We've not formally announced our next game Pig Eat Ball because I'm still figuring out what the heck it is exactly! I've had it in 'prototype mode' for a while now, but fortunately it's shaped up in recent months and things are starting to come together. I hope soon to have some interesting to stuff to show off, like some varied screenshots and a nice video--enough that we could call it a "real announcement".
In the meantime you should know that the game is basically about controlling strange flying-pig creatures in outer space, as they eat tennis balls and deal with each other. The core gameplay is unusual in that the pigs get bigger as they eat things. Their size is used in the collision in the levels. This alters the way the player has to think about moving around the level.
There's no gore, and some unusual gameplay features that make the basis for a new, action-puzzler. It's suitable for kids but is original, and not super-kiddy in the traditional sense. Basically I wanted something I really liked playing, but could show to other people and not have to explain why there's bloody intestines everywhere (our other games are bloody--and I love them dearly--but I figured I'd try something different).
Speaking of levels, we now have a dedicated person, Matthew Barnes, working on the new, visual level editor! He is a coop student from the nearby University of Louisville's School of Engineering. A new editor will assist in making much more interesting, more intricate levels than I've made previously.
Here's the current level "editor" for Pig Eat Ball:
Bahah--Yes! That's just some ASCII characters I arranged by hand to then
interpret as a level.
And here's a level generated from that ASCII code. It's already really fun but could use some sprucing up.
And now that the game seems up to snuff, we've started working on a visual editor!
Okay, that's not really impressive at all, but stay with me. There's some menus and buttons working, you can add some debug-draw objects, we're working on selection, deleting, rotation, and more! All this means our new coop programmer is moving along on the editor, and can start making some real progress.
The reason for the editor now, is to be able to add more details to the levels themselves. The yin-yang level from above is already cool, but I'd like to add more decorations to it, add layers of details perhaps in the foreground, and background, and make connections between some specialty objects that will give us more interesting gameplay. All of this is much easier to do in a visual level editor rather than ASCII.
So for now it's time to hunker down and get coding on this level editor!
Papers, Please is a recent PC game by developer Lucas Pope, which has the player acting as a border officer deciding whom to admit to their country of Arstotzka. The game takes place mainly within a small room acting as a border checkpoint. A long line forms outside waiting to enter your checkpoint, all eager to enter your country.
The player gets five credits for every person processed, and at the end of each day, the money is used to keep their family alive. The player decides how to spend their money on rent, heat, food, and medicine for your family of four dependents. People in line may have excellent sounding reasons as to why they should get to enter even if their papers aren't in order, but you have to balance humanitarianism, penalties from the government, and keeping your family healthy.
I think this is an amazing game, one that could really help reshape peer adult views on the state of video games. Yes--this is, in part, an article about me worrying about the image of video games in popular culture. If that's gross, bail out now! But not before you check out the game, it's excellent!
Appealing Theme
There's very little in Papers, Please that would titillate a pre-teen's interests. While there is a small bit of blood and violence, it's infrequent, and none of it happens because of the player, at least in the traditional manner. There's nudity as well (stylistic, drawn in the game's pixel style, and can be turned off), but it's not at all sexy, and is incorporated as part of the player's job. Deciding to use the body scanner in the game can make you as a player feel uncomfortable. There's typical elements of a FPS such as soldiers, guns, and barricades, but all of it viewed from the bureaucratic side of things. The actions required are skill-based, and time sensitive, but akin to skills developed in the business office, rather than with a controller. The game is difficult, but the second-to-second gameplay comprises analyzing text, correlating information, and following strict rules. It's something that sounds boring to most, but could definitely appeal to 50 and 60 year olds, when cast against the 1980's faux USSR background with the underlying intention of stopping illegal immigrants and supporting your family.
I'm fascinated with how real the characters feelwhom you must process at your border station.In The Sims, the player has God-like control over each Sim, but must baby them, telling them exactly what to do: eat, watch TV, or talk to someone else. They feel like automatons, which is fine, as it serves that game. But in Papers, Please all the characters feel like complete people. I suppose it's from a mixture of the background data provided (via their papers), the tiny slice of their life you get to see, their realistic conversations with you, and your imagination. You don't get to follow them around the alley, and see their dull stare into the distance, or aimless wandering (such as in a GTA game). You see them for a moment, and they feel like real people with real problems. The God-like powers promised by a Sims game are realized here, but in a much more powerful way. When you admit or reject someone, you can imagine it having a real impact.
Situational Depth
Your job in the game can have real consequences rendered. All sorts of situations related to border control are explored here, for instance, you could personally stop a human trafficker from getting through, if you know how to do your job. Or you could accidentally let a suicide bomber through, if you miss one crucial bit of information in an effort to process people more quickly and make more money. The depth achieved here, and the situations created is vibrant and memorable. Bribery, misery, compassion, bomb scares, police brutality--all of this and more happens right next to you, and sometimes you're even the cause of it.
Here's a game I think few adults would feel embarrassed to be caught playing. Many of my friends and relatives play Candy Crush Saga or Angry Birds, but if I bring it up they dismiss as "just a dumb time waster." I think because of the concepts explored, and the agency providedto the player, many more adults could be shown the beneficial and positive artistic expression possible within a video game.
Playing Papers, Please made me recall an interview with Jenova Chen in which he laments the lack of appeal of games for adults.
"My biggest complaint for computer games so far is they are not good
enough for adults. For adults to enjoy something, they need to have
intellectual stimulation, something that's related to real life. Playing
poker teaches you how to deceive people, and that's relevant to real
life. A headshot with a sniper rifle is not relevant to real life. Games
have to be relevant intellectually. You also need depth. You have the
adventure -- the thrill of the adventure -- but you want the goosebumps
too."
This game is a great place to start for many non-gaming adults. The setting is in the past but the concepts of border control, rivaling nations, and the human element are contemporary. The game is compelling both from what happens at your border job, and from how well you can provide for your family. This is a game that involves genuine sympathy and resolving conflicting responsibilities such as those to your direct boss (and the state), to your family, in addition to what seems morally right.
Few Traditional Game-like Elements
I think it's important for most non-gaming grown-ups, that very little of Papers, Please feels 'gamey'. There's no "morality meter"; you don't grow horns or wings based on how many people you help or hurt.You're paid by the state based on what they want to see happen. It certainly feels like a horrible totalitarian regime, but is it? When they tell you watch out for an enemy of the state and detain them, maybe he really did something bad. Or should you believe his story? Are enough other people's explanations starting to form a pattern in your mind?
Having a game that treats the player as a grown-up is as refreshing as having a dramatic game based on a world not too different from reality. While flights of fantasy involving time-travel, blood thirsty orcs, and terrifying aliens is lots of fun (Trust me--I love games with those things!) it's incredible to have a very compelling game, using fairly strict "real world" situations.
Avoiding the Tragedy
Make sure you try the game. It's 10 bucks over on Steam, but I think there's a free beta version available at the developer's site you could use as a demo. Next, get other people to try it. Non-gamers. Maybe your Dad, or Mom, or Uncle, or those guys and gals at work that talk about politics or sports. Get other people to check out a video game that's not all violence and sex, but still mature and deeply compelling, working with concepts everyone knows.
Nope, I don't get any kick-back here--I don't know the developer personally. I just want more people to play a video game and see the powerful work that can be done. Or maybe I do benefit from this--the whole industry could benefit from this. Pulling weight along with the likes of Flower, and Cart Life, maybe games such as Papers, Please can get the video game industry out of "The Tragedy of the Comics" within which we may be forever stuck.
(My current game in early development is about pigs that fly in space and eat tennis balls. It's shaping up to be really fun for gamers of all ages, but I'm 38 years old, and that explanation for my work was a little embarrassing to type.)
Mommy's Best Games is proud to announce one our games is now available on disc! In this current age of independent development, digital distribution, and streamlined costs, it's very exciting for us to have had one our games be deemed so popular that it was included in a disc release.
The Serious Sam Collection is now available for sale on Amazon through publisher Maximum Games and lists the contents as "4 Legendary Games Plus DLC". These include 3 canon Serious Sam games developed by the original developer Croteam, and our own, double-the-wacky Serious Sam Double D XXL!
From a technical standpoint this is also very exciting as I believe this is the only XNA game to have been released at retail on a disc like this. And I can personally confirm that Serious Sam Double D XXL does actually run off the disc itself. The game is not distributed through a download token found on the disc, and you're not required to install the game to the Xbox's harddrive. And the game can run without an Xbox Live connection! From the other XNA devs I've talked to, this is surprising as I think most thought XNA required a connection, or was not built to run off of a disc.
I wasn't involved in the development of this collection, so it looks like Maximum Games did some nice work getting it to run off the disc.
In any case, it's a big day for us, and a nice collection too. Grab it if you're looking for hours and hours of frantic, monster-gibbing fun. When we started back in 2008, I only assumed we'd be releasing games in digital form, never on physical disc, so it's a special honor indeed!
Here's what I've been up to lately at Mommy's Best Games.
As you can see, delightfully, it's almost solid game development! We're deep in the middle of work on Pig Eat Ball, coming to various (TBA) platforms. I've already gotten the Android tablet version working pretty well, now I'm on the PC version, adding content, and ensuring the controls work great. The little pie sliver for Android represents that I have to go back and forth sometimes to prevent code rot. Pig Eat Ball is still far from release, but it's getting very strange and interesting. If you're the adventurous type and interested in helping playtest the game while it's still super early, email me! (Nathan at MommysBestGames dot com, subject: Pig Eat Ball Playtest)
Another good portion of my day is spent on porting one of our popular games over to PC. I can't say much about it because our publisher wants to wait to announce when it's releasing (but that should be a big hint as to what it is! :)
And the rest of my recent time has been spent working with our new Community Manager, Alex Langley, and getting him up to speed. Alex is already doing a great job helping get together some fun MBG Facebook posts like this!
As you can see, not a lot of marketing push at the moment. It's nice have a break, shifting back and forth between lots of development (like now), and other times around game launches, more marketing.
The Ouya game console officially launches June 4th, but has already been sending out Kickstarter backer versions. The game store itself is live. I've had a dev kit console for some time and have been working on an original game for it called Pig Eat Ball. I'm interested in this console, am making a game for it, and want it to do well. It's a low cost console, but doesn't need to come off as cheap. What can make it look cheap and neglected? Quick ports.
Let's turn those shoddy port faces upside down.
Obviously since the Ouya is Android-based many developers have ported their existing games from mobile over to the Ouya. This is fine and many of these games are very polished likeKnightmare Tower, Beast Boxing Turbo, and Gun Slugs.
After playing lots of games currently on the Ouya store, I've been seeing a trend in which a few irksome issues keep cropping up. Here is a simple checklist for developers to consider before releasing games to console. This in general could apply to all mobile-to-console, but I'm specifically thinking of the Ouya (could be for GameStick, others too).
Analog controller sticks require a dead zone. Many, many, many games I've played on the Ouya store have a 'drift' in their controls. It's extremely annoying, especially considering most games on the system currently are action games requiring precision input.
It usually manifests by tapping the left analog stick to move, and after releasing the stick, the character/cursor/etc continues to move in that same direction.
This is easy to fix--in the code, when you get the X,Y back from the left analog stick, measure the distance of this vector and if it's less than a certain amount, disregard the stick press.
I'm pretty sure there's even example code on the Ouya dev site, but I'll present some here just in case.
The float returned from the stickMag function will tell you the length of the vector made by the left stick input. It should be between 0 and 1.0f. The Ouya controllers are pretty gummy, so try making the dead zone fairly large like 0.35f. That is, all input lower than 0.35 in length is ignored.
Make a selected menu option >>obviously<< different from the other options. Being presented with two options such as an in-game store "Buy" "Cancel" and seeing one yellow and one white is not helpful. Some games will say yellow is the selection and some will say white. Simple color coding is not intuitive and it's easy to fix.
Quick--save her! But do you have the right one selected?
There are many simple ways to show something is the current menu option that is selected.
Consider:
Drastically increase the size of the text.
Put a special background behind the selected text
Put a special pointer graphic off to the left
Pulse the scale of the selected text
Put some simple particle effects on the selected text
Support both analog stick and d-pad input for character movement and menus.
Especially on menus but also in the game. It's just common courtesy to
allow for input for both. Some people like to play with the left stick
and some like the dpad. I've played games that for some reason only
allow d-pad input on the menus. I've also seen games that would work
fine with d-pad in the game, but only allow the left analog stick on
menus (in games where the choice of stick/d-pad really didn't matter.
Yes I understand it's possible it could important in a game, but it's
very common that the game would be fine with either input).
Remove mentions of touch/mobile controls. Seeing things like "Tap the screen to continue" or "Press here to continue" when that function is not supported anymore in your game looks rushed and sloppy. Remove all "tap", "swipe" terminology from your game unless it's actually using the mini-touch-pad as the only input.
Please don't make us do this.
Even if it *is* supported to allow the player to tap a portion of the screen to continue on a menu, the touch pad is a chore to use. Support button input, and show button tool-tips.
Remove HUD graphics that are obviously just left over from the mobile version. Based on real examples I've played: When the O button on the Ouya makes the main character shoot, don't leave a big button on the HUD, taking up space, that lets you shoot if you manage to click on it via the touch pad. Sure it's technically possible to click on the button to shoot, but it's very ineffective and the game already has a button on the controller dedicated to that action. It's just wasting screen space, and again looks sloppy.
Don't leave the || (pause button) on the screen as *the* way to pause the game via the touch pad. It's terribly slow to try to pause like that. Use the Ouya system button or another face button.
It's okay to add this!
Please put an Exit option in the game. Yes the Ouya system button can do this, but you can just as easily present the player with a simple option to turn off the game if they'd like to do so.
Remove unused manifest settings. This may be an Ouya system issue, but I've seen some games that when installed prompt that they may need to make phone calls. I'm pretty sure the Ouya can't make phone calls, but if it can, is your game really making calls? The ones I saw with this requested never made calls. If it's not needed, just remove it--it looks sloppy.
First and foremost--please, PLEASE use a dead zone on your left analog stick input. If you've taken anything from this article, go to your code now, and implement a dead zone. Now. This is really bad, as it's making your play experience worse.
Everything else on the list is good too. Basically it means you really cared about bringing your awesome game to new people. No one likes a sloppy port. No one wants to see "Press Start" in their PC games when they don't support controller input, and no one wants "Tap Screen to Continue" in their console games.
They want to think the neat, new game they are considering purchasing was made special just for their system, just for them. You worked really hard on your game. Ports are annoying--I know from experience. Put in that extra effort, clean up your game some more, and make it a AAA port. Good luck! Gamers will thank you.
