[SBX] Level 7 Finito.

Personal:
These past couple days off have been extremely productive--well today at least, yesterday I just read a whole bunch.  But, I have completed Level 7 of SBX!  One more to go before the core game is finished.  There is still a lot of things to do with it though.  Not much else besides a nice relaxing peudo-weekend.  Well time for the real weekend: A work weekend : /.

SBX:
We'll jump right into talking about the game as this will be a shorter blog.  Today was rather frustrating.  Toward the end of finishing up Level 7, Game Maker decided to stop loading my game and began to give me a load up error each time.  However I was still able to make an .exe file and play it just fine, so to test the rest of the time, I had to create an .exe file each time to test it.  What. A. Pain.  Well I finished and posted the game up, so now it's time to go back and figure out why.  Is it a memory issue?  Is it a graphical bug, or some weird issue with Game Maker?  I'll come back to that one.

The game though, has been going well, just 1 more level and the game is finished at it's core.  There will still be an endless level, but I will add that puppy in later.  I'll finally be able to post my game as a finished game in the completed forums rather than the WIP forums.  NICE!

Level 7 isn't the shiniest of the levels so far, it has a lot of action, but nothing new.  Lots of enemies, and then a boss.  That's pretty much it.  It's hard, but no new mechanics or anything special.  I'm fine with this however as I am going to work hard and long to make Level 8, the final level, really cool and awesome.  The final level will be special, so Level 7 will just lead into that.

I'm excited to finish this game as I want to begin work on an unique platformer.  I won't go into the details, as I think it's a great idea, but it should be pretty interesting.  I'll need to learn about making a nice engine for it though.  I haven't worked too much with platformers so this should be fun.

Well I am looking forward to finishing up SBX as it has been LOTS of work, and lots of time.  But it's worth it, I really love making the game and it'll be nice once level 8 is finished to just go back and fine tune everything, redo menus, add luster to the game and make it all shiny and working perfect.

Thanks for reading folks,

~WakeskaterX~

[SBX] New Graphics

Personal:
Today was a great day!  I got a lot done on SBX and I have 2 days off for tomorrow and Friday so I can get some work on the core game done for Level 7.  Also I got a call from someone who might have a job for me at a plant nearby doing maintenance type work.  It's something that pays real well and something I am familiar with (having a construction background).  This would allow me to work and save up money to someday move out to California to make my dreams happen.  That's how you do it right?

Well anyway just a few notes and then to the main topic.

Indie Game of the Week:
http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=520009
This is the forum topic to a game called "Frank".  Now the name may seem silly, but the game is awesome.  It is a platformer / tetris mashup, that is excellently done.  You play a little guy named frank with your arrow keys and control the tetris blocks with WASD.  Space bar activates any special abilities as well for the little guy.  You start out by running around collecting coins and moving up higher and higher to get the coins.  It takes a lot of concentration to not get stuck, not crush Frank, not block yourself off... and on top of that, if you want to get silver or gold, you have to time some 4line Tetris clears right before you grab the red winning coin.  All in all it is a very fun, tough game that  you should check out even though it is still a WIP.

SBX:
Now to why I am writing a blog at 2am on a Wed night.  Graphic Revamp.  Yes that is right I have completed my first graphics revamp of SBX.  So we'll look at a few changes that have been made.  Just a few of the many I did.

First, the main ship now banks when you turn.  Before it just stayed the same no matter how you accelerated but now the ship's graphic changes for left and right strafing.

Ship Graphics:

Originally the ship just had the middle graphics, but left and right banking graphics have been added.  They look real good in the game with the weapons equipped.

All the weapons had revamps done as they needed to change with the ship as well.

Other graphical upgrades were:  New explosion effects with debris added, Planets added in the background, A second star layer that is faster to give a deeper effect, New Weapon sprites for the basic weapons, and the big one:  New asteroid sprites.  These ones I took some textures offline of rocks and applied them to a plain colored asteroid then modified them with some shading.  The result was a more realistic looking asteroid that fits with the graphical scheme of the game.

Here is an example of the difference between the old and the new:

The new ones really have a better feel to em and I really like how they turned out.  Overall the graphical effects upgrade brings a little more luster to the game, giving it a more polished feel.

Later I plan to add additional graphics changes, but for now, this should attract previous people who have tried the game and maybe will give it a new feel.  

Also a new loading screen was added as well, since the old one was rather ugly.

Well thanks for reading folks, 

God Bless,

~WakeskaterX~

[SBX] Skins

Personal:
Lately I've been getting a lot of work done with my online Unity course, but it's been tiring.  Saturday I spent 4 hours studying and watching tutorial videos, then worked for 6-7 hours, then spent another 2 hours programming on my own for the homework section.  It's a tough schedule, but it'll pay off and I really enjoy learning more about developing tools and streamlining programming work.

SBX:
This is a short blog, but I wanted to post the six skins so far in SBX.  All of them are unlockable but for now, I've given three of my supporters and fans of the game, TheUltimate, smash ball  and Enter_Name_Here codes for custom skins for them to use.

Here so far are the skins in game for the ship:

There are currently 5 subclasses of the main ship.  I would have to say my favorite is by far the Raven, I really enjoyed making that and like the way it turned out.  The X P Q is a fun one, and is unlockable in a special way differently than the others.  It takes a bit of work and investigation while playing the game.  The Arc I had in the code for a while, but didn't make available until recently, and I just drew out the BoneShip tonight, since I wanted to get some work done, but didn't feel like doing major brainstorming for the next level.  I also drew the Trinity subclass, because I didn't want to sleep and was a little bored.

(By the way the red markings on the ships are the locations where items go - just ignore those X-D  )

Well I hope you enjoyed a look at some of the skins in the game, and look out for more to come!  Thanks for your time folks.

Peace out,

~WakeskaterX~

[SBX] Level 6 complete - Yaya

Personal:
Today was decent, with a moderate work day, even though I felt sluggish.  Tomorrow is my day off though, and I have some stuff planned, such as tennis... and relaxing...  Well, something planned at least.  I'll probably apply for a few jobs and work on some things for SBX a little.  Things are going well, and I applied for (what I consider to be) the perfect job at Riot Games.  They have an open position for Creative Designer and it basically fits me perfectly.  Whether or not I hear back from them... well, we'll see.  But they'd be missing out.

SBX:
Well I sat down for 5 hours tonight and finished out level 6!  I developed some sprites for the new boss and some animations, and set them into motion.  Most of it went pretty well, but I had to play though the level 15 times to test the boss for various things.

Adjustments to timing and placement and pathing were necessary as the boss didn't want to do what I wanted him to do at first, but I figured it out, and he is pretty much how I want him to be.  I'll revisit him I'm sure and do  some upgrading.

So this post I thought I would show you some of my sketches and how I've planned out some of these levels.
First, here is a funny concept sketch I had for the boss of level 5, before I replaced it with the balloon looking guy:

I ended up disregarding the sketch as it wasn't menacing enough and looked pretty goofy overall.

Next is the concept sketch for the big ship that roams around behind you in Level 4:

It was a basic sketch, but I did end up using this design more or less.

And then here are 3 sketches of layouts for Level 6:  The first is a sketch of the electric room at the beginning:

 Then here is a sketch of the boss I did, and there are tons of notes on the page as well.  I also have a sketch on the bottom half of the stasis tank that the boss sits in before he comes out.

And the last sketch I have for you today is a layout of the ventilation duct.  I mapped out the locations of the ten electrical nodes and planned it all out.  This was the part that worked perfectly without any bug fixes at all.  That was pretty awesome as it saved me a lot of time.

Well that's about all I have for sketches and for today, I'll probably take some time off of any major work on SBX for a week or so to brainstorm level 7 and figure out exactly what I want to do.

Thanks for reading

~WakeskaterX~

[SBX] Level 6 inc.

Personal:  
Had a nice weekend off with the lady.  Finally back and able to get some coding done today though.  Things have been going well and the weather has been awesome so I've been able to get out a little and do some exercise.

Something Funny:
This made me laugh a bit earlier so I'll share it with you.  Check out:
Rage Stache!
If you're a bit nerdy like me, you'll get a good laugh out of it.

Game I'm Playing:
League of Legends has been my go to game for the past few weeks.  I like being competitive and it has given me quite a few hours of mob blasting fun!  Riot Games has done an outstanding job of putting together a F2P (Free to Play) Game that really delivers.  I have even bought a few skins and characters with their cash system to support them since the game is really fun.  If you are into DotA type games or are a competitive player, then you should really check it out.
If you've never played you should click this referral link:
http://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4e8ce3f3e5be9896024141
And say you were referred by the incredible wakeskater_X woo woo. ;)

SBX:
I was able to get a lot of work done on SBX today.  Level 6 is now nearly complete and the things I wanted implemented went very smoothly.

I coded the blue jumping electricity section and planned the entire floor out at once.  I mapped it out on paper, figured out what I wanted to do, and coded it in.

And then...

There were no bugs!  Everything worked perfectly the first time, EXACTLY how I wanted it to.  (Well sort of, I did some number balancing and timing adjustments, but mainly EXACTLY <-- almost).

It was nice to have things run super smooth and I was able to add graphics to most of the level and finish most of what I wanted to do with the early rooms.  Now all that is left is adjusting some things and finishing out the boss room.

I have some grand plans for the Level 6 boss, so it'll take some time to plan it all out and really make it cool.  I want the boss to be different from any other boss so far, and have much more danger to it.  I want the player to feel like they are going to die at any moment if they don't execute perfectly.  I think by level 6 it is acceptable to introduce something that makes the player check themselves, before they wreck themselves (or their beloved space ship).

Thanks for reading and for those of you who noticed something different after level 2...  well maybe you should put that somewhere... it might lead to something cool.


Peace out,
~WakeskaterX~

[SBX] Level 5 - Back in the mix

Personal:
Live has been fun, but I need to find a new job.  I have a few leads but no interviews so far, so I haven't had the chance to talk myself into a position yet.  But there are a few leads and I'll keep using my free time to learn and gain more skills.  A sales position in Denver might be the option I'll have to take, but it's a good company that interacts with the media.  I have a contact there and am eager to hear back from the management.  Until then, I'll keep learning JavaScript and Unity and finishing my game.

Jenny, my girlfriend, has been considering getting her teaching licence.  She just became an assistant manager, but would like to get out of the food services industry and utilize her master's in history.  She'll make a great teacher some day, she truly does care about people and helping them grow.  Not many teachers are like that it seems today.


SBX:
It's been a while since I've had time to sit and program a lot.  Even less time to sit and write.  From work, to job searching, to the girlfriend, I have had my hands full.  BUT, I was finally able to finish the fifth level of SBX.  Designing the boss was interesting.  Starting out as a sketch on paper, I reworked the idea twice and game up with this sketch:

And then finished in game looks like this:

It's fun to go from basic sketch and implement the bosses the way I imagine them.  I have begun to sketch out the level layout for level 6 and it should be fun to put together.  I have learned a little more about masking and figured some stuff out so it should be easier than Level 3 - as it will be a similar type level.

It's been fun seeing the game progress and I look forward to the finishing touches stages.  Adding in neat features like online scoring tables and better graphics, better effects, etc.  Just 3 more main levels and then the endless level and I'll be done.  It's a fun project and I've enjoyed being able to program and figure out how to make it cool.

Well that's about it for now, work soon, and I'll try to post more often.

For those of you who view this blog and lurk in the shadows, I have just the code for you!  
Enter "Raven" as your name (in the latest download file - you'll have to go download the new one)  to unlock  the special Raven Subclass Starship!  The custom skin will scare those fuscians out of the galaxy!


Just a special little something for those who have read the blog ;)
~WakeskaterX~

[SBX] Work, Work - L4 Complete

Personal:
I still don't ever have any time, but as I was able to set aside some time last week (and then after a nice break from programming some time today) and I finished levels 3 and 4 of SBX.  It has been an interesting past week.  Getting Ben, my brother--who is doing the music tracks for the game and the logo for the small company I am going to start as a entrepreneurial venture to make games--to actually make the sound tracks has been tedious.  But things have been going well.  I now have an official QA tester working with me on the game over the internet.  Putting together a team is an interesting endeavor.

SBX:
Level 3 was tough, Level 4 took only a few hours to finish.  Then a couple more for bug fixes, but comparatively short.  There is still a mysterious bug where some people will have severe lag when trying to load the game and it freezes up, but that is the only known unresolved bug at the moment.  There was another bug with objects crashing, but I believe i circumvented it in the latest upload.  I made it so that two objects that need to interact will just destroy themselves instead of crashing the game when the other object disappears before they are ready for it.  The game has some 8 bit sounds so far, but will have a nice background sound track.

As of now half the items in the game are available to unlock.  I still have to figure out the story line for the last four levels and make a nice ending event for the story.  After the story line, an endless mode will be unlocked where massive waves of enemies will spawn until you die.

Programming the game is fun, but I have been ran ragged with working 6-7 days each week.  There hasn't been much time I can set aside to program.  All my free time goes into either programming, the woman or sleeping.  Not much time to relax and enjoy life lately.  But the effort will be worth it at the end.  After all I might as well push myself while I am still young.

Sayounara Minnasan,

~WakeskaterX~