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The Office Party - development diary

 
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Lestrade
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 7:46 am    Post subject: The Office Party - development diary Reply with quote

The Office Party
Official Development Diary

=============================================
A bitter adventure by Tastefully Undecided Games
Team Members:
Benjamin Rivers – designer, artist, writer
Jean-Luc David – designer, programmer
Chris Langilles – music and sound effects (floater)
=============================================

Game Description: Can you endure the hell? If you have to attend a series of company parties you might as well make it worth your while! Drink wine and eat cheese in a desperate attempt to stay sane. Avoid your aggravating co-workers to make it through the night.

My lovely co-lovers, I thought it would make sense to start a thread specifically about The Office Party, so I can update you on its progress. I'm also going to consolidate my previous written entries from my staff blog in the post immediately following this one, so everyone can follow along.


Last edited by Lestrade on Wed Jun 25, 2008 7:51 am; edited 2 times in total
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Lestrade
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 7:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you've read all this stuff, keep scrolling for fabulous news!

May 10. 2008
Live Blog from TO Jam - Day One
Okay, here's the good stuff! Here's a batch of photos from today's shenanigans. Today was really fun. I only put in about 6.5 hours or so, but fuck it—I'm not 18 and I am long past the point of pulling marathon all-nighters. We actually made some good progress, but I've got a lot of assets to draw for tomorrow.

Wes, I'm up for drunken game design talk anytime! Have half-dozen for me!

TOJam - End of Day Mockup

May 11, 2008
Live Blog from TO Jam - Day Two
Hggrrrrghghghhghhg.... TOJam is officially over. I have lots of new stuff to show, but will have to wait until at least tomorrow night.

Warning! Warning! You will be playing my game on XNA later this year!

May 12, 2008
I don't feel the game is ready yet (there's so much more we have to put in) so it won't be released online for a while. However, I'm going to prepare a page with proper screenshots and a description soon enough so you can all see what it's about.

TOJam - Title Screen

Here are the images from Sunday. You can see some of the other games there too.

---

Hey! It's our rock and roll team photo!

May 27, 2008
(snip) ... In more exciting, less career-threatening news: DUDES, THE GAME IS AFOOT. In just over a week, my game The Office Party (now slightly tweaked and much closer to its final incarnation) will be playable in the TOJam Arcade! I'm hoping that some of you area-dwellers (*cough*Aerisdead*cough*) will stop by and see what's going on. The aforelinked website explains things better than I can, so check it out and froth in hungry desire.

Here are some updated screenshots!

The Title Screen (Again)
The Office Party - Title Screen

Shitloads of People
The Office Party - v1.5

Jumping on the Bang Bus
The Office Party - Bang Bus

The TOJam website also has a page from which you can see and experience last year's games. I'm not sure when the 2008 page will be up, but I'll keep you all informed.

June 6, 2008
TO Jam Arcade (showcase of games at Blue Moon Pub in Toronto)
TOJam tonight! TOJam tonight!

---

Hello! This is a semi-still-drunk, after-the-fact post! The evening was incredible; so much cool stuff going on and so many people to talk to. Poor Jonathan Mak; I yapped his ear off! More on that later.

I have terrible photos from the event; I was happy with the reception The Office Party got; it didn't hurt that my pixel dudes were about a foot-and-a-half tall on the projector! It's all very exciting; I will post more after I get some sleep!

June 7, 2008
Okay, my terrible photos are now online! You might notice a trend in the annotation; the booze has robbed me of the finer details of yesterday evening.

TOJam Arcade 2008 - The Office Party

Here's what I can say, though: the venue was typically Torontonian; long, narrow, and awkward. The set-up was amazing—three projectors and twice as many laptops—but place was a bit difficult to move around without getting in the way.

Thankfully, many of my friends came out to show support, but I ended up being caught in conversations from all sides—including with our very own Aerisdead—so my other pals (and my wife!) kind of got ignored. The funny/sad moment of the evening was when I had planted myself next to my friend, Jonathan Mak and another game developer. I was talking myself hoarse (it was really loud), and my wife told me she thought it'd be best if she went home.

"Okay!" I said. "See you at home!" As she left to catch a streetcar, everyone looked at me like I was the biggest asshole in the world. "Oh, she's fine." I offered by way of explanation.

Ah, marriage.

The Office Party got a lot of really good feedback, despite the bugs that were present in the build being shown. I think its strength among all the other games was its bright, bold visual style. Projected large on a wall meant that my pixel people were massive, and they looked all the better for it. My wife made an excellent suggestion: "it needs a demo mode."

You could barely hear our sound designer's brilliant music over the din, but even still having it there made the game a much better experience. People were really reacting well to the game, from the silly voices to the ending screens to the way the character "wobbles" as he drinks more. The game was hardly ready for prime time, but I think it showed well. I caught a few people gazing for considerable lengths of time at the gigantic sprites, transfixed.

The way the show worked was this: each of the three projectors available had a schedule, and the games were rotated based on that. Someone told me that The Office Party "was up next"—like it was a speaker at a conference—and I hustled to camp near the projector so I could talk to people and answer questions. (Jean-Luc, the main programmer, wasn't in town yesterday, so I got to be the official representative.)

After the game was shown I tried to play a bunch of other titles, and then I got into more conversations. As I said, I feel bad for Jonathan Mak, and I'm sure he was happy to be rid of me. We've met before, but having an animated guy like me drunkenly carrying on about Dungeons & Dragons for Intellivision—I can't imagine that's anybody's idea of a good time. I'm sure he thinks I'm a complete idiot.

My friend Craig didn't though. We grabbed another round of beers and started waxing about all sorts of topics, from the idea of playtesting to the notion of communication. Then someone started playing Office Smash, and we were howling like a pair of meatheads at a UFC event.

Craig's game, The Scourge, elicited a similar reaction near the beginning of the night, when some players were trying to best each other. It was really something to see, and no doubt very gratifying for him.

So, I'd say the evening was a big success. I came off like a bit of a jerk, I abandoned my wife (who's perfectly fine, by the way), and drank myself silly. More importantly, I got to speak with a lot of great people, and to be inspired by some truly excellent work.

Jean-Luc and I are meeting tomorrow to discuss further revisions for the game. I still can't provide an executable for you folks, but I'll continue to keep you posted, if you like.
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Harveyjames
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 7:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That looks really cool!
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Lestrade
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

All right, now for the fabulous news. It is two-fold:

One: An Update
Jean-Luc and I continue our meetings and are still plugging away at the game. Right now we're not creating an new assets or adding features; we're actually re-thinking the entire experience.

The game we presented at TOJam was a fun, novel distraction with some neat mechanics and, I think, a heart of gold. We do, however, want to create a more playable game that you'll actually boot up more than once and that provides some strategy and rewards skill. So we're expanding the game's concept while simplifying it.

I have to thank you, Wes, for your earnest assessment when were chatting about TOP. It made me really think about what I wanted to do and what the best way to accomplish that was.

I will explain more as Jean-Luc and I solidify the details. However, I can say this: the game is definitely being planned for XNA (I've been sitting in front of my blank TV with an Xbox controller a lot lately, imagining things), and if it works with the gameplay, it might even work as a multiplayer Zune title as well!


Two: Now you can play the game! (Finally!)
Yes, it's true! Finally, you can download and play the early, early—early—version of the title from the TO Jam website. Keep in mind that this is the 1.0 build, so it doesn't have the wobbly DrunkMotion™ Engine implemented, nor does it have some of the later physics. It's less a game and more a tech demo at this point.(I don't even think it has music, which is a damn shame.)

However! You can at least see the art and get a feel for it.

Note that the TO Jam site has lovingly put up a YouTube video of the game in action (with music, thankfully). It's the TO Jam Arcade version (1.1), so it lacks the game's status bar, but includes the drunk mechanics and full gamut of coworkers.

Exciting stuff!
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Lestrade
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 1:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The lovely Aerisdead mentions Office Party in his review of the TO Jam Arcade show at The Torontoist. Press is good!
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kirkjerk
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

oh man, I just realized what the art reminded me of...
in like Dynamite magazine, or something, there was this game that was like under development or something, and it had all these Jocks and Nerds milling around that looked much like these characters, all b+w....
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Lestrade
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 1:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Links, please!
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 2:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wish I could Sad

I can't even find evidence to back my memory of Dynamite sometimes being a "flippy" magazine with a videogame themed magazine the other way, or what that mirror magazine was called.
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Lestrade
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, quick update: just over a week ago Jean-Luc and I met and we've locked down the game's revised mechanics. We had to pore over some design decisions because we were trying a hundred different things and nothing felt quite right.

What we're left with is a very simple arcade-style game that nevertheless should allow for strategy and improvisation. We really want people to play this for more than three minutes, and I think we've found the right combination of interesting mechanics and genuinely personable story/setting.

So, in just over a week, production begins! I hope to have new images of our progress so those of you who are interested can follow along.
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Lestrade
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 6:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We are now jokingly calling this The Office Party HD because it's being formatted and resized to properly fit an HDTV. Oh it'll still be all giant pixels, but now it'll be 720p. Also, and this will be determined by time, it is scalable to fit the Zune.

I'm hammering away at assets for the new version, including a nicely expressive animation of the main character slamming down a big ol' bottle of booze, and then running off screen sick. There's a reason for that.

Here's an early look a the new version (scaled-up PNG):

The Office Party AYTCH DEE
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Lestrade
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 6:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Holy shit, I haven't updated this thread since my anniversary. I actually have met with a new programming partner, who I will be teaming up with to bring The Office Party HD™ to red-ringing consoles near you. We have a design doc and everything!

Just bumping this as a way to remind me to, uh, you know, finish this game.
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Lestrade
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 5:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am officially continuing work on this soon-to-be-megahit on Monday ("Family Day" here in Ontario). Excitement!
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