tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13711975373624465882024-03-12T16:53:11.764-07:00Psychotic PspeaksPsyPsofthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586372773166399296noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1371197537362446588.post-22918650227340933532014-07-29T08:45:00.002-07:002014-07-30T09:38:34.917-07:00Flea SoundsHello there,<br />
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I've been so busy working on my latest game Flix The Flea, that I've completely neglected to write a blog on any of the processes involved since I found my rough little demo backed up on an old hard drive and decided to make something more of it.<br />
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If you caught the last post, you'll notice that I'd just started a Kickstarter Campaign in the hopes of funding the software I was using to make Flix, and something like four months later, thanks to the help of my backers, I seem to have all but finished (er, a few persistent flippin' bugs aside).<br />
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While I take this momentary breather before delving back in to tidy the game up, it seems only right that I share a bit of my production process with you here... So d'you know, I think I will.<br />
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Something I never really covered while making Power-Up (although arguably, I really should have), was its sound and music.<br />
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While initially making the demo that was to become Flix, I kept a lot of the sound effects simple, leaving little programmatic prompts all over the place for future reference. This meant that sound and music kinda arrived in the game together, and quite late in production, which also meant that they had a sense of consistency in their style. I thought I'd explore that in a little more detail today.<br />
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<strong>A Bit About The Sound Effects Then...</strong></div>
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I was a student at Bradford University until 2001, just before the advent of the specialist 3D Modelling or Games Programming degrees we see today. Instead, we had a more general Media Technology and Production approach which fed into the film, TV and games industries along with web design, animation, and loads of other creative lines of work too. One skill set which I became increasingly enamoured with through the creation of various sound scape projects and mock radio programmes was the whole area of creating and manipulating sound effects. <br />
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Making a listener believe in a shootout in a railway tunnel or a song composed with the harrowing samples of the world's first homicidal musician was a lot easier than accompanying said concepts with anything visual. Looking back, it was also a lot more fun and freeing to be able to produce this sort of thing individually or in small groups as opposed to doing it in cumbersome production teams lugging heavy kit and reams of storyboard under hot lights, battling with our destructive egos while keeping 50 extras from getting bored and restless on a set for hours on end. (Shudder).<br />
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<em>A little taster of some of the nonsense that me and my friends got up to back in our university days.</em></div>
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In hindsight, I rather enjoyed making narratives happen in sound, though I never really saw my career in it. While creating all that narrative audio proved to be much more complicated than the relatively small demands of a little game like Flix The Flea, concocting those story driven pieces back in the day did provide some useful faculties for thinking in terms of what kinds of objects are hanging about in a scene and how to use those objects bring that scene to life. I think the term I'm clumsily reaching around for is "mise-en-scene" or something in that region. Anyway, the meaning of the term is tricky to pin down but French are said to do it very well in film, adding hidden depth all over the place.<br />
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My focus with those old audio and film projects was really only on the simple task of making the viewer accept that we were in a certain location. You know, to make it all a bit immersive. Given its peripheral nature sound tends to be particularly powerful for that sort of thing... and I had this in mind when I set out to make the sound in Flix.<br />
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Flix was based on the 8-Bit game Bugaboo The Flea. I go on and on about this, but Google it and you'll see the similarities. In fact, Flix was originally a little remake of Bugaboo. Just a hobby project from the days before Power-Up, which I made just for me. Just to see if I could. <br />
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<em>Flix The Flea - Four months to make it sparkle.</em></div>
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As a child, I loved Bugaboo because despite its simple audio/visual approach, there was something about the depth of that cavern which had me so immersed that I almost didn't want to escape it (and in fact, I never did. The game was agonisingly difficult). As I recall, the dark vastness of this single, lonely cavern made the game particularly fun to play at night, and regardless of the game's outward simplicity, it oozed atmosphere.<br />
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The Bugaboo soundtrack comprised of just four in game sounds. A "beep" for jumping, a "blip" for inevitably hitting your head on a rock, a soily "squiggle" for landing arkwardly and slipping off an edge and a final "boop" for landing (in my case, usually frustratingly back at the bottom of the pit). There was also an inexplicably sickening little musical arrangement for when you were caught by the bird, but I'll not even try to describe that, choosing instead to relegate it back to its proper place in my childhood nightmares!<br />
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Harsh and simplistic as these sounds were, I felt that the developers, Paco and Paco had covered the key event-driven sound requirements of the game nicely and anything else would have been gravy (ie. Atmospheric garnish... which was often devoid from even the finest 8-bit games, so I wasn't complaining about its absence here).<br />
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I literally sampled and used these sounds in my original version of my game. Remember, at this point it was a simple straight modern remake of Bugaboo for the sake of my own entertainment. Later, the code for these simple sounds became the cornerstone of a much richer sound scape in Flix The Flea.<br />
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<strong>Software and Hardware</strong></div>
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Back at university, playing with all the new software was a really fun part of creating for me and an audio-minded friend of mine introduced me to Cool-Edit Pro, a great audio package which was used by the course leaders and the local student radio station alike for both teaching students and creating broadcastable content. Many was the evening I stole in RAM Air's quiet radio booth with their top-of-the-range microphones and state-of-the-art PCs, experimenting with Cool Edit Pro. (Not to mention listening to the station's vast selection of CDs).<br />
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Cool-Edit Pro was an absolute pleasure to use and incorporated loads of easy to grasp tools for delay/echo, EQ (low/high end), and modulation too. Effects like chorus, phaser and flange could be applied for quite a variety of cool effects. Not to mention easy manipulation of amplitude, pitch/speed, etc. Throughout our days as students my peers and I enjoyed free use of the package, and after graduation I always kept my own dodgy copy nearby for whenever the urge to make my own little hobby games or animations got the better of me. Quite simply, it was brilliant! and I got a lot more use out of my own £2 desktop microphone than an impoverished cheapskate like me probably should have! <br />
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<em>Ah, the £2 microphone. For years, I made my game sounds with something like this.</em></div>
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When it became apparent that I'd just have to release Power-Up I ran that first kickstarter for it... remember that? Well, that was basically so I could buy all my licences for 2D/3D software along with the software for sound and music. This way I could release my games without legal licencing worries... and included on that wishlist was my trusty old Cool Edit Pro. However, when I came to do my research I was gutted to find that the program no longer existed... at least, not under the same name. In fact, like a lot of good software, the package had been bought up by Adobe, and re-fashioned into the slightly more sanitised Adobe Audition. I was a little reluctant at first, but needs must and all that. I added it to the list of software I required, and when I finally purchased I was relieved to find that Cool Edit Pro and Audition were basically the same thing.<br />
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<em>Adobe Audition: The modern incarnation of Cool Edit Pro and my sound app of choice these days.</em></div>
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Incidentally, I should also mention that there is a free alternative out there if you're willing to suss it out. It's a bit more bare bones but I'm told that a program called Audacity does a good job with sound effects. Take a peek if you're on an even tighter budget than me or just want to have a go at getting started with sound effects.<br />
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Your sound effects are only really as good as your sound acquisition, and my cheap desktop microphone wasn't going to cut the mustard for a game which was broadly to be made up of sounds I created myself. I kinda got away with it on Power-Up by using instrument samples as the basis of a lot of the sounds along with the half decent microphone on my iPhone when recording anything unique but the process was convoluted and messy. Realistically I'd need a decent USB Microphone. <br />
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Luckily, these days you can get a good one off the shelf in most major computer retailers for around a hundred quid. As purchases go, this wasn't a no brainer as I don't generally have that sort of money to spare, but I reasoned the purchase with my hopes of one day recouping it through sales of the game and I took the plunge. I got myself a Spark Blue condenser microphone, and so far I'm pretty happy with it.<br />
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<em>A decent microphone of my very own. It's been a long time coming.</em></div>
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<strong>Making Noises</strong></div>
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Well, it really is about as complicated as "making noises" really. <br />
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In more detail though, I find that the best way to get the sounds for my games (especially something cute and cartoony like Flix) is to identify what it is I need, then make it by whatever means necessary... which in my case, usually means with my mouth. When it comes to sound effects you can't be coy, and that's probably why it helps to do these things alone without a big group standing by.<br />
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Working at home as I do, I do sometimes wonder what my neighbours make of the crazy noises coming from my office when I'm in the middle of a recording session, but hey-ho. My local reputation as an eccentric nutter is a small price to pay if it means I get to make my little games!<br />
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So, with the curtain of mytique firmly torn from the whole affair, let's take a look at a few of the sound effects from Flix The Flea, and a bit of the thinking and process behind them.<br />
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While initially re-making Bugaboo, I really hadn't given a thought to sound. I simply took those key sounds from the original and that was that... but when I returned to the project with a view to turning it into Flix I already knew that I wanted to elaborate on those sounds. For example, the sound of Flix hitting his head over and over quickly became pretty infuriating in game (it happens a lot). It was negative feedback on the most potent, repetitive level: Player frustratingly hits head - frustration compounded by the same dull "blip" noise over and over. I was just getting angry playing it.<br />
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Luckily, over years of making my little games, I've learned that a good way to reduce that frustration and lower the blood pressure is with a little bit of variety. First off, I was going to replace the "blip" with a fist-in-palm contact sound which nicely represents a little bald head slapping into a rock with the force of my knuckle behind it quite effectively simulating the rather harsh but necessary force of the character's skull behind the collision. This would be at the core of the impact sound (not to mention quite subtle and already much less abrasive than that "blip"). Now for the variety.Well, no probs. I decided that I'd basically do a selection of "oof"s, "ow"s and "ouch"es to accompany the impact. <br />
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But hang on! This isn't as simple as just grabbing the microphone and recording it. Let's just stop and think for a moment.<br />
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The first question is: How many variants of Flix's voice will we need? This sort of thing needs to be quantized... especially considering that later on there's going to be more vocal sounds than just "ouch"es. Again, drawing from past experience, here's how I see the quantizing of variable sounds chosen and played randomly on a cue. <br />
Three is the absolute minimum when it comes to varying the sounds and having them sound fairly natural to a player whose attention is really on their progress through the game, and even then you're pushing it. Provided you're not firing off an "ouch" every couple of seconds, you might just get away with three. Any less and Flix definitely will sound like he's playing a recording. And that'll jar on the player.<br />
Somewhere in the region of seven variations is pretty much the maximum for a small game like Flix. Any more than that and you risk wasting file size space while not actually really benefiting from all that variety. After all, sound is by far the largest part of a game's file size. It's all a bit of a balancing act.<br />
My happy medium for a game like Flix was to be 5 variations of "ouch" played over the head-hit sound. <br />
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Secondly, Flix is going to say more than just this selection of "ouch"es. At the very least, he's going to need to celebrate the picking up of an item or the completion of a level, to die and possibly even to respond to the proximity of a nearby predator (as this bit of colour was a feature I REALLY wanted). The trouble is, Flix was clearly going to have an affected voice. My natural voice was hardly going to suit him. If I went in half-cocked and blasted out a load of "ouches", coming back to do the rest later... well it stands to reason that I'd be in a different mindset later and produce a totally different set of vocalisations... not to mention that I'd completely forget the processes I put them through to make them sound like Flix. That's no good at all. I'd need to be consistent, and to do that I'd need to set up a recording and editing session so that I could do all of Flix's vocal comments in one fell swoop.<br />
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<em>The raw vocalisations for Flix... Yes, I am aware that at this point it just sounds like me acting like a bit of a moron. But bear with me on this...</em></div>
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When making your own sound in a consistently stylised way, this rule of thumb pretty much applies to any set of sounds in any game. Sure, make a bunch of random placeholder sounds as and when you need if you like, but reserve the creation of the game's REAL sounds for one good day/week/month-long session in which you can focus all of your attention on getting it right, in a nice consistent environment and mindset.<br />
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Basically, for me it was time to start a "List of Sounds for Flix The Flea" and "hit head x5" was going on it!<br />
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<em>The voice of Flix, all nice and consistently stylised with a few extra bits of foley. (AKA - me eating crisps noisily).</em></div>
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The same would apply to the bird's squawks from a distance (to add an element of foreboding along with a vicinity warning), a selection of those same squawks close up, the celebratory outbursts, the squeaks and protestations of fluttering bugs and bats, and pretty much every other character's utterance in the game. 5 was the magic number.<br />
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Five was also to be the number of variations on Flix's jump sound... although this time for different reasons. The whole game mechanic rests on Flix's jump height. I basically broke flix's jump height into 5 sound categories. When the player releases and the height is at the bottom of the scale in category 1, we get the quiet, low spring, in category 2 the spring gets higher and louder with more of a travelling rise in its pitch, and so on. Basically, the higher the player makes Flix jump, the higher, louder and generally brighter the little accompanying springy sound becomes (by the way, that's the sound of me twanging a plastic ruler on my desk in a myriad of different ways). Sure, I could've just stuck with the one sound, but where's the subtle charm in that?!<br />
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Sometimes a seemingly simple sound would turn out to require a little more work. for example, later in the game's story, there's the sound of Flix smiling which required the creative manipulation of an instrumental violin sound I'd purchased for music composition... in fact I reckon that musical instrument samples are the next best thing after your voice for getting that Hanna Barbera/Ren & Stimpy brand of expressive sounds that you don't hear in real life.<br />
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<em>These are the 5 squawks I made for the bird, followed by the modified versions for nearby and the further modified versions for far away.</em></div>
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Finally comes the issue of pitch and key. Something I've mentioned before. With my games, I try to use key where I can in the sound effects to subconsciously please the player. In Power-Up I actually created the whole sountrack in one key (in a nutshell, this means based around the same dominant bass note). It gives each song in the game a sense of coming from the same place and allows me to pitch sound effects with the music for seamless juxtaposition. If you're wondering what I mean by this, have a play of the first level of Sonic The Hedgehog. Pick up a few rings and you'll find that the sound of those pick-ups is perfectly in key with the music. A very pleasing effect. Sure, the later levels change the key of the music, but the way that the all important first level is nicely tied together really makes for an inexplicably positive and memorable experience for the player. It's those kinds of experiences I look for when gaming, and its those experiences I attempt to emulate, elaborate on and experiment with when I make my little games.<br />
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I could dissect my Flix sound processes further but I'd probably be treading the fine line between informative and downright self indulgent, so I'll leave Flix sound there, suffice to say that the whole process of sound recording for the game happened properly in the last few days of the game's production when I knew what I wanted. A large percentage of the work was in prepping a list of the sounds I'd need while working on the game and just messing around with whatever items came to hand in the hopes of getting a nice audio effect. <br />
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<em>Examples of sounds from Flix The Flea that are in tune with the music. Very effective for tying it all together.</em></div>
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<strong>The Music</strong></div>
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The music in Flix shared one common characteristic with the game's sound effects. It was all prepared in advance then actually added in toward the end of the project. But while I'd be prepping the game's sound effects in the form of a list, the music was all prepared in the form of little recordings of me humming melodies, bass lines and generally trying to commit easily recognizeable vocal licks and riffs to my iPhone's voice recorder app (other phones and voice recording apps are available).<br />
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This was a trick I picked up back in my band days. Basically, I wrote songs. Lots of songs... I'd have probably done that whether I was in a band or not. I just liked doing it. I'd come up with a little melody and a few phonetic sounds which might eventually evolve themselves into lyrics depending on what I was in the mood to write them about later, then I'd grab my acoustic guitar and my trusty little tape recorder, both of which were always on hand in my bedroom at my mum's house, and later in my student bedroom. Once I had that little bit of tune recorded, I'd consider it safe and I was able to concentrate on other things, coming back to my tape when the urge to write a song came along.<br />
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<em>An example of how my ridiculous howlings in note format eventually became a half-decent song, courtesy of my old band.</em></div>
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Again, you first have to get over yourself enough to recognise that in your initial rough recording you're going to sound downright stupid. It's worth it for the finished result though. With a bit of imagination, your idiotic babbling into your tape deck/phone will eventually come out sounding like a good song.<br />
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The technique I developed back then for capturing a good melody before it slipped my mind is as useful as ever for my little games, and having a voice recording app in my pocket at all times makes that even easier than it was then. While making Flix I knew that at some point I was going to need music, so throughout the development of the game's art, design and code, I was constantly humming, recording, then refining little riffs to fit into the game's overriding melody. Sure, to anybody else it sounds idiotic, but placed in the context of the finished product, it all makes sense.<br />
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<em>Where it all began: This is the sound of me playing with pleasing Flix-style melodies while doing a spot of housework.</em></div>
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In some ways, this aspect of the music was made easier by the fact that I'd decided to attempt the whole game's soundtrack in a single song. While this meant that the ten-level game's soundtrack was to be reduced from a potential ten tracks to just a single one, it also meant that I'd have to layer this one song in such a way that the player would feel a sense of the story unfolding as they progressed through it. A sense that with each level of the game, they also got another level of detail to the music... not just a token channel switched on. To achieve this, the addition of a new instrument, and in a lot of cases a whole new sub-melody in the song would have to have a noticeably profound effect on the game's music with each progression. This was the experimental element of the Flix soundtrack, and the real challenge too.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV74FMKeMmrgM-CJcAb24aruLwmyqn0lKy6QOFYud2VmvPGelLOftmFK5NhkoHYgzJ0Hl76_JuwXhflPLE3ukOJg30i9Xsn_U64Oi-uAhWSNtxDD-hvH4aPJtF_z7lGvlTEzLR6qdOOgps/s1600/cubase.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><em><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV74FMKeMmrgM-CJcAb24aruLwmyqn0lKy6QOFYud2VmvPGelLOftmFK5NhkoHYgzJ0Hl76_JuwXhflPLE3ukOJg30i9Xsn_U64Oi-uAhWSNtxDD-hvH4aPJtF_z7lGvlTEzLR6qdOOgps/s1600/cubase.png" height="348" width="640" /></em></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em>Here's s peek at the arrangement for Flix The Flea. I've been making my music in Cubase since my days in the band. It's great fun to use. Note the different colour schemes for the groups of tracks. Each of these groups has been painstakingly arranged to get the best out of the music with each itteration and corresponds to each level of the game.</em></div>
<br />
I wanted to see if this approach would add to the immersion, starting with an almost completely diegetic sound of wind rushing through the vast tunnels of the underground caverns while lonely percussive instruments hinted at creepy and lingering presences in the not-so-distant darkness. A reversed triangle hit here. An echoing castanet there. Altogether, it starts off pretty spooky. (incidentally, if you're a Kickstarter backer and you've played an early build of the game, that rather good wind sound in it is actually nothing more complex than me blowing whooshy noises into my microphone... I know, right?! I never thought for a moment that it'd work either! Came out pretty convincing eh?! But if you listen closely and you'll hear a little pop of the microphone that I couldn't quite get rid of... Note to self. Must get a good pop shield).<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/160808917&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe><em>
</em></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em>Here's the Flix soundtrack from an early point in the game when I'm trying to make it feel all lonely and spooky. (Imagine the wind in the cave howling in the background and you'll get the idea).</em></div>
<br />
As the player progresses through the levels of the game, the percussion would give way to a gentle, dark rolling cello, which would later be joined by a bass guitar line with a mild suggestion of some bounce to it. The first of many instrumental additions intended to turn the sound scape from a lonely alien environment into something more representative, and downright celebratory of the cheeky, hop-along character of Flix himself as he gets that bit more cocky, self assured and nearer to his goal at the top of the cavern.<br />
<br />
It would also become more busily populated with instruments and variants on the game's core melodies as the levels became more densely populated with creatures, reflecting the game's increasing complexity.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/160809139&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe><em>
</em></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em>...and here's the Flix soundtrack when its really opened up and there's loads going on.</em></div>
<br />
...at least, this was my intention when I set out, though I generally don't put it in so many words to myself when I'm getting creative. I just lie awake at night, sleeplessly visualising it all as best as I can in a much more abstract, less explanatory way, then I go about prepping to do it the next day.<br />
<br />
By the time I have all of my samples together for the big recording/composing session, (three days in the case of Flix) I generally have a comprehensive library of hummed tune bits and a fairly clear idea of what's going to come out the other end. <br />
<br />
Only you can be the judge of whether or not I actually managed to achieve all that pretentious bobbins I just laid out above. I'm far to close to it all to decide that myself. I only know that I really enjoy making this stuff. Sure, it doesn't yet make me a living, but it makes me feel like I am living... and that's good too.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong></strong><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>So!</strong></div>
<br />
I'm keeping this one short and sweet. I think my last post went on over three parts and well, that can be a bit of a drag. Instead of a big text based finish, how about I show off the final cover art for Flix while shamelessly plugging the game's soundtrack?! Yeah!!<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em> </em></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjFd716uPwNOsy8qkhXknTKVocXxFwLufCFqnuAyVByBqJSv4UJ9-wAnoeaX54nbMHheZkKMk9mPAHEblYOW-HWkjASCYSE8R1fkpbp5LwoKaeq9uv9r2EPhQW-h0oZSOawseaP6oos4_z/s1600/soundtrack_600x600.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><em><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjFd716uPwNOsy8qkhXknTKVocXxFwLufCFqnuAyVByBqJSv4UJ9-wAnoeaX54nbMHheZkKMk9mPAHEblYOW-HWkjASCYSE8R1fkpbp5LwoKaeq9uv9r2EPhQW-h0oZSOawseaP6oos4_z/s1600/soundtrack_600x600.png" /></em></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em>I reckon the Flix The Flea Soundtrack should be coming out on the likes of Bandcamp (and maybe even the mighty iTunes if I can suss it out) around the same time as the game arrives on PC. That should be late September-ish.</em></div>
<br />
I hope you enjoyed this post. If you liked it do let me know. Maybe even come say hello on Twitter. You can always get in touch with me @psypsoft, or just drop me a comment below.<br />
<br />
See you next time!<br />
<br />
mPsyPsofthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586372773166399296noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1371197537362446588.post-25772947339540085582014-03-17T09:50:00.000-07:002014-03-24T03:35:17.848-07:00Meet Flix!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlDhYq8a1UGiBU86gvVlq0XAcYQ57ftRrQy3L_0XZ5TKiHKwbZFnm1sUjxSck3h7lM4m1iXADatx4nstmDviQ9asDoizmwPLgshXrYtkbRKJqDWBr5_h6m8qNfNB5b0BrwnxWMrqtwemCQ/s1600/banner_flixtheflea.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlDhYq8a1UGiBU86gvVlq0XAcYQ57ftRrQy3L_0XZ5TKiHKwbZFnm1sUjxSck3h7lM4m1iXADatx4nstmDviQ9asDoizmwPLgshXrYtkbRKJqDWBr5_h6m8qNfNB5b0BrwnxWMrqtwemCQ/s1600/banner_flixtheflea.png" height="198" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Hello,<br />
<br />
...So now that Power-Up is wrapping up (at least the Xbox and PC versions that were solely made by me are), I thought I'd take a moment to talk about some of my other projects. <br />
<br />
As you might have noticed, I'm currently helping 2-bit Games to get the iOS version of Power-Up as close to my versions as the devices will allow, and that's going well. It's taking a bit longer than I anticipated and it's pushing back my next major project Diz by a month or so, but hey, this is how it goes. I suppose there's not a lot I can do about that short of cloning myself... I'll just have to muddle through.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, something else occurred to me...<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
If you're familiar with my blog you know that my professionally, I'm an artist, not a designer, sound engineer, coder, musician or marketeer. Outside of my work, all of that other stuff was really just something of a hobby for me. A bit of an outlet. <br />
<br />
Prior to making Power-Up I'd never coded for anything but small Windows.exes and I'd never done that with anything more complex than Adobe Director. It was the less popular, less cool cousin of Flash (back when Flash was cool) but because of its intuitive, simplistic lingo-code, it was on the curriculum back when I was in university. As a result, it was the Programming Interface I stumbled across when I was trying to make my first games.<br />
<br />
Director was a visual environment, complete with a timeline and the ability to publish games as Windows execute-ables, and as a non-programmer, I was head-over-heels in love with it.<br />
<br />
It's fair to say that this love affair lasted until present day. I've been making little prototypes and pretty much finished games with it (not to mention getting better at the design, music, etc, sides of things) for over a decade now, and using Director to help me to do my own thing in my free time has definitely helped to keep me sane during the more stressful parts of my professional career.<br />
<br />
Yeah, it has its limitations, I haven't yet sussed how to do game pad controls or save data with it, but I have been able to create a considerable number of small but potently fun games, again, based on the ideals of the retro game-saturated upbringing that I had. <br />
<br />
Which got me thinking...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Major Vs Mini</b></div>
<br />
I called Power-Up one of my "major" projects. Here's what I mean by that: When I was in full time employment, I was doing 8 hour days. When I came home, some nights I'd have a play with Director andwork on one of my prototypes as a way to unwind.<br />
<br />
Currently I'm working part-time as an artist. This job takes up my mornings while I dedicate my afternoons to my Psychotic Psoftware work. In those week-day afternoons I work on Power-Up, Diz, and those bigger games that I'd like to really focus on for a year-or-two at a time in the hopes of figuring out how to bring it to a number of devices. Those are my "major" projects.<br />
<br />
In my free time though, I still like to play with my little Director prototypes, coming up with ideas for good games and generally having fun with it. The innitial concepts for both Power-Up and my upcoming game Diz came about this way back in the day and I'd like to keep that up.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy35Gd-x0HMDPQIrVQLVzNO6dwFoief4D9ykHTEA-DvKbKTevinsIgaH5_hjprWhdoIpoSC4_YFafhX6mZD3CFiGhIm_mBL3iEEq_KIGHyFtCUfb7T_acoJyaBpgQGFi-W-lT4GEOpFQIG/s1600/blog_wip01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy35Gd-x0HMDPQIrVQLVzNO6dwFoief4D9ykHTEA-DvKbKTevinsIgaH5_hjprWhdoIpoSC4_YFafhX6mZD3CFiGhIm_mBL3iEEq_KIGHyFtCUfb7T_acoJyaBpgQGFi-W-lT4GEOpFQIG/s1600/blog_wip01.png" height="550" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Mike's Flea Game" - Day one...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Every now and then I find myself having so much fun with a concept, that I pretty much finish the job there and then. These are my mini projects.<br />
<br />
One such project is Flix...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>How Flix Came About</b></div>
<br />
So there I was in 2011, about 6 months before I got underway with Power-Up, having a play on my faithful ZX Spectrum emulator. It was a weekday evening snuggled up on the couch with my partner, Jo and our dogs. TV on, laptop on my knee. I was having a bash at Bugaboo the Flea.<br />
<br />
I was boring Jo with my usual retro-appreciation tirade about how great this game was, while picking apart where I felt it could have been improved. Smoother scrolling was an obvious one, though I put a lot of that down to the device limitations. There was an unnecesarry abillity to slowly scroll the screen and look around for signs of danger, which really slowed the gameplay and didn't actually particularly help you to avoid the monster on the cave, but there was something really alluring about the idea of being lost at the bottom of a pit of platforms and being tasked with the job of escaping from it while avoiding said monsters. I liked that.<br />
<br />
I was pondering out loud about possible alternatives to the game's weaker points when Jo finally snapped. In an attempt to shut me up, she suggested that I put my money where my mouth is and program it myself to see if it works. That way I might stop talking at her about it and she might get a bit of peace from my geeky meanderings. Fair enough I thought, and had a go...<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
I drew myself a quick cave complete with platforms, gaping chasms, nooks, crannies and hideyholes galore.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NEFoU5aUwHVxGwfEtsPV8fuJJMnLHkBUa6Jp_uwQlqdsHdOe210sqi3tle7nlmJXfJea-KPMjiOkoi5zCixRltJ-Q-iAcq82B3KvucswbmCKVfIHSPZFve4txWlFAEV6HALGXX0RBA9R/s1600/blog_basicmap.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NEFoU5aUwHVxGwfEtsPV8fuJJMnLHkBUa6Jp_uwQlqdsHdOe210sqi3tle7nlmJXfJea-KPMjiOkoi5zCixRltJ-Q-iAcq82B3KvucswbmCKVfIHSPZFve4txWlFAEV6HALGXX0RBA9R/s1600/blog_basicmap.png" height="640" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A cave: Simple, functional, and quick to make.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Then I drew myself a flea with simple stand, jump and hit-head-on-a-rock-above animations...<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOZJmAplqMxyczxTLetMryy8s-0d_aszwyMIKPveAwh5zHq7nPOTvcuLpmgoIsGQOtQXX8QT4lcpp1-ZNbvm9bYncShw1S6ZNWuI_RzxJ18VrVw5JryW9hoDafofUQegHqtOnBQLl31CY6/s1600/blog_flixframes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOZJmAplqMxyczxTLetMryy8s-0d_aszwyMIKPveAwh5zHq7nPOTvcuLpmgoIsGQOtQXX8QT4lcpp1-ZNbvm9bYncShw1S6ZNWuI_RzxJ18VrVw5JryW9hoDafofUQegHqtOnBQLl31CY6/s1600/blog_flixframes.png" height="160" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A flea: 'Nuff said.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I kept my flea at screen centre at all times so as to ensure a nice big area of looking room on all sides, then I set about working out how to make his jump movements actually function.<br />
<br />
It kept me quiet for a few evenings, but I pretty much discovered that the best way to keep this fun was to keep it simple. There would be just two keys: left and right. by holding down one of those keys, my flea would charge up a jump. When that charge hit full power, it would loop back around to empty and charge again with a nice clear bar for reference. When the player released the key, my flea would jump at a height relative to the power-bar. Brilliant.<br />
<br />
What was next?<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
Well, collision was my next hurdle. This was pre-Power-Up, so it wasn't something I was quite so versed in doing effectively in such a fine-tuned way. Admittedly, there were a few glitches and limitations here, but the technique I came up with, while basic and not perfect, was a good solid starting point from which to improve later if I found myself a bit more clued up. I was very much learning to do what I could with what I knew and trust my future-self to know more later down the line.<br />
<br />
Because Director is such a visual environment, I was able to take a fairly visual approach to the collision detection in my little flea game. I drew a number of rectangles, sized up to the character sprite and placed them around my flea. I then simply hid them behind the scenes of the game, prioritizing them literally behind the furthermost background layer of the game.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>A Predator!</b></div>
<br />
No challenging game experience is complete without the antagonist, and as Flix is set in such a large and open vertically focused environment I decided to stick with the flying enemy of my game's main inspiration. Back in the day, the likes of Buggles on the Amiga had introduced smaller room-like levels to the flea mechanic, pitting their flea against flying ghost enemies, always homing in on your position and effectively acting as a sort of time limit, but I wasn't feeling that. For all its faults, Bugaboo had it right... a great big wandering predatory AI which took swoops at you whenever you got close enough to make your presence known.<br />
<br />
I had the great reptilian bird spawn moving with one of its eight random directional variables active and a load of hidden sensors in eight positions around it. Then, whenever one of those invisible sensors hit a collide-able area of the map, the bird would simply turn, and go the other way. Certainly, it was going to get stuck every now and then, but that was a quirk I was happy to go with. Lets face it, any sort of glitch like that which cuts the player a break and inadvertently helps them out is not necessarily a bad thing. Glitches that hinder the player are another story, but happily, this isn't one of those.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirvtZj8IIyMhFdBCb8jva8LZ0a2MeQZ1LEAMb0gfv3_DJUvFXPXO9SntBpmmweTVowEDcdJKP9mRBzF9cYXjmenVT4CoXQ3vQ1uSPiKOXRCKHX0WWQi5lrkIg4bHcDItoLsKzm0nnAT7fb/s1600/blog_wip02.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirvtZj8IIyMhFdBCb8jva8LZ0a2MeQZ1LEAMb0gfv3_DJUvFXPXO9SntBpmmweTVowEDcdJKP9mRBzF9cYXjmenVT4CoXQ3vQ1uSPiKOXRCKHX0WWQi5lrkIg4bHcDItoLsKzm0nnAT7fb/s1600/blog_wip02.png" height="550" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A look behind the fourth wall: Some starter sprites with their collision all akimbo.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Wandering around aimlessly is all well and good. It actually makes for a decent passive enemy, but lets be honest, even the most basic of AI needs some level of intelligence, especially if it's a predatory monster.<br />
<br />
So I added one more feature to the bird, a big invisible circular detector which followed the bird around, locked to the centre of the sprite. If this detector came into contact with the flea, the bird would become aware of the flea's presence and immediately move in the direction of the flea.<br />
<br />
I quickly realized that to have the bird update its search for the flea's position throughout its attack was simply fatal to game play, making it close to impossible to escape from in most situations... but by having the bird check for the player's position just once, at the beginning of its attack made for a kind of halfhearted swoop attack. Sure, the bird would make a dart for you, but if you were quick enough to spring away or find a cozy little nook to sit out the attack in, soon the bird would lose interest and wander off, only making another attempt the next time you leap into its range of detection. Smart!<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Hooked!</b></div>
<br />
What I had at this early stage was really just a re-imagining of Bugaboo. An homage, if you like. Not something I'd consider releasing, and I was all set to leave it there... But the urge to keep chipping away at the little project kept coming back. <br />
<br />
I picked it up again!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpstCYOANdVNBmhyETOCPTTTALfpW-IiLVUVxFyfTNrPSKPXLGV659qAtMzofa198n7Pz1aqffojqZn7Yql7E67dv_opgfBoqxpyurgjQJPbvvbKUyrVW0Xff1XxcSUmESsIGPU-B_IuGM/s1600/blog_wip03.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpstCYOANdVNBmhyETOCPTTTALfpW-IiLVUVxFyfTNrPSKPXLGV659qAtMzofa198n7Pz1aqffojqZn7Yql7E67dv_opgfBoqxpyurgjQJPbvvbKUyrVW0Xff1XxcSUmESsIGPU-B_IuGM/s1600/blog_wip03.png" height="550" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prettying it up: It's getting harder and harder to see the seams now.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
It was at this point that I began to understand why the original creators of Bugaboo added camera controls. My flea's massive jumping height made for some pretty serious design flaws. Mainly, it was quite easy to make a great leap across the cavern, only to land dangerously close to the bird... in some cases, you'd find yourself kindly popping directly into its mouth!<br />
<br />
This was no good. Clearly some kind of early warning of the bird's position was needed, but I felt that the cumbersome method of taking your fingers away from the handy left/right controls and using say, the number pad for camera movement just wasnt the way to do it.<br />
<br />
I had simple, single hand controls and I wanted to keep it that way!<br />
<br />
I also wanted to avoid making the player take their eyes off the screen to look at their keyboard, which would put them in danger while they're not paying attention but most importantly, breaking their immersion in the world of the game. Nothing pulls you away from a game like having to look down at your controls. No! I won't have it!!<br />
<br />
Instead, I opted for a kind of spider-sense, represented by a reference to the bird and an arrow pointing in one of the eight directions it was in. This worked in a very similar way to the bird's own detector circle. When the bird was within the flea's much bigger detector circle, the alert would come, telling the player roughly where the bird is in relation to the flea.<br />
<br />
Certainly, big leaps of faith could still occasionally end in an easy meal for the bird, but as this was down to an element of recklessness and bad luck on the player's part, this little quirk of play seemed much more acceptible.<br />
<br />
Again, by paying attention, the player could survive the cave. Ultimately, the game was fair.<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
These little HUD additions were starting to invade my thoughts now. A heads-up bird-warning had me thinking "What else might the player find useful in the cave?".<br />
<br />
The answer was simple. With all this bouncing around, it would often become hard to figure out where you were in the cave. Ok, so you would get to know certain landmarks, shapes of the rock face, a specific useful hideyhole, etc, and that was nice, but particularly, if I was having trouble getting out of a cave, I quickly became a bit disorientated as to exactly where I was. I needed some sense of progression. Was I near the top, middle or bottom of the cave?<br />
<br />
I set myself to the task of figuring out how to transpose the player's position in relation to the cave to a little bar at the side of the screen, indicating how high in the level the player had progressed... and after a few days work, I'd managed it. It's amazing what a big difference this made. The effect of not knowing was something akin to not looking out of the window when you're a passenger in a car and feeling motion sick as a result... Adding the bar just helped me as a player to feel more spacially aware, and as a result, more in control. I was able to make progression decisions based on how high up I was and to plan my route to the exit.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJKC1nCPVrtAYfBKp9gejVO4OnPO1Hmp5uVID3kuhEEmMLDzZ-xBqiR3Sd2ZCd1Evhl-LfBAyrab61j2X1T2pVcYEiJMDhKbbPjZ7wiwf9GVA_h4unaxC4a5pvUSB5vJCGwI1zg-tcdd63/s1600/flix_kickstarter_screenshot10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJKC1nCPVrtAYfBKp9gejVO4OnPO1Hmp5uVID3kuhEEmMLDzZ-xBqiR3Sd2ZCd1Evhl-LfBAyrab61j2X1T2pVcYEiJMDhKbbPjZ7wiwf9GVA_h4unaxC4a5pvUSB5vJCGwI1zg-tcdd63/s1600/flix_kickstarter_screenshot10.png" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fleshing it out: With armour, levels, a basic HUD, and a pause menu, my flea game was taking shape.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
This extra sense of control soon had me fighting back the urge to add little extras to the level. You know, points bonuses in difficult-to-get-to places as an incentive for completionists to take risks for greater reward.<br />
<br />
It was a small addition but these, combined with the occasionally unpredictable location of the bird during long jumps led to another addition of this kind. I still needed to offset surprise appearances of that bird during long jumps, as once in the air, no ammount of early warning is going to help the player to turn that flea around. What if a one-hit shield spawned in a random position around the level? Surely that would give the player the resources for the odd reckless leap of faith while on balance, providing a psychological reason for them to be extra careful when not equipped with it, right?<br />
<br />
The effect I had in mind was something similar in to when Arthur lost his armour in the classic Ghosts N' Goblins (and later, Ghouls N' Ghosts)... and in practice, I was happy to find that it worked rather well!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Further Down The Rabbit Hole</b></div>
<br />
All of these little additions had actually made my cave all too easily escapeable. Darn it! I would just have to add more caves!<br />
<br />
I had the basic game model all done. All it would take was another few background images of ever increasing complexity and dificulty... so why not? Everything I needed to make a decent game was there. I just needed to build on it.<br />
<br />
...and within a couple of week's I'd done just that. One cave was pretty easy to beat, but five caves was trickier. It demanded equal measures of luck, skill and memory for the various exit routes available.<br />
<br />
TEN caves was downright devlish, but I created them anyway! <br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
I wrapped the whole thing up with an intro animation which payed homage to my original inspiration, then with an ending which made for a really nice twist in the tale (You'll have to get there to find out).<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNnjNRq5AZi_Q2qKOKLg8UsLpMGaoXLLicEadSZuLwEY3HAmzMSn5gtbkPVzOBml9VVSXexNmBZK-LzlebjaTh2PY70yOWpCapcflFbAc5kNF8IFjxXc1p-aDHAd_PQfqkPbJIkYqjftkZ/s1600/flix_kickstarter_screenshot01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNnjNRq5AZi_Q2qKOKLg8UsLpMGaoXLLicEadSZuLwEY3HAmzMSn5gtbkPVzOBml9VVSXexNmBZK-LzlebjaTh2PY70yOWpCapcflFbAc5kNF8IFjxXc1p-aDHAd_PQfqkPbJIkYqjftkZ/s1600/flix_kickstarter_screenshot01.png" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cinematics: scribbled up very quickly, I started to love these simple little animations for their Cartoon Network-ish charms.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Starting out as a little remake, I'd come to realise that what I'd actually created was a genre game, much in the same way that Power-Up is within the SHMUP genre. My flea game was in the flea genre of platformers that seems to have started with the likes of Bugaboo back in the early 80s and has been pretty well populated by non-mainstream games of its type ever since. <br />
<br />
My game had expanded a great deal on the original concept, but while others in the genre had opted for means of shrinking down play areas to bite sized "rooms", I had retained that deep-cave feel which I felt was most important in getting across the tiny scale of our hero and the overwhelming scale of his environment.<br />
<br />
Speaking of our hero, this was now his game. My flea needed a name. Something catch, something alliterative, something as monosyllabic as it was representative of the game's mechanics and character's movement style... something like Flix!<br />
<br />
At a pinch it sounds a bit like an abbreviation of Felix, while implying something that's being flicked around the screen. It also belts off the tongue as well as any of the great game characters of the 80s and 90s.<br />
<br />
I was in... Flix it was!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizSn3jkZaU34Nme8jUd7mToQhNmhM63TLx9hnA3oLyiAUCo6TiRzfmxD5qnOMjlctbY3NxthGyWNeoH7TtoE4tAlNcBqXgZs_Rd_gvQYKGH8i4Z-E1EkFivKYLuCGtst8uvABAnL-PalmA/s1600/flix_kickstarter_screenshot02.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizSn3jkZaU34Nme8jUd7mToQhNmhM63TLx9hnA3oLyiAUCo6TiRzfmxD5qnOMjlctbY3NxthGyWNeoH7TtoE4tAlNcBqXgZs_Rd_gvQYKGH8i4Z-E1EkFivKYLuCGtst8uvABAnL-PalmA/s1600/flix_kickstarter_screenshot02.png" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The icing on the cake: Finally, a title that I'm happy with!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Quite a Journey, That!</b></div>
<br />
In just a couple of months I'd gone from a little experiment in remaking and improving on a classic, but almost forgotten game mechanic to having a close-to-finished product of my own!<br />
<br />
That said, I was constantly aware that once I'd completed it, I'd invariably have to effectively shelf it for the same reasons that Power-Up almost never happened... licences. While I learned to do basic coding on an educational copy of Director, I didn't have an official copy.<br />
<br />
This was just pre-Power-Up. At this point I hadn't even begun to engage with the online community, let alone make friends and build up a following on Twitter. I had no concept of starting a Kickstarter.<br />
<br />
Obviously, since then a lot has happened. Power-Up not only got Kickstarted, but it also got released on XBLIG and PC, and featured everywhere from Retro Gamer magazine to the Humble grid! At the time of writing, Power-Up just hit 60% of it's Steam greenlight target!<br />
<br />
I've come a long way in a couple of short years, and I've learned a lot about the process of releasing a game for PC... but that's not to say I've forgotten my roots..... and that's definitely not to say that I've forgotten my little Director games.<br />
<br />
Sure, I'm going to be trying a few of them out in other formats. My next game Diz, for example, will be my first Unity experiment starting in a few weeks time, but I have a whole batch of other little games from my Director era that I'd like to tune up and release for your playing pleasure.<br />
<br />
And Flix is but the first!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjexswzCsFG3fvSN0YQQIXWQBSt9eGB0HF7S4UTGZO1V4ltoUnYQemKmgYL1a4eALLVolHUIYGI5zEfcfsocauounHGng2oFjYFgWbwamyUjAb-oLvxLBtd99gqsL7d_SuXQ2hPJ4ZWL7xi/s1600/flix_kickstarter_screenshot09.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjexswzCsFG3fvSN0YQQIXWQBSt9eGB0HF7S4UTGZO1V4ltoUnYQemKmgYL1a4eALLVolHUIYGI5zEfcfsocauounHGng2oFjYFgWbwamyUjAb-oLvxLBtd99gqsL7d_SuXQ2hPJ4ZWL7xi/s1600/flix_kickstarter_screenshot09.png" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Almost done: Flix is all but there in all his bouncing, bounding glory! </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>...So I've decided to run a Kickstarter this April. </b></div>
<br />
It's a relatively little thing. Just enough to make me the £1100 I'll need to buy my own licenced copy of Director. The campaign has been given the go-ahead from the good people at Kickstarter. As with Power-Up I'm doing all the design, code, art, sound, music, etc, on Flix myself and as with Power-Up there are a load of top award tiers.<br />
<br />
I'm hoping to release Flix accross PC portals in late Summer 2014 so between now and then I'll be turning a pretty-much finished PC game into a nicely finished PC game with a cherry on top...<br />
<br />
But this is the bottom line:<br />
<br />
EVERYONE who puts £1 into the Flix Kickstarter will get a copy of the game.<br />
<br />
...Then as with Power-Up, if there's demand, I'll start looking into the technicalities of porting Flix to other devices in the not-too-distant. I can't say fairer then that eh.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJBHl4NZC7tRIKLGQtIXayFAya9sR-kraoDmuwxMkhxMzSLnY-5bkOKCB9HEf9U9HzCUng7bzaO6qfDT03a3id5B6wmeYMHwzmOA60UkdJ6g65at2wve2AuU_-bOe74CSWNqgdL8pddJ4f/s1600/blog_ks.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJBHl4NZC7tRIKLGQtIXayFAya9sR-kraoDmuwxMkhxMzSLnY-5bkOKCB9HEf9U9HzCUng7bzaO6qfDT03a3id5B6wmeYMHwzmOA60UkdJ6g65at2wve2AuU_-bOe74CSWNqgdL8pddJ4f/s1600/blog_ks.png" height="544" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Work In Progress: A sneak-peek at the upcoming Kickstarter page for Flix The Flea.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Finally</b></div>
<br />
Thanks for reading this post! <br />
<br />
If you like the look of Flix, and if my work sounds like your cup of tea, do come and say hello on twitter (@psypsoft) and follow the fun. I'm constantly messing round with this Game Development lark and learning loads all the time, which I regularly bang on about there, and I'm always chuffed to meet likeminded people.<br />
<br />
Hope to see you there,<br />
<br />
m<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlDhYq8a1UGiBU86gvVlq0XAcYQ57ftRrQy3L_0XZ5TKiHKwbZFnm1sUjxSck3h7lM4m1iXADatx4nstmDviQ9asDoizmwPLgshXrYtkbRKJqDWBr5_h6m8qNfNB5b0BrwnxWMrqtwemCQ/s1600/banner_flixtheflea.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
PsyPsofthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586372773166399296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1371197537362446588.post-70047031666683577662013-11-15T07:48:00.002-08:002013-11-15T08:11:12.538-08:00A "Dark Intelligence" - Part Three.Hi Guys,<br />
<br />
Welcome back to my three parter on the evolution of my Power-Up baddies (the hyphen appeared in the game's title when I submitted the game to XBLIG. Appologies for the inconsistency there. Hey, generic sounding titles: we live and learn).<br />
<br />
By the end of the last part of this somewhat prolonged insight into Power-Up's enemy creation, I had basically hit the end of the game where it concerns standard enemies. I'd picked up a heck of a lot of tricks and was pretty much ready to pool my resources and apply them to five of the coolest, most visually enticing and distinctive level bosses you ever did see.<br />
<br />
It was also a bit of a new chapter in the Power-Up production process on a number of levels. We were hitting December 2012 and having been made redundant from my Artist job of six and a half years (Lead Artist for the last three or so) I was finding it hard to get re-employed. An experience that's increasingly common in the games industry as even the biggest players are forced to make redundancies and re-think their strategies.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>A Change In My Mindset...</strong></div>
<br />
...For some, long-term redundancy means re-training, for others, giving up on their dream career and stacking shelves once more. I didn't have the money to re-educate myself and I honestly don't think I'd have made it stacking shelves again. I decided to get pro-active... To move out of the back bedroom, and into the bigger, more suitable office room at the back of my house, surrounding myself with some of the more fitting office adhornments that my old employer happened to be getting rid of in the light of a much smaller workforce. This replaced the debris of house moving that had previously surrounded me in the back bedroom and gave me the sense that I was embarking on a career changing move.<br />
<br />
I dedicated my mornings to the games industry job-hunt and in the afternoons I switched my attention to finishing Power-Up in the hopes of making a career out of that. I was living on what was left of my savings coupled up with the mortgage protection we'd thankfully had the foresight to take when we bought the house.<br />
<br />
On one hand, time was ticking and there was a fire under my backside to get things done before Jo and I found ourselves on the street! ...but on the other hand my allotted time on Power-up had effectively risen from 8 hours a week to 20 and oddly, the overwhelmingly predominant sensation was that of freedom. A fresh start. I felt, for the first time since childhood like the master of my own fate.<br />
<br />
...and it was a very good time to face up to the challenge of Power-up's final bosses! <br />
I attacked it with gusto!!<br />
<br />
(SPOILER ALERT!! - Want to keep these bosses a mystery? Then stop right there! ...Only venture on if you can't resist a peek).<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Guardian 1: The Cleaner - Dreaming in Bosses!</strong></div>
<br />
I was on garden-leave over december 2011 which gave me time to get my studio in up and running. It was an arduous process which involved a lot of cleaning out and trips to the tip... and the whole time I was chomping at the bit to get on with Power-Up. It would be a fair understatement to say that I was obsessing over Power-up's bosses.<br />
<br />
I'd go to bed at night considering how my first screen filling guardian would need a weakspot and a means of getting you wherever you hid on the screen, and I'd wake up in the morning from a haze of dreams in which a giant spaceship was squeezing me into abstract corners. I'd race to my office at 5AM and start scribbling the sketchy remnants of my dreams and became convinced that as much as I loathed the RAYCraft of previous posts, this was in fact at the core of what was going to become the Chapter 1 boss: The Cleaner.<br />
<br />
In lore, The Cleaner was to be a huge garbage disposal unit which fired out a formiddable disintigrating ray, intended to wipe out the debris of a vanquished foe and cover the traces of the battle that took place.<br />
<br />
Innitially making one slow forward progression, the Cleaner was to move everso slowly from right to left, giving the player a limited time to defeat it. The boss would charge up a monster white ray at its centre, a great white glow and charging sound effect, building in pitch to act as audio/visual signifiers, warning of the blast to come.<br />
<br />
It would be up to the player to navigate up or down in order to dodge that blast, and while both directions offered refuge on the fringes of the great ray, that refuge was a tight space, and dogged by the cleaner's additional aimed-bullet firing cannons. Once the ray was discharged the coast was clear for another volley of shots at the Cleaner's weak spot. This, of course, was the barrel of its deadly ray cannon.<br />
<br />
Soon, I realised that the cleaner's constant frontal movement was actually to the detriment of the battle, limiting the duration of the fight and raising minor issues when the great hulk was on screen left and no longer fighting. If it's ploughing relentlessly onward, having filled the screen and taken you out, why would it now reverse back to give you another go. Doesn't sound like much of a big deal here in print but in practice it actually seemed a bit silly.<br />
<br />
This grated for a while, until I caved and improved the sequence. After adding the obviously required floaty-wobble (see previous posts), I then had the Cleaner crawl forward while its ray charged. on releasing the shot, I put extra emphasis on the weapon's destructive power by having it actually push the whole titanic Cleaner craft backward and toward screen right. This whole sequence of movements really brought the boss to life and gave it weight, substance and an organic, piloted quality, as though someone was carefully balancing the Cleaner's controls with its firepower.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKMtca1B9BB4OgGUF5GW4vep6tilhmPS8NTkr1eSDAmkOJ01hD3K05L9_u7ec61oZOfDi9QNJZrq6GtQi28jdvmvw1iSo6DgA-bAvjoCT_axJz_6rqHM3e4fYFz-DS3L5N4d8B-MIQvXqv/s1600/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-14-55-92.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKMtca1B9BB4OgGUF5GW4vep6tilhmPS8NTkr1eSDAmkOJ01hD3K05L9_u7ec61oZOfDi9QNJZrq6GtQi28jdvmvw1iSo6DgA-bAvjoCT_axJz_6rqHM3e4fYFz-DS3L5N4d8B-MIQvXqv/s640/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-14-55-92.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting up close and personal with The Cleaner.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The Cleaner would sink toward the bottom-right of the screen on its defeat, while regular small explosions occurred all over its outer shell as it went, there was no need for multiple parts or multiple instances a-la RAYCraft.<br />
<br />
Coupled with the fact that I was a good eight to nine months more experienced, the Cleaner looped its simple, but visually striking attack sequence nicely and went off relatively without a hitch.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Guardian 2: Orbital Defence 01 - The Humanoid Touch.</strong></div>
<br />
Since I'd committed to make my own space shooter, One thing I'd noticed was that unlike my own, a lot of these games were developed by shooter/SHMUP enthusiasts. Yes, these guys were developing other stuff, but for the most part, this was their genre and the thing they loved the most. I can relate to that. I sorta felt like that about classic brawlers since I was little.<br />
<br />
Also though, I found that the majority of good enthusiast-developed shooters, especially on my chosen format of XBLIG were in the top-down, vertical scrolling sub-genre. What's more, while these games looked GREAT, in my view there was something a little generic in the traditionally Japanese-styled visuals. It's hard to put my finger on why but broadly, I was seeing those subdued metallic colour schemes, with future-computer UIs along with those big, synthesised over the top soundtracks. Don't get me wrong, all of this is brilliant, but it wasn't what I was trying to achieve. I needed to make something that came from my formative experiences as a gamer and developer.<br />
<br />
The biggest generic element I noted while taking on bosses on a lot of these games was that each boss seemed to be a gorgeous, but admittedly nondescript spaceship, each with a different arrangement of beautifully complex attack patterns that any purist lover of the genre would truly appreciate. ...But again, this wasn't me, and by my second level boss, I was able to formulate the beginnings of a mission statement:<br />
<br />
"Yeah, I've made a boss that would be best described as a massive nondescript spaceship. I'm calling that "The Cleaner"... but from now on, every boss I do is going to have a visual theme all of its own, and the Chapter Two guardian is going to beeeeeeeee......... A GIANT MECH!!"<br />
<br />
As the game's story was taking us to the enemy planet's orbit, it seemed fitting that I call the mech Orbital Defence 01... but other than fly onto the screen, I had no idea what OD1 was going to do. I grabbed a sketch book and drew that bad boy.<br />
<br />
OD1s attack patterns really came from my innitial scribbles. Instead of hands, I'd given him two very different types of guns. His far hand was some kind of cannon, suitable for firing something large, dangerous and at a slow rate..... ooooh, say, a homing glow-ball mine kind of thing. You know, like the ones I've already made work, while the near hand seemed to be some sort of spinning chain gun end, clearly suited for smaller close bursts of bullets or... hang on, clouds of the aimed bullets that I'd also already sussed out.<br />
<br />
Man, this game was writing itself!<br />
<br />
That said, just having this guy floating around on screen right and blasting bursts of aimed bullets coupled with the occasional homing glow-ball just didn't seem to cut it. I mean, The Cleaner had pretty much done the same thing but with the added strategic complexity of its charging ray. If anything, this was a slight step back from The Cleaner, and i wasn't having that!<br />
<br />
I solved this with the addition of my first "mode" condition. While mode equalled 1, OD1 would indeed alternate its butsts of aimed bullets with the occasional homing glow-ball, forcing the player to dodge and swerve constantly, but when its mode-counter hit a certain duration, OD1's mode would switch to 2.<br />
<br />
In mode 2, OD1 would sweep backwards, off screen right, and upon hitting a point off screen, the boss would switch to a flight pose, place itself at a random vertical position, then come screaming, forcefield on, accross the screen. Once off screen left, OD1 would repeat the move in reverse, sweeping from screen left to screen right at a pace that made the movement believeable while not taking so long as to slow down the fight.<br />
<br />
Of course, due to the random vertical positioning of OD1 in this mode there was a small chance that the player would simply not have time to swerve to safety and a swift activation of the player's forcefield would be the order of the day, but this understanding took some skill from the player, and that comes with practice. Add to this the probabillity that when OD2 starts sweeping, it'll also leave behind a few rather durable homing glow-balls, and you've got yourself a boss who the experienced player can run circles around but who will probably wipe the floor with you on your first few goes. Oh look. A bit of replay value!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI4r066bXRyrMuFkn9Agiq5SsRdxL9tNSs6v-jIEkpriQ2_ISQkGPyjPMeQdf1LLHiCKVbu8os6HLTN3syJZE2zJkFcA8Spx04tFL09r2jPgnEjPZ947hp7vcEmQNMZNHK2kXyXKb715Zd/s1600/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-21-10-86.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI4r066bXRyrMuFkn9Agiq5SsRdxL9tNSs6v-jIEkpriQ2_ISQkGPyjPMeQdf1LLHiCKVbu8os6HLTN3syJZE2zJkFcA8Spx04tFL09r2jPgnEjPZ947hp7vcEmQNMZNHK2kXyXKb715Zd/s640/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-21-10-86.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dodging aimed bullet clouds from Orbital Defense 01.</td></tr>
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<br />
</span>I was happy with how OD1 had turned out, though it wasn't lost on me that visually, the darned thing had come out as Japanese-influenced as the games I was trying to distinguish myself from. It was basically a dog-legged humanoid Gundam, Guyver kinda thing, and I'd just have to accept it. <br />
<br />
<br />
...But somewhere in the actual execution of the character, whether in the modelling, the coding, or the extreme use of its image in the indie press, who knows, ironically, the image of Orbital Defence 01 really helped Power-Up to stand out as rather a unique looking shooter experience when placed next to similar games. ...and I'm very proud of that.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Guardian 3: The Worm - Vomiting For My Art</strong></div>
<br />
Some peoople can do that thing where they suck air in while making a high pitched screaming monster noise. You know the one. Back in my day, kids in the playground would impersonate Tie-Fighters with alarming accuracy when making that noise. I always wanted to be able to do that. In fact, realising the value of such a sound for the voice of a particularly unpleasant screaming monster-vehicle-robot boss, I almost forgot what happens when I try.<br />
<br />
That's right, the Worm started as a sound! I didn't know what I was going to do with it but I knew that the sound of me screeching inwardly would make a great voice for something ugly and monstrous... and so determined was I to have it that I disregarded what was likely to happen if I tried excessively to make that sound.<br />
<br />
In a nutshell, I made myself sick! .....but it was worth it!!<br />
<br />
Armed with a recording of me making some of the nastiest inward breathing noises on record (not to mention the accompanying bawking and spluttering noises that really, nobody needs to hear), I put my mind to designing some kind of ground dwelling metal monster. Co-incidentally, it was about this time that once again I came accross my old original pixel-popped Power-Up tests from what, 2002? - 2003? Anyway, it seems I'd pixel popped this wierd, coiled up, screen filler of a boss over a desert. It was all angular parts and was curled into some sort of a protective ball, a myriad of guns pointing across at the player.<br />
<br />
I had to have it! What's more, I began to imagine what this thing would look like uncloiled... Why, a big, nasty WORM of course! I was inspired! The chapter was the aliens' desert planet, there was even a floor plane to exploit. This thing was perfect!<br />
<br />
The next few days were a flurry of creative activity. Working my way around the confines of the chapter's environment and my own coding limitations, I came up with a mountain of possibillities. scrapped some of the less practical ones (though the repeated tail-stabbing up from the floor in random horizontal locations would have been cool in hindsight), and whitteld my way to a sequence that not only worked, but added another level of complexity when compared to the previous boss.<br />
<br />
The Worm first appears as an invincible, rumbling hill of churned up dirt, rolling slowly from left to right. It pauses in front of the player, then kicks into its first fight mode, bursting from the ground in an explosion of dirt particles.<br />
<br />
As it reaches for the sky, a huge metallic, towering pillar of level guardian, its attention (head) turns to the player. The bullet nodes all along its body kick into action and one long cluster of slow moving aimed bullets becomes its first wave of attack. There are a few techniques for easily dealing with this, but again, it takes a bit of experience to figure them out.<br />
<br />
It's worth noting here that my biggest challenge was one of believeabillity, and the element most in the way at this point was this... the screen is scrolling, yet that worm is standing upright, half way out of the hard cracked surface of the planet. It makes no sense! ...until I put a bit of time to giving the impression that the hardened exterior of the worm is actually churning up the ground beneath it with ease. A little adjustment and the rumbling churning earth particles at the Worm's base seemed to sell it nicely, while emphasising the machine's power and purabillity... On to the next attack mode.<br />
<br />
Here's where I borrowed from my early pixel-popped design mockup. Turning its attention (head) back up to the sky above it, the Worm now digs slightly downward into the floor before taking off at great speed. It's at this point that the first-time player spots the enormous rattle-like gun tower that is its tail-end, offering an unnerving hint of what's in store... and then its gone, into the sky.<br />
<br />
I'd learned by now to give abscent, state-changing guardians a beat to believeably change state, after which, in this case the Worm heaves back down from screen left or screen right (randomly), but slowly enough to give the player time to react to its presence and to position themselves accordingly.<br />
<br />
Each of these movements is punctuated by horrible, heavily post-produced monster screams and screeches (the aforementioned me making myself sick), again, this is to inform the player as to what they can expect next as much as it is for ambience.<br />
<br />
If the Worm comes down in front, you've a selection of generally frontal-firing weapons at your disposal, if it comes down behind, you can whip out your backshot (provided you've powered it up suitably).<br />
<br />
Then comes a barrage of aimed bullets and vertically homing missiles from the Worm's rattle-tail. a particularly potent mix I might add, and a combination that with practice, seriously levels-up a player's natural abillity to use their peripheral vision and to cope with vast numbers of incoming projectiles... essential for the chapters to come.<br />
<br />
With a parting volley of tough homing globes, the worm boosts itself up and off to screen left. The player is left with just enough time to despach the homing globes, when the earth starts to rumble and the cycle begins once more.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Worm tears through the terrain.</td></tr>
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Again, this is simply a cyclic approach to a level boss, but this time around, there's definitely something about the left/right randomness in the Worm's flight mode that adds to the tension.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Guardian 4: The Walker - Finally Mastering The Multi-Faceted Baddie.</strong></div>
<br />
I suppose it's a bit sad in its way that I only sussed out how to successfully break an enemy up into functioning parts just two baddies away from the end of developing Power-Up. The upshot of that is that this discovery makes the Walker a real stand-out enemy in the game.<br />
<br />
I was DETERMINED to draw from the wonderful ED-209, AT-ST armed pod on legs heritage at some point in Power-Up. But let's face it, it was always a given that this guy couldn't be animated as straight frames. As a screen-filling walking enemy, he's just too big, and any reduction in frame count to accommodate his sheer size was always going to result in jerky, unbelieveable rubbish.<br />
<br />
I bit another bullet (of many, admittedly) and broke the process down. The first task, even before working out an attack pattern, was to work out which parts needed to be seperated for dare-I-say-it, programmed movement. Again, I started with a drawing of my ideal in action, working out that I'd need x1 body element, x2 legs, an overlay strip to appear to hold the legs on, a front bolt, plus a peek at the back holding strip and perhaps some between legs inner workings.<br />
<br />
Once I had all the parts drawing to screen in the right order, I surged The Walker in from behind the player. It was about time a boss attacked from behind and in my mock-up this boss seemed well suited to it.<br />
<br />
I treated the main body as the main controller for the Walker's physical movement around the screen. Once it was comfortably on screen, I had the entry mode stop there so that I could work on getting the finer details into its movement.<br />
<br />
first, I added the bob of the body. When each leg took a step, the body would need to bob. Then I alternated between two metallic stamping noises at the end of each bob (the sound was me dropping a few pans on the floor in a variety of ways, then messing around with the sound in Adobe Audition). I was now also able to start the Walker off -screen and have it bob its way on, into its start position, fading in the sound of the slamming metal steps as it came. Nice!<br />
<br />
Next, I added an extra bob to the near leg, making it arc higher than the body and moving it forward in a trial and error fashion so that it stayed within the confines of the supporting strip in front, then with every alternate bob of the body, the leg would cease to do any bob arc, but instead, slide horizontally back to its starting position in relation to the body.<br />
<br />
I had the far leg to the same thing, but moving forward with its extra upward bob while the near leg slid back, giving the impression that the Walker was taking steps. <br />
<br />
Then the finer details. The cog followed the front leg's horizontal values, so as to appear vertically static within the front strip, shunting left and right in a piston-like manner.<br />
Meanwhile, all the extra inner and back parts followed the movement of the body, but sat at their respective draw order in relation to the moving legs. The illusion was complete!<br />
<br />
Finally, I had the Walker cycle two modes. Quite simply, it moved to the right of the screen, paused for a bit, then it moved to the left of the screen, paused for a bit... and looped that sequence. This allowed me to get an idea of how well grounded the feet were with the floor... they weren't.<br />
<br />
Obviously, in relation to the scrolling of the floor, the Walker's feet were sliding about all over the place. for a few moments I was at a loss as to what I should do about it, but soon I realised that through a combination of adjustments to the Walker's physical movement speed accross the screen and the left/right speed of its legs, I was eventually able to get the Walker grounded. With an appropriate speeding up and slowing down of these variables at the right points, the Walker's movement had become believeable... Now it was just a case of working out a fight pattern.<br />
<br />
Something I noticed with the walker was that in a strictly 2D sense, the machine filled the screen. When it moved from left to right and back again, surely there would be no way to avoid it. However when looked at in the context of the game world, that big chunky body is sat in between two legs. Those legs are situated at the sides of the monster and it doesn't take too much latteral thinking to discover that the player can fly directly between the Walker's legs unharmed. Initially this was something of a happy accident which turned out to be a really effective latteral touch. When I initially demoed the Walker for my Kickstarter audience I got a very positive response from that between-the-legs touch and knew I was onto a winner.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Walker - A multi-faceted monster.</td></tr>
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<br />
The Walker's armory was comparitively simple. In my designs, I'd provided it with a huge aimed bullet module that pretty much permanently dispensed aimed bullets. Additionally, when the Walker was stationary on the left or right of the player, it would blast out homing red glow-balls in short bursts, giving the player just enough time to get through the destructible weapons and have a bit of a blast at the Walker itself before the guardian swung into action, shifting again to the player's other side. Throughout this shift, the homing glow-balls would stop, to be replaced with comparitively fast moving, fast repeating, but on balance, highly visible new, larger aimed bullets to shake things up a bit and keep the player on their toes.<br />
<br />
While the Walker offers little in complex attack cycles when compared with previous bosses, it does boast some seriously smart little flourishes and plenty of seat-of-the-pants challenge. It was also a bit of a technical victory for me personally and really represents a big step forward in my baddie-coding confidence.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Guardian 5: The Mastermind - Putting A Bit of Yourself Into Your Work.</strong></div>
<br />
During production, I'd gradually formed this vision of what the last boss was going to be. As I developed more and more little skills within the confines of coding my game, the possibillities opened up. Recollections of influencial games from my past came-a-calling and one particularly weird and wonderful final boss that sprung to mind was the crazy floating head that came grinning at you in the popular early 90s platform shooter, Midnight Resistance... Well I loved that game and after taking down a host of tanks, planes and generally millitary based opponents, I recall being initially a bit taken aback by the appearance of this surreal and abstract final boss offering. It had just the right level of uncanny to put me off my guard and has stuck with me ever since.<br />
<br />
Looking at Power-up, so far I'd bossed-up with a giant ray-ship, a humanoid mech, a monster worm and a big stomping walker. I wanted to complete my collection of distinctive and memorable bosses with my very own angry-face-type final boss! What's more, I wanted it to animate!!<br />
<br />
I mocked up a series of sharp toothed giant lizzard/human faces on paper and started painting the monster up in Photoshop. I'd decided to give the boss four waves of attack, each increasing in difficulty, each with its own key facial expression to act as something of a quick reference for the player to monitor their progress with. However, with the size of the sprite and the timescale I'd given myself for the task, I realised I'd need to do something akin to modelling, rendering and post producing spaceship frames. Sure, I could make it in 3D... or I could just play the dude myself.<br />
<br />
My fevered little ego liked this idea. It was like facing off against the game's creator on one level... on a more practical level it was a quick way of getting the exact frames I needed so that I could stop wasting days on unecessary art and concentrate on making the boss work! I took out my camera-phone, got myself side on to it, and took the pictures I needed, making the facial expressions myself, then consistently post producing them in Photoshop, I added the lizard skin, sharp teeth and sideways blinking eyes I'd envisaged him with.<br />
<br />
It worked a treat, not to mention that it only took a day to do!<br />
<br />
I built the rest of the boss' surrounding structure in 3DS max, opting for a closing wall from the rear, combined with a closing top/bottom wall as secondary and tertiary attack modes. This combination would make the use of full powered back and side shots an absolute must in order to get through the fight, and after each cycle of these closing walls, the Mastermind himself would come back at you, stronger, faster and more desperate as you piled the damage onto him.<br />
<br />
This really made for edge of the seat stuff. On the harder difficulties those bullet streams became fast and erratic, some coming directly for you while others targeted invisible moving reference points to create some intense and beautifully symetrical patterns... deadly all the same, and a last minute little innovation I was particularly pleased with.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taking it to the man with the Mastermind.</td></tr>
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<br />
The Mastermind demands dry palms, 20/20 peripheral vision and a practiced focus that none of its predecessors could compare with. I really threw all of my acquired coding skills at this one. Vertically homing missiles, all-round goming globes, several variations on the aimed bullet, multiple moving parts, forcefields, patterned projectiles and more besides.<br />
<br />
Sometimes, to this day, I fight the Mastermind and ponder to myself "How on earth did an unemployed, novice developer like me do THAT??"<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>And there you have it.</strong></div>
<br />
As I said earlier, this piece wasnt about alienating you with my badly written code. It wasn't about showing off, and it wasn't about giving the impression that there's some kind of black art to what I achieved with Power-Up. Compared to most industry professionals, I'm really just a novice, bedroom coder. When it comes to programming games, I'm untrained, unemployed and just doing my level best with the skills I've gleaned from the internet.<br />
<br />
Sure, I've got a good sense for how things look and sound, how they're paced and how to generally get them from my head onto the screen, but all of this comes from my love of the medium, and all of it was hard earned by trying and failing, then getting up and trying again. These are all practiced skills, and with practice and a bit of grit when things get tough, anyone can do it.<br />
<br />
You might ask why would anyone want to learn to be multi-skilled and independent when they could just get educated and employed?...<br />
<br />
It seems we're coming off the back of a time of safe-bet mediocre AAA console titles and safe-bet freemium/pay-to-play mobile experiences designed to accumilate money, often with a disregard for the quality of the gaming experience. People aren't stupid. As players we've become wise to this sort of simplistic manipulation. It's a real turn-off and end-user faith in my industry is dwindling. <br />
<br />
Companies big and small are seeing revenues falling. Redundancies are being made everywhere. Talented people are being lost to other industries and it's been a very bad time for creatives overall, but I for one believe that the old way of doing things isn't the only way.<br />
<br />
With my ongoing blog, my hope is that by giving you a quick, brainstormed insight into some of the thought processes, the organisational coping mechanisms, the fun design ideas and the overall gradual improvement in my understanding of how to actually implement this stuff while developing my games, I can help other aspiring game developers who also love games and have an underlying desire to make something good to realise that with a bit of work and yes, plenty of headaches, you can do this stuff too.<br />
<br />
Over the next few years, I'd love nothing more than to see a great wave of inspired and inspirational indie games coming from independent, self-empowered people who's first motivation is the love of the games they discovered in their formative years, reviving and evolving video games into something with the magic and electricity of the industry I remember growing up on. What a golden age that would be.<br />
<br />
Anyway. That's quite enough of that. Better put that soapbox away before I fall off and hurt myself.<br />
<br />
Thanks again for sharing in my development experiences. If you have any thoughts or questions about my work, do drop me a comment or a tweet @psypsoft. Community is quite important to me and I'd love to hear from you about you and your projects too.<br />
<br />
See you next time.<br />
<br />
m<br />
PsyPsofthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586372773166399296noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1371197537362446588.post-59866048640068001412013-09-09T09:44:00.000-07:002013-09-09T09:44:14.340-07:00A "Dark Intelligence" - Part Two.Hello,<br />
<br />
So when we left off I'd just started telling you about the processes involved in coming up with the baddies for my game PowerUp. If you remember, I was attacking them in chronological order, my logic being that as my understanding of coding for enemy AI improved, so would the intelligence of my enemies... a logic which, as it happened, more or less made sense.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong></strong> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>So where were we?</strong></div>
<br />
<br />
Well, in looking at the first two Chapters of the game, we've pretty much covered the basics of blind enemy movement around the screen. That's to say enemies who's movement is not based on where you, the player are positioned. Sure, their movement is well paced, gracefully animated and generally makes sense as far as nice solid moving enemy elements should, but the thing is... those early baddies can't see you. They're blind.<br />
<br />
And I was sick of em! I wanted baddies that could litteraly challenge me. I wanted baddies that could see!! And that's what was foremost in my head when I started PowerUp Chapter 3. "Cracked Planet".<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong></strong> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Enemy: The PINCraft - Pincery, Insecty Squirmy and Smart!</strong></div>
<br />
For the most part, I was finding that the process of coding my game was relatively smooth. Generally, As I concocted new and wonderful enemies, I'd just build on the ideas and the code that I'd developed in earlier enemies, twisting things a little perhaps, in the hopes of prompting a change in player tactic and most importantly, a change in optimal player weapon.<br />
<br />
As I say, for the most part this was doable by evolving a bit of code I'd already written, saaay, making an enemy's right to left movement speed a bit less predictable by instead of having it initialise with a speed of 3.0, having it initialise with a speed that was randomly between 3.0 and 4.9. <br />
<br />
Boom! Immediately, you've got a baddie type with considerably less predictabillity than it's predecessor. Add to that, a vertical floaty-wobble from another previous baddie and you've got something that's more unique still... Finally, add a random directional bullet from yet another predecessor and... you get the idea, right. I was able to swap and change mechanics between enemies. <br />
<br />
However, sometimes there were bits of code that I'd have to go looking for... Well, I suppose that applies to almost every bit of code the first time you use it, even when you're in a rythm, you occaasionally need to stop to gather clues on what comes next.<br />
<br />
...And that's exactly how it worked with sighted baddies. It sounds simple in theory, but it took me the best part of a four hour coding session to locate the snippets of tutorial and example code I needed in order to find the syntax I required to do what seemed so simple in my head: And in this case, that simple task was to refer to the player's hotizontal and vertical position. It's Vector, if you will.<br />
<br />
I'd messed with this stuff when doing the player's movement... I'd familliarised myself further with it all while dealing with baddie movement. But getting one class to refer to another's position, at first was hard work! However, when I cracked it I was like a kid in a sweetshop!<br />
<br />
...and to begin with, I applied a bit of code to the creepy looking PINCraft that set it's intelligence a cut above the rest. It said that if the player was above the PINCraft, move the PINCraft slowly up. If the player was below, move it down. Simple, but effective. This had two effects...<br />
<br />
Firstly, the PINCraft became that little bit more deadly, or at least, it appeared to. Homing in on the player. Then attacking in huge numbers, the PIN gave the impression of oppression! An overwhelming force that was closing in on the player from in front, above and below. Choking and confining any freedom of movement. .....Ace!<br />
<br />
But most importantly, the effective antidote battling to a PIN wave was to switch weapons. There were a lot of PINs, but they were physichally weak. Bullet-power asside, what the player needed was A LOT of bullets, and switching to the fast- repeating Plasma cannon while watching my step, I was soon cutting great gaps through PINCraft assault!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHtER5ajm45w298fUSMtueS-TTIu90sa9_CI5IrxdGMld8kHFKj1WJSgeQbI66pQQ1xR3_YL6xUb03HJincg4S4h89qM5Q2yWuv8-ST9SGoDOLqA_ROGMx4DS7Jj8aTRXAcIEZTWRF6p_i/s1600/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-23-55-85.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHtER5ajm45w298fUSMtueS-TTIu90sa9_CI5IrxdGMld8kHFKj1WJSgeQbI66pQQ1xR3_YL6xUb03HJincg4S4h89qM5Q2yWuv8-ST9SGoDOLqA_ROGMx4DS7Jj8aTRXAcIEZTWRF6p_i/s640/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-23-55-85.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Closing in - In coding the PINCraft's collision, I was careful not to make those splayed pincers collideable with the player. Imagine how impregnable this wave would have been if they were.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
But ultimately I had sussed the issue of aiming at the player... or so I thought. As it happens, for a baddie, aiming ones self at the player is one thing, but it turns out that aiming a bullet was something else completely, and something I'd have to face soon enough...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong></strong> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>The RATCraft: Biting the Aimed Bullet</strong></div>
<br />
I had been pretty determined that when I reached the enemy planet and the dealing with locations that had floors, I'd have to take up the challenge and create a few grounded enemies. Early in the "Cracked Planet" Chapter seemed like a good place to start and my first land dwelling baddie was a heavilly armoured, armadillo-like little ATV called the RATCraft. <br />
<br />
It was pretty obvious that a grounded baddie was no threat without the abillity to throw a few projectiles our way and supplying the RATCraft with a handy orb firing tail, I gave it just that abillity.<br />
<br />
however, emboldened by my experiences with homing my PINCraft in on the player, I decided not to rest until I had RATCraft aiming it's arsenal directly at the player.<br />
<br />
First attempts were thwarted by the simple fact that I hadn't thought this through.<br />
<br />
The PINCraft had been written in such a way that it was forever checking its vertical position in relation to that of the player and updating it, constantly homing in.<br />
<br />
With the bullets, however, what I actually wanted was for the baddie to aim, shoot and forget. The bullet would then take the trajectory it was sent on, and just go with it... Trying to get a coherent google search out of that one was a bit of a mare, I can tell you!<br />
<br />
It took a few nights of searching and blindly tapping possible solutions in before I found something that worked. What I did note was that the territory I was entering was no longer that of clean cut solutions, of code that you could just copy from a tutorial and paste into your game, changing graphics, speeds, etc. I was now entering the oblique territory of clues!<br />
<br />
...Little bits of code, similar to that which you're looking for, but not quite it. Bits of code that hint at the kind of variables you should be thinking of using, maybe something that alludes to the possibillity that I'd need to acquire the enemy's position as a startPoint, then the player's position as a targetPoint, then work out a line between them just on the frame of the game that spawns the bullet, basing the speed of the bullet on the distance between the two points so that even close up, the player has a chance to see it coming and to move out of the way.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGsWStgPL1AuTVK-shZUbxPUudjjywn4WAMJsz2frgyZL1vshXs9fOJmkJaqelUDgbfXWAjNAmNL35KnVvtAuhVNTpkGQjR-CvSyxrOwpby5sOL192asBz_caQR_VbetWvHi3NhwbClS6S/s1600/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-24-20-85.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGsWStgPL1AuTVK-shZUbxPUudjjywn4WAMJsz2frgyZL1vshXs9fOJmkJaqelUDgbfXWAjNAmNL35KnVvtAuhVNTpkGQjR-CvSyxrOwpby5sOL192asBz_caQR_VbetWvHi3NhwbClS6S/s640/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-24-20-85.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Desert Rats - This term is actually where the RATCraft originally got it's name, but the Armadillo look it ended up with was based on a totally random design scribble I took a particular liking to.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I know that for an experienced, seasoned programmer this is obvious, but for a non mathematically minded sort like me, this was really new territory and the sort of thing I would have attempted simplistic workarounds for on my earlier games... but I had a feeling about PowerUp. The game was worth the extra effort. Not only that, but PowerUp itself now seemed to be pushing me on. Daring me to try new and dangerous ideas.<br />
<br />
I stuck with it! ...and after a few more headache-laden coding sessions, I had a bit of code that targeted the player! I did it!!<br />
<br />
Feeling cocky, I even used the PIN's position detection code on the RAT. The RAT would come in from the right, driving to the left. On passing the player's horizontal position, it would skid around, 180 degrees and start chasing the player until it was innevitably outrun by the scrolling of the screen.<br />
<br />
The RAT's movement was a flourish of the non-necessary kind, but I was determined that it was this sort of flourish that would make my PowerUp baddies stand out as being just that little more alive. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong></strong> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Shades of Red</strong></div>
<br />
I was approaching the middle of Chapter three, the halfway point of the game, and became accutely aware that the creation of more and more new baddie types was going to seriously slow down PowerUp's production. The use of more difficult variants of the growing library of enemies at my disposal was becoming a more and more realistic solution here. With my new baddie homing and bullet targeting skills, I resolved to investigate this properly.<br />
<br />
Specifically, I revisited the FABCraft, the DEFCraft and even the dreaded RAYCraft!<br />
<br />
The new FABCraft variants, or the "RedFAB" were bigger, slower and stronger against the player's firepower. the RedDEF shared similar properties when compared with their earlier predecessors, although now with the abillity to fire off infrequent, aimed shots at the player's ship.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwYa3mKuVXbhlAmHqcJn83v8pKno07JvkLFvLkcsOMO3e_xdtwWslrWr4PbhJJ6YBvGP8VM7sHVwh4dGjEnIXHwSNOVHQMyJuHggP7yYDERrslSM5MW37JymyD1RJOYDS5sN8GR4sBd_BF/s1600/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-26-15-83.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwYa3mKuVXbhlAmHqcJn83v8pKno07JvkLFvLkcsOMO3e_xdtwWslrWr4PbhJJ6YBvGP8VM7sHVwh4dGjEnIXHwSNOVHQMyJuHggP7yYDERrslSM5MW37JymyD1RJOYDS5sN8GR4sBd_BF/s640/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-26-15-83.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heat Rising - The inclusion of Red variants of previous PowerUp enemies turned out to be a great way to visually reference the raise the game's difficulty gradient without losing too much time or straight-repeating too many previous enemies.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The RedRAY were small, fast and difficult to take out as they came from the rear and their vulnerable spot was soon protected when their devestating ray weapon charged... much faster thn their predecessor, I might add. The red variants all worked really well in hiking up the pace of play while their familliarity alowed the player some expectation of what was to come. This approach also served to give me some respite from the gruelling task of forever concocting new and time consuming ship models.<br />
<br />
...That RedRAY was still a little swine for bugs though!!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong></strong><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Enemy: MisCraft - Almost A Titan.</strong></div>
<br />
It was becoming apparent that the PowerUp was getting a bit heavy on the fighters and fighter size/class ships. The BATCraft, DEFCraft and FABCraft (While more of a mine, the current incarnations of FAB were more or less fighter sized) were beginning to outnumber the slow and lumbering forms of the likes of BUSCraft and RAYCraft. Even REDRay was closer to a fighter than a large-class ship.<br />
<br />
As I'd started Chapter 3 with some new smaller offerings and proceeded to hurl red variants of familliar ships at the player in it's mid section, I thought it was about time I rolled in one of the big boys... You have to bear in mind that at this point, I'd barely even considered what I was going to do about bosses, so these larger ships were as big as my imagination was currently allowing me to get.<br />
<br />
I heaved in the MISCraft. MIS was basically to be a missile launcher. I realised that I'd managed your basic homing capabillities with the PINCraft and was beginning to wonder how well that code would translate to what was essentially an arc-based homing bullet. Of course, the answer to that was that it would translate just fine.<br />
<br />
My modelling was speeding up now and after a little break to work on Red ship variants, I was only too eager to get back to a bit of original 3D art. I was also becoming a much tighter, faster modeller of ships, and found myself modelling far fetched but vaguely functional ship parts into MISCraft, the large funnels at its rear would be the source of the ships screen-right to screen-left homing missiles and I particularly took pleasure in dictating the precise starting-source of the missile in relation to the enemy firing it, as opposed to just firing it roughtly from the central area of the baddie as I had with the RedBAT and RedDEF ship classes. The MISCraft had an all together less chaotic, more deliberate feel to it.<br />
<br />
At first, MIS also simply moved in from right to left, but I soon came to realise that I could experiment a little with this one. After plenty of earlier encouragement for the player to use their Plasma cannon, what with the weaknesses of the Cleaner, the RAYCraft and the PINCraft, I settled on a mechanic in the MISCraft that would limit the player's use of that particular weapon... A huge flickering lightning-like shield which extended from the front of the ship and spelled instant death on contact with the player. The shield was also long enough that anything but the very highest levels of plasma would simply not breach through to the craft behind.<br />
<br />
I had the ship tank it's way on screen then pause for a while with a menacing demeanour while it's missiles swooped off toward the player. I wrote in an extra bit of code which had the missiles count down their vertical speed to zero when changing direction, then count up again when finding the player, giving them the impression of arcing around the player, as though dragging their own weight. <br />
<br />
It worked wonderfully, the elasticated flight paths of the homing missiles as they came toward the player, weaving vertically up and down toward their target became a very effective distraction. After they had passed, I left another pause for the player to battle the MISCraft, then if the hulking enemy was still surviving the onslaught, MIS itself would kick its engines in, accellerating toward the player and finally off screen left. Very cool, and ever more complex than what had come before.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS2KxyKKp19O_3B4Pj8fxCZbXMFHNs1uP5yBHdOpguzb6wBanBJL9gITygrMvjQy_bZB9SDkF9PRJD5XIDTs1CsWIEG2HbOdwOQtPT7aL6YKlU7alpFBwhM5UtdjjLE5Kh8uFpETuCbQCf/s1600/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-27-25-82.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS2KxyKKp19O_3B4Pj8fxCZbXMFHNs1uP5yBHdOpguzb6wBanBJL9gITygrMvjQy_bZB9SDkF9PRJD5XIDTs1CsWIEG2HbOdwOQtPT7aL6YKlU7alpFBwhM5UtdjjLE5Kh8uFpETuCbQCf/s640/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-27-25-82.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hulking Mass - The MISCraft could take one heck of a pounding and with it's complex shielding and intelligent homing missiles, it was the baddie that really started me thinking about my options for the Titanic level bosses to come.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
About now, I was really seeing the benefit of combining a large enemy with a wave of small ones. While a player was able to handle MISCraft on its own, MIS alongside a herald of chaotic, screaming BATCraft became another story completely. With every new enemy or Red enemy variant I was creating, I was also creating another batch of great enemy combination scenarios to play with in my balancing of the game overall.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Enemy: Infantry - Litterally Taking down An Army!</strong></div>
<br />
You read that right. Wouldn't that be ace? Just to be able to unleash hell on hundreds of (obviously inherently evil) ground troops using some seriously chunky firepower? Well that was the plan.<br />
<br />
I was thinking, "Hang on... All this talk of fighter class ships and titan ships and here we are in Chapter 4, "The Cityplex", essentially one of the enemy species' major cities, and we haven't seen a single ground troop!... Hmm, would they even have ground troops??... This is MY game, and I say of course they would!!"<br />
<br />
And do you now what?... They did.<br />
<br />
Mountains of em'.... erm, but not so many as to make the wave impassable. That goes without saying though, right? ...so I toned down where I felt I had to and threw a load of very easy to kill, little silhouetted reptile men at the player, earning a mark for violence on XBLIG indie games in the process, but hey-ho. It was SO worth it!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHQoabDYpJ1Nnhn5jaMaujJpZRUWXRK-vmztt62AdsFEq3hquN-vndwutXhoMihZuQ64YsEA4d9ZQ_53ogCPABN8NPGMwzN4l7faH3QcQ3OWev7XDTSGgx-dVNTBsDfmWeXae9rBhC2vGO/s1600/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-32-45-79.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHQoabDYpJ1Nnhn5jaMaujJpZRUWXRK-vmztt62AdsFEq3hquN-vndwutXhoMihZuQ64YsEA4d9ZQ_53ogCPABN8NPGMwzN4l7faH3QcQ3OWev7XDTSGgx-dVNTBsDfmWeXae9rBhC2vGO/s640/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-32-45-79.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Death from below - While the reptillian soldiers posed little threat on their own, they became a cunning distraction when coupled up with large enemies like the RedBUS.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
The soldiers shared the RATCraft's basic left right code and I made adjustments causing them to visibly skid to a halt while aiming at the player ship as it passed overhead, then chasing after it and ultimately, once again being left behind by the game's scrolling. to the trained eye, one soldier alone would have obviously been something of a copy of the RATCraft code, but thirty or forty on a screen at one time was a frantic wave of troops, desperately defending their homeland against an unknown and very powerful assailant. <br />
<br />
...It was all quite pretty too.<br />
<br />
The soldiers fired off aimed bullets at the player from their little glowing firearms and became particularly treacherous when paired up with bigger threats.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong></strong> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Enemy: BOLTCraft - A Big Baddie That Can See??</strong></div>
<br />
It's probably worthy of note that while I was no longer populating with as many unique new ship shapes at this point, between the soldier and the BOLTCraft I had included a great many new Red variants, all exploiting these new tricks.<br />
<br />
The BUSCraft and PINCraft had now recieved the Red treatment, improving on their speed, homing senses and aimed firepower while the SLOBot had been upgraded for the smaller, sighted REDBot, equipped with a wicked experimental fast repeating aimed shot that served to spray bullets in deadly squiggly lines across the play area.<br />
<br />
It's safe to say that by this point, my two crowning achievements were definitely in creating baddies with the abillity to locate the player's X and Y positions, then adjust it's own position accordingly, and in creating baddie projectiles capable of establishing it's own position and the player's position on being fired, then creating a trajectory between the two... And I was exploiting both of these techniques to the full!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDHUXb6f578WLJ76Y7POY3BPXP-a1mct8PH8zhGmekRR2uEkw50Vm1w26VJ61Mbw7YdQV5NpaiGxr7Rs6gAz825isx0tYFQL8Yzfp8Fv8D8Pqf2NW8AjD5DWSTjrwlmCNF0BHalj-1-N_v/s1600/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-35-20-78.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDHUXb6f578WLJ76Y7POY3BPXP-a1mct8PH8zhGmekRR2uEkw50Vm1w26VJ61Mbw7YdQV5NpaiGxr7Rs6gAz825isx0tYFQL8Yzfp8Fv8D8Pqf2NW8AjD5DWSTjrwlmCNF0BHalj-1-N_v/s640/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-35-20-78.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dodge THIS! - RedBOT sends off a naughty little squiggle of aimed bullets your way as the bullet blasting RedPIN Craft home in on the player.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
One thing I was yet to try was in putting these two properties together. That's where the BOLTCraft came in.<br />
<br />
By now, I was exhausting the RedCraft available to me so I concluded the fourth chapter with another upgrade... a particularly nasty flurry of new BlackBAT ships. Yes, that's right, The BATCraft had just upgraded a second time and it's level 3 variants were getting really deadly now. Smaller, faster, and firing of irregular successions of aimed bullets at the player, BlackBAT might be weak, but attacking in sudden bursts of great numbers, they were filling the screen with screaming doom in no time and creating slow moving clouds of aimed bullets.<br />
<br />
Of course, a nicely powered-up player ship could handle their brittle little frames easily with a well placed round of Spread-Shots... But not when they were joined by the BOLTCraft!!<br />
<br />
I was particularly pleased with the physique of the BOLT. It had something of a letter "C" to it's shape, and in the open space at its front, a huge, clearly fatal lightning bolt thing was happening, which matched the resounding characteristic of the previous MISCraft ship.<br />
<br />
Like the PIN, the BOLT would move from right to left, aiming vertically toward the player, when it's Horizontal location met that of the player, insterad of turning and chasing as the RATCraft would have done, a surviving BOLTCraft, gave up the chase, fired up its engines and shot off to the left, dignity intact. (This was actually a characteristic also shared with the pin. Clouds of those things attempting to turn around and chase would not only have made for an undignified display, it would most likely have slowed the Xbox version to a grinding crash).<br />
<br />
...However, unlike the PIN, BOLT was slow, lumbering but durable. It also fired aimed bullets in fast succession, essentially providing the player with windows between attacks before a dodge manouvre was required. As an early enemy, it would have been tricky enough on its own, but with waves of angry BlackBAT ships, the ground rules were being set for a higher standard of player.<br />
<br />
The first batch of BOLTCraft were to be fair, a little too small to make full use of their frontal lightning feature, but I rectified this with the opening of PowerUp's final chapter, "Into Terranus"...<br />
<br />
With it's entourage of BATCraft and RedBAT fighters, the RedBOLT slowly eases into view. In a movement pattern almost identical to it's small predecessor of the precious level, RedBOLT's seemingly only difference is in it's threatening slow approach and its seriously durable armour... and the fact that there only needs to be one of them!<br />
<br />
It's only as RedBOLT creeps close that the horrible reality of the situation dawns and as the mighty goliath kicks in its engines, you come to realise that it's too late! If only you'd ignored all those accompanying BATs and focussed your frontal firepower cleanly on the impending RedBOLT.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
By now, RedBOLT's sheer size makes it a particularly difficult enemy to evade!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5nO5vIiBSDrNFG8M8AGLzf1XlQv8cLRUuOS6jhPRTVMFAs4g6lfYENkLQ2zNRHtd3qNbq0l_xmEapSPWUt175-iMoyrPQpOsvXCgLh0fU9VsPZEXwPa9baY2rmZVwbn5tqin3LDKUR7DR/s1600/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-40-25-72.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5nO5vIiBSDrNFG8M8AGLzf1XlQv8cLRUuOS6jhPRTVMFAs4g6lfYENkLQ2zNRHtd3qNbq0l_xmEapSPWUt175-iMoyrPQpOsvXCgLh0fU9VsPZEXwPa9baY2rmZVwbn5tqin3LDKUR7DR/s640/Power+Up+2013-07-04+16-40-25-72.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Creeping Death - Under the pressure of a powered up player, RedBOLT bears down regardless. By now I was really getting a feel for how effective Titans would be as bosses.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
While it's not a new baddie, I felt that RedBOLT had enough about it that was unique to make it worthy of an exclusive mention within this BOLTCraft section. It seemed that just a shift of size and a few subtle changes to the code were enough in this case, to completely put the emphasis of this enemy on a frantic, against-the-clock, frontal assault! <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong></strong><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Enemy: Red GLOWBall - Somewhere between a Baddie and A Bullet.</strong></div>
<br />
So, I'd made a baddie that could detect and find your vertical position via the use of detremental integers... You know, that thing I was on about in an earlier blog where when a baddie goes past it's target, it starts taking 1 off it's speed, making for an arc, until it's moving in the opposite direction. Remember?... Right.<br />
<br />
Well, in a nutshell, it's the thing that I used in older games when I wanted to make things jump in arcs as opposed to sharp up/down movements... which suck! Anyway, back to the point. This worked well horizontally with RATCraft and the ground troops, and it worked well vertically with PINCraft, BOLTCraft, etc when homing in on the player.<br />
<br />
...So it was really just a matter of time before I tried experimenting with something that did this horizontally AND vertically... and what better enemy type for the job than one which, when animating, was non-direction-specific... something that I'd used before maybe... something like a GLOWBall mine??<br />
<br />
If you cast your mind back to the previous part, you'll remember that the GLOWBall was a durable enemy from the first level that mostly made for a dodge distraction while taking on other enemies. Well, on Chapter 5, when the player was powered up to a level best described as "Well 'ard", those things popped like baloons when they even vaguely considered coming within a hundred feet of the player's ship.<br />
<br />
Sure, they'd be just as deadly when touched, and for that reason would still make a good minor distraction at this point, but what if the real danger came from the much advanced Red versions of them? <br />
<br />
The Red GLOWBall enemies were actually similar to the GLOWBalls in art only, at about half the size of their counterpart, the Red variant spawned at a random horizontal position across the screen-top and the screen-bottom, checking it's own horizontal and vertical position in relation to the player's, then it would accellerate toward the player at speed. Upon missing the player ship, Red GLOWBall would then arc to a halt using a countdown of it's speed variable (or a decremental integer), pass zero, then promptly start counting the other way. This would happen for horizontal and vertical movement!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFnIC8XWpog_8kiczyOnTAX_nzybG9LZ2916dheNroGpFv75aA_jYTjZ5-G4ic5jbAPUgirAvMLl2VHKjB7LwFqyaZ3mGCxfHkAJ5FG6oYNQBtuI9JpY0aA4A_iub8E44s9NCiTCaedcgL/s1600/Power+Up+2013-09-09+15-33-02-73.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFnIC8XWpog_8kiczyOnTAX_nzybG9LZ2916dheNroGpFv75aA_jYTjZ5-G4ic5jbAPUgirAvMLl2VHKjB7LwFqyaZ3mGCxfHkAJ5FG6oYNQBtuI9JpY0aA4A_iub8E44s9NCiTCaedcgL/s640/Power+Up+2013-09-09+15-33-02-73.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Forcefield at the ready - It's the unnerving beginnings of a massive Red GLOWBall attack.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span id="goog_463803700"></span><span id="goog_463803701"></span><br />
<br />
The result was a rotating GLOWBall mine which soared and wheeled around the player, constantly seeking our hapless ship until one or the other was destroyed. It's destruction would take a few shots of a powered up weapon, prefarably the Side-Shot, but the rate at which these things spawned was to make things difficult for anything less than a level 9 power up, urging the player to start thinking about getting all their guns to a full power of level 10. Pronto!<br />
<br />
The Red GLOWBalls turned out to be a simple, but particularly effective enemy, and a bit of white-knuckle fun too.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong></strong><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Enemy: TENTACraft - Only Backshots Can Save Us Now!</strong></div>
<br />
It seems that the PINCraft really opened the pandora's box of wierd and freaky baddies, and TENTACraft was to follow in the same vein. While TENTA's head section was a fairly simple spikey-jawed, chomping mouth affair, it's rear section was quite a slick collection of parts which came together to make rather a hypnotic impression that I was very pleased with.<br />
<br />
As for it's moves however, TENTA simply came up behind the player, homing slightly as it did and blasting the MISCraft's very own homing missiles at the player's rear end. It was a fighter class ship whose design was based mainly around encouraging the payer to utilize their Back Shot. This was one of those weapons I'd found myself skimping on up to this point in development, so the inclusion of a relatively durable rear-attacking fighter was intended to have the player thinking ahead and powering up accordingly.<br />
<br />
...As it happened, this powering up the Back Shot thing wouldn't prove to be too much of a problem as the Chapter four boss I was to concoct later on would really help to fill that gap... but I'm getting ahead of myself.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGZ_hNuL6pmH3SsgE_cjHtgVr7tNjZcrFfHHY13447PaEKxwjDiQ2rxsAL8J_oWN4vTQvXceh3MJlpDFugRPn1gOvncUPKQPP3Jz-iJZ3eypAjleKa9WHaArloeaqAuoI9s0r-MjcVWZ0S/s1600/Power+Up+2013-09-09+15-33-57-75.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGZ_hNuL6pmH3SsgE_cjHtgVr7tNjZcrFfHHY13447PaEKxwjDiQ2rxsAL8J_oWN4vTQvXceh3MJlpDFugRPn1gOvncUPKQPP3Jz-iJZ3eypAjleKa9WHaArloeaqAuoI9s0r-MjcVWZ0S/s640/Power+Up+2013-09-09+15-33-57-75.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Watch your back - The Tentacraft's first appearance is supplemented almost immediately with it's Red upgrade!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
TENTACraft was joined later in this wave by it's Red variant (We are on the last level after all) which was a slightly larger, stronger, faster version of TENTA. However, instead of firing aimed bullets, Red TENTA loosed the dreaded Red GLOWBall mines, this time as a weapon.<br />
<br />
...It was so effective, that this was far from the last time that a Red GLOWBall mine was weaponised. but again, more on that in part 3.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong></strong> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Cranking Up The Nasty</strong></div>
<br />
I liked those BlackBAT ships from the end of Chapter 4... and now that I had the core coding skills for some seriously tricky baddies I wanted more level 3 enemies in black. Over the course of the final chapter, great big BlackBUSCraft ships began to make an appearance, free-roaming and barely penetrable, pumping out highly dangerous, slightly-faster-than-expected aimed bullets at a rate which simply refused to allow the player to get into a comfort zone while attempting to pummel the enemy with everything they've got.<br />
<br />
Then there was the Black FABCraft, huge variants of the floating bombs with unpredictable firing patterns.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6wF22Jipif3Ai9FWC11IwbsYXHg8lNM26UY0DJ7AWb6c6gQu1CwoYwgZIQkq9MZs-7GNXN1T6wGhG4d7qT0GTDsRzJRNLkUQRljHX2nUsA7GX2tI9Pg5Oy0jDvLhb65WFCtz2owO2uLjX/s1600/Power+Up+2013-09-09+15-35-42-74.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6wF22Jipif3Ai9FWC11IwbsYXHg8lNM26UY0DJ7AWb6c6gQu1CwoYwgZIQkq9MZs-7GNXN1T6wGhG4d7qT0GTDsRzJRNLkUQRljHX2nUsA7GX2tI9Pg5Oy0jDvLhb65WFCtz2owO2uLjX/s640/Power+Up+2013-09-09+15-35-42-74.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">FABCraft by the dozen - Even powered up to the teeth, the stakes get high with these particularly well armoured last-level enemies.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
There were also the nasty masses of Black DEFCraft, sweeping by en-masse and dangerously close in their abillity to home in on your location.<br />
<br />
Not forgetting the vast armies of Black PINCraft, sticking tightly to your vertical position while unloading in your general direction.<br />
<br />
And the sleek BlackBOTs blasting huge, tightly packed lines of aimed bullets, creating walls of floating death, impervious to anything but the perfectly timed activation of a carefully preserved forcefield.<br />
<br />
The MISCraft even got one more outing in the form of the REDMis, based on the lightning shield and homing missile combination of it's previous incarnation, this is a seriously well equipped bull of a ship! Even powered up to full, a player stands little chance of taking these down once the accompanying wave of hardcore BlackBAT fighters strike and distract! This places the player repeatedly in tight corners, changing the dynamic of the gameplay once again.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZlbJ8VmsJ17VkprWSBUn_udLzJPiRuJ2hxh4VX_0w-PW5wv6iw2x4dkBhhKt4KjqPPKuFwPw_Z_PZFSQWy4H9_DDtC88zUWLGEQE-HJIBuaPGAslLtxAnJODt0VZccLGk1bdhop2_-iN3/s1600/Power+Up+2013-09-09+15-38-52-72.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZlbJ8VmsJ17VkprWSBUn_udLzJPiRuJ2hxh4VX_0w-PW5wv6iw2x4dkBhhKt4KjqPPKuFwPw_Z_PZFSQWy4H9_DDtC88zUWLGEQE-HJIBuaPGAslLtxAnJODt0VZccLGk1bdhop2_-iN3/s640/Power+Up+2013-09-09+15-38-52-72.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The big guns - Even at full power and cheating my backside off, I stil break a sweat fighting off these guys.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Suffice to say, if you made it this far, you'd be earning your victories!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong></strong><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Enemy: Gun Turret - Just One More Thing...</strong></div>
<br />
You're tired, you're battle ravaged! You haven't stopped playing PowerUp for hours now. Look, you need to eat! ...Sleep! Just tear yourself away for sanity's sake..... but, you've made it this far.<br />
<br />
Pick yourself up, Pilot! you've still got to run what I lovingly call The Gauntlet!! That's right... a nice long corridor of Gun Turrets! And these aren't just any gun turrets. These bad boys will be changing pace constantly... one moment it's manageable... the next, they're coming at you in fours! Fast-firing and furious, above and below.<br />
<br />
...and just when you're getting into a rythm... I crank it to 11 and throw in some more baddies for good measure!<br />
<br />
Sorry.<br />
<br />
If you make it to that final boss you'll be catching your breath and calming your nerves first ...at least, that's what I have to do, and I designed the flippin' thing!!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNT1GMncoRvJwn8wgKjG29bCPt_PlnuAawshNw-8XQ9c_nHNSdte1JuAbYIj6ZTfj-OCnBV9M1cMLXXlQGjMwyonMKsP44GtI14ejrgHRswH_lEaN70wSkrmxZNPFjGqadaoSXrZ678xMC/s1600/Power+Up+2013-09-09+15-37-32-72.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNT1GMncoRvJwn8wgKjG29bCPt_PlnuAawshNw-8XQ9c_nHNSdte1JuAbYIj6ZTfj-OCnBV9M1cMLXXlQGjMwyonMKsP44GtI14ejrgHRswH_lEaN70wSkrmxZNPFjGqadaoSXrZ678xMC/s640/Power+Up+2013-09-09+15-37-32-72.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Running the Gauntlet - Some sections of the final level would require fast changes between weapons to counter unexpected attacks, all while weaving between Gun Turret bullets!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
(Obviously, the last level/Chapter of PowerUp was all about throwing everything, including the kitchen sink at the player, but I was sure to keep it fair. With a bit of practice, you'll be able to do this on Easy... with a bit of skill, you'll manage Meduim too... I won't lie, it's going to take a really good run to beat it in Hard, and as for Psychotic... Let's just say if you make it, please have the cameras running and send me the vid. I'd love to see someone manage that!)<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong></strong><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>So!!</strong> </div>
<br />
There I was with a game full of enemies. I'd mastered the moving of baddies and bullets around the screen. I'd managed the generation of said bullets and various shot, impact and death effects. I'd even sussed out how to code things to happen in relation to the position and state of other things. Nifty!<br />
<br />
By now I'd spent many a sleepless night coming up with the bosses I'd need to do this game justice, ensuring that each and every one was visibly distinguishable from the others and loaded up with it's own brand of bullet-storm.<br />
<br />
I was sure that If I were to start at the beginning of the game, and code these things thoughtfully and with the reverence they deserved, starting with the simplest and working my way to the most complex, I'd be able to do them all justice.<br />
<br />
.....and I'll tell you all about that next time.<br />
<br />
Thanks for following my blog this far guys.<br />
See you in the next one.<br />
<br />
mPsyPsofthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586372773166399296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1371197537362446588.post-83729682425886062182013-06-04T07:25:00.003-07:002013-06-05T04:42:25.617-07:00A "Dark Intelligence" - Part One.Hello again,<br />
<br />
So I'd just like to start by conceding that scripted dialogue is not my strongpoint.<br />
<br />
I tried to make a few films back in my student days and they were, let's face it, pretty hammy... pretty bad! Still, I tried and resultantly I learned something about myself... Mainly that I'm better at drawing stuff than writing compelling stories, witty dialogue and believeable characters.<br />
<br />
With that in mind I've been writing, re-writing, then RE-re-writing dialogue for my game, PowerUp. I know I'm not particularly good at it... but I've had some practice now, and thanks to that I'm not particularly terrible at it either.<br />
<br />
Sure it's all an obvious mishmash of my sci-fi influences, piled up high with every "invasion" cliche in the book... but when PowerUp's HATI (your Holographic Artificial Tactical Intelligence) piped up that there was a "Dark Intelligence" at the heart of our reptillian enemy, it began to dawn on me that I might have a great subject for my next blog.<br />
<br />
Let's find out if I was right, eh. Because in today's ramble, I'm going to tell you about...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>---</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong></strong><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>PowerUp - The Evolution of Enemies</strong></div>
<br />
Yep. That's right. I've decided to let you in on snippets of the process I encountered when creating enemies for PowerUp!<br />
<br />
I don't mean that I'm going to bore and alienate you with reams of badly-written code (this is my first attempt at a C# game, after all), instead I thought that as I pretty much coded PowerUp chronologically, I'd go through a load of the baddies from beginning to end in the hopes that any fellow aspiring coders, designers, artists, sound technicians and musicians who follow my shenanagans might feel that little bit less intimidated by the seemingly vast complexities of this aspect of making their game.<br />
<br />
I can only really speak for my own experience, but once I'd mastered the control mechanics, scrolling backgrounds and pop-up dialogue of my game, I personally became sick to my stomach at the idea of populating PowerUp with challenging and engaging baddies.<br />
<br />
I found that coming up with enough variety in visual design and attack style just knocks on to too many of the game's other facets, which in itself can make it all seem pretty daunting... not to mention the technicallities of actually making it happen! All that said, once I stopped with the panic, broke the workload down and approached it in a calm, realistic manner, I began to see some light at the end of the tunnel. <br />
<br />
I also began to see the process for the profoundly fun, rewarding and prolifically creative outpouring that game development is supposed to be, and that the creation of my baddies actually really was. <br />
<br />
...That sort of thing is why we wanted to make games in the first place, right?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>A Place To Begin</strong></div>
<br />
So there I was. My player ship, now universally known as "Weapon-F" worked! She ducked and wheeled around the screen with grace and poise. Her arsenal was formiddable, her finer functionallity all but complete. The environment soared by in thick paralax, jumping to the next silent, abandoned game segment on cue, tracking my progress through the game as I closed in on the empty screenspace that was my first level boss. It was beautiful. It was promising... it was boring!<br />
<br />
It was time to bite that bullet and start thinking about baddies!<br />
<br />
I generally go quite a while between my blogs, I put most of my time and efforts into the game, so admittedly I forget what I've written in previous blog installations. still, I'm pretty sure that regular followers will remember me mentioning that while PowerUp was inspired by certain classic games I played growing up, my decision to actually try to make PowerUp was mostly inspired by the advice of a good friend and a good tutorial that piqued my interest in creating my own XNA shmup. Alongside basic controls, the tutorial introduced me to the concept of thowing instances of an enemy at the player... Just a simple animating sprite that moved from right to left while the player dodged it, shot it, or was killed by it.<br />
<br />
So far I was coping nicely...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Enemy: Space Debris - Non-Sentient Moving Targets</strong></div>
<br />
After some head scratching and a spot of umm-ing and aaah-ing, I realised that with a little modification, I could turn this simple tutorial object into something just slightly more complex. I decided I'd start with a bit of space debris, rolling through space from screen right to screen left, but essentially mimicking what I'd learned.<br />
<br />
Every second or so, my space debris would spawn another instance of itself, just off the right of the screen. It would then run a rotation animation (yes, animation. there was no mention of rotation in my lessons so I simply didn't have the nerve to even attempt it in code), while updating itself to move a few pixels to its left every frame of the game..... I say a few pixels, but I'd actually learned how to do this in vectors rather than real pixels. Vectors basically allow you to apply a decimal point speed, like say, "1.2" to the baddie rather than telling it how many pixels to move by. believe me, it makes things much easier later on.<br />
<br />
Now it was just a question of what happens next... I decided that it I wanted to avoid being overwhelmed, I'd better deal with this enemy one action at a time. I started by looking at what happens when it goes off the left of the screen. The last thing you want is your game to crawl to a crashing halt half way through because over the course of a half-hour play of it, every single baddie is still running its code somewhere off the screen! Obviously, once my debris had reached and exited screen left, it was done with. I removed it without ceremony. Blink. Gone!<br />
<br />
Next, it was a question of what happens when the debris collides with the player... Simple! I wanted the player to run its death sequence, and I wanted the enemy to remove itself. I tend to add whatever is needed as and when its needed so it actually wasn't until this point that I wrote the beginnings of the player's death sequence. It began as a take on the arc-up,-then-drop-off-the-screen death of many shmups of the retro era, but then I realised I could maintain a little control over the ship and even do something of a "parthian shot" death! Nice!!... hmm, but I digress and that's probably a story for another blog post. But what <em>was</em> evident was that there would need to be an explosion when player and enemy hit one another.<br />
<br />
Adding an explosion was much the same as adding a baddie, except where the baddie was being added on a timer, the explosion was being added on a prompt. Later I went back and garnished my explosions with sparks, chunks and other bits of loveliness, but to start with, I had my explosion. And that was just fine by me.<br />
<br />
I gave the debris the same outcome on collision with all of the player's projectile types... quite a time sink which I'm sure there's a better way of doing on my later projects, but in the meantime, a lot of player collision was copied and adapted for all of the player's projectiles, and now the player was able to shoot the debris right out of the sky.<br />
<br />
And there it was! A fully functional piece of space debris with all of it's possible outcomes covered. 1. Hit player - remove with a bang and kill player.<br />
2. Hit player's projectiles - remove with a bang and kill player projectile.<br />
3. Bypass both player and bullets and get to the other side fo the screen - remove.<br />
<br />
Upon playing the game through I came to realise that things were looking a touch repetitive. At the very least, I needed to add a few different variants of debris to this section of the game. Not only that, but I wanted to give each piece of debris some slightly different qualities of their own. I looked at what variables I had to play with and came to the conclusion that I could change the size, strength and speed of the debris pieces... so I did just that.<br />
<br />
I made a few copies of my debris code and after creating a few graphical variants in Photoshop, making a few changes to the size of each debris' collision detection, and fiddling around with that decimal-point speed variable, I was able to forge several more bits of debris. The bigger they got, the slower they moved and the more shots they took to destroy.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj54EJJBBl03nYNFIeKULY9RTeD29RLTE5tgVqfYEsqGtihASatAaKRF5xthpEZx6UTpn4RdiCA0Rta15qb4_imo1FcFqtQMHpGreaaffn0sMfp2zjkEZBA9PO7If3wbJ3RwUm9h-YEDrB9/s1600/blog_ai0101.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj54EJJBBl03nYNFIeKULY9RTeD29RLTE5tgVqfYEsqGtihASatAaKRF5xthpEZx6UTpn4RdiCA0Rta15qb4_imo1FcFqtQMHpGreaaffn0sMfp2zjkEZBA9PO7If3wbJ3RwUm9h-YEDrB9/s640/blog_ai0101.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Space Debris - as simple as baddies come.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Finally, I topped the attack-wave off with a nice big, tough monster chunk of debris... something of a little sub-boss.<br />
<br />
A few of my actual design ideas were beginning to bear fruit, mainly the need for focussed powering-up of the player's weapons... but I'd also seen how once created, a solid bit of code could easily be re-used and adapted for the next enemy.<br />
<br />
And that's exactly what I intended to do...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Enemy: The Batcraft - Screaming, but Dim-Witted</strong></div>
<br />
For me, the most sleepless nights are caused by two emotional states, accute anxiety, or wild creative excitement. Over the course of PowerUp I've had great cause for both, but for now I was happy to be feeling the pleasurable pangs of the latter.<br />
<br />
I had just created a baddie for my game!!<br />
<br />
Suddenly it didn't seem like such a black art. The possibillities were opening up and if nothing else, I'd be able to create a game with simple enemies that move in a straight line... not quite what I aspired to but certainly better than nothing, and definitely cause for celebration. Over the course of nights on end I lay awake in the darkness for hours before sleep finally caught up with me, pondering, visualising, reasoning, planning out a potential means for the creation of so many complex enemies. <br />
<br />
There was so much that I had absolutely no clue how to do, but my mindset was changing. I was beginning to trust in my future self.<br />
<br />
I'd learned this much. I'll learn more... but I was determined not to bite off more than I could chew, and for a while, I stuck firmly to this rule.<br />
<br />
With the debris came the beginnings of PowerUp's storyline, and the next logical step for that story included a nice simple, but suitably threatening wave of enemy fighters. I looked to my debris code and made my alterations.<br />
<br />
These were the "BATCraft"... and it's probably important to state that there was no complexity, time investment or higher thinking to their concept. They were to look a bit like bats, the name sounded cool, and I wanted to quickly get through the conceptual side of things and into the meat of making it happen.<br />
<br />
I scribbled a five minute sketch of a streamlined little cylon-like fighter (that ended up not really looking much like a bat at all), blasted out a model in 3DS Max, textured it, rendered it and applied it to a variant of my space debris code.<br />
<br />
Up until now, I'd been drawing everything in Photoshop. I hadn't put much thought into the visual style of PowerUp as I was totally engrossed in learning some coding basics, but now the visuals were naturally surfacing. It was occurring to me that I'd need to rotate some of my ships, and doing that in 2D would be time consuming and much less visually convincing than modelling and rendering my ships in 3D... BATCraft would become my test subject.<br />
<br />
So far, the BATCraft was a sliver of a ship, it moved from right to left just as the debris had done. I began to wonder if I could make the BAT do some kind of attack formation... perhaps a barrel roll off the screen or at the player, while showing off it's curves a bit... Yeah!<br />
<br />
After a couple of frustrating evenings (I was working as a casual games artist in the day at this point, so PowerUp was getting a few hobby-hours, two evenings a-week), I was just not getting my head around how I was to make the BATs actually aim themselves at the player. "Well, it's early days" I thought. "Maybe I should keep them simpler than that". I did.<br />
<br />
Instead of attacking the player directly, which I vowed to make baddies capable of later, I decided to set a mark exactly half way down the play area. The BAT would move slowly on from the right , then at a certain "go" point on the screen, it would assess whether it was above or below that half-way-down mark. If it was above, it would roll down, if it was below, it would roll up.<br />
<br />
I did this by having the BAT spawn with a vertical speed (much like the horizontal speed inherited from the debris) of zero. At the "go" point, the BAT would play a firework-style scream and both it's horizontal and vertical speed would start counting. I'm told this is known as an "incremental" or "decrimental variable" depending on whether it counts up or down and while there's much more effective ways of coding its behaviour, apparently it's very good for stuff like jumping or falling through the air when a character is hit... and for a ridiculously naive and self satisfied moment (it turns out you have a lot of those as a beginner in anything), I thought I'd invented it... div!<br />
<br />
Anyway, I applied the BAT's newly rendered frames of rotation as the craft counted up (or down) it's vertical speed and once the BAT was vertically off the screen, I applied the same bit of remove code that I'd done to it's horizontal exit and everything was pretty much tied up.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPoneekhRQ8dhR9atQ4rgU1QYbZz2B3CIldkpewbpOqjPVDGTSzRDPXFZQQ2P0zrD90rRAny9ymsBoV7ChPSRGiERNDWriGV8iGJR2anLpoKqVSk5kxQyLhVLxmsBwJBkMBDGp8C22Bd7F/s1600/blog_ai0102.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPoneekhRQ8dhR9atQ4rgU1QYbZz2B3CIldkpewbpOqjPVDGTSzRDPXFZQQ2P0zrD90rRAny9ymsBoV7ChPSRGiERNDWriGV8iGJR2anLpoKqVSk5kxQyLhVLxmsBwJBkMBDGp8C22Bd7F/s640/blog_ai0102.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screaming stupidity - BATCraft are the kamikaze grunts of the reptile race. At this point, each enemy took about 4 hours to design and model, then another 4 to texture and render. At 8 hours a-week, this constituted a week's work on PowerUp.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
It was at this point I noticed the flaw in my BAT-plan... No matter how I fiddled the speed numbers, all of the ships in the wave were attacking one area of the screen. there was always somewhere you could hide in a bid to pretty much avoid any fight whatsoever. The solution was fairly obvious...<br />
<br />
I created two more sets of BATs, each with fiddled numbers, each designed to attack areas of the screen in which the player was likely to take refuge. I now had medium range, long range and short range BATs. I even segmented the attack waves so that the medium range ones attacked first, lulling the player in to a false sense of security, before hitting out with the long and short range assailants.<br />
<br />
The overall effect on myself as a player was just as I'd intended... to force a fight. I quickly found myself seeking out my most effective weapon for dealing with BATs and then using it in abundance. again, my weapon-swapping design ideals were being validated nicely in a way that I was capable of manipulating as I created more of PowerUp's enemies.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Enemy: The BUSCraft - "They Came From... Behind!"</strong></div>
<br />
I'll leave it for you, the player to discover the best weapon for the job when it comes to the vast majority of my PowerUp baddies, but with some, I make it pretty obvious. Looking at my weapon selection order, the next in line for early demonstration was the Backshot.<br />
<br />
As the last of my BATCraft screamed out of view, it occurred to me that a further attack of fighters would look straggly and un-memorable. What the game needed next, was something big and chunky. Something akin to a flying bus... with guns!<br />
<br />
I grabbed my sketch book and scribbled up the BUSCraft (no, really. That's what I called it... and that was why).<br />
<br />
Another evening's work and I had my BUSCraft modelled, textured and ready to go into the game. A further batch of sleepless nights and I'd pretty much figured out how it was going to work.<br />
<br />
This time, instead of spawning screen-right and moving left, I would spawn three on screen-left, in set positions. They'd move slowly right, hang around for a while, then if the player hadn't destroyed them with a flurry of well placed backshots, the BUSes would roll back off to the left. Once off screen, they would remove themselves and the game would carry on.<br />
<br />
There were a few complications I hadn't accounted for here. Previous waves had spawned at random vertical positions making for an unpredictable barrage of baddies. That worked for them but these big guys needed to appear in formation, even with slight delays in their appearance if possible. It took a bit of extra work... fiddly work too, but eventually I had little timers going off at the right intervals to make the BUSCraft roll on one at a time, hang around, and roll off... <br />
<br />
Next up was to make them a threat and give the player a reason to want them dead!<br />
<br />
I was hoping to figure out the mystery of getting baddies to aim for the player at this point, but it just wasn't ready to happen for me, so after losing a few more nights of work to my attempts at it, I looked for an alternative... There's a lot of this sort of compromise early on. Thankfully less and less later. <br />
<br />
I decided that if I couldn't aim directly at the player's current position, I'd create a bullet that shoots in say, eight random directions... though mostly forward so that projectiles are more likely to hit the player. I then adjusted the frequency of the BUS's shots to add to the challenge element of this slow and lumbering craft.<br />
<br />
It's probably worth noting here that as I hadn't sussed rotation, I opted not to go with line shaped lasers, missiles, or anything like that for my multi-directional bullets. Instead, I created a perfectly round enemy projectile, glowing white for clarity. This way, an enemy bullet would be able to travel in any direction with just one animation and it could rarely be argued that an enemy bullet was unfairly hidden. the round bullet is far from an original concept, but its usefulness is worth a mention, I feel.<br />
<br />
I was expecting to be able to move onto my next attack wave, but playing through, there was this wierd sense of static about the BUSCraft. As the three rolled on-screen, they looked oddly robotic and stunted in their movement. Quickly, it dawned on me exactly what was needed to bring these single framed golliaths to life... Floaty-wobble!<br />
<br />
Yes, you read that right. These vicious monster-master race types, sent to wipe out humankind in the most brutal unfeeling manner were in desperate need of a bit of floaty-wobble.<br />
<br />
Let's say I add one of those incremental integers I mentioned earlier to the vertical position of the BUSCraft... just a little one, that counts up slowly. The count-up might start at -2.0, then count up by 0.01 per frame of the game, passing zero and continuing to count up until it hits 2.0. What we get when we add this number to the BUS' vertical position is the impression that the BUS is jumping slightly, in slow motion. Arcing, if you will.<br />
<br />
Now, if we wait until the BUS's vertical floaty-wobble speed hits 2.0 then make it switch to an identical bit of code that tells it to count down from 2.0 to -2.0, we'll get it doing the same slow motion jump thingy, but downward... With me?<br />
<br />
Good.<br />
<br />
Once it's done that, I'd switch it back so that it effectively loops the sequence and Voila!! A nice up/down floaty wobble for the BUSCraft! ...One swift copy of that code and a little adjustment so that it does the same thing horizontally, and before I knew it there were three big BUSCraft floating on the screen in a much more convincing and satisfying manner than I'd even hoped for before.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMtnzbn-wBaKM28noLpOO4ztCMMaIsiVkBQrfF2y-a0xxmeM7wbCWtL8f3IctgLFIw5lc5VNSbsrfUEQqoJR2564Vh8xNLY40h8Q2BAZbREE1jlnwpnf_V6UWEaqaTFwsFvX2IpEzxogu0/s1600/blog_ai0103.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMtnzbn-wBaKM28noLpOO4ztCMMaIsiVkBQrfF2y-a0xxmeM7wbCWtL8f3IctgLFIw5lc5VNSbsrfUEQqoJR2564Vh8xNLY40h8Q2BAZbREE1jlnwpnf_V6UWEaqaTFwsFvX2IpEzxogu0/s640/blog_ai0103.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Things are escallating now: Taking on multiple enemies with the BUSCraft and some GLOBalls.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Even by now, you can probably see how with each baddie I was adding another bunch of tricks to PowerUp's host of enemies. I'd decided to go chronologically through the game, creating enemies which drew on the skills of the previous enemies while adding a few moves of their own... and it proved to be quite an effective way of going about things.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Enemy: GLOBall - Filling The Cracks</strong></div>
<strong></strong><br />
After some prolonged testing with the BUSCraft, I came to realise that the static feeling I'd picked up on before wasn't just coming from the baddies. The linear paths and slow movement of the BUSCrafts' bullets meant that the player was able to hang around in one place far too readily in order to kill a BUSCraft. It seemed that even at this early stage in the game, the BUSCraft would need some additional distractions to keep the player on their toes a little more.<br />
<br />
For this purpose, I concocted the GLOBall. A big, slow, floating mine which spawned ahead of the player and whose toughness against early projectiles put an emphasis on avoidance rather than on attack, this emphasis was made especially potent considering that at this section of the game, the player would be focussed on taking out three BUSCraft with the Backshot!<br />
<br />
...It may have looked like an enemy craft, but as far as the code was concerned, the GLOBall was basically a very sturdy piece of space debris which borrowed the floaty-wobble code from the BUSCraft. Alone, it would make for an ineffectual and flatly, boring attack wave, but as an additional distraction for already populated areas of the game, the GLOBall worked a treat and took me out a few times, I don't mind admitting!!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Enemy: HAILCraft - Combining Functionality and Nifty Afterthoughts</strong></div>
<strong></strong><br />
So yeah, I'd definitely killed it with that "use-the-backshot, stupid!!" thing when I rolled on those BUSCraft, and now I was getting a taste for variety. I started to turn the first chapter of PowerUp into a quick showcase of the five weapons at your disposal and the next one was to be the Sideshot!<br />
<strong></strong><br />
I wanted my next wave of baddies to come from the top and bottom of the screen. I wanted them to make it relatively obvious that you need to find the right weapon. I DID NOT WANT any kind of game slowing dialogue to explain the functionality of your game mechanics. A good game of my era would never stoop t that level. Instead, it would intuitively explain everything you needed to know by encouraging you to think latterally and experiment accordingly...<br />
<br />
I sent in the rockets.<br />
<br />
I'm sure I don't need to explain how I re-applied the spawning point of the debris to being just off the top/bottom of the screen with a random horizontal position... blah, blah, blah. You get it, right? I took the code I'd learned and adapted. Cool. Let's skip that.<br />
<br />
First off the bat, I needed to slow things down! The player needs time to react. The shorter the space before impact, the slower the baddie needs to be. It sounds obvious, but there are a lot of barely playable games out there missing the rule that making an obstacle hard to dodge by simply making it too fast to react to really isn't the way to boost difficulty. First and foremost, you need to make your game fair!<br />
<br />
Let's see. My debris was coming from screen right on a screen with 1280 pixels across. Even if we place the player one third of the way into the screen, accounting for where the player would be expected to spend most of their time and giving them ample looking room, we've still got a good 853-ish pixels of screen width for the player to see stuff coming at them.<br />
<br />
With a height of 720 pixels and attack waves coming from both the top and the bottom, I was looking at a reaction area of around 360 pixels. that's less than half the warning space, though we do have plenty of horizontal area for those random spawns to happen over.<br />
<br />
I'm not going to start doing any maths or anything here. I just wanted to hive you an idea of how different things are when you're spawning from the top and bottom of the screen. The only way to get your game feeling right is to play it... to trial and error the heck out of this stuff. I've worked at places where games are desinged by comittee, sat at a boardroom table with no room for diversion, then are produced without the afterthought they deserve. Then I've worked at places where the games have been crafted and improved as the need arose in an organic, evolutionary process. The latter is always the best way.<br />
<br />
...and for the rockets of this section, trial and error was definitely a factor.<br />
<br />
There was something that bothered me greatly though... something that shouldn't come up when creating a game like PowerUp, but it was a question of plausibillity: Where were these rockets coming from? Were they remote controlled? Were they floating out of shot, waiting for you to come by? It just didn't look right... and it bothered me!<br />
<br />
I put the question to the back of my mind along with plenty of other implausibillities I'd picked up as I went along. Some remained ignored, some really grated on me. It might have been because I came up with this simple little baddie so early on in the game, but this one continuously grated!<br />
<br />
...So much so that later on I came all the way back around and created the HAILCraft. Two giant floating arsenals which dwarfed a BUSCraft, heaving in from top and bottom to unleash their rocket-ey badness on you, then like the BUSCraft, at the end of the missile wave, they heaved away.<br />
<br />
After I made the obvious further adjustments necessitated by the further loss of looking room, the job was a good un.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1IA5vs-0p1OheiNSbNLp7LwNWRAiiCDzp6TSiK2WL7Pf8xP8J2Kz4uIHiIJHkJ8Wr4WAaS9SmsskPKIwqJRzHd-mnpilDyyYnJvrHQb5Is3okyloDQFoTh-VwZ4VYnjwBZVFEkm6Z7CdP/s1600/blog_ai0104.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1IA5vs-0p1OheiNSbNLp7LwNWRAiiCDzp6TSiK2WL7Pf8xP8J2Kz4uIHiIJHkJ8Wr4WAaS9SmsskPKIwqJRzHd-mnpilDyyYnJvrHQb5Is3okyloDQFoTh-VwZ4VYnjwBZVFEkm6Z7CdP/s640/blog_ai0104.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The HAILCraft's rockets are easily despached with a few well timed Sideshots: I would generally try to limit coding time for simple enemies like this to about 8 hours each. Another week's work in my 2-nights-a-week of free time.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
...but in turn, HAIL was forming another little plausabillity issue at the back of my mind. In a bid to make the source of the rockets a bit more believeable I'd included the HAILCraft. In order to make this attack wave about the rockets and not about the HAIL, I'd put a very distinctive flickering, turquoise forcefield around the HAIL. This made the craft invulnerable, while the rockets were fair game.<br />
<br />
As the HAIL was a ship I'd come back to add, the flickering, turquouse force field had already become a staple across the game. It popped up quite a lot as a functional thing, creating challenges for the player in focussing firepower on certain areas of bosses, and avoiding certain types of baddie, rather than shooting at them... The question forming in my mind was this:<br />
<br />
"If the enemy forcefield is completely impervious to Weapon-F damage, and if some of the baddies use it... why wouldn't all of the baddies use it?"<br />
<br />
A valid question, and I suppose that in terms of the story, the question can be answered by explaining that Weapon-F is a new and particularly powerful Earth-created fighter prototype. Therefore, the enemy would not have prior knowledge of the ship and no time to create specialist, totally shielded ships to counter it.<br />
<br />
Alternatively, perhaps the aliens' forcefield tech is particularly rare or risky stuff and will only work under certain conditions.<br />
<br />
Ultimately though, it comes down to this... who in their right mind cares? Here I was, wasting precious time trying to come up with a justification for enemy technology. I might as well ask how Weapon-F's reactor core actually works or why the player's ship isn't designed to be already fully powered up at the start of the game. These things are accepted as part of shmup lore. They make for a better game.<br />
<br />
So if you're honestly asking yourself stuff like that, and for a while I was too... it just does! It just is! There's a line in plausabillity justification for a game like mine, and I'm drawing it there.<br />
<br />
Let's get back to designing cool baddies!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Enemy - RAYCraft - Biting Off More Than I Could Chew</strong></div>
<br />
Damnit!<br />
<br />
RAYCraft, is it?... I was hoping we could sneak quietly around this one.<br />
<br />
See, I knew how to make a wave of baddie instances come and go. I could even get multiple types happening at once, but this early in the game, maybe a multi-part enemy was a little ambitious.<br />
<br />
Here's what I wanted to RAYCraft to do...<br />
<br />
On it comes, from the right, you know, the old simple right-to-left movement. I created three instances of them too. One that had a slight vertical up movement, one with a bit of down movement and one that went pretty much straight. There were to be generally two or three on the screen at any one time and the vertical movement variants just randomised things a bit. So far, so good.<br />
<br />
The RAY was to be all about just that. As it travelled, a big white light would build up at the front of the craft along with a menacing charge-up sound which would climax in a big explosion of light from the front of the ship, crossing the entire horizontal screen and taking out anything it touched.<br />
<br />
I won't get too lost in the details as I shudder to remember it, but the ammount of trouble I had getting that glow to stick to the RAY's position, getting it to charge and not influence the other two instances of the RAY, and in getting the actually ray it fired to just flippin behave itself was enough to steal weeks from my meagre development time (two evenings a week, remember?)<br />
<br />
Oh, but that's not all... after that there was the casing. See, I wanted RAYCraft to have a sweet-spot. You could kill RAYCraft but you had to focus all your firepower into that light on the front, balancing risk with reward. See? Nice idea... absolute nightmare to implement.<br />
<br />
I'd opted to create the RAY itself in two pieces, a front image of the ship in good, working order, and a back image of the ship, horribly battle-scarred, damaged beyond function, but with its forcefield miraculously intact so that while it could no longer shoot, its hulking form still made for a dodge-hazzard... Really, don't ask what I was thinking. At first it all made sense, but I think there was some element of coding compromise there in the end which started raising all those plausibillity questions.<br />
<br />
...incidentally, it was also the first baddie I designed to use that accursed flickering turquoise forcefield. Nuff said.<br />
<br />
Now throw all that into a big messy baddie and then include that fact that I STILL hadn't figured out how to make a baddie spacially aware and able to recognise the player's position, or for that matter, the position of IT'S OWN PARTS... and you get an idea of how delicate that particular house of cards was.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcOK7ZCQTq1olkohQe-3AX5cMHlzBATGel4StBDIXpCwA66sZQLuPdVM_NRBlcZqGjBrfHI62is_mWNbPIYovmM3R8dq7lWqdGSWURz9NKvmtqzUsjo9kcSZve_EImudX2PDaen0NKSzCa/s1600/blog_ai0105.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcOK7ZCQTq1olkohQe-3AX5cMHlzBATGel4StBDIXpCwA66sZQLuPdVM_NRBlcZqGjBrfHI62is_mWNbPIYovmM3R8dq7lWqdGSWURz9NKvmtqzUsjo9kcSZve_EImudX2PDaen0NKSzCa/s640/blog_ai0105.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The infamous RAYCraft looks deceptively sturdy, but was an exception to my 1-week rule, taking closer to 3 weeks to iron out the worst of the kinks. It was months until I was able to consider this one "stable".</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
The RAYCraft was a baddie, figuratively held together with sticky tape. It's amazing that it actually works as anything other than a harsh, long winded lesson in humillity.<br />
<br />
Let's never speak of it again!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>End of Level... Whatnow??</strong></div>
<br />
Shaken to my core by my experiences with multi-faceted baddies, I decided to skip over the boss. My reasoning was that if the RAYCraft was such a shambles, who knows what a mess I'd make of an attempt to create a level boss.<br />
<br />
I decided that instead, I'd leave gaps for bosses and finish the bulk of the game, hopefully while gaining some much needed experience in making baddies and their AI. Then, when I came back around for the boss cycle, I'd have some good Boss ideas and the means to make them happen... It was a good call. I wasn't wrong about that.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Enemy: DEFCraft - Back to Basics</strong></div>
<br />
So it's fair to admit that my pride was somewhat wobbly when I hit the second Chapter of PowerUp. I'd lost weeks to that RAYCraft and I wasn't convinced that I'd ever fully understand the tight and tangled knot that was it's code.<br />
<br />
For the sake of my own confidence, I needed to do some fighters! Stat!! Some simple, stupid, but noteably, rewardingly different fighters. I went back to my 5 minute sketches and within a couple of evenings I'd modelled, textured and rendered the slick and deadly DEFCraft. At least my design and modelling was becoming a reliable, textbook process. <br />
<br />
I wanted to start the Second Chapter by again, excercising the player's Backshot projectiles so I spawned the DEFCraft accordingly. At first it sort of worked, but then I found that the random vertical positioning of the DEFs, coupled with their speed actually made the sideshot a more valuable weapon here... Still, targeting DEFCraft was fun, and when I decided to have the DEFs double back with a decremental swing and a cool little rotation animation, they became more fun still.<br />
<br />
After the swing, I even added a little random up or down movement which made them a little less predictable and I suddenly found myself with a particularly nice fighter for accompanying larger, bulkier ships.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxhPfaZE_1kdwQBT2e5wH49akS4D-rf4NAUkoGbSOtBS4LjzyrHOAut6KvPKG1q_bytD7JXMsQunHq8svDea-nuZ9pOL175FvFzidU_eatFX7Pb8WxhZYWJOfhPorOZCey9hCoGbL15e2N/s1600/blog_ai0106.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxhPfaZE_1kdwQBT2e5wH49akS4D-rf4NAUkoGbSOtBS4LjzyrHOAut6KvPKG1q_bytD7JXMsQunHq8svDea-nuZ9pOL175FvFzidU_eatFX7Pb8WxhZYWJOfhPorOZCey9hCoGbL15e2N/s640/blog_ai0106.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A change of scene had blown out the cobwebs and now, with the DEFCraft, I was starting to have fun again.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>A Pause for Re-evaluation</strong></div>
<br />
Now, I'd lost so much time to the RAYCraft that I was beginning to wonder if I should keep all the normal baddies simple like the DEF to cut down on the risk of the project running away with itself. I wanted the game done by Spring/Summer 2013 and after a bit of rough scheduling it was becoming clear that in order to meet the deadline I'd imposed (basically, when our money was due to run out as things were looking dicey with my day-job), I'd have to cut down on either the overall ammount of ships or on doing difficult, experimental ships.<br />
<br />
I settled for a compromise. Instead of going all out as I had with the RAY, I'd try to innovate within my comfort zone, bearing in mind that I'd need to keep my boss designs within the skill sets I'd have learned by the time I reached those bosses, so some push was necessarry.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, instead of completely culling the enemies and repeating the same ones in angrier patterns, I decided I'd keep repetition to a minimum, committing to create a few completely new ships per level.<br />
<br />
The real solution presented in this compromise was that in place of making too many new ships, I would create a RED type and a BLACK type of previously designed and coded ships. These would be introduced throughout the game alongside the completely new designs and would add new attributes to the current standard versions.<br />
<br />
For example, a RedBAT might shoot a straight forward bullet before it takes off into it's "go" routine. I'd also increase their spawn rate, speed, durabillity, etc to match up to the player's weapon power by that point in the game. This would all combine to make RedBAT a bit more deadly than it's standard counterpart.<br />
<br />
Then a BlackBAT might ramp up the odds further still. Appearing later in the game, a black bat might be tougher, smaller, faster, stronger, and capable of firing aimed shots at the player... If I ever figured out how to actually make that happen... Up to now, I still hadn't.<br />
<br />
Still, things were getting back on track. I had something of a plan and it was time to put it into action...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Enemy: FABCraft - More Simple... but Effective</strong></div>
<br />
Despite the campy name, I really wanted something in a floating, automated bomb. Something that looked different to the bulky BUSs and RAYs, but nothing like the streamlined fighter style of the BATs and DEFs. I had a nice visual motif scribbled out for the FABCraft. Something of a spinning umberella with a camera-laden engine compartment underneath. Something that edged slowly upscreen but was tough to kill and spawned en masse.<br />
<br />
I wanted early appearances of the FABCraft to give the player the impression of being pushed upward into a tight space, to put the pressure on the player to focus their firepower on clearing a path before taking a breath. In impact, I wanted the FAB to have a slightly startling explosion, bigger than it's smallish stature gave credit for... after all, it was a essentially a bomb!<br />
<br />
All of this came together well and this very simple enemy actually made for a nice change of pace. After a bit of balance in the FABCraft's spawn rate, speed and durabillity, I was able to introduce other enemies with it, making for a nice fight that turned up the heat slightly as Chapter 2 progressed.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4F9KtEE-9tj_28Pj4YCFh2ZtMxYW9D-Bk7ueMd5waneHJfMADx9cbpvXAUcuhzHi5c5H8qx4KdZuldwkNtw0xdkbGOJqBgYK6RAo9xaakRbLFiyVvt3EODczHSwqJfeVHRmX0eRL2kDXi/s1600/blog_ai0107.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4F9KtEE-9tj_28Pj4YCFh2ZtMxYW9D-Bk7ueMd5waneHJfMADx9cbpvXAUcuhzHi5c5H8qx4KdZuldwkNtw0xdkbGOJqBgYK6RAo9xaakRbLFiyVvt3EODczHSwqJfeVHRmX0eRL2kDXi/s640/blog_ai0107.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The pressure was on with the explosive, and rather hypnotic, rotating FABCraft.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Again, Red variants and later, Black variants of the FABCraft made for very effective advances on this particular baddie design.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Enemy: SLOBot - The Last "Blind" Baddie?</strong></div>
<br />
As Chapter 2 unfolded, I went for combinations of the above enemies and began to introduce their more dangerous Red variants, but I did save one new baddie for the end. Again, fairly simple in design, the SLOBot sported another unique look. This time, instead of a ship, SLO was... well, a bot, and yes, there's definitely something of Atomic Robo-Kid to his design.<br />
<br />
Even so, I was still shying away from ambition and had decided that any attempts at my next logical progression: identifying the player's current position and acting accordingly, would not take place until at least chapter 3.<br />
<br />
SLOBot may be slow, simple and utterly blind to the position of the player, but with a little code-play, I managed to achieve something of a nice unpredictable, random fire rate in three set directions which made SLOBot somewhat dangerous. Add to this, the bullet offsets caused by his more intense floaty-wobble, and a wave of raging RedBATs from behind, and the difficulty level was feeling about right for this point in the game.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVIbGa9N1txpgg1Ibnam9RHM37DR0ZR7S1FhJsfLQcxNseUvcHn6nqrCXr3esEjTajn4OG3RecpGoxYLyxywiJMmlRsE_SVZMSNBqSLUMgk8zcmV162xe9PVzMrclXwhOvEe2bYEzWtXPb/s1600/blog_ai0108.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVIbGa9N1txpgg1Ibnam9RHM37DR0ZR7S1FhJsfLQcxNseUvcHn6nqrCXr3esEjTajn4OG3RecpGoxYLyxywiJMmlRsE_SVZMSNBqSLUMgk8zcmV162xe9PVzMrclXwhOvEe2bYEzWtXPb/s640/blog_ai0108.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By the time I was done with the SLOBot, I was again feeling the urge to push my boundaries, push my luck and make something that could actually "see" you.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>But Still...</strong></div>
<br />
...I was feeling a little anxious. I really needed to start pushing for more intelligence in the next level. I scoured my sketchbook for an enemy design that said "Evil", "Intelligent", "Intimidating", and found it in the form of what was to become the PINCraft.<br />
<br />
If I could make this ugly little critter smart enough to see the player, then in Chapter 3 things would really kick off!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>To be continued...</strong></div>
PsyPsofthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586372773166399296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1371197537362446588.post-43611132609550599952013-02-26T09:55:00.001-08:002013-02-26T13:00:07.137-08:00Getting Kickstarted!!Well, hello again.<br />
<br />
It's Mike here from Psychotic Psoftware. It's been a while, but isn't it always? Still, this time it really feels like a while, and thats probably because I've been so busy in such transient times. Let me enlighten you a bit. <br />
<br />
As I'm coming to the end of a long and hard-fought Kickstarter campaign, I thought I'd give you a bit of an account of the protocols, the process and my feelings throughout the whole thing.<br />
<br />
<strong>Why Kickstarter?</strong><br />
<br />
As those who follow Psychotic Pspeaks will know, I was made redundant as of New Year's Day 2013. This has forced me and my household into a pretty tricky time... So far I've applied for over 130 art roles and been accepted for just one interview with a company in Canada. (I'm UK based so no, it's not ideal).<br />
<br />
Now, hopefully I'm not completely deluded, but I'm pretty sure that this lack of interest from my industry isn't simply because I'm rubbish at what I do. Apparently, I didn't get that job in Canada because I've got "too many skills" and they just wanted a UI artist. Ok. I can dig that... but yep. It's a specialist's industry at the moment and getting employed is becoming noteably harder for all rounders like me.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwdy70fDhImjtUnO51-kniBlXdA5S24OPfo1SYWMGJyYY6MPhGimuZXJlluE2mo9G75sQ_cl6LhEqnFjbkW_xjGL7nIiaEP3OKQCaUUb77nv5lMME8ph2niP-fTodmDq2ySSH5ccEmVA-g/s1600/office_new1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwdy70fDhImjtUnO51-kniBlXdA5S24OPfo1SYWMGJyYY6MPhGimuZXJlluE2mo9G75sQ_cl6LhEqnFjbkW_xjGL7nIiaEP3OKQCaUUb77nv5lMME8ph2niP-fTodmDq2ySSH5ccEmVA-g/s640/office_new1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One really cool thing that came from my redundancy was that I was able to spend a couple of weeks getting out of that overcrowded back bedroom and making something of a proper home study for myself to job hunt and finish PowerUp from... Much better!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I'm not completely soft though. I always suspected something like this from an industry that moves as quickly as the games industry does. I spent most of the last decade as a games artist. I've made games on lots of different fomats and in lots of different styles... and In my free time, I set about familliarising myself with the fields of designing, coding, producing art, sound and music for small scale video games. The kind that can be produced by one person... you know, just in case I found myself in trouble.<br />
<br />
This year I found myself in trouble.<br />
<br />
...Winding back a bit, last year I started PowerUp for fun. Then I realised I was onto something that might actually one day supliment my income. Part way through the game's development it occurred to me that to release PowerUp, I'd have to pay for the licences for the software I was using, so I started saving. I expected to release the game in spring so saved with a view to doing that... In January, I lost my job and have since been watching all those savings trickle away on the mortgage and the bills. Not the sort of thing you can put on hold while you buy your software.<br />
<br />
To be honest, for a while there I was pretty desperate. There were two options:<br />
<br />
1. Give up. Stack shelves. Lament the better days.<br />
<br />
or<br />
<br />
2. Contact the nice people at Kickstarter to find out what's what.<br />
<br />
Obviously, this is what I did. I explained what I was making and what I needed. I asked them if I was elligible to run a Kickstarter to pay for my software and they advised me to draft a page out for the campaign, then submit it to them. They'd take a look and let me know. <br />
<br />
...and so started my Kickstarter journey.<br />
<br />
---<br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Getting started:</strong><br />
<br />
First up, I needed to see what all of these Kickstarting people actually do. What do they say? What promises do they make and what's exected of me? If I wanted to make my Kickstarter a success I'd need to make sure I offer plenty of good incentives, but on the other side of the coin, I needed to make sure I could provide the things I offered.<br />
<br />
I resolved to keep that in mind through the campaign... and I have.<br />
<br />
I found that I was actually in a pretty good position with the project itself though. PowerUp was about 65% finished when I started the campaign and a lot of the content was visual, glitzy and really represented the game well. there were plenty of screenshots and videos to give a newcomer a solid impression of what they would be backing and I was fairly sure that if I just went at it, I would be able to type up a fairly concise account outlining me and my project. There was one thing bothering me though... The Video!<br />
<br />
The Kickstarter guys reckon that a really high percentage of succesful Kickstarters had one thing in common. A video. Basically, the implication was that if you want to be a Kickstarter success, you've got to get in front of that camera and talk to your audience... and possibly at the risk of making a bit of a div of yourself, but hey! in for a penny, right?<br />
<br />
So far, in my experience these videos were in the region of 6-10 minutes and mainly consisted of a nervous guy in an office/bedroom rambling about his project. With the best intention in the world, I was finding it hard to stay engaged to the vast majority of the vids. Lucky for me, I'd written, directed and edited a number of short films back in my university days (Not to mention storyboarded, acted in...blah, blah,blah, you know what I'm like. Jack of all trades, and that). I was sure I could do better... I just didn't have the first idea where to begin.<br />
<br />
I was realising that up until this point I'd barely even given my name out, and here I was about to appear on my own Kickstarter video!... and talk!! what was I going to say? Should I write a list and just read? Should I stage some elaborate shadowy mystique with an altered voice?? ...NO!!! I'll bite the bullet and just go for it before my courage fails me! (actually, in hindsight, that shadowy mystique idea might have been quite a lot of fun... hey, I was panicking. I wasn't thinking straight... I went for it).<br />
<br />
In a fit of something that crossed determination with sheer terror, I grabbed my mobile phone and hit record!<br />
<br />
Later, exhausted, I copied my footage over to see what I had.....<br />
<br />
OH NO! I was that nervous guy, rambling on for ages about my game. Damn!! What's worse, I COULD NOT STOP going "errrrrrrrrr, ummmmmmmm,ermmmmmmmmmmm". It was Bad!<br />
<br />
...or was it?<br />
<br />
...hang on, I had pretty much said everything I needed to say, if I just chopped out all of the "eeeerm"s, and then connected those fractured bits of sentences together in MovieMaker, surely I'd have like, 2 minutes of vaguely useable footage.<br />
<br />
I chopped in a few moments from my game's trailer at what appeared to be suitable points and threw in some pictures of my concept art, then sent the finished movie to my partner, Jo. I thought that maybe it was quirky and watchable but pervious editing experience had taught me that after an evening's work on it, I was far too close to it. Thankfully, she's always brutally honest with me. I was sure I could trust her verdict. And sure enough, the verdict came back <br />
<br />
...It was good to go! :D<br />
<br />
But what else was needed? I threw in a load of basic award tiers, you know, "Your Name in the Game", "Concept Art Prints" (after having a word with some nice neighbours who do that stuff day to day), that sort of thing, then I sent the whole campaign back to the Kickstarter peeps and tried not to think about it all too much. <br />
<br />
A week or so later and I got an email back. They'd added a button to my page and I could "Launch" whenever I felt ready. Woah... what, really??<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihyphenhyphenONCuUUrjwvU2ReAR8A8doLdhIN1DZVI5l7ZHAH3CH8zIRyoeYK_SavsTlfLXO0FbrT39QAK697qdV5Wo3rCfEusLOodf4s_cpk_3tnhVCIjmMU4oAixDuAH0-T416Ur-DbcXNxMQpsW/s1600/psyphoto_mike01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihyphenhyphenONCuUUrjwvU2ReAR8A8doLdhIN1DZVI5l7ZHAH3CH8zIRyoeYK_SavsTlfLXO0FbrT39QAK697qdV5Wo3rCfEusLOodf4s_cpk_3tnhVCIjmMU4oAixDuAH0-T416Ur-DbcXNxMQpsW/s640/psyphoto_mike01.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gawd, I felt like such a div doing those videos!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
---<br />
<br />
<strong>Kicking Off:</strong><br />
<br />
I was so adrenaline fuelled at this point that I very nearly hit the launch button there and then! ...but pausing for thought, I saw an opportunity to get the word out before I did. I went straight to my Twitter community with the good news. These guys have been growing in number since I first tweeted<br />
<br />
"Er, Hello, I think I'm going to make a game"<br />
<br />
or something to that extent. Every progression I've made on that journey has been broadcast to these guys. I was sure that a lot of them would be pumped for it. I wasn't wrong. <br />
<br />
It occurred to me that if timed right, the recommended 30 day campaign would end on my birthday (28th Feb) and if things went well, I could have a rather nice birthday present out of it too. It seemed to make sense to delay a few more days and do that. I set the start date for Jan 29th and went straight to my inbox to dig into the next phase of my little publicity plan...<br />
<br />
Over the last 12 months I've built up a good relationship with a number of people in the indie and mainstream gaming press. Some of these are with the big important sites while some of them just do it from their own little page. I treat all of these people with the same respect and my favourite, most reliable, most professional contacts get informed of my latest important activities regardless of the scale of their operation. It's pretty simple really.<br />
<br />
I got immediate responses from some of these guys, while others were understandably busy with other stuff. The really cool thing here was that my campaign was set to run for a month so I was happy to get publicity at any point during it. The press contacts who took the story up early helped me to create a buzz at the beginning while the contacts that came to it later were able to help me build momentum further in, when I particularly needed it. (As you'll see, this worked out pretty well).<br />
<br />
I then took my message to the Psychotic Psoftware Facebook account. This has a much smaller following than my Twitter one, but is not to be underestimated. My facebook followers have proved to be highly into what I'm doing, though I'm always wary of spamming peoples' facebook accounts too much as I feel that facebook is considered much more of a personal space.<br />
<br />
Bearing in mind that the Kickstarter peeps had advised me to get my own social network involved I also posted the launch on my own personal facebook, calling all of my immediate friends and family to get involved too. I decided that I'd do this every few days in the hopes of getting the message to as many of my personal network as I could while annoying as few as possible too.<br />
<br />
At 12:00PM on Jan 29th, I hit "Launch", and for a few days there, my Facebook, Twitter, and email inbox went NUTS!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGMGK8ODCRis0zm8RW4POwQx91OENZu1omFSJwFMR6xjWS26JZsiN2sBA0_nz85sv5_rvgd1u58awNuVQ-8mALWnHpPfX7LOGjduP_TpLQqlpid6fBXDqpxjmr_94nxm6NUFcjjAUXziJF/s1600/kickstarter_timelapse_01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="588" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGMGK8ODCRis0zm8RW4POwQx91OENZu1omFSJwFMR6xjWS26JZsiN2sBA0_nz85sv5_rvgd1u58awNuVQ-8mALWnHpPfX7LOGjduP_TpLQqlpid6fBXDqpxjmr_94nxm6NUFcjjAUXziJF/s640/kickstarter_timelapse_01.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The initial rush pushed the PowerUp Kickstarter past 10% in its first day! </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
<strong>Fighting Fires:</strong><br />
<br />
I could hardly believe what I was seeing on that first day. I just had to look again... and again... and again. It just kept going up! For a moment there, I honestly thought that the hard work was done and I was set! ...That all I'd have to do was to crack on with my game and wait for the cash to come in.<br />
<br />
Er, I was pretty far off the mark there.<br />
<br />
You see, it turns out that a successful Kickstarter takes some really continued and focussed attention. You basically have to look at what people are asking for and consider whether you can provide it in a way that makes the maximum ammount of backers happy while ensuring that you won't kill yourself making it happen. It's far from free money, and in that first week I was certainly not able to get much of my game done.<br />
<br />
I remember recieving a message from a big games company early on. They told me that I was doing a great job juggling my game's production along with the responsibilities of maintaining the Kickstarter and that they have a seperate department working 9-5 for the Kickstarter campaigns alone!!<br />
<br />
I could easily believe it. The truth was that I was getting zero time to spend on the game and I was exhausted. On top of this, I'd committed to providing daily updates for my backers which were accompanied with early design sketches, and short videos of me talking to them and doing my best not to look as rough as I was feeling. I still feel that it was the least I could have done for anyone willing to part with their hard earned cash so that I could finish and release my game and I'd do it all again, but I was wired on cafeine, not eating properly and my head was constantly buzzing with the vast multi-tasking demands of going it alone. Come the evenings, I was a total zombie in poor Jo's company.<br />
<br />
Toward the end of week one, I was seriously doubting my decision to use kickstarter. It turns out that in making my updates for backers only, I was angering a number of non-backers who were feeling left out and had resultantly decided not to back my project! I attempted to remedy this with a weekly public update which brought together all of the content of the previous week for backers and non-backers alike.<br />
<br />
...but no sooner had I calmed one angry party, when another would take issue with the fact that there was no "Buy the Game" tier in the awards. I tried to explain that I couldn't guarantee that Microsoft would even provide me with free copies of the game on Xbox, so couldn't make that commitment but it was pretty clear that I was losing potential backers over this. I considered hard and concluded that I would be able to control the distribution of a PC version of the game. this allowed me to commit to porting PowerUp to PC. What was now a possibillity had suddenly become not only a certainty,but a commitment!<br />
<br />
...but it was also a necessity. If I wanted to publish PowerUp at all, it was a commitment I needed to make. so I did!<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, there was a similar issue flaring up about my lack of the use of the term DRM when announcing the PC version... I simply hadn't thought that it needed clarifying. I clarified it... Then another angry customer began shouting "FRAUD" on Twitter because I'd assumed XBLIG to be a part of XBLA, apparently its a common mistake and not one I'd ever been called to answer for before, but when I checked directly with Microsoft for the official angle, I was told that indeed, XBLIG and XBLA should be treated as two different entities.<br />
<br />
I can't begin to tell you how much energy I put into putting out these fires. I was well organised for a first-timer but my lack of experience here cost me a lot of time and caused me a lot of stress. Not only was the game stalling, ...but so were the backers!!<br />
<br />
Over that second week things moved slowly and I longed for those headdy first days when everyone was in love with the game and the effort I was putting into it. By week two the honeymoon was over. It was just gruelling, and little that I did seemed to make much of an impact. Publicly, I tried to remain optimistic but I'll be honest, it was hard to read so many variants of:<br />
<br />
"I'm holding my money back until I see that it's going to be a success."<br />
<br />
hitting my Twitter, Facebook and email feeds... Man, that's something I still can't get my head around now. Are so many people that frightened to be associated with a failure story? I have to say, if anything, I prefer to bid on the underdog. Not only does the underdog need it more, but bid on the underdog and you encourage faith in the underdog. There's a very positive example of the positive feedback loop, right there... also, often it's the underdog that's doing something great! They're only the underdog cause comparitively few people have the foresight to see what it is they're trying to achieve.. I'm not saying I'm re-inventing the wheel with PowerUp, but the idea that I wasn't getting backers because I didn't have backers?... well that was just wrong.<br />
<br />
...It's kinda hard to get that into a 128 character reply without sounding a tiny bit negative, so I'd generally settle for "Thanks." and move on. <br />
<br />
Now, I know I can be a bit of a drama queen at times, but it was appearing more and more likely that I'd be stacking shelves again in a few months, and that hard as I fight, my career as a game developer would soon be behind me. It was hard to keep smiling around the middle of the campaign. It was headded for a 60% close and I was getting pretty tired. That, my friends... was the low point.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXl8z7ebf8cj-9ojLMFqWrGKTn5tkLNFBCH4vVACrjEHBpLfS88zjjxhurVOW89uwiVQyiRVsGEn6TRvH6eokapr5hE-kG1VxsnPK1H_6TbP3szrE7_iRhE_Q8MTZk6ZY4STetbOclhNos/s1600/kickstarter_timelapse_02.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="588" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXl8z7ebf8cj-9ojLMFqWrGKTn5tkLNFBCH4vVACrjEHBpLfS88zjjxhurVOW89uwiVQyiRVsGEn6TRvH6eokapr5hE-kG1VxsnPK1H_6TbP3szrE7_iRhE_Q8MTZk6ZY4STetbOclhNos/s640/kickstarter_timelapse_02.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For a while, PowerUp barely saw any movement from this point despite some extremely hard work on my part.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
---<br />
<br />
<strong>Momentum:</strong><br />
<br />
I was spent. And what was worse, the job hunt was not going well... however, one thing had my attention piqued. The angry voices over my Kickstarter had calmed right down.<br />
<br />
I seemed to be getting a bit of respite. My energy was coming back and I was longing to get my teeth to something creative..... PowerUp!<br />
<br />
In a much improved mindset and with a what-will-be-will-be attitude, I decided to attack my Chapter 3 boss, The Worm. I kept in touch with my Twitter community as I went along and each day, I updated my Kickstarter backers, treating it all as just part of the learning curve and expecting no big victory in return. I alternated the extra content between early spaceship designs and videos of me talking about, and later testing the little subleties of The Worm baddie... and couldn't help but notice my ammount of backers slowly but surely starting to rise.<br />
<br />
My latecomer press was just beginning to hit too, giving me and my Twitter followers something to retweet to new people who were finding the campaign, watching the public updates... and backing!<br />
<br />
The rise was steady, but definitely there and soon I was projecting a close of 70%... 80%... 85%... I was trying not to pay too much attention to all this. It had occurred to me that there were patterns in play that I didn't yet fully understand. That anything could happen and all I could do was my best. This helped me to find my optimism again without expecting too much. To be honest, though, other than the regular updates to my Twitter followers and facebook friends, by now I was pretty low on ideas.<br />
<br />
A helpful message from one of my YouTube channel subscribers suggested that I put links to the Kickstarter on my videos, which I did, and drew some traffic with (thanks, that person) and in a conversation with the owner of a retro gaming website I was told that they'd have done a piece on me but they couldn't see where my game would fit in with their retro niche. This tickled me a bit, but it was pretty clear that their decidion was made... It did, however, give me a rather good idea.<br />
<br />
I have a retro gaming channel of my own on YouTube. It's called 1GO Shortplay and on it, I basically play my way through the entire back catalogue of Amiga games for a maximum of ten minutes at a time... I know. So niche as to actually niche itself out of relevance eh.<br />
<br />
1GO is gloriously unsuccessful, despite the major plugging it got from YouTube retro-gaming legend, Steve Benway a year or-so ago. (That said, I couldn't care less about 1GO's success. I do it because I love the games).<br />
<br />
The thing is, when Steve plugged my channel, I saw a short lived, but rather large increase in popularity. Well a short lived but rather large increase in popularity was exactly what I needed here. I was pretty sure that Steve would see the retro heritage behind PowerUp and I dropped him a line.<br />
<br />
Knowing what a gentlemanly supporter of the good cause Steve is, I asked him if he would see his way to taking a look at my kickstarter and deciding if he thought it was worthy of a mention on his "Friday Talkie". Well, he did, and as it happens... it was.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBi7wsHVG_GYXcW1Br0HHbYkPvbkGgvx4TkP5cRUpslLVN4HeRiyvcZuVFeES9vCaJzTFUh3Z7Kx5Azvj9y5Mz3YJeVy1IveJCH3p5PYxhIet1Uca9QYzY_ZgPWmHCdOuELIL30OSqADLG/s1600/kickstarter_timelapse_03.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="588" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBi7wsHVG_GYXcW1Br0HHbYkPvbkGgvx4TkP5cRUpslLVN4HeRiyvcZuVFeES9vCaJzTFUh3Z7Kx5Azvj9y5Mz3YJeVy1IveJCH3p5PYxhIet1Uca9QYzY_ZgPWmHCdOuELIL30OSqADLG/s640/kickstarter_timelapse_03.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Things were definitely looking up, but I was still falling short. With a bit of luck, my gamble on the YouTube retro gaming community would pay off...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
<strong>Relief:</strong><br />
<br />
I slept much better the next few nights in the knowledge that I'd pulled something out of the bag with my little foray into the YouTube retro gaming community, and maybe even saved the day for my little Kickstarter. Then on Friday night, at about 2:30AM, Jo shook me awake, pushing her phone in my face.<br />
<br />
It took my eyes ages to adjust and as Jo was simply smiling at me, not explaining anything, I was certain I was either reading it wrong or just plain dreaming! The number before me surely couldn't have been attributed to Steve's friday talkie? Surely that wasn't out until later in the day!<br />
<br />
Quite right. It wasn't... <br />
<br />
As it happened, that night had seen some incredible feats of backing that I'd previously not imagined possible. Some people (they know who they are) who particularly wanted to see me hit the indie console stretch goals that I never for a moment expected to get to, decided to express their belief in PowerUp, and I'm really grateful to them for it.<br />
<br />
Because of them, the Kickstarter smashed straight through the goal, through the iOS and Android ports (which I'm sorting out now) and halfway through the Ouya goal too!<br />
<br />
Later that day, the YouTube retro community got wind of it and a new batch of backers joined my current backers' increases to put the Ouya version of the game well and truly on the cards!<br />
<br />
There's a little part of me that just wants to reach my birthday on the 28th, get the whole thing finished, and have a couple of days off, but after 30 days of pretty intense rollercoaster riding, I'm feeling much more like myself now. The love and support I've had from the online community as a whole has really got me fuelled up and pushing to hit my GCW-Zero goal, and beyond.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-fFDGBI61_Ce8VZRFDMaIUcS1C7wXXMSEnPHDTaFufzkQuSSKQoiqvPqshjdWjWmM_aFX0Zf5yb_776yKSOYRSeNFnFEkRHH9Z9KSUk_qF31PG23kD4z3rbOOkIy-UeAb3UlhhpTGyQPR/s1600/kickstarter_timelapse_04.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="588" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-fFDGBI61_Ce8VZRFDMaIUcS1C7wXXMSEnPHDTaFufzkQuSSKQoiqvPqshjdWjWmM_aFX0Zf5yb_776yKSOYRSeNFnFEkRHH9Z9KSUk_qF31PG23kD4z3rbOOkIy-UeAb3UlhhpTGyQPR/s640/kickstarter_timelapse_04.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was the moment we smashed the target, making the iOS and Android versions possible too.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
---<br />
<br />
<strong>So, What now?</strong><br />
<br />
Well as they say, its not over until the fat lady sings. Anything could happen between now and lunchtime on the 28th. What really matters for me is that the dizzying stresses of surviving that Kickstarter will hopefully prove to be utterly worthwhile. That I'll at last, be able to own my own legitimate copies of 3DS Max, Photoshop, Cubase and Audition and licences in hand, release my first game!<br />
<br />
Once I've handled that, I'll be looking into the ports I've promised. I also made sure to buffer the additional reward tiers out so that I can handle them throughout the project too. I think everything's gonna be alllllright! :D<br />
<br />
...Look, really though, all drama asside, if you're thinking about doing your own Kickstarter then let's not start under any false pretences. You'll really have to engage with your backers and fight for your target. You'll find yourself constantly adjusting tiers, stretch goals and the project in general. You'll add more and more FAQ's and you'll have to explicitly clarify many an ambiguity before you're through. It really is massively stressful and takes grit you never knew you had to make it to the other side.<br />
<br />
It's also an incredibly rewarding learning process that will teach you as much about your own limits and inventiveness as it will about the technical process. If you're sure about your integrity and the quality of your project, I'd heartilly recommend it.<br />
<br />
Finally:<br />
<br />
...Well, you didn't think I'd let you go without giving you the link did you? There's just 40 hours to go as I write this and we're really close to breaking through some serious stretch goals now... If you're quick you might just get in there.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2059856091/power-up-the-modern-retro-shmup-for-xbox">http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2059856091/power-up-the-modern-retro-shmup-for-xbox</a><br />
<br />
Whether you feel the urge to back PowerUp or not, I really hope you enjoy the page ...Not to mention the game, of course. That should be out on Xbox 360 in August and on PC in November, but I'm sure you'll hear from me before that.<br />
<br />
Thanks for reading my post. See you next time.<br />
<br />
MikePsyPsofthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586372773166399296noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1371197537362446588.post-59584997938682993492012-12-18T06:55:00.003-08:002012-12-18T07:59:36.973-08:00Making Lemons Into LemonadeHi all. Thanks for following my musings. This edition is less about Power Up and more of an introspective on where I am in the real world, how this is impacting on Power Up and generally why I do what I do. It's a bit real and as usual it's a bit off the cuff. If you think you can hack it, let's get to it...<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPE6rbD9odX_yZqPm4KeihBw_BrnSpRPCvSRXgOMbwH-NDyFNnPa2zXphYqHhHkoOWTQLEWJ3EBZ8dBpD9eLAXOzN04h_34koAGkfnMYPl3-k8qs49e0kuVI661K2XKRzqRcqcg0TQEVk3/s1600/office_bedroom1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPE6rbD9odX_yZqPm4KeihBw_BrnSpRPCvSRXgOMbwH-NDyFNnPa2zXphYqHhHkoOWTQLEWJ3EBZ8dBpD9eLAXOzN04h_34koAGkfnMYPl3-k8qs49e0kuVI661K2XKRzqRcqcg0TQEVk3/s640/office_bedroom1.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Notes from a back bedroom - This is how we indies roll.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
---<br />
<br />
So you know me as Mike, the guy behind Psychotic Psoftware. Here's a little more about me outside of that role. As you probably know, I work as a games artist. The last I heard, my official title is Lead Artist (though these days, I'm never sure they made that official) and I work for a small mobile games company just outside of Stoke-On-Trent. I'm on a bit below the UK national average wage and I'm told that this is because Stoke is one of the countrys poorer areas. Turns out there's not much games industry here and outside of my current employer my skills aren't in demand.<br />
<br />
Workwise, I'm versatile with my art styles and pretty organised. When times are good, I'm leading a team of about 3 people in making multi resolution art for lots of games at the same time. This incorporates everything from 3D, pixel popping and vector art to claymation and covers everything from in game assets to UI, device icons and marketing materials. <br />
<br />
When times are bad, the company lays off those other artists and I alone take on the majority of the workload, which I meticulously organise to have it done on deadline.<br />
<br />
...When times are really bad, the company stops paying outsourced musicians and puts my composition and production skills to work too. It's understood that these extra skills come at no extra charge. Contrary to popular belief, there appears not to be a lot of money in the UK games industry. I've heard employers say that we're trading wealth and job security for the work that we love. and that's almost true...<br />
<br />
Accepting this I continue to make the boss' game ideas. Mostly small casino, boardgame, card or puzzle games that I wouldn't usually play... That said, I'm informed by smarter people than myself that other people love the games!<br />
<br />
These people must be right however, because despite the grind and the mounting list of Cons over Pros, these games pay my bills and keep a roof over my head...<br />
<br />
This said, no matter how hard you try, there's no lying to yourself. Not really. And sometimes it takes people who love you to point out when something's really beginning to affect you.<br />
<br />
Last year, my partner mentioned that without realising it, I had begun to think of my job, and indeed the current culture of the UK games industry in the manner that the victim of an abusive relationship does their partner. I raised arguments to the contrary, and accepting that there are fundamental differences she maintained the core of her argument suggesting that if I couldn't bring myself to leave the industry, I needed to rediscover my love for it and get some real pleasure back out of making games. After all, who's going to love my work if I don't?<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
<strong>What did I do about it?</strong><br />
<br />
Have a read of some of my previous posts and you'll hear all about the practicallities of how Power Up started life. The game was born out of a hobby that was previously just a spot of tinkering, but there was more to it than that. Something much more emotive, visceral and personal. As I progressed with it, it started it to fill a void in my professional work which I felt that small soulless social puzzle games with a failing emphasis on generating income had created in recent years.<br />
<br />
I had become consumed by a sense of loss over all the great things that made up great games of my youth. Chip tunes in a warm cozy bedroom at the back of mum's house. Joysticks, rubber keys, tape decks, loading screens, the clunk of cartridges, drawing labels on my disks, the sounds of loading and the comraderie of my likeminded friends.<br />
<br />
I can remember the way places smelled, the way rooms were lit. I remember four players around the Ninja Turtles machine in the GX superbowl when the cowabunga bug kicked in and we all got millions of lives. The awesomeness of Strider sprinting down the second level mountainside amidst rampant explosions and truly excellent musical score (still my favourite moment in all versions of that game), and the sheer dread I felt watching the spinning blade moving ever closer to the ninja's face in the gruesome and totally moving continue sequence on the Shadow Warriors machine!<br />
<br />
Making Power Up unlocked something and this outpuring of reminiscences of the soul forced me to recall christmas at my mate Dan's house, when he unveiled his new Amiga and the intro to Bart versus the Space Mutants was the most incredible piece of animation we'd ever seen... Until we discovered Deluxe Paint of course. Then there was that feeling when me, my brother and the lads from down the road slept over and made a mission out of completing Kings Keep for the Spectrum. A wonderful game that now seems lost to living memory.<br />
<br />
But it wasn't just the loss. It was the isolation.<br />
<br />
None of the people in my life seemed to relate. Even the people who shared it only recalled shards of the video games experience. Almost all of the magic had faded in the mundanety of modern life and gaming values. My brother plays Fifa now. That's his games collection. Stacks of Fifa from previous years. I don't think Dan even plays anymore. Years ago he left his Amiga at my mum's. I think he gave it to me for the parts. ...Dan, your Amiga is here. It's in the same condition you left it in at my mums house and takes pride of place on the shelf next to mine. If you ever want it back man...<br />
<br />
Yeah, yeah. So all this is totally a crisis of the loss of youth. Textbook! God knows I'll be nightmare when I hit 40 and the midlife thing kicks in properly.<br />
<br />
The trouble with all this was that I felt like I was selling my skills and soul at below the national average! ...And every working day was becoming a reminder. I could only reconcile that for my worklife if I gave myself something back. Power Up has become my first real attempt to do just that.<br />
<br />
For me, Power Up really is a labour of love. I come home from work spend a little time with my nearest and dearest, then two nights a week, retire to a little desk in the back bedroom of our half-renovated house and set to work. While I work, I'm totally absorbed by the evolutionary directions my game is taking and I'm dreaming that one day I might be able to find a niche market for people who like it and my future games.<br />
<br />
Maybe it's people like myself, who grew up on the mechanics and principles of the 16-bit computer and console era and feel the real love for those games and memories that I do.<br />
<br />
Maybe I can help to reawaken that love in those who've forgotten it like my old friends. That can only ba a good thing right? ...It's a nice feeling.<br />
<br />
Maybe it's for people who love to share and invest in one person's journey in making all aspects of a game from start to finish, possibly with a view to even doing it themselves.<br />
<br />
Maybe the gap I'm filling is just someone's desire for something homemade and rough around the edges. You know, a bit less commercial and a bit more human.<br />
<br />
I haven't put my finger on it yet. I just know it's all come from a thirst to create something of myself, for myself, that makes me feel like I did in those halcyon childhood days.<br />
<br />
(Incidentally, I'd love to know if there's anything that particualrly drew you to my work. I'm immensely greatful that it has and I'd like to try and do it more... whatever it is! :D)<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
Wouldya believe that while I work, I even allow myself to hope I might eventually build Psychotic Psoftware and the games I make under that name to be something of value. Providing stabillity for my family's future while bringing some of the best feelings and memories of my youth back for lots of people to experience with me.<br />
<br />
These are high hopes indeed, but if you've been following me for any period of time, you've have probably gathered by now that I'm tenacious, multi-skilled and extremely hard working. Family asside, there's nothing I love more than the recapturing and sharing the magic I felt through my early experiences with computer/video games.<br />
<br />
With all that in mind, Power Up is looking quite promising, and at least I have a relatively rewarding day job to pay the bills while I work on it, eh.<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
<strong>Er... No!!</strong><br />
<br />
So as of new year's day, I'm unemployed.<br />
<br />
Yep. You read that right. I got the official word early November. After six and a half years of steady employment, the cash ran drier than ever for the games company I work for and the rug was pulled on the Art Department (me). I'm not surprised. a few months earlier, my workload had been increased to get a few projects done in advance of the programmers so I was half expecting it eventually... saaay, Spring or Summer 2013?... Not this soon!<br />
<br />
The whole thing stirred up quite a storm of emotional memories for me... and totally oposite to the warm, fuzzy sort we just discussed.<br />
<br />
I experienced my first redundancy back in 2002. "No problem" I thought, I was living at mum's with no dependants so with very little experience, I had a go at starting a new games company with a former colleague. I won't go into the details but after four years, it failed spectacularly to pay off and ultimately, I was dropped for more experienced artists with specific skills in their field. Quite right from a business standpoint, though the company continued to decline and eventually went under.<br />
<br />
It took a lot of pulling myself together to get over the trials of that company. It introduced me to my first taste of accute anxiety disorder and all the chemical fun that comes with it. Looking back as a more mature and level headded adult, it's a mindset I'll never allow myself to return to, but by the same token I'll probably never quite be able to fully leave it behind. Those scars run pretty deep.<br />
<br />
I've fixed a lot of the damage I caused myself back then. Quitting my 40-a-day smoking habbit was one of my little victories. Getting off the Xanax and finding the perseverance to get another job was another. Not to mention working extremely hard to become invaluable within that role.<br />
<br />
When these last guys made me redundant, they had to close the art department to do it... which speaks highly to my self esteem.<br />
<br />
But enough about how this stuff effects my fragile ego.<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
<strong>Let's not forget there's a mortgage to pay here.</strong><br />
<br />
So, to business... previously, I'd hoped that Power Up might actually make me some money. with luck, eventually I'd be able to sustain myself from my games. But I'm not ready!<br />
<br />
Power Up is not ready!<br />
<br />
Like I said, the real issue is that I wasn't expecting this redundancy thing quite so soon! I was planning to release Power Up in the Spring. Here in the UK, that's somewhere between March 1st and May 31st. Quite a decent window really.<br />
<br />
However, to do that, I was accounting for three months of QA time. Having never submitted to the AppHub and having heard horror stories of developers waiting for weeks to get their much-needed feedback, I decided that three months would cover that. Of course, to give myself three months would mean making my submission in early January to get the game out in early March.<br />
<br />
While we're talking dates, I should probably point out that as my employer had my services for 6 and a half years, I'm entitled to statuatory redundancy pay of 6 weeks at a capped ammount that ultimately comes out just slightly over my monthly salary. That's due to be paid at the end of January and will cover our mortgage for the start of February.<br />
<br />
What I'm trying to say is this. If I don't have a job or source of income by the end of February, we can't pay our mortgage for the beginning of March and these uncertain times become just scary!<br />
<br />
So there's the reality of the situation. Now you know. <br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
<strong>So what the heck am I doing about it?</strong><br />
<br />
Now that I'm out of work on garden leave I was hoping I could just get stuck into Power Up... maybe even have it out early, but things are never that simple. There's a few things on my to do list alongside the game and I wish I could give them a lower priority. To give you guys a taste into the real life problems of this one man indie game developer, I'll share the brunt of it with you.<br />
<br />
<em>1. - get the office job-ready.</em><br />
<em></em><br />
A bigger chore than it seems. But if I want to be organised and doing 8 hour days to get through this to-do list, I've got to have a decent space to work in. While I've cleaned out a bit of this back bedroom, I'm still surrounded by the debris of a house under renovation. 8 hours a week is ok but 8 hours a day in here would drive me stir crazy! Luckily, when we bought this house, the clincher was that it came ready equipped with a seperate office built onto the back. For the last few months it, and the garage have been out of action due to the sheer volume of storage in there. I'm currently in the middle of the clearance. So far I've made nine trips to the tip and the next pile to-go is building up.<br />
<br />
I might be able to fit the rest of this job in around Power Up work but I'll need at least tomorrow to make the office ready to use.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4H13WeEM_pW0xd37OGDnB-5qflSbL1GodS81aYK3xLDFkehC4hfL5GyFcgRTtls81pMPsmxfopn9OObD-oOBHx212hgJZ7PMkoWG5MzrAg0w6_J-KGlc72FhRsz742icr7lOIxBeO2kow/s1600/office_bedroom2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4H13WeEM_pW0xd37OGDnB-5qflSbL1GodS81aYK3xLDFkehC4hfL5GyFcgRTtls81pMPsmxfopn9OObD-oOBHx212hgJZ7PMkoWG5MzrAg0w6_J-KGlc72FhRsz742icr7lOIxBeO2kow/s640/office_bedroom2.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even Topsy says "Hey Dad. Let's ditch this joint and get a proper office."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
---<br />
<br />
<em>2. - Apply for jobs.</em><br />
<br />
If I do manage to get Power Up out early, there's still only a minute lottery-win chance that it'll take off and make me the sort of money I need for my continued existence. I will need to work. I'm thinking of this as a chance to renew my acquaintance with the games industry.<br />
<br />
That said, I have to figure out why I'm so at odds with it. I came of age at a time when video games were transitioning from 2D to 3D. Drawing skills were replaced with modelling skills while UK colleges and universities were behind the times, providing no courses in anything video game related to my generation. To get into games, I had to teach myself what I needed to know, and there are rather a lot of sub-trades. I'm a jack of many of these. I'm a master of none! In an industry favouring expertise in very specific skillsets, perhaps there's a company out there that needs my self taught, rounded set of skills.<br />
<br />
With that in mind I've been applying for a job a day. As my daily feed of industry sites brings in jobs for the day, I'm choosing the one closest to my skills and having a crack at it. I won't lie though. I'm not particularly confident. I'm keeping notes and having sent off 49 applications to date, the ammount of interviews I've been offered is zero. Still, Rome wasn't built in a day. It was my tenacity that earned me my last job and my hard work that kept it. I'll continue to do my best here.<br />
<br />
Add to this section of the list a much needed update to my portfolio website and showreel, and we've added another 3 days of work to my to-do list.<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
<em>3. - Have something else going on.</em><br />
<br />
My family have all put their ten pence worth in on what I should do next and they're all in agreement that I really need to have more than just this Psychotic thing on the go in case I can't get another job before the money runs out.<br />
<br />
As it happens, this summer we went away for a week. We left our cats with a catsitter. you know, someone who comes in once a day to feed your animals and generally check that you haven't been burgled. She did a great job so we got her a card to say thanks. In it, I drew a little cartoon of our cats saying "fank you". Then I forgot all about it.<br />
<br />
A few weeks later, the lady contacted me, asking if I would do her a logo for her dog walking, pet sitting service. I looked into prices and found there might be a good, if irregular living to be made in designing vector art for small companies. I did the logo and she loves it. Every now and then, my artwork comes zooming by on her van and that's a kick, I can tell you.<br />
<br />
Anyway, the family are determined that I should go at that. I'm not sure where to start or how long starting that up would take out of precious Power Up time, but it's there on my to do list.<br />
<br />
(Again, if any of you guys have had experience in that sort of thing, I'd love to hear about it).<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
<em>4. Keep my promise and get Power Up ready for a new year submission!!</em><br />
<br />
I've been on garden leave for a week now. That basically means I'm at home, doing my own thing but still on call if the company need me. I spent that week lifting, dragging, breaking, tipping everything I could remove from our home and office to get my workspace organized.<br />
<br />
The whole time I was thinking of what I could have been doing on Power Up and how long I'd have to allocate to each task. The flu bug I caught on Thursday is still slowing me down but the job is almost done. Hopefully, this blog is one of the last little tasks I'll be doing in this back bedroom. My next port of call tomorrow is to move this one horse operation out of the house and into Psychotic HQ. <br />
<br />
Once there I'll be clearing up the above to-to list into a set of achieveable tasks and dates.<br />
I will have the game submitted in the new year... Just now that real life has taken priority, by new year I mean sometime in January.<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
Thanks for sticking with me guys. I won't let you down and allow these troubles to stand in the way of progress on the game. I'll continue to do my best by my family and by you. Power Up will get every free time hour I can spare from my incessent hunt for work. Maybe a job will turn up and all the worry will be over nothing. In the meantime, I'll endeavour to maintain a sunny disposition and in the words of my favourite self-redeeming antihero, the Count of Monte Cristo:<br />
<br />
...we wait, and hope.<br />
<br />
mPsyPsofthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586372773166399296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1371197537362446588.post-50132729338324768732012-09-05T14:11:00.000-07:002012-09-06T04:34:19.371-07:00Power Up - Halfway There!I was playing about with possible subject matter for this next blog installment, when it occurred to me that I'd better stick everything else on hold and take a moment to appreciate the fact that somewhere in the last few weeks, I probably hit the half-way point in my Power Up project.<br />
<br />
I've decided to take this opprtunity to have a look around and consider what I've done, what I've got to do, what I probably should have done and what I'll take with me for whatever I work on next. That's the plan anyway, so here goes...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Looking back: (Waaaay Back)</strong></div>
<br />
Let's go back to last November (it's 2012, at the time of writing). There I was, sat at this very computer, feeling more than a little dejected considering I'd wasted quite a lot of time having made a series of Shockwave games which were now sat on various websites, waiting for people to play them... and waiting, and waiting.<br />
<br />
My abillity to get the word out about these games seemed to be sub-optimal at best and any advertising income I'd made from the games was constantly below the line of what I needed to make to actually claim the cash (somewhere around $5, US). Ultimately, I was looking at a collection of games that constisuted a good 5 years of my spare time and had gained me precisely zero returns. "If I ever get stuck without a day-job and need to support myself, this games thing is probably not the best way to make a living" I thought. <br />
<br />
Yeah, so some of the games could do with an audio/visual overhaul here and there, but generally they were pretty good work... So what was I doing wrong? Time for a head-scratch and a spot of re-evaluation...<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmVWip_dwUWWC6UwCyH0LUOGKTSgADxlyjwhhxryBoidgzwbpRFjYiV_LdDZdcGJNm-4dDWYf5wOZ7PUYwU5sfECl_FgwyYr6Oz7HB6ZCR_RKACcbXfl2h78UxRtb6aiDsQIaEqQWFrRvj/s1600/blog_halfway01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmVWip_dwUWWC6UwCyH0LUOGKTSgADxlyjwhhxryBoidgzwbpRFjYiV_LdDZdcGJNm-4dDWYf5wOZ7PUYwU5sfECl_FgwyYr6Oz7HB6ZCR_RKACcbXfl2h78UxRtb6aiDsQIaEqQWFrRvj/s1600/blog_halfway01.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the Psychotic games the world never saw. Still, these were a great source of experience and inspiration to draw from.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
As I've mentioned before, my coder-friend's words were ringing in my ears "These are good games. you should re-make them for xbox live. It's not as hard as you think it is." (Yeah, so I paraphrased that, but you get the idea, right?). As those of you who've been keeping up with my recent interviews with various websites will know, since 1999, I was using Director to create Shockwave games. As the format died out, interest dwindled and eventually I found myself at the point where people were simply unwilling to download the Shockwave player to even look at my games. Reason enough to move on, I supposed. Xbox games don't have any such problems. There's also generally only one outlet for them so it should be much harder to get swallowed up in an infinite mass of other games online. I tentatively got the Visual Studio software I needed, ordered the usb pad, hunted down some promising looking tutorials, and had a crack at it. And do you know what?... It wasn't as hard as I thought it was!<br />
<br />
It turns out, those wasted years of Shockwave coding weren't so wasted once I altered my perspective a little. Yes, the developing environment of C# and XNA was much less visual. Gone were the timelines and cast libraries, and the code was much less intuitive. The little nuances were much trickier to commit to memory and though I'm ashamed to admit it, there were points at which I found myself sitting, forhead on the desk, seconds away from giving in. But I didn't! And that's all that matters really. Once I got the momentum going, it was much the same process that I knew and loved in Director, except that now my art, sound and music were a little better and I was coding in a big boy (and girl) language!<br />
<br />
But this we know. (Those last couple of paragraphs were for the benefit of those who missed the interviews). Let's have a closer look at Power Up's development process and progress between January - when I committed to the project, and today.<br />
<br />
Developing Power Up was an organic, shifting process and was always intended as such. I had no intention of inflicting it on any other artists, musicians, developers or designers. Only I was to be held accountable for the state of it. If it went off the rails into chaos half way through, it was my problem and I could start again.<br />
<br />
As it happens, I seem to be holding the project together adequately enough so here's a little brainstorm of where I started and where it's got me so far...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Looking Back: (Not so way back)</strong></div>
<br />
*So first up, I had this tutorial thing. I followed it to the letter and had reproduced a simple game in which you can use the left xbox thumbstick to move a spaceship, which auto-fires while baddies fly from right to left and run an animation against a paralaxing background. That was litterally it, but it contained the core of what I wanted to do. The rest was up to me. <br />
<br />
*Once I'd figured out how to attach shooting to a pad-button, a change of graphics was next up. I simply couldn't get the darned player ship to do animations so after a week fighting with that, I gave in and moved on. It just doesnt do to dwell on one thing too long. I decided I'd figure it out before the project was done and left the ship with it's first frame of 2D animation, "fly straight".<br />
<br />
* Next, I altered the tutorial's baddies. As they were moving in a straight line from right to left, then removing themselves from existence upon leaving the screen to save memory, I decided that these would constitute the basic non-inteligent hazzard type enemies. Soon, I had 5 kinds of these, drawing them as rotating pieces of space debris which moved at different speeds toward the player and required different ammounts of shots to destroy.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifDoLalQLUZL47JpzSQ5jwYODkFn725MbL7igPtyQk4E_iOcY4EH7V8l3xWijXMK_hY1T8h0sURaNNz68DvhOjpKzf9s95SQ1pbwS715NjDck5keiRBFG1dezSW71Ibf2HcxTLCoT1Qz7G/s1600/screenshots_batch0106.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifDoLalQLUZL47JpzSQ5jwYODkFn725MbL7igPtyQk4E_iOcY4EH7V8l3xWijXMK_hY1T8h0sURaNNz68DvhOjpKzf9s95SQ1pbwS715NjDck5keiRBFG1dezSW71Ibf2HcxTLCoT1Qz7G/s640/screenshots_batch0106.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the basic ship and bits of rotating debris... it all starts here!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
* It was at this point that my thoughts went toward quantizing these things. This came in the form of giving the enemies/hazzards an ammount of energy while the player's laser/bullet had an ammount of damage that it does. For example, if the hazzard's energy is, say "8" and the player's bullet is "5", then two shots would kill the hazzard. I figured that this would support the whole power up system in my game, and as I was basically re-making my little demo game from years back (see earlier blog post), there WOULD be power ups! I would just have to figure that out. As for the player, it was to be a one-hit-death and that was final! Sometimes, you just have to make a decision and call it time saved. Adding player energy brought too many unknown factors to the upcoming game-balance phases and besides, one-hit-death is a simple rule, easy to grasp and adds to the impact of the enemy attacks.<br />
<br />
*But first, I wanted to play with the bits of space debris I'd made and start to give the game a little exposition... The beginnings of a backstory crept in.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSNU9KL39gzhs1bJvf9z5eih3gHeOhBDWkv6MNbRA3K4JsM1ycbIQ65vFrQEN9baLpl3XwHWd76nZFcq5x7udL3yWfb6tlI_OqHkuQbXlmKRrqzIrJNj_Ypz5boFfpdI3G4a-nmrBpCNCW/s1600/screenshots_batch0102.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSNU9KL39gzhs1bJvf9z5eih3gHeOhBDWkv6MNbRA3K4JsM1ycbIQ65vFrQEN9baLpl3XwHWd76nZFcq5x7udL3yWfb6tlI_OqHkuQbXlmKRrqzIrJNj_Ypz5boFfpdI3G4a-nmrBpCNCW/s640/screenshots_batch0102.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adding some story through text and character pictures. Most important here was to make it all clearly skippable!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Winging it, my thought process went something like this: "So, you start in debris because it's easy to dodge, doesn't shoot and is a good way of warming the player up for the game to come... not to mention warming my programming up. Ok, how about this: Your mother ship has just been destroyed and you're the last survivor. Obviously, you're in the ultimate space fighter. You've just got to power it up to see what it can do...".<br />
The destruction of the mother ship was the catalyst. I realised I'd need a sequence that comes before the debris and decided that a little opening segment with dialogue and character faces would do the trick, you know. RPG style. <br />
<br />
As I didn't have a voice actor budget and this sort of stuff was a bit beyond my remit, I made do with text boxes... skippable text boxes..... VERY skippable text boxes... VERY skippable everything that wasn't fun shoot-em-up action, actually. With every itteration, the opening sequence became more elaborate, but also more skippable. "Y" would skip a character's line of dialogue while "Start" would skip straight to the action. These kinds of decisions can only be properly made by playing and replaying bits of your game until you'tre sick of the sight of them. It's the closest you as the developer can get to putting yourself in the place of the player is to remove the affection you have through the weeks of work you put in and replace that with an urge to just get on with it.<br />
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiswkIQ8x0nBIEtD93Pm7_7-2z15q1sLNwdPIvaRgyGd07h0d6Fi16iNNkXTB4I0pTEcytdps8qhnpIGZ3KHK70BIkVLbFt0RtGB4qao51AggOj_2VBxwI83BWVDKS7MqvTXZaghD58acUI/s1600/screenshots_batch0100.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiswkIQ8x0nBIEtD93Pm7_7-2z15q1sLNwdPIvaRgyGd07h0d6Fi16iNNkXTB4I0pTEcytdps8qhnpIGZ3KHK70BIkVLbFt0RtGB4qao51AggOj_2VBxwI83BWVDKS7MqvTXZaghD58acUI/s640/screenshots_batch0100.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Working backward from the scrap of game I'd made: Here's a moment from the haunting intro story text.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
*Soon, I'd inadvertently made a system for moving from one section of my game to another by just numbering them, a bit like chapters. I know there's a name for this but I don't seem to have retained it yet. Oh well. I'm sure I will and there's plenty of time for that later. As long as the concept's there, then I'm satisfied. The intro sequence spread to a big scrolly text opening, a bit like Star Wars, but in the form of the last message SOS from the mothership. Working back further still, I created the basics of the front end, complete with buttons, (though to this day only the start game button actually works. The rest is TO-DO garnish).<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy2Egu_Ji3ueHTuylPLOohMGHkolUOgLF-B5mhH3Oc9LK2uBvWoDVvJaTvWV9L5jyH8bkQ2DM8SpXNdeMKoK_fx5Moyc9l88ATXA8z-GLR4jDwmA_SiJOiT88Gd7aszLQqWJuPRiYyx6Cj/s1600/screenshots_titledesign.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy2Egu_Ji3ueHTuylPLOohMGHkolUOgLF-B5mhH3Oc9LK2uBvWoDVvJaTvWV9L5jyH8bkQ2DM8SpXNdeMKoK_fx5Moyc9l88ATXA8z-GLR4jDwmA_SiJOiT88Gd7aszLQqWJuPRiYyx6Cj/s640/screenshots_titledesign.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting stuck into the front end, I got the title screen to look something like this.It still needs polish but it's a start.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Then I got my head around the coding technicalities of adding music tracks and video sequences for my Psychotic Psoftware company logo. So far, so good... But hang on. I'd gotten so wrapped up in this front end lark that I'd been completely neglecting the game.<br />
<br />
* To familiarise myself with the game once more, I drew out a load of bullet types, from straight shot lasers of varying sizes to one very strange and ambitious bullet which was to circle the player like a shield, moving outward until it faded. (This was replaced quickly with the much more realistic short-range, weak, but fast repeating plasma cannon).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Ba1mIIoY4ISEVChDgYSAZjICDpcEK08LMZWBOKihOto_p2gZ10SOmphWwsDvpa3LZBj_DWVncSyuQ0EgIAI48LIEo3eD8lGRfLr_DQuXeLl-3_I-xMz_U7Lp7w5gROtypLWh-KaKMPw7/s1600/sketch_bullets1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Ba1mIIoY4ISEVChDgYSAZjICDpcEK08LMZWBOKihOto_p2gZ10SOmphWwsDvpa3LZBj_DWVncSyuQ0EgIAI48LIEo3eD8lGRfLr_DQuXeLl-3_I-xMz_U7Lp7w5gROtypLWh-KaKMPw7/s640/sketch_bullets1.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sketching out the bullet ideas. Some of these were more feasible than others... </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Using those health and damage values, I spent weeks drawing, redrawing, tweaking and retweaking the player bullets until I had 5 different types of gun, each with 10 different levels of power. 50 power-ups in total. Seemed pretty reasonable for a first go at a power-up based game. I also realised that once I'd mastered these guns and tightened up the buttons for shooting and swapping between them, I'd have the whole basic mechanics of the player in place early on.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgrEfL9oeKGsl3jUp4Lj_tykGW8l9sP0RgFKunUZOo_EeYmLFbHMaNywQcP5RPNsxsvmD7WJwQiovD5jtKicySGUhOQk3IRARGn_nH5pTybinQk56pYPoPfXJsC6wzTH3kexg7Yu156IXZ/s1600/screenshots_sideshot_01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgrEfL9oeKGsl3jUp4Lj_tykGW8l9sP0RgFKunUZOo_EeYmLFbHMaNywQcP5RPNsxsvmD7WJwQiovD5jtKicySGUhOQk3IRARGn_nH5pTybinQk56pYPoPfXJsC6wzTH3kexg7Yu156IXZ/s640/screenshots_sideshot_01.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Developing some of the player weapon types. The side shot, pictured, is particularly effective for clearing attackers from above and below.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
* Next was the power ups. These were basically variants of the baddies. They moved from right to left, though seemed a little static, moving in a straight line as they did. I couldn't get my rubbish code to make them float. Again, I promised myself I'd figure this out later and made them wobble in animation. The downside to this was that the collision box wouldn't move with them as all the frames were the same size... However, the upside here was that this was a pick up. As such, it needed to be very pickup-able. I left that bounding box nice and big and it didn't seem to matter that the game was being a little generous with the beneficial stuff. Nice trick! Then again, I wouldn't want that to happen with floaty baddies later on. I made a mental note to suss this in code and moved on.<br />
<br />
*So, power ups - check! bullets and speed ups - check! Time for some more baddies. It was about here that I realised I was losing unnecessarry days to attempting to draw these spaceships at various angles of rotation in 2D. This really was sub-optimal... and besides, I'd recently learned a fairly compitent level of 3D and was pretty sure I could make these ships as models. If I was working in 4 hour evening stints, roughtly 2-a-week with the odd hour thrown in here and there when I could get them, I decided that 8 hours per new baddie ship-type should be ok. that includes design (both visual and functional), modelling, texturing, rendering, post production and basic coding. I'd generally allow a bit more time for tweaking later, but even so, this gave me very little time for messing about. I didn't do much maths on this but estimated that I'd realistically be able to add 3 to 4 new types of enemy space ship per level in a game of 5 levels. This way, I might see a release of the game this side of my retirement!!<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfRxzGL5LriDqk3qsDvRFZW92CM6dDiD1TcZ-T4FlFd1mmS8hJ7d4d1lWdRrsCAo5I2AJgWAJl4b5d7BrC12wvKb73LY7Tmv3Imgs5P7ZuiGZu1uoXzh6XlCO8HtCM97FaDvZ85Xj6ha-6/s1600/miscraft_m.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfRxzGL5LriDqk3qsDvRFZW92CM6dDiD1TcZ-T4FlFd1mmS8hJ7d4d1lWdRrsCAo5I2AJgWAJl4b5d7BrC12wvKb73LY7Tmv3Imgs5P7ZuiGZu1uoXzh6XlCO8HtCM97FaDvZ85Xj6ha-6/s1600/miscraft_m.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the baddies mid process: This is the textured model of the MISCraft. From here it goes on to be rendered in situ, having dirt and detail added by hand before going into the game.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
* So far, it seemed a winning plan. For every baddie type I created, I decided I would later add a Red version of it further into the game. The Red version would simply be a retweak of the original baddie with some extra danger. Some would move faster, some would shoot at a higher rate, some might fly at the player, sneak up from behind, shoot homing missiles, you get the idea. In a nutshell, the Red baddie was to be an evolution of the original baddie and should be achieveable in a 4 hour stint rather than 8-12 hours. Suddenly productivity increased and I was able to add new scenarios with varying combinations of baddies which demanded the use of different player weapons! Mint! ...I even sussed that baddie wobble thing and got my head around the update method that was stopping my player ship from animating.<br />
<br />
*I was testing as I went, populating the game with enemies, balancing the power of the players weapons with the types of atack waves which the player would encounter. Obviously, I wanted to encourege a balanced power-up of all weapons, but I was determined to leave that choice to the player. (Risky I know, but there it is. Future balance passes will have to make this work properly).<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjREi-AGnmHyBo6WwIU89M-Uby1HTuD0nc92EkV0eKbYfEgRY3aoKezERWo_Quu7MfwD9CPx_2AaUA028NNl5-v49zGYAfmT3rVrStwBGR49P6DSnGCmJ8rOcS42svrgH1XZfMHhQkZSPKx/s1600/screenshot_miscraft2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjREi-AGnmHyBo6WwIU89M-Uby1HTuD0nc92EkV0eKbYfEgRY3aoKezERWo_Quu7MfwD9CPx_2AaUA028NNl5-v49zGYAfmT3rVrStwBGR49P6DSnGCmJ8rOcS42svrgH1XZfMHhQkZSPKx/s640/screenshot_miscraft2.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The MISCraft, as seen in game. All nice and post-produced.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
*As I reached the end of the first level, I laft a gap in the code for a level boss and had the game skip it for now, knowing that I'd come back later and fill it in with "The Cleaner", a ship I designed on paper and in theory. The intention was to come back around to bosses when I've learned more about enemy AI from coding in all the grunts, intermediate enemies, and finally the elite guard toward the end of the game. This way, I could take some of the finer features, attack patterns, bullet types, etc that I'd learned along the way and make something special of the bosses in a second pass.<br />
<br />
* Was also designing level environments as I went. Basically, I'd started with a list of 10 levels, which I whittled down to 5 as I began to realise the enormity of what I'd bitten off. I decided that these 5 locations would tell the story adequately while giving the game the right variations in colour and setting. As well as making sure that my paralax layers and affects all worked well enough within my time constraints, I soon learned that the most important thing in a shooter of this genre was to be explicit with the visibility of bullets against these background colours. Adding flashes and getting the speed and size of the bullets was essential here, as was making their collision suitably small to ensure fair deaths on contact. While other coders had made some brilliant alternative collision suggestions, I realised that my basic box collision would work with a little latteral thinking atound the size of the boxes. The real enemy was time. Square collision it would have to be!<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuoFlHV0jE9irQBAq_o7hG9C0fjEzKs9nO1-eO61UM7r7FNpwvwrvVJqDePGTZJZqX96EMC42KJVKiJQZR6nluo68Ig7JF0hMPxScDXaB2fmhjVPUqAEczdr4WNhqnu79_LkVie8nqp6cX/s1600/screenshots_supercitytest_03.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuoFlHV0jE9irQBAq_o7hG9C0fjEzKs9nO1-eO61UM7r7FNpwvwrvVJqDePGTZJZqX96EMC42KJVKiJQZR6nluo68Ig7JF0hMPxScDXaB2fmhjVPUqAEczdr4WNhqnu79_LkVie8nqp6cX/s640/screenshots_supercitytest_03.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Testing the Alien city - a predominantly green level, for its compatibility with the player's green lasers.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
*Back to the bosses, while I wasn't adding yet, I knew I'd have to be conceptualising early on. I wanted to introduce something different with each boss. The Cleaner is basically a massive garbage craft designed for chewing up enemy debris after the extermination operation. It also comes equipped with some of the weapons you've encountered on Level 1, just bigger and tougher.<br />
<br />
Level 2 would pit you against Orbital Defence-01, a great big flying mech which defends the enemy planet. (basically, yeah, as you've probably gathered by this point, the story of the game is a revenge mission. Those pesky lizards destroyed mother earth and all her escape vessels so you, the last human are taking a can of whoop-ass back to them).<br />
<br />
Level 3 progresses into the desert world of the enemy planet, at the end of which you take on The Worm, a giant mechanised, subterranian, flying er, worm.... but a welcome shift in visual motif from the previous levels.<br />
<br />
Level 4 throws you into battle with The Walker, a great big pod on legs that chases you through the alien metropolis while unleashing hell from behind!<br />
<br />
As for the final level, well........ That would be telling. If you get good enough, you'll find out.<br />
<br />
You can see all of the boss sketches on my twitter feed if you look through my images there. No doubt they'll also turn up in other places on the internet as time passes. Seek them out. They're quite fun and give you a good idea of what I have in mind. I'll let you be the judge of how well I pulled them off a bit further down the line.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZOPeH_TbrJB8t1i9gekqu8b4rTykMTgkf67ypowuIUaxsAasVPn5R-xZ_r2duuaYwVM0NsankZqA6dNZ3ZRCddyDuvIiiaCeaLFJXcdj9zrnuWLZUpO9gFaOdnlvJ8oF41C-05nYLT1OV/s1600/concept_walker01a.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZOPeH_TbrJB8t1i9gekqu8b4rTykMTgkf67ypowuIUaxsAasVPn5R-xZ_r2duuaYwVM0NsankZqA6dNZ3ZRCddyDuvIiiaCeaLFJXcdj9zrnuWLZUpO9gFaOdnlvJ8oF41C-05nYLT1OV/s640/concept_walker01a.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My sketch for The Walker. As you can see, there's a little information on how I realistically intend to break this up and make it work. Hopefully, my coding skills at this stage are up to it.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
*I'm adding the sound in batches as I go, making lists and leaving plenty of gaps for later passes.<br />
Usually the sound effects start with orchestral instruments, which I then distort to within an inch of their lives. I bought a pack a while back and they've proved surprisingly versatile, especially percussion. A pitch-shifted triangle with reverse echo makes for a great laser sound while cymbal combinations with chorus make the basis for great explosions.<br />
<br />
*With the music... Well, when I come up with a suitable melody for that, I hum it into my iPhone audio recorder for later reference in production. The lack of in game music is my main reason for ot releasing anything that moves as of yet. (I also might have to price up some decent video capture software).<br />
<br />
Music is a major sub-project in itself but at this point I have put some basic musical undercurrents into the game here and there just to make sure I can. I will, in fact, be making a start on the music proper soon, so stay tuned and you might soon be reading a blog on it, not to mention hearing some!<br />
<br />
Which pretty much leads us to where we are now...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Looking Forward:</strong></div>
<br />
I'm still hellbent on getting Power Up submitted in the new year and hopeful that it'll get through the process by spring. If it doesn't, I can only appologise and keep pushing forward but lets wait and see eh. I know you guys will stick by me regardless and I appreciate that a great deal so I'll be giving it my best shot. To keep you in the loop, here's a bit of what I'll be getting myself into between now and then, in no particular order...<br />
<br />
*Music! A big part of the plan. Each level is to have it's own track and at present there'll be a boss theme and a final boss theme. The front end will also have something all moody and haunting, but in keeping. A while ago, I did a game soundtrack with techno and orchestral score, topped off with a spot of theramine. I'm thinking something similar, but this time I'm tempted to crack out my guitar and my big Marshall amp to throw in a little industrial edge. Like I said, melodies are taking form, though like Mozart, at present they're mostly in my noodle... Did I just compare myself to Mozart??... well, the 1980's movie Mozart, at least. There'll also be a few musical stabs and bridges between events to work out. Half of the game's charm is in how I cut things together. I think I can do a bit better than start level, play music. We'll have to just wait and see. Either way, I'm giving it a lot of care and thought and hoping to put in a couple of additional week ends here and get through the full, consistent soundtrack in a couple of weeks.<br />
<br />
*Complete the first pass! This basically means get all the baddies into the game from level 1 to 5, making sure that the difficulty roughly ramps up as I go, as do the player's opportunitites to power-up their weapons. This is really the biggest individual job of all as it consists of coding in the real meat of the game, it's enemies AI and how the player and our many bullets interract with them. I'm midway through level 4 of 5 at the moment and will only be pausing for the music task... well, you do want some video footage, right?<br />
<br />
*Second pass.This will partly be to balance the baddies and weapons again, but will aslo be for adding cutscenes, dialogue, and pretty much anything else I've got in mind. I'll generally be re-using game art here but might be adding some end of level warp effects, etc. Again, we'll see. Also, I'll be adding in the dialogue pictures for all required baddies and a maybe a couple of goodies too. This is 2D art and each character will probably take a 4 hour evening or-so to get right. I'll find a few more hours here if I have to.<br />
This pass might finally include the addition of a few simple baddie craft that I have in mind, here and there to help solidify the action a bit. I hope to finetune the balance of furious action with moments that allow the player to breathe and compose themselves too. Relentlessness does not a good game make.<br />
<br />
*Boss pass. This is pretty much where I take all those boss ideas, tidy up around them and make them actually happen. I'm hoping for about a week-per boss, with a week or so to clean them all up, making for something like a 6-week boss process in total.<br />
<br />
*Additionally, there's a load of small but important jobs to fit in. Drawing up the last level, the ending sequence/s, running through a Game Over sequence to the front end, getting all those Front end buttons working, not to mention the vast ammounts of sparkles, flashbangs, background animation and general garnish I'm planning on adding into the game. There may well be the mandatory screen-clearing Special weapon for arkward tight spots too. I've coded in the pick up. A couple of nights' work and I'm sure I can have a screen-clearing explosion working!<br />
<br />
* Then there's marketing materials, high res images, videos, logos, even icons if I follow through and actually make a Windows version. I know some of you would like to see that and I think I'm just a bit of research away from making it a reality. Other post production stuff includes the actual, infamous xbox submission process. This is something I'm going into blind. If I get incredibly lucky, people will jump in, test it, come back with a few quck fix bugs and BOOM! Game's out!... Meanwhile, back in the real world, even three months for this might be optimistic. I mean, how the heck do I even do a demo mode?? Complications are going to become prominent around this phase. Once again, we wait and see... and most importantly, LEARN from it all so that the next game will be slicker and better.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>To Conclude: (Quite quickly, cause let's face it, I've gone on a bit).</strong></div>
<br />
I realise I haven't covered all of the stuff I wanted to.<br />
<br />
With regards to things I should/shouldn't have done or did stupidly wrong overall, well that might have to be a blog post all of its own and one for another day.<br />
<br />
With regards to the subject of where my experience with Power Up will take me in my future games, that's definitely a post for another day but there's no shortage of ideas there.<br />
<br />
This rundown of things I've done and things to do seems to have been written as more of a stream of consciousness rather than an ordered, organised plan. I'd like to think that it has some value though as an insight into the constant chattering and buzzing of my developer's mind on the subject of my first little xblig project... Don't worry though, As the jobs become more immediate they tend to become clearer and the immediate schedule becomes quite ordered.<br />
<br />
In short, I remain confident. Nieve, but confident.PsyPsofthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586372773166399296noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1371197537362446588.post-35489641677063353372012-06-14T23:25:00.001-07:002012-06-14T23:32:03.594-07:00Power Up - Discoveries in CollisionWhen I started Power Up, one of the scariest aspects of it was collision detection. I was only too aware that as a fairly fast paced shooter, any problems with collision would particularly damage the game.<br />
<br />
As mentioned in earlier posts, everything I had made proviously, I had made in Director and was exported as Shockwave files or little Windows .exes. With collision, Director allowed me to essentially just use a mask of the image in question as collision. Basically, when two sets of pixels intersected they would act accordingly. (I click the box... Director does the rest. Nice). It took me a few games to figure this out though so at first I was limited to basic box collision. Having experienced that first hand, I really know how non-ideal it is.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0R6cucpKIWGVhq74g25je-OpUBUs2ek9oj9gl1uENhTpMHZqtLnmqHp4CPo5YaH7wc_mLuPNMobSgFbs6Rx4cpegOmMKCwe3i15uQgnjrrepF-Y3ZWBspDyekuGa5tAJXXEOXVSTbWkEO/s1600/blog_collision_diz.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0R6cucpKIWGVhq74g25je-OpUBUs2ek9oj9gl1uENhTpMHZqtLnmqHp4CPo5YaH7wc_mLuPNMobSgFbs6Rx4cpegOmMKCwe3i15uQgnjrrepF-Y3ZWBspDyekuGa5tAJXXEOXVSTbWkEO/s640/blog_collision_diz.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Basic Box-Collision Nightmares!! These sprites from my first self-made game, "Diz" (circa: 1998-99) were a lesson in character design for bad box collision! </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Box collision is basically just that. A big bounding box which surrounds the image and dictates whether or not it collided with something. Sounds fairly simple and effective eh. Well it is certianly simple... and that's really the problem.<br />
From my point of view, with simple bounding box collision you've got your pros and cons. Pro: It's simple, dealing with 4 points and the straight lines between them. This, I'm told (by real programmers), makes it easier on the processor. Cons: if the sprite is not a perfect square/rectangle, there's bound to be some empty space in the image that acts like it collided. (usually the corners).<br />
<br />
This is a biggie! While I could accept my early games looking ropey in the collision department, I needed to find an alternative.<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
Recently, a much better suggestion was made. "Bitmap masking". This is basically the same as what Director offered all those years ago. Trouble is, XNA has no "masking on" button for your sprites and I must have missed the tutorial. Now I have half a game with far too many baddies comitted to it for me to just bulldose through them all completely changing the collision type... I've got to learn it first too. All of that would heavily effect my estimated release of "Early-2013" which I've already pushed back, cramming all that needs to be done between now and then.<br />
<br />
Nope. The sensible thing to do first was to look at the code I was already using, to become much more familiar with it and to figure out if/where it was perhaps a little more versatile than I first assumed it would be.<br />
Without boring you with code snippets, I found it was actually quite versatile. By applying a little of what I'd recently learned about c#/xna syntax, I was able to make a few generalised adjustments to the collision rectangles.<br />
<br />
Originally, the collision rectangles were set to the width and height of the sprite in question, placing their hot-spot at 0,0 (their top left) or at the centre of the sprite. (depending on what messes I'd previously left while learning).<br />
<br />
What we currently had was box-collision around the edges of all the sprites. The usual corner-collision problems would ensue unless I thought of something...<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzC6q0lvoj5WfWVxV60gxnS2TZC1YCneeHMqlrh20PNxvZ-nKrcNOG8GoTqia5WPxq7WFyADxjhEueZSDhcTksYg86oVFvz5162sjUmgxQbdXoYKh2ULHE4Ru3UwONwEtSAe0xIT8UhEz4/s1600/blog_collision_a.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzC6q0lvoj5WfWVxV60gxnS2TZC1YCneeHMqlrh20PNxvZ-nKrcNOG8GoTqia5WPxq7WFyADxjhEueZSDhcTksYg86oVFvz5162sjUmgxQbdXoYKh2ULHE4Ru3UwONwEtSAe0xIT8UhEz4/s640/blog_collision_a.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Basic Box-Collision (mock-up): See how the boxes surround the whole image, and in some cases, the whole animation? Just look at all that horrible, collideable empty space.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Basically, by consistently placing the centre of the rectangle at the centre of the sprite (width/2, height/2), I could then reduce the rectangle somewhat. Whether this was to pull say, 10 pixels off the height and 20 pixels off the width, or to apply something like (width/3*2, height/3*2) to get a rectangle that was two thirds the width and height of the ship, I was able to adjust and play around with the size of the rectangle until it played right!<br />
<br />
So now I could manipulate the size of the collision rectangles for pretty much everything in the game. How could I use that to make cheap collision feel well, a little less cheap?<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
Basically, the last thing I wanted was a bad review because the player suffered a cheap death through a collision with a transparent corner of a baddie's rectangle. Regardless of how many baddies and bullets I throw at the player... regardless of how many hits said baddies require to kill and how fast and accurate said bullets fly... regardless of all the balance issues that will hopefully start out fairly easy with practice, becomming more difficult until things are suitably challenging for those hellish final levels... despite all that, the collision must be FAIR. If I can't get it to be fair because of its rectangular limitations then it must always go IN THE PLAYER'S FAVOUR!<br />
<br />
Now, I know a few people are expecting something particularly ground breaking here, but it's not. Bearing in mind that this is my first go at xna and having done some basic Shockwave game coding previously, I'm basically just applying a little latteral thought to the processes, this is how I'm doing it.<br />
<br />
*As the player, your collision remains INSIDE your ship.<br />
*The collision for your enemies remains INSIDE their ships.<br />
*The collision fir their bullets goes INSIDE them (though these are pretty small and probably don't need as much attention, so scratch that).<br />
*The collision for your bullets stays OUTSIDE like a bounding box. (Making nice big collision areas. If in doubt, make it connect with that baddie!)<br />
*And as for pickups, OUTSIDE. We want those nice beneficial things to be as pick-uppable as possible.<br />
<br />
there, looks fair to me.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCGxCeWV-z5Ikm-Gqy-Pd9ucDWq5JXrr14N7_IRJZ0rCJjiIkIrf5f42EL1Lury96iduLncXj3sgonak3tlydwitxWmsA-1wKgeNeWwrJa5Jdv5s6GQmE5J5wG9Hk-PC6qLa5d7u3gSXvQ/s1600/blog_collision_b.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCGxCeWV-z5Ikm-Gqy-Pd9ucDWq5JXrr14N7_IRJZ0rCJjiIkIrf5f42EL1Lury96iduLncXj3sgonak3tlydwitxWmsA-1wKgeNeWwrJa5Jdv5s6GQmE5J5wG9Hk-PC6qLa5d7u3gSXvQ/s640/blog_collision_b.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Modified Box-Collision (Mock-Up): with a simple general 2/3rds reduction, collision detection becomes much tighter and at little to no extra cost. Notice that boxes for player projectiles, pickups and small enemy bullets remain their original size.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
So, here we have a situation in which the player should very rarely, if ever, actually collide with an enemy's empty corner and die. If anything, the player will always be given a couple of pixels' grace with which to fend off a few close calls. Because of the adjustments to the player collision and the small size of the enemy bullets, the same applies with those. Should the player ever die, it should only be from a definite case of head on collision or a clear contact with a projectile. In theory (and so far, in practice), collision with an enemy or bullet should never be in dispute.<br />
<br />
However, applying wide collision to your own bullets gives you a generous advantage. If collision is ever in contention, it will only be slight and always to the player's advantage.<br />
<br />
All that with the simplest, cheapest kind of collision type available.<br />
<br />
Now, I might find that the Xbox 360 (or whatever we're playing on by the time this gets out) can handle the ammount of sprites I'm churning out alongside all the projectiles, explosions, audio and of course, accounting for my not particularly well optimised first go at game coding. If that is the case, I'll pour a lot more time into much more technically impressive collision types in my next games.<br />
<br />
As far as Power Up is concerned, this is all work-in-progress. Some of it is implemented, some of it is a bit rough around the edges. Later, I'm planning to put some extra time into getting this collision type as close to spot on as I can, but that's all for nearer to submission. At the moment, the main thing is that the concept works. Unless it stops working I'll see it through throughout the project.<br />
<br />
Again, thanks for taking the time to read my blog. See you in the next one...PsyPsofthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586372773166399296noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1371197537362446588.post-23838626880613111392012-05-07T05:42:00.003-07:002012-05-08T01:53:56.797-07:00Power Up - Some HistoryA few people are finding their way to my blog now and I've had a few questions about myself and the game I'm making. With that in mind, I thought it might be nice to do a quick piece on the history of my first xblig game... because it has some you know.<br />
<br />
<strong>Power Up - Version 01:</strong><br />
<br />
Power Up started life as a programming excercise back in oooh, somewhere around 1999-2000. I was a student on a media course (there were pretty much zero courses in making games back then so you had to teach yourself everything you could get your head around). Part of the media course was in Multimedia. You know, the wonderful future that is CD roms, and the actually wonderful Macromedia Director was the tool for that.<br />
<br />
Director later became more synonymous with online Shockwave games (the lesser known cousin of Flash games), and soon Macromedia was bought by Adobe. While You can still get Director, it's all but been phased out, which is a real shame because I stand by Director's almost-English programming language "Lingo" as the best way for a beginner to get their head around making game mechanics work without having to figure out all the horrible syntax that comes with venturing into programming for your first time...<br />
<br />
Aaaanyway! all that asside, Director quickly became my tool of choice for tinkering with my own little interactive creations and was quite pivotal in shaping my decision to turn my artistic tendencies to a focus on games.<br />
<br />
At this time I was also taking my first tentative steps into 3D art and animation, and to this end, had made a little spaceship out of primitive shapes, which I was zooming around in a series of rather rough test animations. I decided to have a go at putting this together with my fledgeling programming skills...<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-nhNGBhELbzMSND7D2qVcr9-LXiTGWbODnewXJZn97_vxP_Ay78EG3wrdBA9g7soJvE8OZsGesu6AG05BSVXQ9KkQ-n-jKoPXP43CewxHR8JMJ9K2YCTpBVbFfBCktOyO7pVkmJB3sfxz/s1600/blog_history_puv11.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-nhNGBhELbzMSND7D2qVcr9-LXiTGWbODnewXJZn97_vxP_Ay78EG3wrdBA9g7soJvE8OZsGesu6AG05BSVXQ9KkQ-n-jKoPXP43CewxHR8JMJ9K2YCTpBVbFfBCktOyO7pVkmJB3sfxz/s640/blog_history_puv11.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Power Up - Version 01 - Circa 1999-2000: Not my finest hour, but a good excercise nonetheless.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I was feeling ambitious and so I decided to try for an over-the-shoulder, Isometric approach. This was clearly not the best idea for a new programmer, especially one whos' talents are not particularly in the more mathematical side of things. Still, I pushed on for a while and eventually hammered together two scenes of a game that was horrible to play and had the most confusing collision detection I've ever coded. Not to mention my massive sprites making for barely any looking room at all. Looking room is precisely that. Room to look ahead and see what's coming! Kind of an essential in a scrolling shooter. Oh well, we live and learn.<br />
<br />
All of that, along with my complete non-understanding of image compression produced a piece of work that I'm not particulary proud of. That said, it wasn't the first and I'm sure it won't be the last. A lecturer at the time told me "I love ambitious failures" and I'd have to agree. Nothing levels up your skills like an ambitious failure! ...Embrace the ambitious failure! (Then move on).<br />
<br />
<strong>Power Up - Version 02:</strong><br />
<br />
Fast forward a few years to somewhere around 2003-2004. I was helping a friend to get his games company started and was blasting out a few demos for games he could do on the mobile phones of that era. Screens had just gone colour but the devices had yet to be recognised for the potential they had in gaming. In short, the resolutions were tiny and the controls were rubbish!!<br />
<br />
Having found my own game controls were at about the same level of responsiveness as those of the devices I was aiming these game designs at, I was able to get rather good representations of the game designs over to him as little Windows .exes. He would then pick out what he wanted and get real programmers to make the games in Java.<br />
<br />
For one of the little game demos I blasted out, I decided to revisit Power Up. This time I took account of my programming limitations when it game to controls and kept it strictly 4-directional and side-scrolling. No frills! ...Oh alright. Maybe just one.<br />
<br />
This time I actually got to adding some power ups. Having now graduated, I'd been working in pixel art for a couple of years (Pro-Motion was the industry standard at the time and probably still is for retro-style Pixel Popping, which is as it should be. Pro Motion is brilliant!), I had a handle on the quality of the art and generally keeping things a little more consistent in style. I redesigned the spaceship as a little long thing with a bend at the front and decided that as it upgraded, bits would attach themselves to the ship to evolve it's general shape.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Rrpo6LWscVvuR3YxZCBzyHvkx5C6awDPCMbbGQ_rCcNPtOf8S5jw1GAodZlbUyvpFIJ-hGgcAixldxvdLRpQ-8eCkX94xToYB5UfC9aWiTfe6kJOLdNuBgYUGp3am1Yw6dqMp3o4otmg/s1600/blog_history_puv21.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Rrpo6LWscVvuR3YxZCBzyHvkx5C6awDPCMbbGQ_rCcNPtOf8S5jw1GAodZlbUyvpFIJ-hGgcAixldxvdLRpQ-8eCkX94xToYB5UfC9aWiTfe6kJOLdNuBgYUGp3am1Yw6dqMp3o4otmg/s1600/blog_history_puv21.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Power Up - Version 02 - Circa 2003-2004: A more stylish move to small and pixel-popped with the development of my basic coding skills.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
This worked really well and while the baddies were badly designed and there was generally little garnish in the controls or art, there was a definite feeling of progression after the innitial grind of getting your first few power-ups. Soon you were blasting around the screen, leaving explosions in your wake in a rather limited, but fun little game. This version of Power Up never made it to a final version either but gave me the opportunity I needed to get my head around a little more of the mechanics that such a game would require.<br />
<br />
...and that was that. For the next seven years or so I remembered the little spaceship game fondly but never really looked back.<br />
<br />
<strong>Power Up - Version 03:</strong><br />
<br />
Last year, a programmer friend of mine played a few of my old Shockwave games and asked me if I'd ever thought of using xna to make indie games for Xbox Live Arcade. I explained that outside of Director Lingo I'd really have no idea how to program a game, but he was adamant that once I'd got through the language barrier I'd be in with a chance of making stuff that people would like, especially considering my background in art and music production.<br />
<br />
One day I was doing the monthly xblig rounds. You know, just been paid, checking out what's on offer, when I put down my pad and decided I'd have a crack at it. I resolved to look for some basic tutorials and just try to make something. One of the very first tutorials I came across was for the very basics of a side scrolling shooter. I downloaded Visual Studio and dug deep. Two four-hour sessions later and I'd pretty much reproduced the content of the tutorial...... In a fateful moment of curiosity I changed the baddie sprite to a spinning bit of space debris.<br />
<br />
It worked!<br />
<br />
I changed the background to a starlit purple-blue gradient. That worked too.<br />
<br />
The paralaxing layers became stars, planets, spacedust and black holes! As the momentum built, something from my distant game-creation memory came surging back to me and I felt the overwhelming urge to change the player ship to a little long thing with a bend in the front...<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifQyjyiq3eaL9tDv_ggKy0E8f-T4qAGj8N53ip15suCvjNIwUveADMAnJkMnTp3-bcW0YOWUjJx1__mSCc3lDnoVXGlA6LgXUy5xJ0hmLT4xBShL9qTpWMevOsEfwHSMaVDUnauFwwn0Fb/s1600/blog_history_puv31.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifQyjyiq3eaL9tDv_ggKy0E8f-T4qAGj8N53ip15suCvjNIwUveADMAnJkMnTp3-bcW0YOWUjJx1__mSCc3lDnoVXGlA6LgXUy5xJ0hmLT4xBShL9qTpWMevOsEfwHSMaVDUnauFwwn0Fb/s1600/blog_history_puv31.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Power Up - Version 03 - Circa Feb 2012: This is a close up of the player ship done in 2D, from an earlier draft of the game.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<strong>And now?</strong><br />
<br />
Well, I'm a few months into production on the game. As you know from previous blogs, I've updated my art style from drawn 2D to rendered 3D. I've updated the player ship in the same way. Now it's a 3D render with little animated effects and flourishes.<br />
<br />
I'm almost finished populating the first level with baddies, though there's plenty of fixes to do before I move onto populating further levels. I've done a series of tests for paralax leyers in levels 2 and 3 and got them all in place for attack waves too.<br />
<br />
<br />
The game has got a HUD, a rough front end and a storyline with little cutscenes. There's plenty of content there for more blog posts and YouTube movies for quite some time to come, but I'll be selective and pick some good features.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOZFm6T1K4GTmPYxf3qgWpPC9ay06kFu2ekmCaW0T0BPhGOVypaGsDttHwl4WUg1cYXycM-iuLs_LYfCnx34ST3TYCf0OxXSRns9VYzYe18ZDrzxOGJaWdszj3CGjUI-rzNGkDwADTsXKE/s1600/blog_history_puv32.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOZFm6T1K4GTmPYxf3qgWpPC9ay06kFu2ekmCaW0T0BPhGOVypaGsDttHwl4WUg1cYXycM-iuLs_LYfCnx34ST3TYCf0OxXSRns9VYzYe18ZDrzxOGJaWdszj3CGjUI-rzNGkDwADTsXKE/s1600/blog_history_puv32.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Power Up - Version 03 - Circa Apr 2012: A close up of the 3D ship in the current version of the game.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I'm finding the balance between work life, family life, chill time and my favourite hobby (that's this). Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. I'll try to write about the stuff I think might be interesting to you but if there's any bits of my production process you'd particularly like to hear about, get in touch and let me know. Other than that, stick with me I'll endeavour to keep you all updated every step of the way.<br />
<br />
The best place to follow me is probably Twitter: @psypsoft<br />
But you can also find me on YouTube, Facebook and er, here.PsyPsofthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586372773166399296noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1371197537362446588.post-52660540096295573472012-02-26T04:51:00.000-08:002012-03-06T13:00:03.860-08:00Power Up - The BUSCraftHi,<br />
<br />
As I'm now populating the Power-Up game with enemies, I thought I'd start my blog breaking down the enemy I've just put in.<br />
<br />
I haven't decided what BUSCraft is short for yet. I called this baddie ship a bus because, well... it looks a bit like one.<br />
<br />
Basically, as the player has a bit of an array of upgradeable weapons which fire in different directions, at different rates and at different levels of power, etc, I though it best that the design of the game encourage the player to use them all as evenly as possible for the best results (rather than just to power up the basic front firing lazer and buldose their way through the game with that... which the player could do if they wanted to, but would then find themselves pointlessly overly powerful against a frontal assault while desperately lacking and evasive against attacks from the top, bottom and rear..... you with me?<br />
<br />
Good!<br />
<br />
With that in mind, and having already thrown a few enemies at the front of the player, I decided to throw something at the back. After some thought, I went for three big, relatively heavily armoured tanks which would move in from the left, taking up quite a bit of screen while shooting random multi-directional projectiles and giving the player the time to wear the ships down and get megapoints for each kill..... provided, of course, that the player had suitably powered up their rear firing shot beforehand... See what I did there? ;)<br />
<br />
After some 2D hand drawn tests, I realised quite quickly that the best approach was rendered 3d with plenty of 2D influence in the textures and in post production. This way I could get the subtle twists and turns that the vehicles would need to make when moving about, while not wasting precious hours drawing and re-drafing animation frames.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ9MlnNJPr71H0_97-lDjt_x8gjDeuqtla5EvsFajpDsGLnXd0SAKbHXLXt-m8xRHIN0nt7ZbbOf-FyoEQNIEB8RaHN1trd0SkYUJrzbulh8OS_lOJzuSVpfF5SS9dL67p2XWpqu8zi8wC/s1600/blog_buscraft01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ9MlnNJPr71H0_97-lDjt_x8gjDeuqtla5EvsFajpDsGLnXd0SAKbHXLXt-m8xRHIN0nt7ZbbOf-FyoEQNIEB8RaHN1trd0SkYUJrzbulh8OS_lOJzuSVpfF5SS9dL67p2XWpqu8zi8wC/s320/blog_buscraft01.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The BUSCraft model. I've kept it simple so as to make the most of the timescale I've given myself for the project. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I chose to make basic 3D models, designing them as I go.<br />
After the modelling, I found myself doing a quick render of the basic frames I thought I'd need. This would allow me to code a rough draft of the baddie's attack pattern into the game and would tell me how big the ship would need to be and at what angles it was to be seen at. In the case of the BUSCraft, it was to be really just the side view.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWcNnoAZVxibxRtwsxAcFIRLMWRnQQbCMGIx_vPEUk7ioSWrn51_T8v-zMnnZgl7rohuPwn_71_IyoKHXL0UPovzaQvnVsoiuRfO8QZfBDNWOOBGZKKFVHjY7aJOuX7HUPUw3QQ2OEZ9mw/s1600/blog_buscraft02.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWcNnoAZVxibxRtwsxAcFIRLMWRnQQbCMGIx_vPEUk7ioSWrn51_T8v-zMnnZgl7rohuPwn_71_IyoKHXL0UPovzaQvnVsoiuRfO8QZfBDNWOOBGZKKFVHjY7aJOuX7HUPUw3QQ2OEZ9mw/s320/blog_buscraft02.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here it is from the back. Notice that even in the spherical shapes, I've capped the detail to make life as easy as possible when texturing, bearing in mind that the whole vehicle won't appear in game at much more than 250x150 pixels in size.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
This phase in the baddie's implementation lets me see what's working and what isn't. The main problem with three big ships entering the screen at the same time is making them look independent from one another. If they enter as one big block it's hard for the player to differenciate between them and it just looks, well, wrong. So what can I do about it?...<br />
<br />
<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Well, first off, I can seperate the ships out and put a delay between their entrances. As a new, learning programmer this took some serious brain power on my part as I was no longer working within the constraints of what I had already learned, but soon I had three objects with slightly different timings, moving onto the screen with a delay between them. Here, they would stop for a while, then one by one, they would shift back to the left and out of play.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjluacxaJhlt8a23ccfXLbtTSMg0U_SjjA_yypWSZvEVsUCM5gZdjFCArRyoEN-RUxDwt4NoyxrG8g7s6g8XgIKWbB1NlB70q95BrybtjeRHX-cj01QYTcj9DQp7S7DlTOhDpN778d7u3-s/s1600/blog_buscraft03.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjluacxaJhlt8a23ccfXLbtTSMg0U_SjjA_yypWSZvEVsUCM5gZdjFCArRyoEN-RUxDwt4NoyxrG8g7s6g8XgIKWbB1NlB70q95BrybtjeRHX-cj01QYTcj9DQp7S7DlTOhDpN778d7u3-s/s320/blog_buscraft03.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rough-coding the BUSCraft into the game. Here I worked out the ship's size on screen, basic movements and any animations & effects needed to make this happen.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
So far so good... But it still wasn't right. These are big floaty spaceships hanging in space and as such they needed to appear to float. Having done my fair share of Shockwave games, I'd figured out how to make a character jump, setting a height number then taking 1 off it for every frame of the game and making a character's height appear to arc. All I had to do was translate that process from Director Lingo into Xna/C#, then do a reversed version to make it arc back up, THEN loop the lot and... Voila! floaty big spaceships!<br />
<br />
Next was the multi-directional firing. Using a variant of the player's shot effects I'd already done, I was able to make the big sphere in the middle of the bus light up and using a variant of the player's shoot code, I was able to put a projectile on the screen, making the BUSCraft's big central sphere the spawn point. As this was a multi-directional projectile, it would have to have images for every direction. A good time saving alternative to this, and something that's widely recognised in this genre as a baddie projectile is a glowing sphere. I'd kind of decided on this when desinging the BUSCraft.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhysB856YblcXJp5WuddIKboE4M_VG5qo-Ckmx6vbIshf0GRGeun8uiuCRXpnHhaJYKKgSPtREQJz5z0EHFI1ANaTC9m4U4Lpa6oQW6p3uFD-qQaQjxe3BVhrbdMHMzEGVPUiloE7wPEP60/s1600/blog_buscraft04.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhysB856YblcXJp5WuddIKboE4M_VG5qo-Ckmx6vbIshf0GRGeun8uiuCRXpnHhaJYKKgSPtREQJz5z0EHFI1ANaTC9m4U4Lpa6oQW6p3uFD-qQaQjxe3BVhrbdMHMzEGVPUiloE7wPEP60/s320/blog_buscraft04.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Having put in the basics, I tried out adding projectiles, effects, and some dynamic movement to the BUSCraft baddies.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
When designing my ships, I needed to come up with a means of doing things quickly so that I wasn't getting hung up on any one area of production. Nothing kills an indie game in-development like boredom does. My biggest concern was the texturing process. In my experience, one of the most time intensive art processes is the texturing of a model. By keeping the model simple I am able to do a quick printscreen of each side of the model and paint the texture straight on using gradients, layer effects and hand drawn elements. I can then UVW map/unwrap the texture straight back onto the model with a minimum of fuss.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTpBa85kJetS5Z_TVoYBQDZnI8KxHicDCHNc8Y96bMUOvL3ltehSFKnpe0S5JUc4byYmE9PXdaLnzVXtgO39R7evCOmBqmCi6tySz55xT6jt9LPdiYs_LqwAEUqvoLatLxbv8EQKVYoAv4/s1600/blog_buscraft05.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTpBa85kJetS5Z_TVoYBQDZnI8KxHicDCHNc8Y96bMUOvL3ltehSFKnpe0S5JUc4byYmE9PXdaLnzVXtgO39R7evCOmBqmCi6tySz55xT6jt9LPdiYs_LqwAEUqvoLatLxbv8EQKVYoAv4/s320/blog_buscraft05.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Texturing the BUSCraft.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Having all of the game's ship models saved into one 3D scene with a camera and lighting rig already set up also helps for consistency when I blast out the renders I need. For Power Up I generally render in 800x600 pngs so there's no background colour to pull out when I put the animations together. As the renders are much bigger than needed, I get plenty of leighway when reducing the sprites to the game's sprite sheets. Having drawn the booster effects on, I then import the sprite steets into the game and give it all a little test.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhevBrA7PqJ-d-YWHcUwBfxEosXvLi6aeIPgAR6rko_3FOVW3mft5I2Fq3sS30xZVC__usJpobIsHp1V0oMaHtgLs8hOxd1ZUFL9PFbqgovff0NA5G_jGtpuRRVjK_HHsQsEccpfunNiPXx/s1600/blog_buscraft06.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhevBrA7PqJ-d-YWHcUwBfxEosXvLi6aeIPgAR6rko_3FOVW3mft5I2Fq3sS30xZVC__usJpobIsHp1V0oMaHtgLs8hOxd1ZUFL9PFbqgovff0NA5G_jGtpuRRVjK_HHsQsEccpfunNiPXx/s320/blog_buscraft06.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The fully textured BUSCraft: Notice that there's very little detail on the front and back of the ship. Basic texture planning is useful in helping you to put detail only where it is needed and is a really good time saving device for the overall process.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Now for the final flourishes. With a bit of tweaking, the game segment is complete and I'm almost ready to move on. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
Getting the ships' move speeds to slow down into the stop part of its sequence was my first port of call. This just added a little more panache. then I tightened up the ships' floaty wobbles, got the effects for the shooting at just the right animation speed, optimised how much damage the BUSCraft ships could take to make it suitably challenging, shrunk down the multi-directional projectiles and lowered the rate of fire (after all, we're quite early in the game, while I can continue to balance things up later, I don't want it to be too hard just yet). <br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjccdcPHrazFLggmFMq02vj-n6iz3WuDp7NakF5OwIcFpv5quW7vYQIqzGUKQflQBTbso4w24sqaB1N7j_vgVHQcii6iQGHNWaxB7n8B_sl-7U3ltTx3N8W7EIuSL1GvVXFCDr3c96AVJ7y/s1600/blog_buscraft07.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjccdcPHrazFLggmFMq02vj-n6iz3WuDp7NakF5OwIcFpv5quW7vYQIqzGUKQflQBTbso4w24sqaB1N7j_vgVHQcii6iQGHNWaxB7n8B_sl-7U3ltTx3N8W7EIuSL1GvVXFCDr3c96AVJ7y/s320/blog_buscraft07.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The fully textured BUSCraft: I've put some lighting on the boosters as a standard. All ships will need lit areas for boosters. Remember, once you have the areas of your model texture-mapped you can always add the detail later if you need to.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Playing it through a few times, I realised that there was something STILL missing here. It looks as though a slow rear attacking baddie does lack something afterall. Don't ask me why, but this section of the game seemed to be missing an attack from the front. Something in me was just expecting it.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Using the modelling processes outlined above, I stuck with the glowball motif used in the multi-directional projectiles and central shooting sphere of the BUSCraft and added some un-shootable mines.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
While I was happy with the style and shape of the mines I quickly realised that I had to make them noticeably bigger and different in movement speed physichal characteristic to my circular pickup sprites as my first impulse was to pick it up!! A few extra animated parts were promptly grafted on and the mine was clearly not a pickup.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
I've still got a little tweaking to do to this segment of the game before I move onto the next one, but here's what it looks like at the time of writing...<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_O8UwXCehtFpNy4nYISlpNit4GBDEoD1QkQlC5lQfsFy0-G89vzojkmUSxF1O8DkcbgpJaANCKn-uuwtxM70IFhnWgb7fZenNNz69bgia_C00LfiqgL28vyFsrspvQW1_f_g95bpZj21S/s1600/blog_buscraft08.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_O8UwXCehtFpNy4nYISlpNit4GBDEoD1QkQlC5lQfsFy0-G89vzojkmUSxF1O8DkcbgpJaANCKn-uuwtxM70IFhnWgb7fZenNNz69bgia_C00LfiqgL28vyFsrspvQW1_f_g95bpZj21S/s320/blog_buscraft08.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And there it is: Three fully textured BUSCraft floating in space, moving independently from each other, shooting multi-directional projectiles and requiring quite a bashing from your rear lazer to kill while you dodge oncoming animated un-shootable glow-ball mines. Good eh?!</td></tr>
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I hope you've enjoyed my little insight into this part of my game development process. If you think I haven't been thorough enough about any of this do let me know in the comments section.<br />
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Alternatively, if you particulatrly enjoyed this blog page, please say so. Nothing keeps a lone indie developer going like the knowledge that someone out there gives a damn! <br />
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If you'd like to see more of what I'm up to you can subscribe to this blog. You can also follow me on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube...</div>
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Twitter:</div>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/psypsoft">https://twitter.com/#!/psypsoft</a></div>
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Facebook:</div>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/PsychoticPsoftware">http://www.facebook.com/PsychoticPsoftware</a></div>
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YouTube:</div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/PsychoticPsoftware">http://www.youtube.com/user/PsychoticPsoftware</a><br />
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</div>PsyPsofthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586372773166399296noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1371197537362446588.post-16428558953994537852012-02-24T11:55:00.001-08:002012-02-24T11:55:45.623-08:00Introduction<div style="text-align: left;">
Hi.</div>
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Welcome to the new blog for my one-man games studio, Psychotic Psoftware.</div>
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Basically, I make smallish games for different formats, learning as I go and becoming more proficient with the coding, art and music sides of production, not to mention the design and preproduction side of things and the post production marketing, etc.</div>
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I have honed a few of my skills in these areas but a lot of this stuff is still new ground to me.</div>
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By following this blog, you'll basically be joing me on my journey. Every now and then I'll document one of my little production processes, taking screenshots and making a note of what I did. When I feel there's enough, I'll create a new page for the blog and post it here.</div>
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As some of you will already know, my first attempt at game production is going to be an indie game for the X-Box Live Arcade. It's a classic styled side scrolling shoot-em-up programmed in XNA with the working title: "Power-Up".</div>
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It's still early days yet but I've pretty much got the controls and weapon mechanics in. Now I'm populating the game with enemies, and later, levels. If you subscribe, you'll get to see the processes with varying levels of detail, I'm sure.</div>
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So thanks for visiting.Don't forget to subscribe. You can also follow me on any or all of the channels below...</div>
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Twitter:</div>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/psypsoft">https://twitter.com/#!/psypsoft</a></div>
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Facebook:</div>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/PsychoticPsoftware">http://www.facebook.com/PsychoticPsoftware</a></div>
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YouTube:</div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/PsychoticPsoftware">http://www.youtube.com/user/PsychoticPsoftware</a></div>PsyPsofthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06586372773166399296noreply@blogger.com0