Dev Blog #10: Announcing Torso Ninja II!

HELLLLLLOOOOOO!

I'm back again folks, and this time I have some exciting news! For my next #1GAM game, I'll be revisiting one of my older games. That's right, I'm making a sequel to Torso Ninja! Hold on to your hats!

Torso Ninja II's logo, of which I am actually quite proud :)

Torso Ninja was my first #1GAM game, and it was (in my opinion) a pretty choppy affair. I made it in a hurry and the only goal I had was to publicly release it, so its a very small, only mildly amusing game. Nonetheless, it is far and away my most popular game, both among my friends and family, and with the internet at large (it actually has more plays on Game Jolt than all my other games combined).

I feel like I've come a long way as a game developer since last December (when I released the original Torso Ninja), and I want to prove that by reviving this game and making it as awesome as I can. So here's the plan! :)

The gimmick of Torso Ninja is that its a bullet-hell shooter where you can't shoot back; you can only dodge. I feel like this is a pretty solid concept, as, having played a few danmaku/curtain fire/bullet-hell type games myself, it seems like the vast majority of the gameplay centers around dodging anyway, with firing back as only a sub-component. The main focus of development on Torso Ninja II, therefor, will be on making dodging both fun and challenging. I have a few ideas, but you'll have to wait a bit to hear about them :)

Lastly, before I go, I think it bears mentioning exactly how I'm gonna make this game. I originally planned to make Torso Ninja II in Construct Classic, but I kept running into snags with getting a test version of a bullet pattern up and running. I was attempting to use Construct's built-in Python scripting support, but the main problem was not having any way to index specific instances of any of the game objects, which made dozens of bullets firing in all different directions at once pretty much impossible. Unfortunately, I ended up simply giving up on Construct and deciding to make the game in Python with Pygame (the same as the original Torso Ninja). It might slow development somewhat, but with Pygame I'll have all the direct control I need to make this game a reality :)

Adios, until next time!

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:0

(Stay tuned!)

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AfrikaansAlbanianArabicArmenianAzerbaijaniBasqueBelarusianBengaliBosnianBulgarianCatalanCebuanoChichewaChinese (Simplified)Chinese (Traditional)CroatianCzechDanishDutchEnglishEsperantoEstonianFilipinoFinnishFrenchGalicianGeorgianGermanGreekGujaratiHaitian CreoleHausaHebrewHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKazakhKhmerKoreanLaoLatinLatvianLithuanianMacedonianMalagasyMalayMalayalamMalteseMaoriMarathiMongolianMyanmar (Burmese)NepaliNorwegianPersianPolishPortuguesePunjabiRomanianRussianSerbianSesothoSinhalaSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSundaneseSwahiliSwedishTajikTamilTeluguThaiTurkishUkrainianUrduUzbekVietnameseWelshYiddishYorubaZulu

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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!

Games on the Menu #1

Hello, internet people! This week, I thought I would try something different here on the ol' blog. Instead of talking about my #1GAM plans, I'm going to talk about what games I am actually currently playing myself! That's right, you get a glimpse into my wonderful and exciting game collection (read: Steam library)! Let's go!

The following are all games that I'm actively playing as of this week. I'm going to organize this in a listed format. All games are un-ranked and in no particular order. Under each entry, I'll spend a bit of time describing my feelings on the game and maybe reviewing it somewhat (note, I am certainly not a professional critic, just a guy who has played a lot of games. No representation is made that the quality of the game review presented is greater than the quality of the review presented by other reviewers ;P)

So, onward!

MOUNT & BLADE: WARBAND

I call them my "Hammer Bros."

Mount & Blade is one of my favorite game series of all time. I've invested a LOT of hours into Warband, and I'm pretty much always playing it in at least some capacity. I play it one-player only and don't care too much about actually being good at it (shocker, I'm terrible), but it's somehow the ultimate time-waster for me :) I never get bored with it.

 

 

 

CASTLE CLASH

The gang's all here.

This is the main game I play on mobile. I've played Castle Clash on my Android for a little over a year now, and I usually squeeze in a few minutes on it here and there each day. My main account is F2P and has about 36,000 might. I have PD, Cupid, and SK, among a plethora of other legends. Most mobile games get boring to me really quickly, but CC is one I come back to time and again. Currently, I'm saving up shards to buy an Atlanticore to stick in the new hero totem.

UNDERTALE

Scenic locales!

I just started Undertale a couple of days ago, and I'm absolutely loving it. The detail and care put into it is just astonishing to me. I love strange little RPG Maker games, and Undertale really puts me in mind of some of the best, such as Yume Nikki and OFF (note: I am, of course, aware that Undertale itself was made using Game Maker Studio). I could write a thirty-paragraph thinkpiece on Undertale right here, but not a lot can be said about this game that hasn't been said already. There's no way I can heap enough praise on this game, so I won't even try :) If anyone out there hasn't played Undertale yet - seriously, go do it. It lives up to the hype, and that's saying something.



So there's what I'm playing for the time being. I would like to start writing more about games I play, rather than just ones I make, so maybe expect to see more entries like this from time to time, dev permitting :)



See you in approximately seven days!

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!

Dev Blog #9: Screenshots

Hey there! Time for another quick update on the progress of my March #1GAM game, Keyro! I'll be keeping this blog a bit short, since I mainly have very little to say as far as an update goes :P However, I do have one thing that might interest those who are anticipating this game: screenshots!

Keyro is starting to look pretty good. As I mentioned in my previous dev blogs, it is a vertically-scrolling game. I have the walls, background, and the all-important keys artwork-complete. Check 'em out!

This is the main screen that you'll be looking at during gameplay. The
HUD is not yet implemented.

Look, a key!

Ooh, another!

So far so good with Keyro. It is a much smaller game than my last two entries, but it should be done quite soon! I have the whole of next week off, so I intend to complete it in a burst of productivity during that time! :)

See ya!

(P.S. This is the first blog post I've made from my newly-built gaming PC :) Its been about six months in the making, but its done now! I have yet to get my GPU [A 4GB Nvidia GTX 960. I'm going for the EVGA one], but the computer runs!)

Dev Blog #8: Announcing Keyro!

Hey, hi, how ya doin'? Hopefully you folks have been having a pretty good week! I've been busy with, among (many) other things, the artwork and code for my next #1GAM game. I've got pictures this time! And, what's more, this project now has a name! I'm pleased to introduce: Keyro - Arena Lockdown!

I hope you like terribly forced puns in your video game titles.

In this game, as I mentioned before, you must run through a vertical maze of spiked walls that scroll against you, and try to escape the deathtrap. Keys feature prominently in the game (hence the title), as sometimes your progress will be impeded by a locked door and you must have a key to open it.

Much of the artwork is in a very primitive state, so I'm gonna hold off on showing screen shots for the time being. I will, however, showcase a pair of very simple sprites that make up much of what you actually see in game:

This is your intrepid hero, who looks somewhat like a viking.

And this is an evil integrated circuit... Naw, its just a spike wall :P

I have had quite a time making this game so far, and progress has been very slow. This is entirely due to the fact that I'm learning and re-learning javscript at the same time as making the game. I've yet to succeed in one of these endeavors wherein I attempt to learn a language by making a game in it, but this time will break that losing streak! :)

That's about all I have for the moment. See you later on!