June 6, 2010

Where's Teddy?

So I did this course Game Design and what's a course on Game Design without a game? Well, here it is. Made in about seven days (more likely eight) and I thought it became quite cool.

Where's Teddy?

Download
Where's Teddy? (6.2 MB)

How to Play
Your mission is to find teddy and his teddybear friends. The problem is that it's dark and it's really hard to find them if you can't see where you're going but thankfully you have a candle with you and if you're lucky you can stumble on more candles to keep you from going completely dark.

Controls
Move with Arrow Keys
Switch and light candles with Space
Next Level: N
Previous Level: P
Reset Level: R
Console: F1

Credits
Sound effects: Random from freesound
Music: Joshua Holtz - Sounds of Insects
Rest: Me

Source
http://github.com/treeman/A-Game

April 26, 2010

Beebop The Island Hopper

It's here! The stuff of dreams, an entry for the epic Ludum Dare 17 has been made! For those who don't know it's a 48 hour game making competition which actually is pretty silly. Even more silly is my two hours of commitment yesterday but late this night at about 03:05 I am now, finally, writing this post! The theme was islands and this is what I came up with:

Beebop The Island Hopper

Download
Beebop The Island Hopper (0.6 MB)

Controls
Any Key.

Credits
Sound effects: Random from freesound
Random Coolness: Ludum Dare
Rest: Me

Source
http://github.com/treeman/ludumdare17

February 28, 2010

A Geek Valentine

Yes! I made it! It's 22:22 on the very last day of February and I've been programming virtually non-stop for the past two days, my brain feels like mashed potatoes...

A Geek Valentine

Download
A_Geek_Valentine.zip (4.1 MB)

Controls
Steer with the arrow keys.

Use spacebar to:
1. Build the time machine
2. Buy and place traps (Just face an empty square and choose a trop on the top right)
3. Sell traps (Face and click)

Story
Well it's Valentine's Day and as the geek you are this is the worst day ever. Luckily you havean almost complete time machine hidden here in the grass and if you could complete it you'll be safe for now! But beware... The girls are searching for you! Place traps and run away!

About
This game, as usual, was made for The Experimental Gameplay Project. This time they asked for a short explanation on how the theme would fit together so here it is:

Rejection + Valentine's day = feelings hurt

And you're the one hurting all the girls' feelings. Enjoy.

Credits
Music: Nighttime Falls, I'll be Waiting for Her - ilocan18
Sound effects: Random from freesound
Rest: Me

Source
http://github.com/treeman/Rejection

January 16, 2010

The Chronicles of Bim: The 100 Fake Afros

Aaah feels good having a game ready after the last month's failure! This time it's a small shooter.

The Chronicles of Bim: The 100 Fake Afros

Bullet masher - can you keep up with 100 enemies at the screen? Try it!

Download
afro.zip (19.8 MB)

Instructions
W: up
A: left
S: down
D: right
mouse: shoot
space: leap into the sky!

Credits
Music: The Last Prophecy - Matthew Le Blanc (SynthR)
Sound effects: Random from freesound
Rest: Me

Source
http://github.com/treeman/100-things

November 25, 2009

Jonas IceCream Stand

Ahoy there! This time I'll take you along for a ride with an arty Tycoon game.

Jonas IceCream Stand

Get wild and become a Crazy Dealer of IceCream!

Download
jonasicecreamstand.zip (12.8 MB)

Instructions
It should be pretty self-explanatory, it's a very simply tycoon game.

Credits
Music:
All Around Us - Eric Maskol
I Will Always Look up to You - Steve Chatterton

Sound effects: Random from freesound
Rest: Me

October 19, 2009

Postmortem: MenuCity

Good times, good times. MenuCity has been out a while and thanks for all the positive and constructive feedback guys, it's like my food doing this (programming is my air and the fun is the water... err). Anyway here's the postmortem of my latest, and greatest, game.

Let's start with a hideous graph:

God it's ugly, but it works I guess. I spent about 32 hours on this game which is the most I've spent on an experimental game so far. The bulk of the game was actually done really, really quickly like the second day or so. All the gameplay was there and with pacemaker art too! The last 5 days of production was focused on polish, level design and art.

Art
I spent a lot of hours doing the arty business and I think the game looks really good. You'd think the art I have in the game would be doable in a lot fewer hours than I spent and you're absolutely right. In the beginning I had a very different style in mind, it was supposed to be a dude trapped in a console (a beautiful one) with all the ground, the birds (yes birds!) and the blocks all comprised of numbers... But as I worked on it I switched more and more to the style I have now, albeit diverging from the theme but meh.

Production
These games I'm doing, they're more about production than the games themselves I realize that now. Naturally I'm making the games how could they not be about games?

It's just my impression but when I'm doing the games my focus is more on the process of making them, like planning on a free day which I can get zoned and only focus on the code, instead of playing around with "cool" stuff.

This is good I'd say! But meh - we all like cool stuff, I mean it's cool! But making things happen, making things work on screen is way cooler than having them all set up in my head. And besides, my very best ideas (and games) have come when I focus on making them work instead of how cool they should be.

What is is always way cooler than what should be.

The Game itself
Ahh the game... This one is my very best; it looks as good as Bugger, it's more addictive than Balls and it's even criminal to compare the levels to those of Black and White! So what could be better? There are a few things:

1. Horrible tutorial. I tried to redeem myself here but still.
   
2. Be able to move the camera for an overview of terrain. This I had planned, but I had other more important things to do and then I sorta forgot about it...
   
3. Go back 5sec or a few moves. I mean how many times did you press the rest button? I know I did press it a dozen times too many.
   
4. Move up with the side keys instead of having to switch, and slowing down, between up and side. This was suggested later and I don't know why I didn't think of this from the beginning :S
   
5. Repetitive sound. Well honestly I.. uh... yeah. The song is wonderful but some variation would be nice. And for the next game you need to stop and change the music from a menu, instead of the obscure console options. (sound_enabled 0 in console f1 or set in settings.ini)
   
6. Disappointing ending. This one is so true.. I might spoil this for you but the last level isn't as demanding as the ultra hard ninth level. And there wasn't even any ending credits or anything like that, almost like cleaning my room real good without anyone acknowledging it =(
   

Conclusion
MenuCity gave me a great ride, both developing it and playing it. And all the positive feedback doesn't hurt my ego either ^^. There are things I dislike and annoy me but the games are getting better, I'm learning loads and the most important thing of all: It's fun :)

Yesterday I checked the date and there's almost two weeks left until my next monthly experimental game! I might have to start another side project... hum hum...

October 13, 2009

MenuCity

This game is called MenuCity and it's a numbers game. Well that's the theme anyway. The game pretty much held to what I planned for - except that it deviated from the theme -again- a bit.

My game is very reminiscent of the old calculator classic Block Dude made by Brandon Sterner. If you like that game, or any puzzle game for that matter, you're gonna love this one.

MenuCity

Download
menucity.zip (7.4 MB)

Instructions
Left/Right arrows - Move
Up arrow - Climb
Down arrow - Pick up/Put down
f1 - Secret dev console

If you're stuck this might help: Walkthrough Level 0

Credits
Music: The Year Before The War - Eric Maskol
Sound effects: Random from freesound
Rest: Me

September 20, 2009

Bugger

Ahhh... Finally another game! Theme of this beauty is Failure and your mission here is to avoid the bugs. As a programmer the fight with those nasty bugs are a daily occurrence and now I've brought you a chance to kill those nasties too!

The gameplay wasn't what I was planning on - yet again - but I'm actually quite content with the game. It's able to grab your attention for at least a few minutes before loosing you and it's absolutely the prettiest one I've ever made! Enjoy! ^^

Bugger

Download
bugger.zip (7.9 MB)
Update: 21 sept - small bug fix.

Instructions
Type the text on the bugs to make them disappear, that's all folks!

Credits
Music: Dare to Breathe - Tom Fahy
Sound effects: Random from freesound
Rest: Me

August 20, 2009

Black and White

Here it is at last! Boasting a unoriginal name, themed Bare Minimum. My thoughts where to create a game where graphics where included into the gameplay but sadly it didn't come out nearly as good as I expected it too.

Yes I know there are a lot of things bad and wrong with this game, but this is a competition with myself to create a game in only seven days and you can't always polish the games like your heart tells you to do.

Black and White

Download
BlackWhite.zip (11.2 MB)

Instructions
Move left and right with the arrows, jump with space and change the blocks with enter. Esc into the menu and there you can enter a highly advanced (not) level editor to change the levels however you want with left and right mouse.

Credits
Music: What we take to the grave - Tom Fahy
Sound effects: Random from freesound
Rest: Me

August 1, 2009

Balls

Here's my first ever experimental game! The theme was Addictive Gaming. My first thought was oh god I'll be making another tetris clone but the end result turned out a bit different. I'm not sure it's very addictive but it's actually okay! =D

Balls is a game about... balls. Well it's all in 2D so maybe Circles would be a better description but I don't think that captures the attention enough.

I didn't think this was possible but here it is! My very first jewel =)

Balls

Download
Balls.zip (7.1 MB)

Instructions
Well... There's nothing to it really. Move the mouse over the balls to make them shrink, survive until the top is filled with balls.

Credits
Music: Markovich/A.M.P. - Twisted in flight
Sound effects: Random from freesound
Rest: Me