#flatgame

[bruneiros]

working on a game that's loosely based around a dream i had. idk if i want to finish this or keep it unreleased or whatnot but it's been cool trying to play with unity again and learning new stuff about that engine.

making games with hand drawn graphics is cool

[adding aotk as a tag because it is an influence on this project]

[smeedlesmeelder]

Flatgame

Sixth week of my Video Game Genres Guides!

Logo by my friend Flatgame! This is a very niche style of indie games that was suggested to me by my friend, the same friend that has been making logos for these! If you'd like to suggest a genre to look into, check my ask page! Anyways, flatgames are super hard to pin down, but in general they are very simple narrative adventure games with minimal graphics, gameplay, and controls. Some of these games tell very personal stories, while others are quite silly or cute. Here's what that would look like on a Genre Tree!

In terms of top level, Flatgame is strictly under Adventure as a very primitive sub-genre of Graphic Adventure. Here's 5 Flatgames (in no particular order). In terms of tags, they are all pretty much just Flatgame, as is most of the genre. Instead of tags, I will be linking these games so that people can support these indie devs if they'd like!

The Isle Is Full Of Noises Number 1 is The Isle Is Full Of Noises! This is the game that started the genre. The games creator Llaura McGee coined "Flatgame" when her games simplistic style was criticized by judges at Indiecade. Contrary to the criticism and the simple gameplay and art, this game is really intense, and as much as I recommend it I would also warn that it is very heavy emotionally.

gays at the beach! Number 2 is gays at the beach!! This is the first flatgame I played in this genre exploration. To be honest when starting out I really had no idea how these games were going to work. The story seems cute I think? It's certainly about gays at the beach! The music was good but I wasn't even really sure when I finished the game, which my friend says is normal for this genre. After this game, I knew this wouldn't be the easiest genre exploration to write lol.

how 2 dreams Number 3 is how 2 dreams! This is a collaborative flatgame made by multiple devs! This flatgame is a lot more surreal as you adventure through how dreams are made and delivered. Very simple fun with silly different graphics from each of the developers!

Interactive Meadow 64 Number 4 is Interactive Meadow 64! This flatgame is less narratively driven, and more framed as a nice relaxing meadow to chill and relax in. Reminds me of this one scratch project I made for a class in middle school lol. Super cute and relaxing compared to some of the more intense storytelling in the genre.

quietly Number 5 is quietly! Slight spoilers ahead for this one, as its a bit hard to discuss without. This flatgame is a bit repetitive, but the payoff is well worth it. Seemingly a flatgame Stardew Valley, you start out by sailing and getting seeds, water, planting and watering crops, and starting your farm. Through this repetitive day-to-day story cycle, the story is told and very surprising events occur that I will not get into. Very interesting game and the build-up felt very unique for the genre from the small selection I played. That concludes my sixth Video Game Genres Guide! Thank you for reading!

[hyphinett]

👁️💪🦶A Body Is Subsumed In The Work👂👄🦇

Web/Windows Free to play and $5 for the additional art download. This body is a game, this game is a collage, this collage is a flatgame. What's a flatgame? Click the link to find out! hyphinett.itch.io/abisitw

[hydralisk98]

Game dev skills roadmap (DRAFT1)

"From the top to the bottom and then back up again"

F# + C# (Unity, "Nu", FNA or whatever else fits me best there) -> Godot's GDScript + C (C23 Edition?) -> SBCL (Common Lisp, together with the "Trial" game engine) -> PDP-15 + PDP-8/e PAL (aka programming things in low-level Assembly & iterating on all things low-level hardware down to Unit Record Equipment & analog triode-logic... ) -> Zorua (my very own tribble-based Data Processor Architecture) -> DEC Alpha-tier computer system (possibly for a collaboration with Tuxedo Computers?) ;

Projects to try out using that roadmap

Dice tilecrawl terrain with MegaOCEAN NPCs (PixelCrushers + Unity)

First person perspective games (Juicy FPC, Qodot... in Godot)

Responsive "desktop" modular addventure (Legal-Paper-Zine Flatgame... in the "Trial" game engine)

"The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall" total conversion for my retro-futuristic constructed world

Zelda1+Zach-like "software toybox" as virtual "social" filesystem?

PDP8/e + PDP15 retro first person perspective "dungeon crawler" (see from retro Usbourne programming books' collection... and derive from there)

?

[stellarchai]

Last game! It's a little interactive comic about graduation

[overthinkingvideogames]

The Arcane Kids Manife$to is a circa 2012 (?) manifesto with text that, brilliantly, I can't even copy and paste, since it's a Photoshopped image of the Steam OS X interface. I also really like how Tale of Tales' RAM argues for a "punk economy" above, but down here, the AxK M$ warns, "do NOT call us punk." It's like these manifestos are in conversation. I also like how the declaration "fuck formalism" might contradict "play with structure", maybe a manifesto is supposed to be in conflict / in flux with itself:

A survey of gaming manifestos.

[myfriendpokey]

Hello friends,

I’ve released a new game just now, called 10 BEAUTIFUL POSTCARDS. This is a game about wandering across a wide variety of scrappy multimedia collages in search of hotels to review and also true love. I’ve been working on it for about 2 years. One of the ambitions behind it was to make a game which was fun in the way that looking at a comic or reading a webpage was fun, one which relied on visual pleasure rather than mechanical dexterity but was still able to call upon the videogame resources of modularity and space.

Website here: http://harmonyzone.org/10BeautifulPostcards.html

$6, for Win / Mac / Linux computers. I hope that you enjoy !!!!

[sergiocornaga]

Wave to the People (2017)

Wave to the People was my solo project for Global Game Jam 2017, which I started on the final day. It was also submitted to FLATGAME Annual 2016, and aims to loosely adhere to the rules of flatgames laid out for that event.

Download (2.6 MB) or play it online (HTML5)

[elusiveasever]

PhD: Year One is a series of reflections and advice from my first year undertaking a research degree. Play it here.

[sweeneezy]

I made this game for Flatgame Annual 2016. It’s a very short flatgame about the apocalypse.

I’m very happy with how it came out, it did exactly what I wanted which was people in gas masks talking about skulls. I like the flatgame formula a lot.

[hotgamesflash]

Human Fall Flat

Human Fall Flat apk Is The Best Puzzle Game 16,620+ Users With 4.3 Ratings On Google Playstore. Click The Button And Download Human Fall Flat Apk Free And Enjoy. Read These Questions Relate Apk  If You Don’t know What Is Apk? How To Use It? And Some Other Questions Relate Apk. About Human Fall Flat Apk   Find more about the most awesome multiplayer physics puzzle platformer! In Human: Fall…

[neontaxidermy]

wait omg.. I should make a flatgame adaptation of critters """""""zine"""""" (I did not know what a zine was when making it) If I can find it or photos of all the critters

[questdesign]

ok wow i just had a brain blast and my new dream is to host a flatgame-making party one day 🥺 like everyone collaborating on one flatgame together 

[gaming]

Indie Game Spotlight: Necrobarista

Coffee. Feelings. Interpersonal drama. Gangsters. Does this feel eerily familiar for you, too? Now, add in a man who claims to be the ghost of Australian folk hero Ned Kelly and robots…with knives. That’s right, it’s Indie Game Spotlight time and we’re talking Necrobarista!

Damon wrote the script for Necrobarista; they now handle social media, community, and communications for Route 59. To keep it simple, they said, “That basically means I spend a lot of my time making really bad memes.”

How would you describe Necrobarista?

Necrobarista is a visual novel about death and coffee, set in a back-alley cafe frequented by both the living and the recently departed. It’s made in full 3D, which is a very uncommon way of developing a visual novel, and we’re placing a lot of focus on cinematography and developing a unique anime-inspired aesthetic

Necrobarista is set in a specific location. How is this important to the game?

Being set in a cafe is super, super important to the game. Our cafe, the Terminal, is a liminal space. Literally. It sits on the boundary between the real world and the afterlife, and its customers are a mix of the living and the dead. This lends it a feeling of being a place of transition—between here and there, between being unfulfilled and being satisfied with your life, between uncaffeinated and caffeinated.

The aesthetic for the game looks amazing! How did the team come up with it?

Thanks! It was a really long process - Route 59’s first prototype started development in 2014, and you can take a look at some footage of it here. You can see the origins of our art style in that video, and after nearly five years of iteration, we’ve settled on a really cohesive and (we think) gorgeous aesthetic. I’m currently working on some videos that show off never-before-seen prototypes, so make sure to look out for those on our Twitter and Facebook in the coming weeks!

How do you think Necrobarista will impact visual novels, gaming, and anime?

Necrobarista will:

1. Hopefully inspire a wave of 3D visual novels with interesting and innovative aesthetics.

2. Be the first good videogame. Also, Maddy will be added to Super Smash Bros and Reggie will call us to say that he’s proud of us for making the first good videogame.

3. Eventually, be adapted into an award-winning anime, bringing everything full circle.

What’s some advice you could give to anyone looking to get into the indie game scene?

Learn tools and make games. If you’re into code, pick up Unity or Unreal Engine and follow some tutorials to learn how to use them, and then make some tiny/constrained games. If you’re more into writing or art, try something like Twine or Bitsy or flatgames. Don’t try and make a masterpiece, or the game of your dreams - just make little things and then progress to bigger stuff. Don’t forget to share the games you make, and - most importantly - be good to people! 

What can players take away from Necrobarista?

Necrobarista’s gonna break your heart. Sorry.

Necrobarista will be released on PC and Mac via Steam (add them to your wish list), PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch! In the meantime, check out Necrobarista.com or follow their Tumblr! 

[overthinkingvideogames]

A gamejam game where you try to piece together the night of an alcohol-induced blackout. I feel it is a good combination of subject matter and UI.

(The ‘key’ to a scene is always up, down, left, or right, never a combination of them. To proceed to the next scene, get the ‘full scene’ and then let go of the keys.)

[myfriendpokey]

flat pak

i went to now play this last weekend and had a good time! there was a flatgames room, and a panel, and the latter made me think about some nightmarish circumstance where someone was questioning me about what the point of these things was. the three posts below are all pseudo-answers i sketched out.

1. i like how sexless videogames are, and how bad at representing humanity in general, i like that even hyperviolent games have this wistfulness about them, as if the only way they can grasp the human body is as it comes apart - in some provisional, stateless shape contained in but seperate from the game systems, a ghost, like those mysteriously elaborate and collisionless death animations the enemies in old shooters got before dissolving into goo. or as if they hoped the exuberance of their own approach was enough to break the carapace of the format and let something, anything, seep in from the outside....

the little guys in videogames are a gentler convention, but they're always on the verge of the same dissolution - the sketchiest of outlines, of features, a ball, a shape, with eyes and feet. like drawing yourself with your eyes closed - the crudest and most temporary kind of projection or self-fashioning. staring nervously and chomping as it waddles through the maze, eating things, breaking apart instantly when it bumps into someone, and given an equally temporary name such as walky or go-go. i love this dorkiness, this daydream of the body as a soap-bubble, so alienated that the slightest recognition feels like intimacy.

2. flatgames are 'flat' in the sense of projecting a multi-level videogame hierarchy into a single plane; the archetypical flatgame gesture is being able to walk across the textboxes. rather than systems they represent collections - collections of effects treated as independent of the wider process they'd ordinarily portray, which can then be grouped and moved around seperate from that process. so it's a personal, subjective format in the sense that the new groupings sort of mirror the groupings produced when various external effects are flattened into single moments of subjective experience, of memory. but it's also a personal format just because it's easy to use - because in many circumstances it's easier to just drag and drop text around rather than create a universal system that handles when and how it'll be displayed, as in all those unity horror games that have gui elements just sort of hanging around in space for you to bump into. and i think this is something that kind of grinds interestingly against the idea of videogames as inherently systematic, inherently good at portraying systems - like, in what way are they systematic when it's become easier NOT to be systematic? at what point do those "systematic" features become a mannerism, while the very easiness of bad game design means it starts to cleave more rigorously to the contours of actual material life and practice, to the way we really use computers rather than the ways we'd like to use them?

this is not to say systems don't exist. but their relationship with even the most system-y videogames is weird - to what extent are these games exploring a system rather than expressing a sense of systematicity, an aesthetics of system not dissimilar to those of puzzles, criticism, and the mystery novel? on one hand we know that a lot of systemic elements are hand-tweaked by developers in order to feel less jarring to our  impression of the whole (dice rolls being the most common) - on the other we know from previous twitter threads about exactly these kinds of  "cheats" that they can outrage players who learn they exist. which suggests it's not any specific quality or experience associated with a game system but the idea of systematicity itself that's being sold -- as indeed with the famous "100 hours of gameplay" tag, which does not express a type of content so much as a promise that this content has been regulated and formatted in ways which allow it to be sold in this very matter-of-fact way. the idea of systematicity as a deliberately conveyed aesthetic impression feels worth investigating, particularly given ten million youtube videos with names like "gun-shot teen DESTROYED with Logic" and "univeral reason under attack: why braingeniousmasculinist should be unbanned from club penguin" - evidently the impression of sanguine impersonality and indifference to the merely "personal" is a highly popular and profitable one online....

in a more material sense, too, we can query this systematicity. a videogame with handdrawn paper graphics is obviously not "de-mystifying" the process of making games, since the physical object had to be digitalised and cleaned up and  imported and processed before it could be used. one of the stranger things in videogames is that naivete is a technological affordance - i can use crude handdrawn graphics because the computer has enough memory not to force me to compress it all into 8x8 sprites (unless i really want it to, as with deliberately limited bespoke engines). but at the same time it really is de-mystifying, because it emphasises the extent to which game development takes place at the intersection between multiple different areas of digital technology (not to mention human labour).  3d model textures can be paintings or photographs or heavily treated, processed combinations of the two - the photographs or paintings used can be original or purchased from various weird economies of commercial asset packs - the artistic coordination of those assets can take place over skype or similar with the reference of multiple other digital image files, scavenged from online to give an idea of the total look. i don't mean to suggest that these multiple intersections are so complex that they cease to be "systematic" - but i do think that grasping it as a real system also means coming to terms with the ways in which it can be structurally unsystemisable, like fredric jameson's description of globalization as "untotalizable totality". when the most important features of the discrete operations of a computer are that they take place at a scale and speed no human can replicate, recasting exactly those operation into a human scale can confuse more than it clears up [much like this post].

thinking about videogames more generally as revolving around not an inherent systematicity but rather an image of / desire for the same, around that imagination of systematicity which is bound up with consumer technology as a whole. i feel like at each moment in history this systematicity has some privileged form of social identification associated with it: i've lost count of the pulpy books i've read which had some villainous saint-just analogue, maybe one obsessed with clocks or measuring things, who imposes some cruel and rigid revolutionary "system" on the basically warm and laissez-faire vassals below... system as political imposition. but medieval writers might have connected the same sense of systematicity more immediately with that of the kingdom of god, with the underlying structure which makes those warm laissez-faire moments possible to begin with. sometimes system appears in media as bureaucracy and ritual, sometimes it's as a challenge to bureaucracy and ritual, galileo's "and yet it moves" or those movies where someone comes up with a brilliant new way to win sports matches or sell sub-prime mortgages against all the prevailing wisdom. on the basis of this extremely rough idea, what could we imagine being the privileged form that systematicity appears in the everyday today? not capitalism or high finance, which while systematic can also be too broad or naturalised to appear so in this immediate way...  not politics, not the internet.  but maybe ON the internet, and for me "system" appears most visibly online in the question of personal information and how it's tracked. all those notifications of websites using cookies clicked through, terms and amendments to terms scrolled past, online shopping histories suddenly reoccuring by ads for the same products you looked at appearing in the background of another site - all these are re-impositions, re-appearances of systemicity through the vague fugue of internet experience. and which pop up in the more public sphere as an ominous black site, with the full scope or implications sealed away behind byzantine layers of corporate procedure and nondisclosure. the sense of system here is one of intransigence, blockage - it's divorced from the idea that knowing the system would give one the power to change it, because here the system is exactly what makes that knowledge impossible in the first place. maybe that sense of the failure of systemic knowledge is connected to the world depicted in flatgames, in which that knowledge no longer exists - niall moody's "the craigallen fire" contains historical information and real places, but the words hang eerily across the digital picture as if unsure how to relate to it, as if coming from a long way away. but the movement away from representational systematicity is a move towards material systemicness, in the clarity and concreteness with which flatgames approach their own practice, so maybe we should consider this withdrawal as strategic - as an effort to build new systems, rather than being pulled into the daydream of the old.

3. part of the pleasure, for me, in making flatgames, was the sense of feeling able to postpone indefinitely some kind of mechanical reckoning - the feeling of being able to use pacing and visual structure to ward off the dread that any minute now i'd have to settle down and make a real game. in a weird way it connects to what i enjoy about very fussy, technical games - grinding in an rpg means deferring the point at which you actually have to begin playing the rpg, both in the sense of being challenged and in the sense of actually having to sit down and learn all the systems, just as savescumming your way through megaman 3 is to giddily skate around the dread prospect of actually playing megaman 3. there is no point where you have to work out what happens if you die or walk off the map, there is no point where you have to say to the player "okay, you have to focus now". the horror of paying attention and the joy of not having to! a moment of those moralist rituals held in temporary suspense, as if time itself has frozen and you're free to walk among it, underneath paused mechanisms that would ordinarily be crushing you... and the awareness of that suspense somehow makes your own delicacy greater, as if one of the machines you wandered through was your own life, and you could hover precariously inside it... a soap bubble, the merest bug-eyed phantom, newly christened something like walky or go-go....

[image credits - street fighter iii: second impact - pippols  - space fantasy zone - marchen veil - bandits 9)