Quick one

Just a quick one to say that, yes, I did indeed finish my one button entry to Gamma IV, and no, it does not involve harpooning whales. That would just be tasteless.

Anyway, real whales don’t have wings, so it’s not a big deal, right?

Longer post forthcoming. It may be about the bravery and boredom of No More Heroes, and its implications of society as a whole and our obsession with the extreme…or it may be about how my dog makes weird noises a lot. I have not decided which. I also have plans to write an article about Fable II, and yes I realize that I am at least 1-2 years behind everybody else all the time. I don’t care.

Unemployment, Christmas, and a very special lack of updates

So, how long has it been since I last updated this blog?

Two months you say?

That’s ridiculous!

Oh, wait…

So it has been a while. Let’s see, what’s happened…

So I had a job over the holidays, and then it ended…we moved to a new apartment with more than one room, and a kitchen that is not in a closet…I made a game for my Brother-In-Law for Christmas…and I’m working on a different game for the Gamma IV one button game contest.

Pretty exciting, eh?

The game I made for my Brother-In-Law is actually the first game I’ve completed since the original version of The Anniversary Game. Sadly, it’s also a terrible game made in Klik n Play that makes no sense and is only fun about one half of the time. Ah, so it goes. I might post it here if I’m feeling sadistic.

I am working on making something playable for Gamma IV, so that should be good. I’m going to have to read the rules again, but I’m 99% sure I can release it here as well once it’s completed, but I’ll probably wait until after the GDC to do that, if it does get accepted. If not, then you’ll possibly see it sooner. More on this later.

I’m also going to be posting another article on here pretty soon. It’ll be amazing, I promise.

So there. Lots to look forward to in the world of CMAG. (That’s hipster shorthand for Clint Makes a Game) So stay tuned! Or at least come back and visit once in a while. I’ll make it worth your while, as long as you’re very easily entertained.

The Anniversary Game – Lessons I will probably never learn vol. 1

The way I’ve built my tilesets, I have to make the level, then put down all the outlines on the architecture (don’t ask).  What this means is that a level has to be entirely finished gameplay-wise before I put all the outlines down, since changing anything after that involves two steps, which is kind of a pain in the ass, but oh well.

So I finished a level, and I tested it to make sure I didn’t screw it up.  After testing it, I realized that it wasn’t exactly clear what I wanted the players to do, so I added in some spikes to direct them the way I wanted them to go.  (That is called “The player is always wrong and I am awesome so do it my way,” and I’m sure there’s another lesson in there somewhere too).  Then I added in the outlines.  That was two days ago.

Then I was running through the entire game again today (since apparently I had nothing better to do) and I realized that (a) I’d made one entire passage pointless with those spikes, and (b) I’d made the level impossible to complete.  So…I had to rearrange the architecture significantly, THEN redo the outlines. It probably only took ten minutes, but it was still a face-palm moment.

So, today’s lesson that I will probably never learn: Don’t change anything after testing if you don’t plan on testing it again!  You will inevitably screw up the entire level.  If you’re me.

Progress today: Finished another level (up to 9!), researched saving to INIs, ate a sandwich.

The Anniversary Game – Title Screen

I made a title screen for The Anniversary Game, check it out after the jump.

The Anniversary Game Devlog

Long time no post, eh?

I started a development (developer’s?) log over at the TIGSource Forums for The Anniversary Game, which is a game, that I am making.  Yep.  I don’t feel like reformatting everything for WordPress (sorry), so I’ll just post a link.  In the future, I’ll do it on WordPress first, since that seems to be a bit easier.

The Anniversary Game Devlog

Stay tuned for further updates and screenshots!