Posts Tagged ‘multiplayer’

Team Codebreakers MMOG

Friday, July 29th, 2022

This minimal multiplayer online game was built in 48 hours as my entry into the GMTK 2022 Games Jam. The theme for the jam was “Roll of the Dice”. In this game you roll your character/team at random, which is then permanently fixed if you play in the future. Then you attempt to take over other teams’ nodes in a persistent territorial battle.

To take over a node, you have to crack a code that the previous owner set. If you watch them set it, you can see the code they were using at the time. Otherwise you have to play a sort of Mastermind/Wordle minigame to crack the code with logic and guesswork.

Give it a go if you like, but don’t expect the server to be full of players. One of the ways I rolled the dice was to attempt something really quite ambitious, but despite getting it to work technically well, it hasn’t been very popular.

You can check out the game here: Windows download.

Llama League

Tuesday, December 15th, 2015

2016-04-09 14.18.09Play crazy llama football with a friend or by yourself in this finger-skills game from Aardman Digital. Pick your location, llama and bling. Then learn the perfect moment to kick the ball into their goal. Build up your trickshot meter and unleash a super shot!

Download for iPhone/iPad
Download for Android phone/tablet
Official webpage

I supported the main developers on this free-to-play mobile game.

Spindoodle 3D

Friday, March 14th, 2014

1Unleash your creativity and draw mesmerising 3D patterns with your fingers. Spin the world and trace glowing lines in the sky. Relax your mind!

Simple controls are easy for everyone from the very young to the very old. If you can point with a finger, you can draw in this app.

Completely FREE forever on Android. Used to be available on iOS too, although Apple have removed it due to draconian update rules. No ads or social junk to distract you. Clean and simple creative fun.

Download for Android tablets and phones

Built with Unity3D
unity-logo

Pi-Pi-Ee

Wednesday, February 26th, 2014

pipiee-screenshotWage epic battles in this turn-based strategy puzzle game. Play on your phone or tablet, with a friend or against the computer opponents across 30 increasingly challenging levels.

Play FREE on Android

Try for FREE or buy on Windows Phone 8

No longer available on iOS. Apple make old software obsolete for no reason other than it’s old. Same as they do with hardware. I can only recommend you go with an Android device next time you drop your iPhone!

Move next to your opponents to capture their cells. Shuffle one space, and you’ll grow a clone. Move two spaces, and you’ll jump, potentially leaving a gap in your defences. The balance of power can shift rapidly back and forth, and with deep and engaging gameplay you’ll be engrossed for hours. And if you do manage to beat every level, you’ll unlock the full-strength computer AI to really test your mettle.

Built with Unity3D
unity-logo

White-Out

Wednesday, February 26th, 2014

White-OutTest your skills in this multiplayer paint flicking game made in just 48 hours at Global Game Jam 2014. Play White-Out by yourself for , with a friend, or in a group of four people all on the same device. Suitable for young children and adults alike. If you can flick your finger, you can play this!

No longer available on iPad due to Apple purposely obsoleting software just because it’s old. I can recommend many good Android devices!

Play FREE on you Android tablet

This app was featured on the Mac Rumours website. Thanks guys!

Built with Unity3D

unity-logo

Tony Robinson: Weird World of Wonders

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012

This puzzle-platformer game was built with Aardman to help promote Tony Robinson‘s new series of lovely children’s history books.

Play Tony Robinson’s Weird World of Wonders.

In every game I try to introduce something new and original. In this one, you control two characters at once. Pee Wee and Nits. The boy Pee Wee can be controlled with arrow keys, and Nits, his dog, can be controlled with the mouse. That means that two people can play side by side on the same computer, in a cooperative manner. It’s great fun, give it a go and try to solve the level puzzles with your best mate!

I’ve loved Tony Robinson’s acting work since I was young, watching him play Baldrick in the Blackadder comedies. It was an amazing privilege to work with him on this project. His browbeating voiceovers totally transform the game, injecting character and humour throughout.

Star Wars: Clones V Droids

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

clones-v-droidsYou have just 30 seconds to anticipate your opponent’s thoughts, give your troops orders and move them into position in this multiplayer ballistic fighting game. Then everyone opens fire, and another turn starts.

UPDATE! On playing this recently it seems to have been updated by someone, and broken in the process. The game now crashes often when you’re walking around, which never used to happen. What a shame.

Postmortem:

I could hardly believe it! Not only were we doing a game for the giant Star Wars Clone Wars franchise, but we’d pursuaded them to try something risky and unusual too! A custom-made ultra-light PHP back end would join random players together in an almost anonymous way over the internet so that they could battle each other rather than some shonky AI.

Not only that, but it worked too! In a little over a week, I’d built the game engine and back end and proven the concept. Then the public was unleashed on it. The server coped admirably with the strain of thousands of people playing it over and over. Success!

It could have been better, of course. Just about all things can be improved. In this game, I’d have liked to have spent a little longer getting a few of the interface details working smoother. It’s fiddly to set up shots, which is an area that could do with as little interface-friction as possible. That aside though, I’d really like to have improved the multiplayer features.

I designed the game to put a game together for every two visitors to the site. You get paired off with the next random that comes along, and you’re playing. Minimum fuss, minimum barrier to entry. My experience with lots of multiplayer games is that you get to a daunting room full of 11yo kids who are just waiting for a newbie to kick about the place. I specifically designed against that effect here by removing the ability to pick your opponent, or play them again, or even to know who they are. All you get is a rank – a single number to hint at whether they’ve played before, and whether they were any good or not.

This really works – people dive in and play in generally fair games, which is great. It also means we never have to store user accounts on the server, which is also great. Each player keeps their rank in their shared-object, and it is exchanged at the start of the game. At the end of the game, each player calculates their new rank based on the Elo chess ranking system, and stores it away for next time. Yeah, you could fiddle the number and cheat, but really, who cares? There’s no leaderboard, and no way to shout out how great you are, so there’s very little incentive to cheat. That’s the best cheat-protection system I’ve ever come across!

The downside is that whilst it’s addictive for a while, it won’t hold people for a great length of time. After a while you get bored of there being no further progression. Of not being able to chat with your opponent and of not being able to have a rematch if it was a great game. These features I’d add in another similar game.

I’d give the players a chat box, that they could use at any point especially including whilst waiting for the server to sync up and exchange the moves. I’d also add a ‘play this person again’ checkbox that appears mid-game, so if you both clicked it and left it selected, it’d arrange your next match against each other. I’d also consider an optional match-up room of some sort, so you could meet up with friends. I’d definitely let you enter a name for yourself and exchange that with the other player, so you had some idea who you were playing. Maybe allow a pictorial avatar too. And some sort of earned rankings beyond a simple number. Maybe a veteran’s medal after 10 games, a high-roller medal after they hit a rank of 1600 and so on. You could even allow different things in-game based on what they had earned. Maybe veterans get the ability to pick their fights more carefully. Perhaps high ranked people get access to new weapons when playing against other high ranked people. Giving the player some sort of progression, something to work towards, would go a long way.

Lessons:

  • Multiplayer immediately adds depth to almost any game
  • People love playing against people, even if they’re unidentified randoms
  • Provide a way for people to communicate in-game
  • Provide a way for people to arrange battles with people they know, if they want
  • Provide a way for people to give themselves an identity of sorts in your game
  • Provide some sort of progression for the player to work towards, over multiple games
  • Removing incentives to cheat is far more effective than building technological safeguards against cheating