Loneliness is not a game

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gmtk-jam-2020-0
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“Play”

This is a small prototype I put together for Game Maker’s Tookit Jam 2020

Here are some progress screenshots:

Initially i thought I’d make a god sim. Good guys and bad guys.

2020-07-10 22_25_47-Window
2020-07-10 22_25_47-Window1049×842 262 KB

Let’s add some complexity to the environment. Also, combat mechanics on top of god sim would take too long. Lets focus on just one faction.

2020-07-11 00_00_37-Might is Right
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Feels a bit cramped, lets make it a bit more roomy and expand open space.

2020-07-11 00_06_23-Might is Right
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Force the agents into open spaces. I.e. enforce collisions. Also, add altitude to the map.

2020-07-11 19_30_00-Might is Right
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Debug the physics. Initially I started with path finding. Then I had a chat with a friend, he suggested that the game I was making was too complex for 48h challenge, and that “moving things on screen were fun, but can we have like 50 of them?”.
I thought that was genius, so I scrapped the path finding system with task planning etc. and replaced it with a simple physics simulation instead. Turned out to be more work than I expected, i think that’s where my project failed :smiley: I got it working in the end, but it took way too long.

2020-07-12 01_32_50-Window
2020-07-12 01_32_50-Window1048×1245 567 KB

Physics finally fixed. Agents now face travel direction.

2020-07-12 01_59_53-Might is Right
2020-07-12 01_59_53-Might is Right651×647 590 KB

Finally I thought that cubes look kinda “meh”, so I hastily made a sphere to replace them:

2020-07-12 19_58_18-Blender
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I was thinking of what this “thing” can be. The agents tend to aggregate in small groups, so they seem like they are driven by motivation to stay close to one another (that’s completely unplanned result of physics sim though). So I thought “Lonely” worked well to describe this prototype.

Let’s put together a logo:

2020-07-12 19_59_16-cover-630x500.xcf-5.0 (RGB color 8-bit gamma integer, GIMP built-in sRGB, 5 laye
2020-07-12 19_59_16-cover-630x500.xcf-5.0 (RGB color 8-bit gamma integer, GIMP built-in sRGB, 5 laye1145×835 278 KB

Curious if you guys have some thoughts on this? :thinking:

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Hey,

first off : congrats ! Tackling such a challenge does require patience and motivation :slight_smile:

I liked reading through the steps of your project.
One of the things that might have slowed you down could be game design. i.e : narrowing down the “Make a god sim” plan to a very small piece of gameplay could have been a good option ^^

Regarding the actual prototype, I liked it. Simple but nice. How did you make the trailing effect behind the agents ?

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Thanks! Yeah, I did think of something like:

  • there are simulated agents, they have needs
  • player can provide them with objects that satisfy some need
  • there is an element of randomness to the outcome of agent’s interaction with a given object

But, it was too broad. I didn’t have any idea what those needs would be or the items. I mean, lots of options, but what would be an interesting combination that is small enough to implement? :slight_smile:

About the trail, there are 2 component:

  1. the trail geometry, that’s something like a fat line facing the camera that has a texture applied to it
  2. particle emitter

Both are from meep engine, here are respective classes if you’re interested to dig in deeper:

PS:
I enjoyed your flat heroes remake. Especially the particle effects :slight_smile: Very pleasant to look at.

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