Friday Flashback #8

This has been an amazingly busy week for us! Even more so than the last one. And yet, we managed to cram in another blog post.

The second user test round had come to an end yesterday. The last tester provided us with valuable feedback and we’re happy to announce that some of the new stuff we’ve added is awesome. At least, that’s what our testers said.

We’ve also added 3 new single player levels. Not all of them are finished yet but they will be ready for the next round of testing.

Ginkgo now has an animation editor, that allows our artist Clemens to easily work on and add animations of the player character and the occasional environmental critter. It’s not finished yet, but on a good way. Ginked, our level editor, also got a new tool to design windy areas. A “combing” tool allows us to add a light breeze here and a harsh hurricane there. The foliage in the forest levels has “soft collisions” now, which means that the bird slows down when flying through it. An extended sound engine interface supports positional sounds and sound events.

We weren’t entirely happy with the AI of the other birds and animals in the game, so we tweaked and tweaked and have greatly improved their behavior. Adding a bit of unpredictability can get you quite far, sometimes. While we were at it, we also tuned the bird’s movements. It was already amazing but has now reached the level of being breathtaking. New animations spice the new movement  up even more.

Clemens had some time to work on a graphics mockup that sets the final look of the game. We would love to share a first glimpse with you. Not now, though. Patience, dear readers, patience. We’ll lift this veil of mystery soon.

This week’s achievements:

  • Conducted last user test (round 2)
  • 3 new single player levels
  • Animation editor added
  • Sound engine extensions
  • Wind editor extensions
  • Improved Enemy AI
  • Soft collision for foliage
  • Tuned movement
  • Additional player animations
  • Graphics mockup for final look
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Posted on February 3, 2012 by
Filed under Chasing Aurora, development, feature, game design, Gingko, Weekly Update
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Not-quite-Friday Flashback #7

Sorry that we’re so late with last week’s flashback. We’ve been incredibly busy and simply couldn’t find the time to sit down and collect all the things we’ve achieved last week. Furthermore, WordPress got a little in the way when it swallowed this update whole and postponed it even further. Our sincerest apologies!

Let’s get right to it – last Friday we had a new round of user tests. Four daring testers agreed to come by to take a closer look at the new content we’ve added to Chasing Aurora and answer a questionnaire at the end of the test session.

One of the things we’ve added are, of course, new levels for the single player mode. Additionally, the levels also received new and never-before-seen residents. We will lift the veil of mystery about their identities soon. Suffice to say, they are fiendish creatures.

We’ve observed during the previous user test that the controls are, in general, good. Good is not enough for us, though. So we sat down and improved the controls to perfection. According to our testers we’re pretty much there. We love the new controls – the user feedback was extremely positive as well.

Martin got around to add a handful of new shaders. Now we’re able to add fog, clouds and gradient shadings to the levels. Those shaders set the mood and also separate the areas you can go from those you can’t visit.

Andy and Martin also joined the Austria Game Jam as part of the jury and tested all the freshly produced games. Jan joined in the fun as a participant and brainstormed, coded and designed the game “1up your ass” in just under two hours in his own micro-jam.

Teilnehmer & Jury AGJ (Bild: In-Ga.Me)

Last, but not least, we added new moves so that the player has more possibilities to interact with the environment and its residents.

 

Since we’re already in the new week we can let you in on a small secret – we keep adding stuff to the levels. So much so that another user test is necessary to see if everything works as expected and hoped. We’ll keep you updated how that one goes.

 

This week’s achievements:

  • Conducted user tests
  • Added new levels
  • Added new forest residents
  • Added new shaders (fog, clouds, gradients)
  • Added new controls and re-mapped keys
  • Added special moves
  • Jury and participants in the Austria Game Jam

 

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Posted on January 31, 2012 by
Filed under Chasing Aurora, development, game jam
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Structuring our Discussions

While refocusing Chasing Aurora we also changed the way we discuss and decide at Broken Rules. As you know we are a small studio with 7 people and a hierarchy as  flat as it can get. This means that everyone has a say in important matters. When we were smaller this simply worked, but the more we grew the more we got lost in heated discussions. Discussions where people with less rhetoric self-esteem couldn’t get through and Chasing Aurora lost valuable input, ideas and feedback.

We structured our conversations with the following simple steps:

  1. There’s a speaking ball (or tangerine if nothing else is around). You can only speak if you hold it in your hands. Everyone else should be listening. Quick questions that increase comprehension are allowed.
  2. There’s a mediator, who makes sure everyone who has something to say gets the chance to do so. The mediator should keep himself out of the discussion. Everyone can be the mediator of a discussion, but it has to be decided beforehand.
  3. If possible, split up in groups. The group can present its findings to everyone when finished.

This discussion structure allowed us to refocus Chasing Aurora in less than a week. Way more efficient than we used to be!

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Posted on January 25, 2012 by
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Friday Flashback #6

The weather’s unwintery and horrible, nonetheless, we approached a big heap of tasks with new-found energy, after last week’s fruitful design sessions (read more about them in this week’s blog post “Refocusing Chasing Aurora“).

Even though we had already changed the player character’s original flight behavior a few weeks ago we were still not quite satisfied with the lightness of flight and the feeling of being carefree. So Peter sat down and tweaked a bit more. The new and improved flight behavior is a great step forward in emulating the unbearable lightness of being a bird.

Since a new game test round is coming up in the following week, everyone’s quite busy with designing and building new single player test levels to test some of the new elements of Chasing Aurora, as well as the aforementioned flight behavior. We’re curious about the results!

While we were at it, a few new alpine inhabitants were added to the game. Every new inhabitant has its very own behavioral pattern and  rumor has it – not every inhabitant is a bird.

We’ve also decided to finally cram in a “No Rules Day” today. What’s a “No Rules Day”? We get together and do things together besides working on Chasing Aurora. We moved into our new office space a few months ago but since we were busy with Chasing Aurora we never got around to make it “ours”. So today we’re cleaning, scrubbing, sorting, filing, trashing and moving things to improve our cozy office.

Last, but not least, we would also like to point out that today, And Yet It Moves is available for 50% off at MacUpdate Promo. For only 4.99$ you can purchase the full game (only for Mac!).

 

Achievement Overview:

  • Improved flight behavior added
  • User Test Level built
  • Integration of more alpine inhabitants
  • No Rules Day
  • Mac Update Promo
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Posted on January 20, 2012 by
Filed under And Yet It Moves, Chasing Aurora, Weekly Update
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Refocusing Chasing Aurora

The games I love all have one thing in common: while playing them I can sense a vision. A vision that every part of the game is trying to convey. I don’t need to immediately understand what this vision is about, I only need to feel it. A central theme, a leitmotif, that is running through its veins. If the vision is strong, the gesamtkunstwerk (holistic art) every game is – that is its totality of game play, visual, acoustic and narrative – can reach its full potential and be bigger than the sum of its parts.

When it comes to vision there’s one person in the game industry I absolutely trust: Fumito Ueda. Ten years ago he gave a talk at GDC about the design process for ICO.


His process became known as “Design by Subtraction” and can be summed up with these two guidelines:

“Actively reducing/removing the number of elements included to improve the overall quality of the game.” 

and

“Less elements, but more care to each that remain.”

Rereading this helped a lot in refocusing the single-player mode of Chasing Aurora, which we’ve been working on for the last three months. The more we worked on it the more we noticed that everyone had something different in mind. Our vision was too vague and too broad, which resulted in inconsistencies across the team. Ultimately it culminated in lackluster game play. We loathe lackluster game play, so we knew it was time for some radical changes.

With Ueda’s words ringing in our heads we took a hard look at our vision and reduced it to three sentences, each one representing one pillar of the emotional reality we want to convey. We call our vision the “Triforce” and we use it as a requirement tool. Everything that we put in the game has to at least strengthen one of these three pillars. The more the better. If it doesn’t it wont get in. It’s like a bouncer in front of the doors to Chasing Aurora :)

It didn’t take long until one of the main game mechanics – one that we ported from the multi-player to the single-player – fell victim to our vision triforce and is now gone. Although this was a hard cut, it lifted a heavy weight from our shoulders and made room for a better game. A game where you will feel its vision running through its veins.

 

 

 

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Posted on January 18, 2012 by
Filed under Chasing Aurora, development, game design
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Friday Flashback #5

This week’s update is a special one. As you might know, Felix is back from his paternity leave, which gave us the opportunity to take a look from a new perspective “Chasing Aurora” and its current state.

The first session was a casual get together at our favorite restaurant close to our office. During an extended brunch we tried to answer a few questions about our functions in the company, our level of happiness and satisfaction as well as a few questions regarding Chasing Aurora’s current state.

Our second session this week was preceded by a smaller game design session, in which two of us got together to look at Chasing Aurora’s status quo. One of our main features in the game fell victim to this meeting and we didn’t stop there! The second session, which took a whole day proved to be extremely fruitful and productive. The overall structure of levels, environments, obstacles, elements and metaphors is now set and we weren’t afraid to cut other, previously essential, elements from the design in order to create an even better game. Felix will go into detail with a separate blog post next week, describing our design sessions as well as the “speaking tangerine” we’ve introduced as a new meeting tool.

To test all the new ideas and the upcoming new flight behavior, we will conduct another closed user test in the upcoming weeks. We will keep you updated on the results.

At the end of January, the 3rd Austria Game Jam will take place in Vienna. 30 places are available, so be quick and apply for a spot in the game jam. Either come as a team or form a team there! The overall costs are €20. Martin and Andy will be part of the jury so make sure to say “hi”!

The sudden snowstorm today did not only surprise us but made our bamboo really, really sad.

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Posted on January 13, 2012 by
Filed under Chasing Aurora, development, game design, game jam, Weekly Update
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Friday Flashback #4

First and foremost, we do hope that you’ve all had a good start into 2012! We took some days off to get some rest, spend some time with our families and gain some new energy. And now we’re back!

Felix has returned to us from his paternity leave. While he enjoyed taking long walks and spending lots of quality time with his son he’s looking forward to diving right back into coding, designing and adding some structure to the team.

At the beginning of the new year we got together for a fruitful (but not only) breakfast, which we organized to sit down and ask and answer a few essential and also crucial questions. Not only regarding Chasing Aurora’s development but also more general topics regarding the team. As you can see, not everything that’s been discussed was emotional.

Jan has been doing some research on pathfinding and implemented a system this week that allows characters in Chasing Aurora to successfully move around objects.

And Peter has been working on a configurable animation editor, which is based on the work of Grapefrukt and allows us to create animations in flash. Together with Petri Purho, Grapefrukt also responsible for Jesus vs. Dinosaurs (check it out if you haven’t already). The summary: Jesus travels back in time to kill the dinosaurs, because they’re not in the bible but Charles Darwin is there to stop him. We’re not going to animate Charles Darwin nor Jesus, nonetheless, our added animation editor rocks!

Achievement Overview:

  • Felix has returned from his paternity leave
  • Team breakfast with brainstorming and organizational session
  • Pathfinding is fully functional now
  • Customizable animation editor added
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Posted on January 6, 2012 by
Filed under Chasing Aurora, development, Weekly Update
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Friday Flashback #3

We hope you’ve had a few stress-less, relaxing days. Well, this week’s flashback will be a bit different from the others, since we decided to really take a step back, spend some time with our families and loved ones and put work aside for once.

Some of us finally gave into Skyrim and are now making their way through Tamriel, plucking herbs and watching dragons fly backwards (because they’re THAT badass!).

Others spent a few days in Prague, enjoying the hell out of cubist street lanterns and buildings and the various incarnations of Krteks.

One of us even managed to escape to a secluded alpine hut, without internet nor electricity (or so we imagine). Maybe he’ll have a chance to watch bird behavior and come back with a few new impressions for Chasing Aurora.

All in all, we’re enjoying a few days off, without work, to gather some new energy and impressions for Chasing Aurora and the upcoming year 2012.

Speaking of which: a very happy 2012 to all of you!

 

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Posted on December 30, 2011 by
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Friday Flashback #2

This week has been incredibly tumultuous and exciting, so let’s dive right into what’s happened!

We’ve noticed that users with an updated OSX Lion (10.7.2) encountered a rather annoying crash bug in And Yet It Moves, while the ones with OSX Snow Leopard merely lacked any sound. After two days of hard work and some research Jan managed to find a bug fix that gets rid of both problems. So if you’re still one of those who are affected by the bug, download the updated version (from our page, Humble Indie Bundle, Steam or Mac App Store) and install it. Make sure you’re downloading version 1.2.3.

Meanwhile, lots of research and work went into pathfinding. Jan is in the process of implementing it into Chasing Aurora, so that enemies do not bump into obstacles while they’re chasing the player.

Just a few days ago, the process of grabbing something required more effort from the player than it should have. So Peter improved the grabbing feature and the very positive feedback from our test users definitely supports this decision.

A few more users came by for testing. They got to play newer and improved single player levels. Again, the feedback was great and we’re already working hard on implementing some changes.

And since Christmas is right around the corner we thought we’d guide your attention to the following sales and bundles:

  • Buy And Yet It Moves on Steam and pay -75%! We’ve added a new winter-themed achievement as well!
  • You’ve probably noticed that the Humble Indie Bundle 4 is available. Did you also notice that they’ve not only added soundtracks to the bundle but also a Bundle in Bundle, which includes And Yet It Moves and other games from HIB3.

If you haven’t voted on IGM for Chasing Aurora being the “Most anticipated game of the year 2012″ but would like to, please do so until December 31st.

Last, but not least, we finally found the time for some home improvement. How do you like it?

Achievement Overview:

  • AYIM OSX Lion bug fix
  • Pathfinding implemented
  • Grabbing improved
  • Level changes because of user tests
  • Steam Sale
  • HIB 4
  • IGM Voting
  • Home Improvement

 

 

 

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Posted on December 23, 2011 by
Filed under And Yet It Moves, Chasing Aurora, Weekly Update
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Friday Flashback

As usual, we’ve been quite busy the last week, adding new content to Chasing Aurora and improving our tabletop soccer (aka foosball) skills.

Our biggest focus this week definitely lay on usability and our user’s feedback. That’s why we’ve conducted a few user tests with select test players to see what needs improvement and what works well. The feedback was amazing and most of it supports our wishes for various changes we’d like to make. We mainly tested the single player mode, for which a first batch of levels were designed. Among them an immensely tough one which raised a few frustration levels!

The birds you’re playing in Chasing Aurora got a new flight behavior. The previous one felt a bit clumsy and it was sometimes hard to steer the bird. The new controls got rid of all these problems and the bird is as swift and light as birds should be. We are extremely excited by this improvement.

Also, a few new enemies were added with different behaviors and goals. We’re catching up in the A.I. department. It was quite interesting to watch the tester’s reactions when they first encountered them.

And we’ve also got AYIM news – the 64-bit builds for Linux were updated and are online and available on our webpage, the HIB 3 versions can be updated as well (for both you need your own codes and links you’ve received when you’ve bought the games) and it should also be available on Desura. It’s not an automatic update, you’ll have to download the 64-bit version yourself. If you haven’t done it yet – update!

Last, but not least, our friends at Dejobaan Games gave us a handful of Steam codes for their amazing game “Aaaaa! for the Awesome“. You know how it works – first come, first serve! May the quickest one win!

Steam Codes for “Aaaaa! for the Awesome“:
THZJ3-P4P3T-Q7P2Z
VYXJK-TWPXQ-E04ML
830K8-CDLKH-X5PZT
2GH0H-VX0T7-XX99Z
XMBVQ-KD4M3-6PJEF

And now you’ll have to excuse us – we’re preparing our holiday get-together festivities here at the office! There’ll be so much food, family and fun, it’s going to be fabulous!

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Posted on December 16, 2011 by
Filed under Chasing Aurora, development, Weekly Update

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