I'm Making A Video Game: Hourglass

"Spiral Island"

I’ve dreamed of making video games since I was young. I’ve loved playing them for years now, and I always thought I would excel at making them. I’ve tried to get into the lucrative world of games before, several times actually. But I was overwhelmed at how much went into making even simple games.

The idea never died; making in games in theory was never hard for me. but the practicality of such the task had died inside me. It wasn’t until January of this year that new life was breathed into the notion that I could be a game designer: Project 20 and UNDERTALE.
 

I’ve talked about UNDERTALE before on this blog, and with good reason: the game is one of the greatest I’ve played. It broke the rules, went places that games don’t normally go. I played it in very late December 2015, and was, as a matter of fact, the last game I played in 2015.
 

UNDERTALE inspired me in several ways. One of which was the fact that the game was primarily made by just two people: Toby Fox and Temmie Chang. Temmie just did art, I believe (I’m not devaluing her work at all: she did good work, lots of it), while Toby programed it and did the story. That blew my mind. Like truly blew it wide open. This amazing game that I’ve played through more times than I can remember was made primarily by two people. If that doesn’t inspire, I don’t know what does.
 

The second thing I mentioned, Project 20, is something I’ve never talked about. Well, in short, Project 20 is this idea that around 20% of your work week is dedicated to doing something you’ve always wanted to do. Something personally productive, like learning how to play piano, or how to use sign language. Post-It notes were actually created this way. Well my Engineering teacher assigned us a Project 20, and, to roughly quote him: “Go do something fun. Make sure you like it, cause it’s a grade.”
 

UNDERTALE lit the torch and my teacher gave me a real reason to use it: passing his class because Project 20 is a huge grade. Plus, I don’t have the greatest grade in his class, and when I finish this will drastically improve it [insert happy face here].
 

Anyway, enough small talk: let’s talk about Hourglass.
 

The premise of Hourglass is simple: you take on the role of David, a guy who wakes up on a strange island with no memories at all (ha I didn’t use the old ‘he only remembers the name of his lover deal’ talk about breathing new life into a cliche). The only thing he has in his hand is a letter and a sword. Written on the letter are the words “David (that means you((yes you)))” Our lovely hero opens the letter to find that David himself wiped his own memory for reasons unknown after he and his team fail to stop an, again unknown, force of great evil. The letter also talks about the island he’s awoken on, Spiral Island (yep: that picture up there is Spiral Island), and how it sits at a weak point in the fabric of existence and can access several different dimensions. Well, one of these dimensions is a prison, and it just so happens that your partner-in-crime Clara is in there, and you should probably break her out if you want to continue on your journey.

The story then goes on from there. So far I’ve only finished the first little prison bit, but I’m working on the rest. For those of you wondering, I don’t have to finish the game to be able to turn it in. All I gotta do is make progress with it, and I have. I’m rather proud of it, even if it’s short.
 

I might put what I’ve got so far on Gamejolt, but I don’t like to put things out a fraction of the way finished. I am a professional procrastinator and people getting mad at me for sporadic updates, even though motivating, sucks. Plus it’s just an “RPG Maker’ game, which is apparently not something to be proud of. That’s the most stupid thing about this. To The Moon, a truly great game, was made in an older version of RPG Maker than I’m using, and yet people talk down towards RPG Maker games like their not to be held at the same standards as any other game. Hell, UNDERTALE was made using GameMaker Studio, and it was one of the most critically acclaimed games of 2015.
 

I’m getting off track. You guys have read my rants before; you know how I get.
 

Anyway, let’s keep talking about the game.
 

Hourglass takes several inspirations from UNDERTALE. I personally believe in the whole “You don’t have to kill the guys that seem bad” mentality that UNDERTALE uses as its primary message. I think UNDERTALE takes it a step too far, however. I understand that it’s satire, I really do, but don’t you think that, sometimes, the bad guy needs to die. I’m not saying all the time or even every time, but sometimes, some people are just better off dead. In Hourglass this is especially true. Sometimes you will need to kill people to be on the right path.
 

Speaking of the right path, I am not a fan of the hint. I like UNDERTALE’s approach to playing a game: you need to screw up bad a couple times before you get it right. I won’t drop any more hints than that.

The battle system is probably the only thing I didn’t steal (I didn’t really steal anything don’t get mad toby) from UNDERTALE. No, that’s Final Fantasy standard RPG battling. I also use the random encounter (don’t hit me toby) even though I hate that system of battling (yet Pokemon is one of my favorite games).

That entire last paragraph was a stew of hypocrisy and I apologize for that.
 

That’s really all I can say about my brain child without spoiling her. Sorry guys, you’ll have to play her yourself. Don’t fret, potential player: it might be years before you can play it but until then, have some photos.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading, dear reader.

 

Man I hope Bethesda doesn’t sue me because I use the word scr[CENSORED FOR ‘COPYRIGHT’] in the game like once in a throw-away line. Whoops sorry guys.

-Robert

 

Weird "Social Media" (I guess that's what they're called) Sites.

I have decided that I am going to analyze a couple social media websites/apps/things that I have heard about:

First in the bill is Yik Yak. It is a supposedly completely anonymous forum where people talk about stuff. I guess. I don't really know much about it. I got an email from Change.org (what a surprise there am I right) about a petition about the site. I have no idea what about though.

Anyway, I figure I'll try it out. I suspect it will be total cancer though, considering how 4Chan is with its anonymity (/b/ I'm looking at you). So let's see where this goes. 

Edit: So it's a location based thing. You get notifications about people in the area around you. Well you can screw off Yik Yak I'm just going to look at posts from Washington D.C. since that place is 'trending' lately.

Edit 2: Okay so I found the Peek Anywhere option, which let's you tap somewhere and see Yaks from that area. That's kind of neat I guess.
While I was there, I decided to test out the radius for these messages, you know, how far away you would have to be from whatever point you put on the map for your message to be picked up. And it's a little too close for comfort. It's not like exact, and (probably) no one is going to find you on it, but I personally will not be posting on it or anything like that.

In conclusion, it is sort of fun to see Yaks from differnet locations, but there doesn't seem to be a lot there in terms of content. And it is 10x better than 4Chan. Probably because it's not 4Chan.

My rating: 6/10 Mark Zuckerburgs.

I'll let this picture basicly sum up my experience on Yik Yak:

Next is Whisper. It's a confession app. Oh boy.

Edit: Not worth your time. 2/10 Steve Jobs. 

Well that's all I have the will to do. The internet is so weird sometimes. 

Undertale: The Game That Made Me Like Comic Sans

"it's a beautiful day. birds are chirping, flowers are blooming..." -Sans

A while back, I started a post about a little game called To The Moon. It is a beautiful piece of art, and I totally recommend you go buy it right now and play it if you haven't already. I never got around to finishing that post (but I will soon!) but this is why I bring it up: I thought To The Moon was had the best soundtrack in indie game history. I legitimately thought To The Moon was the pinnacle of indie game score. "It wouldn't get any better than this, I told myself." 

Well, To The Moon has met it's match.

It is still one of my favorite indie games of all time, don't get me wrong, and that soundtrack is still the amazing beautiful masterpiece it was back in May 2015 when I played To The Moon, but it is now number 2. 

Undertale. What can I say about it that no one else has said? Well, it is the second game I have bought the soundtrack for on Steam (the first being, you guessed it: To The Moon). Soundtrack is a big thing for me in games. Especially games that are story-heavy and have NO spoken dialogue. It helps carry the emotion of a situation or event when there is no spoken dialogue to do it. To The Moon focuses a lot less on gameplay than Undertale does, but still, Undertale totally benefits from having an incredible score. 

I should stop comparing Undertale and To The Moon, because while they are indie RPGs made for the PC, sold on Steam, and have impeccable soundtracks (both of which I own), that is where their similarities begin and end. 

In the world of Undertale, there are two races living on Earth, monsters and humans. One day, we humans do what humans do (I'm looking right at us, America); we kicked the monsters out after having a huge war with them. The monsters were forced under the fictitious Mt. Ebott and into the Underground, and sealed off from the surface with the powerful Barrier, a wall that only those with a powerful soul can pass through. You play as a human child who falls into the Underground one day, and forced to fight (or more importantly as you'll see below, don't fight) through the Underground in order to one day feel the sunlight on your face once again.

The story and lore can be a bit thin at times, admittedly, but what you don't have in backstory, you have in characters. While making your way through the Underground you will meet some the most memorable characters in any game I have ever played. From a nihilistic skeleton who's entire existence is a pun to a homicidal robot who hosts various television shows including a cooking show and the news, these characters are the greatest I have ever had the chance to play a game through with. There were moments when I busted out laughing because of something they said, then within a couple minutes that same character could make me close to tears (the sad ones) and it all flowed extremely well. They were very relatable characters too. I could see something of myself in every single one of the major characters in the story. I would provide examples but if you've never played the game, you'll have no context.

The game has little jokes peppered throughout too, some made by the characters and sometimes they show up out of nowhere when you examine something. A quote from the game basically sums up what kind of humor you'll find in this game:

Or say, for instance, Sans the nihilistic skeleton, one of the major players (and by that I mean character but I am so sick of that word) of the game. He makes terrible jokes and skeletal puns (as he is of the spooky, scary variety of monster) all the time. And every word of his dialogue is written in COMIC SANS! (u git it m8?) I have a new found respect for that typeface. Won't ever be using it, but I still like it now, just because of Sans. Also his brother is named Papyrus and all his dialogue is written in, you guessed it, Papyrus typeface.

All of these little things are some of the small reasons why I love Undertale. There is one reason in particular that sold me on Undertale, something that you'll either love or hate depending on how you like your games:

Undertale broke the rules. 

And no, I'm not talking about the graphics, by the way (which is another thing I adore about this game).  Undertale takes the one, fundamental, core values of every RPG you have ever played and snaps it in two. Undertale asks a question, like all great works of art do. The question it asks is quite simple, really: 

"What if, instead of killing our opponents, we spared them?"

You have a 3 choices to end a battle when you get into one: fight and kill the opposition, flee from the battle, or spare your enemy. Every fight has importance in this game. I am not kidding in the least when I say killing a single enemy, no matter how insignificant to the overall plot, can screw you out of 1 of the 3 endings to this game. And it's not just random little goobs you fight in this game either. There is only 1 major character in the game that you don't ever have the option to kill. This game has three potential endings, and to get to whatever ending you want, you have to follow a certain path. Some main characters can only be fought on some routes, but there is only 1 major character that you can never, ever fight. That's huge. Every little single fight in the game has ripples that effect the fate of the entire world. 

Most RPGs say: "Well here's a field. This field has a bunch of enemies in it. Kill them lol bai."

Undertale asks: "Well, you're in the Underground now, the Hell where your kind exiled the monsters for no reason other than selfish hate. Are you really, after taking away their homes and freedom, going to take their lives too? I mean, human souls are more powerful than monster souls. It would be pretty easy to steamroll this place. It is what you humans do right?" 

You can answer yes to that very question. You can kill every single enemy you come across. In fact, one of the three routes, not-so-but-maybe-kinda accurately named the Genocide Route, requires you to do just that: kill indiscriminately. Everything. Everyone. Whip them off the map.

You can also shout "NO!" from the top of your lungs to answer that question. You can go through the entire game without even using the FIGHT button on your UI. Instead using the ACT button to deescalate fights in often-times hilarious ways, like making a certain buff seahorse-merman-thing named Aaron 'flex his way off screen' (not joking that's how you 'beat' the guy seen on the left). One of the routes of the game, the true pacifist route, requires you to do this. Not a single hair on the head of a single monster can be harmed to get that ending. Not a single, solitary one.

That to me is the true beauty of Undertale. If you play as a megalomaniac, the game treats you like it, dark and brooding. If you are a die hard pacifist, the game is light-hearted and funny. The very personality of the game on a fundamental level adapts to how you play it. 

Oh and there are puzzles. Lots, and lots, and lots of puzzles. 

My rating score for games goes something like this:

1. Don't play this game!
2. Borrow from a friend, maybe.
3. Rent it.
4. Pick it up on sale.
5. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING BUY THE GAME ALREADY!!!!!

Undertale gets a solid 5 for sure. You will more than likely love this game. It has a lot of replayablity and will not get stale if you play through it 4 or 5 times trying to find all the little hidden things. I mean, minor spoiler warning here, saving and loading your game becomes a game mechanic in the last parts of the game. No joke. That loathsome forth wall does not exist here (I hate the forth wall).  But it is 10 bucks on Steam, will work on your grandmother's PC, and worth every penny even at full price. Also pick up the soundtrack on Steam. I swear it is so good that you'll feel bad pirating it off YouTube especially when I tell you the entire soundtrack was composed by the same guy who programmed and drew 99.9% of the art for the ENTIRE GAME (luv u tony < 3 )

And until next time,

Cini 

Undertale on Steam

Also, To The Moon on Steam

Because you can't die without play them. Seriously there is no point in living without experiencing it.