Break Blocks Difficulty System - 02/01/11
We have recently implemented our progressive difficulty system into the Break Blocks. As you progress through the game, the game will get more difficult, but not just by speeding songs up and using more interesting beat patterns, but also by changing piece building system. At first, you will be able to continue building a piece, even if you've already placed it:
This allows players to separate the placing and building aspects of the game, which makes the game a lot easier than the next step in the difficulty, which requires the piece to be built before it touches down:
If you do not have the piece entirely built before it touches down, it will explode and cause the crowd to turn against you(this will also happen if you are off beat or try to build outside the predetermined area):
The next step up in difficulty, though, is our favorite. If you do not complete the piece before it touches down, you are off beat, or you try to build outside the predetermined area, the piece will turn white and will not count toward clearing lines, as seen on the bottom 2 lines here:
In order to clear lines containing white blocks, you must clear a touching line above it, which can include a line containing white blocks(creating a chain reaction). As you can see in the image above, I was about to clear the line above the lines containing white blocks, here is the result:
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This allows players to separate the placing and building aspects of the game, which makes the game a lot easier than the next step in the difficulty, which requires the piece to be built before it touches down:
If you do not have the piece entirely built before it touches down, it will explode and cause the crowd to turn against you(this will also happen if you are off beat or try to build outside the predetermined area):
The next step up in difficulty, though, is our favorite. If you do not complete the piece before it touches down, you are off beat, or you try to build outside the predetermined area, the piece will turn white and will not count toward clearing lines, as seen on the bottom 2 lines here:
In order to clear lines containing white blocks, you must clear a touching line above it, which can include a line containing white blocks(creating a chain reaction). As you can see in the image above, I was about to clear the line above the lines containing white blocks, here is the result:
Break Blocks Early Adopters Program - 01/28/11
How would you like to be part of the development process and help decide the direction of Break Blocks? Somewhere between the beginning of April and the end of June, Greater Good Games will be starting an Early Adopters program for Break Blocks whereby you can purchase a copy of the game, for a reduced price(if you so choose), giving you instant access to the beta and allowing you to give feedback to help drive the direction of the game toward awesome!
We know that there's a big disparity in the possible starting times, but that's because we want to be closer to a finished product by the time you guys join in. The gameplay is already far enough along to get your feedback, but we want to make sure you have real menus, configuration options, and difficulty options. And because we're developing this game entirely in our spare time, we're not able to nail down the starting date any better than that until we get closer to it, because life happens to us sometimes. So stay tuned to future developments by Subscribing!
Also, Noah just got our Russian character into the game. He's not 100% final, but I think we can all agree that he's looking pretty good:
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We know that there's a big disparity in the possible starting times, but that's because we want to be closer to a finished product by the time you guys join in. The gameplay is already far enough along to get your feedback, but we want to make sure you have real menus, configuration options, and difficulty options. And because we're developing this game entirely in our spare time, we're not able to nail down the starting date any better than that until we get closer to it, because life happens to us sometimes. So stay tuned to future developments by Subscribing!
Also, Noah just got our Russian character into the game. He's not 100% final, but I think we can all agree that he's looking pretty good:
Break Blocks in Widescreen - 01/23/11
I just added custom resolution support for Break Blocks, including support for Widescreen resolutions and full screen ability. This is a seemingly very simple thing in most games, and is, consequently, hugely taken for granted. Before I rewrote the whole rendering system a couple of weeks ago, I knew it would be a huge bitch to get this working well, but in the new system, I was able to get this working in just a few hours in between races at the track this past weekend.
Before I get a bunch of questions, I race go karts with my father from time to time. We have CIK certified chassis running Rotax Max FR125 engines, which are capable of speeds of up to 120 miles per hour. We have no roll cage on them and no seat belts, either. It's a blast, but it's certainly dangerous =)
So, now that that's out of the way, here's a screen shot of the game running in widescreen:
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Before I get a bunch of questions, I race go karts with my father from time to time. We have CIK certified chassis running Rotax Max FR125 engines, which are capable of speeds of up to 120 miles per hour. We have no roll cage on them and no seat belts, either. It's a blast, but it's certainly dangerous =)
So, now that that's out of the way, here's a screen shot of the game running in widescreen:
Break Blocks Running on Mac - 01/19/11
After struggling with getting the Mac version of Break Blocks working for few weeks, we finally got it running yesterday with the help of industry renown programmer Ryan Gordon, a.k.a. icculus. Ryan does Mac and Linux ports for a number of AAA titles, including most games running on the Unreal Engine. He was nice enough to spare a few minutes to let us know where things were going wrong on our Mac port, because he thoroughly supports Greater Good Games' charitable mission.
Also, a few days ago, I created a crude font editor for our engine, which is a huge step up from the old Photoshop and notepad font creation technique.
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Also, a few days ago, I created a crude font editor for our engine, which is a huge step up from the old Photoshop and notepad font creation technique.
Origins of Greater Good Games and Break Blocks - 01/18/11
Lets jump into the way back machine for a second and start from the very beginning, just to make sure we don't miss anything. At 12 years old, after many years of playing games on the NES and SNES, I began to get curious about how video games were made. I had already been programming for a bit, so I researched a little and created a Pong clone! Ah, success! Well, not so much, because it was written in Visual Basic...and was a clone. So, after seeing Starcraft for the first time, I dug a little deeper and started learning DirectDraw and noticed that every tutorial out there was written in this alien language called C++. That's when I learned my first major programming lesson: friends don't let friends learn Visual Basic before a real programming language. The transition was frustratingly difficult, but I eventually wrapped my head around it. So, just getting started in real game development, I worked on a few projects with various people, but they never really got off the ground.
Soon after, I switched to OpenGL, learned the basics of 3D game development, and landed a contract job at 18 years of age for a now defunct company. After the contract ended, just before they shut down, I got a local job at another now defunct company, which knew even less about game development than the first company. After seeing these companies fail, I decided that I needed to get in the door at a more competent company, which meant I needed a degree. While in college, I couldn't help but start working on another little project of my own, which eventually became Break Blocks, but was then named Groove Blocks(and was being developed by like 4-8 people at any given time, none of which were musicians). Oddly enough, even though the game was hardly playable and didn't look professional at all, almost everyone working on that project used it as an example to get some form of a job in the game industry. I, of course, landed a job at a company that is now dead, but they at least seemed to know something about game development. Once they went kaput, I got another game development job, working on a Porno MMO, which is not exactly the highlight of my career, but it paid the bills for a few months. Oh, and big surprise, they are now defunct as well.
But, they gave me the big break I needed, inadvertently, because they took me to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. There I met the guys here at Tripwire Interactive. I have been working at Tripwire for nearly 4 years now and I must say that these guys are awesome! But, I had a dream as a kid, which I have to pursue while my body can still handle the sleep deprivation. So, I've been working on Break Blocks instead of sleeping for over a year now.
At first, it was just me, but I was lucky enough to run across an excellent artist trying to get into the game industry. He quickly replaced all the old unprofessional art with assets much more fitting to the game. I then found a awesome musician who befriended me because he was a fan of Killing Floor, which I worked on at Tripwire. I can't possibly express how lucky I feel to have met these 2 talented people who are making Break Blocks a reality in their spare time. Not to mention that, through Tripwire, I've added a highly experienced sound guy to the team, and learned more about successful game development, business, and marketing than I ever would have on my own. How lucky can one guy get?
As for the idea for Greater Good Games and charitable game development, that story's a bit shorter. We knew that we'd need to create an entity to put our game out on the market upon completion, but one day I realized that regardless of how successful the game is, we just want to keep making games, not get rich. So, I proposed the idea of giving every bit of extra money we can to charity to my artist/partner, who was completely receptive to the idea. So, if Break Blocks sells well, we get to continue making games, charities will receive large contributions, and our customers will know that they helped make the world a better place by simply playing video games. Everyone Wins!
So, that's my story. I believe some people in my position, with the same horrible employment history, would say they "deserve" to be at a company as awesome as Tripwire and to have Greater Good Games be successful, but, personally, I don't believe that anyone deserves anything just due to hard work or perseverance; any good fortune in our lives is somehow derived from luck. Whether its being born into a first world country, being born into a supportive or financially stable family, or interviewing for a job at the right company at the right time to fill the position. We are all lucky and I believe, despite some minor hardships I've encountered in my life, I am one of the luckiest people on earth to be able to make games for a living!
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Soon after, I switched to OpenGL, learned the basics of 3D game development, and landed a contract job at 18 years of age for a now defunct company. After the contract ended, just before they shut down, I got a local job at another now defunct company, which knew even less about game development than the first company. After seeing these companies fail, I decided that I needed to get in the door at a more competent company, which meant I needed a degree. While in college, I couldn't help but start working on another little project of my own, which eventually became Break Blocks, but was then named Groove Blocks(and was being developed by like 4-8 people at any given time, none of which were musicians). Oddly enough, even though the game was hardly playable and didn't look professional at all, almost everyone working on that project used it as an example to get some form of a job in the game industry. I, of course, landed a job at a company that is now dead, but they at least seemed to know something about game development. Once they went kaput, I got another game development job, working on a Porno MMO, which is not exactly the highlight of my career, but it paid the bills for a few months. Oh, and big surprise, they are now defunct as well.
But, they gave me the big break I needed, inadvertently, because they took me to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. There I met the guys here at Tripwire Interactive. I have been working at Tripwire for nearly 4 years now and I must say that these guys are awesome! But, I had a dream as a kid, which I have to pursue while my body can still handle the sleep deprivation. So, I've been working on Break Blocks instead of sleeping for over a year now.
At first, it was just me, but I was lucky enough to run across an excellent artist trying to get into the game industry. He quickly replaced all the old unprofessional art with assets much more fitting to the game. I then found a awesome musician who befriended me because he was a fan of Killing Floor, which I worked on at Tripwire. I can't possibly express how lucky I feel to have met these 2 talented people who are making Break Blocks a reality in their spare time. Not to mention that, through Tripwire, I've added a highly experienced sound guy to the team, and learned more about successful game development, business, and marketing than I ever would have on my own. How lucky can one guy get?
As for the idea for Greater Good Games and charitable game development, that story's a bit shorter. We knew that we'd need to create an entity to put our game out on the market upon completion, but one day I realized that regardless of how successful the game is, we just want to keep making games, not get rich. So, I proposed the idea of giving every bit of extra money we can to charity to my artist/partner, who was completely receptive to the idea. So, if Break Blocks sells well, we get to continue making games, charities will receive large contributions, and our customers will know that they helped make the world a better place by simply playing video games. Everyone Wins!
So, that's my story. I believe some people in my position, with the same horrible employment history, would say they "deserve" to be at a company as awesome as Tripwire and to have Greater Good Games be successful, but, personally, I don't believe that anyone deserves anything just due to hard work or perseverance; any good fortune in our lives is somehow derived from luck. Whether its being born into a first world country, being born into a supportive or financially stable family, or interviewing for a job at the right company at the right time to fill the position. We are all lucky and I believe, despite some minor hardships I've encountered in my life, I am one of the luckiest people on earth to be able to make games for a living!
