OPifex Entertainment

Design Plan for Oscar Papa

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:04:46 GMT

First and foremost, Oscar Papa isn’t just a 2d shooter. Sure, versus is going to be the intense, bullet-by-bullet dogfight that you can see in our initial video. But we’re going to take those carefully tuned flying mechanics and allow the players to work together in a co-op mode. This mode will have the players flying a series of missions in a war. Each mission will be a “protect your base” type of mission, except the base is a big fat bomber plane! As the fighter squad assigned to the bomber, you must protect it as swarms of enemies try to take it down.{SHORT}

The war that’s going on will be visible to the player through a world map type of view. Before each mission, the player must plan a bombing run on this map by selecting first a target to bomb, and then the path the bomber will take to reach its target. Bombing targets are things like factories, airbases, bridges, or tank squads. When you successfully complete a bombing mission, that unit or structure will be destroyed on the world map. After each mission, ally units and enemy units move on the map, fighting each other and taking over bases. Factories produce tanks, and airbases give the players new options for bombing runs!

But what makes the missions truly awesome is how they are randomly generated. Based on the route chosen during the bombing run planning portion of the game, different enemies and challenges will be introduced at different times. If you fly near an enemy airbase, enemy fighters will scramble to stop you. If you fly near an AA gun placement, the skies will be filled with flak! The enemy is, of course, researching all sorts of weird steampunk war technology… so who knows what you’ll encounter on each mission!

Through careful planning and skillful flying, the players will be able to lead their troops forward on the map, capturing territory and winning the war! Missions can be played with 1-4 players, so don’t think you and your friends are limited to just versus! Of course, the only way to prove yourself as the Ace pilot is to take them on head-to-head, and believe me, things will get ‘heated’

Remember to vote for Oscar Papa in the Ouya CREATE competition! Thumbs up, tweets, comments, shares… anything and everything! Lets make this game rock!

Oscar Papa - To be continued!

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 20:24:58 GMT

#OuyaCREATE

Two weeks is not a very long time, but through coffee filled nights (gross dirt coffee, thanks to Kirk) and sleep-deprived days, we managed to not only pull our engine together, but also create a pretty darn good little game, Oscar Papa.{SHORT}

Now, what we've posted up as our submission is the work of those two weeks of buggy eyed codding. We did not get done all of what we had planned, but who ever does? What matters is that we set out to accomplish our goal: make something enjoyable.

What we failed to do, and what we're currently working on, is making a video that will catch someone's attention among the swarms of other OuyaCREATE entries. Keep a lookout for a new Oscar Papa video featuring our key gameplay features, like the co-op mission mode, coming soon!

Ouya CREATE

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:21:11 GMT

It's been quite a few months since our last blog post... and we apologize! Hopefully you've been following us on Facebook and Twitter - and if so then you know that we've been extremely busy ;)
{SHORT}
Ever since we decided to develop for the Ouya, we've been hard at work, building our new OP engine layer by layer. The good news is that our hard work has paid off in more ways than one! Just as we're finishing up the engine, the Ouya CREATE competition was announced. A perfect opportunity to put the OP engine to the test.

There's only a week left before the competition ends, and we're just now starting to actually piece our game together... but we're right on track with asset creation and game design. All that's left is to code it up!

This new game will feature amazing music by our new sound guys Matt and Rich, our friends from across the sea in the UK. While this may only be a game jam game... expect to receive a special treat in the audio department!

Really, this to be an update to say that we're still here, and we're swinging. We're going to knock this competition out of the park!

Why create an engine?

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 14:39:46 GMT

There's been some discussion about why OPifex Entertainment is creating a brand new engine from scratch. There are already so many engines out there with the capabilities that we would need.

Unity
UDK
Moai
Ogre
And so many more

So what could we gain from creating an engine from scratch? The experience, the knowledge, an in depth understanding of how everything works and an increase in game performance.{SHORT}

First of all, we know we could create a game faster in another engine, no question about it. However, our team consists of engine programming junkies. We're in it for the experience. The desire to learn how it works, and to create something amazing.

The argument against creating an engine vs using an existing engine is nearly as old as video games are themeselves. We are re-creating the wheel to a degree, however, we are putting a modern take on the functionality of the engine and putting our own fingerprint on it. If you never try to improve on what's out there, it'll never get better. While Unity, or the likes, are amazing game creating machines, they're not for us. We're in it for the long haul, and we're willing to put in the time to create a product that will shine.

So with our choice to create a new engine, and with a focus on Ouya, we're primed to take full advantage of its capabilites, and quickly integrate with the SDK come December.

Running Android NDK

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:06:46 GMT

We're moving to the Ouya console!

In our past projects we've used XNA, which is Windows based, and will not run on the Ouya. {SHORT}(Unless you take a look at Monogame). Since we're moving to this impressive new platform, we decided to do some research and came to the conclusion that we would create our own in house engine. (We're engine programming junkies)

For our new engine, we wanted to make sure we could run our game on nearly anything.

Android (the Ouya specifically)
Windows
Linux
and eventually, Mac and iOS

To support these platforms we needed to go to the lowest common denominator, which is C. Also, most platforms support at least a small portion of C++ (NDK, and iOS).

So with that, we chose C++, which made the Android NDK a must. Though we did have a very heated discussion on whether or not to stick with a purely C engine.

What to download

Example Solution : Download

So what do we need to get started?

The Android SDK
The Android NDK
Apache Ant Compiler
An Android Device(Recomended) or an Android Emulator setup

Download and install both the Android SDK and Android NDK. I chose to extract my NDK directory to my local C Drive with the name Android-NDK-r8b. (Note that the last 3 characters may be different if you're on a different version)

After downloading the Apache Ant zip file, I extracted it again to my local C Drive.

A side note, nearly every resource I found on the web tells you that you need Cygwin to compile an NDK application on a Windows machine. I went through the trouble of downloading and installing it (which took hours...) and came up with a solution that does not use Cygwin.

Setting up Environment Variables

To make the process of updating, compiling, and installing the Android NDK applications, I updated my Environment PATH by adding these additional paths :

Android SDK Tools (C:\Users\ghoofman\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\tools)
Android SDK Platform Tools (C:\Users\ghoofman\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools)
Android NDK (C:\android-ndk-r8b)
Apache ANT (C:\apache-ant-1.8.4\bin)

This makes it easy to call the ndk-build, ant, and adb commands from a command line window.

Understanding the Project Structure

An Android NDK Project consists of a small initial folder structure.

Root project ( / )
C/C++ Files ( /jni )
Resources ( /res/values )
Java Source ( /src/com/namespace/project )

In the root project folder you'll find 2 project files.

AndroidManifest.xml (Project Build Information)
Build.xml (Java Application Information)

There's only strings.xml in Resources which is where the name of your project is located.

Your Java Source directory is where the main Java connecting files are stored. These files simply call back to your C/C++ Code.

The most important part of an NDK application is the /jni folder. Here is where your Android.mk file and C/C++ files will live. The Android.mk file defines how your NDK project is built.

Building the NDK Project

First we have to update the Android project, so that it knows what's in the project, and which Android platform to target. To do this we use the following command :

android update project --target 10 --path . --subprojects

For my specific needs, I need OpenGL ES 2.0 for Ouya, so I'm targeting Android platform 10. Next we need to compile the C/C++ code into a .so (Android Library file) so that the Java application can access it.

ndk-build

Now that we have a .so lib file we can build our Java application with :

ant debug

Thus creating the .apk file we're used to having on Android. So to install we can call :

adb install -r bin\{YOURPROJECTNAME}-debug.apk

And to get console output on your device run :

adb logcat

Creating an Install.bat

With the environment PATH variable set up, it becomes easy to create a simple batch file to update, compile, and install an NDK project. Open up notepad and enter the following lines :

call android update project --target 10 --path . --subprojects

call ndk-build

call ant debug

call adb install -r bin\SMRF-debug.apk

call adb logcat

Save the file as Install.bat into the root directory of your NDK project and then simply double click it. It will do an update, compile, and then install to the first default Android device on your machine.

Introduction: Matt

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:46:03 GMT

Hello!

My name is Matt Javanshir; I'm one (of two) people who will be producing the sound and music to Opifex Entertainment's Project SMRF game.

A bit about me: I have been playing the piano for just about as long as I can remember (my hand barely being able to span an octave); largely being influenced by Classical and Baroque music. {SHORT} During my days of studying this eventually crossed paths with my love of technology and video games and before long I was composing and experimenting with all sorts of genres, be it for a specific project or simply a "video game inspired" piece for personal enjoyment.

I have since written music for indie PC games, Blackberry games, podcasts and more. My music is available to listen to over at http://www.mattjavanshir.co.uk.

Aside from music, I'm a huge video game enthusiast with a ton of games that I'd consider to be amoung my favourites including (but certainly not limited to) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Smash Bros, Shenmue 1 and 2, Assassin's Creed, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Super Meat Boy, Portal 2, Splice, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Super Mario Galaxy, Fallout 3, Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption...I've actually just realised that compiling such a list is pretty futile - suffice to say I LOVE all kinds of games, big or small, old or new. Podcasts also consume much of my listening time (there just aren't enough hours in the day to listen to all the awesome podcasts and music that is out there!). I also love TV and Film (who doesn't?) - I wouldn't say that I love a specific genre, but Sci-Fi seems to be a recurring theme with me. Quantum Leap, Sliders, Farscape, Lost are all among my favourites. I also love the Simpsons; I do not think a day goes by where I haven't quoted the show at some point.

So that's a little bit about me! I hope you enjoy my contributions to future Opifex Entertainment projects!

The scores are in!

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 13:10:56 GMT

The scores for The Game Crafter's steampunk design challenge were sent out this morning. Scraps was unforuntately not in the top 10, but I was relavitely happy with the scores it recieved. {SHORT}

Scraps received (out of a max of 5):
Use of Theme - 3
Art - 1
Rules - 4
Rules Layout - 2
Shop Page - 4
Excitment - 3
Use of Dice - 5

As this was my first contest, I was kind blown away by the amount artwork had an inpact on the score. I understand that good art can add a lot to a game, but I'm slightly saddened by the fact that, like "Splat!", people won't even try it if it doesn't look good. Graphics-whore rantingaside, I'd like do to a quick analysis on these scores.

For use of theme, I can see why it got a 3. While my game had an interesting steampunk twist, the mechanics were not really built to the theme, but clearly the other way around.

For art, I'm glad I didn't get a 0 I suppose, but I'm also disapointed that the score was lowered simply due to the lack of art, rather than the quality of the artwork that was there. My point being that my game didn't require art, which was, in my opinion, the beauty of it.

For rules, the 4 makes sense because while being interesting, well written, and "with a twist"... it still relies on the standard "set collection" mechanic that apparently a lot of submissions used for this contest. I'm happy the judge was able to see the unique aspects of it.

The rules layout score I don't totally understand, but my guess is that it again has to do with the lack of artwork or explanitory pictures in the rules. The rules are easy to read, but they don't "look good".

The shop page got a 4, which I'm very happy with the art I received from Paul Hazel, but its unclear to me what would have boosted it up to a 5. There was no mention of the shop page in the judge's comments.

Excitment's 3 makes me think that the judge didn't actually play the game... not that I would expect him to with so many games to judge (I believe he only plays the top 10). I'm happy with the score of three though, because it means that he at least saw the potential from just reading the rules.

The use of dice makes me the happiest, at 5, because it means that I hit the nail on the head with the actual game mechanics. That confirms, to me anyway, that the game is good and that as a mostly mechanicly designed game, I did a good job.

What I've learned though, is that for future contests, ensure that there's a skilled artist behind the work as well. Speaking of which, I wish there were contests for our upcoming games "Train Wranglers" and "Treefolk", who are being drawn by Celes Chang and Gabby Myers respectively. Keep a watch out for these gorgeous (and also fun, just in case anyone cares about that too) games, coming out "soon"!

Color Mixing in Splat!

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 13:45:13 GMT

Intro

When you first think about mixing colors, it seems like a fairly trivial problem. Thinking logically, you may assume that (ColorA + ColorB) / 2 would yield the mixture of the two colors.

However, as I soon found out, that solution does not quite work as expected. The reason being the color model (RGB) used in computer graphics. For those not versed in the topic, the RGB color model represents colors with three channels. Red, green and blue. The value of each varies between 0 and some upper bound. Thus the combination of differing values for each channel produces a different color.

Here's an example where the upper bound is 255. (24bit color)

R=255, G=0, B=0

R=255, G=0, B=255

R=255, G=255, B=255

The problem

Though simple, this model doesn't represent the mixing of paints well. Some instances work fine, but not so much for others. The way our eyes perceive light and color is better represented with a much different color model known as HSV. However, the conversion from HSV to RGB is trickey. Or at least it was for me.

So without using HSV how do you accurately represent the mixture of colors? Well, that was the million dollar question. For quite some time I tinkered with different solutions to the problem. In fact it went on so long that Garrett, Ryan and I were forced to have a rather heated discussion about how to proceed. Whether we were going to hard-code the color mixture results (yuck). Or calculate them on the fly (yay!).

The solution

It was during that conversation that I remember staring blankly at a color wheel on my laptop's screen. Then it clicked. I could hard-code the 12 main colors on the color wheel and store them in an array, indexed 0 - 11. Next I imagined a pointer on the wheel, pointing to a specific color. The angle of this pointer would be measured in radians (0-2Pi). The value of the angle would then be mapped to one of the 12 colors. Bingo!

C# + XNA 4.0 code for the 12 main colors. Stored in an array.

        private static readonly Vector3[] m_spec = {

              (new Color(2, 146, 206)).ToVector3(), // Lt Blue: (0 / 12) * 2Pi

              (new Color(2, 71, 254)).ToVector3(),  //    Blue: (1 / 12) * 2Pi

              (new Color(61, 1, 164)).ToVector3(),  //  Purple: (2 / 12) * 2Pi

              (new Color(134, 1, 175)).ToVector3(), // Magenta: (3 / 12) * 2Pi

              (new Color(167, 25, 75)).ToVector3(), //  Maroon: (4 / 12) * 2Pi

              (new Color(254, 39, 18)).ToVector3(), //     Red: (5 / 12) * 2Pi

              (new Color(253, 83, 8)).ToVector3(),  //R Orange: (6 / 12) * 2Pi

              (new Color(251, 153, 2)).ToVector3(), //  Orange: (7 / 12) * 2Pi

              (new Color(250, 188, 2)).ToVector3(), //Y Orange: (8 / 12) * 2Pi

              (new Color(254, 254, 51)).ToVector3(),//  Yellow: (9 / 12) * 2Pi

              (new Color(208, 234, 43)).ToVector3(),// Y Green: (10/ 12) * 2Pi

              (new Color(102, 176, 50)).ToVector3() //   Green: (11/ 12) * 2Pi

};

Here's an example of how each color would approximately map to an angular value.

As you can see from the image above, each color on the color wheel now corresponds to an angular value. For example, blue would be Pi / 2, green would be Pi and red could be either 0 or 2 Pi!
This makes everything very simple, now we can just take two angles (colors) add them together then divide by two this will yield an angle which can in turn be looked up on the color wheel, yay!

You may be thinking to yourself, "Ok, cool... But what happens when that angle lands on the boundary between two colors? What the heck happens then?". Well my friend, that is a good question. Luckily with a little bit of math we can cheat by blending the two neighboring colors on such a boundary.
This can be achieved through a technique known as linear interpolation. The concept is simple. Given two source values (s1, s2), and a weight(w) value between 0-1. A return value (r) can be generated which lies between s1 and s2 dependent on w.

Formula for linear interpolation

r = (s1 (1 - w)) + (s2 * w)*

I've provided the code below which brings all these concepts together. I hope this can help you in your color mixing ventures, Enjoy!

        public static Vector3 ColorWheel(float theta)

            // wrap the Angle if theta > Pi*2

            while (theta < 0) theta += PI * 2;

            while (theta > PI * 2) theta -= PI * 2;

            // Angle between each color

            var dt = 2 * PI / m_spec.Length;

            var ratio = theta / (2 * PI);

            // find the neighboring color indices

            var lower = (int)(ratio * m_spec.Length) % m_spec.Length;

            var upper = (int)Math.Ceiling(ratio * m_spec.Length) % m_spec.Length;

            var tl = lower * dt;

            var tu = upper * dt;

            // normalize the difference

            // for when lower = 11, upper = 0

            tu += tu - tl <= 0 ? PI * 2 : 0;

            var n = (theta - tl) / dt;

            // interpolate the two

            var color = (m_spec[lower] * (1 - n)) + (m_spec[upper] * (n));

            return color;

Note:

This method is a very stripped down implementation of how you could 'truly' represent colors with radians. In order to make this more accurate the addition of a saturation vector, or scalar would be required. Thus the mixing of colors opposite one another on the color wheel will result in black, or grey.

If you have any questions, post a comment or feel free to email me!

Splat! Open Beta

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 21:54:00 GMT

The time has arrived. Our developers are pushing aside the curtain to reveal the newest version of our current project. Join us in charging forward with the open beta of Splat!

It has been less than a year since the development of Splat! began. It started out as a small Ludum Dare challenge, and our company was no more than a horrific creature with three heads and no name. But Splat! has grown just as OPifex has. We’re proud to, at last, be taking the final steps in our first adventure in game development.

So dive into the world of Splat! over at opifexentertainment.com and get yourself hooked up with an OPifex account. No worries, the Splat! beta is open and completely free. Play it, test it, and let us know what you think. Help us grow a community focused on creating and sharing those unique experiences that we know make gaming truly enjoyable.

Scraps!

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 17:34:00 GMT

OPifex Entertainment is proud to bring you the exciting dice game called “Scraps”! Created for TheGameCrafter’s Steampunk Design Challenge, Scraps is a greed-based collection game, where players take on the role of steam engine connoisseurs. Players collect and rob train cars from each other in an attempt to be the first one with a fully matching set. The game only takes 5-10 minutes to play once, but you’ll probably play for hours!

Check it out at: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/scraps

Splat! Alpha Testing Officially Launched

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:18:00 GMT

Be one of the first to jump onboard with OPifex Entertainment as we release our first official Alpha test to the public! Splat!is an action oriented color mixing game where you get to run, jump, slide, and splat your way across a spherical canvas. When’s the last time you got to play with this much paint?

Splat! Alpha Test

If you are interested in participating in the Alpha Test, please join us at OPifexEntertainment.com

For participating in the Alpha, you get automatic automatic access to the Beta, as well as a FREE COPY of Splat! when it is first released. All it takes is a little bit of download, a little bit of gameplay, and a little bit of telling us what you think. We appreciate it!

It’s been a long, uphill battle with work, school, and life in general, but we’ve accomplished what we set out to do. Both of our lead programmers have worked double time for many months now to get this done around their already busy schedules. While Splat! is no where close to being complete, we are proud to have come this far, and will continue to work towards the first official release of Splat!, so keep watch, and be prepared!

Character Class Design: Profiling Your Audience

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 12:44:00 GMT

More and more games are moving away from the single character choice. Especially in RPGs and FPSs, the players are able to choose from a variety of character “classes”. This is a great option for designers to add variety into a game while also maintaining control over the balance. Just as most randomly-generated dungeons quickly become unsurprising and lifeless, most fully-customizable characters are uninspired, become boring, and in general are hard to balance. Even the incredibly popular Elder Scrolls series leaves some fans grumbling because their favorite fighting style was underpowered in one game or another.

So we’ve all heard the overused design statement “know your audience”. Most designers get that, and will take a serious look at their target audience before diving into the design of their game. They ask themselves questions such as “who would want to play my game?” and “how can I tailor my design towards them?”. But a lot of times, once they’ve focused it down, they forget to ask themselves “who else would possibly want to play?”, “who are my audiences friends?”, and “how can I possibly reach a larger audience without moving away from the focus of the game?”.

Character classes are usually a great way to increase the audience of a game. However, I’ve found that most of the time designers focus on the class itself, rather than the person playing it. Just as you should design your game around a target audience, the character classes you implement should be designed around a target gaming style. For example, lets say you make a hack-and-slash. The first thing you might think of is a beefy warrior who charges in and swings his sword. You have to ask yourself though, “who is playing this warrior, and why did he choose it”? The answer to that is to make a profile of your target warrior gamer. In order to do this you could research other games, do surveys, or whatever you need to do. However for this post, we’re just going to think on it.

John Warrior is a teenage male, somewhere between 13-25. He likes killing, drinking, and women. His humor is dumb, and in general perverted. “But Ryan!”, you declare, “I can see where this is going: the most stereotypical warrior class ever”. Here’s the kicker: John does not want to play the dumb, drinking, inbred warrior that most games seem to produce. There are many male 13-25 year olds that don’t play warriors, so which of them do? Gamers choose to play something that they can’t be or do in real life, so a strong, tall warrior type usually has a small, scrawny kid at the controls. It empowers him… completes him… gives him what he really wants out of his gaming experience.

So instead of giving John a dumb tank of a warrior, give him a character who overpowers his foes with brute strength. Give him not a let-me-soak-damage character but a powerful killing machine. Give him not the football player he hated in high school, give him the badass hero he wants (Brock Sampson?). Now I know what you’re thinking, and you’re wrong. I don’t play warriors. I actually choose slick, fast rogues more than anything. I’m a big guy, and the rogue makes me feel nibble and quick, where I have never been so in real life. Rogues fill that hole in me that allows me to be sneaky and witty.

So go beyond your classic “audience”, and really dive deep into what you can bring to your game with different character classes. Look at the players that will be playing. Know their real-world strengths and weaknesses. Know their other hobbies. Think about why they’ve stepped into your game and chose that specific character class. Give them what they want, not what you think would be cool. Yes, being unique and different is just as awesome, however profiling your audience is even more important to those character “classes” that have not yet been explored by other games. If you’re going to produce something unique, make sure there’s someone out there (preferably a lot of people) willing to play it.

Good Timing: Mapping In-Game Ideas to Real-World Situations

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:05:00 GMT

At GDC 2012, we attended a talk called “It's Dangerous to Go Alone! Take this Historical Study with You: In-game Objects in Japanese RPGs” by Zoya Street. Zoya is a superb historian, and an excellent writer. Her talk focused on the weapons in Final Fantasy games, and how they related to the culture of Japan at the time of the game’s creation. The talk inspired thought about not only in-game economies, but also about how games can hook an audience through the relation of real-world situations.

We’ve seen this before, and we should learn from it. There’s never a better time to release a game-based-on-a-movie than right when the movie is starting to become popular. We saw a huge influx of terrorists in American FPSs after 9/11, and games like Counter-Strike reaped the benefits. A player’s culture is a huge influence on the kind of games they play. It is influences like these that drive lower-middle class moms to play facebook games like Farmville: to be more successful than they are in real life. Yes, this is a core concept of a lot of games, but Farmville was released at a time of economic downturn and despair. Millions of people looked to their friends and family for support as they grew their empire in this simulated world, and they felt economically empowered by the constant profit their farms produced.

It’s the age-old trick being applied to games; turn rags into riches; feed off of people’s fears, hopes, and dreams. But we don’t have to be soul-less or evil to get the upper hand on a situation, we simply have to look at our current culture and find out what drives the people around us. The entertainment industry has changed since the 1920s, and while movies, plays, and books constantly adapt to every generation, game developers need to adapt too.

GDC Day 2

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 02:15:00 GMT

GDC day two was a day to take it all in and process all the information we’ve gathered. We attended a couple sessions, such as the Japanese RPG item talk, as well as “Game Optimization through Data Mining”… but we mostly took the day to stroll around town, explore the career pavilion, and check out the awesome games at GDC Play. Personally I really enjoyed a dungeon-runner game (whose name escapes me at the moment), where you play as a tough stone monster who busts through rocks and takes ridiculous jumps across danger. I also laughed at some of the technical failures, such as an other-wise sweet WWI plane shooter that used head-tracking in an awkward and unintuitive manner.

But long story short, sorry for the delayed post. We had such a good time that we spent all night talking about Splat! and what we were going to do to it. The problem is, we have so many ideas that there’s just not enough time! This made us decide to really concentrate on polishing what we have and release an Alpha version of Splat!.

This alpha version will be released within the next two weeks, so keep your eyes peeled! If you would like to get a jump on an alpha release, please contact me at Ryan.Wilson@OPifexEntertainment.com.

GDC Day 1

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 12:21:00 GMT

The game developers conference is HUGE. There are so many people that even blocks away from the convention the streets of San Francisco are flooded with GDC badges. Really, its a pain to get food anywhere close!

The convention floor is also HUGE. It takes hours to even just stroll around the place, much less stop and talk to the hundreds of displays and booths set up. There are video games, such as a display of 8 computers all hooked up and playing World of Tanks, or an entire floor filled with 3DS's playing the new Kid Icarus. The coolest, and from what I could tell the most popular, gaming station was the Indie Game floor. Every finalist and a lot of the coolest entries were on display to play. It was awe inspiring. The creativity and genius simplicity of these games is what everyone strives for, which is exactly why the indie floor was constantly packed with players and onlookers.

But we didn't come to play video games. We can to learn, and explore new ways of developing our art. The information overload we got was incredible, and almost too much to take in. Here are my list of highlights for the day:

The Metronome: Everyone has Rhythm - This was a great talk about how you can use the beat of a game's music to time in-game events.

Playstation Suite - Basically XNA for all PS hardware, this could be very cool in the future.

Z Space - The coolest 3D design tool ever. You gotta look it up to believe me.

Mind controlled bunny ears - The future. Its here.

Navigation Mesh Generation - Path finding made easy.

But this is just a sample of all of the amazing stuff we saw. We came home with our arms full of magazines, fliers, business cards, and swag! And now its time for round 2!

We are off to California!

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:40:00 GMT

Garrett, Kirk, Gabby, and myself are spending our Spring Break in San Francisco!

Tomorrow morning at 6am, Gabby and I will be flying out of Hancock, landing in CA, bookin it to the hotel where we’ll most likely take a nap… and then we will be off to see the big city! Ya’ll are going to be jealous of the amazing amount of food we’re going to eat

Garrett and Kirk will arrive later in the night, but starting Wednesday the troop will be attending the 2012 Game Development Conference! We plan on attending a whole slew of talks, such as “How everyone has Rhythm”, “It’s Dangerous to Go Alone! Take this Historical Study with You: In-game Objects in Japanese RPGs, 1988-2010”, and “Breaking into Game Development: Ask the Pros”.

The convention is going to be awesome, and we are hoping to learn a lot. We’re also hoping to come home with an armful of free swag , but we also have something awesome of our own to show off… the newest Splat! video:

We still have a long way to go, but we’re proud to have come this far before the conference. We’re taking our time, getting it right, and making Splat! the awesome splatter-fest it should be. In the pipeline we have more monsters, more colors, and most importantly, MORE PAINT!

If you’d like to follow our trip to CA, check back often in the coming days for blog posts and pictures!

Free-To-Play: Is it right for my game?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:46:00 GMT

I’m here to take a serious look at the Free-To-Play model for new games, both personally for OPifex but also as a general shout-out to indie developers looking to dig their pockets into the current F2P buzz. What I want at the end of this post is a checklist or some guidelines for developers to follow when deciding on F2P business models for their game.

What I’m going to do is analyze a handful of current F2P games, see what kind of models they have in place, and give them scores based on:

How good it is for business (+-B)
How happy it keeps the player base (+-H)

I’m going to base this on a statistic I read about that said that only about 20% of people that play a F2P game actually pay for something in the game. This means that to do good business, the different aspects of your F2P model should keep one fifth of the players paying, and four fifths of the community playing.

Lets take a look at the obvious first: Farmville, Mafia Wars, and other Facebook games like them.

Time-based system allows players to pay to keep playing. This rakes in cash from those paying customers who don’t mind paying to continue playing, but it can frustrate those who don’t want to. +2 B, -1H
Peer-to-peer sharing of quests, items, and general help. This is the key to facebook’s success, and would be hard to reproduce without the already implemented and popular social network in place. +3B, +2H
Small/Low cost transactions. It may not make a lot of money on its own, but do it a couple thousand times… +1B, +1H

Overall, a +6B/+2H game in my analysis. It is obvious that the real key here is facebook itself, but you have to look at the largest success story and take what you can from it. The important thing to note is that the social network aspect isn’t the only thing these developers are doing right.

Next lets look at an older game that as of this writing has a very small, dying player base: CrimeCraft: Gang Wars. This game was a great idea, an excellent shooter, and an awful MMORPG. Besides the horrible AI, unusable interface, and boring quests, lets take a look at what they had to offer in terms of their F2P model.

Allows players to buy upgrades for guns and characters. This bodes well for those who will pay for the upgrades, but disapoints the F2P players by giving them a natural disadvantage. +1B, –1H
Allow players to buy upgraded levels for character classes. This is worse than a slightly-better gun, when someone can just buy-in to the highest level in a game, ALL players feel like none of their grind is actually an accomplishment. +1B, –2H
In-game market allows F2P players to buy paid-for items with in-game currency. This keeps the players happy, as they have access to otherwise inaccessible items, but it is inherently bad for business. -1B, +2H

Overall, a +1B/-1H is no surprise , and neither is the lack of a player base. CrimeCraft made enough money for two expansions, so some sort of business must of have been there, but the game will not last, and neither will the cash flow.

Next up is another huge success story. With over 2 million players, League of Legends makes good money.

New free-to-use content updated weekly. The weekly rotation of champions in LOL is what keeps most players playing. It encourages players to try new characters and also play more when character’s they like are up to bat. +1H
All game “content”, meaning champions, are within a free player’s reach. This is great for the players, but deters from someone actually paying money. -1B, +2H
There are variable rates at which content can be unlocked. There are champions unlockable within the first few games, and there are champions that would take weeks to grind up the money for. This type of leveled system is exactly what gamers want. +1H
You cannot pay for “better” items, or more levels, or anything that would put you ahead of a free player. Since everyone thinks this is fair, its unlikely that this would effect business. +1H
Players can unlock the content of the game that would otherwise take forever by paying money. This is unfortunate for some, but very very good for business. +2B, –1H
Players are able to buy neat alternate skins for their champions, that do not effect the gameplay at all. Players want to look different, to stand out, and they are willing to pay for it. +2B

LoL comes in at an awesome +3B/+4H. This is one hell of a money-maker. Comparing it to its top competitor Heroes of Newerth, LoL picked the larger audience (casual gamers vs. HoN’s hardcore community) and introduced them nicely to a previously underground genre. HoN’s initial business model was all unlocked content (++H), at a one-time fee (+B), which probably would have worked (standard game for sale) if not for the well-planned and well-timed LoL machine.

Lets take a look at a smaller example, Tactics Arena Online. In the game, players start with free human units, and can unlock a small set of units after that, but paying players have access to the game’s main content, which is the many different (and usually better) units from other races.

Advertises as a F2P, but delivers more of a trial-version. This means paying customers are constantly beating up on newer players, discouraging many from playing the game. –1H
Unlockable units for winning games. This is a fun system for players, and keeps them enthralled and excited to win. +1H
Buyable units both look and play differently. This is great for business but leaves those 80% of players feeling left out. +1, –1H
A separate server for paying customers. Normally we have learned that separating your paying customers from your player base is a bad thing (Extra Credit), but I’d like to point out that in this special case, it not only encourages people to buy-in, but it keeps both sets of players happier. +1B,+1H

A final score of +1B/+0H leaves me wondering how this game is still around, but it is really fun, and like all games, that counts for more than anything.

Lastly I’d like to take a look at a very unique business model that more or less morphed into a F2P simply because it stirred up more business. Battleforge is an incredibly brilliant system for getting players to both play the game and to pay money.

Card-like game content (units/spells) come in “card packs” which can be bought for money. These random assortments of cards are mysterious and intriguing. Many people like the random system, but most also feel slightly ripped off when pack after pack they are getting all of the same cards and nothing new or rare. But they just keep buying, and they want to! +2B
Player marketplace coupled with in-game currency distributed per day means that a free player can earn all the in-game content, if at an extremely low pace. I’m going to call business on this +1/-1, because while it deters from players buying, the slow pace of gaining higher-costing cards only further entices interested players to pay for a pack of cards. +1H
Player marketplace allows players to sell their unwanted content. +1H

Its pretty simple to see a solid +2B/+2H in this game. Its not for everyone, but those who do play usually end up buying cards sooner or later.

There are many success stories, but also a whole lot of failed games, mostly indie, coming from the Free-To-Play business model. The reason for this is clear: in order to make money off of the 1/5 of people who are going to potentially play your game, you first have to have enough people who want to play it. This doesn’t bode well for indie developers, since advertising can be expensive without that already established fan base. But fear not! You simply have to create a game that’s so awesome that through word-of-mouth it will spread like a virus. That’s the idea anyway.

Alas, taking this all into account means that I’m ready to make my checklist. I will try to keep this updated with new ideas/thoughts from time to time.

What can I sell that players will want, that doesn’t alter the core experience for everyone else?
Am I separating the player base? (You generally want a no here!)
Can I do this without ruining the original intention of the game? (Example: Team Fortress has turned into a silly-hat fest, and while its drawing a large new crowd, its left a lot of veteran players looking the other way.)
Do I have small transactions available?
Do I have larger transactions available, and if so, is there a bonus for doing so?
Am I focusing my sales on the largest audience possible?
Am I letting grinders grind, giving them special bonuses you can’t buy (remember rule #1!)?
Am I letting buyers buy? Is there a limit to the amount they can purchase?
Am I setting a balanced pace for unlockables for the free players?
Am I making the players WANT to play my game, rather than feel any NEED to?

I hope this checklist helps aid you in whatever awesome game you are making. F2P models certainly have their benefits, but remember… its not for every game, so don’t try to force it. If the model fits, make the players happy, and let the cash flow voluntarily.

Cheers!

More Paint!!!

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:40:00 GMT

We’re only a few weeks away from the GDC, and while we’re not in Beta yet, we have made considerable progress on the look and feel of Splat!. Check out our newest gameplay video:

Splat! Mid-February from Garrett Hoofman on Vimeo.

We are focusing on adding as much paint as possible into Splat!. Splatters, trailing, bubbles, and particles galore! Not only do we dynamically change the texture of the planet surface, but we’re doing it with the 10,000+ particles we can have on screen with 60fps no problem

We also have new monsters on the way, courtesy of our new model artist, Nick McVey! Check out his work:

Enter: Game Designer

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:41:00 GMT

As this is my first blog post I figured I’d write a little background about myself and how I got into game design. Nothing important, but maybe it will shed some light on why I do the things I do!

It all started when I was 9 years old, and one of my friends invited us over to play. We did the usual things, playing with Legos, Super Smash on the N64, or trying to beat Golden Axe on the Sega Genesis. But then he pulled out a stack of square, pink notecards, on which he had drawn stick figure monsters. I do not remember anything about the game, such as how to play or what else besides the monsters were on the cards… but I do remember it being the most awesomest thing in the world. Not because of the game, but just because my friend had made it, all by himself, from his own mind.

From then on I’ve rarely not thought about making my own games. My first card game was very similar to pokemon/magic, with the theme of underwater creatures, such as sword-wielding octopuses, and plesiosauruses with rocket launchers on their backs. It was a very pathetic card game, where whoever drew the best cards won. I remember it clearly because my first play tester (Dad) never played it again.

But, like most kids who did not quite impress their parents, I vowed to do better. So I started making all sorts of crazy stuff. None of it really went anywhere though, and most are now lost to the garbage dump. My designing career went on hold until high school, where I got the pleasure of taking a programming class. I had loved computers as soon as I got my hands on one, and programming just clicked for me. For my final project in basic, I wrote Pacman. For my final in Visual Basic, I made a Rogue variant.

Unfortunately, I’m not the best programmer in the world, and nor do I want to be. I’m not a genius engine engineer, nor a graphics artist. However, ideas for games continuously flow from my head to paper, and most are eventually captured in my “personal projects” folder on my computer. Its my personal archive of ideas, and whenever I’m stuck on a design, I love to go back and grab ideas from unfinished projects.

I started designing Cannons & Cutthroats when I was a junior in high school. AP Physics was an awesome class. In any case, most of my friends through highschool and college have all played it, but it wasn’t until now that I finally got it produced. I’ve made so many proof-of-concept card/board games with notecards and home-printed boards that I’m sure my friends are sick of hearing “anyone want to try a new game”?

But all of those prototypes have paid off. I now have a game for sale and I will continue to do my best to produce as many of my projects as possible. I have fallen in love with a brilliant artist (Gabrielle Myers, who did the art for C&C) and I’m sure we, as a team, will pump out the best of our ideas for all to enjoy.

Lastly, both Gabby and I were a part of MTU’s Husky Game Development Enterprise. I led the team which put HGD’s first game on the Xbox Live marketplace, Arcane Brawlers. I also met a few brilliant people, whom now, after our completed education, have banded together to form OPifex Entertainment. I am lucky, as a designer, to have such talented teammates as Garrett Hoofman and Kirk Roerig. Our specialties mix perfectly, and we will show the world what we have to offer with our first game “Splat!”. The future holds great things for this designer, and I can’t wait!

Cannons & Cutthroats Released!

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:20:00 GMT

OPifex Entertainment is proud to be a sponsor of the hottest new card game, Cannons & Cutthroats! The game was designed by myself, and with the help of Gabby Myers, I happily puts a 5 year long project into production. It is now for sale at https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/cannons-cutthroats

If you like the game, please review it! Keep a lookout for more board/card games from OPifex Entertainment on “The Game Crafter” website. These guys make little indie companies’ (such as ourselves) dreams come true!