“All told, Wet is a man who vomits on you on the bus and doesn’t even say sorry.”

Obviously as a developer I feel for the guys who worked to make the game. I know only too well how many factors outside of the developers control can result in a game failing to meet its design goals. Having said that, gamers do need to know and if you are going to put yourself/your game out there you need to take the resulting knocks.

I don’t think I have enjoyed a review quite as much since the 1992 release of Domark’s AV8B Harrier Assault for Amiga (developed by Simis). After all these years most of it is long forgotten but the line in the review which bemoaned the slow frame rate is forever burned into my mind…

“If i chopped my legs off and nailed the stumps to the floor, I could still run round the block faster than this game.”

The meter has multiple levels and each level you reach multiplies the points you get from collecting DNA, combos and any lives remaining at the end of a level. This means that fruit has an impact on every other scoring element of the game and is an essential part of your Space Ark game play strategy if you want to achieve mega high scores.

But beware – gravity is a harsh mistress. The good work you do collecting fruit can be undone if you let your Arkonaut hit the ground. The level meter will drop one level every time you drop your Arkonaut (and you will lose one life as well.)

Previous Space Ark design posts:
Space Ark – Introducing combos

Originally you just needed to collect all the bricks in a level to complete the level. It was fun and cute but there was something missing. There was no on-going challenge during the level. This is where the Combo feature came in. Space Ark levels have rows of coloured bricks. Collecting three or more of the same coloured bricks in a row generates a Combo and every level has a minimum combo score necessary to complete it.

Like the bouncing and collecting this Combo system is very simple but of course we have added more depth to make it challenging and fun. Firstly there is a reward for generating Combos (in addition to you being able to complete the level). Each level of Combo (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8…. upwards) that you create generates a different bonus fruit. Collecting the fruit fills your power meter, which in turn multiplies your score. This means that if you want to generate a really big high score you need to try and collect as much fruit as possible rather than just focusing on collecting the bricks. Secondly you have to keep bouncing your character (your Arkonaut) without dropping them. If your Arkonaut hits the ground they drop the combos (rather like losing rings in Sonic) and you have to try to recover them before they drift off screen. The result is much more entertaining game play as you are both challenged to meet your combo quota and rewarded as you do so.

At the moment we have a couple of bugs in the Combo system. If you look at the screen shots you can see the Combo trail (the line of numbers) following behind the Penguin. For some reason they keep disappearing or randomly appearing on screen in odd positions. Gotta keep testing to find out what is happening so the guys can fix it. Will try to pop back soon to talk about the level designs.

I’m not sure what the level designers have been taking but they are producing really amazing levels now. Challenging but at the same time immense fun to play. Going to have to produce another video soon showing some of the more bizarre levels.

Sure there is the positive morale boost from seeing new stuff appear in the game but it is also the point at which people start noticing bugs and errors in the game. The bug database starts to fill up and, because the team aren’t in full Beta test mode, there isn’t an all out effort to clear bugs. The result is that the bug count starts to climb…. and keeps climbing. Sure some (lots) get fixed during this phase but the general trend is upwards.

So far we have 160 closed bugs on Space Ark and only 92 active ones. Somehow I think it will get worse before it gets better. Luckily it will get better in the end

We should have a new game play video showing the latest progress any day now.

In addition to meeting with Microsoft I am visit an old friend Colin Gordon, who runs Valcon Games (ever so slightly smaller than Microsoft) in Redmond, Washington.

The high concept for Soup was to create something that gave the gamer a warm happy feeling. We knew from the start that very little of our existing tech would be suitable for the project so Simon (our Technical Director) was tasked with designing a new set of tools for the project. The following image shows what was needed to create Soup.

The tools included 1 large onion, two potatoes, one sweet potato, a clove of garlic, one cup of chicken stock (you can use vegetable), one cup of white wine, 2 tablespoons of oil and some herbs (Basil, Thyme and Oregano). In addition we built the levels using a large knife and a wok (a large saucepan is also fine) and a blender.

Our knife tool was left over from a previous project and was only version 1.1 (blunt). Simon upgraded it to version 2.0 (cutting edge). Once the tools were ready he passed them to Derek (Production Director) who, would be responsible for the game play programming on Soup. While he was preparing the game engine the designers were creating assets for the levels.

The oil was added to the wok and the finely chopped onion was fried over a medium heat until it started to turn translucent. While this was happening the potato, sweet potato and the garlic were all peeled. The garlic was finely chopped while the potato and sweet potato were cut into roughly one inch squares. The stock cube was added to a cup full of hot water and the designer had a glass of the white wine.

The potato, sweet potato, garlic and stock were all added to onions in the pan, the designer took another swig of wine and then added one cup full to the pan.

Note: Don’t add too much wine (one cup will do) – you want plenty left for yourself.

Next half a teaspoon each of dried Basil, Thyme and Oregano were added and the soup was brought to the boil then turned down and left to simmer for 15 minutes, or until the potato and sweet potato become soft.

With most of the levels assembled Soup was then put through an intensive testing phase to get the lumps out (1-2 minutes in the blender should do fine). Soup was then returned to a large pan to simmer. The designer tested it and added a little salt and pepper to taste. Soup seemed a little too thick at this point so a little extra wine and stock was added.

What went wrong during development?

Our version of knife was out of date and needed to be upgraded. This caused some problems for the designers at the beginning. There wasn’t quite enough wine for both the designer and Soup. In hindsight we should have made sure more wine was available before starting the project.

What went well during development?

Soup was quite a short project, scheduled for just 30 minutes development. Once our version of knife had been upgraded asset production was very quick and easy so the project came in on time.

The taste was excellent and Soup was filling and warming, thus meeting the project original design specifications.

Soup is best served with some crusty bread and yet more wine.

Warning: Soup is not compatible with Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii, PC, iPhone or any other gaming hardware. If you get Soup on your console or PC immediately turn off your console and wipe off the Soup with a damp cloth.

Strawdog Studios are releasing Soup as freeware and hope that users will take the tools and create their own user generated Soup.

Coming soon: Lettuce wrapped Chinese chicken with cashew nuts

Of  course some of these users may have actually wanted to assign one star – after all they are uninstalling the app so it probably isn’t their favorite game of all time. Hoever many were almost certainly just hitting a button to accept the default as the quickest way to get through the process. Now, according to reports the version 3.0 update has the default set to no stars and the user must select a rating from one to five stars.

Users are still being prompted to rate the game while uninstalling it, which is far from ideal. It would be much better to prompt for a review after they have played the game 5 or ten times – or to not prompt at all. Leaving it to people who feel strongly about a to go and rate it. Still at least now there is a better chance that users will pause for thought and select a more meaningful rating instead of just accepting the default one star.

“…..Microsoft also revealed that, in response to user feedback, it would add user ratings to both community games and much of the Xbox Live marketplace content, including Xbox Live Arcade and game add-ons. Ultimately, the company will add the ability for users to sort content by rating.”

A more in-depth filtering and recommendation system would be a big plus but user ratings are at least a step in the right direction.

The full piece is at http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24008

This video was produced as part of the Microsoft pitching process. The video, along with various documentation, was submitted to MS in order to get approval to publish Space Ark on Xbox360 Live Arcade.