Sunday, December 20, 2009

Mushroomer! - Side project #3


I haven't quite gotten around to implementing Brandon's level sketch yet, with good reason.. there is a really cool competition going on right now for all you 'indie' game devs, over at The Independent Gaming Source. If you're into game development (or even just think you'd be into it!) I recommend checking it out.

My entry for the contest is a wee platformer tentatively titled "Mushroomer!" You are an intrepid young feller trapped in a mystical cave. Escape before time runs out, or suffocate on the horrible cave fumes.

Well that's the idea, anyway. Of course I wouldn't leave you without something to tame your fiddling digits, so go ahead and try playing an early alpha of Mushroomer.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

sketch results


Updates:
- the companion is now a pet which can't throw snowballs but might be able to growl and stun enemies or make them run away

Introducing:
- vehicles
- slopes
- ladders
- secret room
- level goal point
- a dark elf enemy

Each level is comprised of 2000 x 2000 pixel tiles which will be skinned later. The tiles are black right now for color hit detection.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

skin experiment for our current build

I think I got little bit ahead of things with the last castle crashers inspired art test in Flash, and tonight I want to challenge myself and play with the current build art:



my goal is post whatever I come up with tomorrow. I'm using a 6 year old 6" wacom :-D -- maybe next year I'll upgrade to the cintiq.

And hey you -- yes you budding game artist -- if you wish to create fan art, we'll post your skin too.

infinite ammo

Infinite Ammo - New Media Manitoba Business Showcase from BlinkWorks -James Swirsky on Vimeo.



source: blog post from Atract Mode

infinite ammo

I've had a marian image that I think I cut out from a game developer magazine posted on the wall beside my desk for months now without knowing what it was...now I know and its even more inspiring.

Monday, December 14, 2009

lego hoth




from this laughing squid post

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Exciting 'discovery'

So apparently I've been way out of the loop. I decided recently to fix the collision code because I couldn't find a good way to do it with pixel-perfect terrain. Well it turns out a fellow named Corey O'Neil has already done just that, with amazing results.

Check out Corey O'Neil's Collision Detection Kit. While it's far more than what I need (check out the real-time collisions with movies!) I can learn from it and that is exactly what I'm after.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

small worlds



explore small worlds by David Shute which won the Jayisgames 6th casual gameplay design competition

Friday, October 16, 2009

EA 2D present Flash version of Dragonage



"EA 2D" plan to release a 2D version of Bioware's 3D RPG Dragonage. It really exciting to hear that major game developers are now hiring Flash developers to work their magic.

Gamespot
Gamasutra

In the Gamasutra article, it mentions this new team is lead by:
Daniel Stradwick, a Flash game developer responsible for the widely-played Flash RPG series Monster's Den.

John and I are both front-end developers working at Blast Radius, and we've heard how EA has been successfully integrating Flash into the interface of their sports titles. It's great to see them making games aimed at the web. For instance, the new online version of Tiger Woods which is built not with Flash but with Unity3D.

Since Flash is our weapon of choice, it would be amazing if we could help EA co-create future content and further blur the lines between the game and the web.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

mission statement

concept 2 will soon have a mission statement...

I want it to be simple and quirky; kinda like Starguards'

"Guide the spaceman through the castle and defeat the wizard"

awesome!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Concept 2

It's just for fun (for now,) but take a look at this latest collaboration. Credit to Brandon for art. It's just a little character that you can run around, but we're looking at jumping off in a new direction.

Codename: Concept 2.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

what is blogspot.digger-dwarves all about?

I've updated our description -- well updated it as in wrote it as I just discovered we had none.

This is basically what we're trying to do:

we are working on an indie game, and this is our sandbox where will be posting ideas, experiments, and any bits that might help us move the game forward. Even we don't finish the game (which is highly likely), we think the journey is potentially more interesting than the end product so we're going public with it pre instead of post game.

This blog is also tethered to wegetsignal.ca which another experimental base for us to try out new things other than game development.

somethings coming on the horizon

dreary diary,

I may actually have something exciting to tell you today. This will not be another one of my depressing entries but just for the record I'm still here; still alone; and still afraid I'm losing my mind. I think I might even be starting to see things.

As you know nothing ever happens here at this frozen hell, but this morning, I ventured up to my secret lookout spot and have spied something moving way out over the horizon. Something small, white and just a speck of red. And its getting bigger. No, this time its not another one of my mermaid sightings. I'm not about to try to swim out and meet her cold embrace again. No matter how sweet she sings or how her sea foam hair waves me in. We both know that turned out badly and my blue toes are enough of a daily reminder. This time, I'll wait it out and make sure its real before I dive in head first.

In the meantime, I'll prepare a note to send back to my commanding officer. I have a valid excuse too. I've finished the last of the reserves. I'll need both black and white gold very soon, and this will give me reason to write home. Of course I won't say anything until I'm certain.

Tomorrow, it will surely be closer to the outpost, and I'll be able to get a better look at whatever it is. For now, the site of it fills me with mixed emotions, and even more questions. What could this mean for our new colony? Do I finally have a purpose? Yeah, I know I didn't sign up for this post but it would be great to know that these last 6 months had meant something.

All this time away, and all that blood, sweat, and tears that went into my tunnels have probably gone to waste. They're probably caved in by now. I don't think I'll be able to last much longer out here but then again. Do I really have that much to return to? With only the old man to write me, I know better than count on his well wishes ever arriving.

For one thing, I've learned at least some patience and I'll continue to lean on you to keep me going. I'll go prepare that document now and return my vigil over the looking glass.

a giant named mike

Thursday, September 10, 2009

simple box2D tutorial

After showing John my latest as-hive integration, he commented that it looked "pretty clunky" and I have to agree. For some reason, the game and physics tests are running very slowly which probably means HIVE is sapping resources somewhere; probably because I was using an old version.



Today, I did another quick tech demo and this time I picked the latest as-hive version 3 which uses the new swc to allow me to work completely in FlexBuilder 3. I should also look at in the Flex Profiler and possibly add some other opensource AS3 memory diagnostic views to make sure version 3 is tight.

This is the second time that I've been inspired by one of Emanuele's great demos, and this time I rewrote it to work more like lego blocks -- IMHO more digestable bites -- and also gave the variables clear English names like "groundBody" or "meteorBallBody".

as-hive and box2d demo

code sample:

public function PhysicsWorld():void
{
createWorld();

drawDebug();
drawGround();
drawBuilding();
drawMeteor();

addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, enterFrameHandler);
}

full source

I added some comments throughout the code. For instance, if you change the density of the meteor from 100 to 10 it will land peacefully on the roof like a zeppelin but that's another game.

For time to time, we'll try to post small samples like this. Now, onto to skinning the objects and playing with setPixel32 to rip into them.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

team dev

So far the coding department of DD has been comprised of one John Stringham, and he's made some awesome solo progress. But now I'd like to join the fray a bit and work on some of the screens around the gameplay -- perhaps collaborate with John on an episode.

I've reached a small milestone today by integrating HIVE with DD so I can work around John's efforts.

The following are two tech demos mainly for John's benefit to show him what I've been working on:

build 1 <--- plugs in an old version of John's demo
build 2 <--- borrows Emanuele Feronato's nice box2D demo

One episode can now be easily be swapped out for a different one.

By using this type of framework, we can continue to work independently even take on different episodes while we create hooks between the screens and maintain the flow.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Unavoidable

My favourite games have tended to be story-driven adventure games where a player's decision will influence the outcome of the game.

One of my personal goals for this project is to accompany the game with a light story; easily digested by our modern reader who doesn't have time for giant tomes.

I'd like to try to interweave parts of it into the gameplay, and encourage others to cut it up too if we decide to make an editor similar to Bioware's
Aurora toolkit. You'll notice the creative commons copyright at the bottom which was inspired by reading works by Cory Doctorow. There is an interesting trend to give a piece of your art away for free.

I've started to write fiction again, which for me is awesome because it only took me 10 years to come full circle and realize that I want to write fantasy again. Over the years, I haven't stopped writing just not finishing anything; mainly sketching stories and publishing non-fiction reviews. I think my last major completed fantastic work was my OAC English project where I created a board game complete with 20-sided dice rolls before I realized computers could look after this for you.

These days, I find it easier to write code than prose but more rewarding to have prose framed by code. One is an escape from the other yet they both can work together to create interactive fiction. I like being to being able to slide from code to prose and blurring those lines.

so here is one more false start:

----
The northern lights stirred as the passing meteor slipped through the night sky. It seemed to hang in the air like a bright emerald fleck trailed by fading stream as it arched over the isolated mining town. The sleeping dwarves beneath cared little about its sudden appearance, expect one who had been expecting it.

Alfric Seedstone, the town's eldest at well over 300 years old, didn't rush to do anything more anymore. He rolled over and out of bed onto the pick-axe scarred rock floor, and wrapped himself in thick hides that were sewn crudely together. Over the hides went a second layer of a heavy iron plates, polished to perfection over 100 years ago and now deeply pitted and dull, splattered with grease and dirt. They reflected no light crudely covered the crags of his skin that ringed his weary body and told the story of his life.

He murmured an a brief incantation and an faint wisp of an orb appeared and orbited between his hands, looping in and out of sculptured fingers several times before moving on to explore and warm the rest of his joints suffering for arthritis. Like the rest of his clan, Alfric was clinically blind from birth, and he didn't need the orb for light, but to ease his ancient body into motion.

Though blind, he knew his way around, and it paid to always put things back in their place. He located his ornate iron walking staff on its holder, which was too thick to allow his fingers to close around it. He favoured the top of this short staff, and rested the slabs of his fingers on its cool maned head, a forgotten beast, and clamped down to support his mass. Across his back, he slung a pack slash already full with some necessary equipment and then, feeling the orb ignite his limbs, he scuffled off to observe the strange wonder awaiting for him above.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

drawing with flash

I really like the Flash IDE for drawing. I find it easier than illustrator although the end line quality suffers if you're into that sort of thing; I hardly notice.

I worked a bit on my style this afternoon attempting to do a flash colour render of this dynamite engineer. I tried to time-box it to an hour. I took a bit longer than that and am somewhat happy with the results. I know I need to draw faster with less detail if I'm ever going to get to animation.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

scribblenauts



in this puzzle adventure game, you can type in any kid-safe nouns and they will appear in the game. For instance, type "bear" and one will appear and behave like a bear -- same with "bee", "fishing pole" and even "dracula".

neat first impression of scribblenauts

produced by 5th cell

Saturday, June 6, 2009

snowman



i like the look of this snowman found in the Nozomi Sasaki video below -- he needs to make it into the game somehow.



source: danny choo post

Saturday, May 23, 2009

iPhone Fever

This is an interesting article on the new iPhone Gold Rush.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Quick Update

Just tossed in a new update for Digger Dwarves. Not much in this one, but among the improvements:

- Scrolling terrain
- Much larger 'play area'
- Parallax scrolling for background
- Some bitmap blitting optimization, but it will still run slower than previous versions since there is more stuff to deal with now

As always check it out here or use the link on the side if you have moral issues with clicking links in blog posts...

Monday, April 13, 2009

unreal terrain in under 4K



this movie is the result of the real-time visuals created by a program that is no larger than 4KB.

It was produced for a demoscene competition.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

dwarf fortress



today on the home page of word press, the feature post was about a guide to this game called Dwarf Fortress. I had never heard of it before so I did some digging and found these gold links:

lets start with the hot word press post

a youtube video play through

gamasutra feature

and finally the dwarf fortress wiki


edit by jotapeh: Of course, if you're actually interested in playing DF, you might want to look here

Friday, March 6, 2009

dyson




these guys have already built a game around mining asteroids called Dyson claims to be "an ambient real-time strategy game with abstract visuals" where one can "command semi-autonomous self-replicating mining machines to take over an entire asteroid"

Some great ideas here but no alien nor dwarven miners...hmmmm

link

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Hand Eye Society

handeyesociety.com

first meeting is tonight -- i'm going! I signed up too and committed 10 hrs ... not exactly sure when I'll have 10 free hours but its a great idea nonetheless and worth supporting.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Saturday, January 24, 2009

deepsea mining & permaculture

deep sea mountain ranges and mineral jets

this could turn into a neat game play idea -- digger mermaids?!

I listened to another cool ted talk about permaculture where a farmer moved his herd of cattle into a fresh paddock. The cows grazed for 3 days and ate up all the grass. He then moved them to another paddock and replaced them with 300 chickens who quickly headed to the cow patties and to gobble up their favourite prey juicy grubs.

If the farmer had waited 5 days, the maggots would have turned into flies. The chickens in turn made their nitrous rich waste which is perfect fuel for rebuilding the grasses.

wiki: permaculture

citrus engine

"The Citrus Engine is a side scrolling platform game engine built for Flash in ActionScript 3, using the Box2D physics library. It is geared towards teams that want a quick and powerful way to make advergames, and casual games for game portals."

citrus engine

Thursday, January 22, 2009

prisoner's dilemma

I recommend:

TEDTalks : Way-new collaboration - Howard Rheingold (2005)

He discusses the game theory of a prisoner’s dilemma

ted.com <-- subscribe there to get his talk - its great to load up your ipod with them

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Pebble to Meteorite

this is a nice article which illustrates what your C02 contribution weighs and how it can quickly amass into something huge.

see the weight of your C02

What the connection to the game? I had mentioned a meteor in an earlier post plus this article mentions a hot spring which could another cool game element.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

cat rabbit



I stumbled across this image and looked up the artist after googling "catrabbit".

her flickr feed

her site