The Other Brothers Developer Diary

The Other Brothers Developer Diary.
I add to this thread whenever I develop something new about this much-anticipated game.

Feel free to ask questions and I'll get back to you

EDIT:

EVERY THURSDAY THERE WILL BE LIVE STREAMING OF TOB. This will take place at 20:30 GMT.

www.livestream.com/bjornhurri

 

So far, I've been working on the ultimate "feel" for TOB. I've been programming for over 25 years, and playing games longer, so I think I've got a good idea how a game should feel.

Some of the important considerations are about how responsive it is, on analogue sticks and touch screens. We want the on-screen character to do the opposite of mario:

Instead of slowing down sharply when the player moves the other direction, we slow down sharply when you reach the deadzone of the touch input or analogue stick, or when the finger has been lifted from the screen. This works naturally with the time it takes to slide a typical finger across.

The result is on-screen you see a seamless and charming little devil rushing around with sharpness and no lag to the inertia - it's crisp and yet not stiff.

For jumping, we have some funky raycasts that help us pass through platforms. If you fall off the edge of a platform and just hit jump then, the game gives you few precious milliseconds grace and lets you take the jump. This is not something you normally notice, but it sure is appreciated on touch screens.

Another element was that we wanted it to speed up quickly, but not travel very far if the player just edges towards something. We wanted that nippy feel. Likewise, it should not accelerate too slow overall when changing direction. To do this, we use 3 different curves of tweened motion together for different times, which give the character specific rules in how it behaves with physics, and focusses on playability.

That's all for now... the next time I post will be about the scrolling!

 

...The Scrolling.

The best (most helpful) scrolling in my opinion is the godlike Super Mario World on super nintendo.

Replicating this meant a surprising amount of rules. For a start, whenever you fall, it matches your falling speed, however if you jump up too high, it gently scrolls to meet the player, although this can be pushed if you raise fast enough.

Not only this, the horizontal scrolling has a different rule set. It has to allow for being helpful enough to scroll past the player when standing still, to give more view ahead, as well as match the pace of the player should he already be moving.

On top of this, there has to be a zone where you can move around in without scrolling, and although this was easiest to get right, mixing it with the other rules proved tricky. But... I've nailed it.

One of the challenges of scrolling in a platformer is to figure out a way to do it that does not induce motion sickness. Super Mario World solves this with deadzones and a combination of push scrolling with constant speed, and variable speed when pushing against it.

There will be tweaking to do, and some great screenshots of the integration of this new scrolling + feel into the main game branch. You'll be able to get a feel for how things play soon. Watch this space!

 

Thanks! some art refs for you (the Animation is now what I am working on!)







More (fresh) materials coming very soon! Don't forget to follow us on twitter or post comments, I love reading what you say.

 

Hi guys, we have a tentative answer for you regarding the price and availability.

1. We are aiming at the lowest price point of $.99 across most platforms, so that people just buy it once without bait and switch.

2. it will (most likely) be EPISODIC with about an hour's worth of play for the first episode with similar times for each episode. We plan to expand the story arc and the game over time so people REALLY dig the value for money angle. We think this is the only way to make pirates really appreciate it enough to buy.

Let us know what you think of this

You can also grab hold of me via the support form on our developer site, or here, or via @SquaredApe on twitter if you're interested, but posting here is best as I check it the most.

 

Today I'll talk about Ladders, Water and moving platforms. Apparently it takes some developers a long time to figure out something as simple as the humble ladder but it took an hour here.

Climbable Surfaces

However The Other Brothers ladders were designed with the following:

1. ladders can be any shape or size, and any angle.
2. ladders can rotate (anything can in my code base), and move.
3. ladders can pass through other ladders in an intricate network or ladder-soup.

But what about playability? How do you make something as boring as a climbable area, exciting?

Here's how!

1. player should be able to jump while on the ladder, and not catch it again until almost half a second has passed. This means there's no point spamming jump to go up ladders faster, and the player is forced to think. This also allows you proper clearance from the ladder when doing risky jumps.

2. the ladder must allow player to pass through platforms. We solve this with some clever collision states.

3. the ladder must allow us to hang from it or attach to it at will, so we can run past it and ignore it or jump through it without a worry. This is solved by checking if the player is pushing up or down when your character passes a ladder.

Water

Water is a similar system to the Climbable Area. Once the player enters, we want to change how you play.

There is no point in water being a sort of big climbable area so the only way you can swim is to tap jump. This makes a stroke upwards. You can swim normally left and right regardless. The physics are changed to make it suitably weighty.

Again, water isn't limited to any specific shape or size, and you can even climb up a moving ladder into a pool of water (not that this makes any sense).

Moving Platforms

It's important to get this right. We want moving, rotating, shifting and falling areas. We want it exciting, unpredictable and varied. This is solved by having a pin cushion concept. Whenever the player moves into a zone marked as platform, it becomes a child of that zone, and inherits the parent's movements.

Zones

You may have guessed all 3 above concepts sit on something I call a Zone. A zone is a polygon mesh or mathematical shape which can define an area of importance. The work flow for this is really cool in unity, and artist friendly. We can tell them to be anything or do anything - even start up cut scene.

Cut scenes?! Yes the cat is out of the bag, there will be many full cool cut scenes to tell the story, but that is for another diary posting!

Stay pixelated!


-Rob (@SquaredApe)

 

Facebook Competition Winner #1 announced!

A big thanks to our facebook contest winner Gary Norbraten for being such a good sport. Bjorn Hurri had a blast creating him gloriously pixelated! We have all had good laughs at the end result! He ended up being a perfect fit for The Other Brothers!



Check out the real mcoy plus others in the gallery for the competition:



Our facebook (like it!)
http://www.facebook.com/theotherbrothersgame/

Like the facebook page and tweet about us, bookmark http://tobgame.com - keep your eyes peeled for more compos and exciting news!

Soon we will announce the second winner of the facebook competition, and this dude... we think you know him!

Stay pixelated!

 

Please note, competition winners ARE actually ingame bosses. Yes you have to fend off an unlimited ninja swarm from this bonus boss. The next competition bonus boss will blow your mind though... next post should be it!

 

TA's Brad Nicholson!

Congratulations, Brad! you may be a runner up,
but you're still the coolest retro boss ever made!

For more information about The Other Brothers,
visit our facebook page, and follow us on the usual
social media sites! We will be leaking information regularly



The winning shot:

 

There's two things which will make or break animation in a retro game like The Other Brothers.

The first thing is the animation itself. It can suck, and there's not much you can do about that. Luckily the art quality is insane, with artists who are used to triple A work sketching them out at a cracking pace!

The second thing is how gently the programmer will treat the artist's frames and even massage them for more amazing sparkling goodness.

1. we have animation states for everything: run, idle, jump, skid, hurt, falling, attacks and more.

2. we play the intended animation - be it a one shot, or looping animation.

So what's different?

In TOB, I have several variables which track how fast the character is moving, how hard the player is pushing the direction and so on.

So we can weave in more frames in between, and play little one off frames to blend everything together. It's painstaking work because it takes a lot of trial and error to get the maximum out of the frames you have.

In addition to this, its really important to speed things up or slow them down in regards to animation playback. So to this end we do things like speed the animation up as the character's velocity increases.

We also track how long the player has being doing demanding activities, so when Joe or Jim halt for a breather, you see their idle animation play faster, before slowing down as they catch their breath.

It's all these little touches that really can make or break a retro title. You can't just fill it with animation frames and throw more money at it. It has to be authentic.

We've deliberately left in an easter egg surprise for people who have played old retro games: the classic left and right thrashing of the controls will allow you to spaz out for hilarious dance scenes, if you so choose!

Next to come will be some clips and anims you haven't seen, as there's been too much talk and not enough glorious sneak-peaks!

Be square (it's cool!)

- Rob

 

EVERY THURSDAY THERE WILL BE LIVE STREAMING OF TOB. This will take place at 20:30 GMT.

www.livestream.com/bjornhurri

Come and see the developers at work! Remember, Thursday is Tobsday! 20:30 GMT! You can also view previous live stream entries that have been recorded while you were asleep grunting and rolling.

 

Today I'm busy polishing up a small demo for the team to display next Tobsday (see above for what tobsday is) -- so you'll be getting a SNEAK PEAK at the game itself! Work is going at a tremendous pace, and don't forget to leave your suggestions for bosses, ideas and more either over on our facebook page (link on http://www.tobgame.com) or here!

Empowering Artists = Great Game

What is all this empowering business? Well, typically in game development, artists have to create assets or design levels with huge restrictions due to the code. You'll be stuck with 32x32 tiles (which will look boring in the end) or have limitations on how they can develop the game.

We've thrown all that out of the window

1. Artists can just draw whatever they want in Photoshop, at any size, and we'll convert it to a layered animation.

2. Colliders are not linked to geometry so we can get really creative. Artists can just pull out artwork and place it down at any depth in the editor and group them. They can add a parallax script live in editor and see it happen. They can tweak any part of it at any time.

3. There's no limitations on anything. If an artist wants a pigeon to do a little poo randomly with a 30% chance of doing one, then they ask me and I do it. I don't moan, I don't make a fuss, I just get off my ass and do it.

4. Effects and particle systems that are FULLY animated as well - so you can have fully animated hand-drawn wisps of smoke, and fantastic environmental effects without the headaches.

5. They can add anything they want in any part, without any restrictions. So what is the catch?

The catch

The catch is the programmer (me) is slowly going insane. It takes a tremendous amount of effort and polish in tools and level design ease-of-use, but in a way it can be seen like I am also directly contributing towards the art goal of the project. If I can free artists to just be themselves, it means that they spend more time doing what they do best, and less time worrying about a script or going crazy over restrictions. This increases the amount of art they can shift out... Which means TOB is FULL of unique artwork, just about everywhere!

But if I'm crazy about one thing, it's your fun. We need TOB to be a massive celebration of retro gaming, with cues taken from the history of retro games. There's a little bit of influence from everything in here - see if you can spot them. One thing this game isn't is... a clone. Expect the unexpected!

Please offer feedback and ideas, you never know, you might be the one to influence a level or enemy. And stay peeled for an early test demo on our livestream this coming tobsday.

Soon I will be talking about the render to texture technology the game uses and why, plus some techie AI talk (that's right, these things will be pretty smart!)

Our facebook is http://www.facebook.com/theotherbrothersgame - give us a friendly like and post some words of inspiration, we will read every comment

 

Them characters are amazing. Cant believe i missed the compo. well jealous.

 

Now, I'm not sure if this is still a problem, but when I released a game on iOS, I decided to take this path. Game follow up wasnt amazing, so I decided to change to the free with in game purchase model.

That was fine except for one thing... when the people who had paid for the game updated, they updated to a non-free version which meant they lost the full game they had already paid for.

Just something to keep in mind (or at least find out if its still a problem, or if there is a way to avoid the problem). You don't want to go changing to the free model so you get more downloads (I got a lot more downloads when I changed to the in game purchase model) after you have already released it as a paid version.

 

I really liked the caddy from the mobsters!
hehe
Nice job, looks like this game will be a killer

 

Indeed. This diary entry focusses entirely on technology.

Tech behind The Other Brothers

We decided to go with Unity because it's one of the "big three" (Unity, Cryengine and UDK). Unity won out because of it's incredible platform reach plus fantastic workflows. If we want it in consoles and vita and even televisions - we can!

How about the rendering - what approach did we take?

The key thing to realise about The Other Brothers is that it uses shader technology and render to texture to achieve the pixel effects instead of "just" low resolution art. This means we can drive the game with a lot of subtle "mode 7" style effects as seen on consoles and computers of yesteryear. While the STYLE of the game is retro, it is in no way primitive under the hood!

This allows really fantastic "retro-cool" style effects such as mosaic effects in realtime - stuff you would only find by hacking primitive older custom chips such as the Copper in the Amiga or Mode 7 on the Super Nintendo.

We think it gives it a cooler vibe having a "virtual retro gpu" !



Stay Pixelated!

 

I <3 Mode 7... so i made this song:

Hey i just saw this
And this is crazy
I Love Mode 7
And will make its babies.

 

That's pretty interesting. Need to give that a shot one day. Probably wouldn't have thought to do something like that. Thanks for sharing that.

Just need to be able to make art worth a crap and a Pro license hmmm..

 

You just received a "warning" from me. Please keep your useless posts out of this thread and forum.

 

Wow looks really nice! Just wondering, but you say you have been codeing videogames for over 25yrs....How much do have you made off of a game youve developed. I intend to do mostly software devlelopment in my future since game developers dont make much cash, but seeing as some creators (such as the Angry Birds devleoper made over millions of dollars) ive decided to get into a bit of game development and I want to know if a fair profit can be made. I love games and programming, but I also love makeing money, and seeing as im 13 and still learning im really trying to see what will benefit me the most in the future.

 

Hi Cdunn, I've been coding video games for that long, but not selling them for that long if only! I like to make money too, but for me it's really about the love of the game. I can't see any other job for me... I guess you have to be a bit crazy or dedicated to succeed and money alone won't carry you there.

I won't release figures
There is money to be made, but it is increasingly becoming more difficult to do so due to the amount of competition. If you take any advice with you from this thread it must surely be:

1. learn marketing. Google is full of links how to do it, it involves twitter, facebook and being really presentable to your would-be fans and customers.

2. make a great game! there it is, the secret in a nutshell. But it won't be any good if nobody can find your game with so many amateurs releasing silly 1 button games that flood the appstore. Quality isn't about a large game (you could make angry birds almost the same given enough time resources). So find something you're passionate about, something that's a bright idea that's really fun, and blog, tweet and facebook about it. Good luck, I think you can do it

 

Hi James,

Thank you for your interest! I have absolutely no problem in sharing what I know closer to launch! You can also gain insights on the livestream every thursday at 20:30 GMT.

Here's the link - and you can chat to us on the live stream so we'll probably reveal a lot more that way. This is a live weekly event, and mostly recorded so you can go back and see video recaps if you're asleep or busy

Please check it out here: http://www.livestream.com/bjornhurri

 

Sounds like heaven! I hate having to 'battle' to get these kind subtle touches in

 

Well the thing is I have an art background myself. For me the little touches are often the most important so I know what they potentially go through with a lazy programmer.

 

Ok guys, just a heads up. This Thursday's live stream will be on 20:30 GMT+0
Come and see the developers live and chat with us, and see us develop in realtime


URL: http://www.livestream.com/bjornhurri


Really hope to see you guys there!

 

Hippocoder... I really but really hate you man.... Just kidding..

Dude it looks so freaking awesome!! that i wanna cry.

Too bad my conection is a piece of crap so i won´t be able to see you guys developing.. I will try tho.

Im adding this to my favorite..

 

I dont know what that is for, but i am not keen on it(the arcade Cabinet.)

 

Just a bit of fun for those of us who grew up in and around arcades

Thanks a lot

 

I'm probably going to watch your video stream so hopefully other folks will join.

 

Man this is the second time Ive seen people dissing pixel art and old school gameplay. Pixal art is an art, just a different medium. I agree with him, keep useless comments to yourself.

 

Please keep the developer diary on track. I am not actually asking for feedback, I am just being open with our development process so others who are interested will enjoy it. Thank you.

As a reminder: the live stream is up in an hour so get ready!!! http://www.livestream.com/bjornhurri

We will answer all your questions there and show you some cool stuff live

 

hippocoder is my new religion!!!!

 

Love you too

 

Watch Bjorn Hurri paint LIVE right now:


http://www.livestream.com/bjornhurri


Thomas P.

 

The next post will be about AI, in particular - does smart AI actually mean more fun? also I will talk about the decisions the AI makes behind the scenes, so stay peeled, folks

 

livestream.

 

Just finished the AI. I spent so long on this it's unreal. Tonnes and tonnes of work. Tomorrow (TOBsday, where we do a live stream!) I will post up a massive write-up on it. I guarantee you'll be impressed with what I've done with the AI in this game. It goes far beyond anything you'll find in a typical platformer. This does not include BOSS AI as that will be treated uniquely.

Also to come will be an insight into our wicked new trailer we're making!

Stay pixelated!

 

Hello there hippocoder,

Will there be a full video of the livestream? I really like to join the livestream but due to the different timezone here.

 

Check out our artist for The Other Brothers (who has worked for AAA for 10 years) work on our game here: http://www.livestream.com/bjornhurri in 30 mins!

There are a few vids, I will ask him to record it for you

edit: for those who missed it, a recap is here! http://www.livestream.com/bjornhurri/video?clipId=pla_e5cec0ce-89a3-4ece-87d5-20d0f16c5188

An older build of the game is shown of an early level as well for a sneak peek!

 

thanks hippocoder.

Really like to see your AI in action.

 

unfortunately the video presented did not showcase any ai potential, as each creature has 3 levels of ai you can choose from, each level turning on more features and cunning.

But AI is an interesting subject. Make them too smart and it becomes tiring.... make it too stupid and it becomes predictable. Instead for games, the best AI is "entertaining" AI. It must always behave interesting and make you play a little bit different for each creature, it is how you make the game or break the game.

 

I love the look of this game, as soon as i saw the screens i had a big smile on my face.

 

This looks very promising, both the product and the team. Looking forward to follow this!

 

Same happens to us mate. Every morning when I wake up and open up Unity to work on TOB I get a huge smile on my face. All team members are very happy to be working on this game.

 

A.I

Artificial Intelligence, or Acute Idiocity? There's a lot of fun to be had making AI and it's actually very easy for an experienced programmer like me to invent AI that is foolproof and able to dodge your every attack while ensuring it can kill you. At Simian Squared, I've spent many late nights devising the perfect blend of AI, and observing my pet cats... although to be honest, I think they were observing me!

But AI is an interesting subject. Make them too smart and it becomes tiring.... make it too stupid and it becomes predictable. Instead for games, the best AI is "entertaining" AI. It must always behave interesting and make you play a little bit different for each creature, it is how you make the game or break the game.

I actually felt that the most important part for the AI in The Other Brothers would be to make the AI force the player to Play Different. Play Different is a motto of mine when it comes to playability and game mechanics. I love to make the player use the same controls, but react and act differently in response to situations the game throws up.



As you can see in the above screenshot, it shows ratty, he has a red box surrounding him which allows the level designers to change his 'Aggro Range' - the range in which he will get extremely annoyed with you!

The yellow line indicates the patrol route. Both are adjustable, so you can have rats which patrol a very long way, or rats that can't see very far. The designer is able to change the tint of any creature as well as change these properties. Best of all, every property in the AI is animatable...! So without the programmer being present, it's possible for an artist or level designer to create a virtually unlimited amount of behaviour from a simple set of behaviours. I try to discourage them though. A level designer out of control is a terrifying thing for a programmer to witness!

Each creature in TOB has 3 difficulty levels the designer can pick from. There's stupid, average and smart. This is adjusted in the code on a per-creature basis (it's a lot of work!) but it's worth it because you don't want every creature to behave the same. For example stupid dogs can't spot you creeping up behind them, but average dogs can. Smart dogs may even avoid your stomp attacks from time to time...

Controlled Random

It's important to have a "controlled random fury" going on with the numbers. In my AI, the system is constantly fed inputs with random variation. The player might be close, but it has a little random fudge to it as the enemy might not judge if you're perfectly close enough to have a nibble on. Likewise this is present for their movement behaviour.

Sometimes random numbers fight random numbers which are fed in as a fudge for a normal sensory input, which makes it feel like it is making decisions (it actually is) but sometimes it will not always be a good decision.

It was important to slow down how often enemies make decisions. This is known as the time it takes to change your mind. This also has a little random edge to it as well. Nothing is completely random at all, it is merely taking a cold logical true or false, and giving it shades of grey for exciting variation.

Emotion and Logic

Each creature has a boredom level as well. If you keep diddling around it will get bored of your pranks and wander back off... maybe. Don't be surprised if a smart one pretends to lose interest and walk off...

After all what is more fun to fight: spock or the hulk? Spock would grip you or distract you (yawn) but the Hulk has random fury and will smash the place up, you could slip away or Hulk could get distracted by a cheeseburger. You just don't know.

Above all, the AI in TOB is very much interested in giving the player a good time rather than being infallable. It's entertaining AI, not stressful AI. And every single creature is different.

Stay Pixelated

-Rob

 

Entertainment? In a game?!? Preposterous!!!!

Jokes aside, I think this is possibly the best one-line summary of what makes good game AI ever written.

 

Yeah, the fun you have is shining through the result. That´s the way to go, IMO. Subscribed.

 

Robert (Hippocoder) is probably one of the best programmers I have met. Not only is he good at what he does, more importantly he shows love and passion for the game which is why we are working with him.

On a different note, IGM has just published an interview with us which you can read over here:



http://mobile.indiegamemag.com/the-other-brothers-interview/



Thomas P.

 

Ohhhhhhhhh looky here! See what we can do in a month with a new programmer!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySGw09JkYog&feature=youtu.be


Thomas P.