A step in the wrong direction; Still a light at the end of the tunnel.

Back up files! Create restore points! Seriously, do that. Right now. Computer-crippling viruses aren’t much fun.

I recently needed to restore my computer due to a very unfriendly virus. This particular virus wouldn’t let me reach any restore points though, or let me even do some of Window’s most basic commands. Long story short, I had to reinstall Windows and clear literally everything. As far as Back From Ashes goes, not the best news. Unless I restart from scratch, there is no way to continue. It took weeks to develop the 3D surroundings, and now I don’t even have the software to create it on anymore. I’m down, but not out.

I decided to work on something less time-consuming, but still interesting and unique to me. Enter Steam; a game where a small robot must match harmonies created by a computer. Different valves around you release different notes, and by opening the valves you have to seek the correct notes that make up the harmony. A simple but different kind of game.  Only tricky part of the bit is making sure all the volume levels work out, as sound is vital to the game.

 

Steam

New “Back From Ashes” Demo. Chapter 1 is now finished.

Getting back to work again on “Back From Ashes” feels strange. For one, I’ve been away from the computer so long that my mind needs a refresher on how I got everything to work in the first place. Secondly, with Nintendo’s 3DS coming out in a month, I wonder how the DS homebrew scene will change. But I plan to finish. So onwards!

Can’t believe I haven’t written since November. Wow. Anyway, I finished a demo that includes the 1st chapter of the game (the majority of the chapter at any rate. might expand it down the road). Took me a good while to clean up the UI and get it working correctly. I hope it’s user-friendly enough after all the reworking I did from the previous adventure games I’ve made.

The demo is available to download here.

Till next time. Hopefully it’s not another 3 months.

Where I stand today.

It has been a while…a long while since I updated this here blog. Here’s everything in a nutshell:

Cell has been completed sometime around July. It turned out okkaayy, but for the most part was disappointing to me. For those interested for some reason, the free download is here: http://filetrip.net/f12112-Cell-1-1.html

After Cell, I began working with PC games. Starting by porting The Fifteenth Floor, and recreating it in high resolution. A much, much slower and time consuming process than working with the DS handheld. Still underway.

In addition, I began a Exile-like game named Atara. It features panoramic movement and a photo-realistic environment. A demo was made, and gained interest of lovers of the Myst genre but not terribly enjoyable to everyone else. I USED to have a website for that, but websites cost money to maintain. Money that I do not have! You can read/get the demo/watch gameplay/learn more about Atara here: http://www.gameboomers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/670141/1.html

Lastly is another new thing: A sequel to The Fifteenth Floor. Called “Back From Ashes”, it has a slightly different/more friendly interface with a lengthier plot and crisper graphics (Some graphics in TFF were stretched, muddied up, and didn’t do the original artwork justice.) Peeky:

Till next time!

First demo is now available online!

It’s been slowly coming together, and now the first demo is now available.

Hope you enjoy this little taste-test!

http://rapidshare.com/files/401673661/Cell.nds

Demos (I suppose you can call it that)

I’ve been working on about 3 different demos for Cell, all with different layouts and mechanics. For instance: one demo has the inventory on top, one is triggered by the L shoulder button, and one use sprites on the touch screen. It would be ideal to have the inventory on top, since the top screen is pretty bland and uninteresting to me. As there as been a lack of photographic progress on my latest game, here’s some screens:

Cell

One thing fixed, and another thing breaks. Very true to life. And true to Cell. After 2 weeks of backtracking, I find myself finally caught up on every error and mishap that has been thrown my way. I’m not discouraged, but I am a bit tired. Scrambling never gets anything done; it only manages to make it weaker. I found that out as well.

So after a long session of applying myself, I’m finally back on track.

I have more graphics built through Anim8tor, and a working inventory is in place. Again, accounting for every possible combination. Not so much of a problem now as it will be say, two weeks from now.

The Game Plan

I spent much of the later parts of December re-imagining where I want to go with my next project.

It turned out to be a very worthwhile time just to think things over and consider all the improvements I can make from my first project. I feel much more comfortable with what I want to do now, and that really helps in the long run. Going into a project you’re not 100% excited about makes it 100% likely to be dropped halfway through production. I learned that from my Visual Basic experiments.

I’ve played room-escape game after room-escape game after room-escape game and have been searching desperately for that key formula to create some really ingenious puzzles. I got so frustrated trying to create things that give players that glorious “Ah-ha!” moment I get when I play the classic flash room-escape games. I almost went to someone just to make puzzles. Then I wondered how that would really go down. “Wanted: Puzzler-type person.”

There’s also the fact that the puzzles and design are so closely tied together, having the puzzle writer completely in sync with the artist would be frustrating in itself.

So I started tackling puzzles, mechanics, and gizmos while at work.

Blueprints (Or..eh..white-prints...)

I want to touch on a very important flaw I thought my first project had. Instead of being fed information by intros and cutscenes, I’m going to let the game do the talking (so to speak). All the great games I sampled over the holidays had this impressive and engaging sense of discovery. Plot would be melded into the game so flawlessly by items and things the player sees for themselves. The purest sense of “first-person”.

A couple more tricks, and I’m ready to pump out some art for the game. The puzzles are bizarre and logical at the same time, pretty surreal. I’m excited to give this my all.

The Madness!

This is my first post isn’t it?  Well, nice to meet you!  I’m Tom, and I’ll be letting you in on my adventures of amateur game-design. Game-design isn’t something I want to do professionally,  but it’s a very fascinating thing. It’s like sharing your imagination with people.

I love working in 3D, be it animated or stationary. I love adventure games “to a point where it’s just disgusting”.  Old Lucasarts games to be more specific. Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Sam and Max, that sort of thing. I grew up on those old text-based games. You know, where you gotta type in “GET BOTTLE” and “USE BOTTLE WITH SINK”. My first programming venture was a text-based game like that with simple visuals to keep the users from committing suicide when playing it.

I got this blog to ramble. Yes, ramble. Whether it be to myself or to you, the curious onlooker. Also, I have it as a place to show some of my work. Somewhere informal where I can throw things around as I please, much like a baboon. I doubt you, onlooker, will find something useful in the midst of all this. But if perchance you would like to gander at my works, ponder at my thoughts, and maybe even share a laugh or two*, welcome to my blog!

-Tom

*Laughs are not guaranteed to be shared.