GDC/IGS Videos

By: Derek Yu

On: May 6th, 2009

For those who were unable to attend, and those who want to relive the magic:

Also, the GDC Vault has released 3 videos: Jason Rohrer’s IGS session, titled “Beyond Single-Player,” The Indie Game Maker Rant, and The Game Design Challenge: My First Time, which features Heather “moboid” Kelley and Erin “The Ivy” Robinson. Thanks, Simon!

Hopefully more is on the way!

Cactus’ Next Game?

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: May 2nd, 2009

I’ve been having trouble recovering from GDC, and getting things in order after moving, and I regretfully missed posting about the new Paper Moon yesterday, but here’s something! A trailer for Cactus’ new game, “a game about killing everything you love.” It looks mind-blowing. Cactus is unstoppable.

There are some screenshots of this and other WIP games of his over on his blog.

IGS ’09: The Four-Hour Game Design (Cactus)

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: March 23rd, 2009

Jonatan “Cactus” Söderström’s lecture for the 2009 Independent Games Summit, The Four-Hour Game Design, opened up his bizarre creative process, revealing some of the design guidelines and key tricks that have allowed him to make more (awesome) games per day than the rest of the industry combined manages to put out in a year.

It may have been the greatest presentation ever.

Starting from his Desktop, Cactus skipped over a few folders called things like “Weird Porn” and “Nude Pictures of Me” to one simply named “GDC.” Within, bearing the icon of a pixelated heart, was his presentation… made in Game Maker.

After registering Windows Media Player live on stage to test the audio, and eventually realizing he had to un-mute his laptop, Cactus started it up. A Brain-Damaged Toon Underworld style animation began with a character only he could have drawn declaring, “I AM INTERNET.”

I ripped some (TIGSOURCE EXCLUSIVE) screens from Cactus’ laptop while he was asleep, but there will eventually be a video of all the “slides,” or perhaps even a download of the presentation/game itself, so I won’t spoil too much of it now. Here’s a brief summary, in the extended:

LESSON #1:
Don’t Make Games In Four Hours If You Stink

In the first section of the presentation, “WHY,” Cactus likened game development to “having a baby,” then proceeded to drive that metaphor well past the line of any decency, with upsetting photos to boot.
Highlight: The hardest part is “getting it out”—it’s painful and the end result is often not what you expected. (But at least you learn from it.)

LESSON #2:
When You Make A Game, Try To Make A Good One

The main points of the second section, “CREATIVITY,” were: Always experiment, be serious about what you’re doing, renew your concepts, don’t think the game needs to be fun (it could be “interesting or weird or just freak you out”), and try to create a cohesive experience.

For times when you’re not feeling creative, Cactus recommended mimicking another game, but challenging its original concept, trying to do things better in some way. (This bit was supplemented by a trippy 3D scene of dialog between two polygonal characters, which I now know had randomized camera angles.)

LESSON #3:
Try To Be Original When You Make An Original Game

In the third section, “GRAPHICS,” Cactus outlined a number of simple ways to use your game’s tech to multiply the effectiveness of basic, easy-to-produce art assets (such as sketches, pixel art, geometric shapes, and so on). He then gave many strange examples of using color & saturation, rotation, scaling, basic animation, flicker, movement, atmosphere (“RAIN EFFECT”), and other quick tricks to make the visuals considerably more interesting without too much extra work.

LESSON #4:
Sometimes Games Don’t Have To Be Fun

In the fourth section of the presentation, “GAMEPLAY,” Cactus asked the age old question: “Who wants to jump on an enemy that many times?”

He then went on to show a few minor gameplay changes in different situations that have a huge impact on the feel of the game. For example, he played a potential horizontal shmup where you must shoot incoming square “asteroids” a bunch of times to destroy them. A bit later he played an updated version that was faster, with less hits required to destroy each asteroid, and a quick explosion effect that made the game clearly more awesome. Unfortunately, he lost pretty quickly when playing this, so he had to move on.

LESSON #5:
Don’t Work Too Hard, You’ll Get Tired

In the fifth section, “PREPARATIONS,” Cactus gave some health advice, pointing out the critical importance of going to the bathroom, eating (but not too much, unless you want to end up in the bathroom again), having an idea ready before you start, using the right tools, and taking every shortcut possible.

If you work cleverly and take care of yourself, you won’t need to work as aggressively, either, and the game will become less of a headache to pull together.

LESSON #6:
Games Made Of Rock Don’t Always Rock

In the final section of the lecture, Cactus pointed people toward TIGForum member Dr. Petter’s excellent SFXR, which he’s been using for pretty much every project nowadays, and recommended collaboration with online musicians eager to compose. (That, or stealing their music. But if your game wins an award or something, “it might be a good idea to email” them about it.)

A final tip was displayed, “Some Games Have Good Music,” and the slideshow abruptly ended. The audience sat in silence for moment wondering if there was going to be another curve ball, but once it was understood that the thing was actually over, the room erupted into applause.

Now, to a game developer, the direct content of this presentation didn’t give that much new information, but, at least for me and everyone else I talked to, as a whole it was incredibly inspiring and enlightening. I imagine a number of developers well aware of these techniques may not have thought to really use them like this. And if anyone in the room hadn’t heard of Cactus before, this must have been a knockout. It was just as free-form, exciting, and sometimes confounding as a Cactus game, and surely one of the most interactive, unpredictable talks GDC has ever seen.

Even giving a lecture, Jonatan can’t help being Cactus.

P.S. He made, like, forty more games while he was speaking.

Ping Pong & Previews

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: March 19th, 2009

Cactus has released his first ever (?) sports game, suitably titled Ping Pong. Battle Dino, Bunk, Pasztor, Hoff, and Noir by pressing Z and sometimes the arrow keys!

Features: Original Mode and Realistic Mode.

Also, he has posted some tasty screens of his current works-in-progress, which you can (and should) check out here.

(Thanks, Rolf, for the Ping Pong history lesson!)

Make My Head Grow / 4’33” of Uniqueness

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: February 8th, 2009

Make My Head Grow is a two player competitive game of head-smashing and box-pushing, made within 48 hours, that recently cleaned up at the 2009 Nordic Game Jam. I find its gameplay remarkably disturbing.

(Thanks Renaud!)

While I’m here, I might as well post Petri‘s “experimental art game” entry (which apparently Heather and ’ Site">Cactus contributed to) called <a href=“http://www.kloonigames.com/blog/games/4mins33secs” title=“4’33” of Uniqueness">4′33″ of Uniqueness. It makes me feel a little bit sad.

Check out Kokoromi’s site for more info and also pictures as well!

Cactus’ New Site

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: January 27th, 2009

Cactus has updated his site with a new pinked-out style and sexy banners and everything. It makes my brain feel dirty, but in a good way. Plus, he’s added his most recent works, bringing his grand total of released games to forty (40!). Crazy.

Oh, also, there are new screenshots for Brain-Damaged Toon Underworld, Mondo Nation, and some WIP goodness. Word.

Update: Aha, the BDTU screens are on the Lofi Minds site. My bad.

Make Games Not War

By: Derek Yu

On: December 8th, 2008

I think we can all agree: one of the many nice things about having good independent gaming communities around is that you can always find friendly people to talk with, to laugh with, to drink with, and yes, to make sweet, sweet, passionate games with. You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and then you have… the facts of life. The facts of life. Let’s make games together!

Jonatan “cactus” Söderström teamed up with our very own Terry Cavanagh last month to create Xoldiers, a war-themed action game where you control a squad of deadly troops. There are a couple of neat things going on here: 1. the challenges and trade-offs of controlling a group of characters moving as a cohesive unit, and 2. the built-in level editor that lets you upload levels online. Good stuff!

And here’s a collaboration to keep your eye on: Tom “CoolMoose” Sennet has paired up with Matt “YMM” Thorson for RunMan: Race Around the World, a sequel to the seminal RunMan’s Monster Fracas. The game has been in development for three years and is finally nearing release. That video gives my brain a happy-boner.

You know, the forums are always bustling with new collaborations. So what are you waiting for? Find a nerd who loves games as much as you do, and make the beast with two keyboards. Go on! <3

Tap Tap Dance

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: December 4th, 2008

TIGSource’s own Mark “Golds” Johns has been crunching hard for a while now— during Gamma, even!— on Tap Tap Dance, the sequel to Tap Tap Revenge, the number one most downloaded free game for the iPhone (or so I’m told). And now his hard work has paid off.

I applaud Mark for the extra effort he gave in turning what would have been another Guitar Hero Cash-In with a ridiculous title into what is now a Legitimately Cool Game with a ridiculous title.* Ten thousand TIGS Points to you, sir!

Apart from the improved graphics and gameplay, Tap Tap Dance features exclusive tracks and custom Boss Stages for select songs. Kind of, like, interactive music videos. For example, Daft Punk’s Technologic takes you through a History of Technology as you play and Justice’s Phantom Pt II gives you a 2001-inspired laser light show. (Oh, and did I mention Cactus himself contributed a characteristically trippy stage?) Check it out.

* Seriously, though, there must have been better contenders than “Tap Tap Dance.” C’mon, now!

EDIT: Oops, I neglected to mention Kevin “Greater Beast” Coulton’s involvement in the project as well, because I am a big jerk. Go Kevin, go!

the dance is not yet over

By: Derek Yu

On: August 13th, 2008

A montage of unfinished game projects by the inimitable prickly succulent. Music by Isolée.

(Source: Tim, via the IndieGames.com blog)

messhof and cactus would like your brain to dance

By: Derek Yu

On: August 12th, 2008

(Source: Tim, via the IndieGames.com blog)