Long Strange Trip, Part 6: Better, But Not Enough
by Paul Dana · 10/01/2014 (10:14 am) · 8 comments
Long Strange Trip, Part 6: Better, But Not Enough
This is part 6 in a series of blogs that documents the wondrous journey of Plastic Games as we learned the hard way how not to make games. Part One is here
We last left you, dear reader, at the end of Part Five. We had made a fun game, but it was not fun enough and people did not know how to play it. We were discouraged and put down the game for a while, but, as we always seem to do, we picked it back up again, determined to make it better. We did our best and put together a version (this time Titled Flash Bios) that we submitted to the Indie Games Festival competition in 2006. You can download the 2006 IGF Flash Bios Submision here and play it for yourself.
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Main Screen Tutorial
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Main Screen Termintor
We thought we were so ready! I mean...look at that big red Buy Now button! And we had a tutorial...kind of...it was a separate level you could skip that showed you the mechanics, but not in the context of actually playing the game. We should have been making a *real* tutorial, but, once again we had trouble staying focused. We did get the fabulous Nauris Krauze to make some truly awesome comics for our load screens, though. Check this out!
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Loading Level 1 Input
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Loading Level 2 Gateway
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Loading Level 3 A2D
So...we submitted to the 2006 IGF...and...nothing. We did not even make runner up (of course), but we also got zero feedback (despite being told when we signed up we would at least get feedback).
Disappointment Landmark Three
So Very Sad Again!
1. Tutorial did not really teach you the game, people just skipped it.
2. Strategy was better. The Zor Paths helped, but there wasn't enough meaningful choice.
3. Perception issues - we still had not improved the visibility of the virus.
4. Flight model was better but still felt a bit stiff.
5. Still to hard to manage bits. The bubble state helped, but still no Bit Beam. When you deployed you had to wait till they bubbled up.
This was disappointment landmark number three in a series of such landmarks. It will take several installments of the Long Strange Trip to outline all the disappointment landmarks on the journey from 'Droids' to 'Bit Shifter'. The outline we gave in the last installment for how we dealt with disappointment generally held here as well:
1) cause - we finally do real play testing and find out why our game doesn't work
2) disappointment - we get sullen about it, then we get mad
3) fix - we change the game to address that issue
4) abandonment - we get more sullen and lose interest in the game for a year or more :)
Only step 4 was different. This time we actually submitted the game to IGF - and then got sullen and lost interest.
This time round the disappointment cycle (2005-2008) we spent more time making nicer looking loading comics than really addressing the learn-how-to-play issue.
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Loading Level 4 Tunnel
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Loading Level 5 Exception
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Loading Level 6 Terminator
We did make the strategy more fun by adding the zor paths and a lose condition. When the virus hits the data stream you lose, so you had to manage that, which increased your strategic choices. The virus travels down the zor paths more quickly, and you can see how the zor paths connect to each other and to the Datastream, so you can see better where the threat is. This also incresed your strategic choices.
We also addressed *some* of the mechanics issues but introducing the bit bubble-up state, but not all of them. We still hadn't added the bit beam by this time.
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Virus Hitting Datastream
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Gameplay
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Bits In Bubble State
All those changes helped, but they were not enough. The strategic choices, while better, were still limited. It became very easy to know what to do and the gameplay got repetitive. Since the Bit army would always grow, the end game was always a boring slow down of action as you would have to just "mop up" the last bits of virus.
Play Bit Shifter Alpha right now!
Keep in mind we have solved all these issues as of today, 1-October-2014, and you can play the game right now if you like. The Alpha version is available from Desura here. You will find a free demo version there as well if you would like to try it out without spending any cash. Also remember this game uses the original Torque Game Engine, not T3D, when evaluating our 'retro' art style. :-)
Finally, ProtoMario has done a review of the game on his YouTube channel. You should check it out..
Next Time on Long Strange Trip...
So that's this part of the story. The next installment How Many Times Can You Bang Your Head Against The Wall? talks work on the game from 2008 to 2012. We made great strides in this time. We improved the mechanics issues, added the Bit Beam, improved the look of the world markedly, made a tutorial that taught you how to play the game, and more. We did a good job being way more play-test-centric, but the tutorial was boring as hell taking far too long to teach you stuff you probably could have figured out on your own.
Please follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube:
Twitter: twitter.com/PlasticGamesLLC
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BitshifterGame
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/PlasticGamesLLC
This is part 6 in a series of blogs that documents the wondrous journey of Plastic Games as we learned the hard way how not to make games. Part One is here
We last left you, dear reader, at the end of Part Five. We had made a fun game, but it was not fun enough and people did not know how to play it. We were discouraged and put down the game for a while, but, as we always seem to do, we picked it back up again, determined to make it better. We did our best and put together a version (this time Titled Flash Bios) that we submitted to the Indie Games Festival competition in 2006. You can download the 2006 IGF Flash Bios Submision here and play it for yourself.
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Main Screen Tutorial
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Main Screen Termintor
We thought we were so ready! I mean...look at that big red Buy Now button! And we had a tutorial...kind of...it was a separate level you could skip that showed you the mechanics, but not in the context of actually playing the game. We should have been making a *real* tutorial, but, once again we had trouble staying focused. We did get the fabulous Nauris Krauze to make some truly awesome comics for our load screens, though. Check this out!
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Loading Level 1 Input
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Loading Level 2 Gateway
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Loading Level 3 A2D
So...we submitted to the 2006 IGF...and...nothing. We did not even make runner up (of course), but we also got zero feedback (despite being told when we signed up we would at least get feedback).
Disappointment Landmark Three
So Very Sad Again!
1. Tutorial did not really teach you the game, people just skipped it.
2. Strategy was better. The Zor Paths helped, but there wasn't enough meaningful choice.
3. Perception issues - we still had not improved the visibility of the virus.
4. Flight model was better but still felt a bit stiff.
5. Still to hard to manage bits. The bubble state helped, but still no Bit Beam. When you deployed you had to wait till they bubbled up.
This was disappointment landmark number three in a series of such landmarks. It will take several installments of the Long Strange Trip to outline all the disappointment landmarks on the journey from 'Droids' to 'Bit Shifter'. The outline we gave in the last installment for how we dealt with disappointment generally held here as well:
1) cause - we finally do real play testing and find out why our game doesn't work
2) disappointment - we get sullen about it, then we get mad
3) fix - we change the game to address that issue
4) abandonment - we get more sullen and lose interest in the game for a year or more :)
Only step 4 was different. This time we actually submitted the game to IGF - and then got sullen and lost interest.
This time round the disappointment cycle (2005-2008) we spent more time making nicer looking loading comics than really addressing the learn-how-to-play issue.
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Loading Level 4 Tunnel
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Loading Level 5 Exception
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Loading Level 6 Terminator
We did make the strategy more fun by adding the zor paths and a lose condition. When the virus hits the data stream you lose, so you had to manage that, which increased your strategic choices. The virus travels down the zor paths more quickly, and you can see how the zor paths connect to each other and to the Datastream, so you can see better where the threat is. This also incresed your strategic choices.
We also addressed *some* of the mechanics issues but introducing the bit bubble-up state, but not all of them. We still hadn't added the bit beam by this time.
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Virus Hitting Datastream
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Gameplay
IGF 2006 Flash Bios Bits In Bubble State
All those changes helped, but they were not enough. The strategic choices, while better, were still limited. It became very easy to know what to do and the gameplay got repetitive. Since the Bit army would always grow, the end game was always a boring slow down of action as you would have to just "mop up" the last bits of virus.
Play Bit Shifter Alpha right now!
Keep in mind we have solved all these issues as of today, 1-October-2014, and you can play the game right now if you like. The Alpha version is available from Desura here. You will find a free demo version there as well if you would like to try it out without spending any cash. Also remember this game uses the original Torque Game Engine, not T3D, when evaluating our 'retro' art style. :-)
Finally, ProtoMario has done a review of the game on his YouTube channel. You should check it out..
Next Time on Long Strange Trip...
So that's this part of the story. The next installment How Many Times Can You Bang Your Head Against The Wall? talks work on the game from 2008 to 2012. We made great strides in this time. We improved the mechanics issues, added the Bit Beam, improved the look of the world markedly, made a tutorial that taught you how to play the game, and more. We did a good job being way more play-test-centric, but the tutorial was boring as hell taking far too long to teach you stuff you probably could have figured out on your own.
Please follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube:
Twitter: twitter.com/PlasticGamesLLC
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BitshifterGame
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/PlasticGamesLLC
#2
10/01/2014 (5:48 pm)
The comics look great! I'll have to fiddle with the game sometime, but it looks good in the screenshots.... 
#3
10/02/2014 (1:37 pm)
Yeah, nice comic work there... and thanks for the detailed writeup! The struggles and trials of hobby game development... 
#4
Quick question: Did you consider a toon shader for in game? The game seems to be comic/toon based. A toon shader would make that a bit more seemless.
10/03/2014 (2:00 pm)
Guts! It takes guts to lay out the progress of your game over the years. Good job and thank you for sharing.Quick question: Did you consider a toon shader for in game? The game seems to be comic/toon based. A toon shader would make that a bit more seemless.
#5
10/03/2014 (2:39 pm)
Good to still your work, as ever, some nice cartoons there. Unfortunate ... that you never got what you paid for with IGF. :/
#6
@Demolishun - We did not consider a cartoon shader for the simple reason that this is the old TGE engine - no shader support. We could always *add* that, but we have spent all our time chasing down the problems that kept the game from being fun. :-)
10/06/2014 (6:22 am)
Thanks for the kind words, everyone.@Demolishun - We did not consider a cartoon shader for the simple reason that this is the old TGE engine - no shader support. We could always *add* that, but we have spent all our time chasing down the problems that kept the game from being fun. :-)
#7
Sorry, nothing really to add to that of great relevance, except yeah great write-up, and good luck with your game! But mostly just good to hear you're still kicking around these parts! When you gonna upgrade that thing to T3D? C'mon, porting is fun! :-)
10/06/2014 (12:22 pm)
Hi Paul Dana!!!Sorry, nothing really to add to that of great relevance, except yeah great write-up, and good luck with your game! But mostly just good to hear you're still kicking around these parts! When you gonna upgrade that thing to T3D? C'mon, porting is fun! :-)
Associate James Urquhart
I wouldn't necessarily worry about the "retro" art style. As long as things are consistent and it doesn't look like an N64 game, I don't think people will be put off it. And of course we have games like Minecraft which prove shader heavy Call of Duty graphics aren't always important.