TheAshBlog

The blog of Ash

[theashdev]

3D motion controlled space combat in fully explorable space environments!

My motion controlled 3D spaceship shoot ‘em up, Solstice of Fury is out now on google play for free! Check it out and definitely let me know what you think.

[theashdev]

This is the latest level for Solstice of Fury, I've just finished building it! It's also the last level before releasing the game, not much more to do now!

[theashdev]

A work in progress of my latest level, a gas harvesting colony.

Check out the other visualisation styles on my website,

http://solstice-of-fury.blogspot.com.au/

[theashdev]

I've been adding a high score system to each level.

[theashdev]

The latest level in Solstice of Fury is a space fleet, headed by a huge bug-like ship with a hangar you can fly around in.

[theashdev]

The IGR trailer had been released and my game Solstice of Fury is in it. Check it out at the link.

[theashdev]

Since about the start of the year I’ve been working on a personal project, a 3D motion controlled space flying game for mobile devices, which I have named Solstice of Fury. So you fly a space fighter ship around, exploring space stations and asteroid fields while shooting and blowing up enemy ships. The really cool part is that the spaceship is controlled using the accelerometer in your mobile or tablet, letting you pitch or turn the ship by pitching or rolling the device. I’ve had some good news this week, this game has been accepted for the Indie Games Room at AVCon in Adelaide. I’m very excited to be presenting this game at a convention, it will be a fantastic opportunity. It’s in the middle of July, and there are so many things I want to get done on this game before then, so I’ll be keeping myself busy and posting occasional updates too.

[theashdev]

The Skinner Box

Recently I’ve watched some videos by Extra Credits on YouTube about Skinner Box Mechanics in games. The Skinner Box was an experiment where a bird was put in a box, in the box was a button, which when pecked, dropped food. The bird would just keep pecking the button. It was found that if the button only dropped food randomly every few pecks, the compulsion to keep pecking was greater. I’ve also heard long ago, but I can’t recall where, about a similar setup where the button would either drop food, or zap the animal, and the effect was still the same.

Mechanics like this are applied to games to make the player waste time, to keep them engaged where there is no content, often in MMOs, where when a player kills a creature it has a small chance of dropping something the player needs, and so the player keeps killing enemies long after there is any fun involved. This design is used in poker machines too, where pulling the lever will usually make you lose, but people keep pulling it and putting money in because they hope that they will win. This kind of design creates a psychological trap, and is used to cheaply keep the player engaged. I’ve never really been stuck in something like this, though I can’t say why, maybe it’s because I don’t enjoy MMOs, or I’m too quick to walk away, or maybe I have been but I don’t remember.

Is this something we’ve applied to Unbound? No, for the simple reason that enemies don’t respawn, and so it’s impossible to keep killing enemies just to find a particular item. While enemies do drop items randomly when they die, there isn’t really than many to go through anyway.

So can this theory be applied to games properly? I’d say it can be, if say it distracts the player for a very short time, in a situation where they don’t even need to do this to progress. There may be some players who are in fact looking to waste heaps of time just to not be bored, and so creating this as an optional distraction seems reasonable, however when this design is used to suck players in, making them keep grinding when they don’t want to be, just to get some reward and fill in gameplay hours, then it is bad game design, and players should be aware of when a game is doing this to them so they can avoid it.

[theashdev]

Unbound and Yume Nikki

Several weeks ago I watched a few videos from Cryaotic, a guy who makes cool let’s plays on youtube, playing Yume Nikki, which is a game about a girl suffering from the effects of sexual abuse. I also read most of an article on GameTheory, “The Begginer’s Guide To Yume Nikki” (The links are below). This is a really interesting game as it abstractly, but very strongly represents the traumatic effects that abuse and depression can have on a person. The character in the game is Madotsuki, who refuses to leave her apartment, and sleeps all day. The majority of the game takes place in her dreams with the player collecting items while exploring strange and somewhat uncomforting environments that will represent her sexual abuse and emotions in some way. I was studying the theme of abuse in this game as it is also the driving theme of ours, Unbound. While Yume Nikki is a stronger and more confronting example of the theme, there are many ways the two games can be compared. For one, Madotsuki's dreams contain many different worlds that are all very different, and may supposedly represent her different feelings and emotions. In Unbound, we have used the different stages of grief to represent each of the levels, as well as the different elemental effects. The three bosses in Unbound representing depression and corrupted nature, can be compared to some of the bizarre creatures encountered in Yume Nikki, which are believed to represent such things as sex, horror, and isolation. The last thing I'd like to mention is how Yume Nikki is a game about the effects of abuse tearing this girl apart, leading herself into isolation, and eventually suicide, whereas Unbound takes an approach of dealing with the abuse, going through the stages of grief and eventually coming to acceptance, and the abusers, the Imps, are hacked to pieces throughout the game. We thought a lot about the ethical question of should we be solving our problems by killing, would that really help, but our primary goal was to make a fun hack and slash type of game. Looking back we might have been better off representing our enemy not as another individual to be blamed, but as negative thoughts and aspects of our own mind that must be overcome to escape depression.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_Sr7Z0cQ_0

http://caspiancomic.com/gametheory/?p=490

[theashdev]

Here it is the, game has been released! You can find it on either Gamejolt, or Itch. Please enjoy and look out for the official final release on the 8th of September, we’ll be holding a release event too. Have fun!

http://gamejolt.com/games/unbound/82996

http://chainbreaker-studio.itch.io/unbound

[theashdev]

Release!

The trimester we’ve been making this game is finished, and we are releasing the game tonight! But since this is such a cool game, we'll be having an official launch event on the 8th of September! We’ll keep improving the game till then, so this is more of a beta build. I’ll post the links for itch.io, Gamejolt, and Gumroad when they’re ready.

[theashdev]

Here’s some huts I made the other day, some of them have been taken over by the evil and industrial fire imps.

[theashdev]

Our game has been released as an alpha! It’ll be finished in just a few weeks now. It’s on both itch.io and gamejolt, on windows only at this stage. So please check it out and tell us what you think!

http://chainbreaker-studio.itch.io/unbound

http://gamejolt.com/games/unbound/82996

[theashdev]

I just created an online portfolio with a bunch of my projects. Here it is,

http://ashleybrowse.crevado.com/

[renamonkalou]

Faroe Islands - Trøllanes

© Grégoire Sieuw

[theashdev]

WOW

[indiecade]

The humblebundle Game Making Bundle gives you everything you need to start making your own games AND it supports the IndieCade Foundation! With great game engines, asset packs, tools, and games, there’s no better time to become an indie game developer - grab the bundle before it ends on Tuesday, July 21!

[theashdev]

This is interesting.

[indiecade]

Indie Game #SoundWall - Healer Quest

Title: Main Theme 

Game: Healer Quest

Developer: Pablo Coma

“This is the main theme of the game that you will hear on the title screen. I wanted it to sound both medieval and funny. The game’s full OST can be listened or downloaded here.”

Want to be featured in next week’s #SoundWall? We’d love to hear what you’re working on! Find out how to send us your game’s music: [Submit Audio Here]

Listen to more indie game music: [IndieCade #SoundWall Collection]

[theashdev]

Cool game music, just what I need right now.