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This game was a Team Effort and an explosion of raw creativity.

  • Mirak
  • 04/03/2019 11:48 AM
  • 1978 views
Hello there to our 7 subscribers, it's time for the first and probably last blog of this game.

You can feel free to ignore this since it's mostly an explanation of what's up with the latest download I uploaded.

Anyway, so this game is pretty much finished now. It was made for the TimTamJam, as you know by now, and even though we had a full month of time to make our game we spend it trading ideas that at the end didn't really take off, and with good reason.

Since the theme was "Art", we initially wanted to make a game about a grandma who would make an artistic granny present to her soon-to-be-born great-grandson. We had thought of making a game where you'd switch perspectives, you'd be a thread and needle in one section, a melody in physical form the next section, and we never thought about what to do with the third section because the first two ideas were vague enough that we both liked them and at the same time had no idea how to begin giving them shape.

It was a well, "interesting" concept that unfortunately presented way too many complications when it came to actually creating gameplay, and at the end we entered a state where we didn't know what to do or where to go, and the days passed.

In the end, two days before the deadline, when all of us were pretty much accepting the fact that we wouldn't be able to turn in anything, I humored the idea of not overthinking the theme of the contest, and engaged in an old design practice I used to do whenever I got artist block: Applying spontaneity. Capturing the first creative thought that surfaced into our minds, and displaying it in it's rawest form. No time to think things through, just grab the brush, and let the paint quickly create shapes, messages, and meaning.

The result is, I believe, a humble and 100% honest specimen of artistic expression. Borrowing the words of CashmereCat, a product of their authors.

I am incredibly satisfied with how this little experiment came out.

...Which is why, when I saw this on Liberty's stream the other day, I was a bit bummed out.



I'll be honest with you guys. I'm a weird person. I have a difficult time communicating with people and I don't know when people are being jokey or when they're serious, and the impression I got from the stream is that I was getting all the credit for the work.

Whatever douchenozzle on the internet might see this and be like "ohh cool i'm getting all the credit" but I'm not a person like that, so I feel slightly annoyed that super's and zDS's efforts were not recognized, when they composed more than half of the game. Mind you, both sup and zds were super cool about it, but I personally wasn't feeling particularly satisfied.

In short, this was a three-man product, and maybe the problem, I thought, was that we didn't really add any kind of credits to the game. Perhaps if we had done that we could have avoided this. Then again, perhaps not, perhaps everyone was joking and in on the joke and the only person who wasn't in on the joke was me.

Regardless, I went back to the game and have now uploaded a definitive version.
Most of the changes are subtle but important. I fixed a few typos, lowered the volume of some tracks, made the stream mode work correctly this time (since it only affected a few tracks) and all stream-mode tracks are now completely altered to the point that they won't be recognized by any copyright tracking software.

But the most important change is the addition of a credits scene. It'll play when you have played 6 endings (because there are only 6 true endings), regardless of if they were different endings or the same ending 6 times.

If you had already played the game or watched it in a stream, you don't need to replay the game to see the scene, for I have uploaded it to youtube and you can look at it here.



And that is it, that is all I have to say about this. I apologize if I was unable of understanding that you guys were joking, if you were, but I really have a hard time with things like those.

Oh wait, not everyone gave me all the credit.



Wtf did I worry then. Disregard all of this.


Jk I hope you all read this. Thank you for playing our game!!!

Posts

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CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
I loved this game and I love all three of you. You're so cool I want to be like you!!!!!!!!!!

And the other two.
Frogge
I wanna marry ALL the boys!! And Donna is a meanc
18536
I'm so proud of you, Mirak. Not a lot of developers can come forward and be humble and claim they didn't do all the work. I'm happy that both you and the other two are getting the credit they deserve!
I honestly wanted to and still might make a blog about how happy I am with how this came out. Naturally I am someone who does overthink and tries to make the best result I can.

So a game like this was a very pleasant exercise. Once El Arte had its true start, I felt my brain unclog and I felt able to create. In a lot of ways I say this was like South Park. Not because it went a bit far at times, but because the writers of South Park do the same. They don't sit down and think for months about how to go about it. They simply sit down and let it all out and hope for the best.

The game simply just turned out well. It was practically bug and error free. The development process of it was super smooth and while everyone had their own flavors to their parts, I felt like the general mood was retained.

What made me truly happy was that everyone of us got good reactions to our parts. I'm especially pleased by mine because I made mine after most of Mirak's and after super's and I thought there was no way I could compete. While I still prefer theirs over mine, I'm just glad I was able to contribute to the laughs after all.

I expected us to provide nothing for this contest and somehow someway we provided a unique and solid experience that I hope will be memorable. It t'was an honor. Now I hope The Three Gods will get their sweet sweet rewards. ;)
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
This is pretty inspirational! I've had long periods of creative drought, where I spend so much time wanting the ideas to fit in just right or the story to be deep or subversive or simply "good enough" that I'm paralyzed and can't make anything at all.

It's super refreshing to see a team that decided to turn on their creative faucets, let the creativity just take them somewhere, and go with the flow. I'm so glad you three were able to pull through just before the contest ended and we got a really neat and fun game out of it!
OzzyTheOne
Future Ruler of Gam Mak
4676
Man, all three of you are the best. And I am happy that you shared this with us Mirak, it really is an eye opener to me personally and I now feel bad for being one of the people who only gave you credit.

That being said, I really loved the game and I am very glad that you guys ended up making something instead of giving up. Trying to reach the finish line is always better than just stopping and saying "I'll never reach the finish line".
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