Gambling Around

In November of 2017 I organized a little Game-Art-Jam in Cologne. What? – You may ask. I'm not sure if someone else has done something similar before – probably yes – but also for me this kind of jam was new. It was a Game Jam that is focused on the creation of art. I had the concept for something like this spinning around in my head for quite some time and finally had the chance to try it out.

The Idea I'm doing a couple of gamedev events for quite a while now. And I also like game jams very much. So I always thought about organizing a game jam. Maybe not a big one – because this might need too much preparation – I more thought about a small one. Like the almost famous one-day Berlin Mini Jams. But I also know that one-day game jams can end up really exhausting for the participants. So I wanted to do something more relaxed – something like a Draw By Night event. In these 'nights' people are coming together and draw for just a few hours. I thought an event like this could also work in a gamedev-environment.

Since in the drawing event the participants were drawing together to create one piece of art, this was my intention for the game jam too. Everyone should work on his own assets and afterwards they would be connected together in a 3D Scene. Sure, this could end up in a mess of random stuff – but it could also lead to surprising, unexpected and beautiful results.

Preparation For a relaxed jam, you need an relaxed environment. That's at least my thought. Since I did a couple of events before, I knew that it is kind of easy to find a place for events in general. But it's not always easy to find and get a place that spreads a relaxed atmosphere and is convenient to work in. Through I go out a lot, a found out about the co-working space akkuraum that exactly meet these needs. It has a really cozy lounge that invites to work in. I pitched my event concept to the staff of this location and luckily they were interested to host the event.

For the event itself I prepared a little 3D game scene, that showed some samples. How to deal with 2D Images in a 3D space for example. And I also included some basic first person game mechanics, to have something to work with on the jam day. Furthermore I made a short introductory presentation, that explained the event briefly, which file formats to use etc.

Showtime When the participants had arrived, I held my little introductory presentation. After that we discussed an overall topic. So that the game scene got some consistence. I had a slight fear that we would agree on a too generic “fantasy”-topic. But that fear was unfounded – everyone had great ideas and we kinda could combine them all to one theme: 'Cute Sadness'. We also agreed on a specific color palette, which made the whole creative process more interesting. Next we discussed who would like to do what kind of asset and began to work. After like two hours, we all had finished our assets. I collected and put them in the prepared scene.

Under the participants was also an audio designer who made a little atmospheric sound track for our scene. He used head phones all the time so the rest of us had no clue what he was working on. So there was an even bigger “Show Off”-effect when the finished scene was displayed via an projector. His music track did totally fit to our art.

Aftermath To conclude, the Jam was very well perceived by the participants. Everybody had a lot of fun and enjoyed it. A bit negative from my perspective was, that we were just five people in total. Well, one of the reasons for that probably is, that I didn't make much advertisement for that event. I thought for trying out this jam format it would be good not to have too much people. But as the event announcement was received very well from the beginning, I expected two more people to show up at least . But as I wrote before, the event went very well, even if we were just five. And I can already imagine a lot of similar events. For example one that focuses just on experimenting with textures or programming procedural stuff. Events where people create something together within a certain topic, improve their workflows, skills and socialize. All in a relaxed atmosphere and just a few hours in the evening. But I'm not sure, if I will have time to organize this kind of events in the future... If not, I hope you will do ;) So hopefully you got some inspiration from this blog post.

And if you want to check out the final piece that we created in this evening, go here: https://epictigi.itch.io/cutesadness

Some months ago I stopped working on my mobile vr projects, because I couldn't get them running correctly on devices with an x86 architecture ─ which I use for testing. So if you are a vr developer and work with Unity plus Google's cardboard/daydream devkit you might have faced a similar issue. It all worked well with early versions of the devkit and Unity, but the newer versions just seem to work with phones that use an ARM architecture.

After some research on the problem I found out that some files were missing in the Unity-version of the devkit. I read some forum posts about the problem and how to solve it. But the advices were just pointing in the right direction; a proper solution was not given or didn't work. However, after hours of trail and error I found a way to solve the problem.

Here is the solution: Dowload the file sdk-base-1.120.0.aar from github. Open the archive (e.g. with 7-Zip) and it's folder jni. Extract the folders x86 and arm64-v8a from it. Now go to the directory "..\your project\Assets\GoogleVR\Plugins\Android" and open the archive gvr.aar. Open the folder jni and add the two previously extracted folders to it. Next time you build your app it will work also on x86 mobile phones (Unity 2017.3.1f1; GVR SDK for Unity v1.120.0)

So the needed files are in the native android cardboard devkit at least. So we just need to copy them over. It took me a while until I found out what exactly has to placed where in the file structure. But finally I got it. So if you were facing the same problem I hope I could help you. And if you have questions don't hesitate to ask.

As game developer I always have an idea what to do next, a vision that drives me. When I have a strong vision I am really motivated. It’s my life energy. So when you work on a game and slowly recognize its not working out how you planned it, you need to change plans. In the worst case you have to cancel the project or put it in the fridge. For me that happened a few times lately. Mostly because of unexpected technical problems. I invested a lot of hours in trying to solve them, but it turned out that these problems are out of my reach. So what do you do then? Focus on the next project.

Right now I work on a project that’s a little different from the stuff I did before. It might be something ground breaking. It really motivates me. But I’m also a bit scared. What if this project also doesn’t work out in the end? Through my last projects kinda failed, this feeling is worrying me a lot from time to time. What happens if visions always turn out to lead someone to an dead end? I dunno. I guess I might have another thing that’s driving me. But I fear that after too many fails I lose confidence at all.

On 23rd of April I was on DG Play, a little games festival to showcase a preview version of my vr game. Here is a little summary of what happened.

For me it was the first showcase possibility outside of a university context. So I was very eager how everything would turn out. I got there a lot feedback from a lot of different people. Even trough this event was more an geek and e-sport festival, a huge range of different people showed up. A mother who played my game with her son just said “It's strange” while her boy enjoyed it. Another child said he felt like a Jedi (Star Wars) and some people also come back for a second run to get all the points. That was really heart-warming especially that nerdy Jedi comment. I had some discussions about mobile VR and motion sickness in general and some people were also surprised how good mobile vr can work out. Of course there were also a lot of people who didn't try any vr game at all and they liked my game, too. But that's no surprise because people who try vr the first time mostly instantly like whatever they see in vr. But overall the feedback was very good and some people gave me useful hints on what to improve.

What I learned on that day was that QR codes are not a good way to lure people somewhere. In preparation for this event I created a newsletter system to keep interested people updated about the game. For this I printed a QR code with some additional information on a paper and put it next to my game setup. It was hard in general to convince people to register or keep in touch - and those who wanted, didn't know how to use a vr code. I also put a shortened url next to the qr code as alternative solution – but also that didn't really work out. Instead almost everyone asked for a Facebook page – but I didn't had that back then.

Recently I stumbled upon the first* game I made, when I took game development more serious: Mydrania. It's an textadventure role-playing game, which I made like ten years ago. And when I looked at the files, the code and everything else a lot of memories from the old days came back.

It was very nostalgic moment with mixed feelings. On the on hand it was a bit disappointing when I finished the development and very less people were interested in it, because I spend a lot of time on it. But on the other hand I could fulfill this little-boy-gamedev-dream to make an open world rpg game. Even if its only text based and only single player - I created my first little “own world” and I am still bit proud of it.

Back then I uploaded the game to different freeware sites to spread it, but until today it was almost gone from the internet. I just found an old version (1.0) somewhere, which surprised me a bit – the last public version was 1.4 I think. I took the game from my website a while ago for different reasons. I also wanted to update it a bit – because it still had some flaws. I also worked on an update but somehow I never finished it. And after a while the game lost my attention...

Until a couple of weeks ago when I found out about the textadventure podcast “Textlastig” (German). I thought I could also send these guys my game – and remembered that the game is in some kind of “unfinished update limbo”. So I looked at it again. Memories came back and everything. Blablabla.  And I decided to work on a couple further improvements because the game was still not really beginner friendly. So I spend a couple of days to update the game and the manuals – and now I'm done. Today I could re-release my old game in a new version on Itch.

Yeah its still not perfect and has some flaws – but its a lot more accessible then the previous versions. And since there is not much interest on the game, I don't want to spend too much time on “yesterday things” – Even if they mean a lot for me. I want to move on and rather spend my time on new/current projects. But I'm open to fix some more things in my game from time to time – Even if its just for myself.

This nostalgic-vibe made me also think about my fish project which is also in some kind of limbo.   A couple of months ago I almost made the decision to cancel it. But now I'm unsure – So I might finish it someday – But its complicated, since it's a very personal project. But I might talk about that more later.

For now I'm happy that I could polish my “Mydrania”-Gem a bit more and can focus again on my VR game. A status update on that will also come sooner or later. So stay tuned!

Mydrania on Itch: https://epictigi.itch.io/mydrania

From 10th to 12th of February some friends and me went to Antwerp to the Screenshake festival. Screenshake is a yearly art festival in Belgium to showcase outstanding video games, with a focus on independent games. It was a very nice experience and so I decided put some words down here to keep the memories alive. It was my first game event outside of Germany although I usually go to a lot of game events. While my friends just went there as „visitors“ I decided to work there as an volunteer to get also some „behind the scenes“ impressions.

When we arrived at the train station in Antwerp, we were impressed by its monumentality – we didn't expected something like that. Next we visited the city a little bit before we then went to the festival. For that reason we began our travel early on. Relaxed we made our way through some nice streets into an interesting cafe. We needed some coffee-energy. Memorable of this place was the fancy decoration and  a drink name on the menu: “Skinny Bitch”. I don't think this name was a good choice in any way.  But whatever. A friend of mine tried it and said it tastes “both sweet and energizing, with a beany, acid undertone to it”.

When we arrived at the festival location, there wasn't much going on. We were still early, so my friends decided to visit the city a bit more while I wanted to make myself a little bit more familiar with the location, since I decided to work there. Next to the entrance of the location was a very nice lounge bar. When I entered it there was directly some kind of family atmosphere, even before I talked to anyone. I spent some time there and then I checked out the event team to be prepared for my working shifts, which were mainly on the next day (Saturday).

Volunteers like me also had access to the kitchen which means we were getting food. And what kind of food! It was the best food I ever got as a volunteer on a game event. And yes, I already  volunteered a lot ;) The food here was always self made by the festival kitchen team. For Friday they had pizza, on Saturday they had pumpkin soup and millet mixed with vegetables, cake, moussaka ... there were a lot of different things, I can't remember everything. Everything tasted awesome.

Soon after I had checked out the kitchen, the event started with a little game showcase in the bar. One game draw my attention really quick: It was a competitive western shoot out game with “real” guns made from wood. It reminded me a bit at the shoot out game from the Nintendo Switch. It was a bit similar. I tried the game with a friend who just arrived (but had traveled on his own) and each of us won a few rounds. The goal of the game was to shot your opponent at the right time, when the clock hands point to twelve o'clock (high noon).

After playing that game we checked in at the our hostel. My other friends went there too, so we kinda re-united. After doing a short rest we went back to the location to check out some more games and of course, the opening party. The festival was set up in three floors: The ground floor had some mini arcades which showed Belgium games and there was a room for parties; In the first floor was a bigger kind of “general” indie games exhibition; And in the third floor were the more kind of “art” games exhibited. But the boarders were vague – So you could find some experimental art games on every floor. On Saturday and Sunday there were also talks – But the talks were hold in different building which was like three minutes away from the exhibition space. Also this location was really nice – big room, some couches, much light, relaxed ambiance.

On the next day I had my main work shifts: In the kitchen, at the counter/entrance and at the exhibition. So there wasn't so much time for me checking out more games or some of the talks – that had to wait for the evening and for Saturday. Working there wasn't that enlightened,  but its always nice to get to know some new people. I really enjoyed the shifts.

On the last day I mainly checked out the games I didn't play on the days before- some games were also exchanged during the days. In the party hall were some multiplayer exhibited and I got to know  the game “Ultimate Chicken Horse”. A multiplayer epiphany in my eyes because it works on different meta levels – maybe I explain that in another blog post more precisely.

On our way home one of our trains were canceled. So we had to use other trains with different connections. So we needed “you are allowed to use other trains”-stamps for our tickets. But one of us just had his ticket digitally on his phone. So what to do? Well the service guy at the train station did give us stickers and put one of them on my friends phone. That was very amusing for all of us. Besides that everything went well on our way back.

Conclusion It was a great festival overall and I really enjoyed it. It was not too small and not too big – it was perfectly sized. Everywhere was some kind of family atmosphere – also my friends thought that – it was a really great thing. I got to know a lot of cool games, people & other things which I couldn't mention here, because I tired to summarize my experiences. And I already think about going to Screenshake next year again. 2017 was totally worth it. Thanks to the whole team. Cheers.

Hello Everyone.

I guess it's finally time to write something about the game that I'm working on for round about a month now. I already finished some prototypes, but first I want to lose some words on the concept itself and how it started.

Since I had to postpone my last project, I thought about what my next “big” project could be. So I did some evaluation on some of my ideas and looked for the opportunities I had. Slowly two things came together: First, I always wanted to do some mobile vr game for cardboard headsets, and second I had a prototype for some kind of maze-exploration game lying around. The concept of this game would fit perfectly for a virtual reality game and and so these “ideas” were merging at some point. So now I make a virtual reality maze-exploration game for mobile phones.

The scenario of the game will be a little bit like in the “Myst” games: The player wakes up in a surreal world and has to solve several puzzles to find her way through. The interactions in the game will only happen through the focal point of the player. This has two reasons: First I think it's an very interesting mechanic game design wise, and second I want to make the game accessible to a lot of people. I don't want to offer the game only to people who own a specific mobile headset with buttons (like the Gear VR). I want that also people with a cheap cardboard can play it.

So approximately for the next five months I will work on this game and will write about the development process here as well as on twitter. Last but not least: Here a little picture of the prototype I made back then in 2014. The game I make now will be much different, but this picture might give you a small glimpse of what I’m aiming for. Cheers.

So here a little update on the discontinuation of my html5 dance pad game project. I made some good progress. Until...

Some months ago I discovered a painful bug in the game: Sometimes two fields of the dance pad were not working. First I thought my dance pad were damaged or that it the key mappings were mixed from time to time. But soon I found out that this bug only appeared when I used Google Chrome to play this game. Everything worked fine when I was using Firefox.

So after some further investigations I found out, that this bug is really inside  Chrome itself: Chrome simply just don't recognize two "buttons" of dance pads. I also found a bug report about this problem in the chromium  project, which was posted like two years ago. The bug wasn't even assigned to anyone and soon it became clear to me, that no one would fix this bug anytime soon.

The thing is, I really need to have a standalone version of the game. And the best way to make a stand alone version of a game which is based on html5, is using a wrapper which is based on Chrome (NW.js / node-wekit). Which includes also all the bugs of Chrome, of course ;-). So I can't create a standalone version of the game which is basically like all the nails in the coffin at once for this project.

Well, of course I tried to do a lot of other ways to create a stand alone version of the game, but nothing worked out well. NW.js / node-wekit still seems to be the best solution, even its not usable for me in this case. I also thought about re-doing the game game with another engine like Unity. But the html5 prototype is really advanced now (programming-wise) and re-doing it in another engine would take me a lot of time. And there are some other reasons that speak against re-creating the game, but I will not discuss them here yet.

I might still continue this project at some point with another engine but right know I want to go on and focus on other things: The next blog post will give some insights into current and future projects. Shouldn't take again so much time until it appears ;-)

And here some last screen of the protoype before the coffin closes...

Hey folks. Time to talk about my plans for 2016.

As you may have heared earlier, I want to release my first own commercial game in the end of 2016. After I have released tons of little freeware games, it's the next logical step for me. But releasing a  game commercially doesn't mean that I will simply just put a game into some stores. No. I will polish the game until I think it's reasonable to pay some money for it. And I will also do some research and marketing. Yes. I'm also interested in doing things that a lot of other developers hate ;-)

What kind of game will I release? An action-tower-defense-dance game for computers with dance pads. Sort of. I know it might not make sense economically. But my main goal is not to make much money with this game. I want to learn about he process of releasing a commercial game with everything that comes with that. So I will do some research about the rhythm- and dancing games market for example. Sure, you can still argue that this would make more sense if I would release a game on a big market. But for me its more interesting to explore a game genre that is a kind of a niche of a niche.

Through my study course at the Cologne Game Lab I'm also got more interested into games history and culture in general. So when I did my first researches in the rhythm games sector I was impressed that there are still people who play these “Machine Dance”-games today. And there are communities for these kind of games. But when you think about it, it's not THAT surprising. Because since the internet was invented, there was a place for everybody somehow.

Anyway. It will be an interesting “journey” for me. Besides this project I will still do some smaller games on game jams and alike. But the dancing game will be my main project for 2016. And before I left you, here a little prototype screenshot. Next time I will tell you what the game is really about. Cheers. See ya soon.

It has been quite around here lately....so here is the final blog post for this year. Yeah. As you may recognize, I changed the template of the blog to make it more readable. And I will continue to restructure some things in the following weeks. But lets switch to something more interesting...

Originally I thought about releasing an improved and advanced version of my last years Sylvester game at the end this year (what an innovative idea ;-) ). But I don't really have time for that. One the one hand I'm busy with a game project for my university and on the other hand I'm working on a little game game which I want to push towards a release in late 2016. So if you followed my work lately, you may guess what I'm talking about...a tower defense dancing game. Yes. It may sound weird, but I will explain the whole thing soon.

Another game which I worked on and which you might want to check out, is called “Cosmic Bloom”. I made it with two mates from my university for Ludum Dare 34. That's an online Game Jam thingy. The theme was “growing” so we decided to make some kind of gigantic garden simulation. So you can let glow plants and fly through your world...it is more an art experience than a game. You can try it here: http://suaave.itch.io/cosmic-bloom

And now Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year.  See ya.

And now I'm free again. Kinda. I decided to stop these one-game-a-month-(till-you-drop)-cycle because of several reasons. First of all I don't have enough time anymore to make the prototypes that great that they fulfill my personals goals. At least not in one month. And when I'm using more time my brain always remembers me I need to finish it quickly, because the next game is waiting around the corner...so that's another reason. I put myself too much under pressure. In the last months I get used to it, but I still don't have enough time to make what I want. And I'm kind of tiered of downsizing Ideas too much. And I like to spend more time on graphics and animations since I'm also studying that. But if you do one game a month you don't really have time to work a bit longer on things, if you do everything alone. Sure, I could have teamed up with someone, but you still have this time problem. Also you have to find people who are very energetic on making games which is also difficult sometimes. And somehow I did the first monthly games alone so I said I make every game alone. Yes, I could have changed that stupid mindset but I didn't...

During this one-game-a-month-marathon a learned a lot and I wouldn't say it was a mistake or something. Even if the I was very unhappy with some games. Maybe I share my experiences in detail with you some day.

Right now I'm still working on a game prototype which needs some more time, because I don't want to downsize it too much, as I said before. I will also continue to work on smaller games, join game jams and do similar things. But one game per month is too much... if you also have to do plenty of other stuff outside of the game world ;-)

The game prototype for June I really finished on time, on the 30th. But I don’t show it to the public yet for various reasons. But it will be made public sooner or later.

For June I decided to make something really small, because at the moment we  also have the project-phase at our university. So I don’t had so much time for this “game”.

I made some kind of weird art experience. It deals with a lot of things including relaxation and random content creation. But I don’t want to spoil too much. In the end I’m not really satisfied with this game because it feels “unfinished” to me. I think that is, because the game has not real gameplay. And I am some kind of gameplay-dev-person.

Whatever. I wanted to make an “art-game” for a long time and I made it. I realized that I don’t really enjoy the process of making it so much and so I think I won’t do any super simplified art experience again. But I dunno. Lets see what the future will bring ;-)