Dinosaursssssss

http://funghost.com/thumbs/randomepisode.html This page will display random episode titles and descriptions along with a link to the mp3, in case folks are having trouble picking a title. Loading can be a little slow up front 'cause true to it's name the implementation is kinda hacky. Thanks Panzorfork for the script.

Yesterday I decided that I really wanted to play Gimme Friction Baby, a flash game that I was in love with about a decade ago, on my phone. So I made it. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.funghost.fictionbaby I feel a little weird about this; I wanted to make as direct a port as possible, because I think the original is about as close to perfection as a mid 2000s flash game can get but I feel like I've ripped off the creator. I tried to get in touch with them, but couldn't find any info aside from their name (which is apparently fairly common in the Netherlands) and the site that's linked from the game (Gimme5Games) is dead. I'm not making any money off it, and neither are they, so it's probably not worth worrying about at this point? I donno. I just wanted to have this game with me at all times.

You read my mind In fact, right before I went to bed I had my friend (and fellow reader) Panzorfork whip up a quick script to display a random episode title + description + a link to the episode, in case people have trouble picking one. I'll put that, plus a flat list of the titles, up on a page soon. I was wondering how to keep this Thumbs relevant but leave a lot of room for people to make what they want...there are A LOT of episode titles, and folks can rearrange of pick bits and pieces from titles if they like. I think this'll be a lot of fun. I'm thinkin' Robot News. ALSO I updated the op, if I missed someone, PM me and I'll add your info.

I'd sort of like to start after Easter since I know I'll be busy with family obligations and I imagine some others will be too, so I'm gonna pitch April 10th to the 24th? People seem to like themes, I'll try and keep it vague so folks don't feel restricted but also somehow keep it Thumbs related. Diversifiers are fun too, and good jumping off points so I'll compile some from old jams and also take suggestions. Both of those will be optional I think? Something else I thought of is that jams sometimes have voting and competitive elements; I think that's sorta counter to the learning focus of this, so probably none of that. Also, thanks to the folks who have expressed interest in helping others out

Allright this thread kinda blew up today while I've been catching up with folks in town for PAX east; if anyone has suggestions for a good set of dates, that'd be a great thing to hear! I was thinking sometime around mid april, but my schedule is also a little more open than most folks since I'm hell of unemployed right now so I don't have strong feelings about timing. Also yes, I do like having a theme to give you somewhere to start, so if people have suggestions, please leave them in this thread! I have no idea how folks pick themes for other jams.

Ah, bummer! I think we were in the book as Indie Mini Bar but I'm not sure. Anyway, glad you had a good time at your first one! I also had a really great PAX this year I loved working the booth, so actually working 4 hours a day was kinda ideal. I had exactly enough free time to check out most of the mega/mini booth and go to a friends panel, and because I had afternoon shifts I could go out at night and still get enough sleep.

I have no idea who it was, but someone walked by our booth in an Idle Vice shirt and I gave them a double thumbs up and shouted IDLE THUUUUMBS. Person I shouted at, if you're out there, come back to the Indie Mini Bar and say hi!

Oh, I'm also gonna be at the Indie Mini Bar (booth 10203) helping out the bitSmith Games folks in the afternoon, 2 to 6 every day. Swing by and say hi!

Ooh neat, I've been recording video to mp4 using OBS, then editing that in Photoshop but gifcam seems a lot easier. Also while I'm looking at this Robert Yang post, I found this other post he wrote the other day interesting http://www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/2013/04/the-joys-of-sub-projecting-in-unity.html . It's a method of sharing code between Unity projects by using one massive project to house multiple sub-projects, and letting the compiler strip out code from other projects when you need to build one. Not a perfect solution, but great for rapid prototyping/game jam stuff.

Maybe? The one in my car is digital, and I couldn't find a decent video of one running...every youtube video about odometers is a news report about odometer fraud. edit: you're correct! Well, that's good, I was worried I'd need some kind of smoothing function to try and keep it closer to centered.

I spent probably way too long making this odometer. It's not quite done (the numbers don't loop around correctly) but I donno if I'll even use it...it's too hard to read while you're driving, since most of the time you can see half of two numbers and have to spend unnecessary time processing it. On the other hand, I think if I fixed it up I could probably put it on the asset store for a couple bucks? There's an odometer there already but it's for nGUI and it seems like the sort of control that other folks might want. Also I showed this game and Flapjack Flinger at a game showcase event thing here in Boston last week. It was my first time running a table and I think it went pretty well? I wasn't the least professional looking setup and people seemed to like the games so I felt alright about it. I also got to hand out several dozen of my new business cards that list my title at my company as 'CEO / Ghost Lord' which was very satisfying. In retrospect the bottom half of this post is really more geared for a 'professional game making night' thread

Buncha parties have been announced now, the PA thread is probably the best list. http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/195448/pax-east-2015-pax-parties I'm goin' to the Made in MA party on Thursday, which a lot of local indie folks will probably come out to and I'll probably be at the Disruptor Beam thing on Friday too. I also recommend checking out the panel Alex (who works at Disruptor Beam) is on Sunday; he's a fun speaker, and has some really great stories http://east.paxsite.com/schedule/panel/even-more-dark-stories-from-online-games

What's nice about this game is I didn't have to read a 20+ page pdf before I started playing

This was my most successful settlement so far. The screenshot was taken about 2/3 of a year in, after surviving the first winter. In the top right of the map is a very large group of raiders with 2 mortars, and this picture was taken to capture the glory of this town before marching off to fight them. In the ensuing battle, Blue lost a leg, Macy, Ivia, and Joe were killed outright, and Navarro took a shot to the stomach. Navarro was the doctor and lived long enough to put a peg leg on Blue before succumbing to her injuries. We pushed the attackers back, but not long after a ship crashed just south of the town. I built more turrets to fight off the invaders, but expanded too rapidly and overloaded my power grid. While I scrambled to build more wind turbines, my defense turrets were down and a small group of raiders showed up and wiped my injured skeleton crew out.

You might find some interesting examples if you look into serious/educational games. Often games intended to be educational will translate violent mechanics into non-violent ones, like how hunting in Oregon Trail became taking pictures of animals in Amazon Trail (though I have no idea if the violence was why it changed). Math teaching games also tend to have interesting mechanics that you wouldn't see in 'standard' games since people paying for games as entertainment most likely don't want to be using their brains too much. (by a local developer here) has a unique addition based puzzle mechanic for defeating enemies, and if you looked at the multitude of small games in a Math Blaster or similar series' there would be probably dozens of neat little logic puzzles and math problems converted into mini games. Some other interesting examples might be the work of another local indie studio, Subaltern Games, who made Neocolonialism (a game about amassing wealth to the detriment of everyone else "Many strategy games have featured traditional colonialism and warfare but few have explored the brutal reality of greed and indirect political control in the 21st century." quote from here) and is now developing No ********* Left Behind, which was described to me as "Prison Architect, but about schools" edit: also Zoombinis

oh nice, I only saw the Python one listed on the site

whooaaa that's a crazy idea. I like it a lot. I'm busy all day saturday but I wanna make something. May write a small C# helper class to write to that doc in Unity before then, if I do I'll share.

I suggest turning your volume down before loading this game. That awful beeping noise sounded to me like an alarm clock or a dial tone or ? I'm not positive why, but it made me think of some kind of high frequency short burst radio signal (Note: I don't know anything about radios!). It also synced up with the fire rate of the little tank for me; it seems like it gets out of sync depending on how quickly you click through the dialog, but the timing definitely felt intentional. That suggested to me that the tank is attempting to communicate with the UFOs, not destroy them. Combined with the mention of UFO iconography, it made me wonder if part of the idea of this game is pointing out how the default portrayal of aliens is that they're aggressors to be fought rather than other beings to communicate with. Also worth pointing out, I think, is that it's impossible to stem the tide of oncoming UFOs; the fire rate is such that you can only destroy 1/2 at most.

Just a thought...I think having a contract with the winner of Curiousity to give them a percentage of sales would put the game in violation of the Google and Apple app store terms of service, which both disallow gambling and any prizes with cash value. Obviously, I am not a lawyer, we don't know the specifics of that deal, but it seems that way to me. https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#contests https://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html I think at this point it probably doesn't matter either way, but I wonder if Apple/Google knowingly let that slide or not.

I hope someone actually makes Slug Metal

Looking through my Humble stuff and I found a few duplicate games. If any other idle thumbs forums posters want the following send me a pm or post here or get at me on steam/irc/whatever. Risk of Rain Jazzpunk Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet Shadowrun Returns Saints Row 4 Spec Ops Bioshock 1 & 2 Amnesia : A Machine for Pigs

I can't repro this; is it the step that wants you to swipe left? PM me. And don't worry about being 'that guy,' Bug reports are good! Well, actually, for a little while my job was reading MMO player bug reports and that was...a mixed bag. Yours was fine though.

I keep hearing about these guys so I gave this a listen...it was real good.

I posted this in the Plug Your Shit thread already but I wanted to come back here and say a little more... Yesterday I released my first solo game, Flapjack Flinger on the Google Play store! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.funghost.syruptapper It wouldn't have happened without the the support of the folks in this forum. Over the past year or two I've been jamming and posting stuff here because you all have created a really positive environment for sharing and discussing that stuff. For better or worse, if I hadn't started posting here I'd probably be scrambling to find work at another big studio and never would have had the confidence to try going solo. Even though (or perhaps, because?) this is such a small community, there's a really encouraging, positive, and just weird as hell group of people here and I can't thank you all enough for creating and being a part of this place. So thank you. Keep on making cool stuff and encouraging others to do the same. I also wanna send a special shout out to SpennyDubz, who gave me some really useful specific feedback on this game It was a good first outing, I think, and I feel like the game is fun and mostly well put together, but I made a lot of mistakes. So I'm excited to start a bigger project (something that I don't cram into a month, maybe) that I'm a little more invested in, and that I can take some of what I learned from this game into. Thanks again for the support, and look forward to a post-mortem of Flapjack and an announcement of GAME TWO around here soon! (it's gonna have monster trucks in it)

I think last year I played more hours of Marvel Puzzle Quest than any other game, and that continues to be true this year. 2 more days until I get another 4-star Wolverine cover for playing for 149 days! MPQ is also the leading cause of death among batteries that are in my phone.