Victory window remastered. As you can see, I removed extra filth and added more color variations so it’s not that bland. Add animated text display, gold particles and cool sound effect and you have victory screen in front of you. What do you think?
I hope you liked short development video about pixel particles. Now, wait few months for next video. Nah, just kidding. New video is coming quite soon but until then I have short updates for you.
As you know, all pixel art had to be fixed from 32×32 to 40×40 resolution but I haven’t done all of it yet and I’m changing everything step by step. Before I had this simple exit that wasn’t really standing out so I’ve decided to do something more majestic for Marble Halls part of the game. Something that you’ll be happy for when you see it in the distance hopefully. Here, look at the comparison between new and old.
new
old
It’s still not finished for I have to play more with that light shining out of the lower level. Maybe some nice glow with some pixel particles would do great. We’ll see what inspiration brings. What do you think?
I’ve finally managed to put something on the video to show you. And even now, the video quality is far from good (it wasn’t nice after the render and when the video reached youtube it was even messier…I’ll have to learn how to do it the proper way).
Anyhow, I hope you’ll be able to see how these pixel particles look in the game.
I’m a bit late but rather later than never right? This is first screenshot from the game in new pixels (bigger art) that I’m showing to public. Just for a taste and here is my promise now – in next day I’ll release my first dev video blog about Pixel Particles in the game.
Treasure found but is it safe to loot it?
Stay tunned 
Next to common particles I use pixel particles for water splashes, torch particles, explosion fx, dust and other stuff. Simple system was hardcoded but it soon turned out that it’s simply stupid. Everytime I wanted to change one particular particle emiter I had to edit that code which became as nasty as sewer rats.
Last week I started to work on pixel particle editor where I can visually create these particles, save them together and use them wherever I want. I can’t tell you how great that feels. Here is a picture of this editor (latest version). I still have to add few options but it’s done more or less. I think it would be nice to show this in a video as well – I’ll record everything as soon as I finish the editor (is this the second video I’ve promised? I’ll get everything done but I’m doing what I can with the time on my disposal).
I was thinking a lot about the game view while playing the game and I thought it’s too small, especially when everything gets dark around you. In resolution 800×600 you have HUD elements in the corners and tiny player with some lights in the center. That’s why I decided to try and fix that problem by increasing the texture size for 4 pixels (8 pixels when I resize the tiles).
Pros: more details & better view over the gameplay area
Here is a small mockup I’ve prepared for you to see the difference. I need your help to decide if I should stay with old, classic 16×16 tiles or should I go with the new, bigger size.
What do you think it should be, new or old?
Long time no see, right? Well good news are that first semester at the university is finally over and I have all the time I need (ok, not exactly, there is still job…) to continue working on the Courier. So, here’s the proof!
As you might know, I gave one iteration build to some people to try it out. Few of those were very critic saying that nothing is happening and I was like “Damn, you’re so right…man, what should I do?!” Map editor & map format didn’t support options to link object (except some basic ones like doors -> Triggers). It was really depressing. I had quite few maps built already but I knew that game will suck that way so I’ve decided to rewrite map editor, map format and I even had to make big modification to the game system (code code code!!!!). But in less than 3 weeks I had everything ready.
Here, take a look at the image < Map Editor VS Game >
Map Editor looks nasty, I know, but those connections and objects lying around can do magic! Take a look at the game screenshot. Can you imagine what will happen with those red lines and rectangles? After you pick up the gold, earthquake starts which will start to tear down walls. Lights will go off and part where player stands will be erased and blocked by rumble. Thanks to the earthquake, player can find a way out now.
This is a “not-so-simple” example what can I do with maps now. I can play with the environment and game mechanics as I please. Isn’t that cool? I promised a video displaying all this but I couldn’t wait – video is still coming though.
That’s it for today, goodnight!
Ludum Dare competition is officially over and results are out. My game, Dungeon Warden: Rise of the Goatman got in Top 50 lits out of 902 entries (compo version). Even better, I got in 36th place which is quite awesome for my second ludum dare of all time. I can’t express how happy I am about the results because I never thought I would come so far although I liked the idea with confidence from the start. If you haven’t yet, I invite you to try the game out and check other entries as well for there were many good ones built over the weekend.
Congratiulations to all competitors who managed to complete a game!
official result displaying the rank in categories
Courier stopped at the small tavern to enjoy christmas at peace. While drinking hot chocolate, it even started to snow! He’ll have warm holidays for sure.
Happy christmas everyone, may your hearts be filled with joy and happiness!
I haven’t shared any screenshots so far except on the Ludum Dare blog and twitter. So I think it’s about time to show something here as well and say something about they day.
I overslept 3 hours and woke up at 6AM (competition started at 3AM). I was disappointed at start because of the picked theme “You are the Villain”. I didn’t have a single clue what to do and then this dungeon management game came to my mind. I knew it would be hard to do everything in 48 hours but bunch of great people on skype group pushed me to go with it despite the complexity. So, you are the mastermind behind the dungeons and creatures in the kingdom. Heroes will try to clear dungeons and kill you for mighty loot but you must not let them! Drive out every hope of victory from the kingdom.
In-game screenshot (click for full resolution)
I’m already working on this for more than 15 hours and everything is going great. I’m even surprised how well that went so far and it looks nice in action.
Let’s see what I’ve done:
What I have on TODO leat for next hours:
If you want to see more just follow my live streaming video @ twitch.tv.
Social Widgets powered by AB-WebLog.com.