Alright so happy holidays to everyone! I'm giving a delayed presentation of my game:
Please note that the music in the game for some reason isn't played in the video, but it's there!!
The game can be played right here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16802424/WaterSplash.swf
And thanks Sam for all the knowledge and experience!
Magnus
Friday, December 27, 2013
Friday, November 15, 2013
Game Concept: Multiplayer
The following blog post concerns how making my game multiplayer would affect various aspects of the game.
Overview
In the general sense, Fingersplash (my game) is about typing fast. Now that skill is a competitive skill in nature, so I'd make a lot of sense to let people compare it by battling each other in multiplayer. Hence, the multiplayer version of the game would be a versus style game in which the players were pitted against each other.
Gameplay
In the original game, the gamescreen is depicting a surfer struggling through waves in the rhythm of the typing of the player. In the multiplayer version, the game would be split screen. Note that even though it is split screen two computers are still needed. Now the mechanics should be that the opposing players surfer will fall if you type faster than the other player, and vice-versa. Words would still appear in the same way and the core concept of typing is of course still the same.
Progression
In the single-player game, a lot of what makes the game fun is upgrades to the player such as longer error margin, new venues, new visual upgrades etc. Then the basic concept can extend to a campaign which makes it replayable. However this progression can be taken somewhat out of the multiplayer as the competitive element is what makes it playable. Now highscores and leaderboards should be what make the game addictive.
Graphics
The graphics can be more crude in the multiplayer, and maybe even more toony than originally intended (the original though was more of pixelated art). The graphics should not take any attention from the competitive element. A good comparison of how the graphics could look like is looking at the popular "Tetris Battle" from Facebook: http://www.ergame.com/uploads/big/dtFbGKNRss/2012/08/image-5019950c1b551.jpg
That's it for my multiplayer idea. Shoot me some comments if you like!
Monday, November 4, 2013
Game Minute
Following is my game minute for the game, fingersplash:
"The young surfer is contemplating which upgrades to get for his board. After all, a new fin will surely allow him to increase his balance, making it easier for him to withstand pressure from the incoming balance. On the other hand, he's also thinking of just going for a soda which will only temporary boost his abilities, then saving money for later upgrades in his journey. The decision is made in favor of the soda and he's quickly out in the water again. This time the waves seem to come in even faster (words) and he's gotta be quick to spell words loudly to maintain his balance. He's even learned a new trick; spelling multiple words at a time. The focus allows him to swiftly type in almost any word. However, he misses a word on a big wave, causing him to fall over. This could have killed him had he not been provided with extra life. However he must now start all over the wave again, squandering any potential to reap rewards for that particular wave in terms of money to buy new gear.
After a long period of surfing the same reef (level), the surfer is now ready to spend some money to travel to a more exotic place with promising rewards of greater glory and money.
"The young surfer is contemplating which upgrades to get for his board. After all, a new fin will surely allow him to increase his balance, making it easier for him to withstand pressure from the incoming balance. On the other hand, he's also thinking of just going for a soda which will only temporary boost his abilities, then saving money for later upgrades in his journey. The decision is made in favor of the soda and he's quickly out in the water again. This time the waves seem to come in even faster (words) and he's gotta be quick to spell words loudly to maintain his balance. He's even learned a new trick; spelling multiple words at a time. The focus allows him to swiftly type in almost any word. However, he misses a word on a big wave, causing him to fall over. This could have killed him had he not been provided with extra life. However he must now start all over the wave again, squandering any potential to reap rewards for that particular wave in terms of money to buy new gear.
After a long period of surfing the same reef (level), the surfer is now ready to spend some money to travel to a more exotic place with promising rewards of greater glory and money.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Prototype 2:
Hey everyone. My second prototype is now ready to play. It requires flash as it's made in Stencyl.
Here is the public dropbox link to the flash game:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16802424/prototype2/WaterSplash.swf
And here is a short video of me playing the game: http://youtu.be/Hg1dkRBMt5o
Enjoy!
Here is the public dropbox link to the flash game:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16802424/prototype2/WaterSplash.swf
And here is a short video of me playing the game: http://youtu.be/Hg1dkRBMt5o
Enjoy!
Monday, October 14, 2013
Prototype!
The game can be downloaded and played at:
Just run the index.html and you should be good to go.
The game is played by typing in the words that pop up on the screen. Typing wrong will reduce your score. By achieving 10 points you complete the level!
A game playthrough is available at youtube:
However for some reason there's no sound in the screencast. If you play the game yourself you should be able to hear it.
Game Focus: Revisited
Game Focus
'Fingersplash' is a fast paced typing game, in which the player must surf waves and attain high scores at different surfbreaks. The way to do this is by typing out words and sentences before a time constraint expires which causes the player avatar to crash and fall of the waves. The most compelling aspect is that the player can play a progressive game while building an important real life skill set: typing fast and correctly. The player's experience will be about helping his avatar survive and surf through bigger and bigger waves of water. Furthermore, the game captures the excitement of learning a new skill in an intense way, and seeing the results of training/playing to get better. The progressions are a major part of the game: the player upgrades his board (time to enter words), reputation (score multiplier) and so on.
Visuals
(I can't do this myself but the following is also the developers approach:)
The game is colorful and captures elements of the surfer lifestyle in terms of the music, terminology in-game, purchasable upgrades and graphical design. Different stages represents different periods of time and therefore incorporate many surfing elements such as surf-rock, mavericks-theme, etc. In regards to technology, the game uses a basic JavaScript engine and run in a browser. Pixelated art is the the primary style of graphics.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Game Focus
Game Focus
Fingersplash (working title) is a fastpaced typing game.
The main idea of the game is that the player must surf waves and attain high scores at different surfbreaks.
The way to do this is by typing out words and sentences before a time constraint expires
which causes the player avatar to crash and fall of the waves.
Audience
The most compelling aspect of my game is the fact that the player can play a
progressive game while building an important real life skill set: typing fast
and correctly. The players experience will be about helping his avatar survive
and surf through bigger and bigger waves of water.
Furthermore, the game will capture the excitement of learning a new skill in
an intense way, and seeing the results of training/playing to get better.
Visuals
(I can't do this myself but the following is also the developers approach:)
The game should be colorful and try to capture some elements of the surfer
lifestyle in terms of the music, terminology in-game, purchasable upgrades and
graphical design. Different stages can represent different periods of time and therefore incorporate many surfing elements such as surf-rock, mavericks-theme, etc.
In regards to technology, the game should use a 2D engine and run in a browser. In optimal conditions, pixelated art would be as the primary style of graphics.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Brainstorm Game Idea #3
This is my final brainstorm on a game. The game is doing a flash adaptation on the classic game "Warlock" or one might even call it "Wizard Wars".
Story
The setting of the game is a team of wizards competing for glory in an arena. Each specific wizard represents an element with a power related to the element. For example, a fire wizard controls the Fireball, which deals additional damage compared to other spells, but which are slower as well.
Gameplay
The gameplay is the central part of the game and can be described as follows: Wizards compete against each other in a circle arena with lava surrounding it. A wizard starts at full health, which roughly affects the game in two ways: First, if the wizard loses healths until he's on zero health, he dies. Secondly, the more damage the wizard takes, the more the wizard will be pushed by projectiles of other players hitting him. The game is centered around skillfully aiming the projectiles available to a wizard in other to hit others in their path of walking. Being sent out into the lava causes damage rapidly escalating until death. The wizards can upgrade their projectiles in terms of speed, functionality, damage etc. The last wizard standing is the winner.
Technology
The technology is rather unclear for me at this point. I would like the game to be implemented with HTML 5 only, however I'm not sure how well the physics needed for the game to be fun and enjoyable are possible to implement. If this is not the case then Unity might be a solution.
Story
The setting of the game is a team of wizards competing for glory in an arena. Each specific wizard represents an element with a power related to the element. For example, a fire wizard controls the Fireball, which deals additional damage compared to other spells, but which are slower as well.
Gameplay
The gameplay is the central part of the game and can be described as follows: Wizards compete against each other in a circle arena with lava surrounding it. A wizard starts at full health, which roughly affects the game in two ways: First, if the wizard loses healths until he's on zero health, he dies. Secondly, the more damage the wizard takes, the more the wizard will be pushed by projectiles of other players hitting him. The game is centered around skillfully aiming the projectiles available to a wizard in other to hit others in their path of walking. Being sent out into the lava causes damage rapidly escalating until death. The wizards can upgrade their projectiles in terms of speed, functionality, damage etc. The last wizard standing is the winner.
Technology
The technology is rather unclear for me at this point. I would like the game to be implemented with HTML 5 only, however I'm not sure how well the physics needed for the game to be fun and enjoyable are possible to implement. If this is not the case then Unity might be a solution.
Friday, September 13, 2013
Brainstorm Game Idea #2
The next idea for a game I'd like to create is called Adapt. Now I know this game idea is highly unlikely I'll ever do anything like it, however I've always wanted to try and formulate the idea as a game.
The basic idea for the game is that the premise for each game is always the same. However, each game should be very different as user created content should be as important as in the communities in Blizzard games, where most of the best content is actually created by the excellent map creator tools in the games.
Story
The story is fairly simple: In a strategy/turn-based/civilization styled game, a group of survivors crash-land onto an unknown planet which supports life and development. On this new planet, the group of survivors must adapt to their new conditions and develop a civilization that's uniquely defined by the conditions of the particular instance of the game. For example, a very story-driven game might contain the group of survivors moving through the planet at different sites of mythology in order to unlock a secret to escaping. In another scenario, the survivors settle down and strive to build a civilization in the middle of a harsh jungle. In a third scenario, survivors battle other civilizations and acquire their technology through warfare. In any scenario, there might be victory conditions (like 5 generations of survivors, or escape the planet etc.) or the scenario might let the user expand as far as he/she likes.
Gameplay
The gameplay is at the heart of the game, and by definition must be very complex. However, first versions of the game could be simple. The gameplay should contain two parts: One part, in which the player plays scenarios created by others/the developer. The other part allows the player to create new content in a very flexible way. Users could create resources or use predefined ones that set a particular pace of the game. For example, a standard approach would be that players of the scenario had to mine wood and harvest food in order to survive. Each cycle of buildings and developments unlocks a new ressource to be harvested in an Age of Empire style lifetime. The user can also create new resources and define rules for them ingame. For example make a new resource called Greed which might fluctuate based on the level of gold accumulated. The ideal setting for the user created content would be a mix of a programming like environment, where the user can program new limits and ressources - and a drag'n'drop setting where pre-defined resources can be selected (such as Sploder).
Technology
Ideally, this is an Unreal technology based game with 3d like graphics in the style of Starcraft 2 or other new RTS games. However, as this is also very unlikely in this course a basic version could be made in the browser. All graphics are imported from other sources. This basic version should not contain the map creation part but only contain pre defined scenarios.
The basic idea for the game is that the premise for each game is always the same. However, each game should be very different as user created content should be as important as in the communities in Blizzard games, where most of the best content is actually created by the excellent map creator tools in the games.
Story
The story is fairly simple: In a strategy/turn-based/civilization styled game, a group of survivors crash-land onto an unknown planet which supports life and development. On this new planet, the group of survivors must adapt to their new conditions and develop a civilization that's uniquely defined by the conditions of the particular instance of the game. For example, a very story-driven game might contain the group of survivors moving through the planet at different sites of mythology in order to unlock a secret to escaping. In another scenario, the survivors settle down and strive to build a civilization in the middle of a harsh jungle. In a third scenario, survivors battle other civilizations and acquire their technology through warfare. In any scenario, there might be victory conditions (like 5 generations of survivors, or escape the planet etc.) or the scenario might let the user expand as far as he/she likes.
Gameplay
The gameplay is at the heart of the game, and by definition must be very complex. However, first versions of the game could be simple. The gameplay should contain two parts: One part, in which the player plays scenarios created by others/the developer. The other part allows the player to create new content in a very flexible way. Users could create resources or use predefined ones that set a particular pace of the game. For example, a standard approach would be that players of the scenario had to mine wood and harvest food in order to survive. Each cycle of buildings and developments unlocks a new ressource to be harvested in an Age of Empire style lifetime. The user can also create new resources and define rules for them ingame. For example make a new resource called Greed which might fluctuate based on the level of gold accumulated. The ideal setting for the user created content would be a mix of a programming like environment, where the user can program new limits and ressources - and a drag'n'drop setting where pre-defined resources can be selected (such as Sploder).
Technology
Ideally, this is an Unreal technology based game with 3d like graphics in the style of Starcraft 2 or other new RTS games. However, as this is also very unlikely in this course a basic version could be made in the browser. All graphics are imported from other sources. This basic version should not contain the map creation part but only contain pre defined scenarios.
Brainstorm Game Idea #1
In this post, I'm going to describe my first brainstorming idea for a game.
This game is a version of the classic type-words-fast game, but with a defined theme and upgrades to make the game more interesting.
I've always like quick-typing games, but most of those I've played have had some issues. They either won't implement some sort of gaming-like progression in the game - upgrades, consumable items that boost your in game powers etc.- or they won't have a graphical theme and a background that's interesting so it's fun to play while you learn typing.
Surfing the Words - Story
The theme for this game is a guy trying to learn how to surf. As he types faster and faster, he'll be able to surf bigger venues and bigger waves for an extended period of time. The story resolves in the background as the gamer focuses on typing words correctly. Each stage in the game is a known beach/break from the surfing world. The story is supposed to be discreet and anonymous, but still provoke a willingness to progress through the game.
Gameplay
The gameplay is the addictive bread and butter of the game. It's very simple and easy to learn yet very challenging even for experts. Words appear on the screen and must be typed correctly before reaching the surfer on the screen. Typing them before they hit the surfer allows the surfer to 'ride' them, which in turn gives points and the player complete the level. If the typing is not done in time, the surfer will sway and lose health and, ultimately, wipeout the board and fail the level. Between levels, it is possible to purchase upgrades, such as more health (better board), increased health regen (better surfer), one time consumables such as clear all words (super surf move), and if the surfer accumulates enough points, he/she can move to bigger harder levels which also gives more points.
Technology
No new technology is really needed. The most important part is the input handling of the game (but this can be done in browsers easily). Additionally, graphic is an important part of the game as the theme and the feel of the game separates it from all other typing games. I envision the game in pixelated art as that's clearly my favorite browser experience.
This game is a version of the classic type-words-fast game, but with a defined theme and upgrades to make the game more interesting.
I've always like quick-typing games, but most of those I've played have had some issues. They either won't implement some sort of gaming-like progression in the game - upgrades, consumable items that boost your in game powers etc.- or they won't have a graphical theme and a background that's interesting so it's fun to play while you learn typing.
Surfing the Words - Story
The theme for this game is a guy trying to learn how to surf. As he types faster and faster, he'll be able to surf bigger venues and bigger waves for an extended period of time. The story resolves in the background as the gamer focuses on typing words correctly. Each stage in the game is a known beach/break from the surfing world. The story is supposed to be discreet and anonymous, but still provoke a willingness to progress through the game.
Gameplay
The gameplay is the addictive bread and butter of the game. It's very simple and easy to learn yet very challenging even for experts. Words appear on the screen and must be typed correctly before reaching the surfer on the screen. Typing them before they hit the surfer allows the surfer to 'ride' them, which in turn gives points and the player complete the level. If the typing is not done in time, the surfer will sway and lose health and, ultimately, wipeout the board and fail the level. Between levels, it is possible to purchase upgrades, such as more health (better board), increased health regen (better surfer), one time consumables such as clear all words (super surf move), and if the surfer accumulates enough points, he/she can move to bigger harder levels which also gives more points.
Technology
No new technology is really needed. The most important part is the input handling of the game (but this can be done in browsers easily). Additionally, graphic is an important part of the game as the theme and the feel of the game separates it from all other typing games. I envision the game in pixelated art as that's clearly my favorite browser experience.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
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