Digital Toilet World Released

Hey,

I just submitted a game for Ludum Dare 28. It's called Digital Toilet World. You can check it out here.

I'll write a more substantial blog post when I have more time and am not being pressured by my friends to leave the McDonalds from which we are obtaining internet access. I have to leave now.

For what it is, I'm quite proud of it. It's a fun little thing. Enjoy!

Look, I can do animations that aren't pixelated four frame walk loops!

So, I'm currently in an animation class. Below is my final project for it.

It's not strictly games related, but I figured that you, dear reader, would nevertheless be amused by it. For amateur work, I'm pretty satisfied with it.

Enjoy! If I can make a game version of this for Ludum Dare this weekend, I'll totally do it.

Grumpy Programmer Live Blog Spectacle

11:50
Okay, you sad sassy dipshits, here's the rundown:

I'm in this bullshit game design class this semester. I'm supposed to have a sparkling-cider-ass digital prototype of a game done tomorrow morning, 9:00 sharp. You need perspective? I'll give you some peanut-butter-shitting perspective - I haven't started, and it's 11:50 right now. 11:50 in the frackin' PM. It's supposed to be a group project. It's supposed to be an equal division of labor. Guess whose partner doesn't have any game design skills and didn't respond to his email  asking when to meet up to work on this piece of flaming spiraled ape shit?

Bloody hell like I've had time to get a headstart on this shit. Bullshit.Game design class.

You know what this means, right, you sewage guzzling skunk munchers? Yeah, that's right, it's the GRUMPY PROGRAMMER LIVE BLOG SPECTACLE. (Pricks).

Every 15 minute interval, you get an update on my progress, you privileged pompous bourgeois blowhard.

Maybe this will be entertaining, as you derive intense pleasure from documentation of my pain. Maybe it will just be sad. Actually, you know what? It'll probably just be frumpin' sad. You know why? Because I'm making a piss-wallowing game about a young woman who can repair elevators. Guess what you do in the game? Repair the motherfucking elevator. Press R to restart and repair it again in a different way! DO IT YOU CAPITALIST SLAVE.

Let's go.

12:15
WHAT THE GHOST-SNORTING-SNORLAX DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO HOLD CTRL AND SHIFT TO CREATE MULTIPLE OBJECTS IN THE ROOM AT ONCE IN THE NEW VERSION OF GAME MAKER. PUFF SHITTER.
I paid money for new software because I expected improvement. Literally feeling myself get arthritis is not an improvement.
Jesus Christ.

Thank god I can just rip old platformer game code from previous projects for this. Oh, did I forget to mention?
This isn't just a game in which you fix elevators.
It's a game in which you can fix elevators and  jump.

12:30
What the hell is my roommate watching? Did the sports announcer just say ninjitsu fight?
i wish i could watch two ninjitsus fight BUT NO I MUST WORK because SOMEBODY HAS TO DO IT
Fucking ninjitsus. They're not all that cool.

Shit, is 64 pixels too great of a range within which the player can interact with the elevator? How close does one have to be to elevators to fix elevators? Judas Priest.

12:31
Yeah if anybody was wondering 64 pixels is too much distance.
YOU'RE WELCOME.

12:32
AND SO IS 48 IF YOU WERE ASKING

12:45
No my bad 48 is totally the right distance.
If you're trying to work on an elevator and you're more that 48 pixels away from the fucker you better put your fancy-ass elevator tools down and hightail it out of there before you hurt someone.

There used to be a strange joke about aunts here but I removed it because it was dum.


1:00
Guess whose game has an elevator that can detect bullshit?


It's on to you, pansy-farter.

1:15
Tahoma?!
Why the hell is Tahoma the default font?
Who the hell types in Tahoma?
What the fuck is a Tahoma?
I expected improvement. I didn't pay money to type in Tahoma in the built-in graphics editor.
Fucking ninjitsus.

1:30
Look, I hate it when humorists make self-referential, self-depricating humor or commentary. It's never funny, and it never helps. But in all honesty? This post has lost me any credibility I've ever had as a writer. I lost the credibility precisely when I wrote about the aunt dying in the elevator accident.
The proofreading and review processes are not by any means underrated. Make no mistake, this is an unfiltered vomit of words.

         I continue to write this for the slim chance of self redemption.

on another note sewage guzzling skunk muncher ha ha

1:45
You know, this is a lot like Ludum Dare or 7DFPS.
Except not fun, and if you fail to meet the deadline you lose your scholarship money.
That's sickening. What sick turn of fate this is.

Look, the game has choices in it now. And what meaningful choices they are.

I should work for kitten-huffin' Bioware.

What kind of sadistic elevator repair simulator is this. Jesus.

2:00
Oh shit.
I forgot to change the font from Tahoma.
Fuck me blind.

Should I just censor that moronic post about the aunt? I should probably do that.
Oh geeze.

I hope your computer's badass enough for this game, because it needs to run at a howling 60 frames per second.

2:15
Yeah, definitely censoring that stupid elevator crash with dead aunt joke. Geeze. Can't believe I wrote that shit.

Yeah that looks better.

Yeeaaaaah.

2:30
And now the game has exploding elevators.

I swear to god I'm being productive.

2:45

Now the game has bad guys.

This is going to be great for my portfolio.

I have a headache and my stomach hurts.

What am I doing.

3:00
You see, over the bad guy's head, it says, "bad guy".

Did you notice?

I noticed.

Wait a second, I'm almost done.

3:08
The game prototype's done. If you want to download it for some reason you can do it here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/89594581/Posthuman_Prototype.zip

It's a Windows build as usual. Not bad for three hour's work.

That... that was the
GRUMPY PROGRAMMER LIVE BLOG SPECTACLE. 

Never... never again...

Waker Update

     This past semester's kind of been kicking my ass, but I've still been putting time into Waker whenever I can. The past month, I've expanded the game's opening - extended the chase scene, quadrupled the size of the snowy area, and spaced out the game's dialogue. These changes have helped much with the pacing - I'm really happy with how the opening sequence plays out.
      However, for those of you who played the demo, I've removed the character of Roger, the hooded Juror, from the game. I had a subplot planned out for him, but he doesn't contribute much to the main story and is just another character to keep track of. In any case, I need to take shortcuts wherever I can if I want to finish this within the next year. I hear artists talk all the time about having to scrap good individual work for the sake of the whole, and it's really not easy, but the more I replay the first section, the more I realize that it was for the best. R.I.P Roger.
     Current goal for the end of the month is to implement a dashing mechanic (Go Go Boots make you Go!) and puzzles with turrets. I hope to finally begin progressing the story again by the end of December.

     I'm sorry I haven't been writing many recommendations/reviews/opinion pieces lately - there has been little time for blogging. I hope to have some more entertaining writing as a holiday gift. ;)

EDIT: Here's a screenshot of the turrets. Still working on getting them to shoot - the lasers are for detecting threats:

Waker's Still a Thing

     Feedback to the demo has generally has been positive or helpful . Some people were turned off by the sheer amount of reading the game required: in that case, the game frankly isn't for you. Everybody else wants to see where it goes. I feel refreshed, and think that I'm going to enter another period of relatively rapid development.

     New things that will be added to the game not in the demo (besides the entire second half): 
-Character temperament that is more strongly determined by how the player has treated them in the past.
-Plot developments more strongly shaped by player choice. While choices made throughout the game will impact the ending, I can only afford to make the consequences of those choices apparent later in the game due to the sheer amount of extra work required by branching plots. Hence, player choice in the short term will primarily have an impact on the temperament of other characters.
-Slightly larger game world.
-Music! I've been in contact with another talented musician who seems to be interested in the project.
-Anticipated release date: November/December 2014. I will probably miss this date, but it should be humanely possible for me to finish the project by then.

     The game may or may not represent what I am most capable as a game designer, but apparently it's still damn good, and it's worth fully realizing. Thanks to everyone for helping me pull my head out of my arse.

   

Waker: Demo Up, Possibly Discontinuing Development

     Internet, it's been a while since I've talked about Waker. For one thing, little progress has been made over the past month. This past semester of college has been the busiest yet; mustering the time and energy to work on the project is a challenge. For another thing, I'm starting to feel constrained by design decisions I made in the beginning of development. As an artist, writer, designer, storytelling, and thinker, I've grown a bit over the past 16 months of game development, and working within the design mistakes made by my past self is frustrating. I'm feeling incredibly low motivation to continue the project at the moment, and even if I recover that motivation, being able to work on the game frequently enough to get the damn thing done anytime soon will be a challenge.

     I made especially bad decisions in failing to implement meaningful core gameplay mechanics from the beginning of development. My approach was a of the "create the story first, add unique mechanics to support each specific plot event as you go along, and achieve ludonarrative resonance!" sort. Unfortunately, most plot events in the game don't inherently demand game mechanics, those that do don't demand meaningful ones, and because I'm only one man with limited time, when given a choice to implement new, really complex core mechanics or forgo them altogether, I will make the choice to forgo them. Lesson learned - don't develop games this way.

     That being said, I've received substantial praise from everyone whose played the game so far, especially for the characters and the writing. One playtester stated that the game gave him good "feels," and others feel genuinely motivated to continue playing for the story's sake. Frankly, the game, despite it's awful, barely existent gameplay, could still end up being a great interactive story. I just don't know - and the only way to know is to commit to at least another year of development.

     I need to know, if I am going to commit my time to this substantial project, will it be worth it? Strangers on the internet have expressed interest in this game in the past - I need to know if people are atill anticipating this game, if there's a large enough audience for it, and if that audience will actually enjoy it. So, I am releasing a public demo of my work up to this point. If you decide to play it, please supply feedback, especially by letting me know 1) if you would really like this game to be completed and 2) whether you would like it completed ASAP, or if you can wait an indefinite amount of time. Please be honest. You can leave a comment, or shoot an email to alchiggins@gmail.com.    

Click here to download the demo.

System requirements: Windows OS, screen resolution exceeding 960x720. A finally version would be able to support greater screen resolutions.

Esc quits. F4 exits fullscreen. F5 saves, F6 loads. F9 takes a screenshot. All other controls explained in-game.

There's currently no sound or menus. There are bugs. The whole thing's a little rough. I am aware of these things.

Thank you so much for taking time to play this and provide feedback. It means a lot.

Recommendation: Super Hot

I don't know how I missed this from 7DFPS, but Super Hot is amazing. It's a shooter game in which time only moves when the player moves. It's really an amazing mechanic. Play it here.