All should be fixed now.

If we end up featuring your level in Shift 2 (iPhone) you’ll get your full name in the credits as well as a free copy of the game in the app store.

The rules for the contest are as follows:

1. E-mail your level codes to support@fishingcactus.com
2. Make sure you include your full name to be listed in the credits
3. Lastly, submit an e-mail address that is easiest to reach you so the game can be sent to the winners.

Armor Games & Fishing Cactus wishes all contestants the best of luck! To get started, click here. Follow us on Twitter to know in real-time what we think about the levels submitted!

Yes, you heard me, that’s what I’m talking about. The Level Design process of Shift 2 levels.

Who knows? We might have something related in developement…

Let’s face it, designing batches of dozen and dozen levels while keeping our beloved player entertained can be tricky. So here are some tips and tricks we use in the making of the levels for our unique platformer (as a reminder created by Anthony Lavelle and Armor Games).

Evolution

While Shift 1 was featuring only 2 kind of level elements (doors and spikes) Shift 2 is featuring brand new elements which greatly improve the level design possibilities, hence, player experience. Let’s have a quick look at those.

Rotators:

This feature is a trigger represented by a 4 direction arrow placed on any simple black or white tile. If the player walks on it, the level rotates in that direction.

It is a very big change that introduces 2 new ways of seeing the level for a player. It also allows the design of much more aerial/platform-oriented levels, in which the player has to gracefully jump back and forth, avoiding deadly spikes while being rotated at each landing. Lot of fun in perspective !

Shift impermeable material:

This level element creates platforms which are not black or white, hence impossible to shift!

Impermeable material disolver:

This bonus goes with the previous, picking it up will transform a non-shiftable material that the designer has preset into a black or white shiftable square.

Customisable door:

We can now set 5 different lengths for the door. Yay! It means that it is possible to think of much cooler dynamic mazes using the doors to block or open path.

Unfortunately we found out that Apple missed a bug on iOS4.0 with 3G which prevents the game from booting up. Our team has already found the problem and an update to fix the issue has been submited to Apple.

Thanks and sorry for the incovenience.

Soon in your palm !!

Good news for you, atoms lover!

Get it now on the AppStore !!!

During the AiGameDev Conference 2010 at Paris Claudio Pedica, a researcher at CADIA Labs, Reykjavik University, currently collaborating with CCP Games presented us their new social interaction system in a talk titled Human Territoriality for EVE Online’s Socially Smart Characters.

This was a short preview on how the space stations are going to be populated in the next EVE online expansion.

The main focus of the research conducted by CCP is based on the lack of feedback in games when it comes to interactions. For example if you pass besides a game character, he doesn’t notice you or in worse cases, if you bump into him, the most common reaction is that he won’t even step aside and your character stops dumbly like when facing a wall! Fortunately, not all games react like this. In GTA when you hit someone or pass close to him he steps aside or even says something to you.

What the guys at CCP are trying to do is to recreate an interaction system based on how humans practically cope with interactions and how they react to other people’s physical presence.

In the demos shown we could see the character move close to a group of NPCs; when close enough, the group understands that this character wants to be part of their group so they take a step aside to form a bigger but still homogeneous group.

The “circle” itself is, in this system, the interaction unit; each character and group possesses one and each unit is designed for a particular type of interaction.

1) First there is the personal circle which defines the limit of the body area.

2) The external circle is used for the close social interactions like dialogs or people walking near (also true for groups).

3) An inner circle is also defined by the participants of the group: a circle defines its body and the external circle of it. In another example we saw one participant moving a few steps from his former position and the rest of the group following him to recreate the circle.

I actually don’t play EVE Online at all and I don’t really know what they are planning to do with the new space stations system but having this feature is über-cool and I think it would really improve the experience of the players (at least contributing to a more immersive experience).

Having people walking from one spot to another or joining conversations or even reacting to the players’ presence will surely make us feel more in a real living world. When you think that some games only feature static NPCs, this talk gets even more impressing!

Human Territoriality for EVE Online’s Socially Smart Characters by Claudio Pedica can be downloaded from the AiGameDev website.

Students are in groups and can ask for external help (artists, programmers). Not to mention that they have no fund to do so (looks like a real indie studio). When getting external help, they are often working with professionnals who have some spare time, amateurs or team up with other, more dedicated, schools.

As an ex-student from the Supinfogame (I graduated 8 years ago, oooh growing very old), I’m amazed to see the number of growing and known people attending this jury. This is partly due to the increasing quality of projects presented. This year I’ve been really amazed by the quality of productions. Some concepts were very innovative and some of them were really more than prototypes, near finalized products.

Students presented us 6 prototypes: “Le marionnettiste” (The Puppeteer), “When Gods Play”, “Contre-Jour”, “Blork”, “The Uncanny Fish Hunt” and finally “Big Bang”.

LE MARIONNETTISTE

“Le Marionnettiste” is a Nintendo Wii student prototype (currently running on PC using a Wiimote).

In “Le Marionnettiste”, you have the opportunity to embody a puppeteer soul, trapped in a puppet. The magic strings won’t let your soul go to heaven, so you have to find a way to take back your freedom. Using the Wiimote, you’ll have to mimicry a puppeteer to move your avatar, just like if the strings were directly bound to your Wiimote.

This concept provides a brand new way to play and to approach the platform/reflection games. Using the Wiimote, you will become the master of your puppet, your tool. But don’t forget the strings; they could get caught in the mechanisms. Be smart and make them your main strength. This new challenge is unique, a “two levels of reflection”, only in “Le Marionnettiste”.

This 9 months’ project has been realized by 6 students, using Unity engine.

My 2 cents: definitely great production values with loads of levels and interessting level designs (they know how to work with constraints). Overall a good gameplay system and a unique approach to controlling an avatar. However the approach has some drawbacks: the game becomes boring after 5 minutes as the player mostly manages the camera instead of actually playing (they split the camera movement from the avatar movement). However from what i’ve seen so far, this prototype is definitely the best from a production value standpoint.

You can download the game on the official website: http://www.wix.com/Le_Marionnettiste/Le_Marionnettiste

WHEN GODS PLAY

W.G.P. is a real time strategy game focusing on strategy by the terrain. You do not control unit, you only influence them by changing the terrain.

I’m sorry for this one, not a lot of screenshots to show as the website is actually down.

However here’s my feelings about it: obviously the most ambitious project of all. WGP mixes RTS, Terraforming and MMO. In fact it reminds me of the new Ubisoft project’s Dust. There is a market to take there for sure but obviously for a reason too. Actually the prototype showed just the early potential of the idea and it was not very clear why they chose to have so much features in the project instead of focusing on 1 or 2 and execute them well. For instance they had problems of path finding, effects, behaviors and general understanding of the game flow.

Overall I have a feeling that this project was just too big for the team (especially with no pro programmers) and I still think that with a simpler game (turn by turn for instance) they would have one of the most promising prototype of this year. At least they had the guts to dive into something very very challenging.

CONTRE-JOUR

A cursed a little boy is sentenced to guide an imaginary shadow on the ground. He mustn’t expose it entirely to the light, otherwise he will die. Contre-Jour is a imaginative puzzle game taking advantage the light / dark contrast.

What do I think? Honestly one of the best game to play, 5 minutes to get the controls and you are in the game and have some serious fun. They implemented a neat dual stick control (very underused nowadays) and designed very interessting puzzles with moving elements and, of course, lights. From a graphic point of view it has a nice and refreshing art style.

My only concern is about the shadow itself, which is the core mechanic of the game as it acts as the lifebar of the player. Actually to lose the game, you have to put the shadow in full light. This means the tiniest part of shadow can always save your ass and sometimes it is very hard to notice them. It creates some very unintuitive feedback where you can or cannot go. It would have been better to chose for a more manichean choice and not stick in the middle like they did as it confuses the player more than it creates interessting gameplay.

BIG BANG

In a nutshell, Big Bang is a universe creator “sandbox” game where you create planets and systems by combining atoms together (Based on the theory of Cords) (Micro level). At a macro level, you can influence your planets gravity. Your goal? Keep the system alive as long as possible (represented by the smoke).

My thoughts? Definitely an innovative prototype, great ideas, it almost looks like a Serious Game to me (CNRS). Despite its niche approach, Big Bang has a wide appeal and is in complete synch with contemplative experience you can find in Flower, Spore or the Sims. If I had time, I could have spent hours, hypnotically in front of my system. Definitely a great and fascinating experience.

The issues? A very difficult cord phase (where you shape atoms) which is almost not playable and ruins completely this specific part (despite a very good idea). The implementation of the puzzle system (where you combine atoms) is not very intuitive and lacks feedback. Finally, lack of objectives and tutorial also create a very frustrating first experience. However Big Bang is, in my point of view, definitely worth pursuing as it opened my eyes on a very interessting way of gaming with macro objects.

BLORK

A gameplay video can be watched here: http://www.blork-thegame.com/images/test.wmv

Plunged into a crazy and quirky world, Blörk invites you to embody a Klörx, a tricky alien species, that enjoys kidnapping human sleepwalkers while they’re asleep. Take part in the most famous galactic championship, the Blörk, and become its greatest star! Every stage is a chance to cumulate more fans across the universe to access new levels.

In Blörk, you don’t control the sleepwalkers but the world they evolve in. Explore cosmic environments, urban universes and a lot more all along the trip to celebrity!

My POV? Interesting 2D auto-scrolling platformer with a tilt controls (and yes, it looks like Rolando because it’s a tilt platformer). It is the only project running on the target device (where all the other projects are on consoles but aren’t running on consoles) and features 19 levels. The game is 90% finished. However the game could be 100% with a better polished animations and better handling of collisions.

Also, an important thing, the game is free and can be downloaded on iTunes here.

THE UNCANNY FISH HUNT

The Uncanny Fish Hunt is a weird game, a mix between an adventure game (Machinarium meets Moby Dick) and action phases reminiscent of a casual game (Diner Dash). It has definitely a great look and a nice “French” touch (not pejorative).

Definitely The Uncanny Fish Hunt is one of my favorite project as it has a true soul! However when we take a closer look at the prototype we can see that the gameplay is not thhat good yet and must be improved in order to be both entertaining and keep the player interessted in the game for more than 20 minutes. In the current prototype, the gameplay on the fish boat is a collection of mini games which can be very repetitive after a few times and the boss fight are definitely to be polished.

Overall the quality of projects presented this year was way above what I saw over the last years at Supinfogame and behind my critics, I was quite impressed by all the prototypes, so as closing words, gratz to all students and I’m eager to see what students will create next year!

Hey, that's us!

On my part, I’ll spend this post writing about the conference keynote that I found to be both interesting and inspirational; this talk by Bruce Blumberg was titled “Intimate Conversations with Interactive Animated Characters”.

Bruce Blumberg’s is the director of the Synthetic Characters Group at MIT Media Laboratory in Cambridge and is in charge of the Synthetic Animal Team at Blue Fang Studios, developers of World of Zoo (from here on, WoZ) on the Wii and PC. More importantly, Blumberg’s been working on virtual pet’s AI for several years now and he is considered one of the world’s leading experts in the field! Also, he showcased an abstract virtual dog made of simple geometric shapes, and I swear that thing behaved like a real dog! Amazing!

Mr.Blumberg’s talk focused on detailing his work on virtual pet’s AI throughout the years on WoZ and on what it means to create a relationship between the player and a virtual pet. What distinguishes a good pet game from a bad one? How is it that for some virtual pets we end up caring about and other we just leave them dying (when we’re not killing them ourselves)?

The presentation showed how iterative his work has been, from über-computer simulations to expo installations and videogames. At one moment, a video showed an audience reacting to a “alpha wolf”, a wolf puppy simulation: the reactions were astonishing, people wooow-ed and aaahhh-ed almost like during an interaction with an actual pet!

So, what are the secret ingredients Mr.Blumberg mentioned?

• The need to create a “conversation” between the player and the pet, the two need to understand each other, interpret each other’s behaviors and attitudes.

• The player needs to feel that HE is the center of attention, that the virtual pet is  dependent on him to survive/learn/evolve! A clear example: when a dog comes to you holding a stick and asking you to throw it, basically the dog is asking “I need you to play my game, otherwise I’ll be bored” (close enough anyway). Thus, thanks to its owner, the dog is happy and the owner is gratified.

• Obviously, the pet’s behavior needs to be coherent and pertinent; but more precisely, to put it in Mr.Blumberg’s words, it needs to exhibit attention, engagement, and sentience. Basically, you don’t want a pet that doesn’t acknowledge the player’s role,  ignores the player altogether or even acts bored to the player’s input!

I’ll be honest, I had very little time to play World of Zoo but from what I experienced, and despite the game being targeted at a young audience (gameplay is fairly simple), the animal’s behavior were incredibly funny to watch and at no moment I had the impressions to be in front of a “mere” AI. Also, kudos to the wonderful art design (very Wind Waker-y)! All-in-all, it all felt very…natural!

Finally, let me add that Bruce Blumberg is an incredibly talented speaker (like all the other American speakers at the conference, that’s an odd pattern!) who managed to entertain and impress throughout his talk! I hope I’ll have the chance to attend another one of his lectures.

That’s it! Here’s hoping for a chance to work on something involving virtual pets one day, as I believe that they can make for very compelling games or at least, turn any game-world into a far more exciting place to be!

After being Top#1 Paid App in the French AppStore, let’s now hope we’ll get the same success in the US. Spread the word and in the meantime, here’s the link to the news: http://appmodo.com/24859/3-best-games-june/.