I’m switching back to my original blog, conkers.tumblr.com.
I’ve had that blog for more than three years now, but I haven’t really posted to it much until recently. The reason for that is that I created this blog to document my game design and programming endeavours, and that has become more important to me than the purpose of my first blog. So I’ve decided to clear up a lot of the mess on conkers.tumblr.com, and start posting there instead of here. My conkers blog includes a few posts about how I need to try to become a successful game designer, so I think it makes sense to unify what I was thinking back then with what I’m thinking now.
tl;dr: This is the last post that will be on this blog. All my future posts will be on conkers.tumblr.com.
Finally, I’ve got seven out of eight stars. Almost there. Most games tend to brashly expose all of the content to you, But Jonathan Blow’s design style means the game exposes its intricacies very sparsely, and the majority of players would likely play through the whole game without discovering any secrets of Braid (assuming they read no walkthroughs of course).
The stars in Braid could be considered a more creative way to include a ‘hard’ mode, but that description belittles the experience of finding them. Performing the extremely difficult and unorthodox actions in order to find the stars enables you to get to know the game on a very intricate level, and since the game is exceptionally charming from head to toe, getting to know it better feels wonderful.
To facilitate ease of use, I’m adding context-sensitive tips to my modelling app.
My 3D modelling app is coming along nicely. I’ve still got to add file handling, shadows, a colour picker, vertex-based normals, a better way to control the snapping plane, texturing, and a preview mode.
Katawa Shoujo (Japanese for Disability Girls) is a bishoujo-style visual novel by a group of people collaborating on 4chan and other sites. You play a victim of arrhythmia, forced by his condition to change schools to Yamaku High School for disabled children.
While the concept of a bishoujo-style visual novel about a group of disabled students may sound depraved, Katawa Shoujo actually handles its subject matter very sensitively. The game is still about getting close to the female students of Yamaku, but the reason for that isn’t to earn their trust to have sex with them; it’s to explore how their disabilities affect them emotionally, and to see if you can’t help them with their problems.
Having said that, some of the conditions people in Katawa Shoujo are ailed with aren’t as much of a detriment as someone without that condition might think. For example, Emi Ibarazaki lost her legs in a car accident but is still able to walk because of some prosthetic legs, the quality of which is high enough that she’s the fastest runner in the school.
It should be noted that this is more of a book than a game; it has interactivity, but considerably less than most other visual novels I’ve played. That is by no means a bad thing though, and I suggest you check it out especially if you’re new to visual novels. You can get it free for Windows, Mac, and Linux here.
I’ve decided to start creating a simple and accessible 3D modelling application.
While there are lots of very sophisticated 3D modelling apps already, I haven’t come across one that simplifies things for beginners or provides only basic features to emphasise ease of use and speed of development. Because of this, the learning curve tends to be very steep.
I’ll try to make a modelling app that’s very accessible, while still providing enough features for simple 3D games and prototypes. It’ll focus heavily on creating individual objects as opposed to full scenes.
I haven’t decided which file formats I’ll support yet, but I’ll start by creating a native one which can be used in-game with an OpenGL library which I will develop in tandem with the modelling app.
A Labyrinthine Minigame To Benefit My Future Self
So I’ve been busy with uni work lately and I haven’t been able to spend much time on game design and programming, which is the same reason I haven’t posted on here in a while. I have however spent a bit of time building a very simple 3D engine as a learning exercise. I’ll be developing it into a simple game in which you have to walk around a dark maze and shoot monsters. It’s fun to make, but it’s not really a project that I’m particularly passionate about. However, the process of making it will teach me things that will be valuable when I start my first big project - things like UI design and good shadowing code. Concerning what my big project will be, I have yet to decide.
Lately, I’ve been rather concerned that I’m having too much difficulty in deciding exactly what sort of game I want to produce, but my girlfriend thankfully reminded me that it’s not just writers that get writers’ block. And since then, I’ve been looking through my notes and I realise I’m gradually getting a better grasp of what I want to create. I’m a big fan of true survival games like Amnesia and the old Resident Evils, so maybe I’ll make something in that vein.
…
Not everyone shares my values, and not everyone is in a position to pick and choose job offers. I know many good developers who work for Zynga — especially now — and their choice of employment doesn’t change the respect that I have for them. They have their reasons and I have mine.
But I exhort game developers: don’t join a company whose values are opposed to your own. Values aren’t just for idealists — they matter. If a company’s practices make you uncomfortable, pay attention to your instincts and be true to them.” Shay Pierce, the only employee of Omgpop (Draw Something) to leave when it was aquired by Zynga (Farmville). Taken from this Gamasutra article.
dys4ia is an autobiogaphical game by Auntie Pixelante, detailing what she went through when she decided to start hormone replacement therapy and began taking oestrogen.
While I feel that biographical games can sometimes not work well, dys4ia involves you in a way that isn’t too forced, or too obscure either. Metaphor is used very effectively in certain parts of the game to help Auntie Pixelante explain what she went through.
I think that a game is the ideal choice of medium for what Auntie Pixelante was trying to convey. After playing dys4ia I feel like I can now be more empathetic towards someone who has gone through what she has, and I think that shows that autobiographical games have a potentially huge societal value.
