So earlier today, I got that weird motivation again. I can spend weeks learning small new things, not making progress on any projects and generally not caring about it. What little I do works for me, and I do it when I can and, more importantly, when I’m awake enough or have motivation to do so.

Today, however, I sat down and really wanted to code something big.

Imagine a side-scrolling adventure platformer, pretty simplistic as a concept.

now add in my text box dialogue system from Calamity and an ethereal or supernatural over-see-er character who guides the player.

As you progress, the levels obviously get harder and harder and over time your character aquires “evolutions” - powers that allow more interesting level design, harder or more varied gameplay, and genuine powers; stuff like double jump, ability to shoot energy from his hands, flying, maybe digging.

During gameplay you aquire credits that allow further micro-customisations of a few “basic abilities” like movement speed and jump height, then every time you get an evolution it unlocks new things to spend credits on, so for example faster energy firing or more jumps past the double.

There are many characters, a running plot, a nemesis of some kind, and it all looks pretty and is animated.

I feel I’ve neglected this blog a lot recently, and that neglection has been in the wake of College year two, turning eighteen and other teenage mishaps.

I’m back for at least the next two weeks, though, as there’s plenty I haven’t written about and plenty of new and important things to say.

One definite article coming soon is the celebration of my first year’s anniversary of game development. I only confirmed today that the date of the beginning of my first original game was the 28th of March 2011, and instantly knew that a year’s review will be a wonderful and useful thing to write. I’m gathering resources and information so as to make the post worthwhile, to tell the story properly, so to speak. There’s a lot to cover, as a hell of a lot has happened, and I’ve come extremely far in the space of one year.

But before that post, I need to write at least a little about the now finished Maze Blitz! The coursework is nearly complete, with the program itself having been completed a few weeks ago.
On top of this, I need to write about my new project, named (for now) The Ascent. This is a concept I’m passionate about and very much hoping to find more time to work on, as I’ve planned the deployment and sale of this game from the outset. Should all go well, I will release The Ascent in the near future.


So, lots to write about, then. I’m sure I’ll find other stuff, too, so stay tuned.

I’m back for a while.

- Jonno 

So I finally loaded up Vegas Pro 9 last night and inserted the some 2,537 images that Chronolapse took of my screen during the 72 hour Jam for LD#22. I whacked on some good music, was surprised by how well the tempo of the music and the image changes matched up in places, and published.
My only regret is not capturing Nathan’s screen, as that’s where most of the game’s art happened and a bit of coding, too.

Let’s not regret though, enjoy the timelapse!

Post-mortem to come soon.

- Jonno

VIDEO 

We’ve worked on a lot of stuff since the last update, best explained in the below video.

Last things to do tomorrow are bug fixes, more sounds and actual level design.

- Jonno

VIDEO 

We took another sleep break (for longer than expected) and woke up to work on the enemy AI and multiple machine linking.

Many doors can now be linked with one switch and vice versa, producing the capability to create more devious or complex puzzles on each level.

Enemies are created with an initial x and y velocity and a patrol area that they must follow. If they come within a certain range of the player, they chase the player and return to their patrol if the player escapes the range.

I also worked on a level system, which is essentially a 3x3 pack of maps that are linked by the doors on them. This allows us to create bigger levels with multiple rooms etc.

The video below is of the multiple machine linking and the enemy AI.  

- Jonno

VIDEO 

We’ve been working pretty quickly and have implemented a lot of art and new features into the game.

We currently have a puzzle machine system which involves doors, switches, keys and pressure plates. Any machine item can be linked with a door and we have begun to conceptualise levels involving patrolling monsters for quick-paced relatively simple but tense puzzles.

The below video demonstrates the current three puzzle elements and shows off the menus etc.

All art is done by Nathan.

- Jonno

VIDEO 

It’s only been a few hours and our game is shaping up nicely.

Alone in the unknown now has a menu, a pause menu, and an engine that’s prepared for pretty much all the game mechanics we want to implement.
I also implemented a set of entities called “Machines” that have the capability to be switched in state and can be linked to one another.
An example of a machine link being useful is for a switch and a door, which is exactly the example in the new video below.

The main work to do now is draw sprites for all the machines and design the creepy enemies that will plague you. Then it’s onto more machines, audio and level design.

I’ll be back with progress.

- Jonno

VIDEO 

I’m back once again with news that I’m participating in the new Ludum Dare competition, the one that’s going on right now!

I’m working with a friend for a 72 hour Jam entry and the theme is “Alone.”

Our concept has been described as Limbo cross Amnesia; you’re a man who wakes up in a castle alone. Each map is a set of rooms with puzzles and challenges. There are monsters around the place in the darkness, and you can’t fight them. It’s going to be a game of puzzles and suspense, with sound effects and music to set the atmosphere.

We’ve been working for maybe two hours and have already discovered how quickly you can get shit done with a dropbox shared workspace folder while you’re sat next to each other. We have a basic game engine that can load and draw maps and entities, and a few states including pause, run game and a menu screen.

Below is a video of our first run with proper entity movement response using old art from another project of mine. The map in the background is a BufferedImage and the entity is a player controlled with the WASD keys.

Good luck to all, this competition is finally getting going!

- Jonno

 VIDEO