Our good friends at SK Games have just had their first birthday and to celebrate they’re hosting Local MultiPlayer Only; a night of drinks, merriment, and “couch” multiplayer with some of SK’s best games, and a few guest titles, at The Bakery. Senior Editors Bernadette Russell and Patrick Waring recently caught up with Louis and Sofie from SK to talk about one of those games, Bush Bash, in an interview which will soon be featuring on Gamecloud. In the mean time Patrick has taken the rough “recipe” for Bush Bash, divined from the information provided by SK in their interview, and provided these steps so that you too can create your very own version of Bush Bash!
Editor’s Note: Are you serious? What is all this? Were.. were you drunk when you wrote this?
Step 1.
Open your carton and kick back in your backyard (remember to bring a friend with you because drinking alone is weird, apparently), so you can think of a topic for your new game; driving and shooting makes a party, let’s roll with that. SK Recommends two players working together to drive down a long, winding highway, fraught with obstacles and hostilities (with just a hint of Australiana). For best results, serve in a physical car with easy carton storage.
Step 2.
Rally your team together, informing them of your brilliant idea, and get everyone working on the project together according to their respective strengths. For instance, SK’s original Bush Bash was the mind-baby of Blake; Chris and Megan did the sprite work; Louis worked on the hardware of the car while Sofie made it look the part, and; Kai assisted with the design elements, and the testing stages. Remember: Team work is important, you won’t be able to finish the recipe without it! Have another beer. Have two.
Step 3.
Obtain your desired vehicle and consider how it should be inserted into your recipe. Remember playing multi-player racers when you were a kid? Weren’t those rad? Think about those while you keep up the pace on the carton, generously applying the angle grinder to the vehicle. What? Oh, yeah. We should cut it in half, because then it’d be like an arcade cabinet! That’d be so awesome, because then you and a friend could “ride” in the car while you play! Here, hold my drink.
Step 4.
This is taking awhile. Should it be taking this long? Just keep going, I’m sure it’ll be fine.
Step 5.
IS THIS THING MADE OF ADAMANTIUM!?
Step 6.
Give up. Have the car sheered in half and mounted professionally. Warning! Failure to disconnect the steering column from the wheels before playing may result in skewing the vehicle, terrible aim, possible good times, and hilarity. Death is highly unlikely.
Step 7.
Open the hood of your vehicle and drop in a projector, a computer loaded with your awesome game, and your passion for developing rad social video games. Removal of the engine isn’t required as the “professionals” you hired took care of that for you; not only did SK save on money and weight, but when the machines rise up they will know not of what SK have wrought. Smart thinking, SK! While wiring the car to respond to the game’s programming and trying not to think about how you may very well have destroyed an innocent, primitive intelligence, take beer from carton and rub vigorously into your liver and/or memory as required.
Step 8.
Now that the car is ready for play testing, you need to make sure that it also looks the part! Make sure that the inside feels like a stereotypical Australian “bomb” car. Sleeping in the car is optional; SK recommend that you do not do this, but what do they know? Sprinkle a dash of light gun on the passenger side, with a healthy dose of ammunition and a big red reload button. Level out the back of the car with a platform so that your dev team can watch and laugh at you while you fail. Stop laughing at me! There was a passenger as well, they died too, you were relying on them and they SUC–
Step 9.
After some testing, your game is now ready to play! Invite some people around for a party and give it a whirl! Warning! Being a two player game, you need to work together and communicate to make your way down the highway, shooting bad guys and collecting gas canisters. A demonstration for your guests is a great idea, as you can show them all the great features of the games and how the two player system works. In Bush Bash, for example, you can shoot gas canisters to create rad explosions and take out enemies, but without enough your in-game car will run out of fuel and then it’s game over! So remember to carefully consider if you can spare the gas canisters before shooting them, and conserve the explosions for when you really need them.
Step 10.
Stop shooting them. Seriously. STOP SHOOTING THE–
Step 11.
Find a new friend and take over the shooting, since the others can’t be trusted to just shoot properly. Once the demonstration is over, throw open the doors and let your guests play to their hearts content! The game should be a hit and everyone will love it (and you)! You’ll need to balance the time carefully you spend in this moment between studying the gameplay, seeing what works and where you can improve it, and basking in the admiration of your new found indie groupies. The carton should be getting low by now, have some of them get another one for you.
Step 12.
The party’s over (though SK would like to advise that, if you truly believe, the party is never over) and now you must return to work on new projects and also, more importantly, improve your freshly baked Bush Bash. If you’ve followed the recipe correctly then you should now be poised to hold an event for your development studio’s first birthday, with your very own version of Bush Bash as the crown jewel, so it’s time to polish it up and get it ready for an expectant crowd! (Editor’s Note: How could anyone follow this? Also: What?)
Step 13.
Be interviewed by reputable gaming publication Gamecloud.net.au while polishing Bush Bash, this will help to get the word out about your event and also expand your groupie base.
Step 14.
Once ready, hold your event at The Bakery (233 James Street, Northbridge), on Friday 1st of August at 8PM. Do they have beer at bakeries? We’ll bring a bar.
Tune in next week to see a decisively more coherent Patrick and his (far more presentable) co-star Bernadette Russell, they’ll be sitting down for an interview with SK to learn more about how Bush Bash came to be in the first video presentation for Gamecloud. Like our Facebook page (and hey, why not SK’s while you’re at it, they’re cool guys), and follow us on Twitter (@GameCloudWA) so you can find out more details as we post them!
