Game Design

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Global Game Jam, 2010

February 2, 2010 | No comments

This last weekend I had the privilege to participate in the 2010 Global Game Jam, held at our local branch of ITT Tech building.  It was a lot of fun, overall.

This year’s theme was “Deception,” and the area restraints were “Trades, Raids, or Maids.”  Some teams were formed before the opening night, which I feel took away from the overall experience, but those teams still had the experience of cranking out a game in 48 hours.

I was officially part of one team–made up of Tim Tillotson, Mark Schmelzenbach, and Jacob Kinney– at the start, with a self-imposed time limit of being done at Saturday by noon, which worked just fine for me, because I wanted to do audio for as many people as I could. We cranked out as much as we could, and when noon came around we saw that we weren’t close to finishing our project, but we saw an end in sight, so Mark and Tim both agreed they could work ’til 3, which we worked to and had to simply cut our losses; it was close, but it still wasn’t a playable game.  With Tim saying he was going to work on it a bit more that night –which he did– he, Mark, and Jacob all went their separate ways, and I stayed behind to do sound for anyone else who wanted it.

I could give you tons of stories, but I’ll just get onto the games and audio.

First up, is The Ant Thieves, the game that my team put together. You can play it here.

I am really happy with my audio for this game… I took The Ants Go Marching, and blended it with the James Bond and Mission Impossible themes, for an ant-spy feel.  I made two versions, one with a subdued chord progression and one made to feel victorious.  As for sound design, I pitched up a scream sound and made a “stomp” sound with some impacts and a drum, then added some distortion.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Next up, Treasure Raiders is an XBox 360 game with a rock-paper-scissors mechanic and some campy art.  It should be mentioned that none of the people on their team were artists.   I hung out with these guys almost exclusively after my team left. You can download the Windows version of the game from the link above, or you can wait for it to show up in the XBox Live Arcade (it won’t be free… but all the money is going to charity.)

I had a lot of fun writing the music for this project.  They wanted something like Castle Crashers, giving the game a cheesy epic feel, and I was loving me some French Horns when I wrote the music.  As for sound design, I tried to use musical instruments for as much of it as I could, to keep the campy feel, but had to resort to recorded sounds for the combat.

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Third up is Dust Bunnies. I really don’t know what to tell you about this team.  They were mostly ITT Tech students, with two exceptions.  Every time I went into their room, I never knew what to expect; someone could be sleeping on the floor, or someone could be rapping, and over the Saturday-to-Sunday crunch, they had rap music videos projected on their wall.  It was a blast, and you can play it here.

These boys didn’t know what they wanted… they first asked for elevator music, and then something by Ry Cooder.  By the end of it, they had settled on a Sim City-sounding reggae tune that I had actually cast aside, because I didn’t think they’d want it.  I’m glad they did, though.. I always ove writing reggae.  For sound design, I took two vacuum tracks, layered them, and trimmed them so the start and stop would be shorter, and cleaner.

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Finally, I did sound design for two additional games.

For the first one, Maid of Discontent, built entirely by one man, the sound was almost an afterthought.  He had asked me for two sound effects earlier in the night, but he insisted it wasn’t a big deal, so I focused on everything else.  If he hadn’t had trouble uploading the file, I don’t think I would have even been able to get the two sounds in.  Yeah, that’s right… two sounds.  A coin dropping into a vending machine, and a door closing, both FreeSound sounds that I simply cleaned up and balanced out.

The second sound-design-only game, and final game I worked on, was ConRaid, a fun flash game where you hide crowns from raiding orcs.  I feel I had more making these sound effects than any other project, due to their simplicity and speed.  I simply played guitar, then bitcrushed and downsampled them ’til I was happy.  Because of their melodic roots, they give the game a sense of having a soundtrack, even though there’s not one there.  You can play it here.

Oh, and one more thing:

The games posted in this entry use the following sound files from Freesound (http://www.freesound.org):

Woman Scream AAA, Thijs loud scream, from thanvannispen
Wilhelm from SweetNeo85
Scream Boom 01 from studiorat
Scream from analogchill
banda fort sample from snog
Door Creak Short from Percy Duke
Single Coin Return from tweeterdj

I’ll happily do this again, next year.

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Monkey Egg

November 3, 2009 | No comments

Recently, a friend of mine from the local IGDA and Utah Indie Game Dev groups and I have started a game development “company,” if you will.  Our focus, right now, is to create portfolio pieces for us and everyone involved, which will get us more exposure in the future.

I can’t really tell you much more, because there’s not a whole lot out there, but I’ll get something up eventually.

In other news, financial troubles have shut off my internet at home, which has shown to be a problem on the composing front: Native Instruments’ products, which I rely on fairly heavily, check their registration every time you start them up via their Service Center… basically, without the internet at home, my products only show as unregistered, and aren’t working.  (If any of you know a solution to this, I’d love to know.)

So, my music, at least computer based, has taken a back seat to writing, which only requires a pencil and paper.

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Recommended Readings: Related Links from Around the Web (Finances and Freelance Ed.)

July 29, 2009 | No comments

Sorry for posting these so late. As for my weekly non-music update, with how busy I was over the weekend, I don’t have much to report.

Today’s links focus more on finances and freelancing than music, sound, or game design. Why? Because I think that most people starting in these fields don’t consider themselves freelancers, or don’t know where to look. In the future, watch for blogs, from me and probably others, based entirely on this idea.

Also, there’s a bit on writing; I would love to be a writer, and one day I may just do some writing other than what’s required for game design, but the reason I’m posting these links is because I feel they offer good advice for anyone within creative fields.

Expect future Weekly Weblinks to feature more on freelancing and business as well.

Also, I have a folder full of links for upcoming Recommended Readings, but I try to limit these (10 links today, and it feels right). If you want or need more information, don’t
hesitate to ask in the comments.

Game Design

  • Make Your Own Games. Tadhg Kelly compares gaming companies, both independent and corporate, and compares them to bands and orchestras. I feel this is a great article, but it misses the idea of jazz bands, and small just-for-fun classical ensembles, where they’re still driven by discipline and often have sheet music and such, but still have the chaotic and crazy that garage bands have. I feel his comparison should go as follows: bands are hobbiest programmers, jazz bands are the independent gaming studios (following just enough of the rules and midsets to make it work, but still taking risks without a safety net). (@ Gamasutra)
  • The Fatal Flaws of Flash Game Design. This article, by Erin Bell, is a grab bag of good game design (obviously) and freelance (not so obviously) tips for anyone starting out. (@ Gamasutra)

Business Related

Freelancing

Writing

  • Write When You Think You Can’t. When I first read this article, I thought it was ways for breaking writers block, which it obviously is. But then I reread it and noticed, at the
    top of the page, that it’s more about writing when you’ve never written before, and how to start. Good for anyone doing, or who wants to do, creative work. (@ Dumb Little Man)
  • Accept What Is – Don’t Judge as Good or Bad. I wish I’d read this yesterday. On Monday night, when Brandon and I were trying to speed-write a
    song, I wanted to give up because the piece wasn’t perfect. Then we laid it over the video, and it was everything we were hoping for. Often times, we’re shooting for something better than we need, and we let it bring us down, when really all we need to do is accept it. (@ ZenHabits)

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Recommended Readings: Related Links from Around the Web (July 22, 2009 ed.)

July 22, 2009 | No comments

It seems that every blog has a weekly roundup of sorts, posting related (or semi-related) links from around the web.  So, to give this blog validity, I think it’s a good idea to follow suit.

It’s been a busy week for me, as I’ve mentioned before: I’ve been staying up ’til midnight or later working on music for Brandon Irwin, got sick, built a fence (where, during clean up, I was able to source out a couple BEAUTIFULLY squeaky hinges), and got right back to writing music.  Game Design Concepts has taken a back seat to a heavy workload at my 9-5 (I’m taking a break from that, right now, just to write this), and PARPG and the GAME have followed suit against the approaching Churches deadline.

I can’t pretend it’s been all work, though, and to accent that, I present to you this weeks links.

Music to Listen To:

  • He Who Brings The Night. A sweet song I stumbled upon today, by Thomas J. Bergersen.  Give it a listen, and let him, and me, know what you think. ( @ nemesisII )
  • Peace Piece. A set of videos related to Peace Piece, by Bill Evans. I’d love to play piano like that, and I’d never heard a bowed vibraphone before. ( @ the music of sound )
  • Fun.  My brother, Steve, mentioned this band to me, claiming I wouldn’t like them because they’re too eclectic. (This’ll show him!) Fronted by Nate Ruess of the now-dead Format, this band is super… um… fun. ( @ Fun )

Music to Read About:

  • DRM is Dead.  In the early 2000s, I ripped all 200+ CDs I had onto my computer, trying to get with the times of moving to digital media, using Windows Media Player, which added DRM by default.  A few years later, those CDs were stolen, and the computer I was holding my music on died (the motherboard, anyway)… A few years after that, I hooked up the old hard drive to retrieve my old music and found the DRM had expired, and I could no longer use music that I rightly owned.  Long story short, if DRM  had never happened, I’d have a lot of music I’ll never have again.  This couldn’t come soon enough. ( @ Gizmodo )
  • Trent Reznor: What To Do as a New / Unknown Artist. The music industry has changed, and is changing; Nine Inch Nails’ frontman lays it all out how he feels new and unknown artists should do to get themselves out there. ( @ hypebot )
  • Why the Academy is Scaling Back Best Original Song.  Not only has the music industry changed, and DRM died, but the film industry is moving away from original compositions in favor of paying rights for popular songs. (Even when they don’t fit. I’m looking at you, 21 Guns, by Green Day, in Transformers 2).  John Piscitello sums it all up pretty nicely, and even throws in a Marylin Monroe video to spice things up. ( @ Film Composer Blog)

Game Design

And here I thouht I wouldn’t have anything useful to share. :)

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Chakan: The Forever Man

July 20, 2009 | No comments

If you’re reading this from one of my cross-posts, let me first say “thank you for checking me out,”  and second “but your princess is in another castle.”  Meaning:Thanks for coming this far, but this is just a carbon copy of the material that I post on my website, DaveMatney.com, where you can also find my portfolio.  You can keep reading my stuff on this site, but things like images, audio samples, and updates may not work correctly.

This entry is built in reverse, telling you what I learned first, then what I should have done, finished with what I did. In Game Design Concepts Level 4, we were challenged to build a non-digital adaptation of a video game.  I chose Chakan: The Forever Man, a Sega Genesis platformer.  As you can probably tell by when I was assigned that task, and now (when I am posting it), it’s pretty obvious I bit off more than I could chew.  I tried to develop a completely playable game, which was the objective, but I kept adding and adding and adding, and I’m STILL not finished. So, What Did I Learn?

  • First, keep it small, keep it simple.  This early in the design process there’s no reason to add more features than I could handle, and even though I was basing my rules off HeroQuest rules, I was adding too many rules to effectively playtest.
  • Second, though it’s just an extension of the first, don’t stress the details.  I spent too much time trying to cram an entire game into a ruleset without actually capturing the elements of the game.  To be honest, I was actually trying to one-up the game, making my non-digital version something that’s more fun, and actually completable. (Chakan holds a certain notoriety for it’s difficulty; sure, you can’t die, but you can’t save, either, and you can probably count on one hand how many people beat it legitly.)
  • Finally, Focus on a single mechanic, make it work, THEN move on. I know GDCU has hit that point many, MANY, times, but it’s not until you let feature-creep drown you that it really hits home.

So, what SHOULD I have built? Chakan’s difficulty lies in ONE area: jumping.  Many jumps are pixel-perfect pits where, if you miss them, you fall to you “death” and have to start the level over.  (This video represents that frustration well.  Take into consideration that he’s using a utility to save his game, which wasn’t possible in the actual game; every time he dies in this video, he’d have to return to the beginning of the level) So, the game I SHOULD have built would have been like this:

Goals:

  • Reflect difficulty of, and dependence on, jumping as a game mechanic

Game pieces:

  • 40 glass markers, separated into 10 of each of the following colors: red, green, blue, clear.
  • 16 plastic skulls
  • A mini-fig to represent Chakan
  • Mini-figs to represent the different enemies
  • 20 1”x1” wooden tiles
  • A dry-erase square-grid board
  • Dry-erase markers

Overview:

  • A game for 2 players

Order of Play:

  • Play begins with Chakan. After Chakan has completed his turn, it is the Game Master’s turn.  On their turn, the Game Master may move all monsters currently on the gameboard. This sequence continues until the Quest Level is completed, or until Chakan returns to the Hub.
  • Any Player’s Turn
    • Whether playing Chakan or the Game Master, a player does one of the following on his turn.
      • Moves his figure(s) and performs an action
      • Performs an action and moves his figure(s)

Movement: To determine how many square spaces to move, you must roll 2d6. Then, move carefully across the board square-by-square.  You do NOT have to move the entire distance indicated by the dice roll. When moveing, however, you cannot pass over monsters, move through walls, or onto areas you must jump to. You may move diagonally.  You may only enter rooms through doors. Jumping: Jumping is an action.  To determine how many spaces you can jump, you must roll 2d6. Then, moove Chakan across the pit to be jumped. You do NOT have to jump the entire distance indicated by the dice roll. When jumping, you can only move in a straight line.  You may only jump up one “level” at a time.

  • Levels are indicated by stacking the wooden pieces. One wooden piece is 1 level up, two is two levels, ect.

    • Admittedly, that game wasn’t very good, and it’s only about half finished at that state, but it’s playable if the players are creative.  What I made, instead, was a complete waste of time. Read the rest of this entry »

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    WW1 Game

    July 13, 2009 | No comments

    In Game Design Concepts: Level 3, we were challenged to make a game based on WW1.  I chose the lowest level of difficulty, mainly because this was a REALLY hard assignment for me.  In fact, it was/is so hard I’m officially a week behind the course. This is the game I came up with.

    My concept

    A large portion of WW1 seems to be trench warfare, and I wanted to make a game based on that.  I wasn’t allowed to have death/destruction or owning territory as an objective for the player, so I decided to have a Race to the End type game.

    You play as the Allied Powers, though that doesn’t really matter.  The Central Powers have come into your trenches, killed off most of your team, and have taken your ammo supply.  They have taken a handful of your team mates hostage, and placed you in a central holding cell, within your own trenches, waiting for their commanding officer to decide what to do with you.  When the guards backs are turned, you’re able to escape the cell, and have to exit the trenches to return to your home base.  (Cheesy, I know.)

    Allied Powers Goals

    • Reach the outside edge of the game board without getting caught.

    Central Powers Goals

    • Capture players
    • If you can’t capture them, prevent them from leaving the trenches before your commanding officer arrives.

    Rules

    • For 4-10 players, even numbers work better.  Half are Allied, half are Central; if there’s an uneven number of players, the odd man out is Central.
    • The Allied players start in the middle area (blue) , the Central players start on the edges (yellow).
    • The game goes for a set number of turns, at the end of the game, the Central Powers’ commanding officer arrives, and any Allied Powers players left on the game board are captured.
    • Players roll 1d12 to move.
    • Color Definitions: Brown: Trenches, Green: High ground, Blue: Jail, Yellow: Freedom
    • Players can move from the Trenches to the High ground through the Orange squares.  Players can move from the high ground to the trenches without restriction. Allied Powers Players cannot enter the jail, Central Powers players can pass through the jail’s doors.
    • Players are given a number of “Sandbag” tiles, which they can place next to their player-marker at any time during their turn.
    • Sandbags block the path. A player can spend a turn to remove the sandbags, and they can keep the tile to play during their own turn.

    freedom

    What did I learn from this?

    • I need to stop procrastinating.  This took me 30 minutes, and I’ve had the idea and rules figured out by the day after the assignment was given.
    • Even if the idea sucks, finish it, so I can move on.

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    Climb the Mountain

    July 6, 2009 | No comments

    If you found my blog through an internet search on Game Design, and you haven’t yet heard of gamedesignconcepts.wordpress.com, I suggest checking it out.  This blog, and the series of blogs to follow it, are exercises from that link.

    An exercise in game design

    An exercise in game design

    In the first lesson from Game Design Concepts, we were instructed to build a simple 15-minute game (an exercise developed by Brenda Brathwaite).  The above game was my product.

    The goal is simple: reach the top of the mountain.  The rules are equally as simple: roll a dice, move that many squares forward.  At that, the game is supurbly boring.  In lesson two, we were asked to playtest it (which I didn’t do, but given the simplicity, I am fairly certain I can play it in my head), and then change or add a rule.  I added “If you land on the same square as someone else, you can forfeit your next turn to ‘throw them down the mountain.’  Roll 1d6, and move the opponent’s piece an equal amount down the mountain.”  I’ll playtest it tonight, hopefully, though I think my three-year-old won’t much like the new rule.

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