Gnap again!

I found some vids that I captured of a few levels of U.F.O.’s in all of its circa 1997 glory.  Behold the beauty of 15fps limited animation!

If you interested in checking out more, I gathered some more footage HERE.

Shnozz Prototype

Found this footage of an early prototype of Shnozz running on PC.  This was actually our second prototype, the first running on a PS2 (I will post some screens of that one some time).

It looks rough (hey it was 2003 and I was part of a 4 man team making everything from scratch!), but it still cracks me up.

The Simp-Sims

Another game that went through lots of hoops before finally tanking was a Sims inspired version of the Simpsons that focused on Homer.  You played the role of Jeebus, getting him to do your bidding.

We first developed it in 2D and reached a first playable with Homer in the living room.  You could get him to react to things that you interacted with in the room (turn off the TV and he got mad and turned it back on/turn off the lights and he would get scared).

Although it lacked gameplay originality,  it was still fun to manipulate Homer and watch him eventaully break down spinning on the floor screaming.  After several failed attempts to get greenlit, it eventually was turned into a full 3D demo….guess that the powers that be felt that 3D was the way of the future for a 2D show.  Regardless, it was shelved.

Here’s a pic that I was able to dig up…

Bam!

Bam! was a game concept that I developed with a team of folks back in 2000 or so.  We wanted to create another point and click adventure game where we continued to push the symbiotic relationship between multiple characters with unique abilities…in other words a group of animators/designers wanted to make another game of gags in the vein of U.F.O.’s.

It never got further than the creative brief with an accompanying animated title sequence.  Go figure, point and click adventure games were on the way out as 3d action games started to take over the market.

In the end this was a tough one to let go.

Splintered Bonus

Back in 2004 I was working on the PS2 version of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.  I was leading the single player level design team on developing exclusive content; which was an awesome opportunity.  Unfortunately we had to scrap our work to hit a simul-ship date; a decision that was made later in our dev cycle.

Though, a couple of those levels managed to live on as bonus unlockable missions in the follow up Double Agent on the PS2.  Cheers to the folks that helped get them running again.

Norse Noise

At the previous studio I was at, we were broken into teams of 5 or so folks and were given 5 days to create a playable game.

I have always wanted to develop something that uses the pitch and volume of your voice to control an avatar; pitch controls height while volume controls speed.  I finally had the chance to give the idea a whirl!  We developed the concept into Norse Noise where you control a pissed viking on the run to fight the evil god Scald.

Using XNA, some open source volume/pitch detection code along with a sassy 2d art and scrolling action, we got a decent demo running.  It also turned out to be a great way to lose your voice through development.

Scrub to 3:08 or so to see it briefly in action.  Be sure to check out the rest of the games as well; definitely some inspired stuff!

Our team was awesome, and it was a great experience.  Now if only all games were developed in a week…

I See Dead Games

Back in 2000 sometime after Scary Movie (the movie) came out, I was part of the team that put together the stellar Scary Movie The Game.

Yep.  A Scary Movie game.

This was hands-down the quickest game I have ever worked on.  From end to end we had it ready to go in 6 weeks or so.  It was a collection of trivia and mini-games (like duck hunt with a knife).  To be honest, it was fun to make though the quality was debatable.

Just as we were ready to roll it out, the game was shelved.  The best part of the deal were the dev shirts the publisher gave us that had the title of this post printed on the front.

Here are some pics of this masterpiece in action.

Level Editor Demo

I recorded this sometime in 2004.  I was using an in-house level editor that we named ShnozzED that ultimately was used to develop Raze’s Hell.  After the original Shnozz concept went by the wayside, we kept the name as a reminder to where it started.  I recall using this recorded demo of the level editor in action to demonstrate our work flow to prospective publishers.

This has been sped up of course, and lacks sound.  But, damned if I have come across a level editor that was as easy to work with.  Shortkeys rule!

First game

Straight out of animation college in 1994 I got a job animating pixel/pushing backgrounds on Wild Board Games for the PC.  It was a collection of boardgames, each hosted by a different character.  I mostly animated the rabbit…think he was called Jack (get it?!?!??!?).

I remember goofing around with the animations not really knowing what I was doing…Jack came off as quite the jerk to the kiddies as a result.

BTW, the hot graphics below were produced with Deluxe Paint!

Gnap!

Gnap was the working name of the first game that I designed with a couple of chaps back in 1997.  It was a labor of love that I worked with a lot of great people on.  We were a group of animators that were huge fans of LucasArts/Tim Schafer’s point and click adventure games.  Along with designing the puzzles and overall flow, we managed to find the time to key animate and manage folks in-betweening and opaquing.

We pretty much used the opportunity to animate gags that cracked us up…which was awesome.  Unfortunately the original publisher sold it off before we were done, so funding was cut short.  It did get released, albeit with levels cut and no marketing.  It died on the shelves of bookstores….yes…bookstores.

I found a review here that I came across while putting this post up.

The below images are from the black market version that was all the rage in Russia…which even included a dubbed voice track.