Gobble gobble!
Edit (11/27/09):
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Nov26
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Nov25
I love the idea of dual role games. Maybe one day you are the protagonist and the next day you are the antagonist. Either way, in the vein of Grid16 I have decided to explore dual roles in microgaming. Working title for this project is FlipSide, although (as always) titles change. Here’s a screenshot of the interface as it stands now:
Very much still Work In Progress but at least the game is coming together. It’s the first AS3 minigame compilation I’ve made so it’s a bit tricky converting the way I did things into the new methods of AS3. That blue looks sort of weird now that I am posting a screenshot. I should fix that.
Celebrating Thanksgiving? Have a safe one! Not celebrating Thanksgiving? Eat some turkey anyway.
Tags: flipside
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Nov23
This weekend I had the opportunity to play Tetris Evolution, a game for Xbox 360. It’s fairly Tetris-y, while not the best incarnation it is Tetris. I love Tetris.
I booted up Marathon mode (the primary mode in the game). For over an hour I played a rigorous game, placing blocks in their proper places and removing rows. After a while the game got so fast that I couldn’t see the blocks even fall anymore. It was almost purely block rotation and some minor shifting, as much as I could muster under the time constraint of block in motion to block settled.
Long story short, eventually I reached level 15 and beat it. Then I got the Game Over screen.
Apparently the game only goes to 15 levels. Once you beat the 15th level the game is over. There’s no celebration screen, no unlimited level generation… just… game over. Essentially I beat the game. There’s no going beyond Level 15 so apparently I’ve must have maxed out.
That makes me sad.
Throughout my life there has always been this sense of Tetris never ending. My mind is tricked into thinking that my Tetris playing is just a journey towards infinity and I have to see how far I can get. Really, it could be that game. The game plays towards that sort of notion. Faster and faster and faster the game can go, and that alone can be the fuel for level difficulty. Sure, the idea that the game could somehow outpace the processor or whatever I can sympathize with… but I don’t think about that sort of thing when I play as a gamer. So when I beat Tetris finally I don’t really feel like a winner. I feel like I’ve broken something. Reminds me of some way-too-easy Donkey Kong kill screen.
I don’t know if this is every version of Tetris or what, but that was a weird bittersweet night.
Tags: tetris
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Nov19
In case you read the last blog article and wondered why I was so grumpy, its because I’ve just completed a big, big accomplishment. There’s two games. Yes, two games. Both around the same time, on TWO different platforms: I Hate Traffic on the website and I Love Traffic on the iPhone/iPod Touch.
Golly gee, this project was big.
I Hate Traffic is about smashing cars. It’s the ultimate tantrum-toddler-causing-ruckus-playground-funtime. In response to I Love Traffic (see below) a lot of people asked me if I could make a crash-only mode. So that’s what I did! I Hate Traffic is about crashing and goal achievement. One level may be about crashing a 20 cars, another might be about shoving a car into a square target area, and another might be about throwing yourself in front of a semi to save a bus from a cluster of bombs. Its all up to you.
The best part about this game is that level creation is by YOU. Like Little Big Planet the entire environment is unlocked to the players. Through the level editor any player can recreate any of the levels found in the game. All the tools are there for the taking. The game even allows you to make your own goals.
And share those levels! The Game Share made by Armor Games team allows you to take any challenge and allow your friends to try them out. Send them it by Short URL or browse around the recent levels floating in. Here’s a level I made, for example: http://armorgames.com/=An5g
Check it out. I Hate Traffic is out on Armor Games now!
I Love Traffic came out as a Flash game last year and had a nice reception. I came up with the game while sitting in traffic, being incredibly patient for the light to change. I thought to myself, what the heck? Why is the light taking so long? Can we do better? Sort of… if it causes for near collisions and manual light changing (obviously not applicable in the real world, but is in a video game!). Now, I Love Traffic is ON THE iPHONE AND iPOD TOUCH.
I wasn’t the soul creator of this game. I had a team of great developers working along side on this project with me. Christopher Skelton was the big hand here, helping me take this project from AS2 source to iPhone, and he did a tremendous job working out all the kinks in transition as well as providing some of his own level design for a few levels. Jeff Wofford also helped out by creating the source engine that allowed the transition to take place. I did about 99% of the artwork as well as the original coding for the Flash game before it got ported. Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com, did music for several other games of mine) was also a fantastic addition to the game. And of course, thanks to Dan for letting this project evolve from Flash to iPhone.
Anyway, with all credit aside, the game has 40 levels (20 new levels in addition to the Flash ones), a new stats page, and a whole bunch of new random trivia to boggle your mind (who knew a human hair could handle 6kg of pressure?). The game plays as it does on the computer with cars coming from either direction on the screen. Use your traffic light to safely navigate X amount of cars through the inspection. Cause a crash and you have to start over. Easy as that. Sort of. Levels get more and more difficult and intersections go from traditionally seen simple intersections to devastatingly troublesome forces to be reckoned with.
We’re only charging 99 cents for it and its available on iPod Touch and iPhone (v3.1.2 or later). If you want to try out the Flash version first to see if you’d like it, go ahead. It’s the first game I have ever charged money for out of the 50+ titles I’ve made so help support. Don’t buy that candy bar, buy a game instead!
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All said and done, a busy week (and month!) with two launches in the tank. I’m off to go relax and enjoy the rest of my day. Go make some levels in the new I Hate Traffic and go save some lives in I Love Traffic for iPhone and Flash. Enjoy.
Tags: i hate traffic, i love traffic
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Nov18
Well, today was a rough day.
The game is done. It is. It’s sitting. Problem is that the game somehow only works when played on my home computer in Firefox or whatever. Play it on any actual website and it doesn’t quite work. It’s frustrating as hell.
The system has a series of new features I’ve never put in a game. Among those are a giant level editor, level saving and exporting feature, sharing system with rating and sorting, and short-url level sharing for direct level access. It’s pretty awesome (when it will load).
So until then, I’m patient. I am very excited about launching it, just stumbling at the finishing line.
Tags: i hate traffic