Wednesday, September 07, 2016
Game Jamming at PGConnects 2016
My posts have recently been on the heavy side, and so today, in honor of my blog's 10th birthday, I'd like to return to my age-old tradition of just telling you what's going on in my life, and then I will post what is perhaps the most stupid story I've ever written in my life.
Let's start with the updates. I just spent the last two days at a gaming conference. Conferences are often the most grueling things for professionals to put themselves through. It's important to make an appearance, and they are great for networking & new opportunities. Content-wise, though, they are usually light and sometimes a bit dull. Too program-heavy and you end up with no chance to network, and too light and you feel you haven't gotten your money's worth in terms of new information.
I was SUPER impressed by Pocket Gamer Connect Helsinki. It managed to be both program-heavy AND networking oriented at the same time. I spent almost the entire time making a game, and yet, I didn't at all feel like I missed out on opportunities to network and get to know people. I'd definitely want to attend again, but I don't know if I could roll it into my workday next time, since the relevant connections, to companies like Rovio and Neogames, have been made.
I got to try really awesome new games, that are yet to make it to the market, like the virtual reality one where I got to be the boss, fighting a pesky hero in a game, or one where I was a virtual pro-football player!
The highlight of the conference, was, naturally making our own working demo of a game,designed to offend everyone and everything. Part of the work I did there was building a dictionary of keywords that would trigger a images of, among other things, a dildo, an alien, and Donald Trump. Although we didn't win, the judge did say the phrase 'dirty alchemist' would stay with him forever. (p.s. the background music in the prezi was composed and performed by yours truly)
So, as promised, the most stupid story I've ever written. It was my small contribution to the project:
Quest 1, tutorial: You are Dr. Juicy Oak, a world renowned juicer. Instead of fruits, you collect words from your surroundings & blend them to create magical juices with special properties. Hint: Once upon a time, a nun tried to catch a chicken, but found she had left her handcuffs in bed. Try it out! Start scanning!
Good job! You have collected your first few items! Mix them up to see what juice you’ll get!
Fail! These items cannot be mixed.
Great work! You’ve mixed a handcuffs & a chicken and made Pervert Conspiracy juice! By arresting the chicken, you’ve set in motion a chain of events that you will need to resolve.
Quest 2, tutorial: Little did the nun know, she was on Reality T.V. Big brother would have expected her to wear a cross and pray, for the events that follow were far beyond the capabilities of one misguided nun.
Congratulations! You’ve mixed some reality T.V. & a cross to make some Addict Philanthropist juice.
There are four categories items can belong to. Find them, and they will automatically be mixed.
Quest 3:
You find Mr. Torvalds, the president of The Secret Hacker’s Society, passed out at his desk, surrounded by feathers, take-out boxes & cold pizza. His screen shows that he was googling Donald Trump. Mix him some Conspiring Addict juice to help him down off his latest junk-food binge. You need his help tracking down the feathered conspirators, after all!
Congratulations! You’ve mixed some Trump & Pizza and made Conspiring Addict juice. Mr. Torvalds has granted you unlimited free access to the society's hacking services.
Quest 4: Ms. Gianna, Chairperson of the Philanthropist Friends of Dolphins Foundation, is rumored to be using the new tank she’s building to harbor wayward chickens. You find her having salad at her office canteen and plan to question her when an electric blue dildo slips out of her pocket. Help her cover it up by making some Sainted Pervert juice.
Congratulations! You’ve mixed some vegetables and a blue dildo to get Sainted Pervert juice & saved Ms. Gianna’s reputation. It turns out she was keeping wild pheasants & no foul play was involved. She can focus on saving Flipper now! She tells you her son may know something.
Quest 5: You find DJ Candy Cruncher alone in a motel room, looking forlornly at a tower of records. When you approach him and ask about the chickens, he says he’s had enough of the drugs & rave scene, and has nothing to do with chickens. “I want to make like Johnny Cash in Folsom Prison, and free my inner do-gooder” he says. Mix him some Addicted Philanthropist juice and help him walk the line.
Awesome! You mixed some drugs & charity to make some Addicted Philanthropist juice! DJ Candy Cruncher has started a halfway house for reforming ravers. He has you to thank for it & gives you all his leftover ecstasy tablets. These will surely come in handy! Inside the ziplock bag is a business card for Studio Tentacle, a famous animation house.
Quest 6: Studio Tentacle was working on its new anime, Alien Moon, when the cloud servers were compromised by The Secret Hackers Society. Their entire archive of fan service is now offline, and their community manager is swamped with tweets from angry fans. Only a dash of Pervert Conspiracy juice can save the day.
Great work! You’ve mixed an alien & a tentacle to make a Pervert Conspiracy juice. You’ve been granted lifetime access to Studio Tentacle’s high quality Internet streaming service.
Quest 7: You’ve stayed up late, binge watching pikachu spoofs, and are out walking your dog at four a.m. You see a woman in dark black robes (the nun?!) pour some mysterious pink liquid with a picture of a pyramid and an eye on the label into the city’s water supply. “This will stop them,” you overhear her muttering. Quick! Counteract the effects by pouring in some Conspiring Addict juice!
Congratulations! You’ve mixed pikachu & a pyramid and you’ve saved the city! You are hot on the trail of the nun, who is rushing through the night to escape you.
You follow the nun’s trail to the office of The Secret Hacker’s Society and overhear Mr. Torvalds convincing Candy Cruncher to help him distract the team at Studio Tentacle by arranging an exclusive underground rave in a pyramid. “I MUST upload that fan service onto Trump’s twitter and ruin his campaign.” “But, my charity--” starts the former drug addict, when you see a woman in a nun’s habit rush in, surrounded by a flurry of feathers “You fools! Alien Moon is a beacon for the chickens. It must be completed! Who cares about your stupid election or your charity?” Mix the ultimate juice, which is a mix of four very different things to thwart a presidential candidate & prevent the disastrous alien chicken invasion.
You did it! You made the ultimate magic juice! “Pop of the Milky”. The fumes alone cause the nun to pass out and the cloud of feathers to settle, revealing - gasp! - Ms. Gianni underneath the habit. You return what remains of the ecstasy you got earlier so that Torvald’s & Candy Cruncher can accomplish their mission, but unfortunately, Trump finds fan service vids only add to his swag. This is clearly a job for Dr. Juicy Oak!
Labels: game industry, game jam, gamer, gaming, Pocket Gamer, Pocket Gamer Connects, pocket jam, pocketjam1, script writing
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