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Klik of the Month Klub 13 and my own manspider

 
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kirkjerk
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 7:05 am    Post subject: Klik of the Month Klub 13 and my own manspider Reply with quote

So last night was the KotMK 13 -
http://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/node/206

(Dess when are you going to start doing that?)

The theme was "beards" and most of the entries went with it, at least a bit.

Probably the coolest (in terms of a neat gimmick, awesome use of sounds, custom graphics, deliberately designed levels, and all being done in Klik and Play) was snapman's "REVERSER TOO: THE TIMEBEARD CHRONICLES", Prince of Persia-ish play done in this ancient engine... pretty great.

My own entry was manspider, http://kirkjerk.com/2008/07/20/ and was a limited success... more of my love for sproingy physics, combined with a bit of the feel of bionic commando. You have to use spiderman-like web strands to latch onto floating platform and collect flies for points and health.
(It could have used some sound, and maybe little wings flapping animation, and maybe more of a sense of urgency, or making it clearer that a game had ended and a new game begun.)
It was funny how it evolved, sometimes getting simpler, then more complex. At first you had two web strands, but the platforms you hooked on to were fixed in place at the 8 compass points. And for a while the platforms floated up and down as well as side by side, but I think restricting it to horizontal movement made it more clear, and I kept the flies the same way.

I'm getting a little concerned that I'm spending most of my time (in these 2 hour game jams) on physics, and then aesthetics, and not too too much on like level design...
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Winged Assassins (1984)
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 7:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You could have argued that my game had beards on account that you play a rocking biker who shoots Flying Vs out of his chopper.
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:18 am    Post subject: Re: Klik of the Month Klub 13 and my own manspider Reply with quote

kirkjerk wrote:
(Dess when are you going to start doing that?)


armpitman invited me this week but i'm at the point where i'm adding the last features to my game and i'm trying to have it done by the end of the month, so most of my time is spoken for right now. remind me again before next month's.
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ApM
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:33 pm    Post subject: Re: Klik of the Month Klub 13 and my own manspider Reply with quote

kirkjerk wrote:
I'm getting a little concerned that I'm spending most of my time (in these 2 hour game jams) on physics, and then aesthetics, and not too too much on like level design...

Well, with the two hour time limit, your highest bang-for-effort is going to be with refining the mechanics, rather than sloppily throwing down some levels. If you were going to play with level design, I'd suggest using an engine with pre-existing mechanics, like Knytt Stories or something. Which wouldn't be a bad idea.

One thing that I've definitely noticed that's a little worrying is that I'm optimising my designs to be fun for about a minute to a minute and a half. I can't tell whether that's just because that is as long as I can afford to spend playtesting at a time, or because my mechanics are weak.
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kirkjerk
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:55 pm    Post subject: Re: Klik of the Month Klub 13 and my own manspider Reply with quote

ApM wrote:
One thing that I've definitely noticed that's a little worrying is that I'm optimising my designs to be fun for about a minute to a minute and a half. I can't tell whether that's just because that is as long as I can afford to spend playtesting at a time, or because my mechanics are weak.

In some ways I can't think of too many casual games that grab me for longer than that ... which is kind of a sorrowful admission for a retro/casual gamer to make.

Well, maybe it's not that bad...
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kirkjerk
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 7:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.thepoppenkast.com/forum/index.php?topic=813.msg16441#msg16441

Poppenkast had an open 3 hour tourney, so I took the extra hour, tried tweaking the scoring (I thought maybe having health burn more slowly but having each web take more time would lead to a more thoughtful game, but it just wasn't as much fun), added sound fx, a fly wing animation, a title screen and click button, and started recording high scores (for the session) and not just last score.

Black Parchment wrote:
Quote:
HOOOMCH!
@kirkjerk. Your game was probly the closest to a casual game.

I don't know what HOOOMCH meant, or if it was directed at me in particular, and I"m not sure if that was a compliment or not.
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