Prototypes from Adam Atomic
Recently, Adam Saltsman (Canabalt) released a bunch of game prototypes he’d been working on. They are each at various stages of completion, but they’re all worth having a look at. You can play them here.
I think it’s great that Adam has decided to share these with everyone. Prototyping is an important part of the game design process. Unfortunately, it’s also a part of the process that is often skipped (myself included). Adam typically creates game with very simple mechanics and as a result it’s easy to assume he might be skipping the prototyping phase. But as you can see, even a minimalistic designer like Adam Saltsman takes time to prototype.
Prototyping…
- helps you find out if your concept is fun before you spend time making final art
- allows you to figure out how you’re going to use assets before you get into final art. In whipping up placeholder art you might find that you prefer nested clips to having all your animation on one clip’s timeline, for example. It’s better to find that out before you create your art than having to go back and change it.
- induces flexibility. When you’re working with placeholders and are rapidly prototyping, you’re not worrying about holding yourself to using art assets you’ve already created. Sometimes it’s hard to let go of stuff you’ve spent time on which can inadvertently lock you into concepts that really aren’t that important. You’ll find that you will code with more agility when you’re prototyping.
- makes it easier to try out new things. I find that if I’m working towards a final productI’m worry about all sorts of additional stuff that’s unrelated to game mechanics; menus, game restart, transitions between game states, etc. When I’m prototyping I don’t build any of those things, so I’m free to just throw down a bunch of stuff, try it out and not have to worry about how or if it relates to any of the “non-gameplay stuff”.
On another note, I think it’s great to see some of the well known and successful game developers sharing their unpolished work. With thousands of people creating new games every week, we end up seeing primarily the best of the best… it’s all we have time for. As a result, it’s easy for budding game developers to get the impression that there are people out there who do nothing but have great ideas and crap out steaming piles of awesome. I think, particularly for young game developers, that there’s great value in having the curtain pulled back.
No-one gets a game right the first time.
Everyone has to work at it.
Having to revise your work, scrap ideas and change code is NOT a sign a failure it’s a part of the process that you’re not only expected to encounter but should be planning on doing.
I think I’m in love. And my life’s lookin’ up. I think I’m in love. ‘Cause I can’t get enough. I think I’m in love. It’s gotta be love. – Eddie Money
I can only assume that when Eddie first penned those words he had just gotten back from a trip forward through time to play Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Well said, Eddie, well said.
Though it’s a staple of early 8 and 16 bit consoles, the beat ‘em ups genre is far from dead. One might even say that lately it’s been getting better. Castle Crashers was a huge success on XBox live, taking home among many other awards the distinctions of 2008′s XLBA Game of the Year and Best Original Game. It’ll be making its way to the PlayStation Network soon, but in the mean time the PSN will be getting an old-school beat ‘em up of its own: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game
Rumored to be coming out August 10, 2010, this game should more than satisfy PlayStationers’ need to grab three friends and fuck shit up…classic style. It is slated to make the leap to XBLA though a date has yet to be set. Like Castle Crashers, each character will be able to upgrade their weapons and skill set as they level up. While there are similarities between the two games, each offers enough that owning one won’t keep you from wanting the other.
Paul Robertson, known for his bad-ass pixel art and Devil Eyes was scooped up to do the art for this one, which I’m totally psyched about. The style feels retro but doesn’t look dated and the sound design kicks fucking ass. The Scott Pilgrim franchise started out as a book, then quickly made the leap to the silver screen and consoles once hollywood got wind of the property. Oh joy, Michael Cera gets another chance to play an awkward young adult. The good news is that this one looks like it’s got a shot at being better than the movie, which is rare…very rare. I’m totally psyched for this game! Check out the trailer below:
Thanks to Janice and Randy for the story tip.
As he promised, Jay released Super Mario Bros. Crossover Version 1.1 today. This version brings a whole bunch of new abilities to each character, save for Bill who was already sufficiently bad-ass, and some other fun surprises. I’m particularly excited that Rush will be faithfully by Mega Man’s side where he belongs. I’m also really looking forward to swimming my way through the entire game.
If you’re allergic to fun you can settle for reading all about it here or you can just go play it and see for yourself. You’ll also notice that Jay has moved his SMC operations off explodingrabbit.com to its own site under the cryptic domain name supermariocrossover.com. Right now most of the sections still link away to explodingrabbit but I imagine when Jay wakes up from 3-day hibernation he’ll begin tidying up the new domain. But he better get back to work on v1.2 soon thereafter, I need to play Super Mario Brothers as Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo or Raphael…well, not so much Raph.
Ah well, screw this reading/writing BS, I’m off to play Super Mario Crossover v1.1. Yay!
Free Sound Effects Generator for Games
Some time ago, the Super Flash Bros. ported a sound effects generator called sfxr to Actionscript 3.0. The original was written by Tomas Pettersson and can be found on a few different platforms. AS3sfxr, as they call their port, gives you the ability to create old school sound effects right in your browser. The sfx can be exported as .wav files at 8 or 16 bit and 22 or 44 HZ. And if you find your mind so blown that you have to take a break mid-creation, you can save your work and reload it later to pick up where you left off.
The beauty of this sfx generator is that if you’re not sure what you’re looking for, it can randomly generate sfx for you. If you have a general sense but don’t know where to start, it can randomly generate sounds from a few preset ranges; pickup/coin, laser shoot, explosion, powerup, hit/hurt, jump and blip/select. I usually find that if I’m looking for a particular sound I can click one of these to find something close and then play with any of the 22 sliders to create exactly what I’m looking for. Perhaps the most unique and helpful feature is that the app keeps a history of the sfx you’ve created, much like a browser tracking the pages you’ve been through. You can create a whole bunch of sounds and then walk back and forward through your work to select the most fitting sound.
This isn’t a scoop by any stretch of the means, admittedly I’ve been using as3sfxr consistently for almost 9 months now. However, my suspicion is that many game developers don’t know about this gem. It’s free, there’s no royalty issues, it’s always at your fingertips and perhaps its most endearing quality, it can with little effort give your game a custom-tailored voice of its own.
If you’re looking to make a game with that classic NES sound, look no farther than as3sfxr.
Help Get Everything to Everyone
Everything, By Everyone may sound like the most vaguely titled movie since Stephen King’s “IT” and perhaps it is. But it happens to be aptly named.
In 2006 Newgrounds, the web’s oldest and arguably most popular Flash portal, changed its slogan from “The Problems of the Future, Today!” to “Everything, By Everyone”. On the surface the change was an attempt to distance Newgrounds from its reputation of being a haven for negativity, teenage angst and childish toilet humor. But in reality, Newgrounds was updating its slogan to reflect what it had grown into; a collection of talented and passionate artists and programmers sharing their work with the world. Newgrounders were creating games, cartoons, music, art and a thriving community around all of it. They were, and still are, creating everything, by everyone.
Nathan Kuruna, a filmmaker and fellow Pennsylvanian, is working on a documentary that will tell Newgrounds’ story. Besides that he’s telling a story about the evolution of online entertainment, of user generated content and how the web (and Flash) have changed the way we get, make and perceive entertainment.
I had a chance to sit down with Nathan last August to talk with him about Newgrounds, Flash, and where I think they’re going. He shared with me what he’d learned in his other interviews and also what he hopes to accomplish with his film. I promise you this is a film that will not disappoint. Not only that, it will turn some heads in the process.
We’re so used to the web as it exists today that it’s hard to remember what it was like before Newgrounds, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and blogging. In roughly a decade, the web has gone from being primarily about content consumption into a forum for self expression. User generated content has undoubtedly changed the web, but its reach extends far beyond the browser. In November of 2004, Tom Fulp and Dan Paladin leapt off the pages of Newgrounds onto the XBOX with Alien Homid, the first Flash game to cross over to a console. Edmund McMillen, another prolific Newgrounder, brought us Gish (which is now open source, by the way) and is now readying the debut of his first console game, Super Meat Boy. Meanwhile, Bo Burnham is writing a musical for Judd Apatow and Brain Waterman is making a movie with the Leslie Nielson (yes, that guy from the Naked Gun movies). User generated content has given creative minds who would have otherwise gone unnoticed a chance to compete with traditional media outlets.
Nathan’s movie is about how this transformation came about and Newgrounds’ role in all of it. Appropriately so, he’s found his way onto Kickstarter to help get his project across the finish line. He’s shot a ton of video but he’s got hundreds of hours left to sift through, editing to do, more interviews to travel to, dvds to press, festivals to enter and lives to change. OK, that last part might have been an overstatement but we’ll never know if Nathan doesn’t get a chance to make his movie, so please consider throwing him a few bucks. He’s a hell of a nice guy and I can tell you first hand that he believes in this film and has a passion for its message. Hell, his movie may end up being proof of its own message. It’s a story worth telling and we’ll all benefit from having it told.
For more information, head over to the Everything, By Everyone website. If you’re already sold, click here to help him out. And if you can’t donate, that’s cool but do Nathan a favor and click one of the share buttons below or put his Kickstarter widget on your website or blog.
People are often inspired by others’ generosity, so if you find yourself reaching into your pocket to help out, leave us a comment and maybe you’ll incite a few others to follow your generous lead.
