New Games!
Apr/100
Full releases (for once)! The links supplied go directly to forum posts on Draglide – the lovely, friendly community forum that I’m totally not shilling in any way at all.
PORTAL TERROR – (Download)
The innocent town of Wilbershire is under a siege of unspeakably vile, nasty evil.
First the entire town was lifted from the Earth and plunged into space. Now, to make matters worse, mysterious portals are opening at random and spewing out hideous monsters!
SAGE – (Download)
Simple Adventure Game Engine (SAGE) is the ActionScript 3 adventure game engine I built in a week.
BLOODY MARY – (Download)
A network toy/proof-of-concept that allows you to control characters remotely (and in real-time) via a database.
TAXI GRAB – (Download)
A game of blatant insurance fraud. You control Ethel, a hideous old woman, as she attempts to shove herself into the path of oncoming taxis.
Megabyte This!! (the arena FPS based on Cube 2) is coming soon. Have fun!
Megabyte This!!
Feb/100
I’m proud to announce the development of a fully-fledged multiplayer FPS – “Megabyte This!!”
We’re using the superb Cube 2: Sauerbraten engine, so hopefully we can tear out all of their content and perform a complete conversion into what we’re doing. I’m working on it with a great group of guys, and we hope to have it done and dusted by April at the latest.
At the moment we’re doing level plans and generally getting our stuff together so we know exactly what assets we have to make before we can start churning out ‘real’ content. Personally I’ve been really enjoying just diving into the engine innards and, as well as tossing out all the (admittedly marvellous) content the Cube 2 guys have put in, fiddling with configuration and generally making the game our own.
The game concept is pretty simple – arena deathmatch (although we’ll also have CTF and perhaps a domination-style mode). Originally we had this enormous, sprawling idea about a computer virus that gradually gains sentience as it battles through various systems, avoiding anti-virus and destroying data and the outside world without really knowing it. It’s a great idea that we still really want to use, but for now time constraints dictate that we don’t spend time on AI and scripting. So multiplayer-only it is.
The backstory is still in there and flavours the whole game (virus vs anti-virus), but the context is now a sort of sequel to the un-made game, where the virus has multiplied to the point where it is in all-out war. Hopefully next year we’ll get a chance to revisit the original plot and make a prequel!
Content/previews coming soon!
Back to Work (Again)
Jan/100
Well, once again university work had to take priority over my own whims. Marvin Cooper development stalled.
But fear no longer! I’m back, and there’s lots of exciting stuff happening in the near future!
I’m working on a small, Flash-based game with my buddy Brendan (http://www.sketchperception.com/).
He hasn’t actually gotten around to giving me a full (or partial, for that matter) design document, but from what he’s said I know we’ll be wanting a nice rain effect. Accordingly I spent an hour or so last night coding a ‘weather manager’, which can be supplied with a location (and density, speed & wind) within which it generates some pretty looking rain.
I deliberately left the class ‘open-ended’, so it should be easy to go back in and add generation capability for any other kind of precipitation. For now, though, rain it is.
Other than that, I’ve also got at least two highly interesting projects that will come out of my degree course (although they’re all still in the pre-production phase for now), and a whole new idea for a website!
I’ll keep the blog updated as and when cool stuff happens.
Oh, and don’t worry about Marvin. I’ll get right back on that as soon as I am back at that computer.
Gaahhh.
Oct/090
Trying hard to get back into the workflow, but every time I attempt to do some more character animation I’m reminded that I suck at just drawing people, let alone animating them.
Consider this an impassioned cry for help. If you can animate characters and want your name shown prominently in the credits of the game, please let me know.
Brand New Logo
Jul/090
Brand Spanking New
You’re looking at the very first image of the Marvin Cooper logo on the main menu background. Obviously I have yet to add any menu parts to it, but that can wait for a bit.
In case you haven’t guessed by my production of actual computerised artwork, I have finished all of the planning for the visual aspect of the game. All backgrounds, characters, items and interface designs are done and dusted and I’m really looking forward to translating them into ‘proper’ images.
While I’m not drawing the backgrounds (which I will do first), I’ll be scripting all the dialogue for the game in an object-by-object and character-by-character manner, so there is (hopefully) something unique for every action on every item. The other major point for scripting everything is that it means I can divide off all of an individual character’s lines and send them to be voiced. Of course I have yet to pick anyone to do voices, but I think I’ll take dibs on at least Marvin himself or Dillbury. Perhaps both.
I was thinking a good faux-review snippet would be “An abundance of facial hair!”. There is indeed a good ratio of characters-to-facefuzz, and if that doesn’t draw people in, I don’t know what will.
Finally, A Name!
Jun/090
I had a discussion with David at last about naming the heroically creamy dessert of Dr. Oddwobble’s Snack Shack. After a rally of options (including the hilarious-yet-unusable ‘Jon Long Dong’), we settled on Peter Pudden. At the very least it means I no longer have to refer to it as ‘the protagonist’, which is nice.
I drew up a draft of the friendly pepperpot who will be assisting Peter in the quest, and gave some suggestions to Mr. Blake about how to animate it – I’m looking forward to seeing how it comes out.
No, it doesn't have a name.
All this talk of Dr. Oddwobble might lead you to think I’m letting Marvin Cooper sit out for the moment – but don’t be fooled. I still spend a good amount of time each day scribbling room plans in, and I’ve now worked my way through a comfortable half or so.
Inside a mysterious temple
The scribbles underneath all my plans usually denote a general colour scheme to use and/or ideas for the music to accompany the room – but more on that later in development.
All this drawing of backgrounds for Dr. Oddwobble has got me thinking, though. Originally I planned to have Marvin Cooper as a retro-looking game, with aliased lines and a level of detail reminiscent of the old LucasArts classics, but now I look at the smooth, cartoon style of the rooms I have done and wonder if I should do that instead. On one hand, old-skool graphics are getting a bit clichéd, but on the other hand animating characters and objects in that style is so much easier.
I suppose the only thing to do is carry out some animation tests in both styles and see which I can more feasibly do.
I’ll keep you updated.
First post!!
Jun/090
Welcome to the wonderful world of my development blog!
I hope to keep you all updated as I take a game from pre-production through to completion and release.
Unfortunately, the idea for this has come a little late into the game’s life-cycle to demonstrate the huge rush of creativity associated with those first few days. So far I have already written several A4 pages detailing the overall plot and charting player progression, so I will try my darndest to get bits and bobs from them up here as soon as possible.
Regrettably, I have also come up with a title for the game. I was always taught at school that the title was one of the last things you should do, but it just popped into my head and seems to have stuck.
So here we are, in the very first post on my brand new blog, as I announce my new game:
Marvin Cooper and the Cube Conspiracy
Now in development.
Ahh, that feels better.
