tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43196635040462076672024-03-13T19:53:16.062-07:00Servadac's Game Development BlogServadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-58518862844831296212017-11-17T13:48:00.000-08:002017-11-17T13:48:19.458-08:00Danger Close! release on Steam *finally* imminent!Ok, first off, I know I posted about the Steam release one year ago so I am aware that it has taken a much longer time than I first anticipated and for that I am truly sorry. The Greenlight OK came at the most inopportune time possible, one week before I started my 2-year Java education. That has kept me busy enough so I haven't had the time required to dedicate to this project. But after being on an internship for a couple of months this fall, I'm now back in school and I felt that things had slowed down to the point where I had enough time to finally get this done and over with.<br />
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Besides a few hickups, the Steam integration was not half as hairy as I thought it would be. It's not just the work that kept me from doing this right away, but I've also been worried about the response to the game. I know for a fact that with the times we live in today, people will be triggered and offended by this game in one way or the other.<br />
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There probably still are things in the game that I should tone down even more, even though I've already toned down many potentially offensive things. But I figure that once I start doing that, I will find more and more graphics that need to be changed or toned down, to the point where the sprites in the game will just end up being black squares. And that really defeats the purpose of the game.<br />
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To me Danger Close! is a celebration of retro games even though Metal Slug 3 which is the major inspiration isn't <i>that</i> old, the pixel graphics and the arcade style of it is something of the past. And going with that I feel that the not-so-politically correct (I hate using this word, but I can't think of a better one) inclusion of evil dicators, insurgents and what have you, is perfectly in line with that. There used to be a time when doing this was ok, and I feel that it kind of goes with the theme of the game.<br />
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I've made a few allusions to other games and movies in the past, but one really nice example that I had forgotten about was the intro scene of The Naked Gun, where Frank Drebin single-handedly takes out all the 80's evil dictators. This game is that scene, but for the 00's and stretched out to a run-n'-gun arcade game :)<br />
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The current planned release date for the game on Steam is:<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">1st of December 2017</span></div>
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I've stopped reading comments so trying to contact me there about bugs and the like won't do much good. Instead e-mail me or comment the Steam announcements, or write about it in a review. And if you do the latter, please write constructive criticism. Any inkling of bashing and I will not continue reading the review.<br />
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As I've written before it will be a huge weight off my shoulders to finally get DC released on Steam, and it will give me closure so I can go on with my life, and still feel that I kept my promise to the people who upvoted the game on Greenlight.<br />
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/ServadacServadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-40169155378614497262016-10-30T09:23:00.001-07:002016-10-30T09:23:06.551-07:00Danger Close! has been greenlit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can ever imagine."</i></div>
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Well, as it turns out, Danger Close! was finally greenlit in late August. I wasn't sure it was going to happen but I remained hopeful. The timing was a bit off though, since I started school in early September. So I simply haven't had the time to program the Steam functionality into it yet. I want it to be done right and not just throw it up there, which means I need to dedicate enough time for the project. Which is a problem right now since school takes up most of my time. In a few weeks I think things will look up on that front though, so I probably will start working on getting DC on Steam then with all the features I have intended on including (achievements, leaderboards and possibly data synchronization as well as the Big picture).<br />
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Anyway, it feels great that DC was accepted on Greenlight despite everything. It really feels like a big middle finger to the gang of trolls who scurry about on Greenlight, flaming every game they can for sport. They really failed, and that has given me hope for humanity again.<br />
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In other news, Humble Bundle have reached out to me telling me that the build of Prometheus outside of Steam is not working properly. As I said my schedule is packed right now, but I promise that I will look into this and fix it as soon as possible.Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-33118707045370144642016-05-16T14:09:00.001-07:002016-10-30T09:27:50.893-07:00The future aheadI've made the decision to not develop any more games under the Magical Hackers flag. If Danger Close gets greenlit I will go through with the release on Steam. But that will be it. At this point I feel that making another game for the hell of it will merely mean a lot of time and energy wasted, just to check another idea I've had in my head for so long, off the list. Maybe in the future I will go back and develop a game, and release it publicly or not, at some point. That game will most likely be Boom which I've written about in previous updates, since it will explore some ideas I haven't worked with before (3D FPS gameplay). But it will be a long while before that happens I think, if it does at all.<br />
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In the last couple of months my motivation for game development has been dwindling up to a point where it's nearly nonexistent. My passion is for video games and especially retro video games, being creative and coding and making graphics. But since the sales of my games have not been good enough that's a huge dent in my motivation. Prometheus is my first commercial game so realistically it getting greenlit and selling at all is a huge success, but for me continuing to do this is too much of a gamble I feel. If I kept going eventually maybe I'd "crack the code" or whatever but at this point I need more security in my career choice. I did not realize - or did not want to realize - that doing this would be so hard, for better and for worse. I read somewhere that the chance of successfully living off of indie game development is one percent, which I think is true. I would compare it to trying to become a rock star from your study at home. You hear stories like that from time to time so it's not impossible, but it's obviously extremely difficult. Maybe there is a point to some ideas just staying as ideas. Just because you <i>can</i> do something, doesn't always mean that you <i>should. </i>There is a coder guy whose name escapes me with a website where he has great pixel art and concepts for games, but he just doesn't go through with developing them. I used to not understand why despite his explanation, but it's clear to me now.<br />
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I would say that all the hate on the internet isn't helping with my motivation either. To me I feel that the main reason people hate is because they are
jealous. Coding is difficult so most people will never be able to
develop a game on their own and this triggers much of the negativity I
think. Which of course is sad, pathetic, and still does not excuse it in any way.<br />
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I know myself what kind of games I like and what kind of features I enjoy, but I think that the video game industry right now and people's expectations are somewhere else. If I have to change and do something just because you are supposed to
and not be true to myself, I'd rather not be doing this at all. In fact that was what I tried doing with Crimson Sky, and the development of that game went absolutely nowhere. Not to mention that the indie game scene is utterly saturated, especially when it comes to 2D games. How a game like Shovel Knight can thrive in this environment so to speak, I will never fully understand but I think they got everything just right and with an insane amount of polish. The PR part of this is really something I'm not good at either. Coding and graphics is what I like to do, and you really have to be a not just a jack, but a master of all trades in order to be successful as an indie game developer. The worst thing for me would be to completely lose my interest for playing video games as a hobby out of disillusionment, so I really want to quit before that happens as well.<br />
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A good thing that has come out of this is that I've rediscovered my enjoyment of coding and I will go back to school to learn Java this fall. Developing Mega Man 42 in the beginning was so joyful for me and it really helped me at a time when I didn't have much going for myself. I remember fondly the all nighters and staying up until 9 in the morning because I just had to squash that last bug. That unbridled joy when it comes to creativity is what I will take with me from this venture.<br />
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-Servadac Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-19628601520088341862016-03-31T05:34:00.000-07:002016-03-31T05:34:01.341-07:00Danger Close! released!<i>Danger Close!</i> is now finally released and is available for purchase on itch.io:<br />
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It's a great feeling to finally be able to release the game. I know I've posted earlier about an upcoming game, but I'm a bit on the fence on whether I'll make another game or not, for various reasons. I will have to keep you updated on that, and on the Steam Greenlight entry as well.Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-61305398046469495022016-02-01T01:52:00.000-08:002016-02-01T01:54:41.667-08:00Here comes the BOOMUpdates have been very scarce lately and for that I apologize. I've been going through some rough shit in my personal life lately which has affected my work as well. Good news is that Danger Close! is done and ready for beta testing. Again I'm very pleased with the result all things considered.<br />
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For my next project I've written a design document and have begun learning Unity since that will be what I will be using to develop BOOM, the title of my forthcoming game. While GameMaker Studio presumably can be used to make crude basic 3D, from advice that's been given to me Unity3D will handle this project much better. And from what I've learned so far it does seem that Unity has many advantages over GM in general as well. Aside from the general bugginess of GM, many of the features in it are bogged down by the fact that it at least originally was aimed at complete beginners (even coding in it used to be a bit of an afterthought, so to speak). Unity is much more clear-cut and aimed at configurability and customization which is a huge plus. For example, for code that gets executed in the beginning of an instance's creation, in GM you always have to have a "create"-event, while in Unity the "step"-code that gets executed every frame is in the same script which is so much easier to handle.<br />
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I think I've written about it before, but for the sake of clarity Boom will be a Doom-parody of sorts with sprites for enemies, items and weapons, but fully 3D otherwise. You will play as an alchemist in the 19th century and will be transported to other times and worlds through your ill-advised potion making. Since Unity seems very easy to work with, I think I will be able to finish the game by late August this year, or at least that is the plan.Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-13332013793445596122015-11-20T06:10:00.000-08:002015-11-23T09:04:40.444-08:00Name change and other stuffIn light of the recent horrible events in France, I've decided to push back my next game even further. For now I'm aiming at a March 31st release. Also I'm going to change a few aspects of the game to clear things up a bit. The name has now officially been changed to <i>Danger Close!</i>. Changing the title to this one was the plan for the longest time, but I was stubborn and stuck with the old working title. After giving it some serious thought though, I think Mission: Afghanistan strikes a too serious chord, while the game is more of a parody of sorts and the new title reflects this much better. It's not very nice to imply that I'm reducing an entire country to a violent war game either (that which I wrote in the post below regarding the controversial aspects of the game still apply though).<br />
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I'm also taking the suicide bomber-enemy out of the game, as well as the insurgent enemy with dark colored clothing. DC takes place in Afghanistan (mostly anyways) in 2001, so you are fighting insurgents, not terrorists per-se and I want to make that clear. The dark-clothed insurgent could be mistaken for an IS-soldier which I want to avoid since again this game takes place in 2001 and IS obviously did not exist back then.<br />
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With all of that boring and serious stuff out of the way, the game is coming along very nicely. I've done a lot of polishing, balancing and gotten rid of many bugs in the last few days. I've implemented achievements, hi-score tables and statistics. After all the hard work and effort I've put into the game I'm determined to release it come hell or high water.Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-59994890668174383242015-11-11T06:03:00.000-08:002015-11-11T06:03:32.508-08:00M:A release date pushed backI've decided to push back the release date of M:A to the 31st of January. The game has all of its assets now which means it's in beta stage, but there are still a number of things that need to be done. The music isn't fully implemented yet, I still have to program a controller configuration and implement it as well, and most importantly there is a lot of polishing to be done before I'll be satisfied with the result enough for a release. So far I'm very pleased with the game though, especially when playing with my arcade stick-controller, M:A really feels like an arcade shooter when doing so which is nice.Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-59543428041670973492015-10-12T03:10:00.001-07:002015-10-12T03:10:58.722-07:00Walking on egg shellsIt struck me I had not yet written this entry on the blog yet, despite intending to for a long while. With the Greenlight entry coming up and people finding out about the game I feel it's about time I write it.<br />
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I understand completely that making a game called Mission: Afghanistan and its subject matter might piss off a great deal of people. It's a sensitive subject even though a few years have passed since the war took place, and even though I've explicitly stated that what you see in the game is an alternative past, not some sort of documentary in game form (which should be apparent when seeing even a snippet of gameplay from the game). I was ready to change the name of the game to Danger Close, but changed my mind. Who knows, I might still have to, in a good scenario... Let's go full political correctness and list a few of the people that potentially can and probably will be offended by this game:<br />
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1. People who have been in service in Afghanistan and feel used<br />
2. SJW's who are against the war for whatever reasons<br />
3. People who live in Afghanistan and don't like their entire country and its history reduced to a war game about killing people, from their point of view. Even though this is a picture that the media has been feeding us for one and a half decade, one that the game makes fun of.<br />
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I could go on, but you get the point. With this game though my intention is not to offend people. Nor to belittle someone. In my opinion, art, media, games need to be able to cover even sensitive subjects, otherwise freedom of speech and freedom of press do not exist in reality. To me it is even more important to be able to feature sensitive and offensive material, because that means that the subject matter is taboo for some reason, and it desperately needs to be featured and put out there in the spotlight so we can at least try to understand why that is.<br />
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I was brought up on MAD-magazine, and to me political incorrectness is second nature. Walking around and thinking about what isn't appropriate or what might offend people is not how I want to live my life. Was the war in Afghanistan a good or a bad thing? I don't know to be honest. And my official stance and the stance this game take is that of utter neutrality. The game is not meant to be a moral debate of what is good and what is bad, I'll leave that for someone else. If anything, it is a study in exaggerated cartoonish ultra violence, and it's up to the player to determine what they think about that. If I could go back in time, would I make this game thematically and graphically about something else entirely? Probably yes. This part of the game was never something I put much thought into when first coming up with the concept for it. Like I said, I'm not a politically correct person. But here we are. And one problem is that if you take away the subject matter of the game and replace the player sprites with robots, you kind of take away the whole point of the game.<br />
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I'm a fan of movies such as <b>Hot Shots II</b>, The Hurt Locker, Jarhead, The Dictator, The Interview,<b> Team America: World Police</b> and Zero Dark Thirty. All the hundreds of movies about the Vietnam war and WWII. Not to mention all the <b>Call of Duty</b> and Medal of Honor games that take place in Afghanistan and feature the war to some extent. Are you going to tell me that these movies and these games are OK, but Mission: Afghanistan is not? Because it's an indie game? If so I simply don't think that is fair.Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-10947137398465598572015-10-12T02:01:00.000-07:002015-10-12T02:19:04.556-07:00M:A Greenlight entryI finished making the trailer which means I have finally been able to create a Greenlight page for M:A. Link below. <br />
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<br />Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-81344584066649980922015-10-09T04:32:00.002-07:002015-10-09T04:36:11.292-07:00The danger of placeholders<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Here is a problem that might not apply to every indie game developer out there, but it certainly rings true for me. When programming early versions of enemies, items or even stages themselves and testing them out, it's very convenient to use placeholder graphics. This way you can work out kinks and see if your stage layout does its job etc, without having to go through the process of drawing finalized sprites. I do all my graphics myself and I'm aware not every developer works this way, if you have a hired artist who creates your graphics then placeholders naturally are more or less necessary in order for the development of your game not to be completely held back by the visual representations of the assets.<br />
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There is a real danger in using placeholder graphics however. A wise person once said "kill your darlings", meaning you should never be too attached to your favorite creations when it comes to anything creative, including game development. Your blind love for that Goomba-clone might easily make you unable to realize it's not a good enemy for your particular game. In my experience the same thing definitely applies to placeholder graphics. Once you go beyond just geometrical figures, I myself very easily find myself starting to like placeholder graphics as small ugly puppies or something. They're not that nice but you created them after all. First you accept them, then you start to kinda like them, then you actually start to appreciate them and before you know it you've pretty much forgotten completely that they were once placeholders, and any thought about replacing them later on has been erased from your memory. Especially when it comes to pixel graphics-games the sprites are kinda crude to begin with (NES-imitation games in particular) no matter how you look at it, so the line between a placeholder and an OK sprite is very fine. <br />
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This problem can snowball out of control very easily since there is so much that needs to be done when developing a game, and fixing those "OK-looking" placeholder graphics can easily start to go further and further down in priority on the to do-list. And before you know it you've released a game with a lot of placeholder graphics. As the developer you are blinded to their supbar quality, but the potential consumers certainly are not. My current solution for this might be extreme, but it works for me. I am done with graphical placeholders. Anything outside of geometrical figures such as squares with text on them, is not OK in a game I'm developing. I understand that if you are not creating the graphics yourself things are different, but for me I now always create the graphics with them being in the final game in mind. Truth is they <i>need</i> to be done at some point anyway. This doesn't mean you can't still improve them later on of course.<br />
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I've made a trailer for M:A and once I get enough feedback on it I will use it to create a Greenlight page for the game. The intended release date has been pushed back to November 30th since I've been sick for three weeks and unable to work on the game at all. The release date might change depending on how the Greenlight works out though. The best for me would be if I could release M:A exclusively on Steam.Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-22858530948736824342015-09-14T04:21:00.000-07:002015-09-14T04:21:39.645-07:00The importance of being flexibleI'm going to try to make the news updates a bit more interesting and worthwhile, starting with this one. Instead of posting updates in the vein of "Stage x has been completed, starting on the next one". I know myself from reading that type of update that it's not very interesting even though it really seems like it from the point of view as a developer. I've been doing this for a few years now and it seems like a great way to share experiences and lessons you learn as you become better and find out what works and what doesn't as far as game development goes.<br />
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Planning your game out I think is a good idea and it certainly works for me. Not only does it make the process of developing a game more structured and clear, but it also motivates you to really get your shit together and do what you are supposed to. Excel sheets with checkpoints and deadlines do a wonder here.<br />
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There is a dangerous downside to this though that I've found out the hard way. It's very important not to get too stuck with your initial ideas and think that you absolutely can't deviate from them for whatever reason. This will make the game very clunky and it will affect the gameplay negatively. The initial brainstorming ideas always seem perfect on paper but seldom always work that great in practice. Almost always you need to change a few details at the very least, or approach the whole thing from a different angle. The easy way is to stick to your plan 100 percent because then you can just autopilot it.<br />
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An example of this is how I approached programming the stages for Mega Man 42. Since I was a little new at programming in GML, I wrote all the stage boundaries in numbers of exactly how big the stages were in pixels. Not a good idea. It made the stages very set in stone and if I would've wanted to change them it would've been a real hassle. You have to always think ahead when programming so that you can add or change everything you do. In my games currently I always use objects instead to determine the boundaries of the stages, which you can change at a whim just by moving them around in the level editor.<br />
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Another example is with weapons and enemies I play around a bit to see what works and what doesn't. Some of the best features in Mission: Afghanistan have come up this way, the chainsaw weapon for example.<br />
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In other news I just want to mention that four out of five stages are done now so the game is nearing completion. I'm going to focus on Greenlight and Facebook now to get that done.<br />
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<br />Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-42686034268095900342015-08-12T01:50:00.000-07:002015-08-12T01:50:38.903-07:00Website upI have finally managed to register and build a website for Magical Hackers and my games. I kind of like having the blog separate so I will keep it like that for the time being, but I will probably move it over to this new site in the future as well.<br />
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<a href="http://magicalhackers.com/">magicalhackers.com</a>Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-51586229407073817382015-08-06T00:42:00.000-07:002015-08-06T00:42:00.795-07:00Gameplay video<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've put together a short gameplay video showing a few of the stages that are done so far. As I've written in the description, this being an alpha version, more sound effects are to be added and things in general are not final. The excellent music tracks by Dan Butler aka SpookGoblin are early drafts too. Reportedly and hopefully they will have an electronic guitar part once they are done!<br />
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Note that this is not a trailer, that will come later. I plan to show some juicy bits there like the bosses for example.Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-60894898591938182952015-08-05T05:55:00.000-07:002015-08-05T05:55:41.083-07:00ScreenshotsDevelopment of Mission: Afghanistan has come to the point where it's overdue that I show how it's progressing. So I've taken a bunch of screenshots from the stages one to three, out of five total. Each stage is divided into four parts, so that's 20 shorter stages in total if you like. What you see here is Alpha status so it's not final. I know I've said it before but I'm definitely going to get a website for the game together and an entry on Indiedb, Greenlight page etc. I'll post more updates the coming days and then do my best to keep you guys informed until the game is released like I've done with my previous games. Right now the target release date is October 31st, but that might change depending on how the Greenlight develops.<br />
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The screenshots don't explain much on their own, but it would be a bit clunky to describe the game in detail here on the blog. I'll leave that to Indiedb and the website.<br />
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<br />Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-86483368025961395782015-04-30T05:30:00.001-07:002015-04-30T05:30:00.122-07:00New Prometheus versionI've made a new version of Prometheus which is now available on Steam and the other places where the game is sold: <br />
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20150430 - Version 1.5<br />----------------------<br />- Fixed weapon hitboxes<br />- Added music and sound effects volume settings<br />- Fixed attack sometimes not responding to input<br />- Added basic joystick supportServadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-50061966257685350482015-04-21T03:46:00.004-07:002015-04-21T03:46:52.551-07:00Prometheus released on SteamPrometheus has now been released on Steam. A big thank you to everyone who voted for the game so it finally got greenlit on there. The only major difference from the version available at Humble Bundle is that I've added a number of Steam achievements. If you have already purchased the game outside of Steam and want a Steam key, contact me and I'll provide it for you.Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-60988945832585854612015-04-02T04:19:00.001-07:002015-04-02T04:19:22.498-07:00Prometheus Easter eggIt struck me when playing through Prometheus that I have not yet revealed the Easter egg I included in the game. And what better time of the year to tell it than right now? :)<br />
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In Kolchis you need to enter the doors in the woods in this order:<br />
1. Take the first door to enter the labyrinth.<br />
2. Go to the right and take the door you come across.<br />
3. Go to the left and take the first door you come across.<br />
4. Go to the left and take the first door you come across.<br />
5. In the room you are in now, equip the Wings of Icaros and jump into the wall to the right. You will enter a room with a boss fight - against Sand Man from Mega Man 42. :) Prometheus only gets damaged from the magic dust, he will not fall asleep.</div>
Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-22527379151128424482015-04-01T03:26:00.001-07:002015-04-01T03:26:55.302-07:00Prometheus new version 1.3I'm in the process of making Prometheus available on Steam, turns out it's pretty complicated to say the least. I played through the game and found out the animation speed bug the last version was supposed to fix had gotten even worse, now the animation wouldn't run at all. I've made a new version which should soon be available. It's a very small cosmetic fix but I want the game to be as bug-free as possible when gets released on Steam.Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-51140459228946733092015-03-30T04:04:00.003-07:002015-03-30T04:04:31.739-07:00Mega Man 42 v1.2 (definitive version)To celebrate the greenlighting of Prometheus, here's a treat for you: The definitive version of Mega Man 42. I went back to the game after about a year of its release, and with a new perspective I realized that it was more than difficult enough already. So no need for a Nightmare mode. Also the graphics are fine enough for a fan game, so no need for a Redux version. Instead I've fixed a few bugs, most notably the ending now looks like it's supposed to do.<br />
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Changelog:<br />
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20150330 - Version 1.2<br />------------------------<br />- Fixed special weapons bug where you would sometimes not longer be able to use them (had to do with the on-screen limitation not adjusting properly when opening the menu)<br />- Fixed the game crashing when the player character would die at the same time as the very last boss<br />- Changed item-spawning so they appear inside solid ground less frequently<br />- Fixed bug where Roll would get stuck in the air when teleporting and after beating the very last boss<br />
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Mediafire link:<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download/mza6ha29q6w18a5/Mega_Man_42_v1.2.zip">http://www.mediafire.com/download/mza6ha29q6w18a5/Mega_Man_42_v1.2.zip</a>Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-597399812045480052015-03-30T03:16:00.002-07:002015-03-30T03:21:13.646-07:00Prometheus has been greenlit on Steam!It's been a long time since my last post, for which I'm really sorry, but what better way to come back to the limelight so to speak, other than to tell you that Prometheus finally has been greenlit on Steam! I've been away from my computer over the weekend but read the e-mail today. I really can't wrap my head around this at the moment, but it feels great and it's very good news for my future game development.<br />
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Even though I've made no posts here for a very long time, I've been working on my games all the same. Like I wrote in the last post, Crimson Sky was the project I focused on during the autumn of 2014. However once I got something resembling a game together it just didn't play like I wanted it to. The hi-res graphics that had taken so long to make didn't look that good and the game just had no oomph. I had to make too many compromises in order to make Crimson Sky so the game just didn't pan out.<br />
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Because of this I made the decision to go back to Mission: Afghanistan instead. So that's what I've been working on since January or so, and so far the results really have been to my liking. I've come to the realization that retro is what I want to do and what feels <i>fun</i> for me to work with. Within a few weeks I think I will have the demo ready, 1/4 of the first stage is done at this point. I will post a few screenshots soon too to show how work is progressing.<br />
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Dan Butler will once again compose the music and be responsible for the SFX as well, I am very happy to have him on board once more. I plan to make a web site for Magical Hackers and my games sometime in the near future which means I will move away from the blog once that happens and post there instead.Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-28383125951214017442014-06-16T06:30:00.001-07:002014-06-16T06:30:13.010-07:00The current next gameJust a small tidbit to let you guys know that I've begun work on my next game. It is going to be a sidescrolling action game set in a dystopian future, where you fight a totalitarian government's thugs either with your sword or an assortment of various kinds of firearms. The game is going to be in high resolution with advanced enough animations. Genre-wise it will be a bit like the Megaman Zero-games except with an emphasis on the fights as opposed to platforming, with a dose of Muramasa: The Demon Blade thrown in there, as well as Mirror's Edge as far as the setting goes. Work on the animations has begun so I will hopefully have something to show shortly.<br />
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The most important thing for me with this game and where I aim to go with it, is to differentiate my work as much as possible from what I've done before. That is, I really want to do something that is not a retro game, and I think from what I've planned this will hit the mark as far as that is concerned. The game is also going to have a much heavier story component which will be very interesting to implement. The working title for the game is Crimson Sky. Last but not least this will also be a much more unique game as opposed to me earlier works which have all been more or less inspired by other games already in existance.Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-10241513968493693792014-05-04T04:07:00.000-07:002014-05-04T04:45:50.564-07:00Prometheus Windows 8 compabilityFirst a big thanks to everyone I met at the Retro gaming fair Retrospelsmässan here in Sweden! I had a blast and it was great to meet you guys and talk about Prometheus!<br />
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Like I wrote in the previous blog post, I discovered a new bug in Prometheus in that the centaur boss disappeared mysteriously if you attacked it too soon after it appeared on screen. I thought I had fixed it, but it appeared again when playing the new version 1.1. However, I have traced down the problem to a compability issue between Windows 8 and Game Maker: Studio and games made in said program. After extensive attempts I can't recreate the bug on any of my Windows 7 machines, and staring at the code gives no result, so it has to be the operating system that is the culprit in this particular case.<br />
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I recommend playing Prometheus on Windows 7 if at all possible, Game Maker: Studio is not optimized for Windows 8 so there's not much I can do about it. It's not a big deal though, when you face the centaur simply wait with attacking until it has moved over to the other side for the first time. Alternatively you can "cheat" and make it disappear and just waltz on to the item, but it's not a good long-term strategy since you need to beat every boss in order to finish the game.<br />
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Edit: Apparently GM: Studio IS supposed to be compatible with Windows 8 according to Yo-Yo Games, but I find this dubious since the bug only appears on that OS.Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-82798985338851060102014-05-02T12:53:00.001-07:002014-05-02T12:53:40.054-07:00New version of PrometheusI've uploaded a new version 1.1 of Prometheus which is now available. The new version rectifies a couple of bugs. One of them involves the centaur boss which would disappear if you attacked it right as it walks on screen. Also the animation speed when Prometheus walks would sometimes become too fast.Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-88157518122369293202014-04-17T03:16:00.000-07:002014-04-17T03:16:08.671-07:00Maze Dude out!Maze Dude has now been released and is available for iPhone and iPad in the iTunes app store. The game is primarily developed for iPad, so I recommend that version first and foremost.<br />
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<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/maze-dude/id859451399?l=sv&ls=1&mt=8">Click here to preview Maze Dude in iTunes</a></div>
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If you want to test the game or don't own an iOS device, a PC version is also available by clicking on the below link:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://servadac.itch.io/maze-dude/">http://servadac.itch.io/maze-dude/</a></div>
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In other news I've decided not to continue development of Mission: Afghanistan. I really would like to make the game, but in order to get it as good as I wanted I calculated I needed one year of development time, which I just think is too long for such a risky proposition as an indie game. After doing some research and thinking about it I think six months tops is a much more reasonable time frame. So I have had to go back to the drawing board and try to come up with something else. I have a few ideas but it'll be a while until the process reaches the point where I have something to show you guys.<br />
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One last thing is that I'm going to showcase Prometheus at a retro gaming fair here in Sweden. So if you live in Sweden and want to test the game out, go to <a href="http://www.retrospelsmassan.se/">retrospelsmässan</a> on the 3rd of May!Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4319663504046207667.post-9546124394375086812014-03-30T15:00:00.000-07:002014-03-30T15:00:03.690-07:00Prometheus - The Fire Thief is now out!Around seven months of hard work has finally led up to this, the release of Prometheus - The Fire Thief! I have a few things I want to write about, but first the widget:<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="264" scrolling="no" src="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/product/prometheus_thefirethief/BVruwbveiae" style="border: none;" width="550"></iframe>
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If you have any questions or feedback of any kind, please post a comment here or go to Prometheus's entry at Indiedb.com: <a href="http://www.indiedb.com/games/prometheus-the-fire-thief">http://www.indiedb.com/games/prometheus-the-fire-thief</a><br />
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Prometheus is a retro game and it's intended to have a difficulty close to that of NES-era games. That being said, I've tried to make it more welcoming by enabling the player to save at any point in the game among other things. I realize though that it's a possibility that the player might sometimes need a small hint in a game like this, and because of that I've also written a walkthrough right off the bat. I'm not saying that the walkthrough is required, the game is intended to be played without it, but in case you need it you can download it via the link below. If nothing else this will save me answering a lot of questions :)<br />
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<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download/xxjb5mnl13v6n99/Prometheus_-_The_Fire_Thief_Walkthrough_v1.0.zip">http://www.mediafire.com/download/xxjb5mnl13v6n99/Prometheus_-_The_Fire_Thief_Walkthrough_v1.0.zip</a></div>
Servadachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18148603718794978241noreply@blogger.com2