Game A Week Challenge (Kitsu & Zac)

[Kitsu]

Hi hi everyone!

So, inspired by an article I posted around here recently about a challenge to make a game each week...
I decided to do this. And then I twisted Zac's arm got Zac to do it with me!

So we'll both be working together to make a bunch of little games, one a week.
The quality level of these games will probably be incredibly low, but the point of the activity isn't so much to make amazing things, but to simply make things and get a lot of experience in just making things.

I'll be posting our final work for each week on Sundays. I'll also be trying to mix in some music and video-making practice in there, too, depending on various weekly circumstances.

Even if you don't even touch a single one of these little "games" (a few of them might even be hard to consider as such, who knows), know that any feedback would be appreciated and hopefully incorporated into later weeks' work!

lol I know there are no games in here yet
but there will be at least one in a couple hours lol

Links to posts with Games!!!

Week 1: March 3 - 9, 2014 ~ Gymnopedie
Week 2: March 10 - 16, 2014 ~ Delicatessen

[Kitsu]

Week 1: March 3 - 9, 2014

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Gymnopedie
a piece about learning about yourself and others while attempting to overcome a fear of water.



As part of a Gym class, you must go to a pool, despite your fear of water. Further, you must actually go into the water and manage to float, or you'll be given a bad grade.

Before you'll really be able to float, you'll need to build up some self-confidence. You can do this by talking to the other students milling around the pool; they'll tell you about a pair of things that they like, and if the player character agrees, their confidence level will rise a bit. If the player character disagrees, their confidence will go down a little.

Also, using either the pink or blue changing lockers will have the player character change into swim gear (and will receive a confidence gain or loss, depending on whether the swimgear matches the player character's internal gender); while wearing swim gear, other people might fling their opinions about you or your weight at you without your asking when you walk by (having either positive or negative effects on the player's confidence).

Further, if the player visits the concession stand they'll buy a random food (and will recieve a confidence gain or loss depending on whether the player character likes that kind of food or not). Talking to people after buying food will similarly prompt them to mention their own tastes in food.

The player character's traits are randomized for each playthrough, so the player will need to find out about themselves through their interactions with others.

The player character can also talk only 10 times with other people before they simply stop feeling like talking any more (that won't stop people from talking as the player passes by while wearing swimgear, though).

The only gauge by which the player can measure their character's confidence level is the character's expression.

When the player feels that their confidence is high enough to successfully float in the water, they may try using the diving board; if their confidence really is high enough, they'll manage to float and the player will win! If their confidence wasn't high enough, they'll sink and be rescued by the lifeguard, and suffer a large confidence penalty.
If the player is still unsure and would rather just go home and try again the next time, they can use the exit and suffer a small confidence penalty.
From home, the player can then go back to the pool and try again, this time with different npcs.

The interactions in this game are really simplified and not entirely reflective of actual people. The project wavered about halfway through the week as neither of us were particularly sure of the concept, and so development slowed down and not all intended features were completed.

But hey, it's the first week of the Game a Week! Less than ideal games and circumstances should be pretty much expected.

What went right:
+ Well we got started making a game!
What went wrong:
- Though we didn't finish nearly as much as we wanted, despite actually having a seemingly pretty small scope.
- I think part of the problem here is that, as a pretty different game from what we were used to, we weren't entirely sure on how we should do
things with the game, that it was rather unsolid.
- The final game also suffers from being hard to understand, partially because I wasn't really sure exactly what I was trying to do nor what information should be shown to the player and how.
- Communication-wise, I think Zac and I were a little off in what we were expecting to make, and ended up going in almost completed different directions lol
What to change in the future:
~ Next week, maybe we can try something that we're a little more used to?
~ Improve communication and make it more frequent. We could probably also use more mockup doodles before starting work on the project so we're sure to be on the same page!
~ For me, it's really important that I know everything that I'm implementing before I actually implement it (especially with non-action games) or I'll suffer huge motivation penalties, so having a somewhat more detailed design before implementation of specific features might be more important.

If you feel like testing the waters in this little thing, you can do so at the following link: http://bit.ly/1gjWB4d
The game was made in HTML5 and controls entirely with the mouse (and should work on an iPad at least; dunno about other mobile devices).

[Zac]

The assets obviously didn't get done, which was primarily my job.
I had a lot of issues getting into a productive mindset, but surprisingly I don't think it was to ambitious for the time restraints we had given what I did get done. Had I used my time more efficiently we might of even made a good looking game, which probably would have impacted the game play a lot.

This is a few hours of work, and many hours of squandering time.

Spoiler

The final project doesn't really represent the experience I initially planned, but I guess we are just getting into this weekly game thing so I can't be to upset about that.

[Gors]

This is impressive, I'll check this when I am not getting stabbed at work

[Chase]

Wow, this actually sounds pretty interesting. I tried something like this once but the artist vanished.

[Kitsu]

Week 2: March 10 - 16, 2014

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Delicatessen
A game about listening and not listening (and another thing I have no experience with)



You're going on a blind date to a special restaurant that's especially popular for that exact purpose. The restaurant, known as Delicatessen, is
apparently so good that they guarantee that certain foods will satiate people of certain personalities! However, there's a twist; each person must
order for the other!

Therefore, you have 1 minute to listen to your date talk about themselves to glean helpful clues as to what sort of personality they might have, as
well as to acquaint yourself to the menu so you can figure out what item would best suit your date!
Also, if you're not paying enough attention to your date, it might be difficult to understand what they're saying and they may even get fed up and
leave, so be sure to at least look at them and listen often. It might also be helpful to respond to their questions by clicking on flashing text
bubbles.



After a minute passes, the waiter will return to take your order for your date. If the date likes the food, you'll be given a number representing
their final mood; otherwise, you'll simply learn that they disliked the food (unless you somehow managed to listen to them enough to counter their
dislike of the food).

Postmortem:
What went right?
+ We managed to finish quite a bit more of the project than last time. The final project resembles fairly closely what we planned to create!
+ The project also has a bit more overall polish and looks fairly nice, considering the time put in.
What went wrong?
+ There were still some things we planned to include but didn't quite get to (including some music I wanted to do).
What should change in the future?
+ I can't really say anything REALLY needs to change from this project, but we might want to pursue a different style of project/genre/etc. next time, since this project is somewhat similar to the first week's in some ways.

Play the game:
Here's the link for the final project, if you'd like to play it: http://bit.ly/1eJ5Zhx
It controls with the mouse/touch and, as far as mobile goes, at least works with iPad (dunno about other devices).

[Zac]

What went wrong?
+ There were still some things we planned to include but didn't quite get to (including some music I wanted to do).

I also only did the bare minimum of place holder graphics for the project.
Even if we were never going to make a fully realized game, I could of done so much more for the presentation. And I don't have an excuse either, but this is part of the process I suppose.

I think the idea is strong enough to deserve to be finished sometime outside of weekly game projects.

[Kitsu]

No game this week because I was at gdc and was too tired each night to do anything

[Zac]

(this hard worker[kitsu] still tried though)
((how admirable))