peng ink

A hotbed of independent developers in the Arizona desert gathered for 72 hours of heated game development, spirits ablaze, their eyes burning with passion. The weather was just fine thank you.

Having migrated to the retail world, I’ve been somewhat lax with my indie work, passing up the TIGSource Demakes Competition for lack of determination. Surprisingly, there don’t seem to be that many people who attempt to straddle both the indie and big budget commercial line, with exception of Rod Humble of course. Somehow he alone has been able to occupy both ends of spectrum, leading the super casual Sims Series and finding time to make art games like the Marriage. My hero.

TIGJam showed up with perfect timing, reinvigorating the indie spirit and squeezing those brain oranges dry for their creative juices. I went with the goal of working on a Gamma3D entry, spending a good amount of time bouncing ideas back and forth with Steve Swink (buy his book!) and others before finally giving up and starting work on Space Harriet in the Third Dimension. In the end, the general consensus seemed to be that anaglyphs, though quite interesting from an aesthetic point of view, tend to lend themselves to gimmicky mechanics with most concepts working just fine without them.

Space Harriet attempts to shoehorn in 3D gameplay by having enemies of different sizes but similar look spawn at distances where the perspective renders them identical (i.e. a big enemy from far away and a small enemy up close). The player then deals with this “depth deception” by using the interocular distance to be the true judge of enemy proximity, and responding with a carefully timed variable range attack. Does it work at all? You be the judge.

DOWNLOAD (Art by Kyle Pulver, Music by Adam Lederer)

Unsurprisingly, Space Harriet wasn’t accepted into the show, but even after playing the final entries, I’ve still yet to be convinced of the viability of the anaglyphic medium. On the other hand, in theory these sort of games have the potential to bring players to a new level of immersion, so maybe that would have been a better focus rather than incorporation into the gameplay mechanics?

So I was thinking about all the cool creative people here in Northern Virginia, and wondering what would happen if I brought everyone together in a single place to jam. On games.

I’m expecting the house to implode with awesome.

As with most game development jams, there’s some sort of underlying theme to 12hr. I figured why not take it further, and make the theme a game as well.

Every person will be randomly assigned a theme from a hat (be it EXPANSION, NEGATIVE, MINIMALIST, SPACE, DINOSAURS or what have you). However, if people wish to collaborate, their game must then fulfill the thematic assignments of everyone working on the game. Hopefully this will yield in interesting collaborations, and even more interesting games!

Snacks/beer will be provided, but you’ll have to bring your own tools (laptops, graphics tablets, mice etc). Also, feel free to invite other people - the more the merrier!

These past few months of unemployment have been quite interesting. Most people around these parts have had jobs lined up since January, and as such I’ve developed a reputation for being “too picky”. But life is short and opportunities are rare.

I think the post college job search process is almost like gambling. Some people hit jackpot early, cash out immediately, and retire. Others might exchange their chips as soon as they make a profit. As for me? I go for broke (777).

DOWNLOAD LINK

“Heather Kelley, Rod Humble and Gregory Peng — all experienced game designers — give a look into the process, people and resources involved in creating a video game. Aside from a game’s plot, art and music, they argue that game developers offer an artistic statement in controlling, through “rules,” the way a player interacts with the game’s environment, characters, and what they have to do to win.”

WARNING: I am ask to define an art game, as well as what indie means. Tread at own risk.

Made a quick little game for Game Design class, integrating physical die with a digital game. It actually doesn’t work too badly (and is still somewhat playable without the die, though not nearly as much fun).

The best parts are the sound effects, made with the super awesome indie sound tool sfxr. Honestly, I don’t know how I ever got by without it. There’s only so much I can do with Audacity and a Singstar mike.

As an assignment for Game Design class, we had to redesign Hopscotch. Having sprained my ankle only days prior to working on the assignment, I knew that digital hopscotch was the only way to go. Cactus, who has been consistently churning out great games almost every other week, primarily uses Game Maker, so I thought I’d give the thing a shot. Due to time though, the end result was a bit (very) lacking, so I took a page out of the Tim Schafer’s book and tried to solve some of my design problems with a bit of prose.

Hop lives in a world where robots have taken over the world. In order to retaliate for the human cause, he must upload viruses to all the mainframe robot computers, deep in the earth’s molten lava core. But the evil robots anticipate his moves, setting up a honey-pot (booby trapping one of the computers). Hop must jump from computer to computer, and upload each virus in the correct order, all the while avoiding both lava and honey-pots. He must do this four times, because four is the number of true death.

Bossmen (title pending) is the game that I’ll be leading this semester. Before we ended up deciding on the idea, I threw a couple of ideas at a wall, saw what stuck, and gathered them into a little powerpoint presentation for easy viewing. For those who don’t feel like downloading, here’s the skinny:

Bossmen - 3D action shooter entirely consistent of boss-fights
Army of Children - save/massacre an army of children controlled by alien parasites
Your Idea Here - exactly what it sounds like
Lashback - arcade space shooter based on reflecting bullets rather than shooting them
Hellavation - zombies in a tall building
Akinetopsia - the player has the inability to see movement, resulting in “slideshow gameplay”

Maybe I’ll return to these other ideas one day, but for now Bossmen (title pending) shall take the limelight!

In my opinion, what do I think defines an indie game? One word: heart.

I’m talking about the pulsating organ within your chest that fills arteries with warm blood. In other words, Indie games are all about warm blood. That’s why people are always talking about the Indie Spirit; one sip of Indie Spirit and you’ll feel warm all over. This also explains why a few commercial game companies are able to make games with heart. It’s because they have the Indie Spirit!

My final semester of Game Creation Society begins in a week. I can’t believe it’s been four years. But don’t put this old man out to pasture yet! I’ve got enough time for one last game, one final statement before i go. But should that statement be?

I thought about it for awhile, musing over development methodologies or design philosophies that might solve some of the problems that we’ve been running into. In the end, everything seemed to pale in comparison to big issue: how do we as a club continuously improve the quality of our games?

Well, the solution is obvious: I must lead by example and harness liquid awesome, pouring it into the cast-iron mold of gaming excellence.

No turning back now, it’s time to rock ‘n roll.

The results are in. Dreamscape, however, is not. From what I can gather, the gameplay was a bit too traditional (boring) for the IGF (it’s a straight up 2D fighter, no question about it). Either way, it’s probably the most polished game I’ve come out with to date. I’m proud of it, and proud of the team that made it.