October 31st, 2008 by torncanvas
Development on Dinowaurs is beginning to wrap up here at Intuition Games. Things are getting hectic. One thing we’ve been up lately is tying into Kongregate’s microtransaction system for Premium Game Developers, so that players will be able to purchase accessories. Not only that, they’ll be able to earn them for free! It’s really exciting to finally see our accessories in action and on the dinosaurs. Here’s a preview image I captured on the development site.
Isn’t he cool? I can’t wait to see the suits in action! I had the pleasure of taking Greg’s illustrations and Ted’s concepts and reworking them so they could be skinned on the dinos and animated. It was hilarious and endearing to see a dinosaur wearing a business suit, or space suit, or tanuki suit.
Also, special thanks to Nimblebit for adding us and our semi-public Vimeo videos to the Game Developers group on Vimeo. We can’t wait to see how Zero Gear turns out!
March 5th, 2008 by torncanvas
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.
February 4th, 2008 by aeiowu
“Hey, we’re back!”
No, it’s not Dr. Katz, but instead a much drier, less-squiggly version here to bring you our next segment: way more recent stuff. We haven’t been showing as many pretties as we should, so above, I give you the very unofficial, unfinished Dinowaurs logo. It’ll probably resemble something like that above.
Design Changes
Throughout development we’ve tried to implement the agile attitude into our process. For those not hip, we’ve loosely interpreted the milestone system into what many would call a bastardization, but it’s been working. By staying loose about the design and not adhering to waterfall type milestones, we’ve allowed ourselves freedom to completely change the design of the game. Now this doesn’t come without a price, and it may kick us in the behind, but we think that this is the way to go in the web-games space. Iterate and push until we can convey the best version of our game’s high concept possible within the time-frame given. Credit Johnathan Blow’s recent speech on Conveyance and Pushing at the Nordic Game Jam.
Now onto the changes to Dinowaurs. Basically since hitting “alpha” we’ve decided that too much of the game goes on in the middle of the map in the very first encounter, ultimately leaving the other, stronger tiered villages to collapse given the upgraded weapons awarded to the player overtaking the first, and their fourth, village. To aid this, we’ve decided to change a number of things. This makes our third complete overhaul of the game’s mechanics, and each time we’ve done this, we feel better and more excited about where this game is going. Change is good. For our country too 
- Resources - They’re back and they accumulate at a rate based on the amount of villages the player has (represented by “gold” or the like).
- Tiered Weapons - Tech tree for weapons is now based on the village the dinosaur is at, instead of the amount of villages taken.
- Village Tiers - Each construction site is intrinsic to it’s original tier level. No other level village can be built there.
- Ammo - Ammo is no longer unlimited, but tied to the resources and charged against the total value with each shot, at a value determined by the ammo type.
- Weapon Production - Weapons are purchased with resources (e.g. gold) when the player chooses to produce them.
- Upgradeable Village Guns - Villages can be equipped with more guns (or maybe upgraded existing guns) to propagate more of a defensive strategy.
- Shooting - Removing the pause after shooting a weapon. The shot can cost resources now, forcing the player to consider each shot carefully, and besides, it will speed up the game.
Also, we’ve been talking a lot about weapons since a great portion of the game’s fun factor relies on them…
Four basic weapon types, upgraded with tiers (keep controls/weapon properties fairly consistent throughout tiers)
- Trajectory - hold to power-up, let go to fire
- Strike - hold to choose spot along terrain, let go to fire/drop
- Deploy - launch from dino
- Jetpack - use trajectory control to “launch” the dino and then float down
- Special - One special weapon, chosen as a dino’s “special move” in the profile menu. This will be available via the third and final village tier.
Jetpacks!
Well, we were hesitant to add this feature, but quickly swayed after playing Off-Road Velociraptor Safari and noticing the community response to a casually-mentioned, fictional game “Jetpack Brontosaurus.” The monocled raptor screen shot and a few posts on the TIGSource forums convinced us that this feature would not be too intensive and would add a much needed, mobilizing function to gameplay. After thinking for a handful of milliseconds, Mike came up with a way to use our current system to power the jet pack, which should work just like any other trajectory based weapon. We are in the process of implementing this now, but we’re all excited to see our favorite Gov. Skittles, the stegosaurus, careen through the air dropping grenades o’er her enemy windmills!
Podcast
Lately we’ve found ourselves tossing some ideas around the ol’ water cooler (”What’s the scuttlebug?”) about Indie Dev podcasts, or lack thereof. All of us love listening to podcasts, mostly NPR and game industry stuff, but nothing that sates our thirst for independent game development.
Nothing official just yet, but we plan to cover the latest in indie dev news, indie games we’ve played and loved, and anything those topics might spawn. We like tangents, those were always our favorite teachers in high school. Not the circle kind, you know, the kind that go off on an unrelated subjects only to find themselves lost in a wood with no lesson plan to guide them.
We’ve recently recorded a dry-run podcast, testing how the recording setup works and getting our feet wet with talking like we know things. It’s harder than you may think, but in the safety of our own homes, the insurance policy of audacity’s editing power, and Mike’s sexy chocolate vocal chords, we’re going places. Maybe not fancy places, but places nonetheless.
November 26th, 2007 by aeiowu
We’re going to GDC! Come hell or high water, we booked the tickets, marked the calendar and laid out our nerd uniforms for GDC 2008. Now what? Maybe we’re missing something…
Business cards!
As a soon-to-be card-carrying graphic designer–and by “card-carrying” I mean diploma-carrying–why not create our own identity, or any such materials we may need to promote ourselves? Really that’s what graphic design is all about, visual communication for some end, and in a lot of cases that end has something to do with money. The identity system can be a very complex task, and cost a great deal of money to get it done right. This kind of work is reserved for large business who can hire a firm to overhaul their look completely, but being an indie dev, that just isn’t going to happen. Devs are smart enough to figure this stuff out on their own, right? So I offer you this:
A cake! Baked with logos and typography. But really, this is just a rough recipe for that cake. There are always exceptions to these guidelines, but I’m going to assume that the reason you’re reading this is because you need guidance, and if that’s the case, then follow the guidelines. Get it? I know dev teams are made up of a variety of creative people, so if you have an artist, that will be a big help when designing the logo and just general aesthetics along the way.
1. A logo.
This needs to come first above anything else. The logo can be just text, a simple circle or illustration. The logo (sometimes called a “mark” or if it’s text, “logotype”) will inform every other decision you have about the identity, the typeface (font) you choose and the way it’s applied to different applications (letterheads, business cards, stickers).
I’m sure you have all seen logos, and they seem simple enough, they are for the most part… However, since you’re a developer, mainly promoting your stuff on the internet, the idea of doing a bad ass full-color raster (bitmap) logo illustration may seem like a really good idea. It’s not. Most of the time. When it comes time to translate over to the printed page, you’ll be faced with a disaster, and with little to no print experience, and even less budget for professional printing and file preparation assistance things will get messy. That being said, if a simpler logo can’t express your indie spirit then so be it, go with the tattered warrior illustration scaling a dark and smoky mountain. Just remember the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode when Master Shake assumes the role of “The Drizzle” and has those t-shirts made with his “logo.”
2. Color
Colors should usually be limited to 2-3. Our identity uses one color (pantone 297U) along with black. Again if you do the full-color illustration, at least leave one dominant color, in order to give your identity some direction when you design other applications. If you don’t choose a color for the logo, then you’ll have to decide on colors at some point, when you design the website and etc. so it may as well be now.
3. A typeface (font)
Typography separates professional from amateur design. It is the easiest thing in the world to slap some text down on a page, but if you do that, your identity may look like a middle-aged crafty housewife printed something out from her word processor. Don’t make that mistake and pay attention to details!
A typeface should reflect the feeling and structure of the mark it will sit beside. If your mark is an oak tree, then perhaps a serifed font (times new roman, baskerville) would be best to complement the shapes of the branches. [Serif fonts have horizontal bars often terminating the vertical strokes of a typeface by linking the two with curves. Zoom in on the Baskervile or Times “T”, and you’ll see what I mean. If your mark is simpler, with less decoration or intricate shapes, maybe a sans-serif font (helvetica, verdana, univers) would be better due to its simpler shapes. If a shape-to-shape relationship doesn’t do it for you, then perhaps what a typeface “says” would be more your style. Blackletter fonts (lucida blackletter, isn’t the best, but it gives you the idea of what I mean by blackletter) can give a more medieval tone, or even a Latin or tattooed sort of look. Engravers, a font with very wide letter forms, can reference the early part of the 20th century. Even serif fonts in general can make things more traditional or older looking, while a sans serif can communicate a modern or clean feeling.
4. Setting the type
After selecting the typeface, it’s important to continue scrutinizing the details. In graphic design, there are a few simple terms with weird words that refer to the layout of a typed word or group of words.
Leading:
The value assigned to the vertical space between two lines of text.
Tracking:
The value assigned to the width between a group of letters, for instance: a sentence.
Kerning:
The value assigned to the width between two letters. This allows for really detailed tweaking of letter-spacing.
When setting your logotype (the title of your company that will accompany your mark, if you have one) you can either convert the type to outlines and use a vector-editing program to maneuver the letters left and right, or you can use the kerning option in your chosen program. Most of the time, every word that is typed out based on the default settings of any program will not be optimal. Evaluate the spaces between letters and kern them so they appear even. Problems can arise with different letter combinations like “WL” or “AT.” It’s best to do this by hand and use your discerning eye, instead of with a mathematical process.
Finally, decide where that logotype is going to go in relation to your logo. Sometimes this can be really easy and logical, and others it can be a huge pain. Use your eye, maybe find a natural point of alignment running through your mark. Be open to alternative relationships, such as side-by-side instead of just below the mark, or even off-center.
4. Hierarchy and grids
Now you have your colors, your finished mark, logotype and everything ready to go. Now how do you put it on your business card?
Grids.
Yes, a grid can save you a lot of trouble. Instead of pushing elements like the block of contact info around incessantly, put down some straight grid lines, and decide on some conventions for the layout. For a business card, there aren’t many options for layout, since you want things to be legible and your brand to be dominant. Hierarchy built into your grid in a business card can solve a lot of confusion when first laying things out. If you put section off a piece larger than the rest, that’ll be where the logo goes. Then the remaining section can be divided once more to separate things once again, and that can be where the name, title and contact info will go respectively.
This is a completely oversimplification of grid systems. They are the foundation of any layout, and bad ones are easy to come by. Overall, err on the side of large margins, even spacing, and points of alignment. If your grid isn’t working start over, maybe try some pre-made grids, like the golden section which I used for a layout of Intuition’s business card.
5. Other applications
With other types of promotion, such as brochures, letterhead, posters and etc. things can get a lot more complicated. Frankly, with the knowledge imparted to your here, I would suggest not attempting anything without first doing more research. There are publications out there that can provide a great deal of inspiration. One such periodical, Before&After magazine is designed for novice to intermediate designers and provides electronic .pdf tutorials and will mail you a binder-buddy type issue as they are made available. Other than that, there is always the internet, but if you find yourself in dire need of a brochure, perhaps either need to evaluate that need, or find the money to hire someone to lay it out. There are plenty of starving graphic design students out there that would get wide-eyed with a chance to add a line to their resume.
May 24th, 2007 by aeiowu
Even though we’re further down the road with development of both the game and the identity/website, I thought it would be neato to post the “mother ship” pdf of all the logo ideas for the intuition identity. Some are good, some are bad and others are just pieces of a larger good/bad logo; you decide!
May 22nd, 2007 by torncanvas
We finalized our logo tonight! I think we’re all really happy with it. Man, I just love working on a team. It seemed like we all put our heads together and had some great input and thoughts about making things work. We wanted bright colors and Greg had this pretty sweet green, but unfortunately it didn’t read very well on white when it got really small. So we settled on blue since it seemed to read well on both black and white. Seemingly by coincidence we ended up with something that, when converted to print colors, is pure Cyan! (well, 60% Cyan) So that means it will still print fairly well. Greg totally rocks by the way - he came up with the idea for the circles. I thought it was awesome that there really isn’t any meaning to them at all. I’m sure a lot of people will attach meaning to it after the fact, which should be interesting. 
I was experimenting with sans-serif fonts and found Myriad Pro Light. In the end, we compromised with Myriad Black. The whole thing really just seems to fit. w00t!
