Logs

So since I decided I wasn’t going to use the notepad for inventory, but already had some code to examine it as part of the UI, I figured I’d use it as a log of witnessed events for now, rather than scrapping the thing (I don’t like throwing out cute 3D models :P)

For now the log is pretty basic and includes stuff that should be apparent just by looking at pieces move across the board, but I can trim it down later so it’s only listing important stuff (like attacks, status changes, that kind of thing)

Anyway I’m now at the point where the things I want to do next are kind of big tasks… so I’ll probably not get any of them done before the end of the month. So feature-wise, I think the game has everything now that will be in the monthly build. I might do some minor tweaks but in all likelihood the monthly build will be ready a little earlier than last time 🙂

Monthly Build 2019/02 – Dusk Child 2

~ It’s finally here! ~

I mean, the “game” isn’t there yet, but I have made about a 1/3rd size map for you to explore and see all the features I’ve made so far. I’ve also included the source files in case you’re one of those people who likes to poke around inside people’s pico-8 games 🙂

Thanks for the support everyone, I hope you like this!

Monthly Build 2019/01 – The Island Dreamer

HEY HOW ABOUT SOME SPOKEN INTERACTIVE FICTION? 😀 <3

Downloads are below!

Also I just want to say thanks for your patience, it’s taken me a little while to get caught up with these delayed monthly builds but I’m no longer behind (for now :P) and I’m making a buuuuuuunch of progress on the game that is gonna be the next monthly build (it’s Dusk Child 2!) so that should be super on time!

Also also, as always, thanks so much for your support! I honestly don’t know if I can express how much it means for me, but THANKS, big thanks! <3

Tic Tac Toe Tactics

So here’s something I’ve had on the shelf since… 2009… which probably qualifies for longest dev time on any of my projects (well, out of the projects that I’ve released :P)

I was digging through my projects folder on stream yesterday, saw this and figured “hey, I bet I can fix that into something worthwhile!” and here it is!

The version I had this time yesterday looked kinda like this:

and now it looks like this:

complete with menus and instructions and even some improvements to the game code, it was a barely working prototype before, now it’s a barely working release!

OK that’s ~mostly~ a joke but honestly the Crosses player has a huge advantage in this game, to the point I might make certain opening moves illegal in a future version. For now if you play with someone who opens as crosses 2 tiles diagonally you have my permission to punish them however you see fit 🙂

Also I think I’d like to add AI at some point, it’d be a fun challenge buuuuuuuut I mostly did all this to take a little break from Dead End development, and now that’s done I should really get back to it 🙂

Anyway, I hope you’re well, and as always; thank you so much for your support!

The Hero and The Hound

So yesterday a game I made was released as part of #meditationgames, which means that today, it is no longer playable!

I am planning on making the game available to patrons later in the year sometime, but the point of the meditations is short new games appearing for just one day, and something else the next day, so I’m not gonna re-release it too soon. Make sure you check the meditations launcher every day this year though, there has been some great stuff so far and each game takes 5 minutes to play tops 🙂

If you want to watch my game played, a couple of people recorded their experience and put it on youtube here and here.

UPDATE: I added some of the source for the game to my itch.io collection of unity systems, so if you want to make a game like this then you can, it’s called “Story Slideshow”

<3 THE REST OF THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS! <3

Anyway I’m gonna talk a little bit about the game and its development partly in case anyone is interested, and partly because I love talking about this because honestly this is one of my favourite games I’ve ever made 🙂

So part of the “rules” for meditations is there is a very limited amount of time you’re supposed to spend working on the game, it’s essentially a private game jam where you decide the theme yourself.

Once I had decided what I wanted to express (the feeling I got playing FF7 when first leaving Midgar and I was all “OMFG THERE IS MORE?! I THOUGHT IT WAS ABOUT TO FINISH BUT THERE IS MORRRRRRE! <3<3<3”) I quickly realised my big problem was gonna be: there needs to be a lot of stuff in a game, and then you need to surprise someone with a lot more stuff to give that feeling. So a lot of the design is built around getting a lot done in a tiny space of time.

I ruled out high-resolution art because I know I’d spend longer on it trying to get it to look good enough. I committed to a slightly scruffy style too so I could start drawing and not lose momentum. I planned everything out in a text file and swapped out as many scenes/shots as I could for reusable ones or ones that were only marginally different (so there are a lot of hero/hound shots that are reused or reused with slightly different expressions, or flipped, or fighting a different enemy). I had to cut a whoooooole lot of stuff I had planned for after the king died (I think in the first draft, the king died like 1/4 into the game instead of halfway, and the wizard had sub-bosses to fight and that kind of thing).

Honestly, most of the planning was cutting things so that I could make it all in the time I had. The actual time working on the game itself was about 8 hours total I think, a few hours programming, getting the interface done, and drawing the reusable art (which is the least scruffy art, partly by design since it gets seen the most, and partly because I did it way before the deadline started looming :P)

Anyway, like I said; I’m really happy with how the game came out, and especially happy that it was received well by the people that played it. I’d really like to make more games like this tbh!