handmadegames

[handmadegames]

So, this is kind of a big deal, especially for those of you just starting out. The ability to shut up and accept what others are saying is a skill that you must learn. Obviously, the people that will get the most out of this post can already accept some words of critique and that's a shame really.

You're going to be given a lot of criticism through out the development on your game. Though, this applies to anything you will ever do, not only game development. Some of it will come from children, parents, professionals in the industry, or some lady at Starbucks. All of this advice is important.

I have seen other teams, or even friends, who are absolutely terrible at accepting criticism. I'm not always the best at it, and Zach Spurlock and I were trained in school to be accepting of thoughts about our work. Trust me, I know it's your baby and you've spent all your time and energy on this game, who are they to tell you that you're wrong? Artists, programmers, designers, sound engineers, you can always be better at what you do. Most people are trying to be helpful, don't take what they say as an attack on you, or on your game. It isn't personal. It is all about your frame of mind; You can be accepting or you can be defensive.

Carry around a pen and paper if you are going to be showing off your work. Write down what they have to say, even if it is a really dumb idea. Tell them "Oh that's interesting, we will have to look into that." Thank them. Seek out advice, show your game off to everyone you can and eventually it will become second nature.

This will make your life easier, not to mention people will be more inclined to look at your work. Take some criticism, you probably suck at it.

[handmadegames]

Well it happened, Paper Craft is officially an award winning game and it isn't even out yet! 

Over the weekend we competed in the 2014 GameSIG showcase held at California State University Fullerton. Luckily the whole team was there, because we took home the top honors!

For the Showcase, we had to give a five minute presentation to a panel of judges made up of veteran game developers. Bill Roper, the VP of Disney Interactive, was our MC for the afternoon and the panel of Judges included Tommy Tallarico, Phil Adam, Bill Fisher, Kevin Martens, Dave "Fargo" Kosak, Shaene Siders, Brandii Grace and Jeff Luke.   

Everyone at Hand Made wants to thank CSUF for hosting the event, all of the judges for taking time out of their schedules and attending, as well as all of the sponsors for Gamesig who made it happen!

GO PAPER CRAFT! 

[handmadegames]

Well I'll be damned. After an intense week of waiting, Paper Craft was selected as a Finalist for the 2014 IEEE GameSIG Showcase. Out of the 36 games submitted, from 11 different colleges and universities, we have been chosen to stand in front of a panel of game industry professionals and have them laugh and judge us.

We now have 2 weeks to get this baby purring like a kitten. Prepare for an onslaught of updates. 

[handmadegames]

After a long update drought, we bring you our Gamesig 2014 entry video! For those of you who don't know what that is: gamesigshowcase.org

We are very excited and hope to be chosen as one of this year's finalists. Work on the game has been pretty steady, but events like these really drive you to work hard and get as much done as possible. We had our own little game jam this weekend to get as much done for the submission video as we could. Be sure to check around your area and use meet-up to find events, game jams, talks and other gatherings to help keep you motivated and excited about game development! 

 The video includes our new soundtrack, intro video with dialogue, as well as a snippet of level 2 and at long last, CO-OP!

Stay tuned for more on the process of getting co-op working, as well as details about (what we think is) a new and exciting co-op experience on mobile. 

Please feel free to tell us what you think! 

[handmadegames]

SACRAMENTO INDIE ARCADE: POST-MORTEM

       Man, the Indie arcade was awesome. It helped there was a bar, of course, but that's besides the point.

       We sure did learn a lot about presentation; At our booth we had Paper Craft running on a lumia 920 and a laptop. We had wanted to get the game running on a windows 8 tablet we have, but we couldn't quite get the controls working right, so instead we had it looping our teaser trailer, which worked very well.

      There is something to be said for free QA. Getting the game into so many peoples hands is very important and I would recommend something like this for any Indie developers.  Just get your game out there, even if it's early in development, testing is important. 

      There were a few panels, unfortunately I could not hear or see most of them as I was running the booth.

       The Reno Game Symphony came and played an absolutely beautiful set, great job guys! 

       It was a great time at the Indie Arcade, and it was very cool to see and play everyone's games, both big and small. I'm sure we will see most of you at the IGDA meetings and we will definitely be there at next year's Indie Arcade. I would like to personally thank everyone at the IGDA Sacramento chapter for holding such and awesome event and letting us get the chance to show off our game. Here is to next year being BIGGER and better!

[handmadegames]

In honor of the Sacramento Indie Arcade, here is our first teaser trailer!

[handmadegames]

The Sacramento Indie Arcade is coming up this weekend  and we will be there playing the latest build of Paper Craft! If anyone is in the area come on by and check it out! There will be speakers from Sacramento based game studios, the Reno Video Game Symphony will be playing, and there will be tournaments and raffles!

Here is the site for more info:

www.indiearcade.org

[handmadegames]

"Hello, I'm Jeff Einspahr and I am the lead programmer and part-time designer, which is mainly when all the good stuff happens. I am nearing the end of my last semester of college at Cal State Fullerton for my BS in Computer Science. I have been an avid gamer since I was 4, playing Super Mario and Zelda II The Adventure of Link in the beginning. My favorite underrated system is the Dreamcast, I spent hundreds of hours playing Ooga Booga and the Power Stone series. My hope is to get into the game industry since I have always had a passion for them, and hope that this project can lead me along that path."

Thanks Jeff! That wraps up our team bios for now. Stay tuned for some more gameplay and details on some changes that have been happening around here at Hand Made

[handmadegames]

GDC 2014 RECAP

   HOLY COW! GDC was absolutely fantastic this year, and not just because of all the swag! Jeff and I were there tuesday-friday, and man did time fly. 

   We ended up pitching paper craft to several companies, including Facebook Games and Unity, and the reception was even better than expected. The goals we had set out to complete, were absolutely smashed to bits!

   The talks and announcements this year were just fantastic. A couple talks in particular about indie development and marketing left us with a lot to think about over the next few months. Direct x12, Unity 5(super dope), Unreal 4 pricing, and the subsequent pricing undercut by Crytek were all very exciting.

   Several nights of drinking and debauchery left our feet sore and covered with blisters, but they were well worth it. We attended gatherings at Irish pubs, whiskey bars, and even At&t stadium. We were able to catch up with some friends over at Obsidian, the SCGDA, and Blizzard, as well as make some new friends with the guys from Big Viking up in Canada.

  At the end of the show we brought home almost $3000 in electronics, including Sony headphones, a Vita, an Nvidia graphics card, and a Lenovo tablet. Not bad!

   GDC is about gathering together with other game developers, playing games, and discussing our careers and hobbies to people with similar interests. This GDC was no exception and we had an awesome time with everyone we met there.

Hopefully we will be able to attend next year, because it's an experience that anyone in game development, or anyone interested in game development shouldn't miss out on!

[handmadegames]

   "Hi, my name is Zach Spurlock and I am an animator. I am a graduate of California State University Fullerton with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Entertainment Art/Animation. I spent my time there honing my animation skills. I have made a short film, contributed animation to video game projects, and have been chosen to take part in a DreamWorks Animation DreamCrit, which is only given to the top two 3D animators in my school. I hope to fully break into the video game industry, and Paper Craft would be my first real step in that direction.

   As you can probably guess, my passion is animation. I find joy and satisfaction in being able to breathe life into a lifeless object. I consider myself a character animator, for characters are what I love to animate the most.  I love defining a character’s depth and personality through the way I animate their movements and behavior. I am also a passionate gamer. I have played video games all my life and want to dedicate my life to making great games. I knew for a long time that I wanted to be the guy that makes the characters in games do awesome things through animation, whether they are performing death defying acts of physical prowess, or even less action packed moments like dialogue sequences. I hope to make Paper Craft as fun to watch as it is to play."

   ZACHSPURLOCKANIMATION.COM

   As you probably guessed, we are building our army of Zacks to complete our plan of world domination. Thanks Zach!

Stay tuned for more bios from the team and watch out for Jeff and I at GDC if you're here!

[handmadegames]

ZACHARY ALLER

   Hey guys, I'm the creative director and designer of paper craft! I also happen to be running this lovely development journal. I am responsible for most of the art in paper craft right now; I do the designing, modeling, texturing, UI design, and some terrible animation. I hope to bring some otherworldly whimsy to the mostly cartoony and flash-based design currently dominating all of the app stores. I have my hands in multiple pies, so to speak, but I leave all of of the programming to Jeff.

   Paper craft was a game idea I had a couple years ago and have finally put a team together that can pull it off! We put together this little studio to see how far we can actually make it.

   Some of the tools I use are Autodesk Maya for the 3d modeling, Photoshop CS6 for the UI and texturing among other things, and a pencil and paper for initial design (still the best for rapid prototyping).

   My top 3 games in no order are: Shadow of the Colossus, TearAway, and Journey.

   All this week we will be telling you about ourselves in honor of GDC, so stay tuned! If you will be in Francisco this week, send us a line and we can meet-up and play paper craft!

[handmadegames]

   In honor of GDC this week, we will be posting up bios of everyone here at hand made, giving you a little insight into why they do the things that they do. Unfortunately, only Jeff and I will be able to attend GDC this week, but we will be there in force and discussing paper craft with anyone who will listen and take the time to play it! 

   This should be a pretty great week and a shout out to our friends in the the Sacramento chapter of IGDA and the Socal Game Developers association!

[handmadegames]

   The introduction video to paper craft. This will play when you start the game. The finished video will have a voice over and soundtrack. Hopefully this video captures the more imaginative and whimsical tone of the game. (Yes, it is supposed to be in portrait)

We are pulling a lot of inspiration from Media Molecule when it comes to tone and execution. Tearaway and LittleBig Planet bring a childlike wonder that most games today tend to shy away from.

[handmadegames]

   UI is a very important factor in game design. It may not make or break a game (though actually it probably could), but it is something that the players have to deal with all of the time. 

   The key is K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid. You want your UI to both be unobtrusive and yet give the player all of the information they need, depending on what they are doing in the game. Your players aren't total idiots (most of the time) so you don't need to label every single thing. After a round or two they will know exactly what everything means.

   Effects popping up in the middle of the screen telling you what just happened is apparently the cool thing to do in games this gen. They are annoying and block the screen. DO NOT DO THAT. Make the effect subtle and off to the side, so the player can see it in their peripheral. 

   Utilizing screen space is key, so why not make elements have double use? Our score at the top also replaces the pause button to help unclutter the screen. I wouldn't do this will everything, but one or two double use elements can save a lot of space. A small, unobtrusive, temporary effect is better than a static screen consuming icon.

   You want your UI to match the theme of your game, but not be overly detailed to the point of being gaudy. We toyed with UI that resembled pieces of paper, but it just became distracting and less universal. The easier to read your information the better. Consistency in design elements helps to unify your UI. Even choosing the right font, can change how your UI is perceived, so take some time deciding.

   These are kind of guidelines for mobile games, but many of these can be useful ideas for any style of gameplay. Again, the word of the day, everyday, is simplicity. 

Is there anything you want to add? Disagree with anything?

[handmadegames]

The first glimpse of gameplay. We will have a break down of the UI elements tomorrow (why we choose what we did/what they are for).

Everything is a bit random right now, however programmed waves of enemies and drops are already being implemented. We may have a random infinite mode with a separate scoreboard, just for fun.

You would have seen the animations for getting hit and dying, but I’m too pro for that. Maybe we can have Jeff record one of him playing, so you can see those. (#shotsfired)

[handmadegames]

   For the player's main craft, we looked to some iconic ships. Obviously the paper theme of the game influenced the design, as the ship had to be fold-able, as well as look like folded paper without using too many polygons. The vector style graphics from Star fox on the SNES have such clean iconic shapes and we definitely pulled from the classic Arwing structure. 

   As for the shape, we went way back, to one of my dad's favorite arcade games, Asteroids. The shape of that ship was so simple and elegant, by just pulling the corners of a triangle back, a spaceship was born. That is the kind of simple iconic elegance we wanted from our design.

   All of these ships have a unifying shape which has helped define all of the models in the game. The triangle. There is just something about a triangle that immediately screams spaceship. Luckily everything in videogame land is built out of triangles, so being able to utilize that underlying structure made creation that much easier.

  Clean lines and an iconic silhouette are important characteristics for any game character, especially if you must look at them from the same angle the entire game. If you aren't liking the design of your character, simplify them. Break them down into shapes and colors. Remove anything that isn't essential to the character (I'm talking to you Liefeld). Simplicity is the word of the day (everyday).

[handmadegames]

So this is more of a discussion of which mobile engine is right for you and your team, not to say which is better. For us at hand made however, the choice was unity. 

We had been intrigued by Project Anarchy when we first saw it at GDC. It came with so many great features built in: lighting, physics, asset browser and it was free! When the time came to develop however we hit a snag. There is so little information on PA, the tutorials are practically barren, and the community hasn't had enough time to build many technical examples. Now this is due to both Havoc not having enough tutorials at the launch so people aren't willing to dig in, and well, learning a new engine on your own without that community is difficult.

So after having an early build of the game worked on in PA we realized the process of learning this engine would be too time intensive to be worth it, even if its features are better than the base Unity free.

There are many engines out there for indie companies to choose from, and it is important to decide what you want your game running on,  and if you can afford the licensing fees!

Who knows, maybe given enough time we will make the switch.