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1

Discussion / Gauging Interest: A Creative-Collaborative-Cooperative Game-making Competition!

« on: November 09, 2011, 05:36:08 pm »

Everybody's good at something, especially around here at ZFGC. So first and foremost I want to make it clear that this thread is for anyone and everyone. I am hoping to see as many people as possible interested in participating in this event, and/or in helping develop it. And these two interests aren't exclusive; someone can help develop the contest and participate in it too. I plan to participate in it myself when it gets underway. I am really excited about this idea, and I hope you will be too.



The Proposal

I'm proposing a friendly competition. In this competition, you get randomly assigned to a team of a number of people, and your team's goal is to spend a week collaborating to create a game. The goal of the competition isn't to win, although naturally there is an overall winner. The competition's real purpose is as follows:

• to foster new relationships between yourself and a number of people you haven't met prior
• to gain new practical experience working and cooperating with other people in a team environment
• to flex your creative muscle in whatever way(s) you're best at
• to learn from the other members of your team and benefit yourself professionally
• to be a part of a finished project that you're (hopefully) proud of

In short, this competition would be about creativity, collaboration, and cooperation. It's about the beginning of new relationships, and the start of something that can be built on in the future, based on something concrete (a game).




Qualifications for Entry

That's the trick: anyone can enter. Games can be built by people with any skill set, whether they're professional or amateur. The goal of this competition is to best use the skill sets of your assigned team to make a game -- any skill is an asset, from programming to poetry.

Not everyone is a programmer, but we live in the days of easy and accessible development tools. Here are a few examples of ways to make a game:

• A programming language, or Flash, or Game Maker, etc.
• A text-based game
• An online game -- for example, a website with interconnected links
• A social game -- for example, the Ben series of Majora's Mask videos on Youtube, or a roleplay
• A physical game -- board games, card games, puzzles etc. that don't require any tech savvy to create

The definition here is open-ended, and as such any skill set can be used towards finishing the task of making your team's game. What's important is the collaboration and cooperation of team members to focus these skill sets into tasks towards creating a final product.



How to Contribute and How to Enter

I don't know when this will take place, and I don't know where it will be hosted. Before that becomes clear, I need other people to let me know they're interested in developing this competition. I'll be circulating it to other websites as well, and everyone who's interested will work in a team of our own to fill out the details of this competition. In a sense, this process will mimic the competition itself! I'm really hoping to find people interested in codeveloping this competition.

If you have any interest in this competition, whether it's participating in it or helping to develop it, or both, you can email me (gdwtaylor at gmail), or private message me here, or message me on a number of social programs. You'll be informed of how to contribute and enter the competition when various stages get underway.

When the time comes to actually enter the competition, you'll give a username. You'll also be asked to talk about yourself when you join; at the very least you'll need to fill out your skill set, but you're also welcome to say a piece about yourself, about your interests, and welcome yourself into the fold. Don't sell yourself short. I don't know what the end result will be, but I'm hoping for this to be a strong social experience.


The Next Step

As the competition draws closer to beginning, each person will be randomly assigned to a team with several other people. Some care will be taken to ensure that each team has a wide skill set, but overall the selection process will be random, and it's very likely that you'll be assigned people you've never met before. Team names will be randomly assigned names from a themed list -- for example movie directors, animals, colours, foods. The team will have a grace period to meet up and get to know one another, and to discuss your skill sets and assign roles as you like.


The First Week

When the competition begins, each team will have a week to fulfill all competition requirements. These include the following equally important things:

• Creating a design document that outlines the team's plans, and adding to it (not editing) as plans shift or change. This will serve as a presentation of the project when it's all said and done, but it can also serve as an important guide for the team during the competition.
• Creating some sort of final product, a game of some nature. Any elements of the game will be a result of the team's skill set.
• Journaling the team's progress in some way. This could simply be public records of communication between you and your team (within a forum or otherwise), or blog posts, or a history within your design document itself.

The Second Week

When each team is done, they'll have some kind of final product to present over this second week. Ideally, this will include a finished game, but the idea process is just as important.

Judging will be very loose, and peer evaluation will play a large factor, since this is a friendly competition. Elements of a game (gameplay, plot, art, music, or anything else that each team accomplishes with their skill set) will be taken into consideration in tandem with the skill sets that each team represents, and people will give praise as well as constructive criticism. Since it is a competition about creativity, originality in concept or execution will be a factor as well. Several awards will be given out based on positive peer evaluation, including an overall award, best in categories, and awards for effective or inspiring collaboration.



Again, private message me, or send emails to gdwtaylor/gmail. Or, let me know about your interest here in this thread!

2

Entertainment / 100 Games, 4 Days

« on: January 06, 2011, 10:23:11 pm »

http://speeddemosarchive.com/marathon/schedule/

Should make for a good weekend of entertainment.

3

Graphics / My heavy heart (aka MC-style Crystal Switches)

« on: October 27, 2010, 11:00:44 pm »

^{Let me say before I begin my story, that I haven't played the Oracle games to completion, or at least not to Crown Dungeon.}

So when I set out to sprite the crystal switches and related blocks from LttP in an MC style, it seemed like it would be a run-of-the-mill afternoon activity. Little did I know that it would end in tears.

It began simply enough. There's a red crystal switch in Minish Cap, so I swapped out the palette of that, and made it one pixel wider (it was 15 pixels wide, a convention I don't like to follow). Then I appropriated a similar stone square from the cave tileset for the blocks that pop up.

The trouble began when I showed my edits to a friend.

"What do you think?"
"Well, shouldn't it be red rather than orange?"
"Red? Why would it be red?"
"...Because they were red in the other games?"

What a joker, I thought. Those switches were blue and orange, I lived and breathed LttP as a child. I took out my trusty colour-picker to clear this up once and for all.




Well, that certainly does look like red. In fact, it's way over at hue=0. It's purely, unmistakably red.

My heart sank. The world didn't make sense to me any more. I threw myself into my work, repalleting so that I might not have to think about my lost childhood. So here I sit before you now, a broken man. With nothing to distract me, that blood-red switch is a constant presence. It circles my mind, a buzzard waiting to claim its spoils. But at least my torment resulted in this WIP, which I present to you.

R.I.P. Orange switch, 1992-2010. The flag of my soul will forever fly at half-mast.
C+C

4

Discussion / Wheels and slopes in 2D

« on: October 04, 2010, 04:09:02 am »

^{For my own benefit, I wanted to talk this one out. But hopefully it helps other people too.}

   
^{Fig.1, abc - A single wheel.}

Here's one wheel heading towards a slope, pretty simple. If it's going very fast (1b), it treats the edge like a platform. The wheel will get air for a bit, and depending on its horizontal speed and its mass, as well as the angle of the slope, it will either clear the slope entirely, or fall onto the slope's surface. When it lands, depending on the game physics, it should either bounce, or continue rolling until it stops.

If the wheel is going slowly instead (1c), it will have little to no airtime when it reaches the edge. It rolls off the edge and immediately down the slope. It accelerates due to gravity as it rolls down the slope, until it reaches the bottom and begins to slow down.

   
^{Fig.2, abc - Bike trouble.}

A bicycle behaves similarly to a single wheel, but by adding extra wheels you start to run into a spriting problem. When a vehicle with a rigid body rolls slowly over the slope's edge, spriting can be awkward. 2b shows how the problem can be avoided with a bicycle, if the slope is angled even as much as 45 degrees - the sprite can be rotated so that it appears to be traversing the edge.

With a more awkward angle (2c) the problem is a little more difficult. A visual solution here has us consider the biker, who must remain safely on top of the bike. The bike stops with the back tire reaching the edge, and the sprite pivots downwards (with the back tire as the pivot point) until the front tire touches the slope. The biker could then safely descend.



For longer objects, the effect is similar. A school bus, for example, drives off the edge. When its back wheel lands on the slope, it pivots on its back wheel until both wheels are against the slope of the surface. Realistically, this isn't very safe for the people inside, but visually it works.

5

Coding / Silly or useless things you've coded

« on: October 01, 2010, 07:27:03 pm »

I haven't picked up Game Maker in a while, but there's really no excuse for this. I sat down today and said, "Alright, I need a script that will count out an amount of time before a key will be able to be re-pressed," and got to work.

Code: [Select]

/* timer()
Depends on: timer_set(seconds)

timer checks to see if the extra amount of time has passed by comparing
global.timeout to the current time. */

time = date_current_time();
if (time >= global.timeout) { return true; }
else { return false; }

Code: [Select]

/* timer_set(seconds)
Depends on: none

timer_set sets global.timeout as the current time with an amount in seconds added to it. */

var amount;
amount = argument0 * 0.00001182; //approximately one second

global.timeout = date_current_time() + amount;
Of course, right after that I remembered that alarms exist.

So basically, this is a topic for stupid coding stories. Let's hear 'em.

6

Entertainment / Survival Kids (aka Stranded Kids) / Lost in Blue

« on: June 16, 2010, 12:51:27 am »

Survival Kids for the GBC was one of my favourite games as a kid. Your character is stranded on a deserted island, and has to survive, hence the name. Curiously, you find a hut, and you slowly unfold the mysteries of the island as you live and explore.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQet3NwtHO4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQet3NwtHO4</a>

You have a health meter, a thirst meter, and a fatigue meter to maintain. There are 15 or so types of vegetation to eat, and their effects are randomized for every New Game that you play, so a mushroom that would fill you up one game might poison you the next. You have to find and combine items to form the tools you need to stay alive, and you need to fight the wildlife as well.

The game has something like 8 endings as well. Also, the music is very catchy.

I haven't played Lost in Blue, but I also haven't heard great things. In Japan, the Lost in Blue games are under the same Survival Kids title instead.

Basically, I was just wondering if anyone here had played the original, or had played Lost in Blue or its sequels.

7

Discussion / Fantastic Island

« on: April 11, 2010, 08:01:47 pm »

Jacques is an average teenager. And a whale.

He's in love with his classmate, the beautiful Lulu. But he's not the only one vying for her affections. Roderick is attractive, he's rich, and he's a slick jock who can have any girl he wants.
But he wants Lulu.

To win her heart, Jacques is going to impress Lulu by doing what no whale has ever dared: going up onto the surface of the forbidden island and plundering its many treasures. He'll even wear an eye patch to ensure his success! But what perils lie in wait for him on the island that should be deserted?

________________________________________________

First of all, this game is (unfortunately) not Samurai Badger and the Case of the Mushroom Smugglers.

This is a game that's been in progress for a while, since about the tail end of 2008, but only conceptually. Some of you may have noticed the broken-tailed pirate whale in my avatar - that's Jacques.
[Here's some early concept art.]

The game will feature a connected world of fantastic locales, all on one island. In addition, the player can explore the ocean and interact with the sorted denizens of the deep. But the real mystery lies on the island.

As Jacques explores and collects treasures, his motivations will change, and possibly vary from his intended path. Thus, the game will also feature multiple endings, depending on Jacques' current goals.

Jacques will sometimes encounter strange objects on the island as well. His father will turn them into gadgets that help Jacques accomplish his goals.

I'll be showing more as we ramp up to Z3. For now, here's a look at Jacques and some other inhabitants of Whale Village.

8

Discussion / Help me make a game, ZFGC!

« on: February 09, 2010, 09:40:31 am »

I need some inspiration to counter those February blahs.
Help me make a game, ZFGC!

Here's what we know right this minute. More points will be added as we develop the idea.

• It will be a platformer.
• It will be made in GM.
• Our intrepid hero is a samurai badger.
• The goal is to collect a finite number of mushrooms.
• The setting is a remote island that acts as an intermediary point for black-market mushroom smuggling.
• The mushroom smugglers will be bird pirates. Other animals will play parts, such as mammal gangsters, crocodiles, and so forth.
• There will be _X_ mushrooms to collect.
• There will be _X_ distinct areas of the island.
• The island will consist of (a) world/areas/levels in a style similar to Super Mario World.

Fill in those blanks!

9

Entertainment / Blaster Master: Overdrive

« on: February 07, 2010, 02:35:10 am »

http://www.sunsoftgames.com/news/2010-02-06%20BlasterMasterOverdrive.php

So, it's a Blaster Master sequel for WiiWare. And it's coming out in two days. Surprise!

Anyone excited? Anyone?
I can't imagine who might be interested in this.



Specs: 1000 Wii Points, comes out February 8th.

10

Coding / Keyboard control problems

« on: December 01, 2009, 02:15:19 am »

I'm using an Acer netbook with Windows XP, but I've encountered this on other, better computers quite often.

This problem comes up when playing games with keyboard control schemes, and to start I'm going to use Super Mario RPG as an example (emulated, of course).

In SMRPG, there's 8-directional movement. Also, you can hold Y to run, and press B to jump. So if you want to move in a diagonal direction, that's two buttons pressed simultaneously; running makes it three buttons, and jumping makes it (briefly) four.

Now, this poses no problem on an actual controller or joypad. But when using controls mapped out onto a keyboard, Mario will simply refuse to jump when that fourth key is simultaneously pressed. Since even the Mario RPGs involve quite a bit of platforming, this can quickly become a gamestopper when the right situation comes along.

Now, that obviously isn't Nintendo's fault - they made their game to be played with a controller, not a keyboard. But since we here make games to be played on the keyboard, it starts to become less of an inconvenience and more of an actual problem. We want our players to be able to play properly.

In Game Maker, I'm using Goodnight's movement and I've added a sword. The sword is Z, the movement is arrows, so three keys total. But when Link is moving southeast, he can't swing the sword at the same time.

Now here's the odd thing - if I switch the sword to Space, the sword will work when moving southeast, but won't work when moving southwest. And if I change the sword to X, it won't work moving southeast or southwest.

What is the reason for this? Are some keys just incompatible with each other? Is it a memory problem, or maybe a problem with Windows?

11

Graphics / [TMC] Heart Container (Quest Status)

« on: October 19, 2009, 07:48:14 pm »

I needed a heart container for the menu in my game, which is TMC style, but I wasn't crazy about the one from TMC. So, here this is, about 99% done. I figured I'd drop in here to get a little crit.

12

Entertainment / Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland 2?

« on: June 16, 2009, 03:12:56 pm »

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/yousei/index.html

This teaser website, as well as an ad in Famitsu, have popped up. With the music, art and so forth, it could really only be a sequel to Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland. Officially though, we'll be waiting until June 18th for news (if you click the TV, the date appears).

Famitsu teaser ad

So... anybody besides me looking forward to it?

13

Entertainment / Square-Enix orders cease and desist for non-profit Chrono fan games

« on: May 10, 2009, 02:03:16 pm »

www.chronocompendium.com
www.crimsonechoes.com
Destructoid
Digg



Probably not of large concern to most of you here, but I just thought it says a lot in general about the ass-backwards way that some companies treat their fans.

14

Graphics Requests/Archive / [SOLVED] A site for MC tiles.

« on: February 14, 2009, 02:06:49 am »

Spriters Resource is all well and good until I want Lake Hylia or, say, Hyrule Field.

I swear there was a great site that I can neither recall or find on Google.

15

Graphics / Hairy Jellies [WIP]

« on: January 29, 2009, 04:44:32 am »

These delightful gelatinous fellows are cumulatively one boss in the game.  The hair is obviously unfinished, but I was just wondering how they looked so far overall.  It's Minish Cap style, so I hope they fit, but if anything sticks out be sure to let me know.

16

Graphics / MC versions of characters

« on: December 02, 2008, 05:56:51 pm »

^{The Graphics board isn't really a request board, so I figure I'll post this here.}

For Zelda Future, I need some Minish Cap styled sprites of characters from various other games.  Anyone who could make just one standing sprite for any of these characters, I'd be super happy, and of course you'd be listed in the credits.

Red is undone
Yellow is spoken for
Green is done

Ocarina of Time / Majora's Mask
Happy Mask Salesman (with or without the backpack)
Lakeside Scientist / Great Bay Scientist
Grog (the guy with the mohawk at the ranch in MM)
Sakon the thief
The leader of the Bombers
Guru-guru (Nabeshin)
??? (Fierce_Muffin)
A monkey (Nabeshin)

Twilight Princess
A sage
Prince Ralis

This list will probably be added to as time goes on, and I'll try my hand at a few also.

17

Graphics / Hey, it's a tree.

« on: September 30, 2008, 11:31:09 pm »

Hey, (if you can ignore the subpar shading on the trunk) please advise on how to make the perspective line up properly with the leaves, or just feel free to have a go at it.  Thanks much.

18

Discussion / Zelda Future

« on: August 25, 2008, 04:14:14 am »

I'm sure it's not hard to put together that Zelda Future is a Zelda game set in the future.  Something that might've popped into your head is the image of Link, riding a motorcycle with the word EPONA branded on the side, blasting wildly into the dark night air with his assault rifle, littering the ground with gore as Ganon collapses from his wounds - and at the last moment, the missile launch sequence is stopped, and Link has saved Hyrule from nuclear winter.

Well, unless that brief narrative sounded appealing to you, you are in luck.  That is absolutely not what this game is going to be.  You can certainly look forward to more than a few technological advances in the land of Hyrule, but at the end of the day, this is still the Hyrule you remember.

This project has been a few years in the works, and has probably been on paper since 2005; that said, the majority of those few years saw little to no work.  Now that I suddenly have a team of five people, it's fair to say a little more is getting done. This seemed like as good a time as any to bring the project to a few more ears, so here I am.

It's being created in GM, in Minish Cap style, however edited and future-y it may be.  No screens yet, due to lack of tiling, but I'll work up a title screen, menu shot and other HUD stuff in the next little while.

Mainly, the purpose of this thread is to gauge fan reaction to the concept, which since its inception has been somewhat negative, particularly when it was all brought to light during that period with the April Fool's video of a futuristic Zelda.  I'd like to go out of the way to separate this project from that if I can; this project isn't about milking a technological Hyrule, it's about providing a satisfactory conceptual ending for the series.  That said, I'm sure you'll excuse the occasional gratuitous technology along the way.