Hits PlayJam 3 - Game Jam by Le Monde

#hitsplayjam

As mentioned before, this weekend was taking place the Hits PlayJam 2013, third edition, organised by the french newspaper Le Monde!

(presentation of the event: http://playtime.blog.lemonde.fr/hits-playtime-3-continue/ (french))

This event is actually part of a bigger one, the Hit Playtime, that lasts for a month if I am not mistaking, and in which I wasn't part (but very interesting games were produced that you should check out!)

I was participating in this event together with a wonderful dreamteam: my friends Bobo (@Bobo_oh) and Mouf (@SuperMouf) and my love Glennie (@ORPH4NUS).

Great event, great people... great everything

It was overall hilarious and went extremely well. But let me tell that story from the beginning... *grin*

I don't have many pictures yet, and I hope I will have some more in the coming days to fill this article with the same joy that we had at the actual event!

The event was dematerialized, which means we could work on it anywhere we wanted (and also that it was completely free). We chose to set up our base camp at the NEF, a paper RPG event that was taking place at the same time in my school (http://la-nef.net/ (french))

As you can guess, the atmosphere was very festive, and the place full of more or less weird people, all of them being absolutely nice. 

There was also a video game room, and somebody even surprised me with the Starcraft 2 board game -that looks absolutely terrific but sadly I had no time for it...

Each team needed to produce content to feed the WIP page on Le Monde's website and their tweet feed where we could discuss quite easily with other jammers. Each team also needed a logo: our team, the great Salmons&&Robots had a pixellated mechanical salmon I drew, but this is an other story (which is told here)

That one, remember?

Then we got the theme. It is this video, that I encourage you to watch: http://youtu.be/BPQChOLC3c8

We personally all felt dizzy after looking at just a few minutes... No need to tell you how hard it felt in the beginning to get started... But at least it wasn't like in these game jams where the theme is so open that you have too many ideas you can't choose between. Afterwards, I'd definitely say that this has been very interesting and reflective.

Furthermore this video turns out to be a major brick in the progress of special effects, as well as inspiring a lot of people. The director, Zbigniew Rybczyński eventually won an Oscar for it.

Guys, I think I grasp something here!

The rest is just regular jamming... Throwing in every direction random ideas... Discussing the darkest game mechanics... Hot drinks! Having all king of annoying technical issues... Rethinking the game entirely... and more hot drinks. In one word, it was as fabulous as a good game jam spent with friends in an awesome event.

"We're beta-testin' yo!" -with an anonymous tester

My favorite things

• The theme was terribly harsh, but the game concepts that we took out of it are really interesting and original. It was also awesome to be able to put salmons and robots in there x)
• Saturday night went we were already kinda tired and Boris started to play electronic accordion on his sythe and we couldn't stop laughing. He was so close from being a travelling entertainer...
• Totally not related, but that dragon plush that the people from the bar were carrying around on their shoulder was so cool!
• Although it would maybe be even nicer with an additional IRC chat in this situation, the well organized twitter feed that allowed us to stay tuned with what the others were producing was very neat. We never felt like we were on our own, it's like the whole community was bragging in our browser all along :P 

*** CONCLUSION ***

For more information about The Salmon Factory, the 2-players tablet game that we are currently finishing up, please stay tuned with twitter, or our Pinterest board that you can find here: http://pinterest.com/adelievanneste/the-salmon-factory/

We are going for a polished product that we will release on the Play Store... eventually soon ;)

I will also be publishing a separate article about that game, our game design process, and my first experience as an artist!

A mechanical salmon as a symbol

Hello world!

It's been a while since the last time I did some pixel art... In the meanwhile I was concentrating on learning to use Unity and keep up with my schoolwork. However now ART is BACK (!) with the upcoming game jam organized by Le Monde (see http://playtime.blog.lemonde.fr/hits-playtime-3-continue/).
     I will be participating to this event together with my friends Boris (@Bobo_oh), Raymond (@SuperMouf), and my love, Glennie (@ORPH4NUS).

The story of the team and how we came up with its marvellous name is quite interesting... Raymond was the first to know about the event and immediately told Boris. They decided right away to make something for android, as we are all google fans around here.
     Then they eventually had an argument because Ray wanted to do something in 3D but Boris wanted to do something more oldschool, like, say, hardcoded in java and visually pixelated. They finally came up with the agreement that the game will be in pixelated 2D, at the price that there must be (a) salmon(s) in it. A pretty good deal if you ask me.
     Boris told me about the event and the salmon(s) during the next lesson. I was immediately integrating the team, as a coder and a pixel artist. Therefore I declared that if Raymond could have salmon(s) in the game project, well I wanted (a) robot(s)! If that's so, Boris also added a constraint: the game must end up fun but philosophical...
     A little while later, I told Glen about the game jam, and he decided to join the team as well. If he has to give any, he announced that his condition is "time"...


Why so many constraints before we even know the theme?

I actually don't think this kind of conditions are a restriction to imagination. I have two reasons:

•  First, they are not too precise. For example with the salmon thing, we can have just one salmon or a thousand, a salmon hero or just some random fish NPC in the background... In that case this is more of a suggestion that simulates imagination. It presents itself as a challenge: Can you integrate something that silly in your design and still make an awesome game out of it? Hell, yeah, I bet we can! Be prepared for something you never saw before ;p

•  Second, it gives everybody in the team a good hand on the end product. Maybe some of us are more imaginative than others, or some are better designers, or speak better... These little constraints give everybody the same great power to tell what is going to be in the game. Hence even if you didn't have that much inspiration on the moment or the other team members didn't adhere to your ideas, you can still be proud that the finished product integrates something you suggested!

After all these adventures, we eventually decided to marvellously name our team:

Salmons&&Robots

     The double '&' is there to reinforce the nerdiness of the entire team <3

Enough suspence, here are various stuff I created for our file:

Personalized avatars

Our team's avatar

   

Color study

Global Game Jam 2013 in Antwerp (Feedback)

Oookay! Before I forget everything about it, let's talk about this great experience i lived this weekend: the Global Game Jam 2013! (#GGJ2013)

The GGJ is happening all around the world at the same time, and I was myself in Antwerp, Belgium, to rock with my soulmate :D

Our game jam was organised by the game-making company GriN, who did an awesome job o/ We were around 70 and that's the coolest game jam I've participated in!

Note: Website of the game jam

1/ Cool people!

Find Boris

"This year was the biggest game jam we've made" say Wim Wouters, the CEO of GriN. It's not only about the number of people that were actually there, but also about the average skill and motivation of everybody.

There were a lot of pro, and I could even meet a teacher from DAE school, the famous Gamedev school in Belgium!

Anyway, I met a lot of cool people, and learned a lot. There was also people I begin to know well, like Boris Warembourg or Hannes Delbeke :-)

2/ Cool games!

You can check out the awesome games everybody made here!

Kingerdarten Killer Klub

Special mention for a few games that i like:
- The Living Game, a game that is evolving depending on how you like the auto-generated levels. I find the idea very cool, and also the old school 3/4 view sprites are awesome <3
- Ultimate Care Bear Love Rampage, which is just... wtf and epileptic-agressive. Another arcade game!
- Kindergarten Killer Klub, which team was full pro. A very well polished game with a fun concept and gameplay. The kind of game you would love to play online with your friends :)
- Flicker, an interesting game which plays with lights, made by these cool guys o/
- You Have One Minute To Save The World, as said, you have one minute to find and destroy the alien missile that will be launch in 1 minute to destroy the Earth... Intuitive gameplay!

3/ Cool tech!

During all weekend, there was cutting-edge devices in demonstration, like the IIID face scanner which makes a 3D model of your head when you stand inside for a few seconds. 

You can make crazy faces, print it with a 3D printer, and be proud of yourself

There was also homemade classy devices, like the 4-players coffee table (loved the design of the table (an old fashioned wooden table)) (video here), ooor the Winnitron!

THE Winnitron

It's a free Arcade that you can build yourself out of a computer and play cool games with! At least three of the game developed this weekend were playable on the Winnitron, including mine :D And it looks so good in its wooden cabin... Thanks Thomas and Hannes Deville for showing up this cool device!!!

Official website of Winnitron : http://winnitron.ca/

Website of Winnitron Belgium : http://www.winnitronbe.hannesdeville.be/

Video made during the game jam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3gLDmCb7ias

4/ Cheerleaders!

Woohoo!

Oh did I mention? There were indeed cheerleaders giving a show in the middle of the game jam! And then they brought delicious muffins! It was really awesome and refreshing, nobody felt tired anymore after that :D  (And the muffins were really damn good) Thanks Wim!

BA de BJPSTA

Note : An english version of this article is coming! Stay tuned! ;-)

     Mais que cache ce titre obscur ? Rien de moins que la présentation tant attendue du petit jeu que je suis en train de développer pour smartphone. La première version sera la version android  (hé oui), que je vais essayer de terminer pour septembre.

Pour reprendre la présentation du twitter 'officiel' (@BJellyPixel), Bikini - Jelly : Pixel Smash Them all ! est un petit jeu de plateforme bien sympa en devenir, avec un nom absurdement long, néanmoins indubitablement cool ! Le jeu est pensé pour être dynamique et fun, en plus d'une mignonitude ambiante très présente :p

via @BJellyPixel :

BJPSTA est la fusion révolutionnaire de tout ce qu'il y a de plus cool : filles en bikinis, mobs trop chous, pixels à gogo, et MASSACRE :-O   |   Le principe est simple : (1) On contrôle une "fille" en petit bikini   |   (2) Le but d'un niveau est d'écrabouiller sans pitié tous les mignons petits monstres en gelée ! :-D   |   Et enfin, (3) Pour corser le jeu, il faut être habile pour triompher car nos amies les Jellies ont plus d'un tour dans leur sac !   |   Le tout dans un environnement tout en pixel art, pour le plaisir des yeux... ;-)

Heliosa, première héroine !

     Mais enfin, un peu plus de détails. L'idée de base m'est venue en cours d'éco, alors que je songeais aux ingrédients les plus cool que l'on puisse mettre dans un jeu video... Et je me suis dit : Pourquoi ne pas faire un jeu composé de tout ce qu'il y a de plus cool, un jeu auquel j'adorerai jouer ? (J'ai toujours du mal à trouver des jeux sur smartphone qui me plaisent, n'étant pas addepte des Angry Bird, Fruit Ninja, et autre Doodle Jump, pour ne citer que les meilleurs moins mauvais ;p) Je me suis donc mise en route pour développer le jeu le plus cool du monde o/

Note : Je ne dis pas qu'il n'y a aucun bon jeu sur smartphone, c'est vrai que c'est une question de goût. Mais à part sur émulateur, je n'en ai jamais trouvé qui me fasse dire : Wouah, ce jeu est génial ! Et si je ne trouve pas mon bonheur sur le market, j'imagine que ça doit être le cas d'autres personnes... En tout cas je suis ouverte à toute suggestion :-)

Les briques élémentaires de Bikini - Jelly : Pixel Smash Them All ! sont tout simplement transparentes dans le nom du jeu :

 - des bikinis pour le coté sexy,

 - des 'jellies', aka des monstres en gelée pour euh... parce que c'est cool quand y'a de la gelée partout ! ^^'

 - des gros pixels pour un environnement mignon et un rien old school,

 - et enfin, de la violence, puisqu'il faut toutes les écraser avec une arme de guerre ! De la violence sans conséquences cependant, puisque ce ne sont que des monstres en gelées, et comme chacun sait, les monstres en gelée... ne meurent pas... ;-p

Voilà voilà, j'éspère que le jeu et son univers vous plairont ! ;-) Je donnerai plus d'info par la suite via la section Bikini-Jelly PSTA de ce blog, ou le site en devenir pixel-smash-them-all.com, et surtout sur le fil twitter @BJellyPixel. En attendant je suis en plein dev, alors n'hésitez pas à me faire parvenir vos remarques ou suggestions ! A très bientôt !

Cours Heliosa, cours !

Coucou tout le monde !

     Vous avez bien sûr tous entendu parler de mon petit projet de jeu smartphone ! (j'en parlais dans un précédent article : lien, et je donnerai plus d'infos quand j'aurais le temps. J'en profite pour créer un libellé "Bikini - Jelly : PSTA" qui regroupera tous les futurs articles sur le sujet)

Pour ceux qui n'étaient pas attentifs, il va s'agir d'un petit jeu de plateforme bien fun répondant au nom mélodieux de Bikini - Jelly : Pixel Smash'em'all ! Retrouvez toutes les infos sur le fil twitter @BJellyPixel , j'ai la flemme de tout remettre ici ;p

Hier, j'ai réalisé l'animation de course de ma première héroïne, Heliosa ! :3

- Version grande qui fait mal aux yeux -

Donc comme Twitter ne permet pas de publier de GIF animés (j'ai même essayé de changer l'extension en .png et tout mais ça a pas fonctionné), je la met ici :

- Version taille réelle -

Vous la trouvez pas trop mimi ?! <3

Blague à part, l'animation est réalisée sur six sprites donc c'est légèrement saccadé, et encore bien perfectible... Pour la taille, j'ai choisi des dimensions beaucoup plus modestes que l'ancien pixart de la version pc inachevée : 60x50px environ. (ici avec du blanc autour on en est à 65x55)

Voilou ! N'hésitez pas à laisser vos commentaires, je suis à l'écoute ! :p

Pixel art BABY !!!

Coucou tout le monde !
Voici en passant un 'tit dessin en pixel art que je devais upload ;)
Il s'agit de... d'une femme des cavernes en bikini oui, c'est à peu près ça... -_-'  Bon, à l'origine elle était sensée tenir un vrai marteau de guerre et pas une massue de cro-magnon, mais j'ai fait une crise de flemmicite en cours de route. ><  Sinon, que dire de plus, c'est une sprite destinée à un petit jeu à moi en développement dont vous aurez bientôt des nouvelles. ;)

Et voilà le rendu en taille réelle !
Pour un premier vrai dessin en pixel art... Oui bon, je sais les yeux sont étranges, mais vous les auriez dessinés comment vous, ces 4 pixels ? Je suis ouverte à toute proposition ><

The Game Developer Magazine

A bon entendeur : voici le site d'un magasine que je viens de découvrir, le Game Developer Magazine =)
http://www.gdmag.com/homepage.htm

Très accessible et très fourni, il y a des tutos, mais aussi des sections avec des conseils, des adresses et plein d'autres infos utiles. Si le secteur du jeu video vous intéresse, à lire absolument!!! si vous n'êtes pas déjà abonné ;)
Par contre, c'est en anglais... Bon, pas très surprenant pour ce type de magazine, c'est le bon moment pour s'y mettre on dirait ;p

Ils font notamment des hors série annuels gratuits très intéressants :
http://gamedeveloper.texterity.com/gamedeveloper/fall2011cg#pg1

Game development for all ! :D