Prototype gameplay video

The basic mechanics are in place. Here's a video.

EDIT: Ugh, this is hideously low-res. It's not worth it for me to bother re-uploading this right now, but next time I won't be uploading directly into a blog post. Still gets the point across, for the most part.

New screenshot

I took a screenshot my test room in Torque, just to give an idea of what actual progress has been made in ways a regular screenshot wouldn't.

Notice that the blue square has overlapping rectangles on each side. Those repel the character (who is a grey square). I will be applying that functionality to the rest of the squares shortly. The smaller squares within the larger squares indicate stick functionality. I still have to add that for yellow and blue, but the code is all there. All of the squares are in a red state right now by default even though the player is grey.

After I work out a couple of bugs, I might start building an actual level. I expect there to still be bugs, but hopefully I can get this thing in front of people and get some feedback or at least get some moral support.

Notepad++

Started using Notepad++ instead of plain 'ol Notepad. It's actually really useful to be using an actual IDE instead of a text editor for coding. I actually have Visual Studio as well, but I like the relative simplicity of Notepad++. I recommend it highly, at least for hobby level coding. Struggles right now are mostly around collision. I have started rolling out experimental collision types (sticking and bouncing) to all objects. For some reason the sticking acts weird with violet. There has to be something in the code I forgot to port over properly, but me in my current state (tired) isn't seeing it. I also made myself a bug database in Excel. My day job is as a QA tester, so it sort of pains me to even do it but at the same time it feels very right and natural to be recording bugs I find and tracking whether or not I've fixed them.

Also, here's an updated version of my run cycle (from about a week ago, haven't touched it since). I can adjust the timing in Torque and don't really have a proper animation program, so this is basically each frame being shown in unison with equal timing.

I want him to move with a level of uniqueness and character, so I'll be playing around with this more until it feels right. I can't do too much considering I have to be able to implement it into the game and have it look/feel natural (gameplay comes #1), but I want the character to feel as fluid as I can muster. The web series "Baman Piderman" does a great job at fluid, but I don't have any illusions of animating even nearly as well as Lindsay Small. Plus characters that floppy wouldn't work well for this game. Maybe another game someday. Possibly worth noting: Watching a livestream of her animating an episode of BP is part of what motivated me to start working on animation.

Preview of my amazing 2D animation skills

My initial plan with this game was to have almost non-existent art, probably no music, probably no sound effects. I changed my mind. I'm going to do some simple art, music and sound effects myself. "Simple" art includes 2D animation, which I totally took a class for like 5 years ago. I also took a bunch of art classes, so I figure I might as well use my entry level art/animation classes for something. Here is the first pass of half of a run cycle. Click the red square to view all 4 glorious frames of actual animation.

It's even sloppier than it probably could be, since my background and initial guide sketch show up as their own frames. You get the idea though. Also, I don't really plan on making this much more complex. Basically just cleaning it up. The dude's gonna be solid colours, possibly with shadows. No face, hair, clothes or any of that.

Regarding music and sounds... I am probably gonna do minimalist electric guitar (i.e. my skill level) for the music and do some home foley for sounds. The goal here is to do this whole game myself.

Oh, and here's what it looks like with every animation layer visible (just for fun):

 

"Hue"

Tentative title time.

I spent a lot of time labouring in my head over alliterations, puns, portmanteaus... then I thought about how I want this game to come across in a conversation and what sort of image I want to project. I decided that one word, short, to the point, would do this best.

Torque

Game Maker is often what amateur game developers that don't want to program use to make 2D games. I tried it, had a bit of success, but ultimately I didn't really like the interface. I tried out Torque Game Builder and liked it quite a bit more, so I shelled out a bit of cash for the indie license (I had done the same for GM as well) and that's what I've been working with.

I almost went back to Game Maker when I was having some scripting problems I knew I could solve with the graphical scripting stuff it has (which is GREAT by the way, if you really don't want to script anything yourself), but overall I have been happy with Torque so far.

Anyway, here are some other games that have been made with TGB: http://www.garagegames.com/games/2d-games

There are a few semi-major indie releases there. I think I own at least one or two of them, but it's hard to remember sometimes with all of the indie bundles I buy.

I actually solved the problem that made me want to go back to GM just today. In order for a trigger to function in TGB, you have to have an object actually collide with it. If you have any code in said object that is tripped when you collide with things (like if it's a player character that collides with walls, for example) it will react weirdly with the trigger. I solved this by mounting an invisible collision volume to my character that activates the trigger. Worked out perfectly. Now if only I could have all those hours of trial and error back...

Yeah! Learning!

First look at what I'm working on right now.

Over the last few years I have started and stopped various projects, with a lot of the problems coming from them being a bit too ambitious. I attended PAX this past summer, and during the PAX10 panels there was a very constant theme - keeping things simple. So I remembered back to the core mechanic of a concept of mine I came up with when I was attending the Art Institute (and wrote a 30 page document about), and decided that instead of using it for a 3D action/adventure game I'd use it to make a 2D platformer. And you know what? I don't even need nice art. I decided I'd just do it, use whatever crappy art I can slap together (mostly focusing on the art representing the game mechanics) and release it for cheap or free when I'm done.

So what is the game mechanic? In a word - colours. The environments are largely made up of coloured blocks, and you yourself play as a coloured block (this may change to an actual character later).  You pass through "gates" that change your colour, and depending on what colour you are you interact with the environmental blocks differently. This is based on a colour wheel made up of just primary and secondary colours. You stick to the same colour, bounce off the opposite colour, pass through adjacent colours and triadic colours are completely solid. The reason for the gates is so that the level design can dictate what colour the player is, thus allowing more compelling puzzles/challenges and less guess work on the player's part. I am building this with Torque Game Builder, which seems like a solid platform thus far.

Anyway, here are a couple of screenshots of my test room. Right now all that works is touching the gate to change colour (I juuuuuust got this working, so there's only a red gate for now... I also have debug keys that let me change colour at will) and all of the sprites changing each time you change colour (to represent how you interact with them). I have a lot of work left to do, but I'm making progress and I'm excited about it.

One big wake up call was just how long it takes to do simple things. Those bigger blocks are made up of 9 smaller blocks each (to allow me to create objects that aren't just squares). For some of them, they are 9 unique blocks. In order to make things customizable, I had to script all 54 blocks seperately. I spent a lot of time ctrl+c/ctrl+v'ing code last night and making little changes for each block. I can't help but think there might be an easier way, but I don't know it.

I don't have a title yet, but I'm thinking probably an alliteration that refers to colours somehow. "Chroma Castle" is a front-runner, since my only idea for a story right now involves it taking place inside a castle. I'm purposely keeping things simple so I can actually get this thing done, but I have ideas bouncing around in my head for a sequel/successor already.

Alright, time to stop talking about it and get back to work.