Surviving Space Update - Hangar

Hello there! I've been working pretty hard on my last project since I'm able to see progress quicker than before, also all this free time lets me polish more my ideas.

My main focus on this week has been an "Hangar System" so the player can have different ship and use whichever he wants for any round. All ships have a name and two colors so you can personalize your ship with any of the 100 color combinations.

You can delete and edit any ship at any moment and all the upgrades you buy will apply to the active ship.

The next step is to make some powerups or skills and then give the finishing touches and it will be ready to be uploaded.

Quick update

Hi, everybody! It's been a while since I published anything so I think I owe you an update.

My current project it's a space shooter like Asteroid with some new mechanics like upgrades, customisation and so on. It's being developed on Unity and although it's my first time using it I can tell it's really easy and fast to use. The scripts are on C# and all the graphics assets are from Kenney's website.

The game is currently for Windows but maybe I'll port it to web-browser so I can upload it somewhere. At first this game was going to be another project to learn how to use the engine, but again, Unity is so easy to use and modular that I'm adding things little by little and I can add some more features so it will be a finished game.

Even if I don't port it I'll upload the game so you can download it from here. I need to start showing games on the blog, I mean... it's a portfolio too.

So that's all for now. I hope to be writing soon with some progress.

Learning Curve and New Concepts

Hello everybody! This week I've been focusing my work on two things, the in-game learning and the way to keep the player's attention during the whole game.

We all hate tutorials, they are boring and some times extremely long, at this time if somebody plays a flash game is because they want a casual and quick distraction and is the designer's obligation to assure that. So the best way to do it is making the player learn while he's playing.

This technique is not new, but some people still makes tutorials for their games. I will try to introduce the game mechanics on some levels so the player has always new things to do and doesn't need to play a tutorial. For example, on the first level the player will learn how to move and shoot, on the third level will learn to push boxes and on the sixth level will learn that barrels explode.

Another thing that was a problem was keeping the player's attention during the whole game, so my solution is to introduce new power-ups and enemies on the campaign levels, I would like to have a few surprises for you on the game so I can't tell you all right now.

Bye!

Tiny update and Facebook page

Hi! I've been pretty busy with all this university work, but I'm still working on this. I'm coding right now the enemies' behavior and the level editor.

So as you can guess I have some material to show you because even if the last picture I posted is really similar to my idea of the finished game it isn't a real in game image. I don't know if i should do it in such an early stage of the development but I'll do it anyway because I'm super excited about the way everything is going.

I know it looks kinda empty right now, but I still have to add more UI elements and some details to the grass.

I've also wanted to tell you I started a new facebok page, I would post regulary so if you want to get more updates don't forget to like it! I also have an image of the map of the campaign level selector so if you want you can take a look.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mortup/1606867539556728

Let's get physical, physycal!

Work, work, work. I'm coming back with lots of energy this time, with so much energy that I'm working in two projects at the same time.
I'm not sure, but I remember saying I'll try Box2D in my next project so I'm using it now and I still can't believe the power of that library (or engine), it adds lots of realism and dynamism to any game. Right now I'm working on a top-down tanks game with some cool assets made by Kenney and they fit really good to the game I was expecting to do, I can't give more details of the game yet but I guess you can imagine how will be a top-down tanks game with a physics engine.

I'll try to make this game dynamic and addictive, easy but catchy (I'm not sure if that is a word, but you get what I mean) so it will be fast and require more skills that logical thinking. I hope you like the game idea, leave any comments with suggestions for the game (or my next game) and I'll be glad to read them!

Game idea

Remember you have the "Contact" tab under the blog's title if you need to talk to me about anything

Take care!

Still Alive

Hi there! I know I've been pretty absent last time, but just for you to know I have not stopped working on games. Right now I'm working on a game that is bigger than the last ones, it is not a huge game, it's still a flash game, but now I got a partner so this game art will be able to be considered "art".

If for some strange reason there is somebody who actually waits for my games and updates don't worry, I'm working on a new game and it will be awesome! (I hope) I will talk with my partner to know if I can give you some previews of the game.

Byeeeeeeeee!

A colorful game

I'm starting with some new projects and almost forgot to update the blog. Since I published the first game I've been talking with some artists and everybody seems to be really nice. I started some games but I'm kinda addicted to programming so when I'm ready and I'm waiting to recieve some assets I work on another game that I'm doing by myself.

I can't talk about the projects I'm doing with other people because I haven asked them but I can talk about my own game so here we go.

With "I suck at designing" I recieved lots of comments and I tried to remember the most repeated ones. So now I'm doing another platformer (I hope the last one for a while) but this time it has a little more puzzle.

The miniature for the game

I needed to add more visual effects to the game and as you know I can't do good graphis so I used a particle system to add more color and make it more good looking. I learned that people like medals too so I'm gonna make some medals for this one too.

I have to be careful about the details and make the gameplay really smooth so I worked really hard in this point of the game.

It's been a short time since I started making this game, but now I have some experience using Flixel (and to be honest, Flixel it's one of the easiest As3 engines to use) so I'm making a good work in a short time, nice!

I can't decide if I'll use Box2D or FlashPunk to the next game, but I can use them together and maybe I'll put a bit more effort and use both. But I don't know yet and I have plenty of time to make a decision.

Have a good day!

Today is the day

Right now I'm waiting to get the results of the game testing. Everything it's ready and I'm just need to push the publish button and it's done.

I hope somebody press the "gStudios" button and read this, but in any case the procces of making a game it's really fun and I enjoyed the whole thing.

Now I'm going to relax, read a book and, of course, start thinking in the next game... I'm thinking about making it with Box2D because everybody says it's great, but I don't know.

For first time ever I've finished a game so I'm happy :)

Almost there!

Woah! I'm really excited about this, I've never finished a game but now I'll do it tomorrow (If everything goes as expected). The level design process tt's slower than I expected but it's kinda relalxing because I can't make bugs in this.

Right now I just need to finish two more levels and two more medals and I will be ready to publish the game, maybe it will be ready today, but I will not publish it because I need to test it and make sure everything it's working fine.

I don't know, I just want to continue working, sorry for the short update.

Ican'twaituntiltommorrow

Change of plans

So I've been thinking about it and I've made some changes to the game. I'm aiming to something smoother and dynamic, so the players will feel better playing the game.

The idea of the enemies was good, but when you have enemies that walk around following paths you have to wait for the right moment and that will take away a lot of dynamism.

The newgrounds API has been implemented and all is working fine. I just have to finish the levels and look for some bugs, but the game is mostly ready to publish.

The new list is here:

• 15 diferent levels
• Smooth character movements READY!
• Double jump
• Player dies if: Touches a enemy, touches something spiny, fall down the level.READY!
• Spikes, static cannons, bouncers, coins. READY!
• Enemies:
• Simple walking enemies (Like Mario's goombas)
• Jumping enemies (Like Mario's flying koopas)
• Flying enemies (Just go wherever they like)
• English/Spanish language selection READY!
• Options and credits screen READY!
• Newgrounds medals integration READY!
• To win the player needs to pick all the coins and reach the goal.  READY!

New:

• Stats screen with information like time played, jumps, kills and so on.
• Mute option

I'll continue working. See you later! 

Bouncers, spikes and coins

So today I feel very productive, I'v add a lot of features to the game and they are working smoothly enough.

The bouncers gives you an predetermined velocity and an extra push that depends of your impact velocity. The coins... well, are just coins. And the spikes kills you and make the main character to play a pretty animation. Everything with their respective sound effects.

The credits screen is ready with all the legal information that needs, and now I'm working on the level selection screen. I can't believe how fast it's going everything!

When you start a level, a beautiful song by Kevin MacLeod starts playing and the title screen has another one. I don't know, I'm just really happy about the quick progress I've made today.

Mortup is out, peace!

Are you an angel?

It was dark and cold, the only thing I could hear was the sound of my keyboard keys tirelessly whispering me to stop trying.

I've been working all day in some way to change the zoom of my game without messing everything else, but it was quite impossible, I've looked for tutorials but I've found nothing until, like a silver lining coming froum the clouds, an user called funstorm posted the most beautiful tutorial I've ever seen.

source: http://www.funstormgames.com/blog/2011/10/flixel-setting-up-game-dimensions-swf-camera-level-hud-mouse/

It covers everything about dimensions and coordinates (in fact that's the name of the tutorial) and it explains everything in a very simple way. If you ever need it you can click here to read it.

While I'm developing the game I will be uploading everything i find usefull.

Returning to the making-a-game-process topic that's what I have now. A character that moves across the screen and a camera that is following it.

See you later!

Dame: Deadly Alien Map Editor

Lately I've been using a magnific map editor and I think it deserves a post in my blog (although I don't think anybody will see it, but I feel good doing this).

It can export files in different formats (I'm using .csv) and you can define rules so you can draw a map and the program will decide which tile to use. You can even randomize  the maps.

I'm not sure but I think it has isometric support so you can design really cool levels using layers, matrix, stacked tilemaps and a lot of cool stuff.

You can get it here or in the links at the sidebar. If you like the editor you can donate some money.

It's Alive!

Finally I have something that looks like a game, I mean now I have a level and a functional character who can walk, run and jump. I'm glad!

My real objetive is to make a smooth game with cool movements and simple controls I'm more interested in having polished features that having lots of poorly made features. I've designed a main character, it reminds me of Kirby's Rocky, but mine is uglier.

Don't be mean, it's my first time

That's today's progress. I know it does not seems big but it is. I hope so...

¡Tacos! ¡Piñata! ¡Fiesta!

Just a quick update

It was easier than I thought! Since spanish is my native language I have to make an option to play my game in spanish, I thought it was going to be difficult, but no.

I've made a simple language selection screen at the beginning so I would be writing the two languages while I'm programming everything else and I'm not going to translate all at once.

I know I shouldn't upload anything until de game it's on beta, but I'm uploading just the title screen so you can see the screen.

Click here to see the SWF file

See you tomorrow!

Let's get organized

Soooooo It's the second day of work on the project and just like big games we're going to need some

Game's titlescreen. I want to keep it simple

kind of goals to know where to aim.

I'm pretty messy and it will be the first time I'll make something like this, but I really want to finish at least one game and I need to get some organization.Today I'll prepare the whole list of goals and if for some strange reason somebody is reading this I'll love to get comments with opinions (You should add bouncers, more enemies, I don't know).

Here is the To Do list:

• 30 diferent levels
• Smooth character movements
• Double jump
• Player dies if: Touches a enemy, touches something spiny, fall down the level.
• Spikes, static cannons, bouncers, coins.
• Enemies:
• Simple walking enemies (Like Mario's goombas)
• Jumping enemies (Like Mario's flying koopas)
• Flying enemies (Just go wherever they like)
• English/Spanish language selection 
• Options and credits screen
• Newgrounds medals integration
• To win the player needs to pick all the coins and reach the goal. 

 The game will be made using FlashDevelop and Flixel, and as Flixel has a particle system I really want to use it somewhere, I'll try to figure out where. Only if you didn't know, Flixel is an awesome AS3 libraries that make retro games much easier to make, It's royalty free so you can download it from his official website. I'll keep this and other useful links on the right bar.

Well, I think that's enough to get me busy, later I'll go deeper on each point, but it's okay for now.

Until next update!

The beginning of a journey

Hi! I've been trying for a long time to make video games, it was my dream since I was a kid and lately I've begun to feel like I can do it. So I've started the development of a simple game called 'I suck at designing' which will be my first finished game (I hope so!).

I spent the last weeks looking for all the resources I need for doing it, like licences, libraries, sound effects, music, and so on. So I'll be giving you links with all the stuff I'm using so you can use it.

The main idea is to make a simple but addictive game, it will be a retro-style platformer with spikes, enemies, trophys and all those things that make a enjoyable game. I want to make it simple, because I'm always trying to do really complex games and I never complete them and this has to be the time that will change.

Maybe you noticed that I'm really bad at writing and that's because I'm not a native english speaker so I'll practice my writing with this blog.

I think that all for now, wish me luck.