I guess it's a bit late to announce this here, 5 days after I actually submitted the game to YoYoGames for judging, but what the heck - I feel much more energized after a nice relaxing holiday at my parent's house, and I figure it's time to push the game a little bit. So without further ado, my YYG Winter Competition is finally finished!
I present to you the winter-themed SHMUP, Sun Sun Der! Here's a quick link to play at YoYoGames.com, more information below!
The spirits that govern the balance of hot and cold on the earth are in turmoil - on the Winter Solstice 2007, the sun's summer spirits refuse to leave. The goddess spirit of the winter, Friga, is sent to battle the summer and bring about the cold of winter once again!
Play the game here, directly at YoYo Games. If you like the game, I would appreciate it if you'd rate it accordingly... seems the YYG bury brigade has already hit many of the competition entries particularly hard.
Controls are as follows
Z - Shoot
X - Attract power-ups
C - Special attack (when meter is charged)
P - Pause the game
F1 - Restart the game
F4 - Toggle windowed / full screen display modes
Esc - Exit the game
Anyway, enjoy the game, and thanks to everyone who plays and / or votes. I appreciate all the support I get from the community!
Well, I had planned on doing a pretty extensive write-up about my thoughts on the integrity of some of the game media websites as of late, but for now I'm going to put this off. I am working very exclusively on my entry for the YoYo Games Winter Competition, trying to get everything finished for the December 23 deadline. It's been quite hectic, and I'll be glad when I can finally use my spare time to relax again!
That said, the game is coming along well. It's not quite as big as I had hoped it might be in the beginning, but procrastination and other obligations have kept me from making it something huge for the sake of the competition. Depending on how well the game is received, I might just give it the Reflect treatment after all the dust has settled. And despite the frantic development schedule, it's definitely been fun so far - I will be glad to have participated in the first YYG contest, regardless of the outcome (providing I finish, of course). At the very least, it's been fun carving out a game in a genre I haven't yet explored very much.
I'm finally ready to spill the beans on what exactly the game is though, so here goes! The name of the game is Sun Sun Der, and though it's a pretty standard kind of "shmup," I've been using the game Imperishable Night (a "bullet hell" style game) and some friendly advice from Cactus to mold the idea into something (hopefully) more memorable.
Not to overdo anything, I've kept the story for the game relatively simple, to reflect the relatively simple gameplay. This is all subject to change, but basically, you play as Friga, the spirit / guardian of winter. Every winter solstice, the spirits of the sun / summer must leave the earth to make way for the winter spirits to take over. Predictably, this year those spirits have refused to leave, so Friga must fight them and force the winter season to begin. Sure, it sounds a little silly... but I think setting up a serious and involved story for a game where a flying woman with blue hair kills hordes of fireflies would be infinitely worse.
So there you have it. Maybe not a particularly ground-breaking experience, but hopefully a visually pleasant, fun, and somewhat challenging game will await! Enjoy the screenshots above, comment, and thanks for reading!
I've owned four cell phones in my life, and one iPod. 3 of the phones had games on them when they came into my possession, and I bought one game for my iPod. None of these games were fun. Let's face it: games on mobile devices are, by and large, pretty stanky. And despite large companies throwing larger amounts of money into the production of mobile games, I don't see the situation getting any better. Here's why!
The Price is Wrong
When I picked up my latest phone (an LG Chocolate 2), I was sad to find that it came with absolutely no games installed. The most entertaining thing you can do with it directly out of the box is listen to the pre-loaded ring tones or play with the animated dining tip calculator... in other words, there's a void of entertainment that needs filling. So I get on Verizon's website to see what kind of games they offer for download, and what do I find? A bunch of crappy games that I play for free on my PC, but which cost between $6 to $10 on my phone - and that's ignoring the fact that many of these games will not work unless your service is active, and (as I understand it) then they go ahead and use air time (minutes on your plan) while you play. Um... what? I'm sorry, but I'm not going to pay $10 to play yet another version of Tetris, all while using up my precious minutes.
I've Lost Control
Another problem I have with mobile games is that almost across the board, the controls for these games suck. From simple platform games like "Gem Collector" to that crappy version of Tetris I have on my iPod, poor controls seems to be a common thread. I can't place all the blame on the people who worked to make these games however - most of them have come up with very creative solutions to deal with the lack of practical game controls on mobile devices, and the range of devices their games can run on. The issue here is that even though we demand a lot from our mobile devices, there is an effort to keep the physical user interface as simple as possible. The easier my gadgets are to control, the better. The part I hate is that, despite the fact that most of the developers behind this hardware know that games will be played on their devices, they seemingly don't take this into consideration during product design. Sure, my cell phone's got a pretty nice little processor inside, but if all the buttons on the phone are too small for my fingers, or require too much force to press, how am I supposed to enjoy any kind of gaming with it?
Power Hunger
Now here's the real deal-breaker for me: Let's say you've found a game you simply love to play, you've bought it, and you've mastered the controls. Now you're just settling down to get in some quality game time, and your phone / iPod just shuts down right in the middle of everything. "WTF!" you think to yourself. "I've only been playing for a few minutes!" Thus is the way of the mobile game - you're now stuck at the airport, outside the dressing room, or maybe just in the bathroom, with nary a speck of entertainment to be found. You can't call anyone. You can't listen to any music. And you could've sworn that the little worthless piece of junk you're holding in your hands was fully charged just 15 minutes ago. Yes folks, if it's not price or control issues that get you, the lack of sufficient battery hunger will. And while this certainly isn't the case with all mobile devices, as we ask more and more of our gadgets, it will continue to be a growing problem. Battery life is the bane of all things wireless, and she is a harsh mistress indeed.
There are more reasons why I hate mobile games... lack of quality, lack of depth - I could go on. But for now, I think this should suffice. If you really want games on the road, I suggest picking up a Nintendo DS.
