Tag: escape goat

Escape Goat News

  1. Bruce has delivered some amazing box artwork.  Can’t wait to show this off.
  2. Detecting creatures being squished by the environment is a bug that I thought I had resolved, but reappeared when I started making levels using the ice blocks.  I spent all morning with this nightmare and it’s still unresolved…
  3. Heading out of town this weekend which will include showcasing the game to a new group of friends.
  4. I think I’ve figured out what the story will be.  Until now it’s been pretty vague.

Last Throes of Scope Creep

The bulk of the remaining work on Escape Goat is level design.  Here are the goals:

  1. Player needs to get the first two items within five minutes, making the first region about 3 minutes total.
  2. Player needs to learn the play mechanics for both the goat and the mouse.
  3. There are 18 gadget types.  They all need to be featured in puzzles, but they need to be demonstrated to the player beforehand.  I’m hoping to avoid using text unless there is really no alternative.
  4. Rooms need to provide a range of difficulty, so you don’t have a string of consecutive easy or hard rooms.
  5. Rooms need to provide challenges for both platforming and puzzling.  Platforming levels feature precise timing, and puzzling levels are more low-key and can be slower paced.

The current state of the game is a random collection of rooms that need to be placed in order.  I added a cut-and-paste feature in my editor, so it’s easy to move rooms around, even from one level to another.

A couple days ago I came up with new gadget ideas.  I allowed myself an hour this morning to program the first one: a floating bubble that keeps inertia and gets pushed to the edge of the wall.  I figured it could be used to make Sokoban-style puzzles where you have to pick the right order and direction of blocks to push.

I got it working, then put together a level featuring the new gadget, and then decided it’s best to scrap it.  The game doesn’t need more gadgets.  A new feature means something else I have to train the player on.  And with 18 working gadgets already, there are endless combinations I can use.

I’m glad I took the time to explore it, because maybe it would have been groundbreaking and awesome–you never know with these things.  And it was only an hour.  I’m also glad I’m willing to let it go.  And after this exercise, I really know now that nothing more needs to be added.

Escape Goat Quick Progress Update

We’re getting there.  What’s left?

  1. Level design for most of the second half of the game
  2. Complete versions of songs
  3. Final sound effects
  4. A bug that kills the player in certain weird but unexpected circumstances…can’t have that
  5. Editor tweaks
  6. (The ability to share levels? We’ll see how this one works)
Need something to tie you over?

In Need of Restrictions

The word “paradise” is derived from the Avestan word for “enclosure.”

This fun fact enters my mind every so often on a project.  With modern technology, just about anything is possible, and I don’t usually notice at first the cost of all of this possibility.

Today’s case was writing music for Escape Goat.  I used Impulse Tracker to compose the score for Soulcaster I and II, and since then I’ve moved into Renoise.  It has higher sound quality, runs in Windows, and can load most VST instruments and effects–something I haven’t had access to until now.  And I’m blown away, you MIDI sequencing folks have had it made for years–dozens, hundreds of free virtual instruments and effects.  Many of them sound as good or better than hardware I paid dearly for ten years ago.   Can you believe this is a free instrument?  Listen to that quality.

I went on a spree grabbing as many free 80’s style synths and effects that I could find.  I came away with about 20 instruments, at least 10 of which were of excellent quality.  I could score the whole game with just one of these.  The GTG-FM, linked in the above video, is just as capable as a Yamaha DX7, an instrument that went for $2000 new back in the 80’s.  And this is just one instrument.  I have in my virtual arsenal a synth collection that would have cost a fortune back then.  Cause for celebration!

The only problem is, I can (and did) spend a whole night just auditioning the built-in sounds on these guys.  They can do such a variety of sounds.  Though I started working on a song, it ended up as a love-fest of synth presets.  Not much work got done on the actual composition itself.  The problem?  Too many great sounds.  The solution?  Force a limitation of them.

It took some time, but I whittled it down to a collection of about 20 instruments and samples I’m going to use as the signature sounds for Escape Goat.  I’m only using 3 of the virtual synths.  This way I’ll spend less time finding the ultimate bass sound and more time writing the song.

The open desert is scary.  Build an enclosure.