Monday 20th April

Today I created the main title page for the game and the high score pages. I now need to hook up the scrolling score area so that it auto scrolls though the list of names on it. This is an old school rolling score area so the player has no control over it. It will just display the high scores if the player is idle for a few minutes on the title page.

I'm still trying to work out what to do for the attract mode as I want this to be retro in feel. I remember that the old arcade machines would have a rolling attract where they would show you a title page then a bout of typical game play culminating in a player death and then the high score table. This would be on a rolling loop until the player put a credit in and hit player 1.

As this is going to be ad supported I will have to have a credit scheme where the player has a pool of credits so that they can play the game. Those credits will restore over time but, watching an ad will replenish them instantly. Sounds good in principal but, will it be too frustrating for the player in practice. The balance between given credits, the rate of replenishment and the amount awarded for an ad watch will all need to be balanced carefully. 

Making slow progress!

Yesterday I had my first asphma annoyance for around two years. Apparently the trees are trying to kill me! Well technically their pollen is...

Anyhoo I'm back on form today so thought I'd update things as they stand.

The grid class is looking better today. I had time to think about what I wanted to do and so managed to get it all straight in my head. The initial design document is done too so I even have a concrete end goal.

The grid itself will be a 5 * 5 affair. I may have to extend it based on if the battles turn out to be too easy. I also have a symbol weighting function that causes less of a certain type of symbol to appear based on how hard or easy things need to be.

Annoyingly, while writing this, I realise that I need to make allowances for special attacks when you get pick-ups that allow it and also when the bosses and harder enemies have their own special attacks.

Looks like another session at the lunch table where I refine the design document to add this information in.

Pro Tip: Make sure you add in all of the functionality and gameplay mechanics to your design document! Even if your game is tiny and you think it doesn't need a design document. It does!!

Back to the grind!

Ok so today, in order to get myself motivated for my next Indie project, I am starting a developer diary. As with all diaries. The trick is to simply do it. So hare goes.

Yesterday I decided to dedicate my lunch hour to actually starting a new game project. I need these distractions to keep me sane from the day to day of bug fixing and implementing other peoples ideas.

I have a basic concept that I am going to take to fruition and I've given myself three months to get a working game out there. I will be roping in the help of my good friend Jamie. He will act as impromptu game tester and critic. He's annoyingly good at finding bugs too.

So what's the plan for lunch today? Well first off a can of the old brown nectar (cola) followed by an hour of creating a simple grid system that can draw a set of pieces in a 5 * 5 grid. This grid will take up the bottom half of the screen when in the battle phase of the game. The top half of the screen (this is portrait mode currently) will display the scenario of the battle.

I will likely start this today and then get it finished this evening when I get back home. I'll add in some screenshots too if I can.

I'm still working...slowly!

I need to start not having weekends again. I can't seem to get enough time for the day job and my own personal projects!

As a result progress has been slow on both the Video poker update and the new game. On a brighter note I have actually managed to get a new Wacom tablet. The bamboo fun medium. It's a huge step up from the small bamboo fun or the standard bamboo tablets. Don't let the Intuos snobbery fool you. Aside from only having 1024 pressure levels (yea like you'll notice the difference). It's just as usable as it's Intuos cousin.

My art and graphics have improved greatly since getting it and I'm now determined to give Video poker a makeover for the cards and layout.

Time waits for no man.

I'm still waiting for a nice raspberry pi to get to me but, in the meantime I'm trying to write some games. It seems that there is never enough time to go around.

I'll keep this post short and sweet as I don't really have anything useful to report. I've just finished the first pass at a particle system so next I need to add functionality such as rotation, gravity and patterns. This will be used for explosions, ship thrust and general effects.

After this it's on to some prototypes to test the various gameplay features.....

Need more time in the day.