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Silly New Years 2015-2016 Jam

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by tedthebug, Dec 16, 2015.

  1. AndrewGrayGames

    AndrewGrayGames

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    Happy new year friends and colleagues! There's still time yet to start or finish your game.
     
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  2. tedthebug

    tedthebug

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    Oh man, I started it in 2015 & won't finish it until 2016.

    Happy new year all. Don't forget to make a blue spaceship with a wonky AI to increase your chances of a 'prize' :)
     
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  3. Aiursrage2k

    Aiursrage2k

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    Okay I uploaded it to gamejolt. It will only work if you have someone else to play it with.

    http://gamejolt.com/games/battle-karts/116882

    Okay just submit your game to gamejolt and include the tag: "#sillynewyears2015jam" in the description and it will be added in the contest list.
     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2016
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  4. AndrewGrayGames

    AndrewGrayGames

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    I gave it a try without anyone else playing, just to see how it looks and feels. At this point my suggestion is to tighten up the controls - the controls feel very very loose in a bad way. Other than that, more detailed feedback will be given when the next FF goes up.

    Congrats on being the first person to make their prototype public! Those blue rocks are very pretty...
     
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  5. iamthwee

    iamthwee

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    Keep up the good work guys, I'm starting a car racer, but alas it won't be compatible with webgl and not advanced as everyone else's so I'll wait until I have more experience with gameplay until I enter such a competition. I finished my horror game if anyone wants to have a quick play.
     
  6. tedthebug

    tedthebug

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    No shame in posting it up anyway, this isn't a high class snobby competition. Put something up anyway, at least the feedback will be useful to put towards your next project.

    I'm hoping to get mine up by the deadline, will be home in a few days & trying to get my brain to work so I can finish it.
     
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  7. Gigiwoo

    Gigiwoo

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    Though it's not for me to say, I had understood that the start date for submission opens with the Jan 8th FF (i.e. this friday), and would go on for 1 (or 2 weeks).

    Gigi
     
  8. AndrewGrayGames

    AndrewGrayGames

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    In addition to everything said before, it could also be that Asvarduil is bad at calendars. Still, a spare day isn't a bad thing - not everyone who posts a game to FF is participating in the Jam. I'm sure there are people who've worked hard on their game outside of the Jam who want some C&C without being consumed by a blueberry monsoon.*

    Blueberry Monsoon...that is a pretty awesome name. I might use that in the future.
     
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  9. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    I'm working on my first Unity3D game (I mean first 3D game in Unity) and thought about throwing it out. Never quite got what the actual timeframe was though. Heard 7 days. Is that a calendar week start to finish or 7 days working on it? What if 2 of those 7 days you only managed 20 minutes each. Does that still count as 2 full days.

    Hours would be better for scoping out level of effort IMHO. Anyway.... I will still throw it out to FF anyway so doesn't matter really ;)
     
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  10. AndrewGrayGames

    AndrewGrayGames

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    My 'week' has been spread out over pretty much the duration of the contest, due to personal and family obligations. You don't have to put seven contiguous days of effort into the game - just up to a week's worth of work, whatever that is for you.
     
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  11. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    That works out to be about 20 hours max for me so I'll go with 20 hours. Already burnt up 14 hours. I always time my projects just out of habit. So basically tomorrow or wednesday I'll make a snapshot of it and put it aside for the "silly jam". And just keep working on the thing for another FF release.
     
    Last edited: Jan 4, 2016
  12. GarBenjamin

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    Which asset did you buy? I bought one that looked cool but when I tried it out last night in my game it didn't just "drop the prefab in and you're done" as it said. Looks kind of weird really in game. Possibly because it is not on a dark background as their demo is. Not sure really. I'll mess around with it more tonight. But if you got another and is truly plug n play I'll probably buy that one instead. Unless it is for Unity 5 only.
     
  13. Gigiwoo

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    No one will know how much time you spent. Some people started right away, others didn't. Some will use 10 hours, some will use 100. That's just the reality of game jams. So, challenge yourself with a deadline that officially opens Friday, 1/8. Have fun!

    Gigi
     
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  14. Aiursrage2k

    Aiursrage2k

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  15. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    Thanks! Wow I never even looked for something like this. I searched for spells and particles. Found a couple spell "kits". I'll check this out later on my laptop.

    Worst case scenario I can just add a particle emitter to the spell projectile. But it'd be nice if it was already all done so I don't need to waste my timing tweaking that stuff. I'd rather spend time adding in more gameplay but am spending a bit more time on presentation than I normally do.
     
  16. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    Thanks I just tried the webplayer demo. As I suspected it has the same basic issue as the one I tried. It's just the viewing angle of the FX. For me it is an FPS style view so being directly behind the projectile you can't see much of anything except the trail.

    Basically, I just need to go in and up the transparency on the trail FX I think and that will do it. Or just use a simple sphere and add a custom particle generator to it.

    Anyway, thanks for the links! :)
     
  17. Arowx

    Arowx

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    Made some more progress, hope to have something 'basic' to show in a couple of days.
     
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  18. AndrewGrayGames

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    Day 6, the day that will live in infamy. I have something that you can lose, that you can revive a chicken in, and that has horrible performance and physics glitches in the webplayer, and is probably not classifiable as a game, though it's close. All I have to do is fix them on Day 7, and also make it so that the Phoenix burns down into ashes, which revive into the Chicken form. It would also help if I got the score to work, and the title screen.

    I've almost got a game!!! Almost.

    It's here and I'm fixing it up. However you can always listen to the Title theme, of which I'm very proud. ;)
     
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  19. tedthebug

    tedthebug

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    Day 3 & I'm out.

    What I have managed to get done is up at Unicorns Eat Rainbows & is a Unity web build so won't work on Chrome, MS Edge (or whatever the IE replacement is called) & currently won't load on my Firefox browser for me to test it. I've had so much trouble with this, I'm running windows 10 yet my graphics driver keeps crashing with a message about windows 8 & my internet, in our nations capital, is running at download speeds of 0.04mbs at its best.

    Music is by Eric @ soundimage.org, art is cobbled from the interweb but I can't change it as it keeps crashing the driver whenever I try to place new art assets.

    Technically I don't meet the jam theme unless you count a new game made by an old guy, but it is a stupid little game I've had stuck in my head for quite a while.

    What would I do better? get new, similar, art that isn't pixelated/blurred from being enlarged to much, work on progression/levels, have 2d coloured flowers as the particle effect when the unicorn eats the correct colour, & more appropriate sounds. As usual my control scheme is barely functional as well.

    Anyway, have fun if you try it. Get below 0 or above 19 & the game ends.
     
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  20. Not_Sure

    Not_Sure

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    Ugh, I took WAY too much time putting together a first person controller from scratch. Anyway, I'm putting together a First Person Smash TV clone. It'll be pretty rough around the edges, lacking in content, and the art's going to suck, but the core concepts are there.

    Hope to have a build up soon.
     
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  21. GarBenjamin

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    Sounds like fun. It's not a waste to have done your own FPC. I imagine some of it can be reused for other things as well as being continually enhanced over time for future games.

    I did the same thing with my game. Spent 2 to 3 hours just writing a controller for movement and terrain collision checking. Then after doing that I tested a Character Controller component. And am using that. However, my TerrainCollisions component is still used so I can get detailed info on the local environment.

    For some reason I never see time spent on coding such as developing components as a waste of time. For me I see time spent on graphics as a waste of time. Well after a certain point anyway. Obviously graphics are needed. I guess I always see graphics as something that can be swapped in after the game is actually done and working as... well... a game. :)
     
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  22. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    I'll be probably late for 7th. spent about 3 or 4 days total, due to various issues.
    If that's the issue, please provide acceptable timeframe. Previous posts pretty much amount to "at some point after 7th".

    The project will be downloadable standalone, by the way.
     
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  23. AndrewGrayGames

    AndrewGrayGames

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    Per the Jam page itself, you've got another 17 days.

    The Jam lasts to the end of the next Feedback Friday in the Game Design forum. Feedback Friday itself lasts two weeks; the next one starts on 8 Jan.
     
    Last edited: Jan 5, 2016
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  24. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    Alright. Sounds good.
     
  25. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    One quick thing here when you're making games please take the time to include support for moving with the arrow keys in addition to WASD. I know a lot of people seem to like WASD and I guess they have for decades but anyway yeah I never use WASD. Arrows always for movement.

    Thanks!
     
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  26. TonyLi

    TonyLi

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    If games just use the Horizontal and Vertical axes (e.g., Input.GetAxis("Horizontal")), Unity's default input settings will let players use WASD, arrow keys, or joysticks without having to do anything extra.
     
  27. AndrewGrayGames

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    He's probably talking about mine, because I have a custom input controller since Unity's input manager can't do remappable controls.

    Of course...it may not actually be necessary, I just sort of pulled it over as part of my project startup. I might drop the custom control manager until after the Jam is over.
     
  28. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    Not just you. I meant just in general. I've even bought a couple Indie games that provided only WASD for movement. I was like... really?! I guess it is out of habit from playing all of the modern day FPS games maybe. People just don't even think about anything except WASD it seems. lol
     
  29. tedthebug

    tedthebug

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    I usually just use input.getaxis but I mapped mine to A & D simply because I mapped the colours to the numpad so I thought it might be to close together.
     
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  30. Martin_H

    Martin_H

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    Doesn't it at least let you remap them in the startup launcher? It's a shame it can't be done at runtime and would be really bad if there was no way at all.
     
  31. Arowx

    Arowx

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    Is it OK to release a shaky alpha, get feedback and improve/extend it over time?
     
  32. Arowx

    Arowx

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    Last edited: Jan 6, 2016
  33. Aiursrage2k

    Aiursrage2k

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    Oh this is cool so we can just update using the gamejolt app rather than having to install the apps unzip it, find the zip open it. Now they have there own client.
    http://gamejolt.com/client
     
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  34. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    @Arowx Pretty cool little world you have there. Nice detail too with just enough hints of where we are and what is going on. Great job overall. The only issue I ran into is the mouse was not sensitive enough to be able to move around naturally as expected. I had to move the mouse out of the game window over the top and back to the other side. Then move it back into the game window and continue turning. It seemed like I could only turn like 120 degrees or so otherwise.
     
  35. Arowx

    Arowx

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    Cheers
    0.1.1 Quick fix in Cursor locking

    Also available on itch.io for PC - http://arowx.itch.io/argon
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2016
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  36. AndrewGrayGames

    AndrewGrayGames

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    I'm about an hour into Day 7. I've got a title screen that works (with awesome music) and a match scene that doesn't lag to heck and back. Warning: the phoenix form's 'reviving a chicken' meter may cause slight epilepsy. I'm figuring out why it's doing that. I'm also figuring out why the Phoenix gauge isn't counting down...

    You can see how much clucking work I have left to do here.
     
  37. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    That did the trick!
     
  38. Gigiwoo

    Gigiwoo

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    Ready to Rock? The Feedback Friday thread is open - waiting for your Silly Game Jam 2016 submissions! Rock on.
    Gigi
     
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  39. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    I should be done by monday. Slightly overestimated complexity - won't have time to compose my own music for this.
     
  40. GarBenjamin

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    Okay, well I ended up at 26 hours for this 0.1 WIP release.

    I've not really been working on a jam game so much as just creating an old school style of FPS action adventure.

    Been working on the foundation so far. Building the little systems needed and just trying out different ideas.

    One thing I can say is that as I had suspected Unity really makes 3D game dev very easy. Much simpler than 2D game dev in some ways.

    Normally I build interfaces and do other proper software engineering. This time I am trying to do things taking advantage of what Unity offers. Basically doing things more in the Unity Way. I always had a big hang up using the Tag system as well as working with strings in general for example. I'd think.... really?! In a game (other than a text adventure and such) who uses strings? That screams slow and amateurish to me. So I'd use interfaces and enumerations and so forth. However, for this game I am using Layers and Tags for my groupings and so forth and must say it is working beautifully so far.

    For example, the TerrainObstacles Layer is associated with Tags such as Wall, Rock, Tree, etc. The Enemies Layer is associated with Tags for each enemy type. All in all, throwing out my years of software engineering experience and using more of the Unity Way for this project has been refreshing to a large degree. Of course, I still use enumerations and other stuff as needed. Basically a kind of hybrid approach.

    Anyway, here it is:

    Description and controls are on the game page.

    I have not had time to add sound FX or music.
    The enemies can see you but they do not attack.
    You can not battle yet.


    Like I said... this is just a foundation.

    FPS Action Adventure Version 0.1

     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2016
  41. Aiursrage2k

    Aiursrage2k

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    Okay I was stuck in the area with the key.
     
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  42. GarBenjamin

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    Play again and don't move. Instead watch the wall directly in front of you.

    Fire off some of your magic.

    My head is probably too much into old school stuff. lol Very subtle hints. Exploration needed.
     
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  43. tedthebug

    tedthebug

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    I want new school games where my hand is held the whole way, I can't die, & everyone is a winner. :p
     
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  44. GarBenjamin

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    Ha ha. I was thinking I probably should have made the telegraphing effect of the destructible wall be a bit more obvious. Really it is more of a lighting issue in that starting location. When there is more light available the walls are easier to spot.

    But I was thinking people would likely try out the controls right there at the start. Testing fire and move and so forth and would learn about illusions.

    Hmmm... my starting design was not as good as I had hoped. lol ;)
     
  45. Aiursrage2k

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    Okay. I guess maybe you should color those illusion blocks a slightly different color. But it was pretty fun I think if you had more doom type enemies that attack you it could be really good
     
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  46. GarBenjamin

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    Excellent. I agree those destructible walls need to be more obvious.

    And definitely that is my aim for this. Kind of in the style of the very first FPS game. Which most people probably think is Wolfenstein 3D but actually was:


    (the engine that powered this would go on to power Wolfenstein 3D and later be updated for Doom)

    Although I like Abyss and the sequels better:


    I think I just like the fantasy wizard world more than playing army dude.

    Anyway, that's the idea. Just focusing on the world and key systems first.
    Then I will focus on the enemies and battles.

    Thanks for giving it a go! :)
     
  47. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    I'm probably going to have to drop out on this one and call it a fail. It's been fun. I'm looking forward to playing stuff.
     
  48. TonyLi

    TonyLi

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    I blew up some illusion walls, but then I just got around the level by jumping onto one of those yellow bug things and then onto the walls. By design? Or do I now know kung fu?
     
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  49. TonyLi

    TonyLi

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    I can't change my unicorn's horn. I tried alpha1+ and numpad keys with and without numlock. What am I doing wrong?

    Windows 10, Internet Explorer 11, nation's capital (different nation :))
     
  50. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    Not really by design but a "benefit" of switching from doing everything myself to using Unity's Character Controller and collision system for player movement. I actually do the same thing just because it is kind of fun. lol

    Eventually we won't want to jump onto the enemies. At the least it will apply a knockback effect and at the worst will likely apply some damage too.

    There are a couple of places where the player can climb up though. I just need to tweak the level design so those areas are limited as to what they can access. But I think it is good to have at least one or two spots where people can climb up and look around. And ideally they will think they found a "glitch", cheat or whatever when they do. People like that stuff I think.

    Thanks for giving it a try! :)