BinkWorks

Dicetris

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:24:00 -0400

Dicetris is one of 16 entries in the annual Mac game dev contest uDevGames. Developed by the Cosmic Exploration Group, Dicetris tells the story of an interplanetary exploration team who are intercepted on their journey home by some sort of “higher life form” - hence the intriguing tagline, “Does God play dice?” Unfortunately, the whole story didn’t make it into the game, so you’ll need to take a peek at their description page to figure out what’s going on plot-wise.

On the bright side, a deep understanding of plot intricacies is not a prerequisite for actually playing the game. Upon launching a freshly-downloaded copy of Dicetris, you’re greeted with a simple menu screen.

The Intro button will take you to a short cutscene that tells part of the plot. Unfortunately, there are no instructions to be found in the intro scene, or in any kind of included read me. This is by no means isolated to Dicetris - many of the entries, likely due to time constraints, neglected to include a formal tutorial or read me. The lack of read me, however, is somewhat mitigated by the gameplay screen.

Basic instructions are clearly visible in the main screen pictured above. However, this still leaves you with no concept of what you’re actually trying to accomplish by shooting the dice. As far as I have seen, there are simply no instructions to be found anywhere near the downloaded game - you have to visit the devblog to figure out how to play. For convenience, I’ve paraphrased the ground rules here. The basic objective of the game is to eliminate dice before they reach the bottom of the screen. This is done by rotating your own die to an appropriate number, and then shooting it at the falling dice. To eliminate the dice, you must form one of the following:

1. A group of three or more of the same number dice. (i.e 3, 3, 3)

2. A group of three or more dice in sequence(i.e 3, 4, 5)

3. A group of two or more dice that sum to 7 (i.e 5, 2).

The lack of explanation, in my opinion, is a major shortcoming in an otherwise cool puzzle game. Once you know how to play, it’s fun to see if you can get better scores by varying your method of elimination, and trying different block arrangements. The play on Einstein’s words is amusing. And a surprise at the end provides a great conclusion.

With some gameplay tweaks, some more plot development, and some general polish, Dicetris could be the next addictive puzzle game. Overall, it’s a solid game concept that needs a bit more work on execution.

Which for a three month contest, is amazing. If you agree, vote for Dicetris and other games at http://www.udevgames.com/vote/

Build 2

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:19:05 -0400

Added some more content to this one, and got some new graphics in there.

Mac(Universal): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/680550/IAmTheWind.zip

Windows: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/680550/IATWindows.zip

It’s likely that you’ll get stuck(my fault, not yours - there are bugs). Should this happen, just press “r” to reset the level.

Also worth noting: the guy moves a bit differently now. If he’s asleep, then you can move him with the wind - however, he will walk off edges if you are so inclined. If he’s awake, he’ll walk automatically, but you can’t influence him at all. Also, if he can’t see(i.e he’s in the dark), he will walk off edges no matter what.

Enjoy!

Photo

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 22:33:48 -0400

More level editor.

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 21:45:26 -0400

More level editor.

Level editor taking shape.

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:42:41 -0400

Level editor taking shape.

Level Editor WIP

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 23:30:41 -0400

I’ve been using Cheetah3D to create levels up to now. This is inefficient because it requires a lot of copy-pasting of objects and manual UV mapping, and it still doesn’t look good. Most of the work I did today was spent on creating a custom level editor, to make it easier on me to create game-specific levels. It should eventually support automatic UV mapping, collider generation, in-game mechanic generators(i.e it can create trees and grass and rock and other cool nonsense based on node positioning.)

This level editor uses very advanced technology such as nodes to do its thing. As you can see in the photo, it’s a very sophisticated system.

Alpha Build 1

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:17:18 -0400

Link: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/680550/IAmTheWind.zip

Game: You are the wind. You blow things around to get the guy(capsule) to the house.

Controls: Click to blow. Click and drag to blow in a specified direction.

If the guy can’t see(i.e has no light), he will walk off edges.

It’s currently more of a proof of concept than anything else. Not very much content right now.

uDevGames 2011

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:27:00 -0400

We’ll be entering the uDevGames contest this year, and will post code and art updates here. What follows is the current game info.

Game title: TBD

Game genre: TBD

Plot: TBD

Team members: Me - coding, Micah - art

As you can see, our plans are absolutely fool-proof.