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