Our game, 'Barriers', can be found here. Please keep in mind this was entirely created in just one weekend. Everything from the overall idea for the game down to the art assets were created from scratch in those 2 days.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Ludum Dare: Barriers
Our game, 'Barriers', can be found here. Please keep in mind this was entirely created in just one weekend. Everything from the overall idea for the game down to the art assets were created from scratch in those 2 days.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Bust 'n' Rush Released!
I worked on this game at Techtonic Games and it just released last week. It's available on Gamersgate for PC and Mac at around $8 depending on whether or not you want it bundled with the soundtrack.
BNR around the web:
ps I just finished Skyrim after 200 hrs in game. I will now resume regular postings.
BNR around the web:
- Latest trailer
- Play the demo for free from this link.
- Dev diary about randomly generated levels in BNR
- Don't like the camera? This video explains that there are multiple camera angles
- Rock Paper Shotgun reviews the demo
ps I just finished Skyrim after 200 hrs in game. I will now resume regular postings.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Spider-Man Games Retrospective pt 5
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
To start with, this review is of the PS2 version which is naturally inferior to the next gen versions, but the game is still largely the same.
This is the first game in my retrospective that is actually a disappointment, just like the movie with the same name. I was immediately confused by the opening cutscene and I had no idea what was going on when I started playing. Many features from the previous game aren't being carried over to these later games, like slingshot or the ability to web zip to ceilings with one button. There might be an argument for doing this from a game design perspective in order to simplify things, but as a player I feel gypped that I don't have the powers that I had in previous games. Shouldn't games build on what was already done? Not take parts away and redo the basics. Web-swinging is also a bit worse, which I've always said is the most fun part of these games.
There are some new improvements that this game brings to the table: an upgrade menu to spend XP on new moves, and the player has influence over which gangs control parts of the city, and new villains that I haven't fought in the previously reviewed games. I'll go crazy if I have to fight Scorpion or Rhino one more time. The best thing is that I've been waiting a long time to finally get to play as Spider-Man wearing the Symbiote suite.
But back to the bad stuff: I have to deliver fruit pies? This is really what Spider-Man would spend his time doing? And then later we retrieve STOLEN fruit pies?! What is with all the fruit pies?
This game has is the poorest Spider-sense I've seen so far. You can barely see it on screen and it took me until the final boss fight to recognize the sound in time to dodge out of the way. There's a lot of odd things in this game and I'm not sure if they're exactly bugs or just "by design." For instance, when Spidey retrieves a stolen stick of dynamite, he just hands it off to what looks like a random person on the street, not a cop in uniform or anything. "Here you go, citizen. I trust you'll turn this into the proper authorities and won't blow your arm off or anything!" Gamefaqs has 125 different types of glitches counted for this game. After I finished the game it immediately froze and I lost my progress. Maybe the next-gen console versions are a bit better.
To start with, this review is of the PS2 version which is naturally inferior to the next gen versions, but the game is still largely the same.This is the first game in my retrospective that is actually a disappointment, just like the movie with the same name. I was immediately confused by the opening cutscene and I had no idea what was going on when I started playing. Many features from the previous game aren't being carried over to these later games, like slingshot or the ability to web zip to ceilings with one button. There might be an argument for doing this from a game design perspective in order to simplify things, but as a player I feel gypped that I don't have the powers that I had in previous games. Shouldn't games build on what was already done? Not take parts away and redo the basics. Web-swinging is also a bit worse, which I've always said is the most fun part of these games.
There are some new improvements that this game brings to the table: an upgrade menu to spend XP on new moves, and the player has influence over which gangs control parts of the city, and new villains that I haven't fought in the previously reviewed games. I'll go crazy if I have to fight Scorpion or Rhino one more time. The best thing is that I've been waiting a long time to finally get to play as Spider-Man wearing the Symbiote suite.
 |
| Example of a glitch. Spidey should be holding him in a fireman's carry. |
This game has is the poorest Spider-sense I've seen so far. You can barely see it on screen and it took me until the final boss fight to recognize the sound in time to dodge out of the way. There's a lot of odd things in this game and I'm not sure if they're exactly bugs or just "by design." For instance, when Spidey retrieves a stolen stick of dynamite, he just hands it off to what looks like a random person on the street, not a cop in uniform or anything. "Here you go, citizen. I trust you'll turn this into the proper authorities and won't blow your arm off or anything!" Gamefaqs has 125 different types of glitches counted for this game. After I finished the game it immediately froze and I lost my progress. Maybe the next-gen console versions are a bit better.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Spider-Man Games Retrospective pt 4
Ultimate Spider-Man (2005)
Up to this point these games have only gotten better. But with this one I'm hesitant to say that it was better than the previous one. I also won't say that it was worse.
I was surprised to find out that Treyarch released this only a year after the previous game. The main gameplay mechanics are very similar but the style of the game is in such a different direction. The previous two games had realism from the movies, but this game goes back to the comic books using animated comic panels and cel-shading that simulates an 'inking' feel.
For clarity's sake, The Ultimate Spider-Man is not the regular Spider-Man that everyone's familiar with; it's is a modernized re-imagining of the hero as 15 year old high school student. [spoilers] ...who is currently deceased in the books and Miles Morales now wears the Spider-tights. (UGH, I dislike the idea of multiple Spider-Men)
The guys who made the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, also headed this game. In the eyes of many comic fans, these guys can do no wrong. So it's cool that this game is made by people with passion for the Marvel characters and stories. The story kind of fits into the Ultimate comics, but most people won't notice the inconsistencies.
Manhattan is again the playground for Spidey, but this time we also have access to Queens where the buildings are much shorter.
Many gamers that aren't big Spider-Fans are turned off by the style and look of the game. I didn't try this game when it came out for that same reason. But now that I've given it a shot I regret that decision. Once you get passed the childish look and simplified controls (web swinging is no longer as intricate as the previous game) this is still fun to play, especially from a fans perspective because you can play as Venom, which is awesome and vicious (back-break move and eating people!). After playing for a few hours the style grew on me and I became impressed with how comic-book-y the cel shading looks. I'm surprised there aren't more superhero games using this technique. It'd make a sweet Deadpool game. Also the animated comic book panels were pretty cool, and they would sometimes show up during gameplay to kinda zoom in on something important, which is a cool way to show your player something they should know (instead of just putting a twinkle on it, via Resident Evil). One downside to this style is that much of the text is over enthusiastic. All the hints are really important! They definitely don’t overuse exclamation points!
Side missions are still repetitive, but they're less annoying because there are no longer kids crying about their lost balloons. However, the resulting increase in reliance on the minimap takes away focus from the action in the middle of the screen. A couple of times the minimap even blocked the Spider-Sense so I couldn't tell that I was about to get smacked around.
The game started off recapping the black suite in order to introduce Venom. I want to play as black suite Spider-Man because he’s much more powerful. But I can see why they wouldn’t want to give the player powers and then take them away for the rest of the game. Then the first thing you do when you start playing is face off against Venom, which is very intimidating if you are familiar to what’s going on here. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though.
It’s Nerd Rage time: there’s a part in this game where Peter Parker is kickin around in his civvies, and nobody questions why he’s leaping 50 feet in the air in front of pedestrians, or doing other very Spider-Man-esque things. Also, racing the Human Torch? Not only extremely frustrating for the player, but why would any sensible grounded person race someone WHO CAN FLY?
My favorite part of this game was [spoilers] …the fight of Wolverine vs Venom, controlled by the player. For some unfathomable reason I’ve never pondered this battle before. It’s really a great matchup: Venom is nearly impervious to Wolverine’s attacks, and Wolverine can heal just about anything Venom can dish out. To my knowledge this hadn't been done before up to this point (or at least done well).
Voice acting for Spider-Man in this game and the last two are bad. He sounds like a whiny little kid. I mean, he IS a kid, but he’s also a hero with the selfless determination and responsibilities, so in that way he’s more mature than most adults I know. The voice acting just doesn’t reflect that. Spider-Man is much more than funny quips now and again.
Most unlockables aren’t worth mentioning, but this game had character sheets which I really appreciated as a game developer myself.
Up to this point these games have only gotten better. But with this one I'm hesitant to say that it was better than the previous one. I also won't say that it was worse.
I was surprised to find out that Treyarch released this only a year after the previous game. The main gameplay mechanics are very similar but the style of the game is in such a different direction. The previous two games had realism from the movies, but this game goes back to the comic books using animated comic panels and cel-shading that simulates an 'inking' feel.
For clarity's sake, The Ultimate Spider-Man is not the regular Spider-Man that everyone's familiar with; it's is a modernized re-imagining of the hero as 15 year old high school student. [spoilers] ...who is currently deceased in the books and Miles Morales now wears the Spider-tights. (UGH, I dislike the idea of multiple Spider-Men) The guys who made the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, also headed this game. In the eyes of many comic fans, these guys can do no wrong. So it's cool that this game is made by people with passion for the Marvel characters and stories. The story kind of fits into the Ultimate comics, but most people won't notice the inconsistencies.
Manhattan is again the playground for Spidey, but this time we also have access to Queens where the buildings are much shorter.
Many gamers that aren't big Spider-Fans are turned off by the style and look of the game. I didn't try this game when it came out for that same reason. But now that I've given it a shot I regret that decision. Once you get passed the childish look and simplified controls (web swinging is no longer as intricate as the previous game) this is still fun to play, especially from a fans perspective because you can play as Venom, which is awesome and vicious (back-break move and eating people!). After playing for a few hours the style grew on me and I became impressed with how comic-book-y the cel shading looks. I'm surprised there aren't more superhero games using this technique. It'd make a sweet Deadpool game. Also the animated comic book panels were pretty cool, and they would sometimes show up during gameplay to kinda zoom in on something important, which is a cool way to show your player something they should know (instead of just putting a twinkle on it, via Resident Evil). One downside to this style is that much of the text is over enthusiastic. All the hints are really important! They definitely don’t overuse exclamation points!
Side missions are still repetitive, but they're less annoying because there are no longer kids crying about their lost balloons. However, the resulting increase in reliance on the minimap takes away focus from the action in the middle of the screen. A couple of times the minimap even blocked the Spider-Sense so I couldn't tell that I was about to get smacked around.
The game started off recapping the black suite in order to introduce Venom. I want to play as black suite Spider-Man because he’s much more powerful. But I can see why they wouldn’t want to give the player powers and then take them away for the rest of the game. Then the first thing you do when you start playing is face off against Venom, which is very intimidating if you are familiar to what’s going on here. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though.It’s Nerd Rage time: there’s a part in this game where Peter Parker is kickin around in his civvies, and nobody questions why he’s leaping 50 feet in the air in front of pedestrians, or doing other very Spider-Man-esque things. Also, racing the Human Torch? Not only extremely frustrating for the player, but why would any sensible grounded person race someone WHO CAN FLY?
My favorite part of this game was [spoilers] …the fight of Wolverine vs Venom, controlled by the player. For some unfathomable reason I’ve never pondered this battle before. It’s really a great matchup: Venom is nearly impervious to Wolverine’s attacks, and Wolverine can heal just about anything Venom can dish out. To my knowledge this hadn't been done before up to this point (or at least done well).
Voice acting for Spider-Man in this game and the last two are bad. He sounds like a whiny little kid. I mean, he IS a kid, but he’s also a hero with the selfless determination and responsibilities, so in that way he’s more mature than most adults I know. The voice acting just doesn’t reflect that. Spider-Man is much more than funny quips now and again.
Most unlockables aren’t worth mentioning, but this game had character sheets which I really appreciated as a game developer myself.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Spider-Man Games Retrospective pt 3
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
The game based on the sequel to the film based on a comic book character. Sounds like a recipe for a disaster like Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game. But surprisingly this one is the best Spider-Man game for its time. I'm really digging how these games just keep getting better.
This game really captures the fun of being Spider-Man, largely due to the greatly improved web swinging. In the stories, Peter Parker always goes out swinging to clear his head. And there's reason for that. It's awesome. The physics and realism put into swinging around a fully mapped out Manhattan really makes this game worth it. Not to mention that Spidey actually anchors his webs on buildings instead of just shooting them into the sky out of frame. And we FINALLY get to go down to street level, whereas in the previous games the player would die if they swing below a certain altitude (sometimes with no explanation).
The menu system is greatly improved, and the dizzying effect that the previous game had is completely gone. The story follows the film pretty closely, with some additional characters from the comics thrown in, Black Cat being my favorite. My favorite actor Bruce Campbell returns to voice the sometimes-helpful narrator.
On the bad side, the main story missions can be too challenging, the mini missions repetitive, and the animation gets really jittery up close. Spider-sense is used more in this game than the previous ones, but often times it doesn't give the player enough time to dodge. The game is set up in a sandbox style ala GTA III (2001), which was so successful I'd bet that Spider-Man 2 was basically saying, "Me too!" While that makes it great for web-slinging around the city and feeling like a hero for retrieving a kids balloon, the rest of the game just doesn't fill in the great empty hole that a sandbox game creates. There aren't that many main quests and there's only so many times I can repeat the same side quest where I have to beat up some thugs. On the positive side, I bet Spidey feels the same way about beating up thugs day in and day out.
And lastly, I really appreciated the "Klattu Verata Nikto" line thrown in the Mysterio battle as a referrence to Army of Darkness (a film which the director of Spider-Man also made).
The game based on the sequel to the film based on a comic book character. Sounds like a recipe for a disaster like Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game. But surprisingly this one is the best Spider-Man game for its time. I'm really digging how these games just keep getting better.
This game really captures the fun of being Spider-Man, largely due to the greatly improved web swinging. In the stories, Peter Parker always goes out swinging to clear his head. And there's reason for that. It's awesome. The physics and realism put into swinging around a fully mapped out Manhattan really makes this game worth it. Not to mention that Spidey actually anchors his webs on buildings instead of just shooting them into the sky out of frame. And we FINALLY get to go down to street level, whereas in the previous games the player would die if they swing below a certain altitude (sometimes with no explanation).The menu system is greatly improved, and the dizzying effect that the previous game had is completely gone. The story follows the film pretty closely, with some additional characters from the comics thrown in, Black Cat being my favorite. My favorite actor Bruce Campbell returns to voice the sometimes-helpful narrator.
On the bad side, the main story missions can be too challenging, the mini missions repetitive, and the animation gets really jittery up close. Spider-sense is used more in this game than the previous ones, but often times it doesn't give the player enough time to dodge. The game is set up in a sandbox style ala GTA III (2001), which was so successful I'd bet that Spider-Man 2 was basically saying, "Me too!" While that makes it great for web-slinging around the city and feeling like a hero for retrieving a kids balloon, the rest of the game just doesn't fill in the great empty hole that a sandbox game creates. There aren't that many main quests and there's only so many times I can repeat the same side quest where I have to beat up some thugs. On the positive side, I bet Spidey feels the same way about beating up thugs day in and day out. And lastly, I really appreciated the "Klattu Verata Nikto" line thrown in the Mysterio battle as a referrence to Army of Darkness (a film which the director of Spider-Man also made).
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