Game Plans

So I figured you'd like to know what my plans are for games in the future for my game projects. So here are my plans, I don't know what I am doing until do it but this is what I am hoping to do in the future.

Tilly's Rose Garden:

Okay, this is my primary project but I haven't been working with it because I'm tired of making carbon copies of the same basic features with slightly different graphics. That gets boring.  But I'm going to be getting back to it soon. I'm thinking once I release the Blox demo I will get back to my latest version of Tilly's Rose Garden which is the Spring mini-game. New features will be added and announced soon! The full version I haven't touched at all in months I don't want to work on it until these mini games give me enough new features to make the full version fun and not just a long dragged out repetitive game.

Blox:

This is my newest project that I've been working really hard on, I don't have a release date for the demo yet but I'm thinking mid June at the latest, things can happen that set me back but in general Blox is my latest game demo and should have a demo out soon. So many ideas for it, you're gonna love it I'm sure!

Paisley Butterfly; Virtual Piano:

Okay, this hasn't been touched in months, not even going to lie. But I will get to it soon, I haven't been feeling very musical but the basic foundation has been set so things should be going in the future.

 

Drawing With Factoid:

This also hasn't been touched. I attempted to because I thought I had a good idea but it didn't work. I just want it to be more intereactive but I haven't gotten any ideas on how to make it more intereactive without the program being overly huge which will happen if I go the route I'm on now with it. Once I figure how I'll do it to be more exciting and not so dull I'll work on this.

Take Me To Your Leader:

Yes I have opened it a few times but I wasn't sure what to do so I closed it just as fast, I know what I want with this game and I hope to make a demo of it in the not so distant future. I know when I worked on it the game felt very fun, I'm just having to get back in to the swing it's too good of an idea for me to never touch again. So I don't know when but I'm going to get to this again, I like it too much.

Fluffertini's Pizza Constructor:

This was a fully game, so I'm thinking about making a second one, title isn't for sure or anything but I have ideas that would be fun for sure! And I have a file from my game-maker mentor on how to make the drag and drop more stable than for the current release. I'm really planing on making this squeal soon. I wanted to work on it these few past weeks but Blox took over sadly. So we all have to wait longer!

Multi Lingual Games:

Right now it's just an idea, but in the future I have a confidant who is willing to translate my games in to Spanish. All my old projects I will most likely leave be but future games and projects you might see some in Spanish. Hoping this to be the case! I'd like in other languages too, but I don't know people who will translate in to other languages and I was shy enough to as this person so, Spanish for now. Another thing to consider is my "translator" is a student so "they" have to study for the moment, maybe on their breaks they can help me. So, you'll have to wait a bit for anything in a language other than English. But keep it in mind in the future!


So that's my plans for the moment, I hope this excites you as much as it does me!


~ God Bless ~

~Firefly

Announcement and updates.

Okay so I have a few new things to say as far as the breakout style game, the first being I finally gave it a name!  The new name for it will be "Blox" pronounced blocks. This is good because now I can work on making a playable version of the game which leads to my next announcement...

Yes, that's right. I am working on making an actual demo for Blox. I'm not sure how many level I'm thinking 5 or 10 and maybe 20 or 30 for a full version if I can think up enough variety for new power-ups and things of that nature.


Another thing which you have probably guessed is I made a logo, there are 4 versions but I finally settled for this version:

Here's a level I made that might be in the Demo.

Much to be done but I'm gonna get to it!


Enjoy!



~ God Bless ~


~Firefly

Programs For Artists and Game Creators

Hai! I was thinking that maybe the programs I use and would reccomend to others for making games and graphics might be helpful for others who are aspiring artists and game creators. - Mind you, these are just the ones I have mentioned there are countless programs one can use these are just my select few.

I hope this is helpful to somebody!

Graphics:

GIMP

I do pretty much all my graphics in GIMP, some of them are edited in the program I used for game creation but not overly often. GIMP is an opened-source photo editor and graphic program. This of is as a free photoshop. Granted photoshop might be aimed more towards painting but GIMP is just as good for making game graphics and it's free no strings attached.

MyPaint

As stated GIMP is my main source for graphics, but if I ever make a more advanced game or have a more painted style in mind I will for sure collab MyPaint and GIMP together for better coloring quality. MyPaint is another Opened-Sourced art program, this is more like a free ArtRage, the boldness isn't as sharp as ArtRage but it's still a wonderful program. If you want a more painted look I'd recommend MyPaint for sure; however there is another program called Krita, I can't seem to understand it personally...But I only use a mouse and that's probably why. Can't hurt for you to try.

 

Inkscape

 

I don't personally use Inkscape for the simple reason I don't understand Vectoring. When trying to make a vector I get so lost I'm on another planet. That aside, for those who would be more apt to use a vectoring program Inkscape is like a free Adobe Illustrator, it is as well opened source and is powerful enough to make sleek graphics that are vectors instead of normal images that use pixels.

Sounds:

Sony Acid (Free Version)

 

I use Sony Acid's synth pad to create my sounds (like picking up points, impact noises, power-ups...etc). I don't have the full version so exporting to .wav is an extra feature you can only get if you buy it so I have to use another program to convert to .wav...For what I need it for it's useful. You could maybe use Fruity Loops as well, there's free version if you have no money. Or another alternative is Linux Music Making Studio, it's a lot like Fruity Loops only you don't have to pay for it. (And it works in Windows too)

GoldWave ( Free version)

 

I use GoldWave to export my sounds in to .wav (that's the format I have to use in my game creation program) and I also edit the sounds in goldwave, like the volume and some effects to the sounds. You can buy GoldWave if you want too, I honestly don't know what you get if you buy it , I've been using the free version for stuff since I'm 10 or 11 years old so...yep. If you want a similar program that's fully free you can get Audacity, it's a free program for editiing music and stuff like that it would 

 probably be just as useful.

Game Creation

GameMaker 8.0

 

This is a program you'd have to buy for full functionality (unless you learn to code out of the gate). It's a very good program for noobs like me who don't know what they're doing. There's a drag and drop option and a coding option, if you code you have to use it's own coding language. Any previous coding knowlage would probably help you understand the codes in GML (Game Maker Language) however, its it's own lauguage and you'd have to learn it.
GameMaker is currently on the 8.1 version, and if you pay the most money (which is ungodly exspensive) you can make games on nearly every platform there is; however, though, if you are just starting out you don't want to spend all that money if you don't even know if you like the program. I'd mess with the free version first. GameMaker is a primarily 2D based program, there is some 3D ability but not a whole lot.

 If you're more in to 3D you can use J Monkey which uses Java Script as the code but you'd have to also lean how to use Blender which is a legally free opened source 3D animation and modeling program (Think if it as a free Maya).

I wrote review about GameMaker, it's rather old and I have learned a whole lot more about it since then but it might give you an idea. LINK

_____

Program Links:

Audacity

GoldWave

Sony Acid

Linux Music Making Studio

GIMP

MyPaint

Blender

Krita

JMonkey

GameMaker

____

God Bless,

~Firefly

Breakout game update

Here's a few quick updates, on my breakout type game.

1. I've added some more sounds, though I haven't found the right kind of music yet that can wait anyway since loading things go faster when music hasn't been imported anyway.

2. It took me a little while but I figured out a sketchy way to spawn a random object after the ball hits a block. So far for that I have 3 blocks that spawn things with that method and one that spawns using [create_instance (x, y, obj_name)]. This graph will show you my objects I have so far.

3. I've changed the aspect ratio for the game, it was originally something around 959X675 or something now it's 1008 X 650...I still don't know it I'm going to keep that size or not since I want it to be in full screen and images get blurry in full screen. So we'll see.


4. I've learned what the draw>other>create effects setting does. And now I can make the bombs look like they are exploding when they hit the bar. I can also do other effects I'll show later.

I hope this gives you a little something as you wait.

Enjoy!


~ God Bless ~

~ Firefly

Draft Points System in the first stage!

So you know how I've been like I need to make a points system? well I think I might have made one, a basic one anyway. I'd like to talk about this a little bit how I did it in case it's helpful for somebody.


So I had no clue where to start so first I went in to gamemaker and arranged all the blocks by color so I can create a point system based on color pairs. I wanted a pattern but I didn't know how to limit the points. So I decided what's the highest number I want to go with as a point value. I decided 20 was a nice round solid number not that large but not too small, which is what I wanted because I have a bonus block of 50 points and I make one or 2 others but you'll have to work to get to them.
I also wanted the highest values to be the largest blocks and the smallest value with the smallest blocks so I went with a loose guideline of splitting a number in thirds for the sizes, but I also didn't want a double point in any sub section of blocks (Large, Medium, Small) [ex. two blocks with the value of 4 in the medium block category]. So the fun starts.

Pre-point system arranged blocks in gamemaker

Before I did the point assigning I first made a color chart on paper, using normal washable markers in a sketch book. I made what you could call a primitive excel-sheet splitting it by color using a maker to represent the color , and size making 3 collums to work with. I then marked with a tick mark (or a check as some call it) the sizes that go with that color. It did more of a preparation on how to figure out what strategy I was going to use to create the system than anything else since I mostly referenced the blocks in gamemaker since it was easier to read but it was helpful none-the-less.

Color Chart

Now comes the "fun" part, point assigning, it was at this point that I went through the point limitation idea and thought process. I counted how many large blocks there were and I made value decisions based on that. I was going to go with factors of twenty but I ended up using another route, which was a better one because all the factors can't be split by 3 without going in to decimals and gamemaker doesn't use decimals in point-values. There are 6 blocks of each (I forgot until now! lol) but since I am going with thirds as a general though not hardlined theme I went with 3 blocks going by multiples of 6 and 3 blocks multiples of 5 skipping five so there would be a higher point value.

So the large blocks ended up being:

Point Chart

• 6
• 12
• 18
• 10
• 15
• 20

To make it easier to remember I used my markers again and marked the color and made columns like before only each column had a point value assigned to the color, but the colors stayed uniform. If a block existed in that color it got a point value, if it didn't it got an X to say this doesn't exist. I noticed I forgot to mark one the unmarked on has a value of 6.

I didn't end up being able to split in 3rds in the end, a few numbers were repeated more than once in any given column and I didn't want that so I had to be more loose; but it was a helpful general guidline to get my mind rolling.


I'm not saying much will change, but I still have to look over the points see if I can make it maybe slightly more coherent but for now I'm still happy I made it this far!


Here's what the full draft page looks like:

See how I added notes.

So that's my update! Two in one week! I'm feeling pretty good about this.


I hope it was helpful to read my process maybe it will help you find your own.
I'm going to post this on my main blog to as a semi tutorial as well.


~ God Bless ~

~ Firefly

Latest Update On My Breakout Style Game (5/1/2015)

Here's an update on my breakout style game...

I got to make a points system, arrange the levels and make some more power-ups but all in good time!  I also have some bugs I have to fix somehow...Not sure how I'm going to do that...I'll figure it out.... And I have to work on more sounds for the game and I have to make menus for it...and maybe a high score thingy (for your own use not national)....I don't know I think there's more...ah yes this game needs a name, what the name will be I still have no clue!

The Point-Sprites

For what I have done I have done points as in graphics but not assigned value (I need a sensible system), I also have made some more blocks that don't break at all but you will bounce off of.

There will be at least 18 different points that break on immediate impact, and at least 2 blocks that take more than one impact to destroy. There are 6 blocks of each size and I have 3 sizes, I'm sticking with multiples of 16 pixels so I can construct the game more efficiently.




I've created a level (that took me forever to finish and I haven't added lives yet I have to account for that ) and I think graphically this is perfect. I have to make more backgrounds though but that simple style is good for this kind of game and I'm happy with it.

Here's the blocks that take multiple impacts to break in action!
The cracks are kinda hard to see in the video but each non-destroy impact causes a crack.

I hope this is a sufficient update for now!


~ God Bless ~


~ Firefly