YHNL's development
Back in July 2010, when I made YHNL, I made a habit of posting in the contest's forum thread every day. I posted regular updates on my progress, usually with a new build showing off the game's new features.
A few years later, I can look back at these posts and see the game take shape, little by little. It's an interesting read, and I'll upload it here for posterity's sake.
Posts are pulled from http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3310460&userid=139715&perpage=40&pagenumber=1
Commentary will be in red.
Context: the contest's theme was announced on may 29th. The contest ran from July 1st to July 31st.
Theme: This year's theme is "You can't ______" - and you fill in the blank. You can't eat, you can't sleep, you can't fart, you can't shoot, you can't whatever, this concept (and lack of ability) has to be core and painfully noticeable in your game. All entries need to adhere to the theme in some obvious and hopefully not superficial manner (or the entry probably won't win).
Nagna Zul
May 30, 2010
Assuming I don't get a job soon, I'm in. I'm currently drawing a blank on the "you can't" theme, but since I'll be going to bed soon that problem should solve itself.
I'll use this as an opportunity to learn to use flash.
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I was going to ask how we should contact you, since I didn't want to post my idea, but screw it - no one's going to steal my game concept and then spend weeks of work realizing it.
So here's my (hypothetical) game's name:
You have no legs
The game plays like a platformer, but your character has no legs. Instead, he has a pair of beefy arms that he can use to maneuver around. You use the mouse for everything - moving the mouse around moves your arms, and you can use either mouse button to grab and release things. Your job is then to maneuver around a variety of obstacles with a physics engine and your two beefy arms.
For instance, to go forward, you'd move your arms in front of yourself, grab hold, pull your arms back (dragging yourself forward), release and repeat. I'm sure there's something very symbolic about illustrating the pain of cripples everywhere by making moving around a huge chore.
To climb, you do something pretty similar to walking - you have some limited ability to "launch" yourself into the air by releasing just as you drag yourself up. You can climb across ceilings in the same way, and you'll probably have to do it above a pit full of spikes.
Jumping is done by putting your hands up in the air, making a fist (hold the mouse button) and then thrusting your arms into the ground. The direction in which your thrust your arms will determine where your jump takes you.
You may also be able to punch things in a similar fashion - make a fist, then just thrust your fist into whatever you want dead.
Using this fairly limited and hard to execute repertoire of moves, you must then navigate some basic platforming environments, prince of persia style.
So, after this longwinded post where I expose my overambitious game mechanics, I'm finally going to request some character art (or concept art, or whatever this post inspires you to draw)
If you feel like it, please give me some character art - in any style - of a character with no legs (or perhaps just paralyzed or atrophied legs) and a pair of beefy arms, which he uses for everything. Here's an example - take the prince of persia, remove his legs, and make his arms beefy as hell. Prince of Paraplegics.
Damn, that could be a catchy name. Prince of Paraplegics.
Prince of Paraplegia?
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Roughly a month before the start of the contest, I had a decent handle on what the game's concept and mechanics were going to be. Some things didn't really pan out, like the jumping; I never actually implemented that mechanic and simply focused on the climbing and launching. Punching became one of the upgrades, although you never punch anything other than rocks.
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Jun 1, 2010
Here's a free game idea, please steal it:
You can't see shit:
A (racing) game where the screen is constantly obscured by glitches and various funky looking graphical artifacts - you could go into a "computer-glitch" matrix style visual style, or you could go for the "acid trip" visual style (http://www.addictinggames.com/skirunner.html) with dance music as the background.
Inspired by this video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OJyCppPNEeM
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Jun 7, 2010
All the way from the first page...
http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...1#post377522342
I'm pretty much set on this idea.
You play as a Jack, a legless archeology student. As part of his Thesis work, Jack visits an archeological digsite in Teotihuacan. Just as he arrives, an earthquake strikes the area and Jack is swallowed by the ground - he falls into what seems like a temple dedicated to the Aztec Gods.
Thus the game plays out as a 2D Metroidvania done in Mesoamerican art style, with aztec murals serving as background for the game's levels. As you explore the temple, you will run into various artifacts - these gives you powerups to help you explore the temple, and once you find the exit will become part of your thesis. Your goal as a player is to explore all the temple, find all the artifacts and get a good grade on your thesis.
Also, I believe I have a soundtrack: http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/avgerinos-maya/
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Jun 9, 2010
Hahahah, what the hell, that's awesome.
I put some more thought into what "You have no legs" will be like - filter my posts if you want to read it.
Still, thanks for those drawings, that looks absolutely ridiculous
Is that first guy wearing a fish?
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This was the first of a recurring pattern; an artist appears, loves the concept, draws some sketches and then disappears into the ether. This happened over and over. I ended up doing (stealing) most of the art myself.
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Jun 10, 2010
If you (or anyone else) wants to do "You can't stop running", please make something like chaser:http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009...haser_shad.html
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Jun 28, 2010
I'm using flash, simply because I want something that runs inside the browser.
When it comes to free amateur games like this, having to download an .exe is a huge barrier to entry. People simply do not care enough about your game to download an exe - they care enough to spare you one click (opening your link in a new tab), but a download is at least 5 clicks and a few seconds of waiting. That's just too much work for a lot of people (including me)
That's my experience from posting my games on forums, anyways - I spent hours slaving away at C++ code and got 2-3 replies, then one day made a janky flash prototype in an afternoon and got several pages full of feedback.
In other news, I'm currently screwing around with the flash version of Box2D, which I will probably be using for my game. Are there any good box2d tutorials out there?
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This is still true; if your game takes more than one click to set-up, you're losing a dramatic portion of your players.
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Jun 28, 2010
About that spoiler tag, here's how (I think) you should execute that idea:
Have the player type the message out himself.
No, I don't mean having the player write the letter, animal crossing-style. Here's what I mean:
When the player reaches the computer terminal, the game goes into a first person view, showing the computer monitor. Then it stops. The player should know that he has to write a message - the character's intent was clearly stated just a bit earlier, so the player expects the game to take over at this point.
But the game never takes over.
Instead, the player has to type out the message on his own keyboard. One keystroke on his keyboard equals one keystroke from the character. He presses a button on his keyboard (any button) and a single letter appears on the screen. The player starts typing random letters on his keyboard, and the message starts appearing on-screen. The player doesn't get to decide the message's content (that's already pre-determined) but his actions determine the rate at which it appears. If the player pauses to consider his message, so will the character. If the player furiously mashes his keyboard, then the character will type his last desperate message frantically.
This should (hopefully) evoke the same kind of feeling as the end of MGS3 - you have to pull the trigger yourself, making the character's hesitation analogous to the player's hesitation. You are the one writing the message. This gives the player a feeling of emotional closeness to the character, the kind you could only get in a videogame.
As the player types his final goodbye, he reads it - and pauses for a moment to consider his impending doom, before continuing to type. This should evoke a "No, I don't want to do this" response from the player - he doesn't want to keep typing his depressing final message, but he has to.
If you want to be extra cruel, have the character run out of air once he's ~75% through the message - for some reason pressing buttons on the keyboard stops working - the player is confused and angered - and then the camera turns to show the character floating away into the depths of space. The message is never sent.
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I still love this idea, and I hope to use it or see it used someday.
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Jun 28, 2010
Team amputee huh?
I guess my idea wasn't so original after all - I can't wait to see your take on crippling disabilites!
(filter my posts if you have idea what I'm talking about, I'm making a game about a legless archeologist)
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Thankfully, they didn't end up submitting anything. I was the only amputee-based game in that contest.
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Jun 28, 2010
Went and registered my (currently) solo effort as "Team Tezcatlipoca".
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I went on an Aztec Mythology binge with this project. Every power-up in the game has some grounding in actual Aztec Religion.
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Jun 29, 2010
By the way, if there are any artist types out there looking for work, I have work for an artist type - I'm doing a 2D game in Flash, so if you want to contribute some art, contact me.
nagnazul (at) gmail.com
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Jul 1, 2010
I'm messing around with Box2D, working on gameplay - my big problem right now, I think, will be getting a way to design levels painlessly. I don't want to spend a week making a level editor, but I have no idea how to quickly edit levels without hardcoding everything.
I'm using Box2D and flash, if anyone has some ideas.
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The contest starts, and I start coding. I had no experience with Flash or Physics engines before this.
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Jul 1, 2010
The thing is, Box2D doesn't use tiles - It uses shapes, and I'd hate to hit the limit on shapes because I'm using a shitload of boxes.
Anyways, I got the core mechanic working (grabbing onto things):
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.02.swf
You can see what the gameplay is about but it's hella buggy right now.
Back to work!
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The first playable build! Well, technically, the second. The first one didn't feature grabbing terrain and was largely unplayable.
I started the project by using a Box2D demo project; this was incredibly helpful in jump-starting development, as I didn't need to fuss around with architecture or input code or rendering or updates or project files or anything - I just started hacking and kludging code together until I had a game.
The Box2Dflash demo project is still available on the Box2D website: you might spot some similarities!
http://www.box2dflash.org/
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"You can't walk, run, jump or do anything else that requires the use of your legs
because you don't have any"
YHNL stands for "you have no legs"
Thing is, that's barely a step above from hardcoding everything - I'd like something with a GUI to make levels.
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Quite good. I wouldn't say no to having some good music in my game.
nagnazul at gmail dot com
(I could also use some artists!)
By the way, here's my current build:
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.03.swf
There are three modes for the head - I'm not sure which one plays best, so I would like some feedback on this. change modes with R.
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After just one day, I have something surprisingly playable - and actually quite fun.
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You're probably right on that - there are three major physics variables that affect gameplay right now - gravity, density of torso and head, and the amount of torque generated by the arms.
It's going to take a fair bit of tweaking to get those things "just right".
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Jul 2, 2010
Yeah, that's a handstand. I don't think it's a problem, and I'm pretty sure grabbing your way through the level is more convenient and faster so players will probably favor that.
Still, thanks for the feedback!
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Jul 2, 2010
Progress!
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.04.swf
I've started working on a level editor, which works really well, but I still want to add more features - rotations don't work currently, and I'd like to have different objects like triangles.
I didn't get as much done today as I wanted to, since my new computer arrived in the mail and I spent most of my afternoon building it.
E: Btw, I'm still looking for an artist to put some pretty pictures over all this debug draw. Email me! Nagnazul at gmail dot com
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I'd like to implement the ability to throw yourself around - but I can't figure out how. I've tried messing around with gravity, body weight and arm power - what is going on right now is the default behavior for box2d, and it seems that the default behavior is: when a joint gets destroyed, the jointed object loses most of its momentum.
EDIT: this isn't entirely true. Basically, the way that movement works right now is that I set the arm's angle each frame to follow the mouse - there is no momentum, it just jumps into place instantly. If I wanted to keep momentum when releasing, I'd need to create some artificial momentum.
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Jul 3, 2010
email sent.
if there are any artists out there, I'm still in need of one!
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Daily YHNL update!
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.05.swf
Some "Patchnotes"
-I added in artificial momentum, so that when you release an object you keep your momentum. I also set the launch power to something ridiculous for this build, so have fun with it.
-The light blue box is a door - basically, these things will be the invisible boundaries that move you from room to room. Expect smoother transitions in the final product.
-The contact bug is still around and is nasty, so if a certain wall stops responding, use either the D key (to fly away) or the R key (to reset)
-The head modes are gone - solid head mode is here to stay. I've tweaked the physics somewhat to accomodate for it - notably, I've lenghtened the arm about 20%.
I've added in keyboard controls as well- X, Z and spacebar all have the same effect as the left mouse button.
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Yep, that's the oh-so-lovely contact bug. It's been haunting me since day #1, and there's no easy way to fix it since it's a box2d issue.
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Jul 4, 2010
I am very seriously in need of an artist! Gameplay is coming along very well, but the visual side of things still looks like it was made circa 1978!
Daily update for YHNL:
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.06.swf
Added:
-new temp levels to play around in
-A bunch of features to test out my level editor
-bugfixes, including some door bugfixes and the contact bug is gone
-added unclimbable walls, which are red
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As much as I like Rez, I have other plans for this game:
_phixr.jpg)
The game takes place inside an aztec temple - this is one of the backgrounds.
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I'm not entirely sure how the aztec theme came about; I remember thinking that Aztec mythology was under-represented in games, and that it had some interesting imagery I could use. It certainly made for an interesting setting. I may have been influenced by Monster Hunter's Aztec under-tones.
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Jul 5, 2010
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.07.swf
Today's additions!
-Powerups!
-Graphics!
-Sound!
-And taking up 1kb somewhere inside your application data folder because I'm writing stuff there now!
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Jul 7, 2010
Not the most productive of days for me today.
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.08.swf
this one is a touch larger than the old version, it should be easy to see why.
New features:
-Foreground image
-Scrolling doesn't go outside level's borders
-Holding V or B disable the debug draw and the foreground, respectively.
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How long did you stay in that room? It might be because of those 3 falling rocks falling too far and leaving the world boundaries
EDIT: I just sat in there for an hour and nothing happened, so it might be something else...
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Jul 8, 2010
Time for some important design decisions!
I'm implementing spikes and lava inside the game!
Spikes hurt! Lava instakills you!
however!
Which part of the player should count for being hurt?
-Just the torso?
-The torso and the head?
-Torso+head+arm?
As a reminder, here's the game in question: http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.08.swf
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Jul 9, 2010
I feel you, friend.
But yes, after a brief lull in productivity and motivation, I return to flash develop and work until 5AM to bring you...this!
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.09.swf
New features
-Death
-Life (TODO: improve the life display, maybe with a lifebar of some sort)
-Traps (of the hurt and death variety)
-Special effects of the red, white and black variety
-Arm graphic
Probably not too interesting for you guys since I didn't make any new levels to take advantage of the new traps, but it's 5AM and I've been working on this for god knows how many hours straight, so...
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The TF2 engineer patch came out around this time; I lost a lot of productivity just playing TF2 all day. Feeling guilty, I worked on the game until the early morning hours. I ended up seriously screwing my sleep schedule over the course of the project.
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Jul 11, 2010
Man, TF2 and Civ4 are killing my productivity.
I don't really have a build to show for today, though I did work on the game! I fixed the sliding bug (with an ugly hack that will no doubt screw me later on) and I partially solved the question of how I'm going to do graphics.
Speaking of those...
I NEED A DAMN ARTIST
every artist I've talked to comes on, asks what the game is about, says "hey that sounds cool" then disappears into the void.
Someone email me (nagnazul at gmail dot com) or you will all be forced to suffer through level after level of programmer art and google image search.
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I re-installed Civ 4, too. Civ games are terrifying procrastination tools.
Civ 4 ended up crashing my laptop and corrupting my flash installation; I had to re-install flash three times during the project. After the third corruption, I migrated everything to my new computer (and stopped playing civ 4)
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Jul 12, 2010
The wireframe look will be in the game. It'll be an option in the game's menu.
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I said this, mentally filing it under the "nice to have" column. Given how horrible my setup was for menus, this feature didn't stand a chance.
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Okay, saving and loading *works* - however I'm sure you guys will have no trouble breaking it in half, so here you go:
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.10.swf
It's an ugly debug build, but it works. There's only one save point - it saves your location and the powerups you've acquired. Try it, tell me if it doesn't work.
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Throughout the project, I was constantly surprised at how many of flash's features just work. Implementing things like scrolling and saving data was incredibly painless.
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I was afraid that would happen...
Basically, to fix the slip-sliding bug I made the arm stay "awake" all the time, which leads to that.
I could disable the fix, but then the bug would return - whenever you stop moving, you start gliding on the ground, which is really annoying when you alt tab from the game and it continues to play itself.
E: When I woke up today, I was pretty happy with how my game was - then I played this http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/541124
Now my game looks pretty shit.
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Jul 13, 2010
Now with (bad) graphics!
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.11.swf
some areas aren't done yet, hold V to show the debug draw.
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That's uh...That's a bit morbid, isn't it?
I've always thought that the main character was an amputee, but your suggestion intrigues me. I'll consider it.
Solid advice, I'll definitely keep it in mind.
(Keep in mind that I absolutely have the power to make the character move quickly - it's one of the abilities you might find while exploring the temple)
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Jul 15, 2010
This makes me feel slightly better about spending my day drinking beer with friends and nerding out about shaders.
Slightly.
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It was a fun day.
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Jul 17, 2010
After a brief absence...
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.12.swf
New features:
-The map system (it's a powerup)
-Hitting R will reload your last save
I think I've cleared most of the programming hurdles at this point - what's left is building the world - level design, additionnal graphics - and adding in the various powerups: health boosts, climbing boosts, picking up objects, etc.
Still in need of an artist/sound/music guy! If you can do one of those, talk to me! nagnazul at gmail dot com!
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The map system is the best example I can give of a botched-yet-adequate feature. I couldn't rely on the standard tile-based grid map of Metroid games, as the game's room were far too free-form. Plus, I didn't have the time or desire to spend a week developing and debugging a way to map level areas to standardized square shapes.
I also couldn't use a thumbnail of each level, as level sizes tended to vary wildly; building a coherent map would've been a huge pain and a level design millstone.
In the end, I decided to draw the map by hand, with one map image per room in the game. This approach had a number of downsides, but it was something that I could implement easily within a day and didn't require a huge amount of work while building the levels.
I think the map system did what it needed to do; it gave lost players a clue on where to go next, which is all it needed to do in the end.
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Yeah, don't fall off the map. That part of the world is not done.
E: Nvm, you're right, I'm retarded. I set the shouldReset flag to true, but never set it to false again so it reloads every frame.
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Jul 19, 2010
Day 18 update:
Went to see Rammstein live, fuck yeah
No progress though
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Rammstein is badass, no regrets.
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Jul 21, 2010
I'm still alive!
New features:
-Fixed slip-sliding, should not affect gameplay (TELL ME IF IT DOES)
-Added 3 new powerups (okay, one powerup that appears three times)
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.13.swf
Don't forget that you can press V to light up dark areas!
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Also, if I don't get a musician to work for me soon, I will fill the game with miku hatsune music.
this song will feature prominently.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMenThq2HAI
I still need an artist too. I don't think I need to make threats on that one, the godawful ingame graphics speak for themselves
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Fucked up sleep schedules and spending 12 hours a day coding in a dark basement can do pretty bad things to your mental health.
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I need to implement the last 4 powerups.
Then I need to add in some simple animated visual effects for user feedback.
Then I build the world (which should go pretty well given how powerful I made my level editor)
Then...I cry about how bad the graphics are and call it done.
The end is in sight!
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"It's nice to have something which is unfinished, because it implies there is still room for growth"
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I love that quote.
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Jul 22, 2010
Nevermind guys, I just learned my game was terrible, I'm giving up on this contest
"i don't know what type of competition this is, but I don't see this game winning in anything."
"I don't mean to be negative, but that's a terrible game."
"this game is literally awful"
"what the fuck am i playing?
this is never going to win"
"this is easily the worst flash game i've ever seen"
Sorry guys, You Have No Legs is now canceled forever.
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I wasn't seriously thinking about quitting, but having a dozen people slam your game really hurts. If you develop games for the internet, you learn to have ridiculously thick skin.
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Don't worry guys, I'm not seriously quitting. it'll take more than a few hostile forum posters to get me to quit!
But thank you for all the kind words nevertheless!
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Fun fact - doubling the size of your character at a random point in the game is a suprisingly non-trivial task.
(maybe it's because all my code is hacked together
)
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The source code of YHNL is spectacularly messy.
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Or, if you're me, you only have two joints - a neck and a shoulder.
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Jul 23, 2010
Well, all of my game's powerups are done - implemented and working, all 10 of them. Next I'm going to work on improving player feedback and UI - particle effects, fun stuff like that.
I'm still terribly in need of an artist, so PM if you know how to run MS paint.
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Jul 24, 2010
Currently adding particle effects.
I remember reading an article that said something to the effect of "Our game wasn't fun at first. Then we added particle effects, and it became fun. Conclusion, if your game isn't fun, just add more particle effects".
I wish I could find that article again.
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I believe this article was originally posted on GameCareerGuide. I have never found this article again. I wish I could.
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Jul 27, 2010
Man, level design is taking a bit longer than I expected. I've been working on it all day and got roughly 20% of the rooms done.
Here's what my level library looks like:
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Sadly, the real screen-shot has been lost to time, but I re-created it with the final level library. Just imagine 20 levels stacked on top of each other and you'll have a pretty good idea.
Due to how the room-changing code was set-up, I needed to have all of the game's levels in a single moveclip. Near the end of the project, Flash had trouble loading and rendering the clip.
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Jul 28, 2010
I have to say, I love the new google image search.
This is especially relevant considering google image search is my art department.
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Google released a new version of their image search, which was honestly really helpful to this project. Thanks, Google!
I also apologize to all the artists and photographers whose assets I ripped off while making this game. Sorry!
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Still working on levels. I don't think I've ever hit my ctrl+v key this much.
I wish just one of the ten artists I asked was around to help me.
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Every single ground tile in the game was placed through the copy paste tool. There are several thousands of them.
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Jul 29, 2010
Man, I can't even tell if my game is fun or not anymore. I think it is, but I've been playing it for so damn long, I don't think my opinion is worth anything anymore.
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Doing the final tweaking of the physics values was hard; I really couldn't tell anymore what felt good and what didn't. I ended up going back and changing them to be more generous after release, based on player feedback.
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The deadline is on the 31st at 11:59PM, right?
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Jul 30, 2010
There's something very carthatic about putting together the game's ending sequence.
Of course, I'm not actually DONE yet...
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I wish I could add SA smilies in my code.
I'm almost done with You Have No Legs - the game is in a releasable state, and I'm going to spend the last two days on polish.
E: also, backing it up on another harddrive because I feel like Quetzalcoatl is going to get pissed at me and delete my files.
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you too?
damn it, there goes my unique selling point
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Jul 31, 2010
Goddamnit, this end of project has completely killed my creativity somehow.
I need to design and build three more levels - just three levels worth of content - and I can't do it at all.
At least everything else is done...
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If I remember correctly, these were optional rooms accessible only after getting the rock-breaking upgrade.
These rooms led to the size-increasing power-up, which was incredibly poorly received; I thought players would love it as it enabled them to move much faster, but everyone hated that it made it extremely hard to navigate some rooms without hitting spikes.
I ended up turning the size upgrade into an easter egg, a "curse" hidden in a secret room, which made the completion counter go over 100%. I replaced it with a much more interesting wind powerup, which basically allowed the player to fly. All this was done after releasing the game and receiving mountains of player feedback.
As part of those changes, I made the first feather much more obvious to get; most players missed the early feather and quickly got discouraged due to the slow default speed of movement. The game becomes much more enjoyable with your first feather.
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Jul 31, 2010
YHNL is officially done - I'll be making my wiki page as soon as I get up.
Hopefully I won't sleep for two days straight and miss the deadline.
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At this point I was going to bed around 10AM and waking up in the evening.
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What's that flash? You only want to play half of that mp3 before stopping for no reason?
Fuck you, here's an mp3 that's half music and half silence, just for you.
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Yeah. For some reason only half of the title music was playing. I never found out why.
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You have no legs is finished!
You can play it here: http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v1.1.swf (give the game a few moments to load)
It's a 12mb flash file, so it'll take a little while to load.
I'll add a preloader soon, but for now, enjoy the game!
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The competition is over, time to relax...
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Aug 1, 2010
I think my Wii is sentient.
Halfway through the competition, I wanted to get back into Monster Hunter Tri - a game that has consumed over a month of my life. But strangely, no matter how much I tried, I could not get the Wii to connect to the internet at all. So I gave up, and went back to working on the game.
Today, now that the competition is over, I tried going online and - yep, it works now.
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Monster Hunter would probably have destroyed this project. I guess that's why they don't come out in the US anymore?
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Aug 5, 2010
There must be something wrong with me - I just finished this competition 4 days ago and now I'm entering a new one. Starts in 20 hours, lasts 3 days.
Wish me luck, fellas.
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I don't know, I guess I hadn't suffered enough during the month. Hilariously, I ended up actually physically injuring myself during this competition. It didn't go so well.
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Aug 7, 2010
I know it's physically impossible for human being to make a
face, but I'm making the closest thing there is to a face.
Thanks for the feedback
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The positive reception was nice :)
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Aug 9, 2010
I...I won?
Thank you everyone! I'm sorry for giving you carpal tunnel!
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And that's that. Looking back on my posts, I'm always amazed to see how it looks like I know what I'm doing and where I'm going; in all honestly, I was just feeling my way around the whole time, fixing the most glaring issues as they came up.
I learned a ton during YHNL's development, but I have a lot more to learn.
A few years later, I can look back at these posts and see the game take shape, little by little. It's an interesting read, and I'll upload it here for posterity's sake.
Posts are pulled from http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3310460&userid=139715&perpage=40&pagenumber=1
Commentary will be in red.
Context: the contest's theme was announced on may 29th. The contest ran from July 1st to July 31st.
Theme: This year's theme is "You can't ______" - and you fill in the blank. You can't eat, you can't sleep, you can't fart, you can't shoot, you can't whatever, this concept (and lack of ability) has to be core and painfully noticeable in your game. All entries need to adhere to the theme in some obvious and hopefully not superficial manner (or the entry probably won't win).
Nagna Zul
May 30, 2010
Assuming I don't get a job soon, I'm in. I'm currently drawing a blank on the "you can't" theme, but since I'll be going to bed soon that problem should solve itself.
I'll use this as an opportunity to learn to use flash.
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Lost Judge posted:
I'm currently a freelance illustrator/designer.. so if anyone needs any concept/background/character/general art done then i'm willing to help out
I was going to ask how we should contact you, since I didn't want to post my idea, but screw it - no one's going to steal my game concept and then spend weeks of work realizing it.
So here's my (hypothetical) game's name:
You have no legs
The game plays like a platformer, but your character has no legs. Instead, he has a pair of beefy arms that he can use to maneuver around. You use the mouse for everything - moving the mouse around moves your arms, and you can use either mouse button to grab and release things. Your job is then to maneuver around a variety of obstacles with a physics engine and your two beefy arms.
For instance, to go forward, you'd move your arms in front of yourself, grab hold, pull your arms back (dragging yourself forward), release and repeat. I'm sure there's something very symbolic about illustrating the pain of cripples everywhere by making moving around a huge chore.
To climb, you do something pretty similar to walking - you have some limited ability to "launch" yourself into the air by releasing just as you drag yourself up. You can climb across ceilings in the same way, and you'll probably have to do it above a pit full of spikes.
Jumping is done by putting your hands up in the air, making a fist (hold the mouse button) and then thrusting your arms into the ground. The direction in which your thrust your arms will determine where your jump takes you.
You may also be able to punch things in a similar fashion - make a fist, then just thrust your fist into whatever you want dead.
Using this fairly limited and hard to execute repertoire of moves, you must then navigate some basic platforming environments, prince of persia style.
So, after this longwinded post where I expose my overambitious game mechanics, I'm finally going to request some character art (or concept art, or whatever this post inspires you to draw)
If you feel like it, please give me some character art - in any style - of a character with no legs (or perhaps just paralyzed or atrophied legs) and a pair of beefy arms, which he uses for everything. Here's an example - take the prince of persia, remove his legs, and make his arms beefy as hell. Prince of Paraplegics.
Damn, that could be a catchy name. Prince of Paraplegics.
Prince of Paraplegia?
---
Roughly a month before the start of the contest, I had a decent handle on what the game's concept and mechanics were going to be. Some things didn't really pan out, like the jumping; I never actually implemented that mechanic and simply focused on the climbing and launching. Punching became one of the upgrades, although you never punch anything other than rocks.
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Jun 1, 2010
Here's a free game idea, please steal it:
You can't see shit:
A (racing) game where the screen is constantly obscured by glitches and various funky looking graphical artifacts - you could go into a "computer-glitch" matrix style visual style, or you could go for the "acid trip" visual style (http://www.addictinggames.com/skirunner.html) with dance music as the background.
Inspired by this video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OJyCppPNEeM
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Jun 7, 2010
All the way from the first page...
http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...1#post377522342
I'm pretty much set on this idea.
You play as a Jack, a legless archeology student. As part of his Thesis work, Jack visits an archeological digsite in Teotihuacan. Just as he arrives, an earthquake strikes the area and Jack is swallowed by the ground - he falls into what seems like a temple dedicated to the Aztec Gods.
Thus the game plays out as a 2D Metroidvania done in Mesoamerican art style, with aztec murals serving as background for the game's levels. As you explore the temple, you will run into various artifacts - these gives you powerups to help you explore the temple, and once you find the exit will become part of your thesis. Your goal as a player is to explore all the temple, find all the artifacts and get a good grade on your thesis.
Also, I believe I have a soundtrack: http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/avgerinos-maya/
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Jun 9, 2010
Lost Judge posted:
Calling Nagna Zul to the thread; finally got around to two concept pics:
Sorry its taken ages to get around to it
Had fun though, and I'll keep on pumping stuff like this out
Hahahah, what the hell, that's awesome.
I put some more thought into what "You have no legs" will be like - filter my posts if you want to read it.
Still, thanks for those drawings, that looks absolutely ridiculous
Is that first guy wearing a fish?
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This was the first of a recurring pattern; an artist appears, loves the concept, draws some sketches and then disappears into the ether. This happened over and over. I ended up doing (stealing) most of the art myself.
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Jun 10, 2010
El Diabolico posted:
Aww right.. After resolving some stuff, I got time! I'm gonna participate!
I am considering 2 ideas so far. "You can't stop running" and "You can't lose faith."
I need to make something nice to use for trying to get a job too. Everybody wins if I can defeat the beast that is called laziness.
If you (or anyone else) wants to do "You can't stop running", please make something like chaser:http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009...haser_shad.html
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Jun 28, 2010
Shalinor posted:
If you want 2D, go Construct. 3D, Unity. There is zilch reason to do games for competitions like these from lower-level code, UNLESS you're planning on using them in a programmer portfolio, or otherwise want the education experience / have an existing lower-level code base.
... though personally I'm using Unity for a 2D game too. I love the IDE, and just how friendly everything is. I make a script, and it's instantly exposed as a "component" I can attach to anything, purely event-driven. I put a public variable in the script, and bammo, that shows up in the IDE as a tweakable parameter for the component, with nice type-appropriate UI and everything. So freaking swank.
For all I know, though, Construct does the same. But I bet it won't compile to iPhone and Android and MacOS and the web transparently (eee!).
I'm using flash, simply because I want something that runs inside the browser.
When it comes to free amateur games like this, having to download an .exe is a huge barrier to entry. People simply do not care enough about your game to download an exe - they care enough to spare you one click (opening your link in a new tab), but a download is at least 5 clicks and a few seconds of waiting. That's just too much work for a lot of people (including me)
That's my experience from posting my games on forums, anyways - I spent hours slaving away at C++ code and got 2-3 replies, then one day made a janky flash prototype in an afternoon and got several pages full of feedback.
In other news, I'm currently screwing around with the flash version of Box2D, which I will probably be using for my game. Are there any good box2d tutorials out there?
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This is still true; if your game takes more than one click to set-up, you're losing a dramatic portion of your players.
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Jun 28, 2010
Third Murderer posted:
I'm pretty sure I'm okay, but just to get your opinion - I was thinking of doing a game with the theme, "you can't survive," about a stranded astronaut. The goal would be to get to a part of your wrecked ship that has an escape pod before your air runs out (and the end would reveal that the pod is irreparably damaged, and all you can do is send one last message home). Does that fit well enough? I wasn't terribly pleased with my ideas for gameplay gimmicks so I wanted to try a "plot" one instead.
About that spoiler tag, here's how (I think) you should execute that idea:
Have the player type the message out himself.
No, I don't mean having the player write the letter, animal crossing-style. Here's what I mean:
When the player reaches the computer terminal, the game goes into a first person view, showing the computer monitor. Then it stops. The player should know that he has to write a message - the character's intent was clearly stated just a bit earlier, so the player expects the game to take over at this point.
But the game never takes over.
Instead, the player has to type out the message on his own keyboard. One keystroke on his keyboard equals one keystroke from the character. He presses a button on his keyboard (any button) and a single letter appears on the screen. The player starts typing random letters on his keyboard, and the message starts appearing on-screen. The player doesn't get to decide the message's content (that's already pre-determined) but his actions determine the rate at which it appears. If the player pauses to consider his message, so will the character. If the player furiously mashes his keyboard, then the character will type his last desperate message frantically.
This should (hopefully) evoke the same kind of feeling as the end of MGS3 - you have to pull the trigger yourself, making the character's hesitation analogous to the player's hesitation. You are the one writing the message. This gives the player a feeling of emotional closeness to the character, the kind you could only get in a videogame.
As the player types his final goodbye, he reads it - and pauses for a moment to consider his impending doom, before continuing to type. This should evoke a "No, I don't want to do this" response from the player - he doesn't want to keep typing his depressing final message, but he has to.
If you want to be extra cruel, have the character run out of air once he's ~75% through the message - for some reason pressing buttons on the keyboard stops working - the player is confused and angered - and then the camera turns to show the character floating away into the depths of space. The message is never sent.
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I still love this idea, and I hope to use it or see it used someday.
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Jun 28, 2010
Johnny Rascal posted:
FYI, Jose Mengelez and I are confirmed as Team Amputee, and we could also use a chiptune composer.
Team amputee huh?
I guess my idea wasn't so original after all - I can't wait to see your take on crippling disabilites!
(filter my posts if you have idea what I'm talking about, I'm making a game about a legless archeologist)
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Thankfully, they didn't end up submitting anything. I was the only amputee-based game in that contest.
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Jun 28, 2010
Went and registered my (currently) solo effort as "Team Tezcatlipoca".
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I went on an Aztec Mythology binge with this project. Every power-up in the game has some grounding in actual Aztec Religion.
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Jun 29, 2010
By the way, if there are any artist types out there looking for work, I have work for an artist type - I'm doing a 2D game in Flash, so if you want to contribute some art, contact me.
nagnazul (at) gmail.com
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Jul 1, 2010
I'm messing around with Box2D, working on gameplay - my big problem right now, I think, will be getting a way to design levels painlessly. I don't want to spend a week making a level editor, but I have no idea how to quickly edit levels without hardcoding everything.
I'm using Box2D and flash, if anyone has some ideas.
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The contest starts, and I start coding. I had no experience with Flash or Physics engines before this.
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Jul 1, 2010
DBFT posted:
I use a JSON file and load it using as3corelib. So my maps look like:
...
The thing is, Box2D doesn't use tiles - It uses shapes, and I'd hate to hit the limit on shapes because I'm using a shitload of boxes.
Anyways, I got the core mechanic working (grabbing onto things):
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.02.swf
You can see what the gameplay is about but it's hella buggy right now.
Back to work!
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The first playable build! Well, technically, the second. The first one didn't feature grabbing terrain and was largely unplayable.
I started the project by using a Box2D demo project; this was incredibly helpful in jump-starting development, as I didn't need to fuss around with architecture or input code or rendering or updates or project files or anything - I just started hacking and kludging code together until I had a game.
The Box2Dflash demo project is still available on the Box2D website: you might spot some similarities!
http://www.box2dflash.org/
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Tufty posted:
Is your game called 'You can't walk'?
"You can't walk, run, jump or do anything else that requires the use of your legs
because you don't have any"
YHNL stands for "you have no legs"
DBFT posted:
Then you need to be more creative with the JSON array? maybe something like using c for circles and r for rectangles, which can span multiple "tiles", or by by simply having an array of objects then specifies the shape type and the position and size etc?
Thing is, that's barely a step above from hardcoding everything - I'd like something with a GUI to make levels.
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Blinn posted:
Don't know if it's too late to offer help but I'll gladly make some music for anybody that needs it. Here's a track I made for a friend's shmup:
Quite good. I wouldn't say no to having some good music in my game.
nagnazul at gmail dot com
(I could also use some artists!)
By the way, here's my current build:
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.03.swf
There are three modes for the head - I'm not sure which one plays best, so I would like some feedback on this. change modes with R.
---
After just one day, I have something surprisingly playable - and actually quite fun.
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Umbra Dubium posted:
Solid head has the best feel to me. Also, while I expect you haven't finalised the physics, I think having a slightly lower gravity would make throwing yourself into the air and then grabbing onto the ceiling or wall at the apex of your flight slightly easier.
You're probably right on that - there are three major physics variables that affect gameplay right now - gravity, density of torso and head, and the amount of torque generated by the arms.
It's going to take a fair bit of tweaking to get those things "just right".
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Jul 2, 2010
Obsurveyor posted:
Just an FYI: You kinda do have legs. If you get the guy up on his torso, you can hold the arm out at a 45 degree angle or so and he slides along the ground through the magic of no friction.
Yeah, that's a handstand. I don't think it's a problem, and I'm pretty sure grabbing your way through the level is more convenient and faster so players will probably favor that.
Still, thanks for the feedback!
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Jul 2, 2010
Progress!
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.04.swf
I've started working on a level editor, which works really well, but I still want to add more features - rotations don't work currently, and I'd like to have different objects like triangles.
I didn't get as much done today as I wanted to, since my new computer arrived in the mail and I spent most of my afternoon building it.
E: Btw, I'm still looking for an artist to put some pretty pictures over all this debug draw. Email me! Nagnazul at gmail dot com
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Creflo Chronicle posted:
This is pretty fun to mess around with. Will you eventually be able to "throw" yourself around? I could get to some interesting places grabbing the ceilings and swinging a little, but 1 screw up and I fell.
I'd like to implement the ability to throw yourself around - but I can't figure out how. I've tried messing around with gravity, body weight and arm power - what is going on right now is the default behavior for box2d, and it seems that the default behavior is: when a joint gets destroyed, the jointed object loses most of its momentum.
EDIT: this isn't entirely true. Basically, the way that movement works right now is that I set the arm's angle each frame to follow the mouse - there is no momentum, it just jumps into place instantly. If I wanted to keep momentum when releasing, I'd need to create some artificial momentum.
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Jul 3, 2010
Elijah. posted:
So I'm continually hitting creative blocks trying to make my game work. I'm really really hoping I get some sort of inspiration soon. In the mean time, I'd like to offer some music making to whoever wants it. Here are some samples:
Chiptune:
http://tindeck.com/listen/mdhg (cover of Sleepyhead by Passion Pit)
http://tindeck.com/listen/klrf
Cheesy Orchestral:
http://tindeck.com/listen/bjrg
http://tindeck.com/listen/rudc
Ambient:
http://tindeck.com/listen/zrsv (you'll need some decent speakers to hear the beginning)
If anyone's interested, email me at elijahteb(at)gmail(dot)com. This would be a nice way to get creative juices flowing for me, and maybe boost my own game's progress.
email sent.
if there are any artists out there, I'm still in need of one!
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Daily YHNL update!
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.05.swf
Some "Patchnotes"
-I added in artificial momentum, so that when you release an object you keep your momentum. I also set the launch power to something ridiculous for this build, so have fun with it.
-The light blue box is a door - basically, these things will be the invisible boundaries that move you from room to room. Expect smoother transitions in the final product.
-The contact bug is still around and is nasty, so if a certain wall stops responding, use either the D key (to fly away) or the R key (to reset)
-The head modes are gone - solid head mode is here to stay. I've tweaked the physics somewhat to accomodate for it - notably, I've lenghtened the arm about 20%.
I've added in keyboard controls as well- X, Z and spacebar all have the same effect as the left mouse button.
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Pfhreak posted:
Ran into a bug, Nagna. Throw yourself into the teleporter immediately. Then try to move left. After one or two grabs, you can no longer grab the ground.
Yep, that's the oh-so-lovely contact bug. It's been haunting me since day #1, and there's no easy way to fix it since it's a box2d issue.
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Jul 4, 2010
I am very seriously in need of an artist! Gameplay is coming along very well, but the visual side of things still looks like it was made circa 1978!
Daily update for YHNL:
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.06.swf
Added:
-new temp levels to play around in
-A bunch of features to test out my level editor
-bugfixes, including some door bugfixes and the contact bug is gone
-added unclimbable walls, which are red
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Manslaughter posted:
I don't know, I kinda like the wireframe theme you have going.
As much as I like Rez, I have other plans for this game:
The game takes place inside an aztec temple - this is one of the backgrounds.
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I'm not entirely sure how the aztec theme came about; I remember thinking that Aztec mythology was under-represented in games, and that it had some interesting imagery I could use. It certainly made for an interesting setting. I may have been influenced by Monster Hunter's Aztec under-tones.
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Jul 5, 2010
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.07.swf
Today's additions!
-Powerups!
-Graphics!
-Sound!
-And taking up 1kb somewhere inside your application data folder because I'm writing stuff there now!
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Jul 7, 2010
Not the most productive of days for me today.
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.08.swf
this one is a touch larger than the old version, it should be easy to see why.
New features:
-Foreground image
-Scrolling doesn't go outside level's borders
-Holding V or B disable the debug draw and the foreground, respectively.
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Creflo Chronicle posted:
I got it to crash while messing around in the smiley face room:
Click here for the full 1110x681 image.
At this point it went completely unresponsive and I couldn't click over to another tab or do anything with my browser until Chrome killed Flash. Hope this helps!
How long did you stay in that room? It might be because of those 3 falling rocks falling too far and leaving the world boundaries
EDIT: I just sat in there for an hour and nothing happened, so it might be something else...
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Jul 8, 2010
Time for some important design decisions!
I'm implementing spikes and lava inside the game!
Spikes hurt! Lava instakills you!
however!
Which part of the player should count for being hurt?
-Just the torso?
-The torso and the head?
-Torso+head+arm?
As a reminder, here's the game in question: http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.08.swf
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Jul 9, 2010
AnimaBolt posted:
Day 7: brbtf2
(but seriously, I got no work done at all)
I feel you, friend.
But yes, after a brief lull in productivity and motivation, I return to flash develop and work until 5AM to bring you...this!
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.09.swf
New features
-Death
-Life (TODO: improve the life display, maybe with a lifebar of some sort)
-Traps (of the hurt and death variety)
-Special effects of the red, white and black variety
-Arm graphic
Probably not too interesting for you guys since I didn't make any new levels to take advantage of the new traps, but it's 5AM and I've been working on this for god knows how many hours straight, so...
---
The TF2 engineer patch came out around this time; I lost a lot of productivity just playing TF2 all day. Feeling guilty, I worked on the game until the early morning hours. I ended up seriously screwing my sleep schedule over the course of the project.
---
Jul 11, 2010
Man, TF2 and Civ4 are killing my productivity.
I don't really have a build to show for today, though I did work on the game! I fixed the sliding bug (with an ugly hack that will no doubt screw me later on) and I partially solved the question of how I'm going to do graphics.
Speaking of those...
I NEED A DAMN ARTIST
every artist I've talked to comes on, asks what the game is about, says "hey that sounds cool" then disappears into the void.
Someone email me (nagnazul at gmail dot com) or you will all be forced to suffer through level after level of programmer art and google image search.
---
I re-installed Civ 4, too. Civ games are terrifying procrastination tools.
Civ 4 ended up crashing my laptop and corrupting my flash installation; I had to re-install flash three times during the project. After the third corruption, I migrated everything to my new computer (and stopped playing civ 4)
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Jul 12, 2010
Apple Jax posted:
I really liked the wire frame look too. It gave a surreal feeling to the game. Just my 2cents.
The wireframe look will be in the game. It'll be an option in the game's menu.
---
I said this, mentally filing it under the "nice to have" column. Given how horrible my setup was for menus, this feature didn't stand a chance.
---
Okay, saving and loading *works* - however I'm sure you guys will have no trouble breaking it in half, so here you go:
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.10.swf
It's an ugly debug build, but it works. There's only one save point - it saves your location and the powerups you've acquired. Try it, tell me if it doesn't work.
---
Throughout the project, I was constantly surprised at how many of flash's features just work. Implementing things like scrolling and saving data was incredibly painless.
---
polo-rican posted:
Also, something about the gravity feels weird now... the character floats downwards really slowly, and sometimes he'll seemingly gravitate towards the left or right hand edges of the screen.
I was afraid that would happen...
Basically, to fix the slip-sliding bug I made the arm stay "awake" all the time, which leads to that.
I could disable the fix, but then the bug would return - whenever you stop moving, you start gliding on the ground, which is really annoying when you alt tab from the game and it continues to play itself.
E: When I woke up today, I was pretty happy with how my game was - then I played this http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/541124
Now my game looks pretty shit.
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Jul 13, 2010
Now with (bad) graphics!
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.11.swf
some areas aren't done yet, hold V to show the debug draw.
---
Tube posted:
This is totally a minor request, and you probably already have something planned for this, but would it be too much to ask to have your legs fall off upon your initial impact onto the floor? Because that would put a big smile on my face.
That's uh...That's a bit morbid, isn't it?
I've always thought that the main character was an amputee, but your suggestion intrigues me. I'll consider it.
polo-rican posted:
You say "bad" graphics but this already looks ten times better than before... I'm interested to see how it looks once you replace the sprites for the main character.
I really like the gameplay mechanic... it's original and intuitive. The inherent downside, of course, is that the character moves slowly. In order to keep the game as fun as possible, I recommend making the stages 'short and tricky' rather than long. The straightaway in the first room, for example, feels a little long when you have to slog back and forth across it. The second room feels much better because there are less flat areas and you always have to navigate in different directions. Besides making the game more fun, purposely creating short stages will be easier on you, the game developer!
Solid advice, I'll definitely keep it in mind.
(Keep in mind that I absolutely have the power to make the character move quickly - it's one of the abilities you might find while exploring the temple)
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Jul 15, 2010
Megaspel posted:
Day 15 update:
- Still not started.
This makes me feel slightly better about spending my day drinking beer with friends and nerding out about shaders.
Slightly.
---
It was a fun day.
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Jul 17, 2010
After a brief absence...
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.12.swf
New features:
-The map system (it's a powerup)
-Hitting R will reload your last save
I think I've cleared most of the programming hurdles at this point - what's left is building the world - level design, additionnal graphics - and adding in the various powerups: health boosts, climbing boosts, picking up objects, etc.
Still in need of an artist/sound/music guy! If you can do one of those, talk to me! nagnazul at gmail dot com!
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The map system is the best example I can give of a botched-yet-adequate feature. I couldn't rely on the standard tile-based grid map of Metroid games, as the game's room were far too free-form. Plus, I didn't have the time or desire to spend a week developing and debugging a way to map level areas to standardized square shapes.
I also couldn't use a thumbnail of each level, as level sizes tended to vary wildly; building a coherent map would've been a huge pain and a level design millstone.
In the end, I decided to draw the map by hand, with one map image per room in the game. This approach had a number of downsides, but it was something that I could implement easily within a day and didn't require a huge amount of work while building the levels.
I think the map system did what it needed to do; it gave lost players a clue on where to go next, which is all it needed to do in the end.
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Tube posted:
Hmm. It seems to freeze when you fall off the map and die, although it does start you at the last save spot. Hitting R doesn't help with that.
If it helps, I fell off to the right of that area with all the round blocks and the red walls, east of the first save cave.
Yeah, don't fall off the map. That part of the world is not done.
E: Nvm, you're right, I'm retarded. I set the shouldReset flag to true, but never set it to false again so it reloads every frame.
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Jul 19, 2010
Day 18 update:
Went to see Rammstein live, fuck yeah
No progress though
---
Rammstein is badass, no regrets.
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Jul 21, 2010
I'm still alive!
New features:
-Fixed slip-sliding, should not affect gameplay (TELL ME IF IT DOES)
-Added 3 new powerups (okay, one powerup that appears three times)
http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v0.13.swf
Don't forget that you can press V to light up dark areas!
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Also, if I don't get a musician to work for me soon, I will fill the game with miku hatsune music.
this song will feature prominently.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMenThq2HAI
I still need an artist too. I don't think I need to make threats on that one, the godawful ingame graphics speak for themselves
---
Fucked up sleep schedules and spending 12 hours a day coding in a dark basement can do pretty bad things to your mental health.
---
I need to implement the last 4 powerups.
Then I need to add in some simple animated visual effects for user feedback.
Then I build the world (which should go pretty well given how powerful I made my level editor)
Then...I cry about how bad the graphics are and call it done.
The end is in sight!
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"It's nice to have something which is unfinished, because it implies there is still room for growth"
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I love that quote.
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Jul 22, 2010
Nevermind guys, I just learned my game was terrible, I'm giving up on this contest
"i don't know what type of competition this is, but I don't see this game winning in anything."
"I don't mean to be negative, but that's a terrible game."
"this game is literally awful"
"what the fuck am i playing?
this is never going to win"
"this is easily the worst flash game i've ever seen"
Sorry guys, You Have No Legs is now canceled forever.
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I wasn't seriously thinking about quitting, but having a dozen people slam your game really hurts. If you develop games for the internet, you learn to have ridiculously thick skin.
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Don't worry guys, I'm not seriously quitting. it'll take more than a few hostile forum posters to get me to quit!
But thank you for all the kind words nevertheless!
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Fun fact - doubling the size of your character at a random point in the game is a suprisingly non-trivial task.
(maybe it's because all my code is hacked together
)---
The source code of YHNL is spectacularly messy.
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Shalinor posted:
... but that last bit is why you do it 2D. Then you've only got like 11 joints (one neck, two shoulders, two elbows, two hips, two knees, two ankles) which your stupid programmer hands only have to move in single arcs of rotation (yay!).
Or, if you're me, you only have two joints - a neck and a shoulder.
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Jul 23, 2010
Well, all of my game's powerups are done - implemented and working, all 10 of them. Next I'm going to work on improving player feedback and UI - particle effects, fun stuff like that.
I'm still terribly in need of an artist, so PM if you know how to run MS paint.
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Jul 24, 2010
Currently adding particle effects.
I remember reading an article that said something to the effect of "Our game wasn't fun at first. Then we added particle effects, and it became fun. Conclusion, if your game isn't fun, just add more particle effects".
I wish I could find that article again.
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I believe this article was originally posted on GameCareerGuide. I have never found this article again. I wish I could.
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Jul 27, 2010
Man, level design is taking a bit longer than I expected. I've been working on it all day and got roughly 20% of the rooms done.
Here's what my level library looks like:
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Sadly, the real screen-shot has been lost to time, but I re-created it with the final level library. Just imagine 20 levels stacked on top of each other and you'll have a pretty good idea.
Due to how the room-changing code was set-up, I needed to have all of the game's levels in a single moveclip. Near the end of the project, Flash had trouble loading and rendering the clip.
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Jul 28, 2010
I have to say, I love the new google image search.
This is especially relevant considering google image search is my art department.
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Google released a new version of their image search, which was honestly really helpful to this project. Thanks, Google!
I also apologize to all the artists and photographers whose assets I ripped off while making this game. Sorry!
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Still working on levels. I don't think I've ever hit my ctrl+v key this much.
I wish just one of the ten artists I asked was around to help me.
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Every single ground tile in the game was placed through the copy paste tool. There are several thousands of them.
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Jul 29, 2010
Man, I can't even tell if my game is fun or not anymore. I think it is, but I've been playing it for so damn long, I don't think my opinion is worth anything anymore.
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Doing the final tweaking of the physics values was hard; I really couldn't tell anymore what felt good and what didn't. I ended up going back and changing them to be more generous after release, based on player feedback.
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The deadline is on the 31st at 11:59PM, right?
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Jul 30, 2010
There's something very carthatic about putting together the game's ending sequence.
Of course, I'm not actually DONE yet...
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wasabimilkshake posted:
struct Pixel
{
float r;
float g;
float b;
float a;
};
Pixel p;
p.r = 0.5f;
p.g = 0.375f;
p.b =
I wish I could add SA smilies in my code.
I'm almost done with You Have No Legs - the game is in a releasable state, and I'm going to spend the last two days on polish.
E: also, backing it up on another harddrive because I feel like Quetzalcoatl is going to get pissed at me and delete my files.
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Random Stranger posted:
dirty pictures of giant fertility goddesses
you too?
damn it, there goes my unique selling point
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Jul 31, 2010
Goddamnit, this end of project has completely killed my creativity somehow.
I need to design and build three more levels - just three levels worth of content - and I can't do it at all.
At least everything else is done...
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If I remember correctly, these were optional rooms accessible only after getting the rock-breaking upgrade.
These rooms led to the size-increasing power-up, which was incredibly poorly received; I thought players would love it as it enabled them to move much faster, but everyone hated that it made it extremely hard to navigate some rooms without hitting spikes.
I ended up turning the size upgrade into an easter egg, a "curse" hidden in a secret room, which made the completion counter go over 100%. I replaced it with a much more interesting wind powerup, which basically allowed the player to fly. All this was done after releasing the game and receiving mountains of player feedback.
As part of those changes, I made the first feather much more obvious to get; most players missed the early feather and quickly got discouraged due to the slow default speed of movement. The game becomes much more enjoyable with your first feather.
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Jul 31, 2010
YHNL is officially done - I'll be making my wiki page as soon as I get up.
Hopefully I won't sleep for two days straight and miss the deadline.
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At this point I was going to bed around 10AM and waking up in the evening.
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What's that flash? You only want to play half of that mp3 before stopping for no reason?
Fuck you, here's an mp3 that's half music and half silence, just for you.
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Yeah. For some reason only half of the title music was playing. I never found out why.
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You have no legs is finished!
You can play it here: http://www.nagnazul.com/YHNL%20v1.1.swf (give the game a few moments to load)
It's a 12mb flash file, so it'll take a little while to load.
I'll add a preloader soon, but for now, enjoy the game!
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The competition is over, time to relax...
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Aug 1, 2010
I think my Wii is sentient.
Halfway through the competition, I wanted to get back into Monster Hunter Tri - a game that has consumed over a month of my life. But strangely, no matter how much I tried, I could not get the Wii to connect to the internet at all. So I gave up, and went back to working on the game.
Today, now that the competition is over, I tried going online and - yep, it works now.
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Monster Hunter would probably have destroyed this project. I guess that's why they don't come out in the US anymore?
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Aug 5, 2010
There must be something wrong with me - I just finished this competition 4 days ago and now I'm entering a new one. Starts in 20 hours, lasts 3 days.
Wish me luck, fellas.
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I don't know, I guess I hadn't suffered enough during the month. Hilariously, I ended up actually physically injuring myself during this competition. It didn't go so well.
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Aug 7, 2010
Shalinor posted:
Hoooooly shit
You Have No Legs: If this does not win the competition, I'm going to be really surprised. Well, not surprised, but dammit this should easily be in the top 5. THAT WAS AWESOME! PERFECT integration of theme, it's fun, it's explorable, it... just... YES.
(44 minutes, 65% collectibles, and FUCK YOU for that last sequence... which was still awesome in retrospect.)
So, some critical feedback:
- This could be polished into an awesome, awesome game.
- If you do that, you REALLY need an IK system to let you bend your arm.
- Those fucking fruits. Fuck those fucking fruits.
- For google-sourced art, it was surprisingly good looking.
EDIT: Not that there aren't a goodly number of really awesome games, mind, but yours is absolutely up there. And I really like games about exploring / Metroidvanias.
Minotaur: Surprisingly addictive. Audio was fairly annoying, but that was about it.
I know it's physically impossible for human being to make a
face, but I'm making the closest thing there is to a face.Thanks for the feedback
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The positive reception was nice :)
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Aug 9, 2010
I...I won?
Thank you everyone! I'm sorry for giving you carpal tunnel!
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And that's that. Looking back on my posts, I'm always amazed to see how it looks like I know what I'm doing and where I'm going; in all honestly, I was just feeling my way around the whole time, fixing the most glaring issues as they came up.
I learned a ton during YHNL's development, but I have a lot more to learn.
What a great idea to accumulate all your posts with choice replies and your commentary. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Makes me wanna go make a game!
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