infamous space turtle

[Dev Log] The First Great Brand War

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Looks gorgeous! Reminds me of the A Thousand Dormant Machines entry from WJ5.

 

I've got an advert idea, hopefully I'll be able to mock it up and post it here in the next few hours :)

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You know what, rather than delay this further, I won't bother mocking it up as it will inevitably look like crap anyway. (Perhaps you could crowd-source art duties for the adverts separately!) The idea is:

 

Name: "Wizard Jam". 
Slogan: "Spread The Magic!"
Image: A wizard brandishes an oversized butter-knife in place of a wand, and 'zaps' out a stream of jam. (This stream could possibly culminate in a 'splat' border for the slogan.) Depending on space, could include an image of the product's cauldron-shaped jam jar.

 

If you're happy with crappy advert art, I can knock something up tomorrow!

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This is looking incredible. I love the look of this so much. 

 

I'll think about possible advert ideas over Christmas and see if I can contribute something for this. 

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The aesthetic is definitely coming together. If you're still worried about clarity, maybe some more lit windows, possibly more dimly lit than the ads, could help?

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Great Ben I can implement that! If you want to knock something up ill include it, its up to you. 

 

Thanks Zero, If you do im keen to put it in. 

Yup thats a good idea Squires, Ill try that I think.
 

 

Update: A lot done today, too tired to gif it all so heres some stuff from earlier today.

K4dfBUy.gif

I was messing round with a pixelated render. I kind of like it. It creates less specific shapes so that the player interprets them a bit more ... Kinda a good way to get around models I don't like and dont have time to make better. That said losing fidelity has plenty of problems so i don't think ill have it on by default, though I might include pixel mode in the settings menu if I have time. 

 

 

5uW0D85.gif

An early implementation of attacking. You see here two zealots (red) attacking a neutral. No animations or anything.  The color thing im not sure about but its easy for testing. Attacking probably wont be that common.

 

 

9RFYArt.gif

 

"There's a problem with the toilet. "

 

 

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Today I got a fair bit done considering I also had work. 

Seen below is the first implementation of a notification/plot/tutorial window.

YbfVv9R.gif

 

This character will appear to act as intermediate between you and The Corporation. There's a few spoilers aspects to this so i'm going to tag it. 

Not really much to spoil in a game like this though. 


 

Spoiler

 

As you can see the character has something moving on their face.  Its a brain controlling mechanical spider. I was thinking as the game progresses its revealed that strange mechanical spiders are controlling all your superiors. Then you start noticing there are spiders inside your inductions booths or whatever. Then you realise you were a spider all along?... At late game things get weird.  Then as the game ends its also revealed that your parent company The White Corporation actually owns both your brand and your enemies. 

 

Obviously not shakespeare but I thought a slight bit of narrative would be cool. 

 

 

Other stuff was done too but its more under the hood. 

I'm worried ill not get this done on time, there's a lootttt to do. I'll aim to have a basic version done on time but I don't expect it to actually feel like much. 

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Another day, yes, my brain is fuzzle. 

 

I tried to get all the advert types done today heres a couple of later game "worshipstatues" 

dx6T7Tp.gif

Anyone loyal to the brand might bow down too, though i havnt implimented it yet. 

 

Hzcke5Y.gif

A weird sort of dramatic painting type of thing. 

 

 

a5aSYRh.gif

This is what took way too much time. Its  a late game hover-bot that shoves ads in peoples faces. The rotor does actually work, its just a framerate thing so it looks like its not spinning in gif form. I was thinking when i have the time i'll change the model a bit, I wanted it to more grotesque and bulbous, many weird eyes and so on. Not just a big fan with screens underneath. 

 

FWbtJnh.gif

And I added an actual blimp you can put ads on. 

 

 

Tomorrow im going to have to knuckle down and just try get it to a place where I can play through it. I don't think whatevers done when the jams up will be enough but Ill do my best!

 

 

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So quick update, I will not be finished on the jam end date. Ill put something on the itch but I don't think i'm going to have something playable in time. Iv had way too much shift work so my already ambitiously scoped project wasn't going to happen and I should have foreseen that. I think I have a problem with my process and I really want to get better at actually finishing projects. Still I don't really regret my choice, i'm excited about this and will be not be stopping.

Anyway today I'll be jamming and tomorrow and the next iv got mostly work so Ill probably just upload stuff or something. 

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haha thanks!
 

 

I forgot to do a wee game update. Basically what iv been trying to figure out is what works best as "failure".

The games not really compelling the player to do anything. It feels very bleh so i'm trying to find ways to put some tension in via failures and threats. 

 

Currently I have a home base thing you setup at the start that if destroyed will cause a game over. The base is modeled after classic RTS towncenter/whatever crossed with a clicker game. In cannon its called an Adfarm and you can harvest Corporation Tokens(the in game currency) generated by dedicated advert watchers and also by actively clicking your way through adverts, earning points for a product.

 

There are two primary reasons for this weird mixture of things:

- First is as mentioned I want something valuable to be a definitive in world place the player can represent their stake in the game, if there is not it feels more like a tycoon game or something which isnt really what i'm after.

- The second is that the clicker element enables the player to come back even if they have lost everything else, they can earn things manually if it gets really desperate. Also there's something kind of amusing about making the player click through ads in a game about them subjecting little people to ads. 

 

You can assign more than one to an adfarm to multiply its production speed so in my mind late game will have these ad farms across the map engorged by little red characters all pawing away at their next advert buttons. The Adfarm, like some other structures you can build, is deemed illegal by authorities and will be attacked on sight. If you lose all your adfarms and cant build another you will be hit with game over.. At least thats what Im thinking for now, i'm still feeling this game out trying to see what it is. 

 

So thats what i'm currently getting going, still not too sure about any of it. I might scrap the Adfarm as homebase thing but Ill definitely keep them in some aspect. 

Anyway thats all, hope this made sense. Im bad with words.

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I completely blew it with this project and was never going to finish in time so I made a quick game this weekend.

 

https://doodlebear.itch.io/a-secret-project

 

Its a flappy bird rip off set in this jams  EU.

I dont know why i made it. I dont know why I put many things in it. But I did. 

 

 

 

 

Anyway ill plug away at the (now post) jam game I think. 

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1 hour ago, infamous space turtle said:

Its a flappy bird rip off set in this jams  EU.

I dont know why i made it. I dont know why I put many things in it. But I did.

 

I don't know how easy it would be to do, but I think it would be cool if you could play this from inside the main game - It does the digital app/ad hell mood very well. And it also works as a clicker game :P

Spoiler

clickclick.jpg.3f439fe33d9ece9c726a152e3d8e16b8.jpg

 

 

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Alright, today i'm going back to my basic idea and doing some research to really crystalize what i'm trying to convey. Got a bit muddled during the jam. 

 

The first thing i'm doing is just reading about advertising and propaganda. 

I really enjoy this ad patent which i think was talked about on thumbs or IIT.

Image result for sony patent mcdonalds

 

If anyone has any other real world examples like this i'd love to see. 

 

After that ill probably do a rethink of the game mechanics. I want to really make it all cohesive, it was going of the rails previously. 

 

Then tomorrow i'll get to work and begin by de spagetifying my code, everything's a mess. 

Im setting a deadline for the end of this month to have a playable game. 

 

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The only real world examples I've seen are ads that make you interact with them before they go away on Twitch, which you can get if you click the "watch ads to get bits" button.

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Sooo I re-coded the core stuff and i've been plugging away but i'm really not feeling it.

 

Heres a bit of where I got to. 

 

1krMVLF.gif

 

 

I recently read this http://www.indiegames.com/2009/12/opinion_indie_game_design_dos.html in which McMillen says: 

 

"Go with what moves you. If you're no longer feeling something, put it down and work on what you want. I've found that all of my best games were ones I made quickly and felt passionate about. The ones that sucked were ones I lost interest in but forced myself to finish."


Thanks McMillen, ill be using that to justify my leaving this and focusing on smaller quicker projects. There's a nugget in this game that I love so I reckon ill be back.

 

Looking back at my past games iv got this repeating problem of everything petering out once an aesthetic is established. At its core I think i'm not really making games as much as scenes with a confusing set of mechanics thrown together underneath. My ideas are always sort of visual, tonal and moment based rather than mechanical so I think I need to strip back all the excess and focus on game design.


 

Also now that i'm not working on this constantly i'm going to play all yall games. 

 

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