Game Jam OSG Jam

Mike

nobody important
GMC Elder
A lesson for you (and a few other people, like @Surgeon_, for example) - if I participate and, by extension, vote/review in a Jam, there's a good chance I will play the game long enough for that to matter. Especially if your entry is supposed to be entertaining. :lemwink:
Okay sure. Note to self: if @Alice is taking part, expect prolonged, excessive, obsessive gameplay of a quick hacky game. Got it :p
 
J

JimmyBG

Guest
My top 4:

1. Pool of Doom / @YellowAfterlife
The satisfaction I got from shoving those arrogant balls down a hole grrrr. The game was smooth and quite nice graphically, it did get a bit repetitive but was good fun.

2. NOT TETRIS / @Surgeon_
Quite a unique take on the classic idea, controls and rules were straight forward and simple. Personally I found the speed increase too slow, I think it would have benefited from a harder challenge.

3. jeugOS / @Alice
A sweet little adventure, that ended too soon~ I was impressed with the amount of content you put into it (dialogue/story, mechanics).

4. Mega! Super Smash Track Buggy Racer / @Mike
Looks great, runs great, as expected :p I only wish you could steer a bit sharper (but I guess that ruins the challenge)
 
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Mike

nobody important
GMC Elder
My top 4:
Looks great, runs great, as expected :p I only wish you could steer a bit sharper (but I guess that ruins the challenge)
Yeah, that would have made it too easy, allowing you to stay full speed all the time. As it stands you have to slow down, so there's at least some challenge to it. Well... that's the theory anyway.
 
R

rui.rosario

Guest
People, don't forget to cast in your votes/ranks/comments/reviews! The deadline ends Sunday :)
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin

chance

predictably random
Forum Staff
Moderator
Here are my votes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. They're based only on how much I enjoy playing the game. I didn't look much at the code.

1. Not Tetris -- by Surgeon
2. Forest Fox -- by JimmyBG
3. Asteroids -- by Nocturne

Any further ranking would be arbitrary, since I liked them all equally well. The games by Alice, Mike and YellowAfterLife were all very good. Sort of a tie for 4th place.

I haven't ranked anything yet, but here's a few thoughts after playing the entries for a while now (in random order):

Shooting Star - by Galladhan

Pretty good. It's very basic, but there's some gameplay. The graphics could be perked up, if you decide to continue this. And the choice of control keys felt a bit awkward to me -- but that's not a reflection of the game, just my preference. But it's solid entry.

Asteroids by Nocturne
I enjoyed this. I considered making an asteroids-type game myself for the OSG Jam. But after seeing Noc's version, well... I figured that was a bad idea. LOL. (Aside: One benefit of seeing this game submitted early, was to remind me that Studio supports procedurally generated sounds.) I liked the line-drawn graphics and overall style here. It looks and feels very authentic, like playing on an old CRT. And the font and color effects were pretty cool too. Very well done.

Mega Super Smash by Mike
This looks nice. The graphics were excellent and the gameplay mechanics worked well. The racing / driving action feels smooth, although I wasn't very good at it. I would have preferred to see procedurally generated graphics, instead of string-encoded stuff pasted in. But that's just my personal taste. Overall, this is a well-made game with good replay value.

Threef - by Flappy Souls
Not bad, but WAY too hard (for me at least). I couldn't even last a few seconds. So I may try this again later.

Not Tetris -- by Surgeon

This is my favorite entry so far (by far, actually). It's an innovative and original interpretation of Tetris meets Match Three -- at least that's the impression it gave me. It's lots of fun to play and it's visually striking. Great job on this.

Coded Games
I like the colors of the worlds. And how the character follows the terrain. Not much gameplay yet, but maybe the start of a good driving game.

Pool - by YellowAfterLife
This is a very nice 3D pool (like) game. It could easily be the basis for a more complete game, and I think it would do well. I like the player point-of-view, and the physical effects work nicely. Can't say I liked the eye-effect on the balls, however. A bit creepy. Maybe if you continue this, you could add a texture that would compliment the 3D better. But all said, this is a solid game.

JuegOS - by Alice
This easily felt like the most complete and feature-rich game in the OSG Jam. Without seeing the code, one would never guess this was created with a single-script. There's a surprising amount of content here. I've only played briefly, but this feels very slick and professional.

Matthew Brown's game
Interesting looking text-based game. I can change the text with the arrow keys. But I can't figure out what's going on, or what the objective is. I'll come back to this.

Forest Fox - by JimmyBG

I'm still playing this one. It's the type of casual game I usually play when I play games -- simple objective, easy controls, with good replay value. It looks fairly polished, although the low-poly models are a bit rough. Not a big deal through. It would make a good mobile game. I'll definitely be playing this again.

Nallebeorn's game
This looks interesting. I like the animated character with the whip, and the blob things look cool. I could make him jump (sort of) but I couldn't get out of the starting location.

PsychoDelpth
Not bad. That's a neat parallax effect with the backgrounds. I wasn't very good at the game, but I get the idea. Stopping the action momentarily when an incoming (asteroid?) is clicked felt a bit odd. But the game is playable and everything seems to work.

Tower Defense - by Shadowspear1
It's a start. Just needs some features added.
 
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My top 5 candidates:
1) JuegOS - @Alice
I was very impressed by how polished and detailed everything was, I felt like I was actually playing a game that could be expanded into something much more.​
2) Mega Super Smash Track Buggy Racer - @Mike
What can I say? A pseudo-3D racing engine that looks good and plays well, I loved it!​
3) Pool of Doom - @YellowAfterlife
Awesome idea and the gameplay was executed pretty near perfectly. Shooting those pool balls into the pockets was very satisfying, only to end up in one yourself, feeling attacked by those silently-judging eyebrows.​
4) Not Tetris - @Surgeon_
Interesting concept, a moving tetris block collector where you choose when to erase them and collect points. There's a lot going on, but it just adds to the challenge and I enjoyed it quite a bit!​
5) Forest Fox - @JimmyBG
I like the simple concept, reminds me a lot of the millions of mobile games I used to have on my iPod. It's fun to play and begs me to keep trying again. My only gripe is that you can only see the first object in the center lane; maybe you could shift the camera ever-so-slightly when in the left/right lane so you get a different perspective and can see what's ahead easier.​
 

Surgeon_

Symbian Curator
Here are my votes. They are based on gameplay value as I didn't look at the code very much.
  1. @Alice (juegOS)
    It was a tough competition with Mike but I decided to give first place to this game because it has a story, something none of the other games have (with one exception, see number 4). Not only that, but it also has branching dialogues, excellent graphics (with sprites!) and a consistent visual style overall. Very diverse mechanics for a one script game. What more can I say... The most feature rich and rounded game of the Jam (and I also think the longest code, but well written). This is an all round "Well done, Alice".
  2. @Mike (Mega Super Smash Track Buggy Racer)
    Very well done retro 3D graphics, but what's more important, it's fun to play and gives you that tingling sense of speed that racing games should give you. From the player's perspective it's a very simple game, but I have no idea what's going on in that code.
  3. @YellowAfterlife (Pool of Doom)
    This game surprised me twice - First when I read "pool of doom" I thought there was gonna be blood and gore everywhere, and I was disappointed when I saw the billiard table (It always seemed like a boring game to me). But then, I started playing and realized that it's a Doom-like first person 3D fighting game where you're fighting billiard balls with fabulous eyebrows. Very well done, and quite fun :)
  4. @Matthew Brown (unnamed)
    Well this game is very rudimentary and largely unfinished, but what it does have in an interesting concept, it's one of the two games here to have a story - and the writing is also very good, and might I add, it was humorous and gave me a laugh which is always a good thing.
  5. @Nocturne (Asteroids)
    Visually stunning game compared to the others on this Jam, with some wireframe "sprites" and other special effects. Also has a main menu and one "configuration" button which is still more than the rest of us had. The gameplay is well made but it didn't keep my attention for long.
  6. @chance (Just Space)
    Not much to say about this one. It looks nice and has a fancy menu with that bouncing thing (which might be the most intriguing thing for me here). It works well and it's commendable that the levels are premade and not procedural, but the game itself lacks any challenge.
  7. @JimmyBG (Forest Fox)
    The gameplay here is very simple (but works) but the thing is that the graphics are way above what you'd expect in a one script game, what with the coloured and somewhat animated 3D models, which even have their shadows.
  8. @Galladhan (Shooting Star)
    Another simple game, yet the graphics are trippy and very "star-like", which I both like. Endless runner of randomly generated levels, but strangely satisfying to play. Unfortunately it gets monotonous after a while.
  9. @Coded Games (unnamed)
    This could be a good base for building a game on top of it, but as it is right now there's not much you can do in it but watch. Still, it seems to me that the mechanism for this "game" is fairly complex, so kudos on that.
  10. @PsychoDelph (unnamed)
    Nice parallax background objects and colour chemes. But this game is severely lacking in gameplay, and it doesn't gave score nor lives.
  11. @Nallebeorn (unnamed)
    Well... Commendable animation on the ninja, and the movement is nice and fluent - to bad there wasn't a game built on top of this.
  12. @shadowspear1 (unnamed)
    No comment apart from: There's barely anything in here.

I leave @Threef's Flappy Souls unranked because I cannot get it to run. (I'm sorry man.)
 
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Galladhan

Guest
Shooting Star - by Galladhan
Pretty good. It's very basic, but there's some gameplay. The graphics could be perked up, if you decide to continue this. And the choice of control keys felt a bit awkward to me -- but that's not a reflection of the game, just my preference. But it's solid entry.
You're too kind, mate, thank you infinitely! I'm very flattered :)

I'm actually thinking to build on that to make a proper game. And that's great, cause until now i've started several projects without knowing exactly what i wanted to do (infact i abandoned them all lol). Now i know i want to go with an horizontal shoot 'em up, and i will take that direction. Thank you again for your feedback, @chance, you made my day :)
 

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
Voting ends today! Don't forget to PM your votes to rui.rosario!

I think at this point we get a pretty good idea about the top 4 (that is, the set of entries, not necessarily their order). I wonder how the rest will turn out...
 

Micah_DS

Member
Messaged @rui.rosario my votes a bit ago. I could only decide on my top 7, so here they are:
  1. Mega Super Smash Track Buggy Racer - by @Mike
  2. juegOS - by @Alice
  3. Pool of Doom - by @YellowAfterlife
  4. Not Tetris - by @Surgeon_
  5. OSG Asteroids - by @Nocturne
  6. Just Space - by @chance (I forgot this one actually had a game title until I ran the script again just now)
  7. Forest Fox - by @JimmyBG
I also wanted to say that some of you guys really blew me away. I knew beforehand that many people would be much more knowledgeable than me, and more practiced in good coding, but let's just say it became far more apparent and I felt pretty small after all was said and done. :p
 

chance

predictably random
Forum Staff
Moderator
I think at this point we get a pretty good idea about the top 4 (that is, the set of entries, not necessarily their order). I wonder how the rest will turn out...
I'm setting my sights on the middle.. somewhere. Mediocrity is my strong suit. ;)
 

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
I don't think that's possible with the current forum software, but I might PM your votes to you so that they would count. ;)
 
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rui.rosario

Guest
Ok, so my comments:
@Alice - juegOS:

Loved the game. I really like the theme, since I really love AI and Neural Networks, along with Gamification theories and stuff. The execution is flawless: you managed to create a really nice simple story and a great level design. The best part for me was how you incorporated 4'33" into the game :p

Code-wise, I think your code is really well organized and it is relativelly easy to understand, although a little bit of more commenting would make it easier.

@chance

The game had quite simple gameplay yet it was really well executed. Maybe it could be a bit more forgiving with the jump timing (for example, you have to really time it well in the latest levels) yet the current dificulty setting also makes it more enjoyable. Sound wise, it doesn't have much but it is enough for some audio queues of what is happening.

Code-wise, very organized and commented. the only thing I think is less good is some of the variable naming (that without the comments would become quite hard to discover).

@Coded Games

Well, it's not really a game, yet it could be the start of an interesting one. I really like how you not only randomly generate the layout but also some features of the world (like temperature).

Code-wise it is very well organized and commented, becoming really easy to understand. I just cringe at how you map the letters to the values :p

@Galladhan - Shootin' Star

Well, flashy. Other than that, it could be the start of something fun, although as it is there is no goal in the game. I like how you can shoot both stars and the terrain in front of you, but I really dislike how there can be only one bullet on screen. If I made a mistake and fired at the start of the screen, I would be forced to dodge everything until the bullet didn't exist again and I could fire another one. I would much rather the bullet disappeared on first impact but I could fire a lot of them.

Code-wise, I believe the code is fairly well organized, although some of the indentation and such could maybe be improved. Also, some of your code / variable namings made me believe that you might not be very familiar with arrays?

@JimmyBG - Forest Fox

I can see this easily become a nice casual game, as the only things that's missing is really the audio. I enjoy it a lot, however I feel that the collisions not always work very well (for example, the tip of the tail seems to cause you to loose a life). Also, I've had situations where traps were spawned into trees.

Code-wise I think it is really easy to understand (after you scroll the models definitions). However, it would be much more legible if you created for example an enum variables to hold the indexes of the variable and their meanings.

@Matthew Brown

First of all, try to set the background colour to $eeeeee. Really, the original one made it nearly impossible to me to read the text, really hurting my eyes. Other than that, you could have anice text game there although it should go one of two ways IMO: Either make it fully text based or make a better UI for it. Also, it is a lot repetitive, although I did manage to reach 52 weeks. Also, a thing thta you do if you choose to further this game idea is to have a tree of events in which your choices would dictate what futures choices you would be presented with, instead of randomly selecting an event.

Code-wise, the game is very simple to understand, since the majority of the code is just setting up the events.

@Mike - M!SSTBR

Well, not much I can say. The game is really well made, it is really complex and it is fun to play. The only thing that's really missing is audio, and unfortunately in this entry I think that would be a very valuable addition (unlike some other entries where audio is not that important).

Code-wise it is very well organized although I think it could maybe be a bit more commented, since the code is well organized but not particularly simple.

@Nallebeorn

Well.... I made the first wall jump :p Other than that there is not really much to do in this entry, so I can't really say much (except that hey,, it animates! :p)

Code-wise it is fairly well organized and easy to understand (also thanks to the comments).

@Nocturne - OSG Asteroids

Visually one of the most stunning entries of the Jam! It is also quite a nice clone of the original asteroids game, really steps up in quality. There are just two things I think could be improved/added: The ability to brake and increasing the speed of the bullets (since if you start moving while firing some bullets will get in front of others)

Code-wise: It's a mess!! Just kidding :p It's well organized and commented, although I do cringe at the numbered enum values.

@PsychoDelph

Nice parallax effects! Also, the aim mechanics reminded me of some older games I used to play. Although, there really isn't any point in shooting up the baddies, since there is no score or lives. Also, I don't specially like how the screen freezes when shooting, although it acts as a visual queue of it happening. All in all, nice execution.

Code-wise, I believe it's fairly wasy to understand and organized. Also, I liked how the images are all kept as strings, it allows for one to easily modify the game images :p

@shadowspear1 - shadowspear1's One-Script Tower Defense Game

Well, not really much to do in game. Also, what's the coloured square that you can move with ASWD?

Code-wise, I think it is well organized and commented. The only thing I would change is how you generate the map / path: A string would probably be easier to maintain and visualize.

@Surgeon_ - Not Tetris

One of the most original ideas on the Jam. I loved the game idea and gameplay, although I disliked it would have to be played with the mouse, I would personally like the keyboard more. Also, the instructions were a bit hard to read.

Code-wise, well organized altough sometimes a bit hard to read (occasionally, not common).

@Threef - Flappy Souls

Nice take on the Flappy game. The sounds were a bit annoying, specially since the game was quite hard and so you were constantly hearing them. Also, I now it is the mechanics themselves, but there were parts of the level that were impassable, so you'd have to sacrifice yourself and restart the level in order to clear them. And since they were composed of several circles you'd have to do it some times before being able to proceed.

Code-wise, although missing comments I think it is fairly organized and easy to understand.

@YellowAfterlife - Pool of Doom

Loved the idea, specially since I really like to play pool. It was hard for me to play however, because I'm on a touchpad. Nevertheless, the graphics were quite nice and I loved the logo design resembling the Doom logo.

Code-wise, I believe the code could be a lot more readable than it is, with a few more comments and some spacing.

My ranking:
  1. @Alice
  2. @Surgeon_
  3. @Mike
  4. @Nocturne
  5. @JimmyBG
  6. @chance
  7. @YellowAfterlife
  8. @Threef
  9. @PsychoDelph
  10. @Matthew Brown
  11. @Galladhan
  12. @Nallebeorn
  13. @shadowspear1
  14. @Coded Games
(note: personal opinion on the games and how I enjoyed them / think they have a "goal" / playability, etc. Key part here is personal opinion)[/spoiler][/spoiler]
 
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rui.rosario

Guest
Ok folks, the votes are tallied!

In case you're wondering what system I used: I used the system in place for the GMC Jam. If you don't believe me, check out the Excel file I used to calculate the rankings (or the equivalent Google Sheet). You also have all the votes there, so that you can double check if any of the votes mismatch (in case I made a mistake in copying them over).

And if you haven't opened the excel file, the rankings are........
  1. @Mike
  2. @Alice
  3. @Surgeon_
  4. @YellowAfterlife
  5. @Nocturne
  6. @JimmyBG
  7. @chance
  8. @Threef
  9. @Matthew Brown
  10. @Galladhan
  11. @Coded Games
  12. @PsychoDelph
  13. @Nallebeorn
  14. @shadowspear1
Congratulations to @Mike, @Alice and @Surgeon_ for the top 3!! But in fact, everyone here deserves a round of applause for the amazing games that you pulled of with just one script. Some participants even learnt new things, so that's even better! :)

On my behalf, I know I might have been far from the perfect host due to my lack of attention these past days, but I would like to thank you all for all the words you've said to me regarding this Jam and I will definitely be holding more of them (if @Nocturne and the rest of the admins allow :p). Which speaking of which, you will all be receiving a PM with a survey of what went well and what could be improved in further Jams. I know surveys are a pain in the butt, but this was the first Jam and as such it was far from perfect. If you could please answer the survey I would be delighted :)

The survey will still have to be made, so expect to receive it in a few days
 
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Surgeon_

Symbian Curator
I've finished my review in case anyone is interested...

Other than that, thanks to everybody that participated, I hope you had as much fun as I had! Thanks to @rui.rosario for hosting!
And, I guess, thanks for voting for my game :)

I'll go on now to distribute the prizes I promised...
 

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
I think you forgot Mike's votes?
Thankfully, after including both Mike's and fel666's votes (which I suppose were not PM'd, were they?) the results still remain the same.

Which means I can now distribute the trophies, like the ones below. ^^





Here are trophies for everyone, in 100px tall as well as 200px tall version: LINK

(everyone means @Mike, @Alice, @Surgeon_, @YellowAfterlife, @Nocturne, @JimmyBG, @chance, @Threef, @Matthew Brown, @Galladhan, @Coded Games, @PsychoDelph, @Nallebeorn and @shadowspear1 here)
 
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rui.rosario

Guest
I think you forgot Mike's votes?
Thankfully, after including both Mike's and fel666's votes (which I suppose were not PM'd, were they?) the results still remain the same.
You are both correct. I have updated my excel locally, I'll be updating the online versions as well in a couple hours (since there is no impact in the ranking I don't need to rush this.... plus, I'm late for work :p)
 

Mike

nobody important
GMC Elder


*sniff* *sniff* Thank you... *sniff* *sniff* I'm so happy...*sniff* *sniff* I can't tell you what finally winning this award means to me...

I'd like to thank the team for helping me through the difficult times.... Sega and Atari for my inspiration.... my mom.... the cat I try and kick each morning for helping me keep the drive to go on.... The neighbours dog for crapping everywhere.... The local bakers for making me fat so that I never stand up and I work more. I'd also like to say a special thanks to my evil twin, whose daily attempt to kill me gives me something to look forward to each morning.
 

YellowAfterlife

ᴏɴʟɪɴᴇ ᴍᴜʟᴛɪᴘʟᴀʏᴇʀ
Forum Staff
Moderator
Congrats to the winners and thanks everyone for participating!

As for myself, based on feedback, maybe I'll try writing less scary code next time...
 

chance

predictably random
Forum Staff
Moderator
...you will all be receiving a PM with a survey of what went well and what could be improved in further Jams.
I'm happy to answer your survey questions. But since participation was rather limited for this first Jam, it might be useful to open the discussion to anyone who's interested (in this topic).
 
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rui.rosario

Guest
I'm happy to answer your survey questions. But since participation was rather limited for this first Jam, it might be useful to open the discussion to anyone who's interested (in this topic).
I was planning on PM'ing the participants and the people who displayed interest, as well as posting a link publicly to gather further feedback.
 

Hyomoto

Member
A bit of a late post, but I still want to ask because it keeps bothering me. I read the tech blog quite a bit looking for tips, and YoYo featured a blog post by Mark Alexander in which he explains that it was *discovered* that you could totally use variables for this competition if you used a ds_map/ds_list/ds_grid. Buffers. Whatever. Take your pick. My question is what is so different from using an array? Using a ds_map just because it happens to initialize at 0 is a really loose or strict interpretation of no instance variables. I mean, what's the psychology for that? If you understand those rules you can technically make as many data structures as you want, since the second one will be 1, and the next 2, etc... What's the difference between:
x = 15;
and
var x = ID[? "x" ];

Why does the presence of var make it clever? I'm just genuinely curious how this rule, and the subsequent workaround, contribute to this sort of an exercise? Was it just a handicap to exercise GameMaker's lesser utilized features?
 
R

rui.rosario

Guest
Why does the presence of var make it clever? I'm just genuinely curious how this rule, and the subsequent workaround, contribute to this sort of an exercise? Was it just a handicap to exercise GameMaker's lesser utilized features?
This challenge comes from a similar challenge that happened in the GM 8 era, where you could actually create a game without ever leaving the first execution of a single script (through the usage of screen_draw() and other obsolete functions). This restriction was both a way to try and see how inventive GMCers could become as well as try to draw the spirit a little bit closer to that actual One Script Game challenge.

However, yes, technically it won't really cause any significant difference except maybe make the developers a little bit more aware of the variables they use.
 

Hyomoto

Member
Ah, the history there makes a difference. I missed that subtext. I did consider that at one point that if this had been 8.1 you could do without instance variables thanks to screen_draw() but I didn't consider that it's absence was a consideration. Thank you for the reply!
 
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