiar to Tetrisphere on the Nintendo 64 actually. Nice game, rather enjoyed the puzzle mode...Welcome to GID and I am glad you had a lot fun! Quite polished product you've got there. :)
Associate Kyle Carter
Nice work, John & co. ;)