- Poème en alexandrin -

Qu’il est bon de shooter du zombie dans la ville.
Mais morts-vivants, qu’il est ardu de vous trouver !
Alors sur iPhone, agitons nos doigts agiles
et que s’apaise enfin notre instinct de boucher.

Déchiquetons, broyons et shootons avec grâce
Les polygones morbides des citrouilles abjectes,
Des chauve-souris et de tous ces monstres pugnaces.
Faisons goûter notre colère à ces insectes !

Gamepulp veut vous aider à cette noble quête,
Par le miracle des ragdolls, des meshes détruites,
Vous pourrez découper bras, jambes et têtes.
Regardez, braves gens, les vidéos qui font suite.

Les ragdolls :

Un ragdoll transforme littéralement les personnages ou tout autre élément, réactifs à la physique (gravité, collision, chutes). Le problème vient du fait qu’on perd les animations. La recherche ici est de pouvoir concilier les deux, pour plus de réalisme car dans la réalité, on est en mouvement tout en subissant l’environnement. Parfois, ça donne des résultats étonnants.

Le Gameplay :

Prototypes pour voir ce que va donner un shooter sur rail.

Destruction de mesh :

L’essentiel de l’attrait du jeu viendra du fait de pouvoir découper les zombies à loisir et de les voir réagir de manière réaliste aux coups qu’on leur portera. Recherches sanglantes !

Kellee Santiago, game designer on the project, gave us a look at the complete design process. All through this process, they kept in mind the feelings (peace, love) they wanted to give through the game. This simple idea allow them to define clear  gameplay mechanics following this guide. But I think the most interesting (for me) thing was that with 5 gameplay mechanics defined they took months (15 exactly) to playtest it (at the frequency of 2 playtests per week and 1 at the end). One by one, prototyping the mechanics with Flash or other.
I think this working method reduce considerably the mistakes in the production… This is maybe an exception in the industry to have so much time prototyping but it clearly gave strong basis to the production itself. In facts, Flower was made in 2 years that is to say only 8 months of production !

Next to this conference, “Designing women” starring Kellee Santiago and other women game designers was more of a debate.  Not only on women in video games or as gamers but also on diversity in the industry. They really want to give a different point of view and feelings in the design concept and I totally agree with them that it is essential and enthousiastic !

As gamers, it appears that women and girls (because researches focus on young girls games) don’t learn to play the same way as boys. When a boy directly rush an unknown game and learn from his mistakes, girls tends to observe first how the game works before starting to play (obviously it’s not a law which is confirmed each time). You may suppose that it is not the only difference between boy and girl gamers.
I think that our work as game designer must take into account its established fact… You know that currently 40% of all gamers are female ?
And the same parallel can be made with the age of the players whhich do not cease to increase.

You may suspect what it remains to be made ? To diversify !

One of the most famous for me was David Cage’s one, Quantic Dream’s founder, with his speech “Writing Interactive Narrative for a Mature Audience” and this sentence “We need to be proud of who we are” about the censorship (which resonating especially in this GDC in Germany).
He asked why making games should be always for teenagers with big weapons, big tits and poor mechanics. We can assume to be adult and we can show others feelings than kill-jump-kill… and it’s not dirty to see people kissing in a game, or making love. That can be shown without pornography, like movies.

“Movies”. It’s the word around this speech turned. And it’s there I found the argument went too far because video games was automatically compared to movies, to conclude video games are only like children toys.

Perhaps it’s a misunderstanding by me about what said David Cage but video games needn’t to have the same language of movies. No to count a story doesn’t mean not to give mature emotions.
In his speech, he explained video games can have two playing ways : The sandbox (the most of games) and a Rollercoaster (rare).
He told us he prefers the Rollercoaster than the sandbox, where a child are caught for God, pushed by simplist feelings where as the rollercoaster offers an emotional trip… but we can be very passive in a looping and waked up inventive in a Sandbox.

We can assume to make “toys” without meaning “childish toys”.
Playing is a shame for an adult ?

Why saying “we need to be proud of who we are” and being mixed up by the cinema ?

So there is movement at Gamepulp, because we’re growing too.
For some months, Benjamin completes the team for the game and level design of 2 projects (new post soon ).

Gamepulp : level 2 ! Play again !

So while toying with the Terrain Engine, I came across Fractscape (a Unity-made terrain tool), which got me thinking of procedurally painting/terraforming the terrain, and other geekeries… then Chris came in, one thing lead to the other and bam, I find myself doing a pong… with the Terrain Engine.

Not that I’m that obsessed with pong (or am I?), it’s just the “hello world” of gaming. Anyway, here goes…
(click to activate)

© Gamepulp 2007 – Created with Unity »

Please note:

• this demo needs the Unity plugin to run -don’t worry, if you haven’t got it yet it will auto-install smoothly.
• on Windows, the textures don’t move, only the heights… works fine on Mac though… maybe that because I’m using unsupported methods?
  The cool thing: I don’t care ! ah, the joy of prototyping…

The game starts, after a while the terrain fills up with crates: from the looks of it, only Multiballs, Armageddons, and Super-Attacks… okay, so he wants to play it rough!
It doesn’t take long for the ball to hit a Multiball crate, and things get intense. We fight like crazy to keep all 3 balls in play, I manage to keep track of Bob’s movement, he just picked-up a powerup, but which one?
Not time to think about that, I just caught a ball on the left side, but the other 2 are approaching on the right side. I make a run for it, and on the corner of my eye I see something else is coming towards me. I catch the balls… but also get hit! So apparently, what he picked-up was a Super-Attack… dammit, he played me like a noob!
Since he’s playing the witch, his superpower turns me into a frog… man do I look stupid!

By the time I’m done cursing him, the first ball is in my goal, and he’s returned the other 2. I manage to catch one but my frog racket is so small that I miss the other one.
That’s 2 goals in no time, one ball left in play, and I’m sure he managed to pick up some powerups while I was panicking…
On the bright side, the ball I did catch was on the corner of my tiny racket, so it’s zigzagging like crazy, sweeping the terrain clean of powerups. I pick one up (an Armageddon no less!), but I can’t use it yet: I can’t attack while I’m a frog! I hate Bob, that’s final.

Oh wait… the Armageddon I just got, it’s got 5 shots, instead of the usual 2! Bob really customized the setup, and did a good job of it too… 5 Armageddons, I love him!
Finally, I’m turning back into my old self, I can attack again, let’s shoot an Armageddon right now: take that, moron! Apparently, he’s loaded too, because he responds with another Armageddon: the ball is caught in-between, rebounds a zillion times, and finally shoots out on his side… one goal for me!

18-19: I can’t believe it, it’s only the first exchange and we already played for a full minute! This is nothing like playing the computer, I really have a whole new world to explore!
But no time to catch my breath, Bob is firing Super-Attacks like a machine gun (think you can play the countdown-trick on me? think again, I don’t wanna be a frog again!), the ball is starting again, there are 3 Multiball crates on the terrain… this is gonna be insane.

The computer just scored a goal. The ball is on my side, after the 3-seconds countdown it will be shot towards him, so I take a deep breath and consider my status.

The HUD shows that I only have 2 lives left out of my initial 10. Krog has got 5 left, but he started with 15 (damn boss!).
So overall I scored 10 times, and he only 8: if I keep up my pace I can make it, but I’m only allowed one more mistake!

Thankfully I have some powerful items left in my inventory: 2 Smashes, and the dreaded Armageddon! I can see them in my HUD, beneath my life counter.
I’ve had them for a while but I’ve been waiting for just the right moment. In the easier levels, shooting an Armageddon meant scoring a goal nearly every time, but now the computer’s tougher so I need something to combine it with.

Countdown’s over, the ball starts, and we exchange a few balls. I like the “chase” camera that follows me while I move (directional arrows or thumbstick on my gamepad), it’s immersive and gives me a good perspective on the game area, while keeping the focus on my character.
Some crates appear on the terrain, all power-downs: 2 Pygmies, and 1 “always run”, which is close to the computer’s side, on its right.
The ball is going in my direction, left side; I catch it on the right corner of my racket, so it crosses the terrain diagonally.
On its way it touches a Pygmy crates that get activated and sent towards me, but I don’t want it (the Pygmy would make me & my racket smaller!) so I avoid it.
I sent the ball just right, so it ends up in my opponent’s right corner: he catches it but sends it straight on the “always run” crate, that falls towards him. He doesn’t have time to avoid it, so it touches him: for about 20 seconds, he won’t be able to stop and can only zigzag like crazy to stay where he wants to be. The ball also hits the last Pygmy crate: he can’t avoid it while zigzaging.
He’s now tiny and out of control, almost too easy! I catch the ball, and score. Lucky stroke, but not enough.

2-4: new ball, countdown. Meanwhile, the crates get replaced, and hurray! big powerups: Ice & Super-Attack on my side, Multi-ball on his… this is the perfect storm I’ve been waiting for!
The ball starts towards me; Krog is still under the “always run” spell, panics, and shoots 2 walls (that partially block his side) to protect himself. But I can use this to my advantage: if I aim for the walls, the ball will stay on my side of the terrain, so I have plenty of time to collect the items I need: Ice… and Super-attack while I’m at it: who wouldn’t want a super-power!
The walls self-destruct, but so does the “always run” spell: Krog is in control again. Never mind, the ball is going towards him, it’s time to make my move: I select (Enter key / green A button) the Ice item in my inventory and shoot (CTRL key / right trigger), then bam, I select Armageddon and shoot.
Krog now has ice on his side, which makes his ground very slippery, plus the Armageddon, a big ray that’s sweeping the terrain from my side to his, blocking the ball.
He still manages to catch the ball once, twice, but then the ball touches the Multiball crate and splits in 3: there are now 3 balls, all safe behind my Armageddon. The computer is lost, doesn’t know which one to catch first, and anyway his movement is badly impaired by the ice. He tries to ice-skate towards a ball, misses, and by the time he’s managed to backpedal, the other 2 are also in: 3 goals at once, that’s what I’m talking about!

…2-1! If I play it just right, I’ll finally finish the Quest!
New ball, during the countdown (I noticed during our previous matches that Krog is like a sitting duck at that time), I shoot a super-attack (shit key or left trigger) that freezes him: I have about 5 seconds.
The ball starts towards me this time, I select the Smash and shoot: my racket is glowing red-hot, I catch the ball and bam, it bounces back twice as fast, and… score!
Of course since he was frozen that’s a bit of an overkill but that’s all the better, I like to kick when he’s down, serves him right for resisting me all that time.

I won. This is so cool. My character, Duvna, is doing the fairy dance, while Krog sobs like a baby. He should, I get his helmet as a trophy!
Plus I finally unlocked the last challenge: I can’t wait to try it, my friend Bob has been bragging for days about how he’s #1 in this challenge’s leaderboard… I’m sure I can take his place in no time!

A more completed solo mode offers three gameplays : a Quest for beginners and to unlock the Challenges mode, a customizable solo match for advanced players and an “Instant Play” mode for impatients who let computer choose characters and terrain.

We added too High scores in Challenges Mode and we’ll finish them to be developped in the multiplayer mode.

What is the Challenges Mode? It’s new! This is 5 challenges to know how many time the player can hold with inverted controls, or with ice, or when he can’t stop because he always runs, or when he gets smaller each racket stroke, or with Armageddons.

We had to finish several development points and we’ll have our Release version !

Have fun !

Our game is an homage at Pong though the gameplay goes far away from him, up to be a different game.
But the famous ancestor’s name is a trademark and, to respect the law, we decided to change “Fight Pong” by “Beshmashed”. It evokes charm which takes possession of characters to find the magic smash.

It’s the opportunity to announce you a Beta version upgrade, with 5 items more : Smash, Multiball, Fast Ball, Slow Ball and Rugby Ball ! A unique link : besmashed.gamepulp.com

When you create a game, you can choose ball speed, characters speed too and your camera view. Fight Pong will be upgraded to have all items and will offer more fun.

You want to play now ? it’s here : fightpong.gamepulp.com/demo
You want to help up to improve Fight Pong ? Thank you ! You can become beta-tester by describe bugs at our contact email adress.