Interstellar Tortoise

(11.24.08)

(Happy Dance, happy dance- happy, happy, happy, happy dance)

My neighbor finally got my main computer up and running. I’ve been building on the laptop computer at home and it has been a major pain in the tuchas. It turns out that my processor had burned out. I guess when it was originally put together, it didn’t have any thermal paste around the unit. Unfortunately, the ‘pooter is still crashing a lot.

In other news – the vast majority of the work I had done that was lost on the flash drive was redone, and quite a lot of new stuff on top of that. I built a really decent tutorial for the game which actually seems to work fairly decent.

(10.29.08)

Sigh. Sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches. I lost my flash drive with the latest 2 versions of the game. And that is not to mention the 3 months of journal entries lost. I was actually documenting my thoughts so well.

That is just plain too bad. I lost an updated HUD/interface, I lost a bunch of updated cutscene information. I would guess that I lost at least a bit of new art also. I’m not sure what else. That was about 2 weeks ago – and I have been holding off working on the game in the hopes that things would show up again.

Well, I’m done sulking and now ready to get back on track and redo the work lost.

(7/30/08)

Last night I went to dinner with my brothers and afterwards stopped at Barnes and Nobles. I saw a book there that I really wanted – Object Oriented Programming for Flash Actionscript. I managed to resist the urge to buy it (After all, I still have a lot left to read of ‘Code Complete’), but the temptation was there. I really want to become a better programmer.

And I have been reading through code complete. It is definitely changing the way I think about programs. The last couple nights I have actually been dreaming of writing code. It’s kind of weird.

(7/29/08)

Well, this thing is seeming more and more like a game. I love the open ended-ness of the game, but I keep thinking of things that should be done to make sure that the player knows what to do. The last thing that I want is a game that people feel confused or lost in. I have been playing through Zelda: the Phantom Hourglass and have been paying attention to their cutscenes/pacing – it is very clear.

There have been a couple places where I have gotten stumped, but there is usually some sort of hint or pointer that will point in the right direction. Any time there is a new challenge or circumstance, there is a short cutscene describing what is to be done. Like bombing at unmarked surfaces.

So as a result I am feeling more conscious of where Anomolous Reverie has unclear goals or expectations. I think that even one or two lines of text describing the expectation would make a big difference in a new player’s ease of use.

I’ve also been addressing the game maps – because there are a lot of places where they are incorrect or misleading. The last thing you want a map to be is misleading. A fair amount of compositions have needed to change, but it is becoming much easier to navigate through the game.

I’ve also noticed that the cutscenes in Phantom Hourglass are primarily just text explanations. That is extremely relieving to me because that is all I’ve got the budget for.

(7/23/08)

I am feeling really good about this new art style. It is really working out so far. I got a letter from a person I’ve been corresponding with who lives in ???? . This guy found my website and played the first point n click game I made (Mysterium), who dug it and was asking about what else I was working on. I showed him the prototype/first pass of Mysterium and he described the Art style as “off-putting” which I found super useful to hear. He encouraged me to do what I think works, but his words only further confirmed that I need to go to a more accessible direction.

Haven’t gotten too much done in the past few days because my dad had to go to the hospital. He is okay now, but it was a bit of a frightening experience.

One thing that I am starting to notice is that for any feature to become properly implemented, there are usually more steps than I first expect.

Example: Have a ‘save’ function in the game (something that I implemented in a rudimentary form a couple months ago). Well, you can’t just have a button that says ‘save’ in the HUD of the game. You need to make an options screen with a save option, probably with several different slots of memory for other players ( or for having a backup in case the player didn’t like the outcome of an in-game decision).

If there are several slots, then there might need to be an option to erase or move the data into another slot. Then you need to have a load screen giving the user the option of which of the slots to pull data from. Lots of stuff seems to have extra steps involved.

Well, gotta get to work!

7/18/08

Um… Well… scratch that last entry. 

I did some more tests and decided to do all of the work as vector art inside Flash.  I came up with a really simple buy appealing style that I can create really quickly and should be able to reuse as much as the pixel art that I was thinking to do. 

This is kind of a big deal for me because I am so accustomed to doing things so detailed – This will be a huge departure from my usual stuff.  Here is why I’ve changed my mind:

1.       Small file sizes

2.       reusability

3.       this style is fast to make

4.       Its appealing to the average person

5.       I will learn a new art style

6.       It is totally portable to different file sizes

7.       I can create it right inside Flash

8.       It looks BEAUTIFUL on hi rez screens.

9.       It just feels right

(Journal 7.10.2008)

Well, I finally conclusively decided on the art style for the whole of the game. I started thinking about how nifty it would be if I could get a port onto the DS, and started thinking what it would be like to make everything at that screen resolution.

So I did a few tests. I realized that using the DS screen resolution could do quite a few good things me, as well as for the game:

• Drop the file size for the Art to roughly 1/5^th what I was originally thinking.
• Drop the time it would take to create each background at least in half.
• The production environment would be far more familiar for me – as this is very similar to what I was doing when I worked at Handheld Games. This would also make it easier to make time predictions for scheduling.
• This would make the game more portable into new environments.
• This would make it easier to reuse art in different areas of the game.
• This would make it easier to have a more consistent look throughout the game.
• This would keep me from doing anything too drastic artistically – and avoid alienating audiences.

So I am now committed to this. Its going to be great.

Journal. 7.8.08

Wow.  Getting there.  Got the first ‘boss’ in the game.  Got all of the levels put into the game. Got some of the gameplay in for each level.   Almost all of the item functions work properly.  There are maps for the levels.  Almost everything works.  Now it’s just a ton of adjusting and refining.   And then, of course, creating all of the art and music assets.

Decided that in order to properly hype this game, I’m going to need a decent demo.  It had always been in my plan to have a demo of the game, but today I started thinking about it analytically.  In order to really show off what the game can do, I need to offer the players an opportunity to  get a feel for the majority of the mechanics. Originally, I figured that I would offer the overworld and one level as the demo.  Now I am thinking that I need to make it more focused. 

I am thinking to offer only a small chunk of the overworld and a level unique from the game as a free mini-game with its own story.  The advantages being: 1. player won’t get lost/confused, 2. It will be a satisfying, self-contained experience, 3. Can offer it on a TON of portals and locations for free.  Perhaps even email a copy to friends to send out virally.  4.  won’t conflict with any agreements I might make about releasing the game.  5.  People like getting stuff for free.  6.  I can release it before I have the game ready to be seen – Only need to create 30 or so backgrounds (as opposed to all 90 of the overworld backgrounds).

The down side is that this more content that needs to be designed and created.  On the flip side, it could be pretty small content-wise, but still use all the goodies from the engine.  Sigh… Now I’ll go and adjust my production schedule.

Hey – just realized that by the time most folks read this, they will have already played the demo.  Right now, I am currently in the past.  Weird.  Reminds me of the time I slipped in the bathroom and came up with the idea for the Flex Capasitor.

(6/15/09)

Ha! (Dance of triumph) – Yesterday I figured out how to create a save feature in Flash’s Actionscript using what’s called a “shared object”. I know that writing a save function is pretty standard, but for me it is a pretty big accomplishment. Woo hoo!

What’s more, I am getting really comfortable writing and calling functions in Flash – and it is making my code way more functional. I am not needing to write the same stuff over and over again. Now I don’t have any doubts about being able to complete any features that I need for this game.

I have just picked up the book “Fundamentals of Game Design” by Ernest Adams and Andrew Rollings from the library. It is super interesting and has inspired some pretty important design decisions – most of all a reminder not to leave the story so unpolished.

I have started thinking of some characters and their various relationships and motivations. This is going to give the game a lot more depth and probably widen my audience (albeit only slightly). I am going back and forth between whether or not to have multiple endings on completion, but feel that it will become clear once the story is more fleshed out.

I’ve been keeping a running journal of development for the past 3 months (actually quite a bit longer, but the original set of entries were lost in an unfortunate event).

I’ve decided to start posting the journal entries here, even though they are not being recorded in real time.  Think of it as a blogging time machine.  Any post named ‘Game Development Journal’ will begin with the date that the thought was originally put to paper.  Go through my successes and painful setbacks with me.

Eventually I will catch up to myself and begin blogging in as I go.  I’ve also started posting video blogs on youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/InterstellarTortoise

The video logs are more personal, but probably won’t be going into as much depth as Game Development Journal - so they both have pluses and minuses.