Archive for January, 2010

Inspiration playlist

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

hello?
When the project started, me and Daniel tried to find songs that would serve as inspiration for the music in ilomilo. So we started a collaborative playlist on Spotify.
Here’s a list of the songs on it:

La Veillée – Yann Tiersen
Toy Piano – Pony Up!
Ukulélé Man – Yann Tiersen
Prière N 3 – Yann Tiersen
Us – Regina Spektor
The Ghost Of Corporate Future – Regina Spektor
Rhuubarbidoo – Mum
School Song Misfortune – Mum
Presents – Tom Waits, Crystal Gayle
I Solljuset Fina – Karin Juel, Sune Waldimirs Orkester
Please Wake Me Up – Tom Waits
Wooden Heart – Elvis Presley
Going Up The Country – Canned Heat
Sur le Pont D’avignon – André Claveau and Mathé Altéry
The Swimming Song – Loudon Wainwright III
Delia’s Gone – Eric Bibb
Humoreske – Antonín Dvorák
My Creole Belle – Mississippi John Hurt
Staralfur – Sigur Rós
Teardrop – Massive Attack
Melodia bailable para Ukelele – Nut
See Your Face Again – Uni and Her Ukelele
The Dissappointing Pancake – Lisa Loeb
Innocent When You Dream (78) – Tom Waits
Soldier’s Things – Tom Waits
Time – Tom Waits
Hallway Cruise – Danny Elfman
Ma Maren Ma – Fanfare Ciocarlia
Mr. Kaizer, Hans Constanse Og Meg – Kaizers Orchestra
Bubamara – Dr. Nelle Karajlic, Vojislav Aralica, Dejan Sparavalo
Bardomshemmet – Ernst Rolf
The Part You Throw Away – Tom Waits
The Last Rose Of Summer – Tom Waits
Lost In The Harbour – Tom Waits
Watch Her Disappear – Tom Waits
Fawn – Tom Waits
Om Du Möter Varg – Detektivbyrån
Hus Vid Havet – Detektivbyrån

If you have Spotify, just click here to listen to the playlist.

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iloscrumilo

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Hi everyone! My name is Fredrik, and I’m the producer of ilomilo. As a producer, I’m responsible for the overall quality of the game, to keep track of the production schedule and to make sure everyone on the team is happy and have what they need to make a good game! Today, I would like to tell you a little about how the team works and how we decide what to do next in the project.

For the development of ilomilo, we use a project management method called “scrum”, which is quite common in the games and software industry. It basically means that instead of planning the entire project in detail from start, we work in iterations that we call “sprints”, and once we have completed a sprint, we plan the next and so on. This means that we can easily change direction in the middle of the project, without losing too much time.

scrum

Every morning, we have a scrum meeting with the entire team in our cozy scrum corner. As you can see on the picture above, everyone is really happy =). Each member of the team gets to tell the others what they have done since the last meeting, what they will do today and if they are having any problems. That way, everyone gets a daily update of what is going on in the project, and any problems can be quickly solved. The whole meeting usually takes around 10 minutes.

Computer software development in general and games development in particular are turbulent and changeable processes. Technical complexity combined with creativity means that you constantly need to create new technical inventions and design solutions. In fact, the only thing you can rely on is that things are going to change! That is why scrum is such a good method for game development.

Naturally, scrum does not magically solve everything. We still need to have a rough plan of the entire project, and a detailed design document. The important thing is to know that they are going to change. Planning ahead is important, planning to much is a waste of time.

That’s all for now!

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Two new characters

Friday, January 15th, 2010

tubadrum

These two characters decided to join the ilomilo universe this week.
I guess I could tell you what purpose they serve, but wouldn’t it be more fun to find out for yourself when you can play the game?

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Something about cubes…

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Alright, since you have probably already seen some of the basic cubes in the screenshots, let’s talk a little about some of them and how they work. You will discover a lot of different cubes throughout the game, each of them with their own distinct behaviour. These are just some of them:

Dog cube… Boxer?
cubes01
This is the most basic cube. You can pick this fellow up and place it in small gaps and use it as a bridge to get past them. If you need a small hole filled, this cube will get the job done!

Stretch, Fido Stretch
cubes02
This cube is like the stretchy cousin of the one mentioned earlier. When you place it down on the ground or in a large gap, it will extend and become up to three times as long. Place it in a gap to create a bridge across larger gaps, or place it directly on the ground to make it extend upwards.

Take the plunge(r)
cubes03
Plungers can do more than breaking a clog. If you see a plunger cube you know there’s a button to be found somewhere on the level. Step on the button and the plungercube will reach out for the nearest cube in the direction its facing. It will then pull that cube towards it so that the cube ends up next to the plungercube.With clever cooperation you can use one character to press the button while the other character rides on the cube.

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Grasshopper and ilomilo

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Last year the friendly people of Grasshopper (Killer 7, No More Heroes) came by to play some ilomilo.
Goichi Suda playing ilomilo
Suda 51 enjoying ilomilo, despite the lack of boss battles and blood.

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