I’d love to end it right there, but I can’t. It’s some OCD thing I have where I have to make one of these damn posts every Sunday. Let’s get on with it.
General Stuff:
There’s not much to say here. As I’m sure those of you who read these posts know, I was away on vacation last week. I got back Thursday night and didn’t even open / think about Flash or FlashDevelop the whole time. However I did get some things done yesterday in a two-hour period of coding I did.
Accomplished:
Saving / loading works completely.
Fixed up the “cleaning up” (memory) when a level ends.
Fixed an annoying issue where characters could get somewhat stuck in a wall corner.
To Do:
Build more levels (at least 3 more + the first boss level).
Program at least one of the bosses.
And that’s it for this week. Next week will be semi-normal in terms of progress, there are a few personal things that I think are going to eat up my time, and then the week after college starts up again.
Oh boy.
Super Happy Fun-Time Bonus Stuff!
For the pathetic lack of content in this post, I suppose I’ll try to fill it up with some link love.
RidTheWorld.org – Rid Brandon’s site of nonsense. He’s a good friend of mine and is in the process of finishing an Alan Wake tribute animation he’s been working on. Undoubtedly his best work to date.
Treasure Adventure Game – This is an indie game in progress that I came across this past week and it looks awesome. I’m honestly looking forward to playing this game as if it was a console game.
Notch Livestream – I spent most of Saturday just watching Notch (Minecraft’s Notch) working on his game entry for the 48 hour Ludum Dare competition. It was very interesting, and I’m assuming he’ll be live today too.
Minecraft Parody #14,210 – It still made me laugh, and the video / animation quality is outstanding.
What a lovely Friday Sunday this is. Yep, it’s certainly Friday Sunday and not Friday Friday at the time of this writing.
Alright, fine, you caught me. I’m writing this post two days early because right now I’m currently doing something vacation-like down (or up) in Ocean City, Maryland. It’s annual family-vacation week so that’s about that on that. I’m going to try my hardest to barely even go online but I’m 100% sure I’ve already failed at that. Moving on…
General Stuff:
Even though I’m making this post earlier in the week, I still got a decent amount of stuff down. I’m pretty much done with actual game-work. Like the “game” part of the game. I’m working more on menu’s and stuff like that now though I do still have to program the three bosses as well as actually design and build the 11 other levels.
Pictures
There weren’t any pictures last week so here’s a few this week. I would’ve liked to get a video, but this week wasn’t a good time.
Accomplished:
Got achievements working and implemented most of them.
Designed, built, and implemented what’s going to more-than-likely be Level 1.
Added numerous menus and programmed their functionality:
Level Select Menu
Level Completion Menu
Achievements (for in-game) Menu
Achievements (for at Level Select) Menu
The menus can now be navigated through with a mouse or keyboard.
Programmed a snazzy distortion effect onto the buttons.
Made / tweaked some graphics for the game.
Tweaked the AI and optimized certain areas for better performance.
Designed the three bosses.
Added more sound effects.
Miscellaneous tweaks and fixes.
To Do:
Build more levels (at least 3 more + the first boss level).
Program at least one of the bosses.
Save / load functionality.
I probably won’t get much done next week since I’ll be away until Thursday. I’ll probably work on the game Friday onward just because I’ll be itching to get back into it, but I don’t know how much I’ll be able to get done.
Number nine? This is only the ninth weekly game update for Defective? It seems like that number should be higher. WHATEVER LET’S GET INTO IT.
General Stuff:
Man, this week was another productive week. I’m on a massive roll here – it’s great. I’ve gotten into a really good groove here and I’m hoping it’ll stay that way until I’m finally done with the game. It’s actually starting to become difficult to remember everything I’ve done throughout the week, since I used to just delete completed tasks in my text file rather than just mark it as completed (I’ve changed that now). Anyway, let’s see what I can remember.
Pictures
No pictures and/or video this week, sorry. It’s Saturday night and I’m tired and feeling really lazy right about now. You’ll have to do without. The game definitely deserves a new video teaser since it looks a ton more action-y and funner (yeah, funner) than last week’s video, but I’m not sure if I want to show any more video of the game until I’m ready to make the official trailer for it.
In any case, there will be pictures next week. Oh, will there be pictures.
Accomplished:
Tweaked the AI.
Programmed the remaining 3 enemy types.
Built the Menu classes and added the Main menu.
Added pause functionality with a Pause menu.
Laid foundation for allowing multiple saving / loading slots.
The player now absorbs enemy “souls” when they die.
After gaining enough “souls,” the player can transform into that enemy for a set amount of time.
Drew two new backgrounds for the later levels and modified the current background.
Finally planned out the “plot” of the game (not necessarily a story, just what the player’s objective is, when he fights bosses, how the game ends, etc.)
Tweaked the HUD both visually and how it functions.
Added more sound effects.
Miscellaneous tweaks and fixes.
To Do:
Get Achievements menu working and add in achievement functionality to the game.
Get a 100% working test level going.
Functioning Level Select menu.
I’m seriously having loads of fun playing this game, I’m really excited about releasing this one. It’ll be my first “Adventure” game. I assume it fits into that genre, right? I mean, you’re this little defective ship and you go level though level getting upgrades and destroying enemies/bosses until you beat the game. THAT’S AN ADVENTURE GAME, RIGHT?
Oh crap, I’m late. About 12 hours late. I hope you didn’t wait here all day for this post.
Before we begin, I’d just like someone to tell me where the hell Paul D’Amora is. I know he didn’t get a life or anything, so I’m just wondering, thanks.
Alright let’s get into it.
General Stuff:
Lot’s of game work this week. I think I found a pretty good groove where I wake up, go through my morning routine, make a mean cup of coffee, and get to work. Sprinkle in a few Bad Company 2 game breaks and some pool time and you have a recipe for success!
In Don’t Panic news, I’m waiting for some very slow sponsors to get back to me regarding sitelocks/payment before I can write up the post mortem on that game. Hopefully that’ll happen this week.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Defective will be released on October 20th.
I’m not even joking. Here’s my thought process:
Okay, I still have a good amount of work ahead of me, so factor in at least a month of work.
Sponsorship – gotta wait for bids to come in. Figure four to six weeks.
That brings us to late September/early October.
I’ve factored in my suckiness at keeping my promise when it comes to release dates.
Pictures Video!
I said I’d have a video, and I do! It’s the reason this post is so late. I spent a majority of today and yesterday getting the AI working, and I think I done did good. In fact, maybe too good. The AI currently kicks my ass so I’m going to have to figure out how to best dial down the difficulty.
Accomplished:
Finished programming the two turret types.
Added three different block types that each act / react to bullets differently.
Added tons of sound effects (courtesy of as3sfxr).
Finished the “enemy spawner” objects which intelligently spawn enemies when in range of the player + with regard to the number of current enemies on the stage.
Added and programmed the four minion types and two of the main enemy types.
Added upgrades the player can find throughout the level (acceleration+, bullet damage+, etc…).
Added health/shield pickups that the minion’s can drop after they are killed.
Added HUD functionality to show when an upgrade / achievement has been obtained or when the game is saving.
Miscellaneous tweaks and fixes.
To Do:
Tweak AI and program the remaining 3 enemy types.
Add the main menu / level select screens.
Get a working level going (with a goal to reach).
And that’s it for this week’s Weekly Game Update, ladies and gentlemen.
I’ve had a long and frustrating weekend, so excuse me while I go relax with some Dragon Ball Z Kai.
I know I said I wanted to get some video of gameplay this week, but I’m going to hold off on that until I program the enemy’s AI. Otherwise it’d just be a video of the character flying around. Okay? Okay.
General Stuff:
This is the first week I didn’t have to split my work time between Don’t Panic (sitelocks) and Defective. That means I was able to get a load of stuff done. The only real stuff left to do is to develop the 11 different enemy types and their AI, which sounds worse than it really is.
Speaking of Don’t Panic by the way, I’m beyond happy to say that it just recently received over 20,000 plays on Kongregate (and a rating of 3.63, which is really great for that site). I really wish Kongregate had gotten back to me regarding purchasing a sitelock, I’m sure they would’ve benefited from the game’s success big time. I would have to, since I would’ve been earning a higher revenue share + would’ve added badges + would’ve been eligible for the weekly/monthly game contests. Too bad.
Anyway, let’s move on.
Pictures!
Yeah, that’s right, I moved the “pictures” section to the top. Got beef?
Accomplished:
The level is now created via XML with the Tiled Map Editor. This includes the size/design of the levels as well as the location/properties of game objects.
Added explosive blocks that detonate on collision with characters / “prime” themselves on collision with bullets.
Added “bullet walls” – these walls stop bullets from going through them.
Optimized the particle system using object pooling. (Side note – the game runs at a smooth 40fps no matter what I throw at it. I’d love to be able to run it full screen, but the fps drops to 34ish when I do. It has to do with the massive bitmaps which hold the blitted tiles. I’m using scrollRect, so I don’t know what else to do about it. Oh well.)
Added some temporary sounds, just to get a feel for how it will be in the finished game.
Designed two different types of stationary enemy turrets.
Designed some more tiles / background elements.
Objects are deactivated when outside of the camera’s view.
Basic foundation of “enemy spawner” objects laid out.
Miscellaneous tweaks and fixes.
To Do:
Finish programming the enemy turret functionality.
Add a new block type which only stops player bullets (not enemy’s).
Program at least basic enemy AI and get every enemy type into the game.
Finish the “enemy spawner” object.
And that’s about it. The game is really coming along fast. I definitely have the motivation needed to keep pushing forward and I’m going to try my best to get this game out as soon as possible. I’m tired of taking 4+ months to finish a game. Though, I may have an excuse for this game being that I was a little busy in May/June, but, still.
Okay bye, gonna go eat pancakes now. Happy Sunday!
