Fusecube BETA

LittleLife is still being worked on, but I got inspired over the weekend and so now I am working on this:

It is actually playable right now in beta form. (STILL BUGS!)
http://dreamwinter.net/dev/fusecube/

Little Life!

NOTE: Due to Fusecube and the launch of GMDeveloper.com - LittleLife is being postponed to March. Just too much on my plate right now. :)

January has come and gone and although it is cold outside, we welcome February with warm hearts.

February is a special time of the year in many aspects. It represents a solid entry to the New Year, and holds a holiday dedicated purely to Love and admiration of a significant other. With that in mind, I am sticking strong to the "non-violent" 1GAM rule I set for myself and focusing even more intensely on atmosphere and outright pleasantry.

~ In the small village of Browsertown, you will find yourself fishing and trading items and goods among the townsfolk in order to keep your little shop happily running. Did I mention the fishing? There will be a lot of fishing. With scavenger hunts and a real-time day/night event system, all of these little adventures will take place right in your browser! ~

 As an added bonus to show appreciation for all the wonderful work that OpenGameArt.org and their artists do, I will be designing this game entirely with core basics from their gallery. I want to show that anything can be turned into a wonderful experience and those guys deserve the love.

I will as always, keep you posted here on my blog and via Twitter.

GMDeveloper.com

Busy busy!

Just an informal update on things going on.

1) Working on GMDeveloper.com - heavy into pre-launch mode right now. Crunch time! Looking for feedback and suggestions from GameMaker users on what they are looking for or what they think is missing from development communities. Always looking to please the community.

2) Ponquest production is delayed simply due to pushing out GMDeveloper.com - I don't want to get caught up with too much work so it's not 'delayed' I simply have a strict schedule to adhere to and I am VERY MUCH looking forward to getting back to it. :)

3) 1GAMCRUNCH was awesome, 1GAM Jan is out the door. I have a few ideas for Feb, and I will spend the weekend starting on that!

My 1GAMCRUNCH Summary

Where to begin.... I think I will start with coffee. *sip*

        Well, this sure was a fun experience. As my first Game Jam I was happy to at least produce something that I got out the door. I am pretty disappointed with what I was able to make, but I am happy with the core idea I was striving for. I've learned a ton and I had a lot of fun, and through and through that is really what matters when I rest my head at night. So here are my thoughts on this Game Jam.

Time Management:

When I was in the U.S. Army I learned a lot about time management  That discipline slipped through my fingers a bit during this Game Jam. 

It wasn't that I was not working the whole time, but rather I was not focused on the right aspects of what I wanted to build and spent too much time in certain areas.

• I spent too much time tweaking particle effects for the 'right' effect. 
• I devoted 5 hours to a lighting system I did not even end up using. 
• The enemy path finding was new to me, and I spent more time debugging it than anything else. Had I compromised some game mechanics, it would have taken a lot less and I could have fleshed out my idea.

Art:
Art wasn't so much a problem. I borrowed a bit from OpenGameArt.org and did the rest with particle effects. Although art is important to game design, it's also not a primary factor in a Game Jam, I think. There is just not enough time to really focus on making your game looked 'polished', especially when going solo.

Sound Design:

What can I say, I spend a lot of time on http://www.bfxr.net because it is a wonderful tool. I know there are a wide range of sound effects designers and kits out there, and I will get to them one day but for now, this allows me to be creative and listen to a wide range of audio I have not heard before.

Mechanics:

I had a lot planned for this, and that was too much. In the end I had to dumb it down, and I think it's better off for it in some aspects. The player only has so many options and it gives the person playing the ability to focus more on what they can do with those options rather than trying to figure out what 20 different buttons and skills do and how they work. That stuff comes later, for bigger games. :)

The core element of this game was to be hard. I had no intentions of making an easy game. I don't like easy games. I want to challenge the player but without resorting to mechanics that force you into situations beyond your control.

If you die, it is your own fault. (Or so, that is the goal)

Summary:
In summation, I had designed a complex dungeon crawler where you unlocked the boss's you were to fight by accomplishing various achievements  In the end I had to scrap 40% of what I was working on and quickly hack together a single level based on the original design. This is not what I had intended and it has given me a lot to think about.

I plan on revisiting this game over the course of the week and really bringing out what I envisioned and offer up a more complete game with all the challenges intact.

I learned a lot, and I really enjoyed this game jam, and I look forward to more in the future. The pace was fast and the deadline looming overhead made me rethink a lot about what makes a game, and what impact all your environments can play on final decisions.

I look forward to updating this game, and hope you enjoy playing the revised version.

1GAMCRUNCH... done?

I have uploaded N|Something. You can find it here:

 

http://www.dreamwinter.net/1gam/nsomething.zip

Note: The domain dreamwinter.net is brand new and as such, some operating systems and browsers may flag downloads as "possibly dangerous." There isn't much I can do about this. It's an .exe inside the zip (as most games are) and these warnings will only go away once the domain has had more activity and time to propagate. I promise you, the file is safe. Sorry in advance if you run into this minor issue.

I will be writing up a summary about the jam, what happened, what will happen, and what I learned. I also plan to continue developing the original concept of N|Something an fleshing out what it was actually to be.

All in all, it was a fun and very educational experience. This was my very first 'timed' Game Jam and I think I made all the proper mistakes as a newbie.

Let me know your input, follow me on Twitter, or just say hello!

Crunch Update

Nothing to show! lol.

Been working on the framework and control mechanics for my simple little button masher. I will be updating with screenshots later today.

Come join us at the hangout!:  https://plus.google.com/communities/117275686212402755276

1GAMCRUNCH

Just a few hours until 1GAMCRUNCH kicks off. Be sure to read all about it, even if you're not participating!

I will be posting updates here through out the entire weekend, along with twitter updates, as well as producing a time-lapse video of the entire weekend of development from start to finish.

Tools:
IDE: GameMaker:Studio Professional.
Graphics: Photoshop CS5
Audio: http://www.bfxr.net / http://www.nosoapradio.us / www.soundrangers.com

Be sure sure to follow me on twitter, and hit me up if you're following along, and especially if you're participating in #1GAMCRUNCH!

~This is ten-percent bugs,

twenty-percent thrill,

fifteen-percent concentrated coffee and skill.

Five-percent graphics, fifty percent brain

and a hundred percent reason to complete your game!~