tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60178451371378726352024-02-19T02:27:41.788-08:00Califer GamesDevelopment blog for our varied games.Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.comBlogger124125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-59011432842445206342015-11-09T15:34:00.001-08:002015-11-09T15:34:38.837-08:00Spirits of Elduurn puzzle solverFor a good long while now I've been working on a solver for Spirits of Elduurn puzzles. The one I had a while ago was good for the easier puzzles, but I would run out of RAM on more difficult puzzles. I figured it was good enough, but a twitter user, @fifteencharworld, was having trouble solving a few problems. Peter tried solving them (since he's better at the game than I am), but he wasn't able to get them down as low as we had written down as the best move count.<br />
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I ended up working on it for a few weeks. I'd put it down, and pick it up again a day later. Made slow progress and finally got one of the hard levels solved after 3.5 hours of running and looking at 9.5 million concurrent paths. Later that night in the shower I thought about how I could trim that down when I realized that there was no way I would have 9.5 million unique and useful paths. Removed all the paths that were in the same position and had removed the same map elements and I solved that level again, but in only 2.5 seconds instead of 3.5 hours! Tried a worst case scenario, unsolvable level with free energy in every slot except for the spirits and demon. Took ~8 seconds. <br />
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This got me excited. If we could have a puzzle solver that works so fast, we could put a level editor in the actual game and let people play a lot more levels! So that's what I did.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu4QWE9bYHa3H2B0NUpwP-t8cTr7Gx_GE1AhssDtwS16YWJ4iNMr6PXtniA9heesVQzP3HL7zZ1hUNEd09wBIDX6yaHiYsMctiu1jSoIq_RJNJTZ5mcq499H0bO1Tqr3O-Gmg6-Ni2e7HV/s1600/Screenshot+2015-11-09+16.20.06.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu4QWE9bYHa3H2B0NUpwP-t8cTr7Gx_GE1AhssDtwS16YWJ4iNMr6PXtniA9heesVQzP3HL7zZ1hUNEd09wBIDX6yaHiYsMctiu1jSoIq_RJNJTZ5mcq499H0bO1Tqr3O-Gmg6-Ni2e7HV/s400/Screenshot+2015-11-09+16.20.06.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Basic editor in action. Still haven't asked Peter for new art.</td></tr>
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Clearly it needs an art upgrade. I just used the Japanese language flag button for the new buttons. I'm working on a GUI that will let you name levels, save, load, upload, and create an account.</div>
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Peter's made a lot of changes to Siphon Spirit as well. Lots of art and story have been added in, and I can't wait to release the demo!</div>
Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-70011504767118723582015-06-11T10:31:00.001-07:002015-06-11T10:31:10.433-07:00Spirits of Elduurn on Playstation Mobile soon!<b>Spirits of Elduurn</b>, our dual-movement puzzle game, will be available on Playstation Mobile on June 17th! <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPQ5NDmZt1maRfhGmONcyXFzLMaGIcmIPQgCuCHo93OaJQYvmSgDpR-SiRhW0orUYylaf8DyluKvBcfdIx3bZzILaQKFm-lScM3q7DTojrU_UUjQDYTcW7Fgg_QY07pehRrRzxp0NOPkhB/s1600/header.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPQ5NDmZt1maRfhGmONcyXFzLMaGIcmIPQgCuCHo93OaJQYvmSgDpR-SiRhW0orUYylaf8DyluKvBcfdIx3bZzILaQKFm-lScM3q7DTojrU_UUjQDYTcW7Fgg_QY07pehRrRzxp0NOPkhB/s400/header.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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It will be free to play on the Playstation Vita.<br />
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You may have already played <b>Spirits of Elduurn</b> on <a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/CaliferDD/spirits-of-elduurn" target="_blank">Kongregate</a>. In this newer version there are three major changes.<br />
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<ol>
<li>An extra set of challenging levels available for purchase.</li>
<li>An art gallery that unlocks more images as you play.</li>
<li>A new touch-based game where you crush demons as they try to escape.</li>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNjOsWmQtt9tC8JLrX2A5QbxHZuUk93mZ98u6FitRtoEbPTEC8P7xdlOdS1NCxzUcAWJ8n23DgPd9DS39yKmFNe2OPToqGzWCGlL66P-kHsVWKd1nP4chPHjSVl0iZiYAuEAYjRLhgZfln/s1600/Gallery.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNjOsWmQtt9tC8JLrX2A5QbxHZuUk93mZ98u6FitRtoEbPTEC8P7xdlOdS1NCxzUcAWJ8n23DgPd9DS39yKmFNe2OPToqGzWCGlL66P-kHsVWKd1nP4chPHjSVl0iZiYAuEAYjRLhgZfln/s400/Gallery.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An image of the gallery</td></tr>
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We're really excited for it to come out next week and we hope that you are too!</div>
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<br />Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-79401417971726700402015-03-02T13:39:00.003-08:002015-03-02T13:39:56.350-08:00Siphon Spirit getting remadePeter's been really busy getting all the art and story ready for Siphon Spirit, but I've been pretty much finished with the code for some time now. Not to mean that I've been doing nothing. I did make a Japanese match-3 game and I've been remaking Peter's Spirits of Elduurn in Unity. This has been really good for me because I am planning on switching development from XNA to Unity. The only lingering issue now is Siphon Spirit itself.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRp8KBbdPYFQls1w0kb_snyXyL-MdUB5H_baaBHB8DK4CC83vaG6HGRsdAtsuX6kMe_fL1zbmmXk5wC60qfywqV5gYrbivRn56LdSwDInYazrlxiChPsqrFRbkOkWK3lRU2zBWsAXkTrSQ/s1600/largeDemonArt.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRp8KBbdPYFQls1w0kb_snyXyL-MdUB5H_baaBHB8DK4CC83vaG6HGRsdAtsuX6kMe_fL1zbmmXk5wC60qfywqV5gYrbivRn56LdSwDInYazrlxiChPsqrFRbkOkWK3lRU2zBWsAXkTrSQ/s1600/largeDemonArt.png" height="266" width="320" /></a></div>
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So I've been working on porting Siphon Spirit over to Unity. I've heard too many time how this game would be perfect for tablets, and XNA just isn't going to get me there. Okay, fine, it could with Monogame, but I'd rather stick with Unity now that I've been using it. It's been quite nice for a lot of the orb stuff and I've managed to clean my code considerably. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiArNmJOEI61KNNAK43LedvahRG3Th8Iv3eXsqreUoFMiVSvLa5tFQNsVzRymB_JGxcZ2a_NdhtQMGyIG1RqtkU8kUKFUo-FB5CsYmk2RBOfa2uI3gT9bpwW0xuE7ySUd0fF-u_48d40SGJ/s1600/badDream.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiArNmJOEI61KNNAK43LedvahRG3Th8Iv3eXsqreUoFMiVSvLa5tFQNsVzRymB_JGxcZ2a_NdhtQMGyIG1RqtkU8kUKFUo-FB5CsYmk2RBOfa2uI3gT9bpwW0xuE7ySUd0fF-u_48d40SGJ/s1600/badDream.png" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Currently I've got all the parts working. My next goal is to take a current level from the XNA version and load it up and get it all working correctly. Wish me luck!Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-28407799700218638542015-02-04T13:40:00.001-08:002015-02-04T13:40:19.191-08:00New Siphon Spirit Art, Spirits of Elduurn is coming right along! I've got a language system so it'll be much easier to get multiple translations in. The new demon smashing mini-game is also near completion and just needs a touch of balance.<br />
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Aside from a few major things that I'm waiting until the last to do, I'm running out of things to work on. So this morning I stopped and just played it. Decided to get really nit-picky and got a new list of little things to work on. Lots of minor things that I can clean up fairly quickly. That's something that I can appreciate since I'm getting a little worn out on Spirits of Elduurn. After cleaning up this list I'm going to take a break and focus on porting Siphon Spirit over to Unity.<br />
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Tune in next time for some new art from Peter!Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-64767822290285744142015-01-30T15:36:00.001-08:002015-01-30T15:36:31.978-08:00End of January UpdatePeter's gotten a more steady schedule now which will allow him to get more art done. He's also being more willing to let me help out on the cutscene scripting and the level design. Siphon Spirit is definitely going to come out this year!<br />
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With that in mind I've been going through and polishing up a number of things in Siphon Spirit to make it a more smooth experience. I'm also fiddling around with getting it into Unity so that we can get it on more things, like tablets.<br />
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But before I go too crazy getting Siphon Spirit in Unity, I've been working on porting Spirits of Elduurn first. I'd love to get it on phones, tablets, vita, and basically everywhere that I can without eating up all of our meager resources. I'm trying to take my port a step further, with some language support (Japanese and Spanish so far), and a purchasable extra set of levels. It's coming along well and I hope to have a screenshot with some Japanese in it soon.Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-74652343353147895652014-12-19T15:34:00.002-08:002014-12-19T15:34:28.199-08:00Spirits of Elduurn and Kana MatchWhy is it that good habits are so easy to break? Well, it's about darn time that I made another blog post!<br />
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During the time of my silence (burn out), we've released a few games and went to a convention!<br />
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<a href="http://califergames.com/spiritsofelduurn/images/SoESiteHeaderShort.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://califergames.com/spiritsofelduurn/images/SoESiteHeaderShort.jpg" height="68" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><i>Spirits of Elduurn</i></b> is a puzzle game where you play as some spirits that brought life to the world of Elduurn. If the art style looks familiar to Siphon Spirit, that's because they are in the same series, and take place in the same world! We released it <a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/CaliferDD/spirits-of-elduurn" target="_blank">for free on Kongregate</a>, so head on over and give it a play!<br />
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<a href="http://califergames.com/images/CGWeb_Promo_KanaMatch.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://califergames.com/images/CGWeb_Promo_KanaMatch.png" height="110" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><i>Kana Match: Learn Japanese</i></b> is the Japanese puzzle game that I'd been working on. After having put it out to <a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/CaliferDD/kana-match-learn-japanese" target="_blank">play on Kongregate</a> I realized that it needed to be much better to be a good tool for learning Japanese. I'm probably going to scrap it and find another way to teach Japanese.<br />
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I'm going to try my best to keep more regular posts coming!Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-23710046997192438242014-06-13T14:24:00.000-07:002014-06-13T14:24:32.756-07:00Japanese Puzzle Game ProgressI've been getting a lot of progress done on the Japanese Puzzle Game. I'm just going to list out everything that I've done since the last post.<br />
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<ul>
<li>Redid the tile art to make it easier to read.</li>
<li>Enlarged the timer/background art so it was easier to see how much time was left</li>
<li>Changed the score to be larger, show the numbers increasing instead of jumping, and got it out of that little box.</li>
<li>Every time you get points it now shows the amount of points you earned.</li>
<li>Fixed a bug that would count matches multiple times (matching five in a row also gave you points for four in a row and three in a row!)</li>
<li>More than doubled the vocab list, with a lot more to come!</li>
<li>Matching four-in-a-row makes a new tile of the type you need to make a word.</li>
<li>Matching five-in-a-row makes two new tiles of the type you need to make a word.</li>
<li>The four-in-a-row tile will give you double points when you match it.</li>
<li>The five-in-a-row tiles will give you triple points when you match them.</li>
<li>Fixed a bug related to clicking, releasing, then clicking and dragging somewhere else.</li>
<li>Completely redid the exporting of the word data and loading it in so I could make a web version.</li>
<li>Added a score multiplier. The longer you keep the puzzle going the higher the multiplier goes!</li>
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So yeah, I've been a little busy. Here's what it looks like now!</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ5cXo9zLOzDlxFye9fMS_NQh-7CcnRF4JxwlOOVrkAl4lq3Ighjgwpxt5P0-LVo5zgbqQ4doPoFSZPuJhez-YwcZyse5QTmV_mf-aNj0T3-9xVSq870QmBvW8hLoPRNn2vSp6y4k4ds1f/s1600/Unity+2014-06-13+15-17-29-73.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ5cXo9zLOzDlxFye9fMS_NQh-7CcnRF4JxwlOOVrkAl4lq3Ighjgwpxt5P0-LVo5zgbqQ4doPoFSZPuJhez-YwcZyse5QTmV_mf-aNj0T3-9xVSq870QmBvW8hLoPRNn2vSp6y4k4ds1f/s1600/Unity+2014-06-13+15-17-29-73.png" height="177" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Obviously, still pre-alpha.</td></tr>
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Though with all of that said, I'm still trying to come up with a name! Japanese Puzzle Game doesn't really roll off the tongue...Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-5421923249201274432014-05-30T15:46:00.002-07:002014-05-30T15:46:48.237-07:00Indie Game NightLast night was Indie Game Night. Those are always fun, and Peter and I stayed very busy showing off three different games. <br />
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Peter was showing Raiders of Elduurn and Spirits of Elduurn. Both of these games are small spin-offs of Siphon Spirit, which takes place in the world of Elduurn.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguKpS2bc_c3QSpz5JvppyaXkwy7QmHmD25UFtYzpp3clcEyshT5_HS-OKUJnVp3PXxOcyKQ0oftuvetAvGrokYQXrqX0Z7gf4ZhJdApV1i0yVuiH5-kvS5AuHREox_jo9GnrMfUhK18suM/s1600/raiders_of_elduurn_title_by_peter_califergames-d7jexyk.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguKpS2bc_c3QSpz5JvppyaXkwy7QmHmD25UFtYzpp3clcEyshT5_HS-OKUJnVp3PXxOcyKQ0oftuvetAvGrokYQXrqX0Z7gf4ZhJdApV1i0yVuiH5-kvS5AuHREox_jo9GnrMfUhK18suM/s1600/raiders_of_elduurn_title_by_peter_califergames-d7jexyk.png" height="125" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Raiders of Elduurn</b> is a card game where you team up with friends to defeat a demon. Each player gets a team of heroes together and they try to find a strategy for taking down the boss before he takes them out. It takes place 20 years before Siphon Spirit does. For more art and gameplay instructions, take a peek at his <a href="http://peter-califergames.deviantart.com/gallery/49621053/Raiders-of-Elduurn" target="_blank">Deviant Art page</a>!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_OjBECbMUTO2W_YkDjUGZdau8H6Udo23opqNmHQ-qsKEn4U5Lz7gGQw3Vukqpbe45gUFF7uGNUks62Uo_2Rbj_pUucIugBSs5TA4aKPMgiLinkjRENQnzOaKpQ4r3evahpDjfI2mzSXhj/s1600/Hira3+2014-05-30+16-27-31-99.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_OjBECbMUTO2W_YkDjUGZdau8H6Udo23opqNmHQ-qsKEn4U5Lz7gGQw3Vukqpbe45gUFF7uGNUks62Uo_2Rbj_pUucIugBSs5TA4aKPMgiLinkjRENQnzOaKpQ4r3evahpDjfI2mzSXhj/s1600/Hira3+2014-05-30+16-27-31-99.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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I got a lot of feedback on my Japanese Match-3 game. First thing I learned is that even people who like games enough to make games don't know what a match-3 is. Guess I'll just be calling it a puzzle game from now on. This also makes me realize that I can't just put a match-3 in front of someone and expect them to figure out. I guess I'll need a tutorial even for something like this. Even more so since about half the people who tried it got confused and were trying to switch tiles from one side of the board to the other.<br />
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The other feedback that I got was that it was really hard to read. All the images at the back of the tiles were making it too hard to really see everything that was going on. I think I've fixed most of the issues now, but it's a strong reminder that Peter is the artist on this team!<br />
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Peter's hoping to launch Raiders of Elduurn as a free, printable black and white version sometime next week. Hope to see you there!Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-54650329640464099022014-05-02T15:43:00.001-07:002014-05-02T15:43:46.652-07:00I didn't make itYeah, long story short, I did not finish the Japanese Match-3 game. I have been making progress on it, but my family and I spent a week sick so I'm behind. Also, every time I sit down to get something done, Terraria somehow starts up. Then I end up playing late and don't get enough rest to function well enough to work on complicated stuff during my development the next day and I end up playing Terraria and ... well. It's a viscous cycle.<br />
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I did get a number of things done though. I've got most of the icons done, and I've updated the web page to export words in a format that I can read in and pull vocab from. It's now selecting a word and pulling the tiles from that. I don't think I'll be doing too much gaming over the weekend since all my computer parts have arrived and it's time to rebuild my computer! Looking forward to finally getting off of XP.<br />
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Peter's been having some issues with his computer. He's taken to referring to it as his "zombie". While it's down he's doing storyboarding and getting the story for Siphon Spirit completely nailed down.<br />
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Not too much to say, but hopefully there will be a lot more next week if I can just convince myself to get to bed at a decent time!Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-37246939668470789232014-04-09T14:45:00.001-07:002014-04-09T14:45:12.565-07:00It's matching time!While putting together the Match-3 in Unity I found out that velocity was supported, but not acceleration. It didn't take me too long to get tired of blocks falling at an even speed and I decided to try using gravity.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgisqLjQCqi8UW7R2gPo-6JGWuTw7IGOtOGmiu-3vRP_ZLGR68zyRXPBZGJL95oz3N-SOgq6pffFwvwOwLbmGaVg9CiYGme2MgrEoZPTl4hvD_fD-XAgSGxr0NJr5YqozVORYep9PPV3vMS/s1600/Unity+2014-03-25+08-38-58-90.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgisqLjQCqi8UW7R2gPo-6JGWuTw7IGOtOGmiu-3vRP_ZLGR68zyRXPBZGJL95oz3N-SOgq6pffFwvwOwLbmGaVg9CiYGme2MgrEoZPTl4hvD_fD-XAgSGxr0NJr5YqozVORYep9PPV3vMS/s1600/Unity+2014-03-25+08-38-58-90.png" height="144" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Turns out adding physics to a match-3 wasn't the best idea.</td></tr>
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Stuff ended up not falling very far before getting stuck and stopping all gameplay. I ended up putting in my own acceleration to make things better.</div>
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One of the biggest problems I've had when telling people about the match-3 I'm working on is that no one knows what I'm talking about. I almost always have to tell them "Like Candy Crush. Match three things and they vanish." Once I got past that past and told them how I'm going to make it an educational game, they are usually excited about the idea. </div>
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Since it's not very far along, I didn't want to have many people test it. That was a big mistake on my part. I've shown it to two people so far, and even just as a basic match-3 I could see there were some problems. I've got it set up for click and drag, but both of them clicked on a tile, then clicked on the tile they wanted to switch it to. Allowing that method of play is my next goal, after I finish building the database. </div>
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One other thing that showed up in testing was something that I was worried about. I had the board set up so that only one thing could happen at a time. You switched tiles? Nothing can happen until it either makes a match or switches back. That's pretty fast, so no worries there. You made a match? You can't make another move until the tiles are gone and new ones have fallen in to take their place. I kept telling myself that it would be okay, but I knew I wasn't being truthful. After watching their frustration watching the clock tick down while they couldn't do anything I knew I had to change it.</div>
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That took longer than expected, because I didn't plan it out well and my todo list just said "make it so you can match at any time", when really that should have been broken into smaller tasks to help me focus. It was basically a rewrite of the update function and I changed a LOT of stuff around. But as of today it's all working and it's much better than before for it.</div>
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I'm feeling pretty motivated to get this thing finished. There's a Japan Festival coming up on the 26th and I want to have it done by then. Will I be able to? I'm not totally sure. But I'm hopeful!</div>
Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-63215341867889269972014-03-13T15:22:00.002-07:002014-03-13T15:22:29.650-07:00What we've been up to!Yesterday on the train to work I say next to a guy from <a href="http://www.neumont.edu/" target="_blank">Nuemont University</a>. I remembered that their gaming program hosted Indie Game Night a few times so I started talking with him. Turns out he's one of the teachers in the gaming program and he had a really nice chat. Near the end, he asked me if I had any projects I was working on. I hate that question. I always freeze up and I'm never sure WHICH project to talk about first. Then I realized that we've been working like crazy on all sorts of stuff but I haven't updated the blog in a while. So here we go, all the projects that are currently on our plates!<br />
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<a href="http://califergames.com/siphonspirit/images/Miranda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://califergames.com/siphonspirit/images/Miranda.jpg" height="320" width="209" /></a></div>
<b>Siphon Spirit</b> is still our main project. But we are very worried about not being able to get word out to people. Peter took some time away from Siphon Spirit to work on a trailer for it while I worked on the editor. We soon realized we needed something more than a trailer to get people's attention. So Peter started working on a new project.<br />
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<b>Spirits of Elduurn</b> is a puzzle game written in flash. We're going to be releasing it everywhere we can to pull people's attention to <b>Siphon Spirit</b> when it's ready. It tells the history of the world that <b>Siphon Spirit</b> takes place in. Peter's handling this one solo since he works in flash.<br />
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My side project while I was waiting for Peter to get back to Siphon Spirit is <b>Japanese Arena: Kana</b>. A game for learning the basics of Japanese. I've put that on hold because it's being written in XNA which doesn't give me many options for porting out. I needed to find something else to program with. I started rewriting <b>Spirits of Elduurn</b> with a built in solver and editor as well as a few more new elements. It's fully functional now, but missing a few screens such as the level select.<br />
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But then I realized that I didn't need to know how to make it in XNA. I already know how to make games in XNA (even if I don't have as much time to do so as I would like!). So I downloaded unity last week to get going in that. I've finished a few tutorials and I think it's working out for me well. But then I decided that I wanted to make something even easier than <b>Spirits of Elduurn</b> to ease me in better. I decided to make a simple <b>Match-3</b>, which is nearly functional now. Of course, since I'm solo-ing it it looks hideous. Frankly, it's much worse than <b>March to the Moon</b> because I haven't even tried to do any art on it. I just made a square, set it to different colors and exported them. It will look much better when I'm finished, but my main focus is learning how it all works. Once the match-3 is fully functional I will make it available as a web game. Don't worry, I am not going to just make another generic match-3 and throw it out there! I have a nifty little twist that I think will make it really unique.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC8x1IiktITTUaDgsZJRH6APXMRRCqSliNv6_jULK5gudL6Naux_lMFrEA4fiGiNfBGrOLmq0YwraQb3BCLqbsNQoicGcEHbw3y4lZ_FtxJ-9EGNGhtlEbz7Y-pmqWSxrQH55XR6ePGI3K/s1600/DemonDragon.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC8x1IiktITTUaDgsZJRH6APXMRRCqSliNv6_jULK5gudL6Naux_lMFrEA4fiGiNfBGrOLmq0YwraQb3BCLqbsNQoicGcEHbw3y4lZ_FtxJ-9EGNGhtlEbz7Y-pmqWSxrQH55XR6ePGI3K/s1600/DemonDragon.png" height="320" width="208" /></a>I think that's plenty of projects for a two man team, both with day jobs and two young kids each. But wait, there's more! Peter's been teaching a game design class at a community college and I've been teaching Japanese. For some reason we both chose Thursday as our teaching night, so neither of us have been able to make it to the last few Indie Game Nights. On top of both of us teaching, Peter's put together a Siphon Spirit-based card game to inspire his students with. An early example is on the left. Did you know there were dragons in the Siphon Spirit world?<br />
Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-43126761553763858772014-01-09T14:03:00.001-08:002014-01-09T14:03:23.309-08:00Don't be a designer.When I was growing up, I wanted to be a game designer. I wanted to come up with the stories, design worlds, do all that stuff. In high school I designed a table-top RPG that my friends and I had a lot of fun playing. When it was time for college, I decided I needed to get an English degree. As a designer, I figured I'd be writing a lot of dialogue, design docs, flavor text, etc. English degree seemed to be the way to go. I told my dad that's what my plan was, and he said no. He reminded me that he was helping to pay for my degree, and he wanted his money to go to something useful.<br />
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So I decided I would get a degree in Computer Science. I figured it would help me understand when I talked to the programmers what was possible and not. I knew that I wouldn't be very good at programming because I took a high school AP class and I couldn't really do anything after it. I mean, I really couldn't do anything useful. All I could do was declare variables. (Turns out that the teacher was just really bad. Everyone in the class got the lowest possible score on the AP exam.) So I took some time in college to learn how to program. It was rough at first because most everyone else there seemed to have some practice with programming. I felt very behind.<br />
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But I got to the point that I could start doing things. I started making my first game. A little text-based RPG I wrote in Java called <a href="http://www.cs.utah.edu/~mirci/DarkenedDreams/" target="_blank">Darkened Dreams</a>. (I only wanted to get the link, but I ended up playing like a half-hour and now I'm convinced I need to remake it! I've gotta tame that Giant, Draconic Bunny I saw outside of town!) This taught me a lot. Not only programming (I learned so much, I never want to look at that code again!), but also something major that I learned about my dreams.<br />
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<b>I was now able to make a game.</b> I could do all the design just like if I was a designer. Sure, it's still just squares and circles and a lot of text, but I did it. At that point, my dream of just being the guy that writes stuff down and has other people turn it into a game felt silly. I never realized I was shooting so low. Throughout this, and working at <a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/19/sensory-sweep-studios-founder-jailed-and-fined-1-2-million-for/" target="_blank">Sensory Sweep</a>, I learned a lot about the dangers of being a designer. I want to share them below. These are not in order of importance.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">It doesn't pay as much as other jobs in the same industry.</span></b><br />
No matter how important having a good designer is, the designer is going to be paid less than the other people on the team. The producers, the artists, the programmers. They are all getting paid more. Maybe you'll say, "Fine, I don't care about getting a lot of money, I just want to make games." And I'll say "Fine, why don't you get some more skills so that you can get paid MORE to make games. And be able to make games even when you're off the clock because you have the know-how to do it?"<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Your skills are only relevant to a single industry.</span></b><br />
When I was in college, I knew I wanted to make games. That's all I wanted. That's all I would ever do. I would make games from the time I got out of college until I retired. Maybe make some more afterwards, just for fun. You know how long I was in the game industry? TWO YEARS. That's right, only two years before I realized that working on a game that you don't care about isn't any better than working on any other project you don't care about. First game in the industry was a kid's game based off of a movie. Second game was My Japanese Coach, which I believe I have complained enough about. Third game was some pro-wrestling game for the DS, and I have no interest at all in pro-wrestling. And with how unstable the industry was and is with my young family to care for, I needed something better.<br />
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If I had focused all my studies towards being a game designer, what else could I have done? Welcome to McDonalds? That's not a better way to take care of a family. With my coding skills I can and did get another job. A good artist can always get a job. A game designer is pretty limited in what they can do.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Your skills are only relevant to a single, crowded industry.</span></b><br />
When <a href="http://kotaku.com/5138893/labor-dept-says-utah-dev-owes-workers-2-million" target="_blank">Sensory Sweep</a> started sinking, we started running to the other game companies to try to get work. They weren't particularly looking to hire, especially not is such large amounts. I ended up leaving the game industry, and even with two degrees (Computer Science and Japanese) it took me seven months to get another job. Do you know what I heard over and over? "All you do is games." As if writing a game was such a simple task that I would never be able to learn how to code up the forms that they wanted. <br />
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Months after I'd gotten a job, I met up with two designers I knew from Sensory Sweep. Still no work a year later. No hope of work on the horizon. I felt terrible for having a job. Survivor's guilt, I suppose, but a little more than that. I knew, deep inside, that that was the life I had chosen. If not for my dad veto-ing the idea of an English degree, I would have been in the exact same position as them. Jobless for more than a year with no hope on the horizon, wife and baby to take care of while I lose more and more self esteem through hundreds of companies never calling me back or offhandedly dismissing me.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Your skills are only relevant to a single, unstable industry.</span></b><br />
After I got out of the game industry I kept in touch with a lot of people that stayed in. For years, I kept hearing about layoffs. People that suddenly didn't have a job anymore. A friend of Peter's was at his birthday party and we got to talking. He was a designer. He had just gotten laid off. In his words, he was now working a "dead end job" somewhere. Say he got another job at a game company. How many years would he be able to stay before another lay off happened?<br />
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If you want my advice, work on building up a marketable skill first, then worry about design second. When I started this path, not only did I not know how to code, I was lead to believe that I was bad at it. I hear people that complain that such things are too hard for them. There are a number of valid, useful skills that you can learn. Programming, Art/Animation/Modeling, Business, Marketing, Community Management/Leadership, Music/SFX. <br />
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Now, I'm not saying that designers are bad, or that wanting to be a designer is bad. Designers have a very important role to play in the game industry. A great designer can turn a decent game into a great game. But it's just not safe enough to rest all your hopes and dreams on it.<br />
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And say you get out of the game industry. Say you go indie. Indies wear many hats. They need to do multiple things. If you are a pure designer, who is going to want to join up with you? Design is the easier of the hats to put on, so it's more likely that an artist and a programmer will team up to make something and do the design between them. <br />
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<br />Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-85930224722867356042013-12-11T16:43:00.003-08:002013-12-12T09:13:19.677-08:00Christmas Wallpaper!Happy Holidays from us here at Califer Games! Peter's whipped up a nice wallpaper of Miranda from Siphon Spirit fighting off a festive demon. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://califergames.com/siphonspirit/images/wallpapers/ChristmasDemon_Thumb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://califergames.com/siphonspirit/images/wallpapers/ChristmasDemon_Thumb.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Krampus?</td></tr>
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There's a bunch of different sizes for it at the <a href="http://califergames.com/siphonspirit/media.php" target="_blank">media page</a>, so head on over and get the size you want! Other wallpapers are also available for those not in a holiday mood.Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-87816066861689232782013-11-27T15:33:00.004-08:002013-11-27T15:33:54.223-08:00You're not importantI was reading an article the other day by Indie Gamer Chick, where she talked about <a href="http://indiegamerchick.com/2013/11/11/chickstarter-episode-1-a-rewarding-experience/" target="_blank">doing a kickstarter correctly</a>. Well, mainly it was a list of what not to do. One in particular was to not set a really high reward for people to come out and meet you. After seeing some ridiculous high costs for being able to meet the developer, she had the following to say.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You would be lucky to have someone eat lunch with you and pick up the check, let alone get $10,000, or $1,000, or even $100. If the reward involves anyone flying out to meet you, save it. I don’t know who you are, but I assure you, you’re not worth it.</span></span></blockquote>
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This made me remember something that happened at Indie Game Night a while back. I was walking down the halls when I met up with a large group all heading to Indie Game Night, but weren't quite sure which room it was in. I offered to guide them and asked if they all happened to take the same bus or something. They chuckled and said it was something like that. Then they told me they were <a href="http://tripleslashstudios.com/" target="_blank">Triple Slash Studios</a>. I wracked my brain, but couldn't think of who they were. When we got into the room I googled them and realized that they were the group that made <b><a href="http://www.magneticbynature.com/" target="_blank">Magnetic by Nature</a></b>. I'd read a positive review about that in the last week and was somewhat familiar with the game. If they had introduced themselves as the team that made <b>Magnetic by Nature</b>, I would have had some idea of who they were, and had something more to talk about.<br />
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I'll admit that I made a similar mistake on <b>March to the Moon</b>. One of the testers mentioned that they didn't like it when a company put the company name first in the installer, but since I was allowing them to set their own path it was probably okay. But really, me setting the default installation path to be "Califer Games/March to the Moon" was a BAD idea. Say someone bought <b><a href="http://califergames.com/marchtothemoon/download.php" target="_blank">March to the Moon </a></b>and left it at the default install path. Later on they want to mod it, but they can't find <b>March to the Moon</b> anywhere. I know that I'll look around in my folders and wonder what on earth they're holding. <b>Gaslamp Games</b>? Who's that? Oh, this is the <b>Dungeons of Dredmore</b> folder. <b>NIGORO</b>? I don't think I have a game called <b>NIGORO</b>. Oh, it's <b>La-Mulana</b>.<br />
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Gaming news outlets have it figured out. If they do mention the company name, they'll usually clarify it by adding in a "makers of _____". Again, it's not the developers that are really important. If you're doing things right, many more people will play the game and have a good experience with it than will ever meet you and have any real experience with you. Put the game first. If it does well, you can make things easier by declaring that you are the developer that made "Awesome Game 1".<br />
<br />Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-42348168945325011482013-11-20T13:41:00.002-08:002013-11-20T13:41:44.268-08:00Spirits of ElduurnPeter's been working hard on Spirits of Elduurn, and I've been hard at work making a simple game to test on multiple development methods. Peter's work has the advantage of being nice to look at, so here's some art for you.<br />
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<a href="https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1402452_10151835431459825_1463042040_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1402452_10151835431459825_1463042040_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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He hasn't told me what it's all about, but I do know that Spirits of Elduurn covers the tale of the creation of Elduurn, the world that Siphon Spirit takes place in. The large creature is also the color of the spirits in Siphon Spirit. What do you guys think is happening?Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-16608032487344607022013-11-13T20:49:00.000-08:002013-11-13T20:49:07.723-08:00XNA Alternatives - Time to start lookingI've pretty much wrapped up on the editor for Siphon Spirit. This puts me in an interesting position. See, I could get back to work on Japanese Arena: Kana, but frankly, I'm rather nervous about it. XNA is what I've been using for making the games so far, and the future doesn't look to bright for it. I'd really like to get Japanese Arena on tablets and phones as well. XNA just doesn't do that. XNA will make games for XBox LIVE Indie Games and Windows. Windows 8 gives it problems since they only work in desktop mode and not metro mode. The new XBox One is coming out soon, so maybe there won't be too much use in putting games in an older console.<br />
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It's time to move on.<br />
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But what to? Whatever I choose, we're going to want to port Siphon Spirit over to it since it would be great on a tablet. There are a lot of options out there. GameMaker, MonoGame, Unity3D, SharpDX, SlimDX, SFML, etc. I'm going to list out all of them, and start weeding them out. Starting with what platforms they cover, and how much it costs for each platform. After that, I'm going to make a simple game in XNA. I'm going to port that game to each of the survivors and see which is the easiest to use. Now to get a simple game going in XNA. Wish me luck!Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-19228058431090383782013-11-07T10:46:00.002-08:002013-11-07T10:46:38.786-08:00A new orb appearsNow that the massive level editor is fully functional, I decided to take it for a test spin. I started making a few levels and fixing little bugs when I realized there was something I always wanted in Siphon Spirit but never realized it. As it is right now, when you get close to an orb absorbing will happen. If you're bigger than the enemy orb, you'll absorb from it. If you're smaller, it will absorb from you. Spells and Demonic Voids will always absorb from you. Everything absorbs.<br />
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I decided to go a little crazy and add an orb that doesn't absorb from you. Touching enemies is a bad idea, since you permanently lose energy. Touching these new orbs is even worse, since they remove even more energy from you. On the bright side, you can get really close to them without losing any energy. I'm calling them Thorns for now. Maybe Peter will change that later. Just make sure you don't touch them, or ...<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiLsEaJOQqAvyr91B-rTNK5nMDIva9z4pBykZz4cbopuf82Cvtel7BxXzmvxOWSDl4VM478VnBqV_gcnD6E8elO7AiNmQDSe7jI7Q-nPU_S3zK0l5f_OHc0JE8lTTkMo8Am-Zoq33Myu0F/s1600/hurt_04.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiLsEaJOQqAvyr91B-rTNK5nMDIva9z4pBykZz4cbopuf82Cvtel7BxXzmvxOWSDl4VM478VnBqV_gcnD6E8elO7AiNmQDSe7jI7Q-nPU_S3zK0l5f_OHc0JE8lTTkMo8Am-Zoq33Myu0F/s320/hurt_04.png" width="252" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Owww!!!</td></tr>
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Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-53133704147326506852013-10-23T14:49:00.002-07:002013-10-23T14:49:25.283-07:00Not much to reportPeter didn't get much done this week since his computer died. I didn't get much done this week because Pokemon came out. Sorry. We have high hopes for next week.Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-18525868211157124642013-10-17T15:45:00.002-07:002013-10-17T15:45:50.909-07:00Editor: Making things nice and user-friendlyWorking on the editor has been a long task. A few times I felt burned out and decided I needed to work on something else for a while. Each time, I was back to it after a single day or working on something else. I need to get this thing done. <br />
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Fortunately, I'm getting awfully close. Right now I'm tweaking the level loading and saving to be a little more useful, and after that I'm putting in some developer only stuff, like which map to place it on and where it goes. How to unlock it, whether it's hidden or not. That kind of thing.</div>
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There's still one major thing that I need to add for the general public. And for Peter, really. I haven't told him too much about how to actually use it, so my plan is to just give it to him and see what he has questions about. The next big thing is adding in a help subscreen for each screen. So if you're not sure about something, you can press Shift+F1 and it will bring up a screen to help explain things even more than the description boxes for each input.</div>
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On an unrelated note, I've been practicing vector art so that the next time that I make a solo game it will look way better than <a href="http://califergames.com/marchtothemoon" target="_blank"><b>March to the Moon</b></a> did. Below is an example of what I've been working on.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4QCD5poGO96Fflr52J92zA9FnQVmV33t40xLhJVkrJjWkveC9xbVgOIWTlfR5tehLWSb76uBAGaiJpXzRJ_eTU1Fql3qT3b5D_wV4PPGusQ8NAywD4dmQIM3YayGJ2yecYldtRhQcqOOc/s1600/chick3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4QCD5poGO96Fflr52J92zA9FnQVmV33t40xLhJVkrJjWkveC9xbVgOIWTlfR5tehLWSb76uBAGaiJpXzRJ_eTU1Fql3qT3b5D_wV4PPGusQ8NAywD4dmQIM3YayGJ2yecYldtRhQcqOOc/s320/chick3.png" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is what happens when my wife makes suggestions.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-82643829804881835052013-10-03T13:50:00.001-07:002013-10-04T13:15:42.919-07:00Indie Game Sneak Peek Report<div>
We recently had an event where we could go and show the public games that we've been working on. We had a great time there and found that the time passed all to quickly. We saw a lot of interest in our games and we're happy that we got to go. Usually when there is an indie get-together, either <a href="http://rampantgames.com/blog/" target="_blank">Jay Barnson</a> or <a href="http://monkey-time.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Greg Squire</a> will do write-ups. I didn't see either of them, so I figured I might as well do the write-up this time. Here we go!</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Magnetic by Nature</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">by</span></div>
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TripleSlash Studios</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKPMNZXjYLtId90OLW_LPX9Fa5Ltimts3oLWvmN2bVOWqf0VNBqYMYYHoPDfVM9wnEUB8wLQGSXHOGai7o0Il_oSoa2UkQ9Sea7EqewGpPiEPBz4WG3IHFtk3aPI4KQNY2F61NmI3n3upM/s1600/Magnetic-by-Nature-Video-Game-Design-School-Reviews.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKPMNZXjYLtId90OLW_LPX9Fa5Ltimts3oLWvmN2bVOWqf0VNBqYMYYHoPDfVM9wnEUB8wLQGSXHOGai7o0Il_oSoa2UkQ9Sea7EqewGpPiEPBz4WG3IHFtk3aPI4KQNY2F61NmI3n3upM/s320/Magnetic-by-Nature-Video-Game-Design-School-Reviews.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Magnetic by Nature is a game about magnets. You play as a robot and aside from basic movement and a jump button, you have a attract button and a repulse button. I had a lot of fun with this one, as there was a good sense of movement and momentum. If I saw this on Steam's Greenlight I'd totally vote for it. The screenshot above doesn't really do it justice because it's from the older XBox LIVE Indie Game version. The current one looks better but I can't seem to find any screenshots of it! They recently had a successful Kickstarter campaign and are working on the PC, Mac and Linux builds. They are the ones that set up the event, so a big thanks to them! </div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/MagneticByNature?fref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/TeamTripleslash" target="_blank">Twitter</a> | <a href="http://tripleslashstudios.com/" target="_blank">Company Site</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TripleslashStudios" target="_blank">Company Facebook</a> | <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tripleslash/magnetic-by-nature" target="_blank">Kickstarter (Funded)</a> | <a href="http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Magnetic-By-Nature-Awakening/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550d0a" target="_blank">Buy on XBLIG</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Siphon Spirit</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">by</span></div>
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Califer Games</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCHJUNoNotFZ5lKI_9B8lj2-4kuyzcbL3ySBFZFbATFpznF8fJnfTMSaDKNpOej6pTn_ACy6kxbL9Xrq8aXt7NfDJAcIenDoWuJDci1guiBkN41i3DiBUxD5BFKYmF_eg6Mvmw6qr6HP6M/s1600/05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCHJUNoNotFZ5lKI_9B8lj2-4kuyzcbL3ySBFZFbATFpznF8fJnfTMSaDKNpOej6pTn_ACy6kxbL9Xrq8aXt7NfDJAcIenDoWuJDci1guiBkN41i3DiBUxD5BFKYmF_eg6Mvmw6qr6HP6M/s320/05.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Hopefully it should be no surprise that we were showing Siphon Spirit. For those of you new to this blog, <b>Siphon Spirit</b> is an action-puzzler where you use a holy orb to absorb and purify energy from smaller demonic orbs. You need to be careful with your energy. Getting hit by blasts or running into enemies will permanently decrease your energy. You'll need that energy to defeat larger demonic orbs as well as cast spells. Plenty of people enjoyed it, so we're excited. We're hoping to have a Kickstarter set up soon so we can pay for music, voice acting, and porting to different systems.<br />
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<a href="http://califergames.com/siphonspirit/" target="_blank">Game Site</a> | <a href="http://califergames.com/" target="_blank">Company Site</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/CaliferGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a> | <a href="http://blog.califergames.com/" target="_blank">Blog</a> | <a href="http://califergames.com/siphonspirit/download.php" target="_blank">Windows Demo</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Califer-Games/323184644824" target="_blank">Facebook</a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Spirits of Elduurn</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">by</span></div>
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Califer Games</div>
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<a href="http://califergames.com/spiritsofelduurn/images/gameplay1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://califergames.com/spiritsofelduurn/images/gameplay1.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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This was fun for me, as I hadn't played a version of it in a while and Peter's made some big changes and cleaned it up a lot. This is a puzzle game where you control a light and dark spirit to destroy demons and create a world. <b>Spirits of Elduurn</b> is going to be a free flash game which we will be using to promote <b>Siphon Spirit</b>.<br />
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<a href="http://califergames.com/spiritsofelduurn/" target="_blank">Game Site</a> | <a href="http://califergames.com/" target="_blank">Company Site</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/CaliferGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a> | <a href="http://blog.califergames.com/" target="_blank">Blog</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Califer-Games/323184644824" target="_blank">Facebook</a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">March to the Moon</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">by</span></div>
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Califer Games</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicoe9I-3XRKKHcNljth2srM7a1C2_VvYEjPsPQGocye0rF-gETRMYzE45zuVY9PJA6WkjPpphv-AWtzitAo-PewIk9XxBU7hj82U-TUBb6AsjgrsGjdeqp8cED7mDbZo4DJK7oRocSwlPW/s1600/FireGuy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicoe9I-3XRKKHcNljth2srM7a1C2_VvYEjPsPQGocye0rF-gETRMYzE45zuVY9PJA6WkjPpphv-AWtzitAo-PewIk9XxBU7hj82U-TUBb6AsjgrsGjdeqp8cED7mDbZo4DJK7oRocSwlPW/s320/FireGuy.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>March to the Moon</b> is a fairly silly top-down shooter/RPG. You stoically march forward, killing everything in your path as you try to solve the quest of rats in a cellar which gets out of hand quickly. Soon after stopping the rat infestation you are fighting goblins, then aliens, then end up in a massive battle on the moon. There are twelve different skillsets you can choose from, and you can learn two skillsets per character. Want to be a Necromancer/Paladin? Sure thing.<br />
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I didn't think that I'd be showing this one too much since it has already been out for a year, but a lot of people wanted to play it and really enjoyed it. I may just dive back into the <b>March to the Moon</b> universe after our current projects are done.<br />
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<a href="http://califergames.com/marchtothemoon/" target="_blank">Game Site</a> | <a href="http://califergames.com/" target="_blank">Company Site</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/CaliferGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a> | <a href="http://blog.califergames.com/" target="_blank">Blog</a> | <a href="http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/March-to-the-Moon/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550bc5" target="_blank">Buy on XBLIG</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Califer-Games/323184644824" target="_blank">Facebook</a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Japanese Arena: Kana</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">by</span></div>
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Califer Games</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCAzps4qjkOIwGwbu_AjhelR9IMOWkbp09WRzHPllQdu3WZDE5PSVbBOiXUDBeN0WxNcJS8gNMMs2beS5Vo51uwWbX5biEBEqYiB7FTUJmQM9WDZkAi6Fh55LKmN1K2ResI2c7zkF6txlb/s1600/Kana+Dirk+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCAzps4qjkOIwGwbu_AjhelR9IMOWkbp09WRzHPllQdu3WZDE5PSVbBOiXUDBeN0WxNcJS8gNMMs2beS5Vo51uwWbX5biEBEqYiB7FTUJmQM9WDZkAi6Fh55LKmN1K2ResI2c7zkF6txlb/s320/Kana+Dirk+1.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Japanese Arena: Kana</b> is a game for learning how to write the two basic Japanese character sets. It also has a few hundred words so that you have a reason to remember the characters. It also has battles where you fight traditional Japanese monsters with traditional Japanese weapons and armor. This got some good reception as well and I was able to figure out a few things I can do to make it better. It's still really early on so there were some crashes but no one seemed to mind, thankfully.<br />
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<a href="http://califergames.com/" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Company Site</a><span style="text-align: center;"> | </span><a href="https://twitter.com/CaliferGames" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Twitter</a><span style="text-align: center;"> | </span><a href="http://blog.califergames.com/" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Blog</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Califer-Games/323184644824" target="_blank">Facebook</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Momentum</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">by</span></div>
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Projectile Entertainment</div>
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<a href="http://projectileentertainment.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/projectilebackground.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://projectileentertainment.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/projectilebackground.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Momentum is a game where you use the controls to twist and rotate the path so that the ball can travel along it. It looks great, but I didn't actually get a chance to play this one. From what I did see, it's pretty hard. Seems like half the time I looked over the ball was falling from the path. Maybe it just takes some time to get used to (which is something that you don't really get at a show like this).<br />
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<a href="http://projectileentertainment.com/" target="_blank">Company Site</a> | <a href="http://projectileentertainment.com/blog/" target="_blank">Blog</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/momentumgame" target="_blank">Facebook</a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Halfling Wars</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">by</span></div>
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Chondrostrike</div>
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<a href="http://www.indiepubgames.com/mediaLib/images/HalflingWars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="http://www.indiepubgames.com/mediaLib/images/HalflingWars.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Unfortunately, they'd already left by the time I got it into my head to do this. I didn't get a chance to play it. From talking around, it sounds like it's a fairly complicated game. Stuff like RPGs or strategy games have a hard time at these kind of things where people want to just walk up and play something. It's apparently pretty good since it was either a winner or a finalist for the Utah Game Wars. I'll just have to let their pages do the talking for them.<br />
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<a href="http://www.halflingwars.com/" target="_blank">Game Site</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/HalflingWars" target="_blank">Twitter</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HalflingWars" target="_blank">Facebook</a> | <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/83484466/halfling-wars-mobile-social-rpg-from-the-hobbit-ge" target="_blank">Kickstarter (Funded)</a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Disaster Mage</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">by</span></div>
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Disaster Mage Team</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYCLhK70TreC1RCcp4QUw0BSX7crQ8uAGlD-qVcprkRzCt2nMC3XHmZAuSgcMyya5CpgrMR-XvOZLRXRRLabEv7nUZzWmiCnkJA5AnP81HwZyTDsE-o_-L5DNwG0uyvkonl8hz7Gs7FWM-/s1600/Screenshot_2013-09-29-11-24-10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYCLhK70TreC1RCcp4QUw0BSX7crQ8uAGlD-qVcprkRzCt2nMC3XHmZAuSgcMyya5CpgrMR-XvOZLRXRRLabEv7nUZzWmiCnkJA5AnP81HwZyTDsE-o_-L5DNwG0uyvkonl8hz7Gs7FWM-/s320/Screenshot_2013-09-29-11-24-10.png" width="192" /></a></div>
<b>Disaster Mage</b> is a phone game where you need to use your wizard to shoot fireballs at the rocks falling towards the village. It's fairly early still, and the screenshot above does not have final art. They're planning on adding more enemy types as well as more spells to fight off the upcoming disaster. Planned for Android and iOS.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Flame Warrior</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">by</span></div>
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Eidolon Games</div>
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<a href="http://www.eidolongames.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Combat-300x187.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.eidolongames.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Combat-300x187.png" /></a></div>
Flame Warrior is a space-faring combat and trading game. I didn't see the trading, but the combat works mainly by momentum. If you are in range of the enemy the ship will fire it's laser, and the opponents will do likewise. Your job is to steer the ship by basically setting a waypoint and making sure that you don't send your ship into a bunch of other ships or an asteroid. Peter played it a bit and I watched (we just kinda hoped all our stuff would still be at the table when we got back).<br />
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<a href="http://www.eidolongames.com/blog/" target="_blank">Blog</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Equalize Math </b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">by</span></div>
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Rainblade Studios</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDVH3BJ37ckGNqxDvYDrUbNEmZB6xD9KZydW99JDPFY4sMAwmU2LzFgXCJpf-m6EZ4SgBxsPBqIYwBWOa8v_gp2EiI5q29U6rEFfcn6N-KGWslyB6uUPzKtTHrXBxebyi2Kh49XZVuoL3W/s1600/EqualizeScreen2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDVH3BJ37ckGNqxDvYDrUbNEmZB6xD9KZydW99JDPFY4sMAwmU2LzFgXCJpf-m6EZ4SgBxsPBqIYwBWOa8v_gp2EiI5q29U6rEFfcn6N-KGWslyB6uUPzKtTHrXBxebyi2Kh49XZVuoL3W/s320/EqualizeScreen2.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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The best way to think of Equalize Math is to think of math Tetris. Each row has a goal you need to hit and you can change whether the falling number is positive or negative. To keep it from being too darn confusing there is a 'total' column as well so you know how far off you are from finishing the row. It's been recently released on both iOS and Android.</div>
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<a href="http://www.equalizegames.com/" target="_blank">Game Site</a> | <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/equalize-math/id680194508?mt=8" target="_blank">Buy on iTunes</a> | <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rainbladestudios.Equalize&hl=en" target="_blank">Buy on Google Play</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Untitled Co-Op</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">by</span></div>
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Mount Olympus</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJRZ15TB0Fq-qBz4AqlQr_VQ0gA9bpI7EG6tFuZScAAKlW2IeLmCwE_DH2UkMO9MNLD_BH-nnK8MkQExkaq4iZ4QnqH-nJJeEJ6-ac-i2JoRaDG-MYLLg5sYQGr6bBTRiqMgUGkmjhjhej/s1600/styleguide_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJRZ15TB0Fq-qBz4AqlQr_VQ0gA9bpI7EG6tFuZScAAKlW2IeLmCwE_DH2UkMO9MNLD_BH-nnK8MkQExkaq4iZ4QnqH-nJJeEJ6-ac-i2JoRaDG-MYLLg5sYQGr6bBTRiqMgUGkmjhjhej/s320/styleguide_3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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First off, sorry if there are any artifacts in the image. The file he sent me was massive so I rescaled it. As the missing title may have led you to believe, this is a co-op game. One player plays as the girl, and the other plays as the boy. They must get through a series of traps by helping each other to get all the coins and then get inside the tree. The game doesn't look like the image above yet, but that's the plan. I just want to know what's inside the tree to make it WORTH fighting through net guns, tenacious fireballs and who knows what else!</div>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/LyleCox" target="_blank">Twitter</a> | <a href="http://blog.mountolymp.us/" target="_blank">Blog</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Draw Space</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">by</span></div>
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Alex Johnstone</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1I6C4thaEzPBC1b4ajIVZf5ch7dD1mNN0BiKGy7fMxiPJqrdx7O-lD1WfgRjjMilwd0kXJLP1VKCsSIFaSNoAywG_SVDrE2_39qt9LSfjyLoUknFB8GTM4eSCY53dnev8ulEfmnUvmJox/s1600/draw+space.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1I6C4thaEzPBC1b4ajIVZf5ch7dD1mNN0BiKGy7fMxiPJqrdx7O-lD1WfgRjjMilwd0kXJLP1VKCsSIFaSNoAywG_SVDrE2_39qt9LSfjyLoUknFB8GTM4eSCY53dnev8ulEfmnUvmJox/s320/draw+space.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I totally missed this one. Their table was right across from ours, but by the time that I had gone through the other games in the U shape they had packed up and left. I heard that it was more of a toy than a game. If you want to know more, stop by their Facebook page and ask them what it's all about.</div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/PlayDrawSpace" target="_blank">Facebook</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Zen Boat & Side Effect</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">by</span></div>
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RegionSyx</div>
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I would have done these separately, but I can't find any images anywhere. <b>Zen Boat</b> is a game where you draw a current on the screen with your finger to move the boat along. It's pretty early still and I ran out of water, so I used the current to fling the poor boat off the screen. <b>Side Effect</b> was a simple game where you tap a square and it changes the color of the surrounding squares. Eric Hurst (the developer) correctly deduced that I had played a number of games with the exact same mechanics.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Firefighter & A Game for Two</span></b></div>
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Vince Betteridge</div>
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<a href="http://vincebetteridge.com/firefighter/ScreenshotLevel2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://vincebetteridge.com/firefighter/ScreenshotLevel2.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Darn it, another set of games that I can't find any images for. (Edit: Vince commented with a link to some screenshots) <b>Firefighter</b> is a game where you are a firefighter and you need to go and save people. There is also a cat that you can save as a bonus, but I had a hard time not getting the bonus because KITTY. He's working on making the tutorial a little easier to understand and adding in challenges. It was fun, but what I really enjoyed was his other game.</div>
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<b>A Game for Two</b> really threw me off. When I saw that it was multiplayer, and that the controls were both on the keyboard I was kinda okay with that. Then I saw that the movement keys were right next to each other (Player 1: A,D; Player 2: Z,C) and the jump keys were also right next to each other (Player 1: J; Player 2: U). Vince told me I should get a stranger to play with me. I'm actually pretty shy so I said I'd just write some notes for this post. As I was scratching it out, he brought someone to team up with me. After figuring out how we could both use the keys without cuddling, we got going. And we had a BLAST. This was probably my favorite game (that I didn't make) at the Sneak Peek. If you've ever played <b>Thomas Was Alone</b> (Vince hadn't, to my surprise), this game was Thomas Wasn't Alone. It played nearly identically, but with a multiplayer element that allowed you to get through puzzles faster than if you were playing single player and just switching between blocks. It was only 3 levels long, but I really enjoyed it.</div>
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<a href="http://vincebetteridge.com/" target="_blank">Company Page</a> | <a href="http://vincebetteridge.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog</a> | <a href="http://vinceb.newgrounds.com/" target="_blank">Newgrounds</a></div>
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P.S. To the developers who attended: Sorry for getting this up so late. Things were pretty crazy for me the last few days. This took a lot longer than I thought, trying to find screenshots and company info. If I do this again in the future I will ask participants to send me info. Also, I went home with more pens than I came in with. If you are missing a pen please email me the description and I will send you a <i>hostage</i> <i>photo</i>.</div>
Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-47514417850241827332013-10-01T15:45:00.000-07:002013-10-03T10:43:34.578-07:00Spirits of Elduurn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpUP_kj_4FgzPp7qKMSFxhEClTYCXd6S3EJB3XwObQ97A3v_j_pd5-QtXT77Jy-vfClEsfkQK_qpWSUtiC7Nds-dQFXrA7QXsd7GMbAoTwFeCBqHG1QodOfjirmNkCQFYT8BjoMPodPN-f/s1600/1380548_10151731690924825_2022450925_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpUP_kj_4FgzPp7qKMSFxhEClTYCXd6S3EJB3XwObQ97A3v_j_pd5-QtXT77Jy-vfClEsfkQK_qpWSUtiC7Nds-dQFXrA7QXsd7GMbAoTwFeCBqHG1QodOfjirmNkCQFYT8BjoMPodPN-f/s320/1380548_10151731690924825_2022450925_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
We're proud to announce Spirits of Elduurn, coming soon to a browser near you! It's a puzzle game that Peter is making to be a free game to help promote Siphon Spirit. Check out more about it in its <a href="http://califergames.com/spiritsofelduurn/" target="_blank">webpage</a>! Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-23053438995700465502013-09-27T20:26:00.002-07:002013-10-01T15:31:10.109-07:00Indie Game Sneak Peek<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPXGMPjHEUIjL21Kzo89LjPA3MN-UkV8AO_uycsWVB3389G0khlyxCOIbtLmrYIfzwyTgJpk0RIIvNsTBtKZdJplzdSnqxzKKeySNt-PbK9vKB45tKsLuSyW3uuz5mL_I8FuwPtaULQEoX/s1600/1377365_222366111261173_1604896989_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPXGMPjHEUIjL21Kzo89LjPA3MN-UkV8AO_uycsWVB3389G0khlyxCOIbtLmrYIfzwyTgJpk0RIIvNsTBtKZdJplzdSnqxzKKeySNt-PbK9vKB45tKsLuSyW3uuz5mL_I8FuwPtaULQEoX/s400/1377365_222366111261173_1604896989_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Hey everyone! I just wanted to tell you that we're going to be taking part in the Indie Game Sneak Peek tomorrow where we show off the games that we're working on. Of course, we're not going to be the only ones! There are going to be at least 6 teams showing up, and they're all going to be showing games. We're going to be showing Siphon Spirit, an as-yet-unrevealed game, and while we're at it I might also show some March to the Moon and Japanese Arena.<br />
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All the details can be found <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/509959209086266/" target="_blank">right here</a>. Hope to see you there!Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-48712326989360103252013-09-12T13:39:00.002-07:002013-09-12T13:54:15.621-07:00How to make a Siphon Spirit orbWhen we first started working on Siphon Spirit we needed a way to show how much energy an orb had. We decided to make it as a bunch of particles that would circle the core of the orb. This led me to my first problem. How was I going to modify the particles' position so that they went in a circle? The answer was Trigonometry.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkvcF13Kt4SgM_KfHwi8jqay4QDfzoxT0rpYNe_2ZRCpFOmtrdavUiT0JYC5RqWpc_LY_G7QFKOIf386RlzuvRwTtZTkwwFNwOywRL3D3ZJViu861rG_eVAjGpHAaJ8oCskZ3WHlV6b4dX/s1600/Siphon+Spirit+2013-09-10+21-08-31-16.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkvcF13Kt4SgM_KfHwi8jqay4QDfzoxT0rpYNe_2ZRCpFOmtrdavUiT0JYC5RqWpc_LY_G7QFKOIf386RlzuvRwTtZTkwwFNwOywRL3D3ZJViu861rG_eVAjGpHAaJ8oCskZ3WHlV6b4dX/s1600/Siphon+Spirit+2013-09-10+21-08-31-16.gif" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pictured: Trig in action</td></tr>
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Trigonometry? Isn't that the thing that they made me learn in school for some reason but never showed me how it could actually be useful? Yeah, that thing. Since I never saw a use for it and it was just something I had to do for a required class I just remembered it long enough to take the test. <br />
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When I needed to modify the position of the orb I needed to change it's X and Y values. In order to get a circle, I had to use both sin and cos. </div>
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X = cos(t); Y = sin(t)</div>
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That's the (extremely) basic formula for a circle. We need something to be the t variable. We need something that will constantly and smoothly increase in size so that it continues along the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sine_wave" target="_blank">Sine Wave</a>. Without an increasing number, the orb would just stay in the same place. Time is a great tool for that, since it's always progressing. </div>
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X = cos(time); Y = sin(time)</div>
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This is a step in the right direction, but it still needs work. Not only is it going in little tiny circles, it's circling the 0,0 position on the screen instead of where the orb is! Let's handle it not being in the correct position first. When I make the particle, I can tell it what the position of its parent orb is. Since X and Y are already being taken for the position of the specific particle, I'm using J and K for the X and Y of the parent orb. We add those positions to the formula so that the particle will rotate around the center of the parent orb.</div>
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X = cos(time) + J; Y = sin(time) + K</div>
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That's better, but the more particles we add to an orb we see that they are all focused at the very center. We need it to spread out so the whole thing is filled with particles. For doing this, I decided to use the radius of the parent orb. This helps make sure that the particles never go flying out of where the boundaries of the orb are, and that as the orb gets bigger the particles don't keep filling up at the center. I do randomize it a bit so that the particles aren't all completely uniform.</div>
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X = radius * cos(time) + J; Y = radius * sin(time) + K</div>
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This gives us our final formula for updating the particles as they move around. Mostly. I also give each particle a randomized velocity (movement speed) based on the radius so that that's also not moving uniformly. The velocity modifies the time to either make it faster or slower than other particles. I also randomize how big each particle will be. The effect that I want is that it's a flowing, living piece of magical energy. Controlled entirely by trigonometry and a little bit of randomness.</div>
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So for all those like me who just couldn't see why anyone would care to learn trig, take another look at the orb below. I couldn't have made it without trig.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjorDztwFGpb4PIHjcP02duCZ9g43ESP9LPh5Ul37MMbSQb2BX1GX7bk1BJStNGaMAjthv8N70UKI2jWz-74svL1PDrV5uLc9qN3l0N6HTg8oKGOnLC2atN5YTaQC2eetiXVMdwqKEc-iRf/s1600/Siphon+Spirit+2013-09-10+21-08-31-16.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjorDztwFGpb4PIHjcP02duCZ9g43ESP9LPh5Ul37MMbSQb2BX1GX7bk1BJStNGaMAjthv8N70UKI2jWz-74svL1PDrV5uLc9qN3l0N6HTg8oKGOnLC2atN5YTaQC2eetiXVMdwqKEc-iRf/s1600/Siphon+Spirit+2013-09-10+21-08-31-16.gif" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thanks, math!</td></tr>
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Want to see the orbs in action? Give the <a href="http://califergames.com/siphonspirit/download.php" target="_blank">alpha demo of Siphon Spirit</a> a try! (Currently only for Windows.)</div>
Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-22385158080171577782013-09-04T21:59:00.000-07:002013-09-09T13:57:28.171-07:00Re-Designing CombatLast week, my two best friends told me that they wanted to learn Japanese. On the same day. Within 10 minutes of each other. They know of each other but I don't think they've ever met. My first thought was annoyance that I didn't have Japanese Arena: Kana far enough along to be really useful to them. Instead I spent some time answering questions and giving some advice. A few days later I found myself outside staining the porch. For some reason I decided not to listen to music, but to just do it all quietly. Drove me nuts after a little while so I started thinking about Japanese Arena. <br />
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Suddenly I had an epiphany. The combat was no good. I had already been thinking about that when I watched my cousin play it a few weeks ago and saw that the fight was over after a few questions. It didn't make for much of a review. So I started to think about how to make it better. After a bit of thought I went back to my two main goals for the game.<br />
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<li>Make it so that the user will learn how to read and write Hiragana and Katakana.</li>
<li>Keep the users interest to help them complete the game and accomplish point 1.</li>
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The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the current battle system wasn't really fitting that. As it is, you can level up your character and boost their stats so you do more damage. Aside from me liking RPGs, why was this even here? Just so that I could take on harder monsters which really aren't that much harder because I've boosted some numbers? That just seemed wrong. Then I remembered the excuse I give in the game for the player to be fighting monsters in an arena.</div>
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"Knowledge is Power"</div>
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That was it. I don't need to level them up. I don't need any stats at all. All damage is based off of how quickly and correctly they answer questions. If you don't know the stuff covered in the lesson, you're going to lose. If you have a grasp on it, you're going to have a chance. If you know it really well, you'll take the enemy down in no time. The smarter you are, the more powerful you are.</div>
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This required a change for the weapons and armor. Before they would just boost your stats. Now there aren't any stats for them to boost! All of the questions are split into Attack questions (where you attack the enemy) and Defense questions (where the enemy is attacking you). Different weapons will give boosts to Attack questions, while different armor will give boosts to Defense questions. Some of the boosts I'm thinking of are: bonus to available time to answer the question, chance for a critical hit, chance for a wrong answer to be shown as wrong, etc.</div>
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Looking forward to when I can get back to work on this!</div>
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-Califer</div>
Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017845137137872635.post-55256428421894574762013-08-30T15:18:00.001-07:002013-08-30T15:18:18.289-07:00Level Editor UpdateI've finally got the editor where I can add and edit everything. I'm currently working on usability issues, such as making sure all the fields fill in with default values, and adding the ability to ctrl+click to set positions instead of typing them in.<div>
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At one point I got excited about trimming out all the old stuff that wasn't ever going to be used again. After trimming out mots of it I realized that I actually do need it so I can do the level converter correctly. Without the level converter, all of the levels we did before would be completely useless. So I ended up using two different builds, one for my laptop where I worked on the level editor, and another one on my desktop where I worked on the level converter. I don't recommend doing something like this because each time I switched I'd have to boot my mind back into the right mindset and remember where I left off. Yesterday I got both of them finished and merged the code together. This morning I got ready to get things done and realized that I couldn't compile. I had forgotten to add a new file I made on the desktop computer.</div>
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I ended up playing games instead. I'm sorry.</div>
Califerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675298509130068884noreply@blogger.com0