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.

I know, this is coming straight out of left field, isn’t it?

Anyway, tonight I recorded, edited, and uploaded the trailer for Defective.  The music in the trailer is just placeholder music.  It’s somewhat similar to what I’ll be looking for in a musician when I start looking for one.

The game is practically finished.  All twelve levels are built and playable, the three bosses / boss levels are completely functional, and all of the menus are in place.  The only remaining things to do are to animate the cutscenes and get some music.  (And of course play through the game again, and again, and again looking for bugs / balancing issues.)

More on all of that in the Weekly Game Update post tomorrow.

So I’ve been wanting to create a Flash movie for the past few months or so.  I’ve had an idea for a action-packed and quality stick figure animation and I think I’m going to begin work on it in the coming weeks.  I threw together this test yesterday just to see how rusty I am and if I think I’ll be capable of pulling off what I’m imagining.

Click here to check out the animation.

Excuse the crude background / graphical assets, I just needed something to work with.  If this movie idea I have works out, thinks will look much more professional.  Go on and rip me apart in the comments if you want.  Any criticism is welcome.

Why now?

Well, for one I need a slight break from making games.  I already have my next game planned out and I’ll more than likely work on it while animating the movie.  However, as long as I have something else to work on besides just game stuff I’m good.

Also, my next game will be my first game that utilizes the new Stage3D API coming in Flash Player 11.  It’ll still be a 2D game, but it will take advantage of the GPU acceleration technology offered in FP 11 (using a 3rd party API, still haven’t chosen one yet).  This basically means that I’ll be able to have a lot more graphical assets / detail on screen at once (a lot more) at 60fps and not have to worry about slow downs.

Currently, FP 11 is in beta, so I can start building my game right this second if I wanted.  However, I obviously don’t want to release the game until FP 11 is fully finished and released to the general public, so there’s no rush in getting started right now.  There’s no official date, but I’d say around February – March of 2012 should be a decent guess for it’s public release.

Anyway, that gives me some time that I can put towards animating while I wait.

What’s the plot?

There’s this stick figure.  He’s mad at another stick figure.  Fights ensue.

There’s of course more to it than that but you’ll have to wait.