August 7, 2023

Just a quick update today. I have finished learning a lot about 3D animation and I am starting to look for good 3D models that fit the type of game this is going to be. Thus far finding the right 3D models for the game has proven harder then I thought. I am going to start working on special effects and sound while I continue searching for the right 3D models.

One other note. I have been following a new game engine that was released awhile back called Game Guru Max. It was originally designed to produce first person shooter games but it is being expanded to produce role playing games as well. If you are new at game creation and are looking for a game engine that can produce either of these two types of game with little or no coding you might check it out.

July 16, 2023

I have now finished all the game play and have started working on getting and importing game assets. I must mention that in the past I have had problems with feature creap (which is new features being added to games just before they are released which delayed them being released). I will try not to let feature creap delay the release of the game but feature creap is a weakness I have (it is hard to resist adding something new to a game that makes the game better even if it results in the game being released later).

Speaking of the game being released it looks like the game release will be pushed back to the end of August (or maybe even September) due to animation (I have done very little 3D animation and am having to learn it as I go for this game).

I also have a good idea for the next game that will be released after this one but I will save that news for later.

June 18, 2023

Just a quick update to let everyone know how things are going.

Progress on my next game is continuing at a good pace. I have completed roughly 50 percent of the game play. For the last few games I have released I have created the game play and acquired the game assets (music, graphics, etc…) about the same time. For this game I am concentrating on finishing the game play first and the acquiring the game assets last. I though that might speed things up slightly. This next game is also being created with Unity (unity.com) which I am familiar with so that makes the game come alone faster.

I still hoper to release this next game by August 1st 2023 and I already have some ideas for the next two games I will create after this next one.

May 14, 2023

It has been awhile since I updated this website so I figured I would give everyone a quick update of how things are going.

Just when I was starting to make some progress on my next game the place where I worked at for my full time job moved to a different location. The new location takes about 20 extra minutes each day for the commute to and from work (unless there is a traffic jam which adds about 20 extra minutes per traffic jam). That cut into the little time I have to do game creation.

As a result the work I was doing on my next game slowed down greatly. I am trying to compensate by using tools that I am very familiar with to create games and selected a simpler, shorter game for my next project. This helped some but it is still slow progress.

I am hoping my next game will be finished before August 1st (2023) but there are no guarantees.

March 5, 2023

After doing some more research I decided to go with two separate game engines.

Unity is the main game engine I plan on using for most future projects. I have started a programming pathway course to learn the engine well enough to make much more complex games then I have in the past but I have some experience with this engine so progress has been quick. Before long I will be starting a personal game project as part of the learning course and it currently looks like this will be the first game I share with you as a result of talking the course.

Game Maker Studio is the second engine and it will only be used for HTML5 2D games designed for devices that do not have hardware acceleration but require HTML5 Canvas to run games. Basically Game Maker Studio will be used for games (or applications) targeting the web where it is important that all devices that can access the web can be able to use them. This will probably be specialty games (or applications) serving special purposes. As a result Unity will be the game engine I use most of the time.

February 15, 2023

I started making the first mini game with the new game engine I was planning on using and quickly discovered it had some bugs that was making it not work right. It is a small team of people that are building the engine and it will take awhile for the bugs to be removed. As a result I started considering other game engines that I could use.

I have narrrowed it down to three seperate game engines and I will start testing them with short mini games and see how they do.

February 5, 2023

As I was looking for a replacement game engine I realized I was making a mistake that I had made earlier. I was reinventing the wheel by trying to create a type of game from scratch when there were already game engines available that were custom built (or had extensions) to create that type of game. Using an already created solution would be easier and quicker then trying to build the game from nothing by myself.

As a result I have current selected two different game engines that I could easily use to create the type of game I am wanting to make. I will probably make one (or several) very small games to learn the game engines much better and then proceed on to the main game from there. When I make these games I will make them available to play so you will also get to enjoy them.

Now on to making the first small game.

January 22, 2023

This past week I finished creating the messaging system but when I started work on the new user interface I discovered the game engine I was using to make the game was not scalling properly when switching to different display sizes. This results in black outlines around the edges of the screen if scalling is required. One of the primary platforms I am planning to release the game on is Android and due to how many different screen sizes there are for the Android platform this will not work.

My only option is to use a different game engine. Fortunatly, I have not developed much of the game so it will be easy to start again. Next, I will examine several other game engines to find a replacement and then start on the game again.

January 15, 2023

This past week I added traps to chests. I have fixed it so that each chest can have a different trap (or be untrapped), require a different key (or no key) to open it, can hold a different type and amount of treasure and have a different appearance. In addition to this I have also created a basic game system to use for resolving all actions (searching, picking locks, disarming traps, combat, etc...). I also started creating the message system that tells the player what is happening as a result of their actions.

Next I hope to finish the message system and create the user interface. Creating the user interface might require that I make some changes to the chest so it is best to create the user interface before I get too much of the game created.

January 10, 2023

After working on the latest game for a while I made the decision to change the goal I was working toward. Originally the goal was to write a short banner sized game but I realized after I got through it could only be used for more banner sized games. I prefer to create something that would be of more use then that.

As a result I have changed the latest game into a template that can easily be used to create other games in addition to banner sized games. While this will take a little longer to create the first game all following games will be quicker to produce. The game template will be a point and click game and thus all games created with it will be point and click games as well. Due to my years of experience with Role Playing Games all the games produced with it will also be adventure games of some sort.

My method of operation will be to create the first game with the game structure and only the needed objects for the first game. Future objects will be added in additional games (as well as new features to the game structure). I have just finished creating a chest object to be used in the game and I have equiped the chest so it can be locked (requiring a specific key to open it) and it can hold a wide variety of treasure (but will be empty if the player comes back to check it again later). I am in the process of adding traps to the chests (with the player having to successfully find the trap and then disarmed it).