It was a good night to be huddled around a set of laptops, snacks and game conversation at the fourth Artsy Game Incubator session. Most of us managed to just duck in before a major downpour hit the downtown core—most of us, that is.

Due to some ill timing, Jim arrived sopping wet though no worse for wear. A true leader, he hosted the session in a dashing pair of European pajamas.

As we got set up, we discussed our Scratch projects and N levels from weeks past. One story of note was Jason’s N level, which garnered some hilarious and telling feedback from NUMA users. (Apparently some people are perturbed by the amount of gold to be found in a user level named “Gold Depository Explosion.” Jason, though his subversion of the online feedback system, was deemed to have won the Internet.

Fed and warm, the everyone began to show the meagre beginnings of their final projects; we had to present what we had thus far and stake our claim as to our game-making tool of choice.

First up was Ben, who went ahead and took at stab a the narrative-RPG (the one based on his comic Snow that he mentioned in the first session). It appeared to be a basic artistic and interactive exercise using Game Maker.

The conversation included a roundtable discussion on Game Maker in general, which most agreed was a damn fine piece of software, even if all our experiences varied. Miguel mentioned the fascinating fact that some Game Maker-devised titles actually have been made into boxes, retail games. There is hope for us yet!

After further discussion, Jim suggested that Ben’s game might be better suited to Adventure Game Studio, given the premise.

Ben's Snow game

Next up was Miguel, who once again proved to be an inspiration to all present. His aforementioned Lovecraftian adventure, Night of the Cephelapods, was up in running in impressive form, considering how early he declared the game to be. The entire group reveled in passing a wired Xbox 360 controller around and blasting the unending swarm of bulbous, blinky-eyed nightmare-creatures with the character’s meaty-sounding shotgun.

Miguel’s fantastic pixel art was hard to miss, as was his attention to detail in the animation and atmosphere of the game. Miguel stated to agreement all around that the floating monstrosities needed some slightly more sophisticated AI, and more animation (such as a scattering effect when a fellow sea-demon gets shot).

Everyone chimed in with comments and suggestions. People wanted to see the player character get electrocuted when touched by the enemies. Also popular was the notion of finding a variety of shotgun-themed weapon upgrades, like a blunderbuss. (Who doesn’t like saying the word blunderbuss?) As well, ideas for varied enemies (invisible cephelapods) and win-lose scenarios (survive until dawn!) kept us chatting for quite a while.

Most impressively, the game supported rumble. Beauty.

Miguel's Night of the Cephelapods

After putting the Xbox controller away, Jim was up third to demonstrated the evolution of Plastico Baggera. Now in a larger-looking (though purposefully single-screen) game, Plastico was hopping via Game Maker on his mountainous pile of garbage, ruefully swiping at the birds flying overhead.

Everyone agreed that the concept made a great classic, single-screen arcade game, and soon the table was alive with ideas for making Plastico a richer experience in his final form. Folks wanted to see a great deal more activity in the background, such as scene transitions or day/night cycles as the game progressed.

Similarly, the Tetris-like notion of Plastico’s garbage pile increasing in height as the game continued seemed to fit; it would add difficulty (by making movement and the correct collision with the birds trickier) and a visual sense of achievement.

People definitely were looking forward to a more-animated Plastico, and offered the suggestion of fluttering animation and (wait for it) “persistent poop mechanics.” We’ll let you figure that one out on your own. (Trust us, it will be genius.) 

Jim's Plastico Baggera

Jason showed us his game next. Using Scratch, he created a working mock-up of his architecture-management sim The Landmarkers. Showing an ever-changing skyline with myriad building designs, the game’s unique concept was much better represented, though Jim still had some questions about specific gameplay elements and win-lose scenarios. Through discussion, Jason was able to convince the group that a sort of public trust sim was the way to go; a game in which you’ll never be able to save all the buildings you want to, but through a balance of per-building value and public sentiment, the player could feel a real struggle.

We all commented on the game’s lavish buildings—all from different periods in history—and suggested that the game should have readily apparent cycles, such as the transition of decades. Comments were also made to the background layers, which people felt needed to be both more subtle and yet more complicated to add to the effect of being in a large city.

Finally, people wanted a clearer way of assessing each building’s value and public opinion. The solution of simple rollover status boxes for each structure seemed like a good, unobtrusive way to do this. Jason agreed to solidify these specific game mechanics by the next session so we can all play-test them.

Jason's The Landmarkers

Davin chose to present his game last—a choice determined, no doubt, by the fact that he didn’t have a working model to demonstrate. (Davin, by all accounts, is a busy man!) He too wanted to execute his original concept—a physics-based puzzle game based on the Tomy “Waterful” series of water toys from the seventies and eighties. Based on his previous experience, Davin confirmed he would be creating the game in Flash; this was a good fit, everyone agreed, as so many popular Flash games (some of which, like N, become “real” published titles) are physics-based. As well, the easy online distribution of “toy-like” Flash game made sense. We predicted a lot of wasted hours in several thousand cubicles in the near future.

Davin declared that he didn’t just want to make the game, however; he also wanted to create the tools so players could make their own scenarios. Citing games like N as an example, he noted how player-generated content adds a lot to these sorts of Flash experiences. Perhaps it will be a staple in future Artsy Game Incubator rounds?

As we wrapped up, the discussion turned to trash talking—not actual trash talking, mind, but a conversation thereof. It was suggested that a game centred around the idea would make for an interesting meta-game of sorts.

And so, with heads full of ideas and pants mostly free of water, we thanked Jason and Rose for their persistent hospitality and headed our separate ways.