Micro Machines

Whats up guys

I spent the weekend seeing the phenomenal MUSE in London with my girlfriend which was astounding, then spent a chill day wandering London – realizing how much i like that place. It got me thinking about HOW MUCH INCREDIBLE STUFF IS OUT THERE, and that i shouldn’t sacrifice my life for the art, but rather strive for a balance of the two.

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You probably know the reoccurring theme of indie developers KILLING THEMSELVES over their art, and while some amazing games have come out of that, i believe that a healthy lifestyle is better for everyone.

This led to the following decisions:
– put the fps game on hold
– keep making 2D games
– work on 3D in the background (as a hobby)

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THIS POST IS REALLY LACKING CONTENT, so here’s a prototype game i made over the last few days:

Procedural FPS first look

This is my friend playtesting AN EARLY PROTOTYPE of the game, not seen here is the level generation or any kind of real structure to the level (crawling/swimming/cover).

I’m looking forward to releasing THE NEXT VIDEO AND DEMO which will feel much more like a real game.

Please SUBSCRIBE on the right + to the youtube and let me know what you like/dislike about the game so far. Cheers guys!

Oh, and someone let me know I WON AN AWARD over on FlashGameLicense for one of the “Top 3 Platformers of 2012″ – for SkullFace. Awesome :]

I want to GIVE UP, but at the same time CONTINUE

Sometimes i go back on the stencyl forums to help out newer developers and give back to the community, i came across this post asking for advice in the “burnout” thread, and i’m re-posting here as it might provide some value [disclaimer: the reason i talk in an authoritative way is because i am one of the more experienced developers on the stencyl forums, and it helps drive home a point]

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“I just feel like all my games are junk, my ideas are worthless, I want to give up, but at the same time continue.”

[the response:]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td_PGkfIdIQ (skip to 12:29)
“TALENT = THE ABILITY TO BE PRODUCTIVE”

This image represents my face as i realize the wisdom in what Gabe just said.. haha

This is MOTHERFUCKING GABE NEWELL, who arguably manages some of the most “talented” people in the games industry – in it since Half Life 1… he knows his shit.

Maybe your games are junk, maybe your ideas are worthless and maybe no one cares about the games you make..ITS IRRELEVANT.
You need to cultivate and adopt the mindset/beliefs that will make you productive.

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For me this is knowing that i am in it for the long haul and HOW FAST I GET GOOD DOESN’T MATTER, knowing that the quality of the game does not even matter as long as i am working on it regularly, knowing that failure is perfectly fine and you need to fail to grow, comparing my work to others on the same level and sometimes lowering my goals so that i don’t get burnt out.

Become self aware and start to realize what things help you to work on the game, and which things stop you from working. This has become one of the most interesting things about game development for me… learning more about myself and how to KEEP MOVING.

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(that image above is some experimentation i did with texture projection earlier in the week, i’ve got some cool stuff to put up next week: Hit Subscribe on the right for more!!)

THE SECRET TO MASSIVE GAME DEV SUCCESS

Whats up fellow game developers/players/stalkers/fellow artisans. I’ve been working my ASS OFF, for the last 2 months on this new game. It’s undergone many changes, i feel like the process of making something cool should be as natural and organic as possible – so i iterate in development and change my mind a lot. I’m just gonna dump loads of pictures now cause who wants to read? No one.

AI Visual Awareness Testing

Trying to make blenders interface less like attempting to pilot a NASA aircraft through a crowded city, drunk.

I had this cool idea that you could use each hand individually (thats what she said). WHAAATTT. A bit like bioshock with the plasmids. Here’s some guns that shoot money – now i can finally buy Unity Pro.

Pimpin’ vehicle patrollin the afternoon sands. The game started out as a Tomb Raider type deal, where you drive a buggy around the desert to find (you guessed it) tombs, then when you go in it “procedurally generates” a brand new, unexplored tomb for you to shoot skeletons, fall into spike pits and curse at the un-responsive jumping controls.

A coin treasure! Like in Uncharted or Uncharted: Tomb Raider edition (which is actually really good)

Trying to learn DeleD 3D editor. Have since left this software for likely: sketchup/proBuilder ( a unity plugin). DeleD is actually a really great, simple, level editor, but i had problems exporting into Unity.

TBT: tomb building tech! This advanced robot AI builds the levels for you, so you dont have to do any work! AMAZING. All the indie devs are hitting this up right now, roguelikes are the new pixellated platformer. This one is inspired by the legend itself: TIMESPLITTER 2, mapmaker. You know.. the one where you made that zombie surival map, then played splitscreen Virus mode with gingerbread men and only proximity mines. This system basically snaps pre-made rooms together by their doors, then randomises the enemies/items within each room. Awesome stuff (in the above shots, there are only 3 “rooms bits” used though)

Test environment for tweaking my FPS movement out. I actually think this looks cool………

This is about as far as you get with level design inside unity… that white box is a speaker and it plays Metallica: No Remorse on loop.

Dual Crosshairs. Discontinued. Now there is NO crosshair, to keep up the fast pace and close combat.

Picking up guns.. framerate of the gods.

Pathfinding graphs – enemies use these to navigate the environment somewhat intelligently if you get it right.

Inception test, a rotating cityblock cube whilst Hanz Zimmer blasts in your ear. Discontinued due to nausea.

THE ACTUAL GAME, is like: Quake + Hotline Miami, with procedural levels and a sci-fi theme. Hopefully a demo soon because i want to know what rocks/sucks about the game as fast as possible! As always please subscribe using the button on the right, and stay classy. More, cooler stuff, coming soon

fanart

Awesome Use Boxmen fan-art courtesy of Jen Lybolt and Beverly Delgado from America – totally nailed the feel of the game! Thankyou

(click for full version)

SURVIVAL HORROR GAME

I’m [edit 30mar: probably not] making one. [..because the game has evolved into something a bit different..]

placeholder art

..i’m not going to show the monster of a horror game.. this is just a test

A visceral, intimate ordeal through the depths of hell, with beautiful moments of hope and discovery in-between the blunt psychological trauma.

more details as they happen. thanks

Another Dimension

I’ve decided to wander into the daunting yet magical jungle of 3D game development, getting lost amongst the vector3′s, polygons and textures whilst gawping slackjawwed at the sunlight flickering through the thicket. Its a steep journey to climb, but i’m getting stuck in and the tools are the best we’ve ever had, it feels like an absolute privilege to be able to use programs like Blender and Unity FOR FREE. Below are some of my learning experiments so far.

Let me explain how our lovable red box friend works here because its quite interesting..
- he creates a waypoint nearby, then moves toward it. waiting for a random amount of time inbetween waypoints
- if he hits a wall on the way to the waypoint, he simply creates a new one
- there are a few checks going on for his vision: is the player in range? is the player within his viewing cone? is there anything between the player and him?
- if these all match up a new waypoint matches your position, which he chases down
- if you can no longer be seen the waypoint stays at your last known position, which he will then move to, and after a while he will return to wander

There’s a lot more to do here and i’m really enjoying learning about various AI tricks I think even in its basic state the red box feels like he has an agenda.. like the world is more than just polygons, textures and vector3′s..

As always please subscribe using the box to the right and you’ll get my next game/prototypes in your email. THANKS

The Making of SkullFace

Skullface and Making Monkeys have both been nominated for JayIsGames, “action platformer of the year” award (making monkeys is a puzzle platformer though..?), and i’d really appreciate it if you take a couple of seconds to support me and vote for skullface,  here’s the link. I really appreciate it, and it feels great to be up for the award

I‘ve added a subscribe option to get new posts via email, thanks to everyone who’s subscribed it is awesome to get an idea of who follows my work and enjoys it. Thanks a lot, and if you wanna subscribe just punch you’re email into the box over there for effortless, spam-less game development updates from yours truly >>

Quick SkullFace Post-Mortem:

The Good
The reception has been phenomenal! The game got a special feature on what i’m told is the biggest video-game website in France, featured by some prominent youtubers, and garnered a lot of beaming reviews which are a total joy to read. I wanted to move more toward making a “real game” aimed at gamers and not casual flash players, and i’m seeing lots of activity on the highscore boards with some quite frankly insane speedruns popping up. I’ve gained a lot of confidence from finishing this project and it feels like another box checked off in the mental list of “games i just have to make at some point”. It will also be featured on the front-pages of a few big flash portals soon.

The Bad
The games financial performance was underwhelming. This is due to poor planning on my part, and aiming at the wrong market. Many people have said they would pay for this game, and i felt like right now i’m in the transition away from freeware titles, and toward deeper retail experiences. The development took a really long time and got changed up a lot, i often had doubts that the game was unique enough – keeping its inspirations so close to heart.

Improvements: Wall jumping isn’t intuitive enough, rolling just as you land should be a bit more forgiving, the final boss is not as strong as the rest of the game.

The Future

Right now i’m in the middle of some intense training, learning Unity engine, playmaker visual scripting plug-in and Blender.. i want to move forward into 3D games because really those are the games that i want to make and 3D has more magic and immersion to it for me – i grew up on Playstation. Everyday i find an aspect to 3D that totally blows my mind and i’m thinking “what!?? I can do that?!”, it feels like too much power for a single developer to wield haha, it really is amazing and i hope to make some great games with it. I’d like to try open development, with weekly video blogs and players giving feedback each week, building and playing the game together; this seems like a really fun way to make a video-game!

SKULLFACE IS OUT

-  Roll, walljump, and jetpack through 45 levels across 3 worlds to face off with the final boss

- Features tons of hazards, enemies, traps and gameplay elements, original soundtrack, cutscenes and highscore runs

Phew! This wasn’t easy and it’s been quite a ride – definitely the most challenging project i’ve ever worked on! A lot has happened during the development of this game including: moving out, losing my coder, going to ibiza with my best friends, learning how to program a ton of stuff, learning to do most of whats in this game, losing my gf of 2+ years (not because of this game haha) and the subsequent recovery, losing money making this and having to borrow to stay afloat, laughing with joy at people play-testing this game, overall pride at finishing such a big project. Feels like i leveled up a lot during this game, in life and nerd stuff.

It’s been a dream of mine to make a pure action platformer since N+ and meatboy which are obvious inspirations and i’m really happy to announce this game. I hope it reaches a lot of people, and the experience is a good one!
Please leave your comments, feedback and reviews below

Lesser news: I have a relaxing, simple minigolf game coming out in a few days, and i’m going to release some “making of” footage for this game to show the development stages because i always find that stuff quite interesting. Then i’m going to dive further into learning Unity 3D and post up my progress/games from that. Cole has left monster pit development so i’l probably make something from the art assets i’ve done, not sure about that.

EDIT: here’s that minigolf game

Iteration! Monster Pit becomes …?

Here’s a mock-up that came about today, a redesign of monster pit.

What’s the point? ITERATION!

When you’re pulling a work of art pretty much out your ass .. out of thin air, it’s sometimes going to suck at first. It’s not likely that you’re gonna get it right on the first try. But instead of being cautious and tippy-toe’ing around the cold end of the pool, you just jump in and scream “CANNOONNBALL”.. or something….

Anyway, you see the flaws and re-do it. This kind of mindset and work ethic comes from doing a lot of art, and i think the more you do the more humble you become, so you more easily see where its lacking and how you can re-do it, to make the experience better. At the end of the day, it’s all about making something you are proud of and that you feel people can connect with.

Monster pit looked really dull and took itself too seriously. This re-design will be packed with much more energy and personality (this is a very early 1st pass so it looks a bit crappy but the intention is there – click for full size). 

UPDATE (22/09): Here’s the in-game version right now.