Category: Indie Dev - dannylv100.com

Indie Arcade: The MIX 2016

6/22/2016

The Media Indie Exchange (The MIX) is an indie game showcase where indie game developers can show off their games to press. Dannylv100 and Crayyon attended this event to check out the latest indie games for Indie Arcade and dannylv100.com.

Unfortunately there were way too many games to cover! This is a short video that covers a handful of the games the guys got to play.

Music was by Pax. Follow him on twitter, Soundcloud and bandcamp.

Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud,Twine, instagram and Youtube

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

Divercast Ep. 25: Indie Game Value Menu

5/4/2016

Welcome to another edition of Divercast! We are now on Season 3! This is the twenty fifth episode of Divercast! Thanks for sticking with us or if you're new, thanks for joining us!

On today's episode of Divercast the guys are joined by returning guest indie film/game designer Tony Hernandez. We talk about "Walking Simulators" and the perceived value of Indie games. Should indie games leaving the $60 price tag to the AAA developers? What is the price of a game where the story and atmosphere are 90% of the game?

They guys also talk about the outcry behind the infamous Overwatch victory pose and the somewhat silent removal of the beloved hidden character Doughnut Drake from Uncharted 4.

So sit back, relax and get ready for another Divercast!

Don't forget to check out our affiliate IndieBox.com! Indiebox is a subscription service that delivers collector edition indie games straight to your door step every month. Referral code: Divercast.

Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud,clowdy, instagram and Youtube

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

Indie Arcade: Duke Nukem 2,5

9/1/2015

Time to chew bubblegum

Welcome to another edition of Indie Arcade! This month's Indie Game is a fan game called Duke Nukem 2,5. As a big Duke Nukem fan, this game really caught my eye. Expect me to be a little more critical of this game.

Note: This is a fan game and the creator does not claim ownership of Duke Nukem.

Premise

Duke Nukem 2,5 is a fan game that brings Duke Nukem into the 2.5D realm by altering the graphics and art into pixel art.

Art and Design

The game gets it's overall look from Duke Nukem 3D (Or Duke Nukem 64 for you console gamers). The pixel art style translates nicely for a lot of the basic Duke Nukem environments. Crates, boxes, computer panels and video monitors are all on display in clean pixel art.

The player's hand and gun look clean. The animation on the pistol doesn't have as much punch as the DN3D version, but it does the job. The only other character in the game are the iconic pig cops. Pig cops are the only enemy in the game, although there is a variant pig cop that rapid fires his shotgun.

Unfortunately here in this game they look more like brown Mickey Mouse enemies, their heads lack the distinctive pig look from DN3D. It didn't take me long to recognize the enemies as pig cops, but that was mostly through their audio.

The game only features one weapon and their didn't seem to be any more to use. This is a bit of a disappointment for me because I love the arsenal of weapon in DN3D. It also seems like a cardinal sin to not include a shotgun or machine gun in an FPS.

Design wise the game sort of misses the mark. DN3D is a very speedy game where circle strafing is key. Movement in DN2,5 is on the slower side of the spectrum. Enemies seem to land almost every bullet they fire, although the damage they do is very low.

In oldschool FPS games, part of the challenge is to quickly dodge enemies while also clearing large rooms of enemies while taking as little damage as possible. It feels as if it is impossible to come out of an encounter without taking damage.

Another issue with the level design is that the ceiling is way too low. You have plenty of space to walk, but the ceiling is very low, giving an overall claustrophobic feel. The low ceiling might not come off as an issue at first, but early on in the first level I am fairly certain I got stuck because I couldn't get past a light that was above me. I had to walk all the way around to find another route.

All out of gum

Duke Nukem 2.5 is the start of what could be an amazing fan game. With a bit more weapons, enemies, levels and game mechanic tweaking, it can be a solid game in it's own right. If you are a fan of Duke Nukem, give this game a try. I am looking forward to seeing what the developer does next. I am hoping he will expand on the game and add more content.

Duke Nukem 2,5 was created by Dmitry Ezepov

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

Divercast Ep.16: Divercsat Q&A - We Answer your questions!

7/27/2015

Welcome to a special edition of Divercast! In this episode we answer questions that have been submitted to us via email and tumblr page.

The team at Deep Digital Design answers questions such as: What is your opinion on early access games? Does it seem like game dev engines are moving away from raw programming development and going into a more GUI based format? What is your game design process?

So sit back, relax it is time for Divercast!

Divercast Ep. 16: Q&A! by Divercast on Mixcloud

Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud, clowdy and Youtube

Don't forget to check out our affiliate IndieBox.com! Indiebox is a subscription service that delivers collector edition indie games straight to your door step every month. Referral code: Divercast.

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

Indie Arcade: Last Chance Super Market

12/1/2014

Attention Shoppers

Welcome to a special edition of Indie Arcade! This month is December and to celebrate I decided to talk about a game that focuses on the the less cheerful aspects of the season. I am of course talking about last minute holiday shopping.

And wouldn't you know, I stumbled upon a game that captures the horror perfectly. This month I am going to be talking about The Last Chance Supermarket.

Premise

Last Chance Supermarket is a game that simulates the stress and panic of last minute holiday shopping. In first person!

   Players are given a list of items they need to collect. Items such as Orange Juice, Toy Robots, Printers, cook books and Wreaths.

   Once all of your items are collected, you must make your way to the register to pay. This is no easy task, there are other shoppers who are also trying to do their last minute shopping. One wrong move will lead to a fatal collision that will ensure that your family will have a very cold winter.

Art and Design

The supermarket is mostly gray and sterile. This however makes spotting the items you need a bit easier, as they are all brightly colored and set on a gray shelves. Your list is also kind of blends in with the background, not a major issue but it might have been a little better if it was another color.

You run at set speed, you are always running. There are no brakes to your human powered shopping cart. You must steer it with absolute precision to avoid crashing into the walls, shelves and other shoppers. One wrong move and you get into a violent crash that sends everything flying and you to an early grave.

Trying to grab all the items on your list while avoiding shoppers and obstacles becomes a balancing act. If you focus too much on simply grabbing your items you will undoubtedly run into a shopper that takes the corner too quickly.

You are being timed, but you are not punished for taking too long, You need to attempt to avoid grabbing items that are not on your list. Your list varies up a bit with every play through. You will have to work quickly as other shoppers might snatch up something you need. If you make it to the check out line you will be shown a completion screen that will tell you just how good you did.

Cons

I already mentioned some of the weaker aspects of the game, but aside from that there are no real cons. The challenge comes from avoiding the other shoppers and trying to do it in the fastest time possible.

The only suggestion I could think of is, adding those mirrors that they hang in the corner of super markets. Adding some of those in this game would allow for the player to see what is around the corner. This will help avoid cheap deaths.

Closing Time

The Holidays are here and it is time to relax with friends and loved ones. For me, that means appreciating the people in my life. It also means having a lot of free time on my hands because everyone around me is on vacation. If you find yourself in that situation, be sure to check out Last Chance Supermarket so you can help pass the time.

Happy Holidays.

Credits

Last Chance Supermarket was developed by Sebastian Lague - @SebastianLague

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

Freze-E Frosty's : Developer Commentary - Level 2

11/18/2014

Welcome to the second installment of Freeze-E Frosty's - Developer Commentary. In this video series I will go behind the scenes of the second level of Freeze-E Frosty and share with you my design process and about the original soundtrack.

Freeze-E Frosty's Developer Commentary - Level 2 from Danny Quesada on Vimeo.

Further Notes: Level 2

- You can listen to the games original soundtrack on our indieDb page.
- The idea for the health vent was pitched by one of our environment artist.
- The "Running Man" appears 3 times in this level in the background.
- Traveling through the vents was supposed to be much shorter, but was lengthened after positive feedback from playtests.
- There was supposed to be another section before you exit the vents, but it was cut due to time.
- The Ice Cream T-Rex appears in the background twice in this level.
- This level went through many iterations of environment art layout. The look of the level wasn't finalized till near launch of the game.
- My original intent of this level was to show the dark underbelly of the factory.
- Areas featured in this level are: a warehouse, Cookie Crumbler (where toppings are made) and the soda filtration system.
- In terms of design, this level was redesigned the least.

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

Indie Arcade: Twin Tiger Shark

11/3/2014

War is Bullet Hell

Welcome to another installment of Indie Arcade! For this month, I decided to go with something that brought back a lot of childhood memories. This month we take to the skies in Twin Tiger Shark.

Note: All of the images on this page are from the itch.io page of Twin Tiger Shark. I was unable to capture or record any Hi-res images for an unknown reason.

Premise

Twin Tiger Sharks follows in the footsteps of every Bullet Hell game from the arcade era. You take to the skies in your biplane and shoot at everything that isn't you.

There are a wide array of enemy vehicles. Tanks, planes, boats, bigger planes and bosses. No worries, you have the typical arsenal of rapid fire machine guns, spread shot, grenades and lasers. And if that wasn't enough, you can summon a squadron of helper planes to help you completely annihilate everything on the screen.

There are 6 stages, and 3 difficulty settings (Easy, Hard and Insane). By default there are no continues. You start off with 3 lives and must earn more in order to stay in the fight. Once you are out of lives the games ends and you are back at stage 1.

Art and Design

   The art style is a complete throwback to old school arcade games such as the classic Raiden series. Things on screen can get very chaotic, explosions, bullets and enemy vehicles fill the screen, but at no time did I ever feel that the screen was cluttered. Everything is clear and distinguishable. A very important thing to achieve in a game such as this.

   From start to finish the game is a loving tribute to the genre. I have seen a lot of games that claim to emulate the bullet hell genre or other classic arcade games such as Metal Slugs. None of those games come close to what Twin Tiger Sharks has achieved.

It is more than clear that the developers of this game have spent countless hours in the arcades of the early 90's, spending quarter after quarter. Not only does it look good and sound good, it plays extremely well.

   The games features a "Dodge" mechanic that is seamlessly implemented into the game. By moving left or right, your plane tilts on it's axis. Do this at the right time and you can bypass incoming bullets. This mechanic is a wonderful and simple new addition that adds a bit more depth to the typical shoot everything on screen.

Another interesting game mechanic in Twin Tiger Shark is the "Helper Planes" power-up. Once collected, a squadron of planes will join you. They fire machine guns non-stop and follow your lead. Not only do they help you clear the screen of enemies, they also act as shield, absorbing one hit for you before going down.

One thing that also makes this game unique is it's lack of continues. You have one shot to make it through all six stages. Once you lose all of your lives, it's game over. This game is hard and punishing. I consider myself to be fairly well versed in the genre. I mastered the first level of Metal Slug 3 (I can clear it without losing a single life) and I have beaten many other bullet hell games. Twin Tiger Sharks however, I can not pass stage 1-2!

Pro Tip: Bombs are not just useful for taking out groups of enemies, they can also be used to quickly destroy all incoming bullets/projectiles in a small radius.

Cons

   There is one issue I personally had with this game, but most things aren't really issues at all. I have a few things that I would like to see in an update or sequel.

   There was one issue I ran into. I played Twin Tiger Shark on my PC. The game is compatible with a USB controller. For some reason I could not get my controller to work, so i was forced to use the keyboard. This isn't a reason to not like the game, just an issue I encountered. Not a deal breaker at all, just keep that in mind.

Some features that I would like to see is, an option to add continues to your play through, A stage select and a free play mode where you have unlimited lives. Offering up some sort of customization to the way you play can add a lot of replay value. Not to mention it would allow me to practice so I can get past the first stage.

King of the Skies

Twin Tiger Shark is a game that sets out to be an awesome tribute to the arcade era shooters. It however is a much more successful game that blazes it's own trail.

It brought back happy memories of playing games like Time Pilot and Raiden. And for only a buck, Twin Tiger Shark will save you a ton of quarters.

The highest score I got in the first stage (1-1) was 367,700. Think you can beat that?

Credits

Twin Tiger Shark was created by Wide Pixel Games.

Twin Tiger Shark is also available on OUYA and Xbox Live Marketplace.

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

Indie Arcade: Rhythm Doctor

10/1/2014

Rhythm Prescription

This month's Indie Arcade game is Rhythm Doctor. Rhythm Doctor is an interesting indie music game that wants you to keep the beat.

Premise

   As the Rhythm Doctor you are tasked with helping your patients get their groove back.

   By following along to the Rhythm of the song and matching your button press to the beat of the song. With each successful tap you revitalize your patient. The better you do, the better the ranking you will receive.

   Getting a good ranking will allow you to see more patients (unlocking more songs) and unlock a higher difficulty setting.

Art and Design

Rhythm Doctor is a pixel art game, and don't let that turn you away. Some of the backgrounds during the songs you play are put together very well. They come to life, following along to the beat of the song. The art is crisp and clear, and goes along great with the very visual musical segments.

Character collapse in pain when your miss notes, or gain energy and glow when you are keeping the beat alive. The animations are expressive, and that helps communicate just how well you are doing.

Design wise the game is really easy to understand. You need to follow along to the music, which is visually translated as an green ECG spike traveling down a line. Once the beat reaches the yellow part of the line, you must hit the space bar to match the beat.

The game is a little tricky at first, it takes some getting used to and unlike games like Rock Band/Guitar Hero you have to use your inner sense of rhythm and timing.

Cons

I am happy to report that Rhythm Doctor has very few cons to report. I would just say that one issue some people might have is that you can't see the beat you need to hit. It is done by following your own sense of rhythm. This can be frustrating for some player,but I feel that it was a conscious design decision and I wouldn't fault the devs for it.

The only real drawback to the game is the visuals, now I know I said they were crisp but the issue I am talking about is communicating how good you are doing. There is no score/points and there is no crowd that boos you. As I mentioned, a lot of that information is being told to you through the body language of your patients(Animated as happy or feeling ill etc). Which can easily be missed with all of the background animations and effects.

For example, when I first played the samurai stage, I thought I was doing awesome! The background was going crazy, the ECG line was glowing and the music was pumping. After the song ended I came out with a D rank. What I didn't notice is that there were also words that popped up on the top left of the screen with the usual "Too Early" and "Perfect". They got kind of lost with all the things going on. This is the only real con, but once I knew what was going on I could deal, and this is not a game breaker.

Beats Per Minute

Rhythm Doctor is a challenging game and enjoyable game. You need to give the developers a lot of credit here, they simplified the music game genre into what it is at it's core, rhythm. Where a plastic guitar controller can give you the illusion of being in control of the music, there is a disconnect. This is where Rhythm Doctor is successful, it makes you become aware of the music and therefore more engaged.

Credits

Rhythm Doctor was developed by Winston Lee and Hafiz Azman - @fizzlemyshizzle

Check out the games soundtrack on their SoundCloud page.

Rhythm Doctor was the 2014 IGF Student Showcase winner.

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

Indie Arcade: Gang Beasts

9/2/2014

A Call to Brawl

Welcome to another edition of Indie Arcade! This month, I am taking a look at Gang Beasts. A local multiplayer physics based brawler for the PC.

Note: The version of the Gang Beasts I am playing is build 0.0.3 and may not represent newer builds or the finished game.

Premise

Gang Beasts is a local multiplayer fighting game where players battle their friends in an array of arenas. The focus of the game is it's play-doh like physics that allow for some truly over the top fights.

To win, you must force your opponents to lose all of their lives. Depending on the stage/arena it might be something as simple as tossing them out of a wrestling ring or it might involve punching them off of a conveyor belt and into an incinerator.

Art and Design

This is an early build of the game, the art is all placeholder at the moment, but that really doesn't matter to me one bit. I am the kind of person that doesn't really care about the "graphics" of a game, as long as the art style of the game isn't a distraction.

What we have here are clean 3D stages. Everything in the environment is easily distinguishable. There is never a moment where you will be asking yourself whether that is a truck or platform etc. The characters are bright play-doh like figures and are easily spotted in the game world.

I know the games art is not complete, but I actually really like how it looks at the moment. Nothing out there has a similar look to it and that really helps it stand out from the crowd. I will admit though that I am looking forward to playing as a luchador. The planned character models remind me of those wrestler dolls that they used to sell back in the early 90s.

The game is pretty easy to get the hang of. You have two buttons to punch (right and left hand), a button to jump and a button to duck. When you hold one of the punch buttons you can hold or grab an object or opponent, and if done properly you can even lift them over your head to toss them out of the arena Royal Rumble style.

The arenas/stages are all great. They are designed with chaotic fun in mind and I have no complaints. The way the stages are designed, you can really go abstract with them and make some crazy obstacle course of pain. I would love to try my hands at a level editor and create an American Gladiators style arena.

Cons

Gang Beasts is till in it's early stages of development and as such it does have a few bugs and glitches. I did run into a few but they were usually nothing that was game breaking or truly frustrating.

The only really issue I had was the controls. By default you need to set the inputs yourself. The build I played did not have a default layout for the keyboard or controller. This was a bit annoying at first, especially when you need to set the inputs for every single player. I would have preferred a recommended or default input that I could then have the option of altering if needed.

The game is local multiplayer only (for now). This isn't an issue per se, but I know for me it was a bit annoying when I had no one to play with. This game is meant to be experienced with other human opponents. I didn't get the chance to truly experience the game until I was able to get friend and a second controller. This is no reason to not try out the game though, just something to keep in mind.

Fighting never stops

Gang Beasts is the perfect party game. Easy to learn mechanics and a vibe that took me back to a time where I would play games like Bomberman 64 with all my friends on the couch.

It has a great energy and a lot of potential. Don't believe me? Give it a download and grab a few friends.

Credits

Gang Beasts is being developed by
Boneloaf Follow them on Twitter - @boneloaf

Click to download the Gang Beasts demo!

Be sure to check out Boneloaf on IndieDB and on Steam Greenlight.

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

Freeze-E Frosty's : Developer Commentary - Level 1

8/19/2014

Welcome to the first installment of Freeze-E Frosty's - Developer Commentary. In this video series I will go behind the scenes of Freeze-E Frosty and share with you my design process.

Freeze-E Frosty's Developer Commentary - Main Menu and Level 1 from Danny Quesada on Vimeo.

Further Notes: Level 1

- The main menu was originally part of the third level but was discarded. Toward the end of development it was salvaged and turned into the main menu.

- There are almost one hundred dynamic lights in the first half of the level. Once the player reaches the second floor (where the workstation is) there is a trigger that completely deletes all of the lights. This was done to keep the frame rate from dipping lower than 30fps.

- We were lucky enough to record all of the voice over work in a professional studio with talented audio personnel. We did two 4 hour sessions to record all the voice work.

- This level went through many iterations before we went wit this design. This design was sketched by myself while I was stuck in traffic heading home one day.

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100