From Track Mod To Spin City To Fashion Frenzy: A Study In Game Design Evolution
This is one of the case-studies I wanted to talk about for a long time, but I could not because one of the games was locked behind an MMO and could be accessed without an account. However, now that (sadly) the BarbieGirls.com MMO is no more, the game has been unleashed and I can talk about my lost trilogy and the process of evolving a game from puzzle, to a resource management game, to something else entirely.
Back in 2005, I finished what remains today, my favorite game that I have ever developed: Track Mod. Track Mod was inspired by the PopCap game Rocket Mania as way to involve cars driving in game, but not necessarily racing (which we had done many times before). I wanted to create a game that was addictive, and could be played for a long time (keeping people on the site). I also wanted a game that we could send out to some of the (then) new viral game portals that had been springing up. Portals were very accepting of puzzle games at the time, and this appeared to be perfect match. At the same time, I wanted to make a game that my 7 year old daughter would love to play, who was just starting to move beyond the kids CD-ROMs we have bought her, to games on the web.
In Track Mod, the player rotates pieces to create a track from a car to go from one side to the other. They must get all 6 cars across once to move to the next level. Each level adds new upgrades and dangers to evade. The game became one of the most popular games on HotWheels.com, and was played more than 1 billion times. This was helped by it being placed on the front page of addictinggames.com for almost 2 weeks in 2005. It became very popular with Hot Wheels fans too. It remains one of the only HotWheels.com games to be chronicled with a series of youtube.com videos by a loyal fan. It was also a hit with my daughter, who still asks to play it to this day
One thing that I liked most about the game was that it was a male-targeted game (but could be enjoyed by anyone) that was almost completely non-violent, but also not a straight racing or sports game. I liked the idea of challenging someone' mind as well as their hand-eye coordination.
I wanted follow-up that game with a sequel, but I could not really figure out a better way to remake the game than what was already there. I could have added more pick-up and obstacles, but it would have been essentially be the same game. Instead, I worked on a myriad of other project , mostly designed by other people until an opportunity for a sequel arrived in 2007.
Spin City was a Hot Wheels playset that was going to be released that year. It was a garage themed set with a spiral driveway in the middle. The garage had all sorts of stations like gas, repair, paint, tires, a snack bar and an mobile audio shop. When I saw the toy my first thought was that we could do something special if we took the play set and imagined the world a kid might create in his head while playing with the toy. I have to admit, that I played much the same way when I was a kid. I loved toy cars, and I made up all sorts of universes for them to inhabit. Many times I created a "garage city" where cars would arrive get service, and leave. It was these memories, and the urge to create a game that could be played for a significant amount of time, that drove me to design what would become "Spin City:Drive Thu Dilemma".
At first, I thought that I could take the spiral and have players arrange the pieces, like in Track Mod, to get cars into the various station in "Spin City". I started to make a basic demo, but I stopped 1/2 way through . There was really no conceivable to connect the parts of the spirals ala Track mod, and make a game that was any fun to play at all. I went back to think about how I could make this work.
Back about the same time I had designed Track Mod, I had designed a game in named "Oil Change" which was an almost direct copy of Diner Dash, but with cars and oil. We never made that game, but the idea had always stuck with me. The the thought came: why not take the cars from Track Mod and have them arrive at Spin City for repairs? It would not be an exact sequel, but having the same (or similar) sized cars would at least show that the two were related. Then I sat down to design the game.
There were lots of little "stations" in Spin City toy the playset, however but I did not want to make a game where you picked-up cars with your hand and dropped that to get what they needed (ala diner Dash). Instead, I came up with the idea of centering the game around the spiral. Cars would drive in the top, and the repair stations would be placed in a circle, around the outside at the bottom of the spiral. When you rolled over the arriving cars a pop-up would show the player what service they needed. The player would then select a car, then click on the station to send the cars, and it would zoom around the spiral to its' destination. There was a distinct visceral thrill that I noticed the first time this action worked in conjunction with the sound effects. I did not want it to stop. It was at that point that I knew I was onto something interesting.
As I finished-up the basic design of sending cars to get serviced, I noticed that the cars were taking too long to finish and get out of the stations. In the game, cars are not instantly repaired, but take a set amount of time. Instead of fixing the "slowness" issue, I instead decided allow the player to upgrade their stations to make them faster. I also decided to "lock" some of the stations so they could be purchased and opened by the player. The first time I tried the game this way, I could not stop playing. My goal has always been to build a game that I liked enough to not stop playing. I had done it once with Track Mod, and now I hoped lightening would strike twice.
When the game was released, on Hotwheels.com, it was an instant hit, and was almost as popular as Track Mod (but not quite). My daughter, then 9, love it too, as did her younger sister who was 5. It felt very successful to have made games for Hotwheels.com that my girls loved to play too. It felt great to have second, non-violent game that people loved to play so much, and I instantly wanted to follow-it-up with a 3rd game in the trilogy. I had an idea too, but pulling it off was quite something else. The idea came quite easily. It would be a "tower defense" style game, using the same sized cars and same overhead perspective of Track Mod and Spin City. Cars would arrive on the screen from one side, and follow a track, just like in a standard TD game. However, these were not zombie cars, or enemy tanks. These cars were dirty. As in, covered in dirt. Your job would be to create an "Extreme Car Wash", placing hoses, sprayers, soapers, etc using standard tower-defense mechanics, but your would not be destroying anything. You would be cleaning cars fast as possible before they reached the "garage" on the other side. Too many dirty cars in the garage, and the game was over. I felt like I "had" to make this game, as it would complete the trilogy of titles that were addictive and non-violent, inhabiting this overhead car world of my creation.
The problem was, times had changed for Hotwheels.com. The focus had moved back promoting products and away from game design for addictive contests. Even though the other games were hits, neither one was an idea that had come from marketing, so they did not have anything invested in them. Furthermore, trying to explain why a non-violent tower-defense game would be a good addition to the site was not an easy task with the marketing people who saw the world through the eyes of F1 and Nascar. Also to be honest, the idea might not have been that good. Still, it was game *I* wanted to play, which is always my initial litmus test. For some reason, the idea of "cleaning" dirty cars simply appeals to me more than blowing them up. I built a simple shooting demo with water cannon firing at dirty cars, but that was as far as it ever got. The idea was put on the back-burner and never revived.
Instead, the "trilogy" was reimagined, but this time as a reskin of Spin City for the MMO BarbieGirls.com (now offline). We had a lot of success reskinning Track Mod for a couple girl-themed projects, so it was an easy sell to the game loving BarbieGirls.com team to turn Spin City into Fashion Frenzy for the MMO. The game remained pretty much intact as it moved to the world of Fashion. Instead of a garage, a mall escalator was devised by the BarbieGirls.com team, and instead of tires, gas and paint, stations became shoes, jewelry and clothes. It was a short development cycle, and could probably have used a bit more time to make some adjustments in game play from the Spin City model, but it was still a fairly successful game for the site.
There was more than just the game play mechanic from Spin City left over as well. When I demoed the game for the BarbieGirls.com team, while re-skinning, I had no "mall" sounds so I left in the "garage" sounds from Spin City. They thought this was so funny, that we left the sounds in the game as an "easter egg". You can turn on the Spin City sounds by pausing the game and typing "hotwheels".
One great thing about this game, is that it now lives on Barbie.com, so my own girls can play it whenever they want. None of them had ever played it before last weekend, when I found that it had been unleashed on the world. The 7 year old who loved Track Mod, now 13, wanted to play it. The 5 year old, now 8 who loved Spin City, wanted to play too. Even their younger sister, now 5 and the ultimate "Barbie Girl" in her own right, tried to grab the mouse and get into the action. It was a very satisfying father's day last Sunday, to have my girls clamor to play a game that I had designed and programmed a couple made years ago. No, I wasn't able to finish the trilogy of non-violent, car themed games the way I had first intended intended, but in life, some things work out for the best anyway.
-8bitsteve
How My Dad's Love Of Games Helped Foster My Game Development Career
Please excuse me, just one more time, so I can write some final thoughts about my dad, and how he helped me in my career. Last weekend we had had his memorial at my house, and so I'm trying to put some final thoughts together, to give him a good send-off.
My dad did not play video games very often, if ever. However, he loved to watch us play, and he supported our computer dreams since their inception. Here are some thoughts about where he steered us, early on, in the right direction to help foster a love of games and game design and development.
-Board Games: Jack Straws
This seemingly simple game of "Pick Up Sticks" was the first game I can recall ever playing. The red box taunted me from the high shelf in my dad's room. I could only play it with his permission. Why? because it was so easy to lose the little pieces. Each "stick" was an intricately molded tool or object that could very easily stick to the other pieces. To play the game, you would start by dumping the pieces in a pile on a table, then take turns removing them, one by one, without disturbing any other pieces. The gameplay was simple, yet it took amazing strategy and concentration to get good at it. In some ways, this might be the perfect game. Almost no set-up, very few rules, totally different every time you play, and fun as hell. These are still my own personal tenants for a great game. I get goose bumps when I think about playing this game back in the 70's with my family. Other great board games my dad introduced me to an early age: Parchesi, Scrabble, Bushwhacker and Chess.
-Early 1970's Arcade Games: Wild Gunman at the Old Town Mall
In the early to mid 1970's, before I became obsessed with the Atari 2600, my dad took us to a placed named The Old Town Mall. Now legendary in the minds of people from the South Bay in Southern California, the Old Town Mall was part hobby shop (Paul Frieler's Historical models, comic book store, stamp collecting store), part crafting arena (local artisans, candle making shop, glass blowers, custom t-shirts), part amusement park (two dark rides, flying bees ride, carousel, 9 hole miniature gold course), and part amusement midway (shooting gallery, huge arcade). The whole place was themed like the turn-of-the 19th to 20th century with cobblestone pathways, building facades, old-time street lighting and people in costumes. There was even one of the very first "food courts" in the United States located at the north end. In hindsight, it was an amazing place. I loved it as a kid, but I don't think I fully appreciated it until it was gone.
We usually entered the mall through one of the North entrances, which was also the entrance to the arcade. No matter what we were doing, my dad always had time to stop and play some of the games. He was drawn to games that reminded him of his own childhood, playing cowboys in the hills and fields of Manumit Boarding School. His favorite game was Wild Gunman by Nintendo. This mid-1970's game featured a light-gun and a projection movie screen. Your job was to quick draw the cowboys before they could shoot you. My dad would tell us stories about his childhood while he put on the holster and got ready to play. My brother and I were fascinated by his ability to outdraw the bad guys. After he played this, we would enter the mall, and go straight the the shooting gallery. After shopping he would take us to the "Raw Juice Store" for refreshment. We probably only made this trek a couple times, but in my mind, we did it every week. It's one of my fondest memories, and it taught me that games and entertainment are best enjoyed with other people.
-First Video Games: Tandy TV Scoreboard:
Years before we convinced my dad to get us an Atari 2600, he arrived home from work one day with the "Tandy TV Scoreboard", what has to be be one of the most bizarre looking Pong games ever made. I'm positive the odd look and feel of this unit was what drew him to it (also, it was probably really cheap). The unit had one detachable controller, the other controller was attached to the unit that connected to the TV. There was nothing remarkable about the games: they were pong and pong-a-likes. There was nothing new or interesting about "TV Score-bored" (as we called it), and honestly, we grew tired of it very quickly. What was remarkable was that my dad brought this home for no reason: it was not a birthday, or Christmas, or anything else. The surprise of it all was thrilling. Sure, it was Tandy, and it was lame. Sure we played it a few times and it stopped working, and sure, overall it's failure probably postponed an Atari 2600 in our house for a couple years. However, the event still taught me some valuable lessons; surprises are a great thing, innovation is important even in a "me-too" products, and most important of all, you don't need a special occasion to have fun with your family.
-8bitSteve
Ode To A Game That Nobody Played
This is an ode to a game that nobody played
For the classes and functions and code that I made
For the weeks designing how the screen would be laid
With Pseudo-3D and traces that were rayed
With cool explosions filled with particles sprayed
This is an ode to a game that nobody played
This is an ode to a game that nobody played
Inspired by reviews on Games That Are Jay'd
Yes, I borrowed some ideas, it had to be said
From Bloons, and Pop-Cap And that little game Braid
Yes it's derivative, but please don't be dismayed
This is an ode to a game that nobody played
This is an ode to a game that nobody played
I simply can't live on the cash offers you bade
So on your portal my game just won't be displayed
As my hopes to be famous, continue to fade
My dreams of riches instantly decayed
This is an ode to a game that nobody played
This is an ode to a game that nobody played
It sits on my hardrive, alone and, afraid
Wait, an idea, is suddenly splayed!
I'll rework it for iOS, and then I'll get paid!
Except through the 1000's of other games it must wade
This is an ode to a game that nobody played
-8bitsteve
The Pac-man Dossier Kicks Ass!
If you are at all interested in building a maze chase game in the Pac-man genre, or are just interested in the technical details about the game or how to play it, check out the incredibly detailed Pac-man Dossier by Jamey Pittman.
This treasure trove of information contains everything from detailed descriptions of the maze logic to explaining the "kill screen", Easter Eggs, and much much more.
When I was writing the No Tanks! chapter of The Essential Guide Flash Games, I really could have used this information. I looked all over the web for some technial details on Pac-man and found nothing that described the chase logic in any detail. I had to repeatedly play the game and literally guess as to how the logic was set up. I was close, but after reading this, I feel like I have enough information to build an exact clone. Let's see if I find the needed time though.
(8bitjeff is Jeff D. Fulton)
How Now? The Good News And The Bad News
The good news: The game you are working on is brilliant, amazing, and from a theoretical game design perspective, is worth every ounce of blood, ingenuity, ignored interpersonal relationships and effort you have poured into it.
The bad news: Some kid using Game Salad just made a Zombie game in 4 hours that will surpass your creation, statistically, in every conceivable, measurable way.
The good news: "13 year olds on New Grounds" have been overtaken as the target audience of choice for your games.
The bad news: They have been overtaken by the new target audience : "8 year olds on their parent's iPhone"
The good news : $.99 cents is losing ground as the price-point of choice for mobile games.
The bad news: Free is the new $.99 cents
The good news: Angry Birds was a surprise success.
The bad news: It probably won't happen to you.
The good news: You too could be that 14 year old who got his game to top of the iPhone charts.
The bad news: Lotto tickets cost a $1.00 each and you will have a better chance with those.
The good news: Apparently in-game ad sales are on the rise thanks to iAd.
The bad news: Thanks to frequency caps and eCPM of $.01, I think we all know how this story ends.
The good news: Atari sold the movie rights to "Missile Command"
The bad news: The movie script you have been painfully crafting for the past decade has just been surpassed by a concept with less depth than "Frogger: The Movie"
What Now? Random Answers.
Yes, we do want to hear from you, contact us.
No, we don't want to display your gambling ads.
Yes, Flash is still a viable platform.
No, we do not need your masterful SEO skills sent via email offer.
Yes, it is cool being a twin.
No, we never switched places.
Yes, we do sometimes have the same opinion at about the same time.
No, we cannot feel each other's pain.
Yes, we are willing to license you a game engine.
No, payment in gold bullion is fine.
Yes, Android, iPhone/iPad and HTML 5 and viral Flash are on our minds.
No, JavaFX is probably not going any place.
Yes, Silverlight is cool. Wait for it to work with XNA/Live Arcade
No, writing books is not really worth the money.
Yes, writing books is worth the effort.
No, we don't plan to write another one.
Yes, tech review is still a bitch.
No, we will probably not do another contest.
Yes, we'd love to see/review your game anyway.
No, we still consider ourselves retro devolved
Yes, indie games will rule the Earth.
Now What? Random Thoughts…
Hmm. What's next?
We seem to be at a crossroads.
The end of something, and the beginning of something else.
But what?
Is is Apps?
Is it the mobile web?
Is there value still hiding in viral Flash games?
3DTV? Really? I don't see it. Literally and figuratively.
Is the web really dead?
What about the Windows phone?
Why all the Linked-In Requests lately? Is it the new Facebook?
What happened to in-game ads?
Mindjolt revived? Are game portals making a comeback?
Can developers really survive on $.99 cents a sale?
Are those birds really that angry, or it the guy who throws them the angry one?
You too can "Hack the Pac". A guide to hacking the Google Pac-man Doodle
A month or so back Google celebrated Pac-Man's 30th anniversary by replacing the Google Doodle with a playable version of Pac-Man.
(click the image to play it in its new Google home)
Retrogaming Monthly has a nicely written article on how to create your own version of the doodle by modifying the code. The authors of the game have generously posted the source code and (Javascript, HTML5, and Flash for sound) for any and all to see how it was created and the modify it to their hearts content.
The article explains the variables used to change game parameters so even a novice coder can try their had at a slightly hacked version of the game. I'd love to see those and especially what some more experienced developers might come up with.
Game Engine Re-Use: Jeff Vogel Is My Hero
Here at 8bitrocket.com we love game engines and engine reuse. Damn, we even wrote a book about it! It seems that we are not alone.
In a post published today, Spiderweb Software's Jeff Vogel does a fantastic job defending his use of a game engine he has re-sued and nursed into a dozen or so games over the past 10 years.
Here's a good quote:
"When I start a new game, I spend 3-4 months rewriting the worst or most
dated part of my engine, and then I take that old (but solid) engine
and make the coolest story I can with it. It's a small company. Our
resources are desperately limited. Thus, I don't spend time remaking
things that already work. If my wolf icon looks good, why make a new
wolf icon just for the sake of making a new one? Instead, I focus on the
story, the one thing that truly needs to be all new and excellent."
There is a lot more this story over at Vogel's blog. Most if it is directed at the mainstream game industry, but there isa lot that Flash game developers could take-away too.
Still don't Think Using someone Elses I.P., Even For a "Fan" Project, Is Not A Problem?
So, do you still think that using the intellectual property that belongs to someone else is not a problem? Do you think that if you are creating a "tribute" or "fan project" that you will be left alone?
Think again.
The guys over at The Silver Lining had been working for EIGHT years on a fan-made game using the old Sierra I.P., "King's Quest". They even got the tentative "OK" from the old owner of the I.P., Vivendi. Now that Activision owns it, they have been told to shut-down:
"Recently, however, ownership of the Sierra IP changed hands and became
the property of Activision. After talks and negotiations in the last
few months between ourselves and Activision, they have reached the
decision that they are not interested in granting a non-commercial
license to The Silver Lining, and have asked that we cease production and take down all related materials on our website."
Eight years eh? These look like a bunch of smart people. I wonder how many games of their own they could have created in that time (maybe they did create some games, who knows?)
Anyway, again, we say: use your own stuff.