Indie Show at the Incubator

While at the Emerald City Comic Con, I also got to visit a new facility in Seattle. It was having an open house, and games show for indie types. I thought it would be best to talk about each piece in their own part. As just a note, I didn't get all of the names right for the games. So please don't go searching for them with that name.

Snowboard Battle

The game was only two months old when I played it. There weren’t any enemies, or goals in the game. In fact, i have no idea if i was winning or losing.

The gameplay has you twisting down a mountainside shooting icicles in the way. The entire path was randomly created, so no game session will be the same. The goal is to collect orbs, but the reasons why hadn’t been implemented yet.

The creators had decided to work together for a game. Snowboarding was tossed in as an idea, as was the level design. It was a fun game, but very early.

Ape Attack

Like the snowboard game, ape attack was very early in production. They actually had a hard time moving me from scene to scene using the levels. I got a glow in the dark wrist band for playing.

The game itself is about a monkey moving in a 2D/3D world. There were moments where it was 3D, and others where it was obviously 2D. Much of the platforming had 3D elements, but the camera angle, and use of walls made it feel like an old school 2D game.

The game itself is for iOS apps, and Android, so the controller I used was too much for it to handle. In fact, I sort of wished I could use the buttons on the controller. To attack, you pressed the jump button, and it would attack and jump at the same time. For a mobile app game, it had some really cool graphics, and style. For a console game it had potential, but the button layout was weird, and the camera really needed to be worked on.

As I played, another game creator made comments on what was needed, and why. This exhibition was for people to play untested games. See the problems, and work to make a better game. So I enjoyed the game, and the advice given will likely help it out a ton.

Texas Twist Poker

Personally, this game was the hardest. It was a poker game, and 3D puzzle at the same time. Which ever direction you faced, let you take the card ahead. If there were no cards around you, the game was over. You are trying to collect cards to make a good poker hand.

I knew how to play for the most part. There were some movement issues, but I am sure those will be ironed out when the game releases. Trying to get a good hand, within the rules of the game was hard. In fact, some levels had limited movements. You had to get the best hand, with only 5 moves. Using the pad, I could move the camera around, and see what was what. Still, getting a good hand was hard.

It was a tricky game that has a lot of potential.

Star Battalion

I don’t think I got the name right. This may be a good game because I did so poorly at the game. The level given has you trying to protect ships under attack. There was physics based on the fastest way to get somewhere using gravity. Instead of moving directly, your ship would curve.

After losing my first game, the designer showed me some of the controls. He actually wanted to see where I was screwing up and why. It had been a while since I played an RTS, let along a space variety. The word Amiga comes up when I discuss games of that vein. Needless to say I struggled.

The ships movements took some getting used to, and there were parts not quite implemented. I had to get supplies from the nearby planet, while helping the damaged starship crew escape. The enemy never ended, so my best strategy was to grab and go. It was an intense, and fun time.

Immune Defense

A Post Doc decided the best way to convey knowledge on microbiology was through a videogame. It’s not every day that I meet someone with more academic knowledge than I while at an event like this.

She decided to get academic funding while seeking more substantial funding for her game. It would teach people how the immune system works, by making the player control cells.

The biggest problem I had was not knowing what the instructions were saying. She used an RTS style control, but no display to explain it. I kept moving bad cells onto my cell because I thought that was what I needed to do. Needless to say I died a couple times.

Scoring felt a lot like Crazy Birds in that you get so many stars for your abilities. I kept trying to get a higher score, and failing. Needless to say, I look forward to playing this game again.

Spite House Games and Videos

Spite House is a team of video guys who make games, and videos for games. The big game on display was probably the artsiest bit of atmosphere you can imagine. After showing videos of submarines sinking, and voices of germans yelling for help, the level becomes a world of text. The word seaweed is sideways, and slithers slightly. The ground describes itself in words, not images.

The creators say that video is hard work, and videogames is just a wee bit easier to work on. The game I described is coming out soon enough.

Click Team

The display for click team was sparse, but the excitement was not. The man you see loved talking about how they worked to make something better than Game Maker.

Fusion is almost entirely for 2D games. There is the ability to make pseudo 3D. For example, Five Nights at Freddie’s is from the game engine. However, the entire show of animated characters is a trick. The walls are pictures, and everything only looks 3D.

He showed me how fast it was to create a game. Then I put him to the challenge.

Big truth time, i have been trying to make a game for a while now. A buddy of mine and I were working on it before I moved to Hawaii. He got a wife, and a job, and a much better life so suddenly I was down a programmer. While trying to figure out what to do, i had tried several engines.

This amazing magician got what I wanted done in less than a minute. He had me sold. I was trying to be a good anthropologist, but this amazed me too much. Good show! Yes, I totally bought the program.

Don Thacker on StarMazer

Don has a very similar personality to Brian Blessed. He has a blunt honesty, and a loud excited voice for just about everything he does. He is also a shrewd businessman.

See the guy standing on the left? He is filming Don give the speach. This is for a documentary on the making of Starmazer. If the game fails, at least he has a documentary to sell. If that fails, he has other tricks to use.

It took him an entire month to prepare and promote the kickstarter for his dream game of Starmazer. The video that everyone sees was designed to catch your eye, and work so you understood it. He makes movies, and is now working to make games.

Before all this he worked as a programmer for a bank. It sucked. He kept dreaming of making movies, and games. Then one day he said screw it, and began to follow his ideas.

To make sure things worked, he got the best game programmer in Seattle. No really, the last game this guy made is one of my favorite Wii U games. It’s a combination of Joust and Soccer. Even during the kickstarter, this programmer was paid to make the game.

There was a lot of truth said about kickstarter. First off, the chance of getting all of the money you need, and even want is slim. In fact, you won’t know that you made it until the last day. Every single item promoted on the website follows the same slow pattern, and whether it makes it or not is usually a slim margin.

He said that he had to show how the game he wanted to make would make sense in the gamers mind. He worked on things like how to describe it, and how to talk about it. A Click and Point Adventure SHMUP was not only his description, but carefully figured out.

He has people living in his condo to save money for the production. His girlfriend isn’t too happy with that btw.

Every time a website promoted his game, he saw a small bump in donations, and then it averaged out again. There wasn’t a drop, but it went back to the slowly moving gain anyone else got. If you asked him how he made it, he honestly doesn’t have an answer.

The big problem with kickstarters is that everyone who gets into it believes they deserve the money. He thought so, and admits that he had to fight those thoughts so he could promote properly.

The game itself is from stuff he loved as a kid. This is what he wanted to play back then. There is a way to get out of boss fights by talking to the captain of the boss ship, and making peace.

He snuck an entire animated scene in his movie that had wall to wall boobs.

He learned to get old rich white men to pay for the things he wants to do. In fact, he figured out that most of the investors for his movies would also be great for his game. When you watch him, you know that there is a calm, calculating side that is trying to figure out how to get everything to work.

It was a mad rush getting his kickstarter funded. While working on the kickstarter, he also made a movie segment that the game could be in. For everything to work, he had to pay $30,000 during the kickstarter for people to continue to work on things.

It was the last thing i saw before i left, and this speech will likely be somewhere in my memories forever. It was rousing, and shocking, and made me wonder how much of the business is just going for it, while calculating what to do if it doesn’t work.

The Incubator

As I was leaving, I met the man on the right. He isn’t a game maker. In fact, he is the guy who runs the incubator. An incubator is where an office space is opened up, and anyone can grab a desk. They charge rent on that desk, but it comes with all sorts of perks. For example, super fast internet, a kitchen, spa, meeting room, and testing area. I sort of want to work at the testing area.

The idea is that with this open area, people will work together to accomplish their various goals. Although one person may be working on a game, and other a TV show, they can find ways to help each other out. The purpose is to get new ideas, and move the world forward quickly.

Investors visit regularly, and people work to motivate each other. In fact, there were college students dressed up for the show. They were there to meet game makers, and also heard there was a cos play competition.

He is a world traveler, and speaks way better Samoan than I do. This is why I hate talking about which languages I speak. There is always someone who speaks it better than I do. He wants to write about what he learned, and help move the world forward.

The entire indie show was to get people excited for the idea of incubator. I admit, he had me sold.

UPATE: As it turns out he was not part of the incubator I was at. He is part of another incubator. He likely said the same, but was incredibly enthusiastic about what all it was, and even told me to go see the incubator some time.

Conclusion

That was the show. I am really looking forward to the next one. The games are fun, and the ideas being shown are even more fun. If you want to see more pictures, check out my facebook album here. If you want to complain that this was over a month ago, feel free to do so. I will try to have a quicker post the next time.