Global Game Jam 2014: Lost In Thought

This year I thought I'd try something different as a third year veteran. I conned my boyfriend to join me as a 2-person team rather than the 8 or 9 person team that I did in previous years. I've got to say, we're both quite pleased with how our game turned out.

We playfully named our temporary team Bad Wolf Studios because we're both Doctor Who nerds (as far as the new serials are concerned, Rose is still our favorite companion).

This year, the theme was a quote that said, "We do not see them as they are, we see them as we are." It's very cryptic to say the least. My boyfriend, Dr. John Watkins, was my concept and idea guy. I let him design the game's story and core concept. He'd come up with something, and I'd let him know if it was feasible for me within the 48 hours. Our premise was that the player had to navigate a maze to the center vortex, but the maze itself would be visible or invisible depending on the variables controllable by the player and their opponent.



Anyway, here is our game description from the GGJ website itself:

     Navigate your thought through the neurons to bring yourself into existance as a true thought. As a primary thought, you can see primary neurons (blocks in the prototype). Your Opponent is also a primary thought that can see primary neurons. Together, you can see secondary neurons. Controls: WASD or Arrow Keys to move your thought. 1, 2, and 3 to change your primary color. R to Restart Game.

If you're interested in playing the game or viewing the source files, you can do so here.

Pittsburgh Walk for ALS

Thank you for helping me reach my Walk to Defeat ALS® fundraising goal! This is an exciting opportunity for us to work together to support those affected by Lou Gehrig's Disease and to spread awareness of the urgency to find treatments and a cure.

Please consider walking with me or sponsoring me. With your help, we will be able to make a difference in the lives of people affected by this disease. I encourage you get your friends, family, neighbors and coworkers involved!

Why We Need Your Help

Often referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive, fatal neuromuscular disease that slowly robs the body of its ability to walk, speak, swallow and breathe. The life expectancy of an ALS patient averages 2 to 5 years from the time of diagnosis.

Every 90 minutes a person in this country is diagnosed with ALS and every 90 minutes another person will lose their battle against this disease. ALS occurs throughout the world with no racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic boundaries.

This crippling disease can strike anyone. Presently there is no known cause of the disease though support is bringing researchers closer to an answer. In the mean time it costs an average of $200,000 a year to provide the care ALS patients need. Help make a difference and donate or join a walk today.

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Click here to donate!!

New Web-Store!

Hello, everyone!  I'd like to introduce you to my new web-store, located at www.TessaLee.co/store!  There, you will find posters that I've made and/or compiled for sale.  I'll add to them over time, but you are absolutely welcome to purchase whichever one you want.  For now, only PayPal payments are being accepted.  Once you pay, I'll contact you for your shipping address, and off it'll go!

And I can do commissions too, but those prices are negotiable.

Aside from the new store feature, my portfolio got updated as well!  As you may have known, I worked with Carnegie Learning and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh to develop some wonderful, educational Flash games called Math Wonders.  I had my hand in the development of four different games:

Castle Constructor

Castle Constructor is an educational math game that focuses on getting the player to practice using their skills in counting, permutations, and combinations by building a three-story castle out of an inventory of blocks. If the player succeeds in building all of the possible combinations with the blocks available, they can choose to add another block to keep going, or continue for a higher score in permutations. With combinations, the order of the blocks used does not matter, only the types. With permutations, the order and type of block matters, so click wisely!

Fly Trap

Fly Trap is an educational math game that focuses on getting the player to practice using their skills in statistics by capturing flies to meet the challenge of a specific mean, median, or mode in a set number of trials. The number of trials per round vary from three to nine, so you're never playing the same game twice! Capturing a fly gives you a single coin, while winning the challenge gives you ten!

Poke The Animal

Poke The Animal is an educational math game that focuses on getting the player to practice using their skills in probability by testing the limits of various forest animals. Take your chances poking three animals based on their current moods. Will it bite you, or won't it?

Save The Garden

Save The Garden is an educational math game that focuses on getting the player to practice using their skills in quadratic functions by using a two wheel sprinkler system to keep the pests at bay. Spin the blue wheel, and you change the water's pressure; spin the red wheel, and you change the water's angle. Time is of vital importance!

Other minor updates include small adjustments to my resume, re-sized and re-positioned arrow buttons for navigating between portfolio pieces, and a new Store button for the main navigation menu.

2013 GA/GI Festival

The 2013 Geek Art / Green Innovation (GA/GI) Festival was held this weekend in Pittsburgh.  I had my computer system set up at the Most Wanted Fine Art gallery, and ready for passers-by to come play the game, Cell, that was developed by team No Brow at the Global Game Jam earlier this year.

Cell posters hung up inside the Most Wanted Fine Arts museum.

You can download and play the game from my website.  These are the three beautiful poster designs that came to fruition:

Cell Poster Design 1:  Victory Whitecell      |    Cell Poster Design 2:  Infected Whitecell

Cell Poster Design 3:  Environment Concept Art

The artwork was created by our Concept team, Katherine McLellan-Benedict and Amanda Wallenhorst.  I compiled the artwork into poster formats.  Each poster is 18" by 12", and will be for sale on my website soon!

Carnegie Learning Projects, Commence Beta!

I apologize for not posting in quite some time.  I've been shoulder deep in projects since two of my main projects are approaching their deadlines in March.  One of which is Modus Operandi.  You should check out the progress on its blog!

The other project are the four casual, but educational, games I've been programming for Carnegie Learning Inc.  Three of them have made it into Beta.  Please play-test them!  I could use all the feedback I can get!  Keep in mind that the art assets are still in development, so you'll be seeing a lot of wire-frames!

Alison Huettner, Carnegie Learning Project Manager
Patricia Huettel, Art Institute of Pittsburgh Project Manager
Jessica Leadbiter, Art Institute of Pittsburgh Junior Project Manager

Save The Garden - Beta Version 1.1
Tessa Liddington, Game Designer & Programmer
Amanda Wallenhorst, 2D Artist
Katherine McLellan-Benedict, 2D Artist

Poke The Animal - Beta Version 1.2
Robert Shilling, Game Designer
Tessa Liddington, Programmer
Alicia Thorpe, 2D Artist

Fly Trap - Beta Version 1.7
Theresa Drennan, Game Designer
Tessa Liddington, Programmer
Alicia Thorpe, 2D Artist

Global Game Jam 2013: Cell of Team No Brow

This weekend was the big weekend that hosted the long-awaited Global Game Jam 2013.  Every year, this event reaches game designers all around the world with the challenge of creating a game in 48 hours.  Sleep optional.

I was in a team of 8 people, including myself.  We called ourselves Team No Brow.

Back Row:  Kyle Hickey, Cody Wilcoxon, Matt Kline, Travis Kehler.
Front Row:  Katherine McLellan-Benedict, Amanda Wallenhorst, Jorden Jenkins, Tessa Liddington (me).

The game we developed is called Cell.  The player controls a T-Cell, named Whitecell, through the blood stream.  Help Whitecell navigate around cholesterol buildups and virus-infected cells to collect the much-needed red blood cells.  Collecting red blood cells increases the speed that Whitecell travels.  In order to defeat the master virus at the end of the level, Whitecell must be traveling at maximum speed (30+ red blood cells).

You can check out our game's Global Game Jam page here.
Click here to download Cell (UDKInstall-Cell.exe, 261.7 MB).

Cell was developed in Unreal Development Kit.  The environment and characters were modeled in 3D Studio Max 2013.  The menus and user interface were developed in Adobe Flash CS6.

My part in this project was integrating the custom splash and loading screen.  I programmed the interaction of the main menu and the in-game user interface in Action Script 3.0 and implemented them through Scaleform.  I also worked along our other tech guy, Kyle, in making the gameplay mechanics work through Unreal Kismet.

Gameplay screenshot of Cell.  Whitecell is swimming through the bloodstream and has collected 4 red blood cells.

Gameplay screenshot of Cell.  Whitecell has collided with a virus-infected cell and lost the collected red blood cells.

Friday

I was packing my computer and other belongings all day getting prepared for the event.  The site with which I was participating at would start at 7:00 PM, EST.  I arrived at the site minutes before 6:00 to unpack my vehicle.  We were given food at 6:30, courtesy of Buca's.  The opening ceremony started at 7.  There were speakers from Schell Games, Google, and more.  We dispersed around 9 to start working on our games.

Our team, later to be named "Team No Brow", discussed and brainstormed possible game ideas as I set up my computer.  I chimed in every so often and answered questions regarding the engine and mechanic possibilities, but I was otherwise not involved in the actual concept development.  Kyle, the engine pro on our team other than me, took the first shift in developing the first block-out with initial test mechanics.  I decided to go to sleep at midnight after the snack of pancakes and bananas.

Saturday

I didn't get much sleep.  The "sleep" room was a chorus of snores and people shuffling around.  I was in and out of consciousness for four hours.  I finally got up and rejoined my group shortly after 4 AM.  I went outside and moved my car to a free parking spot (it was previously in a paid parking spot, but they're only free after 6 PM) where it stayed all weekend.

By the time I got back, Kyle had laid down to sleep.  I took the files from Kyle and continued working on a few mechanics.  I created the Flash content for the UI and got it integrated into UDK with Scaleform.  I analyzed the work Kyle had done and worked on approving upon it - polishing it.  We paused production for breakfast at 9 AM.  A lot of my time went toward understanding the prefabs that Kyle made of the viruses and red blood cells, something that I wasn't familiar with in UDK.  This was something I learned coming out of the Global Game Jam.

After lunch, my time was spent fussing with the game menu, loading screen, splash screen, and UI.  Those were all quickly accomplished because of my knowledge of AS3 programming.  We were far enough along to have people playtest our game before dinner.

Kyle was starting to feel ill after dinner, and had called a cab to go home.  I kept working beyond midnight.  I was busy collecting the environment models from Matt and Travis and propulating the level with them.

I started getting dizzy around 3 AM, and Travis helpfully stepped in to finish propulating the level.  I crawled up with my blanket and pillow under the desk and passed out into blissful REM sleep.  My mind sure didn't take it's time in getting to that step.

Sunday

I finally woke up around 7:30 AM.  I'm not going to lie, I was truly amnesiac when I awoke, but quickly remembered where I was (I like to believe that that was the best sleep I've ever had considering I forced my brain to go directly to stage 4 in the sleep cycle).  The character team ran into a snag this morning.  For some reason, UDK did not like the eyes of our main character, and would fail to import them.  Jordan finally found a workaround after lunch and we got rolling with importing the main character and enemy into the game.

We entertained more playtesters and had a playable experience by noon, but we finally finished the game to a level of democratic satisfaction by 2:00 PM.  We started setting up for the big demo event at 3 and played out the rest of the afternoon talking to the other developers and discussing the games.

The closing ceremony started around 5 (I'm really not sure, I paid no attention to the time at this point).  Cake was served.  A couple of groups with people that I knew won the Audience Choice award and the GGJ's first penguin award.  We didn't win anything.  A lot of people on our team are competitive (myself included) so it's natural for us to feel disappointed about it.  However, the GGJ does not present itself as a competition.  All is well.

Monday

I was a pleasant person on Monday, despite my grogginess.  If anything, I went through Monday in a haze.  My dyslexia was rampant with every conversation I had that evening.  That's why I waited until today to write this blog.  Also, I only set my computer back up this morning.  The Global Game Jam was a wonderful experience, and I hope to participate every year!

Save The Garden (Alpha Version 0.8)

Play testing time for Save The Garden!

You have 90 seconds to get the most amount of points possible. This game is still in the alpha stage, so almost all of the graphics are still in development. You'll be seeing wire-frames of the game.

Controls:
Click a wheel (blue circle) to start changing the sprinkler's tilt angle or the water pressure. Roll the mouse wheel, arrow keys, or WASD to "roll that wheel" to increase/decrease the value of whatever wheel you're on.

You gain points for watering the plants, and you lose them if a pest eats it. The red "target" zone shows where the water is hitting in the garden.

Critiques Please!
I'd like to know the timing of things. Should the pests take a longer time to eat the plant? Are things spawning at a decent rate? Do you have enough time to save a plant if a pest comes at it? Is it challenging enough? Is anything getting stuck? Etc. Etc.

I suck at playing games, so I'm not sure if it's too challenging for everybody, or just me. If you don't have much to say on the game, at least tell us your score!

Click Here to Play Save The Garden.
Keep in mind that the webpage you're going to will continue to update the version of this game as it progresses in development. This post refers to the specific Alpha version of 0.8. If you're unsure what version you're playing, refresh the page until you see it on the bottom left of the game's screen.