January And February Progress Update!

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Chris in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

What have we been up to?? This progress report is long overdue but I am finally posting it today. I’m sorry we haven’t gotten one out earlier but we’ve been looking at revamping all aspects of the game, and that’s an overwhelming task in itself! I’ll try to get into the habit of posting more regularly. Anyways..! It’s been a while since you’ve heard from us because we’ve been putting all our energy into the game. Let’s take a look at what we’ve done since the beginning of the year.

Name Change!The most significant change to the game was a relatively easy one. We changed the name! Our game is now called “Homeless” instead of “iBeg”. Why the change, you ask? We had a few good reasons:

We never loved the name iBeg. I mean, we didn’t hate it, but we figured we would be able to come up with something better.
The name “Homeless” is more PC. The name “iBeg” ruffled some feathers and immediately attached a negative stigma to a project that aims to promote the positivity of social games. We received feedback from many people on the Internet about the original name and we listened to that feedback and made the change!
The name “iBeg” put the focus of the game on begging. While the game does have begging in it, it is NOT the focus of the game. The game aims to simulate everything about being homeless, so “Homeless” made a LOT more sense as a name.
The whole iThing is kind of overdone and cliche. It seems everywhere you turn, someone is coming up with the next iThis or iThat. Our game has a unique message and we would like it to stand apart from the pack, instead of just being another fad.
There is already an app on the iTunes store called iBeg. To avoid any confusion between that app and ours, a name change seemed appropriate.

So, those are a few of the main reasons why we decided to change the name. What do you think of the new name? Let us know in the comments section!

Team Expansion:Thanks to all the generously donated funds on KickStarter, we were able to hire some people to help us out, as well as some volunteers too! Our little team has grown and we are pleased to announce:

PowerUp Audio will be working closely with us to provide the music and sound effects for our game! We have the utmost faith in these guys and know that they will bring our game to a whole new level.
Buko Studios will be supplying us with some animation help. This studio applied to our ad for a pixel artist and won us over with their talent and professionalism.
An independent artist will be helping with some of the background art in the game. He also applied to the ad and submitted an amazing mockup of a Vancouver clothing store that secured him the job.
An additional designer will be helping us out with the game’s User Interface as well as various other design decisions in the game.
A social worker has graciously volunteered her time to help us with researching everything to do with homelessness.
A few friends have volunteered to help test the game on a regular basis. We couldn’t ask for more!

Prize Updates:We sent a survey out to all of you not long ago in order to start collecting your information. We are happy to announce that prizes will be ready soon! Here’s an update on where the prizes stand:

Everyone who paid to become a pedestrian in the game is fully designed. It took awhile to track all of you down and get your pictures, but believe me, it’s worth it! About half of them are already in the game roaming the streets, and the rest should be in there soon! We are just waiting on a few more animations and then this prize will be complete.

The poster is designed and has the new name “Homeless” on it. It features all of the backers who became pedestrians and most of the characters from the game. The posters are printed and will be delivered in the near future.

The t-shirts have been designed and also include the new name of the game. We are in the process of looking for a manufacturer and expect to have them printed in the next few days.

The magnets are designed and just arrived today! We are really happy with how they turned out, and hope that you will be, too!
The rest of the prizes are in various states of completion and we’ll update you again when they are finished.

Game Progression:

And of course, we’ve saved the best for last! Here’s what we’ve been working on in the game for the last little while:

We’ve expanded the game by adding a bit of time management-style play to it. As the days in the game take place in real-time, you have to choose how you want to spend each day. The idea behind this is that you have to make decisions about which locations you visit during the day, and at what times. For example, a soup kitchen may give out a free meal between 12 and 1 PM, but that is also a good time to make money during lunch downtown. Which one will you do, because you won’t have time to do both!
We’ve prototyped a character customization system so that you can create unique looking avatars! Players will be able to choose their gender and skin tone for their avatar, and can customize their look with clothing in the game.
We’ve implemented a character dialogue and response system to interact with the characters you meet in the world. Players will be able to ask and answer questions from NPCs in the game, and the choices they make will affect gameplay!
We’ve also implemented an event system that dispatches tasks for players to perform on their way to getting off of the streets. Events dispatched by this system can be either set or random, so be prepared for both! A random event would present the player with a scenario in which they would have to make a decision. For example, you notice a pedestrian has dropped their wallet. Do you pick it up and return it to them, or keep the money for yourself?
All of the Backer pedestrians are designed and about half of them are in the game. We’ve also populated the world with placeholder pedestrians as well, based on each location and the time of the day.
All of the locations in the game have been designed and are functional in the game with placeholder art. We are updating each location as the art assets come in.
Interactive objects are prototyped and in the game, with different objects spitting out different items. This means parking meters will give out coins when tapped on and garbage cans will produce bottles, cans, and other items too!
Can collection is in the game and allows you to collect cans and bottles and return them to a recycling depot to exchange for money. We just need a bit of polish on the User Interface for this and it will be finished.
We have designed all of the User Interface screens for the game and will be implementing the wireframes in the immediate future. This means we will have a fully functional menu system to navigate and populate with amazing screens when the art is finished.
We’ve prototyped a feedback system to indicate when pedestrians prefer (or hate) specific begs.
We’ve replaced the static skies with new dynamic skies that change colour depending on the time of day. We’ve also added a sun, moon, and stars!
We’ve improved the way the lighting looks in the game, brightening it up at night time and adding more lights to the scenes during night time.
We’ve started working on a user tutorial to help guide players along and show them the ropes.
We’ve got audio working in the game using placeholder sounds for most interactions. Everything is set up to drop new sounds into the game quickly and easily when we receive them.
We’ve also done a lot of bug fixing, balancing, optimization, and many other things to improve the game.

Justthetravel-Golden-Gate-Bridge-beautiful

San Francisco:

The last thing I should mention in this post is how we’ll be starting off the next month. We were lucky enough to receive a scholarship to attend a program for two weeks in San Francisco called Chartboost University. Simon and I will be attending the session and learning everything we can from the bright minds there. We’ll still be working on the game everyday and I’ll try and post updates when I can. After the two week boot camp has finished, I’ll be staying in San Francisco for another week to attend my first Game Developer’s Conference. I have signed up for a few boot camps there as well and will be attending numerous courses and lectures. I look forward to meeting a bunch of new people and showing off our game! It looks like March will be all about learning for us!

Last Pick Productions Wins Scholarship To Chartboost University!

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Chris in News | 1 Comment

We are happy to announce that we have been selected to participate in a two week boot camp program in San Francisco called Chartboost University! Chartboost is offering this program to help indie game developers connect with professionals and teach them a range of topics including: level design, art design, analytics, backend infrastructure, QA, raising money, and publishing do’s and don’ts.

Here’s a link to learn more about what they offer: http://blog.chartboost.com/post/41951889344/announcing-chartboost-university-boot-camp-apply

And here’s the link where they announced the winners! http://blog.chartboost.com/post/43733573848/announcing-our-first-chartboost-university-boot-camp

I will also be attending my first Game Developer’s Conference the week after the boot camp program finishes. I’m looking forward to learning as much as I can and networking with all of the other game developers I’ll meet. Meanwhile, Simon and I have been working as hard as we can to prepare a new build of the game to show off at GDC. I’ve been planning on posting an update to this blog for ages with everything we’ve been working on. Look for that soon!

Homelessness Action Week October 7th to 13th

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Chris in Awareness | 2 Comments

Today kicks off Homelessness Action Week in Vancouver!

As many of you know, Homelessness Action Week is where community organizers and volunteers hold special events for people who are homeless throughout Metro Vancouver municipalities throughout the week. Please come out and show your support during this amazing event that helps out the less fortunate.

I will be volunteering in North Vancouver this week, and will announce more details as soon as they are available. Also, I invite you to come and join me this Wednesday evening on the Eastside Stride, a guided tour though some of the areas downtown that have been affected by homelessness throughout the city’s history. To sign up, or for more information, please visit the site at http://www.ugm.ca/haw/.

The biggest action we are taking this year is to announce the development of our game, iBeg. It is our honest hope that when finished, this game will be used as a tool to allow people to donate to Vancouver charities on an ongoing basis. Most people donate a few times a year, around Easter and the holidays, but this application would hopefully keep the donations rolling in every month. The game takes a third-person view of a homeless character and as they purchase in-game items to help themselves out, a portion of that money is donated directly to charities that provide real help for people affected by homelessness. We strongly believe that this can become a legitimate way of fund-raising in the near future.

We are building a game that will bring awareness to the issue of homelessness in our city and provide people with a new means to donate funds to an issue we are committed to helping. What are you going to do?

May I suggest:

- volunteering your time at a local charity
- making a monetary donation to an organization like United Way or Covenant House
- donating food to a local food bank
- preparing a meal and delivering it to someone in need

The Art of iBeg: Introduction

Posted on August 28, 2012 by pixelfrog in Art | 5 Comments

Hi there! I’m Pixelfrog

Pixel art seems to be “in” these days, particularly in the world of mobile gaming. For many long-time gamers, pixel art inherently gives off an aura of nostalgia and the good-ol’-days of 8-bit gaming. So why use pixel art for iBeg? Paying homage to the beloved games of our childhood? Hopping on the 8-bit style bandwagon? Probably a little of both. Truthfully, it just felt right. Our protagonist isn’t your usual spandex-clad superhero. We needed a style that reflected his character: simple, earnest, and approachable.

Becoming the Artist of iBeg

When Chris asked me if I wanted to try doing the art for the game, I was excited to have the chance to work on a side project, especially one based on a real-world issue. Having decided to adapt the style of pixel art was an added bonus, since pixel art is kind of special to me. To the extent that I included it as part of my online handle, pixelfrog (don’t get me started on the “frog” part, though!).

English Bay wasn’t my first time drawing a beach – one of my early pixel art works with little riceball characters.

General Art Style, Direction, and Sources of inspiration

There is no particular art style that I was going for when beginning iBeg. I’m sure Chris had some ideas in mind, but we wanted to allow the world of the homeless person to develop naturally, from trying out different things, and improving on them based on feedback. There isn’t particular colour palette, mood, theme, fill-in-any-technical-art-terms-here. It’s a combination of different styles and techniques I learned from studying (and mostly admiring) other pixel art works.

At first, when the game was set in a generic city, it was hard to nail down the exact “look” we wanted. I think the art style really came together when we decided to recreate Vancouver inside the game. We were able to scour the city and take reference pictures to capture all the little details and essence of each location. I’ll know I’ve done my job if people who have been to Vancouver or local residents will recognize the locations when they see them, and that it makes them smile when they do.

The Technical Details: Software and Hardware

A lot of people ask me what I use to draw my pixel art. I suppose I am a bit old-fashioned in the choice of my tools of the trade – I mainly use Jasc Paint Shop Pro 6. Yes, I have used newer versions of PSP. And yes, I have heard of Photoshop and GIMP. But I fell in love with PSP 5 ever since my parents enrolled me in a web design course when I was a kid and managed to convince them to spend $100 on PSP 6. I see it as money well spent – it’s gotten over a decade of use, and still counting.

Also, I draw using a regular mouse. I am not a huge fan of pen tablets, and I feel I am just as efficient with a mouse. I have to admit, though, Cintiqs look like a lot of fun to use!

Okay, to convince you that I am not living in the Stone Ages of technology, my mouse is wireless.

My mouse being humped by another mouse.

Deciding on A Resolution

One of the trickiest parts in the beginning was settling on a good resolution to work at. When working with pixel art, the easiest way to make the pixels themselves obvious is if the drawn images are scaled up.

The homeless person’s actual size.We wanted the homeless person to fill up a good portion of the screen, so initially we started with displaying the homeless person at 800%. That was great for the backgrounds, since I didn’t have to draw as much, but we quickly realized it didn’t allow much room for the HUD. So we dropped it to 600%, and that’s where it is today.

Creating the homeless person

The homeless person didn’t go through too many iterations before we settled on a final look. Here is one of the first sketches pitched.

When creating a new character, I settle on the hairstyle, clothing and pose easily. The variation comes from the facial features, because it sets or has to abide by the style for the rest of the characters and that’s where I’m most indecisive. I started him off with a baseball cap, but that eventually turned into a blue toque. His clothing consists of a grungy brown coat, a yellowed shirt underneath, and some unfashionable baggy pants. Add some overgrown, messy locks and a pale complexion and there you have it – your very own homeless person!

If we were ever to do a female version, I wonder what she’d look like…

Stay Tuned

Tune in next time, when I’ll discuss the challenges of drawing backgrounds, designing HUD elements, and all sorts of other fun stuff about L’Art d’iBeg!

Meet Your Homeless Person!

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Chris in Design | 3 Comments

Hi There!

I would like to introduce you to your very own homeless person! In iBeg, you control the fate of a virtual homeless man in an unforgiving virtual world. Your mission, (should you choose to accept it), is to watch over this little guy and help him survive on the streets! You want to make sure to keep him clean, healthy, and full of spirit. These three attributes must be maintained at all times in order to give your homeless person the best possible chance at earning money. Let’s look at your homeless person’s main attributes a bit closer.

That’s The Spirit!

The first attribute the homeless person has is Spirit. It is used to perform actions in the game like panhandling and busking. Some beg types are harder to perform than others and naturally require a bit more effort to perform. Every time you perform a beg, it will cost you a set amount of Spirit Points (SP). When you run out of Spirit, your homeless person just doesn’t have it in him to perform any more begs. You will need to sleep to replenish it, or purchase an item that provides a Spirit boost!

You Always Have Your Health

Well that’s what they say anyways. Truth is, the streets can be dangerous! The second (and most important!) attribute you want to maintain is your homeless person’s Health. This bar represents how close to death your homeless person is at any given time. It will decrease over time as your homeless person gets hungry, so be sure to feed him! Also try to keep him out of fights and protect him from violent pedestrians, some of them pack a mean punch! If your Health is running low, you can increase it by buying food or medical items. Be careful, if you let your homeless person’s Health Points (HP) drop to zero then it’s GAME OVER!

Cleanliness Is Godliness

So there is a good chance you are NOT a deity. The third attribute you must pay attention to is Hygiene. This bar represents how clean you currently are. Hygiene will affect how likely you are to be successful when begging for money. Some pedestrians have a high tolerance for smells, but most of them won’t stop to give you the time of day if you smell like a dump. Luckily, you can keep your homeless person clean by paying for services around town. You can buy soap and use the outdoor shower at the beach, or wash your clothes at the local laundromat. Your Hygiene is also affected by other influences, such as pedestrians spitting on you, or the weather being hot and causing you to sweat more. Don’t neglect your Hygiene, or you’re likely to get sick!

Easy As 1,2,3

So there you have it. Your very own homeless person with three basic needs to fulfill, Spirit, Health and Hygiene. Make sure to keep him happy, healthy, and clean and you should stand a fighting chance against the cruel, cold world. Abandon him and he will die a slow, miserable death. But you wouldn’t let that happen…would you?