Wednesday, February 23, 2011

New MapCore Compo: "The Cube"

Last time, we did a 20 brush compo. This time, it's THE CUBE; make a single player or multiplayer level, any game / mod / engine, as long as it's within a 1024 x 1024 x 1024 cube (or whatever engine equivalent.) That's it.

You have about a month. Get cracking!

Oh, and for reference, here's Duncan Blair's winning entry from the last cube compo we did. Ooooh shiny:

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

"I think the 'artgame' thing has pretty much run its course at this point."
-- Jason Rohrer, 27 December 2010

(bonus links: this epic 242+ page thread on TIGSource, or just read this comic by Cactus which sums it all up nicely... but now that it's dead, let's look upon its exquisite corpse -- what exactly was an 'artgame' anyway?)

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Lucas Debes, v0.9 (pre-release beta released!)

REMINDER: You need 2 players for this game. One player clicks "Bailiff" to host the game, then the other player on the LAN clicks "Debes" to join the game.

Me and Eddie Cameron made another Unity game. There's gameplay in it. It's actually surprisingly fun, despite my best efforts to sabotage it.

The setup, kinda like Spy Party: there's an island with lots of NPCs. As Lucas Debes (17th century Danish priest) who's trying to escape the Faroe Islands in a rocketship, you have to blend in and pretend to be an NPC... or maybe you're the bailiff trying to kill him and/or sacrifice all the NPCs to Satan.
  • A competitive asymmetrical multiplayer FPS for 2 players.
  • Windows or OSX. 800x500 resolution minimum.
  • Only LAN support for now, sorry.
  • Two different but both amazing ending cutscenes.
  • Limitless strategies and infinite levels of strategic yomi, the deepest & most strategic strategy game ever made with strategies
We're not particularly happy with the state of polish and everything, but it's long past that time in a project when you need fresh pairs of eyes to look at it and critique it. So here it is:
    Download:  v0.9 PRE-RELEASE BETA
    - Windows build (11 mb)
    - Mac build (16 mb)
    Unzip somewhere and play.
    NOTE: only LAN support for now, sorry.

    Credits:
    Eddie Cameron: code + design, http://www.grapefruitgames.com
    Robert Yang, art + design, http://www.radiator.debacle.us

    Screenshots and "how to play" / strats / tips, after the jump...

    Monday, February 14, 2011

    Lucas Debes


    Lucas Jacobsøn Debes (1623 in Stubbekøbing - 1675) was a Danish priest, topographer, rocket scientist and celebrated writer about the Faroe Islands. In 1673, he built the first rocket-powered aircraft in the world, with the purpose of escaping the local bailiff's clutches. When he finally reached Denmark (after mistakenly landing in Northern England), Debes was barely conscious and all of his limbs had suffered severe frostbite from the lack of frost shielding in the craft. He was then promptly wheeled into the Dutch Parliament, little more than a stump, and reported the bailiff's numerous abuses and saved the Faroese.

    Friday, February 11, 2011

    Comatose

    "Comatose" is a single player HL2 mod by Aspik where you're bleeding uncontrollably, so you have to take all these pills (clotting agents?) as you try to escape a building in some sickly yellow apocalyptic city -- a great summation of my daily life in New York City.


     Warning! Mechanics spoilers / design analysis after the jump...

    Thursday, February 10, 2011

    Not dead, just busy. I have a few posts in the works (manifesto for single player layout design, Dark Past pt. 3, documentation of my board game about open-pit mining) but I've actually been spending my time working on projects instead of blogging about them, which is an interesting shift in habit...

    Thursday, February 3, 2011

    Kentucky Route Zero



    Just wanted to remind people about the Kickstarter drive for Kentucky Route Zero, ending in less than 3 days. It has some very talented talent behind it. And, well, just watch the trailer and prepare to be amazed. (The $40 USD donation level looks the most "optimal" -- you get postcards, a poster, as well as the game. Oh, and good vibes / karma, I guess?)

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011

    Global Game Jam 2011: Thoughts / Post-Mortem

    • "Extinction" wasn't a good theme. Too many people easily rationalized it to "any mechanic where you kill NPCs" which is, like, every single game ever?
    • Non-digital games were tolerated, but not really accepted. It was impossible to adequately demo a board game during the 2 minute final presentations at the end. In this case, it really encourages bigger games where players actively stand up and move around / perform... which might've been interesting to make. Damn.
    • There should be semi-mandated playtests / progress checks. Just sayin'. As it is, people talk sometimes but mostly just stay in their groups to work.
    • Keita Takahashi's keynote was pretty awesome, though.
    • Two games is easily doable and I highly recommend making two to everyone... Unfortunately, me and my teammate were a little too relaxed and ended up working only for 24 of the 48 hours. Oh well. 
    • Here are my entries, collabs with Eddie Cameron: a 2 player board game about the extinction of love and trust in a marriage (Polymer) and a Unity-powered FPS about the extinction of print media (Goldblum).