Static by aquasheep

[raw]
made by aquasheep for LD24 (COMPO)
Hello, thank you for coming, and I hope you enjoy my first LD compo game: Static.

The goal is simple: Create a work of art using a tv with random static as your canvas and remote control buttons as your tools.

Static is all about seeing how ideas, creativity, and chaos come together in a primordial ooze that provides a basis from which art evolves.

Static: Create, Evolve, Enjoy!

The controls are all in game, but the basics are:

Mouse - apply tool (left - positive, right - negative)
Shift - switch tool
Mousewheel or Up/Down arrows - increase/decrease tool size

TO PLAY:
Simply download the .jar file and run it in java. That's it!

Please let me know what you think/how it could be improved and especially if there are any bugs you find. Also, please feel free to share your art and achievements in the comments section!

Resizing: Static can be resized; the tv frame will disappear, but everything still works!

NOW ON THE INTERWEB!!! (Use Chrome for best experience; Java will ask you for permission to run, and you have to click okay; I'm sorry, but I don't know anyway around that inconvenience. Java Plug-in JRE 7 is tested and works. IcedTea will not work (sorry fellow penguinz)).

Achievements:

1) Artiste - Make an image using at least 3 different color sets.
2) Classiciste - Make a black-and-white image.
3) Moderniste - Make an image using the "All Colors" color set.
4) Hidden Message - Broadcast a hidden message to a friend using static.
5) Time Master - Make an animation using the fast-forward,rewind and pause tools.

License:
All assets and screenshots are under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0, and all code is public domain. Whatever you make with the game, you are free to use in any way you wish, as long you credit me and this game (a la CC BY 3.0).

Credits:
Thanks to Github, Eclipse, LibGDX, MuseScore, Audacity, GIMP, my family, Mitch and Mary, and everyone who helped to make this possible, including the entire LD Community, and especially fpMiguel who helped a wayward soul on irc.
Special thanks to Thotep for his tutorial on LibGDX and applets, which made the new web version possible (http://www.thesecretpie.com/2011/05/being-like-minecraft-or-how-to-run-your.html)

Ratings

Coolness 67% 3
Overall 2.49 620
Audio 2.91 195
Fun 2.21 619
Graphics 2.55 509
Humor 1.56 551
Innovation 3.18 229
Mood 2.12 609
Theme 1.41 745

Feedback

onehappygiant
27. Aug 2012 路 13:02 UTC
For some reason there were red scan lines across my image. No bugs beyond that. Solid creation tool and I enjoy the music a lot.

It might've been nicer to have icon buttons for all the controls instead of having that huge list of controls at the bottom, but other than that I enjoyed Static.
馃帳 aquasheep
27. Aug 2012 路 18:32 UTC
@onehappygiant
Cool. Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, if I had known a good way to do buttons, I do think that would be nicer; glad you liked the music! Sometimes, the reticle's lines get in the picture, but they should always be replaced, so that's weird... but I guess that adds to the chaotic element of the game, right ;)
My Milked Eek
27. Aug 2012 路 19:34 UTC
A good drawing program, but I don't consider it a game.

Other than that, cool music, graphics were interesting (in a good way :) ). But yeah, not a game.

Also, maximizing the window and pressing shift a few times (5 at most) messed up the graphics for me. (Win7 64bit)
馃帳 aquasheep
27. Aug 2012 路 20:38 UTC
@MyMilkedEek

Thanks for the compliments! It was hard to come up with a way to game-ify the concept, so it is very sandboxy. It doesn't co-operate with maximizing. I'll know more about LibGDX next time, but for now, scaling and performance are pretty big issues for me.
levelbylevel
27. Aug 2012 路 20:42 UTC
Fun little app :) would make a cool toy mobile app
kevincorrigan
27. Aug 2012 路 22:13 UTC
Cool program, I like the background music
vilya
27. Aug 2012 路 22:15 UTC
It's a nice idea, but not really a game.
WonderBoy55
27. Aug 2012 路 23:25 UTC
BEST GAME EVER
馃帳 aquasheep
28. Aug 2012 路 03:23 UTC
Thanks for the compliments and criticisms all!

@levelbylevel - I really want to get it on Android; it's totally a phone app kind of a thing; once I work out the performance issues (i.e. learn shaders) this will happen, but unfortunately, that will take some time. I'll make a post when I get there, though!

@kevincorrigan - Thanks. The music was very Sims Soundtrack inspired because I love listening to that music when I make things. I'm glad it worked out.
TinyPlatypus
30. Aug 2012 路 12:17 UTC
For some reason I couldn't hear the music. I also found the painting quite clunky and had the weird lines bug with my cursor (red circle) also getting painted on to the static. Interesting but not much of a game.
Spelchan
30. Aug 2012 路 21:57 UTC
Not really a game and the link with the evolution theme is lacking but it was entertaining to play with.
whilefun
31. Aug 2012 路 00:42 UTC
very original idea. I didn't really know how to reach the goals of the game, but it was fun to just play around and make colours and shapes. Music was kind of fun too :)
NateNaterson
31. Aug 2012 路 01:03 UTC
Pretty weird, but I found it interesting.
Zelen3d
31. Aug 2012 路 01:36 UTC
trippy stuff when playing with the rewind tool.
Me too full screen messes stuff up.
I wished I could play with the Tv switches to watch my static turn into something weird! :)
tastive
31. Aug 2012 路 01:36 UTC
If there were something to discover here -- something simple but deep -- this would be lauded alongside the best. As is, I had fun, but this isn't a game. (Cue long discussion about what is and is not a game..) Still, thank you for submitting this. Lovely.
goffmog
31. Aug 2012 路 21:44 UTC
It would have been cool if you had come up with an idea for how to gameify it. It's a very nice tool otherwise.
馃帳 aquasheep
31. Aug 2012 路 22:26 UTC
Thanks all for the compliments and suggestions. I'll be puzzling over how to gameify this because I do want to refresh the project with a better UI and better performance for Android in the future. And, as several have suggested, the beauty of a game is indeed that it has more potential than a tool to spark the imagination and create a sense of wonder.
EatThePath
31. Aug 2012 路 23:23 UTC
Weird and wacky! Neat little toy.
Capro
02. Sep 2012 路 14:46 UTC
Beautiful.
mohammad
02. Sep 2012 路 16:49 UTC
the music was GREAT!!! :D
plus i liked the graphical design, but isn't that was java was built for? anyway you got my vote!
mohammad
02. Sep 2012 路 16:50 UTC
not bad, but where was the "evolution" part?
SecondDimension
05. Sep 2012 路 19:25 UTC
Interesting app; I enjoyed the brightness tool the most, thought you got some good effects with that. I drew a lot of flowers for some reason...
馃帳 aquasheep
06. Sep 2012 路 01:43 UTC
Thanks for the compliments all! I'm glad you're having fun with it! I'm currently working on a few ideas to turn into more of a game while of course keeping and improving on the original sandbox experience. It will take some time now that I'm back in school, but it shall happen!

@mohammad -personality #1
I'm REALLY glad you loved the music; I didn't have that much time to do it, but I felt very inspired at the time, and I think moving in the Sims soundtrack direction was a good move for me, and I'll probably start composing more pieces like that in the future. My other stuff is here:
http://www.soundcloud.com/aquasheep

@mohammad -personality #2
The intended but not very obvious link to evolution is that from chaos (static) comes art (what you do with it). Even though you can only work with and through static, you can evolve these primitive materials to make art.