Double Fine Game Club: Sissy's Ponycorn Adventure (dev chat)

(06:50:18 AM) Syd: Steam timer will probably go off in about a minute. I have it set to 5 minutes before it starts.
(06:50:27 AM) Cheeseness: Cool cool
(06:51:10 AM) Syd: The alert just went off
(06:51:17 AM) Cheeseness: Yep
(06:51:38 AM) Cheeseness: Since we've got a short one, we'll hold off a few minutes anyway, I reckonm
(06:53:19 AM) Cheeseness [76d0d667@hide-BF4D4B18.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(06:53:36 AM) mode (+o Cheeseness) by ChanServ
(06:55:01 AM) Fireflower [50d9a81e@hide-B64552F4.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(06:55:07 AM) Fireflower: Hey
(06:55:08 AM) Syd: Hey Fireflower
(06:55:36 AM) mrwonko [~Willi@hide-EC1C6851.pool.mediaways.net] entered the room.
(06:55:49 AM) mrwonko: good evening, ladies and gentlemen
(06:55:57 AM) Fireflower: Evening
(06:56:07 AM) Syd: Hey
(06:56:50 AM) Cheeseness left the room (quit: Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client).
(06:57:05 AM) Cheeseness [76d0d667@hide-50D287EE.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(06:57:16 AM) mode (+o Cheeseness) by ChanServ
(06:57:20 AM) Cheeseness: Whoops
(06:58:09 AM) Cheeseness: Alrighty, so who's played this game before?
(06:58:14 AM) ***mrwonko has
(06:58:17 AM) Cheeseness: (whilst we wait for the ad to finish)
(06:58:22 AM) Syd: I did back when it first came out.
(06:58:31 AM) mrwonko: back when rock, paper, shotgun reported on it
(06:58:52 AM) mrwonko: what was it? "the lemon is still evil"?
(06:58:58 AM) mrwonko: :D
(06:59:04 AM) Untoldent [c654e2b2@hide-6C77D8AA.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(06:59:06 AM) Cheeseness: :D
(06:59:11 AM) Syd: Lemons aren't to be trusted
(06:59:14 AM) Cheeseness: Hi Untoldent
(06:59:14 AM) Untoldent: hi all.
(06:59:21 AM) Untoldent: i have Cassie here ..
(06:59:31 AM) Untoldent: trying to pry her away from Kinect Party to join us.
(06:59:37 AM) Syd: Hey Untoldent, and Cassie as well. :)
(06:59:43 AM) Cheeseness: Hi Cassie :)
(06:59:49 AM) Untoldent: The goat on a pole is a common element to TOJam, the game jam where we created the game.
(07:00:00 AM) Cheeseness: Ah, I was going to ask about that.
(07:00:02 AM) Untoldent: You're supposed to try to incorporate the goat somewhere in your game.
(07:00:14 AM) Untoldent: Yeah - conveniently, it just came off as a bizarre little kid thing.
(07:00:25 AM) The_Patient [52b024fc@hide-BF4D4B18.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(07:00:31 AM) The_Patient: oh um
(07:00:35 AM) Cheeseness: It doesn't feel out of place at all
(07:00:39 AM) Untoldent: heh
(07:00:43 AM) Syd: Hey, The_Patient
(07:00:48 AM) Cheeseness: I love the turtle
(07:00:56 AM) Untoldent: Cassie's original rainbow drawing looked like something out of Silent Hill
(07:01:04 AM) The_Patient: hi
(07:01:06 AM) Untoldent: it was drawn with dark browns and purples, and it was square
(07:01:12 AM) The_Patient: what is this then
(07:01:13 AM) Untoldent: we had to look at reference material.
(07:01:15 AM) The_Patient: exactly
(07:01:45 AM) Untoldent: The butterfly was a drawing that was hanging on our door for months and months. It was the drawing that actually inspired me to bring Cassie to the jam.
(07:01:47 AM) Cheeseness: The_Patient: We're playing Sissy's Magical Ponycorn Adventure. Untoldent and his then 5yo daughter made it last year for a game jam
(07:02:12 AM) The_Patient: i do love jam
(07:02:13 AM) mrwonko: bad tiger!
(07:02:15 AM) Cheeseness: How many people normally attend TOjam?
(07:02:15 AM) Untoldent: i asked Cassie to come up with a bad guy, and she said "dinosaur".  So i said "draw a dinosaur", and she drew ... that.
(07:02:17 AM) The_Patient: but i dont know about game jam
(07:02:26 AM) Untoldent: It was close to 300 last time, i believe.
(07:02:42 AM) Cheeseness: A game jam is an event where people try to create a game in a short period of time (usually a few days)
(07:02:46 AM) Untoldent: The tiger is from a story Cassie wrote for school called The Tiger's Adventure.
(07:02:52 AM) Untoldent: It was about her in the jungle with a tiger.
(07:02:54 AM) The_Patient: like amnesia fortnight but then smaller?
(07:02:57 AM) Fireflower: So it's you Untoldent and your daughter that did the voices?
(07:03:09 AM) Untoldent: Cassie came up with the puzzle to get the tiger to not look while you yoinked the ponycorn.
(07:03:12 AM) Cheeseness: An evil lemon! D:
(07:03:17 AM) mrwonko: D:
(07:03:27 AM) Untoldent: Fireflower Yeah - that's right. She voices Sissy, and i voiced all of the non-Sissy characters.
(07:03:32 AM) Syd: Curse those evil lemons.
(07:03:34 AM) Fireflower: Cool
(07:03:42 AM) Untoldent: The Evil Lemon voice was my best Skeletor impression (from He-Man)
(07:03:46 AM) The_Patient: i finished the whispered world today
(07:03:51 AM) The_Patient: that game is quite awful
(07:03:56 AM) mrwonko: you think so?
(07:03:59 AM) mrwonko: I really liked it
(07:04:03 AM) Untoldent: The intro theme is Cassie and her little sister Izzy on harmonica and Happy Apple (you know - the preschool toy?)
(07:04:07 AM) The_Patient: the character once again is unlikable
(07:04:20 AM) Untoldent: (the Whispered World character grew on me :)
(07:04:23 AM) The_Patient: powerless gutless depressing kid
(07:04:23 AM) The_Patient: sounds fun
(07:04:32 AM) Syd: Daedalic's stuff seems to be a bit hit and miss with a lot of people.
(07:04:36 AM) Untoldent: (At first, he was obnoxious ... but it was SO MUCH that it became funny)
(07:04:48 AM) The_Patient: as far as i played their games their characters are miss
(07:04:56 AM) Untoldent: Cassie's key looks like an ant because she was studying insects in kindergarten at the time.
(07:05:06 AM) Untoldent: Cassie designed this coconut puzzle.
(07:05:10 AM) Syd: Take that, Lemon
(07:05:15 AM) Cheeseness: Ah. I did wonder about the key's look and feel
(07:05:18 AM) mrwonko: I have the benefit of being able to play them in the original language (that being german) - translations are usually worse (I play most games in english for that reason)
(07:05:21 AM) The_Patient: and the whispered world sometimes hid items so well in the background colour that it was just rediculous
(07:05:24 AM) Untoldent: PooPants is the most popular ponycorn.
(07:05:36 AM) Cheeseness: Does Cassie have an aversion to lemons?
(07:05:37 AM) mrwonko: the worst thing the whispered world did was hide things behind open doors
(07:05:42 AM) mrwonko: when do you ever close the door behind you?
(07:05:51 AM) The_Patient: all the time after finding the cork
(07:05:56 AM) Untoldent: No ... she tried drawing a coconut but used a yellow crayon, and i said it looked more like a lemon ..
(07:05:59 AM) The_Patient: and after DOTT
(07:06:08 AM) Untoldent: later, when we needed a villain, she laughed her head off and wanted to use the "lemon"
(07:06:15 AM) Fireflower: :)
(07:06:15 AM) Untoldent: That was the coconut/lemon connection
(07:06:26 AM) Cheeseness: Ah, fantastic
(07:06:32 AM) The_Patient: when i ever get a daughter i also want to do this, no better way to bond
(07:06:36 AM) The_Patient: maybe
(07:06:38 AM) The_Patient: james bond
(07:06:42 AM) Untoldent: It was an absolutely amazing experience.
(07:06:51 AM) Untoldent: And then in October, we did a TEDx talk
(07:06:54 AM) Untoldent: that was INSANE
(07:06:58 AM) Untoldent: another amazing bonding experience
(07:07:05 AM) Cheeseness: Oh, really? I'll have to have a hunt for that
(07:07:10 AM) Cheeseness: How did that go?
(07:07:18 AM) Untoldent: ppl accused me of using the pedophile's voice from Family Guy for OrangeBoy
(07:07:28 AM) Untoldent: Very well!  Let me get you a link ...
(07:07:41 AM) The_Patient: oh um
(07:07:42 AM) The_Patient: who?
(07:07:47 AM) Untoldent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwJr1WUlhVU
(07:08:14 AM) Cheeseness: Mim wants to play through again :D
(07:08:24 AM) The_Patient: metro is world wide?
(07:08:25 AM) Fireflower: oh, it's already done?
(07:08:29 AM) Untoldent: For that theme song, i asked my wife to just bring all the noise-making things we had around the house
(07:08:39 AM) Untoldent: which included pots and pans, a little toy drum set ...
(07:08:40 AM) Syd: It's a short game, no reason to not go through it again. :)
(07:09:01 AM) The_Patient: scratch ey
(07:09:07 AM) Untoldent: We banged and blew and clamoured away for a few minutes. The "theme song" was just the most musical-sounding part that i snipped out of the sound file.
(07:09:10 AM) The_Patient: let me look at that
(07:09:32 AM) Cheeseness: Do you and Cassie have plans to collaborate on more games in the future?
(07:09:49 AM) Untoldent: There are some fun audio outtakes that i hope to release at a later date that reveal the voice work "process" we went through.
(07:09:57 AM) Untoldent: Remember, she was five, and couldn't read or write.
(07:10:05 AM) The_Patient: what site can i find scratch
(07:10:32 AM) Untoldent: No plans for specific games, but i hope that we can treat Untold Entertainment as the family business. i'd like my daughters to help out however they can ...
(07:10:33 AM) The_Patient: ... n sniff
(07:10:43 AM) Untoldent: Could be artwork, could be programming ... could be accounting?  i don't know.
(07:10:45 AM) Cheeseness: :)
(07:11:03 AM) Fireflower: what is a ponycorn (I might not have paid attention)? :)
(07:11:15 AM) The_Patient: scratch is freeware?
(07:11:21 AM) mrwonko: pony + unicorn = ponycorn!
(07:11:22 AM) Untoldent: i just bought Cassie an Arduino for her birthday, so we'll see how she takes to robotics.
(07:11:29 AM) Fireflower: aha :)
(07:11:34 AM) mrwonko: or maybe it's just corn for ponies
(07:11:46 AM) Untoldent: This is all from reading up on how girls are subtly excluded from math and science. i heard that, and i thought "not MY daughters."
(07:11:58 AM) Cheeseness: Awesome :D
(07:12:13 AM) The_Patient: i have no idea how to use an arduino
(07:12:29 AM) Untoldent: So i take every opportunity i can to let my girls play games ... a female game dev said games help with visual spatial skills (as we've al heard)
(07:12:33 AM) Untoldent: and i said "so what?"
(07:12:52 AM) Untoldent: and she said well, visual/spatial skills are a precursor/helping hand for math skills
(07:13:05 AM) GameClubFan_847402 [d580b256@hide-BF4D4B18.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(07:13:18 AM) Untoldent: and it's possible that since boys play games more often - and more games of a certain type (3D world), they develop visual/spatial skills more handily
(07:13:27 AM) GameClubFan_847402 left the room (quit: Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client).
(07:13:30 AM) Untoldent: (and area where males already have females beat, cognitively)
(07:13:40 AM) The_Patient: but then why do i keep knocking over my coffee
(07:13:51 AM) Untoldent: so having my girls playing games may even help to give them a leg up in math and science?
(07:13:54 AM) Fireflower: i read an article about how games are good for you in a bunch of ways
(07:13:57 AM) Untoldent: time will tell.
(07:14:15 AM) The_Patient: braintraining on the DS
(07:14:22 AM) The_Patient: will surely help
(07:14:30 AM) Untoldent: fo sho
(07:14:34 AM) Untoldent: OW MY FACE
(07:14:42 AM) Untoldent: certain taglines we still say around the house
(07:14:43 AM) Untoldent: that's one of them
(07:14:48 AM) The_Patient: anyway
(07:14:48 AM) Syd: :)
(07:14:50 AM) Untoldent: "yeah baby" is another ...
(07:14:55 AM) The_Patient: this scratch program is free allt he way or
(07:15:14 AM) Untoldent: sometimes one of us will cook something, and on putting the meal on the table, we'll say MAGICAL POWERS!  AWWW YEAH.
(07:15:15 AM) The_Patient: "yeah baby" as in austin powers yeah baby?
(07:15:29 AM) Untoldent: The_Patient - Yeah. Fully free and open source.
(07:15:38 AM) The_Patient: ah great ill have a gander at that
(07:15:52 AM) Untoldent: And Scratch is great because of the MIT license. You can pull down any of the 3million+ projects online and open them up ...
(07:16:00 AM) Untoldent: reuse the code, graphics and sound.  quite amazing.
(07:16:12 AM) The_Patient: hmmmmmmm
(07:16:19 AM) The_Patient: ill make a note of this, in my notebook
(07:16:23 AM) Untoldent: We gender-bent some of the ponycorns on purpose ...
(07:16:28 AM) Untoldent: "his" name is Fluffybuns ...
(07:16:32 AM) Untoldent: PooPants is a girl ...
(07:16:44 AM) The_Patient: oh my
(07:16:49 AM) Untoldent: Ponycorns was built in Flash tho - not Scratch
(07:16:57 AM) The_Patient: thats alright
(07:16:58 AM) Untoldent: it's hard to make something commercially viable with Scratch
(07:17:00 AM) The_Patient: i can do flash
(07:17:07 AM) mrwonko: "put me in a jar, sissy"... what a strange request
(07:17:07 AM) Untoldent: (not that Ponycorns was commercially viable ;)
(07:17:16 AM) The_Patient: but i wasnt planning on making anything commercially
(07:17:27 AM) The_Patient: im a programmer not a game designer eh
(07:17:27 AM) Untoldent: Yeah - the "put me in a jar, Sissy" reminded me a little of The Giving Tree
(07:17:32 AM) Cheeseness: Theose ponycorns sure do squish up good
(07:17:34 AM) The_Patient: i just like drawing sometimes
(07:17:41 AM) Untoldent: remember that horribly sad story of the sacrificial tree?  Oh man.  *BAWL*
(07:18:00 AM) Untoldent: The Untold store has product shots of them squeezed into jars.
(07:18:02 AM) The_Patient: mighty
(07:18:04 AM) Untoldent: They look hilarious.
(07:18:19 AM) Cheeseness: :D
(07:18:26 AM) Untoldent: http://untoldentertainment.com/store/products/Poo%252dPants-Ponycorn-Plushie.html
(07:18:38 AM) Untoldent: We tried to take the pictures with their faces pressed against the glass
(07:18:49 AM) The_Patient: untold booty
(07:18:57 AM) The_Patient: thats marketing
(07:19:04 AM) Cheeseness: heh
(07:19:14 AM) Cheeseness: Looks like we're going for a third round
(07:19:16 AM) Untoldent: we also tried to come up with a "feature" of each toy, kinda like "Kung Fu Grip"
(07:19:24 AM) Syd: I love the picture of it in the jar.
(07:19:24 AM) Untoldent: so one of the ponycorns can go upside down ...
(07:19:37 AM) Untoldent: another can "go invisible" (picture of Cassie concealing the toy in her palms)
(07:19:55 AM) The_Patient: i might run about abit with this scratch program
(07:20:03 AM) Untoldent: So the next game jam game we did after Ponycorns was Head of the Gorgon ...
(07:20:07 AM) The_Patient: might as well, sincei  bought a drawing tablet ages ago i dont  use
(07:20:18 AM) Untoldent: we put together this RIDICULOUSLY large team of 40 ppl ...
(07:20:31 AM) Cheeseness: How did that go?
(07:20:32 AM) Untoldent: it's a graphic adventure game in the style of Grecian pottery .
(07:20:45 AM) The_Patient: greece!
(07:20:49 AM) Untoldent: a comical retelling of the myth of Perseus, who kills Medusa the Gorgon (among others)
(07:20:54 AM) The_Patient: what like
(07:20:56 AM) The_Patient: hercules
(07:21:14 AM) Untoldent: it was built using UGAGS, (the Untold Graphic Adventure Game System), which was used to create Ponycorns
(07:21:15 AM) The_Patient: those intro bits
(07:21:33 AM) Arthur_D left the room (quit: Ping timeout).
(07:21:43 AM) Untoldent: So instead of splitting the proceeds from Head of the Gorgon 40 ways, we decided to give it all to charity ...
(07:21:46 AM) The_Patient: hang on i have to gather pennies
(07:21:53 AM) Untoldent: specifically, to send inner city Toronto kids to computer camp for the summer
(07:22:01 AM) Cheeseness: Nice
(07:22:19 AM) Untoldent: Here's more about the team that created Head of the Gorgon:
(07:22:19 AM) Untoldent: http://projectoverboard.com/
(07:22:51 AM) Untoldent: It's another short game, but it's funny and fully voiced over by some pros, including the guy who voiced Big Bumpin, that Burger King Xbox 360 game ;)
(07:23:05 AM) Untoldent: And Ajay Fry from SPACE, if you're Canadian and know who/what that is.
(07:23:24 AM) Untoldent: Head of the Gorgon will likely see a February release for Mac, PC, and iPad
(07:23:26 AM) The_Patient: ifound no pennies
(07:23:58 AM) Cheeseness: I've only ever been a visitor to Canada ^_^
(07:24:06 AM) Untoldent: It's a magical place.
(07:24:13 AM) The_Patient: canada is full of magic
(07:24:16 AM) The_Patient: they have
(07:24:21 AM) The_Patient: justin bieber
(07:24:25 AM) Untoldent: free health care flows like water
(07:24:26 AM) The_Patient: and tom green
(07:24:27 AM) Cheeseness: I've visited Ottawa for Winterlude several times. That is magic :3
(07:24:43 AM) The_Patient: and phelous
(07:24:45 AM) Acefox [457e82b1@hide-B64552F4.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(07:24:45 AM) Untoldent: Bonhomme du Neige!  Most terrifying mascot evar.
(07:24:59 AM) Syd: Hey Acefox
(07:25:35 AM) Acefox: hey Syd
(07:25:41 AM) Acefox: Hello everyone
(07:25:45 AM) The_Patient: hey me
(07:25:47 AM) The_Patient: i mean you
(07:25:49 AM) Untoldent: We're working to build UGAGS out for commercial release. In the meantime, we hosted a game dev team at the Untold offices and they used UGAGS to create a game called New School Blues
(07:26:06 AM) Cheeseness: Sissy has some muscles. She lifts that rock like a pro
(07:26:07 AM) Untoldent: again, a very short n' sweet graphic adventure that you can finish in about 5-10 minutes
(07:26:14 AM) Untoldent: Look for that one in February as well.
(07:26:22 AM) Untoldent: she magics it into the air!
(07:26:31 AM) The_Patient: has anyone ever played the adventure time game?
(07:26:36 AM) Cheeseness: Ahhh, that explains it
(07:27:14 AM) Untoldent: So i've done a game jam with a little kid, and i've done a game jam with 40 people. What's next?
(07:27:23 AM) Untoldent: i've considered doing a game jam with 40 little kids.
(07:27:26 AM) Syd: Take over the world?
(07:27:36 AM) The_Patient: at the same time in a room
(07:27:42 AM) The_Patient: that might be a little difficult
(07:27:44 AM) Untoldent: yes
(07:27:48 AM) Cheeseness: Game jam with 40 kids would be quite a feat
(07:27:48 AM) The_Patient: take over the world?
(07:27:50 AM) The_Patient: OFCOURSE!
(07:27:57 AM) Untoldent: The Toronto school that is the recipient of the Head of the Gorgon proceeds has a robotics club ...
(07:28:16 AM) Untoldent: and the principal there said it would be neat to bring the club to TOJam to check it out
(07:28:23 AM) Untoldent: but TOJam doesn't allow spectators ...
(07:28:24 AM) Cheeseness: Neat
(07:28:30 AM) Untoldent: you either make a game, or you leave.
(07:28:35 AM) The_Patient: well i can remember back when i was in primairy
(07:28:42 AM) The_Patient: the whole class together made a memory game
(07:28:43 AM) Cheeseness: I think we'll finish up with the stream now
(07:28:44 AM) Acefox: Hooray!
(07:28:47 AM) Cheeseness: But we can keep chatting
(07:28:47 AM) The_Patient: so it is sorta possible
(07:28:49 AM) Untoldent: So i asked him why don't we just have the robotics club makin' games at the next jam?
(07:28:59 AM) Untoldent: and he said "they don't know how to make games"
(07:29:02 AM) Untoldent: and i said "not yet."
(07:29:06 AM) Cheeseness: :(
(07:29:14 AM) Untoldent: :)
(07:29:26 AM) The_Patient: you cut off!
(07:29:38 AM) Cheeseness: It did?
(07:29:41 AM) Acefox: Will you be playing the text input Police Quest or the updated mouse click remake?
(07:29:42 AM) Cheeseness: I wasn't listening
(07:29:53 AM) Cheeseness: That's a question for Fireflower
(07:29:55 AM) The_Patient: there was talking and it didnt finsih
(07:30:30 AM) Cheeseness: Mim says it finished at this end. I guess we closed ffmpeg before it had finished transcoding
(07:30:30 AM) Untoldent: thanks muchly, everyone!  See you on Twitter!  @untoldent
(07:30:33 AM) The_Patient: also im looking for a game i cant find anywhere
(07:30:33 AM) Syd: Yeah. The trick I use with making sure the recordings are streamed is to wait about 5 seconds after starting a stream before starting the opening recording, and to wait about 5 seconds after the end of the outro recording.
(07:30:40 AM) Syd: Seems to work, most of the time.
(07:30:43 AM) The_Patient: as in gog or steam doesnt have it
(07:30:47 AM) Syd: Thanks for chatting with us, Untoldent. :)
(07:30:51 AM) Cheeseness: Thanks heaps for coming Untoldent
(07:30:52 AM) Untoldent: whee!
(07:30:54 AM) Acefox: Wonder what Fireflower will decide- Police Quest 1 was ironically the game that got me into adventure games
(07:30:55 AM) Untoldent left the room (quit: Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client).
(07:30:57 AM) Cheeseness: And thanks to Cassie as well :)