Category: Teaching

As part of their studies of becoming successful game-scholars, 1st year Games Computing students at the LSoC have to use and learn existing tools to rapidly develop and extend original game design ideas into fully fledged playable games. One of our favourite approach to the introductory of game studies is the use of game developing challenges. The rules of challenges: Make a game based on a given theme, within the available time scale. Volunteering students present and discuss their game in front of a playful crowd made out of their colleagues and university staff members. We previously reported about the Challenge #1; this post focuses on the results of Challenge #2.

Challenge #2: Design and produce a game which is based around the theme “ASCII”. Take inspiration from arcade games and Atari VCS games of the 1980’s by using the ASCII character set only as game components and graphics. The only other constraint on the game is that it must play in sixty seconds or less.

We were quite overwhelmed by the quality and brilliance of the games implementation submitted to the given challenge. The submissions ranged from dungeon crawlers, space ship battles, supermarket explorers, hacking terminals, serious games to tower defence, multi-player jump and runs, virus deletion, to racing games. As good as all game genres and ideas were looked at from a different perspective and re-engineered into a new innovative and fun game. Very well done to everyone who participated! As usual, Ben Kirman recorded the presentation sessions and created a short show reel video. The video is available on Youtube and gives a good glimpse of what is happening during the challenge presentation sessions!

 

In addition, we have hand-picked the following submissions; feel free to get them separately; or download them all in a handy zip file. Leave a comment and tell us what you think of the games!

	Legend of Ascii by Kieran Hicks Take control of a mighty warrior and battle your way through hordes of hellish monsters and kill the dragon that killed your father.  You shall have your revenge! Download
	Neon Mage ASCII by Martin Smith Minding your own business as a rogue mage, your home town is being attacked! Your most powerful spell, the teleport takes 60 seconds to charge, you’ll have to defend yourself against waves of enemy numbers with all you’ve got until it kicks in. Download
	ASCII Blocker by Richard Lannigan As the head systems analyst, it is your job to protect your base from a sixty seconds wave of enemy virus cells attempting to destroy it. Use blockers and turrets to aid you in your defence, or drop the almighty nuke and wipe out all enemies in range. Protect the system core at all costs to ensure law and order is upheld. Get it done analyst. Download
	Enigma by Ashley Clewes ENIGMA is a text-based hacking/decoding game, designed to appear like a simple terminal/console application which has been adapted by its creators to allow for a level of competition. Download
	Asciinauts by John McDonagh The evil Asciinauts have captured the inhabitants of the planet decimalus. It is your mission to kill the 10 evil asciinauts before they get away with their crimes towards the decimals. A retro 60 second fast action shoot em up. Can you save the decimals before it’s too late? Download
	Mind by Laura Buttrick A minimalist exploration of seasonal affective disorder. Download
	Draw! by James Brown Draw! The clue’s in the name. Download
	@LAD by Jack Guerrier @LAD is a cross between a Maze/race/collision style games, allowing the player to manoeuvre around other obstacles to reach a particular point before another object. Plan their path towards the point gaining object! Download
	ASCroller by Jack Broughton ASCroller is a space scrolling shoot em up with a rewarding level-up system. Take control of the brutish Battleship or control the nimble Yen ship. Collect as many points as possible before time runs out while dodging or destroying asteroids. Players can gain power by collecting objects and use it for special powers. Download
	Rocket Racer by Christopher Dye In Rocket Racer you have 60 seconds to test your rocket car! Using the arrow keys collect money to increase your score and speed, but watch out for potholes, hitting too many will force you to slow down and decrease your score! Download
	ASCIIPE by Matthew Housley ASCIIPE is an ASCII themed Dungeon Crawler. The goal is to navigate your character through one of three randomly chosen puzzles, fighting your way past enemies while finding the exit within the given time limit. Every time a puzzle is loaded the room will look different as it is randomly generated. Download

Astonishing work guys! Challenge #3 will be set in Unity and has been unveiled. Results will be posted in the following weeks!

“My best advice for students hoping to break in: Make games. Make a lot of games. Don’t stop making games. Learn from every game, good or bad” – John Siegel (Twitter, 2011)

As part of their studies of becoming successful game-scholars, 1st year Games Computing students at the LSoC (CGP1001M) have to use and learn existing tools to rapidly develop and extend original game design ideas into fully fledged playable games. One of our favourite approaches to the introductory of game studies is the use of game developing challenges. The rules of challenges: Make a game based on a given theme, within the available time scale. Volunteering students present and discuss their game in front of a playful crowd made out of their colleagues and university staff members.

Challenge #1: Make a ‘One-Button’ game in GameMaker. Use a single button as your player(s) input. Inspirational games: Canabalt, B.U.T.T.O.N, Poto and Cabenga or Super Action RPG.

This year’s student outcomes were astonishing. We had plenty of submissions, and students who presented their games heftily discussed their design and implementation process. Ben recorded the presentation sessions and created a short show reel video. The video is available on Youtube and gives a good glimpse of what is happening during the challenge sessions!

Additionally, we have hand-picked the following submissions (now with download links!)

	Dungeons of Nariek – Kieran Hicks Play as a brave unnamed knight as he delves into the treacherous Dungeons of Nariek. The evil Nariek has put a deadly curse on the knight and he can only perform actions in certain directions. Jump & Fight your way to victory! Controls: Spacebar – Jump & Fight. Download
	Fly, Square, Fly – James Brown Circle was Square’s only love until she was kidnapped by the evil, moncole wearing, Dr Triangle who took her to his underground mountain base. You must rescue her! Controls: Spacebar – fly up. Download
	Lunar Descent – J McDonagh Can you master gravity?Bring the lunar 1 module to a safe landing on the moon by controlling your fuel and avoiding all the asteroids. Lunar descent consists of 10 levels of addictive one-button game play. Controls: Space bar – thrust. Download
	Starcatcher – M Northover In Starcatcher, players have to catch stars and avoid meteors as they jump between two buildings. Get as many stars as possible and to challenge your friends to see if they can do better! Controls: Spacebar – jump. Download
	Goldrush – T Pendle Avoid fire, Collect as many gold coins, diamonds and rubies as possible. Controls: SpaceBar – move! Download

Great work guys! Challenge #2 is around the corner and will be unveiled in the next weeks!

James Munro will join high profile mobile games developer “Kwalee” in November as a programmer. James is a graduate of Lincoln’s BSc Games Computing degree course, and is submitting his MSc by Research dissertation this month. Kwalee is a new smartphone games/apps developer based in Leamington Spa (UK), and is head-up by David Darling, founder of Codemasters (www.kwalee.com).