Here Be Dragons
Our offering for TOJam 3 was a sea monster game where players have to eat as many sailors as possible to fill up the monster’s stomach. The game was created from scratch in a single weekend using a copy of Flash, a stylus pen, and approximately eight litres of caffeinated PepsiCo products.
Pepsi: Keeping developers awake since 3AM
TOJam is an excellent event where game designers can experiment and try their wildest ideas out on a game-savvy group of like-minded … well, nerds. They’re all complete nerds. But nerds are great at giving each other constructive feedback. Many participants enjoyed the theme of Here Be Dragons, and were strangely mesmerized by the movement of the sea monster’s segmented neck. Many were frustrated by the game’s controls, and did not immediately understand how to play.
Poetry. Truly a lost art.
The poetry bookending the game was a wasted effort; TOJam games need to be visceral and fast-paced if they want to stand out from the crowd. We learned a valuable lesson in developing games for audiences with short attention spans – gamers who seek fun game mechanics and fast, cheap thrills. This is the audience many Flash developers must cater to in a crowded online gaming marketplace.
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I liked the poetry!
Nice work.
it’s a really nice game i like it very much. i wish it could have more levels.
Thanks! We’re thinking of re-visiting it. If you have any ideas for improving it, hit the Here Be Dragons forum on the boards and let us know.
Poetry …….. >_<
The monsters segmented neck is pretty cool. just curious to know art assets aside just how long did it take to program that .
" a valuable lesson in developing games for audiences with short attention spans – gamers who seek fun game mechanics and fast, cheap thrills. This is the audience many Flash developers must cater to in a crowded online gaming marketplace. " true dat \m/
Aditya – the segmented neck math was heavily borrowed, i admit. i’m not a great hand at math. The entire game was predicated on that neck. Here’s a making-of post with more details:
http://www.untoldentertainment.com/blog/2008/05/12/veni-vidi-video-game/
Nice man the head look at is pretty neat. its fun mechanics like these that makes for an addictive game.
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I enjoyed it. Would like it better if it wasn’t frantic mouse-clicking, and you could use a keyboard button instead (to hurt less?) Chewing hurts. XD I think something to eat that brings the stomach acid down (it’s good for the sea-monster) would be nice too, to give players a little more time. I had a bit of problem with object detection, I think… on some of the sailors IN the boats… (or maybe, it’s REALLY specific?) I wasn’t able to eat a single ship on my second run (when I realized it was an option).
I also enjoyed the poetry!
Thanks! This one didn’t really resonate with people, so i’m not sure if i’ll ever re-visit it. i thought at the very least, it might be interesting to replace all the assets with clay.