Hey everyone! Lately I’ve been working on more accessories, and… the coveted “tester” accessory.” We’re still not completely sure how it’ll work, but the second video is of that very accessory… the mammoth head. The first video is from like 2 months ago, and is one of many drawings that will show the “detail” of each accessory before you equip or buy it. Hope you like ‘em.
For the last 10 days or so we’ve been preparing Dinowaurs Beta. It’s almost here! We even have a nice little banner on the front of the Kongregate website to coax people to sign up in the forum thread.
What are some of the changes? The first thing one would notice is a brand new main menu. Main actions are organized into tabs. Dinowaurs has persistence, which means you can create up to 3 dinos and give them accessories. These settings are then saved so they’ll come back up the next time you play! We currently have 3 tutorials that teach people more and more about the game until they’re ready to fight a dino controlled by another player. This can be done in the battle tab, where battles take place in either the snowy Alps or the Mexican desert.
Sleepy the Stegosaurus, complete with top hat, is enjoying the new Mexican desert arena. Go get that tier 2 village Sleepy!
We’re super pumped for Dinowaurs Beta. Mike is currently working on some bug fixes, and then we’ll be ready to release it to the wild. If you’re interested in signing up for the beta, go to the Dinowaurs Beta sign-up thread. Make sure to sign up for a Kongregate account so you can post in the thread.
Also, Greg has been making accessories for the dinos. As you can see, the result is amazing. :) Check out this Intuition Forum accessory thread if you want to see more. Feel free to make suggestions, too.
Overall, progress on Dinowaurs is going well. We can’t wait to release the Beta. Go sign up and let us know what you think!
A friend of Greg’s just linked this to him: “My Paper Mind,” an animation of paper stencil cut-outs, using a technique referred to as “Stratastencil.” The interesting thing is that the stencils are layered on top of each other, and photographed and lit such that the previous frames are visible behind the current one, receding into space and shadow. The effect is mesmerizing. Visit Javan Ivey’s My Paper Mind page to view the video.
Now obviously, if you’re a game developer, you’ll likely think “oo, I wanna make a game like that!” At least that’s what I thought. The easiest thing design-wise would be to copy the same visual effect, where the game world is a stencil, with previous frames in the background. It might take some graphics trickery to do the lighting such that it looks realistic. Or you could just make a sheet for every possible combination of object locations. Heh.
But what if you made a game based on the abstract concept of this, instead of the literal visual effect? What if you could see your previous actions in the distance, and that affected your current choices? What if you could go back to those frames to alter the current one? How could you design interesting gameplay by showing the past and the present at the same time? One draws parallels to something like Braid, but let’s think past that.
Imagine the space that exists from the front frame to the back frame. What happens if you collapse that space? What happens if you connect it, creating a 3-dimensional form from that space? How do you explore such a space?
I think exploring some of the later questions could lead to some interesting game ideas.
Well, today was a work day, even though it was the Sabbath we worked just like Mike said. User stories, a little Orbit Room cafe, and so on. But that, was but the beginning. Awhile later we met up with Ted and we fumbled around San Francisco, going to two predetermined restaurants that ended up being closed. Blah blah blah, long story short, Mike made this vs. screen mockup that’s probably going to change the way we think about gaming.
Soon after Mike’s out-of-body inspiration his eyes went blank and he ran into the Moscone center stripping off his clothes. We were able to recover his clothes after finding him dripping with cold sweat in a fetal ball. We clothed him as best we could and decided he’d just sleep there. He kept spouting gibberish about Warren and his mother, we’re not sure, but hopefully we’ll see him there in the morning. We may have lost Mike, but we’ve gained a vs. screen beyond imagination.
Recently we nicknamed Prof. Porpoise, “The Professor” due to his extreme agility on the court as well as his radical dissertation on The Crossover: An Application of Metafluid Dynamics and Quantum Mechanics Subsystems to Underwater Basketballs. The Professor isn’t all sneakers and snow globes. When he’s not drainin’ half-court PS-triples he’s sinking sea-faring vessels in the name of the Almighty’s Reckoning.
So I drew a few of those ships that he’ll be snacking on. I’m going to illustrate them fairly soon based on these drawings. Right now we’re just gathering ideas on the different types of boats and which would be funnier and more effective. For now this is a pretty good smattering of boats, ranging from early level rafts, to millionaire customized yachts. When I draw I use a ballpoint pen, preferably a Bic Cristal but normally it’s just whatever is lying around. If enough people want tips, I’ll post something about the technique in greater detail later on.
