demo

You’re going to make a public spectacle of yourself.

mstop_4 demo, Gonna Catcha, Rise & Fall, ROM Game Jam 0 Comment

After some thought and playtesting of the co-op mode, I decided to move the beta release of Gonna Catcha ahead of schedule.  I feel the game is stable and complete enough to be playtested by a wider audience. The things I planned to do before I wanted to release the beta has now been moved to the “Beta → Release Candidate” list. What does that mean? Nothing really. Development will continue as it was before, it’s just that there won’t be a high score table or attract mode in the beta right away. Technicalities, blah blah blah. However, before I do release the beta, I do need to do a little bit of tidying and housekeeping to get the game ready (i.e. write documentation and make the interface a bit more user-friendly). Stay tuned to this blog for more information and a special TV offer! (Wait, no.)

Not to leave you empty-handed, here’s a screenshot of the title screen:

Wait, do you even know how to write that on paper?

Gasp! It has a proper title in it now! After many changes and revisions, I’ve settled on “導魂使隊” as the Chinese-character title for Gonna Catcha. “導魂使隊” translates to, or at least what I want it to translate to, “team of spirit-guiding emissaries” or “team of psychopomp emissaries”.


In related and coincidental news, Rise & Fall will also be making its public debut at the “ROM Game Jam: Ancient Arcade” event at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto on October 19, as part of International Archaeology Day. My team and I will be there from 1PM-3PM. So if you happen to be going to the ROM that day, feel free to drop by. This will be the first of a handful of planned appearances by Rise & Fall at a public event. Stay tuned to the blog for more information and we’ll double your order absolutely free! Just pay shipping and handling. (Nah.)

Copyright © Quadolor Games. All rights reserved.

Alpha demo gameplay video thingy

mstop_4 demo, gameplay, Gonna Catcha, whoopsie doodles 0 Comment

The part of my brain that comes up with clever titles is out of office today.

After some thought, I’ve decided to make the Gonna Catcha playable demo a closed alpha for testing purposes, as I think it’s still too early for me to throw the game up on the internet for open testing.  As a consolation prize, here is a video of the playable demo in action:

So what else do I need to do to move this game from alpha to beta?  Well let’s see…

  • More rounds. Which maze the round takes place in and the number of spirits, rocks, preta and bonus items (in bonus rounds only) in it are manual determined by me for each round, rather than determined by some algorithm. Even though the game will have 256 rounds, I’m only going to create round data up until a certain point, then either start repeating the last few rounds or randomly generate round data to fill in the rest.
  • Co-op mode.  It might have modified round data compared to single-player mode to balance the game.
  • Attract mode. How else will you know how to play the game?
  • High score table
  • Controller support
  • Bug fixes and code optimization.  Even when I thought I’ve squashed most of the major bugs in the game, a new challenger appears:

And here are the features that would be nice to have, but not entirely necessary:
  • CRT shader. The game is setup up to use it, but it’s no longer a required feature to me anymore.
  • Demonstration cutscenes. Whether or not I need these will depend on how much info I can cram into the attract mode.
  • Bezel art. Artwork to put on my virtual arcade cabinet.
Well, looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me. …Wait, haven’t I already said that before?
Copyright © Quadolor Games. All rights reserved.

ROM Game Jam Day 1 – The internet wouldn’t allow it.

mstop_4 demo, graphics, Rise & Fall, ROM Game Jam 0 Comment

Normally, I wouldn’t update my blog in the wee hours of the night, but the lack of a good internet connection at the ROM Game Jam has forced me to.

So now I share with you some screenshots of the work that has been done today by me and the rest of Team “Robots Mashing Keyboards” at the jam:
First, a screenshot of an very early version of the game:

FUS ARROW DAH?

I won’t go into details right now, but let’s just say our game will be a 2-player competitive platformer.

Next is a screenshot of a later build of the game, featuring graphics for one of the two characters in the game: some Roman guy, done by team member Shmuggly.

Minimalist architecture

And finally, the highlight of the day came near the end of the day: the inclusion of the Roman guy’s running animation, also done by Shmuggly, into the game.  The initial results were hilarious:

The video doesn’t do the run cycle justice; it looks much better (and funnier) at 60 frames per second.  The background music was composed by me, hastily over the course of only a few days and still needs a bit of work.  Still, I’m actually impressed with how it turned out.  When was the last time I even did anything in 3/4 time with the harmonic minor scale?

And now I’m tired, and have to get up early tomorrow to continue jamming.  Good night everybody.

Copyright © Quadolor Games. All rights reserved.

Sticks and Stones – First Test

mstop_4 demo, GameMaker: Studio, Sticks and Stones, Windows 0 Comment

I’m starting a new project in GameMaker: Studio: a short, text-based exploration game, though not in the traditional sense. Let me explain:

The idea for this came from my experience playing WarioWare: D.I.Y.  One part of the game had Wario hiring you to do the graphics for some pre-made microgames.  I didn’t take that part of the game seriously and drew absurd and non sequitur things.  On a few of them, I got lazy and abstracted the things I was supposed to draw as words:
Oh no!
You’re in for a world of it.

The goggles do nothing!

This gave me the idea to do a whole game like this.  I call it Sticks and Stones, which, as you may have guessed, comes from the nursery rhyme “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me.”  (Or “…but names will never hurt me.”), which I plan on using as a theme for the game.

As for the music, since my muse is tapped out of original tunes at the moment, I decided to dive into the domain of the public.  Maybe it’s because I named my game after a nursery rhyme, but here is a sample of the music.  It’s a tune that goes by many names: When Johnny Comes Marching Home, Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye, The Ants Go Marching and The Animals Went in Two by Two:

Anyways, that’s all I have to say for now.  Check back for more updates!

Copyright © Quadolor Games. All rights reserved.