I made a Twitter Bot

I’ve been playing a lot of Spelunky 2 since it came out in September. I’m also a fan of house rules in games, and self-imposed methods of play.

I wanted an excuse to stop playing “to win” so much, and start engaging with all of the small systemic corners of the game that I don’t see so often. As an example: I think the camera is a really cool item that has some fun interactions, but I never use it because it’s just not high on my personal list of priority items for winning the game.

So my playful solution to this was to create a Twitter bot that generates unusual Spelunky challenges that are designed to take me out of my comfort zone. It’s running now and it’s called Spelunky Dare.

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Blog post at Die Gute Fabrik – Leaderboards

This week I wrote a short blog post about leaderboards for the Die Gute Fabrik website, which was originally intended to be a shallow dive into some of the interesting ways games have used leaderboards, and the way leaderboards motivate us to engage with a game on different terms. However, while I was writing the piece, it accidentally turned into a personal account of my relationship with leaderboards, through the lens of 2020 pandemic isolation and missing your loved ones.

http://gutefabrik.com/onecoolthing-ben-wilson-leaderboards/

Concentric // Wizard Jam 6

I made a game over the holidays! For this Wizard Jam, I tried something a bit different. As a kind of experiment I wanted to go back to the first solo game I ever made (well.. attempted, I didn’t even get close to finishing it), and see if I could remake it in two weeks. I thought it’d be a neat way of measuring the personal progress I’ve made in the intervening years; and also, it would just be nice to get the game out there and playable after so much time inside my head and in long-abandoned Unity project files. When I think back on the early days of my game development career (then hobby), I think of this game and the various hurdles I had to overcome to get even the most basic stuff  running on-screen. Getting this game done and finally out there for people to play was a cathartic experience.

Concentric is a minimalist action game about gracefully moving in circles. Navigate along a set of concentric rings and bring energy back to your core. Retrieve energy. Evade traps. Play fast and take risks for a better score. Carve a perfect path through the level and rise the ranks of the global leaderboards.

EVADER // Wizard Jam 5

I made a new game! Last weekend was the end of Wizard Jam 5, so I made a game inspired by the prompt “Half a Brain”. I’m pretty happy with how well it turned out!

EVADER is an arcade style action game about skilfully avoiding death using a unique dual-control movement system.

You can see the development log for this game (WIP GIFs and screenshots) on the Idle Thumbs forum thread I made for it: https://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/topic/11553-released-evader/

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The Hypersonic Effect // Wizard Jam 4

I made a game for Wizard Jam 4!

The Hypersonic Effect is a game about drifting through space and trying not to hit things. You pilot a tiny unarmed spaceship, and have to collect the energy tanks in each level to escape.

Earn bonus points by collecting orbs; completing levels without taking damage; and completing levels using as few thruster boosts as possible.

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TV Trouble goes to EGX

Hey all,
I’m pleased to announce that TV Trouble will be present at EGX this weekend; as part of the Leftfield Collection.

Sponsored by worldwide publisher SEGA, the Leftfield Collection celebrates the diverse nature of the indie development scene, giving EGX attendees experiences that are often profoundly different to those available elsewhere on the show floor.EGX blog

If you’re attending the show, come and say hi!