Development Delay: Bears Blamed

I'm currently working through some development delays on my two concurrent projects, MarioRL and Hired Gun: EP1 Crash & Burn due to pesky stuff like my job, family, "real life" and of course the real culprit...Bears!!!! /colbert

Also, "Peyote", the web-comic artist who I was working with HGEP1 on is calling it quits in Pardus along with "Hired Gun" who the comic and game ironically, is based on.  I've cut down the original plans for the game but am still continuing work on it.

Vaporware?  Not on my watch.

I just wanted to you update you all, my (zero) fans or any random passerbys who might be curious.

MarioRL, a Super Mario Bros Roguelike

I'm working on MarioRL right now as my entry in the annual 7DRL contest.  7DRL is a programming competition that takes place annually.  The goal is to make a finished, playable Roguelike (aka dungeon crawler) game in 7 days.

There aren't any actual prizes or places.  If you finish your game in the allotted 7 days, you're a winner basically.

There are a lot of great roguelikes based on other games such as DoomRL, CastlevaniaRL, ZeldaRL and so on.  I realize a Mario themed anything isn't incredibly original but it hit me this weekend that no one has ever made a roguelike based on Super Mario Bros, a game ripe for rogueliking.  I mean, you travel through various dungeons, fighting monsters trying to rescue a princess.  A little cliche sure but perfect!

I'm using GM:HTML5 which I just purchased last week so I'm not sure how great of an idea that was but I'm rapidly learning the GML scripting language.  GM:HTML5 does have drag and drop game creation but for something like a roguelike game you definitely have to use the scripting language.

It's similar to Java or C++ in a way and while I'm no expert in either, I'm picking it up fairly quickly.

With any luck, I'll have a playable game by the contest's deadline and once that's over, I'll take my tune polishing and fine-tuning it.

And of course, here are some screenshots:

Unity 3.X + Unity IOS & Unity Android free until April 8th!

Unity is an award winning, cross platform game development tool and they've got a great offer going on right now.  Even if you're not a Unity user, haven't used Unity before I highly recommend you snatch this up while it's free and decide later!

If you're wondering what the difference is between Unity free and the Unity mobile basic package take a look here to compare features.

From Unity's official Facebook/Twitter:

We are excited to offer you Unity Mobile Basic for FREE! The offer is valid through April 8, download now and save up to $800! https://store.unity3d.com/

Pixel Blaster (Working Title)

Just a screenshot of yet another project I'm working on.  This one is called Pixel Blaster, which is a working title at the moment because there's only about a gajillion games called Pixel Blast, Blaster, etc.

The concept is a mix between a Galaga/axian type game and something like Beat Hazard which is a shooter type game where you make the game's music as you play.

So, basically Galaga with musical gameplay elements.

For you Hired Gun fans don't worry.  The game is still on track but there is a mountain of graphics work to do.  Keep in mind I've got a pretty intense real job as a TV/Radio/Print reporter/editor so I do what I can, when I can.

Cowboy Bob Released!

Well, here it is the day after I made the artwork and...here's the game to go with it!

You can download it here:
Cowboy Bob v0.1 (Windows)

The source code is also available for anyone who is interested.

There are only 3 levels.  This was just made as a quickie although I'll probably expand on it sometime in the future.  I guarantee you those 3 levels aren't easy to beat though.

And here are some screenshots:

The Adventures of Cowboy Bob

What up son?  Cowboy Bob in da town!

Just thought I would share my latest creation with everyone for funsies.

I'm prototyping a simple arcade style web game and I threw this and some other simple stuff together tonight.

HGEP1: Mapping it out

I've finally got the world map just about fully fleshed out.  It looks like the final game will contain roughly 49 Scenes broken up into 6 main areas, Desert, Cave, Abandoned Outpost, Wastes, Underground and Jungle.

I have a fully functional game engine that will handle pretty much everything.  The real work is going to be the graphics.  We're not going crazy with the artwork.  It's simply a matter of volume versus spare time.

Currently, we're 7/49 Scenes.  Ouch.  In retrospect, I might cut this down a bit.  Better to cut than cram though.

Now excuse me...I've got some pixels to wrangle. :P

Dev on the Go!

Going on a trip and don't want to miss out on your dev fix?  Bring these along with you!

Java (offline installer) + Eclipse IDE
Lua
FreeBasic + FBIDE

These are all free, lightweight, simple to use and provide fast prototyping for game concepts. 


FamiTracker: A free, music tracker based on the original NES sound chip for Windows.
GraphicsGale: An awesome program for creating pixel art and animation.
(as a free alternative to GraphicsGale, Gimp is also great.)

Don't forget to bring some games!
CastlevaniaRL: A graphic/ascii roguelike based on the Castlevania series
ToME: Tales of Maj'Eyal, the 2011 and 3 time winner of Ascii Dream's best roguelike of the year

Roguelikes, also known as "dungeon crawlers" provide nearly infinite replay value and gameplay ranging from quick fix to as complex as you want it.

All of this developing and gaming goodness weighs in at well under a gigabyte. (for zip'd install files)



 

Found some old source code!

Well, don't get too excited...Spaceman Bob's source and graphics is still KIA but...I did just find some of my old projects archived on the QBasic/QuickBasic ABC online archive.

I was able to dig up an old pseudo-3D shooter game, a demo for a fighting game featuring arcade characters, a Gui for DOS and a molecule simulator I programmed for Science class in high school.  Note: The Arcade Kombat demo lists me as "Robert" instead of Richard.  If you search for "colletta" in the 1998 ABC pack you'll find all of my projects though.

The real jewel of this collection was my ground breaking graphic editor, Rdraw Pro.  (Richard Draw)

RdrawPro featured a menu, built-in help, 256 colors, fill, circle, sprite frame/grids, autosave and the ability to export your masterpiece to a .BAS (Qbasic/QB45) code file.

RdrawPro was positioned to make that hack Thomas Knoll and his "Photoshop" look like a child playing in a sandbox but then...well, I can't go into details but Crapsoft was forced to give in to pressure and cease commercial distribution of RdrawPro due to legal threats by a certain company that rhymes with "Afobe".

(Just kiddn')

Anyway, it was nice to see some of my old code after so long.  Ah...for, if, then, next, loop you never let me down.

I suspect the source code and graphics to my fabled "Adventures of Spaceman Bob" game may be hidden away somewhere in a taped up box in the garage containing hundreds of 3.5 floppy disks.  Yes, I could spend a Saturday afternoon perusing hundreds of floppies or...I suppose I could spend 10 minutes recreating the original game art. (5 minutes if I outsource it)

And...done.

Hired Gun Episode 1: Crash & Burn Game Trailer released!

Hired Gun Episode 1: Crash & Burn is a retro, tongue-in-cheek Sierra style adventure game based on a character and web comic from the popular 4X browser game, Pardus.

Hired Gun, everyone's favorite and lovably inept pirate is on his way to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award in Piracy which is totally not a trap (promise) when his ship crashes...on a regular, non-mysterious planet!  You must help Hired Gun fix his ship and make it to the awards in time, before they change their mind or something!

HGEP1 is being made in collaboration with Peyote, a Pardus player and creator of the popular webcomic based on HG's often hilarious but tragic antics. The quirky MSPaint style of his webcomic is also the basis for this game's artwork style.

It also features music by chiptune artist, Ozzed.  Check out the Game Trailer below!

Someone fire the Marketing Department.

Crapsoft was founded in 1997 by the internationally acclaimed QuickBasic prodigy, Richard Colletta.  Since then it has been leading the revolution in computer software and game development.

Crapsoft is also home to sister software development company, Evolved Development Studios whose name is so badass that despite the fact they haven't released a single game, they have already won two Game of the Year awards.

In 1999 Crapsoft was poised to release an adventure game called 'The Adventures of Spaceman Bob' for Dos/Windows which was set to make gaming history.  Everything was riding on the success of this game. Then...disaster struck.  The 386 Toshiba laptop that was home to the game died and took with it the source code, the graphics and the everything.

All that remains as proof of the greatest game ever made is this single screenshot from the game's menu.

Now...Crapsoft has been commanded to RISE FROM ITS GRAVE and we're picking up where we left off and taking the world of home computing by storm!  Bookmark us and stay tuned for the inevitable awesomeness to come!