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WEEK12 – Vollauf

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This time i wanted to make a small game for our company event “Night of the Nerd” at my company ATINO GmbH.

I thought about something arcade like which can be played by 2 players.
And it should match the theme of the event “Volllauf” (which is a german word for “get drunken”).

As usually i wanted to draw most of the things by myself and the game should be fun in gameplay. I wanted to have a small prototype ready in the first days.

What went good:

If you don’t use Input Actions on Unitys new Input System and instead directly access the GamePad it works pretty well. It works much better than the old input system. Assets drawing was good too as usually.

Also i got directly feedback from my colleagues (it was the first time i really got feedback for a Game A Week game). They loved the art but was anoyed about the weired controll sheme (as the buttons doesnt really match as it should). Even my boss played the game :).

What went bad:

I overscoped as everytime – and i priorize wrong. Instead of having the gameplay logic ready setup first i made first the fancy “shit”. 3 hours before the event start i needed to implement the gameplay logic (winning, loosing, restart rounds, winner etc.).
So i finished my normal worked, logged off and start coding this within around 3 hours. Where the others are drinking beers i build the game 🙂
…but i had beer too :).
And i had some major bugs which i needed to sovle too. And as i thought “okay now we can go” and build it i had the issue that it runs very slow.
However i solved it shortly and so it could be played.

Also i had a small bug with a rotation of the bullet which i didn’t solved. Maybe next time.

What i learned:
Some things about Unitys New Input System. Also i SHOULD learn to priorize and to REALLY put gameplay first. But i too much love to style the game.
Also the controls are still floaty and i have to figure out next time what i am doing wrong.

Important: You need 2 Players and 2 Controllers to play this game. Keyboard is currently not supported. Also it is this time a Windows Build as Unity had a problem with the Input System Preview System in Web.

You can Play the Game here: https://www.nerdvision.net/GAW/Week12/Volllauf_win.zip

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WEEK11 – BOWLING STARS VR

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Like the last week i felt again a little bit burned out. But i wanted to make something. I had the same idea like the previosly week about the WhoRU 3D Chat thing. But i discarded it and then i thought about a broforce clone but had not a good idea for it. Then i came up with a Bowling VR Game. I thought it could be simple and i could learn again some 3d Modeling.

What went good:

I had some motivation and i felt that making a 3D Game could be good.
And i had some fun creating a new Quest Game.

What went bad:

A lot of stuff – i thought i didn’t overscoped and thought “hey this will be easy – just throwing some objects” but then i realised that implementing real bowling physics is harder as i thought. So thats why there are feeling crappy. Also the level model scale is too big.

What i learned:
I learned much of 3D Modeling – some more basics at all. But things that are necessary. Also i learned it is not so easy to implement real Bowling Physics.

You can Play the Game here: https://www.nerdvision.net/GAW/Week11/ BowlingStars.apk

Credits:
Music by Matthew Pablo
https://opengameart.org/content/trouble-makers-coolriff-jazz

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WEEK10 – Neon Legends

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This week i felt a little bit burned out and i felt that the Game A Week is eating all my free time currently.

However i first though about of remaking “Who Are You” in simple (3D Chat with a base male and base female avatar). But i discarded the idea and thought about of making a 2d Top Down RPG (like Full Metal Furies as i thought they just trick out the sprite drawings and this could be easy – how wrong i was).
So i decided to have 3 skills (Bullet, Spell Cast and Hammer Throw) and ended up with a arcade shooter instead of RPG.

I had no big motivation to do it this time.

I planned to learn Unity New Input System (in preview – and i will learn why it is still preview…).

What went good:

Not much this time. Well i got a game and i got accidently an Arcade game.

What went wrong:
Almost everything else.
Graphics was okay but i spent too much time to refine them.

I had no big motivation (Iike in Crazy Driver) to make this game. This is when it feels like time wasting.
Also Unitys New Input System is in a really buggy state. I tried to switch animation State on Input Callbacks. This only works for the first event but not for the second i didn’t figured out why.
So at the end when time rush i decided to make a Arcade Shooter (with Waves – which can be infinite maybe).

Also i really overscoped this again. If i thought about how much thing i must do i really thought “oh boy – no” 🙂

What i learned:
The new Unity Input System is still a alpha and has many bugs in my opinion. So if you want to use – use it on your own risk.

The next thing i learned is that i need more time to test some ideas out sometimes and that i shoulnd’t pick ideas which i don’t really interested in.
Also i am thinking to go now more for a “Game Jam a Week” instead of “Game A Week” to get some ratings for the game. The backside of this is that the stress level is then higher.

The other idea is to make much smaller games instead.

You can Play the Game here: https://www.nerdvision.net/GAW/Week10/

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LD41 – True Love Adventures

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Made for Ludum Dare 41 – Combine 2 Incompatible Genres

Small Post Mortem:

It was my first compo game but i really hated this theme
This time my wife and my kids where on a weekend trip so i had the whole weekend to make a game. I also wanted to try compo (which i did). As the theme was announced i really thought about “should i skip?”.
Normally this is the fist intend in Ludum Dare but i learned from LD 40 that it could become a funny idea at all.

After i brainstormed a bit i had an idea for a Dating Action RPG Sim.

Starting the game wasn’t hard but it was the first time i made a TopDown Movement game. And i thought “nah this should be easier than making platforming” but then i realized i must draw much more as before (you have 4 directions…).

So i draw and starting setup the game. And i finished it without much playtesting and realizing the important things.

What workes good:
– Drawing was okay
– I made my own music this time

Was was bad:
– My idea was not bad but the world was too big to find the things you need
– Also my idea was just better in my head since in the game
– The controls where mess

This was the first time i realized “i must playtest more”.

You can play the game here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/true-love-adventure

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WEEK9 – Cave Climber

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This week was a little bit harder – as i had again only 2 or 3 days to make this game as i am on vacation and i want to drive to my family on thursday.

I had no clue about a good game that i can make fast in this time so i made this where i have the most experience in it. Make a platforming game but this time only go up like in Ice Climber or Kid Icarus.

Like in Kid Icarus i implement a Game Mechanic where the camera only follows up the player and if you fall down you die.

What went good:

I become fast in drawing and setup the game. I had the game setup and ready within the first two hours

What went wrong:
The game lacks a little bit of challenging and there is currently only one level. But besides this it works good this week.

What i learned:
Simple Camera tricks . And i learned that i became faster in prototyping a game which is really good.

Also i tested a new method to groundcheck the player (which works a lot better than before).

You can Play the Game here: https://www.nerdvision.net/GAW/Week9/

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WEEK8 – TV Places VR

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As i stucked the week before on making something for the Oculus Quest i want to spent again some time with it.
I copied the project over from the last week (as i didn’t used it finally but it had the oculus stuff already there) and restart.
I was unsure about a concrete concept. I wanted to explore some ideas in VR that i like.
These are:
– Visit locations from “Friends” in VR.
– I wanted to have something like the “HyperJump” Program from Matrix.
– I want to fly like in Richies Plank Experience
– I want a discothek which plays a 80s Radio Stream.

That was the ideas so far – but i was not sticked to say “hey all must be worked”.

What went good:

I got the debugging process working and understand how the Quest Setup works.
I finally got this “wow” moment when i entered monicas apartment in VR (it was on the same day where jennifer aniston posted a picture on instagram with the other friends guys).
It was and still is amazing to walk in this friends set. I had this idea 1.5 years ago when i got a GearVR.

I first got it working to fly..which is currently only upwards (on Friday).
But now i got it working to fly really good with a flying controller that i found somewhere on a github repository (here: https://github.com/SanadaSeiji/SuperheroInSpace_Scripts_Graphics_Final_Project).
It works much better as my solution

What went wrong:
It is the second time i try a 3d game and i have no modeling skills. That took too much time (and i often gave up searching for free assets to use for the game). Also i had some models made they didn’t worked in Unity.
And i didn’t got texture paint working or UVMapping.
But overall these were small issues.

What i learned:
A lot about Blender and modeling. Also i learned that FBX Import is good in unity but you need to use “Use External Materials (Legacy)” in the Mesh Settings to easy apply the textures. The new method seems not to work properly. Also i learned the basics for the oculus SDK.

You can download the Game here: https://www.nerdvision.net/GAW/Week8/FriendsNFly.apk .

Please note: this time you need https://sidequestvr.com/#/ and a Oculus Quest to run the game.

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WEEK7 – ShuffleUp Cafe

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After Ludum Dare 45 i wanted to play around with my new Oculus Quest. Due some issue with the Cabel and the Setup with a PC i didn’t got it working until friday night. I wanted to build a small VR Game but then i realize that this would take more time as i expected. To finish a game this week i started on saturday a concept where i thought the week about.

In some cases it is similiar to pong but the initial idea came from an amiga game called “Shufflepuck Cafe” which i really enjoyed

So i decided to make a simple “TopDown” version of that game.

What went good:

As i started really late to make this idea, it works out good. I needed around 3 or 4 hours to finish the game.

What went wrong:
In the end the core gameplay mechanic has a bug (it doesn’t count right the points). I was unable to solve this properly until the deadline. This is really bad.

What i learned:
Even the simple game can have major bugs. I learned some small things about Ball Physics.


You can Play the Game here: https://www.nerdvision.net/GAW/Week7/



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LD40 – Wonderland

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Made for Ludum Dare 40 – The more you have, the worse it is

Small Post Mortem:

This was one my favorite LD Games.
I woke up 1 hour after the jam starts and before i got to bed i saw one theme where i said “please no – not this one”.

After i woke up i saw the theme and thought “it is that one that i dredded the most”. After scrolling the LD page and making coffee i thought about the idea for a game. I didn’t thought that i can come up with something good.

But then i had something:
Making a Platformer where everything more you collected has a negative effect. If you collect moons, it gets darker. If you collect sun, it gets brighter.
And if you collect coffee you get faster.
And if you collect beer – you get more drunken (Screen got blurred).

So i started to draw something, to create the project and to work on it. It worked pretty well besides some small issues (blur was harder to make first but then worked too and i had some annoying bugs).

But i made it and you know what ? I got 50th in Theme 🙂
My best rated game so far in a category.

Description:

Wonder Land is a crazy simple Platformer. The only thing you need to do is to collect items.

But …there is more…you need to open the Exit Door. Sounds easy huh ? Well lets see how easy it is 🙂

Please note: In this Version 2 Levels are playable currently. I had prepared some more 2 levels (beer and coffee) but i lost them currently. So this will come later in a Post JAM Version.

The planned levels completely was :

  • “if you collect moons, it would be darker”
  • “if you collect suns, it would be brighter”
  • “if you collect more beer, more blurry it is”
  • “if you drink too much coffee, you are running too fast”
  • “if you kill an enemy, 5 more would be spawned”!
  • “if you collect too much coins, money bags are dropping from sky and can kill you”

HOW TO PLAY: AD OR < > to move left and right, Space to Jump. You can use the keyboard. XBox One Controller just works partically and i didnt got to work it full.

Audio Rate is disabled as i used Premade Public Domain Music from OpenGame Art. Thanks to the following Music Artist for the music: https://opengameart.org/users/subspaceaudio

Tools that i used:

  • http://sfbgames.com/chiptone/ (for Sound FX – someone posted this on Saturday morning here :))
  • Unity 2017.2 (with the new Tilemap System)
  • Aseprite (for all assets)
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WEEK6 – Chase Syndicate

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Before this week started i had already an idea what i wanted to do. As Ludum Dare 45 starts this week too i only had literaly 3 days to do something.

I had this idea about a Top-down Car Game but i was not sure if it is a simple parking game or something with shooting 🙂

So i made two game modes – Parking and Chase. In Chase you must escape the cop and reach the finish line. If you get hit you lost the game.

What went good:

Art Style was okay – and i managed to finish a Title Screen. I like the Logo. But besides this too much go wrong.

But i learned something from Chasing AI.

What went wrong:

As usual i overscope the project.
As usual i first made too much art instead of bringing the game in a playable state.

And i didn’t really notice what this project really is (a parking game, a GTA shooting game, or a chasing game).

The main problems was : i managed new things that i didn’t solved completly. For example i thought “hey a parking game is easy” but i didn’t got it solved how to detect that the full object is inside the trigger.
This doesn’t worked as i expected.
Then there is only one parking level and only one chase level.

What i learned:
I learned the experience how a top down car game works and that it is more complicated as i first thought.
I learned that a simple follow AI is not enough in a Car Game and that i needed more a pathfinding algorythm to implement it more properly (which i didn’t had time for).


You can Play the Game here: https://www.nerdvision.net/GAW/Week6/

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WEEK5 – Puzeon

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This week starts a little bit without a real idea. I first had the idea of a metroidvania like matrix game. But i realize that it takes much time to manage and this could be too less time to do it correctly. Also i wanted to finish something. I began to work on the matrix game on tuesday but discarded this on wednesday and start over with Puzeon.
The idea is to get the key and open the door and that the levels should be more challenging to get the key. It should be a Puzzle Dungeon Game.

What went good:

I find the solution for a problem which i couldn’t solve in week 4 with Gungame where the collision of tiles was the problem. The solution was pretty easy: Use Prefab Brushes in Unity to draw prefabs.

What went wrong:

The lack of challenging – i have no fucking clue how to make it more interesting at all.
Also the collision of Unity is something a pain. I wanted that you can push the box “one” field. But instead of that it moves really weired.
Maybe i fix this later – but if not it is okay to live with it.

But this is a problem which i had the last weeks often : buggy gameplay or unexpected gameplay bugs. I should really try to focus more on the gameplay mechanics.

Also it lacks of sound and music.

What i learned:

I learned using Prefabs as Tiles, Animated Tiles which is pretty good.
But Prefabs Tiles has the problems that you cannot really deleted them with the tileeditor .


You can Play the Game here: https://www.nerdvision.net/GAW/Week5/