Category Archives: News

Rethought Release

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I’ve been thinking about it more and more, and I’ve decided that I should stop trying to finish the game by leap day. I honestly do think I could do it but I’ll most likely end up sacrificing something in the process and I won’t have a very good promotion window. Normally delays don’t bother me but I really wanted to make that date so it’s eating at me.

Ah well, if I can’t leap I guess I’ll just have to Spring. So I’m proposing a release date of March 20th, the first day of Spring. Have you noticed a recurring theme here ; D ?

Usually I finish may games in Fall or Winter so it’s nice to have one in Spring. The only problem with the release I see (aside from my poor sense of timing), would  be the other games that release that day (Ninja Gaiden III, and Resident Evil Operation: Raccoon City). Slipping through the cracks is a cause for concern. I guess I’ll see how it goes. I suppose It’s probably better than a release a week before Mass Effect 3.

Modelvolution

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If there was one thing that I would say could be harder than music, it would be getting the model right. There’s always some angle that I find myself not liking making me change around the face and the body and how the character is drawn in a seemingly never ending cycle. Such a pain…

The model is still incomplete but I think I have a good idea of what the final head will look like.The mouth may also turn out different depending on how well rigging the mouth fares.

Nothing is seamed together yet because I’m likely going to reuse those parts before moving on to other characters.

The process probably seems slow but much like music, once I’ve finished one, the rest just fall into place.

I’ll think I’ll post the complete model next update. I should be finished quite soon.

 

Frantic February

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Not a whole lot of days left and I still haven’t gotten any of those books yet. Not looking good, but it’s really amazing how much you can do in a day when you set your mind to it.

I’ll level with you, right now I have about 3 and half minutes of gameplay, no models are complete, a few core systems are missing, no songs have been completed, I haven’t completed the story script, many levels are still blank pages, and there’s still a few things I feel should be redone or improved on. You must think I’m crazy to even be attempting a Leap day release.This is sort of the usual situation for me and the game typically seems like it springs up overnight (minus having to deal with music), but there is a promotional aspect that I always forget to take into account. In reality I’d want to be done at least a week before 29. Still I won’t rule it out just yet!

February 1st I’m going to show something. I don’t know what yet but definitely something. Nothing big though, It’s most likely going to be model related. If all goes well, February should be the month where the game quickly unravels and is topped off with a release. In reality that likely isn’t going to happen but reassured the project is going to be finished soon.

Unless of course I don’t like something… no mistakes!

 

Status Report: Jan 24, 2012

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This year has started pretty well actually. I haven’t gotten as much as I’d like to have gotten done but I’ve been pretty busy.

For the past week now I’ve been giving a shot at music again. Combined, I’ve probably spent at least 3 weeks just trying new techniques to get something that works. Finally, I think I have a song that I can work off! It isn’t complete yet, I’ll probably do a bit more stage work  first. Kinda worries me I could be lost when I get back to it but my brain needs a rest.

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Death to E3?

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I’m pretty sure everyone’s heard something about the SOPA/PIPA bill at this point and while I don’t exactly generate the most traffic I feel somewhat inclined to at least mention it. I haven’t looked into the bill myself but the main issue seems to be giving companies too much power over copyrighted material, giving them the ability to figuratively censor the internet. Its seems to be a bill that affects the entertainment industry for the most part and maybe people who make those let’s play videos or use copyrighted music or images.

Here’s where the plot thickens. The ESA (Entertainment Software Association),which in general represents the game industry, is said to be a big supporter of the bill. I guess what company says no to more power right? That isn’t making the ESA a lot of friends.

The ESA’s big event is E3, and as a spite to the ESA’s support for SOPA/PIPA it’s been proposed that the media not cover E3 this year and that people and companies not attend.

So where do I stand in this? I have everything to gain from this from a company perspective right, albeit a really small company. Yet and still I I oppose this bill. I’ll always be on the progressive side, forward thinking. You honestly don’t even have to read into the bill, you can look at the list of companies that support the bill and the companies that don’t to get a sense of which side you should be on. This bill to me feels like as step backwards. The very companies that made the internet so useful (YouTube, Google, Wikipedia and even those social companies I like to complain about), they’re the ones in the crossfire of all this. In the meantime, the companies that do absolutely NOTHING are in support of it. Typical.

Attending E3 was one of the things I was hoping to do this year, but probably won’t happen at this rate. It’s a shame because events like that only help companies but attending this year would equal to a slap in the face to all the people opposing the bill. Even if you’re thinking from a business standpoint it isn’t a good move.

It’s a important to remember that piracy is an issue but polluting the ocean to take down a few ships is probably more harm than good. (figuratively speaking of course)

Fantasy’s Curse

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It’s Friday, January 13th and it seems like no better day to ramble about one of the fears I have about this project or rather game design in general. Can the dive into fantasy break sequels in a series focused on realistic gameplay?

Most games don’t have this problem as they’re either one or the other, however some realistic games may shift towards fantasy elements when ideas are slim (ahem, not to say that’s what I’m doing…. Fantasy is just a lot quicker to produce). The advantage of fantasy is that you’re not working inside of a box, you can use any idea at your disposal. Once you go back into that box there’s just going to be some things you won’t be able to do.

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Where’s the Media?

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I haven’t really been posting any actual screens for a while now. The reason for that is, I’m mainly focusing on how the game plays right now and I’m also trying to figure out ways to build my levels faster. Even with all the advancements I made I don’t think I’m going fast enough. When I can build my levels at decent speeds I’ll focus more on coating them in timely manner and post the results.

The second part of this story would be character models.I was going to do a bit of modeling work a long time ago but decided that it really wasn’t as important in the grand scheme of things. In turn, I’ve just been doodling trying to stabilize Felix’s design, which likes to change a lot because I always tend to try different drawing methods.

Then there’s the music… Good grief. The first song seems to be the hardest one because it sets the theme of the other songs. I still haven’t done that first song. Maybe it’ll come to me after the playing through the first stage in full form.

The artistic side of things tend to be the most open ended so I’m saving those tasks for later. Getting lost in the arts is an easy way to prolong a project. I honestly think I would be done right now if I didn’t focus so much on graphics and technology but I guess it was all warranted with the jump to 3d.

Either way, lesson learned!

The Leap Year

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It’s 2012, the season of “AAA titles” has ended and it’s time to leap into the new year, which just so happens to be a leap year ; D! While my Leap Day release is becoming more unrealistic with each passing day (I seem to still be learning how large the project really is) I’m certain I’ll have the game ready in time for Spring. Leap, Spring, get it?

To kick of the 2012 year I thought I’d do 1 or 2 things as I begin to ease into promotion mode. On the Art Page I’ve uploaded a more recent picture of Heather and right now I’m going to announce a few more details about the game.

The end product is set to be around 3 hours. That doesn’t mean I currently have a 3 hour product but my goal is to make the game last about that amount of time. The goal price will be 400 ms points which is about ($5 USD). Considering there are games  about the same length of time and cost 3 times as much, I think  it’s a pretty fair price (as long as the game is good that is…).

I’m going to be a lot more active in the next few months, even if I’m just posting to babble about nothing. The game’s release is a month or so away so consider this an interlude to the promotional phase.

The goal here is to be good enough to get an article on a major gaming website. I think I’ll send something to ScrewAttack.com near the end of the production phase. I like their style.

The Whimsical Tale

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Well I’ll start by saying, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or simply put a Merry December. This will be my last update for the year and I thought I’d end it on a note that reveals a bit more about the game. Having the game fully outlined, I feel more comfortable giving a better overview.

Heather (Lisa’s niece) is assisting Lisa (whom is tutoring Wiley), by going over a book she’s written, with Wiley. If you’ve played Samba of the Wolves you’ll find Wiley to be somewhat illiterate. The book is dubbed “Felix and the World of Whimsy”.

Felix and the World of Whimsy is about Felix wandering around a mythical land of happy flowers and other anthropomorphic plants and objects. Unfortunately, the land is being terrorized by The Count (Roy) and it’s up to Felix to save the World of Whimsy.

Naturally Wiley doesn’t take well to the cutesy plot and develops the sole intention of derailing it with variations to the story, effectively raining on Heather’s parade.

The game itself is a kindred spirit with “Anti Effect”, following along Felix in a narrated  form. The characters use their actual personalities and work as actors following a script in a world of its own. The difference is, the real world will play a part in the story as well.

It’s a fun little tale that I think finally introduces that bit of ideology into the series I’ve wanted to and provides contrast to how seriously the characters work in even the most unrealistic settings.

Status Report: 12-13-2011

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I started out really well working towards the release date, then I kinda got a bit lazy. Not as lazy but still lazy. The reason for that is, I went back to focus on two areas I don’t try to spend a lot of time on (design, and music). These areas are extremely important to me but they bring out my lazy side.

On a plus note the skeleton of the game, story and structure wise is finally set and I’m simply on the path of filling it in. I usually never do this, often opting to design a set of features and seeing how I can use them. Given a little breathing room, this way seems to work rather well. On a minus note, I ehh still have no music… I’ll get there though!

One thing I must reemphasize, is my focus towards adventure/puzzles. Samba of the Wolves captures the spirit of things in a few ways (firefly, logs) although don’t make much sense and the start of Tandem Tales just completely misses the point and is nothing more than a trade quest. While this game has a lot more platforming than the previous games, my top priority has been to put the Adventure back into the Adventures of Felix.

My next source of reveals will likely either be final models or the debut trailer. However, I’m not doing a debut trailer until I have some music to go with it. I have no clue how long that could take but early January sounds about right.