The art of finishing

Apparantly, finishing a project is more about what you decide to drop and what you decide to leave in. Finishing FUTransport was more of a process of removing future features than it was actually adding things to the game. It was fun however to finally see something I made come together. Adding some sound effects and music I made on my guitar and keyboard really added some feel to my game I hadn't witnessed before. I have learned a lot about game development from doing this project, mainly how difficult it really is! But it was a lot of fun and very rewarding in the end. It's not a masterpiece by any length, but I'm proud of my first game nonetheless. It is my very first proud step into the universe of game development, and it was a very difficult one to take.
Play the final version here:

http://gamejolt.com/games/strategy-sim/futransport/33035/

So, what is next?
Well, as I've said before I plan to improve my design skills rather than my programming skills in future projects. This means that I will be making A LOT of games with simple tools such as Unity or Game Maker. I will try to release a new game every 2 weeks starting from the first monday of october(very busy week coming up).

Next week won't be an update on a specific game, but I will be able to tell you some concepts I have in mind for my next projects.

For questions, feedback or requests I can always be reached at:
indiestepsblog@gmail.com

Making my way there!

I am pleased to announce that I will be releasing the final version of FUTransport next week. This week I got around to updating the HUD. This means that next week I'll add some sound effects to it, maybe some music and then we're done(finally)!

Play the latest version here: http://gamejolt.com/games/strategy-sim/futransport/33035/

All in all it took me a lot of time, but it did improve my programming skills a lot and made me truly experience the entire development process for the first time. My plan now is to focus on game design rather than my programming skills. This means that I'll be making A LOT of games in a short period of time. It won't mean that the games I'll put out will be any good, but as I've mentioned before it's an effective way to improve your design skills.

Unfortunately, I realize more and more how little time there really is in a day. With school projects piling up, helping to organize the gaming event 'Indievelopment', playing some volleyball and then developing games on the side I don't have a lot of time to spare. At least I spend my time productively(I guess). That doesn't mean I'm not excited for my next game project however! I already have a ton of new ideas to work out in future game projects and I hope to show them to you a lot more quickly than I could now.

Hopefully next week, I can move on to a different project and I can finally show you something different!

For questions, feedback or requests I can always be reached at:
indiestepsblog@gmail.com

Forcing those last few steps

This week I first decided to scrap the whole 'trains have to wait for each other' mechanic. I came up with too many cases where my system would fall apart and I did not see any value in trying to make them all work. I decided to just make a menu and get that out of the way so that the only things left are really to add some sounds to it and to update the graphics. I will also make some resolution options so that you can play the game properly on a variety of different resolutions. Here's the new build if you're interested:

http://gamejolt.com/games/strategy-sim/futransport/33035/

But really, I am sick and tired of FUTransport. If there's one thing I took out of the whole development of FUTransport it's that I don't want to make games in Microsoft Visual XNA anymore. Not only does it limit me to releasing games on windows, it's also a lot more difficult to get the most simple things working. I don't want to worry about how my code draws objects on the screen, I just want to worry about the gameplay elements and program how objects interact with each other. I will most likely be using something like Unity or another existing engine to make games with in the future.

Lastly I'd like to add that I played my first game of 'Furego'(that name does not sound right), the card game I've been developing with a friend of mine. Here's the design document of it if you'd like to see what it's like:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bOKhu-Td0tC7P8vgDwI-t6drv7-Epbh8-wPsxm8D4X8/edit?usp=sharing

I can say that the mechanics were quite fun, but getting the cards balanced and pinpointing the flaws in the game is quite difficult!

That's it for this week's update.

For questions, feedback or requests I can always be reached at:
indiestepsblog@gmail.com

Another sunday, another update

Good news, I can bring you a new update for FUTransport this week! I have now implemented a few new trains to choose from and you must now plan your routes even better since only one train can ride on a track at a time. I was first planning to make trains bump into each other if they tried to pass each other on a single-lane track, but that became a little tricky when there were several trains arriving in/departing from a city. Trains should not crash into each other in cities or villages so defining exactly when trains should and should not crash was a bit of a fuss. In the end, I went for the easier solution and just made trains wait until the tracks were free before driving onto the tracks.

You can play the new build here:
http://gamejolt.com/games/strategy-sim/futransport/33035/#show-notifications

If you've played the game feel free to leave some feedback over here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1c96Zpu0_fUw1YxF9XR_dZIlnOo0SZ1XyIfauYBF6xv0/viewform

The things that are still left on my checklist now are:
- being able to upgrade tracks so that multiple trains can ride on it
- upgrading the HUD/graphics

I am ever growing more eager to finish this game to start my 'game a week' project but I just have to stick to it a little bit longer. FUTransport is almost finished... well... as good as finished. Unfortunately time is growing more and more scarce since school started this week. So now I have to not only work on my games but I also have to attend colleges. It's all worth it in the end I guess.

In other news I thought it would be fun to create my own trading card game. So I got together with a friend of mine and we have started developing a prototype. If you want a vague idea of what the game is going to be like check out our design document on it!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bOKhu-Td0tC7P8vgDwI-t6drv7-Epbh8-wPsxm8D4X8/edit#
We haven't thought out everything yet, but we're slowly making progress.

For questions, feedback or requests I can always be reached at:
indiestepsblog@gmail.com