Well Blobyrinth is coming along… it keeps growing and getting stranger and more … interesting.
Anyway — Got everything needed for the “Ice Zone” completed… but since level design hasn’t begun yet, there I’ll just give you a few snippets out of the Leafy Lowlands and the Volcanoish Zone…
That’s it for now… gotta work more.
-Tim
I think I’ll file my one GDC post under Madness…. since that’s entirely what it was. Sorry for not being one of the many folks blogging from the CA lounge, posting cellphone pics of session slides moments after they happened with in-depth commentary on what everyone was saying about whatever all was new in the land of game development. It might have been interesting for the hardcore blog-surfers out there, but I barely had time to eat, sleep, or talk to my girlfriend — so the blog thing had to take a backseat.
First I’ll summarize a few key points about my experience with the GDC Conference Associate volunteer program.
Tim and Ian have put together a brilliant program… Everyone I met was interesting, somehow… (how????) which means that whatever filtration methods they’re using to parse the pile of essays, I am a supporter of such methods. Not only was everyone interesting, but nearly everyone was nice… and very nearly everyone was intelligent, to boot. Throw all that together and then remember that the number of CA’s (note, I didn’t really meet all that many of them) was about 260, and you’ve got quite a party of orange-shirted Madness. These were good people, and good times, and I hope to beat myself up again next year by doing it all over again.
While not working, I was networking, and learning a ton about the industry. I don’t think it’d be too safe to try to summarize what I learned or who I talked to here (just because I’d probably fill my 50 gigs of hard drive space), but on both fronts it was VERY worth taking a week off of work (both the day job and Ghost Ship Studios) to do. I especially recommend the CA program for anyone who is looking for a JOB in the industry. I was trying my best to avoid getting a normal industry job, but GDC, and especially the CA program, is a fantastic place to be for those who are looking in that direction.
Highlights:
Kornelia told me I had “nice shoes… good style.” This made me smiley. She is, after all… Kornelia.
Will Wright’s keynote. This guy is truly the maestrotaku… His wandering (but artfully crafted) speech flowed from one near-and-dear geek topic to the next, from procedural (er… generative) content creation to Drake’s equation for the distribution of extraterrestrial life… He takes his work seriously, researches very thoroughly, and deserves every sale his titles get.
I was working the cancelled Peter Molyneux session (which still required working since it was replaced by some other folks) — and Will Wright walks up to see it. The look of disappointment on his face, complete with hanging his head and sagging his shoulders… was almost as dramatic as my own 15 minutes earlier.
I had my head stepped on… that was new to me.
There is too much to say… it’d end up sounding like the rambling war stories of an ancient veteran. I’ll spare you and just say — next year, GO. Be a CA volunteer.
OK So we completely missed our March 1st deadline…
I won’t pretend it’s because Blobyrinth has become an MMORTSFPSRPG… It really isn’t so complicated a game — I just overestimated the time that I could put into its development. The game has had some added complexities, but nothing that should require hiring ten developers. I’ll be headed to GDC without so much as a playable demo, but that’s OK in my book… GDC isn’t really the place for showing demos anyway (unless you’ve got a booth… look out for us at GDC 2008!)
At any rate, I’m now piecing together a placeholder site (something for those who get one of my business cards to look at), and sometime after Bloby ships I’ll be enlisting professional aid in our website’s construction… (best to leave these things to those who are truly talented at it).
I’ve got business cards (a GDC must) now… which makes me … erm… super professional, and stuff.
I’m going to try to fill this blog with the highlights of GDC madness, so check back often during the conference, as I’m sure there’ll be tales to tell — and look for Blobyrinth to be available within the month after GDC is over. (for real this time, too.)
News on the GDC front — my application to be a Conference Associate has been accepted! I’m beyond excited — there is no way I could’ve afforded to purchase a Giga Pass for this year’s GDC. A tip for those applying — don’t take the essay too seriously. 
In other news, I’m writing this from my fancy new baby Mac Mini, which I’ve just purchased for porting Blobyrinth to Mac in the near future. Yay for… Safari… and “Dock”… and stuff. pff. Mac. I love this keyboard though… so very smooth compared to my old PC one… so velvety super smooth.
In other other news, I’m honored and pleased to say that Mr. Michael Huang has just agreed to take on the task during the month of February to create the musical stylings behind Blobyrinth. I have every confidence that his touch will only make Bloby a better game than it would’ve been otherwise.
In other other other news, my partner and I have now signed our Articles of Incorporation — Ghost Ship Studios, Inc. has become an official entity. You games-related folks will likely see us as Ghost Ship Games, which is a registered trademark of Ghost Ship Studios… Had to leave ourselves open for non-game business… you know how it is.
In other othe… anyway — I’ve got to get back to working on AI scripts for contract stuff, before my compatriots on that task have my head on a stick. The up-down and the left-right are ok… but the snake… the snake is not ok. NOT ok.
Cheers from the land of the cheerful.
-Tim
OK… so I’ve given a couple of updates on the Indie… but what of the Madness?
I’m on a path to make and release games — downloadable — but why? The answer, in as few words as would be reasonable, is money. Make the games, take in some reasonable amount of income from it, and move toward days lined up for the pursuit… of what?
Games are an end in themselves, to be sure. This Molyneuxite has long made a mental career out of world-creation-for-the-sake-of-world-creation. This… obsession, is deeper than the desire for money, though it may be even less healthy. All trivialities laid aside, the desire to create worlds is the desire to become a God. Gods are the creators of worlds — not men.
It started with the oral tradition — the telling of tales — on through print and film; our tools grow ever more-sophisticated. Our purpose, in the end, remains the same: We create worlds. We show that there are alternatives when it comes to choosing a reality for the moment. We play God. It is an expressive delusion of grandeur. Madness?
The current projects I’m entrenched in — these are not “worlds”, or even reasonable myths unto themselves. They are mere amusements, built with some hope of financial independence waiting in the wings of the path of least resistance. Is the hope really so vague? There is money to be made — line up the right partners, play the “games game” well enough, and there is little need to worry over financial failure in the long term…
However — given some amount of financial success… even the bottom of what amounts to a remote possibility — if freed up to create as only the designer and Myth-maker in me wants to create… what is it that I want to create? What is it that I want to become? Some day, perhaps, I’ll cling to something like an answer to these questions. For now, the quest is the goal, and there’s fun to be had in the process of learning.
Sorry ’bout the mess.
-Tim
Well… so much for all that.
That last list took me a bit longer than I’d anticipated, but such is the way of my schedule. Coming soon to my little world of game development are things like destructible walls, lava and pits, moving platforms, teleporters, and the whole host of menus that would be fitting of a game of Blobyrinth’s character.
I’ll also soon be officially incorporated, wherein my job title will change to “Captain”, and I’ll be able to justify larger hats.
[Image Removed to Encourage Confusion]
In other news, I’ve decided to attend GDC this year… I put in an app for a Conference Associate (Shwagmonkey) position, so hopefully I’ll get the opportunity to do that. If that doesn’t quite manage to happen, I’ll be flyin’ coach with the “Expo Pass”… and soakin’ in as much as I can. Should be fun!
As always…. more to come — hopefully this time it’ll be quicker in coming than last. I promise this blog thingy will get more interesting once the schedule o’ madness has cleared up a bit.
Here’s what’s up on my plate (the behind schedule parts anyway).
- implement mouse player controls
- fix keyboard buttons overlapping issue (you can go one way while facing the other at the moment)
- implement player death and respawn functionality, and tie player spawn point to the level file
- implement path nodes for AI blobs, tie AI blob movement to them, and tie them to the level file
- implement collision ‘tween the enemy blobs and the player blob
- tie pick-ups (like coins and gems) to the level file
- create a 1-up object and give an extra life for 100 coins picked up
- create color change pool object, tied to level file, that changes blob’s color as it passes over
- create door objects, implement opening and closing
- implement lives counter/score/coins and gems trackers/timer (hud stuff)
- tie timers to bombblob, color changes
- open door if playerblob has the right color key
I don’t know if any of that sounds like good fun to anyone else, but it’s a pretty easy list I think. I’ll next post an update when I’m done with it.
-Tim
Yay — Blobyrinth is now in v1.1 alpha of T2D…
There was a lot of ugliness in getting it up n’ running in the new version – many things had changed within the engine to make life difficult. But now it is time to move forward and get the rest of the game implemented. I’ll post an update in the next couple of days with my list of things that I should’ve had done by now — the project is way behind schedule, but I’m still thinking I can catch up. For now, a mini-screenshot just to show the living blob is back…
The port to v1.1a of T2D is going way slower than I anticipated. Part of it is that the port itself is a little more difficult to DO than anticipated, but most of it is the result of way too much going on right now. Between working full time during the day (code/coin-op games) and my time commitment to my contract work (code/other games), finding time and inclination to code MORE games is, well… unlikely. Add to that the madness of shopping for Christmas stuff, and you get very little progress.
I’m about a week behind on my “schedule” for Bloby’s development. I intend to catch up and still meet the self-imposed deadline. All those with a streak of sadism are free to watch me try!
I did manage to alter the comment settings on this WordPress thing so that people can post without “registering”… bleh. So… not that anyone would have much to say about THIS post, but in the future, post comments if you get the urge.
More later.
For those who have found their way to this ridiculous site… welcome.
Here I will catalog the trials and tribulations of an independent game developer as beginnings and further progress get underway. I may also pop on to rant about this or that topic if I’m bored (technology), drunk (religion), or both (politics). For now this page’ll house news about the development of a game called “Blobyrinth”. This cute little sokoban title has already undergone about three months of development, but progress is extremely slow due to my day job and other obligations. Part of why I’m starting up this blog is to help motivate me to complete the project — and intentions publicly declared always push a bit harder than those just considered, methinks.
Well. Let’s begin with a screenshot of what we’ve got so far:
We’ve got a nice little blob, some slime… some red enemy blobs that don’t do anything… some bricks that you can push around, coins and gems to pick up, and a single door that opens and closes (with the right magic words). Not much going on here other than Torque 2D working its magic. The blob proper and his slime are particle effects created and handled in the engine’s rather capable editor, and everything else so far is pretty much stock T2D. I’ve done some light tweaking of the engine, but I’ll save those details for another day.
Next up on the list is updating to T2D 1.1 alpha. It may seem a bit drastic to pull an alpha code release down on top of myself, but it has some handy new things, and I don’t think the port will be too difficult. Plus, the naming conventions are going to stay the same from here on in, so future updates will be more easily integrated; I might as well get it over with before I modify anything further.
The game, when fin, should feature:
1.) some odd 50 or 60 levels of sokoban madness
2.) color-changing blobs, lots of stuff to collect, enemy blobs to avoid/absorb, mind-bending puzzles to keep you up late, etc.
3.) amusing/amazing musical stylings
4.) online high-scores
5.) multiple mini-games to keep you amused and distracted
Now some publicly declared intentions:
Blobyrinth will be commercially available by March 1.
Many thanks for visiting and I hope you visit occasionally to watch the madness unfold…
-Tim
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