About Me →Portfolio →Tweets by @bradkeysRecent VideosRecent PhotosWarning:  file_get_contents(http://api.flickr.com/services/rest/?api_key=fe6a504f4e1975d6f64a86b764354598&method=flickr.people.getPublicPhotos&user_id=42301286%40N02&format=php_serial&per_page=6): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 403 Forbiddenin /home/bkeys/bradkeys/includes/feeds.php on line 114Unable to find images.Warning:  Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/bkeys/bradkeys/includes/feeds.php on line 148Partners In CrimeMatthew MinerNick BreslinBursting With Colour (Global Game Jam)January 29, 2014This past weekend I participated in the 2014 Global Game Jam at the University of Waterloo. Lumos cofounder Matthew Miner joined my team, along with Ubisoft level designer Brent Mitchell. Together we created the game Bursting With Colour.FridayThe theme was "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." We spent Friday brainstorming ideas. We kept ideas 2D because we wanted to experience Unity's new 2D system. The three of us also enjoy multiplayer games, so that was another factor our ideas involved. In the end, the mechanic we kept coming back to was switching colours of blocks to make them active (able to stand on).Game DesignWe decided on a co-operative 2D platformer where two players using Xbox 360 controllers work together to climb platforms as high as they can. The challenge being that of the four colours of blocks that make the level, only two can be active at a time. Players may switch active colours, but must be careful as it can lead to players falling off-screen (death) or making a block appear where they are already standing (death). Players may not switch to the colour the other player has active, even if that player has died. The camera moves upwards, forcing players to climb higher, and gains speed over time. Each player only has one life. You get a score based on the maximum height you achieve, and double the points while both players are still alive.We have done game jams before and we agreed there is no point in doing all-nighters and burning ourselves out. We did that in the past and found that by Sunday, tasks that are typically simple would take considerable amounts of time to complete... and you just feel bad. So we went to sleep Friday night around 2AM and were back to work around 11AM Saturday. No coding was done Friday night.SaturdayOur goal Saturday was to have a playable version of the game, and Sunday we would polish and play test. Amazingly, things actually worked out according to plan.We split the team up as follows: Matthew on art, UI, audio, and additional programming. Brent on game mechanics (player death, camera movement, etc) and level design. And I worked on the character controller, Xbox controller input, scoring, and parts of the procedural level generation.Controller InputFor the Xbox 360 controller we used an Input Manager from the Unify Wiki and modified it to suit