I’m sure you’re dying to know how people have reacted to the Spandex Force beta which was released recently. I sure am, at least! Or, I would be if I didn’t already know.
Overall, I must say that I’m pleased with the reception. I’ve received positive feedback, and people do seem to enjoy the game. Sales from the game’s webpage are up to what Sheeplings sold during six months; granted, I poured more into this second game, but it’s still going better than I thought. I wonder what will happen when I announce the proper release in a little while, along with a photo contest! (Intrigued? You should be. Stay tuned for more information!)
Other positive notes include that the game is mentioned on Gamershell, IGN, Gamespy and other news sites. Still no whisper about it on Gamespot, despite a press release I sent there, but maybe that will change after the real release. Other places have also picked up news about the game; for example Lesbian Gamers and Gay Gamer. Hmm… I wonder if it has something to do with the spandex?
As for feedback, most of what I’ve received comes from forums and e-mails. I won’t toot my own horn, but the concept seems to work very well, and the variation in the minigames works its magic for most people. But - as always - there’s just no pleasing everybody. Here is a list of user reviews, and Spandex Force has received both praise and scorn. And speaking of more scorn, here’s a scathing review from Rock, Paper, Shotgun. I was initially crushed until I started analysing the complaints and compared them to the positive feedback I’ve received. I’m first to admit that my game isn’t as “good” (subjective term of course) as Puzzle Quest; I don’t have the budget or the time for that amount of polish. But I’m not competing directly against Puzzle Quest either - I’m targeting another set of customers. Sure, there’s some overlap - myself for example! I like both casual games and hardcore RPGs. But while Puzzle Quest is aimed at the RPG crowd, my intention is to bring something exciting to the casual crowd instead.
I doubt that this is obvious, though, so I think I’ll have to be prepared for some bad reviews coming up comparing Spandex Force unfavourably to Puzzle Quest.
Back to more positive things, I received a request for a Linux version of the game, and I figured that it shouldn’t be much of a problem. True enough, I’ve done some initial testing and I think I can get it to run on Ubuntu at least. I’ll probably only support Ubuntu, and then have a “see if it works for you - good if it does” clause for other distributions. There’s no way I’m going to offer support for multiple distributions - Linux is simply too problematic. I don’t think I’ll actually gain much from having a Linux version either, but it’s a good learning experience at least. Incidentally, the person asking for a Linux version also mentioned that this game would fit well on Nintendo DS, and even supplied a hint about a publisher working with DS. I’ll see how the game is received after the release, but hey - who knows. Thinking about playing my own game on a DS almost makes me come. Not that you wanted to know that. And not that it’ll happen. But it sure would be nice…
Anyway, I’m feeling positive about the upcoming release. I’ve optimized the game a little, sorted out a Mac bug, received many suggestions for improvements, and the game is slowly coming together properly. The biggest thing left is to playtest the game thoroughly and balance it even more. I really hope people will be pleased about the game’s length - I anticipate that it’s well over 8 hours game play in it, and quite possibly more along the lines of dozens of hours. That may sound cool to you, but for me it sounds like damn hard work, playing through the whole game….again….and again.
Have you used Perl? Did you enjoy it? You strange bastard. I have a very simple criteria when it comes to programming languages: if I can comprehend the code of something I did a year ago, then it’s a good programming language. I like maintainability and intuitive naming; it’s pretty hard to mistake what int or float means for example. I can return to 6502 Assembly, Pascal, x86 Assembly, C, C++, Ada, Lisp, 68k Assembly, Scheme, BlitzMax, Java, HTML, PHP and a dozen other languages long after I’ve stopped using them, and I still understand decently what I wrote ages ago. But not so with Perl. Perl is the devil’s plaything.
Okay, enough Perl bashing - it’s not really a bad language at all. It’s devilishly efficient at text manipulation and everything else involving regular expressions, for example. But I simply can’t remember Perl syntax; it’s like a black hole in my mind. Everything I pour into it that concerns Perl gets swallowed up. I can look at Perl code I wrote a few years ago and have no idea at all what it’s supposed to do! So I guess Perl is a little like pearls before swine in my case. Perl before Karja could be a new proverb.
Incidentally, did you know that the Japanese have a similar expression? Similar to pearls before swine that is. Neko ni koban apparently means gold coins to a cat. Not that I’d know - I just know what neko means. I think the most advanced Japanese phrase I can put together is watashi no soseji wa ookii desu yo!
Aanyhoo, the reason I started ranting about Perl is this excellent article I found called You Used Perl to Write WHAT? It shows five good reasons for when you should use Perl…and some situations where it’s just not appropriate at all. I don’t agree with everything. Take number 3 of the good reasons for example:
A replacement for shell scripts: One of the worst things about shell scripting—whether in bash, sh or csh—is that the syntax of the scripts themselves is fairly hard to read. By using perl as a scripting language instead of a “traditional” shell, you can use much more C-like syntax without sacrificing functionality.
I may or may not be biased but I find shell scripts infinitely more useful than Perl scripts. For one thing, they are more maintainable. Even though sed and strange syntaxes are black magic, it’s possible for another person to decipher what shell scripts are supposed to do. Unlike Perl, which is made for supernatural gods!
Finally I can end with an amusing anecdote. A friend of mine went to a job interview where they asked him if he’d ever written some Python. “Python… Oh! Yeah, sure - I know that!” So they gave him some code to modify, whereupon he stared blankly for a few seconds before he realized “Damn, it’s Perl I know - not Python! I’ve never seen a line of this before in my life!”
He got the job anyway. He was able to understand Python decently based on the examples, and had made a good impression during the rest of the interview. See what I mean about code readability? Could you understand how to construct a new regular expression after having looked at some Perl code?
Mathematics is not one of my strengths; if I put my mind to it I can get by, but I lack the discipline to become skilled at it. I’ve read some calculus and algebra and combinatorics and statistics and whatnot, but in general I’ve just taken some courses only to forget everything I’ve learned shortly afterwards. The only maths I use regularly, except for simple arithmetic, is trigonometry. (It’s quite useful for 2D games.)
Logic is a completely different matter though. My job as a software developer at a Large Multi-National Corporation(TM) demands that I keep many of my skills sharp: the ability to juggle many ideas and projects, the ability to deal professionally and courteously with customers, and the ability to drink copious amounts of tea. Oh, and let’s not forget the ability to actually write code. Many non-programmers seem to think that maths is necessary for programmers, but in reality it’s logic that’s in high demand.
Speaking of skills at work, another thing that I tend to do there is solve sudokus. I find great comfort in spending my lunch breaks listening to the ongoing conversations while I solve a sudoku and - if something interesting pops up - add something to the discussion. Solving a sudoku is relaxing; you know that it’s solvable as long as you apply some logic, so you can take your mind off the possibly-unsolvable problems facing you in real life. At one time I did many sudokus per day, but now I limit myself to at most one for the sheer pleasure of it. A friend of mine mentioned that sudokus can be used to measure stress as well: if you find yourself taking too long on a standard sudoku, it might be an indication that you’re too stressed to think straight at the moment. True enough, but I find that if I’m too excited about something it also makes it hard to concentrate on the problem at hand. But then again, I suppose that that could be classed as stress as well, albeit of the positive kind.
Incidentally, speaking of sudokus, did you know that Benjamin Franklin used to amuse himself with mathematical puzzles similar in principle to sudokus when he was not busying himself with inventing just about everything you could imagine? Read the article and be amazed at the 16-by-16 magic square with bent rows that Franklin devised. You know about the magic square, where each line has to add up to 15? This is a magic square where each line has to add up to 2056. And all the coloured areas also have to add up to 2056. I’m just shaking my head at the complexity of the puzzle.
Read the article above to see more puzzles.
At one time I was pondering if I could devise a meta-puzzle game, where each puzzle mechanism would be unique, and one part of the problem would actually be to figure out the rules themselves. I started examining the sudoku to get inspiration, and quickly decided that it’s above my current skill to actually bring that idea to life. The idea is seductively simple: create a formal definition of the sudoku, and then expand that definition to encompass other mathematical puzzles. After you have created a suitable grammar of mathematics puzzles, you simply create a generator for new exciting puzzles. But in reality, this is much too complex for a layman in mathematics.
However, after having read about Franklin’s exploits in the puzzle domain, I wonder if this would have been something he would have enjoyed to create.
The title is from my press release announcing that Spandex Force is officially in beta stage now. It’s been noted that this press release seems slightly confused. “Okay, the game is in beta and they [that is, I] would like to hear comments and suggestions what to do before the final release… But the game itself doesn’t mention much about being in beta state, and you can buy the game! What’s up with this?”
Well… I think the terminology has gotten a bit confused, and I’ve been forced to apply the beta label without much thought. First of all, I was only releasing test builds up to 0.4; people tested it and gave feedback. Not much more to that. But after 0.4 I decided to set up the order page, since a few people had expressed interest in purchasing the game. But lo and behold! It appears that when I accepted affiliates for Sheeplings I’d unthinkingly allowed some people to be affiliates for all my games - which meant that Spandex Force became available for them to sell as well!
One thing led to another, and before I knew it I was receiving traffic from a few sites; quite a few downloads in fact. That’s when I decided to release 0.5 - an in-between release that’s fully playable and corrects most issues - and decided to call it the official beta. I didn’t want people to believe that 0.4 or 0.5 was the final version of the game, so I decided to make a press release to state that there will come a newer version later. But of course, the game itself doesn’t care much about what label I’ve put on it - it just happily states its version number.
So I guess people who expected the game to be more opaque about being in “alpha,” “beta” or “final” are a tad confused.
Either way, the game is both in beta and for sale; I don’t see a conflict there. It’s playable and enjoyable to the end as it is, and those who buy the game now get the current full version as well as the final release once it’s done!
Game design is a strange beast. Yesterday I made build v0.4 of Spandex Force, my new puzzle/RPG/adventure game; it’s coming along very nicely, and with this release all main functionality is present. But after I’d finished the build I had a look at my notes from half a year ago, and early screenshots. The game is very much the same in spirit, but many design choices differ between my original drafts and the soon-to-be-finished product.
One important thing that differs is the scope. In the finished design, the player’s hero has just gotten a job as superhero of Vigilance Valley - a city troubled by minor crime and wacky super villains. In the original design I had planned a more involved process where the hero would start out as “city hero” and eventually graduate to “world hero.” This shift would be very visible: the city screen would feature minor villains and citizens in need, and the world globe would feature global threats and major super villains. This would have been interesting…but totally unnecessary. The game’s budget would’ve increased by a magnitude (well, maybe not; but it would have doubled at least) and the game would have taken months more to develop. I doubt that the benefits would have outweighed those consequences.
And speaking of scope, another thing that I was planning from the beginning was a more involved story inspired by Bildungromans. It would tell the story of how the hero grows from fledgling whippersnapper to responsible self-sacrificing hero. I had planned a structure where the first three episodes would be stand-alone, but then a subtle plot involving a villain trying to frame the hero would emerge. The hero would try to find out information through the following episodes, and eventually meet the ultimate villain in the next-to-last episode. Inspired by Watchmen, after our hero had beaten the villain he would explain to the hero that it’s too late anyway - the Evil Plan(TM) was already set into motion a long time ago. Our hero would race to stop the Evil Destructive Device(TM), only to discover that it’s too late to stop it. Panic! What to do! He would sacrifice himself to protect the city…and everything would go black.
…And had I had my own way, that would have been the end of the game. But, of course, I had to think of a happy ending. So I pondered a final episode after this, where the hero wakes up weak and sore, and supervillains whom he have already beaten have teamed up to take revenge on him in his weakened state. Almost like the fight-all-the-bosses-before-the-final-boss in the Mega Man games. It all would end in a heartwarming scene where the people of the city aid the hero and he defeats everyone. Yay!
But that’s not how things turned out. Instead, I chose a format where every episode is stand-alone, and there’s no on-going storyline in the game. “How dull,” you exclaim now, “that totally sucks!” From an artistic point of view: yes, this is the worse choice. But I think it will work better from a gaming point of view! The game focuses on easily accessible minigames, humour, and instant-get-in-the-game-ness. That approach conflicts with a deeper storyline; if nothing else, it becomes difficult to jump into the game if you’ve had a break for a few weeks. Instead I chose episodes that you can finish in about an hour (depending on the episode) and clearly defined sub-tasks within each episode. Each subtask only takes 15 minutes (or something like that), so you get constant updates on the episode’s plot.
Old concept showing the early city screen and some dialogue.
But there are other design issues on a lower level that differs between then and now. For one thing, at first I intended to make Spandex Force into a game that would have been much more of a Puzzle Quest clone. The current implementation has many strictly different puzzle mechanics: Catch ‘n Match, Slide ‘n Match, Shoot ‘n Match, Click ‘n Drag, mini-minigames…and last but not least, the two types of puzzle battles. But in my original notes I only planned on doing the puzzle battles - nothing else! I had thought of a system with slightly different game modes: standard, simultaneous, and so on, and the type of villain you fought against would decide which game mode it would be. Supervillains would have a very special mode; the villains would have the simultaneous mode; and the henchmen would have classic modes. But after some prototyping I quickly abandoned this game design. It wouldn’t have given enough variation, and the simultaneous mode was…too chaotic. Play Spandex Force and, when you come to a battle, imagine that you both perform your actions simultaneously instead of turn-based. Sure, it opens up to great things like stealing your opponent’s cascading matches…but it would be too action-oriented, and impossible to have a clear overview.
Old prototype of the puzzle battle game. Can you see which game I received inspiration from?
If things go well with the first game I just might implement a better simultaneous version in Spandex Force 2, though. 
And speaking of Spandex Force 2, here’s another thing I had to consider:
- If I made the game with a very large scope I would put all my eggs into one basket. If the game fails I will have lost a lot.
- However, if I choose restraint and lessen the scope, I can see how the game fares. If it does awfully and it’s because of the game design or the theme…then it’s not worth making a sequel. But if it does well I’ll gain a lot of feedback that I can use to implement an even better sequel.
- This sequel can then use many of the discarded options from the original design. For example, it can revolve around a global hero instead of a city-based one, and experiment with innovations to the minigames.
- Also, if the first game does well enough, I can implement something that I didn’t dare in the first game… Multiplayer! Puzzle battles online, where you can defeat other heroes and villains! I think this would be absolutely brilliant but I don’t have the resources to pull it off unless Spandex Force does reasonably well.
So, here’s to hoping that I can make Spandex Force 2 soon!
Sir Edmund Hillary has passed away at the ripe old age of 88. I had never heard the name until I browsed National Geographic’s webpage today; I’ve missed out on a very cool person. He and Tenzing Norgay were first to climb Mount Everest on May 29, 1953. Upon completing this deed he returned to the base camp and exclaimed “We knocked the bastard off.”
That’s just so cool.
And here’s something he wrote about the pair’s final steps to the top:
“Another few weary steps and there was nothing above us but the sky. There was no false cornice, no final pinnacle. We were standing together on the summit. There was enough space for about six people. We had conquered Everest.
But my dominant reactions were relief and surprise. Relief because the long grind was over and the unattainable had been attained. And surprise, because it had happened to me, old Ed Hillary, the beekeeper, once the star pupil of the Tuakau District School, but no great shakes at Auckland Grammar [high school] and a no-hoper at university, first to the top of Everest.
I just didn’t believe it.”
I’m getting chills all over from reading that. A part of me has always wanted to do Adventurous Things(TM). As a young kiddo I even dreamed of having business cards with the title “Hacker / Adventurer.” A few days ago I realized that it’s about time that I get business cards for my little KarjaSoft venture…and that I could finally have that desired title!
But then it struck me that I haven’t done as many adventurous things as I’d planned in younger years.
Sure, I’ve done a fair bit. Spent time in Germany as a 12-year-old, living with a friend of the family away from home. Hitch-hiked around Sweden at 15, where I received strange invitations from creepy old men. Travelled all around the US for two months, where I ended up at various hostels and parties and weird situations. Got lost in the Cyprus mountains and had to be rescued by the police. All very fun and all, but it’s not adventuring! Adventuring means wearing a cool hat and a whip, and visiting old ruins! Or climbing mountains! Or going out in the rain forest with a machete and rope (you always need rope), looking for some doctor or another!
I still might choose the title “Adventurer” when I print my business cards, but if so I’m going to have to earn the title in the coming years. I’m adding “become an adventurer” to my todo list!
I actually released v0.3 of Spandex Force several days ago, but I didn’t want my blog to look like I’m working away like a mad banshee at this game; it was just a short while ago that I wrote an update, after all. Of course…I am working on the game like a mad banshee, but I wouldn’t admit it. Either way, a lot has happened since the last release:
- New map art! This is not the final version - it’s just a preview jpg I received. The final even-better city will appear in the shortly-arriving 0.4 release.
- Many more minigames! I realized that the game was lacking variety, so I followed sage advice I’d received from 0.2 playtesters, and added more minigames. A few of these are mini-minigames just to spice things up, but I also made new major-minigames such as getting a cat down from the tree, and stopping an attempted grand theft auto.
- More sparkles! I added particles and sound effects to many places - it’s actually getting to the point where I’m unsure if I can add anything else and still have the game playable at low-end machines. For once in my life I find that I have too new computers at my disposal.
- Lots of other bug fixes and tweaks and improvements. The problem with making rapid iterations like this is that I lose track of all that’s done. I could compose extensive release notes for each release…but that seems a bit overkill for “internal” releases like these.
Game Info
Spandex Force is a unique puzzle/adventure/RPG game that lets you create your own hero to clean up the crime-infested town of Vigilance Valley. Follow your hero’s quest to rid Vigilance Valley of vicious villains such as the Blizzard Wizard, the inept riddler Countess Conundrum, and the mysterious Professor Aphasia.
Screenshots
More screenshots and more info can be found at http://www.spandexforce.com.
Downloads
Download the Windows version here:
http://www.spandexforce.com/files/SpandexForceDemo.exe
Download the Mac version here:
http://www.spandexforce.com/files/SpandexForceDemo.dmg
That’s right, a Mac version is available now! You see, I’ve been pretty busy indeed. Please let me know if you find any problems with either release - and feel free to let me know if it’s working fine as well! Feedback is much appreciated.
This has to bee the coolest thing ever: a cloned pig has had its genes altered to make it glow fluorescently green! And the fun doesn’t stop there - the manipulated pig has also bred piglets that also glow in the dark. In other words, the specialized genes have been transferred to the next generation without any external intervention.
Robin Lovell-Badge, a genetics expert at Britain’s National Institute for Medical Research, thinks that this technology could potentially be very valuable for growing organs for transplants. Personally I couldn’t care less about that: I’m just waiting for the day we get glowing pork chops! Think of the fun!
Speaking of genetic manipulation I’ll have to mention my new game project, with the working title Wildhollow: in the game you’ll get to combine mad scientist desires with cute fluffy animals. The design isn’t done yet, but the current vision is that you’ve inherited a farm and your task is to bring the farm around from near-bancrupcy. How? By breeding animals; and in particular, by cross-breeding animals and applying mutagens to create new types of beasts!
Of course… The game won’t mention either the word genetics or mutation. It’ll all be covered up by politically correct terms like “breed your animals and discover strange new creatures.”
Stay tuned for more information next month; first I have to complete Spandex Force!
The stranger parts of the blogosphere is ablaze with anticipation for Ron Gilbert’s new game project: DeathSpank: Episode One: Orphans of Justice. You should be too. Why? Let me present the evidence…
- Ron Gilbert is the man behind Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island were utterly brilliant in every way. Thus, we can deduce that anything Ron Gilbert touches will be instantly turned into solid gold. Unless it’s fluids, in which case it might be turned into liquid gold. And, of course, as we know from the story of Midas, this means that Mr. Gilbert must be amazingly tough to survive despite all his food and drink turning into gold.
- If you read Gilbert’s announcement you’ll notice that he describes DeathSpank as “the perfect melding of a Monkey Island style adventure game with the wicked RPG game play of Diablo.” Sweet mother of fuck; this is going to better than the day I won the Nobel prize and saved the Olsen twins from a collapsing building!
- I have nothing else, but all good things come in three.
Seriously, I think this could be an amazing game. The combination of witty humour, old-style adventure gameplay, and Diablo RPG-ishness sounds better than anything I could possibly imagine. It all sounds so obvious when you look at it in hindsight: what can one do to make the addictive gameplay of Diablo even better? Add humour and adventure puzzles!
The only concern I have is whether or not this will be a successful venture, commercially. I’d love to see DeathSpank become a great success; then we might see more adventure-Diablo clones…but I feel pretty sceptical that the General Public(TM) will want a game like that in this day and age where gamers tend to move to either of the extremes: hardcore and casual games. I hope my fears are unfounded though, and that a game that mixes the best of both worlds will be well received.
People constantly ask me how things are going with Spandex Force (note: blatant lie), and I thought I’d write a small progress update. I may have been asocial during xmas, but at least I got some programming done:
- The total minigame count is up to ten. This feat is accomplished by reusing game types and applying them in a few different situations, as well as adding a few minor chance-based ”mini-minigames” for variation.
- More sparkles have been added. And many more sound effects. It’s way more polished now! Yayness!
- I’ve made the early game a bit quicker; i.e., you level up faster and accomplish the earliest tasks quicker.
- The tutorial system is much improved, with informative animations and popups when something interesting happens. I still don’t have a “no more tutorials” checkbutton; I try to keep the text to a minimum and you can banish the information with a simple click on the Rodent of Parc. (Rodent of Parc? See http://www.pottsland.com/mm6/eastereggs.shtml)
- Finally, but not least: I’m getting a new city background!
Just check it out… Isn’t this much better?
I adore this sketch of the new map, and I’ll be releasing v0.3 of Spandex Force as soon as I have integrated the coloured version and tweaked the difficulty a bit. …That is, playtested thoroughly up to four episodes or so. Thankfully I actually like playing the game myself; I was afraid that I’d be getting bored at the gameplay by now, but it’s still fun to save cats and capture villains and buy new capes. I hope that’s a good sign!
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