DEV BLOG

The Starjump theme song is currently in the works. I have recorded the first part of an intro/loop. I thought I would post a preview here.

So far, the song is done strictly with synthesizer voices. It’s been tough to get the right feel, but I am happy with the progress so far. There is definitely more on the way.

The Ludum Dare 30 Game Jam is about 30 minutes past the submission deadline. I made an effort, but didn’t complete on time.

I do have the makings of a nice little game. A lot of the game’s intended depth and variety was simplified or removed for brevity. It should still be fun to play though.

The current state:

It’s starting to look good. But there’s a lot of numbers to deal with. It’s a bit of a ‘spreadsheet-game’. But that’s how these in-depth strategy games usually are — they tend to have a lot of numbers to crunch.

There are really only four or five issues to complete:
1. Moving units (Forces/Spies/Envoys)
2. Resolving conflicts
3. Organizing unit displays
4. Game balancing (in the above image, all numbers are identical)
5. Difficulty settings (optional)

I’ll keep working and I’ll have it done soon.

Charles Kiptin
A day late, a buck short.

There’s just a little over three hours left in the Ludum Dare 30 game jam now. I don’t think the game will be completed. That’s another deadline gone. I’ll finish this though — it’s close to completion. The game will make for a nice addition to the Starjump website.

Here’s the latest screenshot:

I did some work on the orbit views. There are images for 25 different planet/orbital-body types. All are in use, some are repeated. There’s a mix of ‘photo-realism’ and photoshopping. It’s a bit wonky. Procedural texture generation would work nicely here.

The colors in the viewer are picked randomly. It’s just a lot of placeholder art. Once the features are working, I can go back and improve on the look of the UI.

Charles Kiptin
Game Jam Insomniac

Two hours to go in the LD48 Compo. Unfortunately, I’m not going to make that deadline. I’ll keep pushing for the 72 hour jam.

Even after cutting many of the ideas that I had had, this game idea stills seems a bit much for even a 72 hour game jam. The defenses/enemies will likely need to be static, which will ruin the replay value. Also, a limit of 10 or 15 turns might be required.

Here’s a screenshot of the Game View prototype:

A recent rebellion along the Rimward Corridor has brought space travel to a standstill. The outermost Skelli Group, a cluster of stars at the corridor’s end, has fallen to a separatist movement and has broken all ties with the Terran Alliance. Jumppoints along the Rimward Corridor are vital to Terran trade and defense. This corridor connects the interior systems of the Terran Alliance with the Free Worlds frontier.

As General Director of the Rimward Corridor, you have been tasked with eliminating the separatists and reestablishing the corridor’s continuity. Through the use of military force, political negotiations, espionage, and economic measures, you must defeat the newly formed separatist government and reclaim the Skelli Group for the Terran Alliance.

A map of the Rimward Corridor:

And a map of the Skelli Group:

So far the Ludum Dare 30 game jam is going well. More work to do!

Charles Kiptin
Navigator

The Ludum Dare 30 Game Competition is currently in progress. The theme for this LD is ‘Connected Worlds’.

I’m eight hours into the 48-hour game compo and so far, it’s going well. I’m building a science fiction strategy game. I won’t label it a 4X game, as there isn’t much exploration or even expansion. Maybe it’s a 2X game? If that’s the case, the player’s task is to simply exploit and exterminate.

The Trade Relations code has come together quite nicely. I had thought that this part of the game would be the most difficult to program. It’s just a lot of code, really. And instead of maintaining many-to-many relationships, this small game will have only one-to-many relationships. That is, the enemy/neutral factions will only interact with the player, and not each other.

I put together a quick prototype of the player’s trade screen:

Ludum Dare 30 — You are cordially invited to correct your trade deficit!

So this competition is going to keep me awake and programming all weekend. It should be fun though. Everything in the game is original and it’s all created during the 48 hour time frame. The game is an idea that I have been considering, but haven’t had the time for. So this is an opportunity to test those ideas.

Charles Kiptin
Game Jammer

A jetliner crashes into the Pacific.

You and the other survivors of the crash wash ashore on a deserted island.

With no hope of rescue, do you work with the others to ensure mutual survival? Or do you compete for the island’s limited resources? The choice is yours.

Welcome to Island Survival.

Island Survival is a 2D browser-based sim game. It is multi-player, but not massively multi-player. You control a survivor with a couple of hundred other survivors, all stranded on a deserted island.  As a player, your job is to keep your survivor alive. In order to survive, the survivors must secure water, food, and shelter. For that to happen, they need to hunt food, gather resources and craft items.

The game’s island is persistent — you can check-in at any time and continue your game. There’s a chat and message system to communicate with both allies and enemies. And since you’ll be rescued eventually, the game is finite. But in all likelihood, not everyone will survive that long — there’s permadeath.

Permadeath
Permadeath has been a contentious topic. Some have suggested it to me without even knowing that it was already part of the game. Others think it’s an outdated remnant of the old arcade games — a way to keep the quarters rolling in. But in a game where each player is a potential resource, with useful skills and abilities, the loss of one ultimately affects all. So it is actually in everyone’s best interest to keep everyone else alive.

Permadeath might end the game for one player, but it makes the game more difficult for the other players.

Or does it?

The island has limited resources. There may be enough food to go around, but it won’t last forever. Eliminating another survivor might actually free-up more food for you.

As long as the players know up-front that permadeath is a consequence, it will make the game that much more of a challenge. Granted, achieving the state of permadeath will not be easy. It takes a lot to kill the characters on this island. But permadeath does exist. And if you’re not careful, it could happen to you.

Plenty of Inspiration
What I didn’t realize when I began developing this game, is that with all of the stories of island survival, this is an entire genre unto itself. We have the stories from literature: Robinson Crusoe, The Swiss Family Robinson, Treasure Island, Typee, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Lord of the Flies, and “Survivor Type”. Then we have the movies and TV shows: Giligan’s Island, Lost, Three and Survivor. These are all works with which I am familiar and enjoy. So, I was able to draw on these works for ideas and inspiration. Some ideas, like the Swiss family’s giant seashell cistern, or their hollow-palm-tree water pipes might not make the game, but their treehouse was a good idea — I’ve added that structure to the game.

Unfortunately, the genre has largely been ignored by the computer/video game industry. There were a few text-based and text/image games in the distant past. There’s even a few flash games here and there, too. But for the most part, these are all single-player games. No asynchronous, multi-player games on the market.

With Island Survival, I hope to change all that.

Early Development
The game came together quickly. The main features and a wire-frame mock up of the UI were completed over one weekend. It took shape in two days. The game practically made itself.

From there, the front and back ends have been generally developed in parallel. And, as the game is destined for mobile platforms, form and function are really one in the same. The layout and the gameplay have got to be concise. There’s no wasted space, no overcrowding.

In February, I was lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to demo the game for the Silicon Valley IGDA. That night, I was up in front of the projector for over an hour. I was explaining the game, showing off the main features and fielding questions from the audience.

I got a lot of great feedback that night and I appreciate everyone having been there. It was a great experience for me. There was lots of support. If there’s any other game developers out there, even if they’re just aspiring game devs, I suggest getting involved with the IGDA. It’s a great organization and there’s lots going on.

Then, in August I was fortunate enough to be given a table at an IGDA “Meet the Game Press” event at Google. There were over 500 people in attendance. I met a lot of great people — all gamers and industry folks. I was there at the table for about five hours, talking non-stop. I was telling anyone and everyone about my new game.

I’ve promised everyone a closed beta of Island Survival. But obviously it’s taking longer than I  had expected. Island Survival has been a challenge to make. There’s more to do and I plan to keep working on the game until it’s finally ready to deploy.

Enjoy,

Charles Kiptin