So I’ve finished my second one game a month game. Clipper.
http://alphamike.co.uk/games/Clipper/
Based on my baby boy. Usually you have to cut his nails when he is asleep or he is all over the place. This game was inspired by that.
It is inevitable he will wake up so that is kind of why it is so difficult 
I will make a YouTube video sometime this week to talk more about it.
I made a facebook header thing. So I thought I would show it off here
So I’ve decided to change tact slightly and introduce monthly vlogs in conjunction with my 1GAM endeavour.
So here it is a YouTube video featuring ME! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2etRMkEWPk
Tiny bit nervous, but thankfully the “Uhms!” are at a minimum 
.
I’ve heard the expression “Your first ten games will suck — so get them out of the way fast.” I believe it is in The Art of Game Design which is a good book.
6 more to go then!
I was handed an offer to Introducing HTML5 game development so I bought it and had a read through. I’ve never done HTML5 or Javascript it is an exciting area of development very cutting edge and still evolving fast. So I decided to give it a go.
Introducing Platformz a platform game where you kill Zombies and escape. It is the game you write while going through the book, overall I am happy it works and it has a beginning, middle and end which is more than most of my games.
HTML5 & Javascript is very interesting and I think I want to settle on it for a while and write some more games. The immediate feedback you get is excellent. Write, save, refresh and test.
So what to focus on for my next 6 games. Time to get the notebook out
Game dev is awesome!
So I’ve decided to get into drawing again. Specifically get into vector art so I can make art assets for my games. So I followed this tutorial http://vector.tutsplus.com/tutorials/illustration/how-to-create-a-killer-chainsaw-bunny-character/ and decided to draw the character myself this was the drawing:
So I followed the tutorial and this is the result:
The original size is here
I hope you like
Over the weekend I have been getting into doing my next project. This time I wanted to do a 3D theme and I really wanted to make this one look nice. I played around with the Wildfire Worlds Alpha and I just love the look and I wanted to really try and recreate that in Unity. So I set out to try and make a similar look and the pictures here are the result of that. I love the papercraft style and I think I’ve made a reasonable effort in doing it. I’m happy, chuffed. Spambots BE PROUD OF ME
Over the next week I plan to start planning exactly how this game is going to work and start adding milstones into my mantis install. That’s right I have a mantis tracker, I find it really good tool to use as a carrot to help me work towards goals.
I want to stop mucking about and put some real effort into my games, I want people to play them and enjoy them. I want to do this …… I need to do this.
This game I want to be a multiplayer I’m still trying to think if this should be over several days or turn based or really quick. I’m currently leaning towards making really quick short games. Which will hopefully make it re-playable.
Anyway here are the screenshots, I hope you enjoy spambots!
Ali
So I’ve added a Games pages to my links at the top. This lists all the games I’ve made so far either in learning or actual attempts.
I created another game over the past couple of weekends while I was trying to get to grips with Unity4. A simple side scrolling space shooter I called space dodge.
I am planning my next game, mulling around in my head. I just need to think of the style I want to achieve.
So I completed v0.1 of SDII and I let people have a play with it. From my site stats it looks like 4 people have downloaded it.
I have gotten good feedback from about half of the guys who played it and I have begun implementing them, as you can see there are now costs on the buttons and also there is now an indication of how many Asteroids are left of each colour.
I have also begun adding in a Radar which you can see here but I have only half implemented it. I hope to have v0.2 on the way soon, this version will also be an Android version which I will put up on the market.
I want to do another couple of releases before I call this project complete. I mainly want to implement all the tower I had planned and perhaps add a couple more enemies and a few extra shiny bits here and there.
I’ve been thinking what I should do next, and I think I want to make a series of mini games that shouldn’t take long to make and I want to learn a few technologies while I’m doing it.
I think the main focus for the coming months is Unity3D I want to make an isometric game but before that I think I need to make a few sample games that I can fart out in a couple of weeks.
I also want to give Lua a shot and see what I can do with it, it is very popular for adding the ability to enhance games through scripts. I was thinking that I may be able to integrate lua into SDII and have the Enemies & Towers scriptable, but I fear I may be too far down the road to implement that.
So to the future! Let’s see what it brings!
So when I planned this game I thought it was quite a good idea. Rotational tower defence game with asteroids and you have to defend earth by placing towers, the interesting thing about it is you have to rotate around the earth to see all the incoming asteroids.
You can purchase a radar but that will take up one of your slots. You can only have 4 slots.
Different Asteroids would have different strengths normal, fire and ice.
I’ve implemented most of the core mechanics, I just need to code in the remaining towers but I can’t help but feel something is missing. It doesn’t feel as fun as I thought.
Could it be I’ve just been staring at it for far too long, or is there something else a miss? Because it doesn’t feel fun it doesn’t to me feel like something I want to carry on working on.
There is an inner conflict inside me; do I give it up as a bad job, learn and start my new project or do I get SDII to a point where I feel comfortable people having a shot of it and seeing what they would improve?
Of course if I give it up as a bad job and start my new project who is to say 3 months down the line I won’t be in exactly the same situation and had I only just stuck at it with SDII I would know what to do.
I read this Blog by Derek Yu and points 9 and 11 (OK. All of them) feel like points I should really listen to. This line really sticks in my mind regarding starting over again
“Your code will always be a mess. You will have learned a lot. It will never be perfect. And if you start all over, you’ll find yourself in the exact same situation when you get to this point again. It’s a terrible trap to think like this.”
I think this what will happen if I start again on my new project.
I think I need to go back to the drawing board and see what I should throw out and what I should keep. Another great blog (GameDevBlog) I read has an article about “How purple is your cow?” which suggest making something in your game remarkable maybe that is the rotational bit or maybe I need to think of something else.
After all Unstoppable Gorg has made a really good tower defence game which has rotation elements in it.
So I made the switch. I had thought about it last year, I almost settled on a Mac Mini but I decided to wait to see the new line of Mac Minis that were to be released in the year. Then Ross came along and it was forgotten about.
So what makes someone who has been against the high price of Macs and the general rubbish spreading of Apple buy one?
Well mostly Windows 8, I’ve had a play around with it and I find it very “Meh”. Also I find that most new laptops that I’ve had shoved under my nose to fix or sort out have been horrid either in size, the touchpad is just naff or the sheer amount of crap the manufacturer loads onto it is irritating.
I want to start making more and more games. I almost have the complete set of graphics for Space Debris and I am planning my next game. I want to be able to have the option to deploy the games onto Android, iOS, Mac and Windows and I think Macs are a good platform for deploying onto Android, iOS and Mac. For Windows I already have my desktop PC.
So, after about a week am I happy with it?
Abso-bloody-lutly (Dun dun daaaaaa)
I love it, it is quite slick has some nice features and the trackpad isn’t rubbish.
The OS
OS X is very nice, I’ve never had a long play about with it. I think a grand total of about an hour over the whole of my time using computers has been spent using it. I remember reading about full screen apps every article I read made it to me sound like that would be the default behaviour of all apps. Thankfully it doesn’t seem to be that way and actually the full screen option is rather nice. To go through all fullscreen apps & get back to the desktop you simply do a 4 finger swipe.
I also tried facetime which is quite nice, Emma uses it to facetime her folks and show off Ross to them. I think it might come in quite handy as Ross gets older and also I can facetime everyone who has an iPhone too.
TrackPad
So as I’ve said I find trackpads on some laptops to be horrid, they are either just a smooth surface and positioned in such a way that I accidentally touch them while typing, or they just don’t seem to respond when I am trying to move the pointer somewhere. Then of course you have areas on them for scrolling up and down, left and right which just annoy me as I goto move the pointer but end up scrolling the page.
The touchpad on the Mac is multitouch as I alluded too earlier. Two finger taps bring up the right click menu, Three finger taps on a word brings up a dictionary definition of that word. It works very much like a tablet; pinch to zoom, 2 fingers to scroll and go back etc.
I don’t know what they are like on new laptops with Windows 8 but I guess now touchscreens are becoming the “in-thing” they will begin to be forgotten about.
I haven’t used much of the software like Garageband etc but I’m sure when I get back home after this break I will have a play around.
So was it worth the money?
Difficult to say, hardware wise they aren’t as well specced as cheaper windows laptops, but at the same time it isn’t bogged down with 30 day trials of Norton, (Insert Manufacturer) quick start rubbish. So the experience is quick and unobtrusive, also I guess because the hardware isn’t as variable applications tend to run well enough on the “budget” Macs.
Before I would probably have said “No way in hell” now I’m not so sure, if I can still use it in 3-4 years time and never have to reinstall then Yes it is worth it.
