Replaceholders
Replacing the placeholder graphics now, spit and polish and making the game look “teh pretties”.
A Big Yay
For some odd reason a trip out to the dullards of Birmingham this week has got me reinvigorated on working on VI - I doubt it’ll last too long, but I pulled an all nighter on it last night and whacked together 15 more levels.
A lot of people have commented on how they much prefered the vector look, so taking all the bug fixes and stuff that come with the last build and shoehorning the graphics from the older version to see what they looked like was first order of the day.
I must admit that part of the reason I got a little bit down on the old Vector look was because when I started writing the thing (nearly 12 months ago now) there wasn’t actually that many vector styled arena shooters out there… then along came Geometry Wars 2 and well, I think we all know the story from there on in. Its took a long time to bash out the feelings that I couldn’t compete with how gorgeous some other people had made their games look, which quite possibly comes down to a lack of confidence in what I actually produce.
I know for certain that when I actually look at what I’ve put together for VI, it impresses me and part the reason it takes me so long to get anything done on it is that I can’t stop playing it. Of course, the latter is the upshot of writing the game that you do want to play! I have an intense detest of cockiness though, and I guess that manifests itself in the obligatory “there’s no bigger critic than yourself” ethos… it wouldn’t matter if 500 people told me I’d made the best game in the known universe (if ever that were to happen) I’d still be able to nitpick and find flaws in it.
The quest for “perfection” has certainly been one of the main drags with VI and distancing yourself from your own code is perhaps the only way to overcome this. I’m trying really hard this time to just cruise along and not fall into the tweaking trap so that I can finish the darn thing and get it out of the door once and for all, close this chapter and move along to some of the other idea’s I have… and hopefully getting Devil Rides In out aroundabout the same time as VI is finished.
I digress…
The vector graphics are now back in, along with some new backdrops and the touched up effects from the new build and I’m quite impressed with how it looks now. I don’t doubt there’ll be some more taming to be done on it, but the level building is cruising along slowly but nicely for the past 24 hours or so. 15 more levels is more than I’ve managed in a long long time, so I’m hopeful and for the first time in a while can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Distractions
God, I’ve been feeling so under the weather this week after having so little sleep due to the nippers odd waking hours. I’ve always had what could politely be described as an “erratic” sleeping pattern, but as I’m getting on in years I’m finding it a little bit harder than usual to actually function after being awake all night.
Oh for the days when I could pull an all nighter and still manage to creep into work (reasonably) on time. Not that I have to go to work…so thats a bit redundant then! The rest still stands, ok?
As is invariably the way when utter cream crackered, I’ve had no interest whatsoever in coding. Its been difficult enough trying to concentrate on the screen without having to concentrate on doing any coding.
Of course, I don’t get off so lightly in the quiet life stakes and have been badgered (well, asked nicely) to finish off a few things. Turned out I’d managed to miss a couple of sprites from Automania - which really confused me as I have a quite vivid memory of actually pixelling the things. Senility obviously struck early there. So, doddled my way through them - not a great deal to do anyway, but mildly irritating considering just how convinced I’d done them I was. Of course, once the pixelling urge strikes - which fortunately for my good friend Scott - it did, you then start turning to other stuff you’ve not got round to finishing.
One polite nudge later, and its back to the Finders Keepers graphics. I was so close to finishing them just before Christmas, but with being rushed off starting the decorating (which incidentally, never got finished) and then falling ill I kinda drifted away from them and sort of forgot to ever go back to them. There’s somewhere in the region of 10/11 sprites left to do so I’ve been banging into them the past two days. Got a couple of the nasties finished off and the final two traders (Anna is a very fetching young lady now). So, 2 more nasties and the rest is wall tiles I think. Oh - and a giant pussy.
A quick plug before I go for my article which made it into this months Way Of The Rodent on the cracking little Flash game - Hamare Su. I don’t write nearly as much as I should these days (both text and music) due to a distinct lack of time, but thats certainly something I aim to remedy over the next few months. The last article I managed to sit down and complete was for the as yet unpublished Rewind Issue 2 - so many idea’s, so little time.
Anyone got an extra hour in the day they don’t want?
Somebody let me sleep!
Looks like C4 is starting to sleep again at nights, he only woke himself up once last night and thankfully that wasn’t coughing - so with a bit of luck I might be able to resume what most people call “a normal sleep schedule”.
Not that I’ve had much chance to pause for thought - finally gave Mersey Remakes the overhaul it needed and I’m in the process of taking screengrabs of all the games - which considering the amount of the darn things, is time consuming and uber tedious - and thats being polite about it.
Had a few other things I wanted to do over the past couple of days, but my FTP pipe was running full steam upping Smila’s excellent music video’s so I’m a little behind on a few things again. If I get chance, I’ll knock up some divx copies of them which should be easier to download for those on less generous broadband speeds than myself.
So, I used that time to put some work in on Devil Rides In, there’s only 6 levels to reproduce and as its just a quicky and nothing too special, I’m going to leave it at that - with the multiple difficulty levels in place, of course. Got the title screen done, dusted and finished and it looks pretty good - I’ve gone for the Hammer Horror opening titles look, works for me at least. Both levels 1 and 2 are working fine and all 6 levels worth of enemy behaviours is dandy, but I really need to get round to adding some animation frames to the enemies as I’m just using statics at the moment.
I’ve now got a pretty much final list of competition prizes, all sorted into their appropriate categories - we’re still waiting on one sponsor but “the bigwigs are gearing up for E3″ and so, I doubt we’ll see a definite list of bumph from them until very close to the competition start, possibly even during the competition itself. Not to worry though as we’ve been informed that its a definite goer - so I’ll just tag anything onto the categories that we already have. I’ve been pretty much overwhelmed by the reaction to Caff’s requests for sponsorship, a good percentage of companies that we’ve contacted have all come back with prizes above and beyond what we could have asked for - so this week, we’ll start unleashing the list of sponsors onto the board and begin gearing up proper for the competition launch.
The only downside to the weekend was reading a rant from another remaker about “nitpickers” and “people who don’t understand what the game is about” with regards to criticisms of one of their recent remakes. I’m hoping that its just letting off steam, but it certainly made for depressing reading when they claim that some of the comments were only made out of “sour grapes” and “because [x] make better remakes [than the complainers]“.
I’d like to hope that no-one actively criticises a remake for either of those reasons really, and it saddens me that anyone could perceive any complaints that way - never mind perceive themselves to be in a superior position to other remakers. I always thought that for most of us, it was just a hobby and a bit of fun and being the best never came into the equation? By all means, strive to do the best you can - its all anyone could ever be asked for, but perceiving yourself as “the best” is quite disturbing for a small-ish community that thrives on peer feedback, and is certainly a way to put peoples backs up from the off.
Maybe I’m wrong and/or maybe I’m just reading too much into it, but I can’t say it impressed me anyway.
Computer Space
Ah man, some of the wonderful things I forget along the way are unbelievable. Its lucky the internets exist to remind me occasionally. With the competition looming on the horizon and due to launch any day now, I’ve been rummaging through some of the old entries and due to distractions, hadn’t worked my way back round to the impressive collection of One Switch Entries yet.
Step forward Mr Minter who on YakYak brought back a few memories with this post on the Computer Space simulator. For those not paying attention, there was a fabulous attempt at a One Switch Version of Computer Space entered into the competition - and I remember being absolutely gutted at the time that I couldn’t possibly mark it higher - after all, when all is said and done, its still Computer Space and a One Switch Version is never going to be ideal.
36. Computer Space Simulator - Moose
Its Computer Space via One Switch. Bit of a toughy as a Computer Space remake is always going to largely remain a curio - a one switch version even more so. What lets the one switch controls down is its actually quite difficult to be in the right place at the right time to make a shot and most of the time you’ll find yourself hit within seconds. Not really the most playable of entries, but nice to see it make an appearance all the same.
48 bored students out of 100
So, I guess now - 12 or so months on I can finally right the wrong with not having to judge it against 70 odd other games (and thanks to Jeff for reminding me) and recommend that anyone with even the slightest passing interest in the history of gaming go and check out Moose’s Computer Space Simulator here
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