Defective

Defective has been sponsored.  Expect it to be released any day now (I’ll of course announce it all over this site as well as on my Twitter page) – all I’m waiting on is the sponsor to send me the assets to brand the game with.  I can’t wait to finally get this game done with and released, it’s going to do great!

Animation

The untitled animation I’ve been working on in my spare time over the past week or two is practically finished.  All that’s left is for me to draw the background for the final scene and add sounds / music.

It’ll be released on both NewGrounds and Youtube sometime later this week.

Android Stuff

I could probably finish that animation today (I worked all day on it yesterday) but I’m probably going to leave it be for at least a day or two.  This is mainly because I want to get back to focusing on my Beginning Android Games book and start getting a grasp on Open GL ES.  It’s a pretty hairy topic from what I understand, but to make the games I want to make, it’s necessary to understand Open GL ES and its advantage over typical CPU-powered graphics.

Anyway, so those are my plans for the next few days – Android stuff, animation completion / release, and Defective release!

Animation released!

Well, not one of my animations, but still.  My friend-with-benefits, Brandon, finally got around to finishing his second Flash animation after a year of me yelling at him to stop procrastinating (or something like that).

It’s a tribute to some small game titled “Alan Wake” or something and is available for your viewing pleasure on both NewGrounds and Youtube.  Go check it out and rate 5 / thumb it up, it’s definitely NewGrounds front-page material and I expect to see it there in the coming days.

Edit – It’s already front-paged, very nice!

Defective coming soon!

Bidding on Defective ends today, and as of right now it looks like I have a sponsor.  What does that mean?  That means expect to play that damn game any day now – it just now depends on when the sponsor wants to release it!

My animation update.

As some of you know from last week’s post, I’ve been working on a small skit animation in my free time.  As of right now, I’d say it’s somewhere around 70% done, but the toughest part lies directly ahead of me (animation-wise).  Here’s a screenshot to give you an idea of what it looks like.

I already have a tentative title for the series (again, all small 1 – 2 minute episodes) and have ideas for episodes 2, 3, and 4.  Expect more updates (and possibly even a release) later this week!

What about some game updates?

There was no Weekly Game Update post this week mainly because there are no real “active” projects being worked on.  I’m currently learning the ins-and-outs of Java, the Eclipse IDE, and programming with the Android SDK.

I have to give a tip of my hat to Mario Zechner, the author of the book I purchased, “Beginning Android Games.”  It’s a really well-written book with clear and concise topics and examples covering nearly every aspect of developing native (Java) games for Android.

Honestly, before this book arrived in the mail, I obviously tried to go about figuring all of this stuff online.  Take it from me, it’s just not the same and is definitely not as comprehensive as having everything laid out on paper right in front of you.  I highly recommend his book to anyone getting started with Android (though not necessarily anyone just getting started with game development / Java in general, as the book does require you to understand certain things in order to build from it).

And that’s about it.  This is my final week of classes before Spring break next week, so once this week is over I intend on doing nothing but watching TV getting some major work done.  So once again, go check out Brandon’s animation on NewGrounds and / or Youtube and give him some props.

RidTheWorld.org

You should definitely check this site out.  It’s the home of my lover good friend Brandon Ridener.  He’s been working in Flash for as long as I have, but he’s a better procrastinator than I am.  He’s just now finally getting into the groove of things – he just released his first real Flash animation “Scene of the Crime” and is already working on his second.

SMB Interview

This was a really interesting read for me.  Click here to read over a transcript of an interview with the original Super Mario Bros. creators.  It was really fascinating to get to see how these guys think and how they worked together to create the Mario games.  Definitely worth the five minutes to look it over.

Flash MindMeld 2011

Are you interested in making Flash games?  Then this page will be like gold for you.  Dozens of the most famous people in the Flash gaming field contributed small 2-3 minute voice clips giving out some of the knowledge they’ve acquired throughout the years, all for free.

LOL

I’ve been laughing at this video ever since I was linked to it a few days ago by Rid Brandon.  Enjoy.

Quick Note

I just wanted to make a quick note about the site design.  I slightly changed some things around a little, nothing too drastic.  Just a new header and background along with Twitter and Flickr widgets on the top of the page and the sidebar.  Decided to freshen the site up a little for 2011

Alright, that’s it.  Back to work for me…

Me at work.

PS – I scheduled a new post for tomorrow.  Something actually worthwhile to read, so don’t forget to check back.

So when I heard Sonic 4 was going to be released on the Xbox Live Arcade, I was pretty happy that Sega would finally stop abusing the Sonic name and return to his glorious 2D roots.  They want to add some extra polish and “2.5D” elements to the game?  I’m okay with that, as long as it retains it’s classic gameplay.

So I finally fired it up this morning after months of waiting and I knew I was in for some disappointment as soon as level 1 started.

Let’s begin shall we?

One

Firstly, I would like the name of the person on Sonic Team that decided to suggest,

“Hey, you know what’d be a  great addition to this game?  How about if we make Sonic accelerate at the same pace as paint drying?!”

I’d assume this would be the same guy that suggested Sonic come to a dead stop if you release the button for the direction he’s heading in.

Seriously, have these people not plaed the original Sonic games?  Not only does Sonic accelerate slow and stop extremely abruptly, but in general he moves at barely half the pace that he ran at in the original games.

Two.

It’s Robotnik.  Dr. Ivo Robotnik, to be exact.  Not Eggman.  I don’t give a crap if Eggman was in fact his original name in Japan or whatever the story is, here in America his name is Robotnik.  Anyone that says otherwise is mentally challenged.

Three.

I understand the need to update the graphics, but they seriously went overboard.  For one, all of the colors are so bright and shiny it’s borderline annoying.  And two, the updated version of Robotnik and his machines look as if they were designed for infants:

Four

How can no one at Sonic Team see this and speak up…

This makes Sonic look like he’s completely helpless and/or retarded, and to make it worse, Sonic spends at least half the game in this pose.  Last time I checked in the original Sonic games, 90% of the time when Sonic was in the air, he was in HIS BALL FORM.

I can’t count the number of time I went to kill something while in the air only to be hurt and have my rings fly everywhere.  (Also, don’t get me started on the unbelievably horrible way that the rings “scatter around”.  It’s more as if they fall out of you and slowly bounce together in a group on the floor.)

Five

It’s Robotnik.

Six

Enough with the targeting system.  When I first heard this was going to be in the game I was immediately pissed (Or maybe there was a targeting system in the original games, I could be wrong.  /sarcasm).

I decided to give it a chance though, maybe I’d come to like it.

Nah.

Not only is it completely abused and overused, it completely affects (and ruins) the way the game should be played.

Rant done

Alright I’m done.  I really just needed a place to rant about all of this nonsense.  I thought that I was going to be getting a decent Sonic game today, but apparently Sonic Team had other plans.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate it, I’m just extremely disappointed.

What would I have wanted?

I wouldn’t have cared if Sonic 4 had the same art, sounds, music, gameplay, etc from the original Sega games.  Just give me some new levels with some new types of enemies/Boss’s and I’d be beyond happy.

PS – Oh yeah, that’s right…  This is by game-dev blog.  Um…  My Christmas-themed game is coming along nicely.  I’ve been making some real headway with it, I can’t wait to release it.

I just wanted to let all of you know that I’m back.  If you didn’t know, I went away last Sunday for a week long family vacation.  It was pretty fun and relaxing, but I’m eager to be back and to get back to work on some Flash projects before reality kicks in with college on August 30th, oh boy!

Here’s a few pictures from where we went, which was Wildwood, NJ, if you’re wondering:

View from the room.

Another view from the room at night.

My brother and I in the front seat of the “Great White.”

That’s us way up there.  See us?  No?  Look harder, dammit!

Picture of the middle pier (there’s 3 in total) from the boardwalk.

Picture of one of the waterparks with the beach in the background.

Another aerial shot of the waterpark/pier.

And one more for good measure.

Anyway, like I said, that was all good and fun, but now it’s back to work.

Also, I didn’t mention this yet, but I put Oil Spill Escape up on NewGrounds.com – http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/543746.

I appreciate any and all 5 ratings!   Thanks.

It’s family vacation time.  Me and the rest of my family will be heading down to Wildwood, NJ for a 5 day vacation starting tomorrow at the ungodly hour of 4:30am.

Just figured I’d let you guys know so you will understand the unusual break in the relentless and consistent daily posts on this site.  (HAHAHAHAHAA!!1).

So yeah, that’s all from me.  See you guys next week!  Well, I’ll type some words and you’ll read them, we won’t necessarily see each other.

Pic related: It’s what will happen to me at the giant slide at Morey’s Piers, most likely.

You’re “job” however, is to simply give us feedback and advice, and work directly with developers to make the games better.

If you are interested, just make a comment.  Be sure to use your real email address when commenting (in the email field, don’t actually post your email).

I’ll decide who I give it to, muahahaha.

Unrelated news:

My secret project has a sponsor.  I’m actually working on the Flash file right now adding branding logos stuff like that.  It should be released on the sponsor’s site any day now.

As most of you know, I just recently completed my “secret project” game which is currently undergoing bidding on FlashGameLicense.com.  I have the bidding scheduled to be over by this time next week and from then it’s just a matter of how fast me and the winning sponsor can communicate before I can release the game.  I’m predicting a release over next weekend (not the weekend that starts tomorrow).

In the meantime, I’ve already started working on Hero Dude all over again (hence the 1% up there in the header).  I’ve slightly altered the art style of the main character and have come up with a basic plot for the whole game.  It’ll be a fun and short platformer, with just one level.  A big level, granted, but it still shouldn’t take longer than 10 minutes to reach the end of it, mostly because you’ll only have 10 minutes to reach the end or you fail .

So if you’ll excuse me, I have this game that won’t be programming itself.

It’s gonna be a very classic and comical  2D platformer.  I’m working on it every day, making pretty good headway.

More updates coming up later.

In other news, I’ve spent the past 10 hours in a ustream chatroom waiting for Shay Carl and his wife to have their fourth kid. I went as far as leaving my computer on next to my head while I slept so when Shay started a quick live feed on ustream or tweeted a message I’d wake up.

Yeah. This can’t be healthy in any way.

For those of you that don’t know who Shay is, for shame….