Holy Split! Finished!

Our game Holy Split! won us 3rd place out of 17 teams at Wolverine Soft's 48 hour game jam. We got a trophy and medals (plus Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm)! It was awesome.

The way the competition works is at 7pm on Friday they give you a theme, ours was 'separate', and by 7pm Sunday you have to have it running and ready to play. At that point everyone in the competition plays each others games and votes for their 3 favorites. There are also 4 judges that play every game, tally the votes, and come to a decision.

My team consisted of me, my two brothers, and my girlfriend. Everyone contributed great things and the game would be holy shit without them. The amount of time that I put into the game was close to 18 hours which left plenty of time to sleep, eat, and play Magic.

Here's the download link, try it out!
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gukbqltbug0d5de/A_5VQUgz5J

Watch the video of the final version:

Blast Lords Animations

My accomplishments for the day:

• Initial player spawning
• Changed the map size to deal with safe area on tv's
• Player speed based on tilt of controller
• Player jump based on length of time A is held
• Death animation and wait time
• Spawn animation and wait time
• Movement and jumping animations

Tomorrow I'm working on the battle mechanics which should be a lot of fun. For now here are two videos, the first is of the map editor, and the second is the gameplay on the created map. I'll post another gameplay video tomorrow when the battle mechanics are in and with more people playing.

Map Editor

Gameplay

New Game "Blast Lords"

After a ton of work I finally I have a rough working version of Blast Lords. It takes the 2D fighting of Super Smash Bros. and blends it with the items and explosions of Bomberman 64. It's currently targeting XBLIG, but if it's successful I will easily be porting it to PC. The game has a working map editor that I plan on including. I really like to focus on customizability so the game feels like it has an infinite amount of content. Players will be able to save and load their own maps (possibly trade them online). The physics settings of the game are fully customizable as well. This includes (but isn't limited to) number of lives, number of jumps, gravity, max speed, friction, jump impulse, etc... These settings will also be able to be saved and loaded. Before entering the game players will be able to add skill points to their characters which will enhance them in the battlefield. There will only be a set amount of points so players have to chose carefully where they want to assign them. Some of the skills that can be enhanced are number of bombs, number of jumps, damage, explosion size, knockback distance, and many more.

From this point on I'm going to try to make daily posts during the week with what I've worked on for the day. I'll include videos and images if something visible has changed.

Here is what it currently looks like on a not so pretty test map:

C#, XNA, and My New Game

Over the past month I've been learning C# and working on a game in XNA. This project is HUGE for a single person to undertake. All I can say so far is that it's a 4-player party game that I'm hoping to release for XBLIG. I got the idea when playing the original Super Smash Bros. with my roommates. How was it we could still play something so old and simple, and have a ton of fun? It's because the game had an endless amount of possibilities and we were always able to find new ways to beat each other. The game is timeless and I'm hoping to emulate that with what I'm doing. I want a group of friends to be able to sit down and battle all night long. Drinking, cursing, and rivalry encouraged.

So far I have tested the core mechanics with family and friends. It was fun, and even after I was bored nobody wanted to put down the controller. I've transfered that over to a full project where I have the physics working. Maps are loaded by using serialized data (no more making my own .txt files). Right now I'm working on the map editor so I can have a nice set of levels to test on as the game grows.

Here's a video of a bug I had when first hacking it together to test the mechanics. (It's long since been resolved)

What I've learned so far:

• How to serialize data (saving and loading maps)
• Using controllers and controller states
• Platformer physics
• Collision detection and resolution
• The C# language through game development in XNA

What's coming next:

• Map editor
• Player weapons and shields
• Learn a shader language for fun effects

Learning C# / XNA

On a whim I registered for Microsoft's Dream.Build.Play game development competition. I decided it was time to learn C# and XNA as I've only heard good things about it. So far I'm very happy with what I've seen and learned. I've got a great idea for my next game and I'm hoping to get it working for pc and 360!