Comments on: Throwing Cubes in Glasshouse

By: Not Bernard

Not Bernard — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:34:16 +0000

Just finished playing it now, was pretty fun. Puzzles weren’t too difficult, the turrets were a bit irritating (couldn’t tell when they could see you or not) and the collision was a bit dodgy, but overall, I enjoyed the challenge, and there was nothing which made me really want to stop playing. Keep it up the good work, guys.

By: The Bag

The Bag — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:26:11 +0000

“I hope that we can all remember that in University, deadlines are unfortunately more important than releasing perfect versions of anything.”

…and if you move into the world of professional game dev you’ll find that for the majority of places that, sadly, remains true.

By: MeestaNob!

MeestaNob! — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 07:09:31 +0000

Interesting video.

I got a real Portal meets Solstice (from the old NES days) vibe about it.

By: A friend of the developers

A friend of the developers — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 06:05:04 +0000

@yhancik The game was designed as a technical challenge, not a creative challenge (our degree has no real inclination towards the design side, regardless of the name). The actual game play and the fact that it’s a first person puzzle game is what was inspired by Portal. The art and textures is as such because of a lack of consistent art direction in the project (sorry to the artist, but you know it’s true).

And to everyone else, every single one of the bugs and problems that have been mentioned here, I can assure you were brought up during their playtesting tests. I hope that we can all remember that in University, deadlines are unfortunately more important than releasing perfect versions of anything. They are, however, currently working on creating an optimized Xbox version… and I believe creating more intellectually stimulating levels.

So I’m not nay-saying the critiques, but try not to sound so self-righteous when you comment because none of them are unique (not that you could have known previously).

By: The Bag

The Bag — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:20:41 +0000

Some comments, I played listening to the commentary:
- no option to invert the y-axis is unforgivable and immediately creates an issue for anyone who plays with look inverted.
- no brightness controls meant it was almost black all the time on my monitor.
- doors which are as wide as the player’s avatar meaning if you’re not lined up perfectly then you don’t get through.
- the opening ‘train ride’ level, really, you either have to do something interesting with that or be Valve, it fails on both accounts. It does nothing to draw me into the game, in fact it did quite the opposite.
- I agree with Kieron about the room teaching you the green goo is bad, if I never touch it how will I know (which I won’t cause the jumps are simple) – the sign telling you is at the end of the room.
- The room removed because it was too hard, yes it’s nice to show it, but maybe add an easy way out rather than opening up the possibility of people getting stuck in it.
- The room teach you to reuse the blocks you can stand on so you can traverse the goo (gravity gun, sand, HL2 anyone?) could have had fewer sections, it only required a couple to get the mechanic across – when you’re still teaching the player, coupled with a not great first person jump mechanic having it longer than that was just punitive.
- I too would have liked a more candid commentary, most of what they’re saying is pretty obvious, especially some of the stuff they discovered through play testing…
- I fell out the level becoming trapped beneath the geometry, a restart level option would have been nice.

I’ll play the rest of the game tomorrow.

By: abovenyquist

abovenyquist — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:49:08 +0000

As far as student projects go – remember the Portal team started out with Narbacular Drop, which has its share of rough edges too.

By: pi

pi — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:34:10 +0000

@yhancik
Yep.
Even with the lights off there’s no denying test-chambers still look like test-chambers.

By: Lucas

Lucas — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:18:12 +0000

OT, for my money, the book Glasshouse by Charles Stross is the scariest thing I have ever read.

By: ZIGS

ZIGS — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:13:24 +0000

I installed it but when I launch the game it gives me an error

By: Kris

Kris — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:09:24 +0000

I think you can have your insta death goo and jumps, providing your implemented game mechanic’s can support it. By the sounds of it – the lack of momentum with jumping / movement would really screw with timing and execution of jumps. Diasagree that HL is best at doing FPS platforming though, Metroid Prime does it much better.

By: yhancik

yhancik — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:40:11 +0000

@yutt
By one hand, I definitely agree with you. By the other hand, I still feel.. how to say… a bit concerned.

Now I actually don’t know if their studies have been focusing more on the technical or the “creative” side of things.
If it’s technical, the “Portal rip-off” is not a big deal.
(although it’s a pity that there seem to be technical issues with the game. But it’s still a great achievement)

If their studies were focusing on the more “creative” part of videogames making (be it design, story, mechanics), I’m a bit worried.
Coming from an art/design school, I’d expect students to actually be more free, creative and experimental than professionals with profitability in mind. Narbacular Drop (with all its imperfections) is a pretty good example.

and…
@pi :
The way I understand Eskil, he’s basically saying that your inspiration is more interesting if it comes from very varied sources.
“The difference between stealing and being inspired is defined by how many different things you get your ideas from”. And the problem with Glasshouse (from a creative point of view, which, again, might not have been the focus in the creation of that game) is that its getting 90% of its ideas from a single source: Portal.

I hope that sounded a bit more.. constructive ;)

By: The Sombrero Kid

The Sombrero Kid — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:14:51 +0000

to call them unprofessional for using insta death pit jumping in first person, while correct is simultaneously calling about 92% of professional first person game developers unprofessional and so in my eyes a bit harsh. e.g. portal had this innovative gameplay technique in spades