BeatBox

[Will T.]

From January until just a couple of weeks ago, I spent 2 to 8 hours of every day working on a single project for a course at school, in addition to normal life and my other coursework. That project is BeatBox, a game powered by DigiPen's internal "Zero" game engine (which is like Unity, but cleaner). I was asked by my instructor to submit it for inclusion in the DigiPen Game Gallery, which is pretty rare for solo efforts from my understanding. All that hard work paid off it seems! (I aced the class I built it for as well! )

A brief description, pulled from the game gallery page:

BeatBox is a game for 1 to 4 players. You are dropped atop a neon-lit cube which will flip and change color in time with the thumping soundtrack, summoning simple yet potent baddies with each flip. Beware as the cube may reveal a few hidden tricks as the action speeds up! Go it alone or grab some friends so you can work together to survive, compete for a high score, or simply see who can last the longest. Cooperation or competition? You decide!

I'm extremely excited (and surprised) that I managed to make a game entirely solo that was deemed worthy of the school's public showcase. Even more exciting is that I've heard whispers that it might be in the running for a front-page feature on the gallery - an honor given to games like Narbacular Drop (a.k.a. Portal before it was Portal) - and a spot at DigiPen's PAX booth this summer. I've even heard tell that it may be considered for submission to the Independent Games Festival - a lot of top-ranking student projects at this school go to IGF each year, but I never expected one I made alone to have a shot at it! Needless to say I'm slightly excited.
Nothing's decided yet, and the game only officially went public today, but I'll be watching the school's information channels closely in the coming weeks and months for updates.

Check it out here!

Trailer:

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Screenshots:

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Some notes about it before playing:

- This game features a lot of brightly-flashing lights, which get faster as the gameplay gets faster. It's not quite Beat Hazard, especially at lower gameplay speeds, but it can get quite flashy. Be mindful of this when playing in the presence of those known to have adverse effects to such things. (The game will also warn you about this itself at startup.)
- Sometimes the splash sequence lags on first startup for some reason. I don't know why this is, because the game itself runs fine afterward, and restarting the game causes the splash sequence to run at full speed.
- This game is designed for use with 1 to 4 Xbox 360 gamepads, but there are top-secret unlisted keyboard controls for single-player (originally used simply for easy on-the-go testing, but I left them in because why not). They are as follows:

VIEW CONTENT:

-- WASD - Move; Navigate main menu
-- Spacebar - Jump (twice for double-jump)
-- Shift - Push attack
-- Enter - Replaces the Start button on a 360 pad
-- Backspace - Replaces the Back button on a 360 pad
-- Esc - Quit from the splash screen; Pause/Unpause during gameplay (Enter also pauses/unpauses)

- The in-game music (not the title/menu theme) is generated procedurally as the game is running. I'm actually quite proud of this as I did it entirely by trial and error (I am not a programmer by a longshot - this game is built entirely using Python scripting), and the result sounds great IMO!


I just wanted to share this as it's been a big part of why I haven't had much time to game on the Ville yet this year, and I want to share the end result of this long and busy process with the wider world. Plus a little self-advertising never hurts, right?

Questions? Feedback? I'd love to hear what people think!

[Zork Nemesis]

I played it for a bit. It's fun, simple, and quick; my games hardly lasted longer than three minutes (except the times when I ramped it up to 900 BPM, try five seconds). The hazards of the cubes aren't that challenging, the red "bombs" face is probably the hardest because of the unpredictability, but I notice that the explosions have no vertical height, meaning all you have to do to dodge is jump. The Platforms Event caught me off guard a couple times too; ended up trapped under one with the yellow face in effect. Sadly I don't have anyone to play with but the multiplayer aspect of the game looks like it would be a good, quick party game.

For a one-person project, this is still pretty impressive and that is one catchy beat. I've got to ask though, is it finished? I feel like there's potential for more hazards or gameplay mechanics down the road, maybe I didn't see them (it kept giving me Plus) but some events I could see: have it extend the corner blocks of the cube by one or two blocks, or make it function like a Rubik's Cube where only a third of the cube rotates for a short while.

Also have to ask, was this inspired in any way by the various "beat block" stages of the Mario games? I get a serious Beat Block Galaxy vibe from the music and mechanics.

[Will T.]

For a one-person project, this is still pretty impressive and that is one catchy beat. I've got to ask though, is it finished? I feel like there's potential for more hazards or gameplay mechanics down the road, maybe I didn't see them (it kept giving me Plus) but some events I could see: have it extend the corner blocks of the cube by one or two blocks, or make it function like a Rubik's Cube where only a third of the cube rotates for a short while.

As of now, it's considered finished as the class I built it for is finished. That doesn't rule out revisiting it at a later date though, especially since a lot of features I had planned didn't make it in due to time constraints. One of the biggest things I had to drop that I may want to add later was the "Mystery Mode" event, in which the flip direction and upcoming color of the cube would be unknown before the cube flipped. There were also a couple of ideas for cube faces that were never implemented.

There are currently a total of four events that can occur (technically five, but one simply undoes another):
- Plus Mode: The cube becomes a + shape (this is always followed by the "Rebuild" event, which returns the cube to normal)
- Platforms: Small platforms spawn in semi-random positions around the play area, changing with each flip and sometimes bringing power-ups or enemies
- Power-Up Frenzy: Nine power-ups spawn at once, remaining active until picked up or two additional flips have taken place (I can't remember 100%, but I believe this one is prevented from occurring if random-spawning power-ups are disabled for the current match)
- Mega Rotation: The cube spins at double speed when flipping, giving it a lot of extra flinging force

Also have to ask, was this inspired in any way by the various "beat block" stages of the Mario games? I get a serious Beat Block Galaxy vibe from the music and mechanics.

The Beat Block stages were a definite inspiration from the start. There was also some influence from Sonic Lost World, which features an endgame stage with a very basic "knock enemies off of a cube-shaped platform to survive" concept (albeit a very poorly executed one for a variety of reasons ).

[The Domer]

Your skills are progressing, young padawan. Soon you will be hired by Valve and you can kick their asses into gear and starting programming HL3.

[Will T.]

I've just been told that this game was selected by the school for submission to Indiecade! Exciting stuff! I've never had a game I worked on go to a competition before, so I really have no idea what this means going forward. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on what's going on, and sharing it here if anyone is interested.