Solo Show

So I recently finished my last semester at Colorado State University, and as part of my final drawing project I worked on a version of my upcoming platformer for a very different context: the fine arts exhibition. It was a strange experience, I'll be honest. How do you take an exploration-based platformer meant to be played for an extended period of time, and make it work for an art gallery context where people might only come up and try it out for half a minute?

Well, one way of doing that is by taking away the platformer from the game. I thought that simple platformer controls would be easy enough for anyone to pick up and play, but still many people at my critiques were confused and frustrated. So I had to further simplify, a few times up until the point where all you have to do is move in four directions using a USB NES controller. That even proved a bit difficult for some, but overall the exhibition was a success. 

 

 

I had two projections of the game on either wall, and accompanying music by Nicholas Singer playing through two sets of headphones. Most people got the idea, and I was pretty happy with how it all turned out.

And now I get to finish the game as intended. :)

 

Most of the art is complete, and since the game design has been completed for over a year, all that's left is finishing up animations (which I may do myself, unless I can find an animator to help me out) and polishing/testing. Hopefully this process won't take more than a few months, but I've learned by now not to make release date estimates when I can only devote some of my time to game development. 

 

 

I am still making games!

My game design work had to take a back seat after I decided to finish up my last two years of university, and neglecting this blog was a product of that. I only have five weeks left to go, and my game (formally the XNA game, now coming out via Unity on PC and mobile devices) is my capstone project.

More to come soon, but in the meantime some new art! click for full-res

Another update

I've shown a bit of the title I'm currently working on for PC/XBLIG, and while it's a simple game it is going to take a bit longer to develop than I previously thought it would. Mainly because it cannot be my main focus in life at the moment. But I finish what I start and I really want to complete this project. In the meantime, I was thinking about the general secrecy associated with games early on in development and how things are usually held close to the chest until the game is ready for its PR campaign. And I'm not sure if that's the best idea for an indie game.

At the very least I would like to start documenting the process of development on the art side, and I like the idea of making it public and immediate.  Things will no doubt change before release, and sharing my work will be a good motivator for me and a good way of getting feedback from others.

So here's a proper start. I think this is the aesthetic I want to achieve with this game. I will explain more in future blog posts!

(click for big image)

little update

Still working on the xna title, and here's some more art preview.  (click for large)

new project

I'm working on a game for the Indie Games channel on 360. It's a small project but it looks like I'll be able to fulfill one of my development wishes which is to create a game world composed entirely of original hand-drawn assets. No tiles, no repeating textures filling up polygonal meshes, not one reused asset. It's a ton of work on the drawing side, but it's work that I love to do.

Development only really began about a month ago but I hope to have the game finished by this summer.

Here's a little peak at one of the structures you'll be running atop of (unless I decide to redo it again). If everything goes as planned it'll all be running at 1080p.

(click to enlarge) -Daniel

alternate

Our new game came out today for the iphone, yay

Check it out!

app store link 

 

 

high-res ost art

We've received some requests for higher-res album art, so here it be:

(click image for full res)