September - October 2012 [Updates]

Not much has been going on other than University the past two months. Next week is the start of end-of-year exams - so holidays are in sight. I guess this post will just be a roundup of the past 2 months worth of random projects & works.

So as far as current projects go, I've felt a lot of motivation towards this sci-fi horror game, to the point that I've put plans in motion to have it appear at the Indie Games Room at AvCon 2013. Every year I go to the IGR I end up wishing I entered a game, bout time to step up and actually do it. At least 1 game is the goal, if anything decent comes from a Ludum Dare I'll consider throwing that in as well.
Some old & new screenshots of some SciFi level assets:

A mockup SciFi hallway with experimental shader(s)

 

Staircase section

Modular floor panels with added
details (such as spinning fans)

Ludum Dare 24 was missed, due to a pretty heavy workload at Uni that weekend. But Ludum Dare 25 is almost a month away, nicely placed before the Christmas New Years rush. So all going well I'll be enjoying 48 hours of madness starting on the 14th of December.

On the 3D printing front a new (and pretty major) order has been placed, theres some interesting non-Minecraft items in this lot, including a Raspberry Pi case I've been wanting to print and design since my Pi arrived. Theres also a few other interesting items which could lead on to some more business opportunities  and of course a couple of new Minecraft figurines. The Enderman has been requested more times than I can count...

Solar flyby - ingame

I also started working on a Millennium Falcon mod for Kerbal Space Program, inspired by some images I saw a while back where people had imported full 3D models of ships from Aliens and Prometheus and so on into the game so people could fly them.
I didnt want to just import some model and set it up to be pilotable, instead Id rather have a set of parts to build a ship from, not to mention the ability to spontaneously de-assemble. Its much more effort, but Id say its worth it - especially for a ship like the Millennium Falcon.
At this point in time the low poly is done and imported into the game (which took a ton of work to setup all the node positions), I'm now working on the high poly mesh for normals, AO and texture baking. Once exams are over its one of the projects I want to focus on and wrap up first.

Armour Platin'
Greebles ahoy

Ludum Dare Results + Current Projects

As the Ludum Dare results unveiling date approached I thought a lot about how well I imagined my game 'Darkness Creeping' would fair in terms of overall position etc.
I had a hunch it would do well, and potentially score highest (out of all the categories that is) for the Mood category. I thought Id get into the top 50 for Mood - at least.
And if I did, Id be satisfied and happy about my first complete Ludum Dare entry.

So I was pretty shocked when the results were finally announced, to find that Id scored 5th position for the mood category. This meant that for one of the categories Id actually made it into the top 5. This was way beyond what I expected!

Overall I placed #125, which was also surprising when you consider there were just over 1400 entries. This put me in the top 10% of entries overall, very please with this result!
You can see for yourself at the main results page here:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/

So with that out of the way I look forward to participating in Ludum Dare 24 in August.


[snip]


So Ill soon have a month of holidays before the next semester of uni starts up and Ive realized I have a ton of work I want to get done during that time. In summary I have this major project to 'manage/maintain' and improve, a WIP game to continue working on (the failed Ludum Dare entry from mid-2011), a Zelda animation I'm super-keen to finish and (hopefully) a Kerbal Space Program video series to start at some stage. Im also considering entering into the next Operation Moonfall contest as well... Throw AvCon + normal life ontop of that, and July will be one busy month....

-Thats all for now.



*Edit*
I did just realize I had another large-ish project go public earlier this month (also 3D printing related), and I completely forgot to write a post about it.
So I will cover that one here soon enough.

Wrap-up of 2011

Well, 2011 is well and truly over. The past couple of months have been quite busy, I had my final exams for the year, then of course Christmas and NYE.

The main thing Ill mention in this post is what I got up to in December - Ludum Dare 22, a 48 hour game contest held 3 times a year. Its a contest with some big names from the game industry in it, such as Notch (the creator of minecraft)
This was my 2nd time doing the compo, and ultimately my 2nd failure to produce a game worth submitting.



I made several posts during the contest, listed below in order:

-Lets do this (But for goodness sake no kittens!!)

-And we’re off! (Finally)

-Half-ish time report

-Game over man, game over.

The main issue I encountered, just the same as my previous attempt during Ludum Dare 19, was that I spent way too much time on unnecessary details and a lot of the time got stuck battling with issues instead of finding quicker ways around or ditching ideas completely. I also could have planned a lot better, working on gameplay first and other details like the environment later depending on time.
Its something I hope to work on, leading up to the next Ludum Dare (#23) in April 2012. Im determined to at least finish something for the next compo.





Looking at Ludum Dare more optimistically though, I did get something out of it - other than sleep deprivation.
Throughout the 48 hours I spent some time developing a story for the game temporarily titled 'Adrift'. The story started out relatively simple but after a while it developed further, into something I feel strongly about completing. Its exactly what Ive been wanting to do lately anyway, since I havent really had a decent game project for well over a year and have been itching to get back into working with BGE.
So, at least I got a new game to work on out of the Ludum Dare experience this time round!

Im hoping to have some of the basic gameplay systems of 'Adrift' done by the time April comes around, so Ill be working on it on and off until then.


And just to wrap up 2011, heres a (cliché) list of my favourite movies and games from 2011:


Movies of 2011:
-Super 8
-Real Steel
-Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
-Rango
*Edit!* - Melancholia

Most played Games of 2011 (not necessarily released in 2011)
-Minecraft
-Amnesia the Dark Descent
-Limbo
-Skyward Sword
-Portal 2
-Oot3D (3DS)
-MarioCart 7 (3DS)
-Links Awakening (3DS)



Thats it for 2011 (finally) for my next post, Ill discuss some of my plans for 2012 and some work Ive already done this year.