Here you go! ClickClock: a little productivity widget. Full description here.
the process
A designer/scientist does not “express himself”. We come up with a process that we think may produce some result (interesting, illuminating), carry out that procedure, then with fresh eyes look at the outcome to judge its actual result. Is it what we were expecting? Do we need to tweak the process? We must be able to honestly see and report what is there in order to provide the feedback that advances our knowledge and our art.
Quick 1.2 patch
Soooo… turns out that the 1.1 update broke saving points for later unlocking. A bit of quick patching has bumped out Rubicon 1.2.
Changelog:
Anonymous asked: Android port? :)
I wish. Blitzmax is great in that it makes porting to the supported platforms really easy, but mobile is not on that list. Once I release the source code (I’m still putting that together, I promise!), I’d be overjoyed to see that happen by somebody who knows what they’re doing better’n me.
Global Game Jam 2013
The 48-hours-to-make-a-game challenge put on by the Global Game Jam just wrapped up here in Portland, and here’s what the team I was working with produced: Murmur, a ” 2D side-scrolling one-button rhythm-based survival-horror” game. You run away from this monster you’ve created (you are a BIOLOGIST who has a problem with compulsively creating flesh-eating beasts) by tapping the spacebar on the red beats as they pass under your feet. The prompt for the jam was a ~10-second audio recording of a heartbeat, and we tried to reflect that with a rhythm game that represented/induced the same sort of pumping heart of TERROR.
To get away from being, as a fellow Jammer put it, “a one-note guitar hero”, you can also hit optional nodes to direct yourself down alternate paths. The highlight of this is being able to lead the monster to fellow scientists in order to buy yourself time while it chews on their bones.
We designed this choice (among others) to just add some variety and interesting gameplay decisions to an otherwise simple mechanic. We didn’t intend for the fact that it was a “human” powerup to be particularly meaningful. It was really interesting, then, to see people playing Murmur learn that they could do so, initially avoid it, then as the game got harder begin to resort to the sacrifice. There’s some message in there somewhere about people being moral only until it’s inconvenient.
All in all: I’m very pleased with the the scale and focus of this project. There were only three of us (plus one physically absent audiowizard- Mike Skalandunas) and we were able to come up with a core mechanic, design enough variation to keep things interesting, and produce a polished product within 48 hours (a little bit less, even, since we started late).
There was a bit of talk among us to throw in a couple more I’m not a huge fan of the lingering-commitment variety of gamejam. I like my projects wrapped up neat and tidy, which doesn’t allow me to fall into the habit/excuse of “I’ll fix and work on this more this later”. Working within your constraints, setting realistic goals based on available resources, etc etc, I’ll get off the soapbox now. Long story short: I think it’s a polished little nugget and that feels great.
Rubicon 1.1 released!
Just a reminder: if you’re feeling charitable, you can give me feedback about Rubicon via this short survey.
So! I’ve finally kicked my gears into gear and have put together the first update (1.1) to Rubicon. Here’s the changelog:
Anonymous asked: I'm a backer, and just got around to installing Rubicon so the kids and I can play. I run linux, and there's no sound. Is there a list of libs required to have sound work?
Blitzmax seems to have some problems with sound on the more recent versions of Ubuntu (is the distribution you’re using?). I’m looking through the forums and it doesn’t looks like there’s a simple fix for this problem, though here are a couple of potentially enlightening links:
http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=97927
http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=45527
http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=98370
And this looks like the best way to make sure you have all the lib dependencies:
http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=88613
Hope this helps ~
Game Design Links
I’ve been meaning to post these for a while- I read a lot of game design stuff while working on Rubicon. Here’s some of the stuff that I found to be particularly useful/insightful/interesting.
- “Ten Things Every Game Needs” - Magic the Gathering is a wonderfully heavily-designed game and Mark Rosewater’s column “Making Magic” provides a thoughtful window into the process of its creation and maintaining its long-term health. “Restrictions breed creativity!” is the mantra of the day.
- “The Ten Principles for Good Design” (part two) - Rosewater, “Making Magic”.
- “Resolutions” - Rosewater, “Making Magic”.
- “Juice it or lose it” - A talk aptly demonstrating the power of tiny reactive effects and how it can bring a game to life.
- “Video Games and the Human Condition” - A talk by Jonathan Blow. Goes over developer “best practices” on how to make a game compelling to play and then ethically questions the use of such tactics. “With great power comes great responsibility.”
- “Bow Nigger” - Personal narrative of play experience of Jedi Outcast. Super-intense duel, exploits, social norms/rituals in multiplayer.
- “Conflicts in Game Design” - Another talk by Blow, how a game’s premise & its mechanics interact.
- “Figures: They Speak For Themselves (mildly NSFW)” - from the tumblr of Dresden Codak. Although it’s not directly game-related, reading Aaron Diaz’s posts on visual design show the right sort of attitude (read: insanely meticulous) in what it takes to carefully craft an experience for an audience.
