So long and thanks for all the fish

 Hello everyone!

This has been a long time coming.  I will not be regularly writing on here for the foreseeable long-term future.  I'll leave my posts up for the archivers out there.

One last update for now, on just about everything.  TLDR: I'm fine, everything is rolling along, go check my latest indie games out at https://darkgriffin.itch.io/ and check out the humble beginnings of a video game company I'm starting at https://moonbow-ent.com Details and post mortem of the blog is after the break.

Infinitroid - 64 Jam postmortem

It's been another 64x64 jam, and I made Infinitroid.  It's a mini-tribute to Metroid, made using a tool called Pico8.  Players can enter 1 of 32 possible codes, and a map gets generated to play through.  The game takes about 30 min to 45 on average to finish a run.  When you win, you get a "high score" screen showing your time and completion percentage, and the code so you can share it with others to see if they can beat your speedrun.

I'll spare the technical details and just drop the link here.  Go play it!  The game runs in browser, and is open sourced!  P8 file can be downloaded for free or pay what you want.

https://darkgriffin.itch.io/infinitroid

Cheap 1 hour promotional material.

Game in action gif to make it look awesome!

A silly mistake I made today, and why you should always think through your code.

That moment when you thought something would be easy to implement and then it broke all the old code. :(

This is a great example of a "simple to think about, hard to implement" game mechanic.  It sounds great on paper but has a very fatal flaw when implemented that I didn't catch.

The short version of the mechanic is that

1- The level has torches around it that can be lit up by the player.
2 - The objects loaded in when the level is built are hidden at first, and when a torch is lit, it enables a list of objects to show themselves.  (Each torch has previously scanned to build this list at the start of the level).
3 - The player can light their own "torch" to reveal objects nearby as they wander the level, and use this torch to light the unlit ones.

The system worked great but it had a major flaw.  I recently introduced the player being able to carry a dynamic light source around, and that broke everything.

The player controlled object has to erase it's own trail, because if the player moves away from something dark it should hide itself again.  Otherwise the player's light source just becomes a fancy paintbrush that reveals everything in the level.

But in adding that bit, the player is now overwriting the previously lit objects.

The result is that lighting a torch and then moving away will hide the objects again even though the torch right next to them is still lit.  Doh! x_x

I got a few ideas how to go about fixing it.  The tricky part is to do it without needing to always re-find the objects they lit up, as that's the main memory hog of the system.  But I need a break for now.  My current fix idea is to have the torches "tag" objects as "skip hiding this one", since in this system (for now) the torches never turn off again.

In the end, it will probably cost me an extra few minutes tomorrow to fix.  However, it's a great example of why planning is very important.

Anyway, I just thought it might be fun to share this little game mechanic planning mishap.  This is why testing your ideas out on paper is so important, as well as running over all combinations of game elements during the design.

Remember to check out Drake at https://darkgriffin.itch.io/drake if you haven't played it yet!  It's the latest game I've made and I'd love some help sharing it around to new players!

Drake is out!

Playable in web flash, and if you donate 5.00 or more you get downloads of both flash and windows executable form that you can keep forever and play offline.

https://darkgriffin.itch.io/drake

I really could use some help spreading this game around.  In order to be a success I need as many people as possible to see it, play it, and share it.  Your donations will go directly to me and supporting my game development in the future, I promise!

I also greatly need some feedback on the price.  This is my first game launch, and while I think the current donation download price is fair for the amount of content given, it may very well not be.  I'm operating in the dark and within the very narrow amount of games I have been able to afford myself on the lower end of the market.  While I would feel 5 is a fair price were I to buy the game for offline play, I don't know how others feel about that.

Anyway, enough about me!  Go play the game!  And please share the link with your friends!

Drake Work In Progress Report

I just want to say I am still chugging along on both Drake and a top secret project.  Top secret is not ready for revealing, and has hit quite a few bugs along the way.

Level 2's layout is almost finished for Drake, and in polishing stage.  The level introduces a few new game mechanics that were not implemented in the itch.io jam version.  Namely boss fights, and a system for "level tasks" that open special "doors".  Since these were not in place for the contest version but are needed for the final version, I have done a lot more behind the scenes work then level design the last few weeks.  Moving forwards, these new systems will let me fill out the rest of the levels faster now.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's a gif of Drake helping out a cute little phoenix friend who had an unfortunate encounter with the invaders.

I will keep working, and will try to regularly post updates to this blog as I get the remaining levels in place.

Drake - A 64x64 jam entry

I recently made this little game called Drake, it's on my game page now under flash games.  Or you can just click here:

https://darkgriffin.itch.io/drake

It's a single level of what was meant to be 6 levels around that size, so it's not complete.  But it's fully playable and should entertain for a little while.

I'm now working on the rest of the levels.  Those will be coming in an update as well, but very slowly.

Mostly this post is about showing you Drake, and letting you all know I'm still working on stuff.
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Playhack winners announced! Robo Racer got Special Mention!

http://blog.playcanvas.com/playhack-with-playjam-winners/

My game #roboracer got a Special Mention, just below the contest winners!

No prize money for me, but it's really great to see it get recognized! "Good solid entry" is about the best praise I could have asked for from the judges. :)

A big accomplishment for me considering I had not touched Playcanvas engine till I started the contest, and am a single developer. :)

Go play all the entries, and enjoy! The blog has a link to a special "play games" page that has nothing but the contest entries. Some of them are really good, most are worth checking out. I won't link directly here, so you have to view the playcanvas article to find it.

Congrats to all who managed to make a game in time! It was a blast!

Robo Racer is out!

Yay!  Another Game Jam, another actual game release!

I've added it to the game page for the blog.  If you are super excited to play it, or super lazy, or can't find the page link cause it's glorious blue on blue at the top right of every single blog page, you can click below to get there.

http://gawaingames.blogspot.com/p/games-ive-made.html

I think I'll let the game speak for itself really.  It's been a blast making it, and my mind is still in a flurry of thoughts and design concepts, so anything I write about it won't make much sense for now.  Plus I've been promoting and repackaging the promotion material so much over the last 2 days, I don't really feel like spouting it all twice just for this blog post.

Not Robo Racer related news after the break.  If you are just here to check out my games, you can stop reading here. ;)

My PlayCanvas Contest Project Link

Here is the url for the contest entry project I am working on for PlayHack:

https://playcanvas.com/project/375628/overview/robo-racer

That will land you on the project page, allowing you to play it, view it in the editor, and read all my exciting (or not) posts as I progress!

It's keeping me pretty busy, so I won't have much time to keep up with here during the contest.  So follow that URL above and keep checking it for updates as I get further.  And while you are there, browse around Play Canvas and watch some of the other devs too.

Mothrina Chapters - Control Update Patch

I'll keep this one short.  I have resolved a control issue with Mothrina Chapters: The Ruins of Death.

For all people interested in playing the game, instead of downloading directly from the contest version, please download from the updated version link in the contest description.  Hopefully this fixes the "controls not responding" problems for good.  (It's pretty much a raw reading of the input at this point, so there really is not much more I could do then this.)

Here's the link again to the contest page:

http://contest.gamedevfort.com/submission/384

Thanks!

Dev log: Mothrina Engine Version 2, planning phase

First off, I'm really beginning to wonder if anyone even played my little adventure.  

In case you missed the link the first post, I'll plug it here again.  I'm starting to sound like a broken record at this point, but hey, I'm really desperate for players.

Mothrina Chapters: The Ruins of Death

http://contest.gamedevfort.com/submission/384

I have posted it just about everywhere I can think of over the last few days, and have not heard back from anyone.  Not even a little piece of "that was fun" or "your game sux!111".

Well, ok.  One person mentioned the controls were broken on the AGK steam forums and tweaked the code to support their (strange) keyboard.  And a few other users there complemented me on releasing the source code with the game, as they could poke around and learn how to better structure a larger project.

That's all I really got though.  None of those things really let me know if the game itself is good or just tedious or makes people angry or sad or just bored.  No idea how anyone reacted to the story, no idea if I was too vague with the clues and what happens or if there was "just enough" for a thinker to piece what happened to the Ruins of Death.

Some say "Silence is Golden", but for this instance, I don't think that applies. :/

Info on version 2 if you view the full blog post.  Cut time.

Mothrina Chapters: The Ruins of Death - IGDC Game Release!

Proudly Presenting: Mothrina Chapters: The Ruins of Death

There is a readme with an in-character letter to the character you will be playing, and some gameplay instructions, included in the download with the game.  Here is the link.  I hope you enjoy playing.

http://contest.gamedevfort.com/submission/384

What, you are still here?

If you could spread this link around and get more eyeballs looking at it, it would mean the world to me.  It's a free game after all.  Please share the contest link, as opposed to the download link.  I really need the potential votes.

If you have any feedback, storyline questions, or just want to yell at me because your party members are rolling terribly, I can be reached at:  darkgrif@gmail.com  I'd love to hear from you!

I am thinking strongly about expanding this engine in the future, and making a few more full length chapters.  If I do, the other chapters would be much longer, allow you to roll up characters and name them, and in general be much more feature rich.  I might do a "pay what you want" release, or I might sell each chapter as a lower cost full game.  Lots of ideas for the future, but nothing set in the cold Mothrina stone just yet.

Anyway, you should be playing the game instead of reading this.  Go play, and enjoy a small adventure in the land of Mothrina!