Tough Coded: LIVE. Death Shmup executed by Videogame Jockey

[littlenando]

Hi guys, I decided to start a little development blog here at Shmups forum, where I think the development of this game should've always been.

In short, Tough Coded: Live is a 2 player death shmup, executed LIVE by a Videogame Jockey.
The Videogame Jockey executes the game using a helmet, a'la DAFT PUNK, and he's the FINAL BOSS He designs the full of the experience live and is the bad dude making you sweat as you go All to the beat of live music.

It has been presented at Indiecade 2013 LA alongside Chipzel and Comic Con Buenos Aires and various other events.

LINK to trailers and website: http://toughcoded.littlenando.com





It's a LIVE event I've been bringing to parties, that will eventually become a --hopefully-- sellable game on Steam/iOS or whatever. But for now it's a LIVE experience and you can play it at private, indie, big or small parties.

I had begun a DEVLOG at Tigsource:
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?t ... #msg901650

And also have been blogging about the project at my personal Tumblr:
http://little-nando.tumblr.com/tagged/tough-coded

It's VERY VERY probable i'll be going to San Francisco and LA in March, and then Berlin/Paris first weeks of April. If any of you would like to see the game in action, contact me personally and I'll see how we can shake a party or two wherever we are! My mail is nando@littlenando.com.

Any feedback would be great!!
Thanks!
Also here's the facebook fanpage which has looots of pics on Live shows.
http://www.facebook.com/toughcoded

[n0rtygames]

Nuts. So one guy basically creates the game in real time for the others to play?

[littlenando]

Hey!
Yeah, that's right!

It's clearer in this video:
https://vimeo.com/80140210

And that dude is me! haahah The final idiot boss... haha

[littlenando]

THANKS big THANKS to the cool guys at @shumps twitter for twitting about the game!

Here are some pics of the ARDUINO used to make the mask that is used live in the game.
I'll be updating with pics and screenshots of the game these days! Thanks for the interest









Also during March I'm planning on attending GDC at San Francisco, if someone's over there give me a shout and we can do some small live private performances!! Mail: nando@littlenando.com

[DJ Incompetent]

I like this live concept. It makes sense because it requires discipline of the VJ player to make the game flow enjoyably while dispensing content at a reasonable pace.

Is the arduino you're using interfacing with the game itself, where game events are triggering the lights? Or is the arduino just cycling the light pattern independent of the game?


To release this game on Steam, I doubt it would work if you were to turn over VJ control to the players. Not only would the focus on the game become about players trying just to see how much content is mapped to the keyboard, but it would feel closer to a FTG with one character's moveset than a STG. Furthermore, players do not have dicipline when using computer software, so most using the VJ role would just mash the keyboard as fast as they can to crush P1 and P2. Or they would trigger overflow errors.
To solve this, I would suggest:
1. A Regenerating MP bar restricting the VJ from summoning an overwhelming number of multiple enemies simultaneously. The downside is this would reduce the feeling of power and creativity a player has in the VJ role. You could increase the regen rate over time closer to the end of the song to offset this feeling of restriction.
2. Release the game without allowing players to use the VJ role at all. To recreate your live set style to Steam players, release the game only with an online component that would allow download and play of a single "stage" per day; a stage being a predetermined VJ set. The stage would delete itself at the end of the day and a totally new "1 song playlist" would download itself for the new day. Ideally, you would have 365 days of unique playlists that wouldn't spend all the content you mapped to your keyboard on one song, so that players have something new to look forward to every day.

Tough Coded: Live is a 2 player death shmup

I have no idea what you mean by "death shmup"

[littlenando]

Hey there!
Yeah, the arduino is not connected to the game, although we tried. We had to create the mask in just 3 days before the first live show we did, in front of an audience of 3000 people in Argentina... It was great, but we had very little time to connect the arduino to the game. So for now, it's connected to a very standard button I wear on my chest, a'la "Iron Man", which I activate whenever I want lights to explode on my face. So that's it.

Re: the STEAM versions, yeah, you're right. In order to make it a fun experience for all, the VJ should be "constrained" on generating certain attacks... I don't think that would make it frustrating, as there are lots of "VJ" stuff you can still do, like, changing speed of the game, changing the color of the background, etc.etc.

The game is *not* balanced for this, yet... so that today the VJ can kill everyone whenever he/she chooses. Which would suck.

Even so, the desktop version of the game I was thinking of generating is a -story-RPG-shmup kinda thing, with an optional "party mode" game, to enjoy the 3 player version on a party. So I was planning on working on both (1) and (2) you mentioned. Cool! )

Oh, and I also don't know what a death shmup is sorry!

Thanks for the interest!
Nando!

[Dave_K.]

This is such an awesome idea. Please do post dates/locations if you come out to the San Francisco Bay Area.

[littlenando]

Hey man! Yeah, it's very very very probable I'll be part of some of the parties during GDC, the Game Designers Conference, at San Francisco...

If you have a group of shmup aficionados, I wouldn't mind doing a private show as well or show you the game. I'll very probably be around your area during March, final days. )

Mail me!
nando@littlenando.com