Denki

The Means to The End

2013-03-05T10:29:09Z

Warning – this post may contain unreleased details about our new game. In our last post we explained the importance of the Denki Difference. Today, we’re going to show how we practice what we preach by looking at how we’ve applied the Denki Difference to “Rapid Defence Force” (<- spoiler 1, title of our game).

The idea of working on a strategy game, (spoiler 2), is something we wanted to do for quite some time. Towards the end of Christmas, after we wrapped up development on Denki Blocks, we felt it made perfect sense to focus our attention on a strategy based game. In terms of ideas we had plenty, but then we threw war into the mix and our minds boggled at the endless possibilities! So with plenty of enthusiasm and excitement, we decided to march down this path and that brings us nicely onto the first stage of The Way: Preparation.

(1) The Preparation Stage

For Gaz, the preparation stage is about “cherry picking the moments that resonate”. It’s where we refine our ideas as a team and decide which one to take forward. It all comes down to discovering the key things that we are trying to do and addressing any fundamental qualities that we are trying to elevate. So in the case of Rapid Defence Force, we thought about the types of things would expect to see in a war game (soldiers, guns, grenades, bazookas, tanks) and the sounds we would expect to hear. Framing is also important. The game is being framed as a war game so the challenge is to find either the right words (i.e. “Armchair General”) or statements to encapsulate what you are trying to do or a problem you are trying to solve. For Colin, the problem happens to be a strong desire to conquer worlds in his coffee break (yes that’s what Colin is plotting and planning, you’ve been warned!) – “I love strategy games but I don’t have the days to dedicate to them. I would really like to get the feeling that I got from playing a good strategy game but I want it in 10 minutes”.

Think about who you’re making the game for and find the hallmarks of what it is you’re trying to make. You’re looking for things that generate a feeling e.g. radio chatter, debris from explosions and then weighing them up in terms of importance to determine how much needs to be fed into the game. It all comes down to feel and you try to suck in as much as you can by using examples either from film, story or words and creating mood boards. How you do these mood boards is entirely up to you. They can either be packaged up as a series of stills spliced up with music or as youtube videos or as documents (boring, nobody reads these!) or as interpretive dance. We’ve yet to find a technique that we like but if you have any suggestions or examples we would love to see them!

Now to convince Gaz about the merits of interpretive dance…

Let’s Talk About It

2013-02-20T12:58:05Z

Sharing our development experiences is something we’ve wanted to do for a while but weren’t entirely sure on how to approach it. Identifying the means of communication (dev diaries? blog it? film it?) is part of the process, knowing what you want to communicate and making sure it’s meaningful is the real challenge.

So where do we start? We’ve got lots of super duper exciting things that we want to share about our latest game, some of which you may have already seen:

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Excited? So are we! Before we go any further though, it’s important to explain how we approach each project. To do that, we need to take a step back and revisit the Denki Difference.

Our experiences all stem from our Denki ethos aka The Denki Difference. Every project we approach adheres to (or at least tries to!) and embodies the DD, which essentially boils down to two things: (1) The End – this is what you see and how it makes you feel and (2) The Way – which is the means to the end. Rustling through our dusty archives, we stumbled upon this fantastic podcast where Gary and Colin explain exactly what the DD is and why it’s central to everything we do.

Now that we’ve explained the theory, how do we put it into practice? An excellent question and it’s one that Mr. Penn and Mr. Anderson will explain in our next post by showing how we’ve applied it to the game we’re currently working on.

Making our development process more transparent is a work in progress, so if there’s anything specific you’d like to know or if you have any questions then get in touch, we would love to hear your thoughts!

Jamming to The Beat!

2013-01-28T12:49:21Z

They came, they saw and they conquered, for the most part. More than 100 Jammers took part in the Scottish leg of the 5th annual Global Game Jam. The challenge this year was to design a game to the sound of a heartbeat.

I had the pleasure of attending the Glasgow venue (as a judge) where a total of 20 teams made games ranging from abstract puzzlers to surgical simulation games. My favourite, and the overall winner, was Lub vs Dub a 2 player iPad game developed by a 3 man programmer-less team who coincidentally also picked up the award for Best Tech. Keep an eye out on the Scottish Game Jam website for more updates and a post jam wrap-up.

Congratulations to everyone who took part! Hope you’ve all caught up on some much deserved sleep. I look forward to seeing you all next year. Until then grab yourself a cuppa and enjoy the highlights from the 2013 Scottish Game Jam!

How to Survive A Game Jam

2013-01-23T14:10:11Z

It’s almost Game Jam time! This weekend thousands of creative individuals across the globe will come together to make a videogame in 48 hours.

The competition is now in its 5th year and is expected to be the biggest one yet with over 300 locations across 60 countries. Scotland is also taking part, with sites in Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh.

As sponsors of the Scottish leg we felt that we should share words of wisdom and enlightenment for all those taking part, especially for all you first time jammers:

(1) Connect

Get to know everyone. The jam is a great way to meet people and make contacts. I can’t stress how important this is especially if you don’t have a team and are looking to either (i) form a team, in which case you need to know what everyone’s skill-set is, or (ii) join another team, in which case you have to tell them why they need you. In some cases venues will organise ice-breakers/mixers to ease the process.

(2) Plan

You have 48 hours in which to make a game. Get your team together, remember balance is key, and then figure out what type of game you would like to make. Brainstorm ideas, refine these ideas up until you have something that you’re all happy to work on. Try not to dive straight in and remember to keep your game achievable! You’re not making the next GTA or COD or whatever AAA title takes your fancy. Paper prototyping is a good way to test the effectiveness of your idea. Assign someone to be the project leader. Goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) this has to be someone with good organisational skills who can keep on top of everything. Good people skills are an added bonus.

Planning is key. The more time and effort you spend planning, the better prepared you’ll be even when faced with something unforeseen, which of course won’t happen because you planned for it!

(3) Keep it Familiar

This is not a crash course in learning a new programming language or building a new game engine. Work to your strengths (and your teams) using tools and techniques that you’re all familiar with.

(4) The zZzZzZzZz’s!

Get some sleep. Sugar, caffeine and energy drinks will only go so far. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen people power through Friday night become extremely sluggish by Saturday afternoon and then crash and burn by Saturday evening at which point they are of no use to themselves or their team. Take breaks, pace yourself (bring a change of clothes and freshen up, yes deodorant is your friend) and get to the finish line in one piece.

(5) Polish

Polish, polish, polish. If you keep things simple and manageable then you’ll leave yourself time to polish your game. Don’t forget to add sound it will transform the look and feel of your game.

(6) Guidelines

Read the submission guidelines. Make sure you know what you have to submit ahead of time as it will save you time later. You may even want to assign one team member to be responsible for the submission process.

We wish everyone taking part the best of luck! For more information about what’s happening at the Scottish venues this weekend visit the Scottish Game Jam website.

Yes it’s a competition. Yes there’s a high probability your game might not work. Yes you will experience extreme moments of stress, anxiety, nervousness, tiredness. Yes you will love it. No, I’m not crazy.

‘Blue’ Monday Giveaway!

2013-01-21T13:34:53Z

Got a case of the Monday blues? Well you have every reason to because today is officially the “most depressing day of the year”. Let us help you beat those blues away by showering you with some Denki love.

Here’s your chance to win a Denki bag of goodness. Take a look at this picture and tell us what YOU think Bib is up to? Send your answers via email to awareness@denki.co.uk

Act quick, the closing date for all entries is 5pm on Thursday the 24th of January. The winner will be notified via email on Friday the 25th of January.

Get Your Blocks Off – In The Browser!

2013-01-14T14:30:26Z

Yes that’s right, we’ve polished up the iOS version of the award-winning puzzler Denki Blocks! to bring it to the browser!

But why the iOS version you ask?

Because it’s the “tightest version and the most convenient and dramatic to play“. Filled with over 100 beautifully hand-crafted puzzles to enjoy and over 100 Master Challenges to complete, there is something to wet everyone’s appetite.

The Master Challenges are optional of course, but they are the “real test and worth more than simply solving the puzzle“. In the full version of the game, completing these challenges will earn you those all important Denki Stars. What does that do? Other than re-affirm how incredibly smart you are and give you permission to gloat, the Denki Stars will allow you to unlock Secret Puzzles.

The free-to-play version has 16 puzzles and 16 Master Challenges, which may sound and feel like it’s too much but we didn’t want to “risk leaving players underexposed and unsatisfied“. The full version of the game, available at $3.99, contains 120 puzzles (and 120 Master Challenges). Or you can get individual packs for $0.99. As Mr Penn says, it all feels like “good solid VFM”.

So get your puzzle solving hat on and get cracking!

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Bip Bip Hooray!

2013-01-03T13:44:14Z

Happy new year from all at Denki! As a New Year first-footing gift, we’d like to present you with a playable treat, Bips!

What’s Bips? Well, it’s a one-button arcade classic (in the making) which is now live on Facebook for you to try. The cool thing is that it’s being produced by Denki but wholly developed by Denki-alumni, Ludometrics.

We’ll be talking more about Bips!, the browser release of Denki Blocks! and Gary’s new top secret project in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, we’ll see you on the Bips! leaderboard.

Surviving the Apocalypse: Our Top Games of 2012

2012-12-21T11:02:26Z

Seasons Greetings!

2012 has been a busy year, Baumgartner made that jump, Facebook “Zuckered” we survived the end of the world but not the Gangnam Style.

It’s also been a busy year for the games industry and as for the games themselves there have been many that have been vying for our attention but very few making the cut.

So without further ado, our Top Games of 2012 are…

Colin’s Pick:

10000000 is my game of the year. New Star Soccer is my runner-up. And Diablo 3 is my biggest disappointment.

As I say on the “Games We Like” page: There’s not many games I see these days that make me think “I wish we’d made that”, but 10000000 is definitely one of them because it has a great twist I haven’t seen before (Match 3 meets Dungeon Crawl RPG), great convenience (instantly familiar in its Match 3 mechanic, but strategically deep in its RPG elements), and great feel (all the critical bits of the product are nicely polished to an appropriate level of finish and the rough bits don’t get in the way of making you feel good). My only gripe with the game is that I was able to rinse it too quickly – I want to keep playing, but it needs to give me more to do. So I’m looking forward to 10000001.

New Star Soccer was a revelation for me, because it’s exactly the kind of football game I love (as a non-football person) but that people stopped making after about 1986. Football Manager and Championship Manager are too much like simulations for me, but New Star Soccer gets me feeling like a champion footballer without all the tedious detail that turns my experience of console football games from feeling like fun into feeling like work.

And Diablo 3… what can I say? As a self-confessed Diablo fan-boy I’ve been looking forward to this for a decade, so it was always going to be difficult for it to deliver. It actually does a pretty good job of copying the surface layer of what I enjoy about the Diablo universe, and I really enjoyed my first play-through; it’s the longevity that’s lacking. The ability to reallocate skills at any point mean that every character build feels the same, and that undermines what kept me revisiting D2 from time-to-time for many, many years. I hope they fix it, but I suspect they won’t. I’ll probably just have to wait for D4 in 2022.

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Sean’s Pick

Journey (PS3)

As a player, Journey wins hands down. A genuinely beautiful, enchanting and exhilarating experience from start to finish.

As a maker, Journey wins hands down. The beauty of the world, the subtlety of the storytelling, the surprise and delight of multiplayer; Journey is a bar-raising lesson in crafting a truly meaningful shared experience.

Smarter people than me have written about the wonder of Journey, so I’ll keep my parting words short…

Play Journey

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Aaron’s Pick

DayZ

I enjoyed a little alien molestation with XCom and a bout of slug slaughtering in Legend of Grimrock but this year the only thing that motivated me to murder someone over a tin of beans was DayZ.

I think everyone fondly daydreams about the end of the world and if you’re looking to walk virtually for an hour having achieved nothing and finally bleed to death in a bush then DayZ is the game for you.

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Paul’s Pick

Tokyo Jungle.

It’s daring, it’s different and it lets you play as a small, yapping dog from the start which is funny and fulfilling in equal measures.

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Gary’s Pick

Nintendo Land and New Super Mario Wii U both unleashed unprecedented family fun in 2012.

The Wii U is delightfully unique and I’m like a happy little boy clapping his hands with glee when I think of what it might deliver in 2013. But despite the joyous novelty and quality of that pair of beauties, it’s actually Beat the Beat on Yii Olde Wii that gets my Cheer of the Year. It’s a compendium of kerazy – it makes you do the strangest things to a beat – and it can be bladder-bursting funny at times but above all it’s superfun to play.Sometimes it’s so blisteringly fast that you have to trust the beat to win, which feels strangely cool and leaves you feeling extra awesome with a cheery cherry on top. Someday soon music videos will be made this way.

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James’s Pick

Dark Souls

There is only one answer for me this year, with a game I was sure I would never play: utterly put off by the notion of old-school difficulty, obscure mechanisms and a dreary game world. But when I finally snapped and took a risk on Dark Souls, I uncovered a game that is not only my game of the year but easily one of my favourites of all time.

Dark Souls is hard, yes, but never cheap. It is mysterious, but deliberately so — it’s excellent story told through play and exploration. The setting is as cohesive as it is expansive; each place in the open world of Lordran connected and ingeniously overlapping as it unfurls before you and your hard-earned progress. There are wondrous sights and deeply unsettling ones, and each place delights and surprises. After two decades of Hyrule and Brinstar, Rapture and wolf-crossed Nippon, this is the best gameworld I have ever had the joy of traversing.

I can’t possibly do it justice in the space I have here — the rich and groundbreaking online-yet-singleplayer aspects, the considered and varied classes, paths and new game plus options — the staggering wealth of secrets that are still being uncovered.

So I’ll finish with this: I have increasingly less and less time to devote to games. My patience has worn down considerably and the first blossoms of jaded cynicism are creeping in. And in Dark Souls I found a game that reminded me of why I play games, of times and places and mysteries of yesteryear. Every death was my own fault, and every victory is likewise wholly mine. It is difficult, but not impossible and never, ever cheap. With patience, a lit torch and some goodness-to-honest courage, Dark Souls asks you to wade into the dark and win. It’s incredible.

Honorable mentions: Tokyo Jungle, Journey.

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Romana’s Pick

It was a toss up between Dishonored (PS3), Tokyo Jungle, Journey and Scramble with friends.

Dishonored topped my list but only just. Overall it was a visual delight, I loved the steampunk aesthetic and thoroughly enjoyed exploring Dunwall. As a fan of stealth games this ticked all the right boxes but the one area where it fell a little short was in the narrative.

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Chris’s Pick

Dirt Showdown was my game of the year, closely followed by Machinarium and another year of Football Manager to polish it off.

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And that’s it for 2012. We’re going to be back in the New Year and bring plenty of Denki goodness your way. Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Love,

Denki

“Quarrel Inspired” Denki Word Quest Launches Today!

2012-12-10T11:37:34Z

Enjoy word games? Loved Quarrel? Then check out our new game Denki Word Quest!

The game is a blend between our own multi-award winning word-game, Quarrel, and a lite-RPG. The game is available to try for free on the web NOW! The full version of the game is available for only £3/€4/$5.

Why a word game you ask? Well I’ll let the creative supremo that is Mr Penn to explain:

“The idea of using words as the basis for a role-playing game was something we’d wanted to do for ages. Many Quarrel players we spoke with said that as much as they enjoyed Quarrel they sometimes found the strategic element too challenging if they just wanted an easy, fun way to pass the time. So we’ve tried to make Denki Word Quest a much less challenging game to play than Quarrel by limiting the anagrams to six letters rather than eight.”

Check out the trailer and play the game here

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Save the Day: We Have Liftoff!

2012-11-08T10:58:24Z

Good news, the kind that you’ve all been waiting for. Drum rolls please…We are delighted to announce that Save the Day is now LIVE!!!

Did you play the early test versions? Well we listened to your feedback and crafted a shiny, sexy save ‘em up so go check it out!

Not played Save the Day before? We think Eurogamer best summed it up when they called it a “delightful twitch arcade game“.

If you are looking for:

Familiar but fresh twitch arcade gaming
High octane helicopter heroics
Scrumptious, snack-sized gameplay
Infinite replayability
Hearty, high score jinks

Then this is for you!

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