2013 Global Game Jam – Dungenerations

Another year, another Global Game Jam! I ended up working by myself this year, and my game idea was way too ambitious. It involved procedurally-generated levels, an inventory system, and a unique saved game mechanic. Somehow, I actually managed to finish it all, with the exception of sound effects and music.

The game surpassed all of my expectations when it won both the Audience Award and the Best Overall Game Award at the Jam site, Northeastern University. Not bad for something made by one person in less than two days!

Dungenerations is a procedurally-generated roguelike shooter about the connection between parents and children. Each time you start a new game, you play as the child of the previous player character. You can leave items with your children so that they will be available in the next playthrough, but any items on your person are lost forever when you die. Leaving behind a legacy is necessary to defeat the DungeonLord, since each character has a limited lifespan.

It’s been quiet here lately…

I haven’t posted recently, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped working on Monster Commander. I’ve been working diligently on the game’s artificial intelligence, but since it’s not as flashy as new monster information, I haven’t posted much about it. Expect updates to continue to come slowly for the next month or so, as I prepare for my college graduation.

Trolox (Pond Spirit)

Trolox dwell at the bottoms of overgrown ponds and swamps, rarely leaving their aquatic homes. Over the years, plants sprout from their bodies, making them difficult to distinguish from the places they inhabit. When they need to interact with the outside world, they command nearby plants to do their bidding.

Their command of plants makes trolox dangerous in battle. They can ensnare foes with thorny vines, making it difficult or impossible for them to move.

Pora (Medicine Spirit)

Poras are reclusive spirits that hide deep in the forest. Seeing one is very rare, and is considered a symbol of good luck. Stories are told of people who were hopelessly lost in the woods, only to wake up at the edge of the forest with their wounds healed.

Poras hate fighting and lack any sort of combat ability. However, as support units, few can compare. They can heal large amounts of damage, remove any sort of negative condition, and even grant temporary immunity from all attacks.

Monster Profile: Shrike (Sword Spirit)

Whenever a truly exceptional weapon is crafted, a shrikes comes into existence. They are initially reclusive, but if they ever come to possess their bonded weapon, they mature into incredible warriors. Their fighting skills are unmatched, since they are literally one with their blade.

Shrikes value nothing more than a challenging fight, regardless of the consequences the fight may have. As long as they are given plenty of opportunities for combat, Shrikes are willing to serve humans of all types, regardless of whether the human is a proper Commander. This makes them popular as elite mercenaries.

Shrikes begin each battle by meditating, which allows them to store up energy for later. They can unleash this energy to move or attack with impossible speed. With enough meditation, a Shrike can take down almost any foe before it even has a chance to react.

Shrikes look remarkably similar to humans, but they are actually composed of soft metal.

Monster Profile: Boltrush (Lightning Spirit)

As I develop Monster Commander, I’ll periodically post details about it, starting with profiles for some of the game’s monsters.

Boltrushes spend their entire existence in the air, often high above the clouds. However, during storms, they appear closer to the ground, in huge numbers. Like most elemental spirits, they enjoy unleashing blasts of uncontrolled energy, but they rarely come close enough to civilization to cause any real damage.

In battle, boltrushes use a wide variety of lightning attacks. Though they lack the raw power of some other monsters, very few monsters resist lightning. This makes them versatile attackers. Lightning attacks heal boltrushes instead of dealing damage, so boltrushes will try to catch themselves in their own area attacks.

Announcing my next game: Monster Commander

A few weeks ago, I started serious work on my next game project. I’m planning for this to be my first commercial project, so it will be significantly better than anything I’ve released before.

Monster Commander will be a tactical RPG with an emphasis on smart decision-making over grinding and luck. Your army will consist of monsters recruited from the ranks of your enemies. Each monster will have very different abilities, and forming the right team will be crucial to achieving victory. I’ve wanted to make this game for years, and it is exhilarating to see it start to become reality.

I’ll be posting major announcements about the game on this site, but if you are interesting in more details about the development, you can follow my devlog.

I’ve also prepared an early demo, for those curious. It only supports hotseat multiplayer right now, but the gameplay is mostly intact. The Overseers are just placeholders, though – the real commanders will be able to draw energy from the battlefield to cast spells. The objective is to destroy the other player’s Overseer. Most everything is controlled by the mouse. You can also use the number keys to select actions, and the arrow keys or spacebar to select monsters.

Download It Here

Why I do this

I haven’t earned a cent from The Ultimate Celebration, but it’s all worthwhile when I hear that someone found every single friend. Doing so is very difficult and requires some considerable dedication. When I released the game, I wasn’t sure that anyone would accomplish this, but several have. This says to me that, at least to those people, the game is something special.

A number of people have written about the game by now, but it’s especially nice when they take the time to really understand the game. The best write-up I found is this one, from Jay is Games. Jeremy Hobbs understood exactly the feel I was trying to create through the game. This guest review on the TIGSource forums and the feedback I received from an IGF judge are also fantastic.

I also received nice posts from the Indie Games Blog, Indie Game Magazine, Get Indie Games (French), and Idealsoft (Italian). The game touched a lot of people, and I consider that success.

IGF Feedback

I just received the feedback for The Ultimate Celebration from the IGF judges, and I have to say, I’m pretty pleased.

Be warned, the feedback contains some SPOILERS, so you should probably play the game first before reading ahead. It will take just a few minutes.

First, here’s the feedback I received from the student competition:

I’m sure you realize this is a game that requires multiple playthroughs in order for it to “click”.  There may be something you can do – even if it’s as simple as a brief game-over screen with the friends you did or didn’t save in this playthrough versus the previous – to help convey that.

Overall, I thought it was nicely done.  I liked the contrast between my first playthrough (oh, this is easy!) to the frantic timing of any subsequent runs.

I’m not sure I completely understand the first comment, since the game already has a game over screen. I do like the idea of displaying a list of all the friends you found, though.

The contrast between the first and subsequent playthroughs is intentional, so it’s good to see that the game had the intended effect. The player is expected to go through a range of emotions during the first playthrough. The game starts out cheerful, gradually builds up a sense of dread, and culminates in a desperate struggle to survive.

The part of the feedback that disappoints me the most is where the judge refers to finding friends as “saving” them (the subsequent feedback makes this same mistake). One of the major themes of the game is the futility of fighting against the inevitable end. Finding your friends doesn’t save them from anything. In the end, they still die. But at least they had their friends with them during their final moments.

Here is an especially nice bit of feedback from the main competition:

Brilliant game, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was quite subversive, darkly humorous and playful. I’ve played through it twice, and intend to give it another few goes to see how much better I can do. To some degree I think it’s a shame that the (fail state) ending is something that never has quite the same impact after the first time, but I suppose that’s the nature of the beast.

I especially liked how initially I thought it was really easy because hitting enemies just knocks you back slightly instead of killing you/reducing health like what you might expect. That idea quickly gets turned on it’s head when you realize that getting knocked back a bit is a very real set back in a lot of scenarios.

It’s pretty damn hard. I play a lot of platformers, but my best score yet on this is finding 8 friends.

Bloody lovely music.

I’m disinclined to check out the video of the ending for if you save all your friends, because I want to try and get it myself eventually. I do suspect that most players won’t be able to achieve this, because I reckon it’s very hard to do so, but that’s ok, not every game has to have completion that is achievable by everyone.

Fantastic use of the short form. Well done!

This judge really understood the game. He or she was correct that few players are able to find all 20 friends. I know of only one other player who found all of them, though this has probably happened a few more times and I just haven’t heard about it.

The high difficulty is intentional, because The Ultimate Celebration is really two different games: the first emotional playthrough, and the subsequent speed-runs. For the first playthrough, the high difficulty is not a problem, since the intended message is even stronger if the player fails (it is virtually impossible to “win” the first time through). Subsequent playthroughs are there more for people who like to challenge themselves, which works best when the difficulty is high.

Interview with Quote Unquote

I was recently interviewed by Quote Unquote. I talk about what I enjoy about game development, how the Independent Games Festival can be improved, and reveal a few of my unfinished projects.

Read it here.

If you have time, you should also check out the interviewer’s YouTube channel, where he has videos about underrated or overlooked indie games.