Kloonigames

This is the problem with making games extremly quickly (in less than 48 hours): you miss some obvious stuff. Thanks to Hamumu’s (aka. Mike Hommel) suggestions (over at the Ludum Dare site) I made some changes to M3 - Molesting the Match-3 Market.

The most drastic change is in the way the checking for matches works in the game. Now the game lets everything fall down first and then checks for matches (as suggested by Mike). I also changed the colors of blocks so that the contrasts between them should be higher now.

You can download the new version from here: M3_release2.zip (2.3 Mb) (Release 2).

Edit 19th Dec 2007: I did a small update on the game. New version is available now.

And now for the final exciting episode of my Ludum Dare blog post trilogy.

The game is done and it’s called M3 - Molesting the Match-3 Market. It’s inspiration was this blog post, which somewhat explains the name.

The idea in the game is that you’re a casual games’ level designer and it’s your job to create levels for the game, in which the players can get the maximum score without really doing anything. Because the truth is that’s what most commercially successful casual games are like. Big rewards with minimum input from the player.

This is my first “48 hour game” and I entered it for the 10th Ludum Dare 48 hour solo game development competition. The idea of the competition is to see how good of a game can you create alone, from grounds up in 48 hours. Also I overslept the first 10 hours, so for me it was a 38 hour game development competition

M3 - Molesting the Match-3 Market

Download

M3_release2.zip (2.3 Mb) (Release 2)

M3.zip (2,3 Mb) (Release 1)
M3_source.zip (0,5 Mb) (Source code of release 1)

Instructions

You’re a level designer for a casual game. Your job is to design levels so that (casual) players don’t have to do anything to get a huge score. This is the way commercially succesful casual games are being made.

Drag the pieces around and click start. The colors will be destroyed as they touch each other. Try to go for the big multiple chains.

[space] - swaps between the editor and game.
[m] - toggles sounds.

Continuing my Ludum Dare progress report.

4 hours to go: So I ended up implementing the animation system. It turned out to be a really good thing. It helped me out a lot… I even managed to constrain myself from over engineering it.

Overall things are looking pretty good. I have still some small things to do (tutorial screen), but I could probably “ship” the game as it is. Some more polish would be nice and sounds would be really cool (I’m looking at you SFXr) . I’ll probably have to sacrifice a hour to add them. It’s really hard for me to say how well the gameplay works. It’s interesting, but I’m not sure if it’s compelling enough. And now that I think about it, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else came up with a very similar game mechanic…

Here’s a shot from the current build:

The game will be released couple hours… If you’re in a hurry you’ll probably download it faster from the Ludum Dare blog as it will take me a little while to add it here…

And now for something completely different… I ‘m taking part in the 10th Ludum Dare competition. It’s a 48-hour solo-game-development-challenge-competition-thing. And here’s a little progress report on my game.

Now it’s the beginning of the second day. Morning so to speak. I still have something like 15 hours to go, which should be plenty, if I don’t end up wasting it by doing something idiotic. Like starting to build this elaborate animation system, which seems really tempting… I sense the presence of a Programming Succubus.

Yesterday I got off to a really slow start. I over slept and lost something like 10 hours. But I got a lot done. The gameplay is pretty much there already (little tweaks here and there) and today should be all about the “polish”.

Here’s a screenshot of the game in action…

Yeah, it’s a color matching game… I feel so ashamed.

Yet another done in under 7 days game. This time I totally run out of time, I blame this on some unexpected stuff I had to deal with and also the wast quantity of last minute bugs that seemed to multiply every time I squashed one.

Humpsters

a game about Humping Monsters.

Download

Humpsters.zip (6,0 Mb) (Release 1)

Instructions

You are a Humpster trainer and your job is to become the best humpster trainer in the world!

Edit your Humpster in the shop. Drag bodies around (drag the blue dot) and connect them together with the blue dot.
You cannot directly do anything in the fight mode, so  design your humpsters properly.

This interview and a mod thing is becoming my new post standard. I can’t post about a mod without posting about an interview at the same time. It’s just impossible.

Crayon Physics Deluxe interview at Binary Joy.
Ben had a change to play Crayon Physics Deluxe and he asked me bunch of questions about the game, my prototypes and about hot beverages.

Apparently this is some kind of an indie interview season: Phil Fish was interviewed at Arthouse Games, Kyle and Ron were interviewed at TIGER Sauce, the Tim has a huge number of indie interviews… Maybe it’s the IGF Buzz.

Bloody Potter
Bloodyhoody created a total conversion mod for Bloody Zombies and it’s set in the Harry Potter world. I’m a total Potter noob so I have no idea how accurate the mod is (I think there isn’t quite that much blood in the books), but the number of new levels in the mod is impressive. There’s over 15 new levels in that mod, so if you’ve played through the original game give Bloody Potter a try.

The Amazing Flying Super Mario Brothers
Zelos has created the first The Amazing Flying Brothers mod and to much of my surprise it’s a Super Mario mod. Well it wasn’t really that big of a surprise, because the first mod of my games always seems to be a Super Mario mod. It’s crazy. Well the mod is a whole lot of fun, with new sound effects and graphics. Check it out.

I got a lot of comments saying that playing Crayon Physics on a tablet PC was loads of fun. I never had a change to test it. Until now. I got my hands on a tablet PC and while it was fun to play Crayon Physics on it, it was way more fun to play Crayon Physics DELUXE on it!

Here’s a little video of me playing Crayon Physics Deluxe on a tablet PC.

Popout

The game is still very much in development and the levels here are in a random order. I’m not even sure if these levels will make it to the final game.

I got interviewed. Again. Read it over at the Gamasutra.com: Road To IGF: Crayon Physics Deluxe.

They interviewed me because a little over month ago I submitted Crayon Physics Deluxe to the IGF. I mainly did it to get even with Jetro; my goal is to beat Cinnamon Beats with 10 points (no more, no less). They asked me what was my motivation behind creating the game. I had to lie, because I was afraid they might disqualify my game if I told them that I only did it to get back at Jetro.

In the other news there’s another mod for Bloody Zombies. It’s called Bloody Halo and (surprise surprise) it’s set in the Halo universe. You play as Master Chief and slash through enemies with your power sword. It’s not as “professional” mod as Bloody Goombas, but still it’s fun and very playable. It was done by juju02 over at the fun-motion’s forums.

Download Bloody Halo from here: Bloody_halo.rar (0.5 MB).

Well, it’s only been four days since I released Bloody Zombies and ShortStuf7 aka Tom Carroll (from fun-motion forums) has already managed to create a total conversion mod of the game. And it’s a pretty sweet Mario themed mod with modified levels.

Play as Mario in an epic quest to save the princess!
Kill Goombas with your turtle shell to collect coins and go through the pipes!

You can download the Bloody Goombas mod from here: Bloody_Goomba.rar (0.5 MB). It’s a stand alone mod, so it’s pretty easy to get working.

The first custom levels to Crayon Physics were also Mario themed. I’m not sure why is this, but apparently everybody thinks my games would be much better if they featured Mario. *Hint* *Hint* *Wink* *Wink* to possible Nintendo managers reading this. Oh and please don’t sue me or Tom.

I’m kicking off the new season with a low resolution game done for the Gamma 256 event. The deadline is today, but really this game should have been released yesterday, when it was Halloween and Peter Jackson’s birthday. All I can say in my defence is: Party’s over!

Bloody Zombies

Download

Bloody.zip (0,5 Mb) (Release 1)

Instructions

Bloody Zombies, the goriest game ever made in the glorious 128 x 96 resolution! Fight zombies with your lawn mower! Solve levels with your opponents blood!

Goal is to rescue Barbara from the clutches of the nasty zombies. Collect all the keys in the level to open the door to the next one.

It’s recommended to play the game with a Xbox 360 controller. But it’s also playable with keyboard and mouse.

Xbox 360 gamepad controls
[d-pad] controls the character.
[right thumb] controls the lawn mower.

[right trigger] gives gas to the lawn mower.

Mouse-keyboard controls
[WASD] moves the character.
[Mouse] moves the lawn mower.
[Left mouse button] controls the gas.

Esc will quit the game.

Settings.xml can be tweaked to run the game in fullscreen. The game runs in 128 x 96 resolution, but for obvious reasons the game area is zoomed. The zoom factor can be adjusted in the settings.xml. It’s under the title PixelSize. PixelSize 1 runs the game in it’s native resolution.