Prototype: Super Wolfenstein HD (with realistic physics)
This last weekend a couple of us made a game for the PewDiePie jam.
The team was:
Jarred Lunt (Art)
Evan Greenwood (Programming)
Ruan Rothmann (Programming)
Kevin Gibson (Sounds and Music)
The prototype was made to test out a couple of ideas:
- Whether we could pull off sculpted art in a jam. (It was hella time-consuming, and we didn't make use of lighting to it's full potential)
- Whether ragdoll physics on enemies in a FPS game would be fun. (It turned out to be tricky to make them do anything.)
- Whether using Wolfenstein 3D as a contextual framework would add value. (We could have made the Wolfenstein 3D connection a bit more apparent)
- Whether recording broken German voices would be funny. (Yes, especially when those Germans are actually dogs)
Ultimately we're really happy with the results. It's a mixed bag, and I wish we'd had more time (maybe this should have been a 7DFPS project instead).
Though we'd really love some more feedback. Particularly about the ideas we were testing out, or unpleasant bugs.
You can download the game from here (it only takes five minutes or so to beat):
http://jams.gamejolt.io/indiesvspewdiepie/games/super-wolfenstein-hd-now-with-realistic-physics/39194
Please consider voting for it. It would REALLY help us.
The team was:
Jarred Lunt (Art)
Evan Greenwood (Programming)
Ruan Rothmann (Programming)
Kevin Gibson (Sounds and Music)
The prototype was made to test out a couple of ideas:
- Whether we could pull off sculpted art in a jam. (It was hella time-consuming, and we didn't make use of lighting to it's full potential)
- Whether ragdoll physics on enemies in a FPS game would be fun. (It turned out to be tricky to make them do anything.)
- Whether using Wolfenstein 3D as a contextual framework would add value. (We could have made the Wolfenstein 3D connection a bit more apparent)
- Whether recording broken German voices would be funny. (Yes, especially when those Germans are actually dogs)
Ultimately we're really happy with the results. It's a mixed bag, and I wish we'd had more time (maybe this should have been a 7DFPS project instead).
Though we'd really love some more feedback. Particularly about the ideas we were testing out, or unpleasant bugs.
You can download the game from here (it only takes five minutes or so to beat):
http://jams.gamejolt.io/indiesvspewdiepie/games/super-wolfenstein-hd-now-with-realistic-physics/39194
Please consider voting for it. It would REALLY help us.
Comments
So your support really helps! (and that it's honest support is even better)
My mistake was to leave the level creation to the end, and I had made some assumptions about what would be fun that were proven wrong as soon as we played the levels (which was unfortunately at the point that the jam ended). The lesson being that testing the interactions on their own doesn't give you enough information to guess how enjoyable the experience will be once all those interactions are strung together (unless you understand what you're doing better than I did what I was doing).
The rating on the Gamejolt page itself (with the download link) doesn't count towards the competition.
Love, RetroEpic.
Well done!
http://gfycat.com/MixedSpotlessBluefish
It's SO DAMN GOOD! I can't believe how much you managed to cram into this. And you're right the level design is the weakest of the lot, but that barely matters.
I can see it's probably an optimisation nightmare, with physics and all those other bits all intertwined?
I quickly learned that the only way to permanently disable a nazi is to shoot their gun. Made me feel like John Wayne.
Do they actually walk according to physics or do they kinda have a floaty body with feet that pedaled a bit?
In any case IT'S SO GOOD :D You got all my votes forever :D
Also amazed at all the work they managed to do for this. I think we're going to need a post mortem.
http://www.reddit.com/r/GamePhysics/comments/2noxh9/the_super_wolfenstein_hd_guards_are_a_bit_of_a/
I can't tell if they're angry at our fake German or not! XD
@Tuism Yeah, the level design could be better still. When you say the level design is the weakest, are you referring to the most updated version, or the original jam version? What do you think it could use more of? And which bits in your opinion do work? (if any)
@Gibbo lol, weird seeing youtubers beating PewDiePie to the punch in his own jam : ) (Though I think that's because they found out about the game through following us due to Broforce)
>>>>CAPS Lock disengaged.
Gibbo did all the German voices for our game. He seemed quite experienced in German to me.
Unless you're saying that "Oktoberfest" isn't really a common German greeting?
:P
Nor German.
It's Swedish, probably?
@Blackshipsfillthesky well it was all very flat, and didn't seem to give you much space to get used to what the enemies were doing. The initial reactions felt like confusion confusion confusion, though if that's what you're going for then you got it exactly right :P
I only played the original though - I saw the post-jam had made changes. The shovel is a great touch.
Though also if it was meant to be very familar to the original flatness of original Wolfenstein, then sure, yeah, I can see that as the reason.
I do like the hint for hidden stuff - broken walls. Before the shovel though I couldn't really get to them without trying and then losing all my knives somehow and being depressed about it.
Oh one more bit of feedback, I feel like the Nazis needed to give a bit more feedback as to your interaction with them - do they stay dead? Are they dead? When do they stay dead? It was pretty uncertain and it just felt like a dice throw whether they would just stand up and shoot you in the back after you pommeled them... Which was what those Swedes ended up doing. Just pommelling them, then edge away with paranoia... Which would get old after a few encounters. If they're supposed to be zombies then they need some kind of visual connection to that too so I can kinda expect them to come back. Or something. It's just feeling too random at the moment.
Yeah, all those things we'd like to fix.
Except for the flat levels (unless we can think of a mechanic that needs vertical height differences to be fun). And I'm not sure I want to try make enemies walk up stairs : P (And at the moment I'm quite happy with not looking like a modern FPS given the source material)
In the more recent version losing knives while digging shouldn't be an issue (or at least much more rarely) ?
I agree that there's poor feedback for when an enemy is down, vs the enemy being dead, is important (and there's also an opportunity there for some funny facial expressions).
Anyways, the results are out! Sadly, while Super Wolfenstein HD had the 5th highest average score, for some reason they worked in some sort of 'weighted average' based on gods-knows-what (it can't be views or number of votes since we had higher than most of the winners) which pushed the game down to #41 in the list of 800 games
http://jams.gamejolt.io/indiesvspewdiepie/games
More Let's Plays:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsX5AA6i3mw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSwV7ql8YaA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3VkJ6bKXLY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEvZUkUQJoc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZc5aUCzdvg
I think I know how I'm going to be using (at least some of) my christmas holiday : )
(I wouldn't exactly count on PewDiePie playing our game now, he's got all of the games in the world to choose from, and he's only obligated to play the top 10 from this jam... though that's not saying he'd never play it if SWHD realized a bit more of its potential, and the fact that it came out of this jam might make it much easier to catch his attention in the future)
Can't really think of a better way to get around stacking the votes or creating fake accounts, cool that they took the time to explain the system and some interesting learnings!
http://killscreendaily.com/articles/super-wolfenstein-3d/
@Nitrogen That video you made really got a TON of traction. Thanks again.
http://www.pcgamer.com/super-wolfenstein-hd-adds-physics-to-the-fps-classic/
I'm not really sure what all this coverage means... We received a similar amount of press when Broforce was announced (after a bit more work than this, but with a much less experienced team). Obviously it could be a case that the gimmick of Super Wolfenstein is really strong, while the potential might not be... but it seems like the game:
A ) Works well in a gif/video.
B ) The concept compresses well.
C ) Provides a fair amount of enjoyment for the 15 minutes that it lasts.
D ) Conveys pretty easily what the game is about and what players should expect.
Which are all things I look for in a potential game project.
Though, when compared to Broforce, it doesn't illicit the same passion that Broforce did. Super Wolfenstein might be more spreadable (or at least as spreadable), but doesn't seem to be quite as enjoyable nor have as strong nostalgic ties.
I guess the next step is testing if the game can be enjoyable for more than 15 minutes. We need to expand the content/mechanics a bit and test the reception for a deeper Super Wolfenstein.
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https://soundcloud.com/mexicanopiumdog/super-wolfenstein-hd-homage
felt inspired!
It's currently the second highest rated game on Gamejolt :) http://gamejolt.com/games/best/
(It'll certainly slip further down in time, but it was still pretty awesome to be up there)
@Mexicanopiumdog That homage is really stupidly great! :)
Are you guys not worried about copyright/trademark violation from id and their associated damage claims?
Broforce awesomely straddles the line with the US Parody laws but I am not sure if this will fall under the same?
@bischonator - it should be okay for the gamejam as a not-for-profit parody, but would imagine if we were to take it further we'd need Lex's advice.