One game a week #2

This week I took a shot at a 3D game. Because this is my first 3D game I kept it really simple, it's one of those walking simulator games. I made a few simple models in Blender and created the terrain using the Unity terrain builder. I bring you: "Draught"
http://gamejolt.com/games/draught/82526

One game a week #1

The past week I've been working hard on finishing the first game in a week. It's a puzzle/platformer where you have to build the level to progress. Instead of controlling the player, the player controls itself. It's your job to build the level in such a way that the player can make it to the end. Good luck!

http://gamejolt.com/games/joel-s-journey/81121

Picking it up again

It's been quite a while since I updated this blog, but that is mainly because there wasn't an awful lot to say.
With another semester at Utrecht University behind me I now have plenty of free time in my holiday. This means that I can finally start doing something I've been wanting to do for a long time: One game a week! I tried making a game this week, but unfortunately work and such took up too much of my time to finish this week's project.
No matter, July 13th I'll be starting the challenge and I will continue for as long as I can. I'll make one game every week and post the results here. I already have some ideas I'm excited about so I hope to be able to properly finish them in a single week! The next blogpost will hopefully be about the first game I made within a week's time :)

Results for Ludum Dare 32!

I had a great time participating in Ludum Dare 32! I received lots of positive reactions on my submission "I Hate Golf!" http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/i-hate-golf/61242/
I was astonished with the final results because I ranked much higher than I thought I would! You can see the page here:
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=45678
Or if that doesn't work, here is a screenshot:

I am definitely going to participate in more game jams in the future. I am also planning to get round to doing one game per week during my summer holiday. All the games I create during that time will of course be featured here.

Ludum Dare 32

I just participated in my very first Game Jam! I decided to try and make a game with Unity this weekend for Ludum Dare 32 and I actually did it! I created a game within about 24 hours while a friend of mine worked on some of the artwork. It was a lot of fun and I'll gladly participate in future game jams now that I know I can make a game in such a short amount of time.

The game I made is called "I hate golf", the theme this Ludum Dare was 'Unconventional weapon'. The weapon you use in this game is the wind itself, and you use it not for the greater good but just to make sure someone doesn't win at their golf game. You basically have to try and keep the ball out of the hole using your wind powers.The game can be played here: http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/i-hate-golf/61242/

Making such small games in a short time seems like a really good way to train my game design skills, so I'll defintely take any opportunity to participate in game jams. That's it for this update, I hope to bring you more soon.

For questions, feedback or requests I can always be reached at:

indiestepsblog@gmail.com

A new look

It's been a while since I did a blogpost, but here it is.
My artist came through with some amazing concept art, here are some of the enemies he drew:

He also worked on a few tilesets and character models but right now we're really trying to find a fitting artstyle. With a few of those new sprites the game now looks like this:

It's already a major step up from what we had before, but this is just a start of course. But besides working on the game I halve also been making a new episode for my youtube series 'Game Plunge': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA35mbXENdc 

In this episode I analysed the design behind Half-Life 1. Right now I'm working on the second episode about Half-Life 2 which will be released in a few weeks I think.

As for 'Path of Vision', I will be working on it in the weekends as much as I can. But right now, I'm not making an awful lot of progress yet since I am working on several things at once. That's about it for this update, I hope to show you some cool new features in 'Path of Vision' the next blogpost.

For questions, feedback or requests I can always be reached at:

indiestepsblog@gmail.com

A bit of progress at least

I finally got around to working on my game project again. I added a leveling system to the game so that you can level up your character and grow stronger and stronger throughout the game. I have been trying to get a hold of my artist, but he doesn't seem to respond all that quickly. It's about time the game got some actual graphics and look nice, so I will try and get some artwork ready.

I am also working on the second episode of Game Plunge. I am just now working on the script, hopefully it'll be done by the end of this week so that I can make some sound recordings and start editing. Hopefully the video is ready by the end of next week, I'll certainly try at least.

Anyway, that is the progress report for this week. I don't really have much to show you for now unfortunately. Therefore, I will most likely post less frequently since there isn't much to say most of the time unfortunately.

For questions, feedback or requests I can always be reached at:

indiestepsblog@gmail.com

It's been a while

Two weeks go by quickly it seems! I skipped last week's update because there wasn't a whole lot to mention about the project. I have been a bit preoccupied with starting my youtube series about game design. I can proudly say that the first episode is online now and can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcXizxRypds

Right now I'm juggling between schoolwork, my youtube series and my game project. Because of this I wasn't really able to make a lot of progress on my game project. I am now working on a leveling system but it's still in its early stages. I am still trying to figure out a nice way to implement the leveling up of your character, so there isn't really a whole lot to report on that yet.

Even though I wasn't really able to make progress, this does not mean I am abandoning the project. I'll try to slip in some more time for the game project here and there, but because I also want to make new youtube videos progress will be slow unfortunately. That is really it for this week's update.

For questions, feedback or requests I can always be reached at:

indiestepsblog@gmail.com

Loot pickups and opening chests

Finals are over(thankfully) so I now have some time to work on "Path of Vision". This week I implemented opening chests and picking up loot from slain enemies. I do not have a lot of items yet, but right now it is more important that the system just works.
So for opening chests this is what I came up with:

Basically, if you stand on the square of a chest or a bag of loot your backpack will change(in this case, it turns green). You can then click on the backpack to "open" the chest/loot. This opens a new screen where you can drag and drop items from or items into.
Believe it or not, but there is some actual thought behind this system. I chose to do it this way to simulate opening a chest in real life. The chest's screen blocks your view because you are "distracted" by opening the chest just like you would be in real life.
This same system was implemented for sacks of loot enemies drop. Now all that rests is creating a system of leveling up and then adding a ton of content(items, enemies, rooms, etc.).

For questions, feedback or requests I can always be reached at:

indiestepsblog@gmail.com

It works!

I got the inventory system working and pretty much bugfree! The player stats are now updated correctly, you can equip weapons in both hands and use those weapons in combat encounters. Both the quick menu and the real equipment windows are working properly now, plus the game runs perfectly on my phone! Here's how the quick-menu is working now:
You can simply drag your weapon towards the stick figure and it'll automatically equip it for you. If you pick up a weapon you can select which hand you would like to place the weapon in.




















Then, if you want to know what your current stats or equipped weapons are you can click on the stick figure icon to open the equipment screen. Here you can freely drag&drop the items into your equipment slots or into your backpack.

Furthermore, I have made some great progress on my first video for my new Youtube series about game design. I have now arrived at the last editing stage and then it's ready to be posted online! I expect to be done with it within a week or two.

For questions, feedback or requests I can always be reached at:

indiestepsblog@gmail.com

improving on the inventory

A bit later than usual this blogpost, I do apologize for that. Last friday I had a networking meeting to promote Indievelopment, for which you can purchase tickets now by the way: http://www.indievelopment.nl/

Anyway, what progress did I make? Well I thought and contemplated about the inventory system a lot. There are a lot of things you have to account for in mobile games, most notably the abundance of space. So I had to find a quick, comfortable and compact way to manage your items. After some discussion and suggestions from my friends this is what I came up with:




















You can drag your weapons on top of the eye icon to inspect them and see their bonuses and such. To automatically equip your items, just drag them over the stick figure icon and you'll equip the item. To see your player's stats and to swap around your equipped items and inventory items you can click the stick figure icon to get to a seperate screen:

Here you can drag items to their corresponding item slots and you can immediately see how your stats are affected. Once again, the eye icon can still show you an item's bonuses by hovering the item over it.

That's about how far I got this week. I don't expect much progress the next week since finals are coming up and I'll be a bit preoccupied with that. Furthermore, I want to launch the first video of a youtube series about game design I'd like to start soon. Most likely my progress on Path of Vision will consist of bug fixing and polishing up a bit.

For questions, feedback or requests I can always be reached at:

indiestepsblog@gmail.com

Inventing an Inventory

The beginning of this week I finally got some help from someone at "Stackoverflow" who managed to find a solution to a problem that had been bugging me for quite a while. The problem I had was that I wanted to get the amount of scaling that was performed in the UI for different solutions. But for whatever reason, that function was nowhere to be found. Someone on stackoverflow suggested a workaround and it worked perfectly! Due to that fix, my health bars worked properly for every solution the game was run in.

Anyway, what progress did we make? Well, not an awful lot of progress I'm afraid. I was trying to come up with some kind of inventory system for Path of Vision, but that isn't so easy because of the limited amount of space you have. So far this is what I have:

It's not completely finished yet, but this basically represents your character's equipment right now. In each of those brown spaces you can place some kind of equipment. Your character's stats are shown in the top-left corner. Tapping the backpack in the bottom-left corner switches between the exploration mode and you character's inventory. It isn't really finished yet however, because you still can't see the items in your inventory right now and each item's stats/

Well that's it for this week basically, I'll try and finish the inventory screen by next week and then who knows what's next.

For questions, feedback or requests I can always be reached at:

indiestepsblog@gmail.com

The basics are there

I've had quite some time to work on Path of Vision in the holidays, so I was able to make some nice progress. I now have both the exploration working:

The way it works is that you can move your player(the purple dot) around by swiping in the direction you would like to travel. Should you land on the same space as an enemy(the black spiky things), you encounter the enemy in a seperate combat screen:

Here you must try to defeat the enemy. Your own player is shown at the bottom of the screen and the enemy is seen at the top of the screen. You can attack the enemy by pressing the big red button with the sword on it. The damage and chance of hitting the attack is based on your current gear and stats. The enemy attacks work slightly differently. If the enemy attacks you, a shield appears:

If you tap the shield before the timer runs out, you block the attack and take no damage. However, if the shield's timer runs out before you tapped it you lose health. So you must alternate between attacking the enemy and fending off attacks in combat.

These are still placeholder graphics of course, my artist and I are still figuring out what kind of art style we would like to go for. So, this is my progress so far basically. I'm very pleased with the results thus far and I'll be expanding on these mechanics more over this week.

For questions, feedback or requests I can always be reached at:

indiestepsblog@gmail.com