January Retrospective

1. Got my first ever paid work as a game developer, details are still hush-hush at the moment but the project was to port an old Blitz3D indie game to BlitzMax (so it can run on a Mac). The basic port is complete, and infact is improved over the original (better graphics, more features, less bugs) but I'll get back into it later to refine and polish the product before it goes on sale.
2. Begun work on the Earok Engine, but put that on hold half way through the month to focus on the above Blitz3D port
3. Started, completed and published Heart of Ice, my first ever 48 hour Game Jam entry.
4. Learned the fundamentals of Drupal, and put that knowledge to use developing a new website for Auckland Game Works (still not done, but getting there!)

Overall a pretty good month! If I can stay this productive for another 11 months, I'll have had a very good year indeed.

February Project Goals

1. Establish a business entity, so I declare my game development income and pay tax on it (sigh..)
2. Think of a name for the said business entity
3. Ditch Wordpress, migrate to Drupal on my own page
4. Reach the first milestone for the Earok Engine
5. (Possibly) release a minor update to Derelict, built on the Earok Engine and exploiting it's features (like ducking - dynamically lowering the volume of background sound and music during dialogue). It still won't be anywhere near the "final word" on Derelict though.

Lots to do in February, we're five days into it already and I haven't worked on any of my project goals yet! Better get to work.

To my readers; Sam, Kristie, Stephen, Mum and of course Kirsty, thank you for all of your kind support and comments. Heart of Ice is approaching completion, although lot slower then I had originally anticipated (Especially due to me constantly changing my mind about gameplay mechanics, and then re-changing it!). The art assets are pretty much done; I have drawn 6 characters and have produced another three through rudimentary palette swapping. Everything in the game is still completely my own work, though I've had advice from Kirsty and some other people on certain things for it. I'm hoping to get the core gameplay done by 12pm, giving me three hours to tackle a task I haven't given much thought at all: Producing the sound! I may do another blog post then. Stay tuned.

The Game Jam has begun! You can watch me live at http://www.globalgamejam.org.nz/ (Though you might have a hard time seeing me, I'm right at the end of the middle table on the right hand side and wearing my Black Mario Fedora). I'm not sure if I'm allowed to announce the restrictions to the world (even though there probably is no harm in doing so) so I won't.

But I will say they are very interesting, and absolutely none of my game ideas before the Game Jam could possibly fit in them. The game I produce in the next 48 hours will be completely different to any other I have ever made before. Just about everyone has formed into teams, except for myself; tonight I'm going to program an engine for making 3D Isometric games (Think Legend of Zelda on Nes, but with polygons) and then offer it to one of the other teams; they'll either be interested or they wont (in which case I'll use it for my own game idea). Time to get started. LETS ROCK.

Me, Josh and Matt are off to the Hamilton Gamejam at around noon tomorrow. I'll be taking my laptop and doing blog updates every 6 hours or so.

My toolkit comprises the following -

Programming languages: BlitzMax, Blitz3D

2D Art: Paint Shop Pro 8, Richards Evolving Sprite Tool, Paint.NET

3D Art: Tattoo, Cartography Shop (May need to purchase a copy of Milkshape too)

Sound: Audacity, SFXR, Songsmith (Don't laugh. It's the only way I could possibly make any music at all)

Level Design: Mappy

So, in a couple of days you'll be able to play my next title! Tune in next week, same Bat time, same Bat channel.