SA GameDev Challenge X - Judging Begins! Play Goon Games!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > SA GameDev Challenge X - Judging Begins! Play Goon Games!

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

I am in again this year, but alone because last year I thought I knew flash better than I remembered and procrastinated and really let my teammate down trying to deliver on his good idea. I really want to do a game based around the Google Maps API regardless of the theme.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2015 05:10

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:36

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Mo_Steel posted:

This is awesome.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2015 22:14

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

xzzy posted:

Man, javascript frameworks have come a long way since the last time I looked into them. Thinking of trying out Phaser for this.. anyone got a strong opinion for or against it or any other library?

Seems like a slam dunk for 2d as it looks like it does everything.

No doubt. I have been using MMF 2 for a while but the bullshit workarounds to decent logic and loops has been driving me nuts. Starting with a native JS framework would be so freeing. I'm looking forward to suggestions as well.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2015 05:22

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

TheOrange posted:

I actually like it as well after talking the idea around with some other team members, though I think we have something interesting as the Grandma one too. Honestly though Critical Omission just seems to me like it's going to have the most derivative games out of the bunch since the first thing for many is going to be "X but missing Y".

Interesting. I personally think Critical Omission has the most opportunity for really interesting mechanics assuming people make an effort to be thoughful about it. As a story component especially, it brings a lot of opportunity. Local Color doesn't seem to invite any less derivatives, and really relies on setting to sell the theme. Maybe I am just thinking too shallow though.

I'm super excited to see how everyone interprets and explores the themes this year. Seems like a lot of good ideas are percolating.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2015 02:35

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Question

If my game requires server side processing, that won't pose a problem with submission and judging will it? A lot of the logic for a game I am kicking around relies on a multiplayer server so beyond passing along an SQL Dump and Git repo it would have to be honor system that I am not touching it.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2015 03:41

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

JonTerp posted:

That's fine. Multiplayer games have done well in the past, but there have been multiplayer entries that had servers got down right before judging or nobody willing to get a game together.

With that being said it sounds like all you require is a server backend and not lots of people to play, so that's one of the two big worries out of the way.

At the end of the day, if you can avoid using a server then avoid using a server. If you think it's worth the risk and investment, go for it.

It's not that game-play would require a server as much as the game is enriched by individual player contributions. I misspoke about the true need, but being able to rely on it as backbone would be a serious development consideration. It's kind of event driven polling to see what other players have done, not what they are actively doing, so I don't think server load would be a concern but that is a good call I should look into. Thanks for the response.

root of all eval fucked around with this message at 07:11 on Jun 25, 2015

# ¿ Jun 25, 2015 07:08

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Shalinor posted:

Going in assuming you'll make something as magical as HONK is a bad idea. HONK is like this... artifact, from an impossible time where the stars aligned, and entire rooms full of goons pretended they were geese and honked their lives away.

You probably won't make a HONK. So multiplayer is dangerous, yeah.

Heisenberg1276 posted:

Last year my group submitted a multiplayer game and there was trouble getting enough people to play it for proper judging. So if you're able to make something where it can be played without requiring a load of players I'd strongly recommend that.

That said, HONK was multiplayer and did very well. So I guess YMMV.

JonTerp posted:

That's fine. Multiplayer games have done well in the past, but there have been multiplayer entries that had servers got down right before judging or nobody willing to get a game together.

With that being said it sounds like all you require is a server backend and not lots of people to play, so that's one of the two big worries out of the way.

At the end of the day, if you can avoid using a server then avoid using a server. If you think it's worth the risk and investment, go for it.

I appreciate the advice from everyone. I think I'll try to design it to not incorporate online play after all. It would be a lot to commit to in 30 days and might just bring complications.

That is if the theme even takes me in that direction lol.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2015 02:19

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Temper Trudeau posted:

I want to be in on this so bad. But I can't code, only have Blender and Unity 4.6 (and I still dont know how to move assets from one to the other, or compile/package it into a browser game) and no good sound equipment atm.

So for everyone involved I hope you guys have a great time making games, so I can have a great time playing them.

As I remember the contest is like 75% coder, so you shouldn't have trouble teaming up if you want to do modeling/animation. Join the Orphan list man!

# ¿ Jun 26, 2015 21:50

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Lowen SoDium posted:

Local color is my least favorite for the contest because it will require explanation in each game before the player knows what the local story is about. This means more exposition and less game play.

Conversely it might force people to think outside of a 'clever' response to a theme, and make a game that just exists regardless the forced theme. I can see it from both sides.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2015 05:34

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

For local color, I am exploring the idea of a 3D maps based wilderness survival game. It drops you in a somewhat sandboxed part of the superstition wilderness and you have to try and use orienteering to find your way out before you run out of energy and die. I'd calculate a few drop points or even just calculate it from the 'civilization' poly overlay. I'm playing with Cesium and it looks fit for the job.

May not be a winning idea, but it sounds fun and unique to try and create.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2015 17:59

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Is this really about winning, or is it about jamming most triumphantly?

# ¿ Jun 30, 2015 02:26

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

That video really was rad as hell

Stoked, my theme of choice was picked, now let's fail miserably!

# ¿ Jul 1, 2015 06:02

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Critical Omission doesn't have to mean a handicapped game. Instead of elements of the engine missing, think about characters or items or motifs missing from classic game structures. You can have a full features game that is missing pretty much anything, as long at the absence is noticed and affects the outcome.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2015 08:08

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Atoramos posted:

Idea we'd been kicking around: racing game where the racers are just running around holding steering wheels, making car noises. Thinking this is more an experiment to understand the blender->unity animation workflow better, but we're playing around with multiplayer and rift support so we'll see what we end up making.

This sounds hysterical lol.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2015 20:16

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

My game concept is a Google Maps driven fishing game. But you forgot your net so you can't keep any fish. You can however kick, punch and suplex them into puking up loot. If they fight back too hard you can lose some of your loot as well. The game is won buy selling enough loot to buy a new net so you can catch a fish, as the name Catch a Fish would suggest.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2015 22:56

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Polo-Rican posted:

It's a simple concept, and of course it looks like rear end so far, but I think this will be a LOT of fun once it's polished up and turned into a real game.

It's a bullet hell / twin stick shooter, except you don't have a gun. Instead, you ram into enemies using a boost. If you hit an enemy, he goes flying with the proper physics. If that enemy hits another enemy, that enemy will go flying with the proper physics. So the goal is to line up shots, just like billiards, and take out as many enemies in one hit as possible. Once a point system is implemented, combos will be heavily rewarded.

I really like this idea, good work.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2015 04:06

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

alf_pogs posted:

This looks awesome! Is it a first time game? If so congrats!

One constructive thing: The player being so far down screen makes for a nice speedy feel but doesn't offer much reaction time. Assuming the obstacles come from below you are basically putting 3/4 of the screen real estate in the rear-view mirror.

\/\/\/\/

Not a unity guy, but can colliders and rigid bodies be bound? It seems like you should be able to make a bottom heavy roll-caged mass out of a box and cylinder if the box can take brunt of the mass distribution. Maybe that's what you are doing

root of all eval fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Jul 9, 2015

# ¿ Jul 9, 2015 01:48

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Aredna posted:

The no breaks thing gave me the idea for a no steering game. You just accelerate or break and then would have to rely on the terrain to turn you.

This would totally work in a monkeyball sort of scenario.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2015 05:05

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

xzzy posted:

Yeah, I have mouse capture disabled because it's annoying during development.

I'm not super familiar with mouse support with html5/canvas but it looks like dragging outside the window while clicked just confuses the gently caress out of the javascript event sending. Like if you click outside the window after it gets "stuck" and then go back to the game, the metroid will almost always go flying off in some random direction at top speed.

I might be able to mitigate that with hacking down the road, but for now it's super sketchy.

Running it in an iframe may mitigate issues with event bubbling.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2015 23:37

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

I'm focusing on making assets first, and I planned out quite a few graceful degradations to the gameplay if time starts ticking down. I'm thinking that completed graphics should, in theory at least, be more motivating than a hacked together engine. I got my storyboards done and I hope to plow through the rest this weekend.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2015 16:47

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Devian666 posted:

Making good progress. I loaded up the software to start building the game and drank half a bottle of wine.

This. 4 beers in and I have a single 8.5x11 storyboard with stick figures.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2015 22:09

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Behold

Glad I have a whole weekend free lol

Edit:

A little texture goes a long way, now I need to detail the boat a bit more.

Edit 2:

For the first time in a long time I am actually enjoying making the graphics :monocle:

root of all eval fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Jul 12, 2015

# ¿ Jul 11, 2015 18:59

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

What are the odds that more than one game would involve fish? Looks great

# ¿ Jul 11, 2015 23:16

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

xzzy posted:

This page's gifs are making me feel really inadequate.

I'm hung up on creating art and am coming to realize that even though I can imagine it, I can't reliably create it.

There is no shame in using ripped sprites or turbosquid placeholders in the clutch.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2015 00:03

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Git confused the hell out of me, but really I think it just scared me more than anything. Merges and Branches being so far different but still being workable just feels like it shouldn't work. Once I got over the fear of breaking everything it's been pretty much the killer app for anything work/progression wise and I can't believe I ever got by without it.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2015 20:50

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

JonTerp posted:

It's worth mentioning that the deadline is SOLID. The site will stop taking submissions on August 1st ON THE DOT. Use the countdown on the site to gauge this.

We strongly encourage you to adjust your plans to have your game finished, tested, and ready to go a day or two before the deadline as once that clock runs out, that's it. We will not accept your game, even if you started the upload before the end and couldn't finish the upload.

What time zone?

# ¿ Jul 20, 2015 08:44

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

# ¿ Jul 25, 2015 06:39

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Japanese Phone Box posted:

Life got in the way... looks like I'm done for, maybe I'll avoid the wall of shame next year.

sigh

I'll help you make a quick Fusion 2.5 game if you have an idea and can make some assets. There is a free PC version now so I can get you kickstarted maybe.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2015 22:37

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

BossRighteous posted:

~~I'll help you make a quick Fusion 2.5 game if you have an idea and can make some assets. There is a free PC version now so I can get you kickstarted maybe.~~

Forget it. I denounce Fusion 2.5

I just spent an entire afternoon struggling to figure out why my Trig results were wrong, submitted a bug report, and discovered it uses degrees for Trig functions instead of radians. The kicker is this has happened to me 2-3 times and I always forget.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2015 00:21

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

sighnoceros posted:

I don't know how it was sourced, but if I drag PNGs from the browser to PS it does that black infill instead of alpha. If I save the PNG and open it in PS it doesn't. :iiam:

# ¿ Jul 28, 2015 16:28

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Xibanya posted:

I hope everyone enjoys the progression they see from the first sprites I ever did in my life and the sprites I made one month later after doing nothing but make sprites all day and night.

This is the entire purpose of game jams in my mind.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2015 06:48

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

SlightlyMadman posted:

I'm thinking of abandoning save/load game functionality in my game, since it massively complicates things. Since judges are probably only playing it once for 5 minutes, they don't really care about that stuff anyways, right?

I would agree.

By the way, what is the opposite of Feature Creep?

# ¿ Jul 29, 2015 18:35

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

My game is slowly but surely turning into a cutscene.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2015 20:59

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Polo-Rican posted:

On one hand I'm actually OK with that since it's an old-school arcade-like game... if you play any arcade game in a similar style (Bezerk, Robotron, Asteroids, etc) you will also die within seconds if you're not being careful. But on the other hand, this isn't an arcade, so I think people will just put it down and give up if it starts off this hard.

I think as long as you can get back into the action with the same keybindings as the game play it's not that jolting. Having to find a replay button to click or press enter to start always drives me nuts. My average truck simulator round is like 10-30s and it feels right to me.

Although if people aren't getting progressively better on each replay you may tone it down.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2015 21:16

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

New Prize:

For all 7 primary category winners I will 3D print and mail a commemorative trophy of a humanoid standing triumphantly atop the monolithic wall of shame complete with the engraved usernames of those consumed. One print per team but I will make extras for anyone interested if they cover basic cost and shipping.

OR

The winning team can alternative elect to send a similar statue without triumph as a form of spite to someone on the wall provided they volunteer their shipping information. Maybe this one would have a corpse lying at the base. I haven't made any models for either yet.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2015 21:30

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

KRILLIN IN THE NAME posted:

Hey yall, I have a test build of my game if anyone wants to play. Still gotta add in music/sfx and there's a few bugs that needs fixing, but for the most part it works!

This is great man. Even when it's frustrating the damage and violence make it fun.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2015 03:13

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Of course I got hit with some sort of browser exploit at 10pm last night. Time to buckle down and git r done.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2015 14:50

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

I did it. Barely. I avoided the wall of shame and I am actually pretty proud of what I made even if it came down to the wire!

I tried an HTML5 build from Fusion 2.5 but my physics were just waaaaaay off. So all I have is a windows exe. It's probably not going to win anything but I am happy with what I produced. Cant wait to play everyone elses and get drunk and sleep!

Great job everyone!

# ¿ Aug 1, 2015 07:19

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

Did Smash-em-Up not get submitted??? I was pretty stoked to play it.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2015 09:30

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:36

root of all eval: Dec 28, 2002

abardam posted:

Wall of shame for me
Here's what I finished, anyway, hopefully someone'll get a kick out of it: http://www.fastswf.com/c1jg_s0

~~I'd try it but I am not getting anything on screen.~~ Chrome asked me about Unity Player for other projects, Firefox loaded it this time. Review to come.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2015 09:56

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