Norgwang Games

This is about some of the games in my norgwang collection found here: http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/norgwang-games/36471/

City 4:

This game was partly based on my desire to escape into the background of a section in Mass Effect, and to wander around a sci fi city. I was also influenced to make another Tandoor game, Tandoor was inspired by Borderlands and my want to escape into the open, like in Mass Effect, but into the surrounding desert. This game doesn't really depict a city more than a wasteland though, buildings are small rectangles scattered around randomly and there aren't any streets or alleys like you would expect with the word 'city'. It's a desert wasteland game like Tandoor, but a bit more shiny future looking. You can walk around, go into buildings, or take a hover car and speed around the desert. I also think the pseudo 3D half sky/half ground/top down style is coming about in my work because I actually want to make a 3D free-roam game, but I haven't learnt to. Otherwise, Hernhand is the closest I've come to doing that.

I really like Grand Theft Auto. I remember being really excited to play GTA III when I was a lot younger, and only having little access to the game made it really fun to play when I got the chance. It felt really big, I hadn't gotten to explore much, I really appreciated being in the world when I could be. I still find the thought of having a game where you can just go and steal a car and drive around anywhere with the radio on, very exciting. But now I have played GTA a lot, I know it too well, and I get a lot more out of thinking of these early memories than playing the game. But I still spend time in GTA 5, even just walking down a street is satisfying, it's a very well done game, full of sounds and atmosphere. City 4 is probably more based on my interest of wanting a sci fi GTA with flying cars and tall buildings. My Taxi game in my 'Some games' collection was also based on the same idea.

Gregory:

Gregory was mostly inspired by Paul Moose in Space World by the catamites and Beeswing by Jack King-Spooner. I was interested in making a game that was just about everyday, casual life, being at someone else's house that appears different and kind of strange at first. I began enjoying drawing small household objects like cups, chairs, candle holder things and weird collectable action figures. I had read on the online internet that Earth spins more than 1,000 miles per hour, and I began looking at objects on the table with this in mind and thinking "great heavens, would you look at that". So that has partly lead to me appreciating seemingly boring waiting moments, because it isn't actually boring at all, and that also inspired making objects that sit on the table like coffee pots and things for a game called Gregory. Oh, Gregory was also inspired by first person walking parts in the Neverhood, like with the motion picture parts when you walk out the door with the low quality wind sounds playing.

Horse Pastry 2:

I was playing a game called Lander, and I was dropped onto a planet in my Lander space-craft and it was raining and stormy, and I had to find an entrance to a mining facility or something to collect some kind of alien amulet and then climb to 1000 feet to win the level. Lander was based on another game called Thrust, but it was 3D and newer. and a good game. So I wanted to make a game inspired by Lander, being dropped into a level and having to get something. But I was less interested in the gameplay aspect and more into finding/editing music for the games soundtrack, and creating an atmosphere based on the one I liked in Lander. I wanted it to sort of feel like you weren't very important playing as this Horse Pastry (called Lanore France Woodhorn in-fact), or that there was a story going on else where. I wanted there to be small narrative elements, such as characters who were imprisoned by others, characters neither good or bad, neutral characters, I sort of wanted the 'enemies' to be a blur of not really bad or good, who knows who's who. This idea was inspired by Sandard Bits (stdbits) by Mark Johns, I really like that game and how other characters are either helpful, neutral or enemies. And I like the abstraction created by the presentation in general, how it feels like a different world and that you are left to find out what things do. I was also interested in first levels of games. For example I enjoy the first level of Hotline Miami a bit more than the more complicated difficult ones, I like how there are less enemies in the beginning and the focus is drawn more to the set pieces and narrative. Hose Pastry also reminds me a bit of kid's TV shows in some levels, which I like a lot.

Space1:

Ok this was based on what I like about a yoyogames game I downloaded once which had space-ships which, instead of turning slowly, they would flip around instantly like they aren't made of any substantial material. They just flip 90 degrees to turn. I find that interesting though, what is this magical technology? How are these spaceships capable of such incredible manoeuvres? I can really appreciate this very simplistic technical design. I sort of couldn't be bothered making more to Space1 as I had achieved what I wanted; making ships flip by 90 degree angles.

Plains:

Another game similar to City 4 and Tandoor. I like deserts. Inspired by camping and looking at stars.

Planet 2:

A slow mission to another planet with lots of crackly radio transmissions. At first I added lots of free sound effects, one was a man saying 'oh yeah' another was 'hello dare'. But I decided to remove these sounds because I thought it was too silly. You originally got to fight a monster inspired by the Neverhood monster chase, and there was a very graphic death scene, but I decided to remove this for the final product.

Thanks for reading!

borderlands

I like borderlands. I think I already wrote about it before, but I've played it again now. I really like the atmosphere of Borderlands. I like how it's set in the desert. It's dusty and warm, feels warn down and still. Bandits are everywhere, I'm a hero of sorts going in and killing them all, but then they always come back. Maybe my character is fantasising? All the areas in the game are very still, you kill an enemy, it will be back after you leave and return to that area. It feels like nothing is changing. I'm not very familiar with Role Playing Games apart from this game, maybe they all feel like this. I'm this hero doing things yet nothing is changing, I'm a character constantly doing the same thing over and over. Maybe when I get to the next area and kill the bandit leader, all the bandits will disappear? No, not even the ones in the first area. They're all still there. When I was first playing this, I found it frustrating that nothing changed. I felt like something might happen just after I kill the next boss, but it was always the same. I find that interesting now, it feels realistic, although I seem to enjoy thinking of Borderlands more than playing it. not a bad thing? What you're doing in the game is basically a distraction from just being in the world, because you can't change anything. something did imply to me that activity was going on beyond the levels I inhabited in the game. it was to do with the different weapon manufacturer names, which I like a lot. It feels like there's competition between the manufacturers, creating the illusion that there are people doing things elsewhere. I think this feeling is what motivated me to keep going through the game, hopefully to find some kind of climax where all the bandits would finally disappear. But you always have to face the same problems, every enemy is always back, and they do get easier to get through as you level up. It's a still, repetitive world, the same problems are always present but get easier to deal with. so it isn't that much fun to play, but I somehow find it comforting to remember the game.

Anyway, that's what I like about the game. The sequel looks a lot flashier and seems to have lost what I appreciate about the first game. Looks like it's more fun to play though.

a question, assisted by an answer

what is a horse pastry? a canister with a long extruding coming out the front, a horse head ontop too. they can come in various arrangements

here is a common one:

Now, we can determine it's motive by calling it's name. The name is usually printed on the bottom, but sometimes different arrangements provide the name in another location.

trying to write about Hernhand

with hernhand I was mostly interested in sound and space. I was inspired by spaces in oldish 3D sci fi games and sort of wanted to have similar places but where you didn't need to shoot the enemies or find gregory's old phone and return it to him etc, and instead you could just stroll through and listen to the various ambient sounds. I like the bad loose look of hernhand. I was very slack with it, throwing a few cubes around with ms paint images on them. it makes everything feel dirty and unappealing which I can thoroughly enjoy and appreciate. I enjoy the blurry texturing and very angular models in dated 3D graphics, so luckily that wasn't hard to create for the Hernhand. Also, Jpeg files added noise to the MS paint images I made for textures, it's like free HD detail on my simple drawings. I was interested in using a variety of sound effects and ambient hums to make up for the simple/rough look of the game. I'm happy with how the game has turned out, I can enjoy walking through it myself which seems like a good sign.

While starting out making the game I had been watching gameplay videos of Star Wars: Bounty hunter and The Neverhood, their sounds and spaces were a strong influence. star wars bounty hunter has cool levels with nice sounds and little creatures running around, but it's constantly disturbed by endless noisy laser firing. Although I do love laser firing, I think the laser firing in that game is a god help me awful design decision, especially against the really good environments. anyway it was still a strong influence for space and ambience + little creatures on the ground. The Neverhood has really nice sound design too. I really like the spooky ambience during the outside scenes, they influenced the open plain areas and ambience in hernhand. Also the ridiculously long background story of the Neverhood really appeals to me, I wouldn't mind writing some ridiculous nonsensical context for hernhand, maybe like an encyclopedia. Anyway, these games and a few other sci fi games were the main influences for Hernhand's sound and graphics and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Tom's Bernband was definitely another influence. I really like the style, quite strong in the style department I reckon. when I first saw a video of his game, when he turned the camera to reveal the 3Dness of his game it just looked so good. I also think the sound in his game compliments the visuals really well, everything feels solid. It feels like it's made of stuff. Hopefully hernhand feels like it's made of stuff too. Hernhand is much more of a 'walk this way for ages' genre while Bernband has a lot of corners and turning and small tight spaces. Bernband is quick to race through, you can take different routes and be real quick. I can appreciate the run around the game real quick style, but I also love long boring wastelands to walk through. So I guess the games work well together, maybe?

anyway check out Hernhand and Bernband, give them a rate comment subscribe and click the like button and comment + subscribe

links: Hern http://gamejolt.com/games/adventure/hernhand/34868/

Bern http://gamejolt.com/games/other/bernband/34864/

blurry trctyures

Blurry textures are so exciting imo, I mean they just get me so excited. it's like the texture is keeping top secret information from me. somehow They is more realistic than HD texture. I mean I can tell that this is blurry texture is wood... hey no need to go all HD on me I can work the rest out myself. I was pretty astonished to be able to use ms paint textures in a 3 dimensional game of my own, my was it exciting or what. Imagine if we lived in a world where blurry textures required more computer power over HD textures... So we'd all be fighting for who can get the most blurry texture, and you'd need the latest computer to be able to process all that untold information hiding in the wood, the concrete, the space_technology textures. And then when you're driving in vice city, everyone would be complaining about the ugly HD fully realised textures coming into view before eventually, phew, popping into the blurryness we're all after.

sanctuary2 platformer

I made this platformer a few months ago called sanctuary 2 which was once again inspired by young developer's first game maker creations, and a few of mine as well. My first few games I made were platformers, they were very dull, not much happened and they were glitchy and did strange things. Because of the looseness in their programming and design random things would occur in the game such as enemies falling off platforms to their death and space ships touching one another and exploding. When I look back at these games now I really appreciate the naivety in their design and the randomness that happened each time you played. With sanctuary 2 it's another of my attempts in trying to capture at least a bit of these elements I like about beginner game maker games.

One of my early platformers was Super Army Dude, it was a very slow and boring game. You would spend most of the time walking across these huge empty levels with a few buildings scattered around, and you played as this Super Army Dude and would shoot aliens. There were a few kinds of enemies like glitchy green humanoid alien people, flying saucers and groups of mud people that would throw mud at you. All the enemies would get stuck in the ground or in a building before long, and if a flying saucer exploded near the aliens it would throw them dead aliens across the level and they'd be airborn while still in lying down position. This would happen mostly off-screen and would completely ruin the enemy set-ups I had made, so by the time you'd reach a group of enemies they'd probably have their heads stuck in the ceiling or be walking mid-air and the ufos would be getting stuck and exploding. This is what made the game interesting though, it felt a bit like other things were going on and it wasn't really about the player at all.

One thing I've tried to do with sanctuary 2 is to make kind of a 'better' version of super army dude, but because the good thing about super army dude was in the terribleness and basicness of it's design I haven't quite got the same effect. it seems to be hard to try and goodify that badness without just making a bad game. But this is another of my attempts and I am quite happy with how it's turned out, it's not too bad but it's not too good either. Check it out!!!!!!!

Gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJSVWNwQD4Q&list=UUdHYgVqhh1ioQ7E1yWhn9IQ

You can download sanctuary 2 from Gamejolt: http://gamejolt.com/games/action/sanctuary2/29084/

dr candle

so I made this point and click adventure called dr. candle, I really enjoyed writing the notes left by the scientists. that was the best part. I added the combination lock part because i thought you have to put that in the games, but I don't like it. i've been playing a lot of thecatamites game recently and felt like I had permission to make some bad not much happening style games in a similar manner to 50 short games, not that they'er bad but you know like effortless and not carey appearing. unfortunately I lost interest in the early stages of development with Dr. Candle, and the game doesn't progress any further once you get to the room at the other side of the spikes in the Outside Level with the nature's sounds. The long text box thing was inspired by yoyogames games from the 'Most Recent' category, Most Recent is like a game maker game genre. There was this one game, Fright House. or, woops, Fear House, and it had theis introduction with default game maker text boxes with the really small default game maker font, and they look really ugly and you don't want to read them. Enjoy playing Dr Candle.

http://gamejolt.com/games/adventure/dr-candle/31577/