[Released] Breckon's Similar Sausage Face

[Teljoor]

I'm a little late in joining since I didn't want to commit before getting the project off the ground. Also, I hadn't used game maker in a while.

 

Concept:

I'm making a game where you have to pick the right sausage face out of similar faces in a lineup, with Nick Breckon commenting on your performance. Since I've had trouble with finishing game projects I've started in the past I thought I'd keep it simple. The fun part for me is definitely feeding features into the generator and seeing what faces come out.

Right now I've got the basic loop done (generate target, generate lineup, pick out a face, feedback, repeat). I'm hoping I can finish all the basics this weekend and then focus on adding extra features.

 

To do:

- increasing difficulty (more targets, more sausages in the lineup)

- replace placeholder graphics (font, breckon face, lineup transitions)

- add more facial features (also replace some of the current ones, since they look like the same face with a different expression)

- sound and music

[TopFish]

oh man those sausage faces are great

[voxn]

haha that's fantastic.

 

idea: a timer to pick the right face, and an internalization meter which goes up with concurrent successes making it increasingly short.

[Teljoor]

  On 11/26/2016 at 12:32 AM, voxn said:

haha that's fantastic.

 

idea: a timer to pick the right face, and an internalization meter which goes up with concurrent successes making it increasingly short.

 

I was already planning to have some sort of combo meter, so I combined it with your idea. In the current implementation the internalization meter goes up when you make a correct match and down when you make a wrong match or the timer in the lower left runs out. You get a larger multiplier on your score depending on total internalization. The timer also gets shorter as internalization goes up, so it should be a challenge to stay at full internalization and rack up the points. There should probably also be some kind of visual effect for full internalization, but I haven't done that yet.

 

General update:

I've added all the features in my previous todo list. I also added a some simple facial animations (mostly blinking) to make the sausages look more lively. There's also a game timer to stop the game after a certain time period. I still have to work on that though, as it doesn't seem independent of the framerate right now (the same goes for the internalization timer). The screen is definitely a bit cramped/busy now with all the meters and timers, but I kind of like that, so I don't think I'll be altering it.

 

To do:
- menu system

- balancing

- some visual obstructions to make the game harder at higher difficulties

- options (window size, fullscreen, sound levels)

- 'how to play' instructions (probably just one or two screen with instructive screenshots and text)

- more facial features!

[Synnah]

This looks so good! I kind of miss the old Pixel-Breckon, but the new one's got a lot of character. He's going to say 'Pretty Good' at some point too, right?

[Teljoor]

  On 11/27/2016 at 5:43 PM, Synnah said:

This looks so good! I kind of miss the old Pixel-Breckon, but the new one's got a lot of character. He's going to say 'Pretty Good' at some point too, right?

I'll add it to the list!

[Travis]

This looks really good. The presentation is very Wario Ware-esque, which is a good thing!

[phill]

Hoooly shit this looks amazing! I can't wait to play it.

[Sloane]

Yup, looks amazing and already pretty polished, too!

[theschap]

The return of the "Internalization Meter"! This game is looking great!

[Teljoor]

Quick midweek update. I've finished the menu system and the options and added enough facial features that I'd be happy leaving it like this, though I could add more if I have time. There's 6-7 different types for each feature (eyebrows, eyes, nose, and mouth), which means there's about 1500 possible combinations. I've also added a countdown at the start and a results screen. I think I'm on track to finish it next weekend. I'll aim to try uploading an initial version friday or saturday to make sure it works.

 

To do:
- some visual obstructions to make the game harder at higher difficulties

- animation for full internalization

- polish

- 'how to play' instructions (probably just one or two screen with instructive screenshots and text). I'm leaving this one for last, since any changes I make before the final version would mean I'd have to redo the images.

[Cordeos]

That menu screen is

[Nappi]

Yup! Excellent work!

[Teljoor]

I did a test upload, so the game should now show up submission feed and be downloadable from https://itch.io/jam/wizard-jam-4/rate/101604 . Everything seems to be working ok. I added one 'visual obstruction' (ducks flying across the screen at higher difficulties). I'm not sure it really does much to make matching the faces more difficult, but it should at least be a fun surprise the first time you play it. Also, there's a bug in the current version where the sausages aren't properly randomized. Apparently I just have to call randomize() at the start, so that should be an easy fix.

 

The game is pretty much complete.There's a few more things to do, but I don't foresee any problems finishing it by sunday. I look forward to playing everyone else's submissions as well.

[********]

  On 11/30/2016 at 8:23 PM, Teljoor said:

- polish

 

I seriously thought this meant you needed to add Polish sausages to the game when I read this for easily tens of seconds

[hedgefield]

Holy moly this looks frantic and smooth and polished and crazy as hell.

[Teljoor]

Since I've finished all the features I was planning to include I've just uploaded what should be the final version. There's two 'visual distractions' at higher difficulty. I'm actually not sure if most players will see them the first time. In my test runs they activate when there's around 30 seconds left. However, I didn't I think they'd probably be too annoying if you had to play with them active for a long time.
I also added a sausage creator so you can mix-and-match features to make your own sausage. Probably should have done it earlier actually, since it could've helped when testing new facial feature sprites. It's just for fun though, it doesn't have any effect on the main game.

 

On the whole I'm pretty happy with the end result. I'm glad I chose a simple concept so I had time to add a lot of extra stuff. That was fun mostly because I hadn't done it before in gamemaker, so I doubt I'll put as much effort into that aspect in future jams.

 

https://itch.io/jam/wizard-jam-4/rate/101604

[Sloane]

This is really, really good -- and it gets surprisingly difficult once you reach the second level. Managed to pick 36 sausage faces correctly!

[Teljoor]

Thanks for playing it! The balancing was definitely something that was hard to test by myself. I hope that most players should be able to reach the difficulty level with two rows of sausages on their first try.

[ke51n]

Really frantic and fun. And there's a sausage creator! What! Good game.

[rzbone]

Similar face! That was pretty great!

[Ben X]

Scored 12300! This is great - lovely presentation all round, loved the face creator (similar face!) and the game is simple yet addictive. I honestly could have played for a lot longer! I did seem to get quite lucky early on with my cursor already being over the correct answer, so if I HAD to suggest something I guess it would be to have a rule for the correct answer not to be in the same place twice very often (but not never, so the player doesn't twig and always discount that position). But really, this is a perfect little game.

[********]

Oh dang this is really good, the music is also real good and very appropriate.

[Patrick R]

Of all the games I've played from the jam so far, this is the most complete package. Of sausages. Really terrific stuff!