GameBuilder15's Game Development Blog

Black Ops Multiplayer Theme Adaption

2015-01-22T02:45:00.001-08:00

I'm still working on it. 0:44 onward is original except for the underlying guitar riff, which was based on one of the motifs that sometimes plays at the start of a match. The rest is heavily based on the multiplayer lobby music, but it's not an exact remake because that would be boring. The choir at 0:22 was based on the sound at the beginning of Zombies.

It's not amazing, but it's not too bad considering how new I am at this. I need to learn more about mixing.

I'm also starting to paint in Photoshop. I'm totally new at it. Drawing with a tablet feels like day 2 of playing on a console. But it seems like another craft I want to pursue.

Took the Plunge

2015-01-07T00:50:00.002-08:00

I finally did it. I got a new PC, a quad core i7 with 16 GB of RAM. And I got lots of good virtual instruments: Hollywood Strings/Brass/Woodwinds, Symphonic Choirs, and Damage Percussion. It all cost me an arm and a leg, but I was able to get really good deals on everything. Hopefully it will pay off. This is something I've wanted to do for many years.

Right now the main thing holding me back is the software. I know what I want, I can hear the whole piece in my head, but it can be difficult recreating that. But I've only been at it a few hours. I'll get it.

If anyone needs a composer for a game/video/etc, hit me up in a few weeks. I work cheap. I can do sound design as well if you need that.

Here are some tests I did, one took 20 minutes, the other took 4 hours:

Compositions and Remakes

2014-09-08T01:57:00.003-07:00

Been focusing on music. Here's some of my latest stuff. Audio quality is bad because I'm still using an expired Mixcraft trial and I recorded through the speakers since I can't export to mp3. Trying to decide what DAW to get. While I like Logic, I'd have to get a Mac. I've been planning on getting a new computer, but I prefer Windows and would like to build my own computer. For Windows, I'm looking at Cubase. It's a tough decision. And then I still have to get good virtual instruments.

I think of these pieces as "sketches." They're about ideas, so they're rough. For Reach, very little editing was done. The strings were improvised in one take, the piano was improvised in one take. The mutation around 1:50 is clunky, but other than that, I like it.

Was thinking about Se7en (one of my favorite films) and came up with this. It's not a score for any scene in particular, just something dark, with a seven note motif. It probably gets a bit too uplifting, but it's just for fun. Somebody call somebody.

To learn about music and improve by hearing, I've started dissecting soundtracks and recreating them. Working on Launch from Armageddon by Trevor Rabin. Still really rough, but it's a work in progress. By the way, feel free to subscribe. I'm trying to grow my channel.

It's been a long time

2014-08-11T23:03:00.000-07:00

If you've been following my stuff for a long time, thank you so much for your support. It really means a lot to me. I'm not able to devote a lot of time to Flash right now as I'm working on other things.

I taught myself piano a year ago and am getting pretty decent. A couple months ago I started taking lessons from a friend of the family, who's an extremely talented musician. He plays piano, guitar, organ, and he's also an amazing composer. Sound designers, (especially game sound designers, I find) are often composers as well. Orchestral/soundtrack music has always fascinated me, and it's something I feel I would do well at. Playing by ear is automatic for me, when I hear one note I can tell you what it is, the same way sounds get burned into my brain permanently if I hear them a few times; it's why stock sounds in film and games drive me crazy. So yeah, I have to get some good software and instruments soon, as I'm starting to really get the hang of piano. I still struggle with reading sheet music, but I just downloaded a music flash cards app that plays the note sounds. Once I associate each image with the correct sound, I should be good.

Really excited about the new Unreal Tournament, especially how Epic is letting the community submit content and work with them. I'm definitely going to submit sounds when the game is farther in development. Here's some "concept sounds." Everything was recorded from scratch. I was able to record some real firearms with my new mic. The Enforcer shot is actually a bunch of .22 rifle shots layered and tweaked. I had to process everything pretty heavily to get it to sound like that. Still not sure about it, after listening to it a couple weeks it sounds more like a small explosion, like a claymore in CoD.

I would like to make a smaller Flash game. I have a pretty interesting idea for an idle game I would definitely make if a good amount of people would play it. There has to be enough players for it to be fun comparing scores. I've never really understood idle games, but I've checked a few out lately and I think I might have a pretty interesting idea. I opened up Flash for a few hours and did some coding. I'll post some more info on that soon.

In all honesty, it doesn't make sense to spend hundreds of hours building a flash game and just publish it without a sponsor like Stickocalypse. My dad is a lawyer and he thought the FGL terms were too risky for the developer. Despite FGL's popularity with developers, I think he's right; we both read the the paperwork thoroughly. The developer was to assume perpetual liability; if there was ever a legal problem for any reason, it all falls on the developer, and it could be financially devastating. My dad said it wasn't worth that risk for the amount I was offered, though it was significantly more than I expected.

It's not that I'm only in it for the money, not at all, though I do need money for school, software/equipment, etc, and making a game like Stickocalypse takes a lot of time and effort. I'm trying to think of other ways I could still make games by myself and make a little money too. Kong's ad revenue can be significant if you get enough plays, so that's why I was thinking idle. I don't really want to make another shooter because, let's face it, shooters are better in 3D. A turn-based RPG is something that really interests me. I started building a pretty complex turn-based engine last year. But that would be a huge project. Then there's mobile apps. They're definitely taking over. I'd have to learn a new programming language, but I would like to learn something useful like C#. Anyway...

Shout-out to my cousin Mike for giving me his entire line of Adobe CS5 programs! That was incredibly generous and thoughtful. I've really needed a bunch of those like Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects.

Thanks for reading. I'll post more about that idle game soon.

Update

2013-09-22T19:42:00.000-07:00

My programming just got way better. A few important concepts (inheritance, return values, and multidimensional arrays) suddenly "clicked." Sometimes it takes me weeks or even months to figure out why something is important and how to use it, but afterward I wonder how I programmed without it. I think I have just about learned all the fundamentals of AS3 (and hopefully, object-oriented programming).

Weapon Crafting

2013-09-02T10:51:00.002-07:00

I added a few customizable parts to the machine gun and it works perfectly. I just don't know if I can do this for every weapon. Maybe I can make one completely customizable weapon that can be made into anything (rifle, shotgun, pistol, etc) and that's it. Actually, now that I think about it, I could just make a bunch of different weapon parts and a few slots to build weapons in. Duh. Don't know why I didn't think of that sooner.

The game has evolved into a Balloon in a Wasteland-style game. Except in this one you're not repairing your balloon, you're mining crystals. To mine them, you use the claaaaaawwwww.

I added new enemy graphics. The orange enemy was made before I knew what I was doing so I'm probably going to change it, but it was only half-finished anyway. I only just realized I was not using the art style I wanted. The red zombie is more what I had in mind. Big head, cartoon-look.

Boss

2013-08-28T11:18:00.003-07:00

At the moment, he's a giant worm thing that pops out of the ground in random places and shoots at you.

Added two new weapons -- a plasma carbine and a machine gun.

The game is actually coming along pretty well.

How I love parameters

2013-08-26T11:35:00.001-07:00

I almost started hard-coding this really clunky pick up weapon system, when I got a better idea. Now it is super easy to add new weapons to the game. It is awesome.

There are two gun slots. When you walk over a gun, you can pick it up by pressing the down arrow. That gun will replace the one in the slot currently active. There is a third slot for melee weapons, but I think melee weapons might be exclusive to each class. I'll have to see.

Anyway, I think this game has potential. It's already pretty fun.

I should start thinking about two-player mode before I get too far along. The main problem is how to work the camera. I have no idea how to program split screen. I'd probably have to make the camera zoom out when the players are far away from each other. Or I could just permanently keep the view zoomed out. That would definitely be the easiest way, but the characters might be too small. This kind of thing is not my forte.

I also have to be careful to avoid lag. Some of the code is pretty clunky. But so far, there's no lag even on high quality.

Interesting Mechanics

2013-08-24T13:44:00.001-07:00

The game is getting a lot more interesting. I think it has some potential. Now you can use your handy dandy space magic to blow tons of enemies up. The player holds the spacebar for a second to charge up, and then the ball of energy goes flying up in an arc. It's fun when it lands on a group of enemies.

Now the player can block by holding Z. X is now attack. I might have to redo the control scheme later, but for now it works alright. Shift is used to switch weapons.

Traveling back in time

2013-08-23T19:59:00.003-07:00

Well, I wasn't sure if the game was going to be fun or not.

So I am trying going back to the old version of the game. The game started out as a side-scroller beat 'em up/shoot 'em up kind of like Zombocalypse. I feel like I may be able to turn it into something fun.

You see, I've had this plan for a game with chunky, little Spartan-like characters for a few months. I have ideas for classes and everything, and a ton of concept art. I would like to add two player co-op. I just have to figure out a way to make the game not boring. It's easy to mess up, because the movement is very restricted. As long as there are different kinds of attacks, jumping, blocking, and other interesting moves, I think it could work. And of course, weapon customization. Oh yes.

I'm not saying I'm done with the "scary" game. I'm just giving this a try to see how it turns out. This kind of game is my specialty. Once I get the engine done, all I have to do is add weapons, characters, powerups, items, etc.

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For

2013-08-21T14:29:00.004-07:00

Weapon customization! But you can't just be a tactical mall ninja and stick on 3 different optics, a suppressor, a drum mag, and an enhanced extractor. You have to choose wisely. Now when you level up you get to pick a weapon attachment.

There is a good chance I'll do armor upgrades as well. In the screenshot below you can see my super cool SMG with a rate of fire upgrade (that blue part near the mag well) and drum mag. I wasn't sure how exactly to draw a rate of fire upgrade. I could make an extractor or something, but you wouldn't be able to see it (as an extractor is an internal part), and I've noticed players like visible change.

Leveling

2013-08-14T10:50:00.003-07:00

Now killing monsters gives the player XP, and when he levels up, he gets to pick a perk.

You can see the blue XP bar in the screenshot below:

I'm still not sure about this game. I hope people like it. The biggest risk is the limited movement. But it's similar to Last Stand Union City, and that game did very well. As long as I make the game world seem big (lots of doors, ladders, interesting environments) it might be okay. I should focus on weapon customization. That's what will make the game popular.

EDIT: I'm probably going to scrap the perks. Don't worry, I have an even better idea for leveling. Way better. However, I'm going to be away on vacation until Sunday, so I won't be able to work on the game. Stay tuned. Thanks for reading, guys.

New enemy animations

2013-08-13T11:57:00.002-07:00

I spent a good hour on them. They're not too bad. Definitely a lot better than my old stuff. Especially the walk cycle, thanks to The Animator's Survival Kit.

I've started that new inventory system. Way better. Now instead of pressing 1 to use the crowbar, you can cycle through your items like you cycle through weapons in a shooter, and then press the spacebar to use them. (This is really good because now you can attack with the crowbar.) Basically, to open the sealed crate, you just attack it. Nice and simple. But it still needs a lot of work still.

And I don't know if I can make this game actually scary. It might just be a slightly dark adventure game. I'm positive I could do jump scares though.

Added a menu with some nice buttons. "The Experiment" is just a placeholder title. I also added some music, which really adds to the experience. Kevin MacLeod's horror music isn't too bad (I think it's significantly better than his other stuff). But if I had money, I'd use this. If you listen to it alone in the dark it is SCARY.

I didn't do anything too exciting today. Encountered a bizarre bug that magically disappeared; for some reason the back button on the credits screen would not work if I had the credits screen on frame 5. Anyway, it's fixed now. :/

And I'm probably going to change the inventory. I think I have a pretty good idea. Not only will it be easier to program, but it will be more intuitive.

New Color Scheme

2013-08-09T15:57:00.001-07:00

I'm surprised how much scarier the game feels with a red HUD. It's pretty remarkable actually.

Picking up a stripper clip holding 6 SMG rounds is more interesting than picking up 6 SMG rounds. It might be too confusing for the average player though. I added this awesome reload sound I made the other day, and it's perfect for loading a magazine. My sounds have gotten significantly better lately.

I admit that I still haven't tried mouse-aiming. Oddly, I really like the shooting like this. It honestly feels really good in this game. Personally, WASD movement and mouse-aiming evokes a "Let's pwn stuff. Headshot! Multi-kill! M-O-N-S-T-E-R K-I-L-L!!" reaction.

New Stuff

2013-08-02T15:22:00.001-07:00

I added a custom cursor (it looks terrible at the moment, but it's a placeholder.)

I added a weapons screen for customizing attachments and stuff. So far it's just a decoration.

I added a ladder and placeholder climb animation.

Fixed some obnoxious bugs/glitches.

The screen flashes red when the player gets hurt.

Weapons now have accuracy. Since this game doesn't really have aiming, accuracy is the chance a bullet has to hit the target.

I did other stuff as well, but nothing interesting.

Still torn about mouse aiming. On one hand, mouse aiming would make the game a better shooter, there could be flying enemies, enemies on the ceiling. But I'm not exactly trying to make a shooter. On the other hand, I think spacebar shooting and arrow key movement goes well with this game. Mouse aiming and WASD feels more powerful, at least to me. I have to figure out what I'm doing soon before I'm too far along.

Cardboard Bio Rifle = done

2013-08-01T07:37:00.002-07:00

I estimate it took about 10 hrs total.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgJ66J4-XU&feature=youtu.be

Decorating

2013-07-24T16:21:00.003-07:00

The game just didn't seem very fun. But then I added some detail to the first room, and it got a lot more interesting. I did this yesterday. I'm posting about it today because yesterday our internet mysteriously broke. Eventually, my dad figured out that my mom severed the FiOS line with the weed wacker. For some reason it wasn't buried.

Oh, by the way, I'm going to make the game's brightness adjustable. I realize it may be too dark on some monitors.

Health, Fists, and More

2013-07-22T15:11:00.003-07:00

Now the player starts off with his fists. But he can get a gun off the wall. I know it looks like CoD Zombies at the moment, but I intend to put the gun on a rack.

Crates now contain items, which float up and out of them. One of the items is a pistol rate of fire upgrade. In the screenshot below, the crate the player's opening contains 10 pistol rounds.

I also added a health bar. And when enemies hurt the player, he's knocked back.

I'd like this game to have a few unique environments if possible. I really, really love unique environments. That's one of the reasons I like the original Unreal so much; I loved exploring the unique environments.

What do you guys think so far? Does it seem like it could be a fun game? Leave a comment or shoot me a message on Kong.

Using Items

2013-07-21T16:22:00.003-07:00

I am really loving parameters. Now the player can open a sealed crate with a crowbar by pressing 1 when he's standing in front of the crate. At the moment, the plan is items are going to be used by pressing the corresponding number key. This design might work and it might not; I'll have to see. So far it seems alright. It's not that different from dragging an item onto something in a point-and-click game. My main concern is the game will be too easy because the player can only interact with objects he's touching, whereas in a point-and-click game, the interactive objects can be anywhere on the screen.

Inventory and Dialogue

2013-07-19T14:17:00.003-07:00

All I can say is I'm glad I learned how to use parameters. I wonder what other awesome stuff I don't know...

The ugly red bar across the top of the screen is the inventory. The ugly square with the rectangular thing in it is an inventory slot containing a security card. I still have to add multiple slots, but I think I can handle it. I'm not exactly sure how the player is going to access the inventory items, since this might be a keyboard-only game, but I have some ideas.

I also got dialogue working. Piece of cake, thanks to parameters.

I added a flashlight as well, but it's not in the screenshot.

And yes, melee weapons work. I think the player's first weapon is going to be ... a crowbar. I might implement some kind of weapon crafting system because I know how much people like customization. At a minimum I should be able to do attachments. But I'll have to think about it. Custom weapons might make the player feel too powerful.

I've covered several pieces of paper with design notes already. I have a really good idea for a jump scare. And I'm considering doing permanent death. But I need to be careful, because most players don't like hardcore games like myself.

There are a few things...

2013-07-17T11:45:00.000-07:00

That really get me excited. One of them is horror.

I was originally trying to make a fast-paced, sci-fi beat 'em up/shoot 'em up, a little like Zombocalypse. Then I played The Last Door. I was very, very impressed. That was the best game (Flash or otherwise) that I've played in almost a year. I enjoyed it almost as much as the original Unreal. The game was actually creepy; I got chills a few times and jumped at one part. Really looking forward to Chapter 2.

So that got me thinking. The engine I built for my beat 'em up/shoot 'em up would almost allow the same kind of gameplay as in The Last Door. Then I thought of The Last Stand: Union City. Indeed, it could work.

My game doesn't have mouse-aiming at the moment. It's just spacebar to shoot, like in Zombocalypse. But I might need mouse-aiming in order to interact with objects, like in Union City. At the moment, in order to go through doors and open crates, the player just walks up to them and presses the up arrow key. Which is okay for now. But if the player is going to be using the mouse a lot to access and use the items in the inventory, I'll probably have to change it to mouse-aiming.

The tricky part will be actually making the game scary. Audio is key. At a minimum, I should be able to do jump scares. And the player isn't going to start out with a gun; I want him to feel helpless. Also I'm not sure if the cartoony art will work. The graphics at the moment are only placeholders though. By the way, this is not a platformer, because I'm terrible at programming platformers. It's like Union City.

I've been really wanting to make a game lately but kept shooting down my own ideas. I need to just make something.

Coding, coding...

2013-06-25T17:35:00.002-07:00

and more coding. I have a few good game ideas, but I don't have the programming knowledge to make them. So I'm not working on any games at the moment. So sad, but I'm tired of being limited by my lack of programming knowledge.

I've been coding in Sublime Text 2. I just need to practice writing AS3; no need to compile it at the moment. Sublime is really, really nice. I'm probably going to give FlashDevelop a try soon. I hear it's way better for programming than Flash.

AS3 is making a lot more sense now. I like it. The book has been getting harder, but as long as I keep at it I shouldn't have any trouble. I'm almost 1/3 of the way through it.

Project has been postponed

2013-06-04T13:55:00.003-07:00

"What?!" you cry.

I'm afraid I have to hold off on this game until I know what I'm doing. The code has been getting messier and harder to work with. I'm definitely doing stuff wrong.

I have still been working hard at learning AS3, and I've been making a lot of progress. I'm about 1/6 or 1/7 through Essential ActionScript 3.0, and I understand about 98% of it so far. Not too bad considering it's 900 pages. Once I learn how to program, I will be unstoppable.

I might start a smaller, simpler game. I feel like there's something I could make with the programming knowledge I have at the moment that would be really successful. Hmm.

I think I might make my games too hardcore. Maybe I should try making something anyone can play. People seem to really like upgrades... *Cringes.* Or maybe I can try making a game like Canabalt or Epic Coaster. I love that kind of game.

Better weapons

2013-05-31T18:41:00.003-07:00

I put the new weapon graphics in the game. Much better.

I know what you're thinking -- Why is the gun pink? Well, its projectiles are pink, and I think the gun looks pretty cool like this. It was either pink or green. And it's not a very girly pink, it's kind of maroon.

Check out the health pack graphic. I inverted the usual colors -- the box is red and the cross is white. I think it looks pretty nice.

The map could use some work. At the moment it does absolutely nothing.

I have some really good ideas, but the story hasn't come together yet. I've spent hours just trying to write the story. I want to get the story done as soon as possible so I don't have to go back and change stuff later.

The code is a disaster. It's been getting very messy. I must be doing something wrong. Surely there must be a better way to do some of the things I need to do. Maybe I should hold off on some of the more complex things until I know how to do them the right way.

Alas, I haven't been feeling well the last few days, which is why I haven't made very much progress.