Stuff I'm Doing Now

Edit: (September 21, 2010) Slaix was kind enough to write a TVtropes page for the game. :) You can find it here and on the side bar.


Edit: (September 20, 2010) Version 0.0.14.3 (now 0.0.14.4) 'should' fix the rare loading issue for those who are using Vista or Windows 7.
It also makes a very important mechanic change. You can now execute the jump attack at any time when you are in the air, not just when you are falling. It also gives you a bit less upward momentum when used, but you can actually go a tiny bit higher than you could with the original jump attack mechanic.

Well the game is almost done now. Most of the things that need to be fixed are small things. I still need to fix up the very very end after the credits, but really that's all I "want" to do. Here is what I mean. It's gotten to the point where I hate the game now. I don't want to look at it anymore. I've heard this is both a good and bad thing. You're never truly done with a project until you can't stand working on it anymore. This doesn't mean I'm going to abandon the bit of stuff left to do on the game, but it may take some time. I'd like to do other things. Give myself a break from Distorted Travesty for awhile. (I spend a lot of free time with it.)

I'm going to play around with a game I had started making about 3 years ago. Not going to spend too much time with it, just going to play around with some concepts. In the future, I'm going to take more breaks from game design. At least with one project anyway. I feel my creativity starts to burn away if I put myself into one thing for too long. I definitely feel like some areas in DT suffered from some of this.

Overall, I'm happy with how DT turned out. It's the best project I've made, I think I've made something enjoyable and that's all I was aiming for as far as for other people. For myself, I've learn a lot from the project and I know it will show into future works of mine. My advice for anyone with a project of any size is to properly plan all the game details and mechanics out. I'm a total hypocrite with that, not "every" aspect of DT was planned from the beginning. Though feature creep will happen with almost any project, I just like to keep that stuff from happening as much as possible.

Again, the main thing left with the game is finishing up the bit after the credits. I may make the tutorial section have a bit more graphical representation for pointing things out, such as when the game explains what the element meters are for. (Or not.) One other thing is making a semi-transparent change (transparent to you anyway) to how it loads external resources. On some computers, (specifically Vista and Windows 7) the game doesn't properly load the audio resources in which causes errors and makes the game not start. Apparently I was not forcing Game Maker to look in the root DT folder. If I don't tell it to look in the working directory, Game Maker typically assumes that is the path... just not always. Luckily Game Maker provides this function for me so it's not really a problem.

Long posts are lo... anyway... I think I'm going to actually sit down and try to enjoy some games. I want to finish playing through Season 2 of Sam & Max. I was recently given a laptop that is better than my Desktop. (the one I'm typing from.) So I can use that to actually play the game without it freezing and lagging a lot.

Possibly finish playing Agarest War. Don't play that game, it's good and it sucks, my roommate Jerry convinced me to play it again. It's a strategy rpg with a fairly weak dating sim aspect. You play the story through 5 generations of characters, each one lasting about 15-20 hours, I kid you not. I just started the 4th generation and I can see that the developers were not lying about the 80+ hours of gameplay. I've been playing the game for months on and off. I've found that I hate the start of each generation, I finally get used to all the characters and the interactions between them and then at the end of that story arc, most of them have to say good-bye and then we're onto a new generation with new people I must become acquainted with. (Some characters carry over, such as the "immortals" like elves and such.) The end of the 3rd generation was the worst as that generation had the best character interactions and I didn't want them to part ways at the end. The battle system is repetitive, though rewarding and fun at times, especially when you manipulate the field the way you want. It's actually a very deep system with a lot of choice. I play it now for the story and mostly to see the interactions between the characters since that is done fairly well. (Plus I've already put 60 hours into it, might as well see it to the end.)

Well that last paragraph went on too long. My roommates and were talking today and I mentioned I might have a little thing at the end of DT that changes depending on your item %, much like how Metroid Prime went. The more you have, the more content at the end there is. Prime had 3, below 75%, above 75%, and 100%. Jerry jokingly said, parody Super Metroid exactly how it was and have the character strip down... No worries, I'm not doing that, not even for the laughs... well maybe. If someone sprites it in that style, I'll do it. No joke.

Anyway, I'm going to end this... oh wait. I'll be at GDC on October 4th - 8th. That'll be fun and informative. I've always enjoyed GDC. I'll be sure to actually get pictures this year. Now I'm done.

P.S. Does anyone want me to change the skin of this back to the orange one, or at least something else? Just wondering if this white on black is bugging anyone.