Brief Affair

My brand new project has been started. I feel good about it. It's good looking. It's different. It's fun. It takes ages to make.....
I've got into it but my initial enthusiasm has waned and progress has slowed. Not halt but not going at a rate of knots. I got the seven year itch. I was a little bored so I looked elsewhere for thrills.
 I looked into my ideas pad and saw a wild concept for a quick game I could make in RPG Maker VX Ace so I thought I'd knock it out in a month. I don't want to abandon my current project because I really like the whole thing so I had some brief rules:
1. No custom graphics.
2. Stick to original number of scenes.
3. Keep it mega simple.
4. Development must be done in a month.
If I stick to these rules I'll have another game in the portfolio and I will hopefully go back to my original project refreshed and full of enthusiasm..
Here's hoping!

Ohhh... So that's why we backup.

Cherished family pictures and videos vanished into thin air. Programs deleted and music gone. Months and months of work wasted. Most sickeningly three months of development on my latest game all dead.
All because of a piece of malware.
Cheers virus creators, you  have cost me dear. One stinking virus was all it took and I had to reset my PC to factory settings. I was an idiot and hadn't backed up for months. So goodbye hard work.
I hadn't just lost all my work on my current game but all the other assets from other games, half created games which I was going to come back to and loads of original art and music. Not just tangible assets but things like saved bookmarks and articles.
"That's it" I thought "To hell with it. No more development for me."
A few weeks later and I still had ideas floating around in my head. Really good ideas.
I dug out my old email and got a copy of RPG Maker VX Ace and got right back into it.
GIMP is still as difficult and amazing to use as it was and I was soon banging through new art.
So I'm back on the development pony making a game which is loosely an RPG version of Zone Of The Enders (very loosely). I'm mixing stock art with original graphics to make the development a little easier and have finally nailed how to do good cut scenes.
So after a big set back I'm developing again.
And this time I will definitely definitely backup.....

Beautification!

I posted up my third game profile called Crayon Country on rpgmaker.net today. I've gone for a different art style as I wanted to make sure all my games are different to other games created in RPG Maker VX Ace. 
I was inspired by all the doodles we used to do at school, drawing assault courses for each other when we should have really been doing work. I wanted the game to look like it was scribbled on a notepad. It's very simple looking but hopefully not too monotonous. 
On the game profile I posted some screen-shots of the Crayon Country levels which I have already created. I had some feedback from a user called Deckiller (who is the manager of rpgmaker.net). He said that the game lacked a few details and needed some more random items and such. 
So I went on a beautifying spree. I went back through my old tile-sets and re-jigged some graphics. I put in random details and some much better graphics to what I had created before. It took a few hours but it looks much, much better now. 
So to summarise:
1. Feedback is good.
2. Details are easy.
I wanted to make a longer game than my previous two games and be a little bit more in depth game-play wise.  I want to have three main quest dungeons around a city hub.I really like the concept of this game and I'm really excited about this. 
Oh and the name Crayon Country is a throwback to one of my favourite games Donkey Kong Country! 

Enthusiasm!

Yay! New project!
Yay! A million and one ideas!
Yay! Great new artistic direction!

Two weeks later:

BOO!

I've started a new project based on 8-bit graphics and sounds and wanted to do something a little different to most of the things that are on http://rpgmaker.net. Now most of the stuff is awesome and there are some really talented guys and girls on there, but I really want my games to be something that people don't think was made in a SDK.
So I cracked on. I didn't want to be too ambitious and go for an epic length but try and keep it modest and simple. The graphics were fun to do and looked quite good. I even learnt a bit of scripting.
Then the wheels fell off.
I wasn't engaged with the project and I was very much in the mood of "get it done" rather than making it brilliant. With other games I have worked on the final furlong was easier because I wanted to get on to a fresh project with brilliant new ideas. However now I just want to put things to bed. However I am nearly there and all I have to do is I have a bit of tweaking and some final sounds to make (I wanted to create the music myself).
Maybe things were a little unambitious and I leaped into the project without having a fully realised world in my head before I started.
Oh well lessons learnt. More planning is needed! I'll get the paper and pens out.
Cue a blog post in the future about how my next project was far too big and ambitious!
On a more positive note I did all the music in the Pluseboy music tool.
Find it at http://www.pulseboy.com/.
It's great!

Time to light a cigar....

So I finally finished my first proper game. It is called Sorrow Moor and is now online at http://rpgmaker.net/games/4855/

It is now completed with a few rough edges. I didn’t have time to do my own music so the music is standard RPG Maker VX Ace fare. I created some music and effects but felt that they weren't up to scratch so decided to pick music that fitted in with the tone of the game. 

The graphics were all created by me. I went for completely custom graphics with a distinct art style. I wanted the graphics to look like they were drawing in a journal or story book, this is why I went for a monochromatic style. Some of the graphics are completely new and others are altered versions of the standard RPG Maker VX Ace assets. Altering the graphics that came with RPG Maker VX ACE took a lot longer than I thought it would.

I didn’t do any scripting as I am a little shaky with using ruby. This kept things quite simple but learning how to use scripts is something I really need to do. This also meant that I needed to be creative with some of the technical aspects such as the credits.

I felt that the length was okay. It takes between thirty minutes and an hour depending how well you know the game. The game is quite linear which really helped from a design perspective as well as keeping the events simple to deal with.

I’m quite proud of Sorrow Moor. I’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons and can’t wait to get cracking on my next game!

Iterative and Creative!

So I finally got to use my university degree for something! I have used structured development and iterative design while developing my current game. I would finish a section and would later go back and refine it and generally ironing out any bugs. This has been really good as I am currently learning how to use RPG Maker VX Ace and GIMP so each iteration of a level sees a significant improvement.

I have learnt to use little tricks with the game engine such as objects and scenery appearing in the foreground. The work I’m producing is of a much higher standard now. I’m glad I kept the old games that I have made so I can compare my work!

I have finally thought of a name “Sorrow Moor”. It is meant to convey a sense of loss and abandonment for the main character and is the name of the mystical realm the game takes place in.

I have been listening to a lot of game design podcasts. These have been a big help in understanding good game design. I listen to Lostcast which is a product of Lost Decade Games. Although it focuses on HTML 5 they do talk about general game design and techniques which I am most interested in.

I have also been listening to The Game Developer’s Radio which is a bit more about general game design and quite good as each podcast focuses on more or less one subject at a time so you can pick out what you want.

Lost Decade Games:

www.lostdecadegames.com

The Game Developer’s Radio:

www.gamedevradio.net

Talent 0 Perseverance 1

I can't code. I can't do graphics. I can't make a decent tune leap out of my speakers.
As you can probably tell the game development process is quite hard going.
But gosh darn it I'm going to finish it.
I've been messing around with tile-sets to create my game world in RPG Maker VX Ace and it is very confusing and fiddly but I've almost got there. Doing everything monochrome is taking time but is quicker than doing full colour sprites and tile-sets.
The monochrome minimalist style has it's own problems however as it all has to be very crisp and clean or it gets confusing on screen when all the action is happening.
I will try writing and using scripts but I think that will wait to another game as I want to get my current project code-named "Blackout" done and sorted without getting bogged down. I feel the game works perfectly fine without any fancy stuff and any more would be gilding the lily.
Also with the sound I was going to go for a few twinkly piano bits rather than a full blown score. I definitely wanted sound as this is something I need to get my head round in future.
I'm seeing this as a learning curve rather than a problem and I have learnt alot of techniques and  short-cuts that have really helped speed things along.
I've realised how big a task making a game is but I'm digging in. I definitely want to get it completed and out.
Go Team Perseverance! Yay!