[WIP] Brovado - The Gentleman Game

edited in Projects
Hi all,

As promised, our (idle and bl33k's) work in progress project Brovado, has finally left the nest of our protection.

image

You can play the game in browser at: http://brovado.brocadegames.com You either need to be extremely ambidextrous or round up a mate or 2 for this one.

The premise of the game is simple: "Be the first person to reach 4 points by jumping on another players head." There are 4 characters to choose from, and games can consist of any combination of 2, 3 or 4 players. At last nights community event, we asked 4 players to play test it for us and the feedback was pretty positive. My heart dropped when 4 controllers were pulled out of a bag and we never tested it with 4 controllers. Luckily it worked!

There are a couple of things we still need to work out. The main ones being the scoring system as its still aimed at 2 players, as well as the intro screen needs Idles artistic magic. The current scoring works by stomping your way to "advantage". Once on advantage, your next kill wins you the game. If you get killed while on advantage, you drop a score. The player who killed you gains the score.

We dont intend to put much more effort into the game as this was (is) a project to get into game dev and get familiar with the toolsets required to make a game. Any type of feedback is obviously welcome! Mostly though, If you could provide feedback on what we did right and what we did wrong in terms of using Photoshop, Unity and passion to get the game made, would help a lot in making our next game a better one.

Thanks and enjoy!

Credits:
idle (Georg) - Graphics, Animations and game idea.
bl33k (Mike) - Scripting and "game mechanics".
You guys - Most of the feedback you gave us in the first public showing of the game made it into this build.
Screen Shot 2014-03-12 at 2.13.16 PM.png
639 x 480 - 269K

Comments

  • edited
    Hiya, this looks interesting as a first attempt. The social aspect sounds fun as well. Rounding up a mate or 2. In an anonymous multi-player online world... I miss the personal interaction with friends in LAN and split screen games, so this appeals to me. There are not enough games like that.

    However...

    Brovado doesn't sound totally unique though. "Brovado" as in "Broforce"? You're in 2nd place already from a title point of view, locally at least. Although I get the "Bro"therly link.

    Jump on their head? Really? I want them to suck rocket and see their eyes explode (erm okay - I have been playing too many games over the last 20 odd years - and I do have a tendency to get carried away occasionally in red wine fueled forum posts on MGSA...erm)

    Your comment "We don't intend to put much more effort into the game" makes you shoot yourself in both feet immediately. People might therefore not intend to make an effort to even check out your game or provide valuable feedback?

    As harsh as it may sound (sorry, just being honest) and I DO realize this is your first endeavor into making games and this is a prototype.

    I think the MGSA forum audience wants something unique and fresh and real? We want to see the best that our local developers have to offer and that includes you. Even if it is just feedback or acknowledgement you want...

    YOU HAVE GOT TO SELL IT BETTER.

    Word your forum post in such a way that makes us believe that it is enticing and worth our time?

    Otherwise, well done for getting a working prototype up and running.

    So, how do you find Unity? Have you tried any other technologies? What are you plans for "Brovado"? Do you have any other projects in the pipeline? Who did your artwork?


  • Well, re: interesting and unique mechanics - jumping on heads can VERY easily lead to interesting and unique gameplay - it's a limitation, and as such limitations have inherent value in creating diversity (as counter-intuitive as that sounds). Just during the meetup, when we spoke about the game, a great variety of things were mentioned about getting the mechanic to go in different directions.

    Also, the key is engagement - not so much uniqueness. If a game is fun and engaging, most of us wouldn't care two hoots about originality (unless it's a direct clone of something). And as far as I can tell, I can't remember a multiplayer arena jump-on-each-other's-head game. Can you? Mario jumps on Gumbas and Turtles that move predictably. Add in a human target and things go very mad very quickly :)

    I think there's potential in the game to be something very interesting, just takes some exploration, experimentation, nurturing :)

    But yes, selling the game better is a good point, no doubt.

    Oh and multiplayer games are intrinsically difficult to get people to test - I know this cos virtually all my games had been multiplayer XD the best way to get around that is to get some rudimentary AI in, even if they're just randomly moving around...... ok no you'll need a simple AI to at least walk towards/away from the player and try to jump on them. But that's not hard at all - in fact it'll be hard to make one that doesn't win all the time, but give it some thought if you'd like to take it somewhere :)

    Bon voyage :)
  • I'm not saying this to discourage making a game with these mechanics but:
    Tuism said:
    And as far as I can tell, I can't remember a multiplayer arena jump-on-each-other's-head game. Can you?
    Yup, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jump_'n_Bump ;)

    That said, the game did show that the mechanics are really fun (at least for me). There's also always room to expand on some mechanics. Adding powerups, interesting environmental effects (like vents that blow you into the air), differences in characters, etc. etc. So, in my opinion, go for it! I do have to say that I agree with @konman on the point of your name though. I actually like "Bravado" though, as opposed to "Brovado".

    When I started actually making games (as opposed to thinking about making games), I made a Jump 'n Bump clone as an intro to some graphics and input libraries. :)
  • Look, anyone can find *that one game that's just like yours*, and honestly, if your example comes from 1998 and you can't think of any since, then I'd say it's a pretty original start :)
  • Thanks all for the feedback and comments.

    In hindsight I do regret saying that we won't put much more effort into the game. I didn't want to set the expectation that we will be working on this game forever. It had a vision. The vision was to get into making game"S". Finding out what toolset works for us, was a big part of that vision. Also, you cant make a game without "making a game". Hence, the simple mechanic of jumping on someones head. This allowed us to experiment with physics, movement, collision detection, animations and finding the right balance of it all.

    We always had this vision in mind and will always follow other visions of games we are making. At this stage in the process, we dont want to get bogged down by the pressure of producing a game that people will play. As consumers of games for many years, this is our first stab at producing them for others without having the luxury of doing a course, or having guidance from industry professionals. Our only guide is the games we have played :) (in this case it was Mario, Megaman and apparently Jump 'n Bump)

    @konman
    I get your point of making something that people will play. Once we have that game, we will sell it HARD! This I guarantee you.
    So, how do you find Unity? Have you tried any other technologies? What are you plans for "Brovado"? Do you have any other projects in the pipeline? Who did your artwork?
    Unity is working well for us at the moment. The community and online tutorials are big and plentyful. We probably will try out Gamemaker one day, but not at this stage. We have a couple of concepts that we want to try and this community will be the first ones to find out. @Idle did all the art work.

    @Tuism
    Our experimentation, exploration and nurturing will come from the different styles, games and mechanics we can make. Delivering different games until we find the style that compliments both our strengths.
    Oh and multiplayer games are intrinsically difficult to get people to test
    Yes! The next game is a single player game.

    @Ramperkash
    Broforce do the "bro" thing really well and do realize that its a hard act to follow. There are plenty words in the dictionary or urban dictionary that we can use for the next title.

    Overall we have learnt a great deal making this prototype and will continue to make more. If anyone has some feedback on some of the finer details, it will go a long way:

    1) animation (glitches, continuity)
    2) physics (speed, responsiveness)
    3) movement (accuracy)

  • edited
    @Bl33k - nice one guys. Tried it 2 players and had a blast. My crit would be to tweak the player's gravity a bit, as they feel as if they are falling a bit too slow. A faster feel would feel more like a stomp mechanic. Also, more stages would be cool. But, had fun with it :)
  • @FanieG: Thanks for the feedback. I agree with you that it feels more like a gradual fall than a stomp. Will play around with the gravity settings and possibly modify the downward movement of the character, rather than tweaking the gravity. Will see.

    Glad you had a blast though. We often swear at each other during games, and its encouraged as well!
  • We have updated the game with some polish. Mainly fixed up some of the UI (menu and in-game ui). Also tweaked the max score to 5, allowing for slightly longer games. There are also UI hints to show which player is currently on advantage.

    image

    image

    Game can be played online at: http://brovado.brocadegames.com/ (link is still referring to the old name. We decided to go with Bravado instead of Brovado)

    Let us know what you think of the new UI elements.

    Thanks and enjoy!
    Screen Shot 2014-03-25 at 3.45.17 PM.png
    493 x 439 - 45K
    Screen Shot 2014-03-25 at 3.45.33 PM.png
    666 x 497 - 273K
    Thanked by 1Bensonance
Sign In or Register to comment.