Ludum Dare Done & Future Goals

IT'S DONE! I've finished my first ever Ludum Dare game jam. Following the theme of "You Are The Monster" I created a simple defence game called (creatively) "You Are The Minotaur" which you can download and play here (only available for windows I'm afraid). You can also visit the LDJam page here. The game involves exploring a maze and crushing silly heroes who try to steal your treasure. You can also place two varieties of trap to help defend. It's super simple but I did only have three days to build it so what do you expect!

I was going to keep a dev log like I usually do for Revolver but I figured I'd just do a quick write up when it's all over. Kinda like this.

Development Overview:

What went well:
-Learnt loads of new stuff. Improved my ability with path finding, learnt how to clip stuff to a grid (super useful for tower defence games and the like) and improved my graphical ability.
-Got out of my rut
-Managed to create a reasonably well polished game
-Had a lot of fun
-Improved my planning ability

What went not so well:
-Had a real problem with a few mechanics
-Should have spent a little more time developing the idea before jumping headlong into a particular idea. There are many other genres of game I could have made but I ended with another top-down game
-Some sound effects I wasn't able to make decent enough with bfxr and couldn't find a decent alternative in time

Overall I'm proud of what I made, and while it may not the best game ever I feel I've done a really good job and had a lot of fun doing it.

For those interested I spent approximately 20 or so hours of the last three days programming, composing music, drawing graphics and anything else to make it.

Future Goals:
So here's a quick run-down of my plans for the near future.
-Finish Revolver. This is top-priority, I need to get this finished and released because christ it has been way overdue. I still like the game & the ideas, don't get me wrong but I want to work on other stuff too!

-Build a website. Somewhere that connects all the stuff together. Game downloads, this blog, twittet, etc.

-Learn Unity. Game Maker is all well and good but I believe learning Unity will allow me much more freedom in what I make than Game Maker can offer me. We'll see.

-Develop a mobile game/app. This is where it's at. Mobile games are big these days and only getting more popular. If I want success this is the place to go at. On top of all that though as someone who has only recent got a smartphone I really want to try to push the boat out on what games I can make with touch-screen and on smaller devices. This is more distant future though.

All in all, I should be busy for a while yet!

-Beau

twitter.com/Bocodillo

Pause, Progress & Ludum Dare

This week has been better and I've finally made progress in a few key areas. Firstly I finally have pause functionality working; there is an actual freaking pause menu now (I've wanted to be able to write that for ages now) and I've began work with a new music editing software that I'm using to make some simple music to throw into Revolver. On top of that I should be able to use it to make some much nicer sound effects, either that or I'll nip back to bfxr and make some there, I dunno yet.

For those interested the software is called BoscaCeoil and is super simple to use, which is pretty much the main reason I'm using it. It involves making short riffs and then placing those riffs into a timeline. You have access to a decent library of midi instruments and a small variety of other stuff like chiptune sounds and the like. Now the reason I've suddenly decided to find some music software however...

I'm taking part in the next Ludum Dare! For anyone that doesn't know Ludum Dare is a sort of challenge to develop a game within 72 hours set to a specific theme which is only revealed at the start. There is also a competition aspect with harder rules and a shorter time limit (48 hours) but as it is my first attempt, bugger that. It's now its 33rd run and has actually been going on for over 12 years now, which makes it the longest running game jam. Needless to say I'm pretty excited and I'm making sure that I have all the tools I need ready (hence the look into music software) for the 21st when it begins. Wish me luck!

Finally I just realised that I forgot to post the finished version of the pixel art thing I did. Here it be:

DECAYING PLANET:

Pretty glad how it turned out. Mostly it was just an exercise in using GIMP but still, I think it looks pretty neat.

-Beau

twitter.com/Bocodillo

Rutty Ruttington

I'm gonna be honest here, it's been a real uphill struggle these last couple of weeks. I don't know if it's my medication, being back home or my lack of any real plan for next year (I still need to find a 12 month placement for my honours or come up with some other plan for the next 12 months) that have made me into this lethargic beast but I've been getting bugger all done. I mean less than other times I've gotten nothing done. All that said I have managed to get working on Tom Francis' Game Maker tutorials again which haven given me better insight into how I can implement the final big system Revolver needs (pause functionality) among other things. I just need to actually work out how to get my game to pause properly. Once that is done however I'm going to send out some test copies to a bunch of people and see what they think/what they can break and polish the game from there. That's the plan at least. All in all I'm doing alright, don't worry, I'm just going through a little rut as we all do; I just wanted to make sure that communication doesn't hit a total standstill. Oh and sorry for the delayed post, I was at my granddads pretty much all of yesterday.

-Beau

twitter.com/Bocodillo

Delicious Revolver Progress

Being back on developing Revolver has been a load of fun and it feels good to finally have all the levels finished (tiles and polish still need to be added of course) and I've began important work in several other areas such as the AI and helper character. Here is this weeks Dev Log:

20/07/2015:
-Worked on rFortyThirdFloor. Have a really nice design for it now.
-Started work on building the helper object. Got it to aim and shoot but the sprite isn't rotating yet and I need to then allow it to move along a path, preferably.
-The helper now turns to fire.
-The helper now can follow a predefined path and faces the way he is walking. It's going to need polish to look good but for now I think it works pretty well.

21/07/2015:
-Smoothed out the helpers path in my tests. Already looking much better.
-Continued work on rFortyThirdFloor.
-Finished basic layout of rFortyThirdFloor and furnished with some pickups.

22/07/2015:
-Finished rFortyThirdFloor & began work on rRoof, the final level.

23/07/2015:
-Finished basic layout of rRoof including helper movement, pickups, turrets and the like.

25/07/2015:
-Altered zombie AI so that they will only begin to chase the player if: there is a direct LoS between them and the player(no walls blocking), or the player shines their flashlight on them through a wall.
Might alter some more at a later date but it is much better than the previous chase if within X pixels. I did keep that for two particular levels however where that suits better.
-Decided to remove spirits from the game for now. With a soon to be implements zombie wander code the sudden chase from spirits seems less fun than before. Might edit and put back in but for now they are gone.

Not more to say to be honest. I'm making progress again and that is good. This week I'll hopefully be getting a lot more of the stuff that really makes the game feel better done. That's the plan at least.

-Beau

twitter.com/Bocodillo

Back In Action

It's over! Assignments are done, I've moved back home and I'm getting back to work on Revolver among other things. I'm taking the weekend slow but I've already managed to get a basic layout of the penultimate room done and I've started doing some pixel art practise (which I'll post below). All in all I'm really excited to be getting stuff done again and I can't wait to share my progress, something which I will be doing much more of over the coming weeks. No dev log again this week I'm afraid but here is that art I was talking about:

Decaying Planet

As you can see it is still lacking much detail but I think you get the idea. I'm hoping to get it done sometime this week. As for the software I'm using, for anyone who might be interested, it's called GIMP (Graphic Image Manipulation Program?) and I've grown quite fond of it. It's the same software I used to make my twitter avatar which is actually the logo of a fictional group I've invented. It's pretty simple to get the hand of and appears quite good for pixel art, although not being an expert I can't really say much on that front, but it has definitely suited my purposes.

Anyway I'm going to get back to whatever it is I'm going to do today.

-Beau

twitter.com/Bocodillo

Work of a Different Kind

I've had a pretty good week all things considered. Even though my sleeping pattern is pretty much non-existent, I've managed to make great progress in my final uni assignment and I've even managed to write the whole of the story side of Revolver which is a chunk I've actually been worried about getting done for a while. All I've got to do on that front now is take what I've got and sprinkle it throughout the game as messages from the helper character & notes you'll find lying around. As I mentioned last week I'm still not doing programming stuff on Revolver and instead concentrating on my assignments up until its finished, so as I've been saying for far too long now, not much to say this week! I can't wait to get back to work on Revolver and start updating this blog with much more interesting game dev stuff, I'll be spending a lot of time working on it when I'm back home.

Anyway, have a nice day and I'll be back next week with something, hopefully, much more interesting.

-Beau

twitter.com/Bocodillo

A Vital Setback

Between personal problems and a big ass Java assignment, development of Revolver has hit a real slow pace. I'm not apologising for this though. After having a couple of weeks of struggling to get up before the late afternoon, difficulties with motivation & other things besides, what little time I've been able to work effectively (not just staring blankly at my screen) I have been trying to spend on said assignment. I really, really don't want to have to do this module again next year. All this said development on Revolver is going to take a short break up until this module is finished on the 17th of July. Hopefully I'll be feeling a little less shit by then and I'll be able to get working solidly on Revolver again. Lord knows I'd like to get this game finished sooner rather having even more delays. For the sake of tradition here is the weeks Revolver dev log:

01/06/2015:
-Finished basic layout of rSkyEntrance.
-Improved the look of the terminals, by putting them half into walls. Yes really.

Not much else to write about this week. I want to get just a little further in Person of Interest before I write anything about it.

-Beau

twitter.com/Bocodillo