This is a document, that was created for the game-contest "uDevGames 2004" (www.udevgames.com). It describes the process of creating a game in the game-contest "uDevGames 2004"
The game you can find at: http://www.la1n.ch/l1neum/
The game source can be found also at: http://www.la1n.ch/l1neum/
Version: 0.5b of the document
Contact: info@la1n.ch
la1n is a coding group from switzerland – founded in june 2004. The name „la1n“ is an adaptation from the manga „lain“. „lain“ is a little girl on the move across protocols and the net.
„la1n“ has the following members:
- t00cg – René Bauer (code/design)
- imagine – Markus Fehr (music/soundz).
Before the game-contest we were working on two different games – ishizume (a clone of „klax“) and a – not yet unnamed - shoot-em-up in 3d. Both members of „la1n“ develop games in spare time, therefore we had to interrupt the work on the two mentioned games.
Our design philosophy is to write simple and easy games with humorous concepts. We are convinced that there are lots of interesting concepts out there from Arcades or consoles like Intellivision or computers like C64/ Atari ST and Amiga which have been forgotten by the gaming community.
In the beginning we were thinking of making a mac os x version of „sharkshark“ an intellivison game. We were planning to enhance the game into a multiplayer rendezvous game. After 2 months of development and a lot of problems with the rendezvous protocol, we decided to put our efforts in a different game. We found a really cool concept – not yet ported for mac os x – featured by the arcade games „Qix“ and „Volfied“. Markus Fehr and I like &Mac226;volfied’ very much, that is why we made a mac os x version of „Volfied“ called „l1neum“.
Markus Fehr and I worked in a simple team set-up. I handled the Code and the Graphics, the Visual Design and he created the sound effects and the music.
Therefore the project managment was easyly done, first I developed the core of the game as fast as I could. As soon as I had the first graphics ready, Markus Fehr started with the music for the game. Quite a number of our colleagues were happy to do the playtesting.
I work on a PowerBook G4 400 mhz and on a Lamp-iMac 800 mhz. I use Xcode for coding and Photoshop for making the game graphics. Markus works on a Windows PC with Fruity Loops.
For the first version I took a project from the NeHe Tutorial and wrote the game concept in 2D. 3 years ago, I had made a small qix version in java, therefore I knew the problems in 2d. After creating this skeleton I programmed a 3D View. There were many problems with painting the complex shape of the enemies’ game field. Then I started to design graphics (walls and floors). At this stage I introduced Markus to the game and made some quicktime-movies for him, he could use for creating sounds and music for the game.
Then we fixed a lot of bugs and made some speed-ups for the graphics. Our testers started evaluating and testing the game. After testing the engine, we added levels to the game. There was no time to add a level designer to our team, so we had to program the levels right into the game.
After all this we added a title-screen and the menu. And at last we inserted the music and the game soundz. And that is when our testers got a good taste for the game. After their feedback we slowed down the game, made it more difficult and added some preferences like „music on/off“.
We worked fine as a team. We were able to develop the whole game in about a month. The graphics and the music work together as a symbiotic system. And we added a special feature to the game: the transformation of the gameplay-lines into a sculpture. The most important thing for us is: the game is fun and makes a rare porting of the „volfied“-game-concept to mac os x.
It is very likely that I experimented too long with apple’s rendezvous and did not get the network engine ready in time which prevented us from finishing our original project. This meant that from start on we had to develop „l1neum“ on an extremely tight schedule.
One of our remaining problems is the name of the game: „l1neum“ is too complex a choice for a game – it is difficult to remember and to communicate.
For the future we intend to enhance the game in developing more patterns for the enemies and work on the graphics. We are also planning to create a virtual planet or town out of the sculptures which are produced by the walls of the solved levels.
Game-Title: L1neum
Genre: Arcade
Developer: la1n
Site: www.la1n.ch
Team: size: 2