Procrastination Softworks

This is by no means new, but I came across it while looking over my old table top RP systems as research for a new system I am working on. This is a RP system created around the concept that the rules & character sheet should both fit on the single side of a page. I later added the restriction that it must be playable with only a single 6-sided die. These restrictions were meant to make a system that you can pick up and play very quickly, and with little resources available. I think I hit that goal rather well. It’s not for new role players but for anyone with even a little experience picking up and playing the system should go over rather smoothly. You can get the character/rules sheet here. I also wrote a small .Net application to keep your character for you, and true to the goal of the system, all of the rules are on every new character created with the app. Since I have a screenshot of the application… I’d be willing to bet you could play just from looking at the screenshot, but just in case here are all of the games rules in pretty text format.

Attribute Upgrade Cost - 100*Current IP

Skill Upgrade Cost - 50*Current IP

New Skill Cost - 100 IP

HP = Might * 6 + Might dice

SP = Int * 6 + Int dice

LP = Luck

HP regained resting = Might*2

SP regained resting = Int dice

LP regained resting = Luck

Use a LP on any roll & gain 1 dice if you roll below your luck

Armor decreases damage taken by one point per rank

Weapons deal one dice of damage per rank + attribute

Skill Type O - Opposed. Roll against another skill

Skill Type I - Independant. Roll against a set difficulty

Skill Type T - Tiered. Roll / 4 success Tier (1 SP cost per Tier)

Skill Type T1 - One point of effect per Tier of success

Skill Type TD - One Dice of effect per Tier of success

Skill Type TO - As Opposed but cost is tiered

So dedicated user fan base of zero, how have you been. I’ve been good, thanks.

It’s been 6 months almost to the day and I feel that I should probably write an update a little more frequently than every time I remember. Procrastination Softworks is supposed to be an ironic title, not truthful. So what’s been going on for the last 6 months you ask… a lot so here’s the list as I think of it in poorly organized rant format.

Quit WoW - After 3000+ hours and 2 expansion packs I have finally realized I don’t like the game. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy my time but there a few design principles that the game fails to meet for me. Replay value and the stigma of ‘bigger crowd - fatter loot’ are the main offenders I see at the moment. The game has very set challenges to overcome and once you have done something like cleared Nax, clearing it again just doesn’t have the same charm. I finally got into a solid raiding groove and decked my self out when Nax was the top end dungeon. Then I realized, “now what, and why did I need to get here?” All I could do was clear it again, but with less of a challenge. I know a lot of people would disagree with me but I’d rather have a myriad of new poorly designed and cookie cutter challenges to over come then to have only the ones that I have already completed (no matter how polished they are the first time). As for the bigger crowd - fatter loot problem, it’s simple: larger group size should not give better loot just because. There is a fight that is pretty much universally acknowledged to be harder on 10 man than on 25 man, yet the 25 man version gives better rewards. What would the problem be with giving out loot based on difficulty? I’d like to see a ridiculously hard 5 man dungeon with the best loot in the game.

Graduated - this one is kind of implied by the final project post, but yeah I graduated with my BS in game development.

Got a Job - This one probably deserved its own post but in my infinite not remembering to post, you can learn about it now. I am currently working at Bioware-Austin on The Old Republic as a tools developer.

Worked on Side Projects - Now that I have said job my normal projects are now side projects. Now to rant list them all. A geometry wars clone, an application to mimic DelveGames’ DelveDice, CTF checkers, and a new table top RP system. The only one on that list that has any promise of completion is the RP system, which is coming along nicely. The basic concept is an RPG that focuses solely on the warrior archetype (ditching rogues healers and mages), but has enough depth and customization to not feel like your playing ¼ of a game. Its core is White-Wolf’s  D10 based Storyteller System(yes the old one). Its taken influence from many places mostly the game Mount & Blade and another amateur RP system based on the Bleach Anime/Manga.

Played Games - One word reviews GO! Battleforge - awesome, CoD4:MW - immersive, Mount & Blade - sandbox-heaven (yes I can use hyphens to make one word, don’t argue with me, it’s my site), World of Goo - refreshing, Mega Man 9 - Gamplay > Graphics (yes comparisons are one word now too), Wii Sports resort- SWORDS!, The Witcher - morally-gray, UT3 - UT2K4+1=3, SSBB - SSBM, DelveDice - Analog-Nethack, Super Metroid - still my favorite.

[edit] Its been so long I forgot to add tags and a category.

 

 Well, the project is finnally over. We went in today for a few hours to do an interview with Full Sail to be put online and out back on the “Jumbo Tron”(AKA big LCD billboard). Though I do not have the interview video now I will post it up once I do. For now here are some screenshots, out Final Presentation video, our Game Bible (comprhensive design documents), Code Snippets, and Installer. If those don’t work try this torrent mirror from lancelotrose.com.

 

 

As promised, our final project, Cartoon Nightmare 2, is ready for more user feedback. We had Beta turn-ins today and will be presenting on Thursday of this week. The game has seen a lot of improvements since last you saw it. The installer’s problem with the DirectX redistributable has addressed, unfortunately the way DirectX works it is very difficult to verify correctness. If it still gives you a DX error, refer to the post Cartoon Nightmare 2: Missing DLL Error Fix for information on how to fix it. The feedback we have gotten so far has been very helpful, keep sending it to fsgp-responsible-hurricanes@googlegroups.com .

 

Download Cartoon Nightmare 2 Beta V0.2

I was looking through my games the other day while preparing possible material for an interview with WMS and I found a game that I never fully finished but is still worth showing.

Junction is a puzzle game I originally created in Klik & Play way back when I was around 13 years old. Since then I have lost the original copy. But in memory I created a more recent version with a few new features. The basic concept behind the game is that you have multiple colored rings on screen and you need to move them over the corresponding colored peg. The catch is that all of your controls affect all the rings simultaneously. In a new not present in the original you can now also mix colored rings to make a new secondary colored ring. To complete a level all pegs must have all of their matching colored rings on top of them, extra colors that don’t correspond to a ring do not matter.  Mix to many colors and you’ll be left with a dead ring, this ring will not move and will consume any rings that pass over it.

This game was fully developed when I first created it; the current version however is just a proof of concept to show off the games idea. There are no menus, no record of progress, and the game ends with a subtly rewarding crash stating that there are no more levels.

The controls are the arrow keys to move, spacebar to restart a level. Also, if you want to go on to a harder level just hit enter and you will move on to the next level.

To download Junction click Here , or for Vista users their is a special build Here. For a time Vista and XP builds were mutually exclusive in Game Maker. This is probably resolved already, but I do not have a Vista box to verify, so both links are still here for now.

A rather critical error has been found with the Alpha v0.1 release of Cartoon Nightmare 2. The DirectX installer does not function correctly. In future releases this will be resolved and work correctly from our installer. For now if you receive this error, your DirectX is out of date and you can update it from the Microsoft Download Center.

The direct link to the download is below.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&DisplayLang=en

We’ve come to the point in our production cycle where we feel the game is ready for its first test run by users. The game is still in Alpha though; this means a few things won’t be as you expect them. Menus are mock ups, models are sphere placeholders etc. We are looking for any and all feedback you might have. The main thing we are focused on improving right now is gameplay, so any comments you have on the gameplay would be appreciated. Send feedback to fsgp-responsible-hurricanes@googlegroups.com . Please note this address is checked by all team-members as well as some Full Sail staff, keep personal correspondence directed to the comments section of this article.

Some things you’ll need to know to play the game that are not explained in game well/at all:

• The right mouse button makes the camera follow mouse movements if held down.
• If tapped the right mouse button locks the camera to a nearby enemy.
• F+ a direction will dodge in that direction.
• You need 7 Golden Monkeys to unlock the boss encounter (off color platform).

 

Some known bugs that we are already aware of are (I will expand this list as we get feedback):

• Shadows band if the light source is close to a wall.
• The Following eye can travel into walls.

 

You can download the 0.1 release here.

I’ve been thinking about what I want to do after I graduate from Full Sail lately. I find myself always coming down to the same sort of question though. What do I really like about game development? I love to program and I also love to play games. Ironically enough that means I like to program games, but it is a bit more complicated than that. When I sit down to code on a project it is sometimes hard to find a lot of enthusiasm when it is just my own project with my own design. I find it much more exciting when I can take feedback from people that have a good idea about what they want to play, and then work towards handing it to them. For the most part, the game projects that I work to completion on are ones that have interest from my normal players. I tend to start a lot of minor game maker projects, and if no one shows interest in the prototype, it usually stops there.  

I think I have come to understand what it is that I am trying to do. I enjoy making games that people can look at and say “Wow, that’s exactly what I always wanted in a game like this.” There are far too many people in the world for me to make a game for each of them though. I have also tried on many occasions to teach people with these good ideas about what they want, how to make them into something themselves. The results have varied but are typically quite disappointing. Many people do not have the time or passion to put into something as technical as programming. So, my many attempts to empower people to make their own dream games have failed.

I finally found a solution to that today. I can teach; not in the way I have before, in a more official capacity. Everyone has game they want to make, or at least a genre staple they want to twist a bit, but I found a place that people flock to that all have the passion and technical discipline to learn how to make their dream games. For some reason I didn’t notice it earlier, but it is Full Sail.

I think that I would really like working at a university or college focused on game programming. It may seem like a simple solution buts it’s a big news flash for me.

 

On a much related note: I went in and talked about becoming a Lab Instructor at Full Sail today. Everything going well I hope to be working there after I graduate.

 

On another related note: I am beggining production in my spare time on a completly off the wall idea: DnD Football. It is a project for my Girlfriend/Editor, Kelly. All ideas have been pased through her if not from her and it is looking better than I could have ever designed it myself.

 

Yesterday in Buisness Comunication we had a lab writing up our resume and portfolio information. Seems to me that it should be on the site somewhere. Its a constant working document so if you see anything that needs to be changed feel free to comment. I plan on updating it and keeping it as constant as I can. 

resume.doc