Monday, December 30, 2013

2013 Final Update

Alright, the year's coming to a close, so now would be a great time to look back at some things.

Fungicide

Let's start with Fungicide, the first game I released.  It's still a work in progress. Very playable, and very addictive, but nonetheless incomplete.  I should probably focus any future efforts on finising up the campaign and just let the disaster that is the multiplayer component burn itself out.

The sad part is, Fungicide was intended to be a coop multiplayer shooter about zombies.  The main engine came together nicely, but the networking just blows up. With some concentrated work, I could probably still pull it together.

On A Rainy Day

On A Rainy Day was second.  Just a fairly simple puzzle platformer.  This game was actually put together in two nights or so, as somewhat of an experiment.  It got a lot more attention than I would've expected, given that.

I still like the idea of moving objects with the mouse.  You can go a long way with a mechanic like that.  Saddly, it hasn't gotten too much polish.  You may just see that type of thing in my future games.

Ant Attack

My third game was Ant Attack.  An arcade-type game where you smashed ants for points.  Probably the least polished game I've released, but still rather fun.  The music was the best part.

Finally, Insomnia.  This game featured some of my best pixel art thus far.  I like games with a horror atmosphere, so I decided to make one of my own.  I have this one labelled as a demo, which it is. Two more game sections are planned out in my head.

Insomnia

Insomnia needs more threats.  I don't feel there was quite enough to keep people one their toes.  You can't go walking through the halls without a care in the world, and have a horror game at the same time.  The atmosphere and sound design were good.  The sound effects were rather sparce, partly to help out my Windows 8 players.

The Future

I will keep working on these, especially if players ask for updates.  You'll find, though, that I have the attention span of a gnat.  When my players aren't interested, I probably won't be either.

As a present for those of you who read this far, (seriously?) you get some information and a screenshot of another project I'm working on.  It's called The Hero's Handbook, an action RPG.  It's similar in design to the 2D Zelda games.

Hero's Handbook 2

Hero's Handbook 3

It's not a bad looking game, as far as pixel art goes. The gameplay so far is fun, but it's no where near good enough for any kind of release.  Lots of work to do yet.

The guy there?  His name's going to be Zulo by the way.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Deku Palace: Learning from Its Mistakes

After playing Majora's Mask a bit more recently, I'm looking back on it less and less fondly.  Story wise, it's one of the better Zelda games, but some issues with its level design are hard to ignore.  From that, we can gain a lesson: how to make a game less frustrating.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

No, Link isn't Dead in Majora's Mask

Alright, let's start with a little background for those of you who don't have a clue about this.  A theory is circulating about link being dead or something in Majora's Mask, and that the whole game is some sort of afterlife.  This claim is based on a few pieces of evidence, along with the major themes of the game (loss, death).

It's not a good theory.  It's not an interesting theory.  Overall, the whole mess is just kind of unfortunate, and undermines the more serious aspects of the game's theme.

WIP Screenshot

I have a screenshot of a game I'm currently working on.  This time, it's an action-RPG.  Think Zelda.

Really, it's incredibly early in development, but some of the artwork is coming along nice, so I thought I might show it off a bit.

Screenshot after the jump!

Monday, December 16, 2013

Insomnia Demo Retrospective

Overall, the response to Insomnia's demo was luke-warm.  Which is alright, since that's still warm rather than cold.