Jitesh's Domain

Game Designer. Producer. Gamer.


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WORKSHOP – FAST AND FURIOUS 7

NASSCOM NGDC2015 DESIGN WORKSHOP

FAST AND FURIOUS 7

I had an immense pleasure of organizing this year’s Design Workshop at Nasscom’s Game Developer Conference held at Mahratta Chamber Of Commerce Industries & Agriculture (MCCIA) Towers.

The idea and topic was pretty simple – understand and learn to deliver a game pitch in less than 7 mins. The basis of presentation technique was PechaKucha (chit-chat in Japanese).

A part of my preparation was to come up with interesting topics for participants.

I started creating topics…

Preparation - creation of mindboggling topics ;]

Preparation – creation of mindboggling topics ;]

Once I demonstrated the PechaKucha technique to participants, they were asked to be comfortable, form power groups (which were made to ensure friends don’t stick together and teams feel balanced).

The topic – a mandate on which participants had to create their game pitch consisted of 2 parts:

  • A subject/ core matter
  • Game Genre
Preparation - Cards in disarray!

Preparation – Cards in disarray!

The stacks were then made, successfully (before the workshop began, at my home):

Cards tied in RED –> Core/ Subject matter

Cards tied in YELLOW –> Game Genre

Power Cards... are READY!

Power Cards… are READY!

At the workshop, once my presentation was over and groups were formed, I asked one member from each group to draw cards from the stacks I had made. Interesting topics are created when randomness comes into play ;]

For eg: A group picked cards that gave them FOOD as Core Subject and SURVIVAL HORROR as game genre!

The rules were laid out:

  • use laptop
  • use internet connection
  • minimal text
  • Images, images and images!
  • 20 sec per slide rule
  • Max slides 20 (due to time restriction – I didn’t enforce 20 slides as MUST – it was a max limit for this workshop)
Fast and Furious 7 :: PechaKucha!

Fast and Furious 7 :: PechaKucha!

Here are some pictures from the workshop:

It's on!

It’s on!

Getting to know team and discussion within was paramount!

Getting to know team and discussion within was paramount!

A team brainstorming on their game pitch

A team brainstorming on their game pitch

Team getting their slides ready!

Team getting their slides ready!

Team game pitch kickoff!

Team game pitch kickoff!

Team game pitch kickoff!

Team game pitch kickoff!

Team game pitch kickoff!

Team game pitch kickoff!

Team game pitch kickoff!

Team game pitch kickoff!

Team game pitch kickoff!

Team game pitch kickoff!

With Prashant!

With Prashant!

I apologize for some really shaken pictures! :]

My badge this year.

My badge this year.

I had an awesome time conducting the workshop, discussing terrific ideas with everyone who participated. If you are in the picture, you participated or were a part of the team – do share 🙂

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3 Comments

Wamble On!

I have been working on a small prototype in Unity engine. After realizing a quick fun mechanic with basic gameplay I stopped working on it for a while.

Finally, I decided to finish the experience and make a web build! My purpose was to make a small game suitable for web + mobile devices. I did not want to invest heavily in terms of audio and visuals (as its a solo project). Also, I did not want to increase the scope. It’s just a small nifty arcade game.


What does Wamble mean?

(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/wamble)

wamble (ˈwɒmbəl)

vb (intr)

1. to move unsteadily
2. to twist the body
3. (Pathology) to feel nausea


 What an end-user really needs to play this game is:
  • Focus
  • Timing and
  • little bit of Endurance

The idea is to provide an uncomfortable, nauseating experience. Obviously, not what a normal mobile/ web game is about. You will not play this game to relax and chill out. That is not the objective. Saying that, you must never keep playing this game over and over for 30mins or so (unless you really really want to!). This can really cause intense nausea. Just play it in short bursts :]

BEGINUpsideDownRETRY


I am already working on an Android build (90% done). Before I push that out, you should really try to play online:

http://uns33n.itch.io/wamble-on

http://www.kongregate.com/games/JiteshP1/wamble-on


Do play and shoot your impressions!


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Flappy Jam!

It was around 2 weeks back when me and many of my colleagues started playing this little game called “Flappy Bird” on iOS. We were having fun with the game trying to beat score. We all kind of played it for few hours then moved on to some other game on iOS.
Just few days later, we came across news on the internet mentioning the game’s sudden rise on the AppStore. We were all like… what?! I’m pretty sure many of you must’ve already experience the game recently on your iPad/ iPhone and some of you might’ve even played it months back when it was originally released! In my opinion, the sudden rise of this game was mainly due to virality and word-of-mouth tactics. It worked. It actually worked wonders for the developer. The game started making tons of monies. Which is both a good and a bad thing.

Few things about Flappy Bird:

  • It presents a classic game appeal
  • Addictive, fun game meant to be played in quick bursts
  • Inspired by retro/ other classics
  • Absolutely no gameplay variation
  • No enhancements in core mechanics as the player progresses
  • No variation in level design

The game still raked hundreds of thousands of dollars. It clearly goes on to show how marketing, virality can work wonders + climb of simplicity.

Due to its sudden rise, the developer gained huge amount of fame and negative press at the same time. Negativity mainly emerged due to aforementioned reasons. I’m sure you’ll find the news about what all happened in detail on various news sites. Eventually, the developer could not take all the press and hatred and decided to remove the app from the AppStore.

Then, soon there was this event that popped up –> Flappy Jam! Hundreds of developers came forth in support and for passion’s sake!

Today is the last day of submission at –> http://itch.io/jam/flappyjam
And… here is my entry (Inspired by Space Invaders) 🙂

http://uns33n.itch.io/dont-invade-my-flappy-space

http://www.kongregate.com/games/JiteshP1/dont-invade-my-flappy-space

Screen_2 Screen_1 Screen_3

Do check out my game and other developers’ efforts too! Share, leave feedback and have fun ;]