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!

I Really Like You

I wrote and recorded an album the other day! The entire thing was done in 8 hours. The album is dedicated to a girl named Rachel.

Tracklist:

1. Fort of Complete Acceptance
2. Waking Up Next to You
3. I Really Like You
4. Bittersweet
5. Past & Future

I used the free program Audacity to record everything through a cheap little Logitech microphone. Instruments I played include a Denver quarter-size acoustic guitar with plastic strings, an Epiphone SG electric guitar through a Peavey Rage 158 amp, a MicroKORG synthesizer, a crappy old BluesBand harmonica, and a dirty little toy tambourine I fished out of a lake. All the vocals are also done by me (and I have literally no experience with singing so brace yourselves).

I'm really happy with the result, especially considering the fact that it all only took 8 hours!

You can download the full album for free here.

Oh Yeah, And!

Oh yeah and in other news, Broken Cave Robot won 2nd place overall in Ludum Dare 15! It also got the highest average rating in the "fun" category, which I'm really pumped about. At the LD site you can view the results by overall top 10, or by category. Congrats are also in order for my friends Chevy Ray (1st place overall) and Chuchino (3rd overall)!

In other other news, I just set up a page on my site where you can grab all the game soundtracks I've released. Matt Makes Music. Enjoy!

MoneySeize Released! (+Soundtrack)

Sir Reginald MoneySeize II, Esq. must collect coins to fund construction of the tallest tower in the world! Jump through stages ranging from simple to ridiculously difficult in your quest to find all 1010 coins. Features 50 stages: 40 regular and 10 secret.

MoneySeize has been released! You can play it on my site or at Kongregate. I appreciate any positive ratings at Kongregate, because a high rating increases traffic and makes me eligible for cash prizes.

I've also uploaded the full soundtrack, including editable files. You can download that here.

Tracklist:
1. Menu Theme 1
2. Menu Theme 2
3. Good Intentions
4. Static
5. Sine Language
6. Enter MoneySeize
7. Ladder to Heaven
8. Selling Out
9. The End and the Means

Update: Downloadable version released! Click here to download.

Waves

This is a song I just finished the other day, titled 'Waves'. It may or may not find its way into one of my future games. Enjoy!

As well, the Grandma Engine v0.920 was recently released with some changes and bugfixes. Version 0.930 should be coming soon, with a standardized menu system and pausing examples for you to learn from if you so wish.

The latest version of the Grandma Engine can be downloaded here. Future version requests I've received (other than menus and pausing) include gamepad and PXTone support, and I'll probably get around to adding those someday too!

And lastly, development of my next game (a Flash platformer) is gearing up, and I hope to finish that within the next few weeks. Stay tuned for details.