My entry is called Cyber Shield, and can be viewed and downloaded here (source included).

Progress Report 12 hours in

It seems that 12 hours have passed since the compo started. It’s time to look back on what I have accomplished in this 12 hours.

I’m going to start with a small description of what is going on in the game:

The game takes place in a vritual environment (tron-like grids). Both the player and his enemies are virtual bots, living in cyber space. The player’s goal is to collect the “Intelligence” briefcase, and send it to the drop off zone. You win points by scoring touchdowns (dropping the Intelligence in the designated area), you loose points if you get killed.

The enemies (baddies as I like to call them) are not hostile towards you at first, but become so when you steal their precious briefcase. In order to reach the drop zone, the player must push (while carrying the briefcase) through the enemy lines. Once the touchdown occurs, the briefcase is reset to it’s original position.

Think of it as a Top-Down Shooter meets Team Fortress 2 and American Football. Up till know I have the following things working:

• Player controls
• Collision and Gravity
• Enemy spawning and a shitty AI that starts to follow you when you pick up the briefcase
• Dropping and picking up the briefcase
• Player bullets (enemy bullets to be added soon)

Here’s a rough concept of the playing field:

Here’s a Screenshot:

Progress Report – 16 hours in

I’m back with a new post. 16 hours have passed since I started working on the game, and things are looking bright (hope it’s not cause I have industrial quantities of coffee in me right now). I managed to implement a basic AI system for the baddies, and I’m building upon it. Since my last progress reported the following changes have been made:

- In order to focus more on the scoring mechanics and gameplay, the player can no longer shoot at the enemies. Instead he must dodge, run, jump and avoid the entire swarm of baddies that charge gun-first towards him.

- Enemies now feature two AI mode: Idle and Hostile! If the player hasn’t pick up the Briefcase, the baddies will run around the arena, acting cute and minding their own business. When the player steals the briefcase and heads towards the Touchdown Area, the enemies enter the Hostile mode, which has them engage the player. Right now I’m working on splitting the enemies in two groups: Attackers and Defenders. Attackers are the baddies that charge towards the player, while Defenders maintain their position near the Touchdown Area firing at the player, defending that position.

- Got the HUD to work, both the HealthBar and the “Special” bar.

- Collision detection between the baddies! Now they bump into each other, turn around and mind their own business. (Only in Idle mode).

- I suck at 3D modeling and graphics, but I’m doing what I can. Right now I’ve added the Player and Baddies models (who are subject to change if I will have enough time left), which look like a low-poly cell-shaded version of R2D2 from Star Wars.

Here are a couple of new screen shots, and a video showcasing the Idle-ing robots.

Progress Report 20 hours in

Ok, 20 hours have passed like a breeze. I’ve kept myself busy, coding and doing my best to create 3D models that can be identified with ease! Got most of the Core Mechanics working quite well. I now need to polish them and focus on Level Design and media (textures, models, music). This is a full list of features that have been added today:

• Collision
• Player and Camera controls (1st person, 3rd person, top-down – although top-down is what I am going to use)
• Bullet handling for the Enemies
• Enemy AI. There are two types of enemies, Attackers and Defenders. The Attackers will engage the Player gun-first, while defenders will rush towards the TouchDown zone, in order to defend it.
• Switching between levels.
• HUD (Health Bar, Special Bar/Stamina Bar)

I’m happy with my progress today, managed to do most of the things that I had planed. Gonna take a quick nap (2-3h maximum) and then I’m back to adding the rest of the features, and polishing the game.

As a bonus, here’s my Timelapse video. Hope you guys like it.

Progress Report – 32 hours in

Thinks are starting to tie up together, now that I also finished adding the Shield Mechanic for the player. Now, besides being able to dash for a limited amount of time, our little lonely-protagonist can spawn a shield that protects him from evil bullets, and also tosses baddies aside!

The AI has also been improved, Attackers now have a FieldOfView distance. They only engage the player if they spot him, so good bye having a huge swarm of enemies behind the player. This also allows better tactics in the game, as enemies are now evenly spread through the field.

Here’s a small video showcasing the shield:

Progress Report – 38 hours in

Ok, all basic mechanics are in place. I’ve decided to remove a few stuff in the end, but it’s for the better. The shield mechanic is now in place and it is the main attraction as o now. Dashing and Shielding are now separated (Shift – Dash, Space – Shield) from one another for better control over the character. The Main Menu is in place, although it lacks a Background. I’ve also finished the 1st level (easy), with 8 pits that warmly wait for the enemies to fall into them.

Death cam and Victory cam have been added (camera zooms in on the player, and rotates). Gonna add a special kind of mood to both cams (dark/grey for death, something else for victory).

I’m going to spend the next 4 hours adding more visual goodies (blur for dash, slow-mo camera when enemies fall into pit, a damage overlay for the player). After that I will try my best with sound and music. Time to get back to work, hence not much time is left, and more is needed to be done.

Here’s a Screenshot of the Main Menu:

And here’s the shield animation:

Last Progress Report – 46 hours and Release

My entry for LD22 has been completed and uploaded. Tomorrow I’ll make a full Post Mortem containing a Game Design Document, and my thoughts on what went right, wrong and what could have been done to improve it further. For now, all I can say is the following:

1. I’m proud of my entry. During the past 48 hours the game has gone through allot of design changes. What first started as an FPS, soon became a morph between a Top-down shooter with a capture the flag (briefcase) mode, with American Football elements (such as Touchdown). Only during my second day did I realize that the game was by no mean fun when chased down by an entire team. Writing AI for the team mates was a no-no due to the short amount of time left, so I scraped the basic mechanics and came up with a new one.
2. I’m happy with the current gameplay mechanic. Using a defensive weapon for offense is something not many games tackled, or at least no any that I know off. In this prototype I tackled two ways of using the shield, one in which the player acts a bulldozer, pushing his enemies into pits, and another where the shield is used to deflect bullets towards his attackers.
3. I’m not much of an artist but I feel that the current art style is decent.
4. I’m happy with the amount of features this game contains (although not all are used now). In just 48 hours I managed to integrate a TDS camera (with an alternate FPS version, currently locked), collision, AI (when the prototype was meant as a Capture the Flag game, I implemented two types of behaviour for the enemies: Attackers and defenders. The Attackers charged towards the player if he was near them, while defenders rushed to the touch down zone, forming a human/robot shield) and basic physics.

As I said before, a Post Mortem will arrive soon, in which I will explain how I have arrived to this current gameplay mechanics, what I had to scrap and why. Till then, I’ll leave you guys with today’s Timelapse, and a bunch of screenshoots.

• Screenshot 1 (Main Menu)
• Screenshot 2 (Asian Mode)
• Screenshot 3 (Normal Mode)

Download Cyber Shield.

Constant Distraction Drummer was a major success by my reckoning, as it was completed in time (3h 20m), with a few minutes left to spare for packaging and writing this postmortem.

Things go like this: You have acquired a set of drums, which your brother hates. He threatened to brake them after his soap-opera was over. So the drummer hired a ninja-assassin to kill his brother. The goal is to annoy your brother and distract his attention so that the ninja could enter the house and drop the Big-screen TV on him. You play the drums using keys 1 – 3. The level of annoyance is represented by an Annoy-O-Meeter, in the upper right corner of the screen. Once the Annoy-o-meeter is full, the ninja enters the house and can be controlled using the MOUSE, while continuing to bash the drums. Once in, the ninja must pick up the TV (by clicking when over it), and dropping it on the annoyed fellow.

What went right

As soon as I picked the theme I knew what I wanted to do. It took me less then 10 minutes to write the idea on paper, including details about the characters and sprite animations. I must be honest, I had to cut-down a few things in order to make the deadline, but overall it was a straight-forward development process, something I consider to be a “major WIN”, hence most of my projects get dropped due to the high number of features that need to be implemented.

It was a good idea to plan everything before opening Visual Studio, including making the assets first. Since it was a 2D Game, I first created a fake “screenshot” of how the game should look. Once I finished it, I exported all the assets, and opened up Visual Studio. The fact that I already knew all about the libraries I used allowed me to develop a prototype in the first 30 minutes, and then build upon it.

What went wrong

It was a bad idea to search for drum sounds near the end, hence adding sounds in a hurry kinda broke the code. And because this was a small challenge, I didn’t backup anything, so even though I meet the deadline I have two bugs that kinda brake the gameplay, when it comes to playing the drums. There were a couple of features I wanted to add, but had to cut due to time constraints(for example, dialogue between the drummer and his brother).

Conclusion

All in all, I’m happy that I could finish it in 4 hours, which was my goal. It’s a boring game filled with bugs, but it’s a completed game.

Here’s the Time-Lapse:

Download: Link

Source: Link

The drum sounds where acquired from here, and are royalty free.

At first I thought that I follow the reharsels in order to bounce ideas for my projects, or as an inspiration for work, but the truth is that I enjoy watching those people because, somehow, it reminds me of, well, myself back in the day when I used to host events in front of alot of people, something that I haven’t done in more then a year. Truth be told, I feel like that part of me which exploded with joy when it came to be in the spotlight, died when I joined Gameloft, one year ago. My guess is that I focused to much on achieving my dream of becoming a Game Designer, while my other passions and hobbies got tossed aside. Many changes have been noticed during my daily activity, including my current inability to come up with out-of-the-ordinary actions and shocking ideas. It may be because I feel constantly shadowed by my work collegues, who, are indeed , a bunch of high quality people with great achievements, people who I actualy look up to and respect. It’s something natural I guess, but I find my knowledge and inspiration capped, limited, and the single thought that my ideas would turn out to be bad kills me. I know that If I where in this possition two years ago, I’d shock everybody, but right now, I only manage to amaze myself with my stupidity.

I look back today on my past achievements. Not long ago, I won the BIG FEST trophy for the best on-stage monologue and presentation, where, in front of an audiance of 200 people, I managed to bring tears into their eyes only to make them laugh seconds after. I remember when I received the Copernic Award (one of the biggest awards at that event) during a IT contest, where my improvisations skills saved my “arse” from a mountain of flaws and errors my project had. Heck, I even got 1st place in a regional contest (with a class mate) for managing to “sell” a car condom that protected the pedestrians from a deadly impact. I remember writting poems and epic stories, working on games based on simple mechanics that turned out great because of their simplicity, I remember laughing at just about anything, and cheering people up by enganging in simple conversations. All of this things I could do with so much ease seem so hard right now that it’s mind boggling. And I ask myself, why? What has changed in this past year that turned my world around so much?

I regret not the hours spent at work, I actually look forward to them, I look forward to boosting my professional career and rising up the ladder. My only wish is to find a way to balance my huge passion with my hobbies. And I hope I will find it soon, or else, I’ll cease to be myself…

This new world gave me strength, I became a new person, I have more courage, and I feel that I’m invulnerable, to the future. But when old friends, crushes or fragments of the past keep getting in my way, I kinda jump from one edge to another. I have great vision, and I plan alot of fun things, but when I am stuck between old and new, I feel like a Monkey who has a hard time deciding wheter or not to eat his own poo.  It’s hard to be myself, because people either know me for who I was before, or who I am know, and when both “me” colide, then run for cover, because a mess will start. I care alot about people from my past, I’m still attached to them in one way or another, but I also care for the image I forged, and how people react to it. And even though changed occured, one thing remains the same, one thing I lust for, since the “begining of time”.

I lust for adventures, epic little moments in my life that make me feel special. A year ago I had all the time I ever wanted to do almost everything I desired, being it a trip to the mountains, with only my backpack, cigars and a tent, or cruise on an wretched old boat. Now I have the possibilities to do all of them, but time is what I’m lacking. I find myself working during the week, going home to eat and sleep so that I can do the same the following days. I spend my weekends at work, not because I’m obliged, but because I like what I’m doing, and yet I feel the need to brake this chain. But how can I?

If I could, I’d hop on a train, with a bag, and go where ever I can. From there, I could go in any direction, or maybe go back to where I left from, on foot, meeting new people on the way, and learning new things. Maybe I will be faced with the possibilitie of defending myself from a wild animal, or saving someone from falling of a cliff. Maybe I’ll meet an old lady and listen to her stories, or feed a puppy on my way. New friendships could be formed, new memories could be forged and more doors to the future could be opened. My personality will surelly be re-shaped and thus I’ll become an evolved me.

Who doesn’t lust for that? I know I do.

I’m scared, during the day I wait in fear for the night to show it’s veiled face. I do not want to sleep, and I try to keep myself busy as much as I can. I work even when I am not at work, and I constantly try to think at something, to observe as many things as possible. I do this because I do not want to risk thinking about it, it’s hard for me to accept it, just like it’s hard for a father to burry his own son. When a beloved one moves away, across the ocean, you cry, you cry because you are an egoist. You cry because you shall lust for their presence. But there is still chance to see that beloved one after months or years. That person still exists, is still able to write an email or pick up the phone. Yet, despite all this means of comunication you still feel sad. But what can you do when those means are no longer useful?

It seems like yesterday I went out to play and I saw him, just across the street, in a yard, belonging to a friend. Right that instant I knew I have found my best friend. I asked the owner if I could play with the little one for a while, and so I did. We bonded, at the very first instant. Like we were meant to meet, and since that day forward, we have been together. Nine years have passed since I first layed eyes on him. Nine years of tender loving care and funny moments. For nine years he was both a listener and a talker. In nine years I learned to love like I never loved before, I learned to care about someone else besides myself. He taught me how to enjoy each and every moment in life, and he was there with me when ever I got sick. We’d share the same bed most of the night (I say that because, when morning came, I always awoke on the floor, while he slept on my pillow), we would sit on the same bench and stare at the same sky. My father loved him, he loved him so much that at one point I thought we switched places. It was funny to see how easily people would get attached to him. My little miracle and the most beloved earthling.

Then again, all miracles have a begining and an end. And when they dissapear, everyone that came in contact with them is more damaged then before. My friend died on 7th of August 2011, at 9:27 o’clock. He died as soon as I left home to return to Bucharest. Even thought he spent most of his life next to me, he died 100 km away from where I was. He died with my parents watching him, unable to help. He was my best friend, but I never thought it will end. When my parents said that he died, I did not feel a tear drop in my eye, but a bullet going through my heart. I cried rivers that night, rivers that merged with those from my father and rest of the family. Rivers that became an ocean which swallowed us all. The flood has stopped for now, but everything around me triggers the feeling of loneliness, a dry feeling. I’m scared to return home, I’m scared to see the places that where once filled with life now standing hollow and empty. I miss him, I miss him with all my heart and soul, I miss him and I know I will never see him again.

He always knew how to grab your attention. If his demands where not meet he would unplug the TV. If he was ignored, he would stand tall, like a human, and scold you in his own language. His eyes, would reach deep into your mind forcing you to see his mistake. He hugged you in sad moments, grabing you with his paws and resting his head on your feet. He’d work beside you in the garden or when doing chores. There was a time when I had to move a barrel, rolling it on the pavement. He got up on two legs and pushed along side me, happy he could assist. When I coded, he would transform into inspiration, always barking the right answer. He was there for me when I’d brake up with someone, he was there with me on my birthdays, he was there with me when I was happy or sad, and yet, I wasn’t there when he departed. All I ever wanted is for him to know he was loved, the most loved of all beings in the entire world, as my dad used to say.

In his memory I write this post, for him I try to move on with my life. It’s incredible how such a little animal can teach you so many things about life, even when he ceased to be among the living. I’ve written this post for you Dolphy, my beloved dog, friend and mentor, and I hope that you are happy where ever you are.

For more details regarding the Break Design Challenge visit our blog.

So, I’d like to say thanks Gameloft for this chance and thanks to all my previous team-mates from the QA department for encouraging me to continue pursuing my dream. Without your help, I wouldn’t have had the motivation needed to achieve this Milestone.

• Loading maps
• Player characters (movement, shooting, camera controls)
• Collision
• Multiple enemies (had up to 500 enemies at once on the screen)
• Bullets (of different sizes and colors)
• Switchable weapons (only 2 currently implemented, more to be added soon)
• Powerups/Collectable items
• Lightning
• Temporary UI (needs re-design as most of it features placeholders graphics or text for display).

The game is still in it’s alpha phase due to a few stability bugs that I need to fix, but once this is done, I’m planning on adding content (levels, storyline, new weapons, models and game modes). Due to the fact that I do not own a Netbook, I am in need for people with Intel Atom Based neetbooks to give feedback regarding the stability and over-all playability of the game. Those that decide to help out will receive the following rewards:

1. Your name will be featured on the credits list once the game will be released.
2. A 20$ voucher for the “Game Creators” store.
3. 50% discount on the game and future titles launched on the AppUp store.

The only thing I ask in return from those willing to participate is seriousness. You will be receiving regular Release Mails containing the newest build, a list of bugs and their status (repaired, re-opened, closed, not fixed, etc), new features added and tasks. Those who want to apply must send an email, containing the words Tester Top-Down-Shooter + their name, to bacioiu.ciprian [at] gmail [dot] com. The email must include details about their Netbook (manufacturer, specs).

It’s time for me to put aside my keyboard and forget all about programming for a while, cause this weekend the second edition of Battlekon, a Romanian arcade fighting game event, is being held.

Battlekon represents a great initiative, a neat way of attracting fans of the arcade fighting genre and bringing them together. And according to this year’s Battlekon‘s motto it’s going to be a blast because “This time, it’s personal“. So if you happen to live nearby Bucharest, then hitch a ride to the “University Area” and join the fun.

This year the following tournaments will be held:

• Super Street Fighter 4 [ 1 v 1, PS3 ]
• Soul Calibur 4 [ 1 v 1, PS3 ]
• Tekken 6 [ [ 3 v 3, PS3 ]
• Marvel vs Capcom 3 [ 1 v 1, PS3 ]

Each match will feature 3 rounds. The team (or individual) who wins 2 rounds advances to the next stage.  The event starts at 10:00 AM, on March 26. For more details head up to www.battlekon.com.

It wasn’t meant to be anything special, at least I didn’t expect it to turn out like this, as all I seeked was to get a cup of coffee with a girl I meat at my favorite club. But the universe has it’s own way of tempering with events, of steering the wheel of the carriage called life that we all ride upon. As soon as we reached Lipscani, the old part of Bucharest, we meet with an old class mate of the girl I was with, who invited us to check out the restaurant she was working for. The place was fancy at least, with good music. Half way through the night, while we were talking and learning things about each other, an angelic child with the cutest smile ever walked in the restaurant, trying to sell some flowers, a child so innocent that seemed forged by Gods themselves. I couldn’t resist not to buy a small bouquet from him even though I had little cash on me, barely enough to pay the bill, but I couldn’t resist.

Not far from us was a couple sitting at a table, sadness being visible on their faces. They didn’t talk, each of them looking in an opposite directions waiting for their coffee to end so that they could leave. As soon as they where about to get up, from behind the bar came a man with a trumpet, which started singing Jazz. The couple stood lifeless for a moment and soon after the husband asked her to dance, and dance they did, for minutes and minutes without even taking a break. All the sadness disappeared from their eyes, while joy embraced them. We stood there, watching them, amazed, mesmerized while smiling from the top of our heart. Watching them dance made me forget all of the bad things that happened to me a few days back and every bad/unfair thought I had got washed away. Time stood still for me, those 10 minutes watching them dancing passed like hours. That singer probably kept their marriage from falling apart that night. I for one place an oath to take dancing lessons as soon as I can. Until now, I never saw dancing as anything more then a way to get close to a girl hoping to hook up with her, but today, I saw it as a way to lighten up, to dream, to achieve perfection.

Just as we got ready to leave, the owner saw us, asked us to stay, and even thought we only drank two coffees there, he gave us two drinks on the house, and his card. We decided to stay and enjoy the show, which turned out to be a good idea. As the Jazz interpreter kept playing, I kept on relaxing, doing nothing else then dreaming. Tears almost started dropping from my eyes, as I embraced a strange feeling of happiness and protection which I felt only a few times in my life.

When I first arrived in Bucharest, I saw it as a shallow town as an opportunity to start a career, a tool I could use to evolve and start my life on my own. I forgot how to enjoy little moments like this and instead focused on my job and those heart-breaking events that I kept recalling, until now. The universe twitched his magic wand and healed a big chunk of my “soul” tonight. Last Friday I turned 20 and since my birthday, only good things seemed to happen. All I hope is that special moments like this will keep crossing my path.

Bucharest, a place where wonderful things will keep on happening.