Swift☆Stitch launches on Friday
Posted: December 6, 2011 Filed under: Game stuffs, Lottie's Dungeon, Swift*Stitch 3 Comments »
Swift*Stitch is getting released on Friday, so that’s nice 🙂
also, everyone who has bought Lottie’s Dungeon before now will get a copy of Swift*Stitch as thanks, check your emails on Thursday/Friday 🙂
I’ll be getting back to work on Lottie fulltime super soon, and I’m hyper-excited about that, here’s some Lottie sketches:
Considering some changes to Lottie's available outfits
This is a spider-shark. part spider, part shark. all horror.
that’s me done for now, I’m working on some 3D tutorials though so I guess you could maybe exect to see them appear here sometime. if there’s any blender stuff you want covered let me know 🙂
Here's What's Up!
Posted: October 19, 2011 Filed under: General Stuffs, Swift*Stitch 4 Comments »I have a laptop! it’s not the one I wanted, but my stepmum managed to find it cheap, and it works (better than the old one did in fact, but that’s not much of a challenge lol). Covered entirely by the money from kongregate ad revenue.
So, where does that leave my projects, Fell Tracer, Swift*Stitch, Lottie’s Dungeon, Pixexix and Sarah’s Run?
Swift*Stitch:
Swift*Stitch is now my number one priority, and what’s more, I’ve submitted it to the IGF! I figured I wouldn’t since I’m unsure how a game like Swift*Stitch would fare in the IGF’s judging process, but I thought if I could sell 10 special edition preorders at $10 each, the entry fee would be covered and I’d have no reason not to submit. so that happened, and I also recorded some video of it, which is new!
I’ll be working towards getting the game ready for beta testing now, but it’s not far off 😀
worth noting, you can already buy the brilliant Swift*Stitch soundtrack here, Aeronic did a brilliant job, better than I could have hoped for, and he deserves some money for his efforts, I’m sure you’ll agree when you listen to it 🙂
Fell Tracer
Whilst this game is probably as near to completion as Swift*Stitch, I’m the only person invested in it, nobody has spent time making music for it, and nobody has spent money on pre-orders. I think it’s pretty rad for a small cute thingy, but Swift*Stitch is taking priority over it for now 🙂
that said, I’ll probably continue painting environment screens from time to time, since I do like to paint to unwind, I just won’t be doing it obsessively like before is all 😀
Lottie’s Dungeon
this is my number 3 priority at the moment, maybe it should be number 2, but all I’m doing for the time being is occasionally opening it up once or twice a week, looking at a few scripts and thinking how I’ll implement stuff. I know by the logic I used for Fell Tracer, this should be a higher priority, but it will take ages, this list of projects is way too long, I’m finishing games I can finish sooner, Lottie’s Dungeon cannot be finished this year, not the way I want to do it.
as I’ve said on Lottie’s blog, if you’re not cool with how I’m getting on and you have placed a pre-order, send me an email and I’ll refund your purchase, I promise I can understand if you want that 🙂
Pixexix
I work on pixexix when I’m making 3D art, it’s only then I can really put it through it’s paces, and know what’s missing and what’s good. so I won’t be working intensively on pixexix until I get back to Lottie’s Dungeon, though sooner or later I’ll probably look into adding .pdf export/import, since that just sounds like a fun exercise! 😀 as it is, I have a couple of pro features implemented but not yet released, I’d like each release to have something in both the free and pro versions, but I may just skip that and add an update that only has bug-fixes for free.
Sarah’s Run
this is for after Lottie’s Dungeon, though it’s still not far from my mind. I had a quick playthrough the other day and thought of a ton of things I want to add, and I can’t wait to get back to work on it. if nothing else I’ve gotten WAY better at this game-making stuff since I released the preview, and I want to throw my new skillz at this game! 😀
Fell Tracer
Posted: October 10, 2011 Filed under: General Stuffs 15 Comments »
General response to my last blog post was that folk wanted to help out, but couldn’t afford to commission me, so since I’m not keen on taking donations in exchange for nothing, and for a short time I have access to my step-mum’s laptop, I’m making a small game I’m happy to sell.
it’s a small exploration platformer with a few puzzles that I’m calling ‘Fell Tracer’ its all pretty much laid out and coded now, it just needs some sounds and the environments painted. since there are ~120 ‘screens’ to it, painting may take a while, by my predictions it’ll be 2 weeks if I’m on fire right to the end. this is unfortunately longer than I have access to this laptop for, so in the next week or so I’ll probably start selling pre-orders and make a short demo available (probably on kongregate, I do rather like it there).
I’d wanted to avoid this if possible, since I already have another incomplete game available for pre-order, but if I can’t get a new laptop soon I won’t be able to work on either, or Swift*Stitch, which is also not far from completion.
anyway, general breakdown of the game:
- Exploration platformer (old school screen-by-screen camera)
- ~120 screens
- run, jump, grab, crawl + 8 collectable special abilities
- hold only 3 special abilities at once, plan routes accordingly (navigational puzzles)
- each screen painted individually
- fixed up with Unity’s lighting effects so 3D objects sit in screens nicely
I expect I’ll sell the game at around £3, I think that’s very reasonable for what it will be and at that price I need around 400 sales to cover the cost of the laptop.
any thoughts or suggestions? regarding pricing or my plan of attack for getting money together?
I need a new laptop, but I need money.
Posted: September 27, 2011 Filed under: General Stuffs 19 Comments »Short Version:
My laptop bust and I need a new one or I can’t make games. Can’t afford a new one so please give me money in exchange for artwork that I’ll make when I get the new laptop. here’s what I have to offer:
- £100 high res, detailed line art of anything you please.
- £200 high res, coloured art of anything you please.
- £300 low poly 3D character or object, your choice again.
- £1,179 (insta-solve my problem) I make a small game especially for you, of your design. obviously this has limits, something that’s the around level of my prototypes or completed LD games.
Long Version:
So my present laptop has served me well over the years, but it’s been on it’s last legs for some time now, and yesterday it finally decided it had done enough. I can now use it to write this, and browse the net, but nothing more. It’s time to let his thing sleep, I need a new laptop.
but, I can’t afford a new laptop.
That’s a serious problem, I can’t afford to pay rent or bills either, and I can only afford to eat for so long, but I was hoping this laptop would last long enough for me to make something that would sell well enough to cover all that. (and it *almost* did, my current project Swift*Stitch is so near beta I can taste it, but alas it still needs a few weeks before it’s ready for release). without a working laptop, I can’t work. I can’t work on any of my projects or stand any chance of landing contract/freelance work, it pretty much leaves me dead in the water.
So I’m writing this. by my calculations, I need £1,779 for a new laptop and windows (for those curious, I am hoping for a macbook pro with a hi-res screen and windows 7 home). And after putting thought to how I could get that money together, here’s what I’ve got:
- Ad Revenue: As some of you know, I’ve not collected the ad revenue I’ve earned on kongregate. I’m not comfortable profiting directly from adverts, and I said I wouldn’t collect the money unless I needed it. well now I need money, so that’s £600 total to add to my pot. (yep, that means you’ll never hear me say “I managed to get by without accepting ad revenue, therefore you may gloat now :P)
- My savings: I have none, I’ve £98 in the bank right now, I’d rather not touch this so I can afford to eat for the next few months. I’ve not got anything I can sell to raise money besides my PS3. I don’t expect I’ll get a significant amount for it but if I can’t reach my target through the options listed below, I’ll happily trade it in. playing games is only going to taunt me if I can’t make them.
- Buy it and pay with instalments: Already applied for this, got rejected. 🙁
- Asking people for money: This is out of the question to me right now, I got in this mess myself after all, and I’ve relied on the charity and kindness of others just to survive this long without anything really selling anyway. frankly it feels like crap and I’m not going to ask for money unless it’s in exchange for something.
- Crowdfunding (kickstarter-type stuff): this is tricky, because I don’t really have anything to offer 100s of people, it’s been suggested I put Lottie’s Dungeon or swift*stitch as a reward for people who fund the game, but I’d rather not. partly because once I’ve got my laptop, I want to be able to sell those to cover all the rent and bills I owe. and also because whilst I am the one making those games, I’m not the only person invested in them, I have musicians who have put a lot of time into making music for those games (and done a great job). They deserve to get paid for their work, and I’m not about to trade the (brilliant) work that they have done for a laptop that they aren’t ever going to use. so if crowdfunding, I’d need something else to offer. (if you can think of something, feel free to make a suggestion, otherwise that leaves:)
- Commissioned work: Somebody gives me money, and in exchange I make something especially for them. this is my preferred choice, I don’t need to offer stuff to 100s of people, just a handful. it means that handful individually will be handing over more money per person, but I give them something worth much more in return.
- £100 high res, detailed line art of anything you please.
- £200 high res, coloured art of anything you please.
- £300 low poly 3D character or object, your choice again.
- £1,179 (insta-solve my problem) I make a small game especially for you, of your design. obviously this has limits, something that’s the around level of my prototypes or completed LD games.
I don't like advertising.
Posted: January 6, 2011 Filed under: General Stuffs 24 Comments »ok, a disclaimer first of all, since it’s my experience this can become a very hot topic very quickly, and people feel they need to defend themselves. I AM NOT SAYING YOU SHOULD NOT ADVERTISE OR ACCEPT MONEY FROM ADVERTISING. If that’s how you feed yourself and the people you support, and keep a roof over your head, I’m not about to say that you should give up that security, I know all too well it’s shit being broke, and I know that there are people in my family even who rely on income from marketing stuff. I’m not about to tell my sister and her boyfriend that their unborn kid would be better off if it’s dad were to quit his job and find something else to do.
