7 Day FPS (7dfps) Challenge 2014

[Cheeseness]

The 7 Day First Person Shooter[7dfps.org] (7DFPS) challenge is a week long game jam starting on the 8th of November in which the goal is to make a first person game. It has no rules, prizes, no winners and no expectations - just a great excuse to grow your skills and make a game!

A few people within the community have expressed interest in making another game.

We've got a bunch of options ahead of us. The two key things to decide early are what concept to pursue and what tech to use.

It'd be good to use an engine (or make our own ^_^ ) this year that has native Linux tools so that we can avoid some of the motivational hurdles we had with Haunt. There are a bunch of things we could look at here, ranging from assembling an engine using Ogre, OpenAL, SDL , etc., to using an existing engine/toolset like Godot, Leadwerks, Unreal Engine 4, one of the F/OSS idTech4 derivatives, etc. etc. etc..

So far as concepts go, I've got a first person giant monster combat idea that I'm happy to share, we could look at porting Haunt (last year's game) across to a new engine and finishing that off, or we could go with something completely different.

If you've got ideas or are keen to be involved, chime in and subscribe to the thread!

We'll also be using the #steamlug7dfps IRC channel as we did last year. Tigge, myself and Nemoder are already hanging out there :)

[Nemoder]

I think it would be great if we could continue last year's Haunt game. I would support changing the game engine to something with more native tools but even Source now should be easier to work with if we want to stay with it.

[HER0 01]

For now, I'd just like to say that I am interested.

[beansmyname]

For the record: I am not sure in what way I can contribute, but I am interested.

[2ezKree]

Same as beansmyname here!

[Cheeseness]

Woo! :D


We've been bouncing around some ideas in IRC. Feels like we're getting close to narrowing our tech/concept decisions down.

[2ezKree]

I'll sumarize here what we talk at irc

Tech options:

• Godot Engine

Discarded tech options:

• iodoom3 (https://twitter.com/BlendoGames/status/364434036724207617)
  
• DarkPlaces
  
• Cube
  
• Blender
  
• Torque3D
  
• LeadWerks
  
• Source
  
• ioq3
  
• UE4

[HER0 01]

We have decided on continuing last year's Haunt and that we are porting it from Source SDK 2013 to Godot Engine.

Reasons for the engine switch include:

• Source is hard to work with on Linux
• Godot is developed by Linux users
• We can easily get support directly from the devs
• It has an easier workflow

The relevant github repos are here:
https://github.com/SteamLUG/steamlug-7dfps-2014
https://github.com/SteamLUG/steamlug-7dfps-2014-asset-sources

[Cheeseness]

Sounds great!

[Cheeseness]

The 7th day build of Haunt 2014 is up on http://itch.io/jam/7dfps/rate/13866 for anybody who's interested!

We're keen to continue development forward. After everybody's had time to rest, we'll probably do a code review to address any desirable refactoring, and I'd be keent o do an art direction pass (which I'd hoped to have time for, but the past couple of weeks haven't been kind to me time-wise).

It was great to see this year's SteamLUG 7DFPS team come together to learn and develop. Awesome work, people <3

[HER0 01]

Yes, thanks to everyone on the team and those who helped and supported us!

I'll post my list of relevant links here, in case they might be useful to have in one place:

7DFPS Entry
http://itch.io/jam/7dfps/rate/13866

My 7dfps page, where I'm posting on Haunt developments
http://7dfps.com/?action=profile&id=1262

itch.io Page
http://her0-01.itch.io/steamlug-7dfps-2014

Github Page
https://github.com/SteamLUG/steamlug-7dfps-2014

Github Releases
https://github.com/SteamLUG/steamlug-7dfps-2014/releases

Github Wiki
https://github.com/SteamLUG/steamlug-7dfps-2014/wiki

Github Page for Asset Sources
https://github.com/SteamLUG/steamlug-7dfps-2014-asset-sources

[HER0 01]

Haunt[her0-01.itch.io] was SteamLUG's[steamlug.org] entry to 7dfps for 2014. An asymmetrical multiplayer survival horror game, the concept was actually fleshed out last year for 7dfps 2013.

Past

2013

The SteamLUG 7dfps 2013 team conceptualized[github.com] a game where 4 humans would try to survive an encounter with a ghost, using only their lanterns to slow it enough to escape. The ghost was to be faster and completely invisible without a lamp shining on it, and could kill the humans on contact. Additionally, humans would have limited oil, requiring them to scavenge for more. Teamwork would be necessary for the living to make it to the safe zone.

At the time, Source SDK 2013 had just received Linux support. Considering SteamLUG is a Linux gaming group focused around Steam, it seemed like a "good fit" to use Valve's technology. Additionally, it had already solved many of the hard problems associated with making a multiplayer first person game.

So the team got to work with an idea in one hand and a game engine in the other. Things started to take shape as the game logic was implemented. Unfortunately, it became apparent that the Source Engine was not well suited to developing games outside of Windows. Tools to import maps and models into Source could not be made to work on Linux, and so by the end of the jam, Haunt was visually identical to vanilla Half Life 2 Deathmatch.

2014

This is where I came into the picture. I started participating in the SteamLUG community and decided I wanted to be a part of the 7dfps team for the 2014 event. In early October, discussion on 7dfps started. A new team was formed, eager to make a game. Soon we decided that we wanted to keep Haunt alive by bringing it to the Godot Engine[godotengine.org], a recently open sourced (MIT licensed) game engine from OKAM Studio[okamstudio.com]. The game engine is primarily developed on Linux, so we were certain that support for our chosen development environments should not be a problem. We also knew that networking would be a challenge, but we had a plan and were determined to make something.

Work started about a week early, so as to familiarize ourselves with Godot and git, as well as get some basic mechanics working, like a first person camera, player movement, and a simple client-server lobby system. Then 7dfps officially started. For me, it was a frantic balance between making a game, attending school, going to work, and sleeping. We made excellent progress, but our pace was not up to the 7 day standard and the game was submitted in a very incomplete state. We decided that development would continue beyond 7dfps.

Present

7dfps is over now. It is nice to have a break from the constant exertion experienced during the game jam. Though Haunt is unfinished, I am proud of what we achieved and anxious to continue work on it. The event was a valuable experience that everyone on the team learned from.

I realized that during the week leading up to 7dfps, we should have done more engineering work to decide exactly how all the parts of our game would come together. This stands out as one of the most crucial things I learned from reviving Haunt. Knowing beforehand how the code interacts would have solved many problems before they had the chance to appear. This is knowledge I will bring with me to future projects, and can still incorporate into the future of Haunt...

Future

We have planned to convene this Friday to perform a code review and debriefing. A lot of dirty fixes made it into the code towards the end of the event, so we may have some refactoring work before we can start implementing new features. I will be sure to make regular updates on our progress here on my 7dfps profile[7dfps.com].


Check out the 7dfps submission here:
http://itch.io/jam/7dfps/rate/13866

Or the github page here:
https://github.com/SteamLUG/steamlug-7dfps-2014

[Cheeseness]

Woo :D

[Cheeseness]

For anybody who didn't catch it, today's code review related catchup has been postponed.

Not sure when we'll reconvene, but hopefully it'll be soon :)

[Cheeseness]

Here's a stack[twolofbees.com] of visual brainstorming that Mim and I put together. There are a few environment thumbnails, some concepts for lanterns and oil, and a slew of character concepts.

Some of this stuff might work together, some of it might not. The idea here is to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Let's come together later in the week and chat about what we feel works and what's worth chasing.

I was hoping to have some time to do proper paintings, but I didn't. As we use this stuff to help make decisions about what sort of directions we'd like to go in, I should be able to do some more focused stuff.

Enjoy :D

[Cheeseness]

General consensus seems to be that the "squareheads" are the most interesting charcter style. These could be used with any scenario (the characters could be themed, or they could be a mish-mash of different time periods/anachronisms), so there are still decisions to be made on that front.

Feedback on the environment sketches have been positive as well, but those don't robustly define a visual style. I'll look at putting together some more concept stuff later this month that explores our options here, focusing on characatured representations which would work well with the square headed characters.