TGW

🚊 Toronto Games Week

I'm writing this on the train to Toronto! I'm heading to Toronto Games Week where I'm showing my two new crowd games at the "Night Games" event on Saturday. I'm also going to various other events and doing some escape rooms. Maybe I'll see some of you there?

I've spent the last few weeks working on these games and another small game idea that came to me almost fully formed, which is rare (usually my inspirations come in the form of isolated moments of interaction, or a single interesting mechanic without any other substance). I'll explain that game further down...

I really needed this break to get my creative juices flowing again before I get back to my business responsibilities. I feel a little guilty leaving Spaceteam in a semi-broken state, but as soon as I get back home next week I'll pivot to fixing Spaceteam and then starting to ramp up again on Blabyrinth.

For now I'm excited to tell you about these new projects:

👯 Crowd Control

The crowd games are both designed to be played with 30+ people, using a big projection screen that everyone connects to with their phones. I've done this kind of setup before with Large Hadron Party so I already had the foundation to build on. I'm using Google Firebase for hosting the site and for its Realtime Database, which is basically a big JSON structure that instantly updates to all connected devices. It's fun to play with.

Neither game is very complicated, because when you have that many people you need something super simple.

I came up with names for the games yesterday: Shapeshifters and Friendsloop.

🌱 Shapeshifters

You are a small pixel on a big grid. You can move around and make tetris-like shapes with the other players. The first "level" just requires you to make basic shapes to get the hang of working together.

Shapeshifters Level 1 (This is the main screen shown on the projector. Players' phones will just show some directional buttons for moving their little guy around)

But the interesting part comes after I feel like people are getting the idea and I switch to the next level, which has a goal of "Collect 3 honey".

Shapeshifters Level 3

This is not explained further. The players need to discover new shapes that also generate little effects, like a drop of water, or sprouting a small plant. There are half a dozen effects so far, and by playing with the system and placing the shapes so that the effects interact they will start to create a little ecosystem to solve the puzzle.

This is all I have right now, but I'd love to add more effects, interactions, and goals the next time I run the game.

I'm also imagining a mode where one player controls a sprite who can jump around the screen as if it were a physics platformer, and everyone else controls the blocks/platforms that make up the level...!

🔄 Friendsloop

This is the second crowd game.

I'm playing on the word "friendslop", which is a hot genre right now, but also in this game you make loops with your friends! Everyone gets a symbol on their phone and you have to find the other person/people with a matching symbol in the crowd. Once you find your partner you make a loop with your arms by holding your phones between you. eg. ...👉📱👈👱👉📱👈👱👉📱👈...

Friendsloop Client Screen (This is what players will see on their phones)

Again, the first level is an intro and just matches people up in pairs.

Friendsloop Level 1 (This is the game overview shown on the projector)

Then the loops get a big larger.

Friendsloop Level 2

And finally everyone makes a big loop, in a specific order, and that allows me to do some cool things with the phone screens.

Friendsloop Level 3

Once I know the arrangement of the phones I basically have access to a ring of lights/screens that I can animate. The simplest animation is just a light moving around the circle, which is what I have so far. But if I have time before Saturday, I want to experiment with:

Both of these games are essentially test runs to find out which interactions are the most fun. After this I can build on them and bring them to other festivals in the future!

🎨 Forgotten Tiles

Now, there's one more (single player) game I've been toying with that I'd like to share with you. It's not quite ready but soon I'll send it out for a wider playtest because I'd love to get some feedback.

When the game starts you wake up not knowing where you are, with only a few fragments of memory.

You are presented with a simple 3x3 grid of tiles that you "paint" on, with scenery like grass, rocks, trees, and water.

Forgotten Tiles wake up & painting

Based on the pattern of tiles you paint, you will "discover" more tiles, for example:

Other patterns will denote unique landmarks:

Forgotten Tiles discovery & mountain pass

In a way you are exploring a landscape, but not by moving around a fixed map. Instead you are imagining, or "remembering", what the surroundings look like. There's also a limit to the number of tiles you can hold, so after a while you start "forgetting" pieces of scenery. This reinforces the idea that you're travelling between different biomes and "in" a particular area.

Forgotten Tiles forgetting

Anyway, I find it to be a fascinating little system to explore. So far the game consists of a small world to discover and some treasures to find. I'll send out a link out when I've hidden a few more surprises!

🎁 Parting Gifts

Seems like a bunch of codes from last time were expired, sorry about that! I know at least some of these will work better.

See you next time Spacefriends! ~ Henry (aka Captain Spaceteam)