Slacker Studios: Blog

Getting Ready for ALPHA

2011-10-26T18:25:00.001-07:00

Its That Time of Year Again...

You know, the leaves are changing colors, the sun isn't melting your flesh off when you walk outside, and your favorite game that you've been waiting for is about to officially enter Alpha status. You know, that time of year.

We've been up to a ton of things here at Slacker Studios. First of all, we literally spend every evening, weekend, and holiday trying to put together this game. This hasn't just been some garage band effort, oh no. We are trying our best to be legit. And while we may be constantly hammering the F5 button on our Battle.net account page to see if our Diablo 3 beta status has been activated, we don't let it get us down too much. After all, Passages is going global! Or at least, our advertising efforts are.

To get ready for Alpha, we have been busy rebuilding and remodeling to get ready to let more fans get to know us. Two weeks ago, we set up our first Facebook page, and now we have close to 100 fans! (As I am writing this, we are at 84!) Thank goodness for those Facebook advertising coupons from GoDaddy haha. No seriously, that was awesome. We have also been hard at work making sure that we are keeping on top of our development videos. We like to release those every few weeks, so go subscribe to our YouTube channel and check out the first two that we have up there.

We hope to have our first Alpha gameplay video ready in the next few weeks. Please look for that sometime during mid-November, and remember you can always send us an email if you have any questions or comments.

Happy developing!

Alan

Things We Have Been Up To:
Facebook Fan Page
TapScape Advertising!
YouTube Video Blog
Passages Mini Site
Slacker Studios Redesign

Passages of War

2011-08-16T18:44:00.000-07:00

Heeeeellllllooooooo!

Alan here again, and it's time to give an update on what's going on at Slacker Studios.

As always, there has been lots of change. James and I are now what the ladies call, "roomies," and while my wife may be jealous of us spending tons of time together, we all know that in the end, it will be well worth it. And by "well worth it" I mean, "best game ever."

So, if you couldn't already tell from the Slacker Studios homepage, our game is going to be called Passages of War. Now, due to some issues with our legal department, we are unable to give out details at this time... as usual. Nevertheless, we will be giving our details soon, and by soon I mean soon, and by details, I mean a video blog. Which currently has an amazing 2 whole minutes of behind-the-scenes, never before released, special edition, unrated, Japanese import, quality cinematography. Most of which was shot on an iPhone. Impressive, huh? You bet.

"But wait!" you say, "what happened to Nomnomnom? And that other game that was before Nomnomnom?"

The answer is simple, young padawon. You don't get to have those games yet.

To be honest, and realistic, our past game concepts where quite detailed, and pretty vast as far as content goes. Now, we are in NO WAY giving up on those titles. In fact, we are putting them on hold simply because we want to be able to put the best resources we can find into them. We don't want to release those games in a rushed manner, because that's just not how we do things. Passages of War is going to be our first game. We promise. The concept is fantastic, the execution so far has been very exciting, and we actually have a timeline we are sticking to.

"Release Date?" you say? Hmm. Yes, we will release it on a certain date. That is for sure. :P

So, for now, please sign up for our email newsletter, and keep checking back here for more information.As always, if you ever want to chat with us, send us an email!

Warm regards,

Alan

Development Update

2011-05-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

Hello again everyone. Alan here. Long time no chat.

Hmm, so what's been going on you ask? Well, I'll tell you: A LOT.

ALSO, EXPECT VIDEO UPDATES TOO. VLOGS > BLOGS. Sometimes.

Haha! Basically, here is the run down of what is going on development wise. James and I have nearly nailed down the storyline and overall concept of our game, Nom Nom Nom. We don't want to give out a whole lot of details just yet, but trust us, there is more to come. We are really excited and motivated to start building out this game.

Nom Nom Nom is seriously, ultimately, amazingly, going to be THE BEST THING that you have ever seen. Big talk? You're right. But we got BIG ACTIONS to back it up. Honestly, this development process has been incredible. When James and I get together, and when we start to brainstorm, this stuff gets legit, real fast. Are we fueled by vodka? You bet we are. Or at least, I run on that wheat. Yum.

Speaking for myself, I typically know when a project I am working on is going to be smooth when all the ideas just start coming without much thought. It's like stuff just falling into place without much effort, cause I'm already up there on that higher level. Any other project, I may or may not struggle with it, but the results aren't nearly as good as the first project. Nom Nom Nom honestly, without a doubt, couldn't be going any better. :)

Most of all, James and I want to produce something that is new to the mobile gaming world. We've got birds, penguins, zombies, vampires, you name a trend, and I can name 15 more companies coattailing that crap. I can promise you that Nom Nom Nom will not only be by definition a different experience, but we are trying to challenge the run of the mill tactics of intuitive gameplay currently seen in the App Store. We want to make a game that pulls you in, both visually and tactically, and then immerse you into a world that you want to discover and be part of. A game that you want to play, not just one that you want to waste time playing.

ENGINE WISE

Alright, engine wise, hmm. Something about triangles. And spheres. And water? Ahh I see. What else? Oh that's right, we need to only develop for 'good' hardware. That makes sense. Actually, I'm going to let James fill this part in at some point. He's pretty busy with some pending projects, but once those get wrapped up, we hope that we can reveal a little more information.

ART WISE

Okay, let's discuss a subject that I am familiar with. Art. Well as you can probably see, if maybe not if you forgot your glasses, is that we have a new, more relative banner up there at the top of the page. And I mean at the top of the Slacker Studios homepage, not the page if you are pulling this from an RSS feed or whatnot.

Who is this cow? WHAT DOES HE WANT WITH ME?! I don't want to hear his sob story, that's for sure. I hate cows. Dumb things. Ugh. I'm glad he got abducted. I hope he got tested. And... probed? Well maybe not, after all, he was taking a poop when they took him. Nasty. Who writes this stuff? Oh yea. I do.

But basically, we had originally been set on a very geometric sort of style, as reflected in our earlier banner, that was of a similar style. Or like our trailer video we made last year. Now we are set on a little bit cleaner of a look, but still with an unforgettable style. No lie.

Alright, I'm going to wrap this one up. I hope James can either rewrite some of the engine-wise stuff up there, or hopefully he will post some new content soon.

If anyone is interested in following our developments, please subscribe to our blog, or, we are considering putting up a Facebook page with built in updates.

Much love,

Alan

Where the heck have you guys been?

2010-07-27T16:28:00.000-07:00

Hola!

Alan here, and if any of you out there are investigators, you could of easily concluded that I am currently stuffing my brain full of the Spanish language. Why does a Studio Art major need foreign language classes you ask? Good question! Well, since YOU are such a sly sleuth, please figure it out for me, because I still don't have a clue. Aha!

Anyway, as you may (or may not, if this is your first time here) have noticed, I have completely redesigned and re-coded our website. We hope you like it! I've learned a lot since my table design days of yore, and while divs continue to lure me in with there super efficiency, customizability, and pure awesomeness, I do fondly use tables every once in a while. Hybrid Design, I call it. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there, both younger and older than me who would love to argue, but ultimately, it is what it is. Whatever that is! (Are you still following me?)

Aside from our pretty little makeover, we are also happy to announce NOM NOM NOM!, a new game that we are quickly working through, to be presented on the iPhone. James can tell you more about the awesome specs, but other than that, we are trying to keep the lid closed on major developments until we have enough to make your mouth water in anticipation of its release.

Finally, we are truly excited to simply exist and be creating. Be on the lookout for more amazing things to come, check back here often for updates, and make sure to tell your friends about us!

See you on the App Store!

Alan

Its Alive!!!!!!!!!!

2009-09-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

It has been quite some time since there has been any activity here on the SlackerStudios website. No, we aren't dead we are some what alive, well if you can call the half awake state that we have been in for the last two months alive, then yes we are alive.

Between, school work and other responsibilities there has been very little time for work on Asteroid Shooter, or anything else for that matter. However, that will all soon change. We are going to get back into the swing of things and get our first game out the door, even if we don't quite know where that door is..

Updates

2009-08-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

Here we go, it's update time again. James completely reorganized the way inGen is set up, much like one would reorganize files and folders on a computer. In addition, he is still working hard on audio, and should be done soon. The good news is that after audio is done, inGen will be pretty much complete, and we can start on actual gameplay and the like.

I've been working hard as well, mostly learning the ins and outs of inGen. I came somewhat late to this party, so I am having to try to play catch up. The knowledge of how inGen works and every part interacts with all the others will be essential to my being able to program gameplay. In addition to that, I have been tinkering with text again, and now we have the ability to alter text on the fly in the game.

You can safely disregard James' last post on motivation. After I found out about it, I immediately took corrective measures to reinsert the proper amount of motivation into the boy. Let's just say that 50 kV is a magnificent motivational tool.

Anthony (codeMonkey)

Motivation

2009-07-29T21:49:00.000-07:00

Motivation is so hard to come by these days. Work, research, friends, family, inGen and asteroid shooter. I have so much going on that I feel as if I am wearing thin.

I typically enjoy being busy, however, I have definitely reached a low point in terms of motivation. It would be nice to go to the beach sit, relax and do nothing for a week. Unfortunately, thats not quite possible as I am a poor college student.

As always I work on something for either inGen or asteroid shooter at night. Recently, that has been organizing all the code for inGen. There are quite a few files in inGen now, around 200, so some better organizing was at hand. It took quite a while to split all the code into seperate directories, and then run searches through all the code and replace the #includes. I think it was well worth it though. The engine seems much cleaner now, there is still more organzing and shuffling files around to do, but this is more than enough for now.

I am currently working on audio if I can just get that last bit of motivation needed to dive in and get it finished.

- James (Lead Programmer)

Particle System and Other Fun Things

2009-07-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

The particle system is nearing completion. The basic framework is complete, however the more specific functionality is yet to be completed. The specific functionality being things like adding "canned" gravity, wind, friction, color change effects etc to the particles. By "canned" I mean these would be specific effects that could be added to any particle system. The next item on my list is the audio portion of the engine.

The audio portion may seem like a big part of the engine, but due to the design of the engine, a lot of the code for it is already complete. These already completed items would be things like the ability to move an audio source around as the visual representation moves.
- James (Lead Programmer)

Meanwhile, I have been working on some other fun things. Most recently, this work has consisted of completing the OpenGL implementation in the engine. I think I have it done - at least, James has yet to toss me another banana and say, "Code, boy!". I also completed a random number generator for the engine. This will enable us to create random effects in terms of particle colors and directions, as well as some other implementations in the engine. My next project will most likely involve getting a raise from James - one banana a day just isn't cutting it any more.
-Anthony (codeMonkey)

Meetings, development, and future plans

2009-07-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

Hello!

We had another great meeting last Thursday. The members of Slacker Studios are proving to be fairly punctual with our endeavors! We are punctual-aholics.

As always, there was talk of current progress with our main focus, Asteroid Shooter, along with some great dry-erase board use. Write on that board James!

As far as art goes, here is my current schedule:

Finish Developing 3d model for earth. Current status: about 80%
Develop GUI interface that is optimized for the iPhone.
Work on more texture art.
Read through all of my new books I got on concept art/texture art.
Develop character imagery.

Of course, there is much much more that must be done, but this is just my current list.

Interestingly enough, game art has really taken root inside of me. Not only is it fun to do, it pushes me to develop concepts and ideas more thoroughly, and is also a challenge that energizes me. My hope is that I can continue to do things like this for a while!

-Alan (lead artist)

Update time

2009-06-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

We are still working hard on the game, trying to make everything right and the game experience as fun as possible. James almost has Collision Detection working, the next thing he is going to do will be to start optimizing it for the iPhone. Alan is working hard on the art for the game, and making tremendous progress as he improves his skills with Blender. I just completed work on the part of the program that will be responsible for taking a text, animation, or texture file and pulling out the part that the game currently needs. My current job is that of documentation, I am going back through the parts of the program that are already written and commenting the code. It turns out that neither James nor I are particularly very good about documentation in the normal course of things, so this is likely going to be interesting.

-Anthony (codeMonkey)

Collision Detection

2009-06-14T20:26:00.000-07:00

Collision detection, or edge detection as the more artistically inclined among us would say, is one of the most computational intensive parts of a game. So natural, this is an area that we are extremely interested in getting right. The performance of the collision detection system is especially important for our game considering its for the iPhone.

A rough collision system has existed for quite some time in the deep and dark inner reaches of inGen. Recently however, I have decided to bring it back into the light, dust it off, and tune it for the iPhone. This means a good bit of testing and unfortunately time.

After I have finished tuning up the collision detection code, I will move on to the completion of the audio system for the iPhone. This will again be very interesting, due to the limited nature of the iPhone's system resources. Normally, we wouldn't have to worry as much about decoding times, how much memory the background music is going to take up or even how much space our game occupies. However, on the iPhone its a whole new ballgame.

-James ( Lead Programmer)

recently...

2009-06-14T17:44:00.001-07:00

Recently,

We have been working on finishing the engine for the game, Asteroid Shooter. James has decided to call the game engine, "Ingen," and it is almost complete.

One of the remaining pieces is building edge detection. This will be used to help the game understand that when you shoot an asteroid, it is supposed to explode. Kind of a key compoenent, dont you think?

We have also been working on the art direction for Asteroid Shooter. We have decided on a universal theme for the game, and Alan has begun to compile artwork for it. We really want Asteroid Shooter to look nice, so we are making sure that everything looks perfect before we move on. No one wants to play a game that looks bad, unless it's an oldschool game, and in that case, the worse graphics the better! (sorry to bust on ya Mario, we still love you!)

Thats about all for now. As for the website, we are still trying to figure out how to feed our blog posts from blogger into this table. If anyone has any info that could help us, please let us know.

Oh! One last thing... we may be having a contest open up here soon. If you have ever wanted to be in a game, this could be your chance!

a heads up to everyone

2009-06-09T22:31:00.000-07:00

hello everyone!

just wanted to let you all know that we are very excited to be working our new game, asteroid shooter.

it's going to be a fast paced, action game, that is slightly like an FPS.

we will have more details up later.

head on over to slacker studios (www.slackerstudios.com) and see what going on, or head over to the Hype-Site by clicking on the Asteroid Shooter banner at the top of the page.

if you have any questions or comments, please let us know!

thanks!

2009-06-09T18:57:00.001-07:00