Status Update -- 18/March/2012

March 18th, 2012 | Posted by vladimirsan in Projects - (0 Comments)

I know I have been a little...slow...with almost 10 days without posts and all that...so It's time to write a little status update :D.  Right now I'm not "working" on my second game...I decided to take some time between my first and second game to work on some pretty neat projects (BTW I'm also researching and playing a lot in preparation for my second game n_O)

Navi

While Developing Save a Mole I noticed some repetitive tasks...actually a lot of them...and I decided to make myself a program to automatize those things :D. Navi could be easily described as a "Snippet Manager" and I'm making it with C#/Visual Studio. Today I just finished the first version:

Navi 1.0 -- Just terminal interface right now....also I'm making Navi on WINDOWS O__O WTF!

Even though right now it's just has terminal interface I have big plans for Navi....Now that I think about it I have big plans for almost everything... I'm going to test drive Navi 1.0 while working on my second game and after my second game I'll decide which new features to implement.

(more...)

A flash portal? Oh God why?

January 25th, 2012 | Posted by vladimirsan in Projects - (0 Comments)

So...I promissed to write a post about the reasoning behind the flash games portal. Here is it:

You see what I did here?. If you do you are awesome ;)

Even though right now I'm on the verge of launching my first flash game, my "global" plan involves launching A LOT more. Obviously I'm thinking about getting some kind of sponsorship for my games. But being as much of a perfectionist as I am, I really don't think that my first games will be "sponsorship worthy"...so, right now sponsorship is not an option.

<nerd parenthesis>
Surely you don't know about this, but one of my favorite games of all time is Starcraft, right now I'm a Zerg Starcraft 2 player (HELL yeah! zerg rush kekeke). Starcraft is a strategy game (you don't say o_O) and a lot of the initial game plan relies on building structures. 

Usually it's important to try to make your build order in a way that every building helps you to accomplish something specific, and IF a building helps you to accomplish more than one thing you will surely get an advantage over your opponent.
</nerd parenthesis>

With the "starcraft 2 build order strategy" in mind I begun to ask myself  "What can I do with this flash game so that launching the game helps me to accomplish MORE than just launching a simple flash game".

It's clear that I'm not the  first one to think that it is a valid strategy to create a flash portal (even with the monsters that are out there like kongregate) and that coupling your flash portal with flash games is a great strategy. And just like that...my flash arcade idea was born. BUT! am I doing this JUST because there are two random guys over the internet doing the same?....well maybe...I mean NO U_U. I'm different, keep reading to know why ;)
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Still Working

October 3rd, 2011 | Posted by vladimirsan in Flash Games | Projects | RPG System - (0 Comments)

It's a shame that I can't share many of the things that I'm doing right now :p but please trust me when I tell you that I'm working a lot :) even if I don't post a lot. So...what did I do this last...month?

    • First of all...university is taking way more time of my life than I initially expected...that is mostly because I'm working part time as an "assistant teacher" (I may be using a non-related name...but I really don't know the proper one...maybe instructor X_X). Some days I don't have time to work on anything interesting (;)).It really is a shame that I can't work on my projects as much as I would like but right now I'm satisfied with my work. Now considering the last point please read the next ones:
    • The core gameplay of the flash game is ready :). If we think that a game is like...a hamburger you could say that I have the meat ready :). Now I just need to do...everything else -_-.  In order to test and debug the game I've started to ask friends to play the game and to give me "honest" opinions. If you are a friend of mine you can expect to see the game soon.

      I just have the meat O_O

      I'm planning to complete the game by December, but I really don't know  when I'll be "launching" the game. That depends on the progress of a third project that I started yesterday. I don't want to have false hopes about all this but I think that saying that "the (game + secret project 2) combo will be ready by the end of this year" is fine.

    • About the RPG system...the fourth iteration is really complex (at least comparing it to the previous ones). I managed to complete a small spike of the iteration. Right Now I can display a fraction of the map onscreen. I'm working on being able to move through the map. I'll post a quick screenshot of the spike but don't get over-exited, right now It looks...boring. I really need more time :(.

So...that's all I'll come soon with more updates :)

About my goals and an announcement!

July 10th, 2011 | Posted by vladimirsan in Just Talking | Projects - (0 Comments)

I'm almost on vacation. Now I can FINALLY start working on my projects again. Next week I'll post my work :).

Now that I have about a month and a half "free" I have a very specific goal in mind. I want to play more games O__O. You may think that just because I want to be a game developer I must play lots and lots of games...and that IS NOT the case. This past semester I wasn't able to play (let alone finish) any game at all!. This was mostly because of the crappy schedule that my university forced on me...

That is why this vacations I want to play more games :).I already have a list of the games that I'll play, I won't post the list here because I have a serious case of SPOILER PHOBIA...and well that's all :). I'll just say that my list is very diverse, old an new games of every genre live on it ;)

I bought almost all of the "new" games on steam, exactly in the "steam summer camp". Almost 40 of them (gotta love the sales O_O) which leads me to one of the main points of this post. I BOUGHT the games. You may not know but in my country we have a BIG piracy problem. Movies/Songs/Games aren't viewed as art but instead as...I don't know..."expensive garbage?". Basically when I bought the games (and I told my friends/Acquaintances  about it a lot of them said something like "why do you BUY that game! you can download the game from X.com or Y.net"

But...HOW CAN I as an aspiring Professional Game Developer HURT the INDUSTRY that I hope will give me MONEY for my GAMES?.I know the VALUE of a GAME. And I'm willing to PAY for the EXPERIENCE that the game PROVIDES (even if that means waiting for a crazy steam sale because that's what I can afford :p).

So yes ladies and gentlemen :) I've bought lot's of games, I'm buying lot's of games right now, and (guess what?) I'll continue to buy games for the rest of my life ;). And you heard/read it right :p BUY :).Oh..and also :p I don't think that I'm "throwing money". After all...gaming is my oldest and most beloved hobby. :)

Now let's make the "big" announcement shall we?. In this vacation I'll develop a short "complete" flash game :). This game won't be a one time only game. I'm planning to keep making small games starting now. (When I say small I say small in comparison of your typical RPG). Also :) I'm not developing this game alone. Andrea,a friend of mine (a graphic designer by the way) will be working with me :). So you at least you know that you won't be seeing "programmer's artwork".

Does that mean that you are dropping the RPG System?
No, I'll keep working on the RPG System as I always do. Yo could say that the distribution of my working time will be 70-80% Rpg System. and 20-30% these new "small" games.

Then..Why are you doing that! ? I thought you only liked RPGs!
I love LOTS of games. But your question if half true...once I thought that I would only develop RPG games. That is not the case now. I really have some interesting ideas (don't we all have game ideas....they even say that ideas are worth less than a penny) that I want to try ;)

But...What is your real objective by making these games?
Well! you really  are perceptive don't you?...I do have hidden objectives behind all this, but over the years I've learned that I tend to speak too much about my goals...and that I should instead be working on them. I'll be posting about these games here so when the first one is ready to launch I'll start talking ;)

That's all folks :). This blog is again ALIVE :p :)