“bob’s game” Kickstarter updates after twenty months

Posted by Peter (Devee) on January 20, 2016
Posted in: Editorial. Tagged: , , , . 1 Comment

bob's game

For an overview of bob’s game, see my post The strange tale of “bob’s game.”

Robert Pelloni’s Kickstarter for his game “bob’s game” succeeded back in May of 2014. I wrote about it in a post called “bob’s game” Kickstarter succeeds. Since it succeeded, he made a single Kickstarter update a year late rin May of 2015. Of course, I wrote about that too in post titled bob’s game Kickstarted: one year later. Now we finally have another update. You can check out the update on Kickstarter under the name Small update.

The condensed version of his update is that it seemed pretty honest about his troubles. He “set the bar low for the Kickstarter,” but it seems he set it too low. He used the money to get an apartment for eight months but eventually ended up living out of his van for the next six. She pitched the game to invenstors without success. He eventually got another apartment and enrolled in online classes. (It’s unclear if he’s still in school.) He also discussed some issues he had porting “bob’s game.”

It looks like he’s hoping to port the bob’s game puzzle game first to multiple platforms to help give him income to work on “bob’s game” the RPG. (For some context on the name, bob’s game is a puzzle game. It’s a stand-alone game, but it’s also the final game within the RPG “bob’s game.” “bob’s game” is a game about bob’s game.)

Both bob’s game and “bob’s game” have been listed on Steam Greenlight.

Good luck, Robert!

I’ve linked the original sources, but I’ll reproduce the update as well as the Steam Greenlight descriptions here:

bob’s game (puzzle game) from “bob’s game” Steam Greenlight description:

bob’s game is the best puzzle game ever made.

The legendary bob’s game is the final game from the infamous homebrew Action-RPG “bob’s game” (a game about the puzzle game- note the double quotes!). You can check out the separate Greenlight entry for that game here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=604630184

bob’s game is a multiplayer puzzle game- but not just any puzzle game, *every* puzzle game! It’s a build-your-own puzzle game with a puzzle game creator where you define all the rules to your own custom game!

More than that, great care has been made to ensure that bob’s game is the *best* version of every puzzle game. I went through every puzzle game forum and wiki I could find and made sure to implement every detail and feature required by tournament level hardcore players. It has wall kicks, floor kicks, spin kicks, T-spins, adjustable timing, powerups, you name it.

The rules of bob’s game change in real time as you play it, morphing from game to game and making every round completely unique. Or you can choose to play just your favorite game type against your friends with fantastic controls, super tight timing, and features and powerups from other games.

bob’s game is completely customizable, allowing the player to create in-depth rulesets to mimic existing puzzle games or create entirely new ones to add to the online library.

Create your own puzzle modes! Invent custom rulesets or challenge your friends to a sequence of all your favorite games. Compete in an online world championship and improve your skills to reach the top of the public leaderboard.

bob’s game is constantly evolving with new theme packs, new rules, and user-designed puzzle packs.

This game is not complete, the Java demo featured in the video is an early alpha “MVP” version and I’d like to add many more features. I am also currently porting it back to C++ from Java so that it runs as smoothly as possible with no garbage collection hiccups and can be ported to any platform.

It will be released and continuously updated for desktop PC both standalone and in browser, and on mobile for Android and iPhone, with the source code available to be ported to any other platform.

You can play the alpha version that appears in the video as an embedded game inside the “bob’s game” RPG Demo 3 for PC here: http://bobsgame.com/files/bobsgame_demo_3_dist_win.zip

 “bob’s game” Steam Greenlight description:

“bob’s game” is a game about a game called bob’s game. I worked on it for a long time. It’s not done so I want to get it on Early Access.

See more about it on http://bobsgame.com

Please download and play the demos if you have questions about the gameplay.
(Remember: Don’t give up on Tetrid, there is a trick to it.)

Download Demo 1+2 for PC here: http://bobsgame.com/files/bobsgame_demo_2_final.zip
Download Demo 3 for PC here: http://bobsgame.com/files/bobsgame_demo_3_dist_win.zip

Also see the separate Greenlight entry for the bob’s game puzzle game (the best puzzle game ever made) here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=603367632

I’ve also listed the custom BobEdit tools and “bob’s game” engine used to make this game on Greenlight, so that others can make games using them if they want:http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=604913553

“bob’s game” Kickstarter update #2, Small update:

I set the bar low for the Kickstarter but I was hoping it would make enough for at least a year or two of development.  Unfortunately it barely made the minimum amount, but in my situation I had to take what I could get.

I chose to get an apartment instead of trying to live in a van, thinking I’d be better off with the convenience and hoping that I’d be able to figure out something else in that time.  This only gave me an 8 month extension, and I spent most of it still very traumatized and frustrated and I did not find any other solutions.

Once I ran out, I ended up living in my car again for another 6 months until I could find another way to support myself.  I tried sending a pitch deck to over 300 investors and even went door to door on Sand Hill Road.  I emailed every publisher I could find.  I applied for YCombinator and 500 Startups.  None of that worked, so I ended up enrolling in online classes and taking out student loans.

So now I’m back in an apartment and I’ve slowly started getting back into development after almost 2 years of sleeping in a car.

I’ve listed both the puzzle game and the RPG on Steam Greenlight, in hopes that I could get on Early Access, which would really be great for my situation since I could possibly make some steady income as I worked on the games.

I’m still moving forward with the games the best I can and I will still fulfill the backer rewards when I am able to do so.  I am still living on borrowed time, but I’ll do the best I can with the time that I have.

I’m currently porting the Java puzzle game to C++ so that it runs as smoothly as possible. It will be released and continuously updated for desktop PC both standalone and in browser, and on mobile for Android and iPhone, with the source available to be ported to any other platform.

I am doing this as it is the fastest way that I can possibly gain some reliable income, so that I can work on the RPG without worrying about my situation.​

I am not sure what I’m going to do with the RPG. I rewrote it in Java as an MMO so the game world could be continuously updated on the fly.  I was successful at doing that but it is very cumbersome to develop on at this point and it needs to be worked on by a team with funding, not one person with no resources.​

I had gotten caught up in the Silicon Valley hype and thought it would be possible to get investment for a fairly large existing project with a cool online demo. Unfortunately that was not the case.  It would probably have helped to have had some traction and numbers, but maybe it’s just too small of a project for big investors to care, or maybe my background is too risky, or maybe it’s just not good enough.

I’m also unhappy with the state of Java, and the client doesn’t run well enough on mobile which I was really hoping for and one of my deciding factors.​  I had anticipated that Java would become more popular because of Android and hence also more supported on the desktop, but because of some security issues and the lawsuit between Google and Oracle it became less popular.  I would really like to port it back to C++ but that will take a long time, so for now I will stick with Java. I will probably just scale it back to a single player desktop game and release manual updates, or have a good upgrade function built in.

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Polygons and Pixels blogging 2015 in review

Posted by Peter (Devee) on December 31, 2015
Posted in: Polygons and Pixels. Tagged: , , . 1 Comment

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

I would have guessed that most of my traffic was due to bob’s game, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Besides the homepage, “All done with Castle Doombad” got most of my views.

  1. All done with Castle Doombad – 318 views
  2. Backing up Android’s World of Goo saves – 292 views
  3. Energy Drinks – 175 views
  4. Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game sprites – 99 views
  5. The strange tale of “bob’s game” – 81 views

I only made 28 new posts this year. This has always been my slowest blog, and as I find myself not playing games much, it obviously slows down much more.

I thought it’d be neat to show my views per year. I started this blog in June 2012, so let’s start the data with 2013.

  • 2013: 6,858
  • 2014: 7,891
  • 2015: 4,027

Click here to see the complete report.

32AB – bobsgame.com’s forum is online

Posted by Peter (Devee) on October 21, 2015
Posted in: Editorial. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

bob's game

It looks like something happening with bob of bob’s game. Frequent commenter Nox pointed me in the direction of bobsgame.com, which is now titled “32AB” and contains a forum with little information.

bob’s posted on the forum once in reply to a thread asking for his life story that he once posted.

“Please do not post the story, thank you. I will post an updated version in the future.”

I’ve talked about it a bit in the past, and I have an archived copy. Honestly, I have little hope he’s going to release anything, but he does have my money already, and I’d be pleasantly surprised to see a release of any sort. It’s been an interesting ride regardless of the outcome.

Super Mario Maker Level: Sinister Den

Posted by Peter (Devee) on September 21, 2015
Posted in: Design. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Super Mario Maker Sinister Den

Instead of making levels with friends, I recently decided to try playing alone and designing my own level. This is Sinister Den! It’s really not so sinister, but I have realized I like lots of jumping and bouncing at the beginning of levels apparently. And don’t worry, this bouncy part is only one section.

Super Mario Maker Sinister Den

Be careful not to kill friends. Also, remember that coins can help guide you. There are no traps in the level. Trust the coins.

Super Mario Maker with friends

Posted by Peter (Devee) on September 14, 2015
Posted in: Editorial, Reviews, Videos. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

IMG_2021

Super Mario Maker was released Friday. As the release date approached, I really thought I could resist. I know I just don’t care to devote as much time to playing games as I once did, but I cracked pretty quickly on Friday and bought a copy. Even if I barely play it, it’s more than just a game. It’s a celebration of 30 years of Mario and the culture surrounding those games.

Super Mario Maker

I see it primarily as a social tool, so I designed my first level with friends. Here’s Anela, gem, and Antonio working on our level. We each took turns adding to it. The joy of Nintendo is how it brings people together and creates such rich culture around their properties. I knew gem would have fun with Super Mario Maker because we played it at SDCC this year, but what about Anela and Antonio? At least Antonio plays games and owns consoles, but I wasn’t confident Anela would have fun. However, they both did. Anela went crazy adding as many mushrooms as she could to her part of the level and then insisted I get those mushrooms when I played. Antonio and gem both set up traps in attempts to trick the players. There was a lot of laughter, so I think everybody had a great time. We’ve also been playing Super Mario 3D World. Like Super Mario Maker, even those who don’t play games often have had fun with it. Sure, Anela requests that we carry her through some parts, but she has as much fun, if not more, as the rest of us! Nintendo’s amazing at making their games accessible and enjoyable to people who don’t play games often.

Here’s our masterpiece – “Super cool friends Petanegemio.” It’s a majestic level! Okay, maybe not majestic, but I’ve played it a couple times, and I have fun when I do. Better than just enjoying some random Mario level, this one reminds me of my friends – Anela’s mushroom block maze, gem’s Money Zone of coins and trap (in which I totally fall in that video), and Antonio’s journey into the sky and trap (that I managed to avoid). It’s a masterpiece, at least to me.

“Mario Myths with Mr Miyamoto” helped push me into purchasing it. It’s such a simple video, but it helps accentuate the beauty of Nintendo and their games. It made me tear up just a little, especially the idea that it’s been 30 years since Super Mario Bros. Oh, and that hard hat Mario wears for Super Mario Maker. It’s so cute and representative of the game that’s a perfectly designed icon.

Super Mario Maker (and Super Mario 3D World and so many other Nintendo properties) are really works of art, beautifully created to bring people together accompanied by a soundtrack of their own laughter.

Thank you for the fun times Nintendo, Miyamoto, and all my friends who have played Mario with me!

Immerse Virtual Reality Headset

Posted by Peter (Devee) on September 8, 2015
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Note: This review was originally posted at Game Boyz.

Flying over Stormwind on Azeroth, piloting a Jaeger, running with dinosaurs, and tearing off the headset after getting scared are all new experiences I had with the Immerse Virtual Reality Headset. This headset uses your smartphone and side-by-side video to show 3D content. While there are some imperfections, it delivers a fun experience limited primarily by what 3D content is available. After playing with it for a week, I’m very excited for the future of VR.

ivrh_psa_2

The headset

First, let’s look at the headset itself. The main body is plastic with a door that flips down. Inside is a bracket in which I placed my iPhone 6 before snapping it closed. There’s a small hole on the side so I can connect headphones, a strap to fit around my head, and foam where it fits against my face. The eyepieces can be adjusted left and right as well as forward and backward.

The 3D effect is generated due to half of the split screen video being shown to each eye. There’s a plastic divider that blocks the left eye from viewing the right side of the screen and vice versa. The slightly different angle in each half of the video is combined to create the 3D effect.

It’s fairly comfortable, but there are a few limitations due to the nature of the device. First, I’m unable to use my glasses in the headset. Luckily my eyesight isn’t too bad, so I could still enjoy it. I can’t say whether that’s good for my vision though, and I suspect it isn’t. Second, the screen divider didn’t quite touch the screen. This allowed each eye to get a slight peak at a sliver of the opposite side. When viewing 3D content, this creates a small, vertical strip on the very left and very right of your vision that’s incorrect. In addition, the quality of the image is limited by the resolution of your phone. Lastly, I wasn’t so sure about aspect ratios. When I viewed side-by-side 3D YouTube videos, the video itself is widescreen but split into two halves. Each of those halves is then not a normal video aspect ratio. While some videos still looked fine, some were obviously stretched.

Videos

I started my exploration by looking for 3D content on YouTube. This was accomplished by searching for “side-by-side 3D” or “sbs 3D.” A nice proof-of-concept was “World’s BesT SBS 3D POP OUT EffecTs EVER” that was filled with 3D effects. There were also a variety of trailers and even music videos.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t really a large catalog of 3D videos that were more than what I’d consider proofs-of-concept. Netflix does apparently have 3D content, at least from what I could tell doing a bit of research, but it doesn’t look like the iOS app is aware that someone could be using a device like this one. There was no 3D content on the Netflix iOS app. There are other choices for streaming video though, and pretty much every site had some appropriate videos. Of course, you can also just put your own videos on your phone. I was able to watch my own side-by-side 3D video files, and that was pretty cool! I just hope in the future that Netflix gives me the ability to watch them.

Apps

This is where I get most excited. These are all basically interactive films. Unlike the 3D video I discussed above in which the 3D consists of effects that seem to pop out, these videos allow you to look around by turning your head. It’s really cool.

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First, there’s DinoTrek VR Experience. In this experience, you’re tagging along dinosaurs – running away from predators, soaring through the air, and looking for food.

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Next, there are a couple neat videos in the Legendary VR app. First, I experienced (I used the word “watched” at first, but it’s more than watching) The Skies of Azeroth. Be sure to download it rather than selecting the “YouTube 360” option. This puts you on the back of a gryphon, flying over the human city of Stormwind in Warcraft’s world of Azeroth. Moving your head moves your vision, and you can look anywhere – behind you, below you, even at the gryphon itself.

ivrh_psa_6

The Legendary VR app also has Pacific Rim Jaeger Pilot. As soon as it started, I couldn’t help but exclaim, well, let’s just pretend I said “fudge yeah” because I don’t want to cuss in this review. It was amazing – short but awesome. To be honest, yeah, it was mostly proof-of-concept. But please, please, give me more. If you haven’t wanted to pilot a Jaeger, Gundam, Evangelion, or some mecha suit, you must be nuts.

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Lastly, I’d like to mention Insidious Chapter 3. This VR experience corresponds to a film series with which I’m unfamiliar, but I can say that’s it horror. Less than thirty seconds into it I yelled “shoot” before pulling the headset off. Again, I cleaned up my language a bit. A VR headset certainly brings horror to the next level.

Final thoughts

While most of the 3D content floating on the web seems to be demonstrations, there is some really cool content. These 3D, 360 degree experiences are the exciting aspects in my opinion with regular 3D films being icing on the cake. I’m hoping that Netflix, my streaming service of choice, makes finding 3D content easier in the future. In the mean time, I’ll have to go hunting for my own 3D videos. Really, I just can’t wait to find more 360 degrees, immersive experiences. The ones I discussed above were so exciting, and I bet there are more great ones I haven’t yet found.

The Immerse Virtual Reality Headset is available for $39.99 from Sharper Image.

This review was based on a free review sample.

You can contact me at @TheUser on Twitter.

Live action FPS in Chatroulette

Posted by Peter (Devee) on August 31, 2015
Posted in: Editorial. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

This is probably one of the most amazing games ever made, and I’ll never get to play it.

Realm Pictures put together a live version of a first-person shooter video game played over online the online chat services Chatroulette, Omegle, and Skype. The “player character” asks the chat partner what to do, and the unsuspecting chatter gets to take control. How come I never got something like this when I tried Chatroulette?

I love all the touches of FPS culture – finding better weapons, starting with a crowbar, needing to connect the battery. I especially love the HUD, the over-acted grunts and exclamations, the exaggerated recoil and reloads. It’s really a thing of beauty.

Source: Realm Pictures
Via: Engadget