One of my New Years resolutions for this year was not only to sit down and create as much as possible, but also to participate in a Game Jam.

For those of you who do not know, a Game Jam is a gathering of game makers to make a game in a very short time frame. Generally they’re about 48 hours.

My big goals of doing one of these events were;

• Meet other people who are interested in making games. This is an obvious answer, even the motivation behind Game Dojo in AZ, but still the more surround you can become the better. And it’s come to the point where sometimes I have to shut my mouth at family dinner, or when I’m out in public because I’ve started having a design conversation. (I must say my family and friends who put up with me are amazing, patient, and can hold in yawns for a very lengthy amount of time.) 
• Having more projects and experiences working with a variety of people!
• Learning. Learning. Learning. Whether it be a bit about how this line of code works, to figuring out a tiny detail about this audio program, or something funky about an art program there’s always quite a few things that come up.
• Dealing with bugs. (not real bugs, fuck those) Sometimes, you have to learn how to live with a bug or two. Better yet, sometimes you have to know how not to get stuck solving a bug for hours when you just don’t have the time. Gotta keep running forward.

Somethings that always slowed me down from joining jams prior, and why that doesn’t actually matter anymore. 

• I don’t know enough. For a while I was always worried that I would be judged on how much I knew. That if I went into one of these events my team or other people would laugh me out for not knowing enough. This is so much bullshit. By knowing nothing you’re going to learn so much from the experience and you shouldn’t let this fear push you away. Just try to push yourself towards a more experienced group and ask questions. 
• There’s no way I’d finish. You know you might not finish it in the weekend time, but you may be able to keep working on it as time goes by. If you hate it or just want it to be water under the bridge, let that game be a learning experience. I end up going in with a specific goal in mind, if I can satisfy that goal bam magic has happened and I can have a moment to be proud and then reflect and figure out the next goal. Also, everywhere I’ve read similar advise KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Anyway back to #1gamcrunch! I’ve tried to participate every month. Which sounds all great, but remember we’ve only been through 3 months!

January, I went at it with a team. This was my first jam and my first time working with a team. Holy cow, it was exciting, frustrating, and overall pretty satisfying. The game was called Deitospy, its strange and buggy, but its our strange, buggy game.

February, I flew solo. I also did not finish my game. I went out for bday dinner (Thai food!) and ended up getting my puppy (see previous post) all instead of working on a game. Now I have a half-baked platformer. I’m not sure if I’ll go back to this specific file, but I really enjoyed the idea that I had started. The game involved moving in two different directions one direction would be the logical choice mostly to the right of the screen, the other would be heading to the left or just a direction that didn’t make too much sense. Anyway, I had written up some witty dialog for this game. Hopefully, I’ll look at the file one day and put it together.

March, baaam last month! I struck up another card game. Games that I can work on everywhere are wonderful. The card game I created was entitled The Illiterate. It’s a neat little game about knowing some classic literature. During the original weekend I wasn’t able to get all the cards typed up, but that was simple enough to finish even after the jam. The big thing that needs to be work on still is the instructions. I was so worried about keeping it concise that it lost some of the clarity. So, I’ll be playing around with the instructions a bit more. I’ve decided maybe adding some images may help, and heck why not do a little video tutorial on playing the game. This was awesome because I already had started using the little knowledge I had from making my first card game, The Absurd Gun Game, which I had made for my January #1gam.

My experiences with these events have all been great. Even with limited time it’s fun to get something kicked up and playable by the end of the weekend. Plus, I’ve always found that starting any project can sometimes be intimidating. It’s a lot like a painter staring at a blank canvas. You’ve got all this potential, but when you reach to put the first brush stroke too much self-doubt can crowd your mind. Luckily, there isn’t time to doubt yourself during these events! Plus, it helps kick out that evil doubt cloud for good!
These events are a great exercise for any at any level to get into making games, plus the support is always there to ask next to any question. This month there will not be a 1GAMCRUNCH, but Ludum Dare will be going on during that time frame. I recommend you go and participate. NOW!

I have been focusing a lot this month on learning more about programming. This semester (though it’s online and classes don’t start till next week) I’ll be taking Java and C#, both level 1, because unless you’re awesome you can’t just skip. This is just the beginning too!

I have a pretty nice layout for these classes too, because I didn’t want to completely overwhelm myself. Java 1 starts next Monday, and C# will start late April.

There are also 2 related courses offered through Coursera coming up.

1. An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python

2. Creative Programming for Digital Media & Mobile Apps

The first one goes hand in hand with what I was doing for my March game. I was pulling through the basics of Python and putting together a little game. You can see a bit of it below. It’s really not spectacular, but I learned a ton and that’s what counts.

Also isn’t it funny that Pyweek didn’t start, end, or happen during 3/14? 

One more thing before I go  if anyone has any suggestions for programming books let me know! Or really anything that would be easy to print out and carry about. I’ve found being able to look at this stuff off and on during the day, even when I’m not at a computer, helps to reiterate the information! So, send me linkage or book titles either via comment or twitter @Sug4rsh0ts.

My motivation was there, but I found myself putting things off too much. After One Game a Month started I went from sitting down and working on games from 1-2 days a week to working on them almost daily. Even with work and school I’ve been able to set aside about 30mins to an hour in the mornings (granted my morning starts at noon due to graveyard shifts.)

I started Absurd Gun Game January 1st and was able to post a playable test version on the 21st. The only board games or cards game I had made previously were for highschool projects, and that was a few years back. (one actually involved a WWII version of Candyland, it was pretty neat)

I spent about a week or so getting a concept down, and during that time I did a bit of research about the production process behind this types of games. I wanted to know more about indie board game designers and how they share their work, and if any of them get some lunch money off their creation.

here’s kinda the linkage roundup of this post, everything that I found during the month that helped me out a ton or just intrigued me.

• All the DIY Links You Never Knew you Needed  (boardgamegeek.com had an epic amount of content)
• 10,000 Feet to Publishing a Board Game (insightful about the whole process of publishing)
• Getting a Deck Printed with PrinterStudio (they print custom front/back cards of various sizes, which is awesome if you just want a few decks for yourself and friends)
• TheGameCrafter (also pretty helpful with printing pieces and various materials for a game)
• Battlefield 3 Weapon Attachments (this was in my bookmark folder, because I really didn’t know anything about gun attachments going into this and worked with this to get an idea of a few)
• Wikipedia (my go to guide for finding more gun types)

After I got the concept down and made up a list of cards I didn’t really know how to make a test deck. My first deck was made entirely of index cards. I now have a ton of index cards all around my room. After asking around a bit on how people made their test decks I got a few answers.

1. Print your cards out to standard poker size and glue them on either a deck of cheap poker cards or spare TCG cards you don’t plan on using ever. 
2. Or simply printing your cards onto a nice sturdy paper. This is what I ended up doing, because it seemed a bit faster than cutting and gluing. I printed my deck on a card stock with 110 weight and it felt amazing.

Soon I had all these cards out, but I ran into my biggest problem… play testing.

I wanted to test the game with a decent amount of people to make sure the ratios between ammo, guns, ect… were right. Luckily, I was able to get a small group to play through the game a handful of times. I’ve seen certain things I want to add, but I want to continue testing with the current build before I make any changes. Hopefully, during the month of February I’ll do a few more test days at a local card shop and see more reactions.

Till than I’ll be working on my February game.

hey listen!

I DID IT!

My first game for One Game a Month is called The Absurd Gun Game.  It’s a simple game about guns that can shoot ridiculous things like farts and other guns. During one of my playtests I’m pretty sure my boyfriend was running around with a pump-action cannon yelling Shakespearean insults in people’s faces. I’ve learned a ton this experience, and while it was a bit scary hitting that submit button on the game it felt so good.

I’ll also be participating in Global Game Jam! So, if that all works out there will be another tiny release this month.

At bytesizegaming we’re looking to host our own game design chats, so if you’d be interested in joining in on those give me a tweet @Sug4rsh0ts.

Been quite awhile. Shall we play a little catch up?

• I’ve been working on Bytesizegaming.com, slowly but surely it’s getting there.
  
• I also spent a bit of time learning some programming, sooner or later it’s all going to click.
• Than I’m trying to be a bit more active with my art.

That’s a pretty accurate roundup. I have surprisingly gotten a bit better at time managing, now not saying I’m great at it, but in compassion I’ve made some dramatic improvements. Yet, I’m still not producing like I know I can. That’s where the #onegameamonth challenge will come in! Starting next August my school will be devoted to game making, but I can’t wait that long, and I fear I’ve been putting my current projects under too much scrutiny.  I think setting a game a month goal would be wonderful, it’d allow me to aim at finishing a project within a time frame and then just leaving it! I have to remember I can’t compare what I make to anyone else, I just need to go at it and learn from my experiences, and I want to have a lot of experiences!

Make games not excuses.

Those silly little excuses I use to make are no more! Poof!

I plan on throwing up a little update each Sunday!

• Create a simple shooter! For those without a lot of programming experience you can try this tutorial with Construct. Also, a simple game concept might be a good time to try working with writing your own code!For the board gamers, can you translate FPS onto tabletop?
• Start up a pixel library! If you can’t think of what to pixelate make a zombie, a tree, a scary alien, a cute alien, and a background scene.
• Start up a blog to track your growth and maybe give some commentary on things going on in the industry
• Check out the book The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design (the phx library has a copy! )
• Pick up a game from your backlog, or one of your favorites try to come up with a list of 5 things you really enjoyed about the game and 5 things that you wish could have worked a little differently (could post this to your blog :O)

This is just a little update showing off my workspace. It’s no surprise that I’m devoting a lot more of my time to game development, and my family at ByteSizeGaming. This has required me to get a bit more organized in my work environment aka my room.

Since I’ve only have my bedroom to work with I need to make use of all of it. I love my little Brookstone arm-chair. It has a nice little cup holder, a light, and it even has a massages (although I generally don’t like that feature).  When I’m out of college and get a place of my own, I can see my house having a lot of random things from Brookstone.

Things I get done in this space:

• Read
• Play games
• Do some doodles/sketches
• I may even do some writing on my iPad or little notebook
• Hug a Totoro

This is my game hub, complete with a dog who judges your playing. Generally, it’s about this organized sometimes even worse. I swear I’m waiting for the day when we can have a completely wireless console. I’ve slowly started to organize some of my older games via little game books. It doesn’t work super great for gamecube games, but it has cut down on the amount of space all those containers took up.

The Desk Zone is where the majority of my work goes on now; complete with Chai Tea, oranges, and crown (This is Opprincess after all). Eventually, I want to get dual screens , but this working just fine.

Things that get done in this space:

• A lot of procrastination, due to the internet being always right at my finger tips
• Digital Art, which currently is mainly pixel based art
• Podcasting
• Site managing
• Streaming
• Video Editing
• Staring off into space
• Crying over sad youtube videos
• Programming
• Writing

The most important items on the desk Pokedex, iPod, and small sketch drawn by Cyanide and Happiness’ Rob at Phx Comic Con. Seriously, looking at that sketch reminds to not take things too seriously. Then right on my wall our these babies. Small little accomplishments that will hopefully grow with time.

]]> http://opprincess.com/work-space/feed/ 0 http://opprincess.com/get-portal-2-for-6-79/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://opprincess.com/get-portal-2-for-6-79/#comments Tue, 08 May 2012 19:57:56 +0000 Sug4rsh0ts http://opprincess.com/?p=904 [...]]]>

Valve has dropped the price of the beloved mind flexing game to $6.79 in celebration of launching its new DLC. Perpetual Testing, allows players to build and create their own test chamber, and share their creation through the use of Steam Workshop. The Steam Workshop has been a huge success with allowing players to create and deliver their on modification to Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, it’s about time we see it put to use on one of their own games.

So, what are you waiting for?! GET TESTING!

The sounds that you hear walking in would have kept me laying awake at night. Even at my age the music an ambient noises unnerved me.

Tribal mixed with something sounding like a monkey scream in an echo. All the details fit, down to making the water poison. Adding that one little smidgen gave the player a little more to worry about while walking about the map. For paranoid soul landing the jumps on the platforms, avoiding the water below, all while listening to an echo scream. It could push them a little far out of their happy-go-lucky place.

The boss fight was something else. This was probably one of the most engaging boss fights I’ve had in quite sometime. Outside of the fact that he completely complimented the vibe of Woodfall Temple, there was a lot that needed to go on to bring him down.

Between dodging his swings, throwing bomb flowers, and running around  a ring of fire; it makes for an engaging battle.

It may be a bit early in the game to call this out as my favorite dungeon, but as of now if I was asked on the side of the street by some longing Zelda fan this dungeon would be my answer.

Let’s see how the rest of the game goes, shall we?

Don’t forget to support Operation Moonfall every way possible! A re-release of the game would be wonderful! For people like me, who may have never got the chance as a child to play this wonderful title, and younger gamers who may not even know of Majora’s existence.