December 2010
1 post
Common Android Virtual Device Configurations →
November 2010
2 posts
3 tags
Publishing iOS games with GameMaker →
YoYoGames introduce baseline spec for publishing iOS games with GameMaker. This should put the cat amongst the pigeons.
October 2010
2 posts
5 tags
Great Game Design: Super Crate Box
I’ve spent most of the evening playing a fantastic new platform arena shooter called Super Crate Box. Now, I don’t really need to prattle on about how great it is - it would take less than five minutes for you to download this free game and find out for yourselves. However, what I am going to do is write a few words about the things that the developers, Vlambeer, have done really right...
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July 2010
1 post
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June 2010
2 posts
4 tags
Now Playing: Super Mario Galaxy 2
I’ve been on a steady drip feed of SMG2 since my pre-order arrived the day before the UK launch (rumour has it that there were several outlets that broke the street date way earlier than that). Or rather, we’ve been on a steady drip, as Nintendo have expanded on their genius decision in the first game to add a collaborative play element. My wife has been there for every one of the 98...
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Flash Game Dojo →
More unrestrained awesome from @ADAMATOMIC and @ChevyRay - “Flash Game Dojo is a community powered knowledge base for ActionScript beginners and experts”. Looks like a really nice and approachable site for learning game development with AS3 and Flixel, and with ChevyRay’s involvement it will probably include FlashPunk at a later date as well. ADAMATOMIC has pointed out that there...
May 2010
5 posts
Sculptris v1.0 →
DrPetter has released version 1.0 of Sculptris, his free 3d modelling tool! This release lets you to paint color, textures, and bump maps right onto the model. Time to play!
Vintage-Style DC Character Posters on the Behance... →
Freeware Game Pick: Hero Core (Daniel Remar) →
Hero Core is a Metroid-style action shooter that tells the story of Flip Hero, on a mission to destroy his nemesis Cruiser Tetron for the final time. But before taking on the machine…
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April 2010
3 posts
1 tag
Updates to GMG
Just two minor updates:
I’m working on a new theme here, because I want something a bit more original. Or at least something entirely derivative that I coded up by myself.
I’m experimenting with automating a feed from my Reader, since I spend so much time on there. There should be some link posts coming through linking to articles I found interesting. I’ll see how it goes, not...
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Elements of Cute Character Design →
An interesting article from VectorTuts, explaining some of the psychology in implementing cute character designs. I hadn’t really thought of it before, but the nurturing parental instincts that come in to play when presented with something cute and helpless certainly has an impact in the way we interact with games. Would we feel any urge to keep Mario safe from harm if he looked like a real...
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2D Game Making Tools Update
I’ve been a bit busy these past few months, so I haven’t had much of an opportunity to keep this blog going. The Easter holiday has given me a bit of respite, so I’m able to catch up on the state of the game making tools field. There have been quite a few developments since my last post on the subject.
Construct - my favourite little tool has been updated to version 0.99.84, and...
February 2010
3 posts
3 tags
I'm Making a Game!
But you can’t play it and I can’t really talk about it :( You see, I’m now a beta tester for the ever mysterious Stencyl game creation tool, which has been under development for well over two years now. There are still plenty of people who don’t believe it really exists, but I’ve spent the last week fumbling around the interface, trying to learn it.
I’m still...
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Recommendation: Depict1
Last night I played through a wonderful little game called Depict1, made by Kyle Pulver for the Global Game Jam. It’s a charming affair, with lovely low-res graphics and an engaging story, garnished with music is provided by non other than Alec Holowka.
I don’t want to give too much away, because it really would spoil the experience. Just imagine a game where all of your...
January 2010
2 posts
4 tags
5 tags
ChevyRay releases FlashPunk, AS3 gamedev library →
This looks interesting:
“FlashPunk is a free ActionScript library designed for developing 2D Flash games. Its goal is to provide you with a fast, clean framework for prototyping and developing games; this means most of the dirty work — reliable framerate, sprite rendering/animation, player input, and collision detection (to name a few) — has been covered with a set of base...
December 2009
4 posts
2 tags
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Flixel 1.41 - AS3 Game Framework →
Adam “ATOMIC” Saltsman has been on an epic coding frenzy this week, with constant twitter updates about all of the new features and bug fixes being added. Flixel really is a great little package - quick and easy to learn, producing amazingly retro results.
I took a little time to play with it a few months ago, putting together a pretty nifty little pong game in a matter of a couple of...
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BlenderCookie - exporting a lowpoly model to... →
Fantastic video showing how to transfer mapped mesh models from Blender to Unity. It’s recorded in really clear HD, so be sure to watch it in full screen mode. Go to BlenderCookie.com to see more like this.
(reposted as a link because the video didn’t have embed permission)
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Sprite Process for KOF XII →
Have a read of the “DOT” Creation section - about fifteen man-months per character. That’s dedication! They go to all the trouble of making 3D models and animation, then render them to frames and draw sprite art over the top. Nutters!
November 2009
6 posts
2 tags
Blender 2.5 Alpha 0
The first official release of the update to the fantastic 3D package, Blender, was announced this week. As well as a complete makeover for the often criticised GUI, there have been massive changes to the data structures under the hood. A new ‘DNA’ system means that every element of the software can be controlled, edited, animated, whatever you want.
Some of the highlights of...
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Great Tutorial on Unity3D Coroutines →
Just found this tutorial and I felt it really explained coroutines nicely. It’s a couple of months old, so I’m surprised I didn’t see it earlier. I’m discovering quite a few little Unity blogs hidden around the internet.
On a side note- I’m going to have busy time at work for the next few weeks, so I can’t spend as much time with Unity as I’d like. The...
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Very Basic Top Down Camera for Unity3D
Now that it’s the weekend again I can put my day job behind me and have another go at Unity3D. I’ve been thinking all week about systems for 2D / 2.5D games using Unity, since I’m coming from a 2D background and I haven’t quite got the bottle for 3D rotations and whatnot. The first thing I’ve managed to build is a very simple top down camera. Read on to find out...
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Unity 3D Tip: Press F for Focus
I’ve been struggling a little with the scene view in #Unity3D. The methods for navigating 3D space are a little unfamiliar to me - new button and mouse combinations to be learnt and all that. What’s really been bugging me is the way the view rotations work. I just couldn’t make it do what I wanted, the way I’m used to from my previous experiences with Blender and Wings3D.
...
3 tags
October 2009
10 posts
3 tags
Getting into Unity3D
So, now I have another tool to add to the long list of game creation software that I’ve had my grubby mitts on, but this one seems quite special. I’ve been aware of Unity for a while, at least since the Windows version was announced, but I’ve always been too busy to try it. I didn’t want to waste my 30-day trial, knowing that I wouldn’t get a chance to really use it...
2 tags
Unity3D - Indie version now free! →
This changes everything.
1 tag
Theme
Fiddling with the theme, and trying to add a comment system. Might be some weirdness on the site, but that shouldn’t matter, since nobody’s reading it. Just talking to myself as usual.
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Construct v0.99.5 - 2D Game Creator →
I know I already posted this, and this version has been out for a couple of months already, but I want to be consistent here. This is the software I’m currently using for my own personal projects, and I’ll be documenting it further in this blog. Also, although this version is marked as ‘unstable’, it is still very usable.
1 tag
The Point
I just want to write a brief post about who I am and why I’m writing this blog. I realise I didn’t exactly get that across in my rather defeatist first post.
I am a teacher, a college ICT lecturer to be precise. Mostly, I teach media topics such as computer graphics and web design, but for the past year I’ve had the amazing opportunity to teach my real passion - game design....
Tools for Making Games
I’ve spent a great deal of time over the past few years investigating options for game making software, partly for myself and partly for use in by game design evening class. My criteria have always been the same: free to use; accessible to beginners; flexible enough for advanced uses.
These are some of the options I have experimented with:
GameMaker - the obvious first choice, much...
Here We Go Again
Not disciplined enough for a proper blog, not neurotic enough for twitter.
Not enough of an early adopter to have done set one of these up earlier.
Watch me fail at tumblr too.