Create games, write interactive stories, and build animations!
We’ve made it easy for you to make games with Gamefroot, but making a GOOD game is something you have to put a bit more effort into. A good game will keep the player interested, engaged, and coming back for more – and that will ultimately be reflected in your game’s play count and comments. Who DOESN’T want to have a popular and successful game?
There are a few rules that you can follow to make your game play better.
Note: this tutorial has been updated here http://gamefroot.com/knowledgebase/animate-and-upload-your-own-character/
With Gamefroot we make it easy for the entry level game designer to effortlessly create a game using the default assets, but for the next level of game designer* we offer a lot more customization. You can design your own characters, terrain, in-game items, and backgrounds. You can then upload these assets into Gamefroot to build games that are uniquely your own. In this series of tutorials I’m going to show you how to do all of that to create a masterpiece you can be proud of. *To take advantage of Gamefroot’s customization it is important that you have image editing software and a working knowledge of how to use it.
Continue reading “Pimp my Game – Using your own Character artwork”
Note: this feature is currently unavailable
Decided you want to keep prying eyes away from your hard work? Maybe you want to make changes to your published game and don’t want people to play it until you are finished. It’s OK! You can very easily remove your game from public scrutiny by opening it up in the level editor, opening the File menu, and clicking Publish. Check the Draft button and click Save. Now your game has been reverted back to Draft mode, and it will no longer be visible on Gamefroot.com
You can re-publish your game again at any time.
GameFroot is excited to be at the NZGDC this weekend. We’ll be talking about how to make games with Gamefroot that don’t suck. To celebrate game development in NZ we’re hosting a little competition.
We challenge you to make a Gamefroot game that uses this icon. The best game made before next Wednesday 23rd and linked to here as a comment will win a nice bottle of NZ wine.
Hey guys and welcome to another episode of ‘Man that Game is Good’! You’ll notice that starting from today these blog posts will be branching out a tad. Not only will I be sharing with you the bestest user games on the site, but I will also share with you features about upcoming Gamefroot games and the odd user tip to get you guys making even better games, so that I can mention them here!
So let’s get into it! If you are looking for a nice, simple platform game then take a look at Paul by Tracey McKenzie. This is an enjoyable and accessible game to all with a few cheeky traps to catch you up as you search for the end point, battling robots and Asian business men as you go (you’ll have to ask Tracey as to the significance of the business men). The overall design is interesting and varied, and it is satisfying to get to that end point after having been tricked out of it (admittedly on more than one occasion). I would love to see more games from Tracey that build upon this clean and user friendly format. Keep up the good work Tracey!
Another short but sweet game that I have to mention is Fresh Sushi Adventures by fightproject. As soon as you open this game you’ll see why it’s worth a look. It is always great to see you guys using your own tiles in a game to create the customized world that is right for you. So then, it is flippin’ wondrous to see these fellows’ friendly faces darting about the screen, it is marvellous to witness the alternate facial expressions as you or your enemies kick the bucket, but most of all it is simply awesome that the lead character can hold a gun..i mean, how is he gripping that thing? Does he have it wedged in his nose? That is talent…thank you happy face man for making me smile today.
If you are looking for a real challenge this week, then take a look at Death Pizza v 0.1 by Richard de Jonge. This game is awesome and should offer you plenty of tricky platform challenges to overcome! First off, I love that this game starts you off with a clear and precise focus, narrated beautifully. The music fits great to the fiery background, and the walk speed tweak has created a really nifty ‘slide’ effect; so make sure to be careful every time you jump to a new platform, cause you may just slide right into a bucket of fresh hot flame! This game is really nicely laid out, with a very simple architecture and appropriate use of tiles. The appearance of the firework effect, which is available in an items’ advanced features, creates another rather pleasing aesthetic to the bubbling lava as it spews tiny orange pixels into the air. And the really good news is that Richard has promised us that there will be more levels to come!! YES! This game is great, so go play it!
Well that’s it my fellow gamers until next week, when I will be reviewing the greatly anticipated sequel to our most played game, Super Froot Box!!! Get yourself ready for that one and have a great week!!
Rayne Leafe and the Gamefroot team.
Note: an updated version of this tutorial is here http://gamefroot.com/knowledgebase/publishing-your-game-to-share-it-with-the-world/
Sharing your Gamefroot creations is simple. If you have published your game then it will appear on the Browse Games page (if it is popular enough), and the All Games page.
To share a specific game with people, click the share button underneath the game on the Gamefroot website.
Sorry folks! Due to a technical error we lost play counts between Friday the 11th May and Tuesday the 15th of May. Over 5000 plays had been misallocated, and as such many games were getting inaccurate play counts, therefere we had no choice but to reset counts between these dates.
We don’t want people to think that their games have hardly been played – it’s simply not true. Your games are all being played! We have now fixed the play counter, so from now on you will all be seeing accurate play counts.
Once again, we apologize for any inconvenience regarding the play counts. We are striving to make the best game sharing experience possible, so we appreciate your feedback.
We are proud of the work that everyone out there in the Gamefroot community has been doing, so keep on making and sharing your awesome games!
Good day to you fellow gamers and welcome to our second instalment of Games of the Week; where we play your games and tell you how great you are for making them!
So to our first feature game this week, Desolation by Obsidian. I think this is the best user game created to date, and with only one life and no opportunity for gaining more, this is a real challenge. The game serves as a simple platform, seeing the character travelling through the desert to find civilisation, encountering mummies and death traps along the way! The game uses very effective placement of moving tiles, levers and spiked objects to create a game that not only offers the traditional, ‘oh no don’t land on that spiky thing’ challenge, but also the ‘how on earth will I get past this obstacle’ challenge, also known as…problem solving!! And boy oh boy, it’s hard. Take my heed – finishing this game may never happen for you, but enjoy it while you’re alive.
The next game for special mention this week is The Fall of Batman by Angus Mcquade, or as I like to call it, Long-jump Olympics. This game has a nice overall thematic look to it, and as suggested in my fake title, has some really long jumps in it. You will have to jump over spikes, water, flame, robots…you name it, all whilst dodging enemy fire and moving through the level towards the end where you have to ‘kill Cristian Bale’. It’s a fairly short game and definitely beatable, but it might take you a few tries, and you’ll have a jolly ‘ol time taking down the bat in black!
Lastly is a pretty awesome game called Redemption by jaminscript. Why is this game so impressive? Well just take a look! Your character, the son of Diable, decides he doesn’t want to live in Hell any more, so he sets off to the world above, collecting keys to open gates, rescuing some of his little red friends, jumping over moving cars and navigating clouds to reach the gates of heaven and partake in a giant cheesecake…yes really. This isn’t a challenging game, but its use of customized tiles is fantastic, it’s theme is well executed, and isn’t that little red fella cute? Nice work!
That’s it for this week. I’ll check in next week with the latest batch of awesome games. 😉 Keep up the good work gamers!
Rayne Leafe and the Gamefroot team.
Note: this tutorial has been updated here http://gamefroot.com/knowledgebase/create-your-own-background-image/
With Gamefroot we make it easy for the entry level game designer to effortlessly create a game using the default assets, but for the next level of game designer* we offer a lot more customization. You can design your own characters, terrain, in-game items, and backgrounds. You can then upload these assets into Gamefroot to build games that are uniquely your own. In this series of tutorials I’m going to show you how to do all of that to create a masterpiece you can be proud of.
*To take advantage of Gamefroot’s customization it is important that you have image editing software and a working knowledge of how to use it.
In Gamefroot the background is the image that appears behind everything in your game. A good background can create a lot of atmosphere in a game. For example: a game about zombies with a moonlit graveyard for a background will seem dramatic and scary, but the same game with a bright blue sky for a background wouldn’t have the same impact.
Game backgrounds remain static in games. Background images must be 768 pixels wide by 512 pixels high.
Consider the visual style of your game. How do you want the rest of your game to look – in what style have you done the terrain, the items, and the characters? Think about the atmosphere or mood of the level. You can evoke different moods with the colors you use. Think about how detailed you want your background. If your background is too overpowering could that be distracting and ruin the game?
Remember the scale of the characters and the terrain. If there are buildings or some other kind of background terrain in your background, make sure they are appropriately sized so that they seem in the distance if they are supposed to be far away. Also remember that as objects are further into the distance they appear duller and have less contrast.
I thought about all of these things when I was creating an Arabian themed background for the Gamefroot default backgrounds. The visual style we were going for was a kind of detailed pixel art look. It had to suit the characters and terrain that we had already made.
I sketched out a layout of some sand dunes and trees with domed buildings, but testing it out in a game revealed some problems with scale (the trees were way too big).
So I rearranged everything to create a layout that worked a lot better.
Then I went over the whole composition and cleaned it all up. In this background image, as the trees, buildings and mountains reach further into the distance they become more and more faded. To ensure the style of the terrain and the background worked together, I replicated the tree tiles and put them away in the distance. The golden brown colors in the terrain tiles have also been carried through.
Here’s the background in a game. Using a background with tiles and characters that fit the style can make your game feel professional and polished.
Be sure to pay a decent amount of attention to making your backgrounds – it definitely pays off.
Once you have finished making your background, save it as a PNG, JPG or GIF file. Then load up your level on Gamefroot and open the Level Properties. Click “Choose file” to select an image from your computer.
Once you have selected your background image it will show up as a thumbnail in the level properties. Click “Done” to go back to your level.
Then preview your game to see what your new background image looks like in game. If you are unhappy with it, go back into your image editor and tweak until it looks right.
If you want a game with multiple levels then you can really show off your artistic ability and create a customized background for each level. This can make your game feel much more varied and immersive. For an example of this, play the Isaac Newton game.
Note: this tutorial has now been updated here http://gamefroot.com/knowledgebase/how-to-draw-your-own-game-objects/
With Gamefroot we make it easy for the entry level game designer to effortlessly create a game using the default assets, but for the next level of game designer* we offer a lot more customization. You can design your own characters, terrain, in-game items, and backgrounds. You can then upload these assets into Gamefroot to build games that are uniquely your own. In this series of tutorials I’m going to show you how to do all of that to create a masterpiece you can be proud of. *To take advantage of Gamefroot’s customization it is important that you have image editing software and a working knowledge of how to use it.
The single largest element in most games is the terrain tiles, so making your own terrain tiles is very important in game customization. All tiles in Gamefroot must be 48 pixels high and 48 pixels wide, and they must be PNG or GIF files. You can have objects bigger than a single 48 x 48 tile by making an object out of multiple tiles, or you can make an object smaller than 48 x 48 by leaving transparent space around the object inside the tile.
Think about the purpose of the tile. Is this an item? Will this tile be an obstacle? Remember that the whole tile will be solid, not just the part of the tile with artwork on it. If it is going to be a background tile then this doesn’t matter – the player won’t be bumping into it.
Also remember that terrain has 2 layers – take advantage of this to make cool layered effects.
Consider the visual style of your game. Draw up your concepts, and test them out with your other game elements to make sure they don’t clash or look weird. When I draw tiles I often work at 400 percent of the actual tile size – that way I can work on the details, and then shrink the artwork down to its proper size and make any tweaks that are needed.
If you are working on pixel art, you can do the opposite – work small and upscale it for the final version.
Once you are happy with your artwork, cut it into 48 x 48 pixel images and save them as either PNG or GIF files (PNG files have better transparency).
Now that you are ready to upload your new tiles, open up Gamefroot and select the Terrain Tab. Click the + button, browse to the image file on your hard drive, and select one or more images to upload.
Click Begin Upload and the files will start to upload. Once they have all been uploaded, close this box and your new terrain tiles will appear in “Your Terrain” tab.
The exact same process above applies to item tiles as well.
Now you can make games entirely out of your own tiles!
Happy game making!
