Codegate: Main Server Stage

I'm still working on the codegate stage. Making it so once you type in a password in the wrong order it will push you back to the barrier stage, which you would then have to restart the codegate stage. Once I finally figure out how to fix that up I would move on to the last stage of my game. The Main Server or HQ will have   a different event from the others. You will encounter this AI which you see flashing at the barrier stage. Then you will have to defeat this AI. There will be 2 bars like in the barrier stage, one for you and the other for the enemy. You will have a number of different keys that will pop up on screen and you will need to get as many as possible before the AI's bar fills up. I also plan on having different markers that pop up, which you will need to navigate with your mouse and click on them while the keys are still popping up.

Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time

When I was about 10 years old I had a cousin, which I was close friends with. And he owned a Nintendo 64 and I didn't, so i would go over to his house every so often to play his Nintendo. One of the games he had was Ocarina of Time, which i grew to love because you can do whatever you wanted in this crazy opened world. I wasn't much of a gamer back then so I never played through the games story. But i remember playing with my cousins saved file(which he past the game already) and exploring the world doing stupid but fun things. Example I would be adult Link and go to one of the villages and hook shot myself to roofs of houses. Another thing I liked to do was go to Gerardo's Fortress and get caught, and go to jail. The jail had this window that you can hook shot too. From there you can jump down or hook shot to another roof. But what i always did was call my horse, which would bring itself right below from me, and i would try to fall down on top of it and gallop away. It never worked but I remember trying over and over again hoping that it would one day work.

Beta Test

I would to get as much feed back as possible. If you find any bugs or typos post a comment below.

In Codegate you play as a hacker, trying to get into a corporation and as your hacking in this corporation you encounter these firewalls and barriers that you need to surpass. Each time you encounter one of these obstacles, you have these types of mini games you need to beat. I really wanted to keep the hacking idea at the forefront. Make the player really feel like a hacker, so not having any easy instructions on how to play, also making the game hard to beat.

Once you get to the Codegate stage and find the 5 passwords that is the end of the beta.

Download Link: Codegate Beta v0.5

Keyboard Fighting Idea

So the main goal of the game would be to get as many points as possible before the time runs out. For this game each player has his/her own keyboard which they use to combat one another. From every key that hits the other player the more points you rack up. Can even put in a combo system, so if one player gets multiple hits i before the other player fights back he/she gets a combo multiplier.

This idea came to me from an old web series i watched a long time ago, call Purepwnage. Which was maybe one of my favorite web series i've seen because it was so funny and all about the hardcore gamer and how he would act so differently in the social world. Anyways there was one scene in the tv series were you see Jeremy, and Doug trying to apply for jobs, and the interviewer puts them in this computer room were they need to fill out this application form for the job. And all of a sudden they start to use keyboards as swords and start to fight in this computer lab. Then the interviewer comes in the room and sees them fighting and just kicks them out.

Scene starts at 10:30

Stage Process

During the past weeks I've been working on project Codegate in a weird way. I kind of know where i want to go with it and have a general idea how to structure it, but I invent content for the game as i go. I know for sure i want to make different stages in the game, that you need to surpass to get to the goal. How i mapped it out is like this:

Start > Firewall > Barrier > Codegate > End

I haven't really decided on how i will make stage Codegate work. But i would like to make it into 4 different levels, and in order to advance you need to get through these 4 levels. For this puzzle though i want the player to go outside of the game to get the answers. I want to keep it as open ended as possible and not make it so easy to figure out. I want to capture the essence of being a real hacker, not everything is done for you when your trying to hack into a server. You will find different problems that will stop you in your tracks or make you start all over again.

GameFlow Heuristics

I've seen a lot of game reviews in my lifetime. I always thought the review criteria was based off of, story, gameplay, and presentation. I never really took the time to think there would be more to rating a game then this. I understand now even with this GameFlow criteria there can always be more added in to better rate and place a game in a certain genre. It's only used as a type of basic mode of measurements for a game in a way. Also the idea of rating a video game is really maybe one of the most in depth rating systems we have. Consider movies for example it doesn't have this need for control and concentration. Movies need only to rely on grepping story and interesting plot twists. Don't get me wrong am not saying video games are superior then movies, all am saying we need to put a lot more effort into making a really top grade game. One game keeps coming to mind when think of user based experience with video games. Bioshock Infinite, i've played this game recently, and i found it such an amazing experience playing through this great storyline with interesting characters. These characters which become a lot more believable when playing as the main character in the story. It's quiet amazing because this experience wouldn't have been the same if it were made into a movie or film.

Idea Brainstorm

I got my idea from these card building game I've bought recently called Netrunner. In this game there's two sides a corporation and the runner. The runner needs to run through the corporation remote servers to get agendas. But these agendas are protected by Ice (firewalls), as the runner you need to use software and programs to get past the ice to get to your goal.

The game i plan to make takes place in a cyberpunk world. Where hackers need to enter the digital world and hack there way through firewalls and barriers to reach the main Head Quarters, to retrieve important data. The user plays as the hacker going through this remote server, and will encounter different events that will prevent them from moving forward. Example of one of the events i plan to implement. Your presented with a DOS like screen with text and you need to press as many keys as possible before the time runs out. As you press these keys, lines of code appears on screen creating this feeling of actually hacking.  

Concept Work:

World Map 100x100:

World Map 240x240:

I've never made a 8 bit game before so i'm not to sure what resolution to build my images at. But I got a feeling i'll stick with the basic 240x180. The idea is you would start at the bottom of the map and work your way through this small barriers/firewalls to get to the HQ. In each of there barriers there will be a different event you would have to complete to get past it.

Here is a game i found recently that has this cool idea of how it would feel to hack through systems by typing in commands and sending viruses to IP's.

The Hacker

Influence of Photoshop

Photoshop was probably the first software I really enjoyed using while working as a student. Most of what I know about Photoshop came from trying out different things and mixing materials together and hoping to get a interesting result. The first pieces of art I made using Photoshop were these little signature banners you put at the end of your posts on forums. Through these banners I developed a habit of using brushes and filters to create these interesting pieces of art. I still don't consider myself to be a pro at Photoshop because I never creating something amazing like concept art. I kinda got stuck sticking with mixing existing images together into one big picture while using a lot brushes.

Overall I did learn a lot from Photoshop even though what I learned wasn't from a book or tutorials. But I understand now, that most of the stuff you learn in school really isn't just from what the teacher teaches you. It's the experience of you learning about the subject yourself. Taking the time to look into how something works or how it acts a certain way. It seems to be the only way you'll remember it.

Curious Game Overview

At first I thought curious games was something along the lines of indie games, but it isn't really. It seems to be a more basic and minimal form of indie games. I see now that curious games is exploring something further in games that we don't see in the AAA titles like Call of duty or Assassin's creed. It's exploring the day to day things that we don't actually see as a fun or exciting game experiences. Things like waiting in line a museum seems like such a mundane think to do, but Pippin Barr took this idea and actually made a unique game experience. Serious games and Art games have this specific idea to them. Art games take the more of the visual and storytelling elements of video games and create this unique story driven game. Serious games has more of a strong approach to story telling. Giving you the story how it would happen in real life. Example like the Graveyard, where you play an lady at a graveyard and eventually find yourself on a chair died. From this reading I now understand how wide and expansive the game world actually is. It's seem like there is never a bad game idea or design, it just requires testing. Trying new ideas and seeing how they do in the hands of player is one of the many rewards of creating and designing a video game. Also these experiences are unique to video games, without the interaction it wouldn't have the same effect on the player.