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October 7, 2009
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:iconaxcho:
Active Sketch 03 - Words by axcho on October 7, 2009

This is my third Active Sketch, a doodle in code. It's an attempt to turn a text into an interesting environment for a game.

I made this for a project with =brontosaurus. If we can extract some fun out of this idea we will make a game based on it.

:iconbrontosaurus:

I used the Flixel engine to build this prototype. It's great for making pixelated games like this - I'd recommend it.

Click the window to start, then use the arrow keys to move around. You can pick up a word by pressing x or c.

x - grab word
c - grab word
left - move left
right - move right
up - jump up
down - drop down

On the right is your score, and on the left is your score multiplier and the current word you are holding. If you match two words exactly, your multiplier goes up. If you pick up two words that have no letters in common, your multiplier is halved. Otherwise, you get points for each letter the two words have in common, multiplied by your score multiplier.

There is no time limit, and words reappear after they go off the screen, so you can get as many points as you have patience for. It's not a game. It's just a test.

The story is something I wrote over a year ago, a retelling of Where the Wild Things Are with the themes of Ishmael, in the style of a Haida myth. It still has a sappy Western ending, though.

I've also posted the full, formatted text here, if you just want to read it: [link]

If you fall off the story, you can reload the page to start again.
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:iconbeekirby:
Mood: Promiscuous ~BeeKirby Dec 9, 2010
I tried to find all the instances of "they." There were only twenty...they say.

--
...bro.
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:iconaxcho:
~axcho Dec 20, 2010
Awesome, hehe. I should start throwing in a "they say" in my ordinary conversations. Make things seem more epic. ;)

--
I believe that games will be as significant a new medium as the printed word ever was, and as powerful a force for change.

I am here to make that happen. Making life more fun
Reply
:iconphmongeau:
Mood: Love ~phmongeau Oct 13, 2009  Student Digital Artist
Wow, I really like the concept. And I love Flixel! :D
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:iconaxcho:
~axcho Oct 14, 2009
Yay, Flixel! :D Thanks.

--
I believe that games will be as significant a new medium as the printed word ever was, and as powerful a force for change.

I am here to make that happen. Making life more fun
Reply
:iconwonderwhy-er:
~wonderwhy-ER Oct 9, 2009
There is something magic in idea of using words in some kind of game mechanic. Your thing reminded me of [link] this. Absolutely magical game and game idea/mechanic concept.

In your case words are just words but what if you can-somehow manipulate then which in a way will manipulate game environment or visual representation :)

--
There is only a Flash between the past and future, and exactly that is what I call life… at least for Flasher/Scripter/Designer :D
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:iconaxcho:
~axcho Oct 10, 2009
Words are magic! [link] :D

Hmm, maybe moving words around changes the environment... How would adjacent words affect each other? Makes me think of Markov chains... [link] :)

--
I believe that games will be as significant a new medium as the printed word ever was, and as powerful a force for change.

I am here to make that happen. Making life more fun
Reply
:iconwonderwhy-er:
~wonderwhy-ER Oct 11, 2009
:)

--
There is only a Flash between the past and future, and exactly that is what I call life… at least for Flasher/Scripter/Designer :D
Reply
:iconwonderwhy-er:
~wonderwhy-ER Oct 9, 2009
Interesting :) Level as story written in words... It may be an interesting mechanics. T

here was one game which was very innovative. There were a poem with words there and there are words hidden in levels. As you change words in a poem with ones you found level changes to resemble the poem. Can't remember how it was called. This one resembles it somehow.

Would be interesting if words had some mechanics related to their meaning. In that way levels them-selfs would be tutorials to how to use them :D

--
There is only a Flash between the past and future, and exactly that is what I call life… at least for Flasher/Scripter/Designer :D
Reply
:iconaxcho:
~axcho Oct 10, 2009
Thanks for reminding me about Today I Die. That was a great game, and I didn't think about the connection with words and gameplay until you mentioned it.

I wonder what sort of system would make sense for a story game, longer than a short poem, so it's not feasible to create a new game object for each word...

One thing I was thinking about was procedural creatures generated from each word, though I don't know if that would make sense... :p

I like the way that in Today I Die, there are words that affect your abilities, and words that affect your environment. That could be a good place to start.

--
I believe that games will be as significant a new medium as the printed word ever was, and as powerful a force for change.

I am here to make that happen. Making life more fun
Reply
:iconwonderwhy-er:
~wonderwhy-ER Oct 11, 2009
Yeah Today I Die had a genius concept that was well performed. I would say that it is one of not many games that was purely and art then entertainment.

And I do agree that it would be hard to make a good large game or even game engine on that concept. That would need some kind of way to judge poems for quality + some kind of as you said procedural/fractal style analysis of structure to decide what effects it has. So close to impossible :)

But that what makes this kind of game an art. You do all yourself from scratch for each game :)

--
There is only a Flash between the past and future, and exactly that is what I call life… at least for Flasher/Scripter/Designer :D
Reply
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