So what you see here is not yet a game. It’s a prototype.
Heck, even the graphics are not the ones to be used for the final game (except for the cacti and the thumbs-up “confidence” system).
This are the extremely early days of our group game Mr. Optimistic while we test to see if the physics system works.
So what exactly is going on here? Pretty simple, the main character (right now it’s the black silhouette placeholder) keeps moving forward at its own pace, no matter what. The player needs to clear his path by solving puzzles and interacting with the environment. You can see how those cacti are in the way, but you can easily pick them up with the mouse and throw them away. Otherwise Mr. Optimistic will lose confidence (as shown by the thumbs-up).
It might seem easy at first, just having to pick up items and throw them away. But soon you’ll encounter levels with puzzles to solve, dogs chasing Mr. Optimistic and other non-harmful items in 7 differently themed levels.
Oh, and the game will be playable from the web, no download required!
When will this be available? On December 15th to be precise.
We still have A LOT of work ahead, but I’ll keep updating from time to time here as some sort of developer diary.
Again, don’t forget that we are learning and that out of the four people that make our group only one of us is a programmer. Oh, and that this is just a class project among other class projects!
I finally had the chance to watch the movie Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World and well, what can I say, a movie that begins with an 8-bit version of the Universal Studios logo (8-bit music included) immediately wins my heart.
Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World is what real life would be like if it was a videogame, no doubt. Every element is here: enemies, bosses, experience points, score, life-ups… and of course the ever-present girl to reach at the end of the game.
The story itself when written on paper sounds ridiculous and overly simplistic. But mix it all with a perfect mash-up of comic book styled shots, bleeps and blops in the background that come straight out from old Nintendo games and a thousand little references to everything videogame from Zelda to Half-Life and you’ve got a winner.
I should mention that this is also the first time I see actor Michael Cera do something else than just whine on the screen. Don’t take me wrong, I like him as an actor, but all his roles until now have been the same emotional portrayal. In Scott Pilgrim he still whines a lot (some things never change I guess) but this time he literally kicks ass as well. Seeing him punch the first evil ex-boyfriend of pink-haired girl Ramona causes quite an impact because of the huge contrast between whine-Scott and fighting-Scott.
You see, in this movie Scott Pilgrim wants to date Ramona, but in order to do so he is going to have to defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends. As crazy as it sounds, this is the main plot that weaves it all together. During the entire movie you really wait expectantly to see who is going to be the next evil ex-boyfriend and what will make him special (surprise: they all have superpowers).
It’s exactly the same feeling as old-school videogames in which you advance through the level wondering what the next boss is going to be like.
All of this is greatly enhanced by the amazing visual style of the movie. If a telephone rings you will see the word “RING!” emerging from the phone. Characters move insanely fast to create some of the most comical situations (someone says Scott’s hair is shaggy and less than a second later Scott is seen wearing a hat he’s quickly pulled out to cover it). And comic book panels in the screen become the norm here.
You really never grow bored of Scott Pilgrim’s own little world. It’s a strange one, sure, and those who haven’t played videogames will probably not get half of the jokes and references, but once you dive into it there’s no coming out. You want Scott to win the girl as much as he does. But you don’t want the game to be over. Sadly, the movie does end.
Certainly a movie I can recommend to anyone who wants to see something different. THIS is different. Not in a revolutionary way but it will make you constantly glee. If you haven’t watched it yet (or if it’s still not out in your country, like Spain or Mexico) go book a ticket right now. You won’t regret it.
People really need to let go preconceptions that you can only eat ice-cream when it’s warm outside. So what if ice-cream is cold? Don’t you drink cold beers when it’s cold outside too?
In cany case, this is chapter 4 of Josep’s series of videologs in Copenhagen. Enjoy!
So someone has done what I had wanted to do a long time ago (back in North Texas I made an attempt at this) and has created a videolog of what is happening around him in Copenhagen.
I’m talking about Josep-Bernat Martínez, fellow classmate at the IT University of Copenhagen, who has decided to record pretty much every funny moment in his life and edit them before uploading to Youtube.
Of course I also appear in the videos. So before Josep starts recording embarrasing moments of me and uploads them, I decided to bribe him by advertising his Youtube channel here.
It’s really nice to see old friends carrying on their own personal projects, so I felt I had to give my compliments to Andoni Garrido for the production of his second short movie (his first one being Conspiración Roswell, in which I participated), called “Los flautistas del Soho” (“The Flute Players of Soho” in English).
Produced, directed and written all by himself, Andoni has managed to create a very interesting film in which Luis, a psychologist in Pamplona, will try to figure out why students are starting to act like plants.
He’s a happy cheery guy with a lot of confidence, and so he walks and walks with a happy smile on his face, because he knows he is never going to fall into a pit or bump into anything harmful.
And that is because YOU control his FATE by interacting with the environment, like piling boxes to cover a hole or throwing a bone to a dog about to bite Mr. Optimistic.
The game challenges the player’s logical skills and reaction time. And thanks to its short levels and easy user interface the game is very casual. The game will run on both PCs and mobile phones with a touch-screen.
As Mr. Optimistic himself would say, “this game will be awesome!”
What you just read is the pitch I had to do for our Game Design class at the IT University of Copenhagen. And it’s not just the pitch we’re doing, we already have an initial prototype of the game running! Keep checking here for future updates on our first group game project: Mr. Optimistic!
So what exactly is going on here? Pretty simple, the main character (right 
now it’s the black silhouette placeholder) keeps moving forward at its own pace, no matter what. The player needs to clear his path by solving puzzles and interacting with the environment. You can see how those cacti are in the way, but you can easily pick them up with the mouse and throw them away. Otherwise Mr. Optimistic will lose confidence (as shown by the thumbs-up).
