It's going to be a long and interesting road! |
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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 |
Abby's Song Steam Greenlight Campaign Failed
Well, I'm calling it in for the Abby's Song Greenlight Campaign. With a grand total of 138 yes votes after 160 days, I finally decided to delete the Abby's Song Greenlight page. It was a great learning experience, and hopefully I can use these lessons to help future projects succeed. You can still download and play Abby's Song for free at itch.io. I'm not sure what type of project I will work on next, but I'll start updating here again when I figure it out. Thanks to everyone who voted for Abby's Song, but this one just wasn't meant to get through. Maybe once I figure out marketing stuff I'll have a better chance! Peace! |
Abby's Song Steam Greenlight Campaign Update: Day 31
Well, I'm sorry to say that it appears that Abby's Song will not make it through Steam Greenlight after all. I still appreciate everyone who voted for it and took the time to say something positive about the game. The 31 day stats are below, and everything is about the same as it was on the 16th day. I suspect that the campaign will remain frozen like this for quite some time, as I have few ways to drive new voters to the page. I'm looking forward to the next project (as they say, fail faster!), and I think it will have much better odds of success considering all I've learned from the Abby's Song experience. A few people have downloaded Abby's Song from itch.io, which is pretty cool. I hope they enjoy it!  |
Abby's Song Steam Greenlight Campaign Update: Day 16
Here's the breakdown of the Abby's Song Steam Greenlight campaign on day 16. In the past 2 weeks, we've had 150 new visitors to the greenlight page (thanks!) resulting in 21 new yes votes (double thanks!). The yes vote percentage seems locked in at 22%, which I'm still pretty happy about considering that this is the first game I've ever made. The number of followers has almost doubled (triple thanks!), so that's a good sign, too. Comments continue to be positive, and we continue to tackle updating the character animations in anticipation of a new trailer. It seems that Abby's Song's journey through Steam Greenlight will be a long, slow one, but that is definitely not a problem for me. The game is finished overall, minus the tweaks we plan on making, and I'm happy to keep working to spread the word about the game. I'm also excited to begin my next game. I'm just in the idea stage for that right now, though. Anyway, thanks as always to anyone who believes in this project. Go vote please if you haven't already! Leave a comment! Anything helps. If you want to play the game for free right now, you totally can. It's on itch.io for free and has a Humble Page ($0.99 or Pay What You Want). Peace!  |
Abby's Song Greenlight Campaign Update: Day 2
Here are the new numbers on the Abby's Song Steam Greenlight campaign after two days. Abby's Song is no longer being featured on the "recent submissions" page, so views and votes have slowed to a crawl already, and things are not looking super great. The 22% yes vote ratio isn't much better than it was the first few hours despite a very quick revamp of the official trailer, but the game has managed to secure nearly 100 yes votes overall so far. The silver lining here is that comments have been supportive and encouraging, with a few downright positive ones, and very little negativity. So, while voters are not currently willing to push Abby's Song through Steam quite yet, they are not driven to speak poorly about it either. To me, this might mean that Abby's Song is not really causing a strong reaction in people, positive or negative, but it's just negative enough for the average person to click "no" instead of "yes." The past two days have been illuminating for me, and I am pushing forward despite the lukewarm launch. I plan to address voters' concerns regarding character animations and porting Abby's Song to Linux and Mac as soon as I can. I have also recently launched Abby's Song on itch.io for a very reasonable price to see how things go there as well. If nothing else, this has been a valuable experience that I have learned a lot from, which will better prepare me for next time. Peace!  |
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