What’s new at Planet Kodu?
It’s been an amazing month at Planet Kodu!
We’ve had two very busy Planet Kodu members building some fantastic games this month.
Tomy, has uploaded several variations of his Super Trix world, and it’s been particularly interesting to watch the game develop as he uploads successive variations.
One of the key ingredients in developing a great game is ensuring that you test and retest, layering the game with complexity as you progress.
It’s a subject that we explored in the Planet Kodu Course presented free earlier in the year. In week 1 of the course, we explored this process of refinement and discussed how important it is not only to game development, but for the Kodu gaming community.
It’s a good idea to offer up progressive versions of your game creations for the assessment of your peers. With each new version you can more easily see where improvements have been made, and how successful your updates have been.
You can revert to previous attempts if you have to, and try different approaches to find out what the Kodu community thinks of your improvements.
Other users will also benefit from being able to keep track of your progress and understand how you improved your games, enabling them to replicate your achievements in their own games.
SARS2509 is another Planet Kodu member that’s been busy building games. The new series (currently in three chapters) is called the Soviet March and is narrative based. In the first game your challenge as a rookie Soviet pilot is to capture a blimp filled with enemy intel!
Each of the three games are different, with their own unique challenges. Each requires something different of the player, and offer another piece of the story. Drawing your players into the game with a story is a powerful way to ensure they remain hooked! It’s a subject we explored in detail in the Planet Kodu course in week three, and you can access the week three course guide on the site. The Soviet March game series is a great idea, unique and challenging, and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next!
You can still access all the course material on Planet Kodu. There are five weeks of videos and instructional material, as well as comments from the participants to explore. Whether you’re new to Kodu Game Lab, or an old pro, you’ll find the course offers a fresh perspective on the art and process of game development.
Version 1.0.48.0 Released
New version of Kodu Game Lab is now available. If you don’t have automatic updates on you will need to download it from the FUSE site http://fuse.microsoft.com/kodu.html
Information about the improvements in this version are listed on the official Kodu Game Lab blog http://community.research.microsoft.com/blogs/kodu/archive/2010/05/28/pc-build-1-0-48-is-live.aspx
Full Game Tutorial
Since the release of Kodu Game Lab, there have been a number of tutorials released online for all manner of game building challenges. We’ve listed a few below by Cracked Rabbit that offer detailed instructions for certain types of game development.
Whether you’re a seasoned professional, with hundreds of Kodu hours under your belt, or new to the game, you’re sure to pick up something new!
Please note that each of these tutorials is around 14mins long.
In this full game tutorial, created by Cracked Rabbit, land tools and basic character controls are explored.
In this second instalment, problem solving in game, and character AI are discussed, as well as setting paths and the notion of pages when programming.
In the third instalment, timers and music are added to the game.
In the final instalment, lighting, glyphs and land types are explored.
Note: You’ll note that it says Xbox in the introduction, but the PC release is almost exactly the same as the Xbox version.
Game Tutorials
Since the release of Kodu Game Lab, there have been a number of tutorials released online for all manner of game building challenges. Whether you’re a seasoned professional, with hundreds of Kodu hours under your belt, or new to the game, you’re sure to pick up something new!
In this tutorial created by Cracked Rabbit, they explain how to build a game with locked doors, and the ‘keys’ that open them.
Note: You’ll note that it says Xbox in the introduction, but the PC release is almost exactly the same as the Xbox version.
Tower Defence
One of the more common game formats that you can find on multiple playforms, including the iphone and in MMOGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Game) is the Tower Defence challenge. Popularised by Warcraft and Starcraft, this type of game is one with a basic premise is not unlike the more complex games of tag you can find in the playground.
You have a base to defend (often an actual tower), your enemy continues to advance and will most often regenerate new opponents. To win, often you must either survive for an amount of time, accrue a particular score, defeat all enemies, or a selection of these.
Building games like this in Kodu is great fun for a number of reasons. Firstly, you know the rules, and so you can immediately set about considering how you will program them to best effect. You’re still able to be endlessly creative with the format, but with the basic theme of the game already determined – defence – there’s less preliminary thinking time required.
Some of the more interesting incarnations of this game have been ones where elements outside generally known rules influence the game play. For example, if the topography includes hills that make it harder to see oncoming enemies, an additional layer of difficulty is introduced. You may in addition decide to use a fixed camera angle to further restrict what the player can see, adding atmosphere and anticipation to the game play.
Another benefit of electing to recreate a commonly known game like Tower Defence is that you gain the opportunity to determine a new and more engaging storyline. The story is important, it’s not only a way of drawing a player into the game, but it’s a sneaky way of talking about the rules of the game without having to set them down in bullet points at the beginning.
Finally, and most importantly, players know Tower Defence. When you present a game with this title, they know what they’re going to get and will be looking for the things that make your approach unique.
Tower defence games are not of course, the only format that’s worth exploring, there are countless popular recreations being built with Kodu Game Lab, and copying an existing game design is a great way to start if you’re new to Kodu. It’s also a great way of honing your skills if you’re a seasoned Game Lab programmer – focussing on the peripheral elements that can turn a good game, into a great game.
6 surprising ways Kodu can help you
Kodu is much more than making games. Using Kodu Game Lab, you’ll become better looking, discover that suddenly you’re much more popular, and find you’re really getting in touch with who you are as a person … well … perhaps you won’t gain ALL those additional benefits.
Kodu will help you in some surprising ways however, here are just a few.
- It will help with basic reading concepts. In the same way that having the ability to read music enhances literacy skills, using Kodu also gives you a deeper understanding of language because you are immersing yourself in a different pictographic language, with its own syntax and grammar logic.
- It will enhance your creative problem solving skills. Make no mistake about it, Kodu Game Lab will present you with some weird and wonderful challenges, and push you to approaching problems in new and interesting ways.
- You’re likely to collaborate with people from all walks of life. A very broad range of age groups use Kodu, and in many ways, the growing Kodu community is amongst the most diverse in the gaming industry. From six and onward, people are using Kodu to develop games.
- Kodu offers teachers and parents the opportunity to better understand what children find engaging about gaming. This understanding can then be used to find new ways of teaching and learning with gaming by leveraging this interest.
- It can help you understand how to better critique games. By enabling you to construct a game, Kodu gives you the skills to deconstruct other forms of gaming too. What works, what doesn’t and why, these questions are much more easily answered when you’ve had the opportunity to build your own.
- Video games are one of the most absorbing forms of entertainment we participate in. Studies show we are less easily distracted when playing (and building) games than with a variety other forms of entertainment like TV or a good novel. Why is this important? The critical thinking, problem solving skills you’re building with Kodu are that much better enhanced BECAUSE you are playing a video game!
Sport
There are some fantastic sports games being built by the Kodu community. Whether your preference is soccer or hockey, tennis or baseball … chances are somebody has had a bash at creating it in Kodu Game Lab!
I’ve been digging for good examples, and wasn’t dissapointed. Here’s a selection of soccer games built by Kodu enthusiasts that will inspire you to head out and create your own!
I particularly loved the shouting spectators on the side lines in one and the balloon/blimp flying overhead in another for that extra degree of authenticity. Those little details really make the game in my opinion.
New Kodu Version Released
A fresh new version of Kodu Game Lab was released today. In it, are numerous improvements and bug fixes.
You’ll find the new version will run seamlessly with the games you’ve already created in the previous release.
You can download the new version on the Kodu Game Lab website, and read up on what was updated here.
Great new games!
We’ve had a bunch of great new games uploaded by participants in the Planet Kodu course. If you haven’t had the chance to check out the course updates in the last few days, you’ll find a number of submissions all waiting to be downloaded!
Try the new games, take a look at the code behind them, modify and update them. Upload your own versions. Oh, and don’t forget to comment on the games, let game developers know what you think!
Planet Kodu Course
After the success of the first Game Design with Kodu Game Lab course, we are running another course starting July 19th. This course will be slightly different and will involve weekly live meetings. More details soon…
New Games!
We’ve not only had a bunch of new members on the site this week, we’ve also had some great games uploaded!
PacKodu is a Pacman clone uploaded by Planet Kodu member stuartridout. There are two versions of the game, and it’s worth taking a look at his first attempt before playing the new and improved version, to understand how he’s improved upon the original.
An Ice Hockey game was uploaded by Planet Kodu member pariah which is challenging, and great fun!
Finally, Kodu Invader was uploaded by Planet Kodu member richard. It’s fast and furious, and will test your skills.
Don’t forget to take a good look at the way these games have been put together after you’ve played them. Try making a few changes, tweaking these versions and uploading your own.
These games are great examples of what you can do with Kodu, and we’re looking forward to seeing what else the Planet Kodu community comes up with!
Fancy a course in Kodu?
Our Planet Kodu course will turn you into a Kodu Game Lab guru!
While what we plan to do week to week may be shuffled a little in the lead up to our course start date March 1st, this outline remains a good indication of the contents of the Kodu course.
If you haven’t done so already, register as a member on the Planet Kodu site and sign up. It’s free, and open to everyone!
Week 1 Getting Started with Kodu – Aquire the skills
Week one we’ll give you the skills to start building your Kodu games straight away! We’ll explore Kodu Game Lab together, introduce the concepts of design and navigation, and look how the best Kodu games are structured.
Week 2 How to build a prototype – fast!
Week two we explore the more formal elements of game design. We’ll take a look at how to find ideas, brainstorm game concepts and identify some of the risks when building your game.
Week 3 Game Mechanics – Designing challenging, engaging games
Week three we look at pushing your games to the next level. We’ll talk about how to determine powerful rules for your game, and use game actions and secrets effectively.
Week 4 The Game Experience – Theme and Story
Week four we take a look at the Kodu game space in more detail. We’ll explore the Kodu characters and the world they live in more closely.
We’ll look at how to build atmosphere in your game, and introduce rewards. Finally, we’ll talk about how to playtest your Kodu games and what you can learn from the process.
Week 5 Pushing the Boundaries – puzzles and probability
In our final week with Kodu Game Lab, we’ll explore how to implement games with an element of skill and chance. We’ll also look at different approaches to game design, with a comparison of game styles in our Head, Hands and Co-operation approach.
