Cataclysmic Games' Blog!

To Do Lists and KEEPING BUSY!!!

2011-03-28T20:11:00.001-07:00

Well, it's been quite some time since I blogged, might as well give it another shot right? It just always seems to redundant to use a blog, write in my calendar what happened, update Facebook and send out newsletters... I mean, really, what's supposed to keep them all so different anyway?

So I guess I'll just use this as kind of a daily wrap-up report.

Today I worked my butt off at work (Mondays are my super-long days), and then came home and planned stuff out. I didn't even really DO anything as far as actual accomplishments in game development or even web development go. What I did was PLAN. Oh, and I sent out a new newsletter for the first time in two months, that was fun :)

Remember The Milk is my new superhero for productivity! I'm not looking forward to paying for pro to keep it synced to my android phone once the free trial is over, but either way it's free for computer use at least. I spent a good chunk of time today and yesterday planning out really what it is I've got to do and when to do it by. Here's what it looks like:

Weekly Planner

Tuesday Mar 29

(03.5): Go through all the pages on CG and The Critterverse, make sure everything is still correct. (Website Work)
(04a): The Games Page Itself (Inbox)
(04b): ASCIIvader (Inbox)
Check email for subscribers to "Evil Newsletter" and add them to the "MMM Newsletter" list. Send new subscribers a welcome email and old subscribers a daily reminder to play! (Inbox, 8:30PM)
Check email for new subscribers. Send them a thank you and the latest newsletter! (Inbox, 9:00PM)
Check email for new contributors, email them to thank them, store their contribution and send them the newest newsletter. (Inbox, 9:30PM)

Wednesday Mar 30

(04e): Rubberman (Inbox)
(04f): Springy Game (Inbox)
Check email for subscribers to "Evil Newsletter" and add them to the "MMM Newsletter" list. Send new subscribers a welcome email and old subscribers a daily reminder to play! (Inbox, 8:30PM)
Check email for new subscribers. Send them a thank you and the latest newsletter! (Inbox, 9:00PM)
Check email for new contributors, email them to thank them, store their contribution and send them the newest newsletter. (Inbox, 9:30PM)

Thursday Mar 31

(04c): Candy Catastrophe (Inbox)
(04d): Make a Story (Inbox)
(04g): TruHangman (Inbox)
(04h): TruWordHunt (Inbox)
(04i): Word Detective (Inbox)
(04j): Unhide the link to the page and announce that it's ready! (Inbox)
Check email for subscribers to "Evil Newsletter" and add them to the "MMM Newsletter" list. Send new subscribers a welcome email and old subscribers a daily reminder to play! (Inbox, 8:30PM)
Check email for new subscribers. Send them a thank you and the latest newsletter! (Inbox, 9:00PM)
Check email for new contributors, email them to thank them, store their contribution and send them the newest newsletter. (Inbox, 9:30PM)

Friday Apr 1

(05a): Meet the Critter Images and Pages themselves (Inbox)
(05b): Angel (Inbox)
Check email for subscribers to "Evil Newsletter" and add them to the "MMM Newsletter" list. Send new subscribers a welcome email and old subscribers a daily reminder to play! (Inbox, 8:30PM)
Check email for new subscribers. Send them a thank you and the latest newsletter! (Inbox, 9:00PM)
Check email for new contributors, email them to thank them, store their contribution and send them the newest newsletter. (Inbox, 9:30PM)

Saturday Apr 2

Check email for subscribers to "Evil Newsletter" and add them to the "MMM Newsletter" list. Send new subscribers a welcome email and old subscribers a daily reminder to play! (Inbox, 8:30PM)
Check email for new subscribers. Send them a thank you and the latest newsletter! (Inbox, 9:00PM)
Check email for new contributors, email them to thank them, store their contribution and send them the newest newsletter. (Inbox, 9:30PM)

Sunday Apr 3

(05c): Professor Bumbleslotz (Inbox)
(05d): Ellie (Inbox)
(05e): The Announcer (Inbox)
(05f): Rubberman (Inbox)
(05g): Mrs. Bookworm (Inbox)
(05h): Captain Candy (Inbox)
(05i): Mrs. Beehive (Inbox)
(05j): Dark Lord Critter (Inbox)
(05k): Bullies (Inbox)
(05l): Ghosts (Inbox)
(05m): Minions (Inbox)
(05n): Slick (Inbox)
(05o): Spotty (Inbox)
Check NG and Kong for new comments and reviews, etc. Thank people personally who comment nicely! Let them know about the newsletter and the page, etc (Inbox)
Check email for subscribers to "Evil Newsletter" and add them to the "MMM Newsletter" list. Send new subscribers a welcome email and old subscribers a daily reminder to play! (Inbox, 8:30PM)
Check email for new subscribers. Send them a thank you and the latest newsletter! (Inbox, 9:00PM)
Check email for new contributors, email them to thank them, store their contribution and send them the newest newsletter. (Inbox, 9:30PM)

Pretty busy huh??? Yep, that's just til Sunday too, still a few days planned ahead of that as well. It's nice to see it all in list form, though, and it'll help a lot for encouragement (nothing helps encourage you more than feeling like you failed for having to press that "postpone" button or have tasks lurking in the background all day!!! These things are all, of course, in addition to a normal 50 hour job, so some days seem lighter than others to make up for the fact that I have less time at home those days...

ASCIIvader final Update: Complete!

2011-02-06T21:08:00.000-08:00

So here is a link to the game! I realize I am posting this past midnight but I didn't start til 2, took numerous breaks and had it done before midnight, but had to upload to MochiAds :)

http://games.mochiads.com/c/g/asciivader/ASCIIvader.swf

This is the 6 hour version (all work completed in under 6 hours, including concept and planning). Will make a better version at a later time: ASCIIvader 2 - Revenge is a Dish Best Served Square!

ASCIIvader 18:15 Update: Enemies oh my!

2011-02-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

Look out, those things are bouncy and they go all over the place! And they just keep coming, geez! How long can you survive? Need to make the timer and health work and make a game over screen, but that'd do it! Still plenty of time :)

ASCIIvader 16:22 Update - Squareface Moves!

2011-02-06T13:22:00.000-08:00

Squareface now has four boundaries and can move around. Up next: Enemies! But first, a word from our sponsors - coffee drinks to be made and drank! And a movie to pick to watch...

ASCIIvader 16:03 Update - Squareface is Born!

2011-02-06T13:02:00.000-08:00

And here is an image of you, the player, Squareface! My first piece of ascii art! The little plus thingy in the upper-left is from Flash, it's not a part of him.

15:50 update - Some Quickly Made Screens

2011-02-06T12:50:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple quick screens for the game, had to do them quickly to get a real start on the game.

Self-Challenge: Game in a Day - ASCIIvader!

2011-02-06T11:45:00.001-08:00

Over at ExperimentalGameplay.com the monthly challenge is ASCII. It's actually a very interesting one, and the idea there is to make a game in a week. I'm pushing myself even harder, I'm going to make this one in a day! I came up with a concept that should be doable - simply avoid bouncing pieces and the like as long as you can. Survive a level to move on. Beat all 10 levels and you rock! Don't, and... well... :)

The game is titled ASCIIvader! Get it? Plus it kinda looks like Vader, Darth Vader, so that should be a draw too. I'll be updating this blog as I go. Here goes nothin!

Voicing a Game!

2011-01-15T20:11:00.001-08:00

I spent a good hour or two procrastinating today, trying to come up with the courage to start voice recording for Million Dollar Words. Every time I even began to try, it felt like I was hitting a brick wall I was so terrified. Angel asked me if I wanted her to leave the room, but it wasn't a fear of her hearing me (she gets to hear me all day, lucky her!), it was a fear of me hearing myself. And not just hearing myself, but hearing myself trying to act!

I consider myself semi-decent at art, and not bad at all at coding or design, but when it comes to ACTING??? Totally not something I had ever considered before... But now that I've gotten past the fear, I can see how people really get into it! It's a LOT of fun! I turned Perry the Platformer into voiced questions, and it was actually very quick too. I'd like to sharpen them up a bit, but still, not bad at all, and the longer I did it the more I opened up and really enjoyed it.

So for all of you out there who have a microphone and love to make silly voices, I say do it! Don't be ashamed! Don't feel embarrassed, just do it!

Flash Game License's First Impressions

2011-01-14T06:52:00.000-08:00

I'd heard all kinds of good things about First Impressions over at Flash Game License, so after some hesitation I decided to get some myself. I got $20 worth (which gives 20+3 as a bonus, woohoo! Couldn't quite convince myself to jump on 50 right away...) and tried 4 out on Million Dollar Words. After a few hours (they warned they were having issues and would be more than the normal hour (!!!) it would take; I honestly expected to wait at least overnight and part of the morning) I had my first review. Within another hour or so I had all four. It seemed that basically everyone said the same things: the lights are distracting and the game is hard. The game being difficult is understandable; they are crazy difficult words! That's how I wanted it set though, to be honest...

So all in all, for $4 I learned something! And everyone had said they found no bugs, which is awesome! Here is my takeaway list of to dos:

1) Tone down the lights during game play only, see if this is what people mean by the lights being annoying.

2) After spending all kinds of time thinking it may not be worth the effort, I am going to go ahead and voice the game... I think it will make it much more humorous and fun, and it will also level out the "I don't read as fast as you do so I don't get as many points" issue.

3) I want to add some graphics to the game, although I'm not quite sure what yet...

Once these are done, I'll resubmit for some more First Impressions and see how it goes :)

Million Dollar Words is Ready for Testing!

2011-01-13T08:11:00.000-08:00

Writing this blog half a day late, oops! Admittedly it's because we got a Nancy Drew game (Crystal Skull), and while we thought it was quite dumb at first it actually got to be quite good. So good that we were up til 4am trying to figure out more clues and solve more puzzles! Oops...

So, the main thing is that Million Dollar Words is ready for testing! It's the first version of the game, but it's there! I'm going to give First Impressions over at Flash Game License a shot for the first time. They're $1 a piece so it's an actual investment into a game, but I think it'll be worth it to get some honest feedback from random people.

Finally, Mini-Ludum Dare 23 is set for the 28th-30th this month! As usual I'll only have Friday night after work, Saturday night after work and then Sunday til the deadline (about 12-14 hours of the 48 gone there), but work time lets me think about the concept. (For those not familiar, a Ludum Dare - or Mini Ludum Dare - is a challenge to make a game based on a game concept within a 48 hour period. The challenge is that you don't know what concept the game has to center around until the beginning of the challenge, so it's 48 hours from concept to finish.

Hope the day finds you well! I will blog again this evening for tonight :)

MDW is almost ready to test!

2011-01-11T20:55:00.001-08:00

Today Angel wrote out pretty much the entire 10 questions for one of the quizzes and got it done for me while I coded some light effects and messed with typos and the like. We came up with the idea to add pronunciations to the game as well to let people see how the word is supposed to be said. All that's left is to test it out and MAYBE some sound effects... If not, might even get those done while the game is being looked at by others; and speaking of, the game will be ready for test tomorrow (Jan 12th) in the evening, so if you're interested in helping please let me know!

I am hoping to also get a good start on Random Fu! tomorrow, maybe even throw a little test of that one around? It's a very simplistic game based on using a Press Your Luck-ian battle system.

It was still a fun day in all though, at least to me, and I hope Angel enjoyed it as well. She made up some great foods for us to try, including a really low calorie ranch dip of her own invention! And we even had some time to play a couple games of Scene It for 360 (she ANNIHILATED me the second time, beyond what either of us has won by before...). It was a great day for encouragement!

Day of Rest

2011-01-07T19:27:00.000-08:00

When I decided to really push myself this year on game development, I had forgotten just how much of a burden forcing yourself to do anything is. The more I forced it in the few hours of free time that I have, the more I disliked it. The more I disliked it, the slower at it I became. Angel (my fiancee) suggested that I take a few days off a week from it... And I originally didn't like it. I figured that'd mean even LESS time to work with it... But now that I'm giving one a shot, I realize it's actually VERY nice! A day off from it actually rejuvenates me on the idea of working on the games, makes me actually want to (which is a first in the last three or four days or so), and it lets me work on other things like figuring out fun holidays and just enjoying free time a little bit.

MDW Update and Daily Holidays for Game Development Challenges

2011-01-06T20:00:00.000-08:00

So, I had always been a fan of how there are actually funky holidays pretty much every day of the year, but hadn't thought about making games based around them! There are enough challenges to keep me satisfied for the year, sure, but aside from those I have over 20 days with no true format or time constraints. What better way than to make games for holidays???

I was looking around for sites and found http://www.brownielocks.com. She's got a great collection of yearly, monthly, weekly and daily holidays, and it's all free, unlike the other major holiday site ($40/year, I think?) A quick look at their January listings has me already tossing around ideas for a bunch of them!

Also, a quick little update on Million Dollar Words: I am making a little demo version with 7 quizzes. Each quiz has 10 questions, and I have selected a few from multiple different individual versions I was going to do (there are a few from "Video Game Edition" and a few from the general version). I have 3 done, one almost done, one needs a few questions taken out and then 2 need some work. I would put the first version done by Sunday night with any luck :)

Back to the Real World

2011-01-03T20:25:00.000-08:00

It's easy to forget just how hard it is to get any work done in game development when working! 12 hour day today, plus sleep, plus some time doing anything other than working of any sort and an hour drive time left me with about half an hour to work on Million Dollar Words. Usually I'd shrug off a half hour, but I actually managed to just about finish a quiz in that time! And, on that note, do some crazy research too!!!

For some hilarity, check out the seriousness that is Finger Jousting, or Wife Carrying, or any other crazy sport!

Unknown (a movie), Overpriced Small Pizzas and Quizzes!

2011-01-02T16:38:00.001-08:00

So, first things first, we watched a movie called Unknown today. It had Jim Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Joe Pantoliano, Barry Pepper and Peter Stormare (dude who played Abruzzi on Prison Break), and is basically about 5 guys who wake up in a warehouse. They're all locked inside and have all lost their memories, and have to figure out what happened and who they are. It sounds trite and predictable I know, but it's actually not. The sudden loss of memory is actually explained in-movie and there's no crazy mystical force, or "would you like to play a game" master or anything of the sort. If you click the link, you'll see the IMDB page. Funny enough, even in the credits the characters are titled things like "Rancher Shirt" and "Broken Nose" instead of by their actual names.

Secondly, just a quick little rant... I absolutely, totally love how you can buy a large pizza for $10, with "any toppings", but then you decide to get a small so you don't devour the whole large, and it's $14!!! Seriously?!?!?! That'd be like if you wanted the standard edition of Black Ops because you didn't want the awesome RC vehicle to take up space in your house, but had to pay more for it!

Finally, got a lot of work done on Million Dollar Words today! As of this writing one topic is totally done, and the rest all have some good work on em. Hoping to have at least 3 or 4 topics totally done tonight and finish the rest tomorrow, then finish up the game itself Tuesday and get it going on the testing front.

Watching Eat Pray Love tonight also, and relaxing for the rest of my awesome 2 day weekend!

Contests and Experimental Gameplay Jan 2011

2011-01-01T18:51:00.000-08:00

One of my challenges to myself this year is to compete in as many competitions as possible! Ludum Dare (LD) and Experimental Gameplay (EGP) are two major ones; EGP is monthly, and LD usually does at least a "mini" challenge monthly, with a "real" competition every few months. I figure that, at worst case, this would mean 24 games this year, right? That alone is pretty sweet! Plus I'll be doing others inbetween...

EGP challenges each person to pick a week of the month to make a game (no more than the 7 days), which has to be based around the theme, which this time around is "inanimate." Quite a broad theme, but I guess that'll be what makes it interesting!

New Year and 2010 Recap

2011-01-01T18:17:00.000-08:00

So, a new year has begun, and I'm rededicating myself to making games, losing weight and writing about it all!

First things first... Happy new year to you!!! It sure is for me, since New Years Day fell on a Saturday, I received a 2 day weekend, which is just unheard of where I work (with the exception of last week, since Christmas was a Saturday also). It's perfect timing too, since it gives me a chance to kick all of this off.

Secondly, here's a rundown of how everything went last year, and my goals for this year:

1) I made a total of $988.44 last year from video games! This year? $10,000, 10 times that (well, 10.117 times that, rounding off a bit, if you want to get technical). I'll be using MochiAds, Adsense, Newgrounds Ads on their site, Kongregate's revenue sharing and sponsorships, as well as referrals and Zazzle selling (those items still need to be put up for sale, by the way!)

2) I am down a total of 97.5 lbs thus far (started originally at 316, and I am currently at 218.5). My first major goal has always been 180, and I think that's majorly doable this year!

Experimental Gameplay October Challenge: BOYS AND GIRLS

2010-10-26T18:54:00.000-07:00

http://experimentalgameplay.com/blog/2010/10/boys-and-girls-in-october/

Experimental Gameplay is a website based around making games in a week. They all did it when they were in school and now they challenge others to do the same. This month is the first month I found out about the monthly challenges, and figured I'd give it a shot! The challenge is a tricky one though: make a game for girls (/women). It's a challenge because in my past, I never really looked at games "for females" or "for males" or "for glowing orbs" as they say, it was always a question of "I don't like 3d so my games end up being the casual fare, and I don't like crazy violence, and I just want to make games I like, cuz I'm sure other people out there will like them too." I guess I make games for Charlie, and I'm not a girl, so it doesn't help anything.

It seems, in my "interviewing" (ie: "you're a girl, what games do you like?"), women like adventuring, they like puzzles, they like quests and checklists and unlocking stuff just as much as we guys do! It also seems cute graphics outweigh badass ones, although I laugh every time I realize that women will construct death traps for their Sims just as often as men do!

Now the trick will be coming up with an idea that's doable in about 2 days (since that's all I actually have in free time, not working...)

Sponsorship Attempts for The Critterville Halloween Catastrophe

2010-10-26T18:42:00.000-07:00

So, the game was completed a few days ago, and I submitted it to FlashGameLicense.com to see if I can get a sponsor for it. I haven't quite made my $100 from Mochi yet, which means I haven't become a "professional" developer yet... Having a boost beforehand would be nice! But it seems that the sponsorship cycle takes weeks, if not months, and I gave myself 5 days, oops! But it makes for a great lesson learned.

I also submitted the game to several different websites for possible sponsorship, and found at least once that really seems to be mostly about kids, or at least a big focus on it, which excites me to know I'm not the only one aiming that way a bit :)

Anyway, I've been away from this blog for a while, and I plan on getting back to it. Sponsor or not, I'm very proud of finishing the game. Ariel did an amazing job with the art, and finishing one game (which was essentially 3 games) in two weeks is awesome!

Make a Story's Update Today!

2010-10-17T21:48:00.000-07:00

Well, techically it's past midnight, so it was supposed to be yesterday... And of course after issues with updating I'm now having issues getting the game into Mochi Ads system, so the game is not updated after all. Then Facebook as well, to try to get the bad news out!

Anyway, the game will be updated ASAP, and it is ready! It's been updated with two new stories (one by Angel and another by a new contributor, snotface). I also added the ability to use the Enter key to enter words, a way to get the whole story on one page for easy copy/paste and it now automatically enters a randomize for those who really want to get the story quickly!

October, What's to Come?

2010-10-08T18:41:00.000-07:00

October is shaping up to be a big month! A very busy, busy month, but a big one at that! I've never made a game based on a holiday, but figured what the heck, why not? I'm aiming to get a Halloween game out in time for, well, Halloween of course. But not only that, Make a Story will be updated no later than the 17th, and I'm also aiming to complete the Experimental Gameplay challenge of "making a game for girls." So here's how this month is shaping up for development, in a breakdown by dates!

October 9th-16th: Get most of the work done on "Halloween Game"

October 17th: Update Make a Story

October 18th-24th: Experimental Gameplay challenge "Make a Game for Girls," launch it!

October 25th-28th: Finish up "Halloween Game"

October 29th: WITH ANY LUCK launch "Halloween Game" for the Halloween weekend!

GOOD GRIEF! I'll be honest, even just typing all this out kind of has me nervous about getting it all done in time... But you have to take risks, right!?

I really wanted to add some stuff to the website and get Million Dollar Words done, but geez! I'll have to find time for that somewhere I guess :)

THANKS for the Awesome Make a Story Launch!!

2010-10-05T19:54:00.001-07:00

Hey anyone who reads this! I just wanted to give each of you a huge THANK YOU for making Make a Story such a blast to get out there! It was some work, of course, but seeing those compliments about the game and hearing about people enjoying it made it very worthwhile :)

I will frequently update the game as people contribute stories, adding to it every time I fill a new bookshelf (7 books), or over a certain period of time (this first time, I'm going to give it two weeks before updating because I still had a few more I wanted to write myself, and I'm spending the rest of this week promoting the game anyway), after that I'm going to push it back to a monthly basis so that I have plenty of time to get work done on Million Dollar Words.

Speaking of which, the game is progressing quite nicely! I have a full quiz done, one on weird diseases (mental and physical ones), and am working on several others. Once I get about 15 of them done, I'm going to make an official demo and push it out to those of you who read this blog or check out my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1032405057).

Thanks again for the encouragement, I'm just getting started!

Make a Story's Launch Today!

2010-10-03T19:46:00.000-07:00

Starting a bit late due to my own internet issues, and also due to my own misjudgement on how long certain things would take (ssshhhhhh), Make a Story was officially fully launched at 12:39 Eastern time on Newgrounds.com. Following this, the game made it to Kongregate, Nonoba and 4 other pages, as well as being pushed through MochiAds. It received a total of 1051 plays as of 10:57pm, which is about 500-600 more than I get for my games as an average any other day.

It's so easy to get wrapped up in "I made $x today, yay" or "I only made $x...", that those little comments like "I loved this story" or "I laughed so hard!" get forgotten. Eyes and enjoyment are worth more than any money I'll ever get from this (and trust me, I'm not exactly selling out when I made 38 cents today!), so I just want to thank everyone who's played it.

The rest of this week is going to be about promoting the game to all different sites. Once the week is over, I'll be continuing work on Million Dollar Words. One quiz is already completed, and the engine is almost done, so all that's left is a few more fixes and a LOT of quiz development!

Make a Story, New Author!

2010-09-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

Make a Story has received its first contribution by Angel, my fiancee! She has written a story called "The Brave BLANK" and it gets her into the game as an author and contributor! Another story has been added as well, making it 11 total - over a bookshelf and a half! With your help, maybe we can round out a second one before the game releases on Oct 3rd!

Make a Story Launch Oct 3rd!

2010-09-26T17:29:00.000-07:00

Since the game was sent around to newsletter subscribers and those of you who read this blog, it's gone through a bit of testing, and now on OCTOBER 3RD, 2010 at noon (eastern time), Make a Story will be launched across the internet! I'm going to spend the day promoting it everywhere, starting with MochiAds and Newgrounds. If you wish to submit a story to the game before then, please do so! It'll be there for thousands and thousands of people to see, read and play with your name right on it!

If you're interested, click here and get it in!

The Critterverse is on Facebook!

2010-09-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

The Critterverse now has its own Facebook page! Check it out! Click on the little "Like" button at the top to show your love and your uberawesomeness :)

Million Dollar Words: A Teaser!

2010-09-18T19:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick little teaser of some sample quiz titles and the artwork for the game. Comments, questions and anything else are always welcome and appreciated!

Make a Story is Complete!

2010-09-13T20:00:00.001-07:00

9 stories, 50+ random categories and all kinds of fun! Make your own stories just like Mad Libs, but with much more specific terms such as "D&D style treasure", "your favorite food", "crazy verb, present tense" and more! Explore the legends of The Critterverse, or just make silly stories! And you can even write your own stories to be submitted, then receive credit!

CLICK HERE TO PLAY!

August Goal Results

2010-09-01T19:13:00.000-07:00

So how did August go? Aside from being crazy hot you mean? Alright...

Games

Get Make a Story into Testing (15th is goal 1, 19th is goal 2, 22nd is goal 3)

So, did you enjoy Make a Story? What do you mean you haven't played it yet? Oh yeah, because it didn't reach test yet! It'll definitely be in this month's goals...

Get Million Dollar Words into Testing (31st is goal 1)

Since Make a Story didn't make it, Million Dollar Words sure didn't! It'll also be in this month's goals...

*** As a bonus, The Adventures of Rubberman was conceived and is near demo stage, after being entered into the Ludum Dare Jam! ***

Fitness

Attain Fitness Personal Points (140 is goal 1, 125 is goal 2, 100 is goal 3)

I hit about 80 or so...

Hit Target Weight (252.4 - 4 lbs down is goal 1, 249.9 - 6.5 lbs down is goal 2, 246.4 - 10 lbs down is goal 3)

248.7, goal 2 hit, woohoo!!!!

Promotion

Launch thecritterverse.com and redo cataclysmicgames.com (8th is goal 1, 12th is goal 2, 15th is goal 3)

Both done! 2nd goal.

Submissions received total (with 1 going into the month) (25 is goal 1, 15 is goal 2, 10 is goal 3)

Pfffft... Not a single one!

MochiAds total (gain $4 is goal 1, gain $3 is goal 2, gain $2 is goal 3)

$2.50 earned, goal 3!

Attain Promotional Points (140 is goal 1, 125 is goal 2, 100 is goal 3)

About 80...

Google Book/Magazine Search

2010-08-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

Just came across this stuff again today when I was searching for a phrase... But Google's Book and Magazine search has really come along! Just doing a search for "flash game development" pulls up all sorts of books, and most of them have quite decent previews! I've always had issues with buying game development books because they're typically around $50 and it's hard to tell if they're any good... The previews are quite nice!

LD 18 Jam Complete!

2010-08-23T19:57:00.000-07:00

So I got home right around 8:30 and fixed up lots of the bugs til around 9:30 or so, then got the game submitted! Apparently games in the Jam don't get voted on or anything, but it was still a great challenge to finish this game in 3 days, and I'm proud of how well it went. Some bugs went unfixed (if a critter is playing his animation and gets hit again, it simply stops its animation; the insults don't always bounce the right way, which includes sometimes making it appear the insult is simply continuing straight on), but the majority were fixed up, and some other things were improved on as well (the text in the game was improved a bit, and the insult bubble was fixed up quite a bit too).

Wanna play it? http://www.thecritterverse.com/downloads/Rubberman.html

You can also:

Download it: http://www.thecritterverse.com/downloads/Rubberman.exe

Get the Flash code: http://www.thecritterverse.com/downloads/Rubberman.fla

LD 18: Try it Out Thus Far

2010-08-22T19:13:00.001-07:00

Here's the game thus far... Now I'm going to warn you, IT IS BUGGY!!! Yeah I didn't fix them all. Some are minor yet annoying (sometimes insults just freeze, when you win it may not clear it, on level 3 many of the critters vanish all at once), and some are drastic (can't play through a second time).

http://www.thecritterverse.com/temp/Rubberman.html (EDIT: NON FUNCTIONAL NOW!!!)

However, if you do play it, please comment here, or email me at CataclysmicKnight@gmail.com, or message me on Facebook or Twitter or just in any way you can, let me know your opinion (don't hold back, be brutally honest!) and let me know whatever bugs you may find, even if they're the ones I've listed above. I'd TOTALLY appreciate it if you do since I won't have much time to work on it after I get off of work. Also let me know how annoying each bug is so I can prioritize :)

LD 18: Now Jam, Not Compo

2010-08-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

Ludum Dare has two different types... The competition is the 2 day event, whereas the jam is a 3 day event that is a bit more lax for its rules. I was really hoping to make competition (hence all the talk about 2 days of development), but due to several major bugs, I was unable to do so. Instead, I will be aiming for the jam, although the 24 extra hours doesn't really add too much development time for me. Here's how the next 24 hours goes for me:

10pm(now) - midnight or so: Enjoy my time with my Angel (since the whole rest of my day has been game development and all)

12am - 7:20am: SLEEP!

7:20am - 8:30pm: Work and work related stuff (get ready, drive to work, work, come home)

Leaves me with about an hour and a half of development time. But since there isn't much more to do with it, that should be enough time :) And I'm going to use this game as a demo for a fuller, deeper version as well!

LD 18: Missed Opportunities

2010-08-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

About 67 minutes left... So many things I wish I could add but don't have the time! I want a boss fight or two, I wanted the enemies to attack each other, I want to fix some of these random bugs (sometimes the insults just stop when they are intercepted by Rubberman, and if a critter is hit mid-animation, it simply stops and won't go away.), and I wanted to add a little map between levels to show progress. And different levels would have different shooting as well, like a whole wall to defend instead of a little ring of critters. But it'll still be a game at least, and not bad for someone who's never made an action game before (I've always been a puzzle game developer, MUCH different believe it or not).

LD 18: 2 Hours Left... Level Setting Problems

2010-08-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

It's going pretty well and now it's more a matter of level design than anything... But for some reason enemies aren't where they should be! DOH!

125 minutes left!

LD 18: Getting There!

2010-08-22T14:32:00.000-07:00

... And it's a good thing since there are only 4.5 hours left til 10! The menus are all made, and the game pretty much works. Levels need made, and I need to create a popup to redo a level if the player loses, but other than that it should be good!

So I bring you... a screenshot of the main menu! Check it out up there!

LD 18: 6 Hours, Bugs but Engine Almost Done

2010-08-22T12:57:00.000-07:00

Well the insults bounce right off Rubberman now, and they infuriate the insulting critters, and they even vanish in their rage afterward, but for some reason they eventually stop shooting, leaving some of the enemies alive. Aside from this, though, all that's left is to build some levels and sparkle it up!

LD 18 Checklist to Completion

2010-08-22T09:00:00.001-07:00

Copying this from a previous post so that I know where I stand on everything. Will post times as I go. 10 hours left!

BLUE/PURPLE - DONE

RED - WORKING ON

1) Move Rubberman - DONE

2) Enemies Shoot - DONE (12:00)

3) Enemy fire damages innocents - DONE (12:27)

4) Enemy fire bounces back toward random insulter when hitting player and causes them to attack nearest insulter, destroying them both. If only the one insulter is left, he simply runs away. - DONE but changed a bit...

5) Game Over possibility (12:27)

6) Level Success possibility (12:31)

7) Create additional levels

8) Create menus (5:30)

a) Main Menu

b) About LD

c) Game Over

d) Game Win!

9) Additional touches where possible:

a) Display actual insults when they strike

b) Compliments

c) Power Ups?

d) A map and fuller story?

LD 18, Awake on Final Day

2010-08-22T06:38:00.000-07:00

So I set the alarm for the first time in months on a Sunday, and set it for 9:30. I've got slightly over 12 hours to go, and quite a lot left to do! I did get some more ideas on how to mix the game up, though, so that should help :)

LD18 Progress, Slightly over Halfway

2010-08-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

So the game concept has been pretty much solidified and a lot of the art made (although some may be changed later if time allows...). I've also gotten the engine to work for the most part. The overall pieces needed to make are:

1) Move Rubberman - DONE

2) Enemies Shoot - DONE (except it doesn't reset yet)

3) Enemy fire damages innocents

4) Enemy fire bounces back toward random insulter when hitting player and causes them to attack nearest insulter, destroying them both. If only the one insulter is left, he simply runs away.

5) Game Over possibility

6) Level Success possibility

7) Create additional levels

8) Create menus

9) Additional touches where possible:

a) Display actual insults when they strike

b) Compliments

c) Power Ups?

d) A map and fuller story?

Maybe some more stuff too... We'll see :)

The Adventures of Rubberman!

2010-08-21T17:18:00.000-07:00

So to make a game based on using enemies as a weapon, I've come up with (thanks to Angel and my mom, Dora) a game based on bouncing back various insults hurled. The player plays as Rubberman, one of SuperCritterMan's alter egos, who must run around the people he is trying to save as evil critters hurl insults at them, which are fired much like bullets. Rubberman must intercept these insults, which causes them to bounce to one of the other enemies around. Once one of the enemies gets insulted, it goes berzerk and attacks the one who initially sent out the insult, destroying them both. If an insult makes its way through to the innocent critters, their happiness will drop until they become so depressed they can't take any more and just go home.

Compliments will be flung as well, and if they reach the innocent critters, their happiness level will rise. This also causes them to thank the critter, thereby turning them kind ("They appreciated my compliment?"), which leads them to simply walk away from the insulting, done with being mean. If the compliments are deflected, it insults the complimenting critter, making them mad, calling a friend or two to help insult the innocent critters.

The goal of each round is to get rid of all the mean critters and make it onward. If the player beats a level, they get a bonus for the happiness of the remaining critters.

As far as more specific than that (level development, possible power ups?, etc.), I'm unsure yet. I will create a rough playable of this and see how it goes. 25.5 hours to go!

LD 18 Voting Results - Theme Chosen!

2010-08-20T19:24:00.000-07:00

So the voting is over (yes, I know, I posted my votes kinda late, since I'm publishing this post about 3 minutes later...) and the theme that was chosen is...

Enemies as Weapons!

WOOHOO!!! This is one of the themes I was most excited about! Although being excited about the theme and having a great idea for it are not one in the same... So here goes nothin!

LD 18 Final Round Votes

2010-08-20T19:19:00.001-07:00

So that's what the final rounds were and how I voted. The way it works is that you choose either you don't like a particular theme (-1), you do like it (+1) or you're neutral (0). Sure you could vote +1 on each one or -1 on them all, but it wouldn't really help you get the topics you were wanting...

Ludum Dare 18 in under 24 hours!

2010-08-19T19:16:00.000-07:00

Ludum Dare is a 48 hour game development competition - a topic is voted on and chosen out of 18 final topics, and everyone has 48 hours (from 10pm Friday to 10pm Sunday) to complete the game. That's 48 hours to come up with an idea from a topic, develop, test and get it done! Now with Flash, it's much much quicker and easier than with C++, but here's how my 48 hours of the competition go:

Friday Night

10pm: Topic Announced

12pm or so: Go to bed

2 hours to work

Saturday

7:20am: Wake up, get ready for work

8am - 7pm: Work (including travel time)

Dinner at some point...

12pm or so: Go to bed

5 hours to work

Sunday

8am: Wake up (as learned in previous compos, any earlier kills my ability to work)

Shower, eating a few times, relaxing between working (also a lesson learned... If you work nonstop, your brain will be so fried that no work will get done and time will just tick by as you try).

10pm: Competition over

10 hours(?) to work

KEEP AN EYE HERE, I'LL KEEP UPDATING HOW IT GOES!

A Wall of Compliments

2010-08-15T17:48:00.000-07:00

If you've ever looked at a youtube video that had a couple comments on it, or a game, or a movie, or anything else with any sort of review to it, you'll notice that basically everything ever made has insults. Search for your favorite song on youtube. Nearly every one of em has people going back and forth over the band being the best ever, or how they suck and [band x] is way better.

It's in our nature, especially with something creative we've made, to take the bad the hardest and hardly even notice the good. It's for this reason that I've decided to start my own list of all the compliments I've gotten about my games and save them together. So just know that if you send me something nice, I'll have it saved, and thanks :)

Lots of Hats to Wear!

2010-08-13T17:43:00.000-07:00

It's really weird... For a long while, I just played with game making as a hobby and it was fun. I never finished anything because as long as something isn't finished, the ideas and possibilities still exist, but once it is, it's either great or it's not, and no amount of imagination will fix it without some actual action (any of you who have done anything in any sort of artistic way will understand I'm sure!). It's so weird to finish a development cycle though! You start off, so excited by what may come... Get the ideas together, build it into awesomeness, and then... All over again! No more "all that's left is these little few checkpoints", oh no, now it's "what's next?"

And I've noticed this is particularly odd when changing between doing different things. For example, after getting TruHangman into testing, I had to develop some websites. Not really that different on the surface - some stages in line to finish a project, involving coding and some art - but entirely different in execution! Now that that's done, going back to game development is just plain outright craziness! Make a Story is nearly ready for testing, and anyone on the mailing list will get a link here within the next week or two. The project after this one, Million Dollar Words, is the first one to be a bit more unique though, I think you'll all enjoy the humor in that one a lot :)

What's to Come

2010-08-11T20:05:00.001-07:00

So I've completed CataclysmicGames.com as well, feel free to check that out too! But the main reason for this post is to share one very important piece of information:

What's all this about anyway?

Well here it is!!! Directly off the "What's Next?" link on CataclysmicGames.com...

Mrs. Bookworm's Classroom

TruHangman isn't just a stand alone game, it's one piece out of five for Mrs. Bookworm's classroom! The other four are, in no particular order:

TruWordHunt: Play word hunt puzzles with a twist - many require figuring out a hint to even figure out what word needs to be found. Each one has ten words to be found, and the faster you find them, the higher your score. See if you can get the high score on each one!

Make a Story: Mad lib type stories! See what kind of funny stories you can make with your own words.

Million Dollar Words: Quiz time! Each quiz deals with crazy words, see if you can figure out the correct answer from the multiple choices in categories like crazy diseases, definitions of words from bands and products or creative compliments and insults.

Word Detective: Solve the mysteries by figuring out the words! I'll keep the gameplay of this one a little bit of a secret ;)

The First Big Adventure

It wouldn't be much of a "critterverse" if it all existed in a classroom now would it? Crush the Critters is the first big adventure for the critters, and will be your first chance to meet many of them up close and personal! Dark Lord Critter is up to no good, amassing a zombie critter army to rule the world, and it's up to you to stop him! You'll have to travel across much of the world to gain your own friends and equipment to stand a chance.

...And Beyond

There is a lot more to come after that, this is just the beginning! You'll be able to win tickets across all the games, keep them in your own profile and buy all kinds of prizes, make your own critter, earn rewards, even print out your own goodies to save! As more of this is completed, I'll reveal more as well.

The Critterverse is Alive!

2010-08-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

Check it out! http://www.thecritterverse.com is all ready to go! Hoping to have cataclysmicgames.com redone today (as of right now it's basically the same website as thecritterverse, although before it got all fixed up...)

August Goals

2010-08-07T16:46:00.000-07:00

So, August is going to be a much more complex goal month and it's the first month I'm trying all this out. Here are my goals to keep myself accountable:

Games

Get Make a Story into Testing (15th is goal 1, 19th is goal 2, 22nd is goal 3)

Get Million Dollar Words into Testing (31st is goal 1)

Fitness

Attain Fitness Personal Points (140 is goal 1, 125 is goal 2, 100 is goal 3)

Hit Target Weight (252.4 - 4 lbs down is goal 1, 249.9 - 6.5 lbs down is goal 2, 246.4 - 10 lbs down is goal 3)

Promotion

Launch thecritterverse.com and redo cataclysmicgames.com (8th is goal 1, 12th is goal 2, 15th is goal 3)

Submissions received total (with 1 going into the month) (25 is goal 1, 15 is goal 2, 10 is goal 3)

MochiAds total (gain $4 is goal 1, gain $3 is goal 2, gain $2 is goal 3)

Attain Promotional Points (140 is goal 1, 125 is goal 2, 100 is goal 3)

At the beginning of September I'll post how it went :)

Motivation through Accountability

2010-08-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest, if not THE biggest, challenges to all this self-"employed" development and promotion is staying motivated and inspired. Walmart had a $20 little briefcase styled bag thingy with a planner, binder and pad of paper inside, and it's helped me stay organized. One of the biggest thing lots of other developers do is track their little accomplishments daily. So instead of giving themselves a deadline of four months from now to finish a game, they'll give themselves weekly goals or even daily ones... Say for example, finishing a particular screen, creating x amount of content, even something as small as fixing one single bug... That way you can look back and see all these little things you've accomplished.

So what I do now is track several different things. As of now the way it works is:

Goals I set for myself are in yellow.

Game development and promotion are blue. Fixed x bug, got another newsletter subscriber, etc. Heck, even posting here in this blog counts as one :)

Weight loss is displayed with pink highlighter and I put down my current weight once a week (if not more, depending on weigh-ins, but at least on Sundays).

Then on the side of everything, I put the month's goals. These are broken down into game development, promotion and weight loss. At least as of now, this is how they work:

- Game Development has whichever games I want to reach whatever state. I will set up to 3 different dates, although at first I simply put the first goal attempt. If I succeed, I write a little 1 next to the goal. If not, I set a 2nd date for it and if I hit that I write a 2, same for 3rd if necessary.

- Promotion uses an amount of money goal for MochiAds for the month, a number of Personal Points (which are attained through daily activities that I track) and a number of newsletter members by the end of the month.

- Weight Loss is done through Fitness Personal Points (also attained through tracked daily activities) and an end of the month weight loss goal.

At the end of the month, depending on how well I've done at certain things, each goal gets a 1, 2 or 3 (it works a lot like golf for scoring, lower is better). I tally up how many 1s, 2s and 3s (as well as 0s, aka Epic Fails) at the end of the month and see how well the month went!

Tomorrow I'll post what this month's goals are, to give a better example of exactly how it works. This is my first month trying this, so we'll see how it goes!

Mario Paint Remixes!

2010-07-02T20:34:00.001-07:00

So Angel and I couldn't remember how the Munsters theme song went. On checking it out on youtube I saw there was an 8-bit version (8 bit music ROCKS!). Upon seeing THAT I noticed a Jetsons one, and from there I got stuck for half an hour when I saw that people have redone songs with Mario Paint! 8 bit music plus retro geeky music-making Mario Paint remixes of songs! They were all amazingly spot on I'd say, but the best had to be...

DragonForce - Through the Fire and Flames: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hil1F2T19GY&feature=related

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO_70TBTTiY&feature=related

BUT BEST OF ALL....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbO1YtoUqM8

A medley of songs from 22 different games!!! It'll definitely take you back in time :)

June Goal Results and July Goals

2010-07-01T19:47:00.001-07:00

Anything in life worth doing is worth tracking! I just began doing it myself last month a bit, and so I'll list my own goals for this month, as well as the results of my goals from the previous month.

JUNE 2010 GOALS

1) To drop to 265 lbs, 12 lbs total for the month.

SUCCESS!!! Only by weighing in today, however... Ended up at 265.8, whew!

2) To finish TruHangman up once and for all.

FAIL! Whoops... June heat + a laptop that doubles as a heater = someone who wants to spend as little time as possible around it! But I'm back in full force now again, so don't you worry!

JULY 2010 GOALS

1) Hit 250 lbs. That's the lightest I've been in years and years! It'd be 15 lbs down but it'd sure be awesome to be there again. Shoot high, right?

2) GET TRUHANGMAN DONE. Seriously! It's a hangman game, it should be done by now, and I have much more awesome games I want to get done! Along with this goal would be...

3) Get TruWordHunt at least to testing stage. This way August can be lined up with super secret project of awesomeness #1.

Welcome!

2010-06-30T19:48:00.000-07:00

So first off, welcome if you're reading this, although you wouldn't see this if you weren't here reading it... Or would you???

I'm a flash game developer as a hobby and that's what this is mainly about. Flash, you know, those funny videos and awesome games put right into web pages? Well not ALL of them, but a lot of those are made with Flash, and nothing is as much fun (or sometimes as frustrating) as getting those things made, from the first ideas and "OH YEAH!!! That sounds awesome! What about..." to debugging til 3am because you can't figure out why the heck something shouldn't work the way you think it should and finding out it's because you misspelled something or forgot a period or dash or equals sign... It's a love/hate relationship I'd never give up!

But also, I work 50 hours a week, and am fighting losing weight. I'll be honest, no shame, I was up to nearly 320 at my highest, and am now back down to the 260s. The greatest weight loss site in the world (sparkpeople.com) is a lot of the cause of that, and it doesn't hurt that tracking numbers is a guilty pleasure anyway :)

The OTHER main aid in my loss is my fiancee Angel (her name, not her nickname, although she does also happen to be my Angel, literally that is, but not in an anti-feminism, men-better-than-women way because I totally know she works just as hard as me, if not harder, by doing laundry and cleaning and stuff! Women rock!). Anyway, she has been a huge help through her own weight loss efforts and our weekly competition to see who kicked the other's butt at losing more. Love ya baby!!!

Finally, last but not least, I also do poetry. Yeah, poetry, that stuff that sometimes has meter and/or rhythm and/or rhyme to it, and sometimes is just a whole bunch of passionate words thrown together? Well mine lean more toward the silly side, but usually do rhyme and stuff. You can check all those out at my profile on trupoets.com. It's not unmanly to write poems!

Okay I lied, one more major facet... METAL!!! Along with the geekiness (in a good way!) of coding and a love of numbers, and poetry, and losing weight... comes METAL!!! I LOVE heavy music! Now for those with kids (since my games are all very kid friendly and very kid inviting even), I do not necessarily suggest you share these with them... And kiddies, I'm not saying you should listen to metal, all music has some goodness to it :) But for me, it's Lamb of God, Pantera, Static-X, Fear Factory, All that Remains through to the lighter as well... Breaking Benjamin is one of my faves, that kind of thing.

So that's me! This also shows off my long windedness :) Nice to know ya!