Blogging with Scissors

The Emergency 100-in-1 Klik & Play Pirate Kart Meltdown

2007-09-09T23:37:00.000-07:00

I'll update the status with my other projects in the morning, but for now:

I was just involved in a sensational undertaking.

Some of you may be familiar with TIGsource and their currently-running B-Games Competition. It was something I was sort of vaguely interested in, but didn't feel the urge to actually participate in... until the 100-in-1 Klik & Play Pirate Kart surfaced.

The idea behind the 100-in-1 Klik & Play Pirate Kart is that a team of people would get together, and create 100 games using the archaic game-making tool, Klik & Play. The caveat is that they had a mere 48 hours in which to make all 100 of them.

Those 48 hours just ended. I was on that team.

It was a hell of a ride! The games are fairly universally awful, but many of them are endearing despite (or perhaps because of) this. I made 21 of them myself, making me the TOP CONTRIBUTOR in sheer quantity.

Anyways, without further ado, here is the list of my contributions to the Kart, in chronological order:

WARNING: These are not good games. Do not play them if you are expecting a solid, balanced gaming experience. Expect incoherent mechanics, wildly uneven difficulty, and horrible MIDI music.

Sideways Man Adventures: A game about eating sideways pizzas, but not normal ones.
Triangle Crosser: A game about crossing over a triangle many times.
Climb King: A game about going upwards to get treasure.
Spindizzy: A game about something, but I'm not sure what.
Finger Smashes: A game about controlling a magic flying hammer.
Pie Boy: A game about avoiding lasers to get pies.
Staircase!: A game about going up and down stairs while under attack by rain.
Clickity Clickit: A game about clicking.
Truck VS Ghost: A game about fighting ghosts.
Ghost VS Truck: A game about fleeing ghosts.
Too Many Cheerios: A game about cereal out of control.
Happy With Sad: A game about prejudice.
Help the Laser Wizard: A game about playing second fiddle to a great wizard.
Climb King Lite: A game that's easier than Climb King.
Dueling Sandwiches: A game about the triumph of good over evil.
Keys Keys Keys: A game about unlocking doors, usually.
Happy With Sad Turbo Deluxe: A game that's harder than Happy With Sad.
Super Slow Motion Asteroid Runner: A game that is about squeezing between deadly objects.
Arrow Arrow Revolution: A game that doesn't really have much to do with Dance Dance Revolution.
Click on a Chair Holy Crap Limited Edition: A game that costs $49.95*.
100 Robots: A game about celebrating a hundred games made in a single weekend.
*not really!

You need Knpg.dll and Knps.dll to run these - my advice is to install the free version of Klik & Play, which should come with both. Happy playing!

Insight!

2007-08-21T09:39:00.001-07:00

I just recieved an email from a fan that made me realize something about Vertical in general.

Why can't it control by mouse?

I'm kind of surprised I didn't think of this before, really. WASD to move, left click to rope, right click to jump. Something like that. It could really work!

Basically, whenever I release my next version, expect a couple new control schemes.

Millions of Years Later

2007-08-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

Vertical Challenge v0.3a

Sorry for the delays, I fell into a bit of a programming lull, and got a job. Anyways, back on track, here's the new version, and it's got some nice new touches:
-There are new Checkpoint blocks that save your progress when you touch them. Makes long levels much less annoying.
-The hit detection is a bit tighter, but just a bit.
-There are multiple stages! Eight, to be exact. I'm sorry about the difficulty of some of the later ones, this is sort of a random cross-section of the stages that will be included in the final game, so the curve is a bit steep.

Stuff planned:
-Laser beams!
-Moving blocks!
-Like a bunch more levels, and a more interesting level selection/unlocking system!

Also, I'd like some input - what about the current game is fun? More importantly, what is NOT fun about it? I'd like to make whatever changes will make it more fun to play, so I'm all ears.

He Delivers, Folks

2007-07-03T23:11:00.000-07:00

Vertical Challenge v0.1a

Wow, that was fast!
Things of note:
-The yellow diamonds are your targets. You must collect every one to win.
-The game is a little frustrating at this stage. Next version will have checkpoint blocks, although I'm not sure how to tie in the whole speedrunning aspect with that.
-It looks good! New block graphics by Select Button's MrBusiness.

Plans have changed

2007-07-03T14:18:00.001-07:00

First off, the creator of the Three Hundred Ideas page has given up. I'm not gonna launch into a discussion of whether this is good or bad here, and would ask you not to do so in the comments. That's not what this blog or even this blog post is about. It's his choice.

He mentioned in his final post that he was going to start implementing his ideas, so I'm going to leave them to him. Instead, I'm going to be going back to one of my older, more potential-wasting projects: Vertical.

I'm going to make it a game this time. Not a toy, or an exercise in meditation, but a full game. The general format will be closed stages containing a number of Targets that the player needs to hit with his character. The faster, the better - the game will keep time records, but I don't think there'll be a time limit. Those are just annoying.

To spice things up, I'm going to add several new obstacles, including ways to actually die. The current planned list includes:
-Tiles that kill you upon contact (Spikes, probably)
-Tiles that the grapple bounces off of without sticking to
-Tiles that the player can freely pass through, but the grapple sticks to like a wall
-Tiles that block the player like a wall, but the grapple can freely pass through
-Moving tiles (possibly including all of the above types)
-Laser beams
-Color-coded buttons to activate/deactivate laser beams

I'n not convinced that there should be enemies, because I don't want to give the player a weapon.

Curently I've modified the Vertical code to pull level data from a file, but that's it. Expect updates forthcoming!

Long overdue catchup post!

2007-06-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

Hey, been a while. It's been a slow few months, but I still have a few updates to make.

First: Zombie City Survivors is dead.

Why? Well, let's ignore for a moment the fact that both of my artists have vanished off the face of the Earth. I wanted to make a tactical RPG, where your enemies are mindless
shambling hordes, and you have to deal with ammo conservation and the like.

What the hell was I thinking? I wouldn't play this game, let alone make it. It sounds like a friggin' chore. I have no idea how the mechanics of making combat not tedious and repetitive would work; I just can't imagine the game being fun at all.
Given infinite time and resources, I could probably sort all these problems out and come up with a way to keep the game fresh and interesting. But, honestly, I'd rather cut my losses at this point and go back to freeware until I'm really prepared for a project of this scale. I need a better idea, too.

I know some people may not agree with my decision, but I am permanently abandoning Zombie City Survivors, to move on to newer, more exciting pastures. I'm going to put down the Zombie City name in general for now, possibly permanently. We'll see.

This brings us to the next question: What now?

Well, the answer lies somewhere in here. The guy's making three hundred game mechanic ideas, over the course of three hundred days. He also has an addendum mentioning that anyone can make these games, as long as they give him credit for the idea. I plan to take him up on this offer.

Ideas of most interest to me at this particular moment are Side Scroll Tactics, Time Shock, Net Hacker, The Long Road, Net Infiltrator, and Strategy Brawl. I'll probably narrow it down to one or two of them, possibly a combination of multiple into one game, and get cracking over the summer.

This Blog Needs More Pictures, Anyway

2007-02-10T20:30:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delay, but it is time for a Super Game Bakedown Retrospective post!
In general, I'm quite happy with the Bakedown. Out of the nineteen total participants (myself included), three games were released! I've already linked to my own, so here are the other two, with download links and the official choice of the Bake of the Down:

bd7007
Created by SelectButton forum member "!="
This is, in its creator's own words, barely a game. You walk around, explore, collect some things, then have a bizarre final confrontation. The atmosphere and graphical style are both great, though - the game world feels charmingly surreal and alien, especially for such a simple project.

Space
Created by SelectButton forum member 'Takashi'
Bake of the Down
A gorgeous, simplistic space sim. It may not be fully realized, but the gorgeously austere polygon graphics that are reminiscent of the 3D games of the early 90's are fantastic, as is the prospect of constructing an entire planet. There's not alot to do, but simply designing and building your planet is rewarding enough, thanks to the wonderful visuals. Great job!

Anyways, in regards to the Bakedown in general -
WHAT WENT RIGHT:
-The basic concept. Turns out a month is just the right amount of time to make a simple game.
-Some actual games came out of it!
-People approached it with the right attitude - saying to HELL with procrastination or uncertainty, just make SOMETHING. Several of the people who participated had never tried to make a game before!

WHAT NEEDS WORK:
-Publicity. There was going to be a website, but due to reasons that I'm not going to go into here, there isn't, and I no longer have access to the domain supergamebakedown.com. As a result, the overall scope of the Bakedown was much smaller than I had hoped. If anyone is interested in making a website for it next year, I am very interested in talking to you about it. Contact me.
-The rules still need ironing out. I can't decide what policies to use regarding code reuse - it's turning out to be a much more confusing issue than I had anticipated.

So anyways!
Now that the Bakedown is over, it's time to get back to work on Zombie City Survivors.
Right?
Wrong. Well, sort of.
What I need to admit to myself right now is that ZCS will require a number of skills that I do not currently have. However, I know that if I just shelve the project, then I will never get back to it, and it will rot into obscurity. So, I've figured out a middle ground.
I am going to start work on a series of smaller projects, each one involving one skill that I need to acquire before cracking down on ZCS. I don't know how many projects there will be, but I'll need one each for AI in a Tactical RPG Environment, Sprite Billboarding, and Scripting.
The first of these projects will be SSSSRPG, a sort of sequel to RRRRRPG that will take place on a grid-based battlefield, in which enemies will move intelligently in response to the player's movement and actions. This will help when I get to designing the combat engine of ZCS, and need a lot of zombies to be able to fight effectively and without taking too long to calculate their paths.
I'll talk about this more soon.
STAY TUNED!

Super Game Aftermathdown

2007-02-04T23:44:00.000-08:00

Well, the Super Game Bakedown is over now. You've seen my contribution to it already - but what of the others? After all, there were nineteen people racing for the finish line this year. Well, as it turns out, I wasn't the only one to get there! Let's look at the other finalists:

Selectbutton Forum member Takashi created the wonderful Space, in which you mine asteroids to build a planet piece by piece. The mechanics are not all in place, but the graphics are fantastically charming, and it's still fun to muck around with.

Honorary mention goes to !=, who created the demigame bd7007, which seems to be about exploring and picking up objects, then having an incoherent button mashing duel with a triangle. Surreal!

Thanks to all who participated, and I look forwards to whatever works will be spawned from next year's Bakedown.

Whoops

2007-01-29T21:53:00.000-08:00

Overlords v0.5
Fixes a glitch that makes the final boss impossible to beat.
Adds a pause button.
Some other nonsense.
That is all.

The Overlords have taken over

2007-01-29T16:36:00.000-08:00

Overlords v0.4

And with this version, I declare Overlords to be a complete game.
New features for this release are four more cities, a proper final boss, interface and AI tweaks, and the last Overlord spell. This is a fairly solid, if simple, game I have got here. I have more I could add, but it would be icing on the cake - this is Overlords, fully formed and fully playable.

If anyone has any ideas for things to add, I will try to squeeze them in the last couple days if I like them.

HOME STRETCH

2007-01-27T13:47:00.000-08:00

Overlords v0.3
There are now three different cities, each with a different level of Overlord power. Interface is improved (Hero hollows out as it takes damage and flashes when it can DASH, and enemy name is listed instead of just TARGET HP). On the last city, the Overlord has a new attack.

Due to time constraints, I'm not going to tidy up the Overlord's AI - instead, I've just made it compulsively teleport if it's stuck against a wall. Hack solution, but I'm on a deadline here.

NEXT: Seven more cities! Two more Overlord abilities for the final battle! Woo!

Tactical Minor Update Action

2007-01-22T16:57:00.000-08:00

Overlords v0.21
Summary of changes:
-Main menu!
-New font.
-Difficulty settings!
-Speed settings?

With that out of the way, I think I have my path set for the rest of the month. It goes something like this:
-Clean up enemy AI a bit. Right now soldiers and the Overlord can get mucked up in corners alot.
-Interface improvements (again, some of xenofur's suggestions).
-Support for multiple maps, unlocked in sequential order (scoring?).
-Multiple levels of Overlord power.
-Finishing touches.

I have nine days left. CAN I DO IT‽

An Injection of Fun!

2007-01-20T16:33:00.000-08:00

Overlords v0.2
Okay, some changes have been made (including xenofur's suggestion - thanks!), making the endgame much more engaging.
Total changelist:
-The Hero's health has been upped by over 50%, and his speed by 25%. He wasn't quite enoug of a badass in the previous version. Also, he heals 50% faster at allied generators now.
-The Overlord now has three forms - one that only the soldiers (not the Hero) can damage, one that anyone can damage, and one that only the Hero can damage. The last form forces the player to get involved in the battle at least a little, as does the Overlord's new abilities to teleport to the Hero's location, instantly capture adjacent generators, and summon minions around himself.
-There are two new soldier types - Scouts, which have very low HP but are incredibly fast, and Giants, which are very slow but have massive HP and attack power.
-New city again.

I think my next step is going to be to put some actual game structure around it, like a main menu and a GAME OVER screen and all that jazz. Also, difficulty levels.

I think I'm a big behind schedule, but I'll survive!

The Overlord Cometh

2007-01-11T15:12:00.000-08:00

Overlords v0.11
Now with our very first Overlord! With a whopping 128 HP and the ability to plow through most soldiers without slowing down, it should raise the tension for the endgame a bit. Also, a new type of soldier (Bravos - normal soldiers with more HP and attack power), and a special Dash attack for the hero (hold Z and press a direction - consumes 10 MP).

I'm currently pondering how to balance the endgame, starting when the Overlord emerges. As it is, the best strategy for the endgame seems to be to run away from him until your minions take him out, which isn't exactly exciting. I'll see how it is once I give him the ability to summon bravos or teleport near the Hero.

Progress continues!

Holy Gameplay, Batman!

2007-01-09T23:14:00.000-08:00

Overlords v0.1
The game is FAR from complete, but here is a general idea of what the gameplay will be like!
Left to do:
-Add the Overlord to the endgame
-Add multiple soldier types
-Touch up the interface
-Add some way to see the HP of things other than what you're attacking
-Add special attacks for the player
-Pretty up the HUD
-A zillion other things

But! There it is.

Demo 3 - Chase!

2007-01-09T14:40:00.000-08:00

Progress progresses progressively!
Overlords Tech Demo #3: Enemies
Now containing three enemies, loaded from map.dat, who will chase the player around the city semi-intelligently. So far, it looks like the AI is not going to be as hard as I imagined, mostly because I'm not doing any real pathfinding. I'll just have to keep the maps fairly simple.
NEXT STEP - Combat!

DEMO 2 - Alone in the City

2007-01-08T10:37:00.000-08:00

Three minor updates today:
1: I have uploaded demo #2 of Overlords, which contains a single Being which can be controlled using the arrow keys.
Overlords Tech Demo #2: Being
2: Zombie City Tactics did NOT make the top ten in the Independent Games Festival Student Showcase Competition. Oh well.
3: There are, to my knowledge, seventeen people currently participating in the '07 Super Game Bakedown. We're growing!

A little late

2007-01-06T19:17:00.000-08:00

Okay, so maybe it wasn't later that day, but at least I'm delivering!

Overlords is a game heavily influenced by both Dynasty Warriors and my previous major project, Zombie City Tactics. Each game takes place in a city about 30-60 tiles across, constructed out of walls and Generators. Each generator can either belong to the Player or the Enemy. Generators periodically churn out soldiers, which will automatically move towards and attempt to capture enemy Generators. Different generators can produce different types of soldiers, so controlling the most powerful and well-placed generators can be key to victory.
The player controls one soldier, the Hero, who is exceptionally powerful. His job is to rush into combat and mow down enemy soldiers, pushing them back enough for his allied soldiers to gain victory in battle and move on to capture generators. He will be able to execute some number of special attacks, and recover lost health by resting near allied generators (enemy generators will also restore health to nearby enemy soldiers).
Now, the objective of the game is not necessarily to capture all generators and claim the entire city - that is only a means by which to force the beginning of the endgame. Once the player controls a certain number of generators, one of the remaining enemy generators will produce an Overlord. The Overlord is extremely sturdy and dangerous, with abilities to teleport, summon powerful soldiers around itself, and so on. The Overlord will crash through the allied army on a direct warpath towards the Hero, and attempt to kill him. If the Overlord for a city is defeated, then the game is won. If the Hero is killed first, the game is lost.
Game movement is realtime, but tile-based. Remember Chip's Challenge? Sort of like that, only more action packed. I'm mostly doing it that way because I'm on a time budget, and it'll be much easier to program than letting beings move freely. The player will also possess the ability to command nearby allies in some limited form, but I haven't worked out the details on how that will work yet.

So that's the basics of Overlords. I don't know if it'll be fun or not, but I intend to make it!

A demo appears?!

2007-01-05T09:12:00.000-08:00

Man, usually it takes longer than this for me to churn out the first tech demo. But hey, this one isn't very impressive!
Overlords Tech Demo #1: Map (462kb)
Features:
-Map data loaded from file
-Camera control (smooth!)
That's it so far, in terms of what the user can see. Next step is to start populating this wacky world.

Incidentally, the final game will not have maps anywhere NEAR this claustrophobic - doing so would force me to give the AI soldiers A* pathfinding, which means boatloads of work for me. I just threw something together in Notepad for the purposes of this demo. Also yes, the title has changed; you'll find out more about that in my next post.

COMING LATER TODAY: Extended post about what the game will be like!

SUPER GAME BAKEDOWN 2007 GO

2007-01-01T21:47:00.000-08:00

Urghh. I was going to post earlier, but, well. I was going to post as soon as the website for this project was up and running. However, the beginning of the month has come and gone, and the website is still not up yet. I hope for it to be up as soon as possible, but this year is gonna be a fairly minor one because we didn't get the website up in time, so the news hasn't had anywhere to propagate to.

Anyways. We have a new name for our month.
Good bye, NaViGaWriMo.
Hello, SUPER GAME BAKEDOWN.
I'm not going to go into the justifications behind the name, or the definition of the word "bakedown," as those will be explained well enough on the website when it goes up. In the meantime, stop worrying about the name and get to work making your games!

As for me, I have been somewhat lacking in inspiration for my project for the Bakedown, but I think I've got it at last. I'm abandoning both of my themes that I came up with earlier for now, and saving them for another year.
My project for this month is currently running under the working title of "Conquer." It will be a tile-based strategy/action game revolving around two armies being constantly generated and fighting each other over a sprawling city-type area, with the player taking control of a commander whose job is to turn the tides of the battle and convert being generators over to his army's side. Sort of partway between Zombie City Tactics and Dynasty Warriors. I don't know how most of the details of the game system will fold out, but it will involve large numbers of auto-generated, computer-controlled beings fighting each other for control of the city, while the player moves among them to fight enemies and take control of generators to make them stop creating enemy soldiers and instead start making friendly soldiers, until he gains enough momentum to conquer the rest of the battlefield.
I'll talk more about it later after I think about it a bunch!

What's in a name

2006-11-15T16:47:00.000-08:00

Well, I've decided two things regarding NaViGaWriMo this year:

1: I've abandoning my theme, and instead am aiming to make a game that is fun to play with two players. Details hammered out so far: zero.

2: The name "NaViGaWriMo" has got to go.
Why? Because it's too long, too clunky, too blatantly derivative of NaNoWriMo, and "Writing" isn't even really the right verb. I'm intending to go public with this thing, and the first thing I need is a name that is a LOT less crappy. Unfortunately, I suck at naming things. Hence, I turn to you!
To all those reading: Please, suggest new names for this month. I will listen to them, and hopefully find one that is good, and use it! Your help is appreciated.

NaViGaWriMo Ressurection

2006-11-03T10:19:00.000-08:00

Okay, first: The little updates:

UPDATE #1: I am still alive! Things have just been going slowly, what with school and midterms and life and all. I will try to pick up the pace again.
UPDATE #2: There is a new version of Vertical out. There are a bunch of changes, so rather than go over all of them here I'll just let you find out for yourself or read the readme.
UPDATE #3: I have now officially submitted Zombie City Tactics to the Independent Games Festival Student Showcase Competition. We'll see how it fares!

Anyways!

NaNoWriMo is upon the writers among us once again. What this makes me think is that NaViGaWriMo is more or less around the corner. I've got 2 months to plan out my new game, and possibly start a NVGWM website this time around, and spread the word so that we get more than 3 participants this year. In short, while work on ZCS will still be going on behind the scenes, but this blog will now be functioning as a NaViGaWriMo blog for the next 3 months.

I don't know what my game will be yet, but I do know that I'm going to continue with last year's theme of Action without Violence. This isn't an official rule of the month or anything, just my own personal challenge.

Stay tuned!

Position OPEN

2006-10-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

Quick update, change in situation: I am currently looking for one additional artist. The search is once again open.

This artist will have two main obligations: Creating terrain textures, and creating images for a GUI. Don't look at the word 'textures' there and think of 3D modeling, because there are no 3D models. Just the city itself.

If you are interested in the position, either leave a comment on this entry, or send an email to kobuscrispi[AT]gmail.com. Thank you!

Source Code Extravaganza (+Extra)

2006-09-28T18:42:00.000-07:00

Today is the day for a very special exclusive event: I'm going to provide the full source code to every game that I've talked about on this blog. That's Extinguish, Zi, Vertical, RRRRRPG, Zombie City 2, Zombie City 3, and Zombie City Tactics.

For those who wish to skip all my incoherent ranting and get to the files, you can download all seven of them in one dandy package right here:

7 Games Source Code

All games but one are coded in C++ (Zi is in Python), using OpenGL and SDL for graphics. If you're not the type to be interested in programming, skip to the end and there's a picture.

Okay, now to talk about each one in a little more (self-depreciating) detail (in roughly chronological order):

Zombie City II
This is the oldest program in the lot, and it shows. Biggest uncool thing here is the lack of a dedicated Display object. If you want to change the visual scheme of the game, then you have to go shuffling around in half a dozen different files. What a pain!
I'm rather fond of the AI code here, even if it is VERY closely tied to the original Zombie Infection Simulator's AI code. Also note: some of the map-drawing functions used here will also be used in all future Zombie City games!

RRRRRPG
Another old one, still no Display object. Pretty crude code overall - all special techniques (and virtually everything else) are hard-coded. Not much to talk about here.

Zombie City III
Same problems as the previous entries, but now with a ludicrously complex lighting algorithm! Hit detection is also handled horribly, too - every being checks its distance from every other being every frame. If (when) I make the next non-grid-based Zombie City, I'll definitely improve on this.

Extinguish
Ahh, the ill-fated NaViGaWriMo project. This only got to version 0.1, and it is very heavily based on the ZC3 code, and it crashes pretty frequently, but I am including it in here for posterity's sake.

Vertical
This one is a little bit more elegantly coded than most of the above projects. Included is my very own hand-coded Sprite class, simple but it works. Also look within for alarmingly complex collision detection code!

Zi
This project is particularly unique in being the only one not coded in C++. It is, in fact, coded in Python, and coded pretty awkwardly at that. I was trying to cram Python into my C++-shaped programming mind, and this is the result. Works... mostly!

Zombie City Tactics
And this brings us to my latest creation. Coded decently well all around, no huge complaints. Zombie Lord code a tad buggy, and my implementation of the A* Algorithm is wince-worthy. Also packaged is ZCTEDIT, a simple program I used to create the 100 maps packaged with the game.

And that's that. All .zip files come with all .DLLs and data files required to compile and run the program. Recently, I've been listening to my CompSci professor rave about how great Scheme is, and it sounds pretty interesting. After this is all over, I may try to make a game in it.

Feel free to use this code to make your own games/mods/whatever, under two conditions: Credit me for my work, and send me a link to it so I can check it out.

On an almost-but-not-quite-entirely unrelated note, I recently recieved the first ever piece of Zombie City Survivors fanart, from artist Mike Yi! Check it out:

Ajax Turtledove: The Fanart

Lookin' good, Ajax!

Numbers and Jumping

2006-09-24T22:59:00.000-07:00

I wasn't planning on talking about these, but they've been causing a bit of a stir, so here I go. This post is about two of my older projects, which I just recently touched up a bit and released: Vertical and RRRRRPG.

Vertical is incomplete. It is an engine that lacks a game. As it is, the only goal is to go upwards, using jumping, walljumping, and a grappling hook. The tower is randomly generated and infinitely tall. Consider it a work of zen if you'd like. Once you get used to the controls, it really is a very relaxing and engaging experience.

RRRRRPG, on the other hand, is an actual complete game! It is, in some superficial sense, an RPG (as the title would suggest). However, one crucial change has been made: There is no content in the game. Every plot event, pre-rendered background, elaborate dungeon, and block puzzle has been cut out to streamline the experience. All PCs and NPCs are simple polygons, and the world is shaped like a series of concentric circles. All that remains is a set of numbers that go up. Frankly, I have no idea how this manages to be fun, but it does!

For those who like to see before they play:
Vertical screenshot
RRRRRPG screenshot

Okay, it's really time for me to get back to ZCS. To hell with college, social life, food, and sleep!

iZombie

2006-09-23T10:04:00.000-07:00

Brief news update: Zombie City Tactics has been ported to mac!
Zombie City Tactics v1.0 (mac)

Should work on OS X versions 10.2 and later on PPCs and any version on Intels. Exact same game as the PC version, only with an HTML help file and a snazzy icon.
There is one other implication of this announcement: Zombie City Survivors will also be available to mac users. Apple geeks rejoice!

Blogging of the Dead

2006-09-13T23:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the vast dearth of updates recently. This hasn't been from lack of activity on my end - on the contrary, there's so much to discuss that I don't know where to start.

Zombie City Survivors is gradually creeping towards the light of day. Barely any actual work has been done yet, but I've been making steady progress in assembling my team. I have two artists and a writer for sure, and am almost positive in my choice of a musician. I still need one more artist, but I have plenty of applications to sift through and choose one from. Which brings me to this message: With the exception of sound design, all positions are currently closed for application. Feel free to email me about your talents, but you will face the very real threat of being ignored.

As a side note on this subject, I would like to thank Insert Credit, GameSetWatch, and Kotaku for linking Zombie City Tactics on their frontpages. Their support has been a great help in raising awareness and hype for my future projects!

Anyways, enough blabber. Let's talk about SURVIVORS.

Zombie City Survivors will follow the parallel stories of two characters: Ajax Turtledove, and Vanessa James. Both of them stumble unintentionally into an unnamed city in the midst of a zombie outbreak, and are then trapped in by a military quarantine. The player chooses one of these two characters, and leads them to survival, banding together, and taking back the city.

The game will be divided into smallish regions, varying in size from a city block to a single house. If you destroy all the zombies in a region, then you get to upgrade one character, and all adjacent regions are unlocked for you to travel to. If you lack the firepower, you can also run through an area, avoiding confrontation and getting safely to the other side. However, doing so only unlocks one adjacent region, rather than all of them. Human survivors will be found throughout the city, and can be rescued and recruited to join your team. Day and night will pass as regions are completed, allowing the player to tackle the more difficult areas during the day and push through the safer regions at night, when visibility is limited.

Man, the planning for this game is evolving at a mile a minute, and I really don't know what to say about it. So instead, I am going to share some EXCLUSIVE ZOMBIE CITY SURVIVORS CONCEPT ART with you:

Ajax Turtledove
Vanessa James
Assorted Zombies
Some more zombies
A couple special enemies from the late game

That is all for ZCS for the moment. Questions are encouraged for the comments section, and I will try my best to answer them!

In other news: Zi was featured in Bravo Screenfun, as I announced earlier! It had a fairly minor appearance - no mention in the actual magazine, just on the included DVD. The description, translated into English, was approximately as follows:

At first, "Zi" reminded me a little of "Tetris," but the game plays completely differently. Blocks fall towards the center from above and below, and must be pushed together so that three or more similarly colored blocks are together. Only then can you remove the blocks with a right-click. The more blocks the group contains, the more points you get. If a column reaches the edge, it's game over! There are four different play modes: Three difficulty levels and a Fun mode. Control is with the mouse.

Not bad, aside from a couple factual errors (only two difficulty levels, and the game can be controlled entirely with the left mouse button)! I haven't gotten any crazy German fan mail yet, though.

Stay tuned for more undead updates!

The BRAINS have it

2006-08-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

Okay, if you enjoyed the Zombie City Tactics demo, then you're gonna LOVE this:

Zombie City Tactics v1.1

New features include double the number of maps, better camera, more in-game being information, and a whole mess of other stuff (the full list is in the readme). For the visual thinkers out there, screenshot.

Okay, now to talk about my next project for a bit. Everything I've talked about doing in the past? Back burner. This is BIG. Over the course of the next year or so, I will be doing two things:
1: Assemble a dedicated team of talented people, and create Zombie City Survivors, the best and possibly last Zombie City game to hit the market.
2: Start up a website, with all my old games available as free downloads, and Survivors on sale for around $10-15.

That's right. I'm going COMMERCIAL. This is one hell of a gamble, but this whole thing with Bravo Screenfun has got me thinking that maybe it's time for me to stop poking around with my silly freeware titles and really start getting into the scene properly.

But enough about my crazed plans, let's here a bit about Zombie City Survivors!
ZCS is going to take some elements from Zombie City Tactics, Fire Emblem, Resident Evil, and an obscure freeware Gameboy Color demo called Hungry are the Dead. In other words, a Tactical RPG (with more emphasis on the Tactical than on the RPG), where the player progresses through different sections of Zombie City, fighting off the undead and reclaiming the city for the living. To keep it from suffering from the problem of most SRPGs (i.e. that as the game goes, you get so powerful that the Strategy part gets less and less pronounced), each character will be very limited in how powerful they can become, and thusly forced to specialize in a few skills, encouraging the player to build a team of characters who can compensate for each other's weaknesses. The game will have a day/night cycle, with vision at night being only in the direction a character is facing, creating strategy in the order the player does missions in - do the easier levels at night, then rush through more dangerous areas during the day.

I could talk about this alot more, but all of this is still in the planning stage right now, so any of it could change on a whim. I should be starting on this project pretty soon! STAY TUNED.

Going Global

2006-08-04T06:57:00.000-07:00

Quick update:
If you've been reading my comments, you may already know this, but my game Zi is going to be released on a CD along with either the September or October issue of German gaming magazine BRAVO SCREENFUN!

This is SO going on my resume.

What do we want? Brains! When do we want it? Brains!

2006-07-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

Presenting the first public release of Zombie City Tactics! This is the demo version (50 maps out of an eventual 100), so there'll be more features on the way for sure.

Zombie City Tatics v0.8

Download! Play! Enjoy! Feedback!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

2006-07-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a brief vacation, haven't updated in a bit, and have been fairly productive recently. So, update time!

Recently, I've been looking back towards my Zombie City series. After a bit of bug-smoothing I'll be releasing the first new version of Zombie City II in at least a year, this time with the ability to set it up as a Werewolf City, along with a bunch of minor nonsense. This is pretty minor, though.

Bigger than that is my nearly-ready-for-release new project, Zombie City Tactics. It's a turn-based strategy game in the world and visual style of Zombie City. The gameplay largely revolves around expanding your territory and trying to capture towers, which are constantly emitting streams of zombies to confound the player at this task, before the player is overwhelmed by the waves of the undead and his army is crushed. It's actually pretty fun, but not quite ready for release yet. I'll post the initial release in my next update, until then, enjoy a nice little screenshot.

I haven't really been working on anything else these days, what with being employed and all. If you want to blame anyone, blame The Man. Further updates fairly soon.

Killbot Goes to the Store

2006-06-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

It's next week, and just as I said I would, I have created a work of Interactive Fiction. Somewhat interactive, at least... Killbot's ability to interact with things is somewhat limited.

KILLBOT GOES TO THE STORE

CLASSIFICATION: KILLBOT 5000
STATUS: HUNGRY
PRIMARY MISSION OBJECTIVES:
-LOCATE STORE
-OBTAIN EDIBLE GOODS
-ALLEVIATE HUNGER
SECONDARY MISSION OBJECTIVES:
DESTROY HUMANS
MISSION BEGINS NOW
So begins KILLBOT GOES TO THE STORE, the touching story of a merciless killing machine and his quest to be reunited with some groceries.
His task, however, will not be an easy one - the world of ordinary life is a scary and confusing place to a robot with only death and destruction on its mind - especially a robot without opposable thumbs. From escaping his bedroom to opening his front door and beyond, everything is a perplexing challenge for Killbot 5000. Except for one thing, that is - causing humans to become very, very dead

To play KGttS, you will need Frotz and an insatiable desire to destroy humans. It is STRONGLY reccomended that you play the game with caps lock enabled.

Zi

2006-05-24T20:43:00.000-07:00

So it's been what, a month since my last entry? Close enough. Anyways. What have I been up to?

I've created a nearly complete game.

It's quite a shock, thinking about it... this is the most complete game I've made since I started this blog. Man, I've been in a RUT. I promise, however, that I'll be cracking down over the summer.
But I digress. Let us get to the MEAT of today's entry.

Zi v0.82b

I mentioned this briefly in my last entry, back when it didn't even have a finalized name. Now it's nearly a finalized game.
Zi is, like many of the great games of my generation, about colored blocks. You move the blocks around, then you click on them to make magical things happen. Let the screen fill up and you die. I'm being vague, but It really shouldn't take much more than a few seconds of experimentation to figure out the basics of how the game works. Play Classic before Trendy.

Zi is very much a game about getting points. Since the game never ends, it more or less has to be, unless I go into the Pretentious Artsy Games field. Or the Sims. The scoring system is described in some detail in the readme, but the general core of it is destroying lots of small groups of blocks in rapid succession, then destroying one big group for massive score. It's not the only way to play, but it works well for me.

Next week I'll post again after I finish my next class assignment (Zi was for my Game Programming class, it's due friday). It'll be a text adventure!

I'm not going to talk too much this time. Play the damn game!

Of Python, Leftrunner, and Nintendo: A Teaser

2006-04-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

I should mention - I'm taking a Game Programming class. It's put both of my main projects on temporary standby, as I have to make a new game for the class. In Python, which I have never worked with before.

BEGIN PROGRAMMING GEEK MODE
Python is kind of strange, by which I mean not like C++ at all. The lack of typed variables took some getting used to, particularly with regards to instantiating things. It took me a damn long time to do something as simple as creating a large, empty array. The syntax is fine, although I don't much care for the enforced whitespace.
Really, I think my biggest problem with Python is that I'm trying to make it be C++. My code looks like C code, only with different punctuation and more convoluted. Maybe someday I'll have some shining revelation and Python will suddenly all make sense, and I'll be pouring out code that my current, lesser self would only be able to squint at in confusion... but I don't think that's very likely. Realistically, I'll probably get through the class, then forget about Python for a long time, giving it another try in the distant future.
END PROGRAMMING GEEK MODE

The game I'm making for this class is sort of a Tetrisy kind of thing, which is hard to explain in text. So, you don't get to know much about it until I feel like releasing an Alpha of it. For the title, I'm tilting back and forth between Dharma and Zii.

On another front, I've been throwing ideas around fast and furiously on another website regarding a game I might be working on with someone else. The working title of the project is Leftrunner. The idea revolves around a character who is constantly, automatically running to the left, fighting enemies and building speed. Combat would be largely focused on knocking enemies down and trampling them. There's really alot more to the concept, but I'm not going to go into further detail about it until 1) I can devote an entire entry to it, and 2) I know for sure that it's actually going to get started. Stay tuned!

On a last note, Nintendo recently revealed the final name for their next console: The Wii. It's weird, it makes you feel like kind of an idiot when you say it, it's kind of unclear how it's pronounced. Nevertheless, it's been steadily growing on me since I heard it. I support it for three main reasons: It's easy to remember, it opens up the floodgates for a thousand horrible puns, and it made the rest of the internet furious. I am wholeheartedly in favor of anything that causes mass, harmless, digital mayhem.

I have a midterm tomorrow. So, I now bid you all adieu.

Fission Mailed: Ressurection

2006-04-10T14:07:00.000-07:00

Hey, I'm still alive! Fancy that.

The last two months were a break from programming. The quarter is over, I'm taking a lighter load of classes, so I'm back into the development spiral. I'm not ready to pick Extinguish back up yet, but I have two new projects.

The first project is my feeble first attempts to write a Roguelike. I've never tried this before, so this particular project is more of an self-teaching excersize than a full-fledged game. After I finish this, I may start over and make a proper game in the genre. My engine is not particularly elaborate yet, allowing for little more than moving around the map and opening/closing doors. I'll talk about this one in more detail once it gets going.

The other project was inspired largely by the vast amount of time I've spent playing N. This game has brought be nothing but fury and woe with its brutal difficulty and unforgiving nature. After a while, I began to ask myself: Why am I still playing this? Why is this stage so compelling after the 80th time I've died on it? Rather than find a reasonable answer to these questions, I decided to make a sadistic platformer of my own. It will use a simple (and incomplete) platforming engine I made a while back called Vertical, and will heavily emphasize use of a grappling hook for getting around. Beyond this, I have little planned, except that it will include enemies with fairly basic AI (although they will not be the main emphasis of the game, as our hero will have no weapons), and movable objects that will interact with the world using some decently complex physics.

The moral of the story: I'm alive, kicking, and coding. Expect more updates in the future.

Until then, enjoy a simple demo of the Vertical engine.

FISSION MAILED

2006-02-01T00:15:00.000-08:00

National Videogame Writer's Month ended 15 minutes ago. My final status:
FAILURE
I do, at least, have one more release for you:
Extinguish v0.1 Alpha
I am not at all happy with the level of progress I made towards my goal. There still aren't even other humans, and the game crashes randomly near the end. Was this too ambitious of a project? I don't think so. I simply didn't work as hard as I needed to. Next year, I'll do better.
Neither of the other participants even got their projects started. I was the only one left at the end.

So what now?

I'm going to keep working on Extinguish. I want to see it in some near-complete form. At some point in the near future, I'll also be starting an unnamed platformer project borrowing heavily from an engine I've already made. More details when I have them.

So ends the first NaViGaWriMo. I hope to do this again next year, and get even more people involved. This journal will continue to exist, as a chronicle of my game development in general.

Good night.

Tech Demo #4: Basic Engine

2006-01-26T10:41:00.000-08:00

Finally, FINALLY, my Firefighter game contains the ability to fight fires.
Extinguish Tech Demo #4: Basic Engine

I'm actually really happy with how the water effects turned out... the fire, water, and steam are all drawn using the same method, and it all flows together smoothly.
New thing to keep an eye on is the blue bar underneath health - that's water pressure. If it's getting too low, just stop spraying water for a second or two. I think it works pretty well, but I might end up making it more strict.
The building isn't randomly generated anymore, but is instead pulled from the file "map.dat" in the data folder. Feel free to tinker with it for alternate maps (just open it using notepad, it should be obvious from there).

I'm surprised with how well the late stages of the month have been going. There's only one real big hurdle left to overcome - civilians. They need to be computer-controlled and smart enough not to leap into fires and burn to death. Harder than it sounds. After that, I just need to take my engine and wrap a GAME around it!

Tech Demo #3: Firefighter

2006-01-22T21:18:00.000-08:00

As the deadline draws horrifyingly near, I finally start to get my ass in gear. Extinguish gets a big fat update, now including an actual firefighter. He can't fight fires yet, but he can scurry around and get burned.
Extinguish Tech Demo #3: Firefighter
I'm anticipating a question from some of you: "Is that really what the firefighter is going to look like in the final game?" The answer is: pretty much. I may add a bit of detail to it, but that's the general look he's going to have. I'm not planning on making him any more humanlike unless someone else wants to do the modeling, and even then I'd wait until after the one-month release.

Currently, I am not at all satisfied with how the hero takes damage from fire. The problem: There's no heat. You only take damage when sitting directly in a fire... sometimes not even then. The next release will fix this, and add water with which to fight the flames. At that point I may stop calling these Tech Demos.

I'm starting to wonder whether or not I'm going to make my target. Release day is only 8 days away, and I still have to juggle all the other parts of my life. If I don't, then I don't think it's a flaw in the feasibility of NaViGaWriMo... I definitely could have been working MUCH harder. No one said this would be easy.

That's all for now. STAY TUNED!

Another Tech Demo release already

2006-01-14T16:33:00.000-08:00

Progress continues... now the fire actually somewhat resembles fire!
Extinguish Tech Demo #2: Rendered Fire
As you'll probably notice, there are still some problems... like being able to see the fire through walls. I am working on correcting this, but I'm not sure how.
By the next demo you should be able to WALK AROUND!

Extinguish Demo #001: Fire Algorithm

2006-01-09T23:49:00.000-08:00

Fire has come to the world of Extinguish! More importantly... Extinguish has come to you!
Extinguish Demo #001: Fire Algorithm
Basic explanation:
Arrow keys move the camera around.
Red tiles are on fire. Brighter red means hotter flames.
Dark grey tiles are burnt tiles, and cannot catch fire.

That's all, so far. In the final version I'll obviously have prettier (read: existent) fire effects, and the fires will probably spread more slowly (as it is, a whole building could be down in flames within 2 minutes). But for now, this is what you get. Feedback appreciated!

NEXT: Either Particles or a Player!

The healing has begun

2006-01-08T22:42:00.000-08:00

The bumpy ride towards success has once again begun in earnest. I abandoned what code I had and started working from the ground up, stealing liberally from my other projects whenever it seemed helpful. So far, I've gotten it to the point where it displays some walls. Hey, it's a step up from where I WAS.

I've actually found an interesting dilemma in my visual scheme: How to draw stairs. It seems simple enough, until you realize:
-Everything has to be built on the grid, and the grid spaces are pretty big.
-The walls are really low.
I can't make the walls taller without impairing the player's vision. I can't make things narrower than one tile without complicating the code. I'm sure I'll think of some workaround, but it's a bit puzzling at the moment.

Still no fire demo. Not for a while yet, I'd imagine. I may have to trim this project down for the end-of-month release even more. We shall see.

Lots of homework to do. Bed looks inviting. Ah, the life of a college student.

A rough start

2006-01-04T20:06:00.000-08:00

So this crash-before-it-starts bug. I have looked into it intensively, used every potentially helpful feature of the debugger, and determined it to be
INCURABLE
The problem can't be in my code. The program self-destructs before it even reaches my code. My compiler must be doing something... or something. Whatever it is, I can't fix it. So, I'm starting over. From scratch. day 4, zero progress has been made.

On top of this, it turns out I have a hell of a workload this quarter. I don't know how I'm gonna balance this and schoolwork... I may not be able to get done by the deadline. If there's no avoiding this, then I WILL continue to work on the game until either it's released, or I declare it a lost cause. I can only hope that the month gets better from here.

It's gonna be a long month

2006-01-03T00:35:00.000-08:00

Well, today marked the first day of work on Extinguish, and presumedly the second day of work for my comrades. The project is off to a rough start. In its current state, when someone tries to run the program, it produces a fatal error and crashes before the program even starts. Tomorrow I shall set about fixing this travesty. But hey, if I wanted a relaxing pastime, I'd play solitare.

My next post, whenever it is, will almost certainly contain a Spreading Fire demo. STAY TUNED!

The World's Longest Short Post

2005-12-29T15:26:00.000-08:00

The New Gamer (link on right) send me a link to an article entitled How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days. If you're a game developer, then it's a useful and interesting read. If you're not a game developer, then it just might still be an interesting read. It's certainly gonna help me.

NaViGaWriMo draws ever closer, and I think I'm more or less ready for it. Mind you, I probably won't start coding until the 2nd: I don't want to start and then have to switch to a different computer after two days when I head back up north. I guess this puts me at a bit of a disadvantage.

I'll talk to you all in January. Happy Snowflake Day!

Scope: Setting some boundaries

2005-12-23T15:39:00.000-08:00

NaViGaWriMo draws ever closer, so I've had to start thinking in more detail about what, exactly, I want my game to be (for convenience when talking about it, the project will hereafter be codenamed Extinguish). Time and skill constraints are going to be bearing down on me like a hundred starving weasels, so I will have to simplify. The following is a rough idea of how complex and how simple Extinguish is going to be.
REALISM
Fuck realism. If you want realism, play Call of Duty or something. Wherever realism conflicts with ease of play or speed of production, it will be cast out the window without a second thought. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration. Taking this point-by-point:
-In a REAL fire, what's burning is generally the stuff in the house. Furniture, carpets, curtains, that sort of thing. Now, to create a fire that behaves like that, every room in the house would need dozens of objects. I'm gonna have to simplify and abstract here. Fires will just... spread. Across the ground. Probably by tiles, but fuzzily enough that it's not inherently obvious. There will be furniture, which will burn faster than just plain ol' fire, but it'll be a simple affair. Little blocky tables and bookcases... that sort of thing.
-I want smoke. Smoke is a big fat part of the danger of fighting fires. I want the player to be able to bust into a room and be afraid to continue further because of the big, thick black haze covering the air. Besides, it shouldn't be that hard to do. Just in case it is, thought, I'll probably add this close to last.
-Apparently when a room is on fire enough, and reaches a certain temperature, then the whole room will just EXPLODE into on-fire-ness. I think it's called flash point? Someone correct me on this. Anyways, it's a small detail, but I still want to add this.
-Breaking down doors with a fire axe is another neat idea, but I don't know if I could do it well. The graphics, the physics, the interface... I'm sure it could be done, but I don't know if I have time for it. Same applies to getting cats down from trees.
GRAPHICS
As I've said, I'm going to be using the Zombie City III engine for most of the graphics (for those of you who haven't seen ZC3, I'll try to host it so you can). I'll probably have multiple variations on the Being model - one for the fireman, and a handful of different ones for the various people. Maybe even kids! I'm not sure what I'm gonna do for the cats, though. Cats are an integral part of Extinguish.
I'm also unsure of what to do with the floor. In ZC3, it's flat grey - but I dont' think that'll cut it. At the very least, I'd make it various floor-like colors, like wood or carpety colors. Textures? Eeeehhhhhhhhhmaybe. It might be nice, it might be time-consuming, it might really accentuate how primitive the Beings look. Maybe, maybe not.
Fire effects, I have done, but mostly in the context of explosions. This'll be my first time creating persistent fires, and they have to look FIERY. Fires are the focus of the game (aside from cats), and they have to be convincing. The trickiest thing will be a convincing transition from fire on the ground into smoke in the air... but I think I can do it. Similar to the fire effects will be the water effects - except this, I have never worked with. I really hope I can make it look at least decent.
I haven't decided if I'm gonna do dynamic lighting yet. On one hand, the flickering of the flames and the darkness of the burnt-out areas would TOTALLY add to the atmosphere, on the other hand, having that many light sources would be an ENORMOUS processor-taxer. Unless I can think of a clever way to do it, I may have to leave out this one.
OTHER STUFF
All graphics aside, the people you are rescuing must be detailed. They will have names, families, and jobs. This will make the player more motivated to rescue them. It's not just dropping your grade from an A to a B... it's letting a man die. A man with a name, and a family. This is where the emotional impact of the game will be. Guilt and pride. Your task is an important one.
I'm still unsure on whether or not to have randomly-generated houses. It WOULD be neat to have infinite areas to explore and rescue people from, but 1) It would be hard as hell to implement, and 2) I lose control over the building design. I'll need to carefully design the levels so that it's always possible to rescue everyone if you're fast and skilled enough. So, I just don't think it's possible.
At some later point in the process, I'll have to get a TOTALLY KICKASS gamer to play through my game and refine his skills on each level until I can safely ascertain what will be required to achieve an S rank on every level. That will probably be one of YOU! Unless no one is reading this. Then it's less likely.

Well, I'm sure I have more to say, but it's not coming to me now. Besides, this post is long enough already. Merry Christmas!

NOTICE

2005-11-20T20:40:00.000-08:00

Due to the scheduling difficulties of the holiday season, NaViGaWriMo is being moved from December to January.

You won't hear much more from me until new year's. Maybe 1-2 posts.

That is all.

Ding ding ding?

2005-11-16T19:44:00.000-08:00

I've got a game idea. A workable idea. A fairly non-violence-based idea. I think it might work. I need feedback.

The setting: A building. Maybe one story, maybe more, I don't know. Just that it takes place in a building, with rooms and hallways and all that jazz. The building is on fire.
The hero: A firefighter.
The goal: Hunt down all the fires in the building, put them out, and save any people trapped behind the flames before they die.

Each stage would be a new building, probably increasing with size as the game goes on. Infinitely? I don't know. Maybe. The stage would begin with one or more civilians wandering the building, and one or more fires spread throughout the building. If left to themselves, the fires grow. Rooms can have furniture, which would serve to slow you down and to hasten the spread of the flames. You would enter at the ground floor, and try to get to the civilians as quickly as possible. If they see you, then they'll start following you automatically. Once found, you then lead them to the exit, or perhaps a window on that side of the building (from which a ladder would be raised to let them down... not sure on the specific mechanics here).

Display would be either straight top-down or from an angle as per my Zombie City titles. Control would be with WASD to move and the mouse to aim and spray water. I haven't thought of how to limit you from constantly firing the hose... if you had limited water, there would need to be a way to replenish it. The level would end when all civilians are either saved or dead, all fires are extinguished (optionall? stage-dependent?), and you escape the building. Depending on the amount of property damage and the amount of lives saved, you recieve a ranking on the mission. Faliure would be reached by either getting too low of a ranking, or dying on a stage.

So that's the basic idea. I think there needs to be something else to it... it's almost too simplistic. But it's a start.

Comment comment comment comment for the love of God COMMENT.

NaViGaWriMo goes global

2005-11-15T16:57:00.000-08:00

...or at least, out of my dorm.

No new developments on my end of things, I'm just here to alert you to the second participant of NaViGaWriMo, R. LeFeuvre. He's far more together and with it than I am, what with already having a fairly detailed game plan all laid out for him. The game, Genki Genki Supaa Panic Button, looks pretty groovy and original. Forget exploding cars, the future of gaming is all about muffin baking.

Anyone coming here and reading this: Go over there and read that. Anyone who came here from over there to read this: Hello.

Now back to letting game ideas roll around in my brain like a time-traveling laundromat.

Getting the ball rolling

2005-11-09T00:10:00.000-08:00

All right, if I'm gonna go through with this, I'll have to decide what kind of game I'm making. A number of factors have to be taken into consideration...

What I Want:
First and foremost, the game has to be fun. If I don't enjoy playing my own game, then most other people won't either, and I might as well not make the game at all.
Second, I want it to be unique. I am not making a clone. At least to some extent, I want to make a gameplay idea that has not been seen before. Innovation. Interestingness.
Those are my big two. There are other things that I want, but they're generally either too minor or too unattainable to list. In the interest of time, let's move right on to...

What I Can't Do:
I'm working with two handicaps here: I'm by myself, and I have a time limit. That rules out the following:
-Anything with sprites or detailed models. I don't have the artistic capability.
-Music, too, is out. Sound is unlikely. These may be added in later versions, after the one-month period is over.
-Plot? If I have one, it'll be simple and minor. No epic, earth-shattering storylines. I don't have the time or skill to write them, and I don't have the time to implement them.

Okay, we have our rules. We're looking at something simplistic, yet engaging, using highly abstracted graphics (something like This Guy's stuff, perhaps?). Gee, sounds like alot of my old games. Looks like I'm making another one in the same vein.

Available genres:
Action: I have experience here. Phoenix 2X, Entropy XXIII, and Zombie City III were all passable action games. I can make another one, but I'd need a cool concept for it or I'm just flogging a horse. A dead one.
Puzzle: Haven't done much treading here. The big problem is, it's hard to come up with a fun, interesting straight-up puzzle game that hasn't already been done somewhere. That, and my audience is limited. (If you disagree, we're probably using different definitions of the genre... which brings us to:)
Action-Puzzle: Here we have our Tetris, our Dr. Mario, our Tetris Attack. This is the stuff addictions are made of. A personal favorite of mine, and a tempting choice, if I can come up with a clever concept.
RPG/Adventure: Cautious. My options are limited, considering my time and resources. Text adventure? Never made one, that'd be scary ground to tread on at this point. Roguelike? Hmm. I had some fairly extensive plans for one, but I don't know how good I'd be at making it, considering my lack of experience.

I'm not going to use any of my current or future projects. Vertical has a partially established engine, but... good lord no. It'll take me WAY over a month to complete that beast, even IF Preston would give me the sprites for it. Zombie City IV isn't sufficently planned out, and I'm pretty sure it's gonna be a big enough project that I wouldn't have the time to make it everything I want it to be. Both of those will be shelved for now.

So!

I leave it to you, whoever is reading this, to chuck some ideas at me. I don't expect to get anything really final at this stage (although I'm open to being surprised), but some suggestions should help get the wheels turnin'.

FIRST POST REDUX

2005-11-07T00:09:00.000-08:00

Testing... testing... is this thing on? Awesome.

All right, I've finally figured out what I'm going to do with this thing. I will use it as a Development Blog for my (solitary) participation in National Video Game Writer's Month, or NaViGaWriMo. I will begin planning the game some time this month, begin coding on December 1st, and release the game on January 1st. For lack of a tangible goal (you novelists have your 50k mark to hit), my goal is to make a game that I am sufficiently satisfied with to release upon the world.

The obvious question that I ask myself is what, exactly, I'll be posting on this blog. Well... stuff. Various thoughts. Describing the development process. Throwing out gameplay ideas for feedback purposes. If I can find a decent free file-hosting service, maybe even limited demos expressing single aspects or features of the final product.

For the rest of November, however, there will be precious little here. Speculations as I try and decide what kind of game I'm going to make.

STAY TUNED!