Make a game in August 2013

[Colm Larkin]

Hi folks,

If you missed it last night, the theme for August is going to be:

  GIVE UP

You can interpret this in any way you like. Maybe it's about making a reverse game where you win by not trying, or a game that bribes you to give up early..

I look forward to seeing some cool ideas & prototypes on the mailing list :D

And as always if you just want to make a game about a car with a musical horn then go right ahead! The theme is optional.

Finally here's some fantastic advice from the founder of 1GAM about how to actually finish a game each month:

http://gamedev.tutsplus.com/articles/business-articles/1gam-how-to-succeed-at-making-one-game-a-month/

Cheers

Colm

[Colm Larkin]

So, lets share some IDEAS! 

The idea I have for this month's game is an old school RPG, like bard's tale / ultima / baldur's gate. Except, once you begin you are stuck in an ever-more complex series of steps where you create your character, their backstory, pick their stats, their traits, etc etc, then do the same for your party, etc etc

Until you GIVE UP

(there is no actual game, it's all menus leading up to a promising sounding game you never get to play)

[Stephen Roantree]

I don't have any particularly deep ideas for this month, I just want to torture the player. So I'm thinking of making something along the lines of the Japanese bullet hell games. Something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q29LTTo5jLE

So particles, explosions and frustration in about equal measure.

[Thomas Geraghty]

I personally find danmaku games relaxing because the concentration required means calming the mind and slowing your breathing but maybe I play them too much :)

[John Kelly]

I've mentioned this in the Talker channel, but repeating here for good measure: 

In the Myth of Sisyphus, Camus says that the, when confronted with the absurdity of existence, the only course of action for a human being isn't suicide but, instead, revolt. Because of this, he imagines Sisyphus as being 'happy'.

So my game for this month is putting this to the test: a QWOP/CLOP/GIRP-like game where the player must push a boulder up a hill, using two keys to hold onto the boulder, then a key for each of the legs. Push the boulder up the hill. Well done! Now do it again. And again. Repeat ad infinitum. Are you happy? Is Camus right?

Having lots of fun getting to grips with love2d's physics, which is probably the wrong tool for the job, but it's something I've wanted to experiment with for a while.

[Colm Larkin]

Such a hilarious idea John. Look forward to seeing it!

[Sergio Mira Muñoz]

Hi folks, I am going to try and finish a quick game this August that goes like this:

You have a girlfriend, she gets pissed of for no/random reason. You can choose then to do several things (minigames like alinging an increasing number of stars to say "Sorry") to impress her and try to be forgiven (even when it is not your fault). But, no matter how much you try, they don´t work. Until you give up!

(Based on thousands of studies and real events )

2013/8/8 Colm Larkin <co...@gambrinous.com>

[Jennifer Lorigan]

I probably won't get this game made this month, but for once I have an idea to use eventually, so I thought I'd share it, though it's still quite vague and convoluted.

I want to make something where death omens appear, along with the option to give up as soon as they do, and start making your life more difficult if you refuse. For example, you can't hear people talking to you over the banshee wailing, so you don't get tasks done at work, or friends and family get annoyed at you because they feel you're not paying attention to them. Or you're making an atonement dinner for your friends or partner, but when you go out to get vegetables in the garden the barghest has dug them up, and when you try to drive to the shops the Cóiste Bodhar drives in front of you and slows you down. I think it'll be a choice-based game, so every so often you'll have a few options ("Did you boss want you to do A, B, or C, or do you want to give up?") with fewer of the options being selectable depending on how many tasks you fail, until the only one you can select is "give up", and off you go in the Cóiste Bodhar.

Really enjoying reading other people's ideas, I particularly like John's Sisyphus one :) Though Sergio, your central conceit is "Women, amirite?!"? Was someone having a bad day?

[Sergio Mira Muñoz]

Ups, I re-read my email and I expressed the theme in the worst way possible.

I believe human beings are imperfect and wanted to make a game about those moments when someone you know (friend, boyfriend, girldfriend, father, mother, etc) gets mad at you and won't forgive you even if you move the moon. I have done it to some people too for no reason, maybe I am just crazy U_u

I'll make the relationship and gender randomized or selectable to avoid misinterpretation

I love John's idea and I believe he is making good progress already. Jennifer, your game idea made me think of this other game (One Chance): http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/555181

Looking forward to playing lots of games this month!

2013/8/11 Jennifer Lorigan <lor...@tcd.ie>

[Kev]

This month I wanted to do something in 3D. It's a simple space shooter, where you fly around and blow up asteroids. I've only had time to properly model the asteroids, but hopefully I will get time to do a proper ship too. Right now collision detection between the ship and asteroids isn't there, but you can shoot and destroy them. To fit in with the theme I want to make it so that every time you destroy one, another one appears, so you can keep destroying them (and probably have some score increase), but you will never destroy them all. The big space station looking thing doesn't do anything .. just something I was playing around with.

I've got a basic prototype here: 

http://www.lambfruit.com/prototypes/test.html

Use 'W' for forward thrust, arrow keys to rotate the ship, and space to fire.

Tools I used: Blender, Unity, photoshop and Meshlab.

[Kev]

Had a bit of time tonight so I added a title screen, with controls. Also set up collision detection for ship & asteroids, and asteroids & asteroids.

Latest is here: http://www.lambfruit.com/prototypes/test.html

You start with 70 asteroids and have to destroy them all .. but they will collide, and may be sent flying off in to the abyss. Some may move faster than the ship, and you can lose track of them pretty easily .. and if you do you will probably give up.

[Sergio Mira Muñoz]

Never give up!

I really like how it is looking :D

2013/8/13 Kev <bergin...@gmail.com>

[Owen Canavan]

So... I suffer somewhat from Social Anxiety, so the subject of giving up is something I have vast experience of. I wanted to make a game that, at least in part, highlights the feeling of being overcome by anxiety and just wanting to give up and run away. At least one aspect of this game would be an alternative 'hollow victory', where you (thematically) feel the relief of being unburdened by your anxiety and therefore 'win', but ultimately you lose, or at least the other players do.

So my game is "Game Jam", ostensibly a coop game where the players have to collectively complete their games before the end of a fixed duration game jam event.

Each player has their own skill in four disciplines, design, code, art and audio. Each turn you decide to apply the work you've done (from the previous turn) to your game or trade to another player. To complete your game you must fill in all space on your game board, including some polish, which can only be obtained by getting feedback from other players (mandatory trading, and therefore social interaction).

Three quarters of the players will have the cooperative group goal, but the remaining one quarter will have an individual goal. The individual goal will be defined by a personality type that each player will draw, one of which will be the aforementioned Socially Anxious. The personality type will be public, but the goal private. I'd like to have two possible goals per personality to make things less predictable. So in a game of eight players there will be two individual goals in play.

I'm not sure I'll have it finished before tuesday, but I'm also making this as part of Owen Harris' design workshop, which I'm doing, so it'll probably get a playthrough of what's available on monday.

I've still yet to create all the personality types and goals, so any suggestions would be welcome. I'll likely also have an Achiever, who will try to finish their game first, and a Griefer, who will try to make the group fail.

Since I'm also doing this for the workshop, and it's somewhat personal, I'm perhaps going a bit overboard on this. :)

[Colm Larkin]

Just back from holidays to see a huge amount of progress here. Very inspiring guys! Really looking forward to seeing everything in action!

So for our August meetup I think we should join in with the dubLUDO event again like we did two months ago. The dubLUDO event is on Fri 30th of August from 6pm and is a place to show off your games - we'll set up a 1GAM room like we did before. Every other time they have run it it has been in the Gamespace location in the IFSC; right now they are saying location TBC so I'll be in touch when I know more. 

In any case:

Fri 30th August - 1GAM meetup!

Also, I may kickstart my August 1GAM entry by spending tomorrow 'gamejamming' - if anyone wants to join in drop into the talker channel during the day!

https://d1gam.talkerapp.com/rooms/41368

Colm

[Colm Larkin]

And if you want to join the dubLUDO event on facebook you can do so here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/219604998195112/

[John Kelly]

Also, I may kickstart my August 1GAM entry by spending tomorrow 'gamejamming' - if anyone wants to join in drop into the talker channel during the day!

https://d1gam.talkerapp.com/rooms/41368

You have to be careful using the "k" word around here now. With the quality of some of the things people have been turning out, I wouldn't be surprised to see some of it end up on Kickstarter(.com) one of these days.

Speaking of which, Owen, that is AMAZING. And I love how meta it is - a gamejam game about gamejams. If I could inject an Inception BWAAAAARP in here now, I would. I also love the finish of it. Maybe the photo is deceptive, but that looks like really thick cardstock. And rounded corners! Looks and sounds amazing!

Who'd have thought the theme of "give up" would reveal so much personal stuff about everyone? It's great. More like this.

I'll try and pop into the channel at some stage in the evening to show the results of my crash course in game physics. It's not pretty, but it is occasionally hilarious.

[Colm Larkin]

*** REMINDER ***

Meetup is tomorrow evening!

It is starting at 6pm but will go on for a few hours if you can't make it that early.

It is on in 'Gamespace' in Pulse College in the IFSC. Map here:

It is BYOB if you feel like having a couple of beers. There's a shop directly across the road that sells beer too.

Hope to see you all then!

I'll be showing off something that I hope to have finished tonight..

[Philip Cass]

Hello!

I made a thing. Unfortunately it didn't get out of the prototyping stage. The idea was that you'd be a rescue chopper in a city where a disaster has occurred, the objective of the game being to save as many people as possible. But! the more people you save the more difficult it is to pilot your chopper. When do you decide to "give up" on the remaining survivors!?

I quite liked the idea so I may come back to it at some stage. Below's a link to the game play demo. Arrows for movement. Touch the person to pick them up with either the chopper or the last link in the human chain. 

http://hayzeus.netsoc.ie/1GAM/chopper_dave/chopper_dave.html

Phil

[Marc O'Morain]

Has anyone played 868 Hack on iPhone? I downloaded it yesterday and can't stop playing. 

--
Marc O'Morain
http://marcomorain.com

[Colm Larkin]

Thanks to everyone who made it to the meetup on Friday! Was really great to see everyone's games.

John K would you share the two sysiphus prototypes you had made? Both looked really interesting - I'd like to play with them a bit more.

Sergio you able to share your treasure game? Didn't get a chance to play it!

Owen C - share that picture you took of us all playing your board game!

Stephen R should be announcing September's theme sometime today ...

ps- had a blast playing Johann Sebastian Joust. Very cool game!

[Colm Larkin]

I've updated my August game to be ever more fun/infuriating... Please give it a play and let me know what you think!

Futility RPG:

http://gambrinous.com/games/futilityrpg/

[Owen Canavan]

Thanks very much guys for taking the time to play through my game.

There is a link to the photo in this post. http://oscan.net/index.php?cmd=blog&pid=34#ref=g1 There's also a link to my crappy video of Johann Sebastian Joust :)