Co OPERATION - Testing done, there are some bugs . . . 😬
We did an initial test of the Co OPERATION demo and got some great feedback for how we can improve the game. We’ve been working away to fix those issues and are now gearing up towards a second demo play test! 🎉
This is the game Shaz (co-creator of BFF or Die) has been making with his new games studio Mind Feast Games.
What did we find?
The main issues we found were with players connecting and disconnecting to the game - we need to work on a way for players to rejoin a game easily if they drop out for any reason.
There were lots of fun bugs 🐛! There were a few patients spawning where they are not supposed to 😅 And at one stage, one player threw medicine to another, who threw a patient to them and the patient then disappeared! 💨
We also realised that nowhere have we included the backstory, so Josh has been working on that and come up with this!
Josh’s progression from sketch to finished comic strip
New action buttons We found that some of the action buttons that players use to programme their moves were a little confusing so Josh gave them a makeover! Even though Josh usually sticks to 2D art, we all thought the 3D effect on the arrow looked cosier and squidgier so we went with that. We want our game to be cosy and squidgy so it fits 🧸
Here’s an example of some of the spruced-up button art.
Action buttons for throw and moving in one direction
Modding Our modding tools are really coming along ⚒️ with lots of exciting new features from co-founder and programmer Rupert that make it easier to write and test your custom Lua scripts. This includes the ability to control players and run scripts in our level viewer! Joe (fellow programmer) added some new UI that visualises & lets you change the current game phase 💫
As you can see in this video, the Lua scripts in our Co OPERATION game package mean that changing the phase can cause new patients to spawn and health to reduce ❣️ But change a few lines of mod code and something entirely different could happen . . .
Clipboards How do you know what medicine to give your patients? We now have some handy clipboards which show you 😊
Design a poster Last month we ran a poster design event. We asked our Discord community for ideas for posters that could feature on the walls of our in-game hospital world. We had some great ideas and Josh has turned them into these!
The first idea came from James and the second from JFarceur (apparently this angry parrot is a thing in Canada) - thanks to both of them!
Then Shaz added them into the game world and they turned out looking like this! 👇
Universities We’ve been working with three different universities 🎓 to help test the modding abilities of the platform we’ve developed called MultiTurn!
We have students from Plymouth Uni who are working on a new mod of the game as we speak. Shaz has been working with students from Norwich who are also testing the modding code. And a researcher from Basel wants her students to evaluate Co OPERATION from the point of view of self-determination theory, or what really motivates people to play a game 🥕
We are really looking forward to seeing what these students come up with. Shaz (game/level designer) is especially excited to play a mod so he can play new content internally with the team (that he didn’t design!)
If you want to also be an early stage modder and/or play the next demo (due to be out in Dec some time?) then you can join our Discord.
An amazing co-operative throw-chain!
See you soon, Shaz, Julia and the MFG team
Co OPERATION - Who wants to play the demo?!
The demo of Co OPERATION: MultiTurn will be playable in the next few days!! Eeep! 😲
Join our Discord to be part of the first live playtest of the demo!
This is the game Shaz (co-creator of BFF or Die) has been making with his new games studio Mind Feast Games.
There’s too much loneliness in the world and we want to bring people together with this game 🫂 It’s multiplayer in a similar way to Jackbox and uses your phone as the controller 📲 to make it more accessible. Only one person needs to have the game installed and they can then stream it to others who’ll get a room code.
Think Jackbox BUT crossed with Overcooked and with little sprinkle of turn-based strategy too. Co OPERATION is a game where the fun comes from collaborating and winning together 🤜🏾🤛🏻
Also…
⚒️ Modding! Yes, you can also mod the game! You wanna put cats everywhere? You can! Joe and Rupert have added Lua code that you can change. Also, we use the same level editing system that you will (if you make levels).
So, what can you expect from the playtest? 👀
🤸 Amazing animations. Josh has been adding carry and bump animations to all the characters.
Tamira the athlete bumping into something - notice how her expression changes too!
Juggler Ethan with his wobbly nose!
We want the patients to look sick but not too sick, so Josh animated one of them like this ⬇️
Patient Grace with her intermittent cough 🗣️
Having the 2D animated players in a level really makes the game come alive, they are so nice and bouncy 🦘
Players waiting for their actions 🤸
✨ Incredible UI. How are you going to know when a patient is nearly a goner? Joe’s added some handy hearts to show you.
Hearts will go down after each turn - can you figure out how to cure each patient before they go down to zero ❤️?
Patients are usually super happy once they’ve been cured! Here’s patient Ed Banger rocking-out after being cured by the team! 🤘
🗺️ Lovely levels. Shaz has been pulling everything together to create 9 levels for 2, 3 and 4 players.
How Level 6 is looking in 4 player mode
Like the look of all this and want to be one of the first to play the demo? Join our Discord*!
(*We also have regular events on our Discord! Live games, chats with other indies, longer drop in, drop out games and creative events such as design-a-poster for the in-game world!)
See you soon, Shaz, Julia and the MFG team
Update on Co OPERATION: MultiTurn - the demo is nearly ready! 🎉
We are now *very nearly* at the point where we can release the first version of this new game I’ve been working on with my new company Mind Feast Games..! ⏳
What’s the story behind the game? Well, running hospitals is expensive. A clever bean in central government decided that tearing up requirements for medical qualifications would help. So… volunteers are now welcome in hospitals! 🤷 You decide to enrol and help your local hospital. You can be one of four characters whose specialist skills are throwing and catching; Jason the American footballer 🏈, Prisha the pizza chef 👩🍳, Ethan the juggler 🤹 or Tamira the javelin athlete 🏃♀️
Josh and Kaitlin, our two artists, have been working hard on these 2D characters and the 3D objects that you’ll have to navigate in the game.
This is Prisha the chef 👩🍳 getting a patient to a bed in the fastest way possible!
And a water cooler that is looking a bit the worse for wear . . . is that a fish inside it?! 😳
Josh even managed to teach himself animation so the characters can do this now:
Ethan the juggler idling, running and throwing 🤹
I’ve been weaving together the 2D characters, 3D objects and hospital world to create some fun levels - here’s how level one in two-player mode is shaping up:
Tamira the athlete and Jason the American footballer waiting to be given their actions! 💪
Joe and Rupert have been doing stirling work on the code, and the characters are now able to do 4 moves in a row without breaking the game engine 🎉 Joe has also revealed a hidden talent for UI (user interface) design and has created lovely selection screens for levels and characters:
Our Discord has been steadily growing and we have been playing games such as Build-a-body, Emoji Movies and Story Hive 🐝.
Here’s a collage of each mini-chapter we made for “Book 1” of Story Hive. One of our community members created it so we could remember the laughs we had writing it - thanks James!
We also play live games like JackBox once a week which Bronte has been streaming on our Discord so we can all play together.
✨The even more exciting news is that the demo is very nearly ready!! ✨ You can wishlist it on Steam now!
Of course, you can also get in touch with any questions, queries or comments - we’d love to hear from you!
See you soon, Shaz, Julia and the MFG team
New Game Announcement! Co OPERATION: MultiTurn is coming..! A few of you might already know…I have been working on a new game called Co OPERATION: MultiTurn with my new company Mind Feast Games..!
And we have exciting news! The Steam page is now public 🥳
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEnCM1ckTHc
We’re making this game to help people feel connected socially and emotionally. Here’s how you can get involved with the early demo or the more polished version which will come later:
Wishlist the game on Steam! That way you’ll be the first to know when it's available to purchase and play with your friends and family.
Want to get involved before the demo is out? Join our Discord community! You can chat with the team and the other community members and play games together (we have a weekly live games session as well as longer, asynchronous games that run over several days).
The experience is all about teamwork, communication and fun. We want our development process to reflect that so we’re being very open. The Discord is also where we’ll be sharing our progress and concepts so you can see the game as it develops. We get the community involved in creative decisions for the game and company too - lots to get stuck into!
Want to be one of the first people to play the demo once it's ready? Join our mailing list!
Have any questions? Start a discussion with us on Steam!
If you care about co-op games and like the idea of an inviting and accessible game that you can play with friends, family and partners while still having a gaming experience that feels like it has some depth… get involved 😊 Join us on Discord and/or the Steam forum and be part of turning this thing from a good idea into a great game.
Cheers, Shaz and the Mind Feast Games team
New Game Announcement! Co OPERATION: MultiTurn is coming..!
A few of you might already know…I have been working on a new game called Co OPERATION: MultiTurn with my new company Mind Feast Games..!
We’re making this game to help people feel connected socially and emotionally. Here’s how you can get involved with the early demo or the more polished version which will come later:
Wishlist the game on Steam! That way you’ll be the first to know when it's available to purchase and play with your friends and family.
Want to get involved before the demo is out?Join our Discord community! You can chat with the team and the other community members and play games together (we have a weekly live games session as well as longer, asynchronous games that run over several days).
The experience is all about teamwork, communication and fun. We want our development process to reflect that so we’re being very open. The Discord is also where we’ll be sharing our progress and concepts so you can see the game as it develops. We get the community involved in creative decisions for the game and company too - lots to get stuck into!
Want to be one of the first people to play the demo once it's ready?Join our mailing list!
If you care about co-op games and like the idea of an inviting and accessible game that you can play with friends, family and partners while still having a gaming experience that feels like it has some depth… get involved 😊 Join us on Discord and/or the Steam forum and be part of turning this thing from a good idea into a great game.
Cheers, Shaz and the Mind Feast Games team
DotSlashFrag. 4 Guys. One Team. All Remote. What Could Go Wrong?
They guys from DotSlashFrag will be streaming in 4-player directly to our Steam page. Through the magic of Parsec they will all be playing online..!
DotSlashFrag are a group of friends bringing laughter and entertainment to the world through video games.
Despite not being on the same couch for our couch co-op caper, I still have faith that they can beat all 30 levels of the story mode. Friendship! Hooooo!
(The Infinite Trials mode might be a bit harder...?)
Enjoy the stream and join in with the chat if you can!
Cheers, Shaz (The game designer)
Will they BFF or... Die? ChromaGlitch Stream in 2-Player Mode
ChromaGlitch are married Texas streamers, Pisenti and Shirt. Will they BFF or... Die? They're playing in 2-player mode live on Steam. This is the first time we've had friends and community members stream to our Steam page. Hopefully we'll do more in the future! Should be fun!
Let us know if you want to stream a playthrough on our page too.
You can see more of Pisenti and Shirt on their Twitch and Youtube channels. Get all their links here.
Xbox, PlayStation, Switch & PC: BFF or Die has Landed \o/
Merry End-of-2020!
This must be the strangest year in recent human history. Like many people I had some unexpected events happen which made life a bit harder in the short term earlier this year. BUT… I’m very glad to say that my personal year is ending on a high note. That’s for a couple of reasons and one of those is that… our game BFF or Die is now out on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, in addition to the existing PC version :)
It’s been a long time coming for sure. I just checked the date of the very 1st developer diary I posted on Youtube when we had a super basic gameplay demo and that was waaay back in 2014. So for us three people that made the game, finally seeing it out on all the main gaming platforms feels like a significant event for us.
To all the people that have supported us for a while - thanks for sticking with us :) And to people that don’t yet know us or our game very well - hi! ( ^_^)／
With the help of our publisher partner 2Awesome studio we’ve been able to release on all the major consoles at the same time, just last week in fact!
It’s been super cool to see the support from the platforms too. Sony posted our trailer on their main PlayStation Youtube and Twitter accounts! And Nintendo and Xbox did the same on their respective news/indie game channels :) I can’t say that BFF or Die is the biggest or the best game out there but it feels nice to think that all the main console companies are happy to promote it to their followers.
If you tend to play your couch co-op, around-the-TV-together games on console rather than PC then give it a spin on your platform of choice. If playing with younger family members I’d say that kids 9+ are old enough to “get it”, although kids 7+ who are already gamers can often work out the winning strategies too.
You’ll get 2-3 hours of gameplay from the main story mode and then another couple hours from the “infinite trials” mode if you want the extra challenge.
All the links are below, so if you’re likely to be with someone you can play it with over the next couple months, then pick your platform, download and have fun!.(You can play it in single-player mode but I think it’s more fun in co-op mode).
BFF or Die Announced for Switch, Xbox and PlayStation!
Some big news! Well, it is for us three guys that made BFF or Die anyway. This November it's coming out on Switch, Xbox and PlayStation..!
I can't remember how many times people have said to me "this game should be on Switch". Well, now it will be :)
Our publishing friends at 2Awesome Studio helped make this happen. They're developers themselves (check out their shoot em'up Dimension Drive - it's a clever twist on the classic genre that gets your brain working harder than you'd expect) and recently they started helping out indies to get their games onto consoles. Glad to say that BFF or Die stood out to them as a fun couch co-op game so they wanted to work with us to bring it out on more platforms.
If you tend to play local multiplayer games on console rather than PC, then give it a spin on your system of choice!
BFF Or Die Console Launch Dates - PlayStation®4 - Launch: November, 24th - Xbox One - Pre-order: November 18th with 15% discount | Launch: November 25th - Nintendo Switch™: Pre-order: November, 20th with 15% discount | Launch: November, 27th
I know a few people out there have been following the game for a long time, so thanks for your continued support! You can share the console announcement trailer below if you'd like to help us spread the news :) [previewyoutube="fJlgN6xg-mU;full"]
Cheers! Shaz Game Designer
Update 6
How's everyone doing during the (hopefully!) last weeks of the social lock-downs that many countries are experiencing? As a game designer/developer working from home is quite normal for me. Although I will be glad when everyone is more free and we can have friends over again/visit people.
We thought it was about time we updated BFF or Die. I keep an eye on any comments people leave about the game across various communication channels so decided to make the adjustments below.
Controller Options
Alex made a really cool new intro animation more clearly shows you can have:
Shared controllers (two people on each pad)
Separate controllers (one person on each pad)
One person on keyboard
Two people on keyboard
Any combination of the above
I think the flexibility of the controls is really cool. I was quite proud of the team for coming up with how it works after a lot of different ideas and testing. However some people didn't realise all those options have always been possible and without having to faff about with any option menus (which i am not a fan of). Let's see if the new intro animation clears that up..!
Difficulty
It's really hard trying to make a difficulty curve that suits everyone. When I used to go round to gaming events and watch people play there would always be a big difference between the skill level of players. We could have gone the old way of doing "easy mode, normal mode, hard mode" but I think that's not optimal because how can you know what mode you should play if you've never played it before? What we have instead is a dynamic difficulty that responds to how you do in the game. Ideally we want everyone to have the experience that is right for them, whether they are an experienced gamer or someone who just started playing PC games recently.
So, this update increases that range. Whether you are super skilled or just learning how it all works, the difficulty should adapt to you and be fun for you. By default, the game is a bit more exciting/harder in the earlier levels now because I think most people on Steam are in the "experienced gamer" category.
For the challenge seekers, the "infinite mode" (random levels, keep going until you die once) which unlocks after you complete the story game is pretty damn hard. Even I can't get more than 8 or so levels into it before I die and have to restart. Especially now that I've forgotten all those different level configurations I designed! (I do play it 2-player mode by myself though, two characters on one control pad, for extra challenge).
Environments
Just a small change - we swapped some of the environment art around for a bit more visual variety.
That's it for now.
See you later Shaz (The game designer)
Online Co-op Using "Remote Play Together"
Steam's new feature, called Remote Play Together, has now rolled out to *all* Steam users! \o/ This means you can invite your friends to play BFF or Die in online co-op mode!
Just launch the game, open your friend list (press shift and tab on Widows), choose a friend and click on "Remote Play Together".
Steam are still tweaking the feature so it will improve over time. In our testing it's definitely good enough to have a fun co-op game. I played it online with a friend who is a few hundred miles away. There was a little lag but not enough to affect the gameplay too much. So if you have a friend far far away who you really wanna co-op with, now you can!
Whoever of your friends has the best internet connection and fastest PC should host the game. Only the host needs to have the game downloaded and installed.
