The new game from Brian and myself is called Burney.
A relatively short turn around for this one, only 4 weeks, forcing us to stick to a simpler idea and building it the best we could.
The gameplay based on the notion of burning things to gain points but in a very non-serious manner. With a simple idea we also kept the controls simple, using just the space bar to jump. Some of our previous games have been faulted for being difficult or frustrating to control, so I pushed the concept of a single action key that has proved successful for a few other games out there. There’s also no way to ‘die’ in this game so it’s accessible for anyone to play and allows them to run right through the level and improve on their score.
Limiting the game time to 60 seconds was in line with the MochiAds 60 Seconds to Fame competition, which requires a limit of 1 minute of game time.
Anyway, enough with the words, Play Burney now.
I haven’t forgotten Grande but we’ve put it aside for a minute. We’re trying to spark some inspiration from a quick little turn-around prototype.
I’ve been developing my own basic platformer engine which is more lightweight than Box2D and it also means I’m not fighting the engine as much to do simple things. It only has the bare basic stuff for block-shaped tracks, but it does the job. I’ve learned quite a bit about using the hitTest() method in Flash through hours of debugging. Odd things like easing the virtual camera can cause the player to go from ‘grounded’ to ‘airborne’ without moving its x and y coordinates. Probably something to do with shape testing against fractions of pixels.
We’re still working out the core story behind the game, but the mechanic is almost done with some placeholder graphics. Hopefully I’ll be able to update soon.
One month in and ’some’ progress has been made. A fulltime job and no set due date means things are being developed rather slowly.
Our concept is now well rounded and we’re in the stage of prototyping the various types of effect we wish the throw in. I’ve got a fairly solid physics sandbox setup with a character running and jumping around, and B is scribbling away with more character designs and environment designs within the technical constraints of Flash. I suppose that is a mantra that we’re strongly adopting for this project… “embrace the constraints”
Nothing that we’re ready to reveal yet, as things could still backflip from here.
No sooner has Brian and I finished off Haku, we’re looking forward to our next big thing.
Enter Project: Grande
This project is a bit unique for us, as we have no deadline or contest in mind. It’s all about aiming bigger than before, with a stronger story and pushing the limits in Flash.
We’ve spent about 2 months so far just concepting and experimenting, trying to find that winning idea to run with. I’m not going to give out many specifics yet, but we’re pretty sure we’ll be leveraging the Box2D engine. For a bit of a teaser check out some early concept sketches from Brian:
The results are in and I’m happy to announce that Haku has won a prize in the latest MochiAds contest for best integration of the Freespin3D plugin. There were around 600 entries in the contest and even though not all games had to include the Freespin3D plugin, B and I are pleased with the result.
Check out the contest page and the other winners here
For the press release on Reuters go here
If you’ve not yet given Haku a try, find it here.
Well finally, it’s complete. Our latest game, Haku: Spirit Storm
Two months in the making, the game centers around Haku, a dragon, and his quest to find his true spirit.
Once again there was a heavy focus on player interaction and immersion, as we strived to achieve an engaging feeling of flight using motion, sound and graphics. The black and white art direction from B plays on the whole good versus evil theme whilst desperately trying to keep processor usage down. As for the coding, nothing too special here, although it does integrate a 3rd party plugin named FreeSpin3D which, you guessed it, handles the 3D models for the body segments. The motion of the dragon was my proudest break-through, with a combination of a chain setup and an animated sine wave allowing Haku to animate smoothly and seamlessly between turns and idle movement.
Check it out
