Noodles Wallpaper, originally uploaded by Eeron Kilian.
A teaser wallpaper for an upcoming game that a friend and I are working on.
Its basically a tower defense game, but with a twist… oh… and its an idle game, which means you can play it… while not playing it! 😉
introducing Noodles the Ninja Panda… Beware! He rarely comes alone… He is backed up by an army of ninja pandas, sure to bring on pandamonium for those who stand in his way! 😉
Ello All!
I started using iTween, a highly useful, while free, plugin/code addition to Unity. It basically allows someone like me, that doesnt have a great deal of experience with the more advanced type of programming… to add in some very nifty animations and movement or transformation effects to my games easily without building up a desire to murder anyone around me 😉
For my latest build I played around with iTween and used it to make the game logo bounce in place when you start the game and it also allowed me to quickly create a code that makes the score ingame shake whenever it becomes updated.
So yeah, I highly recommend this addition to Unity, as it can really shave off alot of time when delving a bit deeper in ones projects, and starting to add in polish and effects to the game.
You can get it here http://www.pixelplacement.com/iTween/ for Javascript/Unity 🙂
In other news… iSlack!
Yep, been spending alot of time lately with real life, I even had a chance to get out in the sun!!! *gasp* but but… nerds dont do sun!
This nerd does 😉
Stay tuned for more… the near future brings:
Hello All,
had an entire weekend spent sick in bed.. meh… but on a positive note, whenever I wasnt confined to bed, I would fiddle with the code at the computer and get some updates done on Bump n Drop.
Many of the following features/mechanics were added to the game with placeholder graphics and sounds, but it will still give a general idea as to what direction the game is headed.
- added title screen with a temporary game logo
- play button added to the title screen, along with a little sound effect when you click the button
- particle effects from the ball when it collides with an object. its a placeholder but will eventually be tweaked to look like sparks.
- sound effects galore!! or… well actually, only 3 different sound effects… but still… 😉
- added a whole new level… nothing fancy, and nothing permanent of course. 🙂
- cleaned up the code in multiple instances that handle collision and scoring.
- bug fix: no longer possible to need -1 or -2 Prismatics and then getting stuck permanently on the level.
Tons of other changes that I’ve probably missed along the way… I should probably start making notes WHILE doing changes, so that i have a proper, semi-professional looking changelog instead of sitting here for hours trying to remember which things i changed and which i didnt 😉
Anyways, until next time! have funz! :p
Hello All,
Fairly large update to the mechanics of Bump n Drop, not a whole lot of visual changes or anything else that would make you go: ooooh! 😉
Also, I’ve updated the link panel on the blog so that each game/demo has its own button, making it easier to access.
As for Bump n Drop… here is the list of changes in this version. 🙂
- Added a bounce-barrier to the top of the level to prevent the ball from flying out of the top of the level and causing the player to die.
- Tweaked the mechanics of the ball, making it move faster and bounce harder, making the gameplay a bit faster.
- Added Prismatics (currently shown as White Orbs). Currently there are 3 prismatic orbs on the map, and when you hit all 3 of them, the level completion has been fulfilled.
- Text Popup mechanic added, its currently only when you complete the level. But it will of course be updated/changed for later mechanics, such as announcing Combos, Game Over, Extra Lives, Special Trick Shots, and more thingies 😉
- Changed the colour of the barriers and walls.
- Added a Super Bouncer (the yellow thing), it gives the ball a larger push than the normal orbs, and doesnt disappear when hit.
- Changed number of lives/balls to 10, it will of course be changed later, just as the actual level design.
Hello All,
Been doing alot of thinking and planning for my latest game development project. In particular, I have thought about how to keep a game interesting while keeping the accessability high, so that more players can enjoy the game without feeling that the game is too easy, too hard, too boring 😛
Now, I am not saying that I found the perfect way to do this… However, I will say that if I can look at my game, play itself, without my interference… for more than 2 minutes, without getting bored… then I am pretty much on the right track, because I tend to get bored very quickly with games that arent skill based.
Having looked more into the concepts of Pachinko (a japanese gambling pinball type game that dates back to… i think… the early 1900’s … I’ve seen Pachinko machines from 1920) and become quite fascinated with the Pachinko-game itself. I have tried to use some of the aspects from the Pachinko game and incorporate them into the game design of my own game. Also, when you see the Pachinko, and then try out Popcap’s game Peggle, you will see immediately where they got their inspiration from.
There is just something oh so mesmerising when it comes to watching little steel balls bouncing around inside an enclosed area with nothing but your own outbursts of ‘GO GO GO LITTLE BALL!!!!‘ to guide it on its way to a successful point-booster! 😉
Anyways, for those of you who havent actually tried out the game-demo-display thingy that I have here on my page, I’ve made a video that you can watch, and it will give you a rough idea where this game is headed 🙂
As you can see, the game now has 4 different colour orbs which I’ve decided to name Fire, Earth, Water, Air. Hitting these orbs will add points to your score, and later on, they will also add Mana (a sort of fuel or energy for powering certain special abilities) to your player.
For example, hitting 3 Water Orbs will add Blue Mana to your player, thus allowing you to use some of your Water Based abilities (I admit, everything is just on the idea stage currently, but I have a feeling this could prove to become quite interesting once i figure out how to code all of that :p )
So… basically what I am aiming for is a kind of Peggle-Clone with Fantasy/Roleplay elements in the shape of gaining Experience Points to level up your player-avatar. Gathering Mana while completing a level, and using said mana to cast spells and abilities that will allow you accomplish your goal of completing a level easier… Think Healing spells that give back lost balls, or throwing fireballs that allow you to target a specific area of the screen and blow up any Orbs in that area of effect. 🙂
A bit confusing in text, perhaps… but rest assured, It will all make sense once you try it… that is… once its done… that is… when its done… that is… ah well… Stay Tuned! I’m thinking and tinkering!
This game will rock when its done! and if you disagree, then by all means, chip in and add your comments and constructive critisism! I would love to hear your opinion on this concept and on my game ideas 🙂
Thanks for reading!
Ello All,
Not really time to play, as the Bump n Drop project doesnt really have much of a playable element to it yet, unless you’re into bouncing a pill-like object around in a little enclosed area whilst listening to a monotone bump sound (which I made with my mouth and then butchered in Audacity, an audio editting program :p )
Try Super Early Bouncy Endless Test Version of Bump n Drop!
Remember that you will be needing the Unity Web Player download (dont worry, its quite small and completely harmless) to test the Bump n Drop game. When you click the link, it will ask you to install it, if you havent already (Chances are, if you’ve played the 2d platformer… then you have the Unity Web Player already, and that means I love you a lot already! Welcome to the wonderful world of being able to play everything that was made with Unity, right there in your browser! hehehe 😉 )
- Added keyboard controls (left and right keys) which allow you to steer your player object left and right while falling to your doom… or… well in this case, just falling… and then bouncing some… and falling some more… 😛
- Increased the size of the player object by 250%
- Tweaked the Colours… cause I was bored and will most likely tweak them every single update from now on and until the game is finished, by which time the game will look like it was mugged by a rainbow and left to bleed 😛
- Added code to make the player object revert to its original spawn-point if it hits the bottom of the level, so that the game never ends… Hooray for Eternal Bouncation! , which is of course much prefered over Eternal Damnation 😛
Hello All,
Whats ‘Bump n Drop’ you might ask?
Its a silly name! … actually its a bit more than a silly name. Its the name I’ve decided to call my next game project, which is going to be a fairly simple minigame with the aim of dropping your player down a tube. As you’re falling through this tube, your goal will be to try and pick up as many Bonus Items on the way down, while trying to bounce on as many ScoreMultiplier-bouncy-thingiemajiggies and avoiding as many Combo-Killer-Obstacles as possible 😛 You’ll be able to affect your player by pushing him left or right, with little nudges of the keyboard-right and keyboard-left 🙂
When you hit the bottom, the game ends, and you can try again, hopefully beating your score 🙂
What you’re about to see is a very very very very early video showing roughly the concept of the game (albeit, without any score, any bonus objects… or… well… any gameplay…)
Let me know what you think, and as always, feel free to comment with any suggestions or criticism, but keep in mind, this video and the game took roughly 1½ hours to make… so its a long way from finished 🙂
Super busy week AND weekend this week… Christmas and Chanukah is drawing nearer, which means a little less time to spend on my game project… but on a more positive note… it also means more time spent with my family and in particular my little niece Sara 🙂
My Brother is coming home from Ireland where he has been working since last year. Another great reason to spend time with the family 😉
Anyways, enough about me and my family, and more about the game, right? 😉
I tried adding in a PAUSE function for the game, but sadly that just lead to me crashing my Unity3d… over and over and over and over again… So I decided to grab a little break from THAT feature and add in something else instead.
Something that I know some of you have requested. The Level-Select feature. Yep, now you’re able to pick which map to play on. The list will automatically update itself as you reach new levels, and add those levels to the list of available levels on your Level-Selection screen in the Main-Menu.
As some of you may or may not have noticed, sometimes the +50, +250, +500 score feedback would fly off in the wrong directions after you grabbed their respective gemstones… The reason for this was that I am still very much a beginner with 3d modelling, and as such, I had the rotation wrong on my gemstones… which also leads to the gems being rotated wrong after they spawn from a trap. This has been KINDA fixed. Meaning I didnt fix the actual rotation on the gemstones, I just made sure that everytime the Score-Feedback spawns, it will have the right rotation. So yeah… It will now always fly straight up, as it should, instead of going all woogy and flying left or right 😉
The Gemstones still end up woogy though 😛 But that will be fixed eventually when I figure out how to do it properly 😉
Also, today, you will see a new thing on the blogposts, something which I will be striving to add onto all my posts from now on. Thanks to TecFail for the suggestion on having an easier overview of what was added to the game in each update.
- “Select Level” menu option added
- fixed the score feedback flying in wrong directions
- drew a crap ton of Concept Art and wrote several pages of story and mechanics the game… none of which you can see! leading you to believe I did nothing in the past week 😉
Hello all,
Did some changes to the order of the maps… map4 is now the starting map… and also slowly looking into the concept of being able to add secrets and unlockables to the game and to the maps themselves 🙂
As you will also see, now when you grab a finance object (one of the gemstones) you will recieve a visual feedback in the form of a floating +50, +250 or +500, depending on the colour and value of the object you grabbed 🙂
Also threw around some ideas in my head about how to add more interactivity for the player. Alot of you have mentioned that you thought it would be a good idea if the player was able to pick up a crate. And that idea is good, but not exactly what I wanted with the game, as I feel that dragging and carrying boxes around is tedious…
But I thought of something more twinkly and magic…ish 😉 Since the lead character is going to be some kind of creature of nature… be it an elf or a fairy, or some kind of cute little fuzzy animal… I wanted to introduce the 4 elements of nature (Earth, Air, Water, Fire … for those of you who have no idea what im talking about 😛 )
So for example… Imagine seeing part of the floor bluish and icy… next to it is an Ice Crate… So you shoot (will be explained :p ) at the Ice Crate and it turns into a Fire Crate that you can then push onto the Icy Floor and melt the Floor.
But wait… Shooting? I thought you said there was going to be no shooting in your game TastyGraph?!
Yeah… I call it shooting, but its really more like Elemental Magic… your character can have some mild form of control over the four elements but will need to pick up special Elemental Orbs in order to shoot her powers.
So i am thinking these orbs are going to be located on the maps and will be multi-functional… meaning you pick up 1 orb, and it functions as Ammo for your Elemental Power Shot… your shot is Multi-Elemental… and will react differently depending on what it hit.
Shoot a fire crate and you turn it into an Ice Crate… and the other way around of course…
This of course will lead to Air Crates and Earth Crates… and eventually the Crates would/should be replaced with little Elemental Spirits… rather than being Crates 🙂
but yeah… to sum things up… Good things coming to the game in the near future 🙂
In this latest update I have added a work in progress 4th level (who am i kidding… all the levels are work in progress… the whole GAME is work in progress ;D )
I’ve remodelled the Yellow Gemstone in Blender, making it a more coin-ish appearance… And while I was in blender, I decided to have some fun with a Cube and the Extrusion Tool combined with a bit of scaling and rotating (yes, I am a total newbie at 3d modelling… So if you’re an expert and reading this… and suffering from an abundance of generosity, then dont hesitate to throw your leet skillz in my general direction 😀 ) I havent added an actual Texturemap to the Firetrap model, as I have still yet to learn how to apply those kinds of things and I couldnt be arsed to learn it since I figured the actual coding at present time was more important 😛
Most of the levels also recieved tweaks here and there… I played through the maps alot, and also looked over the shoulders of various playtesters to try and figure out exactly where the maps are not making sense, and where you end up not knowing where to go.
I’ve also played around with the PlayerPrefs system in Unity3d, which is basically a way of storing information on the user’s computer. Thereby allowing the game to remember specific things. In this case, the Highscore (Its not an Internet Highscore, it is simply YOUR personal highscore on YOUR computer… )
Its not perfect, but its a start. 🙂 You’ll find the highscore meter at the start menu in the game, its not finished or polished, but it remembers the best score you did on that computer 🙂
Oh, and finally, before I wrap up this blogpost, as you can probably see, I’ve also played around a little bit with the text formatting on the blogpost, let me know what you think… be it good, bad or in between. Any feedback is appreciated 🙂
Thanks,
Eli (TastyGraph)
ps. I am aware of the horrible english in the subject of my blogpost… it seemed like a funny idea at the time 😛
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