TEAM

Lenny Smith Code, project management
Eero Salmi Code
Luca Virjo Code
Juhani Nevala Art
Aatu Seppänen Art
Edgars Zinovjevs Music

 

DEVELOPMENT

Being already a battle-worn veteran in the world of competitive shooter games, Eero suggested that we make a first-person shooting gallery as our first week prototype. After the initial shock of hearing each others voices for the first time over Discord, we started cooking up some hot ideas and eventually decided to go for the cyberpunk theme. While not taking the project itself too seriously, the end result made the whole team proud.

Next few weeks passed, prototypes were made, sleep rhythms were disturbed, levels of sanity were questioned and everybody was having generally a good time. We now had the chance to dedicate the next 4 weeks into a bigger project. Eero – having already emotionally invested into Punk Buster 2069 – pitched the idea of trying to finish the project into a more fleshed out version. Riding his neverending love and enthusiasm for Spas 12-shotgun, the team managed to dish out a decent game.

The core gameplay revolves around shooting stationary enemies that shoot you back and drop health or ammo pick ups. You have 3 different weapons and 3 different maps to choose from. The game ends once you clear the level or you lose all your health. The game calculates your clear time and accuracy percentage.

 

 

Realizing our ideas into a functioning game was a rather streamlined process. Everybody had their own set of things they were expected to deliver. We did implementations and testing piece by piece to ensure functionality and progress on the project.

There were many first-timers in the team, so listing what we learned is a bit of a stretch. Instead, let it be mentioned that the whole team got a solid experience of game development in its core. All of us worked hard and we put in our best effort to have a game we can present to others while holding our heads high.

Fansu’s Sound Design POV

The introduction: Fansu

My name is Fansu Janneh and this was my second year in GameCamp. This time I wanted to focus on one bigger game rather than multiple small ones.

CavernaWare was in need for SFX’s & Music with a splendid game idea so I reached out to them and poof, the next thing I know, I was provided with a plethora of different interesting ideas they’ve been thinking to fit the game.

I was so excited to be working with such passionate people I decided that I’ll try to focus on the transparent communication with Team CavernaWare to ensure that the vision they have for the game is met in the world of sound design.

Because of the global epidemic I just had this “small” drawback — This whole project is to be done remotely.

 

The introduction: Allan

 

Hi, my name is Allan Castellanos, and it is my first time at the game academy. My dream of learning how to implement music and sound effects in video games started this summer! Downloading and installing many gigabytes of new software, watching, and following audio tutorials were just the beginning of this new adventure.

A team was looking for a solid audio person, and I quickly became very interested in the game because of the game idea and the atmosphere they wanted to create “magic and fantasy”. After the first meeting via Discord, I got a list of sounds that may be necessary in the game and what kind of music could be good for the game. My idea for the music was to create something that sounds magical and deep and a little bit retro. So, I decided to give a try to my modular and play some random chords. For the foil sounds, I asked a friend if we I could use his studio because he has a collection of “weird” instruments, so I could try to create unique sounds, the recording was mainly inside a closet filled with blankets. In the end we got a great collection of sounds with great quality that my team could use.

The plan

I decided that the best way to ensure transparent communication is to combine both audio as well as visual ways to convey my thought process.

I made mind maps to show my demos step-by-step to the group members through discord, tested the demos with my friends and asked a few questions like: ” what kind of game do you think this kind of music fits?” or “What era of time do you think the game is set?”

I asked for any concept art or background story from the devs, because even if it’s never gonna be in the game itself it helps me set the mood and the feeling through the songs.

I like to think music can tell the unheard story of the game and music has a nice meta-level to it’s storytelling — The story it tells might be different among the listeners.

 

A simple flowchart of the way the music reacts to combat and non-combat stuff with loopand transition regions falsely named as parameters 💩.

The process

Music:

The common theme of the game was this medieval fantasy world that doesn’t take it self too seriously but also doesn’t sell itself too short.

I wanted to compose something that has a grandiloquent or pompous feel to it, but still fun and playful full of clichés.

The “grandeur” of the songs came from the orchestral instruments. Spitfire Audio, world renown provider of epic orchestral tools, gave BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover for free and most of the orchestral elements were made with that.

I also used a free harp vst to create some feel of wonder to it. Sampling was a big part of making things swing in the songs as well.

For battlescenes I layered orchestral, arcade synths and rock riffs and synthetic percussion to create contrast and to tell the player this is still “just” a medieval-hack’n’slash-stylized-zombie with playful earworms and “what nots”.

 

SFX:

I don’t want to make this blogpost too long so I’ll try to keep the explanation at minimum.

The vision was to use mostly organic voices with some magical synthetic sounds here and there. I asked for some animations in video format, put them into ableton and made sfx while using the video as a reference to trigger attacks n’ tails of different sound layers frame accurately.

I used own sounds, stocks and synths, layered different stuff and experimented like crazy with different effects like Valhalla Supermassive (It’s free, amazing and you should go get it now!)

 

Menu screen theme was to be more like a lullaby:
a sad/hopeful orchestral composition.

The adaptiveness

FMOD is something I don’t have too much knowledge about as I mostly do music and sfx’s and the only time I ever have the chance to do dynamic transitions in music is to games here in game camp.

Here’s a graph that explains a bit of what I did:

The end

To wrap things up I had so much fun and I would come here again again to expand my knowledge if only that were possible.

I’m quite sure these gamecamps where the highlight of my school years cause I got to be as creative and childish I wanted to be, doing the things I enjoy.

 

 

Modest Snakes 

Tommi Mäkeläinen: Programming, Level Design
Pasi Mäkitalo: Programming
Eetu Tirkkonen: Audio
Aino Kauranen: Art, Modelling
Roni Kähäri: Art, Modelling

https://modest-snakes.itch.io/nox-anima

 

Game Idea

Nox Anima is a Metroidvania-style platformer where you travel and fight your way through a ruined castle infested with evil spirits.

When we began to brainstorm game ideas for this year’s GameCamp, the idea of making a Metroidvania-style game came up early in the conversation. Some of the members had worked on a similar project before, so the genre seemed familiar enough to not be intimidating, but also complex enough to have room for challenge and learning.

We were inspired by games like Castlevania, Bloodstained, and Hollow Knight, both in terms of gameplay and overall atmosphere. For the setting we landed on a cursed castle that has been taken over by nature, while our protagonist ended up being a female knight with a magical sword. The game would have 3D graphics that were neither entirely realistic or entirely cartoony, but rather something in between.

Our aim was to have the gameplay consist mostly of platforming, with some simple enemies roaming the environments. The combat would only have basic attacks: no combos, items, or leveling. This decision allowed us to focus on polishing the movement and overall feel of the character, making the platforming more fun. In the final version the character has various movement abilities, such as dashing and double jumping.

Development

While game development is bound to always have difficulties and no team is perfect, the development of Nox Anima ended up going mostly painlessly. We had online meetings twice a week, where we would discuss what each member had worked on and what they would work on next, and although some weeks were slower than others, we ultimately managed to finish most of the work we had planned to do. Whenever a problem arose, it would be solved as soon and efficiently as possible.

Both of the team artists wished to practice their 3D skills, specifically the high to low poly -workflow,  and as such it was easy to decide on art style and split the work between the two. As they both used the same softwares to create the models and textures, it was easy to share tips when needed. We decided to use ready animations from Mixamo for the humanoid characters to save some time. The programming work was divided in different areas of gameplay and then assigned to each programmer, but the programmers often co-operated to help each other out and tie the gameplay elements together.

The team learned many lessons during the game’s development. With 3D assets and using multiple different programs it is good to rather over- than underestimate the time you’re going to spend, as unexpected problems might (and very often do) arise. This wasn’t unfamiliar to the programmers too as they spent a lot of time just figuring out why something didn’t work as expected. Making a platformer game, there are so many moving things and states, not to mention inputs, for every frame that it’s inevitable to encounter major problems. Making code handling and execution more logical and organized structure would help prevent the similar challenges in the future. We also gained many new practical skills from using new programs, methods and technologies, such as Unity’s shader graph, 3D sculpting, particle effects, fmod, and save system coding.

Overall our team worked very hard to polish the game and we managed to make it finished in the way we wanted. We are satisfied with Nox Anima and all the work that went into creating it.

Download our game here:

https://modest-snakes.itch.io/nox-anima

Team KittyPup

Eppu Syyrakki – programmer
Terhi Salonen – programmer
Frida Brander – graphic designer
Janika Keskitalo – graphic designer
Allan Castellanos – audio design

Game Idea

Concept: Small-scale platformer of a tiny sandman in a big room fighting shadows.

When we started thinking about what we would like to make as our bigger project we discussed the types of games that we enjoyed and what ideas could be easily formed into something bigger slowly and steadily. The first thought was of a sandman or a child fighting ghosts in the closet, and how we could create that into a platformer of some kind. Slowly the idea developed into a small sandman who could fight off little ghosts and the bogeyman “Maere”. As our inspiration we saw Little Nightmares and Limbo. We found that this idea gave us a lot of opportunities to go free in our thoughts.

Game Development

Night of the Maere was developed it the timespan of six weeks, with a team of newbies. Prior to this project we had worked on together for about four weeks, except for Allan, who joined the team during Night of the Maere project. These are our testimonies regarding the development.

 

 

Frida (Background props and graphics)

As a 2D artist it was a good thing our team started with games that required 2D graphics. After couple games we decided to develop our first 3D game. For my surprise it was not that difficult to switch from 2D to 3D graphics. Our team had a very good coordination and every game was delivered on time.

Regarding Maere, creating the background props and graphics was enjoyable yet sometimes challenging. Having no experience with unity beforehand, it took me couple hours of trial and error, and some help from my other team members before everything started to go on smoothly. With our lovely team working together it was no challenge to put together an aesthetic atmosphere that would work with the game.

 

Janika (Character design and graphics)

I hopped onto a team as an artist and we made simple games for the first month, trying out 2D and 3D graphics. It was quite fun learning new programs and ways of working as I had never made games myself before! I appreciated the Discord group and the help channels whenever I ran into problems, most being very simple mistakes, and easily fixed. The support was also great from my teammates during the progress. I enjoyed picking up on ideas each week to do sketching always traditionally in my sketchbook and then hopping to digital media to make some mock-ups and then further go through with the designs.

 

Eppu (Character and level development and scripting)

My strength in the team turned out to be some pre-knowledge of how Unity works. I had followed a few tutorial projects by myself, so at the start I concentrated my efforts to creating a system for character movement in the game. This turned out to be easier said than done, since I delved a little too deep into state machines and discovered that the Unity animator is a state machine in itself, and that it would be relatively easy to repurpose the machine to work as a character controller. It was, but as we started to add actual animations to characters, using one controller for abstract character states and another for animations turned out to be a real mind twister, especially so since the animations and states didn’t match 1:1. I ended up trashing most of the original 2-machine system and incorporating most of the original player state machine behaviours directly into the actual animation controller. The end result was something between a state-machine and a bunch of if-statements.

For example, the player can deploy a light that is done completely outside the state machine, since the light needed to stay on if the character changes states. Meanwhile the enemies in the game are done completely inside the state machine behaviours.

 

Terhi (UI and UX development and scripting)

With Night of The Maere I focused mostly on user interface and user experience stuff. So, I worked on the menus and their innards, with memory management and preload things, and eventually with audio implementing and controlling. With the autosave I worked on, there emerged a problem regarding continue game scenario. As the autosave relies heavily onto events, I realized I had to be more specific with the event triggers. Although huge part of what I did for the project was at least on some level new to me, learning the audio implementing and controlling was the one part that I got most anxious and eventually most excited about. We decided to use FMOD as the audio source, and I am very happy about this, even if I got wee bit overwhelmed with it all at first. I admit that in the end I enjoyed vastly solving issues I confronted. My mistakes revolved mostly around events, to be specific, in their subscription part. I know I understand some of it, but there are still things to learn.

Allan (Audio design)

Hi, my name is Allan Castellanos, and it is my first time at the game academy. My dream of learning how to implement music and sound effects in video games started this summer! Downloading and installing many gigabytes of new software, watching, and following audio tutorials were just the beginning of this new adventure.

A team was looking for a solid audio person, and I quickly became very interested in the game because of the game idea and the atmosphere they wanted to create “magic and fantasy”. After the first meeting via Discord, I got a list of sounds that may be necessary in the game and what kind of music could be good for the game. My idea for the music was to create something that sounds magical and deep and a little bit retro. So, I decided to give a try to my modular and play some random chords. For the foil sounds, I asked a friend if we I could use his studio because he has a collection of “weird” instruments, so I could try to create unique sounds, the recording was mainly inside a closet filled with blankets. In the end we got a great collection of sounds with greatquality that my team could use.

 

A Mare (Old English: mære, mara in Old High German, Old Norse, and Swedish) is a malicious entity in Germanic and Slavic folklore that rides on people’s chests while they sleep, bringing on bad dreams. And now it is here, in that room.

FTL auto-chess

Team  GoblinX3

Saku  Pajari, art and animations
Timo Sissala, programming
Jami Salonen, programming

Game Idea

The game idea came from combining two popular game genres: auto-chess and roguelike games. The idea was to make a single player game that plays like auto-chess but has roguelike style progression where player progresses through nodes on a map in a pseudo random environment. We had a lot of different ideas for the execution and ultimately ended up in a Heroes of Might and Magic styled hexagonal grid combat system where the units fight automatically. Player only chooses the starting positions for the units and presses a button to start the fight. Player is then supposed to click nodes on a generated map to progress through increasingly difficult fights. Player would encounter shop nodes on the way where they could purchase different units. The units could be upgraded along the way. Losing a fight would cause the enemy units to damage the players total health. Reaching 0 health would result in a game over.

Development

The start of the development was kind of difficult since the idea of the game wasn’t completely figured out. We didn’t know how we would distribute the work. We started with the combat system.

There were lots of personal issues during the period which greatly hindered the development process. Towards the end the motivation for the project was low since we knew that we didn’t have time to finish the product for the end of the  GameCamp.

For the  end product  we managed to finish the combat system which works well. We managed to get a decent  amount  of units with different stats for variety. The map for the game remains very unfinished and we don’t have a shop nor  a  upgrade screen for the units. The difficulty progression and  an  end goal are also missing.

We had too large scope for the game and once problems arose the project didn’t get finished as a game. Still, the project taught us things with game development. One of the biggest learning experiences was to make a game in hexagonal grid. It required a lot of planning with programming- and  artwise  that wasn’t predictable in the beginning.