Otterspace Games - Videogames by Prometheus110

[prometheus110]

Edit: I changed the title of the thread from Small Gods to Otterspce Games as that's the name I'm making my games under (and which i really need a logo for ). Small Gods is still a thing, I just had to give the Rift back over the semester break.

I should mention that that's a WIP title chosen because I read Terry Pratchett's books.



Anyway, as part of my post-graduate work I'm developing a virtual reality God Game designed to immerse players in a stylized version of the ancient past ruled by monsters and jealous deities. Players will take on the role of a weak, barely remembered god in order to guide their worshippers through deadly trials, shape the cities they build, and fight other gods in order to ensure that their chosen people survive to become the greatest civilization the world has ever seen.

I'm taking inspiration for the mechanics from a variety of sources including, but not limited too, series such as Black & White, Populus, and the City Builder series. Artwise, I'm taking a lot of inspiration from both real-life structures built by the ancient Egyptian kingdoms and from Deserts of Kharak (it has 10/10 deserts). The ultimate goal of the game will be to see your people prosper in a world of burning sands and mythical creatures in order to ensure that both they and you are remembered throughout history.

While the game isn't anywhere near completion yet you can follow along with my efforts here: Otterspace Games. I post updates relatively frequently so if you want to see what independent development is like when you have no money (or you want to see someone declare undying vengeance on AI) I highly recommend you check it out in a completely unbiased way.

 

[prometheus110]

Hey all,

I'm still making Small Gods so don't worry about it being cancelled or anything like that, I'm just taking an enforced break as I had to give my uni their Oculus Rift back over the semester break. I'll be back working on it in anything between 2-4 weeks.

In any case, now for the fun news. Because I can't afford to have any other hobbies I'm making a new game in the break between semesters. This game is called.... Samurai Showdown (I'm still terrible at names ).

What is Samurai Showdown?
Samurai Showdown is a 2 player, local multiplayer only, competitive game about two samurai walking into each other on an empty road, both refusing to get out of the other's way, and deciding that the best course of action is to kill the other guy because he's an asshole.

What do you do?
You hit buttons!
.
.
.
.
[Stares]
Okay, fine. in order to determine who kills who players have to hit a number of buttons in the correct order. For every button press they get correct they earn a point, and for every button press that they mess up they lose a point. The player at the end of the round with the most points wins and the loser dies horribly.

How long do rounds last?
Well it depends on the game mode....

Classic mode sees players have to input 6 buttons in under 5 seconds and each player has an identical, yet separate, list of button presses to make.

Time trial mode gives players 20 seconds to hit as many buttons as they can from an ever replenishing list of buttons. Each list is separate and randomized so as to generate the maximum amount of frustration and 'Fun'(tm).

Shared mode (a work in progress name), gives players 20 seconds to hit as many buttons correctly as they can.... but they're pulling their target from the same list of buttons. You'll see in the video below.

Is it done yet?
Nope. I've only been working on it for two weeks, there are tons of bugs that I'll hopefully have fixed in the next week (though none stop people from playing as far as I'm aware), and I'm still waiting on a ton of art to replace the placeholder stuff I'm using now.

So why are you posting about it?
Well I like to brag .

More seriously though, I figured that since the game is playable I may as well offer an alpha copy /bugtesting copy to people here. I really need to test this thing out so that I can get it working well, but as I live alone and can only bug test with other people once a week or so, I need help identifying terrible, terrible mistakes. If you have two xbox controllers, a PC, and friends (or amenable enemies), just hit my up and I'll pass on a copy of the game. I'll figure out some kind of reporting system tomorrow or so.


Check out this sweet vidya jame!


Later, folks!

 

[prometheus110]

If you're looking for news about Small Gods you will, unfortunately, have to wait at least another week or so before I can start working on it and producing blog posts.


Hey guys,

I've been doing a little bit of work on Samurai Showdown to get it in a playable state (which included redoing the entire input system ). Since my last post, I've added a bunch of features, fixed some broken features, and improved some existing ones. The most visible addition to the game is the new tournament mode that allows up to 16 people to compete to see who's the greatest samurai of them all.

This mode is pretty bare bones at the moment (it doesn't tell you who's won, for instance), however, it does randomly assign names to players in order to make tournaments viable with minimal effort on the part of players.

Here's a screenshot of the tournament mode in action for those interested:

Please ignore the text in the middle of the screen. I'm using the trial version of the Rewired Input management tool for Unity and don't want to spend $50 USD right now.

As always, I'm looking for people interested in testing the game out for me as I can't do it on my own and I need to know what's fun for people. Luckily, thanks to the new input system I'm using, I can accommodate pretty much any controller that's out there and has more than 10 people using it (seriously, this tool is great). Just let me know what controllers I have and I'll see what I can do for you.

 

[prometheus110]

Thanks to a comment by @RangerKarl on IRC I've decided to put the latest version of Samurai Showdown up for whoever wants it. Please let me know what you think about it there.

Samurai Showdown - version 0.2.0

 

[prometheus110]

Hey people,

I know that I've not posted anything here about a month, but I come bearing dev blogs, GIFs, and video. So without further delay, let's talk vidyajame development!

Dev Blog – August 27- Small Gods

Small Gods video:



Dev Blog – August 26 – Samurai Showdown

Samurai Showdown GIF:


If you'd like to see your own pre-fight boasts added to Samurai Showdown just go here and leave your boast and whatever name you want to be known by in the credits.

 

[prometheus110]

Small God's Dev blog - September 5th

 

[prometheus110]

Dev Blog – September 25 – Samurai Showdown


Hey everyone,

Firstly I'd like to delay for the gap in between dev blogs. Rest assured that I'm still chugging away t these games, I'm just getting swamped with uni work as semester two is slowly wrapping up. Since my last update, I've managed to get through a decent chunk of the testing notes I gathered from Playup Perth's last event and I've started implementing a tutorial so that, when I show it off at the upcoming Perth Games Festival, I won't have to stand around and explain what to do as I did at Playup Perth. So, without further delay, let's talk about what's happened!

[More Here]

 

[prometheus110]

Hey everyone,

So I know it's been a while since my last update (blame the final months of my post-graduate course taking up all my time), but I just thought I'd do a little bit of an announcement!

Firstly, I've completely redone the look of the Otterspace Games website so that everything's fancy and modern. Construction is still ongoing at this time (so bring your hard hats) but I'm quite happy with the way it's looking and I'd appreciate any feedback

Secondly, I've also created Facebook and Twitter accounts for Otterspace Games which you should definitely follow if you want to be kept up to date about what's going on and the events we'll be at.

And thirdly, there may be some more news tomorrow... "may be" >.> <.<

 

[prometheus110]

December 16, 2016: The Dev Blog Strikes Back

It's been a little while since my last update, I'll grant you that.

Seriously, I know it's been a while since I last posted an update here and that's mostly because I've been having some difficulty finding the time to work on Samurai Showdown thanks to capitalism *shakes fist*. However, for the past couple of weeks, I've managed to find some time here and there which I could spend on further developing the game and so I've been chipping away at it. In any case, I'm slowly but surely getting towards the point where I will no longer be adding new features and will instead be focussed on refining Samurai Showdown and making it pretty (by hiring artists because I can barely draw stick figures).

So, without further ado, let's talk about the work I've done since October!

[More Here]

 

[prometheus110]

January 7th, 2017: I could be punching Reapers......


Hey all,

So I've recently had some free time due to work slowing down a little bit, and I haven't entirely wasted it on replaying Mass Effect 3 (Vanguard is the best class and I dare you to disagree). Becuase of this, I've managed to complete several features which I'd been putting off in favour of tweaking the gameplay, and I think that they've gone a surprisingly long way towards making Samurai Showdown look like a proper game. I'm greatly looking forward to taking Samurai Showdown out in public again once PlayUp Perth events start up for 2017 as the dearth of events has been really bad for motivation and feedback, LMTY.

In any case, let's talk about what's been added, what's been changed, and what's being planned for the future!

[More Here]

 

[prometheus110]

Heya,

While I've been too busy to work on Samurai Showdown as much as I'd like due to a combination of family responsibilities and Global Game Jame 2017 being a thing, I have managed to find some spare time in which to work on the game. While the next PlayUp Perth (read: the one on the 3rd of Feb) is dedicated to showing off the games we made during GGJ17, I should be able to take Samurai Showdown out in public again soon and get some feedback. Furthermore, and speaking of Global Game Jam, I should have a blog on it, our game, and the PlayUp GGJ event for it sometime after the event has passed.

In any case, let's talk about what's been added, what's been changed, and what's being planned for the future!

[More Here]

 

[prometheus110]

So today we have a twofer as I've written an update and uploaded a new version fo the alpha onto Itch.IO

Samurai Showdown Alpha - 1.3.1

Hey all,

So today will be a pretty short update due to the fact that I'm pretty close to done with Samurai Showdown from a baseline feature standpoint and I'm starting to clean things up to make the game slick and pretty. There will, of course, be a lot of work to do in the future once user testing starts around March, but for now, I'm taking advantage of the time off to work on some side projects and develop my skills.

Now with that said, let's talk about what's been done since the last update!

[More Here]

Click to shrink...

 

[prometheus110]

It's only ~2 months late! It's still good, it's still good!

Heya, people!

Okay, so I'm a little late on this one….

On a slightly more serious note, I would like to apologise for not posting for a while. I'm at the stage where testing is pretty much required for me to progress, and the stuff that I had to work on once I'd gotten some testing in wasn't massively interesting until now. With that said, since Murdoch Uni's Co-Op group has started up again, I've managed to get a lot of work done on Samurai Showdown since my last update. While none of it was directed at making new mechanics, quite a bit has gone into making the gameplay better, the visuals more interesting, and the UI more readable by humans and not hypothetical AI from the distant future, among many other areas.

So, with that said, let's get started!

[More Here]

Click to shrink...

 

[prometheus110]

Hey all,

Welcome back to another Samurai Showdown development blog! As has been a running theme for the past few weeks, I've been busy testing Samurai Showdown with the help of Murdoch uni's Co-Op game dev group and generally improving the user experience for players. While most of the changes are pretty difficult/boring to show, I have reintroduced and reworked some features that were present in previous builds due to user feedback so this update won't be too boring.

[More Here]

Click to shrink...

 

[prometheus110]

Hey all,

I'm trying out a new type of blog post today for Samurai Showdown where I try to keep things short and sweet by only going into detail on one of the changes I've made since the last update and by listing the rest in dot points. Let me know what you think about the new style in the comments or on Facebook/Twitter. So, without wasting any time, let's start!

[More Here]

Click to shrink...

 

[prometheus110]

Article:

Hey all,

So first thing's first. Since my last update, I've put a tonne of work into Samurai Showdown, and you can now find the latest version on Itch.IO. It's the first version of the game that doesn't require two players thanks to a very simple AI, so now anyone can play the game!

As always, I'd love to hear what you think of the game, so let me know via Facebook or Twitter.

[More Here]

Source: Otterspace Games

 

[prometheus110]

Article:

Heya,

Among other things I've been working on since my last update, I've been working flat out on implementing game-changing powers, improving Samurai Showdown's visuals to ensure players know exactly what is going on, and hunting down and fixing a very annoying bug profile bug. While the latest version of the game hasn't been deployed to Itch.IO just yet, you can expect it to be on our page shortly.

For more on what exactly has changed and what's next, read below the line!

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts, so let me know via Facebook or Twitter.

[More Here]

Source: Otterspace Games

 

[prometheus110]

Article:

Hey all,

I haven't had much of a chance to work on this game since my last update due to getting carried away on a side project, but I do have some big news that I'm eager to share! I've also done some work on character-specific abilities, bug fixing, and menu navigation, so read below the fold!

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on today's dev blog, so let me know via Facebook or Twitter.


News:

First up, I'd like to talk about the big news. For a while now, I haven't been happy with Samurai Showdown as a name. This is not because it's a bad name but because it's such a good name that someone else already used it! As such, I'd like to introduce you to Otterspace Game's latest project, Samurai Smash!

Samurai Smash keeps the overall feel of the original name, improves Search Engine Optimisation (a boring but essential part of game development), and is generally better at getting across what the game intends to be.

Now, before you read on, check out the awesome updated logo done by one of the talented artists involved in the project.


[More Here]

Source: Otterspace Games