_xRich

A personal gaming blog about my adventures into the game programming/development world!

[xrich-blog]

Bern a while...

Its been a long time since I've last posted here. Just keeping you all updated. I've been developing some software that has been taking up most of my time along with work and life. I should have more concrete information in the coming weeks. I really think you all will enjoy it.

[xrich-blog]

**RELEASE DAY**

Cave Encounters was released a bit early and is now available for download! You can follow the link below to download and try out my game!

http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/206851-cave-encounters

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Be sure to leave a comment and a rating!

Thank You all,

-Rich-

[xrich-blog]

October Challenge: Complete!

My goal for the October Challenge was to just finalize and complete the game I started nearly a year ago. Although I'm not releasing under a market where I can gain profit from it, I'd rather just let my first full game creation go without a fee.

I'll be releasing Cave Encounters (Formerly: Cave Runner) onto the YoYo Games market for free on October 30, this coming Tuesday for PC. I have finalized the game and I am 100% certain that there are no bugs or glitches in it.

I'm still working on the multiplayer function with hopes of getting it fixed sometime early next year.

That's all for now,

-Rich-

[xrich-blog]

October Challenge Progress Report

Hello Everyone!

Here we are. We are ending the month of October very soon. With that in mind I would like to happily inform you all that Cave Runner in coming along very well. All of the glitches that were stated in my last post have long been fixed and then some.

I added a whole new menu system and scoring system that looks a lot nicer and runs and acts a lot better than before. I also added a multiplayer option (more on that later). Also added an exit button made the game run very smooth and well all the way around. As of my most recent build there are no bugs to report (YAY!)

More on that multiplayer support. It doesn't work. The framework I'm using (Game Maker 8) does not support multiplayer functions that well using the default functions for multiplayer which is called "mplay". The function is there, the usage and limits are very strict. I'll get into more on this is a later post (I Promise!) So I put the multiplayer menu selection in and most of the coding is there, you just can't access it as of yet. I'm still working on getting that working properly over a network rather than a LAN.

All in all I'm far from done. I have about 20 to 30 more levels to add and I'm looking for a release on the YoYo Games sandbox at the last day of October (This could change, I'll also make another post about this as well)

That's all for now!

-Rich-

[xrich-blog]

October Challenge 2012!

Hello Everyone!

I haven’t updated this thing in a while…I’m kinda rusty at it, I suppose. Anyways, I’m bringing this blog back from the grave as I’m going to use this to keep up-to-date on my progress throughout the October Challenge.

For those of you who are not familiar with the October Challenge: The October Challenge is a Indie game challenge where you must have a game completed by November 1st, and then you must put the game on the market and earn at least $1. As long as you earn $1 then you win!

For the October challenge, I will be polishing up the game I did during my first Ludum Dare, a game called “Cave Runner”.

If you would like to play the Ludum Dare release of cave runner, you can download the .EXE right here ~> http://db.tt/NMxUIvO6

There are a little bit of bugs in this release, those of which include:

No game restart function

Leader-board glitches

Collision with advancement tokens are glitched

Debug controls are still functional

Level design still needs work on some levels

Game boundaries broken on some levels

These will be the first things I will fix before adding new features (Gotta fix what’s broken before moving forward, right?)

Back to the October Challenge, for my tools that I will be using, I’ll be using my usual tools for game creation:

Game Maker 8.0

GIMP

Audacity

MS Paint

Keep watch on this space for more updates throughout the month, I would also like to release a few versions before going up on the market, I’ll have to see how everything works together (if it does work)

That’s all for now!

-Rich-

[xrich-blog]

A Page from my Journal

I can honestly say that I am without a doubt happy that 2011 is ending and 2012 is right around the corner. 2011 has honestly been one of the toughest years of my life. I've learned so much from this year that will guide me through 2012 and onward for many more. This year has taught me many lessons from almost every aspect of life.

Looking forward, I feel positive that good things await around the corner in 2012. I feel that if I can overcome the situations that 2011 threw at me, then nothing can hold me back in 2012 or in the future.

So as I write this at 3:20 AM on the last morning of 2011, I say leave all the things behind in the old year and move forward into the new year. Forgive and Love.

To the New Year!

[xrich-blog]

Cave Runner Postmortem

Well Ludum Dare 48 has ended and I thought I would go through and review my weekend of how it went. What I did wrong and what I did right.

What went Right

Once the theme was announced I spent about 15 minutes on the design. I instantly knew that I wanted to do a minimalist graphic design and do a basic platformer. All I needed was a title and motivation. I had both. My Friday night was spent doing the graphics. With a minimalist design I didn't need to do much. 

On Saturday I programmed the movement, environment, tokens and everything else that needed programmed. Fun. Also near the end of Saturday I started doing level designs.

Sunday was the big day. I started realizing what could be done and what couldn't be done. I finished off my levels, tested, debugged, packaged, and submitted my 48 hour of joy.

What went Wrong

I was introduced to ping pong...

[xrich-blog]

Ludum Dare 48 #22 Submission! (Link Included)

Hey everyone!

I just submitted my game Cave Runner for Ludum Dare 48 game competition. The premise of the game is pretty simple. Jump about the cave and collect the tokens from level to level. Be careful though, the levels can get very tricky and complicated!

Download Here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34013143/Cave%20Runner.exe

**Please remember that everything you see was made by me in less than 48 hours**

[xrich-blog]

Ludum Dare 48 #22 (Declaring My Tools)

I'm happy to announce my entrance into Ludum Dare 48 #22 happening this weekend! I know I've only completed a handful of games in my lifetime and that's all it takes along with a great idea. This competition has sparked my interest lately and this weekend I will be giving it a go.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the competition, here are the base rules:

You are given a theme to create a game around

You will only have 48 hours to complete said game

You must work alone

All content within the game must be created within the 48 hours

Source code along with executable game must be submitted for judging

I'm still unsure what my concept idea is. I have a few of the floating around but it all depends on the theme. That's what makes the challenge so fun!

For my tools I will be using GIMP, Game Maker 8, MS Paint and Audacity. These are all the tools I need!

[xrich-blog]

Updates Updates Updates

It's been a long time since I've updated my Tumblr, sorry about that. I've had my time consumed with finishing a 2nd build for Nova, planning a possible sequel (which is an entire blog post on it's own) and working on a separate project (which has yet to be announced).

So far on Nova I have all of the bugs finished and I should have a second build ready for download before the weekend gets here. A few changes I've made were:

Made the Juggernaut class stronger

Nerfed the High Dragon

When you level up you allot 5 points instead of 3

Edited the store values (5 instead of 3)

The only bug that remains is one I cannot find nor fix, that is where you select one monster and it gives you another. It only occurs in the later stages of the game when you are about to fight the High Dragon. Sadly this bug must remain but I assure you that it will not remain in future titles.

[xrich-blog]

The world must know about this...

[xrich-blog]

Classes and Stats Revealed!

Theses are the current stats for the classes for Nova:

Assassin   Attack:70, Defense:25, Magic:20, Speed:80 

Thief   Attack:40, Defense:20, Magic:35, Speed:50

Paladin   Attack:55, Defense:60, Magic:25, Speed:45

Juggernaut  Attack:75, Defense:55, Magic:30, Speed:60

Priest   Attack:35, Defense:30, Magic:50, Speed:30

Wizard Attack:50, Defense:30, Magic:80, Speed:40

Elf Attack:30, Defense:50, Magic:45, Speed:50

Rogue Attack:60, Defense:30, Magic:25, Speed:50

Druid Attack:35, Defense:20, Magic:70, Speed:50

Manson Attack:??, Defense:??, Magic:??,  Speed:??

I tried to keep them all even, or at least around the same area but also made each class a specialty in one of the four areas. I did this so you could create a class, have a specialty and still play the way you want to play your character. I think this way would keep the gameplay unique and dynamic for each individual.

[xrich-blog]

A Simple Idea

I just realized how almost every game has been fueled by dying or the fear of dying. All the way from Mario in the 80s to nearly every game on the market today (even Tetris was fueled by the fear of awkwardly filling gaps) --So to this I propose my simple little game idea.

A game set on earth and by making choices and decisions, either good or bad, and at some point you will die in the game and depending on your karma status you get sent to a heaven or a hell-like world.

Now to keep this interesting you will need to both visit the heaven-like realm and the hell-like realm and escape from both with certain items, materials, information, etc to continue your quest on the main realm.

This not only does this eliminate that fear, it gives three (or even more) worlds of dynamic gameplay, interesting plot (if done properly) and tons of game time.

At times you will not want to die as you will be sent to another realm but more often than not you will want to die because there will be nothing left for you to do at a certain realm, and will need to travel to another realm to move forward.

[xrich-blog]

Test

Test_Post_02

[xrich-blog]

Test

Test_Post_01

[xrich-blog]

Browser no Client! Browser no Client!...

Now that the limited Nova alpha release is over, I've thought of ways I could create a way to make updates easier. I've decided to create the game within an applet. Creating the game in an applet will allow me to embed the game into a website and push updates through the online client instead of having to download a new client after every update.

I'm testing the Applet Object Class now, seeing how far I can take it and seeing the limitations of the Applets. If all is well I should have a _01 release by next month (Learning Java has turned into more of a task than once believed).

As for the Nova_04 release using Python; I have abandoned the Python source as updating the source from Python 2.7.x to 3.1.x is too far of a chore, so I have pulled all versions and closed the alpha for now.

[thedealer1228]

[xrich-blog]

thedealer1228:

This shit always makes me laugh xD

This is what gave Borderlands its quirky feel.