The importance of being flexible

I'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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Website up

I 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.

magicalhackers.com

Gameplay video

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!

Note that this is not a trailer, that will come later. I plan to show some juicy bits there like the bosses for example.

Screenshots

Development 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.

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.

New Prometheus version

I've made a new version of Prometheus which is now available on Steam and the other places where the game is sold:

20150430 - Version 1.5
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- Fixed weapon hitboxes
- Added music and sound effects volume settings
- Fixed attack sometimes not responding to input
- Added basic joystick support

Prometheus released on Steam

Prometheus 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.

Prometheus Easter egg

It 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? :)

In Kolchis you need to enter the doors in the woods in this order:
1. Take the first door to enter the labyrinth.
2. Go to the right and take the door you come across.
3. Go to the left and take the first door you come across.
4. Go to the left and take the first door you come across.
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.