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Goings On

A couple quick notes:

I've got a page on 8Bit Collective now, where you can see all the new chiptunes I make before they get used in a game (and probably some I'll never use). As well, I'm on formspring.me - a site that's sort of like backwards Twitter. Basically, you ask questions and I answer them. I've also been on Twitter for a long time now.

With that out of the way, I want to talk about something I've been working on for a while now. I call it Ogmo Editor, and it's looking like it's almost ready for a public release. Here's the standard intro:

"Ogmo Editor is a general-purpose 2D visual level editor for independent game developers. It's an Adobe® AIR™ application and it is cross-platform, running on Windows, OS X and Unix."

With new libraries like Flixel and Flashpunk making 2D game development so accessible, I've felt like the largest barrier for me getting projects off the ground is the lack of a visual editor. So I've made one! Hopefully it will be helpful for people who are also hitting the no-editor wall. It's also something I want to continue to develop and improve, taking into account community feedback.

As for how it works, I don't want to go into much detail here. I'll just say that I've tried to use XML to make the editor's output as portable as possible, and to give the user a lot of control over how the levels are exported.

I'm hoping to make it public pretty soon here. There's a bit more development and testing to be done, and then I need to set up a mini-site with tutorials and the like. Stay tuned!

Eaty Guys and the Operator

Whoa, I took way too long to post this! I went to the Global Game Jam the other week. Met up with my pal Chevy Johnston, as well as some other awesome developers - PsySal, GregWS, Bones and some kid named Jonathan. All awesome guys. The fruit of our labor? Eaty Guys and the Operator!


I'll just steal Chevy's description of the game: "Live a day in the life of an Eaty Guy, feeding your young and facing the trials of the Operator in this 3-player hotseat game." Actually, that's a terrible description! The game is really about trust. Err... lack of trust. Or, I guess, deception, which... was... the theme of the jam. Okay, this description is even worse. Just play it. It's probably for the best that you have no clue what is happening anyways.

Working in such a large team for a change was a blast (6 people is a large team when you're used to 1 or, at most, 2). You don't always get what you want in a larger team, but the fusion of creative minds or something - whatever, you know what I mean - makes it worthwhile. We only had 48-hours to design and create the game. I daresay that within that constraint we did pretty good! I came out of it with a pretty nasty cold, a testament to either my work ethic or my teammates' personal hygiene.

One of my jobs was to do the music. Like all my other projects, I've uploaded the soundtrack for anyone who wants to download it.

For this project I also got to test out the general-purpose 2D level-editor I've been slaving over for all of February. It meshed really well with our workflow and enabled us to divide duties a bit, which is always nice when you're trying to keep so many people busy. I got some good ideas for it by seeing it in action in a trial-by-fire type of setting, and it has been improved a lot as a result. And I know I know I know - I keep putting off talking about it but... I'll talk more about the editor soon!

In other news: Blogger is pulling FTP support soon. Guess I better figure out what to do about that!

Oh, and I'm working on a new game with Tom. And I'm going to Hawaii for reading week (!!!). Woo!

Global Game Jam 2010

I'm off to the Global Game Jam tomorrow! I'll be attending the jam in Calgary, but it's happening all around the world. I'm driving down with fellow jammer/TIGSource-member GregWS and I'll be meeting my pal Chevy Johnston there.

Speaking of Chevy, he recently released the first version of his awesome FlashPunk engine for Flash development.

I've also been busy lately finishing up a general-purpose 2D level-editor for myself. It should help speed up my future projects! More info on that later.

Anyways, just a quick update, gotta pack for the trip!

Sad Face

:(
The IGF finalists are in, and RunMan didn't make the cut. But it's okay, I'll just have to try harder for 2011!

Holiday Cheer

Holy crap lots to talk about!

Site Redesign

As you can see, the site has undergone a redesign. I'm pretty happy with the new color scheme. If you have any suggestions on how I can improve it, feel free to drop them in the comments.

New Jumper

New Jumper! The title isn't final yet. The fourth game in the Jumper series will be played in your browser with the Flash Player.


Development is progressing smoothly. I'm currently writing myself an editor (also in Flash) for the game, but going a bit beyond the call of duty and making it more of a general-purpose editor. I'd like to make something I can reuse between projects. If what I come up with is polished enough, I might even release it for others to use for their projects.

FlashPunk

New Jumper is being programmed using Chevy Ray's FlashPunk engine. I'm helping him bug-test and offering suggestions as I work. The engine seems to be nearing completion, so hopefully that will see a public release soon and everyone can try it out! Trust me, it's really awesome!

Praise!

It's the time of year for top 10 lists and "best-of" lists and other miscellaneous lists! I've been fortunate this year: MoneySeize and RunMan have both made it onto a list each, with the latter even making it onto two.

Edmund McMillan: MoneySeize 5th best Flash game of 2009

Gamasutra: RunMan 5th best indie game of 2009

Play This Thing!: RunMan 4th best indie of the year

In Retrospect

I'm really blown away by the amount of exposure I've been getting this year! The friendliness of the indie community never ceases to amaze me.

I never expected people to flat-out volunteer their help (and contacts) with marketing and selling one of my games, but while working on MoneySeize I had Edmund McMillan approach me and offer to help me sell a Flash game. I really cannot thank him enough for this, and I've heard tell of him coaching a few other indies through the process as well. Really man, you're the best and I hope Super Meat Boy makes you filthy rich.

Later, I participated in Ludum Dare 15 and that was just a blast. I ended up winning second place with Broken Cave Robot, which was very cool.

And then finally: RunMan! Tom and I had been working on this beast for a loooooong time. I'm actually kind of shocked that we finished it at all. But the enthusiasm and support we've gotten from the indie community has been amazing and I'm super happy to see so many people enjoying it. For the curious, our download counter is sitting just below 35,000. We've also entered it in next year's IGF, so wish us luck!

Well, that's it! Merry Christmas everyone!

Blog Broken!

Yes, the blog is completely broken right now, as I shift over to a new site design. It should be back (and better than ever!) sometime tonight or tomorrow, thanks for your patience.