The Good, The Bad, and the Beta

Hey there everyone, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on a recent Beta test I had the privilege of being part of.  This wasn’t the first time I got to be part of a beta test, but the first time I actually enjoyed the game.  The game I got to play with this time is Little Big Planet Karting.  Yep, I know what you’re thinking, another go-kart racing game.  This one is a little like Mod Nation Racers, in that you can build your own tracks (levels), and publish them for other players to enjoy.  It takes many elements from Little Big Planet, like characters, themes, and design tools.  Since this was a beta, I’m not sure if the tools, materials, stickers, etc. we got to use will be in the final game, or if there are things they didn’t show us.  Guess I’ll have to wait until November to find out.

Anyway, the game play was pretty standard go-kart racing.  Accelerate, decelerate, drift through the corners, and gather/use a variety of weapons.  One neat feature is that you can create your own weapons.  It’s similar to LBP’s creatinator where you create an object, and set that as the “ammunition” for your weapon.  Also, you can use some of the weapons to defend yourself from incoming attacks.  Defending was something I had a hard time doing, probably due to poor “twitch” skills.

On the development side, laying out the initial track is pretty easy.  Your tool is a giant paint roller and you draw the track.  In addition to making left and right turns, you can change the elevation and put inclines and declines on your track.  Once the track is drawn, you can modify the terrain, add water, objects, and obstacles.  My biggest problem was that since I was working in a fully 3-D environment it was harder to place and manipulate objects.  Requires a completely different mind set than in the mostly 2-D world of LBP.  There is a grid you can use to align objects, but it is doesn’t always line up with the track.  This made placement a little tricky sometimes.  One suggestion I read in the forums was to build all of your objects first, then lay down the track.  It makes sense, but would require more planning than I’m willing to do.

You also have most of the logic tools from LBP available, this allows you to create interesting traps, or customize the driving experience for the players.  Again, since it is a fully 3-D environment, it was trickier to work with the circuit boards.

Overall, it was a good experience.  I’m looking forward to this game and have pre-ordered it already.  I may not do as much designing as I have in LBP and LBP2, but I look forward to playing community levels and tracks from others.  Based on what I saw in the beta, there are some talented folks out there.

The one thing I hope carries over is the costume I used during the beta period, it was aptly titled, Bacon Beard.  I let you wonder about that. 

Sack in the Saddle Again…part deux

I was reminded yesterday that it has been a year since I posted anything on this blog.  Time flies when you’re having fun.  Fun, like playing Skyrim, Batman: Arkham City, and participating in the LBP Karting beta testing.  I’ll say this about LBPK…it’s going to be alot of fun!  I had a chance to play tracks from the story line, and some from some great level builders.  We also had a chance to build our own levels with a sample of tools and materials that will be in the final game.  The interface was a little tricky since you are working in a full 3-D environment, but I was starting to get the hang of it right before the beta ended.

Since my last post here I have made some progress on the conclusion to my Yeti level in LBP2, thanks to a video on the LBPlanetorials YouTube channel.  He talked about modular level design and it enabled me to break my level down into small manageable chunks.  It also showed a technique for building without gluing.  Makes it easier to rearrange pieces of the level without alot of fuss.

I am about 60% done with blocking the level in, and about 50% done with the details on the sections that are blocked in.  In this part of the level I am including the grappling hook to give the player a way to avoid some, but not all obstacles.  One of the techniques I am using to make design easier is using gravity modifiers (with dampening set to 100%) to keep pieces from moving around without gluing them in place.  It’s easier to switch stuff around this way.  Also, using a piece of sticker panel, with a gravity modifier attached (and dampening set to 100%), as a surface to attach things like pistons, cameras, etc. I can move those things around easily too.

Well, rest assured I am back to working on this level, but keep in mind I just got Tiger Woods 11, and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, so I might be a little distracted.

Multi-floor elevator with controls

Let me start by giving a huge thanks to DEFCON01 who’s Youtube video showed me how to build the original elevator in LBP1.  Without that start, this would not be possible.

Really, all I did was translate that design into something using the LBP2 tools.  With the new tools I was able to create a design that only involved one moving part, the piston that raises and lowers the elevator car.  Everything needed to make this elevator control fits neatly on a single microchip.

You might recognize some of this design from my previous post about elevator logic.  I just added 2 AND gates, 2 timers, a directional combiner, and a sound object.

Starting on the left edge are the tag sensors.  The blue one activates if the elevator is at the top floor, the purple one activates if the elevator is at the bottom floor, and the green one for all floors in between.  In this picture, the purple one is activated.  You can see that the NOT gate’s output is off, therefore the first AND switch cannot close and complete the circuit to move the elevator down.  The blue one is not activated, so it’s NOT gate output is on and the first AND gate is awaiting input from the elevator’s “up” grabswitch to close the circuit and move the elevator up.

In the center is an OR switch with input from all of the tag sensors.  When one of the three sensors activates, it sends a signal to the reset switch of both timers.  This sets the current value of both to 0, and starts a 2-second interval where the output from both timers is turned off.  This turns off the input to the second set of AND gates which cuts off the signal to the elevator’s piston.  This stops the car long enough for the player to let go of the switch and exit the elevator car.  This time can be adjusted by tweaking the settings of the timers.  The other function of the OR gate is to trigger the sound object which makes a nice elevator “ding” tone.

The last element here is the directional combiner.  The up grabswitch is connected to the positive input, and the down grabswitch is connected to the negative input.  The “Input Action” on the piston is set to Forwards/Backwards, which gives the up and down movement based on which grabswitch is used.

Elevator logic

 

I worked a little on my elevator logic this morning and came up with the following microchip. 

Starting at the top, I have a blue tag sensor attached to a NOT logic gate, which connects to the AND logic gate.  The other thing connected to the AND logic gate is the grab switch for the “up button” in the elevator.  The purple tag sensor is attached to a similar NOT, then AND switch for the “down button” in the elevator.  The green tag sensor is used to stop at all floors in between.

To create the stopping location for the elevator, I placed a blue tag at the top floor, a purple tag at the bottom floor, and green tags at all floors in between.

Basically, the NOT gate is used to make sure that grabbing the up or down button will always work, unless the elevator is at the top or bottom floor, respectively.

The OR logic gate is connected to all three tag sensors so that no matter which sensor is activated, the elevator will stop.

All this work got me thinking of something another player asked in one of the forums, how do you make an elevator call button?  Give me something to think about for improving on the design.

Taking a Little Break

 

Well, since I seem to have a case of trigger finger in my thumb, and it is encased in a brace for the next 1-2 weeks, I won’t be doing any actual building on my levels.  It’s a shame because I just picked up LBP2 and the design tool are incredible.  In addition to the new tools, I can also access the add-on packs that came with the Game of the Year Edition of LPB1.

With all of that, and a punch list of things to fix in my first level, I decided to update that level and republish it in LBP2.

I am already making good use of the circuit boards as a way to clean up the design and take advantage of the updated logic gates.  Other new features that I like are the material movers and sackbots.  With these features I can create doors that slide between the three layers, to add a little depth, and replace the cardboard and sticker characters I currently have.

The elevators are getting a major upgrade to ones that have up and down controls that the player has to trigger, instead of proximity sensors that sometimes make the elevators take off without the player.

This will most likely push the work on my second level to the side for a while, but I think that updating my first one, will be worth the effort.

The Next Big Thing

My first published level is doing well.  I have 24 people who have played it now, a couple of hearts, and a couple of thumbs up.  Some of those folks gave me some great feedback on how to make it better, but at this time I am unable to make any changes.  I downloaded LBP so I could trade in my disk towards buying LBP2.  Turns out that the content I got with the disk version (Game of the Year edition) is not available to me anymore unless I purchase it.  Oops!  Until I get around to buying those packs, I decided to begin work on my new level.

As with the last one, I am working out all of the technical parts first.  The first big one I am working on is a puzzle akin to the old “pipes” games.  The player needs to create an electrical path to two locations by rotating either a row or column of “path pieces”.  The first step was to find a way to rotate the pieces. 

My design is a 5x5 grid of wheels that will rotate in 1/4 turn increments.  Since each wheel has a single motor bolt, and that means I can only have one trigger per wheel.  I finally came up with a matching 5x5 grid of pistons and magnetic keys that activate either one row or one column of motors.

This grid is controlled by a 2-way switch and 5 buttons.  The buttons allow the player to select row/column 1-5 based on how the 2-way switch is set.

The switch allows the player to select either rows (lever to the left) or columns (lever to the right).  The switch moves a line of magnetic keys left and right to move them under the magnetic switches that are activated by the 5 buttons.

When the players activates the button, one of the two magnetic keys will activate a piston in the controller unit for the row or column selected.

The piston will push a magnetic switch towards the matching magnetic key until it activates.  The magnetic switch is connected to the pistons for all 5 row or column pistons in the “OR” switches that control each motor bolt in the 5x5 grid.  This will activate all 5 magnetic switches for a row or column, which start the matching motor bolts.  Since I am in the development stage, I just have them connected to a 5x5 grid of LED lights.

In this example the 2-way switch is set for row and I am standing on the 2nd button.  You can see that all lights in the 2nd row are lit.

In this example the 2-way switch is set for column and I am standing on the 2nd button. You can see that all lights in the 2nd column are lit.

Eventually, when I add the wheels, I will add the connections that briefly break the connection in the row/column control unit that will turn off the “OR” switch and stop the wheel rotation each 1/4 turn.

The controller units for each row/column are part of a multi-level elevator, with controls, designed by DEFCON01.  I just adapted it for this use.  If you want to see his elevator design, which will be used in this level and my first one when I can edit it again, just search for “DEFCON01 elevator” on YouTube.

Are We There Yeti?...version 2

After much delay, and much video gaming, I finally republished my level.  Taking into account suggestions from fellow game developer Ben, I fixed the problems he encountered, and made some modifications to enhance the level.  One cool thing I was able to do was to make the snowball emitters better. 

He told me that having them just pop out of nowhere was very frustrating and didn't look good.  They needed to look like thery were coming from somewhere.  I found some great looking pipe pieces in my tool set and used those for a location where the snowballs come from.  To make it so it didn't look like they were random pieces of scenery, I added a matching number of pieces and a stone wall at the top of the mountain.  I added a steam enging sound effect and a vent on the stone wall, and VOILA! A snowball machine.  I wanted to use stickers to make an "ACME Snowball Machine" sign, but the letters offered are not in the style I wanted so I just let it go.

There are a few other additions, changes, fixes, and so on.  If Ben wasn't reading this I might mention them, but I don't want to spoil the surprise.