Ahr-Skee Ball? I don't make 3D games usually, but I've got to admit: there's something there. I don't think it's fair to call the third dimension a fad in gaming anymore. I'm pretty sure it's here to stay.
With that in mind, I'd like to announce that I'm making a game inspired by Monkey Ball and the midway. I want to steer a car off of a giant ramp and fling it through giant hoops for points. That sounds like fun.
I might add other obstacles later, but for now: that sounds good enough. Any further decisions will be made only after I can fling a car through a 100 point loop.
I've been working on a small project for a lot longer than I had intended on. (It happens.) I wanted to spend a week making a game for the Gameboy. Something small and simple that wouldn't require a lot of extra planning to execute: an arcade-like experience.
That was quite a while ago at this point.
I could write a whole bunch of stuff about what happened, why things need to change, and that is certainly something I would usually do. (I already wrote and deleted that post.) Instead let me say that instead of focusing on making something perfect: I should make a bunch of things that are good learning experiences and move on.
It's time to move on.
I'm making a game about mowing lawns for the Gameboy. It's almost done. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun making it. I hope you try it when it's done.
It's been a long time since I posted anything on here, so maybe now is the best time to jump back in. My life is as remarkably different now as it is also exactly the same. I tried to chase the YouTube dragon for a minute, and that really got me burned out creatively.
I wanted to make games. I still want to make games.
I have a whole pile of projects that I've let wither and die on the vine, but maybe it's time I really try to finish something. Once in a decade might be a little slow, but I'm a work in progress.
What have I got in the hopper?
My friend and I have been working on an asteroids-like with a leveling system.
I'm actively working on a Gameboy game about mowing lawns.
My girlfriend and I were working on a game about being a magical girl who spreads joy.
I've made a bunch of prototypes of this one dumb game about waiting for a bus.
I made a fully functional snake game inside the dumb bus game.
I have a lot of scraps of ideas along with a bunch of stalled concepts. Let's see if I can get something done.
So as part of my Games Games Games show: I've started making mini episodes about free indie games that can be found online. The very first of these is about a game called Crowtel. This is partially because it's a game where you play as a bird and we are so close to Thanksgiving. Also, It's because I came up with the idea after stumbling upon this game. New episodes should be arriving every week.
Here's the first!
In other news, I'm going to start making a small game for a short game jam just to get back in to the swing of development again. I want to document the quick dev time and make a video about it. We'll see how that works out.
Either way, I'm going to share with the blog, and keep you updated on what kinds of projects I'm working on in the future. What are you working on? I love hearing about what other people are doing. Drop me a line or leave a comment below.
Gosh. It's been almost four months. But I assure you that I haven't just been sitting around on my tuchus doing nada. I have been spending almost all of my free time crafting the first pilot episodes of Games Games Games. And they are ready for you to enjoy.
The last one is actually just a chunk of a much larger conversation. if you want to listen to the whole thing for free you can at the official Games Games Games Bandcamp page! How about that?
This project has kind of taken over my life, and I have a whole new appreciation for other people who've been making videos for years now. I hope you watch the videos and maybe share them with your friends. I'm going to keep releasing videos every month. (I already have episodes planned out for the next year.) If people are watching, I'll be able to invest more time, and then release videos more frequently. Can you help me make this grow?
BUS_WAIT is on hold for a hot minute while I work on something entirely different. After this moves forward I promise you. I promise you! BUS_WAIT will resume. More details are inbound, but until then enjoy this teaser...
And this...
I've been very hard at work, and I already have the scripts written for 3 episodes. Production is well on the way for all three of them, and I have cool ideas lined up for a great many more.
The first episode is going to be about Snake Rattle N Roll. A game made by Rare that I played a ton of growing up, but isn't very well known compared to much larger titles from the same developer.
What do you think? Look forward to the launch of my YouTube channel very soon!
Today's blog post is about the rule of kiss. For those who don't know this rule, Keep It Simple, Stupid.
I've recently been caught up trying to put together environment assets for BUS_WAIT that would rock the socks off of people. But rather than worrying about the individual pieces I should spend more time worrying about the Gestalt (the whole) of the project.
For example: I've spent a long time recently worrying about power lines in the dungeon.
What color should they be? Do I want bunches hanging from the wall? What does the hook look like that holds these power lines up? I sketched pages of doodles for these power lines. I asked friends color theory questions about how best to incorporate the power lines into the scene. I was letting this problem bring the entire project to a halt!
Who gives a fuck?
Keep it simple: no one cares about the power lines except me. They are background information that helps to build the structure of the rest of the scene. Rather than worrying about this small and insignificant part of the dungeon: I should spend more time building out and populating all of the rooms with the myriad of more important assets that actually have significant storytelling and game play importance.
Later, I can go back and improve the assets I've already made to inform a more cohesive whole. But this all needs to happen later.
Keep it simple, stupid. Worry more about the big picture, and less about the details. This may seem obvious, but it's a very helpful reminder for me.
Wow, so it's been a hot minute, hasn't it? My last update was at the beginning of April. Summer is here, and it's time to get back to work.
I am well rested, and I hope that you are as well.
So let's talk about BUS_WAIT.
BUS_WAIT exists as a kind of demo for a much larger game about magic and storytelling and making decisions. A sort of "Choose Your Own Adventure Game." A game that is not about waiting for a bus, but you could definitely make it about that if you wanted to. I want to share a bit more of that larger idea in the demo without completely spoiling it all. so let me share this asset I've been working on for BUS_WAIT:
So yeah. That's a thing.
I figured it would be good to have BUS_WAIT deliver a taste of the rest of the game. This screen is just a space in development. I'm making a template and asset library to draw from, and I'm going to have a whole mini-dungeon hidden in BUS_WAIT waiting to be found. Also, since there's a whole story that unfolds through repeated playthroughs of BUS_WAIT and since 1 hour is a ridiculous amount of time for a person to spend waiting for the story to develop on a single screen: I am reducing the wait time for the bus down to 10 minutes. There are a whole host of other changes I want to make to the game as it exists right now, but I'd rather show and not tell. So I guess there's nothing to it but to get back to work.
BUS_WAIT is fast approaching, and it should be completed sometime this month. I don't know if I'll meet the deadline for Punk Jam with a finished experience, but I would still like to submit what I have... 9 days left! While I remain Knee Deep in the Dev, I wanted to draw attention to some amazing projects from people that are inspiring to me.
Aeon Valley by Michael James (http://www.aeonvalley.com/) : "Aeon Valley is a science fiction comic about a group of friends who explore the strange urban legends and mysteries that surround the very town they live in."
Michael has been working hard on this webcomic for a couple of years now, and he's really taking the time to tell an adventure story worth following. There are robots and time (dimension?) shifts and calamities and ancient evils afoot. Currently one of the main characters is sneaking in to the sewers under his town to go exploring and I honestly have no idea what's going to happen next. Michael updates twice a week: you should really give Aeon Valley a read and get hooked.
Nwain by Terrana Cliff (http://www.nwain.com/) : "The story follows Nwain, a knight who wanders dreamland in search of home. She fights monsters, joins tournaments, solves disputes, and helps others face their nightmares, until she must face her own."
Nwain is an amazingly ambitious undertaking: a fantasy story with a deep lore put in to an animated webcomic format. Terry updates with two new pages at the end of every month and I am regularly blown away by the craftsmanship and ideas she presents on every single page. Her characters, locales and writing come to life on the screen and inspire might just leave you frothing at the mouth for the next update.
Red and the Wolfe by Nicholas Rubatino (Link to ComiXology Page) : "Red and the Wolfe is the story of a young girl confronting the world on her way to adulthood. It is also the story of the world confronting a Wolfe on his way to canonization. Their lives mix, ideologies are tested, crucibles are passed, blood is lost, and mushrooms are ate. All while the menace of impending life looms over the proceedings."
Red and the Wolfe is a re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood with more than a slight macabre twist. This story takes place in a dark reality where most everything is dangerous. Wolfe has tasked himself with the protection of Red on her way to grandma's house because he believes that she was sent to him by God. Red mostly does not care, but thinks that the Wolfe's religious views are a hinderance at best. Meanwhile colorful commentary is provided by Robin and Vulture: two birds following the journey from a safe distance. The story is dark comedy, but it might also leave you with a few thoughts on what it means to live in a world with beliefs that are not universally accepted.
All three of these projects are graphic in nature: two webcomics and a digital graphic novel. There is another thing I wanted to draw attention to, and it's a band. The band my brother is in: Success (http://www.successpunk.com/). They are awesome. Success is currently in the middle of a tour tour, and is playing shows in California over the next couple of days. They just released a new album called Radio Recovery and it's the best work they've ever done. Right now you can listen to the album on Spotify or purchase it from most major online music distributors. If none of those suit your fancy though, check out this single from their album posted to YouTube:
Other than being incredibly awesome stuff that I would like my own work to be associated with, what does this have to do with BUS_WAIT? Well... I plan on putting nods to all four of these in BUS_WAIT. You'll see.
I really like Itch.io. If you haven't taken the time to check out this Indie Game storefront, just take a second: there are some really cool and new game experiences in there, and a great deal of the games are free. The site was introduced to me a while back by my friends at Ultra Runaway Games, and if you are looking for a site to host your games or a cool storefront that is well maintained but doesn't have crazy hurdles to get your content on there: definitely check them out.
Itch.io also hosts Game Jams. This is where Punk Jam comes in to play. A counter-culture game jam. One of the rules was explicitly to make games that: "have 'anti-design' or things that go against the grain of 'what counts as a video game'." Perfect! I am immediately invested in this.
Let me explain why...
To do so: let's talk about dungeons. I've decided to develop my dungeon explorer from a simple mechanics demo in to a full game. Up front I'll just say that it is called DEEp, It borrows some ideas from all over including: Zelda, Narnia, The Longest Journey, and choose your own adventure books to name a few. I'll go more in depth about DEEp in future posts, but let me tell you about it's prologue. DEEp starts out in the rain. You just missed the bus, and the next one isn't coming for an hour. Enter the Punk Jam... I am going to make the opening scene to the game for the game jam.
Work in Progress. ;)
I'm calling it BUS_WAIT. What do you do in BUS_WAIT? Why, wait for the bus for an hour of course! There's a bit more to it than that, but there's the general nugget of goodness. There will be little things in the environment that you can explore, and the character will talk to himself at times, and maybe a few other things. However, it's mostly this: you wait for the bus, and then the bus comes. The End.
This non-game is a good excuse for me to develop the visual style of the larger game while making one of the more troll-y (trolly?) parts of the larger story. This will also allow me to spend more time working on the story and planning out the rest of them game before jumping all gung-ho in to the DEEp end. Think of BUS_WAIT as the demo for DEEp. It will tie in more to larger game than you may think, and I think you're going to like it.
So that's what I'm working on. How about you? What are you making right now? If you aren't working on anything currently, or if you are working on something but feel like taking a break: why not try out a game jam? As of today: there are still twenty days left in the Punk Jam. More than enough time to make something grungy. Or you can check out the larger list of game jams on Itch.io. Or maybe you could start your own!
If you want to share, I want to know. I'm always down to geek out about game design and art.
It is no secret that I am a huge fan of Zelda games. The very first game I tried to make on my own in Unity was meant to be a send up to my love of the aesthetic of the old Top-Down Zelda games. Alas, the scope of my first attempt was far too large for me to complete even at this point in time. So I've been thinking about making smaller games. Besotted was a smaller game, and I still had the help of a whole team.
I want to make a game on my own, but I have to pull back scope a lot. Since I cant seem to let the Zelda aesthetic go: I will make a little game that revolves around some of those mechanics. I still want to have a story, but I don't think having an overworld is really essential. I think I can come up with a really strong game using a HUB type of home base like I've seen other games use; kind of like in Braid or The End of Time in Chrono Trigger.
I've been thinking about this seriously for a few days now, and this is what I've come up with.
I need a character, a few types of enemies, dungeons, bosses, at least one support character, menus, music, SFX, and a plot. For this type of game: saving is also important. I'll read up on how to do that immediately.
What I currently have working:
Camera Movement
Character Movement
Character Basic Attack
A Basic Enemy
A Basic Boss
A Working Door/Teleporter System
A Basic Key System
Basic Health
Some rooms
All of these things are in place, and far from complete. But it's enough to build a simple dungeon out of. You can play where I am at as of today at this link: Itch.io.
There's a lot of work to be done still, but I think I'm just going to keep moving forward.
NOTE: This blog post assumes that you have some basic level of understanding about 3D modeling. Here thar be Jargon.
I was recently contacted about some experiences I had painting Normal maps for small tiles. Since I've been working on a project that this would be useful for anyway I decided to do a write-up on my blog to help explain how to paint Normals from scratch.
The internet is rife with tutorials about baking normals in 3DSMax, Maya, and Blender. There are also a large number of tutorials about generating Normals using xNormal, CrazyBump, and the nVidia Filter. There's a whole pile of information about creating Normal maps in these ways, but there are a whole bunch of artists that don't actually know how to make Normals from scratch.
All of those programs are great at making Normal maps for textures that are large, but what if you want to make something really small? Like what if your project uses tileable textures that are 32x32 or 64x64 each? Most of these programs bake in antialiasing, noise, and/or blur that make anything this small just a pile of noisy, blurry garbage.
When working small, it is much easier to just paint the Normals by hand.
So what is a Normal map? Normal maps are an optical illusion that makes a simple 3D mesh appear more complex than it really is. Basically: Normal maps add extra lighting information onto a model without adding more geometry. It becomes incredibly useful in a number of applications such as adding the shapes of small objects or little details onto a simple polygonal object. A Normal map can also be used to add a layer of visual noise in order to help hide seams on a mirrored or tiled object that could become obvious using just a Diffuse texture.
A Normal map is like a complex Bump map. Bump maps are typically greyscale images that add lighting depth on a single axis of an object. While very useful in situations where a camera is viewing stationary objects from fixed positions, Bump maps fail on complex objects or objects that need to receive lighting information from multiple directions. Where Bump maps are useful on a single axis; Normal maps utilize 3 dimensions of lighting information. The X, Y, and Z axes are broken in to the Red, Green, and Blue channels of the texture file.
That's a lot of words, but let me give an example.
2D Sprite, Diffuse, and Normal
If you were going to make a 2D game with no realtime lighting, the sprite of a floor tile on the left of the image above would be just fine. However for a game that needs real lighting information, a Diffuse texture with a Normal map is more handy. Since these were made as 16x16 tiles, hand painting the normals is really easy.
Red, Green, and Blue Color Channels
If you start with a Diffuse texture as a guide, you can paint per channel in Photoshop. (Gimp allows you to draw directly in individual channels without pre-existing color information, but Photoshop doesn't seem to like me doing that. Maybe I'm missing something... I don't know.) Imagine the tile has a light shining across the axes individually. Red is light from the top. Green is light coming from the left. Blue is light shining directly down, but it fades the deeper you go.
Clockwise from Top Left: 2d Sprite, Diffuse only, Diffuse with Normals from CrazyBump, Diffuse with painted Normals
The image above shows a quick render I did in Blender. The top left has completely baked in lighting and cannot adjust to new lighting scenarios. The lower left Is done with painted normals: so if the light moves, so do the shadows and highlights. Now this was a quick pass I did, and there is plenty of room for adjustments to be made, but you get the point I hope.
In the lower right of the image I included normals that were generated using Crazy Bump. I wanted to give an example of what happens when you try to generate normals at such a low resolution. This could be worked around by making the small 16x16 tile larger, and then shrinking the large Normal that CrazyBump renders, but that's almost as much work as just making the Normal map yourself.
Above is a handy little cheat sheet I made to help people get started with painting Normals While the top square contains an assortment of Normal information I use regularly, the five squares below are sorted by Z depth. Try to stay away from anything at 100% depth, because it will appear black in unless under direct lighting.
I hope this little write-up on painting Normal information is useful to someone. If I left anything unclear or if this just reads like the rambling of a mad man: let me know in the comments.
UPDATE:
I forgot to mention a very important thing about Normals. The light direction is not universal between applications. What could appear correct in Maya or Blender could actually be reversed in whatever game engine or other output is being used. Please double check your Normals before submitting a finished version of anything.
I had started to animate the lighting for my example, when I realized that the Green Channel is actually flipped from the way I was using it in Blender. Some software has methods of flipping this automatically, but I just did it myself in Photoshop.
The new normal looked like this:
A simple but important oversight.
I also decided to make a specular map just for fun. Those are pretty easy to make, since all you need to worry about is greyscale on a single axis. That ended up like this:
I just used the magic wand tool in Photoshop to select the different areas I wanted and made the necessary tonal adjustments. Then I threw a noise pass over it for some added specular variation because heck... It's supposed to be tile!
I then uploaded a video for you to have a better feeling of what Normals do for this kind of thing. Enjoy!
The first think I've been working on since releasing Besotted has been... Well I've actually been working on quite a few things really. I've done a new shirt design for Success... Which I'll show after there are physical versions of it floating around the world. I've also done some artwork for my brother, Dan Gardner. He has a new album that he's working on called "Say It Again" and he asked me to do the album art for it.
I'm really proud of this one.
I also started working on a mechanics demo in Unity. I went back to the top-down adventure game feel in the vein of the original Zelda.
Photo for reference.
Something kind of funny happened though. I made the basic character and camera move mechanics, but then I added enemies. And to make the enemies function in a way that I could interact with them... I had to put a Rigidbody on them. For those of you who don't know: A Rigidbody tells Unity to calculate physics for an object in a scene. This means that a cube that was suspended in the air and stationary will now have gravity applied to it and fall to the ground. So this happened:
Basically, when I hit an enemy they get knocked way freaking back. It feels really good. There's a game here. I want it.
I've also started working on a game with Brandt Andrist and Sam Raymer. It's a project that we started a long time ago, but put off for various reasons. I don't know if I can talk about it yet, but I will tell you about it when I can. It's a pretty cool idea, and I can't wait until its at a point that you'll get to play it.
What have you been working on? I have a lot of creative friends out there, and we are all always working on projects. I would love to hear what you're working on. I'd also like to share some projects that other people are working on, and maybe get some signal boosts out.
I did it. We did it. My friends and I worked together to make a game. Besotted is done, and now it's time to work on other things. You can play it and download it here: http://freebeardgames.itch.io/besotted
Thank you to everyone who has been following along with me while this game and FIST CHAMPION were being worked on. I am not ready to back to FC quite yet, but I have already started working on some smaller ideas and at least one other project with a few friends. I look forward to talking about my projects more in the very near future.
Please play Besotted. I know that it isn't a perfect game, but it's the first FreeBeard game. If it made you laugh a couple of times then I am happy. If you really liked it, please think about the donate button on the page site. Making a game, even a simple one takes a lot of time. I look forward to sharing more projects soon.
First and foremost: Happy New year to everyone. I sincerely hope that you enjoyed any and all time that you had to celebrate holidays with friends and loved ones. I know I did. Besotted still stands at near complete and I will finish it very soon, and then move on to more projects.
Did you have a New Years resolution? Mine was to stop worrying about making finished looking games and start just making small mechanics projects that I can finish quickly to make better projects later.
I am sick right now with a bit of a sniffle. AKA: my nose is both a clogged mess and a leaky faucet. It's pretty gross. I hope that I get over this before I go back to work on Wednesday, because I hate calling out. Food service is kind of weird about making consumables while sick... I guess.
Godot. What is Godot? Godot is a multi-platform game engine that I discovered the other day that is similar in style to the Unity development environment, but is different in a few key areas that you may find interesting.
1. It is available for Linux as well as Windows and OS X.
2. The development environment is based around the idea of using instanced nodes instead of prefabs.
3. Godot is completely free.
Now, Godot is not nearly as feature rich as a more mature product like Unity, but it is really worth checking out. I have been doing some tutorials, and the node-based development is a pretty awesome concept. Since each node counts as it's own self-contained scene: Godot appears much more friendly than Unity for working with a team. I can work on a character as a scene and someone else could work on the game mechanics. The tutorials make it seem like even in complex projects, stitching all components together would be a simple process. I am seriously considering making something in this environment. Check it out at godotengine.org!
So yeah, what were your New Years Resolutions? And if you're interested in game engines: check out Godot and tell me what you think.
Life has a way of distracting me from the things that I really want. For instance: I haven't been working on my games. Why? By all rights I have had plenty of time to work on them, but I was allowing other things to feel more important, and then I would come home and not feel like doing anything at all. This is bound to happen to us all. Unless you are some superior focus machine dead set on accomplishing your goals no matter what the cost.
Good for you then.
For the rest of us: we let things get in the way because they feel important. I'm here right now though. What have I been working on?
BESOTTED. That's what.
The game is almost finished. Like, for reals. I've made a check list of the last things I need to do before I kick this child out the door screaming. Almost time for my friends to tell me I did a great job, and for complete strangers to bash my work and tell me I suck. It's exciting times.
What is left to be done?
Well, the game play is all in place. It starts, has a beginning, middle, and end. It can be played through and it doesn't look terrible. Hooray!
The ending needs to be polished. There are a few very specific things I would like to happen at the end of the game before I am ready to release. Those are mostly sequential events and will only take a few days to implement in a fashion that I would like.
The game was missing some personality. The music is great, the visuals are good, but it needed a little more oomph to sell me. It needed a voice. I got the best voice I think I could. Nicholas Rubatino stepped up to the plate to give this game a narrator. Give it a listen:
Other than those two things: there are just a few more clean up tasques remaining to be checked off. Then this beautiful buggy monster is going to be pushed out for all to bear witness and testify.
Secret Music Video Animation something something...
Game About A Running Man
This guy.
I want to take a moment to talk about all of these projects that I'm working on, and then perhaps a little action plan moving forward.
1. Adventure Game (ON HOLD)
Something has gone wrong in the world, and magic which was once contained in the spaces between space is threatening to brake in to our dimension. It must be contained before it is too late.
Here's a game that I wanted to make for a great many years. I originally wanted to start working on it right out of the gate without any previous experience. After a few months I decided that it would be better if I made a few other, smaller games before biting down into such a huge project. This one is still on hold.
2. FIST CHAMPION
The greatest arm wrestlers from all over have gathered to fight in the arena for their chance to win the grand prize and tell the world that they are The FIST CHAMPION.
Here's the big project. My first ever fully finished game. I took a hiatus while I was working on Besotted, and that break turned into twice as long as I meant it to be. That time however has given me some much needed perspective on the project and I am restructuring the whole game to slim down the end product. This smaller version I am calling "FIST CHAMP: Disentanglement." Character and level select are being stripped out for this version. More time is going to be spent on the mechanics and aesthetics of the game. I believe this is all good stuff. I look forward to showing more of what I mean in the near future.
3. Besotted
You are an insane person who sees demons coming to get you, and you also have a public access show. Dance the demons away as long as you can!
This is a game that I wanted to make as a team in a span of a month. That month was a little while ago now, and we finished most of the game. I've recently re-opened the project file and will finish and release the game shortly.
These are all projects that you currently know about if you've been following my blog. The next three are still in earlier stages, but are really tempting to work on.
4. Secret Game About Parties
This game is actually the project that made me step back and realize I had too many active projects. I am not really ready to talk about this game in depth, but suffice it to say that it is being called "Wallflower," it is in the style of an NES game, and it has a focus on stealth gameplay.
5. Secret Music Video Animation Something Something...
This is nothing. Nothing is happening here. Something about Arcade Games and Seattle Based Sea Monsters. It's not ready yet. Get off my lawn.
6. Game About A Running Man
The newest of fun projects. Also can't really talk about it other than the idea is pretty silly and crude. It's either going to make you laugh or... or not laugh. Since there are other people involved in this one: I definitely can't talk about it yet.
You can see that I accidentally filled up my plate with far too many main entrées. Planning will save this, though. Good planning.
Broad strokes are as follows...
First: Finish Besotted. It's almost done.
Second: The three projects I cant talk about are going to be continued with for the time being in the background.
Third: After Besotted is finished... FIST CHAMP is next.
It's been a little moment since the last time that I updated my blog, so I just want to take a moment to catch everyone up to speed.
Firstly: Besotted got really very close to completion, but didn't quite make it. I will upload what we had gotten done sometime in the near future. I haven't gotten back to work on FIST CHAMPION for a little while, but when I do: I have some ideas that will hopefully be for the better. Right now I am working on a secret project that was a moment of inspiration worth exploring: all I will say about this one is that it's an animation and it's a music video. No other details until a later date.
I have really wanted to do a music video for a while. Ever since I was a little kid I would listen to music and think about what kind of video would go great with it. It would usually involve a giant robot destroying a city, but that goes with anything amirite?
PAX just happened, and I think that it's a pretty cool thing when I walk around the Expo Hall and see so many faces that I struggled along with at DigiPen. This year I did my usual Enforcer thing (It's been 8 years now, holy crap), but on the side I also handed out a pile of cards for my buddy Nicholas Rubatino. In case you didn't know already: The prologue for his graphic novel is up and ready for your purchase on Comixology.
I would also like to give a shout out to some good friends of mine who have a game project on Kickstarter. It's called Spirit Siege, and it really needs your help to succeed. If you like tactical gameplay, and want something unique: please consider backing them.
On Saturday of Labor Day weekend, I got in to a car accident at the on-ramp to I-90. The road was slick and I spun head-first into a concrete divider. I've been waiting since then to find out if my car would get repaired or if it would get declared totalled. Well... As I was writing this post my mom called me. We're going to go pick up the items I left in my car. It's totalled.
Sorry for not posting last week. I've been taking advantage of a couple infrequent moments of living. I've been spending time with friends and decompressing. I'll be back on schedule next week. Guaranteed.
Besotted is well on it's way to completion. We are still shooting for a release by the end of July; that give us one more week. However: if we're close enough to done with an insatiable desire to polish just a little further... I might extend it by a few days. We will see.
This build is not too much different from the last one with a few exceptions:
More visual flair in place to enhance the feeling of the game
Opening Cards Sequence
Scanlines
Character model in place and animating an idle.
What exists already but isn't in this build? My, aren't you inquisitive!
Sam has a more sophisticated move script that rotates the character in the direction it moves (Quaternions and some other such hoodoo).
There are working enemy spawners
There is music written by Tyler Woods
There are enemy sprites
There are environment models
So if we have all of this stuff... Why isn't it already in the build?
Simply put: Working with a team in Unity is a new experience for me, and it just wasn't something I was thinking about. The next build (Ver. 1.0 probably) is going to be quite an experience, I assure you.
At this point I want to talk about a revelation I had the other day when I made this build. I had wanted this game to be both eerily macabre and at the same time humorously ridiculous. As of this build: I feel like I have creepy down pretty well, but not as much of the humor to balance it out. In response to this: the demons took an unexpected turn... I made them cute. these are they:
Just imagine these bad boys circling and spinning ever towards our character. Good times!
I kept them very simple and iconic. They have a very basic coloring scheme that draws attention to the corresponding button press that is required to defeat them. I am hoping that this will provide enough of a counter-balance to keep the game more fun than unnerving. We shall see!
