“Overpopulous” got 18th place!

competition, Game Jam, House of Brass, Ludum Dare, Overpopulous

“Overpopulous” got 18th place in Ludum Dare Jam 23, voted 10th most fun game and won the Coolness gold medal! This competition has been growing exponentially. On the first time there were 90 games in the Jam, then 174 and now 330. Added to the compo entries that makes a flabbergasting 1402 games!

Here is the list of the top 25.  This time I judged a mix of games from both the compo and the Jam and some of my favorites were azurenimbus’ elegant “Microscopia”, Draknek’s “Dr. Biology’s Educational Game” and 01101101’s eyecandylicious “Exposed”. Also, brackcurly’s “it’s a tab” is a very fresh concept you should see for yourself!

This time I noticed a lot of the top ranked games had nothing to do with the competition’s theme. In my opinion, that is the biggest constraint and the only way to gauge if the team made their game fair and square. Without that what stops me from starting to work on a game right now and deliver it when the next competition ends, three months from now?

In other news…

Rejoice! On the 21st of May Fantastic Creations: House of Brass (Mac) reached 1st place in BigFishGames’ Top downloads list, dethroning their own Mystery Case Files: Escape From Ravenhearst! PC version reached 2nd place and both are still getting really good reviews.

Eliminating player elimination

boardgame prototype, Sinking

I was asked why I chose to include player elimination in “Sinking”. The question intrigued me. It made sense with the sinking ships theme so I didn’t really think twice. Everyone is sinking and the winner is the one that managed to stay afloat.

They explained to me it’s considered an old-fashioned mechanic which is frowned upon nowadays, so now I can see why and I’ll tell you so you won’t make the same mistake. It’s suited to some games, but not all.

In my quest to try and publish my game I had to further define who my target player is. I reached the conclusion that it’s suited for family play due to the light complexity of the mechanics and rules. Well, let’s imagine you’re playing this game with your kids and one of them loses. You don’t want to tell him “Now go and find something to do while we finish this game”, do you?

I don’t.

That’s why I changed my game.

Now when the first player sinks to the bottom the game ends, and the player’s positions on the water board define who’s second, third and so on. This simple change made it a lot more family-friendly.

Ludum Dare Jam 23

competition

Check out “Overpopulous”! Once again I was part of team Make a Game and we made this space colonization game where you are a team of astronauts from an overpopulated planet that needs to expand. Thing is, the rocket is upside down and the whole planet is propelled along for the ride!

Ludum Dare Jam is an online competition in which you are given a subject and have to make a game in 72 hours. The game is currently being judged along with all the other cool games and the results will be known in 19 days.

You can play it here.

Good job everyone!

Gangster Carousel

Carousel, Multiuniversum

After unveiling it at the second Arcádia meeting I’ve playtested Carousel about five times now. The player feedback was really good, even better than Sinking!

The first playtest showed the different action cards (four cards times 10) were too few. Sometimes all the cards in your hand were the same. At first I tried using Nandeck (suggested by Sérgio Martins) to make the new batch. It looks really useful but the permutations it was giving me were way too similar so I ended up doing them myself. They’re all different now.

Seems like it started only yesterday but Carousel has already caught the eye of a publisher. Nothing is set in stone yet but I’ll listen to their suggestions. I have kept it abstract so far but they’d like it to be about gangsters robbing a bank so I’ll put that in. It’s easy to bring that theme to the game, but it will definitely need a new name! Worry not – I’ll update the tags and buttons so you can easily find all the relevant posts about it.

Ludum Dare 23 takes place in about two weeks, so stay tuned!

House of Brass, Sinking and the newcomer Carousel

boardgame prototype, Carousel, competition, House of Brass, Multiuniversum, Sinking

“Fantastic Creations: House of Brass Collector’s Edition”, the game I’ve been working on for a year and eight months is now out! It is a light steampunk Hidden Object Adventure for Bigfish Games. The reviews are great and everyone seems to enjoy the fresh ideas we brought into it. It’s currently in second place of BigFish’s Top 10 PC downloads and you can check it out here.

I just closed the box with the “Sinking” prototype for testing in the Ludopolis contest. I really enjoyed the process of creating it so far. The players enjoyed it as well so I’m pitching the game to publishing companies that seem appropriate.

While I was translating its rules I had started taking notes of another idea, this time for a card game. I played around with some ideas for a couple of days until I got to something I believe to be original, accessible and fun. If it’s anything like “Sinking” I should to a playtest right away so can I take the broken parts out and focus on the good stuff. I quickly made the prototype you see in the photo above so I can test it this week. I’m calling it “Carousel” for now.

Arcádia Lusitana de Criadores de Boardgames

Arcádia, boardgame prototype, competition, Sinking

Recently, the “Arcádia Lusitana de Criadores de Boardgames” was created. The main goal is to share information, resources, provide playtesting and feedback for portuguese boardgame projects. Currently the main discussion platform is facebook, along with regular meetings. Seems there are quite a few more Lisbon-based designers than I thought!

In the first meeting Vital Lacerda tried out my game. He seemed to like it and suggested I switch the placement of the minimum bid silhouettes with the action effects to make it more intuitive. I don’t know how I didn’t think of that before. I laughed and wrote it down right away. This weekend I had the chance to test it and he was absolutely right – it does make it easier to teach and play.

The second meeting is coming up! It will be on the 20th of February and you can find all the details here.

Also, Last week I read Raph Koster’s “Theory of Fun”. If you’re interested in making games I advise you to check it out. The first half is about the human brain and how we define what’s fun for us. The second half points a possible path games should take for them to be seriously respected as an art form.

“alone I art” got 4th place!

alone I art, competition, Game Jam, Ludum Dare

“alone I art” got 4th place in Ludum Dare Jam 22, with gold medals for Humor and Coolness! This time there were even more games! 174 games in the Jam, opposed to the 90 in Ludum Dare 21. I’m really proud for the team and for being a part of it!

Here is the list of the top 25.  My favorite game in the competition – and I tested more than 90 – was number one. Midas has stylized graphics and almost no animation but the mechanics are sound. I can see this being a pretty popular game if they further iterate on it. /follow, the sweetest eye candy in the competition, came in third. It’s more of an interactive narrative than a game, but it looks and sounds gorgeous!

I recommend these game jams to anyone who wants to get involved with the industry. It’s trial by fire, and it is such a rush!

“alone I art” post mortem

alone I art, competition, Game Jam, Ludum Dare

Carlos Leituga wrote a great Post Mortem about “alone I art”, our second venture into the Ludum Dare Jam. It covers every part of the process of making this particular game in 72 hours. It has pictures, scribbles and good insights about the whole thing.

You can read it here.

I can’t wait for the results, which will be released in about 25 hours.

Ludum Dare Jam 22

alone I art, competition, Game Jam, Ludum Dare

Check out “alone I art”! Once again I was part of team Make a Game and we made this stealth game in which you’re an art lover that wants to spend valuable time with art. You have to steal all the masterpieces you can without getting caught by the guards.

Ludum Dare Jam is an online competition in which you are given a subject and have to make a game in 72 hours. The game is currently being judged along with all the other cool games and the results will be known in 11 days.

You can play it here.

Good job everyone!