The Limbless Assassin

The Story:

Ivan the Bear is a loyal Teddy Bear who is loved by his owner, Rhian. Rhian loves Lollipops - however, so do all of Rhian's greedy toys. When Rhian leaves the room, her toys try to steal her lollipops. Ivan, the loyal bear, does not stand for this and tries to protect them.

Many years ago, Ivan stood up to the toys, but they ripped off all of his limbs - so now Ivan straps blades onto his stumps and launches himself at his greedy foes. Ivan is prepared to die protected these treasured Lollipops.Protect them or die trying!


Gameplay:

This is a new idea which I am planning to work on once I finish Blood Honey. I really want to make something that can be used on smartphones and this is one of my ideas. From my own mobile gaming experiences, I don't think that touch screen D-Pads work very well so I had to think of a more suitable way of controlling Ivan. Instead of the D-Pad, the player will have to swipe in the direction they want the to launch Ivan. Enemies will explode once hit and this will build momentum, causing the character to fly around the screen at a quicker pace and racking up combos.

The game's camera will remain static and enemies can emerge for either bottom right, top right, bottom left, top left or directly from above. They will try to steal the magical lollipop from the middle of the screen and the player will have to fling Ivan at them. Once the lollipop has been eaten, the game will be over. So you will have to last until Rhian arrives back at home.

This is still early days and the idea will need to be fleshed out, so there will be more to come.

With Spikes

Without Spikes

Progress!

I have started working on Blood Honey again, after having a few months off and I am happy with my progress. I have decided to make three levels instead of the initial one and all three levels will have a boss.

I have a rough demo of how the game will operate, but it is still in its very early stages.

I have the giant spider that will be the final boss, but the two additional bosses will be a 'Daddy Long-legs' and a Stag Beetle.

The "Daddy Long Legs"

- Level One's Boss
- Shoots Bullets that split into three
- Swipes at player with cane
- Hovers up and down

The Stag Beetle

- Level Two's Boss
- Shoots using a turret that fires up and down
- Charges at the player
- Incredibly tough

New Backgrounds

These backgrounds will be looping.

Level One's Background

Level Two's Background

Level Three's Background

I will post more updates on my work in the following months.

Halloween: Zombie Surveillance Game

Okay, Zombie games have been done to death... I'll grab my coat.

Bad puns aside, I have an idea for a game, but only time will tell if I will ever get to work on it. Anyway, here goes:

You play as the Chief of Zombie Security - This is an important position during the dreaded, yet awesome Zompocalypse. The Chief of Security must watch the CCTV cameras that are placed around the most populated parts of the city. Whenever a zombie/ zombies are spotted - the Chief must alert one of the Zombie Death Units to deal with the problem.

There are limited number of units and different unit types to deal with the different zombie groups. If too many units, or the wrong units are sent out, they could get destroyed, or maybe there won't be enough units to deal with the zombie infestation in other areas - So this game is based around strategy.

As you progress through the game, more zombie types appear, you receive new units and more CCTV cameras are added.

Obviously, this idea still needs a lot of thought and work.

Good News - Yet No Updates

Sorry about the delay, but I've been too busy to work on the Blood Honey project, therefore I have no news on the subject.

For the past few weeks I have been working in Düsseldorf and during this time I received some fantastic news - I have accepted a new, permanent role, which I am very excited about. It has nothing to do with game design, but it's a fantastic opportunity. So these are the reasons to why I haven't been working on my project. Hopefully, I will still find the time to work on it, but I feel that the new, increased travel time to work, will stop the process until my partner and I move closer to London.

I will still try and update my blog every month.

Mmmmmm, beer

Blood Honey: Sweet Revenge (Update Part 1)

I haven’t got much to say, but this month has been focussed on the menus and the images that will be used for the introduction.

Menus

The Credits Screen (Fig 1)

The Main Menu Screen (Fig 2)

This is the Option Menu (Fig 3)

The Intro Stills

Still 1 (Fig 4)

Still 1 – This still will introduce the player to the corrupt world where the game will take place, Ajax (formerly known as Dolph) and his honey empire.

Still 2 (Fig 5)

Still 2 – This is the evil tyrant who wants Ajax’s business, to enslave all of the honey bees within it and then force them to work in this factory. In the last paragraph he will order his Fly squad to kill Ajax and his family.

Still 3 (Fig 6)

Still 3 – Ajax’s house is raided. The soldier executes Ajax and his family.

Still 4 (Fig 7)

Still 4 – Ajax wakes up to find that he’s now 75% cyborg and that a professor has saved his life. The professor explains that the tyrant has captured the whole factory, enslaved their species and now Ajax is the only one who can save them.

The intro thumbnails (Fig 8)

Original Concept Sketches

Original Sketch 1 (Fig 9)

Original Sketch 2 (Fig 10)

Original Sketch 3 (Fig 11)

Original Sketch 4 (Fig 12)

Random Sketch (Fig 13)

Blood Honey: Sweet Revenge (working title)

For the last two months I haven’t had time to start the ‘A Super Heroes Race’ project because of work commitments. During this time I thought of a different idea which I will work on instead.

The Story

Humanity has been wiped out, the world is a baron wasteland and the new rulers of this earth are insects... (Hear me out). Dolph the Honey Bee was a happy bee, his honey empire was incredibly successful and the product is the most important resource on the planet. Everything depends on honey, so basically honey is the new oil... sweet tasty oil.

The Main Character (Fig 1)

Even though Dolph is incredibly rich and runs such a prestigious industry, he’s a very caring bee who distributes his honey fairly. So not willing to be controlled by the corrupt senate, he cuts all ties with them. Everything went smoothly for two months, people were happy, but the senate started to lose money and power. A week passes by, Dolph and his family are enjoying a quiet night in. BOOM, the door is kicked open. Dolph’s kids scream as five hooded flies burst through the door. They execute Dolph’s family and leave him for dead.

Game's Concept 1 (Fig 2)

A month later Dolph awakes on an operating table, a scientist named Hubris saved his life and fitted him with biotic parts to keep him alive. These parts enhance his strength and stamina. Dolph cannot forget what has happened to his family, so he is seeking revenge.

Game's Concept 2 (Fig 3)

This game will be a side-scrolling ‘shoot-em up’, which will consist of five levels. The player will keep moving to the right and will start with three lives. There will be checkpoints throughout the level.

Game's Concept 3 (Fig 4)

Game's Concept 4 (Fig5)

The Characters:

Grasshoppers

These enemies will jump up from the ground and attack the player with their blades, which are attached to their arms.

Grasshopper (Fig6)

Flies

There are two types of flies, the kamikaze fly and the gunner fly. These are the most basic form of enemy.

Kamikaze Fly (Fig 7)

Gunner Fly (Fig 8)

Ants

There will be ants that run along the ground, shooting mortars and guarding honey pots.

Black Ant (Fig 9)

Red Ant (Fig 10)

Butterflies

The butterflies are sub-bosses; they are equipped with a gun and a large health bar.

The Butterfly (Fig 11)

A Spider

The final boss will be a large cyborg spider. The player must destroy 6/8 legs to defeat it. The spider will fall to its death. This spider has many guns.

The Spider (Fig 12)

Controls

LMB (Left Mouse Button) – The LMB will fire Dolph’s handgun. The character will aim wherever the mouse curser is on the screen.

W – Up

A – Left

S – Down

D – Right

SPACEBAR – Shoot a missile from Dolph’s sting.

Here are some of my original ideas for the game:

The Bobby Bee (Fig 13)

The Bobby Bee 2 (Fig 14)

Tiny Bee (Fig 15)

Rox9 and The Orb Collector (Suitable for Colour Blindness)

Things have been crazy the past month and hardly any progress has been made. A new project is being worked on, but it's being kept a secret until it is completed. So unfortunately I don't have much to write about this month.

Here is the colour blind version of The Orb Collector:

http://megaswf.com/serve/1049279

Here is the original version of The Orb Collector:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/563429

The only problems with the CB version, is that the Orb Counter is not as good as the previous versions and that the colours are still named; Cyan, Yellow and Magenta, instead of Blue, Red and Green. This will not be changed.

Rox9 Web Comic

The Rox9 project will not be made into a game, but I am thinking about making it into a web comic. I have missed everything about the Rox9 universe and I can't wait to start working on it again.

Rox 9 - Rough Sketch (Fig 1)

Gears of War 4 Weapon Idea

Here is some concept art for Gears of War 4 - I'm expecting Epic to call any second now...

GOW4 Weapon Idea (Fig 2)

Here's a random sketch to lighten the mood:

Romantobot (Fig3)

So, What's Next?

The Orb Collector (Friend Feedback)

After posting the game to some friends, I received some interesting feedback. The game had to change drastically. Here are some of the points that were brought up:

• This game cannot be played by people with colour blindness
• The bullet shouldn’t be the same colour as the orbs
• Add the text ‘Password’ above the actual password
• It’s too hard
• Use the keyboard to skip to the next screen, because jumping from mouse to keyboard is tricky

Colour Blindness

A friend brought up the fact that he could not play this game due to colour blindness, which is something that I didn’t think about. So after looking into the condition I found out that there were many classes that affect various colours. This was a problem, because I didn’t want to exclude anyone.

I thought of a solution to this problem. Seeing that there are different types of colour blindness, why not add shapes inside the orbs to make them more distinctive? For the Yellow Orbs I added a thick black line running through the middle; the Cyan Orbs were left alone and a dark circle was added inside the Magenta Orb. I was worried that the orbs were too small for any detail to be seen, but my friend approved of the idea. There were still issues with the three colours, because he can't tell the difference between Cyan and Magenta. He later sent me three colours that are more distinctive and aesthetically pleasing.

So in the next few weeks I will adjust the game and make it suitable for this condition.

Original Colours (Fig 1)

Adjustments for Colour Blindness (Fig 2)

Cyan Bullet, Cyan Orb

This is a problem that I did not intend on fixing, but I do agree that it’s a nuisance. This will be fixed though, as the Colour Blind version will have three different coloured orbs.

Bullet and Orb comparison (Fig 3)

Password?

A random number after each level can be confusing and could possibly be mistaken for the score. I added the text above/ below each password, so no one makes this mistake.

Too Tough?

People brought up the fact that it’s a hard game, so I have made it easier, especially in the green area that contains toxic gas. Some of those levels required pin point accuracy because the timing was too tight.

Skipping screens with the keyboard

This is something I really agree with, especially considering that some levels start with a mutant charging towards you. I haven’t added this feature, but I have delayed the charging mutants.

What’s Next?

Originally, I wanted to start a project using XNA. but instead I'm going to adjust an old Flash project, and then create a new Flash game. The reason for this is that I want to create a few completed Flash games before I jump into another language (C#). XNA is completely different from Actionscript 2.0 and it would be tricky alternating between the two. I have recently found out that XNA 2.0 is now redundant and that I will need to learn XNA 4.0. So this will make things harder.

When I do make the jump into XNA, I will most likely re-make one of my Flash games, because the blue print is already drawn out.

New Flash Project

The gameplay is still uncertain, but the next project will be based on an old character I created, back when I was 14 years old. His name is Rox9. The game will still be based in ‘The Orb Collector’ universe, but many years in the future. Humanity is worse than ever and multiple gangs have taken over the land.

Below is an old, rough animation that I made many years ago (2004):

In my next post The Orb Collector should be updated; a newer version of an old project should be completed and I should have some concept art for the Rox9 game.

The Orb Collector: The Post Mortem

Introduction

The game has been live since my last post and it has received mixed reviews. Some people loved the aesthetics, the difficulty curve and the concept, yet others disagreed. The overall rating on Newgrounds.com is 3.11/5, which isn’t bad, yet it isn’t great. During this post I’m going to analyse The Orb Collector and explain how I could improve it.

How I could have improved this game

Everyday hundreds of games get uploaded to these websites, many of which will get poor scores and fade away. Getting your game noticed is an impressive feat in itself. Because there are so many games, first impressions mean everything. Gamers on these websites only spend a few minutes to test the water and if there is something they don’t like, they’ll most likely skip to the next one. This is where I went wrong.

My game was easy for the first two levels, but the difficulty level shot up. Most people commented on the platforms being too far apart in level three, but what they didn’t realise is that the character needs a run up and not jump from the idle position. There were many sections in that level where this rule applied. Again, because there are so many games to play, people tried this a few times, jumped to the conclusion that it’s broken and then skipped to the next game. I should have eased the player in and made them realise this mechanic, instead of expecting them to pick it up instantly. After reading these reviews and noticing it was a big problem, I re-edited the level and added more platforms. Unfortunately, by the time I made these changes, the popularity had already died. It was too late.

Another mechanic that could frustrate the player, is taking away their ability to backtrack and pick up orbs earlier on in the level. This is something I managed to eliminated from the earlier levels, but remains in the later, harder levels. Hopefully by this point the player will start using the 'Area Report', which displays how many orbs are in the level. This is why I chose the genre description as Puzzle/ Platformer, because the user has to collect orbs strategically.

Two people commented on games with one hit kills and the lack of power-ups. If I were to re-make this project I will NOT add lives, energy bars or power-ups, it does not need them. This game is not suited to these features as the levels are incredibly short and fast. This style resembles Super Meat Boy’s, where the user needs patience. I am a huge fan of this type of game and I find the challenge appealing.

If you look back at the Flash greats; Alien Hominoid, Super Meat Boy, Flash Portal and many others, you’ll see a pattern. Yes, the gameplay is fantastic, but most of the games have chunky, funny, cute characters and a comical tone. Other popular series are spoofs of existing franchises, like Sonic, Mario, Halo and Streefighter. A big mistake of mine was making a game that has a serious tone. People want to dip into a Flash game and feel good, yet my setting was dark, serious and the music was a little depressing. So in my next project I will take this information and make a less serious game.

Alien Homonid (Fig 1)

Super Meat Boy (Fig 2)

The Orb Collector was missing a scoring system – A high score table made up of peoples’ completion times would have been ideal. This gives the player an incentive to continue playing the game. People could compete with friends and people all over the world. regrettably I didn’t include this feature, because I thought adding it would cause too many problems. I'm still kicking myself.

The Orb Collectors' controls are not perfect. There is a big problem with the jumping frame. The frame itself is wider than the rest of the character's animations (please see fig 4), and this can cause problems when jumping onto smaller platforms. Because it is wider, the foot can sometimes give the illusion that the character has made the jump, but only to pass through it (please see fig 3). This makes the player want to track me down and punch me in the face. Next time I’ll have the main character tuck his/her/its legs in as he/ she/ it jumps, so all of the frames are of equal size/ width.

Zimmer passing through a platform (Fig 3)

Zimmer's frames of animation (Fig 4)

Due to my lack of practice in Flash, I had problems with the programming early on. One of these problems was the fact that every time the player jumped onto a platform, they’d sink a little into the ground (please see fig 5). This will happen three times and on the fourth, the character will land on the correct area and then process repeats. This is only a minor issue, but it is still annoying at times.

Sinking depth (Fig 5)

After creating the full game, I looked at the project and thought, “wow, it's running smoothly”. Then I uploaded it to a Flash site. It was not smooth, it stuttered, badly. This game needed trimming. I deleted the intro stills, all of the unused items and I also cut down excess code. It’s better now, but it’s still not perfect. Again, I’ll learn from this mistake.

I am very pleased with the audio in the game, but ideally I would have let my friend design all of the audio. his work is well thought out and it always fits the project. This game had a great track, but it only had one throughout. If I had more time and space within the project, I would have had a track for each of the five areas. but because of the memory limitations I had to cut back.

Conclusion

So the overall changes I’d make are:

• Keeping the jump frame the same width as the rest of Zimmer's frames.
• Add a Scoreboard listing the players’ fastest times
• Stop the character from sinking into the ground
• Add more music tracks
• Try to reduce the frame-rate problems
• Let the user backtrack to collect passed orbs

Anyway that’s enough of me ripping into my game. I still thoroughly enjoyed project and think of it as a success. I hope that if you play it, you enjoy it too. Be warned, it’s hard and requires patience.

The link is: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/563429

The Orb Collector Update (Part 3)

The game is very close to completion. All 25 levels have been created, the gameplay mechanics are complete and all of the sprites are satisfactory. I'm still missing the audio, but this is something I want to plan, when the other elements of the game are 100% complete. A work colleague has offered me his services and after listening to his audio portfolio, I am more than happy for him to design the music and sound effects.

The only remaining tasks are:

• Adjusting the passwords (they are very predictable at the moment)
• Pre-loader
• Edit/ input text before each level
• Implement the audio
• Implement the mute button
• Add a pause feature
• Trim down the project in size
• Beta testing stage

My desk during the creation of the art.

As promised I’m going to upload the images that were going to be used for the game’s introduction. These images will be used for the introduction, to explain the gameplay, but if they drastically increase the size, they'll have to be scrapped from the project. I want to keep this game's size below 10 Megabytes, so the project can be uploaded to most of the Flash websites. I have found out that Newgrounds.com allows Flash projects under 10Meg and Kongregate.com allows projects under 20Meg. So far The Orb Collector is around 4Meg, so hopefully the audio doesn't increase the size too much.

Here are the images:

The Orb Collector (Image 1)

The Orb Collector (Image 2)

The Orb Collector (Image 3)

The Orb Collector (Image 4)

The Orb Collector (Image 5)

The Orb Collector (Image 6)

The Orb Collector (Image 7)

The Orb Collector (Image 8)

Thanks for reading this post and hopefully the next will include a link to the game.