Humbled

Spaceteam Android is in a Humble Bundle with Monument Valley, The Last Express, and some other great games!

Buying Spaceteam through the Humble Bundle is also a way for people who don’t have Google Play to get the Upgrades (eg. if you’re using a custom ROM or a mod like CyanogenMod). So if you know someone who doesn’t have them yet, please let them know that this is a really good deal.

In other Android news, my support contract with Apportable is ending very soon, so it will be difficult to make big changes to the Android version. I’ll continue to make small updates and fix bugs. Thanks again to everyone at Apportable for getting me this far!

The Captain’s Mess

As promised, I spent half my time last month working on Blabyrinth. But the first task, the networking library, is quite unglamorous. I get very frustrated by network programming. Why on earth did I choose to make a networked game!?!?

Anyway, I’m calling my library “CaptainsMess”, because:

a) a “mess” (eg. on a ship) is a place where people socialize (and eat) together

b) it’s a pretty good description of the code :)

I have a confession to make. The Spaceteam code is pretty bad. It was an experimental project to start with. Not only was I making up the game design as I went, but I was learning iOS programming, Cocos2d, and networking at the same time. So it was hard for me to do proper software architecture. Now it’s had two years of features added on to it, and the end result is not particularly clean. As every programmer says after every project ever: If I were to build it today knowing everything I know now, it would be so much better! C’est la vie.

Before I release the (cleaned up) library I want to integrate it back into Spaceteam to make sure it works in a real game, and also build a tiny example app/shell as a tutorial for how to use it.

Here it is in working in the Blabyrinth prototype, connecting devices and sending messages back and forth:

This is pretty exciting for me, and also simultaneously boring and painful. But once this foundation is in place I can start working on the fun parts of the game without having to worry about building on something shaky and broken.

Tendrils

The other half of my time was spent appeasing the multi-headed beast that Spaceteam has grown into. Spaceteam ESL is nearing completion. Here’s a teaser from the Pronunciation Practice menu where you can listen to, and record yourself speaking, words from the game:

And I’ve been neglecting the New Languages for far too long so I’m getting back to them. Japanese and Russian are finished, with Hebrew, Polish, and Czech not far behind! I’m going to release all 5 new languages in one big update as soon as they’re ready.

Many thanks to all my translators!

Space out!

Spaceteam still has a few tendrils keeping me busy but for the last few weeks I’ve been officially working half-time on my next game, Blabyrinth!

Blabyrinth is going to share the same multiplayer setup as Spaceteam so the first step is extracting and cleaning up the networking code. I still haven’t found any libraries for this kind of local multiplayer and I want to see more games like this so I’m planning to release this part as open source, if I can. It’s a bit complicated because I only have direct access to the iOS source code. The Android build is cross-compiled using the Apportable SDK so I’ll have to work with them to make it available but I’m sure we can do it somehow.

What is Blabyrinth?

There’s so much to explore in the local multiplayer space and I think we can learn a lot from a medium with centuries of experience: board games. I keep discovering fun and interesting mechanics that I think could translate well into digital form. Here are some great candidates:

• Incan Gold (press-your-luck)
• Hanabi (everyone else knows your cards but you)
• Jungle Speed (twitchy pattern recognition)
• The Resistance (traitors!)
• Ca$h ’n Gun$ (pointing foam guns at your friends)
• Escape: The Curse of the Temple

I usually have no interest in directly remaking a physical game in digital form but I love repurposing snippets and interactions.

For Blabyrinth, my inspirations are the aforementioned Escape and Incan Gold, the 1986 movie Labyrinth, “Room Escape” games, and the incredible TV game shows from my childhood The Crystal Maze and Knightmare.

The board game “Escape: The Curse of the Temple”

Blabyrinth is going to be a collaborative treasure hunt where you explore a mysterious labyrinth/temple/thing to find clues and solve puzzles. There will be many secrets, hidden passages, traps, and ancient mechanisms.

There will be no fighting in this game, just puzzling.

Each player will have a phone or tablet and connect in a group of 2-4 like Spaceteam. It will be slower-paced and more thinky than Spaceteam, but I’m aiming for the same short 5-10 minute play sessions.

The levels and puzzles will be procedurally generated so every game will be different. I may end up designing/curating some for special purposes however.

Levels will consist of a grid of interconnected rooms, with doorways and passages between them.

Rooms will contain pretty much what you’d expect: long-forgotten shrines, iridescent trinkets imbued with confusing magicks, the secret library of a madman, a subterranean pool filled with a fragrant undulating liquid, a collection of interesting mushrooms…

Each player will only see the room they’re in so everyone will be exploring at once and sharing what they find.

Each player has a special ability that only they can use, ensuring that everyone will get to participate.

Each player can hold a single item.

The game will start with familiar puzzles and setups:

• Find a “key” to unlock a “door”
• One player stands on a pressure plate to let another access a locked area
• Each player finds part of a larger code/clue

I think the cooperative nature will add an interesting dynamic and many puzzles will require cooperation:

• A heavy boulder needs three people to move it, revealing a trapdoor
• A magical artifact must be touched by everyone at the same time
• Four ceremonial bells in different locations must be struck in a specific order

But I’d also love to introduce more complexity, possibly at the player’s discretion. I’ve been running the Montreal chapter of Puzzled Pint, which is like a pub quiz with interrelated word and logic puzzles. The puzzles are awesome and I’m getting lots of ideas. I’m not sure what will be appropriate yet, but I’ll be experimenting with wordplay, ciphers, riddles, shapes/symbols/icons/hieroglyphs, sound, and whatever else I can find.

When the puzzling has reached its climax and the final treasure is discovered/disturbed, the labyrinth will start to collapse around you and the game becomes a race to find the hidden exit and escape.

During the game I want to encourage some light role-playing by providing simple hooks to let players express themselves. You’ll be randomly assigned a character (as in Spaceteam) but this time you’ll have a more detailed appearance, a name, and a profession. There are no warriors, thieves, or mages, but there might be a:

• “Chambermaid with a shady past”
• “Superstitious Swineherd”
• “Surly Librarian”

I’m having a lot of fun just playing with the profession generator.

Your profession will hint at the special puzzles you might encounter but also hopefully provide an excuse to get into character a bit and play along. I plan to provide occasional prompts about what your character is thinking/feeling to facilitate this but I’m not sure exactly how well this will work.

Here are some other cool things that are going into the game:

• Treasure map fragments. Each player finds one piece of a torn map. You need to physically put your phones together to reconstruct the map!
• A cryptic parchment that looks like gibberish to all but one person. Only that person can see the clue!

This is a game I’m really excited to play, but also, importantly, it’s a game that I understand how to make with the tools I have. And once the basic framework is complete, it should be easy for me (and at some point, you!) to extend with new puzzles, items, characters, and mysterious rock formations.

That’s all for now. But I’m looking forward to sharing more with you as it develops!

An early prototype

Dear Spacefriends, etc.

I’d like to announce the release of the long-awaited Spaceteam version 1.6, which includes:

• Admiral’s Club Members’ Area
• The Lexicogulator
• Custom Characters
• Special controls and medals dedicated to the Admiral’s Club Commanders

Members Area

When logged in to the Admiral’s Club Forum the “Members Area” button will let you access your rewards. If you don’t yet have an account on the forum, now is the time to create one, ideally using the same email address that you used for Kickstarter (but if you use a different email just let me know and I’ll get you set up)

The Members’ Area in the game itself can be accessed by scanning your membership card !! (iOS-only) or entering your Member ID.

Member ID changes: Some of your member IDs have changed for boring technical reasons. Please log in with your new ID found in the Members’ Area and ignore the old one.

The Lexicogulator

The Lexicogulator lets you put your own words into the game. Even if your rank doesn’t qualify you to create your own Lexicons, all Admiral’s Club members can download and play with public lexicons that people have shared. To start you off, here are two lexicons that I’ve made

– BusinessTeam: keyword “businessteam“, which makes fun of business jargon and buzzwords

– Spouseteam: keyword “spouseteam“, which I made for people to play at my wedding

Here’s how to make your own lexicons:

http://spaceteamadmiralsclub.com/forum/discussion/125/help-with-lexicons

Lexicons will be shared automatically with people you connect to but I also encourage you to share them with other members by making them “Public” and announcing them here:

http://spaceteamadmiralsclub.com/forum/discussion/126/shared-lexicons

Custom Characters

The Character Creator is a web app that lets you upload images to use as characters in the game. You can upload two pictures per character: one for the “hand down” state and another for the “hand up” (ready) state. The pictures should be 64×64 pixel PNG files with alpha transparency.

Special Medals and Controls

Those of you with the highest ranks have been immortalized in the official game by way of specially dedicated controls and medals. You’ll see these come up as you play. I’ve given a few previews in earlier posts but I’ll leave the rest for you to discover.

~~~

As always, there are likely to be a few glitches so if you encounter any problems, please let me know and I’ll fix them for you as soon as I can!

For the latest information, please join me on the forum.

– Henry