MapCore "Door" Challenge: Done.

This month's MapCore Challenge: prototype a puzzle where the player has to open a door, using the provided template map as a base. (aka, the "Door Dare")

We had a lot of cool entries, so by all means check them out and vote for your 3 favorites.

But because this is my blog, I'm going to shamelessly promote my own entry, "Secret Mission." In it, you have to modify the entity scripting I/O of the map itself, in-game, in order to open the doors. (The actual map logic is all faked, but I imagine the proof of concept is there...)



You might see this mechanic come back in Radiator vol. 4 some day, perhaps in the heavily delayed level, "Being Adam Foster"...

Welcome to the Indie FPS.

Indie platformers spawned sub-genres like the sudden-death one button jumpers, masocore and explore-'em-ups among countless others. The indie RTS spawned tower defense. Most of these indie efforts have non-photorealistic visuals that focus on distilling their commercialized parents' core mechanics into a delicious syrup: run and jump, build stuff that kills other stuff to survive, etc.

Continuing that proposed template, what sub-genre is the indie FPS working on?

Today in 2011, mainstream commercial efforts still focus on arcade man-shooting with photorealistic graphics in military contexts. They are descendents of one vision of first person gaming, the lineage of Wolfenstein 3D (1992).

But back in 1994, video games were confronted with a very different vision of what first person games could be....

Pilsner: Pre-Thesis

"Pilsner" is what my masters' thesis project will likely be, (it's going into full production starting this summer) but maybe I'll completely change my mind in the coming months, who knows. It's pretty ambitious in trying to solve, like, 5 big game design problems all at once.

The pitch is the same as before: "a multiplayer browser-FPS where Jersey Shore meets paramilitary squad tactics."

More specifically, if you happen to be "in the know," it's Rainbow Six + Spy Party + Words with Friends + Wikipedia.

Here's the full 6 page end-of-the-semester brief, if you're curious enough to read it... or just mine the references for your own papers. Just keep in mind the intended audience, my professor -- an experienced designer who doesn't really play video games:

First Person Films: "Charlie Bit My Finger" and "Smack My B*tch Up"

A more recent addition to the "First Person Films" post... described by the creator as a "Left 4 Dead" short film, essentially one extended POV shot. Enjoy.



Ah, vulnerable children in survival horror contexts never gets old, eh?

And as a bonus, here's Prodigy's "Smack My B*tch Up," a (NSFW) first person music video that came to mind when watching the above. I remember watching this on MTV back when they still played music videos...



Look at what the first person mode can do! And look at how narrowly we use it in games! Loooook!

Now in the pipeline...

I'm playing with the Unofficial Portal 2 SDK.
UPDATE: huh, well whaddaya know, the real SDK is now up.

"The Meat Pack." Incredibly hard Portal 2 levels coming to a \sourcemods\ folder near you, this summer.