19/12/2008 by admin.

Hello,

  Well it’s almost Christmas now and it will be the last Friday post before Christmas at any rate so the first thing to do is to wish you all a Merry Christmas!

  It’s been another busy week mainly for Lucky 7 again, but there has been some work done on Shuffle Blocks as well.  Lucky 7 is really coming along nice now, I know I’ve said that before, but it really is starting to look really solid now.  We have the basic intro set up now, which sets up the atmosphere for the rest of the game really nicely.  We have some really great tunes in the game which really enhance the overall feel of the game so much.  I was really surprised about this to be honest, as I’m not normally that bothered about in game music when I normally play games (often, just play with the sound effects on and the music off or at least very low), but my main work PC got a bit confused and was unable to play any sound for a while, so I was play testing the latest build of Lucky 7 (without any audio) and it was still fun, but it definitely felt like it was missing something.  I guess the old saying of “You don’t know what you have got, until it’s gone” is really true.

  That reminds me; I managed to mess my main work PC up over the weekend after installing e-music on it.  It was an offer to get www.LogMeOn.com free for six months (it allows you to remotely connect onto other peoples computers, just as if you were sitting there (great service / program and if you need something like this, definitely try it out) so I could sort my wife’s computer out for her and because it’s something I hardly ever use, I didn’t want to buy a subscription for it when I would only be using it for an hour at most.  Anyway, there’s an offer to get it free for 6 months if you subscribe to e-music, which I did.  Can’t really say that I was that impressed with e-music (I still prefer iTunes) so I decided to un-install it and cancel the subscription.  After doing this, I was unable to get any audio out of my PC and everything looked fine with the drivers, but I knew it had to be the drivers, so I removed the drives and re-installed them again.  This caused a lot more trouble with other drivers and to cut an already long story short, it took me several hours getting everything back to normal again.  

  I’ve also been playing Go on my iPhone during my lunch break this week.  I never realised it was such a good game to play, very simple rules but with a lot of strategy and depth to it.  If you have never played the game before, it’s kind of like a cross between Othello and Connect 4.  The idea of the game is to take turns laying down blocks anywhere on a board to try to get a line of 5.  Sounds very simple to play and it is, but it’s a really, really deep game to master and for me, that’s the best type of games, simple rules, but with a huge range of possibilities.  I’m going to have to start thinking about doing a game similar to go.  I could call it “Gogo’s Go”, or maybe not

Weekending 19/12/08

Lucky Seven:

  Well considering that my PC was down for a while on Saturday, I’ve had a good week on Lucky 7.  I’ve been able to re-shuffle the in game HUD around a bit so that everything is a bit clearer to see and use.  The Slime attack and Confusing Ray Attack text has also been done and the first version of the Slime has also been done (there’s actually 3 different version been done and it’s just a case of seeing which one looks best).  There’s also been lots of other little graphic jobs been completed this week that I can’t remember at this current moment in time (that’s because I’m starting to get old), but I’ve had another good week working on it.

  Tommy has sent in all the music for the game and it sounds great.  There may be some more tunes needed nearer the end of the project, but for now, that’s the music done.

  Isaac was supposed to be taking some time out due to his day job, but he just can’t keep away.  He’s been implementing all the new gf/x and tunes and cleaning up the HUD.  He has also finished converting the intro I mocked up in Flash to the game engine and it looks really nice in full screen mode and once we have the particle effects in place, it will be a thing of pure beauty

Click on the link below to see the first rough Flash mock up along with the title tune for the game.

 Lucky 7 Flash Intro Mock Up (Download File)

(Note: Iit really should be played in a 800 * 600 screen, so you don’t see the white borders, which does distract from it a fair bit, but it will give you a rough idea of the gf/x style)

Shuffle Blocks:

  We are talking about releasing a challenge mode style version of the game which will different styles of word games for the game.  We are still planning these things out at the moment.  We also have a couple of quick ideas for other games involving the same game play style / mechanic for other games.

  Tommy has also just started to work on the audio for Shuffle Blocks as well, so I’m expecting great things from him.

Right, that’s it for me this week as I need to get back to work so have a good Christmas and I hope to see you soon,

Thanks,

Mike.

www.badbumble.com

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12/12/2008 by admin.

Hello everyone,

  It’s getting closer to Christmas now (two weeks and counting) and it’s starting to get really cold now, which is fine except I painted the cupboard and for almost the whole week, the bedroom has stunk of paint fumes, which means I’ve had to sleep with the window open the whole week and it gets really cold during the nights.

  Anyway, I’ve been working really hard this week on Lucky 7 and we have done a fair bit this week.  I’m finding that having a separate room to work in really help you to focus on the work a lot more and I highly recommend any one that has to work at home, if you can find a space that you can dedicate just as your working area (even if it’s just a small cupboard or box room, just make sure that it’s only used for work), try it and you’ll be amazed at the difference it can make to your work flow and the increased focus you seem to have.

  I’ve also been playing around with some musical instruments for the iPhone.  The main one been an Ocarina simulator for the phone, where you actually have to blow into the microphone and press the four different buttons to produce a tune, it’s really good fun and it is guaranteed to impress everyone that sees it.  Also, if you go to their website, they are hundreds of musical sheets for you to download and learn.  If you have an iPhone, give it a try as it’s only a dollar (59p).  It’s nice to be at work, trying to fix something while you have your mate sat behind you trying to play “Fairy Tale in New York” and “Silent Night” on an iPhone Ocarina.  Now that’s Christmas

Weekending 12/12/08

Lucky Seven:

  It’s been a really good week for Lucky 7 this week.  First of the bat is the example music tracks for the game which Tommy sent through.  I basically asked him for something cute, but with a slight horror feel to it and send him the current build of the game to look at and after only a couple of days, he sent back four examples for tunes and I’ve got to say that they are all excellent and are just what I was looking for. 

  For my bit, I’ve had a really good week working on Lucky 7 and I feel like I’ve done a fair bit of work on it.  I’ve finished the ghost model off (see picture (I’m calling him Nigel, as he looks like a guy I used to work with called Nigel)) and I’ll got nearly all the animations done (I know that I will need to do more, but I’m waiting until I know what other animations will be needed).

  I’m also working on mocking up the intro / title screen.  This includes designing the game logo and title (which is one of the reasons the Lucky 7 page has remained blank for so long).  My master plan is to just have a nice cartoon style intro which flows smoothly from the engine splash screen, into the intro and finally ends at the title screen.  I’m mocking it up using Flash, so I can quickly add, edit and change elements if needed.  It took me a couple of hours to remember how to use Flash as I have not used Flash for a couple of years, but once I got in to the flow, it seems to be the quickest was of doing it and it allows me to send examples out to the rest of the team for comments.  It also helps to have an example music track to work to as well, so you get the full atmosphere of graphics and music.

  You can see the Lucky 7 logo in the Ghost picture by the way.  It went through a lot of different design ideas, but in the end I think this simple design is the best and the little coloured cubes in the logo by the way are really important to the game, as is the order of the blocks (just if you where wondering what they were for, they do mean something (that’s pretty deep design for me as I normally throw things in until it looks nice)).

  Just got an e-mail as I write this, that Isaac has almost converted the mock up Flash animation to TGB, which is a LOT faster then I expected it to take, but saying that, Isaac is un-naturally fast =)

Shuffle Blocks:

  Well I finally got the current build to work on my machine and it was due to a corrupt install of the various XNA installs on my machine.  There’s still a fair bit of work to be done on the game, but the basic game is there and it’s fun to play.

  We are still talking (Dave and myself) about what’s the best approach for the game is.

Right, that’s it for me this week and I’m sure that there’s going to be a lot more next week.  So have a good week and I hope I will see you next week.

Thanks,

Mike.

www.badbumble.com

Posted in Shuffle Blocks, Current Game Development, Lucky 7 Development Diary, Blogroll | No Comments »

06/12/2008 by admin.

Hello everyone,

  Hope you are all well and happy and sorry for the delay in posting.  I’ve been working on Lucky 7 and just looked at the clock as saw that it’s almost midnight! Doesn’t the time fly when your having fun.

  Well I managed to survive the DIY almost in tack (just lost a bit of thumb nail, not a lot, but enough to sting for a few days).  There’s still lot’s of little clean up jobs left to do, but I spent the whole weekend and two nights after work doing it and frankly, I’m fed up of cleaning up.  It would have been a lot quicker and easier if I had more room to move around in at the start, but it was a case of move some stuff out of the way, so I could move other stuff about, slow and painful.  At least my Tetris / Sokoban (you know, that little puzzle game where you have to push boxes around a wear house) playing skills came into play

  So at least now I have my own little office so it should allow me to concentrate a lot more now when I am working as I can separate from when I’m working or not.  I know it doesn’t sound like a big thing, but mentally it just helps to get your head into a better frame of mind for working.

  Project wish, I’ve just got back into doing work again for Lucky 7, which feel good again to do project work again after a few days break away from it all.

  We also have a new team member now, Tommy, who is going to do all the music for the games.  He really is very talented and I’m sure his contribution to the games will add greatly to the quality of the games, so welcome on board Tommy.

Weekending 05/12/08

Lucky Seven:

  I only really had a chance to start working on Lucky 7 from Thursday night, but I’ve managed to create some more little graphics for the game Isaac asked me for and I’m a good way through building a cartoon ghost monster for the game, which I’m hoping to have finished by the end of the weekend.  The basic model is there, but it still needs a lot of tweaking as it could be smoother around the eye sockets and then I just need to model all the morph targets for the various animations that I’ll be doing for the game.

  Isaac has implemented the other Ghost Attack for me, which looks like it will be fun to do in the game (think I’m going to call that attack “The Fog”).  He has also implemented the bonus time mode, where when you complete a level, you get a few extra seconds to clear any other blocks from the level for extra points.  He has also done something else in the game, but won’t tell me what it is and told me I’ll have to wait until I get the new build tonight / over the weekend.

I’ve added an example for the game text for the game for you to look at to help give you a sense of the graphic style I’m going for (it’s actually the exact graphic which is going to be used in the game (I want it to be a nice colourful game)).  I know it doesn’t give much away, but I’m going to gradually start to show more and more stuff off in the blog as things start to progress and we get nearer to completing the project.

Well I think that’s it for this week, sorry for the short post, but I’m sure I’ll have more to write about next week and at least I survived the DIY.

Have a good week,

Mike.

www.badbumble.com

Posted in Lucky 7 Development Diary | No Comments »