Week Project Tally and Debriefing

Hi folks!

Just thought I would tally up my current progress on projects. This week has had 3 points of focus so far:


Castaway 2 TD [flash game]

Definitely not the prettiest of sketches, but I was using this image to finalize the number of "worlds" within the the game [The answer is 5 worlds, we'll be using 5 tilesets from Castaway2: Beach, Forest, Marsh, Snow, Lava. Each has a unique colour palette and object set so that helps].
Each world will have 6 levels, although I designed some paths to bifurcate, mainly so that a player can reach the next world within 4 levels [2 are left for general exp boosting and exploration]. There's a slightly different level pattern for each area [well, as much variation as 6 levels can provide], with the last level being the exception since you have to cross all 6 in a linear fashion... and because we are bastards.
All the in game towers and upgrades are complete for this game. Next week involves finishing the world map, and interface representations[icons] for the towers and traps.
Estimated game release is still mid-July.


Sky Expedition [iPhone app]

Stephen has been extra patient with me on this project so I really have to thank him. I now have the ship moving and behaving properly [want to have it travel nice and slow, uncovering areas slowly, to give a sense of distance/size]. The particles are behaving properly and definitely augment the appeal of refuelling the airship. By the time the game is ready for v1.0, I would like people to have a positive pavlovian response towards teal energy glows:P Salivation will be optional.

All the in game towers and upgrades are complete for this game. Next week involves finishing the world map, and interface representations[icons] for the towers and traps.
Estimated game release is still mid-July.

Sky Expedition [iPhone app]

For this small project I'm redesigning/skinning an existing game for a colleague over in France. A variation of the match 3 type, I'm just helping prepare the graphics for retina display and to design things look "shinier". Shining is currently in progress.

Estimated contract end is next week.

Cheers bros and gals,
Sean

Castaway 2 Necromancy: Tower Defence

In between small upgrades to project Sky Expedition, I've also been helping my buddy Mike over at Likwidgames. Castaway 2 was a satisfying and well received flash game since we learnt a lot from it's predecessor and applied the feedback. However, since we don't want to jump into another large development cycle, Mike had proposed a project that would use Castaway 2's art assets. A game "sibling" if you will as opposed to a descendant. A tower defence mechanic was chosen and this is the current result :D

We are predicting a mid-July release for this baby. In essence, we're exchanging art development time for game design and spending most of our efforts on making the game functionally different from it's sister. This has also given me the opportunity to further practice on structures/buildings, and not worry too much about the other visual aspects.

Sky Expedition: Start Project

Now that the skies have cleared a little bit project wise, I was finally able to sit down with my friend Stephen Gazzard from Broken Kings. He had recently released an experimental iphone game called "Dirt" a few months ago, and ever since I had been exposed to that game, I hounded him to bring his expertise to a project I had dubbed "Sky Expedition". The project is still in its infancy, Stephen having just built an svn repository along with basic tiles. That being said, we seem to have a clear enough idea of the variables and assets involved, so we hope to have game iterations relatively often and early.

To give you folks a heads up, the game is essentially a tile based exploration and cartographic game. The player takes command of a storm stricken airship that has to find it's way to port and recover crew members along the way as well as potential artifacts. Currently that is the scope, but I will be keeping you guys updated as this project progresses

Here's a possible logo:

Castway II released on flash :D

Hi folks! Finally this game is seeing the light of day and not a moment too soon. It was an interesting experiment in design and project goals. Not too bad for 2 -3 person team game if I say so myself. Next time round I would like to invest more heavily on actual story but that is a minor gripe over all. Please give her a go and tell me what you guys think. No worries, it's free :3

CASTAWAY 2 AHOY!

Of Design Docs and Sketches.

The past 2 weeks I've been burying my head into design documents, trying to distill the distinct fragrances and facets of a game prototype. It's very hard to nail down what is essentially a definitive document for a loose game concept ["Definitive" being relative to the duration of that project cycle]. By the end of this week I'm hoping to have a rather simplified yet concise document that can be deciphered to make a game concept within a 2 week cycle *crosses fingers*.

In the meantime, I threw together a piece depicting Mandy's character Julian for the Paperchain Project. There's still some more good work needed to go into this piece but I am quite content with the layout. Just need to create a more apparent urban middle ground between the building and the exterior. Enjoy :D

Studio Move

"A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body."
-Benjamin Franklin

An apt quote for the times seeing as I will be spending the next few weeks slowly moving into a new space for the studio.  My brother has given me access to an entire basement equipped with all needed facilities, so a newer and more elaborate workplace is in the works.  Most importantly, our bedroom and home studio will be once again separated.  No TVs or computers in the bedroom, only in the studio.  I'm going to be quite adamant about that.  Hopefully this should help further develop a proper workplace mentality and professional vibe. 

Oh, and today's transit sketch for the peeps:

Upcoming Game on the Flash Platform.

Heya folks!

Just spreading the news that a simple Action-RPG I've been working on will be released in the next week or two.  It's quite a rush job [due to me miscalculating the necessary documentation to make this project feasbable] but it's also a labour of love... plus it will be free to play anyhow :B.  I'll make sure to post a link to the game once it's officially available. 

The game is a continuation of the first Castaway and uses pretty much re-engineered backgrounds.  The sprite handling system along with battling, however, is completely new.  What's most interesting was our decision to "regress" from an isometric view to a simple cartesian grid [x,y].  Although I think isometirc views can be more visually interesting from a game point of view, you still run into collision and depth sorting issues.  Since we were a skeleton crew of 2 people, with some help from :thumbazreet911:, we were willing to use a simpler tiling system.  This was in hopes to include some battle elements we discovered in Diesel Valkyrie, but also to really change up the core experience from the first game.

Enough banter, onto the screenshots: