Peter's been getting me more and more art for the demo. Not only are there some impressive cutscenes, but there have been a number of art upgrades to some of the older screens. I'm hoping to get all of his changes in today so we've got something nice and new to show at indie game night tomorrow.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to go so I won't be showing the Japanese game. Which is a shame. Last time I showed it it spent a lot of time crashing because it was all set up for me to test and make things in it. So someone would click something and BAM, it wouldn't be ready for that yet and crash. Now it doesn't crash nearly so much and I've added much more control functionality. The mouse now works on all screens. You can play the game with an xbox controller, the keyboard, the mouse, or any combination of the three if you are quite bored.
But what we've been the most busy with is figuring out the whole kickstarter thing. We definitely want to do it right. So we're going through and adding a level of polish to everything. We're going to be going crazy* with that over the next few weeks.
*May or may not actually already be crazy.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Life came up and bit me.
The astute of you may have noticed that I haven't really updated the blog in a month. I have been rather busy, but not as busy with making games as I would have liked. Peter probably could have said something, but he doesn't seem to like blogging.
It all started one Sunday when I came downstairs to feed the cat. Carpet by the bathroom was wet. I was annoyed at the cat, assuming that she had done it, but didn't have the time to really take care of it right then. When I came back down I realized that the cat didn't have enough fluids in her little body to have made the mess, so I started wondering what was going on. I soaked up the water as best I could, but in the evening we found that the water was back with a vengeance. We had someone come out to figure it out and after a number of cuts in the wall he found a broken pipe behind our shower. It was coming from our dishwasher and the sink, so the water was pretty dirty. It had been going on long enough that it had soaked all beneath the bathroom all the way through to the carpet on the other side.
After we contacted insurance and had another company come out to look at tearing up the floor and replacing it we thought we were doing alright. We just had to wait for the stars to align so that things would happen and things would get fixed. (The broken pipe that was causing the flooding got fixed, but the mess it left behind is still there.) Then, Tuesday last week my youngest child threw up all over me (and the dishes I had just washed) right after getting out of the bath. I figured it was about time for me to take a shower so we got her cleaned up again. She threw up three more times that night and I was on clean up patrol for each time. I got to bed late, and woke up a lot during the night to check on her. Our other daughter wasn't feeling well and was coughing in our bed all night long, which helped me wake up to go check on the younger.
So, Wednesday last week, I was very tired and figured it was about time I did another blog post. Just as I was about to start my wife called and told me I needed to come home right away for and emergency. After some prying, it turns out that ANOTHER pipe had broken. This one wasn't a drain pipe and it was soaking the basement. She managed to get the water shut off before I got there, but more than half the basement was sopping wet. Having no water with two sick kids wasn't an option, so my wife took the girls to my parents house for the night while I stayed to clean up and wait for our handyman, who I was really hoping would be able to fix the leak so we could turn the water back on.
Thankfully, he was able to cap the pipe before the leak so we could turn the water back on. The pipe had been installed wrong, so if he had just fixed the place where it was leaking it would just happen again. In the end I was up until 1 in the morning soaking up water, moving things and pulling up the carpet to dry. After that I had a well-deserved dinner and a shower and realized that I was working in the morning. After 5 hours of sleep I was back up and getting ready for work.
Now that my excuses are out of the way, Peter tells me that we are very close to getting the demo done for Siphon Spirit. He's given me more art so I can tidy up a few screens, and we're mainly down to audio issues now. I'm looking forward to the kickstarter. One thing we're going to do is introduce a smaller puzzle game that backers will get early access to the demo. Peter will have just about all the art finished ahead of time so I can actually have things looking nice from the start.
The Japanese Game has also made progress (expect for a name, of course). I've been adding mouse support since that makes much more sense to do things that way. I just have four more screens to add it to, and of course I saved the hardest ones for last. Even with all these problems, I think we should have two games ready for being shown off at Indie Game Night next week.
Here's hoping that we'll make enough money to help pay back what it's costing to fix my home...
It all started one Sunday when I came downstairs to feed the cat. Carpet by the bathroom was wet. I was annoyed at the cat, assuming that she had done it, but didn't have the time to really take care of it right then. When I came back down I realized that the cat didn't have enough fluids in her little body to have made the mess, so I started wondering what was going on. I soaked up the water as best I could, but in the evening we found that the water was back with a vengeance. We had someone come out to figure it out and after a number of cuts in the wall he found a broken pipe behind our shower. It was coming from our dishwasher and the sink, so the water was pretty dirty. It had been going on long enough that it had soaked all beneath the bathroom all the way through to the carpet on the other side.
After we contacted insurance and had another company come out to look at tearing up the floor and replacing it we thought we were doing alright. We just had to wait for the stars to align so that things would happen and things would get fixed. (The broken pipe that was causing the flooding got fixed, but the mess it left behind is still there.) Then, Tuesday last week my youngest child threw up all over me (and the dishes I had just washed) right after getting out of the bath. I figured it was about time for me to take a shower so we got her cleaned up again. She threw up three more times that night and I was on clean up patrol for each time. I got to bed late, and woke up a lot during the night to check on her. Our other daughter wasn't feeling well and was coughing in our bed all night long, which helped me wake up to go check on the younger.
So, Wednesday last week, I was very tired and figured it was about time I did another blog post. Just as I was about to start my wife called and told me I needed to come home right away for and emergency. After some prying, it turns out that ANOTHER pipe had broken. This one wasn't a drain pipe and it was soaking the basement. She managed to get the water shut off before I got there, but more than half the basement was sopping wet. Having no water with two sick kids wasn't an option, so my wife took the girls to my parents house for the night while I stayed to clean up and wait for our handyman, who I was really hoping would be able to fix the leak so we could turn the water back on.
Thankfully, he was able to cap the pipe before the leak so we could turn the water back on. The pipe had been installed wrong, so if he had just fixed the place where it was leaking it would just happen again. In the end I was up until 1 in the morning soaking up water, moving things and pulling up the carpet to dry. After that I had a well-deserved dinner and a shower and realized that I was working in the morning. After 5 hours of sleep I was back up and getting ready for work.
Now that my excuses are out of the way, Peter tells me that we are very close to getting the demo done for Siphon Spirit. He's given me more art so I can tidy up a few screens, and we're mainly down to audio issues now. I'm looking forward to the kickstarter. One thing we're going to do is introduce a smaller puzzle game that backers will get early access to the demo. Peter will have just about all the art finished ahead of time so I can actually have things looking nice from the start.
The Japanese Game has also made progress (expect for a name, of course). I've been adding mouse support since that makes much more sense to do things that way. I just have four more screens to add it to, and of course I saved the hardest ones for last. Even with all these problems, I think we should have two games ready for being shown off at Indie Game Night next week.
Here's hoping that we'll make enough money to help pay back what it's costing to fix my home...
Friday, December 14, 2012
Reviewed by Indie Gamer Chick
Curious, I checked The XBLIG, and I'm on his leaderboard as well. So that's good! I don't think I had a single negative review of the game and most reviewers have really liked it.
So... uh...
When do I get paid? No, seriously. Even with these good reviews, I've only earned a dollar. And that's because someone gave me a dollar for a code because they didn't want to buy MS points. I'm below the payout limit on XBLIG, and for my homepage store as well (although just barely for the homepage). I've got it up on Indie City as well, but even though it's still on the front page and has 4.3 stars out of five all I have are a few hundred views and a single demo download.
This is pretty discouraging. A small part of me says that I should give up and just go work on that list of games on steam that I haven't played yet. It's a pretty small part though. I have plans for more games to make. I think there are two major problems that make the average player want to just pass it over. #1 is the art. #2 is the music. Maybe #3 is the marketing, because I have no idea how to do that right apparently. I've been learning more about making art and I can make something better now, and I think I could make something much better music-wise as well.
Anyways, not giving up. Going to make something better. Siphon Spirit is coming along and when that's finished I'll be able to work with a real artist on a new project again. Though to be perfectly honest I fully plan on making another smaller game before I'm back on board with Peter again.
Friday, December 7, 2012
March to the Moon now on Indie City!
March to the Moon is now available on Indie City! What's different now? Not a whole lot, it's just about the same exact game, but now there are achievements! Most of them are the same as unlocking outfits, but there are new achievements for mastering certain skills and some more for playing as a pacifist. Hopefully I get some more feedback from a wider audience so I can make the next one much better!
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Nearing the end of feature-complete
I'm working now on the part that I think is going to be the most difficult for the Japanese game. Well, the second most difficult after getting a name that I'm happy with. It's the actual flashcards. I'm working on getting it so that I don't need to manually add answers for each kind of flashcard. Okay, how many of you did I lose the second I brought up flashcards? On the bright side, I plan to finish all the different flashcard types this week and finish off the battle screen. Then all I need is the win/lose screen and the whole game is fully workable.
Peter's taking a little break and getting a mini-game set up for anyone who backs Siphon Spirit on Kickstarter. It has the makings of a nice puzzle game, so I'm thinking about taking it further later on.
Peter's taking a little break and getting a mini-game set up for anyone who backs Siphon Spirit on Kickstarter. It has the makings of a nice puzzle game, so I'm thinking about taking it further later on.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
New Japanese Art
Is anyone else sick of me being sick? I'm sick of me being sick. Anyways, Leah got me some new art so I stepped back from working on the battle screen to put it in. Take a look!
She got me more than just sliders, but I was most interested in them because they required the most work to put in.
Indie Game Night is tomorrow! I'll be showing the Japanese game and Siphon Spirit by myself since Peter can't make it. I'll respond with that people said about the games as soon as they post.
Those sliders were taken directly from March to the Moon. Take a look at the much improved sliders below!
She got me more than just sliders, but I was most interested in them because they required the most work to put in.
Indie Game Night is tomorrow! I'll be showing the Japanese game and Siphon Spirit by myself since Peter can't make it. I'll respond with that people said about the games as soon as they post.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
We're alive! WE'RE ALIVE!
Yeah, finally starting to feel a bit better! Peter was feeling left out, so he decided to get sick for a day. Then he sent me an image for the fifth level's cutscene.
It's time to leave the town and see what's going on with the army! I finished converting the Siphon Spirit code into something much cleaner, and have been pretty happy with how few bugs have popped up. Just got one that we've noticed so far, and it's just not calculating the score if there is an ending cutscene. Easy fix.
The Japanese game is also coming along again now that I can focus long enough to get things done. The battle screen is the most complicated screen in the game, so it's taking me some time to put it all together. I have the basic attacks working and you can select an item to use to heal yourself now. Next up is to actually heal yourself. Then on to the special attacks. Then on to actually filling in the flashcard data.
It's time to leave the town and see what's going on with the army! I finished converting the Siphon Spirit code into something much cleaner, and have been pretty happy with how few bugs have popped up. Just got one that we've noticed so far, and it's just not calculating the score if there is an ending cutscene. Easy fix.
The Japanese game is also coming along again now that I can focus long enough to get things done. The battle screen is the most complicated screen in the game, so it's taking me some time to put it all together. I have the basic attacks working and you can select an item to use to heal yourself now. Next up is to actually heal yourself. Then on to the special attacks. Then on to actually filling in the flashcard data.
Okay, just think. Focus. I can do this.
THIS GAME IS HARD.
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