Games can take a long time to make. Mixing sound, art, gamecode, environments, and user-interfaces is a process that takes lots of time. Natural Selection 2 is a prime example – It took six years to make, and six months since launch UWE is still not done with it!
Development cycles do not necessarily have to be long, however. In fact, by forcing a development into a small amount of time, creativity can be given the hot seat. This week UWE is doing just that, by holding a mod-jam. In five days, we are going to create three different games.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JE40f7qg5A
Team 1: Fighter
Charlie, Colin, Cory, Rantology, Brant and Andi are working on a game that will take Spark in a direction it has never gone before: Fighting games. ‘Fighter’ will pit the Fade against the Marine, Mortal Kombat style. The pitch calls for lush backgrounds, awesome character animations, and of course over-the-top KO’s!
Team 2: Last Stand
Steve, Hugh, Dushan, Jonah and Olmy are attempting to create an experience that places a team of marines in a desperate, no hope scenario. Against overwhelming odds and with limited equipment, the marines must survive until the timer runs out! By using existing NS2 assets and a simple concept, Team 2 hopes to create quite a polished little mod by the end of the week.
Team 3: Heist
Brian, Brian, Max and Andrew are creating a game in which multiple players attempt to pull off the perfect Heist. The game will not involve any combat, and will instead be about timing and coordination between players. Heist will require some more advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) than UWE is used to producing, which will be a cool challenge.