Wait, What? Games CAN Cause Violence Maybe?

First off, let me just start off by saying that this contains NO statistics, NO proof, NO stories of anyone who played Halo and killed a whole bunch of aliens because the game made them... There are plenty of other awesome articles out there written by far better writers that make some excellent points, as well as horrible articles that somehow attempt to explain that anyone who has a video game in their home and committed any sort of crime had video games to blame.

I'm an indie game developer, and like many indie developers, I very rarely have the time or money to actually play games... I'm also much more of a casual gamer, sticking with the Marios, Zeldas and Peggles of the world more often than not. As such, whenever anyone made an argument that kids can become violent from video games, I laughed it off and argued against it. Seriously, isn't it silly? If I play Tetris, will I want to stack blocks? If I play Mario, will I really want to jump on people's heads?

Then we got a few free rental codes for Redbox, which just happened to have the new Tomb Raider. Angel (my fiancee) and I both really wanted to play it, so we got it and LOVED it! It's a spectacular game and I'd suggest anyone mature enough to play it! We played it a second time through and did everything we could.

My point is this, though: You know how once a great movie is over, you feel like a part of the world, or maybe you see things a new way because of the story? It sucks you in and it takes a while, even after it's over, to leave its world. The same is true of games, particularly these "newer games." Lara in Tomb Raider is great at climbing, so when we went outside, I'd imagine climbing rooftops, scaling walls, etc. I wanted to work out and become more fit so that I would have hopes of surviving a crazy adventure like that. But at the same time, because the game allows you to hunt animals for rewards and get extra points for "headshotting" enemies (shooting them in the head for instant-kill), I would see an animal in the real world and my brain would immediately think "I can just imagine shooting that with a bow and arrow!" (Lara's main weapon on the game).

Wait, what? When did that happen? When did successfully shooting enemies in the head turn it into a game in real life of imagining getting someone from far away? Granted, I'm 30 years old and mature enough to not act on this at all. The only thing I've ever "shot" at anything is a camera, and while I think it'd be awesome to learn to shoot a bow or throw axes, I'd certainly never do it in any sort of dangerous way.

So, can video games cause violence? I don't doubt it... This was one single game, and it's nowhere near the most violent at all! The game is rated M (Mature; basically the equivalent of an R rating for video games), and if you have children and didn't already know it, it's VERY important to follow the ratings for video games. If your child is 8, 10, 12, 15, and they play video games, don't just get them whatever is popular, please. Just keep in mind that playing a violent game is like taking part in a violent movie for days instead of just a couple hours.

And, above this, to all of you game developers out there: I appreciate the awesome scenes in the games where you press a couple buttons to jump off of a rooftop and assassinate someone, then flip someone around and use them as a human shield before running up to the shooters and plunge a bayonet into their chest, flip around and knock the other down before finishing them off too. It's really empowering to be able to do all of that! But can you hold back on the blood? Keep away from the extra gory deaths? There are games that I simply refuse to play, even though the story looks awesome, the game looks gorgeous and the play itself looks so fun, just because I'm far too empathetic to kill people in horrible ways, watch blood splatter all over and such.

Garage Zombie* (Game Jam Version) Postmortem

Note: click anywhere in this sentence to play the game (free of course!)

Garage Zombie* (including the asterisk where it's possible to use one in game titles) is the first game jam title I ever made with someone aside from Angel who helps with design and massively supports me throughout the experiences. Ariel Marsh did every bit of the art herself, all I had to do was line things up and place them! It was also the first game that I've made that had a person instead of a critter!

And, since I'm setting this up like a standard postmortem, let's kick it off!

By:

Code: Charlie Jackson (me!)

Art: Ariel Marsh

Design: Charlie Jackson, Ariel Marsh and Angelique Drummond

Developed: February 22nd-24th, 2013 for #1GAMCRUNCH (Hidden Surprises) and Mini-LD 40 (The Real World)

What Went Right

1. The Game's Art 

Somehow, the art for the main character made it really easy to add some personality to her  through the tutorial...

Normally for a game jam I make the basic art, get to work making the game, fix up the art and finally balance it as much as I can (which is usually very little by then.). This time, however, I collaborated with Ariel Marsh for development. She's a fantastic artist who I've worked with in the past on games, and as always she came through even better than expected!

The art in the game is not only of a great quality, it's bright and fits the game perfectly. With a garage sale, the items for sale are the star of the show, and they really are in this game as well. The main character worked out awesomely as well, it was just by chance that it ended up a she, but I love that it was (not because the game is about shopping, but because there really aren't enough female lead characters in games if you ask me!).

Some deals are likely to lose money, but you KNOW you want this thing!

2. An Awesome Title That Draws Attention
This is one of the main issues I face when coming up with a game name - making it both make sense AND draw eyes to the game. Early in development, Ariel Googled terms for people who do garage sales and found "Garage Zombie"! She joked that it should have an asterisk then say "*May or may not contain real zombies". This made it word-for-word into the game and gave the game a great base for humor from the start.

See? It even says it on the main menu!

And I KNOW the title works because I've already had numerous people jump on the game based on simply saying the name of it!

3. Working with Others Adds (Good) Pressure
Before it even began, I was really paranoid that Ariel would finish far before me, or that I wouldn't finish at all and she would. The nervousness of failure is always there with a game jam, but when working with someone else there's someone to let down if it happens. This was also Ariel's first game jam and I wanted to make sure she had something awesome to show for it.

Ariel had suggested getting on Skype (messaging) when it started so we could discuss ideas and then we simply left it on to chat the entire time, including sending each other work as we finished something up ("Check this out!", "How's this?"). Having someone you're working with frequently updated this way is not only fun, it adds to one's productivity: you want to have something awesome to show off!

Both of us having Flash made it super easy for me to set up art requests!

4. The Game Felt "Alive"!
One of my biggest issues as a game developer is that I get it functional and then I call it done. I've only made one "big" game, so while I've got about 25 done/partially done titles, they rarely contain all the things that a game should: sound and graphical effects especially. This time around, one of the first suggestions was having "special" items around the room that sparkle to show they're extra valuable or great money makers. It didn't make it in, but it really got me thinking about how to make it feel more alive, more fun.

She made an awesome main menu where you can interact with the boxes (they open when you mouse over them) and when items are purchased, they move toward the top where it shows how many items you've purchased (whereas 99% of the time previously, I'd just have made them disappear).

Box opens, box closes, box opens, box closes... WHEEEEE!!!!

Ariel even animated the girl with walk animations! It was her first time animating a character like that, and mine to that extent (even just the four frames in each direction!). It took some time to do, especially making her move around fluidly against the tables and such, but was very well worth it.

5. Sometimes Less is More...
When I started coding the game, the player lost $10 per day and the game's goal was to make some arbitrary amount. There was also a lose state if you you ran out of money. This was just a LOT of extra rules and effort in the long run, though, and deciding to make the game simpler (just gain as much as you can in five days) makes the game much more simple, easy to get into and replayable (trying to earn more each time)

I'll admit that I made the "game over" popup quickly :P

Also, the game originally allowed for two minutes per round, and I was considering adding to it even... But after trying different lengths of time, we went with 1:30. It makes the game much more hectic, non-stop and fun!

5b. ... Sometimes More is More!
On the flip side, I originally wanted the player to begin with $50 or $100, then as they played they'd earn enough to buy the more expensive things... I ended up going with $200 because it allowed for a good 10-20 purchases right from the beginning if the player shops carefully so that one can just dive right in right away.

6. Kept Track of Notes for the Future
I'm awful with thinking of the future when it comes to development... If I go back to a game, I have to search all over to find all the ideas I had for it, people's comments about it and so on. This time around, I have a text file with every idea for the game that didn't make it in, as well as an Evernote journal page for people's comments. I may have listed this last, but it's vital for any kind of future for a title if you want to stay sane, trust me.


What Went Wrong

1. SAVE THE GAME INTO MULTIPLE FILES!!!!

I swear I almost fainted at this point. First thought? "Screw this, whatever!"

With about two hours left the game was shared a bit for bug testing. When a few were pointed out and I went to fix them, I clicked on the section of my code with all of the functions and it was blank. I thought maybe Flash had messed up, so I closed it and reopened it, but it was GONE!!!! Luckily, I had done very little work since I'd sent the file to Ariel to show her the latest version, so she was able to send it back to me. I was VERY close to having 800 lines of code gone forever, though, and it was only the first or second time in years that I didn't save the game under multiple names as I went "just in case."

My strategy, by the way, is to save with a new name every time the game is fully functional and changed. For example:

• Garage Zombie
• Garage Zombie Movement Fixed
• Garage Zombie Added More Items

This assures that if something goes wrong, the file spontaneously explodes, or you COMPLETELY screw things up when trying to change something, you'll have a version to go back to :) It's not a new idea, and I certainly didn't invent it, but it's so insanely important that I just had to go in depth!

2. The Game Wasn't as Alive as it Could Have Been...

While the game does have quite a bit of life to it, the #1 complaint is that it has no sound whatsoever. Angel and I got to talking about it after the jam ended, and she came up with the genius idea to have the main character whistle as the music and make small little comments on items when they're viewed, as well as a little noise when purchased or not. I really think that would have given the game, and the character, a lot more life in a unique, fun way.

The game also could have used a way to mix it up - different locations, goals and a story primarily. All of these things would have kept the game more interesting while giving it some more life at the same time.

3. Other Missing Features

There were a LOT of features that the game didn't have in addition to sound, story, goals and additional locales. I won't go into them all here, partially to keep the surprise alive when the game is finished, but it's easy to see how they would have kept the game more entertaining and added a lot more play time to for the average player!

4. It Requires Mouse AND Keyboard

As a person who plays a lot of Flash games, I've gotten used to using the WASD keys with my left hand and the mouse with my right, so I didn't even consider that there are a LOT of people out there who don't! Angel pointed this one out to me when she first played it, telling me that she was having to get used to moving around with the arrow keys and then moving her hand over to the mouse to either buy or not buy an item, then go back to move again. It not only gets annoying I'm sure, it's also tiring and time consuming in a game where you don't have much time to decide or look around.

Why should I have to click you?! I don't have enough time for this!

It wouldn't be difficult at all to allow for pressing ESC to say "don't buy" and ENTER/SPACE to buy. The same is true of the main menu - it'd be super easy to allow the player to use the arrows and the SPACE/ENTER keys to select. This way, the mouse wouldn't be required at all!

How to Kick Game Jam Buttocks!

Someone partaking in the #1GAMCrunch that I just followed on Twitter (@dreamwinterlab) wrote this article on Surviving a Game Jam. It gave me the idea to write up the lessons I've learned partaking in several as well!

Note that the jams I refer to in this post are all 48-72 hour competitions where a theme is given when the counter begins, and are done "alone" from home. I say "alone" because Angel still helps with coming up with ideas and stuff, but the development is completely done by me. Also note that I'm in the Eastern time zone in the US for times

Pre-Jam

Every jam I've ever taken part in began late at night. The #1GAMCrunch begins at 5pm, and Ludum Dares begin at 9pm (I think? Maybe 10, I forget). Because they begin so late at night, it's easy to think about waking up as late as possible in the day to get lots of work done right away, and I did try that in the past... But DON'T DO IT! Seriously! In most cases, the competition begins at the same time as it ends, so if it begins at 9pm on Friday, it ends at 9pm Sunday or Monday. If you wake up at 2pm and you normally don't, you're going to screw up your sleep pattern AND on the last day, you'll only have from about 2-9pm. In my experience, the last day is the most vital; it's when you wrap things up and fix the last few things that you can. I've never sat there in the last couple hours or so and said 'hey, I'm done, sweet!' It's always 'DOH! I still need to balance these levels out a bit, test some more, fix up some graphics...'

Finally, within the 24 hours or so before the jam, take some time off! Relax, watch some movies, play some video games... In fact, check out other game jam games that did well, play those! They're usually very short so you can play lots and see what they did, and they're usually very diverse in genre/graphics/gameplay, so it'll give your brain lots of ideas as well!

The Announcing of the Theme

So, the time has officially begin, the theme is announced. Wait, what's the theme again?? How the heck am I gonna make a game out of that? Oh I know, I'll make [whatever] with it, that'll be easy!

STOP! Before you run with that idea, how cliche is it? If you Google the basic concept, how many thousands of versions of that game will there be?

For me, pretty much EVERY theme announcement goes like this (seriously, like 75% of the time!):

1. Wait, what? I'm never going to come up with something for that!
2. Got it! I'll just make a 'catch the falling [whatever] as a [whatever]', that fits perfectly!
3. No wait, I've already half-made three of those... How about I take this one awesome idea I've had for years and make a short demo of part of it, that'd fit!
4. Nah, I don't want to half-make another game, I want a full game, and that game would take at least a few weeks to make!
5. [after about an hour and a half of staring at a blank notebook] (said out loud so Angel hears it) "Geez, coming up with an idea for [theme] is tough!"
6. Angel: Why not make a game like [whatever]. Me: [part] would take too long and I've never done it.
7. About half an hour later, with discussion, a great concept is found!

What's the point? Talk to someone! Discussion with someone you can trust, who won't make you feel stupid and who likes games is the most important thing you can do to come up with an idea! I've never done it with someone online, but I'd imagine that would work just as well, perhaps a little slower since you can't sketch things out and just show it to them without scanning, and typing is usually slightly slower than verbal speech.

Making Your Game

Work work work! No breaks, no sleep, no TV, no cooking, no going anywhere; live on energy drinks, sugar cubes and whatever you can shove down your throat while still working with your other hand.

Sounds slightly extreme, but we've all been there... "Geez, there are only 36 hours left after sleeping and getting my idea, I have to make every second count". You're right, but not the way you think. Read the article I linked to at the beginning for much more detail on this, but my way is:

FOOD AND DRINK: Energy drink in the morning. I'm addicted to caffeine; soda will keep the headaches away, but energy drinks help me wake up a bit more (like coffee!). I ONLY drink the one, though... After that, it's alternating soda and water. Snacks are fine, but I don't eat any differently than a normal day. I still spend time eating dinner, I still get away from the laptop for a while to help make lunch and breakfast.

BREAKS: Take em! Some people say every hour, some say every couple hours, or every half hour... I take breaks when it makes sense to me: after finishing the menu, after completing something tricky, etc. Nothing throws me off more than working on the first 10 functions that make the basics of the game work, juggling variable names and all in a notepad file, then having to take a break in the middle of it.

SLEEP: DO IT! Seriously! I need lots of sleep to function properly myself... I can work all 48 hours of the competition if I really want to, but the last 28 hours or so are going to be garbage. When I'm awake and can focus, I do work about 10 times faster than when I'm sleepy, and it's much easier to create needless bugs when you're sleepy by misspelling something. MAKE SURE TO KEEP A NOTEBOOK, PEN AND LIGHT SOURCE NEAR YOU WHILE YOU SLEEP! Especially during a time like this, all sorts of awesomeness will come to you while you try to sleep, while you sleep and the minute you wake up. You really need to be able to write these down or you'll lose clarity of the idea, or the idea altogether! I suggest doing this every night, but particularly during a jam.

MAJOR BUGS: During every single jam, at one point I've run across some kind of major bug. It makes absolutely no sense that it exists and no matter what I do, it won't work properly. Just like any other bug, give it some time to try to fix it, but if you can't within, say, half an hour... Turn off the computer and walk away for a while. Take a shower, go for a walk, play a game, watch a TV show, whatever. I seriously had a bug during one game jam that I spent HOURS trying to fix late at night; I gave up, shut the laptop off and went to sleep. In the morning, when I woke up, the game worked fine. Computers can be really weird sometimes, and Flash is no exception :)

VERSION CONTROL: Regardless of what you use to make your game, once you have it functioning, save it as something different and leave it alone ("AwesomeGame-WORKS"). Once you add a feature and it works for sure, do it again ("AwesomeGame2-AddedLevel2"). Do this EVERY time, especially as time is running out; you never know when you'll add something that randomly breaks the whole game that can be fixed with a half hour of bug hunting, but you only have 20 mins left. Also, you never know when some sort of personal emergency will come up. Sure, you have plenty of time, but maybe some sort of emergency happens where you're gone for a while and now you're not sure if you can fix everything up to where the game is playable again.

Summary

There it is! That's how I kick some rear end, and I hope that it helps you do the same! Here's a quick summary:

• Keep your current, consistent sleep pattern going; don't throw it way off just to have more hours awake at the beginning.
• Take time off before the jam if you can, you're going to need it!
• Talk to your equally-significant other, a friend or loved one about the theme. Bounce ideas back and forth, and don't go for something too cliche or too complex.
• Eat and sleep like you normally would; a reward of some kind of special snack, drink, etc is fine, but don't live on sugar or caffeine the whole time!
• Take breaks when they make sense to you, your body, mind and fingers will thank you!
• Sleep! Keep a notebook and pen within easy reach for any thoughts.
• Step away for a while if you get stuck, it's better than randomly messing with things til something works.
• Save different versions of the game as you go, so that you don't accidentally break everything and have nothing to go back to late in the competition, or if some sort of emergency comes up.

And, above all, just have fun and be proud of yourself! Even if you end up in last place, even if your game isn't terribly fun, or is partially broken, or anything else... You made it through and you learned a LOT in a short period of time! Be proud of yourself for your accomplishments!

Hangman: Memorable Media Development

Because I'm still sick and having focus issues, as well as because I know I won't get Rubberkid completely done before the end of January, I've decided to work on a hangman game for now. It should be done, at the very latest, by the end of this week. It takes a couple days to have the ads added and such, so you can expect to play it by the 21st (barring any major issues!) I'm editing my hangman game into a more enjoyable experience by adding unlockable topics, ensuring that the same phrase is never played twice by the same player and changing the fonts up.

Today wasn't too bad... I managed to edit the framework to remove the ability to choose a topic (the game will always do the "mix em all up"), added saving (so that the player can come back any time and keep their topics unlocked), added the "don't play the same phrase more than once ever" and managed to do all of that without ruining all of the code due to my focus issues!

What's left? I need to add the topics screen, add the little popups that show what topics were unlocked per round (I really want to make it so that the player never goes more than 2 or 3 rounds without unlocking something) and then the actual topics/phrases/hints/facts for each.

Goals:

1. Get a list of all of the topics to unlock. Some of these will fall under the same "topic"; example: "video game characters" might be the topic, but different sub-topics may be unlocked, such as "Final Fantasy Characters", "Legend of Zelda Characters", etc. This way, when playing the game, it isn't super obvious what the topic is, but it gives the player lots of fun stuff to look forward to unlocking. 
2. Figure out what order they'll be unlocked in.
3. Set up the "Topics" screen. This includes the little icons for each and the descriptions of how to unlock each.
4. Create the phrase lists. Phrase/hint/fact required for each. At LEAST 15 per topic, many more in some.
5. Create the code to display when a round ends to check for new unlocked topics and letting the player see they've unlocked it. Also need to add the Save Game function to this code.
6. TEST TOPIC UNLOCKING!!!!

Steps 1-3 I should be able to do tomorrow, leaving Wednesday and Thursday for step 4. Steps 5&6 should be Friday goals, and then I'm all set!!! And, in case you think I'm missing a step... No, the game won't have audio :)

ASCIIvader II - A Game in an Hour Postmortem

Back on Sunday I participated in the Zero-Hour Game Jam (http://0hgame.eu/). It was certainly a crazy adventure - the concept is to make a game in one hour, but since it's the hour that the time gets turned back, it's basically making a game in zero hours (from 2am-2am).

Now, that said, the contest is to make a game... In ONE hour... At 2am... Which is a fact made even worse since I usually go to sleep no later than midnight or so. And for those of you who don't know, making a game in 60 minutes is CRAZY!!!

Originally, I was going go try to make one of my ideas into an extremely simple playable version to see if it was any fun. Once reality smacked me in the face that I stood NO chance of that (about 4 hours before it began), I scrambled to come up with an idea for something I could do in an hour. Angel pointed out that she really liked the concept from Hellboy where the beast multiplied into two each time one was killed, and so I took the original ASCIIvader and added shooting... But where each shot split the enemy into two instead of killing it.

Note: The original ASCIIvader (you can play it here) was made in six hours for the Experimental Gameplay challenge back in Feb 2011. And now that you know what I was facing, and before you read the postmortem below, give it a play here!

What Went Right

It Got Finished!
Believe it or not, that's the biggest challenge of all for making a game in an hour! One would rightfully be quite proud of making ANYTHING in this period of time!

It's Actually Kinda Fun!
It was a great experiment in trying out something new, really! Every jam, every small competition should be exactly that - a chance to do something different, and thanks to Angel's suggestion I was able to do exactly that. The player actually gets points for simply surviving, but many more for actually hitting enemies. Therefore, a player can get a buttload of points by simply sitting around, dodging the single enemy, but it takes patience... And the temptation to shoot the enemy is hard to resist! On the other hand, you can shoot like a mad man and get hundreds of thousands of points, but good luck dodging the resulting mass of enemies!

What Went Wrong

It Was Only Barely Finished...
Normally a game has, you know, a menu, the ability to pause, music, the ability to restart... This game has absolutely none of those. It also has a REALLY plain post-level screen (it's literally a blank screen with words that tell you how many points you earned before you died). Also, because the code was very dirty, the loops that check for hit detection grow huge rather quickly (they don't clean themselves up) so it gets rather laggy if you're a shoot-lots-and-dodge type. On the upside, that kind of works like bullet time to help dodge the huge mess of Multiplinoids.

Score Balancing
The concept was to make it so that the player wants to shoot, but not too much, balancing shooting and dodging... In such a short amount of time, though, I just couldn't do that.

The Website for the Game
I tried to make a page very quickly for it, but for some reason it didn't even have a scroll bar, so the player couldn't even see half the game! I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO tired when the game was done that I just quickly turned it into a table and called it a day. Oh well.

Did you play the game? What did you think? Share your thoughts!

Not Every Day Has to be Perfect!

This is something I go back and forth with in my own head, usually a few times a day, unless it's one of those super-fantastic days where I get on a roll and kick some major booty. I tell myself that I should get x amount of work done, and if I don't manage to do it, I suddenly feel like I'm gonna take 50 times longer than I should on a project... That if I was actually "at work" I would be working much harder... And so on.

But the reality is, I doubt any of us have ever had even one solid week at any job where we were 100% all day every day. Little breaks, slacking off, checking email or Facebook or whatever on a work computer, texting while working, making things last a little longer than they need to.. Who hasn't been there? So why, then, is it unfair to think that none of these things are going to happen when working from home? Where is the magic switch in one's brain that says, "Sure, since I'm working for myself, I won't slack off any more AND I'll put an extra 10-20 hours of work in per week, no problem! And I'm gonna LOVE IT!"

That's not to say I don't love what I do - I really do! The freedom to work on whatever project I want, to get my message to hundreds of thousands of people, to be able to do it from home sitting next to my fiancee all day... Who wouldn't love that? I just need to remind myself that I am the type of person who's better managed by encouragement and respect than through being battered for not getting something done... Including when I'm my own boss! Heck, imagine if you lived with your boss!

ABOUT The Adventures of Rubberkid!

I talked about my to do list with Rubberkid, but never really talked much about the game itself!

About The Adventures of Rubberkid

The Adventures of Rubberkid is a game that's all about showing others how horrible bullying is! The player dons a suit made of rubber bands, bouncing insults back at the bullies who fire them at innocent critters. A level is failed if the player lets enough insults through to destroy the happiness of the critter they're insulting.

Before the game even begins, the player enters their name and is able to print out their own dedication - a certificate that shows their pledge to protect those who are bullied and to never bully others themselves.

(Note: the images below are all from the still-in-progress game, so the graphics are subject to change. Click on the images to make them larger!)

After an intro level where the player learns their controls, they help out their first fellow students and start up the ABC - the Anti-Bullying Club.

Each saved critter child has their own little bio, which not only explains why the poor critter is picked on, but also what would have happened if you hadn't helped them out, and what will become of them now that you have. Poor little Penny here is a fine example.

Once you've founded the ABC, you've got to help other critters and fill the seats (each desk will be filled by the end of the game). To do so, you've got to go through the eight levels of the game - using a Mega Man-like level select screen where the player can save whichever they want in any order they'd like.




There are essentially four types of levels:

1. Some scroll sideways (like Carrie in her wheelchair at the mall) and end after a certain period of time.
2. Some work like a simplified breakout, where you have to constantly bounce a thrown piece of paper up at the bullies until all of them are gone.
3. Some simply ask you to protect an innocent critter until all of the bullies run away (like Alan - the chess player - hiding between the desks)
4. And some involve protecting a critter until the time is up (like Cathy, the purple critter who is picked on for being "different" and coming from another island while she eats lunch).

The 48-hour FGL Game Development Challenge!

Wow, it's been a year and a half since I did all of this? Good grief!

This last weekend was the FGL Name Change competition. It was my first 48 hour challenge in quite some time, and I rarely have anything playable after this amount of time. The challenge was also particularly rough because the theme was something that the developer had to pick! Normally when the theme is announced, it's something crazy like "enemies as a weapon" or "darkness". This time, there were TWO challenges:

1. MOUSE-CONTROLS ONLY!!!! Wow, that was rough... I almost ALWAYS require both mouse and keyboard. It's a flaw, sure, but it's true.
2. Create your title using the initials FGL. For example, Flying Goat Lizards or Figuratively Great Lightning. Not only was this to be the title, it was also the main theme the game had to center upon!

Whenever a contest like this starts, my brain immediately goes to games that I want to make, that are much bigger, but I can make a small part of for the competition. Then my brain goes to the same types of games every time - moving back and forth catching items as they fall, shooting things from a turret in the middle...

After some time, I decided it'd be smarter to come up with a fun name and make a game around it. Here are some of the games you COULD have played if I would have been braver:

Forbidden Grind Limit: Level up over and over, grinding through enemies, approaching the Forbidden Grind Limit!

Forward, Gassy Loser: A man with a low sense of self-esteem must overcome a horrible enemy, his gas issues AND his lack of confidence!

Flannel Goblin League: Who knows? It's got goblins and flannel, so who cares what else???

Final Giant Lollipop: You have the very last huge lollipop in the whole world, you have to protect it! 

The best of all would be if you were the gassy loser who had to fight off flannel goblins with the giant lollipop, leveling up toward that grind limit!

Anyway, with Angel's help suggestion, I came up with Found: Ghastly Language! Gumshoe must prove herself in her day as a Probationary Grammar Officer, checking various Crittervillian businesses Facebook-like status updates and image posts. See, the world's grammar has fallen so far into disarray that the first move to fix it is to fine businesses for each error. As businesses get better, people will finally have a good example to follow!

You have 8 minutes (one second per game minute) to check 35 randomly-selected pieces. Each has ONE error, you simply have to click the improper word! Get at least 70% correct and you're an official member of the Grammar Police!

I was going to add photos of signs as well (like McDonalds-type signs) and also inter-company memos, but I didn't have enough time my brain was completely fried after creating the Vale monitor and all of the Facebook images and almost 50 posts that I ended up dragging and didn't make it in time.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ENJOY THE GAME, CHECK THIS LINK OUT! http://www.thecritterverse.com/secret/fgl/Found%20Ghastly%20Language.html

To Do Lists and KEEPING BUSY!!!

Well, it's been quite some time since I blogged, might as well give it another shot right? It just always seems to redundant to use a blog, write in my calendar what happened, update Facebook and send out newsletters... I mean, really, what's supposed to keep them all so different anyway?

So I guess I'll just use this as kind of a daily wrap-up report.

Today I worked my butt off at work (Mondays are my super-long days), and then came home and planned stuff out. I didn't even really DO anything as far as actual accomplishments in game development or even web development go. What I did was PLAN. Oh, and I sent out a new newsletter for the first time in two months, that was fun :)

Remember The Milk is my new superhero for productivity! I'm not looking forward to paying for pro to keep it synced to my android phone once the free trial is over, but either way it's free for computer use at least. I spent a good chunk of time today and yesterday planning out really what it is I've got to do and when to do it by. Here's what it looks like:

Weekly Planner

Tuesday Mar 29

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• (03.5): Go through all the pages on CG and The Critterverse, make sure everything is still correct. (Website Work)
• (04a): The Games Page Itself (Inbox)
• (04b): ASCIIvader (Inbox)
• Check email for subscribers to "Evil Newsletter" and add them to the "MMM Newsletter" list. Send new subscribers a welcome email and old subscribers a daily reminder to play! (Inbox, 8:30PM)
• Check email for new subscribers. Send them a thank you and the latest newsletter! (Inbox, 9:00PM)
• Check email for new contributors, email them to thank them, store their contribution and send them the newest newsletter. (Inbox, 9:30PM)

Wednesday Mar 30

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• (04e): Rubberman (Inbox)
• (04f): Springy Game (Inbox)
• Check email for subscribers to "Evil Newsletter" and add them to the "MMM Newsletter" list. Send new subscribers a welcome email and old subscribers a daily reminder to play! (Inbox, 8:30PM)
• Check email for new subscribers. Send them a thank you and the latest newsletter! (Inbox, 9:00PM)
• Check email for new contributors, email them to thank them, store their contribution and send them the newest newsletter. (Inbox, 9:30PM)

Thursday Mar 31

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• (04c): Candy Catastrophe (Inbox)
• (04d): Make a Story (Inbox)
• (04g): TruHangman (Inbox)
• (04h): TruWordHunt (Inbox)
• (04i): Word Detective (Inbox)
• (04j): Unhide the link to the page and announce that it's ready! (Inbox)
• Check email for subscribers to "Evil Newsletter" and add them to the "MMM Newsletter" list. Send new subscribers a welcome email and old subscribers a daily reminder to play! (Inbox, 8:30PM)
• Check email for new subscribers. Send them a thank you and the latest newsletter! (Inbox, 9:00PM)
• Check email for new contributors, email them to thank them, store their contribution and send them the newest newsletter. (Inbox, 9:30PM)

Friday Apr 1

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• (05a): Meet the Critter Images and Pages themselves (Inbox)
• (05b): Angel (Inbox)
• Check email for subscribers to "Evil Newsletter" and add them to the "MMM Newsletter" list. Send new subscribers a welcome email and old subscribers a daily reminder to play! (Inbox, 8:30PM)
• Check email for new subscribers. Send them a thank you and the latest newsletter! (Inbox, 9:00PM)
• Check email for new contributors, email them to thank them, store their contribution and send them the newest newsletter. (Inbox, 9:30PM)

Saturday Apr 2

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• Check email for subscribers to "Evil Newsletter" and add them to the "MMM Newsletter" list. Send new subscribers a welcome email and old subscribers a daily reminder to play! (Inbox, 8:30PM)
• Check email for new subscribers. Send them a thank you and the latest newsletter! (Inbox, 9:00PM)
• Check email for new contributors, email them to thank them, store their contribution and send them the newest newsletter. (Inbox, 9:30PM)

Sunday Apr 3

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• (05c): Professor Bumbleslotz (Inbox)
• (05d): Ellie (Inbox)
• (05e): The Announcer (Inbox)
• (05f): Rubberman (Inbox)
• (05g): Mrs. Bookworm (Inbox)
• (05h): Captain Candy (Inbox)
• (05i): Mrs. Beehive (Inbox)
• (05j): Dark Lord Critter (Inbox)
• (05k): Bullies (Inbox)
• (05l): Ghosts (Inbox)
• (05m): Minions (Inbox)
• (05n): Slick (Inbox)
• (05o): Spotty (Inbox)
• Check NG and Kong for new comments and reviews, etc. Thank people personally who comment nicely! Let them know about the newsletter and the page, etc (Inbox)
• Check email for subscribers to "Evil Newsletter" and add them to the "MMM Newsletter" list. Send new subscribers a welcome email and old subscribers a daily reminder to play! (Inbox, 8:30PM)
• Check email for new subscribers. Send them a thank you and the latest newsletter! (Inbox, 9:00PM)
• Check email for new contributors, email them to thank them, store their contribution and send them the newest newsletter. (Inbox, 9:30PM)

Pretty busy huh??? Yep, that's just til Sunday too, still a few days planned ahead of that as well. It's nice to see it all in list form, though, and it'll help a lot for encouragement (nothing helps encourage you more than feeling like you failed for having to press that "postpone" button or have tasks lurking in the background all day!!! These things are all, of course, in addition to a normal 50 hour job, so some days seem lighter than others to make up for the fact that I have less time at home those days...