Hmm, I should really start looking into figuring out a title for this game. Tell you what, if you think you have a good idea, tell me in the comments. (I’ll finally describe the gameplay / mechanics in this post.)

General stuff:

This was a very productive week. I finally nailed down a solid design for the overall graphics / look of the game and I’m really loving it.  Friday in particular I got a load of nonsense completed.  I’m confident in saying the game is already 25% complete (as seen in the header up there ^) even though the project is only roughly three weeks old.

This is mainly because this isn’t going to be a giant project like Don’t Panic and Defective were, it’s going to be a “puzzle” type of game, much like how Angry Birds is a puzzle game – once the core mechanics are built, all that’s left is to build some levels and plug in the menu’s.

Of course, in my case, I have a little more to do than just build the game… I also have to build a user-friendly level editor for player’s to create and share their own puzzles, as this will be a major feature of the game.  This not only presents the challenge of building a level editor and figuring out the best way to enable easy level sharing, but it also puts more pressure on me to find any and all possible bugs that could arise from the infinite number of possible ways a level can be built.

Anyway, my goal is to have the game at least 80% complete (where 90% marks when I upload to FlashGameLicense.com for sponsorship) by Halloween.  This may be a little ambitious since I haven’t even begun the level editor yet, but we’ll see as the days go by.

So what’s the game about anyway?

Well it’s obviously a puzzle platformer (no way!).  The objective is for the the player to control 1, 2, 3, or 4 characters simultaneously and successfully get them all to reach their corresponding goal (a trophy).  However, as the player progresses, the levels get harder and harder.  Things like spikes, “treadmills”, moving platforms, and powerups that can do anything from freezing a character in place to doubling a character’s speed make the levels that much more treacherous.

As the player reaches the most difficult levels, controlling 4 characters at once while attempting to avoid all of these traps will require much more concentration, not to mention that you’re also being timed – the faster you complete the level plus the amount of surviving characters is how the player’s overall score is calculated.

So that’s pretty much the game in a nutshell.

Screenshots:

Five of them. Five. (Click to enlarge.)

This one is an older screenshot from September 24th. It just shows the original direction the game was going in:

Accomplished:

• Added 5 coins (powerups) in total.
• Designed the backgrounds and tiles of the levels.
• Programmed “treadmills,” jump-pads, spikes, and “drop-floors.”
• Designed the remaining three characters (color palette swaps – red, blue, green, and yellow).
• Programmed the HUD – keeps track of the number of attempts, number of surviving players, and works the timer.
• Implemented a simple particle system for when the player dies – explodes into a bunch of 2×2 particles taken from the player’s BitmapData.
• Bunch of other stuff I forgot, plus bugs fixed and other things like that.

To do:

• Moving platforms (oh God).
• Buttons and the things they control (doors, floors, etc).
• Ladders (not 100% sure if I will implement these yet).
• Spike launchers (shoot spikes).

Other random things:

• I received 3 of the 5 songs for Defective, and I have to admit they are really amazing – they fit the gameplay perfectly.  If I had to guess, I’d say Defective will be completed and up for sponsorship on FlashGameLicense.com sometime after next weekend.  I’ll credit him on the credits page of the game too, but for those curious, the musician for the game is Dave Flemming. I highly recommend him if you’re looking for custom music for your own projects, he’s very talented.
• I forgot to mention this last week, but I recently acquired ForTheLoss.com. It simply redirects here, but I thought it was a good idea to grab it since the old owner offered it to me before he put it up for sale.  If the .net version expires, I’ll probably pick it up too.   The .com however is obviously the most valuable of the three TLD’s, so I won’t go out of my way to grab the .net unless it’s something under $20.

Alright that’s it. Back to work.

“Puzzle Platformer” still isn’t the name of the game.  I’m still having trouble in the title department.

General stuff

Alright, so I’m starting to iron out the details here – it’s looking like this project will actually live to see completion, that’s always a good thing.  I spent the majority of the week (and probably will spend the majority of next week) trying to get the graphics to look right.  I’m getting close, but I’m not sure if I’m there yet.  Here’s a first glimpse at what everything will look like:

Isn’t he just the cutest red thing you ever did see?

Anyway, I still haven’t said much about what the actual gameplay will entail, but I’ll save that for a later post.  I will say, however, that one big feature (and what I’m hoping will make this game really special) will be a full-blown level editor.  This will enable players to design their own puzzles and share them via an encoded string or through something like Playtomic’s level sharing API.  More on that as I get to it, though.

Accomplished

• Lot’s of designing and planning.
• Animated the character’s sprites.
• Many initial bugs squashed.

To do

• Add more coins (powerups), I have two more in mind.
• Finish designing the tiles for the “grassy” theme.
• Design three other themes (space, underground cave, ____ ).
• Implement a second player. (LOL WUT)

So that’s about it.  Hoping I can get enough done so I can get started on building the level editor later this week – that might be too much of a stretch though, we’ll see.

In Defective news, nothing new.  My musician is still working on the tracks, and they’re coming along great.  I suspect I’ll be able to start implementing some of them into the game sometime this week.  I’d love to have the game up for sponsorship sometime during the first week of October, but we’ll see.

Okay bye.

No, “Puzzle Platformer” isn’t the name of the game.  I just haven’t come up with a title yet.

Alrighty. So here we are again, another “Weekly Game Update” series begins.  Before I get into the new game, however, let me just tie up some loose ends:

Defective

I haven’t touched Defective since the last Weekly Game Update post.  It’s not a big deal, being that the game is practically finished.  However, I have found a musician who’s composing some pretty awesome sounding tracks for the game.  I’ve heard a few demo’s of what he’s working on and I’m really excited about it.

I’m still saying a late-October release, but I’ll definitely be cutting it close.  We’ll see.  In the meantime, I’ll be working on a new project.

MK Fail Videos

I just came across this guy’s Youtube channel and his Mortal Kombat fail videos.  I haven’t laughed this hard in a while.  Here’s my favorite one:

Actual Game Updates

Alright, that’s it I think.  Now, about this new game of mine, well, there’s really not much to say yet.

It’s going to be a different type of project for me in a few ways, and I’m definitely excited about it.  It’s going to be a real challenge getting this game completed how I imagine it, but to be honest, development shouldn’t take me as long as my past two games have taken me.

There will be more information in next week’s “Weekly Game Update” post, mainly because nothing is 100% nailed down just yet.  Give me a week to play around with ideas.

In the meantime, stare at this screenshot.

I made it small just to make you upset.  Deal with it.

This is probably going to be the last Weekly Game Update post for Defective.  It’s a sad moment, really…

General Stuff:

This was one hell of a week what with that Irene dirtbag coming around and knocking out my power from Sunday morning to Thursday morning.  Since my laptop dies within about 10 – 15 minutes without being plugged in, I didn’t even bother getting any work done throughout that period (not that there was much work to get done anyway).

Throw on top of that the fact that I started college this week and you got yourself one crappy, stressful week.

Once the weekend rolled around I felt (and still do feel) just really down and unmotivated.  I have no idea why, but it sucks.  I still got everything I needed to get done yesterday (Saturday) and at this point I’m just waiting on the music before I can upload the game for sponsorship.  (I PMed someone at NewGrounds for custom music, if I don’t hear back soon I’ll just make a topic on the Audio forum or something.)

Accomplished:

• Added sounds on cutscenes & implemented the cutscenes into the game.
• Played through the game, found some areas that needed tightening up.
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and tweaks.

To Do:

• Wait for custom music.
• Upload for sponsorship.

And so you have it.  The game is practically done.  (Well, 85%.  I’m weighing the music about 7% and the sponsorship process about 8%).

Now leave me alone.

We’re winding down on these Defective-based Weekly Game Update posts.  I’d say there’s probably one more left after this one.  Don’t cry, I’m sure another one of my crazy projects will soon take it’s place.

General Stuff:

I didn’t think I did that much work this week, but my checked-off to-do list begs to differ.

Trailer (and pictures!):

If you missed the post before this, I released the trailer for Defective the other day.  Check it out on Youtube.

Here are a few pictures of the opening cutscene.  The ending will stay a secret.

Accomplished:

• Built all 9 levels.
• Built 3 boss levels.
• Programmed 3 bosses.
• Animated the opening / ending cutscenes.
• Fixed an annoying piece-of-fecal-matter bug where characters randomly got stuck on the top / left boundaries of the level. (Found out problem only occurred when I used bit shifting and didn’t just divide normally in the code. Right-o…)
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and tweaks.

To Do:

• Get some custom music.
• Test, test, test.

So the game is practically done.

But then I hear you proclaim, “WAIT RALPH, IF THE GAME IS DONE, WTF, WHY DOES IT SAY “80% COMPLETE” UP THERE ON THAT SNAZZY HEADER OF YOURS?”

First of all, calm down.  Seriously.  It’s not that big of a deal.

Secondly, it’s because I have to factor in testing and balancing the game, getting custom-made music, and finding a sponsor into that “percentage complete” equation.  So 80% sounds about right.  Remember, I predicted an October 20th release date a few weeks back.

So that’s about it.  I really don’t have much to do but to just play the game.  In the meantime, I’ll start working on the storyboard / more test animations for that Flash movie I want to make.

Also Hurricane Irene is awesome.  I love a good storm.