Charting the games universe with indie game veterans Omni Systems

Intro

This edition:

• Bioframe Snap - hacking a cozy photography game
• Game dev feature - Push Your Stats! (BOuNCY GrEnAdeS edition)
• Steam review scores - how are they calculated?
• Plus lots more!

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News

Omni Systems News

We have released more Eufloria content! We made a new arena level for Eufloria Classic which offers hugely diverse procedural elements, making it much more replayable than other arena levels.

Each time the level is loaded there will be a different shape to the levels, a big change in asteroid numbers and stats, a randomised starting asteroid with extremely diverse stats and unit numbers, and several optional win conditions. In other words, you never know what you goan’ get. Like… err… a box of chocolates?

You can grab it via our modding drive, which you can find HERE.

First Look at: Bioframe Snap

Last time we promised a closer look at the Bioframe Snap project, which is turning into something really interesting. We will do a few features on it soon, but for now here is a first look, exclusive to our subscribers.

Here is the background, explained by Rudolf:

And the result is called Bioframe Snap; a cozy photography Metroidbrania. Here is a first look video talking about some aspects of this strange concoction.

Other News

Eufloria Classic Patch

We released a patch for Eufloria Classic with some nice new content and fixes, including new levels that bring some new types of gameplay to Eufloria.

Grab it here.

Feature

Gamedev tip of the month - Push your stats!

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We mention the value of data driven game development earlier in our monthly feature, and to carry on this theme we’d like to share a specific way to use this concept.

Most game entities are subject to countless stats, variables and value ranges, governing anything from environmental aspects, creature behaviours, game balance and so on.

A lot of devs focus a lot of time on making these work harmoniously to serve the overall game design. That is normal gamedev procedure. However, in this focus it is easy to miss opportunities for improving your game by doing the exact opposite: namely through deliberate unbalancing and disruption, via aggressive stat manipulation.

Some examples

• Try to give a creature a ridiculous jump height
• Removing almost all gravity
• Invert a character’s self-healing ability
• Increase the amount of bounce of some objects by an insane amount

That last example is a real world example. We did exactly this to add a massive dose of fun to our game Bioframe Outpost. Specifically, bouncy grenades. We made an interesting video that goes into some real detail on how this works, and is part of an ongoing series on gamedev tips and ideas. Watch it here.​

In Conclusion
​Try these kinds of things, they will almost certainly lead to some of the most-liked features that your game ships with. And the reason is that games need personality and quirk to make them feel worth spending time with.

And those qualities are much easier to find by pushing stats to experiment and try ridiculous ideas.

Gamedev Resources Roundup

Devtalk - How are Steam review scores calculated?

Indie devs are massively impacted by Steam’s review scores. The difference between a mixed and positive rating (let alone overwhelmingly positive) is night and day, and can make or break a game.

So, it is pretty important to know how they work. Well, we found out and wrote a blog post about it. Have a look here:

​Steam Review Scores Explained​

Game Feel & How to Improve It

“Game Feel” is one of the most important yet misunderstood concepts in game dev. This is made worse by the fact that it is a TERRIBLE term, open to interpretation, with a massively broad range of applications.

On the other hand it is really simple if you think of it in practical terms. Here is how I think of it:

Game Feel is the extra layer of polish and juice applied on top of the functional implementation of game systems, in order to make them FEEL good.this can be character movement, weapons response, sound effect polish, screen shake, and countless other areas where a game already “works mechanically” but does nothing extra to make it feel inherently rewarding. But as always, definitions are not that helpful without practical application, and with that in mind I would like to share this rather handy resource.

So, courtesy of Sébastien Benard, lead dev/designer of Dead Cells, have a look at this free online Game Feel showcase game, that lets you add/remove specific implementations of the concept to understand what they do.

Try it, it’s an eye opener! Online Demo

There is also a handy video on the Design Diary channel about the subject that uses this same demo to make its points. You can watch it here.​
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This is of course just one lens that applies to platform games. There are countless others. It's easy enough to search online and find examples, but here is as good a starting point as any: Beginner’s guide to game feel.​

Grab Bag

What we’ve been watching/playing

A shout out to the exemplary indie dev Locomalito, who has been making free retro inspired indie games for the longest time now, and has been doing so with utmost dedication to quality and authenticity.

Feast on his immense catalogue here.

Sign Off

“ An optimist is nothing but a badly informed pessimist. — Rudolf Kremers