64Digits

Broken Game-a-phone

Posted by ludamad on April 3, 2013, 9:14 p.m.

So I posted this idea on Toast's blog and it seemed like people were receptive, so here's a proposal for y'all.

The concept

Broken telephone is a children's game where each person whispers a message to another person in a chain. By the time the message reaches the last person, it is very different, often comically so.

The idea behind 'Broken Game-a-phone' is to pass development of a game on from person to person. It is the task of receiver to guess and decide how the game should be developed from there forward.

Proposed details

- Development allotments of 2-3 days, probably not more. Less is a bit too pressuring.

- Development will be in Game Maker, as it is decidedly the common denominator in the community. We will try to be Game Maker version neutral - if you wish to use an earlier version, say so, but be aware you must go first.

- Collaboration starts as soon as the rules are decided and the first eligible (see above) party wants to start. A loose order is determined, but switch-ups / additions are allowed. From there, development should be continuous, but worst comes to worst, lapses are OK. The last people should be focused on wrapping up the game.

Proposed rules

- No discussing the game in development. If you're curious, sign up!

- You may request one version behind the one you are handed for a handful of reasons (suspected vandalism, suspected regressions) but are encouraged to try to work with what you get.

- Incorporating existing resources is OK, use your discretion. Generally encouraged are utility code such as text-box engines, etc, as it will improve the quality and usability of the GM file. Discouraged are sprites and gameplay features ported from another game.

Proposed guidelines

Avoid commenting on the further game design and story. But …

- Document the code well. Use a consistent explicit bracing style. ~~Avoid Drag & Drop if possible (but it is forgiven, of course).~~ Revised, Drag & Drop is banned, along with code in unexpected places such as room creation code, time-lines, and object creation code. Avoid implicit blocks (eg if statements without { } ). Indent all blocks.

- Fix bugs if you can, note them if you cannot. Even spending your whole time doing fixes will be greatly appreciated by the people who come after you and should not be down-played as a contribution.

- If all else fails and the game's a turd, polish the turd :-). Better to have a presentable failed experiment than a complete failed mess.

Proposed game start ?

It can be all up to the initial contributor, but I think some top-down game with areas and plot would do well. As was mentioned, a game with plot could turn out cool with multiple contributors.

This is a rough draft! Seeing as this will be a community project if we do decide to do it, suggestions welcome!

Sign-up here http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GC6XJNM !

Survey results:

MMORPGguy

juurianchi

panzercretin

eagly

Cesque

SMP

KaBob799

Kilin

Charlie Carlo

link2x101

SpectreNectar

Toast

Pirate-rob

Mega

Does anyone want to volunteer to be arbitrator ? I will participate but I think I'm far too busy at this point in time. If not I will eventually host, when I'm not so busy.

Comments

Toast 11 years ago

Top-down sounds good. I'd rather not go first so I'll have a go after the jam finishes.

For those using older GM, Lateral GM lets you open a GM file and save it as an older version of GM, so you can do this for yourself or as a courtesy to others.

There's also this tool if for whatever reason you have trouble converting GM8.1>GM8

KaBob799 11 years ago

I actually was in a team that attempted something similar to this like 7-8 years ago (geeze I've been programming for a long time). Of course we were all pretty nooby so we decided on a game theme then got a few people into the rotation before things fell apart. At least that's how I remember it, I'm too lazy to go find the topic and see what actually happened =p

I'd be willing to work on it but I wouldn't want to be one of the first few people. I'd say for simplicity it should just be GM8/8.1.

Pirate-rob 11 years ago

I'm in!

GM 8.1 lite

Do you need pro to participate?

Cesque 11 years ago

I'll totally participate. I'm using GM8 and-…

Quote:

Indent all blocks.

lolno sorry I'm out

Edit: Okay, serious comment time.

1. I hope you realise organising this will be a bitch - if a single person somewhere along the line decides to quit or ends up very late, the whole idea may get ruined.

I would propose the following system: There's a time schedule for every participant (a pretty lenient one) giving them around 3 days. If a participant finishes early (but no more than a day early), they can send the GM file to the next guy and the other person may get slightly more time.

But participants should also send their GM files to people 2 positions ahead of them in the queue. This way, if someone can't start on time because the previous party screwed up, they are allowed to start with an earlier version instead, and the project can go on without pushing the deadline ad infinitum.

2. If enough people are willing to participate, it would be a cool idea to have two projects branching out from the original one. Say, around the middle, the last person to work on the "common origin" will send the game to two people, and it will end up developed in two different directions by two different groups from that point onwards.

3. I think there should be some rules on how the game can be modified, or at least we can agree on a pretty open-minded attitude to what changes can be made. If you're not allowed to touch anything from the previous version, only add to it, for example, the game development will be pretty static, with new participants only adding new areas and items and whatnot, instead of rethinking some mechanics.

4. I'd outright ban drag-and-drop. For realz. I think most of us have already successfully forgotten it exists.

S3xySeele 11 years ago

Holy sheet this sounds epic. V4 should have a built-in system to allow for this… basically Drawception for Game Maker. lol

KaBob799 11 years ago

Why not just have all of the versions uploaded on 64digits and compiled in a blog, rather than privately sending them to the next person.

Cesque 11 years ago

For one, if you guys like my "branching off" idea, that would ruin the fun :(

Besides, isn't it sort of the point you don't get to see how the game started out?

Toast 11 years ago

@Cesque Concerning point 1, surely it's far easier if there's just a middle-man between each transaction, who sends the game along to the next person if/when someone's finished with it or takes too long.

…ludamad?

ludamad 11 years ago

Quote:

1. I hope you realise organising this will be a bitch - if a single person somewhere along the line decides to quit or ends up very late, the whole idea may get ruined.

I was intending that everyone send their copies to the host, so we can just bypass ineffective people.

Quote:

But participants should also send their GM files to people 2 positions ahead of them in the queue.

Fine with me.

Quote:

4. I'd outright ban drag-and-drop

OK. I was trying to be inclusive for people who's talents lie else-where, but of course I don't want to deal with dragondroppings either.

Quote:

And what about room/object creation code? I'd say ban it

Timelines? Paths? Ban if you ask me

I'm for banning them too. Object creation code is nice to make lots of easy variations but the discoverability is really bad.

KaBob799 11 years ago

We could put comments in the code like "note: this variable is sometimes set in the object creation code of whatever"