Sweet Sorrow

Photo links and contact info for those who wish to have it are found here!


And with the uploading of One Tonne Punch's game to the Global Game Jam servers, this blog is . . . more or less . . . finished. My first effort into impromptu journalism, I hope I have been satisfactory in my coverage, and I hope those who wished to glean anything from it may find themselves better for it.

Once again, my name is Cody Church, a final year game design student from SFU Surrey. Should you wish to contact me, I can be reached through:

cchurch@sfu.ca

Now, onto the photos!

I apologize if not all of them turned out as well as they could have, but we had some rather poor lighting in the room (florescent lights just don't work, I tell 'ya!). I apologize if some of you are omitted: many photos I simply deleted because they didn't turn out at all. All the images are of a large size and resolution, as well.

http://www.sfu.ca/~cchurch/ggj/photos/

I've archived each of the day's photos into 3 separate zip files, which are available from that same link. It might be a few hours from the time of this post, but they'll be there.

I will be composing a report on the event as a whole, and if you wish to give it a read when finished, but toss me an email and I'll be sure to notify you when I'm done.

And with that, I bid you all farewell. It was a pleasure watching you all toil away, and perhaps I shall see you again next year, but on the development side of the event.

Sincerely,









Cody Church

Treelings, by Treelings

Game Title: Treelings


Team:
Treelings

Team Members & Roles:
Jeremy Gibson, Programming
Stephen Danic, Programming
Rachel Curtis, Art
Ashley Blacquiere, Programming
Nels Anderson, Programming

Interesting details:
A single player game that saw a great deal of experiment up until the final product. Worked heavily to develop their core mechanic, the fluid climbing action of the Treelings, and attempted all sorts of different approaches: most were variants on a plant-creating system. Featuring the most animation of the event, they were very thankful for Rachel Curtis, who has an impressive background in traditional animation and Flash animation. They had actually planned to create a game in Unity, but realized their design was really best suited for Flash. Many members were from the Masters of Digital Media program.

Judge Critiques:

• Fantastic game, overall.
• Needs some feedback on the player's progress (ie. how far up the screen they still need to travel).
• Very impressed with their efforts and what they accomplished in 48 hours.
• The game could use more gameplay: additional challenge and depth are needed.
• More variety in the level design: it's too easy to just bomb straight up without thinking ahead but still succeed.
• Start Screen issue: must click mouse, but states the press the Spacebar.
• Excellent artwork! Very expressive.
  
• They easily developed misconceptions about the enemies and just how they obstructed the player.
• The screen can fade to Black-out before death: how can you recover if you can't see anything?
• Would work really well on the Nintendo DS.
• Having the ability to pop balloons or surround targets to different results would have been neat.
• Include more AI for the enemies: the don't really challenge the player in their movements.

Scorched Physics, by Scorched Physics

Game Title: Scorched Physics


Team:
Scorched Physics

Team Members & Roles:
Alex Lorimer
Bardia Aghabeigi
Andres Wanner

Interesting details:
A very ambitious 2-player strategy game: uses advanced physics calculations to enable the player to alter gameplay in their favour over the opponent. Players release ships into space, and score points when they enter the center of the screen. The players must each attempt to block the opponent's ships from scoring points. The most points by the end wins. The smallest team at the event, but submitted the largest game (over 100 megabytes in size!). Features some of the cleanest and more refined game interfaces of the event.

Judge Critiques:

• Liked the base gameplay.
• Lots of possibilities within the game: strategy and challenge.
• Would like to see more pacing and better controls.
• Maybe try slowing down the game, putting an even greater emphasis on strategy.
• Clarity is needed to better understand that player's current score/rank.
• Waiting to use specific game functions is no good.
• Very slick interface.
• The cones that emit ships need colour for distinguishing which belongs to which player.
• Suggest a resource system for using game options, assigning costs to each one.
• Change so that ships can be destroyed by different options, other wise the game is so balanced there's no way to win.
• Overall, balance requires tweaking.
• Stress less action, more strategy.
• Perhaps attempt to implement same mechanics, but in a turn-based version?
  

For Shame, by One Tonne Punch

Game Title: For Shame


Team:
One Tonne Punch

Team Members & Roles:
Alex Kolosov, 3D Artist
Nick Halme, Level Designer
Peter Liang, Artist
Matt Jenkins, Producer/Scripter
Miko Wilson, Designer/Writer
Ryan Lee, Engineer
Chris Haukap, Engineer
Daniel Gerlitz, Designer/Artist

Interesting details:
A single player game with perhaps the most refined and challenging puzzle/strategy of all the Vancouver games: a overhead puzzle game with narrative elements. Heavily paper prototype and documented before the digital prototype was completed, they had a very solid level layout and idea before implementation. The largest team of the event, they actually worked on 2 seperate game designs at one point. Their game also has a very well-developed narrative and aesthetics. Developed an initial prototype that was very solid before changing to a more narrative-driven idea.

Judge Critiques:

• Solid game structure, with clear Beginning/Middle/End.
• NPCs found throughout the game need purpose.
• Maybe try adding VS multiplayer? Guard VS escapee?
• They liked the initial prototype mechanics very much.
• Need more direction for navigation: where the player must go is difficult to discern.
• Need more visual definition in the game environment, such as obvious paths.
• Art direction was very good, but needs some slight tweaking.
• Also required some additional player feedback from non-team members.
• Restarting should be available in case the player becomes stuck. Maybe increase challenge, remove unrecoverable errors?
• Very cohesive art style.
• Difficulty ramping as game progressed was very good.
• Loved the fact that moral choices about NPCs actually affected the game's difficulty.
  

The Blob and His Boy, by Blobboy

Game Title: The Blob and His Boy


Team:
Blobboy

Team Members & Roles:
Samppa V. Raski
Peter Gao
Andre Gagne
Andrew Pope
Andrew Osborne
Bruce McLavy

Interesting details:
A single player game where the player works in tandem with an NPC character to progress through the game: also the only game with an interactive and mobile NPC. The puzzle-driven platformer actually offers a few different methods to complete the game. Originally had hoped to expand the actions of the player character, the Blob, to allow for movement by clinging to surfaces by stretching its body. The team includes a record number of people who's names begin with 'And'.

Judge Critiques:

• Very quirky: similar to LocoRoco in style.
• Would have liked more depth in the game through more input and actions from the player.
• Good art style, but could have benefited from more iconic characters.
  
• Camera should have shown the player a little further ahead.
• Wanted more progression in the levels and greater challenge.
• Expand the player actions, such as flinging and stretching.

Slást, by Needs Artists Inc.

Game Title: Slást


Team:
Needs Artists Inc.

Team Members & Roles:
Steven Pugh - 3D Modeling, Programming
Nathan Sorenson - 3D Modeling, Animation
Matthew Miner - Programming
Bradley Keys - User Interface Setup, Music

Interesting details:
A 2-player split screen game in which both players earn points by successfully back and forth across the game field. Each player is able to sacrifice accrued points to create obstacles to block the opposing team. The only game that runs completely in 3D. Despite having no official artists on the team, they did a remarkable job creating full 3D environments and a consistent aesthetic. Used the game engine Unity to create the game. One of two games that allows for player to actually affect the level layout.

Judge Critiques:

• Excellent multiplayer offering.
• Might not have needed to implement in 3D to achieve the same gameplay.
• Excellent art despite the lack of artists.
• Using points to purchase obstacles led to excellent risk/reward system.
• Camera control was difficult, and unnecessary.
• Should have tweaked the scope to more accurately focus on the game's core mechanics.
• Good audio: actually had vocals!
• The penalty for being trapped by spikes was merciless and severe.
• Did require more play testing from outside the team during development.
  

The End of the Road

The Final Results of the 2009 IGDA Vancouver Game Jam.

In order of presentation, the next few posts will include the game created, the team and team members, and finally, details about the game and critical feedback from the guest judges. Fantastic work to all who participated, and I hope you all enjoy this decidedly successful event!

Deadlines are a harsh mistress

The room is buzzing with activity.

TIME'S UP. The Global Game Jam concludes! Striking 3 PM, the Pacific Time Zone of Vancouver is the latest of the Game Jams, meaning at the games Vancouver submits will be among, if not THE final games completed for the Game Jam.

Judges begin to arrive to evaluate the participant's games, as teams rush to complete the final touches need to format their games so they may be uploaded to the IGDA database for the rest of the world to enjoy.

Mere hours remain . . .

Only a few hours remain before the Vancouver Game Jam submission will be due. As we're in the latest time zone, we will in fact be the last city to be submitting games onto the Global Game Jam site. I suppose all eyes will be on us, as we'll be the most recent games appearing on the Game Browser page.



As it stands, the participants continue to work fervently to complete their games on time. Some teams are having trouble integrating some additional polish in their games, while others struggle to even get a functional prototype.

The Sunday Morning After

As breakfast arrives in the morning, it is followed by the return of many teams who'd either had the pleasure of a good night's sleep, or working through the night from home.

Several teams, notably teams Blobboy, Need Artists Inc. and One Tonne Punch, have stayed all night working on their games. Teams Treelings and Scorched Physics finally return, back at work and compile their games for the 3 PM deadline.

The Late Night Crew

The main group of late night workers.


Andrew Pope considers his next task.

Matthew Miner and his team's efforts to stay hydrated.

Team One Tonne Punch enjoying a change of scenery for their work.

Alex Kosolov's art assets in progress.

Scattered around Harbour Centre SFU Campus, several teams remain hard at work, struggling to get their game up and running.