We’ve posted an article previously about free music on the Internet Archive. But I’ve recently found something else: music you can use in your games through a collection on the Internet Archive called Open Source Audio.
Much of this is music, and it’s licensed for some sort of free usage, depending on the licensing terms selected by the artist who uploaded the work. Most entries use various Creative Commons licenses, and some of them can be used commercially in your games.
If you’re looking for music for games, there seems to be 3 general directions you can go: custom music created by professional musicians (most work in the tv/film industry), stock music created by professional musicians, and recorded music created by musicians (often times amateurs doing it for fun). In the first two cases, someone is making music specifically for a purpose, and that purpose is either decided by you or the musician, respectively.
However, in the last case, the musician is just making the music he/she/they wants to make, and then recording it. This sometimes results in more expressive or artistic music, which can do a great job of influencing a game with the same goal. I think the music in the Open Source Audio collection tends to fit this third case, and best of all, it’s free! Check it out here: Internet Archive Open Source Audio.
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.
Friends from thatgamecompany have been busy working on a game called Flower. Derek Yu from TIGSource puts it best: “it looks quite evocative, although little is known about how it actually plays.” I would like to add that the visuals look to be inspired by Boring 3D (a GOOD thing). That guy freaking rules, and I think he should at least get some props in the credits. The teaser tailer for Flower seems to suggest that the player will be some form of organic matter doing something related to pollinating flowers, though one can’t be sure.
Ever since I watched the anime series Last Exile in May, I’ve wanted to make a game where the entire experience took place in a peaceful, endless field. Well, I also love walking through the grass with my bare feet on, so that could have something to do with it, too. Apparently TGC is one step ahead of me. If that’s the case, I know exactly what their next game after Flower is going to be.
It’s slightly old news by now, but I just found out about Metaplace today, the project that Raph Koster and the rest of Areae has been working on all this time.
The website claims that you’ll be able to explore these easily-created virtual worlds without having to download anything. I’m guessing what they mean is without having to download anything if you already have some existing clients installed. Unless it uses the Metaplace client that is, which it probably will for 3d stuff. But otherwise, the platform can piggy-back off of some existing client, which is great. That kind of accessibility will definitely give Metaplace some long term chances of succeeding.
I’m really excited to see where this project goes. At the very least, it’s a cool thing to use for prototyping some online gameplay. However, if it was a decent platform, it could allow people to quickly make successful multiplayer games or generate cool online spaces. And it could bring in revenue, too.
If the performance and security is decent, it could be another alternative to SmartFox for a server-side solution to Flash multiplayer games.
I’m going through Foundation Actionscript for Flash 8 in an effort to re-learn how to code. In chapter 9, there’s some talk of tweening, so I thought I’d try to apply my knowledge to our logo to make a simple animation.
In doing this, I learned an important lesson: always hack it in first. The first thing I did, in an effort to be fancy and add the utmost scalability, was try to create a timed delay that called a tweening function that could be applied to each ball. I was convinced that I would have to manually set the delay so the balls could fall in sequence. I needed to dynamically name a variable based on the input of the function. I couldn’t figure out how to do that and wracked my brain for almost an hour. And then I realized that I could simply set the tween to be longer for each ball. So much simpler and you couldn’t tell the difference.
Here’s the code for it:
//OMG Tweens. They’re so, like, cool and stuff! import mx.transitions.Tween; import mx.transitions.easing.*;
//activating the tweens so the balls bounce //the onMotionFinished event handler needs to go here or it wont work - for scope reasons? function bounceBalls() { //bounce the balls in sequence, coming from off-stage at the top var ball1Tween:Tween = new Tween(ball1_mc, “_y”, Bounce.easeOut, -100, 112.0, 1.2, true); var ball2Tween:Tween = new Tween(ball2_mc, “_y”, Bounce.easeOut, -100, 112.0, 1.4, true); var ball3Tween:Tween = new Tween(ball3_mc, “_y”, Bounce.easeOut, -100, 112.0, 1.6, true); var ball4Tween:Tween = new Tween(ball4_mc, “_y”, Bounce.easeOut, -100, 112.0, 1.8, true);
//after the last tween finishes, reset the animation ball4Tween.onMotionFinished = function() { //set a delay, reset the animation, and store the return in a variable var initDelay:Number = setTimeout(init, 3000); }; }
//the animation for the logo function animation():Void { //fade out help text quickly so you don’t get distracted by it var helpTextTween:Tween = new Tween(helpText_mc, “_alpha”, Strong.easeIn, 100, 0, 0.5, true);
//fade in the logo text - slowly at first, then speed up var textTween:Tween = new Tween(text_mc, “_alpha”, Strong.easeIn, 0, 100, 1.5, true);
//after the text fades in, bounce the balls textTween.onMotionFinished = bounceBalls; }
//set things up function init():Void { //we are ninjas in the TREES ball1_mc._y = -100; ball2_mc._y = -100; ball3_mc._y = -100; ball4_mc._y = -100; text_mc._alpha = 0;
//fade in help text so you know what to do var helpTextTween:Tween = new Tween(helpText_mc, “_alpha”, Strong.easeIn, 0, 100, 0.5, true); }
//you’re supposed to store the return of the delay function in a variable //that is this variable var initDelay:Number = 0;
init();
//play the animation once you click down on the mouse this.onMouseDown = animation;
This is a fantastic example of viral marketing for a polo shirt company. It’s a clock with spliced clips of well-choreographed dancing and incredibly catchy lounge/bebop music all timed to match the ticking.
I’d love to come up with such a good example myself. Hmm…
“What we have here is an indie gaming news site run by a Reflexive employee, hosted by a Pop Cap studio, running a list called “The Top 100 Indie Games” that is little more than a portal front page.”
I won’t link the list directly - you can follow Derek’s article if you want to look at it. The problem isn’t necessarily the list itself, but mostly the intentions of the list, and how it’s being treated by the community. The intentions seem to be purely for the selfish interests of Game Tunnell. As Derek indicates, many links in the list have referral codes in them, and of course the games listed are only those that have been reviewed by Game Tunnell in the past.
Even worse, many people in the community are treating this as some representative list of the best indie games out there. It’s definitely NOT representative of indie games. People who think so are clearly missing out on a lot of the games discussed at TIG Source, in addition to a plethora of free Flash games. Make no mistake about it, Flash games are most definitely a part of the indie game space. I hope whoever finds that list will quickly ask “What else is out there?” Here’s another nugget from Derek’s post:
“It’s like someone farted at the dinner table and no one wants to admit that it smells. Over at the Indiegamer forums I just know that the conversation is going like this: “Honey, this chicken is delicious!”
WELL YOU KNOW WHAT IT SMELLS TERRIBLE IN HERE AND IF THINGS KEEP UP THIS WAY NO ONE IS GOING TO WANT TO EVER HAVE DINNER WITH US.”
This might be a bit brash, but it is this passion that makes me proud to be a part of the independent game community.
Gamasutra posted a great opinion article today from Magnus Alm of Swedish developer Muskedunder Interactive entitled Why The Game Biz Should Turn To Flash.
He beings by explaining why the Flash game industry has seen a lot of growth lately: • The upward economic trend within the games industry in general. • Advertisement agencies realizing the need for skilled game design competence. • A growing online and casual games market. • And let’s not forget that flash games now are being ported to other platforms.
He then states that those with decent-sized marketing budgets are taking notice of the games industry and using online games as a means to sell their brand. He’s referring to advergames here. This avenue can be a very lucrative path for many companies. There’s a danger that lies in doing this kind of work, though.
First of all, you are selling out to a certain degree. Now, that’s ok, especially if there’s no other option for a newbie developer (like us). But as a developer that is essentially doing games as work-for-hire, you have to always be aware that you are at the mercy of your client and you can’t just drop everything to go start working on your next artistic masterpiece of a game.
You also have to make sure that whatever you’re making is targeting the market that your client wants. This is really a problem that will occur for almost any kind of external funding. With advergames, though, the client will be very adamant about this. Otherwise, what’s the point of the game?
Magnus then proceeds to talk about Asia. The online games market in Asia is growing and lucrative. However, it should be noted that the Asian market is incredibly difficult to get into. Between piracy, different market expectations and tastes, and other random cultural barriers, finding success in the Asian market is the exception, not the rule.
The next sections seem to be the most intersting though: finding a path to console development through Flash and exploring new revenue models. He states that the major consoles, plus soon to be the PSP, have or will have download services where players can download games via the internet. He lists Alien Hominid and flOw as examples of games that started out Flash and ended up on consoles. That happens to be our strategy, too. It seems to be a great idea. For revenue models, Magnus mentions the Korean model of free-to-play with microtransactions for non-gameplay items. It seems to be a successful model. In fact, that’s our current model for the multiplayer version of Dinowaurs.
In the end, most game developers want to get to the point where they can make the kinds of games they want as soon as possible. There are many ways to get there. Are advergames a good one? Maybe. Just make sure to always be aware that you are working for your clients, not yourself. Alternatives to advergames are out there; those will be discussed later.
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Apparently TGC is one step ahead of me. If that’s the case, I know exactly what their next game after Flower is going to be.
