Change of Plans

Plans have changed for projects. I have put Panic! Panic! on hold for the time being. This is due in part because I have assembled a team for the port of Auto-Warrior to Android. This had been put on hold mostly because of other projects and that I just didn't have the ability for many aspects of the game. Since I didn't write, or own, the music for the previous incarnations, I've needed someone to make the music. I just found someone willing to do so and has already started on the tracks I needed.

We are a team of three and hope to complete the project within the next two months. This is my first time working with an actual team and it's been very exciting to be in charge of this game making group.

The main focus right now, is to make a basic direct port of the game. However, if time permits, we will add extra feature.

I hope to keep you all updated as the progress on Auto-Warrior continues.

Beginning of a New Semester

I'll be beginning a new semester of school this next week. It'll be cool because I'll be taking classes that will be helpful for me in making games and in general programming.

I have done some work on Panic! Panic!, but not as much as I should have. I've mostly just been working on some of the debug features so that it'll be easier to debug on a cell phone.

The re-working of the game has made it much more efficient and there has been little slowdown on the cell phone so far. (Keep in mind that the cell phone I am using to test is relatively old.) My brother has tested an earlier build of the project on his Samsung Galaxy S3 and it looks beautiful. (I'm talking about the phone.) So, progress is going forward, but I can't guarantee that when the semester starts.

SCREENSHOT TIME!!

This is an earlier shot, showing the targeting.

This is a little further along, showing the Score and Combo.

Just doing some debugging using Gamemaker's default debugging system.

Any comments about how this game and any of my other games are looking, feel free to comment.

I'm  not ashamed to use Gamemaker!

Some More Dragon Stuff

I have done no work on Panic! Panic!, but I worked some more on an older project The Dragon. I don't have much time to discuss what I've done with it, but here are some screens:

WOOO! Next week I hope I'll have more time to go into detail.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year

I haven't done anything this week on any projects. What with all the family and festivities.

End of the World

I guess it really didn't happen...

Anyway, this past week I went ahead and started production on Panic! Panic! even though I haven't finished the design document. But, I feel I have enough started and planned out to start. Here's a first screenshot:

You may or may not notice the differences, but they're there. The color change buttons are bigger and are now transparent to see the action behind them. The enemies designs are also slightly different to incorporate an eye. Also, the targeting line has been replaced with a primitive triangle as opposed to a stretched sprite. This will help, hopefully, with some of the speed issues.

Now here's a shot of it in action on an actual Android phone:

It's not the best picture demonstrating this, but it's effective in showing that it currently works.

That's all for now.

More Work

This past week has been filled mostly with winding down from the last semester. I've had the chance to catch up on playing some games and watching T.V. These were pleasures that I had not been able to partake of for some time.

As for work on Panic! Panic!, I have done some more writing on the design document, as well as done some brainstorming for enemies and their tactics. I've also done the first draft of the storyboard for the intro:

There isn't much to it, I know. However, Panic! Panic! isn't motivated by plot or story. In fact, in the original beta, there wasn't a story to speak of. After some consideration, I thought it would be important to have at least a little plot, hence the intro.

I've done a few other things, like some of the graphics. Some of the sprites I did before I am satisfied with. There are others that I feel that needed some fine tuning, or a complete redo. Here's what I've done with the ship:

The original is on the left, the new is on the right. I've made it slightly more simple and used a different palette. I like the simplicity of the right, but I might have to change the colors. I don't know, if you (the reader, if any) have suggestions or comments about this or anything so far, make them.

Finals

As you may or may not know, I am a full-time student. As a result, I have been taking finals and working on final projects. So, I haven't had the time this week to work on any of my game projects. This next week should be better, and I hope to get a lot of work done. I hope to get some more results soon!

S.D.4 Steampunk

I haven't done much else on the design document for Panic! Panic! recently. Although, I have set aside some time today to work on it. It's crazy how when I want to work on it, I don't have time and when I have time, I don't want to work on it. However, I am planning to at least start production on it sometime during the Christmas break.

This past week, due in large part to my brother, I have been working on S.D.4 Steampunk. He has been giving several idea submissions to that project, so I haven't had to put as much work into it. I would say that he's contributed to more than half of the games mechanics and structure. He's definitely getting a co-author credit for that.

For those of you who don't know, S.D.4 is a pen and paper RPG system that I have been developing for over a year now. It's an acronym for Simple Dice 4-Sided, meaning that it's d4 based system and is meant to be a really simple role-playing game. I mostly wanted to create a role-playing system that was simple and quick, and that required fewer rules to remember.

The playtests have been positive, but it's far from finished, like my many other projects.

I haven't done a whole lot with game development. This is mostly because of school and such. I've taken Panic! Panic! back to the planning stages and starting over. The coding was getting so clunky and a lot of was difficult to change and fix. I was building the finished product over the prototype. I wasn't satisfied with a mediocre game.

So, I've decided to start with completing a design document, then move forward with production. What was lacking last time was a lack of planning. I've gotten my brother to help with more of the coding. This will hopefully expedite the process.

Hopefully, taking it all back to square one will help make a more polished product.

Here are some screens from the original:

Title Screen

 High Score Table

 Gameplay

It's not much, but it's just the first version of the game. This next time will be much more polished.

Bleegghhh...

Bleegghhh...

Panic! Panic!

Well, Gamemaker: Studio has been released and I went ahead and invested the $300 to get the program and license. So far, its been a good program. There are a few performance issues with certain phones, but I can work with that. I'm moving forward with my project Panic! Panic! in Space Megaforce. Hopefully, I can get some screenshots and video of that project up soon. But, knowing myself, it may still take a while for that to occur.

Here's some more random screenshots for different projects:

The Original Auto-Warrior Remake
 

 Auto-Warrior 2


 

 Ball-Z (I need to think of a new name for this project...)

Here we Go

The more that I've been testing Gamemaker: Studio, the more I like it. It really isn't that mush different than Gamemaker: Standard. I've done a few tests with importing some of my old projects and testing them on Android phones and tablets and the results have been good. Few of the projects did have some slowdown, but it is something I can work with. I'm definitely going to invest the money to move forward with that.

In other news, some of the projects I'm working on with my brother have been moving forward. Rogue Face App especially. The progress with that has been moving forward rather quickly and hopefully we'll see an Android release for that by the end of the month. That's not an "official" release date, though.

And now for some dumping...

Auto-Warrior Tactics Classes

Here's the original Title Screen for the Auto-Warrior remake. In the end I opted for a more Retro-Styled design. The Port for it for Android will be even more so.

Finally for today, here's the sequel to Auto-Warrior. As you can see it's more of the same. I still haven't decided if I'm going to release it for PC or Android or both. We'll see. A lot of it depends on the success of other projects and if I can handle continuing making games.

Until next time, M.D.Bauer.