Archives for 2014

It’s pretty much common knowledge at this stage that Oculus Rifts are the most awesome things on the planet, so it was only to be expected that Friday’s Playup After Dark would pack out (we set a new record with 60 people!). New tech also called for a new venue, which SK Games were gracious enough to provide. With the extra room and awesome games, the Playup was guaranteed to be good, and that’s before you factor in the bar! Horseback fighting, sci-fi archery, and pies were just some of what was on show, but I’ve only got room to mention the big ones here.

Valiant

The game most people (understandably) hoarded around was Offpeak Games’ Valiant, a medieval horseback combat game designed for the Oculus Rift. The game had a very Mount & Blade feel to it, but your avatar leaned with the Rift’s movements, which was a nifty mechanic to dodge your opponent’s lance! The biggest issue with the game was the motion sickness. Most people admitted they were fine until they turned their horse, at which point the unreality kicked in and stomachs started churning. This is more a problem with the Rift than the game itself, but one suggestion was to make a jousting mode to help break in the VR-ness for newer players by minimising turning.

The other big issue was the controls. At this stage of development, it’s understandable that movement is more like gliding than riding a horse, but not being able to move backwards felt strange. If I ever ran into a wall, I couldn’t get my horse to back up and turn, I’d need to slowly spin on the spot and wait to be able to stab my enemies in the hearts again. Adding in some bobbing when moving, being able to turn quicker when going slower, and making the game’s movements seem more organic would all help in making an immersive experience worthy of a knight’s attention.

You can follow Valiant’s progress from the Offpeak Games facebook page.

Defender of the Wood

Off to the side at the Playup Fayre was Daragh Wickham’s Defender of the Wood, a small archery game for iOS that relied on keen timing. Think Angry Birds, but instead of pulling back a slingshot, you carefully time the archer’s pull by holding your thumb on the screen. The longer you hold down for, the farther the arrow flies, and that’s all there is to it. It’s actually a really nice little game, and the difficulty level is perfect, but it’s still a very small game.

The two modes available in the game are target practice and a survival mode where you shoot oncoming goblins. While it could take weeks to master both modes, they didn’t have much in the way of variety. Sometimes the wind might change, but everything else would stay the same. That said, Daragh had only learned programming earlier this year (which is pretty impressive!), and this was more like a test than a full fledged game, so it’s entirely understandable that there’s not a huge amount to do just yet. Adding more modes, enemies, and modifiers were intended to be done over the coming months, and hopefully an Android version will pop up one day!

You can pick up Defender of the Wood for free from the iTunes App Store.

Into The Pie

Feeding those hungry for a bit of old-school card gaming was Eeshwar Rajagopalan’s Into The Pie, a card drafting game about making pies. Everyone started with a hand of five ingredients from a deck of cards, placed one into their pie, and passed the rest onto the next player. This was the only constant mechanic of the game as Eeshwar tested out a plethora of different ways to play. The main issues arose from two things: the eligibility of edibility mechanic and difficulty to make specific pies.

In the first round my group played, we had to justify the edibility of our pies and select who had made the best one. This was a controversial mechanic since it added a party element to the game but removed objectivity from the rules. Some people liked it, others didn’t, but leaving it as a variant was always an option. As my group progressed through the rounds, we found making pies to be difficult, even after removing half of the ingredients from the deck. This was somewhat alleviated with a post-pie-constructing top decking mechanic, which was greatly appreciated by everyone in the group. There were still kinks that needed fixing, but the amount of feedback Eeshwar received on the night will no doubt be more than enough to work with.

You can follow Eeshwar on his blog: Questionable Mechanics.

Astral

Far away from the medieval Playup offerings was SK Games’ Astral, a 3-player sci-fi boss battle game that was just as strange as it sounds. The game involved two players in small space ships trying to destroy the behemoth space fortress controlled by the other player. The occasional power ups would float towards the fortress for the ships to intercept, lest they wish for the fortress to become even more powerful. While the game itself was a lot of fun, the controls for the fortress were a minor hassle.

The fortress is stationary, but to make up for that, it can rotate it’s four guns around itself. The problem is figuring out which direction you push your stick in to fire what gun, because it’s not the direction you face when the game starts. Since there’s no clear indication of what direction is forward on your fortress, you have to flail about for a few seconds to get your bearings. Adding a clear indication of which direction it’s facing or adjusting the controls to fire in the direction you point the stick in were suggested solutions, but it’s a minor complaint of an otherwise very enjoyable game.

You can check out more from SK Games on their website.

It’s never easy leaving an Oculus Rift behind, but when you leave feedback for devs, it definitely makes it a bit easier. Everyone walked away with something from the night, whether it was feedback for the games or watery eyes from riding horses. Thankfully, alcohol helped soothe the unwanted pain from both, assuming it wasn’t the pain Francis Underwood lives by. Playup #5 should be around soon, but if you can’t wait more than a fortnight, the Perth Games Festival is happening very soon!

Playup #4’s theme was ‘squares’, which is a bit odd at first thought. When you think video games, you tend to think cubes, not squares. It’s not just because Portal gave us a 3-D version to care for in this crazy world, and it’s definitely not because we don’t look at square screens enough, it’s just that squares aren’t cool (both in real life and topologically). Squares are everywhere though, acting as the unsung heroes of the shapes, that proud basis upon which all other shapes may be compared, and as Playup #4 showed, sometimes it’s hip to be square.

Square Heroes

First up on the geometrically symmetrical chopping block was Gnomic Studio’s Square Heroes, a 2-D bullet hell shoot ’em up with a comic flair and hilarious multi-player. The game is a bit like Worms in that you can get delightful weapons to blow each other up, but it’s not turn based, weapon usage is earned by collecting coins, and your movement isn’t hindered by the laws of gravity, making terrain a very tactical obstacle. If I had to describe it in three words, it would be ‘simple, silly fun,’ a sentiment resonating with the other playtesters.

The development of Square Heroes has been happening for quite a while (~3 years including working on Square Off), and all that work definitely shows. Everyone in the room agreed that the gameplay was smooth, the gunplay was fantastic, and for such a simple game, it definitely manages to keep you wanting more. This is all helped with an absurd shtick that promotes the usage of rubber chickens, oversized wrenches, and crowbars as tools to bash your opponents, an aesthetic that the group found very appealing. The only real problems with the game arose from technical issues.

The occasional bug seemed to pop up in multi-player matches, sometimes forcing players ready or freezing another player’s client. Nothing in-game really seemed that affected, but it did make actually getting into the game in the first place a somewhat complex task. The only other sizeable criticism was how the game played on keyboard and mouse, but it was suggested that simply changing the cursor to a reticle could help alleviate confusion. Overall, the game was looking great, and hopefully the issues will be straightened out when PAX rolls around.

You can find Square Heroes on Steam Greenlight!

Adventures of Square

The second game to receive feedback from all four sides was James Paddock’s Adventures of Square, an FPS throwback to the fast-paced days of Doom in a brightly coloured world. It played a lot like Doom because it was made using the old Doom engine, which was both a good and not so good thing. While the engine certainly accommodated the hectic run n’ gun action from a childhood ago, the bright primary colours and fast movement made it difficult to fully engage with the game. Since it felt so much like Doom, this also hindered the identity of the game, something the devs were very interested in crafting.

Going into the playup, the devs were curious about the idea of merchandise and branding for their game. While merchandise can be a very legitimate way of making money from games, the consensus from the testers was to explore other avenues first. An unknown game would have a hard time selling branded products if the brand was relatively unknown, but acquiring revenue through donations or kickstarter-esque purchases with future rewards could be implemented far more easily. Ultimately, the testers suggested fully finishing the game before worrying too much about profitability, especially since they were a bit hazy on what their target audience was.

When asked about what their target audience was, they responded by asking the testers what they thought it should be since the question wasn’t exactly easy to answer. On the one hand, the game’s vibrant colours and playful art gave it the feel of a game suitable for a wide range of ages, and it reminded me of a few I played as a kid! On the other, there were brief moments where the giddiness was juxtaposed on more violent imagery, like enemies exploding or grim industrial areas. While the potential was there to pique a particular groups’ interest by switching violent animations with more passive ones, the question returned back to the devs as a question they’d need to mull over themselves.

You can find out more about James and The Adventures of Square on his website.

After gaining an oddly spiritual connection with the square form, the event ended as it inevitably had to. While I tend to think of Playups as useful for both the players and devs to get involved, this Playup seemed especially useful for the dev teams to evaluate their games and gain feedback. Some things are only discovered with groups of people, and I think both teams experienced that at the event. If you couldn’t make it, another Playup is around the corner, so keep your ears to the ground, square-eyes!

Check out Gamecloud’s take on the day here.