Hans' First Trip

Here's some little aimless psychedelic toy I made when I got bored making the game a few months ago. I stole the name from "Syd Barrett's First Trip".

Left and Right arrows to walk around and get bored.

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Ode To Pixel Days News

Ode To Pixel Days can be seen on Kongregate's front page as of now, which attracts a crazy amount of views for the game. It's currently 15K and counting on, which makes OTPD easily my most played game ever.

It also got featured on Newgrounds and got a Daily 4th Prize, which is nice. I didn't even know that they got a 4th prize :D

I really thought it wouldn't be liked on Kongregate and get some niche kind of attention over Newgrounds. The love OTPD is getting really exceeded my expectations.

I also got a long, nice article about OTPD, which is here:

IndieStatik

I also got a short Jayisgames review, which is also somewhere here:

Jayisgames

So thank you for your support and love. I'm very glad that most of the people are enjoying my game. Thanks :)

Ode To Pixel Days Reviews!

I got some amazing comments about the game on Kongregate and Newgrounds, that made me very happy. What made me happier is these wonderful articles about my humble work!

Thank you, this all means so much to me :)

Guidology.com

OhTheThin.gs

This one's in Turkish, it's amazing!

Ode To Pixel Days Got Featured on IndieGames.com!

This made me extra happy today. I submitted it this morning and John Polson from indiegames.com was very nice to me and thankfully he was interested in my game. He even quoted me on the article!

http://indiegames.com/2013/02/pixelize_the_ugliness_away_in_.html

About Indie Game: The Movie

Two days before I watched "Indie Game: The Movie", I have designed my game, Ode To Pixel Days, for the first time. When I watched IGTM, it inspired me so much, I felt really motivated to create my game. As you may know, Ode To Pixel Days is a very personal game for me, I see some people connecting emotionally with it and it makes me so proud. I put so much things from myself in it, I feel like I've shared a valuable thing with other people.

I watched IGTM and loved it. I watched it again, I made my friends watch it too, they all loved it. Every time I watched it, it touched my heart and motivated me to continue making the game. My game is not a big game, it's just a little browser game. But I am so proud of it, and I am thankful to James and Lisanne for making such an awesome movie.

It took more than 6 months to finish and release the game, but there were very depressing times, when I did not want to go on with it. I remember one night, I was terribly depressed about the game, I started losing interest in it at some point. I watched IGTM and cried when Team Meat released Super Meat Boy, Edmund Mcmillen talked about his emotions about the release. A kid, staying up all night to play Super Meat Boy... That scene always kills me. I remember after watching the movie, my depression fading away, I was back to being determined to finish this game.

And I have finished it.

Today, I released it.

I am very thankful to James and Lisanne for creating such an inspirational movie. It means so much to me and I'll continue watching it again and again in the future. Thank you for everything :)

I'd be honored if you guys tried out my game. Thanks :)

Game is available on these links:

MaxGames
Kongregate
Newgrounds

Ode To Pixel Days Released

Ode To Pixel Days is released! Pick your favourite flash site and play!

MaxGames
Kongregate
Newgrounds

To tell you my mixed emotions, here is a photo:

You see how fucked up I am? Well I'm very very happy anyways :)

Thank you for your support and interest.

Ode To Pixel Days is Releasing in 24 Hours! (Probably)

The puzzle/platformer flash game I've been developing for 7 months, Ode To Pixel Days, will be released tonight or tomorrow hopefully. Still not sure about the exact hour.

It will be playable on maxgames.com, kongregate.com and newgrounds.com. I'll share the links when it comes out.

Thank you for your support and interest :)

I'M SUPER EXCITED!

Ode To Pixel Days Extras!

Thank you for playing Ode To Pixel Days!

If you've enjoyed your experience, you probably want more!

Extras include:
The Meaning of The Story And Narration
Wallpapers
Free Soundtrack
Credits

Hope you enjoy these:

The Meaning of The Story and Narration:
(!!!SPOILERS!!!)

I'll try to explain what I've tried to do with this game. I always had this low self-esteem thing going, and through teen years, social interactions got very uncomfortable for me. I wasn't a very social person. I lived through things in my mind, and not by actually living; like I never told a girl I liked her, I never felt confident enough to try my chances on things and people, I just lived through my life since now, expecting something to happen by itself.

I think I pretty much changed that behaviour now, because now I work for my dreams, like making the games in my dreams, and telling stories that I was never able to tell the other way. Because I know that, playing a game is very different from watching a movie or reading a story. The difference is beyond "interactivity". Games have the chance to actually let the players live through something, experience something on their own and learn through the game. For example, in Cultivation, Jason Rohrer's old game, you experience a very difficult trade-off between neighbours, and you actually get to learn through the experience, not like you try to understand the message of a movie, but you actually experience something and learn.

I tried to create this "learning experience" throughout this game. I don't think I was able to fully do it, but I'm sure my games will get better with time.

In the game, Hans builds a machine that makes everyone look just the same. The reason of that is, a young person would always try to change the world first, instead of changing himself. He doesn't know that the world is not easy to change. He changes the world, but only his mind.

He eventually succeeds to get to cheerleader. They become lovers, but not for long. Cheerleader leaves him, tries to get out of this utopia. Because the cheerleader is so obsessed with looking beautiful, a relationship is only meaningful if she looks great.

The relationship, like almost everything of the game, is in Hans' mind. The question that should be asked here is, since Hans' utopia was in his mind, he must have chosen to collapse it, he must have made cheerleader leave him. Why? The answer is... Hans is a very imaginative boy, but that doesn't mean he has the full control of his dreams. He is a traveler, in his own mind. He doesn't really know where he is going. Hans lives through bad dreams in his mind the same way all people see bad dreams while they're sleeping. So, Hans' relationship with cheerleader didn't work out in his mind. There's a strong clue to all this happening in Hans' mind. Just before the credits, there's this black and white level, where cheerleader chats with two girls. Hans walks to her. She looks at him, but she doesn't know him, so she immidiately gets back to chatting with the girls. This scene is a confusing one, but I think some players will be able to understand what's going on here. All the time spent in the colorful castle represented Hans' dreams. And now the black and white level represents the real world. What player knows is that Hans experienced a relationship with the cheerleader. But here, the game shows that the cheerleader doesn't even know who he is. She ignores him completely. He is invisible to her. That way, we know that Hans experienced all this in his mind.

The castle that the game is mostly played in represents Hans' storage of hopes and dreams. Through the game, the castle misses bricks, one by one. There are holes through walls where you can see clouds and birds. The inevitable end of the castle, the collapse gets nearer. That of course, is the death of Hans' dream, the utopia, where everyone looks just the same. But as he runs out of  his castle, he finds some kind of peace. The fall from the castle symbolizes that peace.

He succeeded to find some peace when the utopia collased. But actually, as I just explained, the black and white real world is still full of suffering. Hans learned how to be himself, without letting the others criticize him so unforgivingly, without even knowing him.

I put my heart and months into this game. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading.

Wallpapers:

(1366 x 768 resolution)

Soundtrack: (Free Download and Online Streaming)

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Credits:

Sponsored by MaxGames.

Everything on the game is done by me, Talha Kaya. I have designed, programmed, drawn, animated the game, recorded and mixed the soundtrack, generated the sound effects. But who I am without these wonderful free tools?

FlashDevelop

Flixel Framework

Paint.Net

Audacity

sfxr

And who am I without these wonderful people?

Tarik Kaya

Nazire Aslan

My Family

Nowhere Studios

Without your help, support and motivation, this game wouldn't be able to come to life.

Very Special Thanks To:

Orcun Nisli

Burak Tezateser

Refik Toksoy

And the whole Nowhere Studios team. This project has started with your help while I was an intern in Nowhere Studios. Thank you for everything.

Playtesters:

Tarik Kaya, Nazire Aslan, Cem Evin, Orcun Nisli, Burak Tezateser, Ali Bati, Umut Dervis, Emrah Ozer, Ozan Komurcu, Refik Toksoy, Gokhan Yildiz, Caglar Sahin, Murat Kalkavan, Hande Basar, Oguzhan Tocan, Melis Colak, Burak Kadron, Efe Alacamli, Ozan Yildiz, Durmus Ali Collu, Ahmet Erdem, Yunus Emre Tekin, Cagatay Yildiz, Emre Erdogan, Melih Saglam, Oguz Demir, Muhammed Cicek, Kutay Ata Sen, Bugrahan Memis, Hakan Yilmaz

Hans will grow up
Be a random guy on a street
But the pain in his throat
It's going to stay for a while.

Thank you :)

Learning Nape

I've started learning to use the awesome framework Nape, which is a 2D rigid body physics library.

Here's a nice little demo.

Drag objects with MOUSE. Turn on/off gravity with G.

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John Conway's Game Of Life

Recently I watched this awesome talk of John Blow:

Jon Blow on "The Truth in Game Design"

So I felt like I should give a chance to implement John Conway's Game Of Life that is explained in the talk.

If you're asking WTF is John Conway's Game Of Life, then just click on it. It's a simulation with very basic rules, but the outcomes are amazing. You set an initial state and simulate it to see what crazy pattern forms up.

So I did it. It's so much fun trying to find nice patterns.

MOUSE to make cells alive or dead. SPACE to start and stop simulation.

Look up and try patterns from this Wikipedia page for more fun!