I’m now more or less tied in to entering this month’s MAGS competiton, having spent at least 3 solid days working on an entry. My main problem at the moment is how much I want to put in, and how little time I actually have to work on it. This evening I managed to spend an hour or two implementing a puzzle involving a cat and a cupboard…
April whatever day
So it was April Fools day today and I suppose I should have knocked up some fake screenshots of an awesome looking game and released them. Instead I just went “Huh? Oh” at several websites and the 6 o’clock news. Unfortunately there was no big AGS prank this year, though there was the odd smaller one pulled by various forum members.
Progress on mystery project since my last post has been one bug fix and one cool extra bit of code. The game is loaded with fancy and unneeded effects and rather lacking in actual game because fancy additions are quick to add and generally not very many lines of scripting, and once in they usually work first or second time. The main engine (if you can call it that) that I should be working on will take hours and hours and will need a lot of testing and fine tuning once done. Further delays may come in the form of this month’s MAGS competition which looks very interesting. If I can come up with a good, unique idea I may well enter…
On a completely unrelated note here’s a video of a water balloon being dropped in slow motion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XngQJzAmVm8&feature;=related.
Latest game developments
I said last post that I’d write something about the games I’m working on at the moment. Since then my web hosting went down and then I got distracted. Still, here we are.
Aside from the millions of ideas floating around my head (most of which need an artist and writer to ever get anywhere – hint hint) I’ve got two games on the go. The first one which, owing to its secretive nature, I’ll code name ‘Secret Project’ has been around since October last year. Its something of an experiment created as a sequel to another experiment and I’m not the only one working on it. In fact I have no idea what’s happened to it so far. For a game that was supposed to be finished in a little over a month it’s certainly been around awhile…
The second game is, owing to its surrounding air of disappointment-dissipating mystery, code-named ‘Mystery Project’. I’m reluctant to reveal too much about this one because although I know (nearly) exactly what I want to do with it, I’m not sure if I can actually do it in AGS. I will say that while I’m making it in my favourite game-making program, Adventure Game Studio, it’s not an adventure game. But it does have something to do with adventure games. Also its at 640×480 resolution, so if it ever gets done I’ll have done a different res in each of my main games.
Also here’s a small cut out from a screenshot of Mystery Project…
Slightly less feed issues
Well, making that last post seems to have regenerated the RSS and Atom feeds (as I’d kind of hoped it would), so you can now subscribe to my updates again. Unfortunately the Blogger Reading List still isn’t talking properly to Google Friend Connect:
(And yes, I did try changing it to /blog, /blog/blog.htm and /blog/atom.xml)
It’s starting to look like I can’t do what I want to without moving my blog over to a Blogger host. What I wanted to be one process is now looking like two…
1) Subscribe to updates using the RSS feed or the Atom feed. Edit: Feed is now *here*.
2) Show that you’re following by signing in to the Friend Connect window.
If people do 1) it means I have no idea whether anyone is reading this or not, and there’s no motivation to do 2) (except perhaps to have another link to their blog somewhere). Also if people only do 2) it looks like they’re following updates but aren’t actually getting anything (unless they visit the site regularly).
I probably shouldn’t complain, after all its not like anyone *has* to read this. I’m just more likely to update regularly if I know I have an audience.
* * * * *
Anyway, information about new games coming soon!
(Also I’ll stop messing with the feed locations, so feel free to sign up – again if necessary)
Feed issues
I’m having one or two problems setting up an RSS (or equivalent) site feed so that people can subscribe to this blog. Okay, so there was a ready made solution set up by default, but what I really want is a ‘blog followers’ type box that people can sign into that will start delivering the feed directly to them. You know, like everybody else has on their Blogger blogs.
The problem is that feature can only be added by ‘customising’ the default Blogger design, and you can only do that if your blog is hosted on a Blogger site. I’m hosting my blog on my website because I want to tie the two together, so that option isn’t open to me.
After a bit of searching I discovered that the Blogger gadget is based on a Google one called Google Friend Connect, so I’ve added that instead. Unfortunately while it lets people register as following my blog, and adds my blog to their Blogger reading list, it can’t seem to find the RSS feed so doesn’t automatically sign them up to the site feed. Then while trying to make it find the RSS I seem to have broken the feed.
Ah well.
Actually an art post
I’ve made the first entry to the art page by uploading some work I did for a now abandoned science fiction themed game. You can see the pictures and read a bit about them here.
I need to have a think about how I’m going to display pictures on my website, so far I’ve just been concentrating on getting the first few files uploaded.
Almost an art post
I was going to post some of the art I did for a now abandoned game tonight, but the lights have started dimming and I’d rather not lose my computer to a power surge… anyway, I’m now on a laptop without the files I need.
Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion tomorrow!
(maybe)
Blogging begins…
Well… not exactly, but this is the first post that I haven’t had written somewhere before. So welcome, I guess! I’ve got quite a few things to write about already, but I think I need to get a little bit of momentum going first.
Now might be a good time to mention that I also occasionally do a bit of writing over at the Wii Disagree blog. I say occasionally, at the moment its been just over four months since I put anything up there. Hmm, really ought to do something. Anyway, Wii Disagree is a more general gaming blog whereas I intend to cover my game-making and other projects, site updates and possibly more personal miscellaneous topics here. There might be a little overlap, but probably not much, so its worth following both if you’re into those kind of things.
See you around!
OneDollar
New guide and blog pages
Added a guides page which will host guides and tutorials on various topics. Also added this blog which will contain site and miscellaneous news updates.
Recollection demo added
Added a demo of ‘Recollection’, an unfinished adventure game I started making for a competition with Adventure Game Studio. You can download it over at the games page.