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Over Throne Announcement
Woah! It's been awhile since I've been seen around these parts, but I'm back with some hopefully exciting news: The gamedev machine is cranked and has been chugging along for quite awhile now! Here's the deal. About a year-and-a-half ago I started prototyping a deckbuilding cardbattler just for fun. I had gotten back into Magic the Gathering for awhile, so I got a hair up my ass to try my hand at designing a similar game. I made up some rules and even prototyped a handful of cards that I printed out on my printer at work. The game functioned more-or-less and felt unique enough. I was satisfied...for a time. Eventually, I started itching to try coding a game project again. Abby's Song had gone well enough for my first attempt (bad voice acting notwithstanding). Boom, I could code my prototype deckbuilding cardbattler. I've now spent nearly 9 months working on it, and it's coming along swimmingly. I'm not far enough to start showing screenshots or in-game footage yet, though. That time will come. Naturally, the first thing I did was grossly underestimate how much work/time this would take. Abby's Song took me 7 months from beginning to final release, but Over Throne is a much larger and more complex project. I'm planning to design somewhere between 200-400 cards to start, and I've already designed 125 of them. Doing this first is crucial since it allows me to playtest throughout the dev cycle. I'm also planning to implement an extensive single-player campaign since I unfortunately don't know how to do anything with online multiplayer at all. There will be plenty of unique features/mechanics to differentiate Over Throne from the huge number of other cardbattlers out there. An early promise: Over Throne will not be one of those predatory free-to-play-but-not-really bullshit games. I will charge money for it, and I will do my absolute best to earn that price tag. I'll talk about it more as development continues. Getting art for the game is the largest barrier right now, but I'll figure something out. Peace! -OCL |
Discordian Video Game in Pre-Planning
With the help of some fine Popes over at the r/discordian subreddit, a preliminary design document for a Discordian inpsired video game is slowly congealing. I'm going to dive into learning Godot engine with something resembling panache. I will perhaps use the Abby's Song redux for learning purposes and release that on Steam first. Maybe drum up some funds for this new project (art assets don't make themselves!). Here's a joke mock-up of some box art or something. This is a real project. I cannot stress that enough. |
Intimidated
Honestly, I'm just plain intimidated by gamedev now that its been so long since I've coded anything. BUT, I will jump back in at some point. I have a few workable ideas with my limited range of coding and art skills that should work out. In the meantime, Abby's Song is still free on itch.io. Peace! -OCL |
All Quiet on the Western Front
No new updates in gamedev right now, but I'm imagining all the ways Buildrunner could become great. I plan to dive into Godot engine over the Christmas break in a big way and learn what I need to build a functioning demo of the game. Test it for fun factor to make sure my idea isn't bunk, then start reiterating immediately. In a perfect world, I'll be able to finish Buildrunner before 2019 is through. Fingers crossed. Peace! -OCL |
Started Working on Buildrunner!
I finally started working on learning the Godot engine and figuring out how to make the new game. The tentative title for the game is Buildrunner. As I'm working on that, though, my daughter had an idea for a videogame that sounded pretty cool. Here's a screenshot showcasing how far we got on her game idea. I think it'll be a pretty cool little project, but I don't have enough knowledge yet to help her make the whole thing. It'll be a learning challenge for us both! She drew the visuals herself (background and cat in rad crayon). The blue blocks are platforms, and the cat can move around and jump on them currently. She chose the following mechanics (without prompting, which was really cool): 1. Cat can walk, run, and jump. 2. Cat can get in a boat to go fishing with a fishing pole, catching fish if successful. 3. And here's where it gets fun: 3 pieces of a Day Scepter and 3 pieces of a Night Scepter (which are clearly way magical) are scattered around the world to be collected. What happens after that is not yet known.  So that's it! I still need to learn quite a bit before I can make any progress with either game, but I'm limbering up and getting ready to CODE IT UP. Peace! -OCL |
Dropping the Proverbial Ball
Yeah, according to my schedule here I was supposed to start development on my next game about 2 weeks ago... Not so much. There are good reasons for this, though, so don't despair! I know your entire life trajectory hinges on whether I'm developing a new game /sarcasm. Promoting my new metal album has taken more time and energy than I thought, plus I don't have much of either to begin with. So, progress will be made at some point. Too many plates spinning. Too many balls in the air. It's a perennial problem. Peace! -OCL |
New Game Begins Development Next Month!
My schedule says I'm starting development proper on a new game June 9th. I feel like Abby's Song accomplished what it set out to do, so it's time to try something new! Here's a few details that are set in stone:
Anyway, that's about all I can say about the new game project right now. I need to get a prototype up and running, and I'm hoping to have one by the end of June or mid-July. Development will go much more smoothly after that (if Abby's Song development was anything to judge future projects by anyway). As always, thanks for the continued interest and support, loyal readers! There will be much, much more content in the coming months. Peace! -OCL |
And on the Gamedev side of things...
I am working on 2, count 'em 2, new games. One will be a challenge based affair, while the other will be a long, thought provoking, philosophical ride. Stay tuned 'cause I'm still here. Peace! -OCL |
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