Source Code Releases!

Hello once again everyone! I'm back for one more quick update, because I found the time to make those changes to some of my #1GAM games the I mentioned in my previous post. Specifically, I wanted to release all the games I made as free/open source software! Today I'm pleased to announce that I manged to update all the games that it was possible to do that on!

The games that I released as free software are my December 2015 #1GAM game Torso Ninja, my February 2016 #1GAM game Plitka, my March 2016 #1GAM game Keyro: Arena Lockdown, and my May 2016 #1GAM game Torso Ninja II! All those links will lead to GiHub repos that contain the source of the games. Grab copies for yourselves if you'd like!

On a secondary note, I want to discuss the reasons why I didn't release certain ones of my #1GAM games as free software. Here are the reasons by game as follows:

1. Cargo: January 2016 #1GAM game - This game was made with the Construct Classic engine, and though that engine is technically free software, I was not able to release Cargo as free software because I unfortunately lost all the data files in a hard drive crash this past summer.

2. SKRMSH: April 2016 #1GAM game - This game is already released into the public domain, and the source is already available here on my blog. The source code is in the format of an image file of course :)

3. Star Fall: June 2016 #1GAM game - Star Fall survived my hard drive crash, but the images included in the game were not made by me. I decided against releasing this game as free software for this reason.

4. RUNNERMAN: July 2016 #1GAM game - This game also did not survive my hard drive crash.

5. Chroma Road: August 2016 #1GAM game - This game was also lost to the hard drive crash. I probably am most disappointed by losing this one :(

6. Tic-Tac-25: September 2016 #1GAM game - This game was lost to the hard drive crash as well.

7. Annotated Rock Paper Scissors: October 2016 #1GAM game - This game is also already available in source code format. Check out this post for a download!

9. Corridor: November 2016 #1GAM game - This game is made with RPG Maker VX Ace, so I am not at liberty to release it as free software.

As you can see, most of these games were lost to a hard disk crash. This was actually a major impetus for my release of these games in source code format (along with my personal opinion that it is the right thing to do). Backup your data kids!

So that's about it! See you when I see you!

Annotated Rock Paper Scissors Released!

Hey everyone! Long time no see! I'm here on this fine Halloween night to announce the release of my 11th #1GAM game! This time its a game I made a while ago, a simple implementation of Rock Paper Scissors! But that's not all...

The (non-transparent) title image!

I decided to rehash this older game (which I made about a year ago, but never released) and to release it in source code form. I also went through and heavily commented the code, so that any up-and-coming pygame developer should be able to learn at least a little something from it :) I didn't edit my code much, so some of it is still quite sloppy. Nevertheless, I feel that it is a pretty good representation of what I cobble together each month, and I hope it is useful to someone :)

Here's a MediaFire link to the source code (in zip format): http://www.mediafire.com/file/ppq8u4ia6ex6rsp/Annotated_Rock_Paper_Scissors.zip 

The game was made with Python 2.7 and pygame 1.9. Check it out if you have the time!

That's all for today folks. See you when I see you!

Tic-Tac-25 Released!

Hello hello! I've returned to the blog after a short hiatus to bring you my tenth (TENTH D:) #1GAM game, Tic-Tac-25! That's right, after untold delays caused by yours truly, I've finally got this game out! Check it out!

The slightly-blown-up logo!

This game is an Itch.io exclusive! Play it here: https://hellamagellan.itch.io/tic-tac-25

Tic-Tac-25 is an expanded version of the classic game Tic-Tac-Toe (or Noughts & Crosses) that features a 5X5 board, but still only takes 3-in-a-row to win! It allows for four players (the shapes X, O, Square, and Triangle), with all non-human players being controlled by a very simple AI. It works in both desktop and mobile browsers (though you may have issues with certain browsers/screen sizes).

This game was mostly meant as an experiment for me to learn how to make an HTML5 game using HaeFlixel. I learned a lot, but I still have some ways to go.

If anyone reading tries the game, let me know what you think in the comments here, or on itch.io. Particularly, if you have any problems displaying or running the game, I'd like to know the details, along with your device and browser info. This information will help me improve the quality of cross-platform web games I make in the future :)

Thanks for reading and playing! See you again!

Chroma Road Released!

Hey hey hey! I'm back today, and super excited to announce the release of my ninth #1GAM game, Chroma Road! Thats right, after all this time, you can finally play it! :D

The title screen

​
Play it on Gamejolt: http://gamejolt.com/games/chroma-road/184631
or Itch.io: https://hellamagellan.itch.io/chroma-road

Welcome to Chroma Road, where speed and reflexes are king, and color coordination is the name of the game! Chroma Road is a tough-as-nails, fast-paced color-puzzle/endless-runner hybrid where you must match colors with gates in order to proceed. Use the Z, X, and C keys to change to any primary color (red, green, and blue), and combine them to form secondary colors! Think fast and stay sharp as you pass through the gates, gaining score and staying alive along the way. Keep going to get a high score and ace the best time!

Chroma Road is a major first for me: Its my first game made using the HaxeFlixel framework. This is pretty important, since this is going to be my development methodology going forward. I'll even use HaxeFlixel to develop commercial games pretty soon, hopefully (more on that o come, though).
 
Anyhow, I've made 9 games so far! Woohoo! This has been a crazy year of development, but I'm on track to finish the #1GAM challenge in November. Here's hoping!

If you play Chroma Road and enjoy it (or not), please let me know here in the comments on the respective game pages. I love me some feedback! :D

See you all next time!

Star Fall Released!

Woohoo! I'm back already, folks, and I'm overjoyed to bring you my seventh #1GAM game, Star Fall! That's right, you can play it yourself now, free of charge, as always! :)

The once and future title image of Star Fall

You can download the game on Game Jolt here: http://gamejolt.com/games/star-fall/160883
or on Itch.io here: https://hellamagellan.itch.io/star-fall

From my description on the game pages: Star Fall is a lovely, relaxing game about catching stars as they fall from the night sky! Play as an adorable stuffed bear in a dreamy world where the stars are within your reach! Watch the spinning stars as they drift toward the clouds on which you stand, and score points by catching them in your net before they hit the cloud. Be careful, though! Some stars are large and magical, and if you miss these, it's game over!

This game was a lot of fun to make, primarily because I got to collaborate with wonderful artist (and stellar girlfriend) calmcalling on it :) Her artwork is far and away my favorite part of Star Fall. I think once you play the game, you'll agree with me!

Thanks, as always, to those of you who follow my blog! I couldn't 'a done it without'cha! If you play this game (or any of my others) and enjoy it, or even if you don't, please comment below! I'd love to hear from any and every one of my readers and/or players :)

See you next time, everyone! Ciao!

Torso Ninja II Released!

Hello everyone! I'm super excited to announce the release of my sixth #1GAM game, Torso Ninja II! That's right, its out! Hooray! Just in the nick of time too ;)

The logo, which I still like :)

Torso Ninja II is the sequel to my December 2015 #1GAM game, Torso Ninja. In this game, like its predecessor, you play as the brave (and armless) Torso Ninja, who is beset from all directions by his enemies, the Red Ninjas. You, the player, must use your mouse pointer to guide Torso Ninja safely through his enemies' barrages of bullets (err, shuriken), all the while collecting power-ups and and trying to get the highest score possible! You must also beware, for the Red Ninjas' evil leader, Goemon, might just make an appearance to try and destroy our heroic shinobi himself...

Play the game on Game Jolt: http://gamejolt.com/games/torso-ninja-ii/153329
Or play it on Itch.io: https://hellamagellan.itch.io/torso-ninja-2

This is the biggest game I've made since Cargo, and I would probably consider Torso Ninja II to be the best game I've ever made. I think I've come a long way since starting #1GAM, and I hope this game exemplifies that somewhat :)

Most importantly, though, I hope you, the audience, like this game and find it fun! I certainly had a great time making it, and I would love to hear from any and all of you who read this, and/or play my games :) Leave a shoutout below here on my blog, or comment on my Game Jolt and Itch.io game pages! You can even find me on twitter @HellaMagellan!

See you next time! Hope you enjoy this new game! :D 

P.S. As a side note, remember that you can edit the levels yourself using the level config files in the data\lvl\ directory of the Torso Ninja II folder. There's a short help file in there, so check it out! :)

SKRMSH released!

Surprise! I'm here to announce the early completion of my April 2016 #1GAM game, SKRMSH! This game (which, by the way, is pronounced "skirmish") is a simple card game for two players that I cooked up yesterday afternoon, and implemented in a BASIC script today over the course of about 3 or so hours. It is playable with a standard deck of 52 playing cards. Read on to find out the rules!

In SKRMSH, two players are each dealt a hand of 6 cards. Both players choose one of these cards to "bet" and a second one to "play," and lay these face down.

Standard 6-card starting hand.

The player (spoilers: me) has placed a "bet" card and has his
hand on the "play" card.

Both players flip their "play" cards at the same time, and the winner of the round is the player that has the higher value "play" card (Aces are low, face cards are scored as follows: Jack=11, Queen=12, King=13). The players then flip their "bet" cards, and the winner gains points equal to both "bet" cards put together. In the event of a tie, nobody gains any points. 

The players then set aside both of their "bet" and "play" cards and continue to play with their now-smaller hands. The "skirmish" ends when both players run out of cards in their hands (that is, after three rounds), and the cards are then shuffled back into the deck and another skirmish begins. There is no hard limit to the number of skirmishes that constitute a game, but at the end of the game, both players tabulate their scores, and the winner is the one with the higher total score.

Whew! Quite a wall of text, but SKRMSH is actually a very simple game. I didn't actually set out to make a new card game for this #1GAM game, though. I had actually intended to simply make a BASIC type-in game!

I'm 23, so I was born long after the microcomputer boom of the 70's and 80's. I have, however, always maintained an historical interest in this period, especially in the types of games available on these machines. I began thumbing through 101 BASIC Computer Games (an early edition of BASIC Computer Games) by David Ahl last month, and I was inspired to try and make my own simple BASIC game. I conceived that I would write the code, take a screenshot of it, and upload that here on my blog, thus preserving the "type-in" (that is, you, the end-user, have to enter the source code yourself, by hand) nature of these games.

I was originally going to implement the simple card game War, but I soon decided that doing so would be too easy. It also would be repetitive, because this game had already been created numerous times in the BASIC language. I then set to work fiddling with a deck of cards in my house, and came up with SKRMSH while trying to add more tactical depth to War. 

I finished my BASIC script for this game earlier this evening, and here is the promised source code screenshot!

Part 1

Part 2

There it is, in all its immune-to-copy-paste, probably-horribly-done-because-I'm-a-novice-at-BASIC glory! :) In all seriousness, I made this game as more of a personal hobby-project for myself, so I understand if nobody wants to go to the trouble of typing this in. Hopefully you can learn to play the game physically from my instructions above, even if you don't run the BASIC script. I played it with my family, and it seems to be pretty fun :)

If you DO decide to try to input the script above, I recommend you run it with the Vintage BASIC Interpreter, as it is what I used. I unfortunately do not have access to a real home computer that implements BASIC natively, but if you do and you get this program running on it, I would absolutely love to hear from you! Stuff like that delights me, cause I'm a nerd ;P

That's all for this week! I'll get this uploaded to the #1GAM site tomorrow, but right now, its already past my bedtime. Goodnight, everyone, and have a pleasant day tomorrow!

Keyro: Arena Lockdown Released!

Helllooooo, everyone! Today I'm pleased to announce the release of my March #1GAM game, Keyro: Arena Lockdown!

 

The title screen, featuring a redesigned logo.

This is my fourth game in four months, and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. You can play it on GameJolt right here.

This is the first browser-based game I have ever made, and I admit that I'm not much of a web developer. I've tested the game pretty extensively across several browsers though, and it seems to work okay.

A small note: I mentioned this on the Keyro's GameJolt page, but I'll put it here as well, just in case. This game's sound will not work in Internet Explorer because of the way that browser deals (or, rather, doesn't deal) with the HTML5 Audio object. The game runs fine in IE, but is unfortunately silent. The game's sound will work just fine in other major browsers, however, including Chrome and Firefox.

But, anyway, I would love to hear from any players, as always! :) Leave me comments here or on GameJolt (I check both pretty frequently). Feedback is my lifeblood!

See you next time, everybody!

Plitka Released!

Hellooooooooo, Internet! You may have noticed that I was a bit late with this week's dev blog, but that's just because development on my current game is already complete! Today, I'm excited to announce the release of my third #1GAM game, Plitka! You can play it for yourself on Game Jolt, as well as on Itch.io!

Game Jolt link: http://gamejolt.com/games/plitka/127947
Itch.io link: https://hellamagellan.itch.io/plitka

Plitka is a puzzling parade of color and strategy! In this game, you, the player, must manipulate your way through waves of plitkas (colorful, gem-like tiles) that fall from the sky and fill up your game board! Move the plitkas left, right, up, and down, and try to match four or more horizontally or vertically to clear them and score points! The plitkas will keep coming, slowly at first, but much faster as time goes on! Survive as long as possible and go for the high score!

This was an interesting game for me to make, and I put a LOT more effort into the resources (music and graphics, primarily) than I usually do. Plitka is a pretty simple and straightforward game, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out, both functionally and aesthetically. :) I made use of a font called Kremlin by Vic Fieger.

That about does it! :) I would love to hear any and all comments you all have regarding Plitka, my other games, or anything else, really. If you play Plitka, I hope you have some fun with it!

See you around!

Cargo Released!

What's up everybody? You ready for some high-speed highway traffic-dodging action? Then look no further, because Cargo is officially out now!! After taking nearly the whole month, I've finally finished it. You can play it on Game Jolt here: http://gamejolt.com/games/cargo/122511

Cargo is an arcade-style driving game where you play as a trucker out to make it rich on the long-haul circuit! You control an 18-wheeler cargo truck barreling down a highway congested with traffic and patrolled by watchful police cars. Your mission is to reach the end of your journey as quickly as possible, collecting pickups and dodging other vehicles along the way. At the end of each day you can use your hard-earned money to buy upgrades for 
your rig. Your ultimate goal is to save up $1,000,000 and retire to a trucker's life of luxury!

This is far and away the most extensive game I've ever completed. Many hours were sunk into Cargo over the last few weeks. Here's hoping you enjoy playing it as much as I've enjoyed making it! :)

As always, if anyone out there plays the game and likes it, please leave a comment, because I would love to here from you!

Onward and upward!