Underground DC Developers Strike Back: Feet of Fury 185
frohike writes "After reading the recent article
about game non-originality, I'm pleased to say that there's another
entry to the Dreamcast's innovative game lineup, and this time it isn't
coming from one of the Big Publishers but the underground:
Feet of Fury! This independent music beat game includes player vs player gameplay and a Typing of Fury mode. It was developed by
us on a $0 budget using Linux, Gimp, and various other
free tools over the past few years, and it uses the BSD-licensed
KallistiOS toolkit as its base. (This
is the same toolkit which most homebrew developers have written the emulators
and such with.) We've used a number of neat free software technologies such
as Ogg Vorbis in the game itself,
and we contribute a large chunk of our code back to the community in
the hopes that others can follow in our footsteps. There is even a
publisher ready to help you
get your ideas to fruition and sell them for you, so what are you waiting
for? Now's your chance to be a console developer too. Let's make some great new innovative Dreamcast games!"
Original? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Original? (Score:1)
Re:Original? (Score:2)
Damn beat me to the main point. Not only has DDR been here first, but it already has a Korean clone (PUMP It Up, which is more original than this) and a freeware/OS variation (Stepmania). This is just weak.
By the way, recent cvs checkouts of stepmania build on linux, although there are still some temporary nasties, like statically built custom SDL libraries, but it certainly does work alright for testing purposes, (still alsa only for sound though).
Re:Original? (Score:1)
While I appreciate what the developers have done, I feel the article is a bit of a hijack of the earlier posting about game originality. This isn't really original. Its not even a ripoff of an earlier, original title ( although DDR was groundbreaking, I think earlier rhythm / music titles such as Beatmania precede it ).
If we're going to have a ripoff, I would have loved
Re:Original? (Score:4, Funny)
DDK [somethingawful.com]
Re:Original? (Score:1)
Re:Original? (Score:1)
It's admitedly a little bit of whoring for this guys project, and for a (mostly) dead system. But it should give reassurances to anyone who's trying t
Re:Original? (Score:3, Insightful)
Groups of "hackers" got together and wrote their own ways to develop for the platform instead of the licensed software development kit you would get from Sega.
"Typing Of Fury", while not a new idea (combining "Typing Of The Dead" with "DDR"), but a combination of existing ideas is innovative, I think.
Re:Original? (Score:4, Insightful)
Ok heres a game idea, lets make a game thats like a trippy roller coaster ride through sewers, except you have a gun and you have to kill the sewer life. All of this takes place in an apocalyptic future, and if you can survive this insane roller coaster ride you get to watch a fat dude rolled down a hill in a tire!
oh, wait that was a game!
I mean seriously, there is almost nothing i have thought of that hasnt been done. And everything I have thought of that hasnt been done, would be done, except that it would require shitloads of money, and be MMORPG version of games that already exist.
Even puzzle games have almost been worn out. I saw someone extolling the virtues of this game called "snord" calling it "innovative" but the thing is I had seen that game like 10 years earlier in an arcade, just oh it looked different but had the same goal nad required chunking quarters in it.
These guys arent too bad, they made an interesting game in a genre that hasnt been totally smacked around and devalued. Yes I know you could bring up britney spears dancing etc, but hey it is a relatively rare gametype, and I propose thats really all you are going to get.
i even doubt that when we move into 3d VR games (sometime in the future) that you are going to find anything that isnt really just a derivation of previous work.
Just because something that was done before, or was trying to be done before, now has technology that can do it better, does not make it unique. If that were so, if i invented tomorrow a way of transmitting data across time and space, then millions of companies could start patenting things that already exist, except that they hadnt been done before in my new ether communicator..
Just becuase you are doing something in a new medium doesnt make it unique, and i dont think there are going to be many unique games out there in terms of how the game is played.
I think the biggest thing is if you make a game have a good story, and enjoyable in terms of standard games, and for puzzle games you need to make them challenging in a new and unique way. But it in no way would really be unique in the term that it would be something "so new" that you had never been challenged similarly, or seen something like it before.
Re:Original? (Score:3)
Re:Original? (Score:2)
and Ok "snood" hehe.
But I wasnt saying the
No way, d00d (Score:2, Insightful)
Dance Dance Revolution is totally a Simon ripoff. Which is itself totally a "Simon Says" ripoff. Totally, d00d.
Re:No way, d00d (Score:2)
In Simon, a series of tones/lights/buttons is played out.
Then you play the same series back to it. Simon is wholly a memorization game. You don't even need to do it at the same speed as the machine played its series to you.
DDR, on the other hand, is completely real-time. As the arrows are moving up the screen, you've got to hit them in time to the beats. It's not about memorization, it's about reacting quickly. (Arguably, one could
Sw33t (Score:4, Funny)
Ah... (Score:2)
You can just make a 'date sim' with the same content for xbox. Not that I'm trying to submarine anyone here.
Re:Ah... (Score:1)
Did anyone else... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Did anyone else... (Score:2)
There's no way. (Score:1, Insightful)
And there's just something wrong about open-source games.
Re:There's no way. (Score:1)
Re:There's no way. (Score:5, Informative)
No, there are priorities ahead of it:
- Dreamcasts are cheap, like in the $50 range
- DC's don't require modding to play CDrs. Just download the ISO image, burn, and go.
- DC has a good simple architecture, plus BSD to develop on.
To put it another way, the DC has a much better audience than any of the other consoles out there for a game like this. People aren't going to flock to the game if you have to have + mod an XBOX or PS2.
Re:There's no way. (Score:1)
My question was really whether it was worth spending time developing on that platform. Do the skills you pick up there transfer to any other mediums? IE: if I get into working on the dreamcast, will that help me later in developing games for the platforms where it could actually be fruitful?
Seems to me, with the completely different architectures and different scope of capabilitie
Re:There's no way. (Score:3, Insightful)
Developing a game is developing a game, regardless of architecture. It means learning the basics of good algorithms, good story design, good interface, optimization, perhaps some marketing and research.
Specific tools may be different, sure, but that's like saying, "Is it worth learning to program on Linux if you're going to be working on Mac/Windows/Solaris/AIX?"
The answer is yes. Skills are skills, while experience is experience, and you need both.
Re:There's no way. (Score:1)
In theory, yes. I have not been keeping up with how the development has progressed, but at one point I know kos was planned for porting to the PS2. If you're writing right to the metal with asm this wouldn't be so important, but I could easily see a dreamcast game which used KOS's OpenGL implementation being simple to get working on a ps2 if kos were to be ported. I kno
Re:There's no way. (Score:2)
The big problem is that they're completely useless if nobody plays the game. It's not very possible an indie to publish a game on the PS2. As a matter of fact, Sony'd likely fight it. Ever notice that 'unofficial' games are not on the market for game consoles? You can thank Nintendo for that one. A company called Tengen tried to
Re:There's no way. (Score:1)
The Tengen Tetris case you're referring to was not about Tengen publishing unlicensed titles, but about who had the rights to publish Tetris. It was a big convoluted mess, in part because the Tetris creator (Sergei Kosmansomethingoroth
Re:There's no way. (Score:2)
Doh! I apologize, he's right. I haven't thought about this since 1996 when I worked at FuncoLand. Hehehe
Re:There's no way. (Score:2)
Re:There's no way. (Score:1)
Re:There's no way. (Score:1)
Re:There's no way. (Score:2, Interesting)
i dunno, a $50 web server that you could damn near mount on your wall sounds pretty cool to me
Re:There's no way. (Score:2, Interesting)
1) Dreamcast is very easy to develop for. And the fact that there are many tools to aid in development help this.
2) Dreamcast can boot a CD-R without a modchip or some kind of circumvention device. This means anyone who owns a Dreamcast can play your game. You can reach a much greater audience with DC homebrew than you could with PS2/XBox/Gamecube homebre
Re:There's no way. (Score:1, Troll)
I mean shit EVERY one is suppose to buy the latest and greatest all the time. I finally upgrade from Atari and get a Dream Cast but nooooo that obsolete now. I'm not aloud to have fun with that console anymore. I sware it was just yesterday I purchased "Congo
Yay! Slashdot! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Yay! Slashdot! (Score:2)
They should make you VP: Marketing.
Re:Yay! Slashdot! (Score:2)
So... (Score:1)
The problem of lack of originality was that the games had great gfx and music, but lacked new ideas. Here we read how many great technologies were used, that it has original music, uses some odd operating systems etc, but where's the originality?
Obligatory Slashdot open source response (Score:1)
If you want originality write your own damn game.
Re:Obligatory Slashdot open source response (Score:1)
if your interested in homebrew on teh DC (Score:5, Informative)
dcemulation [dcemulation.com] it has all the 'underground DC info youd ever need. also if you want to know about what your dealing with, check this [vidgame.net] page out.
Re:if your interested in homebrew on teh DC (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:if your interested in homebrew on teh DC (Score:2)
Re:if your interested in homebrew on teh DC (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:if your interested in homebrew on teh DC (Score:1)
Anyone else flinch (Score:5, Funny)
Not really (Score:1, Funny)
Hmm (Score:2)
Re:Hmm (Score:2)
Re:Hmm (Score:1)
ummm.... (Score:5, Insightful)
How is this in any way original? Just because it uses OGG and was developed by "Open Source" people does not mean it is revolutionary.
Re:did you mean...? (Score:1, Funny)
Who says history can't be fun?!
First post? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:First post? (Score:1)
Yes. (Score:2, Informative)
Scary, isn't it? Of course, you could likely fit every 2600 game made onto a single floppy. (ironically, FAT limitations would make that difficult.)
Re:Yes. (Score:1)
Re:First post? (Score:2)
Re:First post? (Score:1)
Great... always thinking of piracy.... (Score:2)
Re:Great... always thinking of piracy.... (Score:2)
I doubt Nintendo is going to go out of business, but if they're relying on re-releasing old games to keep them profitable, good riddance.
KOS (Score:4, Informative)
Re:KOS (Score:2)
Scared me (Score:3, Funny)
Up next for the underground (Score:2, Funny)
It is original! (Score:5, Informative)
Not by much... (Score:2)
As usual in DDR, you have a meter. When you miss steps, your meter starts to drop. Once it hits zero, you lose.
While there might be a slightly new twist on the mechanic in Feet of Fury, it certainly doesn't seem very different from a DDR mode which has been available for at least a year.
Re:It is original! (Score:1)
This is a really cool idea, and I wish DDR had run with it (it would make tournaments VERY VERY INTERESTING) but it's not new. That doesn't mean the game isn't cool, though. I need my DC sent to me so I can get it.
Re:It is original! (Score:2)
Play the Game? Read the Article?
You're new here, aren't you?
krystal_blade
Re:It is original! (Score:2)
Hohum - not so original perhaps (Score:2)
There's also a lack of screen-shots on that website - unless the ones provided are all you get to see in the game?
Hmmm...let's sum up:
1) Original concept? Dance game...probably not...
2) Mindblowing graphics and/or art-work? Probably not...(need to see more screenshots to
Re:Hohum - not so original perhaps (Score:4, Insightful)
-The Dreamcast was a fantastic system, and it is safe to say that it died before its time, due to a low amount of introductory games caused by the early release date, as well as a shoddy ad campaign. I mean, really "Dreamcast... It's Thinking". Nothing like an add that states nothing about the product. They had a chance to belittle their newest competition, and blew it. I would of bought a Dreamcast that Christmas if I knew what living H311 it was going to be to "try" to obtain a PS2. Who out there would not of preferred Sega's system if they had just said "Dreamcast... We ship on time"
-One more thing, I think it is a wonderful idea for people to still be developing for this console. I am surprised that many third party game developers for the PS2 and other systems do not port their games to the dreamcast. Think of it... There are thousands of people who still own and use their Dreamcasts. With the relative ease that one can program for it, a quick, stripped down port of a PS2 game would make a wonderful demo, and secure the support of gamers on a budget (for, let us all face the fact, this system is a quarter of the cost of a PS2, and not that all worse.) thus getting more people to buy the product, allowing better games to be developed for the more powerful systems.
-Another point that few people have considered is that the Dreamcast is a good system that, frankly, the original producers have abandoned. Why had there not been a surge of self mod books released to improve upon this console, free of any wrath of Sega? If the Xbox and PS2 punish those that wish to improve upon their own system, why go through all the angst, just start using your Dreamcast again. Sony will not release a new system until 2006-2007, there is still time to "revive" Sega from its grave.
-And now, in parting, I shall speak those three words that drive those who still support this system to not loose all hope: "Long-Live-Seaman"
links? (Score:1)
selling it? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:selling it? (Score:2)
Re:selling it? (Score:2, Informative)
If it has an image that deviates from either one of these, it WILL NOT BOOT. Period. The DC has a version that it checks against in ROM.
So, they ARE using Sega IP. Whether Sega chooses to go after them, is another story, and something I highly doubt will happen.
Sega should open it all up.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:selling it? (Score:1)
What I don't understand about the dance games. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What I don't understand about the dance games. (Score:1)
Is the game Free Software? (Score:2)
It's great that you're getting so much use out of all the Free Software used in the development of the game (Ogg Vorbis, Gimp, GNU/Linux, and KallistiOS). Is the game you're distributing Free Software too? Under what license? I figured you might release your program as Free Software as a way to contribute your effort to the community that has apparently helped you so much.
Typing of Fury (Score:1)
Re:Typing of Fury (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
What is with all this negativity? (Score:2)
How about yesterday?
How about ever?
No, your birthday doesn't count.
Seriously, screw the whole originality thing. I am happy that there are people out there making a home brew game and getting it published like that.
I think it is cool as all out. I will buy a copy of this game simply to show support for this movement.
Someone in a thread snobbed off the DC. Well there is one enormous advantage to publishing on the DC that Sony, Micro$oft and the Big ~N~ just can't compete w
All hail Discordia! (Score:1)
KallistiOS? Gimme a break! If that thing's named in honor of Eris/Discordia, the goddess of chaos, confusion and discord, it's gotta be a real pain to use. Then again, chaos breeds creativity, or so the saying goes, so maybe it's a good thing.
So what I'd like to see (Score:2)
Re:So what I'd like to see (Score:1)
How can you say that about DDR music? It rocks to all hell. But then, there are those (strange) people who don't like Eurodance, so...
Anyway, go check out StepMania [stepmania.com] or Dance With Intensity [claws-and-paws.com]. SM is open-source, but I prefer DWI because of the arcade similarity.
You can find various DWI files scattered through the 'net; some places to look are ddrei.com and ddruk.com
Dreamcast isn't quite dead yet (Score:2)
So it's ALMOST dead but not quite. ^_^
News to me (Score:1)
It warms me.. (Score:1)
So it warms me that people are still working with the DC.. I do some OpenGL programming myself, so i might t
Why Dreamcast? (Score:2)
Whilst I do like the dreamcast, I - as well as many slashdotters I'm sure - do not personally own one. While you're at it, how about a trying at a few decent 'nix games for PC... we're still waiting for that hit that brings it into the home anyhow.
Re:New? (Score:1)
Re:DIFFERENT MODERATIONS (Score:1, Funny)
Flamebait = insults, stating a valid opinion in an extremely invalid way (i.e. "you're a fucking idiot if you think that using lunix is worth your time")
Or something like that. This post, for instance, is a troll.
Re:DIFFERENT MODERATIONS (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:If you want original (Score:1)
Re:yeah right.. (Score:1)
Re:But... (Score:2)
Re:Original? Dreamcast?? (Score:2)
Re:Original... Yeah (Score:2)
if you hit certain arrows, you pick up attacks to use on the other player. depending on what mode the game is in, you either hit a button or it'll automatically use the attack.
attacks include making the arrows go faster, fade in and out, wave from side to side, spin, and theres more that i can't remember
Re: (Score:1)