The Kiwi's Tale on The Fiction Engine
Submitted by Earok on Fri, 07/27/2012 - 16:48Edwin McRae, a New Zealand teacher, writer for commercial games and tv soap operas, interactive storytelling fan and advocate for games in education has written a blog post about The Kiwi's Tale, in particular highlighting the constant presence of Kiwiana (which was more Stephen's doing than anyone else's). He also noted in a follow up comment that the game is being used as Homework for his year 9 students!
It's always an awesome feeling to see one of my games discussed on the Internet out of the blue.
Script Frenzy is coming to an end
Submitted by Earok on Fri, 07/06/2012 - 20:03Script Frenzy, the annual April challenge to write a 100-page Screenplay, is closing down. Shame, it's what encouraged me to write the first draft of the Battlesuit script.
BattleSuit Misc Update
Submitted by Earok on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 15:50- The games section now has a page for the NaGaDeMo Battlesuit Alpha
- Anthony Lau posted a combined image of all of the Mech and Aircraft units he had drawn during the month on his DeviantArt. (All of them make an appearance in the game, although some of them only appear randomly in the Arcade mode).
- Even though I wasn't there, Battlesuit got demo'ed at the Auckland Game Developer's Meetup as part of a discussion on New Zealand NaGaDeMo games. I heard some positive things said, but apparently Stephen (who was demoing) had to spend a few minutes clicking through the dialogue to reach the gameplay! If only he knew he could just hit Escape ;)
BattleSuit NaGaDeMo Dev Diary: Final!
Submitted by Earok on Sun, 07/01/2012 - 00:12
It's midnight on the last day of the month, so the (first?) NaGaDeMo is officially over. I hit a brick wall about half way through the month and development more or less stopped, but over the last few days I put in enough work to get the first four levels out the door, as well as a few final tweaks to most elements of the game.
It's not to the stage where I hoped it would be - the game still lacks any kind of audio, I hoped that I'd get an opportunity to add basic effects and animation, and there's only four of the twelve levels I'd hoped that I would add - but I'm still happy with it and I may continue to develop it to reach the vision I had for it at the start of the month.
Massive thanks to Anthony Lau, who was working up until the last hour on his fantastic vehicle art. The game wouldn't have been possible without you man.
Also massive thanks to Cobra Blade for churning out some great character designs for the game.
Finally, thanks to everyone that that played or gave feedback on the game (too numerous to list!).
Play on my Dropbox.
Now, back to the Spiderman bluray marathon.
Battlesuit NagaDeMo Dev Diary: Day Fifteen
Submitted by Earok on Sat, 06/16/2012 - 13:31
Beyond the half way point of NaGaDeMo! Time for a fairly substantial update.
There's a new gameplay mode just called "Arcade" which lets you control a small squad versus an endless stream of enemies. The goal is simply to survive as long as possible. The mode isn't quite complete yet - later I want to add the ability to select your own squad.
Play it on my dropbox.
BattleSuit NaGaDeMo Dev Diary: Day Fourteen
Submitted by Earok on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 11:12
This one's a little late due to a 10 hour shift yesterday bookended by hour long train journeys.
Nothing much to show, just a basic menu and a Grid.
Play it on my Dropbox.
Battlesuit NagaDemo Dev Diary: Day Thirteen
Submitted by Earok on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 23:08
As you can see, the aesthetics are changing direction quite a lot!
I've decided to ditch doing a strictly tile-based level layout and do one more akin to People's General's "Living Battlefield" aesthetic, for at least some of the levels. Bear in mind I still want an anime-esque look for as many aspects of the game as possible, it's just I'm going to use rough screenshots whipped up in Unity until we can work out how to do that.
I've asked Cobra Blade to come aboard to help with the character profiles, and he's already recreated some of them in 3D, yet still with an anime look (like his Powerslam game). I think he's done a really good job interpreting and enhancing upon the rough drafts I whipped up in the Anime Face Generator.
Play it on my Dropbox.
BattleSuit NaGaDeMo Dev Diary: Day Twelve
Submitted by Earok on Tue, 06/12/2012 - 21:38
Another minor (but very crucial) update. There's now a very basic level selection screen. I'm trying to get a few basic UI things sorted out before diving back into writing, level design and gameplay.
Play it on my dropbox.
Battlesuit NagaDeMo Dev Diary: Day Eleven
Submitted by Earok on Mon, 06/11/2012 - 23:20
I took bit of a breather today and only focused on basic cosmetics. As you can see the GUI has been changed a bit, not much else worth reporting.
Play it on my dropbox.
BattleSuit NaGaDeMo Dev Diary: Day Ten
Submitted by Earok on Sun, 06/10/2012 - 22:12
It's been a few days since my last update. I guess the second week hump hit me a lot harder than I expected!
Never the less, I've still managed to release a fairly substantial update. The second level is in the game (with a lot more borrowed/temporary artwork) and it features a wider variety of units (Stukas!). There's also been a few changes to the overall mechanics, including a Rock-Paper-Scissors mechanic in that some Mecha classes are considerably weaker or stronger against other ones.
Probably the biggest overall change is that the reliance on pure chance has been reduced a fair bit. Attacking an enemy isn't based on the probability of a hit and the damage done for that hit, rather it's based on the 'average' amount of damage done for a strike.
Play it on my dropbox.