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Wario Ware Do It Yourself: How I became a game designer/artist/programmer/composer

ChenChen Registered User regular
edited October 2011 in Games and Technology
It is absolutely brilliant! I haven't laughed this much playing games (or making rather) in years. I saw it in a bargain bin for a tenner and snatched it up, because why not? To be honest, I haven't played WarioWare since the original, but the idea of creating your own games had me intrigued, even if they were only a couple of seconds long. I've always wanted to be a game designer / music composer / comic artist and this game lets you do all of them!

The tutorial, while humorously written, took a while for me to grasp the workings, but thanks to Penny and to a lesser extent Wario, I made a rather entertaining - if a little basic - game in a little more than an hour. The idea is you tap the stylus to let a tank ride from left to right in a straight line. The objective is to try to run over a slightly panicked obese man, at which point he lets out a scream and leaves a red mark while the tank continues its warpath. To the main bass riff of Hell March from Command & Conquer: Red Alert.

In a Nintendo game.

The most hilarious part is that (after you splatter the hapless man) Wario says one of his victory quotes. Shit, I could probably add multiple objects to be crushed in a gory fashion. Like I said, brilliant. Think of the endless possibilities you can do involving phallic objects!

The only negatives I have found as of yet are the limited colour palette and shaders. It's kind of worse than Microsoft Paint. I know a few graphic designers and let's just say they'd rather -insert horrible verb- themselves than use Paint. Stylus only input is also a bit of a bummer.

I'm still in the process of learning to make awesome art and animation, but from what I've seen on the WFC (you can share games with each other), it's very much possible. For a professional at least. Yoshio Sakamoto, one of the designers responsible for Metroid, for example made a terrific looking game where you shoot Metroids after which they shatter in icy pieces.

I can tell you I'm going to enjoy this for a long time and I've barely scraped the barrel (only unlocked Mona's games so far).

tl;dr Wario Ware: DIY is more or less the spiritual successor of Mario Paint and it is glorious. Hurray for Intelligent Systems!

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Chen on

Posts

  • Jam WarriorJam Warrior Registered User regular
    I tried my best to drum up enthusiasm when it was new but a tiny amount of forumers seemed to pick it up and even those people weren't making much.

    Sad as it's essentially the Mario Paint DS everyone was clamouring for.

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  • The WolfmanThe Wolfman Registered User regular
    I only played the DS version, but it was a little too much DIY for me. I can barely draw stick figures, so there wasn't a whole lot for me to be interested in.

    But holy hell some of those look insane. I can't believe they exist though. They look like they'd make an IP copyright lawyer cream in his pants.

    "The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
  • Jam WarriorJam Warrior Registered User regular
    Nobody is selling anything and I'm sure Ninteno only publically host things with sprite rips of their own products so I'm sure it's all fine. Re: crappy art, that was the genius of making it a WarioWare game! Rough and ready doodle art is the expected style.

    Thinking back, I was majorly excited for a WarioWare game with a constant flow of new games, but the way you had to individually download each microgame one by one kind of killed the fun of that. If I could have downloaded weekly packs of games or something I'm sure it would have held my attention much longer.

    Anyway, some crappy things I made:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-jDscwnndo

    From this inspiration http://www.scarygoround.com/sgr/ar.php?date=20090825

    And my rather rubbish entry for the first contest theme (are those still running?) of 'Shark Vs Dinosaur'.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icFgKEa8nvU&feature=channel_video_title

    Forum user @cravipat was the undisputed star of the last thread and made this fantastic PA strip inspired game:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1i28P4MRu0

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  • ChenChen Registered User regular
    edited October 2011
    Haha, that's fantastic! It already got my creative juices flowing!

    Shame the game went under people's radar. I've been downloading games off the WFC one by one and they're pretty decent for the most part. Best part is I can nick the art assets! I don't think contests are still running, but that's fine. I can't compete with their genius minds anyway. Going to try pixel art next by opening an image in Paint and drawing by hand. Just have to be careful not to be too ambitious...

    Also, what's the deal with boss (unlimited timer) templates and is there a kind soul who can share them? Pretty please?

    Chen on
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  • cravipatcravipat CFKPW? Registered User regular
    I saw this thread and was just about to post that Unhorse video. Most of my other creations are in the link in my sig. If you add me let me know and I can push whatever you're looking for in my warehouse.

    I should dig this back out. It is a lot of fun making the games but I never really found any great communities come out of it in order to share the games. Sadly the most active place seems to be GameFaqs.

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    Super Mario Maker ID: DBB-1RH-JJG
  • ChenChen Registered User regular
    edited October 2011
    Thanks for the videos. Yeah, half or actually most of the fun is trying to create these bite sized games and get a taste of the satisfaction and accomplishment actual game designers gain.

    I'm currently still experimenting with the AI component. The Assembly Dojo does a decent job of teaching the basics, but like with mathematics, when the equations get complex with multiple functions my brain starts to shut down.

    It's fine to create games that are basic, but I want to be a little more ambitious. Maybe too ambitious considering I've only had the game for two days and my complete lack of experience in game design. If I could make my games a 1/10th as enjoyable and witty as the video below I'll be happy.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXY386G6IM0

    I've had an idea this morning, but I'm not sure how to execute it or if it's even possible. The idea comes from Pokémon. You know when you initiate a battle by coming face-to-face with a trainer? A bubble with an exclamation mark appears, forcing you to stop and he/she walks towards you? I sort of want to create a game where you have to avoid eye contact and walk past the trainer. Or initiate a battle. It doesn't really matter.

    The real issue is there are a few tricky problems I have to find solutions for.
    1. The trainer facing four possible directions is random and continuously changes.
    2. The trainer facing the direction when you cross paths causes a trigger (no contact of object a&b).
    3. The trainer not facing your direction doesn't cause a trigger.
    4. The trigger causes a custom sound effect.

    I have heard about creating fake or ghost objects to trick the game, but I have no clue what to make of the AI since I'm not a programmer. The AI seems very basic, but there may be a few loop holes I can abuse that I'm just not aware of yet. Also I have no idea how to add buttons on the screen that control directional movement.

    Hm. Maybe I should change the thread title to lure people who actually make a living out of programming. Or solving puzzles.

    Chen on
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  • Jam WarriorJam Warrior Registered User regular
    The tutorials in this are pretty extensive and useful.

    What you explained seems very doable. From my memory of the system you'll want an invisible object at the point you would be seen and then IF player touching invisible object AND trainer facing in correct direction THEN lose.

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  • UncleSporkyUncleSporky Registered User regular
    edited October 2011
    What about a pokemon gym where you have to challenge the leader without fighting anyone else (so as to have full HP and powers, naturally). The gym is a small maze of walls and people facing different directions that you have to walk through. The hardest version would have one of the trainers spinning in place, requiring a bit of timing.

    UncleSporky on
    Switch Friend Code: SW - 5443 - 2358 - 9118 || 3DS Friend Code: 0989 - 1731 - 9504 || NNID: unclesporky
  • ChenChen Registered User regular
    That sounds logical. I'll hit up the dojo and finish the remaining tutorials. I just don't know how to make the seperate directions change randomly on the same spot (something with the timer perhaps?). And only one of them is a trigger, so I should make them seperate objects or just seperate arts? I'm thinking the former.

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