Studio 4491

The zany group of imagineers powered by pizza that make fun games at Lot 4491

[rymakesgames]

We're Remaking Glow

Our current version of Glow was made over five years ago in a little under two months for an exhibit for school. Between the tight schedule, an engine we had trouble working with and our general inexperience at the time, there’s a lot about it we wish we did better. Still, we love this game and were plenty happy about how well-received it was when we showed it off. Personally, I feel like I owe this project for opening doors for me in pursuing game dev as a career after college. We meant to remake this sooner, but had to shelf the project to take care of other priorities like finding jobs after graduating.

We’ve finally settled down a bit and feel we have enough time and experience to give this a proper go now, and we’re rebuilding Glow from the ground up. Our artist Katrina is happy to be getting back into drawing and animating for games after picking up new tricks from her time in studios like Kontrabida, Secret6 and Tose. We loved the original character designs from the first version, but we’re excited to see how she spices things up some more.

Character redesign sketches by Kat

Our lead dev Amiel and my co-designer Allen went on to pursue careers outside of game dev unlike Kat and myself, so the two of them in particular are pretty psyched about working on a game again as well. Per Amiel’s advice, we’ve moved the project over to Game Maker Studio 2, and we’re pretty pleased with it so far. We’ve already built a prototype with most of the basic gameplay elements in place, and Allen’s drafted a couple of levels to test them on already.

As with Version 1, the remake is intended to be short and sweet at an estimated 30 minutes of play time and will be released for free. While we may have gotten a little better over the years, we’ve found through another previous project that our ability to work together on the limited capacity we’re able to commit to still needs fine-tuning. We also hope to finish this within the year, so we want the scope to be as manageable as possible.

All that said, we hope everyone is as excited as we are and we look forward to showing everyone more of the game and we’ll provide regular updates whenever we can. See you all again soon!

We’re Remaking Glow was originally published on Ry Makes Games

[studio4491]

Showdown! Super Idol Galaxy, affectionally nicknamed S!SIG.

This was from way back in 2015 for Game Dev Fort’s Indie Game Maker Contest, but I guess we just forgot to post it here! It isn’t quite everything we wanted it to be, but given the constraints and complications we ran into, we’re proud of what we accomplished regardless.

- Ryan

CONTROLS:

P1

Move : WASD

Shoot : G (Press with Move to aim)

Jump: H

Dance : H (Charging and releasing dance acquires neutral/gray fans)

P2

Move : Arrow Keys

Shoot : numpad 1 (Press with Move to aim)

Jump: numpad 2

Dance : numpad 3 (Charging and releasing dance acquires neutral/gray fans)

[studio4491]

We're already at least a week into this, but Kat suggested we prep a public space to discuss the project, so here goes.

We got together last week and decided to join this year's IGMC. The contest is a free-for-all where participants are given a month to create a game containing this year's theme of 'Growth'. Participants may use any tool they wish to make any game they want, provided all original content are created only during the contest period.

Growth lends itself to a lot of ideas and, in my opinion, is inherent in all games. Simulation games like Sim City, Farmville and the like are pretty much about gathering resources, building and literally growing your property. The level mechanic in RPGs is also a form of growth. Applying the contest theme to a game isn't necessarily difficult--it's finding a creative twist on an otherwise basic idea that's the challenge. By the end of the night and after a box of really cheap pizza, we decided on the following:

Last year's IGMC was only for games using Degica's products Indie Game Maker and the ever-popular RPG Maker series. The contest has opened up for games made with other tools this year. Because of this, we've decided to make our game using Stencyl. We believe that because IGMC is hosted by Degica, most of its participants would be using RPG Maker. It would probably help us stand out better if our game were to set itself apart both mechanically and aesthetically. It also doesn't hurt that our team has used the software before on a previous project.

Our game needed to provide a real, physical representation of growth. Growth through numbers on a HUD lacks the impact and gratification of actually seeing something grow and improve over time.

We want cute. And absurd. We threw Katamari Damacy and Zombie Tsunami around a lot as game reference. For visual pegs, Gravity Falls, Love Live, aaand this beautiful monstrosity.

And with that, Super Galaxy Idol Pluto was born. The game is planned to be an action-puzzle platformer set in a space colony in the distant future. You play as the young idol Pluto, who embarks on a quest for groupies, dance battles, and discovering the true power of friendship.

We're still in the early stages of building a playable prototype and final character designs are still being hashed out. Stay tuned for further updates!

- Ryan

[rycanteras]

Project Glow, by Amiel Suarez, Xu Wei, Allen Silva, Kat Langomez, Neil Co and Ryan Canteras. Released for DLS-CSB’s Multimedia Arts Festival 2013.

[katlangomez]

Last half of the sprites for Glow featuring Nautilus. He was the narrative enemy but i was told he looks cute. We completed and featured the game last April 10-12 at Rockwell Tent during the Multimedia Arts Festival. Will probably make a devoted post for the complete sprite set and featuring the game with screenshots.

[studio4491]

Sprite Assets Part2, created by our animator Kat Langomez for the platformer game, “Glow” which we presented at the 2013 Multimedia Arts Festival held at the Rockwell Tent, Powerplant Mall, Makati City, Philippines. 

[katlangomez]

Current Freelance Project for March - April 2012 are sprites from the project “Glow” I was tasked to create a main character and mentor sprites for a an indie platform game. The theme for the characters in this game are based on sea creatures. Will update this post later when I’ve expanded the library.

[studio4491]

Sprite Assets Part1, created by our animator Kat Langomez for the platformer game, “Glow” which we presented at the 2013 Multimedia Arts Festival held at the Rockwell Tent, Powerplant Mall, Makati City, Philippines.