The Final Stretch

Our deadline is right around the corner! And we have updates!

Remember that post about considering noobs in our design process?
Well, we realized at some point that our game is actually really hard.  We’ve had a clear vision of the ideal gameplay experience for Lifted since the beginning - mostly thanks to Thomas’ mad prototyping skills. The challenge has been delivering that experience in an accessible package.
Super-charged trampolines are really freaking cool... but no one knows what to do with them.  They take some figuring out, and some people get frustrated before they start having fun.


Introducing: Free Mode

“What?! Another mode?! Aren’t you supposed to be cutting features?”
(More on that later)

Free Mode is essentially a playground.  It’s a massive platform, littered with jungle-gym-esque toys and structures - all of them begging to be climbed on.  The point of this mode is to provide new players with a friendly sandbox, where they can experiment without getting frustrated.  

- There are hazards scattered throughout, but you’ll have the option to turn them off in the menu, and even control how frequently they appear.

 

- Rather than having scientists tell you what to do, Free Mode lacks any explicit goal structure.  However, there are hoops to find and jump through, structures to climb, and an obvious peak to the level - which should be a challenging goal for players of any skill level.

Kongregate Release
In addition to developing our third and final gameplay mode, we just posted Pro Mode on Kongregate.com!  

Kongregate is a portal site for Unity and Flash games, where players can find a virtually endless supply of indie games to enjoy.  To prepare Lifted for this release, we finished implementing the Timer and Seed mechanics in Pro Mode.  You can now input a specific seed and record how long it takes to get to the top (try entering your name).  Then you can share the seed, level height, and time with your friends - see who can get to the top fastest!


Creepy Features

The introduction of unnecessary new features is a common occurrence in game design, and  has been lovingly called “Feature Creep” by developers for years.

Feature creep is dangerous because it can add significant strain on the developers, who are tasked with actually making the features.  This becomes more and more true the further a team gets into production, as new features can often cause collateral damage - bugs in other features,  balancing issues in gameplay, etc.  Which is why Creative Crates actively sought to avoid creepy features...

M.A.K.S. were first designed in response to a problem we found early in development: It doesn’t make sense that a game about climbing would ask players to look down as frequently as Lifted does.  We hoped that being able to place helpful implements around the world above would encourage players to look up.

However, we recently had a few realizations.  M.A.K.S. added a layer of complexity to the gameplay that was unnecessary, and in many ways distracting - players tended to either forget about them altogether, or use them just as much as they were using Lifts.  M.A.K.S. also added some bizarre complications to the process of designing levels for Lifted, which Spencer spent a lot of time wrestling with.  
We eventually decided that having another mechanic - which competed with our core mechanic, and added very little real value to the gameplay experience - wasn’t what Lifted needed.
So we cut it.

The main lesson for us was that not all “problems” are really problems.  When you spend months working on the same project, it’s easy to accumulate a huge list of imperfections that you wish you could fix.  But in reality, not every problem can be fixed... and of all the possible fixes, very few are worth the time they’d take.  The goal then isn’t making the game “perfect” - a mirage which many developers get stuck chasing endlessly. It’s finding the fixes that are worth making.
(Our friend and fellow developer Sash Mackinnon has some valuable thoughts on this topic, which you can read on his blog)

We need playtesters for Free Mode! And we always need feedback for Lifted as a whole.
So check it out, join the mailing list, and send us your thoughts at creativecrates@gmail.com!

Skin Change

Once again, a major shift is in the works, and it’s likely our most exciting change yet.

Our team of scientists concluded that Lifted needs a more original look.  Specifically, it looks too much like Mirror’s Edge (... something about using their concept art as our visual target?).  Mirror’s Edge was an AWESOME game, and a huge inspiration for our gameplay and visual direction - but it’s rarely a good sign when players are distracted by how much your game looks like another.

Light Bulb Moment
While considering where else we could go visually, we did some research, and brainstormed... a lot.  Our biggest light bulb moment came when we acknowledged that our game takes place in a virtual network - essentially the internet.  This is visually significant, because no one knows what the internet looks like.  We realized this gave us a relatively huge amount of freedom.  Which was both exciting and terrifying...

Theme is Everything
As far as creating experiences goes, having a theme is crucial.  Your theme is basically the filter through which all other creative ideas flow.  It’s the frame of reference a team can use to determine the validity or relevance of a design idea.  And with our original direction out the window, we were left without one.
Lucky for us, other people have tried to imagine this stuff before... namely the makers of Tron.  The vision for Tron was ground-breaking when it first emerged, and the recent re-imaginings by Disney and crew are just as awesome.  Which is why the sharp contrast, highlights, and strictly geometrical architecture found in that universe are making their way into Lifted.
We also looked toward games like Mass Effect, Portal, and Assassin’s Creed for inspiration in the “futuristic design” department.  

The new visual direction will affect both Story Mode and Pro Mode, either of which can be found on our new landing page (Just click “PLAY”).
Be sure to check them out, and let us know what you think!

World-Changing Decisions

Through tons of playtesting, and feedback from our awesome mentors, we’ve concluded that the world layout we’re currently pursuing isn’t ideal for Creative Crates.

A crucial part of making something with a team is finding a path that works best for everyone - so we made a decision that will hopefully make Lifted an even better fit for us all...

Lifted is getting chopped in half. (It’s not as gory as it sounds!)

Story Mode will feature a more linear style of play, with narrative written by Leelee, and sets of challenges made by Spencer.  Our new plan for the layout of Story Mode will also give them both more time to focus on visual details.  Lifted is going to look fantastic, and we’re super excited...

Pro Mode is going to be a procedurally generated arcade mode, which Thomas is creating almost entirely by himself! (Have we mentioned Thomas is awesome?)  
The main goal behind Pro Mode is to retain some of what we first loved about our prototype... open-ended, fast-paced, challenging exploration.  It’s going to have all the features we’re designing for Story Mode, but in a randomized vertical tube - you’ll be able to climb to your heart’s content, and even race against your friends! (details on that later)

This split will allow Spencer and Leelee to focus on what they do best - designing, handcrafting, and painting a beautiful world - while letting Thomas and Zeb explore random generation and the nuances of free-form gameplay.  It’s still all tied together by our core mechanic, as well as the story universe Lifted takes place in. And the end result will be different content for different types of players, more of that content, and more polish all around.
(We call that an epic win :)

In short, Lifted is evolving.  We love the new direction, and we’re sure you will too!  

The Long-Awaited Production Update

It's official... we're in production! And the game we're making is called Lifted! (Thanks to Leelee for the sexy new banner, and the logo ;) Creative Crates is now spending 24/7 making our game, and it's AWESOME. Which also means we have lots to talk about -- rapid fire updates incoming:

 1. Audio Collaborators: We now have a team of three talented audio peeps helping us make a world worth playing in. Their work is as open to scrutiny as ours is, so please include them in your awesome feedback!

 2. Web Space: We ran out of it! We recently reached the limits of our web-hosting, so we've migrated. We now have a legit domain, unlimited bandwidth, and multiple builds available for you to play in. It's like Christmas, without the sugar cookies.

 3. Game Mechanics: We received tons of great feedback, and we've been reshaping and tweaking our gameplay to fit the tastes of our players (that's you!). The behaviors of the Skuttles, Launchers, M.A.K.S., and Corruptions have received minor makeovers -- and if those words mean nothing to you, then head on over to the newly established "About Lifted" section, found above. You can also find detailed contact info, as well as bios and anecdotes from the team in the new "About The Team" section.

 4. Sharing The Love: Lifted is being represented at GDC! Zeb our PM, and Leelee our artist, will both be attending the upcoming Game Developers Conference -- a huge annual games industry event held in beautiful San Francisco. We're super excited to see what sort of feedback we can get on our game in the next week, and hopefully get more ideas about how to approach the development and eventual release of Lifted.

There's more in the works, and we'll be releasing new content and coverage more and more frequently as production gains momentum. So hang tight, check out the new builds, and keep the feedback coming!

Some Concept Art for Ya.

Hey Err-buddeh. LeeLee here with some art. 

I've been working hard at the art bible for the past few days. I'm aiming for a soft, airy feel since our game takes place outside... well, virtual outside anyway (more on that later). I wanted everything to feel clean and easy to navigate. A lot of our main character, Galilei, is inspired by aerodynamic vehicles such as the Lamborghini Aventador. 

These are very early so nothing here is final. I still have plenty I'm working on. Should be up soon!

Early Galilei Concepts

 Galilei Jumps Around!

Architecture Studies for our cities.

Jump Pad Concepts

World Concept

Help the Noobs, Challenge the Pros

We're aiming to make our game challenging, but accessible.  So players who are inexperienced with first-person or PC games may struggle a little, but we still want you to have fun!

If you're struggling particularly hard, let us know.  Especially if there's some area or mechanic in particular that kills the fun.  In fact, if you ever stop playing our game for any reason other than "Holy crap it's been 3 hours, I need to get some sleep!"... we want to know.

For anyone who's gotten used to the game play, and is seeing how high they can get, let it be known that both the programmers on our project (Zeb and Thomas) have reached the top of the version 0.0.2 level, from the bottom, without cheating.
It's possible! And we have proof! 

(HINT: Pressing "C" in-game creates a new respawn checkpoint, do this often!)

In lieu of this achievement, we're uploading a taller version of the current level... 

twice as tall, to be exact.  With obstacles.  And death-causing boxes.
If this makes you sad, have no fear... the older version is still available!
If this excites you, then you're in luck!  We'll be making our game bigger, better, and more fun every week for a long time.

Creatives Crates is Live!

Hello World!

This is the first of many upcoming posts about the craft and process of making video games.
Except we aren't just talking about making a game... we're actually making one.  And we're inviting you to come along for the ride.  We'll be documenting our struggles and successes, and sharing what we learn in the process, as we develop a killer first-person physics game.

Thanks to some freaking awesome technology (thank you 2012!) each game version we churn out will be made publicly available every week.  Yup... you can play our game.  Right now in fact.
(just click on the link!)

What's even cooler is that we're recruiting help - that means you!  We need you to tell us what you like or don't like, so we can make our game even better.  Don't be shy about it! If you think we should be getting paid to make this game, tell us why! If you think it sucks and we should just quit, tell us!

We're striving to make a full-fledged video game of pure awesome, and we could really use your help...  So check out the gameplay video, play the current version, and let us know what you think!


NOTE: For anyone craving more details...
We're making our game in Unity 3.4, which means all the programming is happening in C#.  We intend to make a final product that's browser-friendly, and playable on most new-ish computers.  Our development process will be extremely agile-influenced, with a bit of wisdom from Tim Ferriss and the peeps at 37Signals mixed in.

Feel free to e-mail us at creativecrates@gmail.com (making games 24/7 gets lonely!), check out our youtube channel, and follow our twitter for extra updates