I'd like to thank everyone who tried out my entirely unfinished game.

As promised, here's the full plot diagram that I mapped out. The game sticks pretty faithfully to the far-right branch, all the way down to the docks. I almost made it all the way to one complete story arc, but alas life intruded. Maybe next time Real Life can intrude just a little less :-)

I think that the 9 times theme actually works pretty well with the game that I envisaged. For my game the "theme" was very much behind the scenes in the structure of the game's story arcs. It forced me to ensure there was always 9 points in the game where the player has control ("decision" points in the diagram - but also shootouts or stealth sections) which meant that each of the various paths through the game's stories were fleshed out well - that each act was complete.

I realised quite late in the week that some of the story was quite flawed. I had some help getting the structure mostly right (thanks Toby and Cam for your feedback!) but some of it still makes very little sense. There's nothing that couldn't be fixed though - it's just a case of re-jiggering some of the scenes.

Sorry that I broke the shooting before the final upload. There wasn't much of it, really. Just that one bit in the apartment. The game would've crashed when you left the apartment with the gun anyway ;-)


Oh, one final note. No, I didn't implement the first decision point: gender selection. It wasn't going to have any effect on the game anyway.

I was pleasantly surprised when I read my ratings and reviews. I knew that my game would probably be much too difficult for everyone else (playing a game nonstop throughout a week will do that to you).
I also got one Did Not Work, unfortunately.

What I did right:
  Didn't spend all week trying to think of a theme. I came up with a few game ideas after the theme was announced, but Nine Times was my least favorite theme after Warm and Soft. I really didn't want to make a platformer because I'd never managed to get the physics working, but that's what I ended up making.
  Managed to get the engine done 2 days into the week. This really helped because I was free to add content and make levels for the rest of the week.
  Realized I couldn't do everything myself. I was heart set on composing music for my game, but alas, it was not to be. A day before the deadline I knew I wouldn't have time to compose music for my game, so I looked around the Internet and found some good creative commons licensed music.
  Made a legitimate title screen. This I think really helped because people didn't have to read the README to figure out how to play the game.
What I did wrong:
  Didn't include a tutorial. Just having a list of what each button does is not enough for any game. A lot of people couldn't figure out how to kill the thug or kill everything with a limited clip. Some people even said that they had to look at the code to figure out how to kill the thug.
  Didn't playtest the game on another computer. Thankfully no problems arose with this (I think).
  Didn't include customizable controls. Bad.
  Had a bad background. First, it wasn't a background at all, just a solid color. Plus, that solid color was grey. Ugh. I at least should have included a nice color if you're going to be looking at it for the whole game.
   Made it MUCH TOO HARD. Everything about my game was incredibly hard.

Now to respond to the comments:

The execution may feel a bit sloppy (movement is odd, I get stuck to walls sometimes), but I found this game more fun than I initially expected. Having nine bullets or nine hp doesn't add much to the game, though. I've enjoyed the variations in enemies and I think the levels are nicely done.  

Yeah, the movement was pretty fast. Midair wall detection was pretty glitchy too. Thanks for the comment on the variety of enemies (even though there's only 3, and spikes). I worked really hard on the enemies, and I think it shows.
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goal of the game is not clear (how to play instructions are ok, but knowing the keys to play does not mean that the goal is clear)
too difficult
Yep. There was no tutorial. Sorry. :(
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Got stuck on level 4.

That infamous street thug and his total lack of killability strikes again. Thanks for your time. :)
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Felt like a game that needed a bit more work on the game balance. The limited clip could be interesting, but too much of the game is just reflex tests, and there are no other options.

Well worded, and you are absolutely right.
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i opened the game and it crashed immediately after opening.

I'm sorry. Did you get a traceback?
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Had to read the code to figure out how to kill the "knight".

I really should have included hints...
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The bullets are almost invisible and it's really easy to get into a position where it's impossible to finish the game. I gave up when I ran into the "knight" and had to look at the code to find out how to damage him.

Ah, sorry, that knight has been nothing but trouble for everyone. Also, it was intentional that you would run out of bullets and have to restart, but it happens too much.

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Fun game! Perhaps a little fast, but that's just me. On an unrelated note, I found a bug: if the first time you load the game you exit before playing, then you can't play again :)

 

Great entry!

Thanks! Yes, I made it too fast. And yes, I know about that bug now. Thanks.

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Actually, this game has a lot of potential. Just add some polish to the highscore and menus and maybe some hints on how to kill the enemies (the one that looks like a zombie is kind of tricky). Ooh, and other weapons or weapon upgrades would be neat. Do not send the player back to the level select screen after dying - just restart the level. ;)

Yep, yup and yes. Thanks. :)

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A few more types of enemies and obstacles and a little more polishing and I think this would be a pretty cool game.

Thank you. It took me about a day to finish each enemy (2 days for the knight) but they were the soul of the game.

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kinda twitchy

Alot of people said this. Thanks for your time.

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really fun to play

I'm glad you liked it. :)

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I really like this game. I played all levels :-D A lot of fun.

Thanks. :-) I'm glad at least one person made it to level 9.

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classic game

That was the idea. Thank you!

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Clowns, Metal Gear Solid references and Street Thugs, oh my!

Heh, it was a pretty diverse group of baddies.

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It was kind of short, abrupt. I took a lot of damage from a single hit, and didn't understand some of the damage I took. I ran out of ammo before I really even did anything worthwhile. Was it meant more as a puzzle than an actioner?

It was meant to be short. I eventually gave up implementing scrolling and just made short, bite-sized levels. Getting hit was deliberately very damaging. I should have added more health, you're right.
I wanted conserving your bullets to be a puzzling component, but it was mostly meant to be a shooter.
I'm sorry if it wasn't fun for you.
Thanks for your comment anyway. :)
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I don't know what I'm supposed to do...

 

I liked all the menus, it was easy to try the game out. Thanks!
No, it wasn't very clear. Sorry. I'm happy it was easy for you to try it out. Thanks for commenting. :D

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Nice to see a good ol' fashioned platforming shooter. The physics felt a little frantic.

Old fashioned was one of the things I was going for. Thanks. :)

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too umbalanced, frustrating

I'm sorry. :(
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Controls are a little touchy for my liking, and it would be more convenient to use up arrow for jumping and space for shooting. Also I can't figure out how you're supposed to kill the guy on level 4.

You're right. I should have included customizable controls. As for the street thug, you're supposed to get close enough to him that he starts charging towards you. Only then will he take damage when you shoot him.
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That was pretty challenging. I liked the behavior of the thug once I figured it out. The controls seemed way too sensitive - I could run across the whole screen in like a second. And it was really hard to figure out how to conserve your bullets properly. It took me like 10 tries to beat the first level just because I kept running out of bullets!

I know; a ton of people had these problems. Thanks for your time anyway!
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Thanks again to everyone who played my game and reviewed it. I really enjoyed competing in Pyweek. I'll definitely be back for Pyweek #13. This was a great first for me. :D 

Also, congratulations to superjoe and Super Effective. Your games were awesome. :)

Thanks to everyone that tried Nonagon!
A lot of you left VERY good feedback.
There were some problems that we already knew about (repetition, learning curve, etc.) but we got plenty of new input that we will keep in mind if this project is continued.
Once again, THANKS FOR THE FEEDBACK! :D
...And to the few of you that just gave us a terrible rating with some nasty remarks and no constructive criticism: You are cancer.

Thank you to everyone who responded. Unfortunately I have to agree with the entertainment value, if we had a little more time we would have been able to actually make it "fun" with what we were planning to do. Instead we had to rush at the last minute and throw everything together, instead of having challenges, levels, etc.

Was a blast working on something like this from scratch in one week however, and congratulations to the winners! Definitely deserved it.

Seeing how my entry was awarded the "Heath Robinson Prize for Most Unreliable Office Equipment", I think it's time for me to admit it publicly: my game is too hard. Wait, no, that's not true: my game is too frustrating. Yep, that's better :P . I tried to ignore it when my entry was awarded the "Paid For By the Caffeine Lobby" award, but I guess I can't hide it anymore...

If you want to play the game at a slower pace, you can either reduce the probability of a machine breaking up or increase the time in each level (actually, each level lasts longer than the previous one, but obviously not enough). To do this, you can change one of the following lines (or both)

Office.py, line 112: self.clock.start(3600 + 120*level_num)
That's the total time - increase 120 to something like 240 or more to get enough extra time per level

Todo.py, line 68: if (random.randint(0,30) <= self.dificulty):
If you want the machines to fail less, increase that "30" - the larger the number, the easier the game.

In any case, remember that the game only has 10 levels, so don't make it too easy ;) .

I'll take this as a lesson for the next Pyweek - I should have had more extensive play-testing. To be 100% honest, I did reserve some time for this, but I decided at the last moment to use it to add the plants and lamps and give each level a little more color :P - I guess that, since I wasn't a coder on my first Pyweek entry (which details exactly this problem as the main concern) I didn't really learn this lesson, but I'll try to remember for the next time.

If it makes you feel any better, while playing (I think I made it up to level 6) I experienced that very same feeling of looking at the remaining time and thinking "oh, screw this, I won't make it on time", and if I didn't curse the repair guy for talking the long way to fix the phone it was only because I'm the one who told him to approach items from the right when possible...

I'll do my best to write a full post-mortem of the game once the competition is finished and I get to read the feedback from the rest of you. So far I've been impressed by several entries, and I hope I'll get to play all of them by saturday.

Good luck, everyone!

Multiverse Factory was a team originally coordinated by Gummbum. It wound up including DR0ID, myself, Lisa Sau (who had to drop out), nitrofurano, JDruid, ldle, and kiddo. Somehow I got chosen to be the director/producer, so here's my postmortem.

I was uncertain how well we'd work as a team, since most of us had never worked together before. Given that, I thought we did a great job. Our game, Fractured Soul, is complete, it runs smoothly, and (for me anyway) it's kind of fun.

What went right:

• Dedication: Gummbum put in so much work over the course of the week, and DR0ID and I were also working really hard. nitrofurano was also a very valuable and dedicated resource, especially toward the end.
• Working together: Even though we're in a bunch of different countries, and we were communicating only over IRC, I think we made a good, cohesive team.
• Engine: It was a big help to have Gummbum's gummworld2 library to work with. He was able to adapt it to suit our needs and generally make everything work.
• Mechanics: We put a lot of thought into this, and it shows. I'm impressed at how smooth our platforming action and collision detection is, compared to your average pyweek platformer. This is due partly to gummworld2's handy timing algorithm. I had something pretty demanding in mind for the mechanics: I wanted your motion restricted to a grid without feeling like it's restricted to a grid. Along with ldle and Gummbum, I eventually got it working to my satisfaction.
• Music/sound: All done by JDruid. The atmosphere of the game is perfect and the audio is compelling.
• Menu integration: I love it when you can jump right into a game. I'm very pleased that Gummbum was able to eliminate all menus.
• Level editor: DR0ID's tiledtmxloader library (integrated into gummworld2) made it possible to design levels completely in Tiled, something I didn't even realize was possible when we started. This made it possible to have extensive...
• Level design: We wound up with a lot of content for a pyweek game. While lots of entries struggled to have 9 levels, we wound up with 26 (30 if you count the "menu" levels). They're small, but they required a lot of care to design.
• Practice game: We spent about two weeks before the competition on a practice game. This let us sort out many logistical issues ahead of time.
• Work management. Having someone on point to lead, coordinate, and make decisions really helped. It let the respective specialists focus effectively.
• Credits. DR0ID is handy with special effects, and our credits screen is a nice touch.

What went wrong:

• Artwork. We started with two artists. Lisa had to drop out completely because of a new job, and kiddo couldn't contribute anything until Friday due to technical issues. Kiddo designed the main character and drew all its frames, which is great, but we didn't get a chance to refine it, and the walk cycle is a little off. He's got so much talent, we would definitely have loved to get some more artwork by him into the game.
• Theme. Nine Times was definitely our least favorite theme. I insisted that we not adapt a different game idea to fit the theme, and so we had a very weak idea starting the week, despite a lot of preparation. It turned out okay, but it could have been much better with a theme we actually liked. One place this shows is the story, which I didn't really get in place until the last day.
• Work management. We had no efficient way of tracking/assigning/claiming high level tasks. We made do with the wiki, which was disorganized and inconsistent. I was asking "what are you working on now?" a lot in IRC. A dashboard to track current tasks would have helped. And it would be cool to look back and see how long we spent on certain aspects, and if those could be economized in the future. Maybe we should see if there's something lightweight and useful available, perhaps a Google app.

Overall I was very excited to be working in a team like this. This experience was new for me, and it was quite positive. I'm looking forward to the feedback on the game. Thanks to all who try it out!

Hey, I don't know how easy or hard this game is, so here's a walkthrough showing how to beat each of the levels after the tutorial. If you're looking for the solution to a specific level, there are links in the video description. Spoiler alert, obviously....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTD3YT6khec

Hi, folks.

We took some time to build a Windows executable as a convenience for people who don't have Python or pygame. It can be downloaded from our project site: Fractured Soul Win32. You may need to install the MS Visual C++ run-time library in order to use it. See the readme for more info on the MS run-time.

Gumm

And 3, and 4, and 5, and...

I realize now that I made the levels way too hard. I should have very slowly increased the difficulty.

Each new level shows off more of the game's gameplay elements, so it would be a shame for you to give up and judge without at least checking out all the levels.

If you edit a file called "save_game" (this will be created if you beat level 1) in the directory you run the game from, it has the number of the level you start on when you press Continue from the title screen. You can edit this to skip around and see all 9 levels.

Alternately, there is a YouTube video of me speedrunning through the entire game (only 7 minutes long).

We did not have time to fix all the bugs in the combat system and menu in order to integrate them properly. However, I tossed in a few screenshots to let you see what it looked like anyway.











P.S. We had a ton of fun creating this game (and an inversely proportional amount of sleep). We believe that our game has much potential, so look forward to a Flash version of the complete game in a nearby future !