After getting some good reactions on GameDev's IRC chat, I'm thinking about making a short five to ten minute video once a month that chronicals the development of my projects. I have a few concerns about this, though:
My #1 concern: Documenting the creation of my games might consume valuable time that I could use for actual game development.
#2: People might steal my designs and ideas.
#3: If I create the show, instead of focusing on making a game that I want to play, I might end up making a game that appeals only to other people.
#4: I'm not John Romero. I typically like to stay out of the public eye until I have something good to show to the world.
#5: If the game that I'm working on doesn't totally kick ass, people will flame and rant against me for wasting their time.
If you have any advice or suggestions, please email at: kevlargames at hotmail dot com
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Deathmatch Part 2
This post is somewhat of a follow up to my previous post about Doom and Gears of War deathmatching...
Over the weekend, I played many, many, rounds of Doom Deathmatch. In that period of time, I discovered ZDoom's mouse aiming feature! Man, did I ever feel like an idiot when I found out that most Doomers use it! Ever since then, my gameplay experience has been better than ever. I still prefer the old school controls for single-player, but in the fast paced world of Deathmatch, it's almost necessary to use the "W, A, S, D + Mouse" control scheme.
Another great thing I learned over the weekend is that Gears of War is not only going to be ported to Windows Vista, but also Windows XP! That's really good for us that don't want the hassle of being forced by the Evil Empire of Microsoft to upgrade. I'll probably be even better in the PC version of the game, so my buddy Jake better watch his back :)
Over the weekend, I played many, many, rounds of Doom Deathmatch. In that period of time, I discovered ZDoom's mouse aiming feature! Man, did I ever feel like an idiot when I found out that most Doomers use it! Ever since then, my gameplay experience has been better than ever. I still prefer the old school controls for single-player, but in the fast paced world of Deathmatch, it's almost necessary to use the "W, A, S, D + Mouse" control scheme.
Another great thing I learned over the weekend is that Gears of War is not only going to be ported to Windows Vista, but also Windows XP! That's really good for us that don't want the hassle of being forced by the Evil Empire of Microsoft to upgrade. I'll probably be even better in the PC version of the game, so my buddy Jake better watch his back :)
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Blast From The Past
Thanks to the good folks at Midway, I can play two of my favorite arcade games, Defender and Robotron, online!
Here's a link: http://www.midway.com/rxpage/ClassicGames.html
For you people who are clueless, those two games are classics from the brilliant mind of Eugene Jarvis, the designer of those games. Those that know me are fully aware that I'm a self proclaimed video game history buff that can give you some background on most famous game designers (except for the Japanese guys. Shigeru is the only one I can think of :) Mr. Jarvis was an employee for Williams Electronics back in the 70's and early 80's. In 1980, he and his partner Larry DeMar programmed and released Defender. After the success of Defender, Jarvis and DeMar used the money to form Vid Kidz, their own independent company. At Vid Kidz, they developed a sequel to Defender called Stargate (1981). They used the money from this success to develop Robotron: 2084 (1982). This was Jarvis's next big success, becoming a smash hit and a classic for decades to come.
Here's a link: http://www.midway.com/rxpage/ClassicGames.html
For you people who are clueless, those two games are classics from the brilliant mind of Eugene Jarvis, the designer of those games. Those that know me are fully aware that I'm a self proclaimed video game history buff that can give you some background on most famous game designers (except for the Japanese guys. Shigeru is the only one I can think of :) Mr. Jarvis was an employee for Williams Electronics back in the 70's and early 80's. In 1980, he and his partner Larry DeMar programmed and released Defender. After the success of Defender, Jarvis and DeMar used the money to form Vid Kidz, their own independent company. At Vid Kidz, they developed a sequel to Defender called Stargate (1981). They used the money from this success to develop Robotron: 2084 (1982). This was Jarvis's next big success, becoming a smash hit and a classic for decades to come.
No Breakout Game, Sorry
Today, I wanted to take some time from developing games and playing Defender to announce that I will not be developing a game in the breakout genre. The reason is because I already have Project: Undead and Macabre to work on, and I'm certain that another project will burn me out and just delay my other projects. If I ever change my mind, you'll find out about it here. I apologize to any fans of the genre who may have been looking forward to some cool innovations.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Status Report and Project Updates
I haven't updated the blog with actual information about the status of my projects in a while, so here it goes:
First off, my primary focus, Project: Undead, is going along ok. I'm still in the engine phase which is always tough when you start a project. It's somewhat frustrating because I have a bunch of neat ideas for new designs, levels, etc. Nevertheless, it's been going a lot better ever since I rewrote the core functions of my tilemap renderer. I'm still having some trouble parsing the text files that make up the tilemaps, but that shouldn't be a problem for much longer since I've been coming closer and closer to a solution. Scrolling is actually one of the easiest parts of writing a platformer engine, so that's not even a concern right now. Other than that, not a lot of progress has been made towards actual gameplay. Some of my gameplay ideas have already been coded and stored in other project files, which should make developing the game after the engine a whole lot easier.
Secondly, my secondary focus, Macabre, is also moving along nicely. I recently switched from the Irrlicht API to SDL and OpenGL. It was a hard decision to make, but in the end I think it will be a lot better. SDL is a lot better for input, sound, etc. and OpenGL is the best graphics API out there. I'm still not going to say much about Macabre, since it's still at a very early stage and won't be finished for a while.
Thirdly, the Action Cyborg levels have been put on hold, as I've been doing a lot of extra programming for the game while John Karlgren works on his new project. I haven't made much progress with it, since I'm still learning the basics of his engine. I completed my work on the game's cheat codes and now I want to begin working on some special effects like fog, dust, etc. It might take a bit of time to finish this since I've got my own games to work on, but I'm working equally hard on Action Cyborg too!
Lastly, I've been considering making a Breakout/Arkanoid style game. Despite the fact that I've been a Breakout fan since I was 3 or 4 years old, I think that there's a lot of room for innovation in that genre. As a programmer and a designer, I have some ideas that can push that genre forward. Over the past 20 years, that genre has been abandoned with only a few good clones here and there. I think that as an indie developer, I can, for the most part, do whatever I want with a lost genre. If I actually do decide to pursue this project, I'm going to do whatever I can to push the genre forward and hopefully help bring it back.
And that, my friends, is what I've gotten done since the last update. Hopefully everything goes well with all of my projects!
First off, my primary focus, Project: Undead, is going along ok. I'm still in the engine phase which is always tough when you start a project. It's somewhat frustrating because I have a bunch of neat ideas for new designs, levels, etc. Nevertheless, it's been going a lot better ever since I rewrote the core functions of my tilemap renderer. I'm still having some trouble parsing the text files that make up the tilemaps, but that shouldn't be a problem for much longer since I've been coming closer and closer to a solution. Scrolling is actually one of the easiest parts of writing a platformer engine, so that's not even a concern right now. Other than that, not a lot of progress has been made towards actual gameplay. Some of my gameplay ideas have already been coded and stored in other project files, which should make developing the game after the engine a whole lot easier.
Secondly, my secondary focus, Macabre, is also moving along nicely. I recently switched from the Irrlicht API to SDL and OpenGL. It was a hard decision to make, but in the end I think it will be a lot better. SDL is a lot better for input, sound, etc. and OpenGL is the best graphics API out there. I'm still not going to say much about Macabre, since it's still at a very early stage and won't be finished for a while.
Thirdly, the Action Cyborg levels have been put on hold, as I've been doing a lot of extra programming for the game while John Karlgren works on his new project. I haven't made much progress with it, since I'm still learning the basics of his engine. I completed my work on the game's cheat codes and now I want to begin working on some special effects like fog, dust, etc. It might take a bit of time to finish this since I've got my own games to work on, but I'm working equally hard on Action Cyborg too!
Lastly, I've been considering making a Breakout/Arkanoid style game. Despite the fact that I've been a Breakout fan since I was 3 or 4 years old, I think that there's a lot of room for innovation in that genre. As a programmer and a designer, I have some ideas that can push that genre forward. Over the past 20 years, that genre has been abandoned with only a few good clones here and there. I think that as an indie developer, I can, for the most part, do whatever I want with a lost genre. If I actually do decide to pursue this project, I'm going to do whatever I can to push the genre forward and hopefully help bring it back.
And that, my friends, is what I've gotten done since the last update. Hopefully everything goes well with all of my projects!
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