48-Hour Contest 5: Article V
48-Hour Development Contest: Part IV
[Published on GameCareerGuide.com March 21, 2008]
By Michael Butler
The University of Michigan hosts an annual game development challenge, in which small teams of students have just 48 hours to develop a video game. GameCareerGuide.com is running an exclusive five-part series written by the contestants about their experience making a game in just two days. In the final article, Part IV, we meet the team who took third place.
The University of Michigan hosts an annual game development challenge, in which small teams of students have just 48 hours to develop a video game. The event is run by the campus' game development club, Wolverine Soft.
Beware the Bears
This is my first time participating in the 48-Hour Contest, and I'm unsure of how it will go. Granted, I'm a computer science in engineering major at the University of Michigan, but my experience programming games amounts to only one project. That game was made over the summer, with much more forgiving time constraints than I'll see here.
I've decided to team up with my friend Adam. Although he has not participated in the 48-Hour Contest before either, he has done more game programming in a computer game design class.
Friday
6:30 p.m. Teams are announced and we now know that our third team member, Emeric, also has never been in the contest, nor has ever programmed a game. The three of us are all programmers, but none of us has any real graphics or music experience.
Since Adam and I have more programming experience, we decide it is best if Emeric does what he can on graphics and sounds, while we program the game. Adam and I both know how to use the DXFramework; thus our contest strategy is formed.
7:00 p.m. The contest theme is revealed to be "Honoring Stephen Colbert." Our sentiments are best described in the words of my team member Emeric: "Who is Stephen Colbert?"
None of us has any real knowledge of Stephen Colbert other than that he has a television show, The Colbert Report, and was the voice of some characters on Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law. Although we're displeased and confused that the theme is not more general, we begin brainstorming and researching.
8:30 p.m. After brainstorming we come up with a couple of ideas. One idea is to make a game in which a crazed Colbert fanatic tries to increase the ratings for The Colbert Report by setting all the televisions in electronics stores to the channel playing the show. The store employees will constantly try to turn the televisions back to their original stations and catch the hooligan who is making them do more work.
Another idea we have is based on Stephen Colbert's fear of bears, which we learned during a brief bit of web research. Colbert will be attacked by many different kinds of bears, and he must shoot and kill the bears chasing him. The animals used to be humans but were changed into bears due to some hand-waving biological weapon, and they want to turn Colbert into a bear as well. This game would be a top-down shooter with many levels and different kinds of guns. Of our two ideas, the bear shooting game sounds like more fun. We get to work. As Colbert escapes the bear attacks, he will inch closer and closer to the White House. If he wins the final stage, he will become President of the United States. Surely giving Colbert the presidency constitutes "honoring" him.
10:30 p.m. Emeric leaves because he needs to catch a bus to get home for the night. Meanwhile, Adam and I have gotten a simple move-and-shoot game up and running. We might want to fix the shooting angle such that he shoots toward where we click on the screen, rather than some other angle based on where we click on the screen.
I start by making a generic bear that will chase and maul our beloved hero. Once I get this up and running, I can work on randomizing where the bear appears on the edge, and then start on the different types of bears. I really like the idea of having a ninja bear, a pirate bear, and a Secret Service bear.
11:30 p.m. Our angle problem is fixed. Adam had to leave, so I'm the only person on my team who's still here, but my morale is high, and I'm not tired since I got a lot of sleep prior to the event. I create a "to do" list so that we know what functionality still needs to be implemented at each step.
Saturday
2:00 a.m. A little while ago, I stepped out to eat, but now I'm done and am feeling refreshed. It's a shame we can't have food or drinks in the contest room. Having refreshments helps me concentrate on programming and boosts my morale.
3:30 a.m. I have a bear on screen and it's following our tragic hero.
4:15 a.m. Death to the bear! Shooting can kill it now! I'm feeling extremely happy with myself, but there's still more to go. I decide to start making more bears.
6:00 a.m. The bear designs have been good for a laugh. I now have some concept drawings for a hippie bear, a Secret Service bear, a ninja bear, and Osama Bear Laden. I also made a Phil Ken Sebbear, which is a parody of Phil Ken Sebben from Harvey Birdman.
I'm happy because our project is somewhat playable now. Multiple bears appear and from many different directions. Next, I suppose I will get multiple bears on the map at the same time. I'm starting to feel pretty tired, but in the next few hours, I upgrade the game a bit more and continue to brainstorm new ideas.
9:00 a.m. By now, I'm really tired, but I've made some creative progress. Instead of points, the player will earn gummy bears. I realize I need to go home to get some sleep and sustenance now that Adam has returned to pick up where I left off. I leave Adam and Emeric a list of things that still need to be done.
3:00 p.m. I return to find that our mouse arrow has been replaced with a crosshair. We now have a shotgun and a flag weapon implemented, and we have some more screens, including a shop screen.
I resume working on getting multiple bears onto the screen at once.
6:00 p.m. I finish recoding the bear class to hold sprites rather than sprite pointers. It should be more convenient for later use. I also learn that "V_RETURN" is used for debugging.
I feel hungry like none other though -- it's almost unbearable. Fortunately, we're getting pizza tonight due to the generosity of Wolverine Soft. I can't wait.
9:00 p.m. Apparently, my changing the bears from pointers to objects was a bad idea. I forgot about that property of inheritance. That was pretty stupid of me. To fix the problem I have to switch the bear objects back to bear pointers and put back the memory management. And I thought I was saving myself from possible memory complications with that change!
10:00 p.m. I revert everything back to pointers to allow inheritance to do its thing. So much time was wasted on that endeavor. Frustration starts to set in. However, we have a game working, and Adam has added a flamethrower, leaving us all a little less stressed out than we could have been.
Sunday
12:30 a.m. We now have individualized bears running around on screen, chasing Colbert. There is a generic bear with no special features; a polar bear that is basically ears, eyes, a nose and a mouth; a Secret Service bear that cannot be hurt by bullet-based weapons; and a ninja bear that has a chance to can dodge Colbert's projectiles.
I'm a little more stressed now. At this point, it feels like there's more to put into the game than we have time to implement. We still have to fix the shop, add a game-over screen, maybe add more bears, and individualize the levels. At least we have a game that's sort of fun to play, even though it's somewhat difficult. Those ninja bears are incredibly evil.
3:00 a.m. I research more about Harvey Birdman as a break from programming. I also think of some interesting sound effects to add to the game. I'm back to work but am feeling a little tired again.
4:40 a.m. At this stage, we have individualized levels, and our game is ridiculously hard. I should think of a way to rebalance the levels so that they don't become so difficult so quickly. However, I'm too tired to work right now and decide to take a nap. This time I will try sleeping here instead of going home.
7:30 a.m. Sleeping on chairs proves to be a challenge. The experience is fairly interesting.
9:00 a.m. I redesign the shop screen, and it looks really cool now. We have Potamus from Harvey Birdman as the sales clerk for Potamus's Pack and Ship, which is our in-game store.
11:00 a.m. We left to eat a little while ago, and while I'm feeling less hungry now, I'm still really tired.
Emeric makes an intro song to run on the title screen. I'm really surprised at how good it sounds, considering he doesn't have any music experience. I plug away at adding in some other sound effects.
7:00 p.m. It's time to turn in the game. Since 11:00 a.m., we further individualized the levels by changing the different types of bears on each level, rather than have all the bears on each one. We added an end stage in the White House where Colbert fights Osama Bear Laden, who can only be killed by the American Flag weapon. We added a point system that's based on earning points for each bear kill. The player can use those bear-kill points to purchase new weapons.
I'm anxious to see what other teams came up with for the theme and to see how our game stacks up against the competition. I decide initially to not survey the other contestants, to stay behind and show our game to anyone who wants to check it out.
As I watch people play the game and answer their questions, I realize that our game is more difficult than we had originally thought. The ninja bears seem to be mysteriously more agile than when we tested our game, and some of the backgrounds that we threw in at the end make the camouflaged polar bears much more difficult to see. Also, many people are having a hard time earning enough points from bear kills in the early stages to get the more advanced weaponry. Only a few people seem to be making it to the final level to fight Osama Bear Laden.
For some of the players, the game's difficulty seems to make them want to play more, so it can't be that bad. But I'm surprised in another way as well: One player has lasted longer than all the others by only using the initial weapon, the flag.
8:00 p.m. Adam returns from looking at the other games, so it's my turn to go see the competition. Upon looking at the games, most of which feature bears in some way, I'm surprised at people interpreted the theme and how they incorporated it into their games. I'm also surprised at how many games don't seem to be completed.
10:00 p.m. Our game places third in our first ever 48-Hour Contest. That makes me feel confident that although I'm fairly new to programming games, I may have some talent for making them.
While everyone wraps up, I overhear several people talking about working on their games later to make them more playable. Although I like the game we came up with, I don't think I will have time to polish it into a more refined product, nor do I think it would be worthwhile to work on it further when I have so many more ideas for games that I would like to make.
This whole experience has been a good one. It has given me that much more experience in something I would like to continue doing. Even if I do not program games as a career, I will at least keep doing so as a hobby.
Michael Butler is a computer science in engineering majoring student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and a member of the student game development club, Wolverine Soft. His team's game placed third in the 2008 48-Hour Game Development Contest.
Original Article on Gamecareerguide.com
[Published on GameCareerGuide.com March 21, 2008]
By Michael Butler
The University of Michigan hosts an annual game development challenge, in which small teams of students have just 48 hours to develop a video game. GameCareerGuide.com is running an exclusive five-part series written by the contestants about their experience making a game in just two days. In the final article, Part IV, we meet the team who took third place.
The University of Michigan hosts an annual game development challenge, in which small teams of students have just 48 hours to develop a video game. The event is run by the campus' game development club, Wolverine Soft.
Beware the Bears
This is my first time participating in the 48-Hour Contest, and I'm unsure of how it will go. Granted, I'm a computer science in engineering major at the University of Michigan, but my experience programming games amounts to only one project. That game was made over the summer, with much more forgiving time constraints than I'll see here.
I've decided to team up with my friend Adam. Although he has not participated in the 48-Hour Contest before either, he has done more game programming in a computer game design class.
Friday
6:30 p.m. Teams are announced and we now know that our third team member, Emeric, also has never been in the contest, nor has ever programmed a game. The three of us are all programmers, but none of us has any real graphics or music experience.
Since Adam and I have more programming experience, we decide it is best if Emeric does what he can on graphics and sounds, while we program the game. Adam and I both know how to use the DXFramework; thus our contest strategy is formed.
7:00 p.m. The contest theme is revealed to be "Honoring Stephen Colbert." Our sentiments are best described in the words of my team member Emeric: "Who is Stephen Colbert?"
None of us has any real knowledge of Stephen Colbert other than that he has a television show, The Colbert Report, and was the voice of some characters on Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law. Although we're displeased and confused that the theme is not more general, we begin brainstorming and researching.
8:30 p.m. After brainstorming we come up with a couple of ideas. One idea is to make a game in which a crazed Colbert fanatic tries to increase the ratings for The Colbert Report by setting all the televisions in electronics stores to the channel playing the show. The store employees will constantly try to turn the televisions back to their original stations and catch the hooligan who is making them do more work.
Another idea we have is based on Stephen Colbert's fear of bears, which we learned during a brief bit of web research. Colbert will be attacked by many different kinds of bears, and he must shoot and kill the bears chasing him. The animals used to be humans but were changed into bears due to some hand-waving biological weapon, and they want to turn Colbert into a bear as well. This game would be a top-down shooter with many levels and different kinds of guns. Of our two ideas, the bear shooting game sounds like more fun. We get to work. As Colbert escapes the bear attacks, he will inch closer and closer to the White House. If he wins the final stage, he will become President of the United States. Surely giving Colbert the presidency constitutes "honoring" him.
10:30 p.m. Emeric leaves because he needs to catch a bus to get home for the night. Meanwhile, Adam and I have gotten a simple move-and-shoot game up and running. We might want to fix the shooting angle such that he shoots toward where we click on the screen, rather than some other angle based on where we click on the screen.
I start by making a generic bear that will chase and maul our beloved hero. Once I get this up and running, I can work on randomizing where the bear appears on the edge, and then start on the different types of bears. I really like the idea of having a ninja bear, a pirate bear, and a Secret Service bear.
11:30 p.m. Our angle problem is fixed. Adam had to leave, so I'm the only person on my team who's still here, but my morale is high, and I'm not tired since I got a lot of sleep prior to the event. I create a "to do" list so that we know what functionality still needs to be implemented at each step.
Saturday
2:00 a.m. A little while ago, I stepped out to eat, but now I'm done and am feeling refreshed. It's a shame we can't have food or drinks in the contest room. Having refreshments helps me concentrate on programming and boosts my morale.
3:30 a.m. I have a bear on screen and it's following our tragic hero.
4:15 a.m. Death to the bear! Shooting can kill it now! I'm feeling extremely happy with myself, but there's still more to go. I decide to start making more bears.
6:00 a.m. The bear designs have been good for a laugh. I now have some concept drawings for a hippie bear, a Secret Service bear, a ninja bear, and Osama Bear Laden. I also made a Phil Ken Sebbear, which is a parody of Phil Ken Sebben from Harvey Birdman.
I'm happy because our project is somewhat playable now. Multiple bears appear and from many different directions. Next, I suppose I will get multiple bears on the map at the same time. I'm starting to feel pretty tired, but in the next few hours, I upgrade the game a bit more and continue to brainstorm new ideas.
9:00 a.m. By now, I'm really tired, but I've made some creative progress. Instead of points, the player will earn gummy bears. I realize I need to go home to get some sleep and sustenance now that Adam has returned to pick up where I left off. I leave Adam and Emeric a list of things that still need to be done.
3:00 p.m. I return to find that our mouse arrow has been replaced with a crosshair. We now have a shotgun and a flag weapon implemented, and we have some more screens, including a shop screen.
I resume working on getting multiple bears onto the screen at once.
6:00 p.m. I finish recoding the bear class to hold sprites rather than sprite pointers. It should be more convenient for later use. I also learn that "V_RETURN" is used for debugging.
I feel hungry like none other though -- it's almost unbearable. Fortunately, we're getting pizza tonight due to the generosity of Wolverine Soft. I can't wait.
9:00 p.m. Apparently, my changing the bears from pointers to objects was a bad idea. I forgot about that property of inheritance. That was pretty stupid of me. To fix the problem I have to switch the bear objects back to bear pointers and put back the memory management. And I thought I was saving myself from possible memory complications with that change!
10:00 p.m. I revert everything back to pointers to allow inheritance to do its thing. So much time was wasted on that endeavor. Frustration starts to set in. However, we have a game working, and Adam has added a flamethrower, leaving us all a little less stressed out than we could have been.
Sunday
12:30 a.m. We now have individualized bears running around on screen, chasing Colbert. There is a generic bear with no special features; a polar bear that is basically ears, eyes, a nose and a mouth; a Secret Service bear that cannot be hurt by bullet-based weapons; and a ninja bear that has a chance to can dodge Colbert's projectiles.
I'm a little more stressed now. At this point, it feels like there's more to put into the game than we have time to implement. We still have to fix the shop, add a game-over screen, maybe add more bears, and individualize the levels. At least we have a game that's sort of fun to play, even though it's somewhat difficult. Those ninja bears are incredibly evil.
3:00 a.m. I research more about Harvey Birdman as a break from programming. I also think of some interesting sound effects to add to the game. I'm back to work but am feeling a little tired again.
4:40 a.m. At this stage, we have individualized levels, and our game is ridiculously hard. I should think of a way to rebalance the levels so that they don't become so difficult so quickly. However, I'm too tired to work right now and decide to take a nap. This time I will try sleeping here instead of going home.
7:30 a.m. Sleeping on chairs proves to be a challenge. The experience is fairly interesting.
9:00 a.m. I redesign the shop screen, and it looks really cool now. We have Potamus from Harvey Birdman as the sales clerk for Potamus's Pack and Ship, which is our in-game store.
11:00 a.m. We left to eat a little while ago, and while I'm feeling less hungry now, I'm still really tired.
Emeric makes an intro song to run on the title screen. I'm really surprised at how good it sounds, considering he doesn't have any music experience. I plug away at adding in some other sound effects.
7:00 p.m. It's time to turn in the game. Since 11:00 a.m., we further individualized the levels by changing the different types of bears on each level, rather than have all the bears on each one. We added an end stage in the White House where Colbert fights Osama Bear Laden, who can only be killed by the American Flag weapon. We added a point system that's based on earning points for each bear kill. The player can use those bear-kill points to purchase new weapons.
I'm anxious to see what other teams came up with for the theme and to see how our game stacks up against the competition. I decide initially to not survey the other contestants, to stay behind and show our game to anyone who wants to check it out.
As I watch people play the game and answer their questions, I realize that our game is more difficult than we had originally thought. The ninja bears seem to be mysteriously more agile than when we tested our game, and some of the backgrounds that we threw in at the end make the camouflaged polar bears much more difficult to see. Also, many people are having a hard time earning enough points from bear kills in the early stages to get the more advanced weaponry. Only a few people seem to be making it to the final level to fight Osama Bear Laden.
For some of the players, the game's difficulty seems to make them want to play more, so it can't be that bad. But I'm surprised in another way as well: One player has lasted longer than all the others by only using the initial weapon, the flag.
8:00 p.m. Adam returns from looking at the other games, so it's my turn to go see the competition. Upon looking at the games, most of which feature bears in some way, I'm surprised at people interpreted the theme and how they incorporated it into their games. I'm also surprised at how many games don't seem to be completed.
10:00 p.m. Our game places third in our first ever 48-Hour Contest. That makes me feel confident that although I'm fairly new to programming games, I may have some talent for making them.
While everyone wraps up, I overhear several people talking about working on their games later to make them more playable. Although I like the game we came up with, I don't think I will have time to polish it into a more refined product, nor do I think it would be worthwhile to work on it further when I have so many more ideas for games that I would like to make.
This whole experience has been a good one. It has given me that much more experience in something I would like to continue doing. Even if I do not program games as a career, I will at least keep doing so as a hobby.
Michael Butler is a computer science in engineering majoring student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and a member of the student game development club, Wolverine Soft. His team's game placed third in the 2008 48-Hour Game Development Contest.
Note: views and opinions expressed in this article are the author's and are not necessarily those of Wolverine Soft.