Ganz

[Release] You, Fisher

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EDIT: The game is finished (kind of)! Get it at: http://seanfagan.itch.io/you-fisher

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Original post:
Hi forums! I've been listening to the cast since it was in its teens, but I don't think I ever made an account here (or I did and I've since forgotten). So, helloo

You, Fisher.
I'm just starting on my jam today so it'll be extra small in scope. I won't spoil much in this first post, but future posts will get specific. For this I'm learning how to use Gamemaker's built in Box2d physics stuff. It's fun! Much easier than personally coding the interactions I have in mind. I came up with my game idea by gathering sound bites from Splinter Cell youtube videos, and wondering how I could tie them together. Here's a few, the crispy nuggets to my jam:

"This is Third Echelon's maiden voyage and we need it to go smooth as butter."
"Do it now, don't miss. You probably won't get a second chance at this."

"Sharp work Fisher! It's time to get scarce."
"What in god's name do you think you're doing, Fisher?"
"One more mistake like that and this mission's finished."
"The mission's over. God help us."
"Fisher, we're done in Myanmar. Meet Cohen and get the hell out of there."


Good luck to everyone else participating

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My favourite Lambert line, at 1m30s:

 

 

Good lord, Fisher, have you gone mad? Shame it's got screams over it in this vid.

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So with all the stuff I have going on this week, I figured I should fuck up my back (non-seriously). Sitting at my desk reinjures it, as I've learned, so for the past few days I've been silently standing in my apartment, waiting. Not much work went in the jam, but I'm on the mend and still have faith. Hey speaking of faith, spoilers ahead.

The game pitch:
"You, Fisher" follows the story of a young person as they join their church group on a mission trip to Burma (Myanmar). The leader of your mission trip, Pastor Lambert, tasks you with fishing in the nearby lake. Take care — these boats are tricky to handle and the lake is full of locals. Bump into too many of them and the entire mission could get shut down.

"What in God's name do you think you're doing, fisher?"
 

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So far I have a boat that controls more or less correctly and has collision, and a camera that follows and rotates and really fucks up the background.
 

My favourite Lambert line, at 1m30s:

 

watch?v=JQg80Y0R7oQ

 

Good lord, Fisher, have you gone mad? Shame it's got screams over it in this vid.

 

Ha yes! I pulled a lot of lines from this very video. When I started looking for it, it was surprising how many of Lambert's quotes refer to Christianity. Like, 100% of them do. He's hilarious though.

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Release.
 

Holy baboli did that come down to the wire. Considering everything, I'm legitimately proud of what I got done. The game is totally a mess though, ha. Maybe some other time I'll write about the process or something, but for now... I'm tired. Here are the links and stuff:

 

http://seanfagan.itch.io/you-fisher

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Port mortem.

 

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I started my jam by grabbing episode names from Panzorfork's generator. The ideas that jumped out:

  • Esophagus Sarcophagus - You play as words trying to escape from someone's mouth. You must "navigate this maze".
  • Space Boss: Lord of Space - Space citizens come to your court and plead their case. Two buttons, one for "FINE" and one for "WHATEVER"
  • Don't Look at Me, I'm Hideo - MGS knockoff. Play as Hideo hiding from the Konami hitmen hired to kill him.
  • You, Fisher - You're a fishermen working under Lambert's supervision. Ridiculous mistakes are likely, Lambert will give you shit for it.

Choosing "You Fisher" was pretty arbitrary - looking back, I'd kinda like to make Esophagus Sarcophagus still. But my idea for "You Fisher" was a little more mechanically and systemically driven, and that's what I was looking to practice. So yeah. I started researching. I watched a lot of Splinter Cell videos and gathered up quotes that fit. One of them mentioned Myanmar, so I decided to place the game there (why not?) and then watched a lot of youtube videos about Burmese fishermen. They have a really cool method of paddling using their legs which inspired me to focus on a paddling mechanic, but I decided to avoid the headache of animating a dude/dudette's legs. I focused the game idea down to a boat, other boats floating around as obstacles, and a lake with good fishing spots and bad fishing spots.

The lake and its boats are generated on the fly every time you play. There is a 2d array that spans the width/height of the level, and it is filled with "yield" numbers. Higher yield means the player is more likely to catch a fish there. I visualize this in game by tinting the water a bit red, but I never actually explain that in-game (oops). I came up with the yield numbers by first randomly assigning a number to each cell, then taking a second pass where I "smooth" everything out by average an cell's value with its neighbors. The boats are spawned where there is high yield using a kind of neat system: For each cell, three die are rolled. If that die is less than the cell's yield, that boat is placed. Meaning a maximum of three boats are possible at any cell, and the higher the yield the more likely all three boats will show up. But it's also possible for three boats to show up at a bad spot, or vice versa, which is the kind of unpredictable spread I wanted.

The boat moves using GameMaker's 2DBox-physics-engine-system thingy, which I learned for this jam. At first it was a little tricky adapting to all the new variables, but the game's simplicity helped. Mouse press will tell a variable to start counting how long you've clicked for. If you release before ~1.5 seconds, a pushing force will be created behind you that is relative to how long you held the mouse button. If you hold the mouse button beyond 1.5 seconds, the boat's linear damping increases (read: it slows down... this is what i had to deal with) and a slight amount of torque is applied in that direction. Releasing the mouse at this point won't push you.

Art and sound came together in the last few hours of the jam. I do love working on those but it just wasn't my focus with this one. Getting the feel right was. And I'm real happy with how the paddling came out — the combo of braking, small pushes, and big pushes? There's something to it. At least, more to it than 99% of the other prototypes I've made, ha. The fishing honestly kinda sucks though, and by the end I was wishing I'd created some sort of checkpoint race game using my paddling mechanic. Get to hot fishing spots quickly, while avoiding others? Could be fun. Maybe some other time. I had a lot of fun doing the jam, much love to fellow jammers and to your creations. I've played maybe ten so far, they're all out of control. :tup:

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This game was real funny, I liked how I couldn't help but knock dudes outta boats.

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This was pretty great. The paddling mechanics were a nice idea, but I coulda played a lot longer if you had more samples - the mismatch of tone and task was delicious. Nice work. =)

 

 --Rev

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