Game 09 - Instrument: Bit stuck

 I don't know particularly much about music theory. It's been very difficult to figure out a way to reward good play. I'd like to make this game into something but I'm not sure where to take it.

Here is an image of the current state of the game. 

Controls:

C,V,B,N,M - play sounds

(hold) left shift - higher octave

(hold) left control - lower octave

Download here:

LINK

For now, I think I'll focus my attention to the top down version of Deep Rising (but with fire). 

Perhaps I'll give this instrument another go.

Game 09 - Instrument

I keep saying that I want to make an instrument. What I mean is that I want to create an abstract game controlled through improvisational music. 

 

LINK to INSTRUMENT 

This is what I've made so far. I've spent less than an hour on it. 

You can make noises with the ASDF keys (the KL keys do the same as DF) and the shapes react. So far all they do is grow slightly larger, then shrink back down to their original size. 

I plan to add more shapes and sounds as well as a scoring mechanism which rewards good sounding music, based off timing and complimentary sounds etc.

Also, I'd like to make a really pretty game this time. Previously I've hardly focused on the graphics (although I did spend a fair amount of time on Rising Deep's aesthetic). This time I'd like particle effects, screen shake, and all that juicy stuff.

Game 08 - Random Silhouette Generator

The first project for my course requires me to develop a character as well as an environment. The first part of character development normally comes down to drawing lots lines on a photoshop canvas until it looks like a potential character, then moving on and doing 100 or so more.
I decided to play with the idea of randomly creating shapes since it's particularly difficult to express randomness as a human, so I made a random silhouette generator in game maker to do it for me.

LINK

Controls:

spacebar - generate a new silhouette

left shift - increase opacity

left control - decrease opacity

A compilation of some silhouettes I made using my software (Compiled in Photoshop)

The way the generator works is it creates a random number of shapes (within a range), the shapes then randomly turn into other shapes (for diversity), They then move their point of origin to a random x and y axis within the canvas, they spin around a random number of degrees and deform their height and width by a random variable (within a range) too.

Since the random number generator in game maker always chooses the same numbers, the software results in the same 'random' shapes every play, unless I change an argument or variable slightly between plays. Since then I've also added another variable that increases every step by 1 until it hits 11, at which point it returns to 1 again. This way, the player unknowingly has an influence on the generation of the shapes. Since it's almost impossible to time something to 1/120th of a second, the player should get different shapes every play. 

There is a 1/10 chance of getting the same first shape, but that probability reduces exponentially every shape the player makes and even then, it's not a big problem.

Game 07 - Kings Game

Today I rapid Jammed an idea I had.
 Initially I made the game because I wanted to play with making an Ai.
  Quickly, the idea became a spin on the stalemate end section of a chess game where both players are down to just their kings.
    I thought that giving the option of moving 2 spaces at a time might turn this stalemate into an interesting game; simple enough to quickly develop an Ai for.

In hindsight I was ignorant.

Nevertheless, the game was still worth making; not only because it took under an hour from idea to completion but because I'm sure it's gotten me back into that gamedev mindset I lust so much.

And it's another game to add to the list. I think it's good to have some failed projects as it shows that I've been experimenting. I do believe however that with enough work, this game could still be interesting.

It actually plays very smoothly and has absolutely no bugs that I know of, so I suppose that's an achievement for 1 hours work.

Also, I didn't make the Ai in the end. It's 2 player instead.

LINK

Controls:

White - Arrow Keys

Black - WASD

Double tap to move twice. You can move around corners like this too. Eg, right, up (both in the same move).

 

After making a game as complicated to understand as Rising Deep (I think I may be the only person in the world who actually knows what they're doing in the game), It's been nice working on something so simple. I'd like to do that for my next game too. Something you can just pick up and play.