From January 27th and until the 29th game designers, programmers, artists and much more everywhere around the world will participate in the Global Game Jam 2012, a fun, worldwide event in which the objective is to create videogames in just 48 hours. There’s also a non-digital games track available for those who prefer to stay away from computers.
Like last year I will be taking part of the Nordic Game Jam, which is the local event taking place at the IT University of Copenhagen at the same time as all the other participating game jam sites. That doesn’t mean in any way that only people from Denmark will be around: as a matter of fact I’m already meeting a friend from last year, Olli Harjola from Finland one day before the game jam starts.
Again I will try to post here and tweet through my @anchelspain account everything that is going on at the Nordic Game Jam (or at least as much as it’s possible with all the craziness that will be going on during that 48 hour period).
Meanwhile I’ll leave you with this really cool video showing what the Global Game Jam is about!
I wonder why I never wrote this review earlier (probably a lack of time) but it’s one I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time now.
In any case, here is a review for what I find it to be, at the moment, one of the most compelling reasons to own a Nintendo 3DS: Super Mario 3D Land.
While many will scoff at the idea of *yet* another Super Mario game, those who have played the Italian plumber’s latest games will probably know that the franchise has been doing extremely well in the past few years. Titles like Super Mario Galaxy 2 gave a new twist to the tried-and-true star-collecting and exploration formula started in Super Mario 64 (and later on copied by countless games of that generation) while New Super Mario Bros. Wii kept the gameplay strictly 2D for those who preferred more linear action.
Super Mario 3D Land has managed to get the best of both worlds into what Nintendo’s marketing has called “a 3D Mario game that plays like 2D”. Does that mean the game is a 2.5D platformer? Nothing like that. If anything the game plays like the special levels of Super Mario Sunshine where you had no water jetpack or the more straightforward stages of Super Mario Galaxy. That is, the levels are always in full 3D but the path is usually very linear, making it easy to know where you have to go (tip: always move forward and you will find the flagpole at the end of the level).
As such levels tend to be very short, which is great for gaming on the go when you just have time to beat one level, save, and leave the rest for another time. In fact level progression is classic Mario: beat one level, move to the next, until you reach the final castle and move on to the next world.
But man, are those levels amazing! Each one feels like something absolutely different from the rest. Not because of the environment, but because of the challenges which always manage to stay fresh. While at first the game is quite easy and everyone except the most novice gamers will probably breeze through them the difficulty ramps up quite nicely once you’ve reached the first half of the game (and, surprise! The first half of the game is NOT world 8-8, since there are 8 more worlds to visit after that).
The gameplay, unlike most Mario 3D outings where he had a life bar, goes back to the classics. Get a mushroom, grow big. Get hit, revert back to being small. Get hit once more… and die. Power-ups like the Fire Flower and the Super Leaf (which transforms you into Tanooki Mario) add an extra hit to Mario, along with newcomers Boomerang Flower which allows Mario to throw boomerangs, and the propeller box.
Graphically the game looks colorful and lively, with detailed characters and enemies in big numbers, though these blown-up screens are probably not going to help give that impression. Don’t forget that this game is meant to be played on the much smaller Nintendo 3DS screen!
And talking about the 3DS, this is one game that makes stereoscopic 3D a worthy addition. Since the player will have to move Mario in a somehow linear 3D space from left to right, viewing enemies in their respective positions in the Z axis helps plan our movements. In fact I found myself temporarily disoriented when I tried to play it without the 3D once I had got used to calculating distances with the effect on. Some enemies will pop out of the screen as bullet bills fire towards you and Mario will leap upwards when the view is seen from an overhead perspective.
The game also makes use of other specific 3DS features like the gyroscope: once you get into a cannon you can aim by moving the 3DS around, which is far more precise than it sounds like. And… well, some story sections of the game prompt you to shake the handheld for some fun reactions. Then there’s the StreetPass feature, which will reward you with mini-challenges, items and new times to beat each time your 3DS crosses with someone else’s when you’re walking out in the street with the console closed, even if the people you cross with don’t have the game.
One extra polish factor is the music, which at first I thought would become bland and boring, but I quickly noticed myself humming to the game’s tunes even when I was alone. The main theme, which can be heard in the following trailer, is quite catchy, but there are also some other tunes which are pure throwbacks to previous Mario games.
In general the game lives up to its promises. It’s not a full exploration game but instead offers more contained levels which are quite short (though each one with 3 collectible coins that will put even the most experienced gamer to the test) but filled with fun moments.
If you’re a Mario fan then this one is a no-brainer. If you used to play Mario games but then moved on to other “more mature” games then this will be a really nice trip down memory lane while proving to be extremely original on its own. And for those who simply don’t play many games then this is the best chance you will have to pick up a Mario game that starts easy enough so that even those who would never touch a game console can beat a few levels without breaking a sweat.
Nintendo truly hit big with this game, and game sales already show that. Good job, Nintendo!
Alright, so I have a game, or at least a prototype of it. How can I improve it?
Because if I had the time, I would definitely work out a few quirk things that ended up unfinished.
First of all, character animation.
Because I actually made different sprites for the main character running around, at least in one direction, but I didn’t have the time to look into how to implement this in an 8 axis movement. It’s one minor thing that can make a strong difference between a sketchy prototype and a polished build.
But that’s purely aesthetics without much effect on the gameplay.
On the other hand the island, the gameworld itself, could do with a lot more detail and greatly improve the final effect. After all this is a game about exploration, and what good is exploring if there isn’t anything interesting to visit?
Stine likes games that show a lot of different areas full of mysteries, with old ruins, swamps, dangerous seas and more. For my prototype I had to put the limit at some point and I could never focus on making any area strong in characterization. I also couldn’t give my gameworld a nice, consistent story. It all ended up quite rushed in that aspect to tell the truth.
Then I would love to make the quests more interesting. I mean, right now as it is the game is full of fetch quests: go here, take this, find this guy, blow this cave, open that chest… A little bit more depth would have been very desirable. And that means lines upon lines of code, of course. It wouldn’t be so hard now that I have a grasp on the basics of scripting but it’s not something that I am willing to jump on right now.
And of course we have combat. Somehow I always wanted some sort of simple, old 2D Zelda styled combat in the game, even if to provide some extra difficulty in completing the quests. Again, this is not a core element of the game, but I really think it could evolve the gameplay a lot more. Not very complex combat sequences, but just basic sword fighting. The idea of using spells against enemies is also there, but that’s more of a second thought, even though it would be very cool.
Now, I don’t have any real plans of continuing this game any further, but I do want to keep using this little island of mine as a test lab to try out new ideas I might come up with for other games. It has the framework and now I know the tools. I’m still not perfect with coding, but I can definitely do much better now with the experience I have gained this semester.
And again, you will probably be able to try this prototype out yourself in the portfolio section. Keep reading for an update soon!
The final, working prototype of my game Adventure Island (tentative title, I know the name is already taken) is now finished, complete, and will stay as it is for my final hand-in for the course User Experience & Prototyping at the IT University of Copenhagen. It’s very much unfinished, it has flaws everywhere, but there is just so much that you can do with a prototype given the amount of time that we had.
So how did it turn out?
Well… I would say that I’m quite happy with it. Especially considering that up until this moment I had never done an entire game with the Unity Engine by myself, all from scratch. Sure, I had worked before with Unity (R.E.C, Mr. Optimistic and The Hitchhiker), but I always worked with other team members for those, and always at least one of them a programmer. This time however it was only me. That means that I had to learn how to code JavaScript from zero while at the same time designing the level, making the graphics (ok, they weren’t that many, I got lazy at some point and I reused sprites all over again) and playtesting and making changes.
Not to mention that I had to remember that this game was for one person in special, not me.
I have to thank Samuel Walz and Martin Fasterholdt for helping me with some random bugs I was encountering in the build (as usual the typical mistakes: I left one “;” out of place, or “GameObject” should not have started with capital G).
But besides that I think it turned out quite nicely. The quest is reasonably long for the average player to do in one sitting without going by too fast, the world is expansive enough so that it encourages the exploration I was aiming for, and players can take different approaches at beating the game.
And you can drown in the lake. Be careful with that.
As I said there are still some bugs here and there, but those are going to have to stay for now.
I plan on making the build available for everyone in my portfolio soon enough, but that one will most definitely have a few tweaks to make it more polished for public availability. Stay updated!
Aren’t we some awesome fellas? Now… what were we doing that day?
Does it have anything to do with the trailer for the upcoming game Heroes & Generals by Danish developer Reto-Moto? I would check out their website just in case…
I hardly ever publish a post just for one single picture, but that one really caught me off guard when my friend Morten Hansen posted it on Facebook.
To at least add something else to say to this post, I will mention that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is one of the most engrossing games I have ever played. So much in fact that I am trying NOT to play it during these crucial days full of final project hand-ins.
I am happy to say that I have managed to not touch the game since Monday, November 17th, quite a feat when you consider the high addictive nature of this game.
In fact if you are even considering of buying this piece of gold, make sure that you do the following:
— Do not have a girlfriend. You will totally forget about her
— Make sure you finish all your projects before installing
— Say goodbye to your friends for the next 6 months
— Have enough food stored for those same 6 months
— Have enough money to pay for muscle rehabilitation afterwards
— Your parents know you have not been kidnapped
— You don’t have any classes with mandatory attendance
— Get a comfortable chair or sofa – you will need it
— Have enough sanity to remember who you really are after 6 months of dragon slaying
If even with all those warnings you still decide to go ahead and buy the game…
