iDevGames

Gamasutra has posted a postmortem for Freeverse’s game Top Gun. The game was created by uDevGames’ alumni Justin Ficarrotta.

Freeverse designer and programmer Justin Ficarrotta recounts what went right and what went wrong with the development of the iPhone game Top Gun — particularly focusing on how fans should always be in mind when working on a licensed game.

Justin Ficarrotta is a longtime iDevGames member who has created spectacular winning iDevGames contest entries such as Laserface Jones, ARACHNOID: Predator of Worlds, and Kill Dr. Cote.

Related Link: Gamasutra: Top Gun Postmortem

Rosetta Stone, the company known for their foreign language learning software, is sponsoring a game programming contest. The Contest begins on July 17, 2009, and ends on July 19, 2009. All applications to participate in the Contest must be received by Rosetta Stone no later than 5pm (Eastern Time) on July 1, 2009. This event will be held at Rosetta Stone’s location in Harrisonburg, VA from July 17th – 19th, 2009. You must apply by July 1st to be considered for the competition. The prizes are:

• 1st Prize: Macbook Pro with 30 inch cinema display, three levels of Rosetta Stone Software and your game published on a Rosetta Stone webpage
• 2nd Prize: $500 and three levels of Rosetta Stone Software.

Gamers must be or have a team with at least one programmer with game development programming experience using either Flash, XNA, OpenGL, PyGame, etc. You will be asked to provide an example of past creations of any form or level in order to qualify. Teams may include up to four members. All team members must be 18 years of age or over to participate, or be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian at all times during their participation.

Related Links:

• Rosetta Stone Summer Game Jam Rules
• uDevGames – The Mac Game Development Contest

Dysentery Over a Cup of Coffee

Overall, I am quite happy with the quality of the game I produced for the uDevGames 2008 Contest, despite the emergence of some unfixed bugs and a game not as feature — complete as I would have preferred. I entered the contest rather late compared to almost everyone else, and without pre-existing code or a clear idea of what kind of game I was going to make. My co-conspirator and I essentially threw together the idea and basic logic for Simoebic Dysentery over a cup of coffee at the beginning of January, finished asset development by the beginning of February, and I had a working beta built by the end of the contest by the beginning of March. Built essentially in my free time, I feel that the game would have been coded better and had more features had I been able to devote more time to its development.
Read the rest of this entry »

Taking Advice From a Veteran Programmer

When I read that uDevGames was happening again this year, I got excited. I had just read an interview with a successful casual games developer about how he achieved his success. It gave me some ideas, and one of them blossomed into GnomeSpy.

Following the advice in Justin Ficarrotta’s article on A uDevGames 2008 Survival Guide , I wrote up a prototype using Cocoa through Xcode. I play-tested GnomeSpy internally until the gameplay reached a certain level of fun, then released the prototype to iDevGames’ forum members. Along with play-testing by friends and family, this provided an invaluable resource for determining reasonable completion times for the basic six-color game.
Read the rest of this entry »

Avoid All Contact

The game I chose to work on for the 2008 uDevGames contest was one I’d had in my design notebook for awhile. I picked it because of its simple gameplay and simple graphics, making it something I felt was doable by the contest deadline.

The game idea involved maneuvering through levels of narrow, twisty passages, filled with static, animated and/or free-floating obstacles while trying to avoid contact with almost everything. Controlling your avatar would be accomplished by simply dragging it with the mouse, and gameplay would be at a methodical but hurried pace.
Read the rest of this entry »

Overview

I have always loved strategy games of all types. Unfortunately, I find most computer strategy games to be very long and involved and difficult to sit down and play in one sitting. Board games are great, but finding enough players is always a challenge. I’ve noticed a distinct lack of good, short, turn-based strategy games for the computer — most of them seem to be cheaply made knock-offs of table top board games.

There are a few exceptions to this. One of them is a very old, very obscure game that I had as a kid and missed playing. Constellation is a game that I wrote for myself because I wanted to play that game again. That other people have enjoyed it, and that it has won second place in the uDevGames 2008 Contest is icing on the cake.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Creative Itch Begins

It was the spring of 2008, and I hadn’t finished anything in a year. I was still easing into college, so I was very busy, but I missed game development. Even though iDevGames hadn’t run a contest in some time, I decided to create a game design to put on file just to satisfy my creative itch. I thought about games during my twenty minute walk to class one day and came up with the modular ship concept — I became very excited and drew a quick mockup:
Read the rest of this entry »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT:
Carlos Camacho
iDevGames.com
http://www.udevgames.com

uDevGames 2008 Winners Announced, “Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious” Wins Best Overall

Vernon Connecticut, March 16, 2009 — iDevGames announces the winners of the uDevGames 2008 Contest. uDevGames is a Mac game development contest that requires teams to create a Mac game in just three months. The contest began on December 2, 2008 and features 20 games by Mac developers from around the globe.

“Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious” by Justin Ficarrotta was announced as the winner of ‘Best Overall Game.’ This category was chosen by public voting (including participating developers) which ended on March 12, 2009. Developers also scored games in six additional categories: Gameplay, Graphics, Audio, Story, Presentation and Originality. The winners will divide a prize pool of over $20,000 donated by the sponsors of uDevGames 2008.

“I’m completely psyched. The last three months have been a rollercoaster, but uDevGames 2008 has been a really amazing experience. There’s something about the pressure of the deadline and tangling with scores of other talented developers that gets the brain juice flowing, and motivates me to create things that may otherwise have never existed. My career kicked off from uDevGames 2004, so it was a pleasure to be able to come back and compete again. Big thanks go out to Ben, Dan, Bruce and Steve who all provided awesome content for the game, Carlos and the uDevGames volunteers, fellow developers for making me sweat for it, and to all the friends, family and Mac gamers who played and voted for Laserface Jones, and spread the word!” said Justin Ficarrotta, winner of Best Overall Game of uDevGames 2008.
Read the rest of this entry »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT:
Carlos Camacho
iDevGames.com

http://www.udevgames.com

uDevGames 2008 Voting Period Begins Featuring 20 Free Games

Vernon Connecticut, March 6, 2009 — iDevGames invites Mac gamers to take part in a public vote to help select the winners for the uDevGames 2008 Contest. uDevGames is a Mac game development contest that requires teams to create a Mac game in just three months. The contest kicked off on December 2, 2008 and features 20 games by Mac developers from around the globe.

The 20 game entries will be subject to public and peer voting, ending on March 12. Entries will be scored by the public (including participating developers) for “Best Overall Game.” Developers will also score games in six additional categories: Gameplay, Graphics, Audio, Story, Presentation and Originality. The winners will be announced on March 16 and will divide a prize pool of over $20,000 donated by the sponsors of uDevGames 2008.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Mac Gamer has posted an interview with our editor, Carlos Camacho, about the uDevGames contest. Read the full interview at The Mac Gamer (and digg it).