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I recently came across a new mmorpg while searching for a game to play. Turned out I didnt really enjoy the game very much. Primarily because of some gameplay elements that just didn’t sit well with me. After some consideration, it is an indie mmo, made by a solo-developer afterall, I decided to write a review for the game.

Bashing some Minotaur faces in with my enchanted hammer.

My review was noticed by the developer and they got in touch with me about the review and the feedback I had provided, and I must admit, this action by the developer really changed my view of the game. I still thought it was pretty bland and boring, but the developer was geniuine in their communication, and I was convinced to put more time into it, and to help out with any feedback I could.

Check out Slay Together on steam

or visit this link https://store.steampowered.com/app/892510/Slay_Together/

After about a week of communicating back and forth, and airing my thoughts and game design ideas for the future of the game, I started seeing more and more potential. The developer would frequently, even daily, update me on the development progress, and I was even invited onto the test-server to give my thoughts on the current build.

Posing for a picture behind the dungeon entrance in one of the zones of Slay Together.

The company behind the Slay Together game is Owl Tribe Entertainment, and when they created a Patreon for monetizing and supporting their game, opportunity struck. I was asked to do the Patreon Supporter Graphics, and lo and behold, here they are!

Patreon Supporter Graphics for the Slay Together MMO

I created the graphics with the vector program Affinity Designer. It has been my go-to vector art program for the past couple of years. I find it much more user friendly and can work a lot faster with Affinity Designer than I ever could with Adobe Illustrator. The fact that Affinity Designer has a one-time fee, as opposed to the subscription-based model that Adobe runs, was also a huge factor in my switch over to the Affinity Platform.

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Almost…  🤩 

That is to say, you can try it now, if you have an Android Device and access to the Google Play Store.

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.VeryViking.StarDasher


Star Dasher is now in Open Beta, meaning you can join the beta test and play my new mobile game before it officially releases.  😎 

It is a 3d Endless Runner where you control a spaceship with your finger, moving it across the screen to avoid incoming obstacles while picking up coins. Spend your hard earned credits to unlock new spaceships that allow you score more points and get further into the game.

Star Dasher originally started as a learning experience for me, where I wanted to learn how to make an android mobile game and also learn how to publish an android game to the Google Play store.

I’ve spent roughly 2 months on it, and it is safe to say that the 90/10 rule was in full effect. I am not finished with the game, but it’s quite obvious at this point that the last 10% of the game, finishing it, polishing it, bug fixing it, is going to take up 90% of the game’s production time.  😵 

So if you’re an Android User and want to play an endless runner where actually get points for narrowly dodging things, give Star Dasher Open Beta a go and let me know what you think. Help me test it before It is released next month.

Thank you very much! ❤️ 

Play Star Dasher on Google Play
Play Star Dasher on Google Play https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.VeryViking.StarDasher

/Tastygraph over and out    👨‍💻 

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Hi all, its that time of the decade! Tastygraph makes a post!

I released a totally FREE game art pack. You can use it for whatever you want, be it a free project, or a commercial project, anything! Its yours to use 🙂

When you’re done using it, and your game is a massive hit (or not) then let me know! I would love to see what you come up with.

https://tastygraph.itch.io/spacerunnerart

The pack contains 1 character, 2 power items, 3 obstacles to dodge and a background that tiles both vertically and horizontally.

Space Guy Tries To Dodge Meteors, Satellites, and Electronics while picking up Fancy Glowy Vials.

So check it out, make a game, and let your friends and frienemies know all about it 😀

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Rise my minion! *Tastygraph casts a resurrection spell on this blog*

Hi everyone…

it has been ages…

years in fact…

and for that I apologize (Lets face it, its not like you were holding your breath, waiting for a new update… if so… then… yikes, I hope this resurrection spell affects you too then, my poor zombie friend 😉 )

So what does a Tastygraph do in about 4 years?

We’ll I’ve worked hard at becomming better at programming.

I’ve practiced my 2d drawing skills and managed to save up money for a Wacom Cintiq13HD drawing tablet, bought a spanking new supercomputer and a whole bunch of other things(tm)…

Been promoted at work to now be a part time school teacher as well, so I am in charge of planning and teaching the computer science classes for the 5th graders (the only grade that is taught computer science at this school)

I’ve managed to release a few games on my Kongregate Page and I have also started livestreaming my game development sessions which you’ll be able to watch on my Twitch Channel (its like a television program where you watch whats happening on my screen while im explaining what I am doing 🙂 )

And lastly I have also been posting updates to the Tastygraph Game Development group over on facebook 🙂

oh… and as a little visual proof of concept, so you can see that I havent been completely slacking off! Here’s a video of what my super mario / meatboy and zelda2 inspired 2d platformer currently looks like 🙂 (This is after 2 months of work)

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hi all, long time no post… same old, same old 😛

 

http://www.kongregate.com/games/Mushizo/invader-avoider

is my latest game, which… really isnt much of a game, but more of a test in using one of the best/fastest/free’est game development tools out there… www.stencyl.com 🙂

I was at the annual obligatory (aka, you must attend, or you’ll be fired!) Summer Camp with my work… 5 days of no interwebz, getting paid 10 hours for a 24 hour workday… surrounded by screaming hyperactive kids that have been injected with ridiculously high amounts of sugar in every fucking meal! (thanks boss, you really know how to feed kids properly… but thats an entirely different story 😛 )

 

Anyways… im stuck at this thing… brought my laptop… and decided to make a little game to kill time during the extremely late hours of the night (seemingly my only moment of solitude/freedom on the entire trip… is when everyone is asleep and im not 🙂 )

 

it took about 1½-2 hours or so… and then a few more hours here and there to tweak the gameplay (if you can call it that… )

Its basically a super simple avoidance game where you control the character with the arrow keys, avoid the randomly flying red alien heads while trying to manouver over and pick up the hastily scribbled powerup icon to boost your score 🙂

 

In other news… I am now kind of torn between the ease and flash… (and the potential for iPhone game development on a PC platform for a price) of  www.stencyl.com  …

and the super power, 3d and 2d capabilities, multiplatform (for a price) and huge amounts of SERIOUS users of www.unity3d.com

 

Both programs are great for someone like me, but in the end, i think that  www.stencyl.com  is a better program for me, in my current “level” of game-designer… I’m better at focusing my attention to finishing a super easy , super quick game… and for that, StencylWorks is awesome 🙂

Dont get me wrong, www.unity3d.com is terrific for that as well, but its somewhat faster to develop with Stencyl, compared to Unity3d… for me.

 

anyways… loads of blah blah this time… check out the game to get a feel for what is possible with Stencyl in a very limited amount of time 🙂