[Project] Cricket Through The Ages (previously "Criquette")

edited in Projects
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.

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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.

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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

  • 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).
    The English side should drink tea while the Australian side drinks beer. Then they belch at the end.
    Thanked by 1EvanGreenwood
  • This is freakin' hilarious. The realism is unbelievable :) Played a couple of matches with the Mrs. and really had a good "lag". What happens when the Aussies win? For some reason England took each match, so we only saw the "you got knighted" part. This game should totally get licensed. I mean the player likeness in uncanny.

    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!!!!!
    Thanked by 1EvanGreenwood
  • edited
    Fuck, I hadn't thought about having a different ending for different teams... I assumed that cricket captains always got knighted after winning a big cricket match, regardless of nationality.

    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?
  • edited
    Rugby ball? The shape would lend it to some more physics hilarity. And Australians do like Rugby.
  • edited
    A much delayed update to Criquette!

    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.

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    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.

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    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]
  • hahahahaha.. brilliant.
  • @EvanGreenwood I'm getting a 404 error on that link - or is that part of the parody? D: Is this some sort of internet application of the Duckworth Lewis method?
    Thanked by 1EvanGreenwood
  • Fixed the link now! Thanks for pointing that out @Bensonance !
  • The new look is interesting, looks like paper cutouts :)

    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 :)
    Thanked by 1critic
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    @Tuism Yeah, I think the legibility of the text could be improved. Left to Right worked with short texts (like "4") but for longer strings it isn't the correct solution.

    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.

    Thanked by 1floksie
  • edited
    I've been working on a bit of a demake of Criquette, it's rougher than the last Criquette prototype, it's missing much of the polish and the batting coordination, but it's got a bit of extra content in it.

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    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
  • That's very nice, now I'm imagining pen-1Ses doing that.
  • Awesome to see! We're planning the next SFA - this has to be in the lineup!
  • Been doing some work on the art style:

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    I haven't figured out how to do beards yet though.
    Thanked by 1critic
  • edited
    An attempt at beards (on the left)

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    I tried including noses on the beards.. but it feels worse to me.
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    Another attempt at getting beards right:
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    Thanked by 2francoisvn critic
  • Nice! AFAICT the only difference is the shape of the beard near the nose area. Between those I feel the 1st option is the best, but if you really wanna tweak things I'd adjust the left side of the beard so it starts slightly lower (cause the rest is wrapping around the back of the head).
    Thanked by 1EvanGreenwood
  • Maybe leave some space where the mouth is supposed to be... Or is it too much detail? It would also necessarily imply a mustache.
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    Thanked by 1EvanGreenwood
  • edited
    Thanks for the feedback!

    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.

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    Maybe a better beard shape:
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    Thanked by 2bevis NickCuthbert
  • I don't feel the mouth holes beg lips from the shaven heads. Just like the laser age and apocalypse age faces don't beg eyes from the others. There's enough coherency for me.
    Thanked by 1EvanGreenwood
  • We've been working on some new gameplay and some new graphics... Here's a couple gifs (they are a bit rough in both gameplay and graphics still)

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  • I think this is pretty rad and has a huge potential to get some YouTube/Twitch play through opportunity. I'm sure the people will love playing this and watch other people play this! Just looking at the GIF's are entertaining XD. Looks really fun and funny!
    Thanked by 1EvanGreenwood
  • @EvanGreenwood Are you using Unity to make this? Is there any chance I can get a Linux build? I could test it out and let you know if it works. Haven't played this in quite a while :)
    Thanked by 1EvanGreenwood
  • This really reminds me of Megazurds (sorry, I am sure I spelt that horribly).
    I bring this up because it really feels like a refinement, like it's Megazurds new form.
    Thanked by 1EvanGreenwood
  • @Denzil , At the end of this week we might have a build worth testing. We broke apart the game and built it back from scratch, and that's resulted in some of the content still being missing (which we're working on) and a lot of little changes which may be improvements or may deteriorations (which we could really use feedback on).
    Thanked by 1Denzil
  • edited
    Cricket Through The Ages got accepted into the Fantastic Arcade spotlight! (One of 10 games specially highlighted at Fantastic Arcade, alongside Spelunky 2 and Samurai Gunn 2).

    (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.

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  • Congrats!
    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?
  • We're hoping it has some appeal on mobile, kind of like how Soccer Physics was popular for a while in 2014 (it made the rounds for a while on youtube, and it got a significant number of sales). Eventually Soccer Physics got taken off the Appstore (along with his other games, like Wrestle Jump and Tug The Table, both which were very popular) but not before spawning a horde of free-to-play clones.

    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 :)
  • I tried this game out when you were in JHB for the get together at Microsoft last month and it was great fun.

    Any more recent builds of this we can try out ?
    Thanked by 1Fengol
  • https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/software/india-among-top-5-markets-for-mobile-gaming/articleshow/65396386.cms

    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.
  • I love this. It has that playable-at-a-braai-with-mates feel to it :D

    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.
  • We've been sitting on it for a while. We are planning on launching it on mobile, and that has meant doing a lot of localization. We're also chatting to publishers and platform holders, and that's been holding it up :(

    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.

  • Hey everybody,

    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!
  • High fives @mmillions_ and team! So stoked for you!
  • Super cool! Congrats guys! <3
  • Grats to the team!!!
  • Can we get a Free Lives youtube video about the team and launch? Its so great to watch the produced videos of you all!!! Live Streams are awesome too but I miss the house, dog and dev environment home away from home.
    Thanked by 1BenJets
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