March 25, 2010

No game this month

Well here I am in the end of the month - without a game. It's a failure I know but once again I lack inspiration and then it's really hard to do something. Instead I've been thinking of something I could do that would make me wanna code like really bad again. I'm thinking of patching up this website, the forums are bugging me like hell as I didn't write it, switching rendering framework for my games and just now today I've done a few Project Euler challenges in Haskell which was pretty fun (but hard as I'm really bad with it).

Next time I've got my sights on the Ludum Dare which instead of a seven day game is a two day game! We'll see how that'll go.. If I have the power and the time to.

I've also written a small piece about the Evolution of RTS games, heavily shortened to fit a perfect 5 pages a feat I'm quite proud of. Of course I wanted to write a hell of a lot more.

In short: Not much has happened and not a lot is happening but we'll see what the future has in store.

March 2, 2010

March Theme: 10 seconds

Well well here's something interesting. The Experimental Gameplay Project has given us a really interesting thing to focus on: Time. Like Braid, it's time for us to make something interesting with time itself. 10 seconds is the constraint and that's not a lot, but perhaps enough?

February 1, 2010

February gets Themed: Rejection

The Experimental Gameplay Project has announced their next theme - and shame on me if I wouldn't follow suite! With valentine coming up I might just have found a pretty nice idea, just now, writing this...

Booyah!!

January 1, 2010

New Year, New Theme: 100 Things

Happy New Year, Everyone! 2009 was great in many ways; I drove a submarine (yeah quite literally), I released 6 experimental games and recently I discovered the completely amazing game Evil Genius but lets try to make 2010 even better!

So let's forget our small mishaps (yes I'm looking at you - December month without a game) and roll out a new theme. As usual I'm following The Experimental Gameplay Project's theme which happens to be 100 Things.

And Things could mean anything from sprites, sound effects to pixels or enemies.

December 16, 2009

Pushing toward Git

The time has come; it's time for me to move my source out in the open for the first time.
I present to you the source of the upcoming game (which has no name yet):

Available on Github

It's nothing special really, if you want take a look at the code and help me improve it.

December 14, 2009

Breaking the rule of three

It's pretty darn stressful making a game in a week, especially when you have this big great vision on how your game should be (which is always grand). For me making Balls, Black and White and Jonas IceCream Stand where truly stressful, MenuCity and Bugger not so much but still.

This is why I'm giving me an early Christmas gift: I won't make the December game in a week. In fact I haven't even logged the hours, I just work on it a little here and a little there and boy it's nice not having to do something all the time.

But there are downsides of course. I'm breaking my rules which is... bad and I don't have that productivity boost I always get when under a deadline so now I'm pretty far behind.

December 4, 2009

December Theme: New World Order

The The Experimental Gameplay Project drives on with the Art Game theme which will last the rest of this year but that's something we can't accept! I've done my game and I didn't force myself out from the Haskell world just to do nuthin so here's a new little theme for me :)

What does the U.S one dollar bill, the French Revolution and Zion have in common? It's the conspiracy New World Order of course!

The paranoid can find it anything so this shouldn't be a problem?
Right?!

November 1, 2009

November Theme: Art Game

Back over at The Experimental Gameplay Project a new theme has come up. My last three themes haven't been "my" themes: I've been following their lead and their themes and this month is no exception. This months' apparently a big theme - Art. It's even a collaboration with a big art museum...

The idea that games are art is an old one and there are a few games considered art - but it's really hard to make an actual art game. But I'll try :)

October 1, 2009

October theme says: Numbers

New month and a new theme. As with the two previous games I'm following The Experimental Gameplay Project theme which this month is numbers. What's it gonna be? A sudoku game or something more... thrilling? I'll see what I can do :)

September 12, 2009

September theme: Failure

I'm out of the busy mode and here's the new theme! I've got an idea and I'll be beginning very soon I hope and again I'm following Experimental Gameplay Project's site.

Let's rock!!

August 25, 2009

Going into Being Busy mode

I'm in the civil service atm and, sadly, we're going to be extremely busy the coming... two months or something? So I can't promise a game the next two months. Kinda beats the point of this site doesn't it? I'm really sorry and that's all I can say really...

Hopefully I'll get a week somewhere with enough spare time to create something. It's a damn sure I'll have to make a game about submarine warfare!!

August 19, 2009

Incomplete game coming up

Man I'm far too much of a perfectionist, with this mentality I'll never get anything done - seriously. I spent far too many hours, even days, figuring out in my mind how the game should be and I started off going for nothing less than just that. But it turned out to be a lot harder and a lot bigger but still I couldn't let it go and start over with something new, something fresh.

I wonder isn't this something very common? Not just in game development but for everything in life; we always stick with our idea of perfection and stuff that we're familiar with, trying hard not to do something different and unfamiliar. I can honestly say I've tried to make something fresh and different but maybe that's my problem. I'm trying too hard and when it's impossible I still won't let it go... Just maybe it might work if I do it like this... maybe?!

No this month's game is going to be crap, I can see it. Polish, which I believe is the single most important ingredient in a game, is non-existent. And worse yet, the gameplay is bad - in fact it's even worse, it's unplayable and boring! Never mind that I'll give myself tomorrow to give the game a bit more love in the hope of making it just a tiny bit less sucky.

What do you think; should I release the game - no matter what - after one week and ignore my need for perfection or should I give the unfinished and "bad" game more love so it might be a little better and a bit more fun to play?

August 4, 2009

August theme: Bare Minimum

This time I'll be following my inspiring site and declare Bare Minimum as the theme for my next game. This could really be anything, from graphics to user interaction... But I've got an idea. It'll be a real challange for me to make but hopefully I'll have a game in a few weeks time.

July 25, 2009

My first theme: Addictive Gaming

In true experimental spirit I'll now announce the theme for my first game: Addictive Gaming. I won't be following the lead from the Experimental Gameplay Project's site but I will follow their three laws (7 days, alone, themes).

Puh... my first game! Wish me luck =)