NaGaDeMo - Make a Game in One Month! START!

Apparently, June is now National Game Development Month. To those familiar with NaNoWriMo (writing a book/story in a month), this is gaming's equivalent.

I've been wanting to put my mind to code for a long time, but until now I only had the ambition to play in the kiddie pool. I never gave designing a real effort. Hoping to change that with this challenge, and the one we're about to start with Portal 2 mapping.

Who's with me?! I know at least RiverRatMatt is participating. He's at the top of the registered list. Nice one!

Official Links

http://nagademo.com/index

Project Links

cyrax - https://twitter.com/#!/Holysh*tMatt
Michael - http://nagademo.com/registry/301
RiverRatMatt - https://twitter.com/#!/mattperrin
stevenmack - http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...

I had thought about making a new take on Bust-A-Move very recently, so I'll be working on that idea. Bust-A-Move seems simple enough for a first project. I know I'll eat those words plenty later. With that in mind, I'll be developing with Game Maker. It's a 2D engine, one I've used a little, and the barrier to create is quite low.

I've viewed some tutorial projects in the past, so I'll go straight to implementation, and troubleshoot every 15 minutes when needed. Here goes!

I've got an idea I've been sitting on for a while, it's got lots of cool aspects that you could do with it, but the annoying thing is that I can't quite think how to get the core bit playable and fun. It could be anything from singleplayer to massively multiplayer, first person to fully abstracted to menus, video or board game or social (as in, people in the same room), but it remains a puzzle to me. I love the idea and concept though, no direct combat with your various opponents, but lots of interaction with them.

That's a bit of a tease, but the notes I've got are in no state to share.

Hmm...well I *DID* just download AGS to play around with...

...and it *IS* a pretty slow summer for new game releases to distract me with the shiny....

OK...I'm in. I'm 100% certain I will regret this decision.

Interesting. Love to see what anyone around here creates.

I've been debating whether or not I want to toss my hat in the ring for this one or not. I'm hip deep in working on a larger game, but I have a one-off project that I'm pretty sure I could hammer out in a month. I'll have to ruminate for a couple days.

Hmm, this is interesting. Might do this.

Scratched wrote:

I've got an idea I've been sitting on for a while, it's got lots of cool aspects that you could do with it, but the annoying thing is that I can't quite think how to get the core bit playable and fun.

I had a similar frustration with a card game idea a few months ago. The second I thought of it, I was geniunely extatic. The good supporting ideas kept flowing. I had a great idea, theme, and supporting mechanics. Then came time for me to get the design on paper. I hit a roadblock on pacing and progression, plus the currency of the game. I tried, but nothing I thought of fit. So, it's on the backburner.

stevenmack wrote:

Hmm...well I *DID* just download AGS to play around with...

...and it *IS* a pretty slow summer for new game releases to distract me with the shiny....

OK...I'm in. I'm 100% certain I will regret this decision.

I'm told creation is one of the most rewarding feelings for mankind. Let's find out!

Stele wrote:

Interesting. Love to see what anyone around here creates.

Voyuer. Gross.

Some very WiP things will show up here, be nice kids!

edit:

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I'm hip deep in working on a larger game, but I have a one-off project that I'm pretty sure I could hammer out in a month. I'll have to ruminate for a couple days.

Didn't know you worked with games, too. Well, the least you can do is give the rest of us constructive criticism. Somehow, I think you could manage that.

SixteenBlue wrote:

Hmm, this is interesting. Might do this.

*kick*

Hey Cyrax, remember when we wanted to make a game but nothing got done except for a few key people working on it? I feel bad about that, but still want to make a game. Not sure if I can participate in this though.

Another newer and easy-looking game engine you might want to check out is Construct, similar to Game Maker in that it's relatively drag n drop

Hm. It is summer. I should toss my hat in the ring for this.

Citizen86 wrote:

Hey Cyrax, remember when we wanted to make a game but nothing got done except for a few key people working on it? I feel bad about that, but still want to make a game.

Sure do. I want to make a game, too!

Citizen86 wrote:

Not sure if I can participate in this though.

Aww.

Citizen86 wrote:

Another newer and easy-looking game engine you might want to check out is Construct, similar to Game Maker in that it's relatively drag n drop

Ya, looks very similar to GM. Haven't heard anything of it. Sticking with GM, it's what I know, but thanks for the suggestion.

Kannon wrote:

Hm. It is summer. I should toss my hat in the ring for this.

Don't just go tossing your hat around like that! Do come in, sir.

Unfortunate.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/xPa8y.png)

cyrax wrote:
Citizen86 wrote:

Not sure if I can participate in this though.

Aww.

Yeah I know, but having a new one doesn't really even leave enough time to work and play games, let alone making one. Gosh durn responsibilities

cyrax wrote:

Who's with me?! I know at least RiverRatMatt is participating. He's at the top of the registered list. Nice one!

Yep, that's me. I'm definitely in.

I have 2 experimental games that I'm going to try to get up and running this month. "Captivate/Captivity" is a graphic-less adventure game where you are blind. I'm working on a Mega-Man / Smash Bros. clone prototype called "Mega Robo Team" that my kids want me to make that uses pictures of their art as the map.

Also, I love doing these game jam style events. The sites for LudumDare and Experimental Gameplay Challenge have lots of resources and ideas for getting started. The big tips I can offer is to keep ideas simple, get it up and running first and then polish it. If you're not happy with something, it's okay to start over. Last LudumDare theme was "Tiny World" and I went through 3 ideas in 5 hours before setting on the game I made.

And I'll be posting stuff occasionally to my Twitter feed that's in my sig. Lastly, I might uninstall Tribes Ascend... I love that game but the siren call of well placed turrets pulls me away.

The inspiration for my game is Quintin Stone. What can I say? Sometimes your muse is a beautiful woman; sometimes it's Quintin Stone.

Didn't know you worked with games, too. Well, the least you can do is give the rest of us constructive criticism. Somehow, I think you could manage that.

Le ouch.

I'm in. I've got a couple of rather vague ideas that have similar first steps, we'll see which I end up going with.

I'm in (in spirit). Let's see if I can't paper prototype one of my stupid ideas for card mechanics in a month.

Nice storyboarding there, stevenmack.

Looking around for assets and inspiration last night, I found someone who created a match 3 engine for GM. I loaded it up, but found that some of his code doesn't play nice with GM Lite. Game Maker's not expensive in the least, but until I'm honestly invested in producing something legitimate, I'll only be investing my time. I found and deleted the error lines of code, but I'm debating not using it. I want to make something myself, with no shame in getting as much help as possible, but a whole system might be across the line. I don't have reservations about using it as a reference, so I think that's where I'll head.

Okay, I'll play along. I actually just started something new a day or two ago, so hopefully it still counts. I've been compiling some ideas for an arena-style roguelike (or perhaps a roguelike-like) and have the tools ready to go. I don't have enough RL experience to do the much-vaunted 7-day roguelike, but maybe a full month is enough.

My sparse page. (Not sure what to do with it, actually.)

I started a small project recently using Python and really enjoy the language, so I'll be going that route, I believe. There's a great library for roguelike development called libtcod that should speed things up a bit and has bindings for Python.

I do need a name for it, though... I was going to go with "ArenaRL", but believe it or not a game under that name already exists. "Arena something" or "Something Arena". I probably won't put up a Google Code page/repo until I figure out a name.

The basic gist is to use some roguelike mechanics in an arena environment. 10 bosses in 10 levels, with the two being paired randomly for 100 combinations. Some things I'm not going to have: exploration (each arena is one screen big, no field of view) and no items. The player controls three characters, a fighter, a mage, and a witch. My goal for the witch is to have status effects that are actually useful. I have a design doc on my laptop that I can post later.

Looking forward to seeing what people come up with.

edit: One of the things I really like about Python is that you really don't need a full-blown IDE to be productive, going back to a text editor and interpreter is a lot of fun. I've fallen in love with SublimeText lately, which is pretty similar to Notepad++ but with a little more polish.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single @ symbol printed on a black screen.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/aA7BE.png)

Tomorrow I'll post a pic of the amazing GM creation screen, or if I get enough done, maybe even a game file. No fun will be there (yet), so don't get your hopes up.

Today I re-familiarized myself with the GM's event/action system, started a bare-bones drop-and-stop within an area system, and also frustratingly tried to not implement code. I don't know any libraries, and I want to do most of the work myself. Hulk may not be efficient, but he'll get things done.

Yeah shake it baby.

Count me in! I've been planning on doing an exploratory project in Codea for the iPad, this sounds like the perfect time!

Codea is based on Lua 5.1, so it will be a good, new language to learn.

My goal is to get the basic set for TI3 into a digital, playable format.

EDIT: Nice work, stevenmack.

Good work there, stevenmack. Nice to see some talented participation. It gives me inspiration, so thanks!

Something kind of cool I forgot to mention is Chronolapse. Basically, it's a little app that will grab screenshots of your desktop as you work. It can then merge all the screenshots together into a video that you can embed a music track with and then host on YouTube.

You can grab it here...
http://code.google.com/p/chronolapse/

And here's a chronolapse I did of my LudumDare 23 game set to 20 second captures.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19Ai2...

I just think its fascinating to see stuff come together after your done and a motivator is having that app recording what your doing. It almost tricks your mind to be more productive because you want the video to look good. There are some great examples online, and I think Notch did one for LudumDare 21.

Oh, and if you decide to make a Chronolapse, set a low FPS. The default is 30 seconds I think. I went with 20 seconds for LD23 and next time I'll set it to 10 seconds.

Awesome, now everyone can see how clueless I am! I'll definitely use that, thanks LockAndLoad.

probably going to have to set up a blogger account or something to avoid annoying people too much with my ramblings here, but for now here's a clean version of my plan...

IMAGE(http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i183/stevenmack/thatbloodygamething/prologue_plan.jpg)

...and a quick scribble of the cave entrance area, which will be the starting point.

IMAGE(http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i183/stevenmack/thatbloodygamething/room1_1rough.jpg)

This way to Update 3

Progress!

Got the following areas sketched out and linked together in AGS so you can move from one side of the map to the other easily.

IMAGE(http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i183/stevenmack/thatbloodygamething/update2.jpg)

My biggest hurdle is what to do for character sprites. Didn't even know where to BEGIN making such a thing, so I spent a good chunk of the day looking for something I could use, or at least imitate, for my main character with little luck.

In the end I booted up Fate of Atlantis and did a quick sketch of Sophia Hapgood (actually didn't feel to much like copying since the sprites are so low-res I was mostly just getting the general shape and then filling in the gaps myself anyway - that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it ).

IMAGE(http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i183/stevenmack/thatbloodygamething/update2b.jpg)

Needs work, and sideways walking frames, before I even attempt to put her into the game. Also need to draw a "portrait" view for conversations.
Also need to figure out HOW to add a portrait view for conversations!
And how to add conversations...

Still, progress!

Update 4 - IF YOU DARE!

BAH! Who needs Blizzard's CGI department!
IMAGE(http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i183/stevenmack/anim_left.gif)
IMAGE(http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i183/stevenmack/thatbloodygamething/animation_down.gif)
IMAGE(http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i183/stevenmack/anim_right.gif)

granted, she looks like she's just wiggling on the spot, but it looks a little better in context

...also this took a ridiculous amount of time for 3 frames of animation :O

*updated with more animation that'd make a grown pixar intern weep.
With jealously, obviously.

Wiggle your way over to Update 5 here

I've been seriously contemplating finally sitting myself down and tackling game creation these last couple of weeks, so this is a happy coincidence.

Do any of you have any experience using Unity? I took my first look at it last night, and it seemed quite powerful, but maybe somewhat over-complicated for a first-ever stab. I'll download and take a look at AGS when I get home tonight.

Oh, and good luck to everyone! I'll see how (if?) I progress before I clutter up with more posts

Tamron wrote:

Do any of you have any experience using Unity? I took my first look at it last night, and it seemed quite powerful, but maybe somewhat over-complicated for a first-ever stab. I'll download and take a look at AGS when I get home tonight.

Unity is pretty amazing. It's a bit tough to use for 2D games but for 3D, it is impressive. The thing I had an issue with was learning how all the parts and pieces actually work together. It took me a few hands on tutorials to figure out what the right things were to use in a given situation. Also, you need to unplug your brain a bit when it comes to measurements. You can't really specify 10 pixels here, 5 pixels here, etc. You need to guage scaling and size by just eyeballing it or using code to organize it. Trying to be accurate with measurements is the path to madness.

Here's a good site with tutorials.... http://cgcookie.com/unity/
If you check out the Unity Twitter account, they offer free 2 hour web hosted tutorials that are decent. YouTube help is plentiful.

Lastly, you'll see a lot of Unity users using Blender for their 3D models. One reason is that Blender's models typically have fewer triangles & less geometry to handle (for example, the "plane" shape in Blender is just 2 triangles but Unity's "plane" shape is I think 24). But there is one HUGE problem with Blender models in Unity. By default, when you import a Blender model into a Unity project, the "Animation" setting is enabled. Disable it every time. If you don't, the model will appear at 0,0,0 and never move or do anything. Very very very frustrating because it's a simple checkbox that you have to remember every time.