Postmortem: Zeit

I participated in the 48h game jam Ludum Dare again last weekend. The theme was "Connected Worlds" and I started making a game called Zeit based on the multiple worlds interpretation, in which you are stuck in an endless time loop and have to fight off enemies and avoid a growing army of alternate versions of yourself. Sounds fun? Meh. I didn't really like it, so I stopped working on it after 14 hours and left it half-finished. You can still check it out if you're interested.

Zeit

The Good
So here's some of what went well this time.

- Livestreaming. I did that, and a couple of people actually watched it. It's great for two reasons:
Firstly, I was way more focused on the task and way faster than I would have been otherwise. You don't procrastinate when you know you're being watched. Secondly, I now have all of my 14 hours of work on tape and can revise my workflow and do cool things like this time-lapse. I'll probably keep doing that in the future, and I can only recommend it to anyone who does anything remotely interesting.

- Researching. I did that for the first time. I didn't have any idea what to make of the theme "Connected worlds" (at least none that would have been realistic given the time frame and my limited programming skills), so I googled anything related to "connected worlds", "multiple worlds", "other worlds", etc. Eventually I got stuck on the many worlds interpretation, which gave me some crazy gameplay ideas about alternate universes and time-loops. The stuff is actually really interesting, and you should totally do some research on it if you're looking for gameplay inspiration.


The Bad
Here's what didn't work out so well.

- Giving up. I did that way too early. In retrospect, I really regret not finishing the project. Even if in my eyes it wouldn't have been a good game in the end, someone else might have liked it. (And some people already do.) Game jams are not about making a great game, but about making a game. And the experience of that might be worth just as much. I guess I'll still have to learn to from time to time finish a game just for the sake of it.

- Not making sounds. Again. I remember last Ludum Dare I wrote something along the lines of "If everything works as planned, my next LD entry will have at least some sort of noise in it. Promise!" Well. It doesn't. It would have been a good exercise to implement audio into the game, too, but I didn't even get to that stage. I'll really try harder next time. Promise. For real now!


The Takeaway
- Don't give up next time. As one commenter accurately pointed out in response to my game: "Some ideas are just worth exploring, even if there is no fun at the end." Maybe next time explore it some more before abandoning it.

Gamescom 2014 + Facebook

I'll be going to Gamescom in Cologne next week. Two of the games I recently worked on will be showcased at my university's booth: A slightly enhanced version of DYO, as well as Armville, a 2D action platformer yet to be released. You'll be able to play a whole lot of other great games there, too, so make sure to stop by!

This is were we'll be located: Hall 10.2, E011

I'll be there the whole week, and try to be at the booth for most of the time.

Also, since there's not really a comfortable way of following this blog, I decided to create a Facebook page. I'll probably also be posting some work in progress and other stuff that's not relevant enough for the blog over there.

The Floor may not be Jelly - Thoughts on breaking your own game's rules

I just recently played The Floor is Jelly by Ian Snyder. It's great and you should totally play it. I recommend watching the trailer. Not only will it hopefully convince you to buy the game, but it also pretty much explains what the game is all about (so I won't have to bother doing that myself).

The Floor is Beautiful!

Minor spoilers ahead, I guess... (next two paragraphs)

I enjoyed most parts of the game really, but I found the last world to be especially interesting. In this world, the "jelly" of which the floor and walls are made, changes properties every few levels. In one level it's hyper-bouncy, in another one it doesn't bounce at all. I'm not gonna spoil any more, but it gets really crazy at some point.
I loved these sections because they're a great example of how much variety you can get out of an existing mechanic (in this case: jumping around on jelly) without having to add new secondary mechanics. In fact, the last world doesn't use any of the secondary mechanics that have been introduced in previous worlds (e.g. water), and instead focuses solely on the jelly itself and possible variations of its attributes. Granted, some of the sections are less fun than others, some even barely playable, and I personally would have cut out a couple of those parts. Still, in my opinion it manages to be one of the more entertaining and gameplay-wisely diverse worlds of the game.

Also, I very much liked the theme of the world which is somewhat glitchy and pseudo-broken. It fits the gameplay perfectly and I'm guessing this might be a hint as to how the concept for this world came to be. As someone who makes games, you know those moments when you tweaked some variables and suddenly your game behaves in some weird, unintended way. Most of the time, you'll have a quick laugh, maybe even take a screenshot to document this glorious moment, then fix your mistake and get on with it. But sometimes, you might find something really amazing by accident.
Bugs turning into features isn't an uncommon occurrence (e.g. Tribes: Ascend). But actively looking for interesting new gameplay within a working system can be even more effective (and more fun). It doesn't even have to be complicated either. I'm guessing in The Floor is Jelly it was just a matter of changing some constants to make the floor behave in a different way, and yet it allowed for such diverse gameplay.

I would love to see this approach to game design realized in more games: Build a solid working system that can stand by itself. Then, when you think you exhausted everything you could do with it, instead of adding new features, play with the ones you already have. Go crazy with it. Think about possibly interesting "What if...?" scenarios. Then try them out. In case it doesn't turn out to be as fun as expected, you can still always go back to status quo. Either way, you'll probably have learned something from it.

This is actually how the concept for Snake Pit was born, except I took an already existing system and tried to change the gameplay to be something completely different. What if the game didn't end when you bite your tail?
Also, the idea for some yet-to-be-released bonus levels in DYO came to be in a similar way...

What if the minotaurs weren't of the same size?