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After spending more than a week listening to more than 45 submissions for Gunpoint’s music, I’ve decided to go with Ryan Ike’s cool, moody upright-bass style for Gunpoint’s missions. There were also two particular songs among the submissions that just clicked perfectly with different parts of the game: for the shop and upgrade interfaces you access on your phone, Francisco Cerda’s gorgeous smooth jazz was exactly what I wanted. And for the game’s more sombre moments, John Robert Matz’s mournful and sinister theme tune was magnificent. So Gunpoint has sort of ended up with three musicians. Coming to a decision was harder and much more time consuming than I expected. I got more submissions for this than for the game’s artwork, and listening to a full music sample takes 1,833 times longer than looking at a sprite. The more I listened and played, the more I liked less prominent tracks that supported the game’s existing atmosphere. Thanks again to everyone who did such awesome work, and sorry to everyone I couldn’t use. I was amazed by the calibre of what came in. Obviously I feel terrible turning anything good down, but I still believe in the open submissions process because I’ve been on the other side of it a few times. Both times I wrote short stories for the Machine of Death collection, it was with no expectation they’d get in – I just did it because I enjoyed doing it. I hope that’s the feeling among everyone who’s submitted stuff for Gunpoint, music and art. You might remember I also did the same thing for the Crosslink noise, and got some awesome stuff. I’ve decided to use Jeremy Watssman’s smooth warbly sound, which you can actually hear in his music submission video here. I’d also like to use the sound Ben Royle submitted for a different purpose, if he’s OK with that: it makes a great satisfying thunk when spending points upgrading your gadgets. Update: he says, quote, “Fuck yeah!”  Gunpoint in 2010, before it had a title. The filename was just ‘grey’, after the background.Lastly, I talked a bit about how far Gunpoint has come on and asked you guys if you thought I should charge money for the game when it comes out. I was expecting around 90% of you to say I should keep it free, and if it was as low as 80% I’d start to believe it might be worth something. The figure was around 1%. Over a thousand comments, the vast majority of people said “No! Don’t give us a free thing! Charge us money!” That’s an amazing and confusing response for me, but you don’t have to tell me twice. Well, you don’t have to tell me more than a thousand times. I will obey your command to charge you money for Gunpoint, though I plan to keep it low and provide a substantial free version. I won’t claim anything specific yet since I’d like to confirm how and through whom I’ll be selling it first, in case they have advice or rules that affect it. I’ve talked with all my awesome art and music collaborators and we’ve agreed on a split we think is fair. Exciting times! Although the music selection process and Christmas took up a lot of the break, I also managed to build a dynamic system for context sensitive music layers and overhaul the way your gadgets are powered and upgraded. I still have a few levels left to make, and a fair few more I’m not happy with variety- and fun-wise, so I’ve used some of the time away from my PC to plan out new puzzle ideas, come up with some new gadgets and devices, and figure out which ones will be easy to code and add a lot of fun possibilities.
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In the trailer I put up last night I said I’m open to suggestions for music for Gunpoint, then claimed there’d be a version of that trailer without my voice here on the site. There wasn’t! There is now!
So if you’re interested in doing music for it, I’d love it if you could add what you think is appropriate to this version of the trailer. I’m mostly open-minded about what the music should be like, but here are a few thoughts I have on it:
If Gunpoint ends up being free, I can’t pay you anything. Sweet deal, I know! If we do end up charging for it, and you end up doing the music, you will get a share of it. I should warn, though, that it’ll be a very small share – I have to prioritise the stuff the game wouldn’t work without. Basically, for God’s sake don’t do this for the money.
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Nathan Dell-Vandenberg: Here is my submission for Gunpoint after about 4 hours of troubleshooting audio/video issues when posting to youtube. Gah! Done!
http://www.youtube.c... ...ZWpMFX0u3U reach me at Nathan@NathanDV.com | ||||
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Regular commenter lack_26 “got a bit bored and ended up making the UCD-Pepper-spray Cop, so of course I eventually ended up putting it into a gunpoint screenshot”. It is amazing!
Luckily, Conway’s Teflon Hyperface renders him immune to lachrymatory agents.
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redn4x: Teflon Hyperface?
If your game gets popular, i can see some memes popping up. | ||||
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With a comical inevitability, I have to admit I can’t see Gunpoint being ready for Christmas. Lots of elements I think of as ‘done’ aren’t really ready, and finishing each of those seems to take about as long as coding them in the first place. Then there’s level design.
Level DesignI’ve been mentally filing levels under ‘content’, stuff I already know how to produce and which just needs a little grunt work to churn it out. I’m now discovering that it’s really more like the game systems: something that shapes the experience so fundamentally that you need to get it in early and keep tweaking and revising it as you go along. I’ve also learnt a lot about the difference between a puzzle game and something more open ended like Deus Ex, and some of it really surprised me. In the first prototype that included the Crosslink device, you could literally link any device to any other. It was fun to mess around with, but there was no game there really – as I think all testers noticed, you could stand by one light switch and just wire it to everything else you wanted to change.
It was never going to stay that way, I knew how to shape it: I put some devices on different coloured circuits, ones you can’t rewire until you reach the right circuit box and tap into it. That let me design puzzles: proper obstacles to your progress that you have to think your way around, tapping into the right circuit and finding ways to get to the next one. I guess I just assumed that was level design, because when I sent out the last build I realised I’d pretty much ended up with a straight puzzle game. Sometimes it works, other times it feels like it’s just keeping you busy: you have to get to this circuit box to progress, and there’s really only one way to do it. If figuring out that method isn’t interesting, the only fun is in the basic interactions: pouncing, punching, executing chain reactions, knocking people off rooftops and through windows.
Alternate RoutesI should probably be happy with that. I asked testers what they’d give the game if they were reviewing it, and the overwhelming majority said 8/10. Even accounting for a large positive bias in the selection process, that’s way better than I was hoping for. But I still want it to be more than a puzzle game with punching. The point of the Crosslink mechanic is to let the player be creative, and I feel like I must be able to do a better job of that. So I tried designing a new level with a completely different philosophy: make a building, not a level. Just make sure there are at least two routes to every objective and sub-objective. It was terrible. It might be the worst level I’ve ever made. It felt like the game was just broken – you keep asking yourself “What’s this room for? Why would I want to go there? Wait, I’ve completed it? Did I cheat?” It wasn’t easier than the other levels, it just felt like most of it was misleading or irrelevant.
The ProblemI tried it a few other ways and kept running into the same problem: If a puzzle has one solution, it’s only really fun to solve once.If a puzzle has more than one solution, one of those solutions will be easier or more obvious to the player.So, you just do that one. Even if you notice the others, they add nothing: it feels pointless to take a longer or harder route, even if it involves some interesting tricks. This really surprised me. I’ve always thought the opposite: that alternate routes are always valuable, even if you don’t take them, because you appreciate having options. Nope! Sometimes alternate routes are just noise. Sometimes having a lot of options just makes it feel like there isn’t really an obstacle at all, so getting past it feels more like a commute than a challenge. So why do I enjoy taking alternate routes in Deus Ex? Why don’t I always go for the first or easiest one? Honestly: because it sucks. In Deus Ex the shooting is intentionally bad, and even in Human Revolution, the cover shooting is nothing like as cool as the stealth. Deus Ex doesn’t offer you choice by presenting you with door A and door B. It presents you with a really difficult and awkward door A, then says “Oh no! I can’t believe you found a vent!”
ChoiceChoice, I think, needs to be a fuck-you from the player to the designer. You have to see and understand what you’re expected to do, and make a personal decision to reject it. Either because you just don’t like it, or because it doesn’t fit with the play style you’ve chosen. In Gunpoint, that means I actually do want one clear solution to each puzzle. I just need to give you the power to override it and do things your own way if you want to. I haven’t finished figuring out my full solution to that yet, but here’s what’s working well so far: 1. Reworking levels at least twiceAll my favourites are old ones that I’ve changed bit by bit, adding sneakier possibilities as they occur to me, and encouraging fun situations I found myself in when testing. Pretty much by accident, these have one clear solution and a bunch of ways to bypass it. 2. Play style incentivesI’d already planned for clients to have optional requests – “There’s an extra $200 in it for you if you don’t hurt anyone.” Now that I’ve put these in, they add complex, tricky and ever-changing routes through the levels that I don’t even have to design. Avoiding guards is almost always possible just because you’re so mobile, but it’s much harder than taking them out. It’s not a fuck-you to the client, but it’s a fuck-you to the conventional design of the level. 3. GadgetsI’ve added some tools you can buy which can let you shortcut certain types of puzzles, and set up more elaborate chain reactions and traps. The Transfuser, for example, lets you connect two things that are on different circuits, with a pretty blended wire that shades between their different colours. 4. Persistent consumablesThese gadgets have charges, and your total carries over to future missions. So sometimes the shorter route has a cost associated with it, and it’s up to you when you think it’s worth it. 5. UpgradesYou can upgrade lots of different aspects of your kit to suit different playstyles. If you go for one heavily, you can sometimes get past obstacles with the method they’re designed to stop. The Deathfluke, for example, repels a percentage of the least accurate shots fired at you. Upgrade that and your jumping speed enough and enemies have a hard time hitting you, letting you get past them in some situations you’re not meant to.
So that’s partly why it’s taking longer. I’ve got five or six levels that need designing from the ground up, and six or seven more that need a few more iterations to make them more flexible and fun. Then there’s the little stuff, like creating a scripting engine for story events and writing the entire game. Truthfully, I have no idea how long that stuff will take me. Lyingly, let’s say March and I’ll let you know when that seems impossible too. If you’ve mailed me about testing, I should have a version for you in December.
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C2: If you want people who played the game to revisit old levels and to solve it differently, what I suggest are "medals", which awards the player for doing certain things. Get all the medals and maybe the player gets some sort of reward? Btw, I would pay like $10-$20 american dollars for the game. Hope this helps!
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I asked if people wanted to make the sound effect for when you switch into Crosslink mode in Gunpoint, the view from which you can rewire how everything works. People did! Thanks, those people! I’ve made a video of me listening to some of your sounds, and reacting with a mixture of delight, horror and confusion. Sorry that this isn’t all of them, by a long shot – they came in faster than I could keep up with, and I had to trim this video to stop it getting ridiculously long. If I end up using any of the ones that aren’t shown in this video, I’ll put them up here too.
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Karl Kenneth Laholt Pendragon-King: My noise thing for start up and If your wondering that is my real full name... Blame my day XD
http://www.bfxr.net/... ...sterVolume | ||||
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Competition / unpaid labour time! In Gunpoint, you break into buildings by rewiring things to each other. You switch to Crosslink mode, the blue outline view below, and drag connections from one device to another to link them.
I want a really satisfying, fun, excitingly electronic noise for when you switch into this mode. There’s a great web app called BFXR by Dr Petter and the incomparable increpare, for doing stuff like that. You just hit the randomise button a lot, drag some sliders around, and you can ‘Copy link’ to send it to someone as a URL. Here’s a weird one I just made. Since that’s how I was gonna make the Crosslink noise anyway, and it’s easy to do, I thought it might be fun to see if you wanna come up with something yourself. Have a play around with BFXR, then when you’re happy with it, click Copy Link and send the URL to me – either via e-mail, or as an @GunpointGame reply on Twitter. The only prize is making Gunpoint slightly better, getting your name in the credits, and sorta feeling like you did something today, if you don’t already. To be totally clear: don’t send me a link to your sound unless you’re happy for me to use it. That would be weird.
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GUNPOINT IS AWESOME: here is one. Kinda boring but i wrote it so it would fit for C418's music.
http://www.bfxr.net/... ...sterVolume | ||||
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Programming is not what I’m naturally best at, and while it’s generally been easier than expected on Gunpoint, there is some friction. Some things are hard, and if you hit a hard thing after successfully coding lots of easy things, it seems maddeningly unfair. You slip into a mindset where you expect things to work, which makes you angry rather than confused when they don’t. I’ve had to start spotting this mindset when it crops up, and taking a long, relaxing break before I go any further. When I come back, I have to change gear. And the most useful way I’ve found to think of it is this: Your game is fucking insane.
It is a mental patient. It has completely lost its mind, and to make it behave in any kind of reasonable way, you have to be expecting every sensible instruction to be met with screaming, preposterous bullshit.
Programmer: Hello Game, how are you feeling? I’d like to make this object stop when it hits a wall, if that’s OK with you. Game: GRAVITY NO LONGER EXISTS! Programmer: What? Game: Every lightswitch in the world will fire a single red laser at one man’s head, and that man is… HIM! Progammer: OK – I’m not sure how that’s related, but I’ll look into- Game: I DON’T KNOW WHAT SPACE IS! Programmer: The key, or… Game: SPACE! SPACE! HORIZONTAL CO-ORDINATES! I have over five thousand references to ‘x’ and I’ve NEVER HEARD OF X. Programmer: That’s… that’s how far right things are, Game. It’s the first thing we learned. Game: NO! It’s a room! A room with a box, and a photocopier, and a lighting error, off the corner of Baker and 45th. Programmer: … Game: X IS A ROOM! Programmer: Ohh, I actually did change the name of an old test level to that for a moment, I guess that’s what’s getting you confused – I’ll fix it. Game: PRANKSPASM IS UNDEFINED! Programmer: That one I’ll give you.
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Gameplay Before Story: Gunpoint Interview | truepcgaming: [...] like the part where I haven’t left my job or spent anything. My dad enjoyed my blog post on what programming feels like since he does some software development too. My mum thinks the game [...]
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Gunpoint got lots of wonderful write-ups when I put up the first batch of shots two weeks back. In fact, the reaction took me by surprise a bit, and I’ve been struggling to keep up with all the interesting e-mails that have come in since. I wasn’t expecting anyone to cover this, so I didn’t really talk to anyone beforehand. If you work for a site or mag and are interested in covering Gunpoint, just drop me a mail at pentadact@gmail.com. I’m always happy to sort you out with a recent build so you can have a play, and answer any questions. I managed to do this with Ars Technica, so their piece is a preview. Here are some quotes from that, and some of the other lovely words people wrote about Gunpoint. 
Gunpoint hands on: an intelligent indie spy thriller—with breakable glass “Guns actually introduce tension into the game, which is a rare thing in modern action titles… In minutes I felt like a capable killer, and began skulking around each level like a pro. The full release can’t come soon enough.” Ars Technica
Gunpoint Points Out Its New Look “In between murdering trees and optimising for search engines, Tom’s drafted in some artists to dramatically overhaul the game’s look, which results in the rather eye-catching, Flashback-y aesthetic…” Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Secret agent indie Gunpoint makes being an electrician cool “From plumbers and farmers to … Noids, video games have a long tradition of elevating blue collar jobs to rockstar status. Now, after eying these new Gunpoint screens, it looks like we’ll be adding “electrician” to that list when Tom Francis’ secret agent game arrives this Christmas.” Joystiq
This Indie Game is Giving me Flashbacks of, Well, Flashback “It looks wonderful, in a “Deus Ex meets Canabalt” kind of way. It also helps the game has photocopiers. I love games with photocopiers.” Kotaku
Stealth Platformer Gunpoint is Looking Mighty Fine! “Gunpoint looks absolutely glorious.” IndieGames.com
Gunpoint’s Graphics Now As Awesome As Its Concept GameSetWatch
More Gunpoint, Gunpoint Press
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Davide: I would definitely buy this game! My friends and I noticed it looked a lot like Trilby by Yahtzee but with even more cool gadgets and features that we'd totally be willing to pay for. You should try to get this game on Steam or in the Humble Bundle or something!
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Please charge some money. Maybe not a lot but I'd love to toss a few bucks at it.
But also please make it easy to pay for it. Get it onto Steam or something. There is nothing worse than wanting to support something neat and having the payment being the show-stopper.
So please make this a one-click purchase for me on Steam and not a harrowing experience with paypal and odd self-rolled delivery systems.