#winnitron

[andymakesgames]

Creating The DreamBoxXx: A Queer Winnitron

This past Saturday was the launch of The DreamBoxXx, an arcade machine by Death By Audio Arcade that will live at Dreamhouse, an amazing queer events space in Brooklyn. You can read more about that event and see some fantastic photos by Walter Wlodarczyk in this Gothamist article.

(Photo by Walter Wlodarczyk)

This was our first multi-pack arcade cabinet. The rest of our machines run a dedicated game, but this one had 9 games by different devs! I took on the task of creating a Winnitron-style launcher that would act as a game-select as well as managing the task of opening and closing the games. I’d talked about making something like this for ages, insisting that it would be easy in C++. As usual, this task was much more difficult than I assumed, but I am very happy with the finished product. I’ll go into more detail below, but the software the computer runs is a combination of an openFrameworks app and several AutoHotkey scripts along with a lot of settings adjustments to the Windows 10 OS.

Before I dive in, I want to acknowledge that this was a hugely collaborative project and I am thankful to so many people for making this go from a wild idea to a finished arcade cabinet with 9 original games in just a few weeks. I was lucky enough to be one of the organizers along with Ayla Myers. Together, we contacted local, queer devs and asked them to make a game in three weeks. All of them knocked it out of the goddamn park. Mark Kleback and Kyle Magocs handled the construction and hardware, making use of materials found around the venue (I am in love with the mirrored acrylic and pleather that they used). And Dreamhouse, the venue where the machine now lives provided a fantastic home and opening party.

The collection of games on the finished machine blew me away. You can read a bit about the curation in this Bedford & Bowery article. I was thrilled to have such a top-notch collection of designers lend their time to this project.

(Raunchy Fest XXX by Fernando Ramallo. Photo by Walter Wlodarczyk)

I want to talk about the software launcher & computer setup I created for this cabinet, but you should absolutely head over to The Dreamhouse to play these games.

OK, so besides asking a bunch of super talented devs to make games for use, my big role in making this cabinet was creating the launcher software that lives on it and allows people to select what game they want to play. That’s what I’ll be talking about in this post.

The Console

Before any work was done on the launcher, I helped to design the unique console layout that became the “theme” for the devs to work around: each player has a joystick and two buttons, but there is also a large, shared button in the center. It was up to the devs to decide how they wanted to use this button, but we asked that they incorporate it into the game in some way.

Here’s the image we sent to the devs:

This did not change throughout the (admittedly brief) development time of the arcade and it freed up the remaining keys to act as system functions for the arcade machine. It was important to determine early on which keys would have game function and which could be used for the system.

Planning the Launcher

The goal for the launcher was that it would be an interactive menu to let users select games. It would be able to launch the game and when a certain button was pressed, close the game and return itself to the screen. I had started to build something like this a few years ago for a different project and had a sense of how to use C++ to launch exes on a Windows computer, so I decided to go with openFrameworks for the application.

The basic layout didn’t change too much. We were inspired by the Winnitron as well as MAME arcade cabinets. We knew the devs would have to provide us with an icon, a screenshot and a brief description of the game. We didn’t want to add much of a burden when they were already on a tight timeline, but that felt like a reasonable ask.

I did know that I wanted to have a little waviness for the text. There was no strong reason besides liking the aesthetic and feeling that it was appropriate for the project.

I started prototyping this wireframe in openFrameworks while also making test functions that launched specific programs on my computer.

At this point, I also got to come up with a bunch of placeholder games.

Launching an Exe

Here is the C++ code I wound up using to launch the executables. It takes advantage of the ShellExecute command which lets a program directly interact with the command line.

https://gist.github.com/andymasteroffish/8dd5c1370b6f8de490cc49679717e191

This code also makes sure the launcher application is no longer full screened so as not to cover up whatever is being launched. And if a certain flag is present, it will kill the launcher entirely. I actually wound up using this option on the final build because there were some edge cases where multiple instances of the launcher would be running.

Launching a Web Page

Early on in the process one of the devs asked if it would be OK if they made a web game instead of an exe. Like a fool, I said this would be no issue, locking myself in to adding a lot of functionality to the launcher. I’m glad I did though because we got several fantastic web games out of the project. The issues around this mostly occurred on the AutoHotkey level which I’ll cover in a second, but it did require a slightly different launch function.

https://gist.github.com/andymasteroffish/5a3ed9c787bf46fff46a22b2dc6e45e7

This one still uses ShellExecute, but it relies on the OS’s ability to open webpages in the default browser. All I had to do was set my browser (Firefox) to be the system default and I was good to go.

I made sure to tell the devs that even if these games ran in a browser, they needed to be able to run offline.

AutoHotkey

The launcher was starting the games just fine, but I needed a way to get back to the launcher once a user was done playing a particular game. Once I realized I could not easily return focus to my launcher in C++ (although I am sure it is possible), AutoHotkey was my next choice. We’ve used AutoHotkey in a lot of our arcade machines in order to launch a game at startup or to have a specific keypress reset that game. I’d never done too much with it, but I knew AutoHotkey would be a good tool for this. After a lot of experimentation, I would up with a script that does the following:

1. Launches the launcher app on startup.

2. When K is pressed, kills all windows and restarts the launcher. Originally, the script kept the launcher open but it was eventually more stable to just restart it every time.

3. Move the mouse every so often and click the center of the screen. 

This last feature was added because some of the Unity games would lose focus if users button-mashed while the game was loading (and users will button mash arcade buttons), but clicking in the center of the screen would let the Unity window respond to keystrokes again.

The kill key was the critical one. The two menu buttons on top of the console were mapped to K. Besides returning to the launcher menu, this acted as an out in case a system window popped up or anything became frozen (including the launcher). Because it killed every window, it would basically reset the computer and reopen the launcher, which was exactly what we wanted. This solution may seem nuclear (and it may be) but it makes the machine very robust as the menu button will solve most problems it can encounter. If something goes wrong, most users will eventually press this button.

You can view the full AutoHotkey script here: https://gist.github.com/andymasteroffish/a9db6946f83aa348a55e8ca263b3830c

It should be noted that this was my first big AutoHotkey project and as such I am basically on script-kiddie level. I am sure this is bad code, but it worked.

Background

As things started to come together, we had to start thinking of what this thing would actually look like. I was bouncing around some ideas for a pixel art background with Ayla on Slack and we pretty quickly nixed that for a simple rainbow background. Why be subtle when we were already strapping mirrored acrylic to the side of the machine?

An afternoon of tweaking later and I had a rainbow pattern that slid into place as the user switched games. I threw in some exponential smoothing to give it a slight sense of depth; the streaks at the top are thinner than those at the bottom. Simple, but feeling good!

Customization

I knew that many aspects of the launcher would need to be editable without having to make a new build. If nothing else, we needed to be able to edit the info about the games. I am a big fan of being able to store and change settings on installation projects at runtime anyway, so I set the launcher to read from two XML files: one for the games and one for settings.

For the game-info file, I took all of the info the devs provided us with and grouped it so the launcher could easily read it all in and load the right images for the icon and screenshot. Doing this in an external file also made it easy to update the builds of those games.

The settings file just took every aspect of the launcher’s aesthetics that we might want to tweak and stored them in an external file to be loaded on start. This included the fonts, the colors, the size and location of elements.

This is something I highly recommend doing for any projects that will need to live in a space. I breathe a sight of relief every time I can fix something by changing a line in an XML file on the target device rather than having to make a new build on my main computer.

We wound up switching around the fonts, colors & layout, settling on a darker color scheme that would look better in the dimly lit space.

Web Games

Getting the web games to work became the last big challenge. It was easy enough to get them to open, but neither Chrome nor Firefox had an option to open in fullscreen mode with the menus hidden. On my own computer, this plugin worked for Firefox, but it was failing about 50% of the time on the computer in the arcade machine.

I finally decided that AutoHotkey would be my best solution. After an afternoon of trying different solutions, I hammered together a script that looks for a window named “Mozilla Firefox” being launched and then sends an F11 keypress (F11 being the toggle-fullscreen command). It then waits until the window closes before falling back into the first loop of checking for Firefox being opened. I had to have it idle while Firefox was open because sending more than one F11 keystroke would just make the window flip between fullscreen and windowed.

https://gist.github.com/andymasteroffish/4112ded0ef32aa4be0e33c1f17ad272b

Prepping the Machine

With everything ready to go and the games starting to come in from the devs, I had to setup the computer that would actually live inside the arcade. This meant putting the launcher and all of the games on it & having the two AutoHotkey scripts run on startup as well as making a lot of changes to Windows to let it run smoothly as an installation.

This was going to live in the Dreamhouse, which is an active and busy space. They run events every night and don’t have time to tend to our arcade so it needed to be as bulletproof as possible. The goal was to just need them to plug it in and have it handle the rest automatically. This meant disabling any type of pop-ups from Windows or any other software as well as setting the computer to turn itself on and off at set times. Modern operating systems are truly not designed to do just one thing and tend to bombard users with updates and other "helpful” features that will interrupt the task at hand.

I decided to make a separate post detailing this process because it could be relevant to lots of devs doing exhibition work. You can read that guide here: http://andymakesgames.tumblr.com/post/174405591304/prepping-a-windows-10-computer-to-be-a

I want to give credit to this post by  Eva Schindling. We’ve been using it for years at DBAA, and the guide I made is mostly just a Windows 10 update to it.

Desktop Hack

While testing the launcher with my partner, Jane Friedhoff, she mentioned that having the launcher exit itself made it look like the whole system had crashed. There would be a few seconds where the launcher had closed but the game had not started yet. We needed a loading screen.

She had the idea of simply changing the desktop background to be a loading screen. The AutoHotkey script made sure that nothing else was open so the desktop would be the only thing visible. I made some quick edits to an event banner that Ayla had made and we had our new desktop. This worked liked a charm and during the opening party several people asked me how I had it display a loading message in between the games.

If you look closely at the photo at the top of this post, you can see some folders and icons on the screen. Game design is all smoke and mirrors

Party

When all was said and done, Dreamhouse threw an amazing party and the machine was being played through the night and into the morning. There were some last minute changes at the start of the night, but after that it kept steady and performed without crashing until I left around 4AM.

The following pictures were all taken by Walter Wlodarczyk, who spent the night shooting amazing photos. You can see more in the Gothamist article linked at the top of this post.

The Games

I would be remiss to not mention all of the amazing games you can play on this machine. The game descriptions are the ones provided by the game makers for the arcade machine.

Dream Hard by Robert Yang - A queer brawler defense game. Defend the Dreamhouse from thinly-veiled white supremacists, and look great while doing it.

Argpongi by Ayla Myers - A two player competitive game of pong, complete with experience points, gold, leveling up, units, buildings, upgrades, classes, and more!

queerspace? by Eddie Cameron - Welcome to the Forbidden Zone. Fuck something.

Safe Space by Elana Bell Bogdan - A game of cooperation and community in outer space

Conspiracy Theories About Myself by Juno McClure with music by Josie Brechner - A game about self-acceptance and navigating social anxiety. Cooperative game for two players (or one talented multitasker).

OrbTown by Juno McClure & Josie Brechner - A frenzied 2-player game of transposed identities that rewards subterfuge.

A Day At The Beach by Nicole Leffel - cute and relaxing, feat. background art by Bailey Steele

Raunchy Fest XXX by Fernando Ramallo - everyone here is so delicious / everyone smells so good / binge on their sweaty bodies / indulge on their filthy essence / keep walking around / there's more to feast on

The Local Informant by Haitham Ennasr - Now that Donald Trump is President, is Bill Maher still going on how dangerous Muslims are or did he find a new minority to attack?

Thanks to the huge number of people who helped make DreamBoxXx a reality!

[amymja]

I forgot to make a post earlier but a couple weeks ago Winnipeg’s annual game jam took place. I participated and got to make the poster for the event. This year @graebor and I decided to make a racing game, since we hadn’t yet attempted something like that. You can play it here but unless you have a Winnitron at your disposal, the controls are pretty awkward. Awesome music done by Justin Koop.

[duneworldcollective]

Alex, Jeff, and Mike would fortunate enough to be able to participate in the Winnitron Game Jam to create this neat little survival shooter. 

We’re going to have a behind the scenes look at the Game Jam and the creation of “Zono Blast” within a few days so stay tuned for that.

Arrow Keys to move, Z to shoot, and hold down X to strafe in a straight line.

[thinkradstudios]

#incomingFax SpaceRace launch party video

[mrmwiebe]

Finished the marquee for the Halifaxmachine last night.  I'd say it's lookin' pretty boss. :)

[paladinstudios]

Jimmy Pataya Multiplayer – Live Dev Blog

We are working on a multiplayer version of Jimmy Pataya, deadline this afternoon. We are liveblogging the progress.

The Idea

The goal is to make a multiplayer version of Jimmy Pataya for the Winnitron. Today we have an open house for the CabFab (our HQ) and we thought we needed a nice showcase for theWinnitron arcade cabinet we pieced together a couple of months ago. And what would be more awesome than Jimmy Pataya multiplayer?

The idea is to dodge blades and get as far as possible while blocking your opponent. All that on the good old Palatron cabinet, with old-fashioned joysticks.

Update 1: Getting Started

We started with the idea yesterday afternoon. Niels got started right away with a splitscreen multiplayer mode to see where this would go. Turns out, it is awesome. That’s when we decided to go for it. Here is a screenshot of the initial multiplayer mode in action:

Jimmy is created with 2D sprites in a 3D world. This works pretty well in single player mode, it seems almost 3D. In multiplayer mode, you can clearly see that it’s a paper-thin model. There’s not much time left – our deadline is today 2pm – but we decided to make a 3D model out of Jimmy.

Here’s Jimmy, Tim and Benjamin (our artists) working on that:

It needs a 3D model, UV map, texture, rig, and animations. I hope we’ll get it done today :)

Update 2: 3D model in the game

11:05. We have the 3D model in the game, and are working on the start and finish screens.

The Winnitron is eagerly waiting…

Update 3: Ragdoll Physics!

11:30. YES. YES. YES.

Update 4: Bringing it together

12:48. The clock is ticking, and we need to bring things together now. The ragdolls are working nicely, and the 3D models are done (including some animations). The sprint to the finish line starts – so we need to focus for a bit ;-)

However in the meantime, here is the logo and the official name: Jimmy vs Jimmy. (That’s a hat tip to our friends from Vlambeer who created Super Crate Box versus for the Winnitron)

Update 5: …..aaaand it’s live!

(14:00-15:00) Ladies and gentlemen, we present: Jimmy Demeza!

You can check it out live at the Caballero Fabriek in Den Haag. This afternoon there is an open house – so feel free to drop by! :)

Stay tuned for updates! We will post updates today as we progress. All updates will be added to this blog post. The deadline is 2pm so I will post a video of the game in action when people are playing it. Be sure to follow @paladinstudios on Twitter so you can see the latest news.Ca

[thesufferingtiesthatbind-blog]

o cemitério dos fliperamas.

[andymakesgames]

For the past few weeks I’ve been working on a Winnitron-style arcade launcher for the next Death By Audio Arcade project: The DreamboxXx!

This arcade machine is a collaborating with The Dreamhosue, a queer arts and event space in NYC, where it will live.

The launcher was written in openFrameworks and interacts with an autohotkey script to manages all of the windows.

We invited a bunch of queer devs and the games look AMAZING!

We’ll be launching it this Saturday so you should come out!

https://withfriends.co/event/269032/dbaa_x_dreamhouse_ova_the_rainbow

https://www.facebook.com/events/103111567237372/

Games by: BelladonnaGable visagermusic SubjectiveIdeal eddiecameron radiatoryang e_n_n_a_s_r bridgs_dev compositeredfox devilherdue

[quote-un-quote]

The Last and Final Word: Andrew Brophy

Andrew Brophy is a promising young independent videogame developer from the land down under. He might be remembered for his quirky 3d platformer, Takishawa is Dead. He is part of the ever-increasing wave of experienced Game Maker developers to turn their attentions to Flash development.

Bonus link at the end of the interview.

Age?

Just over eighteen.

Location?

Melbourne, Australia

Development tool(s) of choice?

I've been using Game Maker since I was about eleven, but within the past year or so, I've started working with Flash (although I haven't finished anything major with it, yet).

What do you do?

Surprisingly not that much. Education-wise, I dropped out of high school a few years ago and on the work side of things, well, yeah. 

How were you introduced to game development?

I used to play this computer game called Heroes of Might and Magic 3 when I was pretty young, and those games are pretty good to the player in terms of custom maps, which was always fun to mess around with. I think it was that, combined with just a general want of making games that got me into searching the internet for something that could do this. I remember coming across RPG Maker, which I made quite a few (bad... oh so bad) games with. The novelty wore off pretty fast though.

A year or so later, I was reading this game magazine that used to be around which occasionally featured a CD with programs and games and all that business. One of the issues happened to have Game Maker on it, so from then on I just used it whenever I could until I got better.

It wasn't until 2008 that I found a whole community of game developers and things just really started to take off.

What are your goals and aspirations as a game developer?

Make a living, maybe? Personally, I think that's just a pipe dream, but I would definitely do it if I could.

You think it's a pipe dream for what reason exactly? Lack of opportunities? 

It's probably self-depreciating, but I just have this feeling I couldn't make enough of an income to support myself on releasing games alone. Sure, I'm probably going to try, but I don't see myself succeeding.

Having not released any projects for quite sometime, do you feel the need to prove to yourself that you can release something with more content (or that is more ambitious) then previous endeavours?

I think I have to up my game (ha... ha... ha...) in terms of quality, but since I last released something, I have gotten way better at developing games. I think my standards have just been raised in the last year or so, making me a lot more fickle with what I release.

Does that also mean you're a lot more fickle in terms of what you choose to actually develop?

I guess so. I've shot down a lot of ideas for games that I've tried out, and only went for the ones that could turn into something worthwhile (in my eyes, anyway).

Do you have trouble keeping yourself motivated?

Not at all! If I have just a small amount of caffeine, I can stay up all night working on something. I don't really do that too often though. I've really gotten into writing down ideas while I'm away from my computer. Never realised how much it helps until recently.

When nothing gets released for a lengthy period of time, do you feel like you have fallen into a 'development rut'?

In a sense, sure. I mean, I sorta felt like I lost whatever relevance I had to indie gaming scene a while ago, but hey, I'm getting the occasional email (or message on forums / twitter) asking if I'm working on something, and I'm even getting interviewed as we speak, so I'm not totally forgotten.

Does that relevance mean a lot to you? It almost sounds like you'd like to start fresh.

I'd kinda like it if people would remember me from some of the games I did so they can see how I've changed, 'cause I think the style I have for myself now is pretty different from my earlier projects. I'm not ashamed of anything I've released though, so I see no need for a complete fresh start.

How did CowboyKilla come to be selected for the Winnitron AU?

I know the guy who is making it, so after an email, it was kinda set in stone. It all depends on who you know, I guess.

You mentioned in a blog post that you had a new game coming out that you were actually proud of - what does it take to make you 'proud' of what you've developed?

The majority of the games I've made aren't really something I'd play myself, so something that I'd be proud of would be something I would find fun. Again, I have pretty high standards, though, so this would probably be a problem...

Are you a concept art kind of developer (do you draw and write or just write down the nuts and bolts of how the game mechanic will work on screen)?

A mix of both, really. I'll write down ideas like items that you'd have or what kind of enemies there are, as well as drawing character ideas and things like that. I sometimes draw the game screen as well and try and figure out how the whole thing would work out.

There seems I've noticed a large trend of developers, especially former Game Maker developers, turning their attention to flash + Flixel / FlashPunk. What was the attraction for you?

I think it may have been a mix of reaching out to a wider audience and also just the idea of trying something new, personally. The idea of possibly earning something after all these years of making games doesn't sound too bad either.

Which one are you currently using - Flixel or FlashPunk?

I'm using FlashPunk, currently. I tried out Flixel a while ago, but I feel FP is a lot more easier for me to grasp (I'm kinda awful with anything that leans towards actual coding languages).

Most of your released projects so far seem to be of the arcade shooter / platformer variety. Are these the genres you tend to be drawn to?

They're the easiest games for me to get done, so I guess? I really like how the whole formula of how they work (from a player's perspective), so I guess the same applies when making them. 

Immediate plans for the future - are you planning to chase up sponsorship for any of your current projects?

I've got at least two games that I want to put up for sponsorship as of right now. I'm still kinda deciding where I want to take them though, so it'll probably be a while before they see the light of day. I would really love to pitch an idea to Adult Swim at some point, so I think I'm gonna work on that a little more, too. I guess that's not too immediate though.

Bonus link: Work In Progress screenshots.

[hyperstick]

Winnitron 1000 FTW!

If you're reading this blog, chances are you like video games. Most gamers are content with the next Gears of War - but a lot of you REALLY like games and see past the big budget titles. You would rather play Moon Diver instead of another round of Call of Duty. Instead of wasting your money on Homefront, you happily give your money over to games like Bullet Soul and Sword & Sworcery.

And if you dive even deeper into gaming, you will eventually discover indy games.

Along comes Bit Collective with the Winnitron 1000 arcade cab. The Winnitron 1000 is a free-to-play arcade cabinet designed to showcase the awesomeness of indy gaming - all in an effort to inspire more indy developers to create more indy games. It's a never ending cycle of winning.

The Winnitron 1000 magically tours the Earth, visiting shows like PAX and the upcoming No Quarter show in NYC this week. If you happen to be in the area, stop by and check it out.

It's an arcade full of awesome games you never played before - and it's FREE. Stop being stupid.

[thinkradstudios]

connor #yolo

[thinkradstudios]

New parts of the 'FaxMachine 5005 have been teleported in from space. It is beginning to take on its true form...

[thinkradstudios]

Work on the HALIFAXMACHINE 5005, Halifax's first Winnitron, continues. We rescued it from Ryan's basement and got it partially assembled in the brozone lair today. Next steps: painting on some sweet gfx, gettin' a computer in there, writing the new launcher software, playing endless nidhogg. 

We're gonna be launching this in Halifax the weekend of Feburary 21st - keep yr ears open

[paladinstudios]

Jimmy Pataya Multiplayer – Live Dev Blog

We are working on a multiplayer version of Jimmy Pataya, deadline this afternoon. I am liveblogging the progress.

The Idea

The goal is to make a multiplayer version of Jimmy Pataya for the Winnitron. Today we have an open house for the CabFab (our HQ) and we thought we needed a nice showcase for theWinnitron arcade cabinet we pieced together a couple of months ago. And what would be more awesome than Jimmy Pataya multiplayer?

The idea is to dodge blades and get as far as possible while blocking your opponent. All that on the good old Palatron cabinet, with old-fashioned joysticks.

Update 1: Getting Started

We started with the idea yesterday afternoon. Niels got started right away with a splitscreen multiplayer mode to see where this would go. Turns out, it is awesome. That’s when we decided to go for it. Here is a screenshot of the initial multiplayer mode in action:

Jimmy is created with 2D sprites in a 3D world. This works pretty well in single player mode, it seems almost 3D. In multiplayer mode, you can clearly see that it’s a paper-thin model. There’s not much time left – our deadline is today 2pm – but we decided to make a 3D model out of Jimmy.

Here’s Jimmy, Tim and Benjamin (our artists) working on that:

It needs a 3D model, UV map, texture, rig, and animations. I hope we’ll get it done today :)

Stay tuned for updates! We will post updates today as we progress. All updates will be added to this blog post. The deadline is 2pm so I will post a video of the game in action when people are playing it. Be sure to follow @paladinstudios on Twitter so you can see the latest news.

[paladinstudios]

Unveiling The Palatron!

Howdy folks! Today is the big day that the Palatron will be unveiled. This afternoon, dozens of fine folks from several creative industries in The Hague will join us for some coffee and a beer. All that to witness the official opening of The Hague’s very own Winnitron 1000!

For all you people living under a rock, the Winnitron is an arcade cabinet with new-skool indie games. It is stuffed with brilliant contemporary gaming gems from all over the world.

The past days have been hectic and we barely met the deadline. But we made it, and these pictures tell it all!

Look, here it is all painted and shiny:

Hmm, still missing a control panel though. I’ve seen it around here somewhere… Ah! Niels is playing with it:

Niels, stop that! You’re supposed to be applying T-molding.

That’s better. Keep up the good work!

Wow! Great stuff guys! Still no controls though. Where’s Tijmen? He’s great with that sort of thing. TIJMEN!!!

Great, guys. Get wiring.

Looking good! Meanwhile in the arcade cabinet…

Niels is making nice progress with the hardware, and small wonder…

He brought his father for backup :-). At this point Tijmen and Guido decided to have some sort of tea party:

After that it was assemblytime!

First a nice glass plate to protect the monitor:

And, of course, the controls!

Niels’ mom also tagged along for that finishing touch :-)

Let’s fire it up!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand…

IT’S WORKING! IT’S WORKING!!!

And there you have it. Our Palatron.

You’ll notice we left in the coin drop-system. We thought it would be nice to maintain a retro-look and figured the coin-drop would help achieve that (don’t worry it’s not operative, you won’t have to pay squat to play the Palatron). We also left this sticker on the back for the same reason:

So everyone can see that it used to be a Mortal Kombat cabinet.

So, the Palatron is finished. Well, it almost is. We still plan to add some graphics to make it even prettier. But we’re officially unveiling it this afternoon. Want to come play it? I, personally, accept all challenges to a game of Super Crate Box. And Fabian claims he can defeat anyone in a game of Nidhogg.

Come and have a beer with us and play the Palatron. You can register for the unveiling event here. Or you can just swing by at your leisure :-)

Now, if you’ll excuse me, Fabian has challenged me to a game of Nidhogg.

Cheers!

Peter

[quote-un-quote]

The Last and Final Word: Noel Berry

Noel Berry is a young independent game developer. He played a part in the the creation of the Winnitron (an independent gaming arcade cabinet) and co-founded Bit Collective (the group that developed it). He is full of enthusiasm and ready to jump into a huge ocean of big fish.

Bonus link to a couple of in development videogame snaps at the end of the interview.

Age?

I am 18 years old, and turning 19 in January.

Location?

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Development tool(s) of choice?

It depends what I'm working on, but for the last two years or so I have been using Flash Develop, FlashPunk (which is more of a library), GraphicsGale, Photoshop, and SFXR.

How did you get into game development?

I can't really remember the first time I started making games. I had always loved to make board games, draw maps, and play video games for as long as I can remember, and I believe it was when I was about 9 years old that my dad introduced me to programming and game development. He really liked working with computers and knew a thing or two about building simple games and programs. He thought that since I liked video games so much I may also like to create them.

At the time, being only 9, programming was way over my head, so eventually he got me set up with RPG Maker, and I fiddled around with that for a few years. When I was 12 we decided to search around for some new game creation tools, and found Game Maker. From there I've been making games non-stop for the last 6 years, experimenting in different programs and languages (from Game Maker, to AS3, to C#, to some C++).

Both you and your brother Liam are game developers and you seem to collaborate quite a lot. Did you both become interested in game development at the same time? Are you both interested in trying to do the 'full time indie' thing?

When I started making games in Game Maker I was 12 and my brother was only 10, and at the time he didn't have much interest in game development at all. I think it was almost 3 years before he started to become really interested and we began teaming up to create games. When we first started I would always do the programming, and he would always do the art and music. Prior to working with my brother, none of my games had any music.

The first game that we made together and finished was a game called ChimpVenture. That was a giant project for the both of us and it took almost 4 months to finish - something that was really hard to accomplish for us at 16 and 14. This was the first game my brother tried to write the music for, and it didn't turn out all that well. He got a lot of pretty harsh comments for it, but over the last few years I think he's really improved.

Currently, I fully intend to become a full time independent game developer. I'm not exactly sure when I decided, but over the last few years the more I make games the more I enjoy doing so. Liam, though he really loves to develop games, also has other things he enjoys doing which he may peruse instead of, or alongside, game development. To be honest, I don't think he has fully decided yet.

What are your goals and aspirations as a game developer?

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what goals I have as a game developer. I make games because I truly enjoy doing so, and on a given day I'll feel like making something very different than any other day. I suppose I'm a bit unfocused in that sense. I never really figure out the goals of a project, or what I want out of making a particular game. I more or less just go “Oh man, wouldn't it be awesome if this and that were happening in a game? I've got to try prototyping this thing!”. I then spend the next little while doing so, and those either turn into horrible experiments that I hide in the depths of my computer, or fun little games that I expand upon.

Do you feel that wanting to different projects on any given day is a weakness as a developer? 

I definitely think this can be a weakness at times, and really depends on the project I'm currently working on. It seems to me, that, the older I get, the more I'm able to concentrate on a single project for a longer amount of time. It wasn't that long ago that I could only spend about a week or two on a game at most before becoming bored and uninterested in the project.

However, the more I make games and become further experienced in the process, the more I feel like I'm able to spend time on a single project. Most of my games are starting to turn into projects that last several months now, instead of a few days or weeks. I have a few projects that I've been working on (on and off) for about 4 months now. That said, I haven't actually released a full game in about 10 months, which feels like far too long a time to have no new games to show. So, maybe I'm still relatively unfocused (haha).

Do you feel that you have enough focus to finish any long term projects?

I'm not entirely sure. My brother and I have a larger-scale game that we're hoping to start at the end of the summer, and at the rate at which we tend to work, I think this project could take several more months to make than I'm used to (maybe even close to a year of part-time development). I guess we'll find out how capable I am of working on a game that long, then. Currently, though, my track record shows that anything that takes more than 3 or 4 months I find incredibly difficult to finish.

You had a role in founding Bit Collective and building the independent gaming arcade cabinet, the Winnitron. How did this group begin, how did the Winnitron come about and what was your role in building it?

Last May I went to my first game jam in Winnipeg, and I met a few local game developers who I had never run into before. During the game jam the Winnitron wasn't really brought up at all, but afterwards we decided to have another "Mini Pegjam" for a bunch of the local developers who had attended the last one. It was at this very small jam that Marlon Wiebe brought up the idea of an arcade cabinet that could play indie games on it.

The original idea for the Winnitron was inspired by an arcade cabinet in Toronto, Canada, called the Torontron. We really loved the idea, but felt that it would be cool if our cabinet could support multiple games, with the ability to download and sync more games at any time.

From there we pretty much got straight to work and within a few months the Winnitron was mostly completed. We still had no name for our group of 5 guys who had made the cabinet, but around mid fall of 2010 the name BitCollective really stuck.

I personally participated throughout all of the development of the Winnitron, but focused particularly on the stats for the machine, so we could track how long games were played for. We actually have an entire web interface that we can log into to view fancy graphs and pie-charts to see how long what games were played on which Winnitron machine.

Are there any specific types of games that suit a Winnitron? How do you decide what is and isn't allowed on?

We don't really specify what types of games can or will go on the Winnitron. Pretty much anything that works with the control scheme and can have a 2 player mode is a welcome game to have. From our experience though, games that are short and fast, with easily understandable gameplay, tend to be played the most. So, generally speaking, arcade-like games are usually the best fit for the machine. 

When deciding if a game will go on a Winnitron, we usually test it out on the machine itself to see how well fun it feels and how well it runs. We don't have any sort of criteria besides making sure it works and if we personally think that it's a good fit and will be played.

We try to keep a bit of a quality standard for the games, but generally speaking if it's fun, plays well, and fits the control scheme, we're happy to put it on.

Do you all actively look to keep improving the Winnitron?

Yes! We actually have some planned updates within the next few months, for both the launcher and the stat management stuff. The Winnitron is definitely an in-development project, and we continue to work on it. The BitCollective group meets on an almost weekly basis to figure out Winnitron stuff.

How many Winnitrons exist now and where are they located?

Currently, there are Winnitrons located in Winnipeg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, New York City, and Pittsburgh, USA. Along with these currently complete Winnitrons, there are a number being built in Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, San Francisco, Australia, Italy, and a number of other locations. You can see a full list on the BitCollective forums.

How many people turn up to the game jams you guys host? Do you think Bit Collective are succeeding in their goal to "strengthen and promote the local indie games scene"?

The first game jam that was held in Winnipeg, called the PEGJam, wasn't organized by the Bit Collective, but rather Alec Holowka, a well known local indie game developer. This first jam was really successful, and had large turnout of developers (over 40). Since then we've held 2 other game jams, and are planning another one in just over a month. The first game jam we held was for the Winnitron (to get people making some games for the machine), and we had a few dozen people show up and create games. Our second jam, which was called "The Room Jam", was an idea created by a local developer, Devin Reimer, which also had a few dozen people attend.

Finally, the game jam (PEGJam2.0) we're hosting next July is shaping up to be about the same size as the first PEGJam, so we're really excited for it!

I feel that the Winnitron and Bitcollective have definitely helped promote and strengthen the indie gaming scene, not just in Winnipeg, but anywhere that people are developing Winnitrons. There have been several game jams for Winnitrons in other countries and cities, and to build a Winnitron you really need to get involved in your local indie game scene and get people collaborating on it as a community.

Do you think FlashPunk is something you will be sticking with? Do you think Flash a viable path for making a living for you?

Currently, FlashPunk is working out as a great tool for me to develop my games in, and I haven't felt the need to move onto something else immediately. FlashPunk has also worked out fairly well for me over the last year in terms of sponsorships, and though it's definitely not enough to make a living from, it's been a good start, as I try to make something from the games I create.

To be completely honest, I don't have a good idea as to whether or not FlashPunk will be the best way for me to make a living from games. It really depends on how often I can get sponsorships and the quality of games I'm able to make (which is more up to me, not the engine I use).

Do you plan on trying out other game development tools? 

As much as I really love Flash Punk, I do also like experimenting in other languages, engines, and frameworks. I'm currently keeping a very close eye on the Monocle Engine, as it looks like it may be a fun game development engine in the near future as well.

Bonus: In development screenshots.