[Project] Cricket Through The Ages (previously "Criquette")
At the most recent 8 hour Super Friendship Arcade jam we were given the theme of Australia. Given my extensive knowledge of the land (koala bears, boomerangs and crocodile wrestlers) I chose to make a game about Cricket.
We developed this game for the millions of cricket fans out there who don't have access to expensive sporting equipment or large open spaces. Cricket can now be played conveniently in your homes, at the office, even in schools.
Every expense was spared in simulating this most cherished sport. From accurate modelling of the cricket paddles, to the facial expressions, even the blades of grass on the field.
Here is a link to to our take on this most belovedly silly game: http://www.callofthevoid.com/Builds/Criquette_July_31_2015.zip
It requires a Windows PC and a keyboard, 2 players and a lifetime of practice. There are just two buttons.
In all seriousness. A few extra hours have been spent on it since the jam. I'd like to work on it a bit further. The game is obviously heavily inspired by Soccer Physics.
Jason Sutherland (@Jaysong) did all the really good sound effects and gave the game the authentic cricket ambience. I added a few other ones that I don't think are quite as good (I put in the "Aaaah"s and the cheering, which don't sound nearly as polite as the clapping, and I think therefore not nearly as funny)
At the moment what I'd like is a bit more content. I think there could be a few more cricket jokes in there. And I'd like to add some more narrative elements. I really enjoyed the drama of Realistic Summer Sports Simulator, representing a country I felt was a lovely touch of gravitas.
I'm not quite sure about the controls. I'm not happy that the bowler and the batsman have different physics models... it feels inelegant. I'm considering adding a few extra actions either before the ball is bowled or afterwards... like the option of a simple run up for the bowler, or maybe the option of hopping forward as the batsman. I do want to keep the rounds really really short though. At the moment there's some times when the ball takes a while to roll off the screen and that's kind of rubbish. The overs aren't that much fun either... I feel like there needs to be more feedback in general, and specifically about the rules.
Please let me know (if you do give it a play) if it is at all confusing!
Someone suggested that there occasionally be a tea break with competitive tea drinking... I think that was an inspired suggestion by a true Englishman (or, I assume, true Australian).
We developed this game for the millions of cricket fans out there who don't have access to expensive sporting equipment or large open spaces. Cricket can now be played conveniently in your homes, at the office, even in schools.
Every expense was spared in simulating this most cherished sport. From accurate modelling of the cricket paddles, to the facial expressions, even the blades of grass on the field.
Here is a link to to our take on this most belovedly silly game: http://www.callofthevoid.com/Builds/Criquette_July_31_2015.zip
It requires a Windows PC and a keyboard, 2 players and a lifetime of practice. There are just two buttons.
In all seriousness. A few extra hours have been spent on it since the jam. I'd like to work on it a bit further. The game is obviously heavily inspired by Soccer Physics.
Jason Sutherland (@Jaysong) did all the really good sound effects and gave the game the authentic cricket ambience. I added a few other ones that I don't think are quite as good (I put in the "Aaaah"s and the cheering, which don't sound nearly as polite as the clapping, and I think therefore not nearly as funny)
At the moment what I'd like is a bit more content. I think there could be a few more cricket jokes in there. And I'd like to add some more narrative elements. I really enjoyed the drama of Realistic Summer Sports Simulator, representing a country I felt was a lovely touch of gravitas.
I'm not quite sure about the controls. I'm not happy that the bowler and the batsman have different physics models... it feels inelegant. I'm considering adding a few extra actions either before the ball is bowled or afterwards... like the option of a simple run up for the bowler, or maybe the option of hopping forward as the batsman. I do want to keep the rounds really really short though. At the moment there's some times when the ball takes a while to roll off the screen and that's kind of rubbish. The overs aren't that much fun either... I feel like there needs to be more feedback in general, and specifically about the rules.
Please let me know (if you do give it a play) if it is at all confusing!
Someone suggested that there occasionally be a tea break with competitive tea drinking... I think that was an inspired suggestion by a true Englishman (or, I assume, true Australian).
Thanked by 1Elyaradine
Comments
The only crit is that there needs to be more under-arm bowling options. The heavy bowling-ball-type-ball was the only option and it's impossible to smack that thing for a 6!!!!!
The underarm bowling is quite fun... Do you have in mind what cricket-like sports would be funny to represent that bowl underarm? (I mean, actual 10-pin bowling works for underarm bowling, but what else?) Softball? Bowls?
I haven't incorporated most of the great suggestions yet (like tea drinking, rugby balls and random streakers), but I have completely revamped the physics.
Along with Marcelle Marais we've tried to up the fidelity in the art, though we ended up not veering too far away from the original. It was difficult keeping it funny while also adding detail, or at least, certain details, like faces, somehow made the characters more real and so also more cartoonish (and it made it feel more slapstick, which may not necessarily be a bad thing, but it ran against my aesthetic preferences and what I intuitively felt was the right direction even though I can't explain why).
Also, with the help of Jason Sutherland (who was part of the original jam) we've improved the sound effects a bit. The applause might actually be worse (we're really struggling to get the right sounding audience), but there's some extra footstep and collision sounds that make the game feel less dead inside.
It's mostly the same game though. Same rules, it just moves and looks and sounds slightly different.
Here's a build if anyone wants to give feedback!
http://www.callofthevoid.com/Builds/Criquette_New_Physics_1_October_2016.zip
[Edit: Fixed link]
Something I just noticed, probably insignificant - any reason "HEADSHOT" starts on the left and scrolls to the right? If it started on the right and scrolled left, you could start reading the word as it came in, instead of seeing the arse end of the word and then seeing the beginning after some minor confusion :)
Here's a bit of a longer demonstration of the new visuals (no extra work has gone into this). The music is taken from some of the music Jason Sutherland composed for our documentary series.
Here are the windows and mac downloads:
http://www.callofthevoid.com/Builds/Cricket_Through_The_Ages_Windows_13_June_2017.zip
http://www.callofthevoid.com/Builds/Cricket_Through_The_Ages_MacOSX_13_June_2017.zip
I haven't figured out how to do beards yet though.
I tried including noses on the beards.. but it feels worse to me.
Another attempt at getting beards right:
Trying to put a mouth hole in... I'm of two minds about this, it makes me feel a bit like there should be lips on the clean shaven heads, and I don't want to add that extra detail, I think they look more charming faceless.
Maybe a better beard shape:
I bring this up because it really feels like a refinement, like it's Megazurds new form.
(Two other South African games also were selected! Semblance and Sticky Cats!)
There's a lot of new dumb things in the game. Though I by no means am recommending putting dumb things in a game as a way to better one's chances of being accepted into Fantastic Arcade or to further any sensible goal.
Out of interest, where do you see this game fitting in, and was it built specifically to do that?
Like, do you feel it works mainly as a game at festivals and arcade situations (which I think it really does) or do you think it'll have appeal to people buying and playing at home?
I don't know if Cricket can replicate that success. Cricket is a less popular sport than Soccer. 2018 is quite different to 2014 in terms of novelty of physics in games. Cricket Through The Ages is a pretty weird little game, with a ton more content than Soccer Physics had, but that content might be meaningless for this audience. We just don't know. There's far too many variables. But it seems like there was a time in the past where this product would have been successful, and I feel like it could still be true, but I don't know how to verify or disprove that with the resources I have.
Are there examples of recent games on mobile like Cricket Through The Ages (or even like Soccer Physics without them being half-arsed clones of an older mobile release)?
We're not banking on it being a success though. At the moment (until testing proves it a bad idea) we're going to try give it out as a try-before-you-buy title, so a small part of the game is free until players hit some kind of paygate. We think we've got a nice way of doing that, but this monetisation strategy scares me a lot (on top of all the other unknowns).
If it's a big failure it's not going to cripple us though. Just break our hearts a little bit :)
Any more recent builds of this we can try out ?
I reckon there's a pretty big market to tap into who'd absolutely love the game. I still play little master cricket now and then.
Are you planning on releasing this at any point? Or can we expect an update anytime soon? Definitely a game I'd keep an eye on.
It is going to be released (and it feels very frustrating sitting on it). Finally this week we have a meeting this week that should determine it's timeline.
We're happy to announce that Cricket Through the Ages is coming to Apple's new service, Apple Arcade. Here's the trailer: https://twitter.com/Free_Lives/status/1173583654272061440?s=20
Because of Apple stuff, we weren't able to share the news sooner. But here we are. The game is finally coming out!