Dejobaan Games

Let’s build some Titans in Drunken Robot Pornography

// May 16th, 2013 // No Comments » // DRP

What is a Titan, anyway?

Titans are giant robots determined to destroy the city of Boston. They must be stopped! (Or built. Pick one.) Here are examples of some Titans that players have built in Steam Workshop:

Let's build a Titan

You can use this blog post as a recipe and use this Youtube playlist to see the actual techniques in action.

Ingredients

• Cores – These form the base of your Titan. Destroy this, and you'll destroy the whole Titan.

• Arms & Extensions – 18 pieces that make up your Titan's general structure.

• Wings & Terminators - 12 pieces that help you build organic looking robots (dragons, etc.).

• Plates – 4 pieces you can place on your Titan's exterior, to help protect it.

• Decorations – Mechanical tidbits (because Titans like to feel sexy too).

• Jaunty Attire – Non-canon items such as tophats and monacles (beacuse Titans occasionally like to dress up).

• Weapons – 10 guns, including lasers, missile launchers, and pattern emitters.

• Huge – Sometimes, you want these especially-massive structures.

Left to right, top to bottom:

Recipe:

Step 1: Print Keyboard shortcuts

These are not essential, but may save you some mouse clicks and your Carpal Tunnel (don't ever say we don't care about you). Note, we do plan to update the UI before launch.

Step 2: Building a Titan base

Loosely, a Titan consists of a core surrounded by structural pieces, weapons, and decorations. To completely eliminate a Titan, you have to destroy its core, but you first have to pick off its extremities to get there. When you're designing one, your goal is to make that as challenging (and as fun!) as possible. First, pick a core (shown above) based on your vision for the Titan. Experiment away, and check out the Steam Workshop for inspiration based on what other people are doing.

Step 3: Add to the base

Select a mount point on the core and hit "A" to see available pieces (you can also click on the button at the top of the "Mounts" tab, but keyboard shortcuts are faster). Set a piece's health (you'll see the option when you select a piece and click on the "Pieces" button — protip: you can shift-select multiple pieces). A Titan's extremities will be easier to destroy than the inner ones — that is, until you destroy the extremities.

Hear Amy and Elliot describe how this works:

Step 4: Arming your Titan

Weapons are part of the piece they're attached to (the "parent" piece), and can’t be destroyed individually, though they do contribute to how difficult it is to destroy the parent.

If you're using weapon and shield banks (see below), we generally advise that you have the Titan stop firing while shields are up. From a gameplay standpoint, shields work best when an arena is built around their presence — if a Titan's shielded for 10 seconds, make sure there are things strewn about for the player to collect during that period. More on this in the videos on Arena building.

Watch Elliot talk about weapons:

Step 5: Giving Your Titan Personality

• When making complex, sexy, Titans, use multiple pieces (and types of pieces). More pieces = more explosions!

• Think outside the pieces: just because it's called "shoulder" doesn't mean it has to be a shoulder, nor does a "leg" only work as a leg – English is soooo one-dimensional.

• Some of the smallest pieces are the most versatile — spine, X-fork, joint, etc.

• Use reference images (Google image search FTW) for inspiration.

• Use shapes to convey personality: for instance, edgy, spiky things look menacing.

• Colors: You can color your entire Titan or individual pieces. Experiment with reflectivity and glow.

• Jaunty Attire — because why not!

Step 6: Animate that Titan

Give your Titan some extra life through movement. Check out this video:

That's it for today. If you've built a Titan, show it off by posting it in the Steam Workshop!

New Art, Live-streaming, Building Titans and Arenas

// May 9th, 2013 // No Comments » // DRP

Another busy week of Drunken Robot Pornography means that we are a week closer to launch! In this blog post, we talk about some new art that Amy and Jon have been working on, but first, let's recap our latest Twitch stream:

#2 This week's highlight videos are made from the live stream. They are a nice way to see what's most interesting to you. Evetually they will end up on Youtube:

Port Wine, Live-Streaming, Drunken Robots and Ugly Babies

// May 2nd, 2013 // Comments Off // DRP

This week's blog post is brought to you by the letter T and the number 2! It has been a fun week for all of us over at Dejobaan. Ichiro is in Portugal taking a much deserved vacation. We are laying on the beach did our second live-stream on Twitch (more on that below) and we continued working hard on Drop That Beat Like An Ugly Baby, Drunken Robot Pornography and Monster Loves You. Did I mention that we are working HAAAAAAAARRRRDDD! But first Ichiro drinking port, because everyone should drink port!

TWITCH.TV — How to build a really fun Titan.

#1 Do this: Go check out our Twitch channel and follow us to catch next weeks stream live. It happens on Tuesdays at 2pm EDT/ GMT -4, and all episodes get recorded.

#2 We did our second Twitch live stream and focussed on Drunken Robot Pornography. The stream kicked off a multi-week series on building Titans and levels, and also featured a play-through of survival mode. We wanted to dive into the fine art of making Titans that are both pretty AND fun so here are a few pro tips from Amy: 

• Health: No matter how pretty your Titan is, it's important to set the health on each piece to make it fun to fight. You don't want your titan to fall apart at the slightest breeze, but you also don't want an indestructible fortress.
• Weapons: Weapons don't have individual health, so they can't be destroyed individually. Instead, they add to the health of the piece they're attached to.
• Shields: Be careful with shields, they can make the fight feel uneven or boring. You should probably stop the weapons from shooting when shields are on for fairness. Shields work best when the arena is build around the Titan having them. Give the player something else to do while the Titan is shielded (drones, powerups, another Titan)
• Personality: Don't use one piece when you can use three! more pieces = more explosions. Don't forget movement, this is a Titan not a statue! Use color and jaunty attire, because even Titans have a sense of style!

Check out the video below where Amy and Elliot explain these concepts in detail: 

Let's close out with some survival mode! We also did some of this in the Twitch stream so yeah, don't forget to sign up!

Drunken Robot Pornography Art Update!

// April 25th, 2013 // Comments Off // DRP

As some of you know, we have two really awesome artists; Amy who specializes in the 3D Modeling variety and Jonathan who illustrates digitally…with pixels… I figured we would loook at what they have been upto so here goes!!

Huge Titan Pieces

The robots in DRP are called Titans, not drones which to me says they must be MASSIVE! Here are Amy's latest huge Titan pieces. If you build Titans in the Giant Robot Construction Kit, you might get to use these soon! 

The Gun:

Amy has been playing with the textures for the gun. Here are a few that we looked at:

We almost settled on this one…what do you think?

Portraits:

And then Amy did these…

The first person who can correctly guess the largest number of people (Names and position the the grid) and email rshenoy[at]dejobaan[dot]com will get a copy of Monster Loves You . "Competition ends sometime tomorrow when I have enough responses"

The Arcology and GUI concepts:

Future Boston won't be able to use run-of-the-mill Google Maps so to help you find your way around the game we will have an arcology. Here are some early versions that Jon has developed. Which one do you prefer?

Also at some point you might die, yup…it happens to all of us! At that point you might see this:

I personally love Jon's GUI work but what do you think:

Titans:

And finally… some utterly ridiculous Titans and I mean that in a good way!

Viscerality in Drunken Robot Pornography

// January 19th, 2013 // Comments Off // DRP

Amy recently did a study on “viscerality” for Drunken Robot Pornography. That’s those little shaky, tilty, camera wobbly bits that make it seem like you’re actually physically there, instead of in a video game. Here’s what she had to say:

On Viscerality, in no particular order:

1. Impact on landing. In most games (and real life) you’d also die if you fell from the heights you do in DRP. Or just not have legs… but that’s ok, you have a jetpack! Portal actually doesn’t seem to have much for landing impact, either, though they probably explain it away with the leg braces.

Halo seems like as good a reference as any for this. There’s a slight dip when the player lands, other than that there’s not much for camera movement. The weapon actually conveys most of the movement (see #7).

2. Wind would affect jetpack travel, and most places this high off the ground would probably be a little windy. (No video, I’m not familiar with any other games that do high-altitude platforming.)

3. The player should be knocked back (and hurt) when hit by things– especially large, fast-moving things that have much more momentum than the player.

This is probably what would happen if the player was hit by a Titan:

4. Friction. It exists in the real world, and a moving platform (or titan) will not slide out from beneath your feet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP9fT8WrQ8c (2:00) : It is possible to stand on things that move and rotate.

5. The player is always upright. Related to #3, occasionally you may expect (in a giant rooftop battle between man and robot) to be knocked sideways or otherwise become slightly disoriented after being hit by the equivalent of a flying schoolbus. The camera could lean forward slightly when the player is running, if that doesn’t contribute to motion sickness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd1m5_n9P9w (starts at 0:34) : Portal has the same thing– why can’t you do crazy-cool acrobatics like this? Probably because you’d get motion sick and disoriented if that was done with a first-person camera.

6. Crouching/dodging. There’s a wall in front of me that’s 1.5m tall, but I will still get hit in the face by that missile because my legs are locked into the standing position. (No video, but there’s probably something in that Halo one from #1)

7. Using movement to convey… movement. Weapon bob when running (except when jetpack-gliding) and weapon bounce/slight idle movement, because most [human] people can’t hold a gun completely still even if they tried. Camera bob would happen if you strapped a camera to a real human being, but that probably just induces motion sickness in a game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwzaQCT9Hdo (from around 0:30-0:36-ish): from Sanctum, one of the only games where I could find someone standing still long enough to be able to point out the weapon movement out of combat– it kind of rocks gently back and forth like someone was holding it not perfectly steady.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx0gqCllnl0 : Metroid has a small amount of camera bob that doesn’t seem too sickening. Other than that, the arm cannon moves around a lot.

8. Weapon recoil– when we have the player weapon in.

Also notice other weapon feedback, like muzzle flash.

9. I think you can run just as fast backwards as you can forwards? Most people run slower backwards. Or faster forwards.

10. There is actually nothing indicating you are human. You never see your reflection or any body parts indicating your are not a robot. In most FPSs, there’s at least a gun and usually a hand or two. I’m vetoing the reflection thing though, because that would require a full model.

11. There’s also no indication that you’re at low health other than the initial warning– perhaps, as a squishy human, you’re winded, or there’s a life support warning on the screen. (I can’t find any videos of something like this because no one posts videos of themselves almost dying.) (Ed: Probably true!)

12. The player character makes no sounds. S/He doesn’t breathe, talk, or make so much as a peep even when s/he’s mortally wounded. (S/He might actually be a robot.) See Metroid video from #7 for human reactions to pain.

The most important thing to me is the weapon and how it moves to reflect the human wielding it.

That’s what we’ll be working on in the coming week or so.

DRP images proffered without explanation!

// November 1st, 2012 // 1 Comment » // DRP

We’re Going to PAX Prime!

// August 23rd, 2012 // 3 Comments » // DRP, Fun Stuff, Indie News, Monster Loves You!, Ugly Baby

By this time next week, we’ll be setting up for PAX Prime. I (Ichiro) am heading out on the 29th of August, and will stick around until the 3rd of September. With us will be Rohit (aka Leo) and Jonathan. Sadly, Elliot (DRP’s tech lead) will not be able to make it, but I’m thinking we should set up a two-way live stream on a mobile robot.

Anyway, while we’re out, here’s our checklist:

1. Be part of the Indie MEGABOOTH

30 indies. 30+ games. Here’s the trailer:

2. Grab a Bite with Valve

You know a publisher loves indies when you say, “Hey, want to meet with a bunch of us for dinner?” and they say, “Sure — when’s good for you?”

3. Show off DRP

“A massive, angry robot fires banks of lasers at an orphanage, slicing it apart to the horror of thousands of onlookers. You emerge from the wreckage on your jetpack, and blast at its weak points, breaking it apart like you’re dismembering a boiled lobster.” So goes our press release. And we’re ready to show off some of the latest Titans we’ve been creating. [Website!]

4. Show off Monster Loves You!

“You’re a young monster, orphaned by humans who now wear your parents as luxurious pelts. You live in the village of Omen, and your favorite snack is human toes.” We’re still working to polish the PAX Prime build with Radial Games, but it’s working on PC and iOS! Haxe for the win! [Website!!!]

5. Show the Ugly Baby?

Development is fascinating (read more about the PCG component here), but lengthy. Will we get to show off a snippet of the game at PAX Prime? Time will tell. [Website!!!!!!] Here’s the latest background test:

And So!

There you have it. If you’re in Seattle, come say “howdy”! Here are some shots from PAX East:

Sadly, Alicia (left) is staying in MA for this one. Kate (right) will be at the SEGA booth with her brethren and sistren at Owlchemy, showing off Jack Lumber.

Connect via @dejobaan and Facebook.

Building a Titan in Drunken Robot Pornography

// July 11th, 2012 // Comments Off // DRP

A 16x speed video of us building a Titan for DRP. This is a pretty simple one, but it shows off the Titan Builder tool that we also want players to be able to use in the full game.

Getting to the Core of Drunken Robot Pornography

// June 1st, 2012 // Comments Off // Dejobaan News, DRP

Drunken Robot Meta-Pornography

// May 21st, 2012 // Comments Off // Dejobaan News, DRP

Today, Elliot Borenstein discusses the “metagame system” of Drunken Robot Pornography, which gives players an always-weird, always-wonderful experience outside of arena combat.

Elliot says the plan is to have a big city represented by different locations that players can travel around. At each location, different events trigger based on what players interact with and what their attributes are (such as strength, looks, reputation, and perhaps gravitational pull, if you’re fat).

For example, if you try to enter a fancy club before making a name for yourself, you won’t get very far. Similarly, if you are super strong, a little old lady may ask you to carry her groceries and then give you a giant box of muffins in return.

Q: What do you do with the muffins?

A: You’ll find out!

Scattered around the city will be entrances to various arenas, many of them less-than-official. These will take you into the core gameplay of fighting Titans.

The metagame system’s goal is to build up the world and story around the frantic jetpacking of DRP, and to help make the game deeper and more interesting. Also important: we want to let you make obscene gestures with hotdogs. We’ve finished the latter, so we’re now working on the former.

Right now, the metagame is all squares and programmer “not-art,” but it’ll eventually be even better-looking than Ichiro’s horns. The code shot below shows a little bit of an encounter with a hotdog salesman, including a few of the choices the player can make. The game shot above shows the lobby of a stadium and a few choices the player has about what to do when s/he comes face-to-face with a concrete wall.

And there you have it. Adding more depth to the game for you and yours.