A good start to the year 9 Jan 2014 12:38 PM (11 years ago)

So. Um. Happy new year everyone! Things turned kind of busy for me around the end of last year, so updates have been a bit sparse and I haven’t posted much since IndieCade. (Which was awesome, btw.) So where are things now, and what’s up next for Paper Dino Software?

Well… The most interesting news is probably that HOLY CRAP SAVE THE DATE IS AN IGF FINALIST I GET TO GO TO IGF AND SIT AT THE COOL TABLES AND IT’S GOING TO BE AWESOME AND FRANCISCO IS FLYING UP AND HE’LL BE THERE TOO AND THIS IS AMAZING AND…

Ahem. Right. Yes. So Francisco and I will be at IGF this year! I mean, I’m usually there most years, poking around and playing cool games. But this time, I’ll be there from the other side of the booth, as it were. It probably goes without saying that I’m a bit excited about this development. The games this year look fantastic, and once again I find myself a bit humbled to be in their company.

More of my thoughts on the matter below the fold:

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!

Oh. My. Gosh.

Lights! Camera! 16 Sep 2013 2:32 PM (11 years ago)

Save the Date now has a trailer video! As anyone who has played it might guess, it was not an easy game to make a trailer for. Since I couldn’t really show much of the story (because, spoilers) or gameplay (because, lot of text = boring), I instead went with the tried and true method of “saying nothing at all, very slowly, while distracting the viewer with impressive sounding testimonials.”

It’s not my solution! It’s history’s solution!

Have a look!

A huge set of thanks go out to Justin Mullins and the Brothers Ambrogi. Basically, I showed Tim a trailer I had put together, and he said “not a bad first attempt. Needs work. Give me all your assets, and I will do AfterEffects to it.” And then he and his brother did exactly that, with Justin making a surprise guest appearance to provide a much better gunshot noise. It looks (and sounds!) so much better now!

IndieCade! 11 Sep 2013 9:27 AM (11 years ago)

Indiecade!

Hmm. Looks like IndieCade has announced their list of nominees for 2013. Let’s see… We’ve got Gone Home… no surprise there… Kentucky Route Zero… That Dragon Cancer… Yup, most of the awesome games I’ve heard about this year seem to be represented… and HOLY CRAP SAVE THE DATE IS ON THE LIST I’M GOING TO INDIECADE OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!11!11

Important, real people, made this list, and put our game on it!

Important, serious, real people, made this list, and put our game on it!

Ok, in the interest of full disclosure, they actually told us a while ago, so we could plan. But that’s still a pretty accurate representation of my train of thought a couple of weeks back. They just asked us not to tell people until the official announcement.

So yeah! Francisco and I will be down in IndieCade in a month, and if you are in the area you should totally stop by and say hello!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!

Back in action! 1 Jun 2013 8:36 PM (11 years ago)

I am great web dev!

And… I think we’re back.

Downloads for Save the Date should be working once again, and I set up what I hope is a cache system to make my web host generally hate me less, and the main downloads should now go through a CDN, also to make my web host hate me less.. (Yay! I’m a web dev! I know what at least half of those words mean!) I’ll try to keep an eye on it for the rest of the weekend.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

My precious webpage! 1 Jun 2013 5:48 PM (11 years ago)

Wow. That was unexpected. My webpage broke, apparently because too many people are trying to download my game at once. That’s… kind of impressive, actually. I was not expecting my random, free, experimental game to be averaging 20k-40k hits per hour. (!!)

I’ve temporarily disabled the download, while I try to get the actual game moved over to some kind of hosting that can handle this. (I am not an experienced web admin, so my site is brittle, like fine porcelain!) Hopefully everything will be up and running again within an hour.

Sorry for the inconvenience. And thanks everyone for enjoying (or at least repeatedly downloading?) my game!

So, this one time, at Band Camp… 28 May 2013 10:47 PM (11 years ago)

Hey internet!

Did you play Save the Date yet? Did you enjoy grooving to its rich melodies and sick beats? Did you then whisper to yourself “My word, this music is amazing, I must possess it at any cost?”

If you answered yes, yes, and yes to this highly contrived string of events, then you are indeed in luck! Because the extremely talented Francisco Cerda has seen fit to SELL you this music, ALSO at any cost!

If you visit his Band Camp page, you’ll see that he has thoughtfully put the entire game soundtrack up on the internets, for the low, low(?) cost of “whatever you want to pay him for it”.

So what are you waiting for? Get grooving!

Hey I made another game 27 May 2013 12:16 AM (11 years ago)

Burgers choices factor heavily into this game’s story.

Well, I went and made another game. It took a bit longer than I expected for a “I bet I can whip this off in a weekend”-project, but I think I’m finally ready to call this thing finished.

It’s called “Save the Date“, and in a stark departure from what I usually write (weird deconstructions and variants on shmups) it is instead a weird… dating sim. About having dinner.

I don’t really have any good way to describe what sorts of mental processes lead someone to up and write a dating sim out of the blue. All I can say is, it seemed like a neat idea, and something that would be pretty quick to throw together. And at least ONE of those two things proved to be true.

Also, I feel like I should give a shout-out to the fine folk behind Ren’Py, which really does an amazing job of zooming in on the things that you want to do, and focusing on making them easy, with laser-like precision. I can’t promise that this is a genre that I plan to do a lot more with, but if I do, I will almost certainly be using Ren’Py again.

So anyway, go try it. Play it. If you feel verbose, you can even tell me what you think of it. It’s pretty different from the sorts of things I usually write, but on the balance, I’m pretty happy with how it came out. It’s probably about 45-90 minutes of your time, and who knows. It might just be a better dinner-themed dating sim than you might expect!

At the very least, I can promise that it is probably a different one than you expect.

Just what is going on 14 May 2013 9:45 PM (11 years ago)

Everything IS better with tacos.

Hullo internet. Long time no see!

In spite of my poor updating habits, I am still, in fact here, am still, in fact, making games, and for once, actually have a small amount of news!

News item number one is that yes, I do still exist, and am still making games. I’m even still working on Elements of Magic! Progress has been slower than I’d like, but I’ve got most of the earth level wrapped up aside from a little bit of extra sprite-work I need to do on the boss.

News item number two is that I have another game! It’s a quick side project that seemed like a neat idea that I could whip off in a weekend, and like all neat ideas that seem like you could whip them off in a weekend, it ACTUALLY took closer to month and a half or so, give or take. It’s pretty much done now, (just finishing up the assets) and I’m super-excited about it. It’s called “Save the Date”, and it will probably be ready to show the world within the next couple of weeks. It is a game about having dinner.

And that’s about it! Look for a new game soon!

A Familiar Face! 26 Nov 2011 11:19 AM (13 years ago)

Let the sunshine in!

Work on Elements of Magic continues, and I don’t mind saying, it is starting to feel kind of cool at this point. While I want to do a real writeup later for one of the new weapons, (similar to the homing attacks, although the final result is a little more interesting.) Meanwhile though, I figured I’d post a few quick screenshots of a new boss I coded up over Thanksgiving.

Winter is Coming!

Long-time fans of my work (that’s right, both of you!) may recognize this fellow from a previous game or two. I didn’t really set out to put the happy-go-lucky “Cloud 9” in every game I made, but I needed a good mid-boss with a good wind-based theme other than “extreme speed” (since that’s taken by the stage boss) and there he was, all weathery and everything. So I guess he gets to stay. And now that he’s been in THREE games, I’m probably stuck with him. So it goes, I guess. I think he came out pretty well this iteration though, if I do say so myself!

What I Did and Why: Homing Shots 5 Nov 2011 9:23 PM (13 years ago)

Hello internet!

The secrets of how it was made.

Recently got around to [finally] writing the starter gun for Elements of Magic. The friendly, nice gun that the player starts out with, to introduce them to the game. It had some design challenges, and since the whole process was kind of interesting, I figure I’ll document it, and see if I can’t provide some insight into exactly what sorts of things I think about when putting together a shmup weapon.

So, here we go!

First off, let’s talk a little about what needs to go into any shmup weapon. In general, a shmup weapon should:

Be distinct from other weapons in some interesting, gameplay-related way. Preferably through some unique property or advantage.
Involve some tradeoff. Work well in some situations, while less well in others. Should have at least one easily identifiable situation where it shines.
Conversely, have at least one general situation where it is actually a sub-optimal choice.
Never be completely useless, even in sub-optional situations. (I like to go with the metric “it should never be at worse than 50% efficiency.) The player should never feel “stuck” because they hit a situation that the gun is just bad for.
Have some form of risk/reward built into the weapon, where there is a constant, interesting choice for the player to make, where they can consciously assume some form of risk, in exchange for some form of payoff.

So let’s talk about what I tried!

Attempt one: Basic vanilla homing.

First try: Basic nonstop homing.

So I knew off the bat that this was going to be a homing gun. This is intended as the “starter gun” that you have when you start the game. It needs to therefore be both newbie friendly and effective, while still not being so overpowering that you never switch to other guns when you earn them. Homing is a good match for this, since it is a concept most people are very familiar with, and can understand quickly. (And as a bonus, it is effective even if they don’t do anything to make use of it – it just happens.)

So my first stab was fairly straightforward: Bullets fly out, and constantly turn towards whatever enemy is nearest.

Ok, this is a decent gun. Things home in and blow up enemies. It’s sorta fun. It’s super-easy to understand and use. There are, however, a few problems:

Shots tend to blur together into a solid stream. (This is purely aesthetic, but I think I’d like it to be more distinct. I want it to be more of homing shots, not one long homing laser.)
Homing greatly reduces the importance of player positioning. Shots go after the nearest enemy, so it occasionally matters where you are, but for the most part, it doesn’t matter where you are on screen.
There is no risk/reward anywhere. Nothing you do can make the gun perform better or worse.

Attempt two: Slowing things down, splitting things up.

Attempt #2: Now there are non-homing shots as well as homing shots!

So thoughts at this point about how to fix these things: The first one is easier. Make fewer, higher damage bullets, and maybe give them more distinct trajectories. The second one is harder.

For making player positioning, my first thought is to make the bullets do more damage at the beginning, and then have their damage fall off the longer they take to find a target. This would reward people for being up-close to their enemies. But there are a few things that concern me about this solution. For one thing, I’m worried about conveying this to the user. I can make the bullets start big and shrink, but I’m not sure that will be enough to make it obvious, and this is supposed to be a super-simple gun.

More worryingly though – if this is supposed to be a very newbie-friendly gun, it feels wrong to make it only work well if they are edging up close to the enemies and putting themselves into extreme danger. While that could be a fun mechanic, and I may use it later for a different gun, I think I’ll pass on it for now. It just feels too much at cross-purposes with the homing gun concept. Part of the advantage of the homing gun in general is that it is a good long-range weapon. So forcing people to get in close to make use of it just feels too much like muddled design.

So I think on it some more, and come up with plan B: I think I can make it work if I split the gun into two components. Instead of a constant stream of homing bullets, I’m going to try splitting the gun into two parts. A basic vulcan-style shot that fires straight ahead at high speeds, and homing bullets spewing out from the sides. This gives me a few benefits:

First and foremost, position matters again! Since half the damage comes from the direct shots, you can can do better by actually positioning under the thing you are aiming at.
There is a risk/reward tradeoff now. You can do better by staying directly under your target, but it is not required.
Unlike the first idea, it still works fine at long range. Position matters, but not to the extent that it forces you to get up close and personal with dangerous enemies.
You have more control over your shots. One problem before was that sometimes the shots would lock onto things you didn’t want, and you would have to wait for them to get to the thing you actually wanted to destroy. With this change you can guarantee that at least half of your damage will go towards the target of your choosing.

Things are looking pretty good now! It just needs a little polish. It doesn’t have as many interesting choices as I’d like yet, but it is already quite a serviceable gun.

Attempt three: The importance of concentration

Concentration! Fewer homing, but a lot of damage straight ahead.

I’ve been glossing over at least one issue so far. While I’ve been talking about it as if I were designing a gun, what I actually need are effectively two guns. One normal, and one when the user is “concentrating their fire”. (i. e. holding down the shift key and moving slowly.) Normally guns change their properties slightly when the player is concentrating their shots.

By convention, the concentration version of a gun tends to be much narrower in focus, while the normal version is wider-spreading, more suited to moderate damage over a wide area. I think what I’ve got now is perfect for the normal version, so let’s think about what I can do for the concentration version.

I briefly consider having it change the gun entirely (maybe to some sort of laser beam or other highly obvious focus shot) but I think that might be overkill. So instead, I just tweak the ratios.

The normal gun shoots regular shots forward in spreads of four, and one homing shot every two frames. So for the focus mode, make it shoot spreads of five regular shots forward, and drop the homing shots to only being once every five frames. So net result: Fewer homing shots, and more forward shots. With the side benefit that it is really obvious to the user what has just happened. They are shooting forward in groups of five instead of four. That’s one bigger. From this, they can correctly deduce that sitting in front of their ship just got 20% more dangerous for the enemies. And while the homing damage change is harder to eyeball, it’s easy to see that there are fewer homing shots now.

I play with this for a bit, and I like it a lot. It gives you a way to focus intently on a single enemy, and somewhat mitigate the problem of “too many enemies on screen my homing shots are going all over the place.”

All that’s left now is to go tweak the damages. As an internal convention, I tend to try to balance the guns so that an “average” gun deals 100 damage every second. (Mostly because this lets me be really lazy when assigning enemy HP – I just figure out how many seconds I want the player to have to spend shooting it, and then multiply that by 100. Makes it really easy to guesstimate enemy hp at a glance.)

I tweak around the homing shot damage vs. the regular damage until it feels right. Mostly I want the homing shots to do enough damage to feel like they have some weight to them. (i. e. they should be capable of taking out moderate/small enemies by themselves in one or two hits.)

Finally I end up with some damage numbers I like.

Sitting under a single enemy, with concentrated shots: 100 dps
Sitting under a single enemy, with unconcentrated shots: 105 dps
Hitting a single enemy with just the homing shots while concentrated: 30 dps
Hitting a single enemy with just the homing shots while unconcentrated: 50 dps

These are pretty much right where I want them to be. Sitting under an enemy, concentrating on it is 100, just like I want. Floating off on your own dodging and just hitting with the homing shots is gives a significant reduction in damage, while still being useful. (Concentrating while not under the actual enemy gives you pretty bad numbers, but that’s actually something I want to discourage in general, since it means you are specifically aiming at something that isn’t the enemy.)

And done. Ta da! We have a new gun!

Let’s see how I did against my requirements:

Be distinct from other weapons in some interesting, gameplay-related way. Preferably through some unique property or advantage. Check! Unique property is homing, and the ability to deal respectable long-range damage, even if not directly lined up with the enemy.
Involve some tradeoff. Work well in some situations, while less well in others. Should have at least one easily identifiable situation where it shines. Check! Homing again. Shines in situations where the enemy is moving around rapidly or otherwise hard to track. Also shines when there are lots of small enemies moving around quickly and spread out.
Conversely, have at least one general situation where it is actually a sub-optimal choice. Check! Sub-optimal in situations where there are a lot of smaller enemies around, drawing off your shots.
Never be completely useless, even in sub-optional situations. Check! Even if the homing shots are flying off to random places, the concentration-mode of the gun meaks you can still hit with over half your damage.
Have some form of risk/reward built into the weapon, where there is a constant, interesting choice for the player to make, where they can consciously assume some form of risk, in exchange for some form of payoff. Check! Although a little fuzzier on this one. Staying directly under the enemy to hit with your entire damage counts a little here. But also, staying under the enemy while unconcentrated gives you slightly more damage than concentrated, while also being more dangerous. (Because your movements are less precise.)

Conclusion: Feeling pretty good about this gun. And playtesting all the levels with it confirms this, at least for me. It’s fun to play with, interesting to use, and has different high-points than the other existing guns.

Ship it!

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