RoastMyGame.com is an incredible oportunity to promote your games and get useful feedback!
The site allows it's users to share their games to the world and critique others. It has a very neat and functional interface.
Check it out sometime!
That's all from me for now.
sobota, 24 czerwca 2017
piątek, 23 czerwca 2017
[Devpost] Dubmaku is out!
This, my dear friends, is Dubmaku:
Dubmaku is a singleplayer mobile game in which the player's task is to dodge bullets to the beat of dubstep. The longer the player survives, the higher the score.
The song is generated while playing, every attack pattern has an assigned piece of music, so the audio reinforces the visuals.
The fact, that it has no age restrictions makes me proud, as my previous game "Fuck You!" was Adults Only in some countries. Maybe that's because of svastikas?
Until i was in the late stages of development, i didn't realize how similar is it to Super Hexagon 😁
Well, maybe noone will notice.
The song is generated while playing, every attack pattern has an assigned piece of music, so the audio reinforces the visuals.
The fact, that it has no age restrictions makes me proud, as my previous game "Fuck You!" was Adults Only in some countries. Maybe that's because of svastikas?
Until i was in the late stages of development, i didn't realize how similar is it to Super Hexagon 😁
Well, maybe noone will notice.
My main issue with this game is its huge lack of optimalization, even the best phones have some trouble running it smoothly, and i'm not sure why.
Anyways, you can try it here!
See you again sometime!
niedziela, 18 czerwca 2017
[Review] Happy Happy Hoola Hoopy - feel the joy of a good design.
At first, Happy Happy Hoola Hoopy (HaHaHooHoo for short) looked inconspicuously. A cheerful low-res one button game with a minimalistic graphical design. But more lurks underneath the surface.
The gameplay is incredibly simple. The player controls the animate hula hoop by pressing the space bar to aim and releasing it to fling the object in chosen direction. In each of 45 levels the player's goal is to cheer up five creatures by hitting them with the hula hoop. If the hula hoop doesn't hit the next target before it's momentum is lost, the player has to retry the level. As you can imagine, the levels are short, but demanding.
Every now and then, the new mechanic is introduced. It's done in the very elegant fashion - first, the player is exposed to the new piece in isolated, safe enviroment. Once he gets to understand how the mechanic works, it's mixed and matched with previous mechanics. It's very worth noting, that during the whole game no mechanic turnt into a "use once" gimmick, every one of them was repeatedly present since it's first appearance. What i really adore is that the game knows it is all about the timing and embraces it. Every mechanic adds a layer of complexity to the player's decissions, and nothing more.
The player's character doesn't get any new powers or moves after the beginning of the game, the only thing that changes are mechanics and level design. It works here as well as in Super Meat Boy, which is a supreme example of how it's done.
The learning curve was very, very smooth, i was never remotely close to being lost, yet the game kept being interesting, which is quite an achievement. The levels were gradually getting harder, but in fair, challenging way. The level design was never unfair, but sometimes really dirty in it's expectations of what the player should be keeping in mind. I was but a cloud of living hatred by the end levels, and people say i'm unusually calm. Still, i really enjoyed it.
For the story, it seems to be merging Undetale's "it's hard to be good" message with Kirby's simple, naive and cheerful personality. The main character's only motive is to bring happiness to everyone. There was occasional "engrish" in the text, but it mostly added to the overal cuteness.
The game's strongest aspect may be it's audiovisuals. The music is simple, but really fitting the mood, the sounds are satisfying to hear, the camera work is really nice, but the visual feedback, oh my, IT'S GENIUS! Every time the hula hoop hits the target, there's this click and explosion of colorful stars, which is incredibly pleasing. Every bit of the world gives you feedback, fulfilling the senses.
Verdict:
9/10
The game was great, without any weak moments, and even the ending didn't disappoint. You should definitely try it!
Get it here, it's free!
Se ya all someday!
The gameplay is incredibly simple. The player controls the animate hula hoop by pressing the space bar to aim and releasing it to fling the object in chosen direction. In each of 45 levels the player's goal is to cheer up five creatures by hitting them with the hula hoop. If the hula hoop doesn't hit the next target before it's momentum is lost, the player has to retry the level. As you can imagine, the levels are short, but demanding.
Every now and then, the new mechanic is introduced. It's done in the very elegant fashion - first, the player is exposed to the new piece in isolated, safe enviroment. Once he gets to understand how the mechanic works, it's mixed and matched with previous mechanics. It's very worth noting, that during the whole game no mechanic turnt into a "use once" gimmick, every one of them was repeatedly present since it's first appearance. What i really adore is that the game knows it is all about the timing and embraces it. Every mechanic adds a layer of complexity to the player's decissions, and nothing more.
The player's character doesn't get any new powers or moves after the beginning of the game, the only thing that changes are mechanics and level design. It works here as well as in Super Meat Boy, which is a supreme example of how it's done.
The learning curve was very, very smooth, i was never remotely close to being lost, yet the game kept being interesting, which is quite an achievement. The levels were gradually getting harder, but in fair, challenging way. The level design was never unfair, but sometimes really dirty in it's expectations of what the player should be keeping in mind. I was but a cloud of living hatred by the end levels, and people say i'm unusually calm. Still, i really enjoyed it.
For the story, it seems to be merging Undetale's "it's hard to be good" message with Kirby's simple, naive and cheerful personality. The main character's only motive is to bring happiness to everyone. There was occasional "engrish" in the text, but it mostly added to the overal cuteness.
The game's strongest aspect may be it's audiovisuals. The music is simple, but really fitting the mood, the sounds are satisfying to hear, the camera work is really nice, but the visual feedback, oh my, IT'S GENIUS! Every time the hula hoop hits the target, there's this click and explosion of colorful stars, which is incredibly pleasing. Every bit of the world gives you feedback, fulfilling the senses.
Verdict:
9/10
The game was great, without any weak moments, and even the ending didn't disappoint. You should definitely try it!
Get it here, it's free!
Se ya all someday!
środa, 29 marca 2017
[Other] Dust.
As it is mentioned in my description, i'm a man of many arts, writing included. That being said, i've decided to translate one of my works, as originally i'm writing in Polish.
Enjoy!
-Dad? What's wrong?
George knelt before the sink, his head dropped limply into its concavity, dirty with vomit.
-Ouch! What are you doing?!
His miserable voice echoed in the outlet, vibrating like in a nightmarish megaphone.
-Wh-what? This is definitely a misunderstanding...
A moth danced around the flickering candle. Tiny dust ran from it's wings. The young man began to cry.
-No, NO!
He's strained all of his muscles and started to run inertly. He was hit by a door, his body was twisted by an impact, but didn't fall, he continued to run after short moments of stabilization. The hallway was braided strangely, it seemed it was never going to end. His escape didn't progress at all. What was he escaping from?
He looked behind him. The wave of heat has hit him from everywhere, he felt an itching pain on his skin. He looked at his hands - they were sweating salt. The blasphemous dust fell of his body, which began to lose weight like a dried raisin. He was drowning in the ocean of salt, becoming one with pain and white darkness.
Suddenly, evething began to pulse with colors, he floated in an unnamed, incomprehensible direction. The distinction between the body and the consciousness ceased to make sense.
"Why was i escaping? What chased me?
Why do i even care?
A human is a being of questions, the world is full of answers, which are scattered in chaos. The most terrifying solutions are those, about which a man is unable to ask correctly. Where the ordered and named ends, the fear begins. Or the solace."
Train's piston rubbed it's casing tenaciously, steam was blowing from the chimney. What a derailment. What a beatiful disaster.
"Seeking security in isolation is so naive. Lone, we're still vulnerable. Even worse, we expose ourself to the intelectual incest. Along the unanimity only the monstrous bastards are created, worsening as the time flows."
The colors faded suddenly, revealing an unending white horizon and a dead black sky. He's seen something red on the edge of horizon, expanding slowly. After a while he realized about the real scale and speed of the observed phenomenon. Red roots creeped through the soil with an astonishing velocity. No, not roots. Veins.
Something relentless grasped his feet. He began to float up. He looked down. His dried flesh was rotting incredibly fast, starting to fall off like mud. He was already high above his cranium, observing, as his ribs separate from each other and expand. Spare bones fell off slowly, only the spine and the ribs remained. He stopped to perceive this spectacle from above, from now he was seeing it from everywhere, maybe even nowhere. His remains have grown to the size of a mature tree. The ribs became spines themselves, each developing it's own ribs. From then, the outgrowth exploded with fractality, it's complexity multiplied rapidly with every moment. Yet, Gregory still understood, fully understood, what was he looking upon. The figure, like a macabre snowflake, formed a soothing pattern. Finally, he's found his inner beauty. The monument of lust and fear.
He wasn't even surprised with the transcendence he was experiencing.
The central spine was growing upwards, every new branching narrower than the last. Like a fern.
Suddenly, a bud has grown on the top of the structure. Clawed ribs, curled up into a ball, exposed slowly it's secret. The flower blossomed fully, revealing it's red dust. No, not dust. Blood. Surprisingly, the container made of ribs didn't let a single drop to escape. Even more, it filled itself up a little. Suddenly, the bood became a lump. Animate lump. Three pounds heavy, malformed, crawling, screeching and screaming. The nightmare of life came again. The higher the flight, the harder the fall.
Gregory and Agness were eating a breakfast. No one was dearer to him than his little sister. The honey expanded slowly on the surface of the bread. The boy was amazed, because the sweet fluid was only dust not so long ago. Frail, powdery, meaningless. Life-giving. And oh, so sweet when desecrated.
The Easter was nearing. The spiritual mentor spoke to the youth, majority of which queued to confess.
-Do not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter; that would dishonor you. Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister. Do not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative. Do not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s close relative. Do not dishonor your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt. Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; do not have relations with her. Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would dishonor your brother. Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter.Do not have sexual relations with either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness. Do not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living. Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period. Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her.
After the long wait, his turn has come. He's fixed his hair, smiled, and then walked to the confessional firmly, but not boldly. He knelt. Inhaled the air, slowly and deeply.
-George, you son of a bitch!
He's hit the wooden grille with full force, causing it to shatter and knocking back the confessor. The tumult gathered everyone's attention, the preacher has gone silent.
-I've heard what you did to Agness!
Confusion grew among the people, which were present, like soot is present in the abandoned fruits of civilization. A dust of faith, bringing life to the temple.
-Misunderstanding?! Come here, fuckboy, i'll fucking kill you! Do you hear?!!
With an inhumane push, Gregory jumped away from the confessional, landing with his back on the shocked people lined in the queue. They began to quickly move away, which made him laugh in a maniacal, unstoppable way. He reached inside his leather jacket with his right hand, standed up and pulled out a transparent bag. A bag full of life-giving dust.
-Oh lord, i'm not worthy to receive you! This is my body!!
Not stopping his laughter, he's opened the bag and began to pour it's content all over his face. He didn't care where will it land.
"Life. Death. Is there a difference?"
-I know! I've seen it! Fools! The true Heavens are written in the language of the stones!
The boat was shattered, it's load was damaged beyond any use. The rivers flow leads to the waterfall with a cruel certainty.
Enjoy!
-=-
-Dad? What's wrong?
George knelt before the sink, his head dropped limply into its concavity, dirty with vomit.
-Ouch! What are you doing?!
His miserable voice echoed in the outlet, vibrating like in a nightmarish megaphone.
-Wh-what? This is definitely a misunderstanding...
A moth danced around the flickering candle. Tiny dust ran from it's wings. The young man began to cry.
-No, NO!
He's strained all of his muscles and started to run inertly. He was hit by a door, his body was twisted by an impact, but didn't fall, he continued to run after short moments of stabilization. The hallway was braided strangely, it seemed it was never going to end. His escape didn't progress at all. What was he escaping from?
He looked behind him. The wave of heat has hit him from everywhere, he felt an itching pain on his skin. He looked at his hands - they were sweating salt. The blasphemous dust fell of his body, which began to lose weight like a dried raisin. He was drowning in the ocean of salt, becoming one with pain and white darkness.
Suddenly, evething began to pulse with colors, he floated in an unnamed, incomprehensible direction. The distinction between the body and the consciousness ceased to make sense.
"Why was i escaping? What chased me?
Why do i even care?
A human is a being of questions, the world is full of answers, which are scattered in chaos. The most terrifying solutions are those, about which a man is unable to ask correctly. Where the ordered and named ends, the fear begins. Or the solace."
Train's piston rubbed it's casing tenaciously, steam was blowing from the chimney. What a derailment. What a beatiful disaster.
"Seeking security in isolation is so naive. Lone, we're still vulnerable. Even worse, we expose ourself to the intelectual incest. Along the unanimity only the monstrous bastards are created, worsening as the time flows."
The colors faded suddenly, revealing an unending white horizon and a dead black sky. He's seen something red on the edge of horizon, expanding slowly. After a while he realized about the real scale and speed of the observed phenomenon. Red roots creeped through the soil with an astonishing velocity. No, not roots. Veins.
Something relentless grasped his feet. He began to float up. He looked down. His dried flesh was rotting incredibly fast, starting to fall off like mud. He was already high above his cranium, observing, as his ribs separate from each other and expand. Spare bones fell off slowly, only the spine and the ribs remained. He stopped to perceive this spectacle from above, from now he was seeing it from everywhere, maybe even nowhere. His remains have grown to the size of a mature tree. The ribs became spines themselves, each developing it's own ribs. From then, the outgrowth exploded with fractality, it's complexity multiplied rapidly with every moment. Yet, Gregory still understood, fully understood, what was he looking upon. The figure, like a macabre snowflake, formed a soothing pattern. Finally, he's found his inner beauty. The monument of lust and fear.
He wasn't even surprised with the transcendence he was experiencing.
The central spine was growing upwards, every new branching narrower than the last. Like a fern.
Suddenly, a bud has grown on the top of the structure. Clawed ribs, curled up into a ball, exposed slowly it's secret. The flower blossomed fully, revealing it's red dust. No, not dust. Blood. Surprisingly, the container made of ribs didn't let a single drop to escape. Even more, it filled itself up a little. Suddenly, the bood became a lump. Animate lump. Three pounds heavy, malformed, crawling, screeching and screaming. The nightmare of life came again. The higher the flight, the harder the fall.
Gregory and Agness were eating a breakfast. No one was dearer to him than his little sister. The honey expanded slowly on the surface of the bread. The boy was amazed, because the sweet fluid was only dust not so long ago. Frail, powdery, meaningless. Life-giving. And oh, so sweet when desecrated.
The Easter was nearing. The spiritual mentor spoke to the youth, majority of which queued to confess.
-Do not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter; that would dishonor you. Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister. Do not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative. Do not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s close relative. Do not dishonor your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt. Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; do not have relations with her. Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would dishonor your brother. Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter.Do not have sexual relations with either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness. Do not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living. Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period. Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her.
After the long wait, his turn has come. He's fixed his hair, smiled, and then walked to the confessional firmly, but not boldly. He knelt. Inhaled the air, slowly and deeply.
-George, you son of a bitch!
He's hit the wooden grille with full force, causing it to shatter and knocking back the confessor. The tumult gathered everyone's attention, the preacher has gone silent.
-I've heard what you did to Agness!
Confusion grew among the people, which were present, like soot is present in the abandoned fruits of civilization. A dust of faith, bringing life to the temple.
-Misunderstanding?! Come here, fuckboy, i'll fucking kill you! Do you hear?!!
With an inhumane push, Gregory jumped away from the confessional, landing with his back on the shocked people lined in the queue. They began to quickly move away, which made him laugh in a maniacal, unstoppable way. He reached inside his leather jacket with his right hand, standed up and pulled out a transparent bag. A bag full of life-giving dust.
-Oh lord, i'm not worthy to receive you! This is my body!!
Not stopping his laughter, he's opened the bag and began to pour it's content all over his face. He didn't care where will it land.
"Life. Death. Is there a difference?"
-I know! I've seen it! Fools! The true Heavens are written in the language of the stones!
The boat was shattered, it's load was damaged beyond any use. The rivers flow leads to the waterfall with a cruel certainty.
-=-
Here, I hope you enjoyed it.
See you next time!
See you next time!
sobota, 18 marca 2017
sobota, 25 lutego 2017
[Devpost] I'm here, this is happening.
Melodies of Sorrow, strong with their sound,
mark what is lost and not to be found:
Enjoyment which was indeed quick to sunder,
in times of unknown, pure magic and wonder.
niedziela, 19 lutego 2017
sobota, 18 lutego 2017
[Devpost] Four is enough!
This is my work in progress pixel art for a game I'm currently making. I've limited myself to use only four colors through the whole game. I really like this challenge, it keeps me motivated.
More about the game soon, if I decide I'm up to completing it.
More about the game soon, if I decide I'm up to completing it.
niedziela, 12 lutego 2017
[Devpost] Echo Away - the first post-jam release.
It's finally here!
I've only added fullscreen support, we'll see if I decide to do anything else. I think not, as I have a well sounding idea for the next game and I can't wait to make it.
Get Echo Away here!
I may announce my next game soon.
Until then!
I've only added fullscreen support, we'll see if I decide to do anything else. I think not, as I have a well sounding idea for the next game and I can't wait to make it.
Get Echo Away here!
I may announce my next game soon.
Until then!
sobota, 11 lutego 2017
[Review] The SquaresBugs: Kyle's Berries - the story of wasted potential.
In my last review i mentioned that I rarely enjoy mobile games. There are so many reasons behind this, it would take hours to explain. This time I was asked to review The SquaresBugs: Kyle's Berries. Once again, i wasn't keen of the gamble, as I don't want to sound like a hater of some sort. Well, here we are.
The SquaresBugs: Kyle's Berries is a mobile platformer in which the player's duty is to fulfill main character's need for berries, by going through dangerous obstacle courses. It starts out simple, but increases in difficulty over time. It has some creative designs scattered around, the difficulty curve is done right, the music is genius.The game has much to offer, so what's the problem?
It's flaws negate all of that.
What flaws? The velocity based movement feels really clunky in this game, being hit is unworldly annoying, dangers aren't represented properly, which leads to confusion or simply overlooking them. But there's one, that overshadows it all...
The controls. Designing mobile games means making them suitable for the platform, designing with it in mind, extending it's possibilities. Or at least not porting the other platform's solutions. It's pointless, the designer should choose the specific platform in the first place if it's specific properties have to be emulated. What do I mean?
Onscreen gamepad. Emulated buttons. They nearly disgust me, it's just counterintuitive. Many games sin this way, including Kyle's Berries.
Besides that, game's basic set of rules is irritating. They are mashed with each other, like jigsaw pieces which don't fit, but forced anyway. It seems that the velocity based movement was inplemented just for the sake of windy levels later on, which was irritating on it's own, but it also added new layers of clunkiness. Those are small things, but they add up, even multiply to horrendous ammounts. For example, the velocity resets when hanging on the ring, making the player jump straightly upwards and gain momentum painfully slow, which was even more terrible in windy levels. The loss of movement's fluidity is really unsatisfying, and this is just a small chunk of the game.
The flower enemies are worth noting, as their projectiles are so small, they may be 3x3 pixels on my 4" phone's screen, which is unacceptably little in the colorful enviroment the game provides. This took away much of my confidence, as the enemies sent no signals whatsoever, leaving me waiting until they fire, and then focusing my sight to scan the screen if there's a projectile somewhere. Some of you may ask "what's the deal? Is being hit in this game this bad?"
It is.
The game is divided into stages, 4-6 levels each, which you have to complete in one run to unlock a new stage. Within a stage, the player has a limited number of tries, one try containing three hits of damage before ending. If you run out of tries, you have to do the stage all over again. This system reminds me a little of Super Meat Boy's warp zones, the difference is, this is the main gamemode here. As for now, it doesn't sound this much of a problem, but it will soon enough. That's exactly because of damage handling in this game. When hit, the character becomes trapped falling in hitstun until it hits the ground and waits there for a while. When I first discovered that, it was odd, but reasonable, so I've let it be as a design choice. Then, somewhere near the stage four bottomless pits appeared. I've lost my shit and gone nuts (not the other way). I would tolerate those instakill gaps of torment if the game wasn't this flawed, I'd even enjoy them. But there was too much bad happening for this to happen.
All of this made me quit halfway through the game, at the stage five. And know that, I mostly play challenging games. The difference is, those deliver it's challenge by clever mechanical and level design, not by unresponsive controls and plenty of counterintuitive design choices. I've got through stage four only because of an exploitable pickup, which gave me a new try in the case of failure. This exploit isn't a good thing to happen either.
Enough, now artistic side of the game. As I mentioned earlier, the music was splendid, just incredible. But it didn't quite fit in to the game. Or, better put, the game didn't match with the music, which stole the show for me. The art reminded me of the pre-MS Office 2003 era of cheesy fonts, corny gradients and intense JPG-ification. The buttons are outright ugly, the simplistic art style is far from it's true potential. I don't judge it too hard, as some may enjoy this aesthetic. The thing that may be easily improved is the menu layout, as the Exit button, being smaller than others, may give people the uncomfortable feeling of heaviness and stress.
Still, I liked the fact, that the background elements were varied. Also, I liked some pieces of level design, the introduction by isolation principle was great to see, whenever it occured. This game could be great, if only some bad solutions were avoided.
Verdict:
3/10
This is not what I call a good mobile game. I would give it up to 5/10 if it was a PC game, unfortunately it isn't.
You may try it here.
Farewell!
The SquaresBugs: Kyle's Berries is a mobile platformer in which the player's duty is to fulfill main character's need for berries, by going through dangerous obstacle courses. It starts out simple, but increases in difficulty over time. It has some creative designs scattered around, the difficulty curve is done right, the music is genius.The game has much to offer, so what's the problem?
It's flaws negate all of that.
What flaws? The velocity based movement feels really clunky in this game, being hit is unworldly annoying, dangers aren't represented properly, which leads to confusion or simply overlooking them. But there's one, that overshadows it all...
The controls. Designing mobile games means making them suitable for the platform, designing with it in mind, extending it's possibilities. Or at least not porting the other platform's solutions. It's pointless, the designer should choose the specific platform in the first place if it's specific properties have to be emulated. What do I mean?
Onscreen gamepad. Emulated buttons. They nearly disgust me, it's just counterintuitive. Many games sin this way, including Kyle's Berries.
Besides that, game's basic set of rules is irritating. They are mashed with each other, like jigsaw pieces which don't fit, but forced anyway. It seems that the velocity based movement was inplemented just for the sake of windy levels later on, which was irritating on it's own, but it also added new layers of clunkiness. Those are small things, but they add up, even multiply to horrendous ammounts. For example, the velocity resets when hanging on the ring, making the player jump straightly upwards and gain momentum painfully slow, which was even more terrible in windy levels. The loss of movement's fluidity is really unsatisfying, and this is just a small chunk of the game.
The flower enemies are worth noting, as their projectiles are so small, they may be 3x3 pixels on my 4" phone's screen, which is unacceptably little in the colorful enviroment the game provides. This took away much of my confidence, as the enemies sent no signals whatsoever, leaving me waiting until they fire, and then focusing my sight to scan the screen if there's a projectile somewhere. Some of you may ask "what's the deal? Is being hit in this game this bad?"
It is.
The game is divided into stages, 4-6 levels each, which you have to complete in one run to unlock a new stage. Within a stage, the player has a limited number of tries, one try containing three hits of damage before ending. If you run out of tries, you have to do the stage all over again. This system reminds me a little of Super Meat Boy's warp zones, the difference is, this is the main gamemode here. As for now, it doesn't sound this much of a problem, but it will soon enough. That's exactly because of damage handling in this game. When hit, the character becomes trapped falling in hitstun until it hits the ground and waits there for a while. When I first discovered that, it was odd, but reasonable, so I've let it be as a design choice. Then, somewhere near the stage four bottomless pits appeared. I've lost my shit and gone nuts (not the other way). I would tolerate those instakill gaps of torment if the game wasn't this flawed, I'd even enjoy them. But there was too much bad happening for this to happen.
All of this made me quit halfway through the game, at the stage five. And know that, I mostly play challenging games. The difference is, those deliver it's challenge by clever mechanical and level design, not by unresponsive controls and plenty of counterintuitive design choices. I've got through stage four only because of an exploitable pickup, which gave me a new try in the case of failure. This exploit isn't a good thing to happen either.
Enough, now artistic side of the game. As I mentioned earlier, the music was splendid, just incredible. But it didn't quite fit in to the game. Or, better put, the game didn't match with the music, which stole the show for me. The art reminded me of the pre-MS Office 2003 era of cheesy fonts, corny gradients and intense JPG-ification. The buttons are outright ugly, the simplistic art style is far from it's true potential. I don't judge it too hard, as some may enjoy this aesthetic. The thing that may be easily improved is the menu layout, as the Exit button, being smaller than others, may give people the uncomfortable feeling of heaviness and stress.
Still, I liked the fact, that the background elements were varied. Also, I liked some pieces of level design, the introduction by isolation principle was great to see, whenever it occured. This game could be great, if only some bad solutions were avoided.
Verdict:
3/10
This is not what I call a good mobile game. I would give it up to 5/10 if it was a PC game, unfortunately it isn't.
You may try it here.
Farewell!
środa, 8 lutego 2017
[Review] Weave of Heroes - rock paper scissors gone right!
Few days ago I was asked to review a game by a fellow user of Game Maker forums. I was highly reluctant, as I find most mobile games to be flawed, incomplete and filled with uncreative solutions, and I'm aware of the fact that Game Maker isn't really friendly to inputs outside of touching the screen, limiting design space even further. Yet, I decided to give it a try, having in mind there's a low chance I'm missing something great.
I was so happily mistaken!
Weave of Heroes is hard to assign to a certain genre. I'd call it a plot driven puzzle, nearly strategy game, having a strong element of deckbuilding, known from Collectible Card Games.
It's design is brilliant in it's tightness and variety!
The plot is about a genderless, young character doing dangerous quests here and there to find it's sister and rescue her. It isn't defenseless though.
The fighting system is a true gem here. The core idea is based on Rock Paper Scissors, but here they are called Rock, Leaf and Blade. Like in the base game, the rivals reveal their choice at once, and then there's a draw or one of them clearly wins the trade. In Weave of Heroes, in the case of draw, both attacks happen, but if one element tops the other, only it's damage and effects are done. Yes, I wrote effects. That's because every element has a variety of attacks, every one of them being unique compared to others. The player decides which ones he or she uses before the mission begins.
While in combat, the player can pick one of three slots, one slot can contain one attack, randomly picked from the ones the player decided to use. This means, you can roll, for example, three rock type attacks. Once the slot is used, it's emptied leaving the player with less options. The player can anytime fill all three slots with new random moves with a refill button, losing a turn on doing nothing.
The enemies overally use the same mechanics, reloading included, but the number of their slots vary along with their game altering mechanics. The game operates on open information, meaning that both players see each other's slots, which gives loads of fun, strategic depth.
What differentiates the player from the others is a gift of Weave. It's a special power which automatically counters anything the enemy plays, deals damage, heals you and sometimes refills a slot. Everything in one turn! How to activate it? You have to accumulate five charges, every one of them is obtained by executing a normal attack.
Now, where's your promised deckbuilding? Here it comes:
Before every quest, which is made of several random encounters, the player gets to choose the attacks and add them to the repertoir of the character. But the choice isn't restricted to one attack per element, in fact the player is bound to have at least four different moves, which implies one can't just pick three most optimal ones. If you think with numbers you may have noticed that this brings imbalance in draw rates - one element will be always twice as frequent as any of the other. This is where piles come in play - every attack can be piled up to three times, every instance increasing it's ingame drop rate. For example, if you want the elements to have equal 33% drop rate, you can add 2 different attacks of one element, and then a two units high pile for every other element.
This way the game is about optimizing the drop rates and synergies of the moves, and them utilizing it in strategic way. Doesn't it remind you of card games yet?
The game does a great work at bringing the opportunity to rethink your resources time after time, making you wonder if your preffered set of abilities can be improved, and it felt great. The design of the attacks and enemies seems to squeeze every last bit of the possible design for this set of mechanics, which is really satisfying to see for me as a designer.
Now, the art talk. The music was fitting and not repetitive, which is great. The visual art style isn't the greatest for me, but there's consequence kept in it, which I always value. Also it reminded me of good old Flash games which once upon a time ruled upon the imagination of countless player.
You can say it gave me Flashbacks.
Laugh, it's funny!
The story was thick as water, with little chunks of absurd here and there, but this isn't really an issue, as this game is like porn - you don't come for the story, but it's good it's there.
The game has little to no issues for me, the one I've remembered is that the refresh button is easy to miss on smaller screens, which can lead to nasty situations and Player's frustration.
The thing I really liked were the achievements. They usually annoy me, but these ones were funny and creative in many cases, keeping me amused.
Verdict:
8/10
It's a solid piece of mobile game to pick up, which is a rare statement in my case. The game clearly knows what is it about and sticks to it.
Try it out, it's free!
See Ya nerdz!
I was so happily mistaken!
Weave of Heroes is hard to assign to a certain genre. I'd call it a plot driven puzzle, nearly strategy game, having a strong element of deckbuilding, known from Collectible Card Games.
It's design is brilliant in it's tightness and variety!
The plot is about a genderless, young character doing dangerous quests here and there to find it's sister and rescue her. It isn't defenseless though.
The fighting system is a true gem here. The core idea is based on Rock Paper Scissors, but here they are called Rock, Leaf and Blade. Like in the base game, the rivals reveal their choice at once, and then there's a draw or one of them clearly wins the trade. In Weave of Heroes, in the case of draw, both attacks happen, but if one element tops the other, only it's damage and effects are done. Yes, I wrote effects. That's because every element has a variety of attacks, every one of them being unique compared to others. The player decides which ones he or she uses before the mission begins.
While in combat, the player can pick one of three slots, one slot can contain one attack, randomly picked from the ones the player decided to use. This means, you can roll, for example, three rock type attacks. Once the slot is used, it's emptied leaving the player with less options. The player can anytime fill all three slots with new random moves with a refill button, losing a turn on doing nothing.
The enemies overally use the same mechanics, reloading included, but the number of their slots vary along with their game altering mechanics. The game operates on open information, meaning that both players see each other's slots, which gives loads of fun, strategic depth.
What differentiates the player from the others is a gift of Weave. It's a special power which automatically counters anything the enemy plays, deals damage, heals you and sometimes refills a slot. Everything in one turn! How to activate it? You have to accumulate five charges, every one of them is obtained by executing a normal attack.
Now, where's your promised deckbuilding? Here it comes:
Before every quest, which is made of several random encounters, the player gets to choose the attacks and add them to the repertoir of the character. But the choice isn't restricted to one attack per element, in fact the player is bound to have at least four different moves, which implies one can't just pick three most optimal ones. If you think with numbers you may have noticed that this brings imbalance in draw rates - one element will be always twice as frequent as any of the other. This is where piles come in play - every attack can be piled up to three times, every instance increasing it's ingame drop rate. For example, if you want the elements to have equal 33% drop rate, you can add 2 different attacks of one element, and then a two units high pile for every other element.
This way the game is about optimizing the drop rates and synergies of the moves, and them utilizing it in strategic way. Doesn't it remind you of card games yet?
The game does a great work at bringing the opportunity to rethink your resources time after time, making you wonder if your preffered set of abilities can be improved, and it felt great. The design of the attacks and enemies seems to squeeze every last bit of the possible design for this set of mechanics, which is really satisfying to see for me as a designer.
Now, the art talk. The music was fitting and not repetitive, which is great. The visual art style isn't the greatest for me, but there's consequence kept in it, which I always value. Also it reminded me of good old Flash games which once upon a time ruled upon the imagination of countless player.
You can say it gave me Flashbacks.
Laugh, it's funny!
The story was thick as water, with little chunks of absurd here and there, but this isn't really an issue, as this game is like porn - you don't come for the story, but it's good it's there.
The game has little to no issues for me, the one I've remembered is that the refresh button is easy to miss on smaller screens, which can lead to nasty situations and Player's frustration.
The thing I really liked were the achievements. They usually annoy me, but these ones were funny and creative in many cases, keeping me amused.
Verdict:
8/10
It's a solid piece of mobile game to pick up, which is a rare statement in my case. The game clearly knows what is it about and sticks to it.
Try it out, it's free!
See Ya nerdz!
poniedziałek, 30 stycznia 2017
[Devpost] Zew is out!
I've made this game in like 3 days.
It's total garbage in terms of gameplay.
I had to cut some heavy features that could make the game far more enjoyable, like choosing the answers in dialogue system.
Yet, I've learned two valuable things in this development process:
Link to that masterpiece!
Have a great day!
It's total garbage in terms of gameplay.
I had to cut some heavy features that could make the game far more enjoyable, like choosing the answers in dialogue system.
Yet, I've learned two valuable things in this development process:
- Combining shaders, having more than one at a time working
- Scaling the shader effect to fullscreen
Link to that masterpiece!
Have a great day!
niedziela, 29 stycznia 2017
[Devpost] The End of Infinity!
As I woke up, I witnessed a miracle: Nekrogoblikon has let me to use their song in my game. Aren't they awesome?
Here, this tune will be my end credit song in Zew:
(no player because Google won't allow it, use this link instead)
Have a good day!
Here, this tune will be my end credit song in Zew:
(no player because Google won't allow it, use this link instead)
Have a good day!
piątek, 27 stycznia 2017
[Devpost] Zew - the game I'm working on right now.
Zew (eng: The Call) will be a hard-boiled game about dying in pain. The main character, being constantly tormented by his body, demands euthanasia. One day, his long forgotten friend shows up, to show him why life is worth living.
(eng: The Call. Type help.)
The main focus of the game are the conversations between the two characters (dialog system) and showing the mundane, painful everyday life of a dying man. I create this game for a pro-life competition hosted in Poland, that's why it's in Polish. The competition's name is Pomóż ocalić życie bezbronnemu which means "Help saving the innocent's life".
I've participated in a previous edition, winning the third prize with the game called Ratuj Dziecko! (eng: Save the child!), which was about abortion, and looked this crappy:
I justify myself with the fact, that I've made it very hastely, in under a week. Also, I didn't even care :D
But i promise, this one will be better, and maybe i'll translate it to english.
Download Ratuj Dziecko here!
See ya, nerds!
But i promise, this one will be better, and maybe i'll translate it to english.
Download Ratuj Dziecko here!
See ya, nerds!
środa, 25 stycznia 2017
[My Old Games] Maze of Madness
Maze of Madness is a game I've made in 2014, for a simple reason - I was working on many games, but never finished any of them. I decided to challenge myself:
Make a complete game in under a week. And well, I succeeded.
Overally, the game is about solving mazes. As a child, i loved drawing creative mazes, in which for example was a flesh eating flower, which the player had to feed with a guardian or some leftovers lying in some other corner of the maze, so said player could go past him. I followed this nostalgic spirit, and mixed with my cruel design style which I had back then.
The game starts simple, teaching player the basics, then slowly adding mechanics like:
- doors and keys
- portals
- darkness (you don't see the whole maze at once)
- one-way passages
- negating tiles (they make that the player can walk inside the walls, but can't pass the open space)
- solidifying buttons (they turn marked tiles into solid walls when stepped on)
- light buttons (they let the player see the whole level in darkness levels, as long as he stands on them)
Those elements are rather simple to understand, mixing them together was a great level design practice. If i was making this game now, first thing I'll do differently is the walking required to solve the levels - some are extremely mean, by requiring the player to walk through the whole level more than two times. It gets better by the end, where the game is less walking and more solving puzzles.
The game has two endings, because why not :D
Maze of Madness was made in Game Maker, the source code is pure spaghetti :D
(For those who don't know, "spaghetti code" means, that the code is unnecesarily chaotic and complicated, rendering it hard to read and understand)
Get the game here!
See You next time!
wtorek, 24 stycznia 2017
Global Game Jam 2017
Global Game Jam 2017 was great!
(Quick info, for those of you who don't know what am I talking about:
Global Game Jam is an yearly event, in which game creators from around the globe meet in various places to hang out and create games in less than 48 hours. Every year the theme is announced, and then people start to work hard on their ideas to fit given theme, and they the have only two days do create the complete game, including visual art, sounds and programmed logic of course.
Don't worry, i won't tell anyone you didn't know that!)
In fact, this was my first Jam, and i loved it. The challenge was really fun, the anticipation for the theme pumping, the people nice and talkative. The part of the Jam i participated was called LubJam, and took place in Lublin, Poland. There were like 30 people at most, but that's good, because the office we were in was rather small.
This year's theme were Waves, so i came up with this idea of a stealth game in which a blind character must send sound waves to see it's surrounding, but those waves attract enemies, so you have to be careful.
I called the game Echo Away, because it's plot is about dreaming of disappearance (yes, it even has a plot!).
The game has 12 levels, which seems to be much considering the fact, that I put huge effort into level design.
The game isn't fullscreen, because it uses shaders for that cool color effect, and scaling the game to most of the screens results in it being horribly broken. Despite this and some minor issues, I'm really proud of what I've created.
I look forward to participate in further jams, as I find them really entertaining.
Here are some links:
My game.
All the LubJam's games.
GGJ's main site.
See Ya!
Welcome!
I'm an independent artist and game developer from Poland, also known as AltairSonOfDarkness or DyingSilence in some places.
The main goal of this blog is to tell everyone interested, what I'm actually working on, but there will be also some other things happening! What things?
I may review a game, do a detailed design rant, bring one of my older games with critical description of it, share some interesting tools, make tutorials on some subjects...
There are many possibilities!
Stay tuned for further updates!
(*smokebomb escape*)
The main goal of this blog is to tell everyone interested, what I'm actually working on, but there will be also some other things happening! What things?
I may review a game, do a detailed design rant, bring one of my older games with critical description of it, share some interesting tools, make tutorials on some subjects...
There are many possibilities!
Stay tuned for further updates!
(*smokebomb escape*)
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