this is definitely a bad idea

Since the holidays have rolled around and Salty and I have been unable to collaborate on our games (namely, Dantelyon for me and an unannounced project Salty's working on) due to us spending time at home with family, I thought I'd take it upon myself to try a small game completely on my own. Yeah, that means (argh!) I'll have to program it myself, too.

This winter vacation I REALLY wanted to focus on self-improvement, stretching and exercising all of the creative muscles I had previously allowed to atrophy due to school and work obligations. so far, it's been great! every couple of days I go out to sketch perspective scenes, I've started animating again, I'm reading lots and lots, and I'm also learning to skateboard. ahhhh, It's lovely.

This project covers three more things I'd like to improve--pixel art, something I've shied away from in the past, UI art, something I'm -supposed- to be an expert in, and programing, something I should definitely be doing a lot more of but don't do because auuuughghghg my brain.

folks, I present to you Charmixy Academy!
I wanted something that was simple for me but still a teeny bit challenging. The gameplay is just a real-time battle strategy game (think pokemon but without taking turns) mixed with match-3 tile games. you match 3 of the same element tiles (I'm making the game colorblind friendly, btw) to charge up a "charm", and each charm has its own special ability. tap a charm to cast a spell on your opponent. whoever runs out of health loses. Very straightforward, I think; all I have to do is figure out how to program all of that...

As I kid, I was definitely a collector. I'd pick up bottlecaps and paper-clips off the street and string them into bracelets. I also loved the idea of pokemon; having this whole world which revolved around a game and there were lots of things to collect and do and adventures to go on (even though I came to the unfortunate realization that it was glorified dogfighting D:)! Finally, I fucking love magic. like, old fashion, bubble bubble boil and trouble eye of newt feather of phoenix type shit. putting all of those loves together inspired Charmixy. You play as a girl coming of age who discovers she's descended from witches, and gets whisked away to the fantastical Charmixy academy! there she learns all about Charmixy, which are magical accessories that witches and wizards wear to cast spells. It's a fun idea and helped inform a lot of the game's aesthetic--a very old fashioned but charming, worn foundation mixed with modern, cute pop elements. As you can see, I've finished most of the art and am about to move into the 

P.S: this is a SMALL side project, do you hear me? this is NOT something completely new I'm starting to procrastinate and its making me a better person and I will NOT stop working on Dantelyon until its done. DO YOU HEAR ME? DONT DO WHAT IM DOING KIDS! THIS CAN ONLY END IN TEARS?

Merry Christmas! Stocking stuffers is now free for you!

A year ago this month, Glitch City held the first (and last, sadly) holiday game jam. It was such an exciting time, and I met a lot of swell folks (some of who are now dev friends I eagerly follow on twitter!) But most importantly, I made my very first game from start to finish (with Salty's help, of course), and I gotta say, I think I'll never stop being proud of what I made

STOCKING STUFFERS!
Below you can read more about the game, as well as a short postmortem of its development (if you'd like to play the game, you can now find it in the "My Games" section of the blog!)

 In Stocking Stuffers, you play as Stuffy the elf, working inside a stocking stuffer factory at the north pole. You were born to stuff stockings. they go by you on a conveyor belt and you must arrange small toys and candy in such a way to fill each stocking efficiently. the stuffings take the shape of a tetrad, and each little stocking is its own bite-sized grid. The game gets harder as you progress, and if you're too "naughty" (you don't fill enough stockings correctly) the game ends! On top of that, Rudolph "Rudy" TheRednosedReindeer is your sweet but dull coworker. It's also your responsibility to make sure he doesn't get into any trouble (and interfere with your noble work!)

I'm still really surprised at how easily I came up with the idea for SS. A solid concept kind of clicked together almost immediately--I started with the fact that the game was a jam game, and so I had to make it replayable, keep story to a minimum, and use limited assets. conveyer belts were the first solution that came to mind, and from there I went to a toy-manufacturing facility of some sort, a modern Santa's Workshop kind of deal. I settled on a gift-packaging idea, and borrowed the arrangement mechanics from Tetris. honestly, there was very little iteration from that point--something I'm sure many experienced developers would strongly advise against, but there it is--with the exception of changing the gift boxes scrolling by to stockings (after all, it's much more common to put trinkets in stockings, not the big gift boxes!)

Rudy was hands-down the best part of development. Even though I think we'd have a solid, interesting set of rules without him, he really brought everything to life, and gave players a sense of place and purpose. Very early on I imagined the player, as Stuffy, trying their darndest to get these stockings rolling out properly, and having this idiot coworker running around and taking toys in and out, pulling levers you didn't want them to touch, and causing all sorts of general mayhem in the background. At first I thought of making another elf, but then I thought about using a reindeer, which made more sense and was a little less offensive. As an animal, the player would expect them to have less intelligence without introducing a gross mental health situation, but they could still be endearing to us  because, you know, they're all cute and furry. Rudy was the obvious choice! He's already established as a sort of oddball character, and having had a...difficult upbringing meant we could simultaneously be irritated with him and love him. Not to mention, in this day and age a set of headlights on Santa's Sleigh made him pretty obsolete. Put it all together and...well, he just made the game FUN.

This being my first fully finished game alongside my dedicated partner in crime, Salty, I would be remiss not to mention it was where I picked up many important development and communication skills still in practice by me today. I learned to love a good Game Design Document (something which school nearly completely turned me off to!), and Salty taught me exactly how to clearly write out instructions for a feature or a mechanic that he could later produce without supervision. I go about it the same way today, basically walking through a set of actions until I reach a fork, then writing out the result of each branching possibility. Salty still remarks to me today how impressed he was at my design for Rudy's AI, and given that it was one of the last things we added to the game, I put all of the things I'd learned into developing it. He and I really got a feel for each other's rhythm. Future game historians, take note! this is where the dynamic duo got their start.

The Holiday Game Jam was an awesome event where a package of all the game jam games were bundled together and sold, and all of the proceeds went to charity. Because of this, I decided not to release the game until a year after the jam. So now I finally get to share the game with you, and it's completely free!

I hope you all enjoy the game, but even more than that, I wish you a new year full of happiness, love, kindness, and purpose.

Dantelyon-The Enigma of Ivy

PROGRESS!
you thought I wasn't working on Dantelyon, EH? YOU'RE SORELY MISTAKEN, SIRRAM!
Not only are Salty and I hard at work busting out the first playable prototype of the game, (we've just started playtesting with close friends, and I can't wait to show you the first levels!) but I in the meantime have been trying to develop the story and characters.

Have some character art!

Feliz Dia De Los Muertos!

I like to have numerous game ideas rolling around in my head at one time. When I hit a wall with Dantelyon, I'm able to take a step back and chew on something else for a while, then come back feeling refreshed. I don't like to talk about these games, though, because they're planned so far off in the future bringing them up now seems kind of pointless--the game might change radically as I develop it in my head, or after thinking about it for some time I may decide it's not worth exploring and abandon the game altogether. Sometimes, though, I'll use art to flesh out something interesting I thought of for a future game, and since this one was so relevant and cool I thought I'd throw it on up here.

so, yeah. In a few years you might see them again. Who knows?

Developing a style

#25: draw your fantasies

That would be a great idea!

Someone please make a game that's mostly just a gorgeous roadtrip and you can go off-road and fight some monsters sometime if you want.
— Rami Ismail (@tha_rami) September 18, 2014

Rami, everyone's favorite indie dev idol, wrote this yesterday. I kept playing with the idea, and my wonderful brain blessed me with a vision that very night in my dreams.

Meet the Fergusons. Overall, a loving family; single mom, four siblings, a pet gorgaloth. The fate of the world rests in their hands.
After the recent discovery of the long-deceased father's will, they must deliver what is only ever referred to as "The Artifact" to their uncle in San Vance, 2000 miles across the country. The only way to get there is in a beaten down old Bounder through a treacherous, beautiful world populated by the most fearsome creatures known to man.

About 3 of the 4 hours that was spent working on this picture was PURELY color and toning. I must have tweaked them a hundred different ways. I'm not sure I would ever be in a hurry to make this game, but it was loads of fun putting this art together. I sure have needed it! (I've been so pooped lately)

WIP

Why I Want to Make Games For Girls: A Rantifesto Part 3

Disclaimerz: The rant here is based on personal experience with gamers and non gamers. Also, I'm very obviously not a writer; I prefer using an informal, colloquial voice in my work. If you disagree with anything said here or have a suggestion, please read this post before responding. Let's start a dialogue--I want to learn from you and hear your side! 

You can read Part 2 in all its horrifying glory here 

 

Part 3: What a Girl Wants, What a Girl Needs

In the past two parts of my rantifesto, I wrote about the reasons more girls need to be involved in games, and why popular culture is still preventing that from happening on a large scale. But this last entry is probably the one I’d rather you read, if you read any at all (especially if you’re a game developer!). I’ve thought a lot about what games for girls absolutely need the most and have rooted it down to three key attributes devs have yet to address. If this is a topic that interests you and you’re making games for girls, consider whether or not you’re hitting these marks, and if not, what the reason for that is.

Awkward - a short romantic comedy (based on a doodle I made?)

Please, come in Dr. Kens! Here, have a seat--oh, but please close the door behind you, we don't want the rest of the lab to hear this. Thank you. Right, so onto--would you like some water?--no, there's nothing wrong, no need to worry. I was just.... well, I called you into my office today to address a small personal matter. Between us.

We're good friends, you and I--I daresay, no one else has been closer to me than you. Because you are one of the brightest human minds I have ever observed in my lifetime--let me finish--as soon as I brought you to work here at Labs with me, I wanted to be sure I could collaborate alongside you as often as possible. In light of that, in light of spending so much time together, I--there's no need to look so uncomfortable, doctor! Everything is fine, I simply... err, you see...Hm.

Thank you, no...actually, I'm feeling a little uncomfortable myself...only because I'm uncertain how to approach the subject. I'm sure you can imagine how unusual that is for me--I was programmed to be a perfect communicator! Well, how about I just come right out and ask this directly?

Dr. Kens, are you in love with me?


Dr. Kens, wait! come back here. Dr Kens, really now, you know you can't break that down. You designed the damn thing--Dr. Kens....

Why I Want to Make Games for Girls: A Rantifesto P2

Disclaimerz: The rant here is based on personal experience with gamers and non gamers. Also, I'm very obviously not a writer; I prefer using an informal, colloquial voice in my work. If you disagree with anything said here or have a suggestion, please read this post before responding. Let's start a dialogue--I want to learn from you and hear your side! 


you can read Part 1 in all it's horrifying glory here.

Part 2: On The Outside

So, geek culture is prevalent nowadays (at least where I’m at). It's unusual to pass a popular clothing or accessory store (particularly those that market to girls such as Claire’s, Justice, or Charlotte Rousse) without spotting a pair of thick rimmed spectacles, Hot Topics around the world are stocked to the nines with all your favorite franchises, and the ‘8bit’ graphic tee is very hot this season. It’s natural to assume gaming would be a lot more common and widespread, but I would argue that in spite of the mobile game rise and huge advances in accessibility, without having been raised with games, girls aren’t getting a positive, permanent introduction into them.

Why I Want to Make Games for Girls: A Rantifesto P1

Disclaimerz: The rant here is based on personal experience with gamers and non gamers. Also, I'm very obviously not a writer; I prefer using an informal, colloquial voice in my work. If you disagree with anything said here or have a suggestion, please read this post before responding. Let's start a dialogue--I want to learn from you and hear your side! 

You can read Part 2 in all its horrifying glory here

Part 1: Where Do I Start?

I’ve spent many sleepless nights combating anxiety, fearing the future, and puzzling over what life means to me. Pretty sure I’m not the only one who wonders about her place in the world, but I do it like, a lot. I am obsessed with my legacy to an unhealthy degree, and so I strive to put whatever talents I was born with and personal insight I was fortunate to receive to the best possible use; Sure, given my chosen specialties I probably can’t save the world but I can make it slightly enjoyable for someone else, I think. I hope.  Anyway, I worry about what my role as a converted gamer/game designer of the female persuasion can do for humanity.

Dantelyon - and games for girls

Behold- the first batch of visual development from my upcoming project, Dantelyon.
This was my last piece of artwork before heading to Mexico, and I really hope to continue writing and developing this over the course of my Summer, in true Game Development Blog fashion!

Indie3 was a blast!

I watched the team spin their camera around for the "closing ceremony", and it astonished me that an international event that sprung up over the course of a couple weeks, showing off hundreds of new games, inspiring and connecting countless developers, and having upwards of 800 viewers for almost four days straight was actually all put together in someone's cluttered apartment; the front door was just a few feet away from the kitchen, and anyone who wasn't on the air was getting a few minutes of precious sleep on the couch not far away. When I saw what a spectacular effort was put forth by this hardy bunch of passionate people, I felt my stomach churn much in the same way it does when I smell a a nice scent from my childhood I hadn't encountered for years, or when I hear the crescendo of Janelle Monae's Archandroid Suite ii. Call it sappy, but damn, it feels good to be alive in those moments.


I hope they do this again next year.

Game Phrases: Juice

I like words and I also like games and I also also like learning. I like putting things I like together, (except for cheddar cheese and dark chocolate, which are disgusting together,) and so I put together this short entry a while ago for a small single topic blog I made.

I was first inspired by Lars Doucet's wonderful contribution of the phrase "Procedural Death Labyrinth" in 2013. It was suggested as a better-suited descriptive term than Roguelike (or even Roguelike-like) to talk about a specific type of game genre. The game design community at large looked at what he had to say, looked to each other, and collectively agreed to adopt PDL into their vocabulary.

I started to think about other words that the community might have a need for, or other useful phrases that specific developers or designers have come up with which have not circulated enough to catch on. I'm hardly what one would call an authority on the subject; at best I'd like to be a bit of a curator of the fascinating and practical sorts of sayings I occasionally stumble upon. In the unlikely even that lots of people see this tiny labor of love, maybe it can be of use to them. I would like that very much.

Juice
In 2005, four grad students by the name of Kyle Gray, Kyle Gabler, Matt Kucic, and Shalin Shodhan wrote a Gamasutra article called "How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days", exploring the unconventional and sometimes even controversial lessons the group learned as they made prototypes for the Experimental Gameplay Project. Among other topics covered in the article, one was a new term the group used to refer to a particular kind of game feel that had to do with user feedback. Juice.


What does it mean?
from page 3 of the article:

“Juice” was our wet little term for constant and bountiful user feedback. A juicy game element will bounce and wiggle and squirt and make a little noise when you touch it. A juicy game feels alive and responds to everything you do – tons of cascading action and response for minimal user input. It makes the player feel powerful and in control of the world, and it coaches them through the rules of the game by constantly letting them know on a per-interaction basis how they are doing.
Some juicy examples you may have experienced might include:

• Alien Hominid – enemies exploding and flinging blood to an almost unjustified extent
• Mario Bros. – bouncing through a room full of coins, blinging with satisfaction
• Pachinko - a never-ending gush of balls all under your control
• Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo – animation and sprites abound on multiple chains

See also:
"Juice" has seen a recent rise in popularity as other game developers have adopted the descriptive term and attempted to explore it in their own ways.

• Martin Jonasson & Petri Purho's  talk, "Juice it or Lose it" is a very popular video which demonstrates the benefit of Juice in a live demo. They later added in another presentation of the same talk the idea that Juice should not be a replacement for good game design, merely a compliment to same.
• I also found a very robust thesis written by a one Simeon Atanasov that studies juiciness in depth in a number of different game genres. I would highly recommend this little gem to anyone who wants to know more.

Beat My Meat has finally been submitted to Indiecade!

After much stress and sweat, the end of the tunnel approaches. Ladies and Gents, I present to you the fruits of my labor for the past month: Beat My Meat!

Beat My Meat is a single screen competitive game where you sit at a table as a group of exotic aliens, swashbuckling chopsticks to get the tastiest bits of cooked meat onto your plate.

If anyone's wondered what I've been up to these past few weeks, this is it. I've been spending every ounce of free time trying to put this together, walking around, getting strangers to playtest it, taking it back to my wonderful programmer to smash all the bugs, revising the art and rebuilding assets. It's been a wildly fantastic and completely satisfying journey, and even though it's taken a lot out of me, I'm so happy that we've managed to do all this. A few minutes ago, I finished submitting the game to Indiecade, where I hope I'll get the opportunity to further polish and showcase the game.

But wait! there's more--now you guys can play it for yourselves, totally free, whether we make it to Indiecade or not. Just head over to the "Games" page and give it a try! Have a good night, folks!

Art Dump

Visual Development for an old story game idea of mine--Isse Takes the Trolley, which I wrote for NaNoReNo 2013. I based a lot of it off of my experiences commuting by public transportation. As soon as I can afford a Spine license, I'm plan on making it into a full-on game.

Here's a thought.

I've been reading through some of my old posts, and I couldn't help but notice how general the language was. I mean, I don't seem to have any strong opinions on anything--this is fine, because in truth I'm very new to games so I should still be figuring stuff out instead of boldly declaring my stances on topics I'm only beginning to understand. Additionally, people run the risk of being ripped to shreds within seconds whenever they put anything out into that heartless, merciless void known as the internet. Despite this, I want to try to start forming hypotheses of my own and learn how to articulate my thoughts. I figure it's certainly not wrong for me to have an opinion as long as I can back it up with reasoning, and if I'm willing to gradually develop it as I get more experienced, which I'm glad to do. So, for anyone here now, keep in mind that what you read here (and the person writing it) is a fluid, not a solid; digest it and respond to it as such.

So here's to putting ideas out there! Here's to being a little bolder!

Sorry I haven't written in a while!

I gotta stick to my goals! ugh! But here's some art! Yay! exclamation mark!

The Joy of Reading

I've taken to commuting by trolley. Circumstances being what they are, my living simply can't accommodate driving my own vehicle around the city, and I'm certainly not interested in straining my few friendships by bumming rides everywhere. My regular trip now takes about an hour one way, and even though it was nice to be relieved of the stress of driving myself places, I had started to get bored. I installed some small games on my phone, listened to music, and even considered bringing along a sketchbook (but ultimately abandoned the last idea as I was far too afraid of getting caught drawing a stranger like a creep), but their ability to distract me wore off pretty quickly.
 One day, I noticed someone get on the trolley with a book in her hands. She was a tired old woman, her eyes were almond shaped and her face was weathered and scrunched up. As soon as she sat down, she propped open her weathered paperback and started thumbing through the pages, smacking her lips. huh.

"Can I help you?" the friendly, bearded clerk said as I walked by him. He and I both bumped into each other as we purposefully made wide berths around the 'New Romance' section of Barnes and Nobles.
"Err, no, I don't think so. Thank you." I smiled politely, somewhat dazed. Of course, I did need help, but the question on my mind was way too embarrassing to say aloud. "Yes, I want to start reading books again. Where do I start?"

I used to read all the time. A few years ago, when games weren't even a part of my life, books were there. I remember one day a rambling man on the trolley was explaining to a pretty terrified looking infant seated two rows away that if you lived a hundred life-times and read a new book every day, you still would only be able to read a fraction of all the books in the world. He might have been insane but I thought that was probably true. Even in a library two stories tall, I always managed to find something good to read--fantastic tales of swashbuckling mice and bloodthirsty pirates, coquettish maidens and thieves with hearts of gold. Spine chilling mysteries, curious characters, clues and page-turners. I used to know my way around the stacks; I used to comfortably spend all of my time in those worlds. But now I felt lost again. It's amazing to realize how much you've changed as a person in one instant, standing kind of flabbergasted in a tiny Barnes and Nobles. Another thing I did realize, though, is that I didn't want to outgrow books.

The Mysterious Benedict Society stared up at  me from my lap, a Barnes and Noble receipt tucked behind the first two pages. The cover looked just as it had when I saw it a few years ago in a scholastic books catalogue. A cheerful, pastel yellow covered the paperback, along with an illustration of a lively stone house with children peeking out its windows and climbing along its walls. I didn't even remember what it was about, but I remembered it was the last book I ever wanted to read. The trolley had started to move again; it was moderately empty. I took a deep breath and flipped it open. Here goes nothing!

Three days later, I was curled up in a nook of my bed, nothing but a flourescent desk lamp beside me to cut through the darkness of the night. The phone charging at the foot of my bed read 1AM. The morning was going to be hell. It was going to be groggy and painful and involve a severe case of crankiness, but I didn't care. I just have to finish the damn thing. The yellow book I had bought earlier that week was clutched tightly in my hands, my thumb fingering the last few pages in anticipation. ten pages left, then five, then two, then one, then nothing.
I looked up from the book, and I could feel myself smiling; just smiling because I enjoyed it so much. I was half surprised to see the room around me wasn't just as it had been was I was in 5th grade. My cheeks hurt I was smiling so hard. I felt something lurch in the bit of my stomach. A beautiful piece of me that I had lost a long time ago had resurfaced. I'm back, she said, Did you miss me?

Ugh not another game idea.

So my trusty 'Ol computer has been down for another month. Thankfully, this recent misfortune is not nearly as miserable as the last; I've taken to getting in shape and reading in my spare time, and I've felt a real refreshing new surge of creativity.  I like to jot down lots of new ideas as they occur to me, and a while ago I had one I was interested in sharing.
So I've been thinking lately about game anthologies.
This has been an emerging trend in video games, but I don't think it has fully explored its potential. Groups of game developers have on occasion come together to curate a collection of closely-related games, such as in Sports Friends, or the winners of a themed game jam. Single developers have also at times released a group of minigames they have made to be purchased in a bundle, but I've yet to really encounter much more of this, even though I believe this would be a wonderful exploration.
I like to imagine a group of developers who come together for the express purpose of making a series of closely related games based within a single theme or world. Each game would explore something different, but they would all be made to be consumed within one package. To only play one game would not be to get the entire experience; the point is to play all of them and critique them as a whole.

Example 1: GartenFlower (world connection)
Every game takes place in the world of GartenFlower. Most creatures are a plant-like species.

SmuggleBunnies: You're a band of ferocious pirate bunnies trying to get a shipment of tulip heads to the far east. A long journey awaits aboard your airship, you must also avoid the pumpkin policia and survive gangrene.
Sunlight: You're a young sapling trying to survive in a less than hospitable environment. Essentially, a growing simulator.
CactusRiot: play as an extremist protestor against the slaughter and consumption of your verdant brethren for fuel and construction. Smash pumpkin policia heads for justice.

Example 2: Blue (thematic connection)
Every game in this collection is about the color blue

Shades of depression: a poem-game about how people mistake depression for sadness.
Drop's Adventure:  a single drop of water travels through oceans, rain, and rivers, going through a cycle of precipitation.
Blue Boy: A game about a boy who is blue and everybody hates him because that's weird.

This kind of project could even be undertaken by a single developer in a game-jam style; they pick a unique theme or have someone pick it for them (if they want the extra challenge) and he or she spends some time developing a handful of ideas that spring from that source, developing them (simultaneously?) to be released together. I hope some day in the future I'll be able to have the resources to do something like this.

A friend of mine on Twitter pointed out that Terry Cavanaugh did a chapter-based affair with some other developers in a way that resembled my idea. I've yet to play this Experiment 12, but it's probably worth mentioning. I may come back to this post later once I've played it and share my thoughts.

Hey Guess What Day It Is