The davecheesefish Games Blog

Ludum Dare 18: PIXELSPACE Now Available

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:48:00 +0100

PIXELSPACE is finished and can be downloaded now for free at dcfgames.com/games/pixelspace!

You play as a white pixel defending yourself against incoming infected green pixels. You do this by shooting them down or by guiding them to crash into each other (the latter having the chance of an ammo drop, hence “enemies as weapons”). Coming into contact with enemies will cause damage, but you have the ability to regenerate health at a rate determined by your accuracy with your weapons.

For all my updates from throughout Ludum Dare 18, see my Twitter feed (#ld48 tag), the Ludum Dare entry page and the dcf Games blog LD18 tag. To see all the games from the event, click here.

A few screenshots of the finished game before I head off to bed!

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 03:53:22 +0100

A few screenshots of the finished game before I head off to bed!

The first screenshot of my Ludum Dare 18 entry. The player...

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 15:21:00 +0100

The first screenshot of my Ludum Dare 18 entry. The player plays as the white pixel firing on the incoming infected green pixels. Ammo is limited, so the player must use the homing tendencies of the green pixels to cause them to crash into each other, producing an ammo crate containing 100 bullets and killing both involved.

Ludum Dare 18: The Story So Far

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 10:42:00 +0100

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ll already know I’m taking part in the Ludum Dare 48-hour game development competition this weekend.

My game idea is a basic top-down shooter, with different enemies having different effects on the enviroment when they are shot. The player has a very limited ammo supply, so use of these effects is vital to survive. The player can also lure enemies into colliding with one another to kill them.

It’s the start of sunny day 2 with 16 hours to go, so here’s a sitrep…

Particle system is up and running
Player movement working
Enemy spawning working

Now I just need to add the ability to shoot, collision detection for the enemies and the various environmental hazards… I’d better get to work!

More news to come throughout the day.

Meet Sushi - mascot and part-inspiration for davecheesefish...

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:19:49 +0100

Meet Sushi - mascot and part-inspiration for davecheesefish Games!

What’s wrong with a cheesy Wotsits-coloured goldfish with Ronnie Barker’s glasses and a miniature bobble hat from a smoothie bottle to keep warm? I AM NOT INSANE

dcf Games Joins Indie DB!

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:10:00 +0100

Game-modding community site Mod DB has just launched its new indie game site Indie DB! From today I’ll be uploading selected games, screenshots and tutorials to both dcf Games and Indie DB at my account, davecheesefish. If you have an Indie DB or Mod DB account, you can “watch” me via the eye button on the right-hand side of my profile page. You’ll also be able to track the development progress of individual new games by going to their respective pages and “tracking” them too!

2009 Global Game Jam game Lag is now available via Indie DB and (less than 48 hours after uploading it there), has reached rank 18 out of 1782 games on the site overall!

I look forward to participating in the lively community, and hope to see you there soon!

X48 Birmingham 2010: All Wrapped Up

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:38:00 +0000

Meet the team! Left to right: Mat Simmons, Jason Thomas, David Prior (me!) and Martyn Poole. Photo by Pixel-Lab.

The first X48 GameCamp of 2010 was last weekend at Birmingham City University, and Mat Simmons, Jason Thomas, Martyn Poole and I were there competing against 15 other teams from around the UK to produce a game in just 27 hours!

Our Friday started off with a 4-hour journey to get to the venue itself. Once we’d finally ventured over the English-Welsh border and up to wild and wintery Birmingham, it was simply a matter of finding the right campus of the university (no small feat as every second building we’d passed on our way in seemed to have the university logo on the side). After a little confusion, we were informed by a friendly lady behind an information desk that actually the science museum/IMAX cinema we were in was indeed the right place (why don’t we have one of those?).

This year’s theme for Birmingham was “Discovery”, quite an open-ended theme leaving plenty of opportunities for some interesting game concepts. We started off with a 1-hour session coming up with any game idea we could get our hands on, no matter how stupid or difficult-to-build they sounded. From previous experience, the best ideas normally come from something completely ridiculous and immensely over-ambitious, scaled down accordingly.

Working through the night (only broken by the now-familiar experience of 2 hours sleep on industrial computer-lab carpet), we came to day two when everyone decided it would probably be a good idea to let those of us not doing anything at a particular time to get some more rest before the final push (that and the fact that our bus home wasn’t due to leave Birmingham until 8pm, still a full 12 hours away).

At the end of the day we didn’t win any prizes, but it was still a thoroughly enjoyable two days and I know I’ll certainly be back next year to try again! You can download and play our entry for free from dcfgames.co.uk/games/drainbamage. As for the future, the team is going forward to compete in the Imagine Cup and we’re looking into entering Dream-Build-Play and Dare to be Digital 2010 so watch this space for further updates!

One Down, One to Go!

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 01:10:00 +0000

The Global Game Jam has passed into the realms of history, and the crash from the 48-hour caffeine buzz has just about worn off. It was a brilliant weekend, even better than 2009 if I may say so!

This year I teamed up with Matthew Simmons, Chris O’Donovan and Martyn Poole in Team FAIL HARDER (Team FAIL from last year, plus two) to produce the Global Game Jam Game Jam Boat Game. I spent my weekend up to my eyeballs in PHP, C# and pizza and made it through training alive.

Training for what, you say?

The X48 Microsoft XNA GameCamp will be at Birmingham City University next Friday-Saturday (19th-20th Feb) and Matthew Simmons, Martyn Poole, Jason Thomas and I will be there!

Over the weekend, we will have roughly 24 hours to produce a game using Microsoft’s XNA Framework, so it’s all the work in about half the time! Last year in Derby, my team produced Bellis Perennis which made 3rd place, so we have something to live up to this time!

Some interesting stats from last year’s X48 event - in 48 hours, we went through:

264 chocolate bars,
90 pints of milk,
80 Freddo bars,
100 assorted pizzas, and
315 assorted cans of energy drink

(More stats available at daytum.com/x48)

I’ll be tweeting from the event (as usual) via my Twitter page, and if you’re going I’ll see you there! The Inside Xbox video from last year’s event can be found below if you’re still wondering what it’s all about (look out for me at the back of my team at 1:35):

Weekend Developer: Top Tips to Survive a Game Dev Event

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 23:30:47 +0000

Image source: The Pizza Review

Developing a game in less than 48 hours is hard. It’s hard to stop your brain from melting, and hard to produce anything near useable code when you’re blood is 98% supermarket own-brand carbonated caffiene drink substitute at 4 in the morning. With less than a week to go until Global Game Jam 2010, I thought I’d share my top tips for surviving a quick-fire game development event…

1. Don’t limit your ideas

Given such a short time, you may be panicking about just what is possible in the time. Don’t. At least, don’t in the ideas stage. Take 15 minutes at the start for everyone in your team to come up with ideas, no matter how ambitious or stupid-sounding. Discuss them together - someone’s failed idea could spark the next big thing from someone else’s brain!

2. Don’t try to be a robot

You’ll perform much better if you take time out to sleep. Ok, you’ll lose a few hours of development time, but the vastly increased productivity of a fresh team will more than make up for it. Don’t rely on energy drinks to get you through.

3. K.I.S.S.

Keep It Simple (and) Stupid. If there’s an easy way of doing something, do it! You don’t have time to reinvent the wheel. Just be wary of any copyright or rules restrictions on the competition you’re in.

4. A good mix

There’s no point in having a team of 8 people, entirely made up of programmers who’ve only ever made one game in their life between them. Get a mixture of game artists and programmers and don’t make the team too large - Otherwise it’ll be a nightmare at the end when you’ve got to tie everyone’s stuff together and find half of it doesn’t work. In my experience, 2 artists and 2 programmers are plenty without going over-the-top.

5. Play to your strengths

Don’t make your amazing 2D artist struggle around with 3D modelling software; likewise don’t throw a Source engine specialist in at the deep end with the Unreal Development Kit. It’ll end up like porridge in a blender - a big sticky mess spread all over the kitchen.

6. An army marches on it’s stomach

Gummy bears and an IV drip of cheap syrup-y supermarket own-brand caffeine drinks should be supplied and refilled as required.

7. Don’t get tied to the computer

If you get bored, do something else for a while. Play a game, take a walk, talk to fellow developers, eat, sleep, do a handstand, learn to drive… oops, too far. Just do something away from the computer for a while to recharge.

8. Watch this video!

Last year’s Global Game Jam keynote video should be your first port of call… well, after this blog entry now I suppose… Anyway, it provides 8 tips for making the actual game itself, rather than simply staying alive through the event!

(Kyle Gabler’s tips section starts at 1:36 if you want to skip ahead)

9. Don’t be afraid for it to blow up in your face

Yes this is just a repeat of Mr Gabler’s last tip, but it bears repeating. The less you care about your game, the less it’ll suck. You’ll be more open to input from other people and be in less of a frantic rush to fix every little thing right at the end.

So have fun, and try not to pass out from exhaustion. If you’re doing the Global Game Jam next week, keep an eye on the webcams and I shall see you then!

Pinballz

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:08:52 +0000

I’ve seen my fair share of game studio recruitment sites, but most have yet to realise that the only real way to really speak to me is through the medium of catchy song lyrics.

Even play, even play, even play, even play, even play, even play, even play, even play, even play with our pinballlllllllllllllllllllz…

Site Maintenance

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:48:21 +0100

Over the coming week I’ll be changing the site over to the new format, so some areas of the site may break slightly until it’s fully transferred.

Notable changes will include:

A clearer, more modular layout to game pages.
Easier browsing.
Removal of the comment system. It wasn’t being used and was breaking the site layout, though it may be re-introduced in the future.
Removal of the bright page background and header background for something a little less distracting.
Completed About Me page
User ratings on games
Online contact form (pending)

This maintenance will not affect the blog, so any delays or problems with the update will be posted here.

Also, the blog was recently updated with:

A new header, to better incorporate with the upcoming layout change of the main site.
A new URL - the old one (dcfgames.tumblr.com) will redirect to the new one at blog.dcfgames.co.uk, though users still using the old address may notice slightly longer load times. This also affects the RSS feed, the new address of which is blog.dcfgames.co.uk/rss.

New games coming shortly after the site update!

Imagine Cup 2010, IGF 2010 and Dream-(on...)-Build-Play

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:43:30 +0100

Photo from the 2009 Imagine Cup final

This summer’s calendar is certainly looking busy…

The 2009 Imagine Cup has just finished, but already the Poland 2010 event is starting! I’ve signed up for the Imagine Cup 2010 and ideas are already forming… The round 1 deadline is 1st April 2010, so who knows what might happen before then?

I’ll be posting progress updates on the blog as I go along, but nothing too detailed until after the round 1 deadline - we wouldn’t want cheating, would we?

Also on the cards for the near future is the Independent Games Festival Student Showcase 2010. Not sure about whether I’ll get time to do it, but I’ll certainly have a go!

Unfortunately, Dream-Build-Play is looking like a non-starter for me, due to this year’s event being an Xbox-only competition. Not having an Xbox myself, developing for one is going to be just a tiny bit difficult… Maybe next year.

Microsoft Research Student Celebration Day Videos

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:37:35 +0100

Video from Ed Dunhill of Microsoft

Various videos from the Microsoft Student Celebration Day held at Microsoft Research, Cambridge, which I was fortunate enough to have attended back in April, are now available for all to view. Of particular interest to me was the talk on fast route finding by Simon Peyton Jones (shown in the video above). If you want a clearer look at the slides from that presentation, they’re available in all their crystal-clear glory here.

More videos from the event are available from Ed Dunhill’s blog, with accompanying slides here.

Kodu

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:17:05 +0100

Video from IGN

Kodu Game Lab from Microsoft looks like an interesting tool for co-op game creation on the Xbox 360. While I don’t foresee “the next big thing” in gaming being created with it, it certainly seems like its simple interface and ease of use could just have the potential to kick-start some new programming and design talent into considering the games industry as a viable career choice, which can only be good in the long-run.

The "Old" dcf Games Blog - May: Recent Development(s)

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:28:22 +0100

The "Old" dcf Games Blog - May: Recent Development(s):

News and developments from May 2009

The "Old" dcf Games Blog - X48 Download Link and Photos

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:15:16 +0100

The "Old" dcf Games Blog - X48 Download Link and Photos:

The link to download Bellis Perennis, our 3rd-place winning entry for the X48 Microsoft XNA GameCamp, plus various photos from the event.

The "Old" dcf Games Blog - dcf Games at X48

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:51:00 +0100

The "Old" dcf Games Blog - dcf Games at X48:

After two days of slaving in front of a computer, the results are in, prizes have been announced and the pizza stains are in the process of being removed from the carpets. This year’s X48 Microsoft XNA GameCamp at the University of Derby brought together 80 students in 17 teams from universities around the UK and is widely considered a huge success! (Especially after my team took home 3rd place!)

(Click the title to read more)

The "Old" dcf Games Blog - Hello!

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:21:51 +0100

The "Old" dcf Games Blog - Hello!:

The first ever post in the dcf Games Blog!