By John Walker on May 7th, 2009 at 6:28 pm.
You may remember we posted about AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity back in January, excited by the idea of an extremely silly base jumping game. Well now you can play Dejobaan‘s it for yourself in the Ugly Alpha. It’s a limited version of the game, giving you a taste of what’s to come. You run, you jump, you fall, and ideally you land without breaking all your bones. There’s tons of dumb jokes in there, capturing the direction the game is obviously aiming for. Hopefully by the time the game gets closer to release it won’t force you to use arrow keys and P for menus, the cursor for others, but WASD and mouse for the game. Hint hint. Anyway, check it out – it’s good times. Videos below.
07/05/2009 at 18:32 teo says:
Hmpf
Basejumping even in CS gives a better sensation of speed
07/05/2009 at 19:54 jonfitt says:
I’m still pretty meh about this with the graphical style they’ve gone for.
There’s no sense of speed due to the lack of frames of reference. It could be WipEout with an odd acceleration system, it doesn’t feel like basejumping (probably).
The opening of Crysis worked better.
07/05/2009 at 20:06 Sinnerman says:
Is that the transient smiley from Transmetropolitan? Looks good, sort of like a hip Pilotwings, but I don’t like this trend of using first person in games that really would better in third person.
07/05/2009 at 20:09 clive dunn says:
How long before a suicide simulator?
07/05/2009 at 20:20 duel90 says:
those tiny dots are people, flip them off? lol
i think this would work if it more resembled a realistic towering metropolis. perhaps set in the very near future, where all of the tallest buildings are built side by side…
07/05/2009 at 20:29 Sinnerman says:
@clive: The Karoshi suicide salaryman games simulate the good clean family fun of suicide. There was also an arty student project jumping off a bridge game IIRC where you had to grab photographs on the way down, a bit like memory vault thing in Psychonauts.
07/05/2009 at 20:35 Theory says:
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!
(Don’t enter caffeine mode. It persists until you restart the game.)
07/05/2009 at 21:11 Dominic White says:
If a game has ever needed a proper shadery motion blur effect, it’s this one. The more sensation of falling there is, the better. I also dig the abstract art style they’ve settled on – they don’t have the budget for anything really realistic, but they can make things look funky and minimalist.
07/05/2009 at 21:30 Arca says:
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA?
More like WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
07/05/2009 at 21:51 Dr.Waffles says:
Completely worth it just to hear the odd blabber at the end.
07/05/2009 at 21:51 Sp4rkR4t says:
And here was me thinking this was going to be a post about Dollhouse.
07/05/2009 at 22:11 Film11 says:
Theory: all the effects appear to persist until exit, beer goggles included. Can make navigating the menus a bit odd!
07/05/2009 at 22:15 fucrate says:
The audio bit at the end is really what makes the game work.
08/05/2009 at 01:48 ANeM says:
@Theory
How do you unlock the caffeine mode? I can’t find any coffee adds to jump through.
Also, I’ve found theres a number of extra maps in the alpha folder, you can play them by changing their names to match one of the unlocked maps (I used 13 – Jackhole.cad because I hate Jackhole.) Most are rough around the edges, lacking music, or with parts of their skyboxes missing, or worse.. but still fun :D
08/05/2009 at 02:02 Kanakotka says:
To add some color to the strange curious messages here, i actually enjoyed it a plenty. And would love to see what more they come up with
08/05/2009 at 03:05 Wazzle says:
Wow, I’m tasting a lot of haterade in these comments… frankly, I played it, and I believed that it’s minimal style, combined with a more arcade-oriented interpretation of basejumping, makes for excellent fun, if not a bit repetitive. However, it is also just an alpha, so it’s bound to improve in all respects.
Also, beer mode is the trippiest gaming experience I’ve ever taken part in. Go try it.
08/05/2009 at 04:16 Ichiro (Dejobaan Games) says:
I don’t know if anyone comes back and re-reads the comment threads. God knows I wouldn’t, if I were a ’90s woman.
I am not a ’90s woman.
HOWEVER, I do appreciate your (pl.) trying the game out — even if you hated it. Though I also appreciate the love. Especially if it is sensual love. What we’re going for is something like 80% love, 10% hate, and 10% apathetic indifference.
By the way, here’s what happens with all your comments:
1. We snag them together into a pool and pore over them. No kidding about this; it’s how we find out what sucks.
2. Shove foot into game source code.
3. Repeat.
Also, I was waiting for someone to find out what ANeM found out. I kicked myself for forgetting to remove them. But what the hell? Thank you for caring enough to dig through the files. :)
08/05/2009 at 04:34 waffles says:
Neat, a developer post.
Personally i liked it, though the landing on the second mountain map was annoying.
Looks wise, some sort of lighting to the beat system would add a bit of flavor to the buildings (maybe only for kissed ones) and that plus a infinite fall run would be amazing.
08/05/2009 at 06:14 army of none says:
Awesome.
Edit: Just saw the developer post. DOUBLE AWESOME. I already posted my feedback on your page, mister developer sir.
08/05/2009 at 06:41 Rudolfo says:
actually, motion blur gives me a headache, and a sense of speed can be achieved without it, see trackmania nations forever. although they have an option to de-/activate it.
plus, I actually use the arrow keys for menus and wasd for gameplay, using the mouse only in games where I have to (a lot)
08/05/2009 at 08:25 pepper says:
Sounds like a fun game, will have to check it out later on.
Oh and guys, a realistic game wouldnt be fun, skydiving is only fun when actually doing it. The whole rush of adrenaline you get from jumping out of a plane cant be mimicked with a computer game. Especially when you realize that all that keeping you from smashing into bits on the ground are the leg straps. And motion blur? Nop, you dont experience any of that, although the opening of a shute is usually pretty bumpy.
08/05/2009 at 08:38 RC-1290'Dreadnought' says:
Damn, i lost my previous comment due some kind of random PHP error(method not allowed). But I basicly suggested the developers should do some skydiving and basejumping while taking notes of everything that makes them feel like they’re going fast. This is the excuse they’ve been waiting for.
08/05/2009 at 09:40 Okami says:
I rather enjoyed the alpha. Not quite the same as the real thing thoug: http://vimeo.com/1778399
EDIT: Oh, hello Mr. Developer. First, have some sensual love from me. There, all done.
Second: Please tell me, that you implemented all the menu controls and general interface stuff in the last two minutes befor thinking about them, because it all sucks.
If I fail a jump, I want to be able to immediately retake it (look at Trials 2 to see how it’s done. And I don’t care if you can’t do it, because the way your engine is built, you first have to unload and reload each level in order to set back the colors on the buildings. I’m a paying (well at some point at least) customer and want to be pandered to). What I don’t want to do is, having to hit “P” three or four times in a row, just to play the game.
Which brings me to my next point: “P”??? Seriously?? I have to hit “P” in order to chose a menu option? I’m all for innovation in games, but please not when it comes to things like menu controls. Enter or Space will do just nicely. Or Ctrl. Best make it so that Enter, Space and Ctrl will work, just for these days that I can’t be bothered to memorize the keyboard layout of your game.
Last point: WASD for in game controls and Arrow Keys for menu controls. This is confusing. Especially since gameplay in your game comes in very short bursts which are interrupted by time spent in the menus. So I always have to switch back and forth between two controls schemes.
Apart from that, I thought that the game was quite lovely, though of course it will live or die with the amount of crazy level ideas you’ll be able to come up with. The core “risk vs reward” gameplay is solid in any case.
08/05/2009 at 10:05 Kanakotka says:
Okami, if you can’t remember where P is on your computer keyboard at this day and age, i consider thee a silly person. Do you want to be a silly person? It’s right below 0!
08/05/2009 at 15:02 Ichiro (Dejobaan Games) says:
> This is all your comments and love and some of your vitriol.
Thank you for trying the game and for taking the time to comment on it. We’ve been really happy with the results, both in your support and suggestions and support.
> Please tell me, that you implemented all the menu controls and general interface stuff in the last two minutes befor thinking about them, because it all sucks.
Yeah, we did, actually. I actually left ‘em like that to enforce the alpha-ness of the demo. But in retrospect, I will NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.
My mother just disowned me for it.
08/05/2009 at 17:12 pepper says:
Just gave it a spin, found it really fun to play, longer levels could definitely help this game, also a simple level editor would be awesome, I think this game really has potential. A bigger sense of speed could help this game, with the ability to pull some heavy brakes, since depending on your position in a skydive you can reach speeds up to 400 KM/H and 250KM/H. Or you could allow the player to have some sort of a birdsuit. Which also allows you to travel greater distances(horizontally) whilst skydiving.
The landing system is OK, but doesnt present a really great challenge. It would be nicer if the player would needed to flare(braking the vertical speed and changing it to horizontal speed) with the S key, decent a notch faster with the W key, and steering left and right would also accelerate the shute(both horizontally and vertically) since you brake one side, and accelerate the other side IRL. Maybe also add a scoring system for great landings(brake horizontally at about 75M, heavy 180 degree turn, making the parachute temporarily gain a hugh vertical speed which is then slowed down to a horizontal speed, swooping.
Hope it helps, the game already is fun as is, but has a bigger potential IMHO. And a quik retry button would be nice if you failed the mission, save the quotes for a succesfull mission. my 0.002 cents.
EDIT: Didnt have much problems with the interface, except that i kep going for the P key at the beginning of a map.
08/05/2009 at 17:28 Okami says:
Ichiro, your mother is a very sensible person.
10/05/2009 at 14:03 sbs says:
liked the game, but especially loved the drivel at the end.
04/01/2010 at 04:35 Abercrombie and Fitch says:
Good information!