Scott Rogers | NE0SPACE
Wallace and his farm - 2023
Wallace and His Farm is a short, point-and-click Gamemaker game. In it, you follow Wallace as he tries to clean up after a terrible storm that ran through his farm the previous night. While corralling one of his animals, he stumbles upon Bob who had accidentally locked himself in the bathroom of an abandoned gas station. Now, he has to both figure out how to rescue Bob and resolve the chaos around the farm.
I started this game in my Narrative in Games II class and finished as my university's senior project. It took me roughly 8 months total to make by myself, and is the first full game I've made.
The gameplay was primarily inspired by games such as the Monkey Island series, Day of the Tentacle, and other 90's point-and-click adventure games. Since my most developed skill is my ability to write, I wanted the focus of this game to primarily be about the story. Point-and-click adventure games ended up fitting the bill for showcasing that skill without it being too complicated of a genre for me to learn how to program, since this was my first attempt at making a full game.
As for the story itself, it was mainly formed around Wallace as he was the first thing I came up with. I wanted the story to be about him overcoming with his loneliness with the help of the animals he had been taking for granted his entire life, and it was that single idea from which I formed the rest of the story. Of course, there were restrictions as to scope due to time constraints and the fact I still was learning how to use GameMaker. I unfortunately couldn't go too far into expanding the story, so I decided to try and format Wallace's development around shorter, individual interactions with each of the animals. This approach also helped when I was figuring out the game progression, as it helped to center progression around helping the animals around Wallace's farm. And, by extension, helping Wallace realize that he isn't alone.
It was definitely a learning experience, as I had to figure out how to make a lot of the systems in the game myself. The hardest part probably was setting up animations to work alongside the text box system. Specifically, it was creating each sequence exactly when I wanted them to be made, the pausing and playing of animation sequences within certain dialogues, and setting up effects such as room transitions that would activate when the text finished were the features that I got stuck on the most.
I also had some trouble at first getting the room transitions to work the way I had wanted them too. I ended up creating a system for it that stores player co-ordinates in a global array that I now realize is entirely overcomplicated and could have been done much easier. But, hey. At least I know the better way of doing it now.
If I had more time or know-how, I would have added music in-place of the ambience I currently have in the game. I decided to go with ambience because - at the time of writing this - I don't quite have the skills necessary to compose music myself, I don't have the connections (or money) needed to hire someone to make music, and because I just don't like 99% of royalty-free music. I think music would have definitely added a lot to the game, and it's probably the one thing I wish I could have done.
Nevertheless, I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out. I learned how to do a lot, so hopefully I can use that knowledge in future projects to come.
Gnomewhere to go but down! - January 2024
Gnomewhere to Go but Down! is a 2D platformer shmup that got 2nd place in the January 2024 Clover Jam over on Itch.io. This was my first ever game jam that I participated in, and it still is one of the best ones I've done to date. My role in the project had me coming up with concept art for enemies and bosses, creating storyboards for potential intro and ending cutscenes, assisting with art assets, and creating all the in-game SFX. While not all of my work made it into the current build, I was still able to get some more experience working with other game developers, which was one of the main goals I had set for myself going into this project.
The gameplay was the first thing that was decided on. I originally wanted to do something more akin to the Touhou games or ZeroRanger, but that eventually shifted into making a 2D platformer shmup similar to the Metal Slug series.
Once we had the idea for that down, we moved onto the setting. It mainly was formed from both the theme for the jam being "beneath the surface", and an idea I had prior to the jam about people digging downwards to reach the sky as if the whole world was upside-down. The idea for gnomes being the main enemies and the design for the player character - lovingly dubbed "Stinko" - came naturally after that, though I have to give credit to Kraeheart, the artist for this jam, as they were the one who came up with both of those ideas.
The story was meant to follow Stinko as she delved into the mines search of treasure (and possibly fame too). By the second level, she was meant to accidentally squish the gnome king, and then spend the entire level escaping the gnome kingdom culminating in a boss fight against the gnome prince's giant pet frog. The final level was supposed to be set along the underside of the world, on the border between the land above and the sky below. Stinko would have had to traverse across hanging platforms and buildings crafted into the ground above, where she would eventually reach a giant, hanging palace. There, she would fight against the gnome prince in a giant, porcelain mech, and after beating him the ending would play in which she discovers that the gnomes' treasure is just a plastic lawn flamingo, but takes it home anyway since it's better than nothing.
Unfortunately, none of this made it into the final build due to time constraints. Which is unfortunate as these parts were where a majority of my work ended up being. While everyone in the jam had originally agreed to resume production of the game at some point, everyone ended up getting caught up in other projects and most of us didn't have the desire to continue working on this game anymore.
That being said, I still got a lot out of working on this game. I got the experience working on games in a team that I was looking for, I got to make some connections with some really talented people, I was able to practice designing creatures, I learned a few pixel art techniques, and got some more experience with creating SFX. All in all, I had a lot of fun working with everyone. Who knows? Maybe I'll be able to work with them some more in the future.
