VoodooLabs

I’ve started working on voodoo again after a lengthy hiatus. I’m programming the part that takes the xml file and bytecode, generates all the class information, builds the link and constant pools and just basically gets everything up and running.

I’ve decided to leave the whole ‘groups’ idea alone for a while, I’ll revisit it when things are a bit more complete. It’s just a ‘tack on’ anyway, a few classes for information purposes. It should be quite easy to add it later.

Tinyxml is great!

Just finished getting wordpress 2.0 and K2 Revision 133 working with the plugins I use and the modifications I run. Took a while. I was having weird troubles with theloop.php, saying there was an unexpected if statement, but the file was unchanged from last version. Unexpectedly the problem disappeared, fun. Most of the modifications are, again, seamless - but the admin panel looks and feels much nicer.

As always, this is beta software - if you find any problems the authors of the software and I would be very thankful to hear about it.

I used to run through the bush (heavy jungle like forests of New Zealand) at speed, dodging trees, jumping over logs. I sometimes do this at uni and through town. Now I have found the name for it. Parkour. This is the name given to the behaviour that a lot of people have probably done before - crazy running while avoiding obstacles. The idea is that these actions have always existed, that this is just a name for them.

There is a bit of history surrounding it that wikipedia can explain better than I can. What’s not on wikipedia is all the crazy movies of these talented people in action. This guy is amazing. There are a few other movies out there that I can’t find at the moment. Apparently there was a BBC adversitement that gave it a lot of attention.

Well tomorrow I’ve decided to start on this crazy sport, I’ve always enjoyed it before and I think it will be fun.

• Phone rings, if you answer it your boss says that you are late for work.
• Various things around the house, you can interact with them, push them over etc.
• As soon as you leave the apartment a zombie bites you.
• A timer now shows 5 minutes and counting down.
• You manage to free yourself from the zombie, but it’s still after you.
• If you die the game returns to the apartment (fades) and you start over again.
• If you run out of time you turn into a zombie, it fades and you are in the apartment again.
• Any useful items you find (weapons, armour and other items) will be in your house when you die or run out of time.
• Most interesting and important sections require about 5 minutes of play time, the game is made up of repeated runs.
• Various ways to complete the game, involving planning, speed and correct execution.

From a post I made on gamedev.net

Well my idea is like groundhog day. It may only suit a certain type of gameplay but the workings of it may be applied to other games.

The player is given a certain amount of time to live (or another reason why they restart) and they have to accomplish something. Progress is in the form of items they may discover (that are with them when they restart), information and experience of what worked last time. If they fail at something important, die or reach the timelimit the game starts over. I’m thinking something around 5 - 10 minutes.

The items they find should only really serve to make things easier, they whole game should completeable from the start within the time period. Someone who knows the finish wouldn’t have a need to do complete the game, because they already have, they would head out to the part of the game which they enjoyed or wanted to play. The first play through this part of the level / game would be to get the information and story needed to proceed, any plays after this would be just for fun.

Other re-playability would be searching for all the ‘extra’ items (weapons and other cool things), finding secrets within the level, completing the game with different player enforced ‘rules’ (pacifist, single weapon, melee etc.) The player enforced rules would be identified my the computer (it would know if you didn’t use weapons etc) and award these when detected.

The game I want to make is a zombie survival where as soon as you exit your apartment you are bitten, I was planning on having that part a sort of mini game where you can postpone with a sequence of very well timed moves, but in then end you always get bitten. Anyway, you are bitten and in 5 - 10 minutes you are going to turn into a zombie. You have to go to various locations, and there might me multiple endings.

This is cool because casual gamers and core gamers should enjoy it. You don’t have to put in 2 hours of work to progress, and you don’t need to quicksave or save normally, because death doesn’t matter, you just start again.

Sequels

Terrorist Activity (hidden hydrogen bomb)
Rescuing someone from execution
Volcano or another natural disaster

Sources / Inspiration

Groundhog Day
Max Payne 2
Grow Flash Games
24 TV Series
“The Game” Episode on Stargate
Zombies everywhere