Summer Update – Current Development And More

I’ve been pretty quiet the last two months, so I wanted to give a development update on what I’ve been working on, as well as what’s to come. Summers are pretty quick here in Vermont, so when they do come around, I do my best to get outdoors and enjoy them. That being said, when I’m not drinking and / or skinny dipping down at the lake, I do get work done, so here’s what’s going on.

Zwibbs Development

Since my last development update, a decent amount of Zwibbs was programmed and sorted out. I did however lose the artist I had on board, so I’m back to searching for someone to fill that void. Between losing the artist, and summer warming up my local lake, not much has been done on the game since.

The game is well on it’s way (read, I’ve nearly programmed everything), and I will be finishing it, so I’ve recently been thinking of how I’m going to go about doing that. I’ve decided to simplify a few elements of the game, and to just get back to it and finish it up. I’ll be putting up a job posting on FGL soon, for an artist needed, so if you’re up for the job, keep an eye out.

Platformer Framework

Somewhere between delaying the development of Zwibbs, and greatly enjoying my summer hours outdoors, I began working on a platformer framework. It’s been a long-term goal of mine to create a proper platformer framework, and I’m finally on my way to doing so. The main reasons I’ve wanted to do this for so long, is that a lot of my inspiration comes from various platformers of the NES / SNES era, and that some of my best game ideas are of the platformer genre.

The framework is still a work in progress, but you can check out it’s current state, which is constantly being updated.

Halloween 2012

Halloween has always been a favorite holiday of mine. I love everything about it: from the free candy, to the elevated numbers of excellently dressed drunk people at the bar scene.

For the last two years, it’s been a major goal of mine to release a Halloween inspired game for the holiday. I’ve failed to do this twice now, and I’ve completely convinced myself that a third strike is absolutely unacceptable. I wont divulge the full details just yet, but I can say that I’ll be using the above platformer framework. Anyway, this Halloween is happening, so mark my words, I will be releasing a game this Halloween, or I’m done as a game developer. Time is ticking on that one, so expect an update on that sooner than later.

Ludum Dare 24

Ludum Dare 24 is coming up in just a little over a week, and I can’t wait to participate. I’ve been enjoying the idea of jams more and more as of late, and I think I’m finally prepared to fully take one on. I’ve entered previous Ludum Dare jams before, but have never completed a project by the deadline. There’s some serious lessons to be learned from entering these, and I’m looking to put old lessons to use, and hopefully learn some more during this upcoming jam. I’ll likely post my results here, but if you want more frequent updates, follow my Twitter feed.

GameDev Tuts+

A few months ago, I started writing for Tuts+, specifically the Active Tuts+ branch. I mostly critiqued games, but I also wrote a tutorial on setting up and using the Kongregate API in your flash games. As some of you may know, Active Tuts+ is no more, for those of you who didn’t, get with the times, seriously. I was a bit bummed to not only lose a nice source of side income, but to also hear that such a helpful tutorial site was coming to an end.

Like a phoenix however, everything that Active Tuts+ had to offer was revived into the beautiful branch that is GameDev Tuts+. As far as my life is concerned, nothing has changed, and there’s now a more focused and game oriented home for my writing. I’ve  got an eye on the articles that are in the works, and what’s to come in the future, and I can definitely say that this site is bound to be quite useful to developers of all skill levels and interests. If you haven’t checked it out yet, do so. If you’re one of those crazy, extremely rare, die-hard fans of mine, you might even spot a clue hinting at what my game development future holds.