Optimizing the Fun: 'Pig Eat Ball' October Update

Pig Eat Ball is getting better and better almost every day! (I say almost, because there are definitely *some* days where things go backwards and you feel like just going to bed and starting over the next day :). But seriously, things are moving along and little bits and pieces keep improving.

We are in the middle of polishing up world 4 (out of 5 total). I've done a second pass on the world boss, and he's fun and playable now.

We are now balancing the 30+ levels, adjusting their placement, their order, and their difficulty. It's tricky because at this point, when playing, the player is 3/4th of the way through the game. So we can expect them to know most of the basic tricks, but there's still new gameplay being introduced! Making sure the game is fair, challenging, but also not babying the player is a fine balance.

Sneak peak of "Pie Dodge" level from world 4.  Note the balls being sucked through.

My lead level designer Andrew Curry has done a fine job whipping up dozens of inspired levels. And we keep smoothing out each level, playing it dozens of times, and then looking for slight object placement adjustments to make. I really like that part, sort of "optimizing the fun" in each level.

Lots of little fixes are being made, for instance, I made a change recently in which the striped straws now pulse quickly in size, if you are sucking balls through them. It makes it much easier, in the labyrinthine layouts of straws, to see which exact straw you're using and where it's connected.

I've been working on making the Royal Clams more expressive and visually interesting. Silly me, early on I made their eye-stalks green, but the background floor is sometimes green too!
I've not changed their eye-stalks to purple. And I gave them one larger eye!
I really like the new design as it focuses your attention and, again, makes them more expressive.
He can also blink now!

Notice the new color on the clam, and the larger middle eye.

And one more big thing, Matthew Barnes, our programmer, is hard at work coding in all the Achievements/Trophies into the game! It's a pretty sizeable list. Some of them are easy to add (eat 1000 balls, etc). Some are really tricky to do and take longer to code, but those are the most fun ones to find as a player.

Okay, back to more world 4 work, and more bug fixes!

Greetings from the Future

Xerxes is one of the first playable characters to which you have access in Weapon of Choice. His Jet Engine gun is one of the most powerful weapons in the game and it gives you the ability to fly around in a jet-pack like fashion. His hovering spin double-jump lets you maneuver even further while in the air! Here's an image from the design specs for his weapon.

As it turns out Xerxes is based on a real person that just happens to live in the year 2188. Here's his new MySpace page. I'd like everyone to get to know him as he has some fascinating insights into the Earth's future. And please, show him some hospitality by adding him to your friends list.

Xerxes redo finished.

Weapon of Choice has over 20 playable characters designed. The artwork is finished for 7 characters and 4 are currently playable. (Yes, there's a lot left to do!) While a lot of games let you see the concept art used, it's not often that you get to see the actual progression of the art. I thought for a change it would be fun for players to see some of the art changes as they happen behind the scenes before the game is finished.

Here is the original image for Xerxes Remington shown during the selection screen:

I like it, and it serves its purpose. But after a lot of discussions, I decided it would be worth trying to make it more interesting. I approached it from two ways: 1. the pose, and 2. the actual design (clothing, hair, etc).

I'm not a great character artist, but I am improving. My ol' buddy Steve Wik *is* a great character artist. He's been drawing characters for years and knows what he's doing. He was so good as to guide me in redoing Xerxes. I picked out the pose but Steve helped make the pose more natural. He also added some neat new design elements, like the tattoos and the goggles. Steve acted as my Cyrano de Bergerac (without the big nose), whispering how to make things cooler looking.

Here's the new portrait for Xerxes:
The new portrait is more energetic, and it also suggests an alternate use for Xerxes' own Weapon of Choice, the Jet Engine gun. Not only does it shoot flames and kill things but he can fly around with it like a jet-pack! I'm still going to do another polish pass on the picture in a few months to improve things like the tattoos and the highlighting.

It was difficult to decide to spend time redoing the art. The old portraits were functional, and get across the general idea of the characters. I decided though it would be worth the extra polish for something so prominent.

The move is finished.

We're back in Indiana! I had to fly with the computer which was pretty scary. It's a desktop model and I hadn't heard of anyone traveling with them (nor read anything prominent on the web). It turned out fine though. I did make sure it was a carry-on, but it's kind of large. It's also a little flashier than the typical grey box, though not particularly spectaular. I'm not ostentatious but this was a simple a matter of economics as it turned out this well ventilated case was cheaper than a dull-colored case. Pretty much any security person over the age of 40 looked at me funny as passed through the checkpoint. Other than that, it managed to fit under the seats of a Canadair Regional jet (2 small seats on either side of the aisle).



Yeah, that's a Victoria's Secret bag holding all my design drawings... sometimes any bag will do.

Powering up, the computer works fine and it's time to hunker down for some character re-works. I'm going for more dynamic poses with better designs in general. I'll post a comparison of the first character's "before and after" when I finish it up next week.