I've been working on a new type of enemy, won't be around much in Part 1 but will play a big role in parts 2 & 3, well at least they will as the plan stands now. These enemies aren't so much enemies as one enemy. I'm not gonna say too much more at the moment, but simply put, these enemies mechanics will tie closely into the larger story going on. Well, again, this is all as the plan stands now, but I also really like my plan, so I'm thinking it'll stick.

Wyatt White
a thing, made of smaller things

I have a problem. I feel like I need to say something about it. I need to tell the world. I can't stop making stuff. I have a compulsive need to make stuff. Programming, drawing, writing, visual effects, I just can't stop. If I do, it doesn't take long for me to go from always moving, always working, to dead lump in my chair who can't do anything but watch youtube videos.

I say this to put how I want to make games into context. I started making games because games are cool and it was cool to be able to make them, but over the few years I've been doing this, my relationship with development has changed alot. Maybe for the worse. 

I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about Doomer and how I work, and I've realized some things. Over time I've kept developing because it's the perfect mix of expression, creation, and anonymity. 

The exact control over what is drawn on screen allows me to express what I think needs to be shown. I the exact control over how everything moves, everything sounds, and in the end how everything is. That special point of games has been something that keeps me coming back, even if I'm not always great at utilizing individual parts(my pixel art ranges from offensive to atrocious to just not very good) the exact control over it gives an ego maniac like me just what we want(to be god.)

With a film you're constrained by what and who you have around you. One guy with a computer can bring you into a whole new world with a game, but doing the same thing with a movie takes alot more people. Trying to do it with a book is just less reliable. It's hard to get every person to draw the same pictures in their head, unless you go into such detail that it's boring to read, at which point. . . well it's boring. Point being, games are a great middle ground. 

All that brings me to my final point, the anonymity. When someone sees a game, and it sucks, most people don't think about who the developer is. Most normal people didn't play something like Kindergarten Killer or DukeNukem: Forever and think "Wow I hate the developer." Instead I feel like most people hate the game/series primarily, and the developer hate is reserved for us culture snobs on the internet. With books, the authors name is slapped right under the title most of the time, same goes for actors (also directors occasionally) in movies. The only time game developers have their names up there are in hella auteur cases (Suda51, Kojima, Tim Schafer, ect.).

In the end, I'm not sure how much all of this is worth. Some little developer in his little corner of the internet, trying to be deep and analytical about his little trash game. I guess that's the logical endpoint. If the game isn't good, isn't at least passable, then this really won't mean anything.

I hope my rambling made sense, or at least made for interesting nonsense. This one was really text heavy, so I guess it'd be good to link to something for the giggles. A friend recently inspired me to rediscover this clip.

Thanks,

Wyatt White
All bravado, No brains.

So! been a good week-ish of work. As always, every week the game becomes more stable, less bullets phasing through stuff, less enemies spinning out of control or walking through windows out into space. That stuff's always good, but doesn't really change the design much. This addition does.

One of the bigger gripes I have with top down shooters is the HUD, specifically Health and armor.  In an FPS, having the vitals on the edge is ok, right? can't be in the way, but has to be visible. Putting it on the side of the screen works, espectially since the player only has to track the reticule and enemy at most times. I find this isn't as simple in a top down shooter. In a top down shooter, the player has to track the reticule, the enemy, and themselves. In a top down shooter, having the vitals off in the corner makes it difficult to track the damage a player is recieving while in a shootout, at least without parking behind some cover or losing focus to look at their health. This, at least in my case, can easily lead to far more unexpected deaths. That's frustrating. 

I don't think it's a perfect solution, but I do like it, for the time being.

When the player picks up armor, a small sprite is overlaid (it's a little big right now, will be re-sizing at some point) denoting the rough amount of armor the player is now equipped with. The health works similarly, changing the color of the player's jumpsuit to reflect the amount of health the player has left.

It's a little inexact at the moment, each has only 3 states. It boils down to "You're good", "Be worried", and "Get a pickup". Assuming the feature stays around, I'd like to add alot more granularity to it, but for now this is this. 

The other little thing I'd added this last week is new blood effects, not new sprites, just new things that can be done with blood. It now spurts and splatters, instead of just dropping to the floor every time. It's a little change, but I think it's nice.

Ok, so that's my thing for the day. There are some other changes that have been made, but none that were as interesting to me. 

The title is a MeeeMMM

Wyatt White
Now with all original art!

After a day of derailed development due to some good drama, we're back on track. Got a nice little checklist of junk to work on before my weekly prototype release on Sunday. Biggest changes are going to be in the HUD. I'm making changes to the fonts and colors, as well as adding some new elements, like backing panels to make the HUD a little more usable.

I'll be sharing some good shots of that this weekend, for now, all I can show is this weekend's list. 

Stay tuned for updates,

Wyatt White
Passive Aggression personified

Wrote a nice long post about what happened today with the former art half of CakeNeq Games. Due to me being stupid, I lost it. So I'm gonna summarize.

She pulled some bullshit. Wants her art all taken off of anything under CakeNeq, so Monotaur is coming down. TeleDodge, however, will stay up, because it's all me. 

In the end. Some really petty bullshit has been pulled. I'm not one to throw stones, I'm a vengeful ass, but don't let it affect the content like this, though I have no issue with it inspiring new content, observe.

I'd also like to take a quick moment to apologize for the overly vulgar nature of my post today. I'm sorry ya'll had to see that. 

I mean, obviously not enough that I don't post it. You get it. Right?

Wyatt White
Inventory: +3 Candle of Relaxation, Laptop, 8 Gold.

I've reached out to more people in this last week's Doomer prototype release and, in doing so, realized some things about feedback. I'd like to posit what I've realized, see if you agree or not. 

When listening to feedback, forget every issue you know in your game.

I don't know if that's all common knowledge or not, but no one told me and really this is my blog so I can blab about it either way. I really hate feedback, as I've moaned about earlier on this very blog but this isn't really for the same reason. I guess I should explain a bit. 

I've had issues since Kinigits with taking feedback, because I always feel like I already know what people are gonna say. I know that the audio is out of wack, and yea that HUD font is pretty wack. It's all placeholder. Yea, those Doom sound effects need to go. It's placeholder. 

I now realize that that's my issue. It's frustrating to hear all the things I need to fix when you think you already know all the things to get fixed. All that extra criticism just frustrates you and makes you want to hide your baby, just keep it under wraps. Not only can people not judge you for something you don't show them, but they can't tell you what needs to be better, but that's the wrong attitude.

I've realized I need to forget all this. When I present the game, or email it out, I need to forget my baggage from 30+ hours of staring at all the issues from the last week. I need to stop, and just listen. Listen to what people like, what they don't. What doesn't make sense. 

In the end. I'm gonna keep making Doomer even if people don't like it, it's a game that I want to make. Though, honestly, I hope people do like it, because it's not going to be very pretty . . . or sound very good if I'm drawing and scoring it. 

Anyway. I think I kept this PG enough to put onto Facebook, and I guess it'll actually be my first post on the new Facebook Page! 

Thanks for reading,
Wyatt White
Sometimes makes game code

Wanted to make this the first of the embedded Instagram posts. I'm gonna be posting relevant instagram posts here, because. . . you know, like regular content and stuff. 

Wyatt White
Man who is Meaking Gaems.

Just a quick update!! Decided that, due to being busy with work the last few days, I'd put an old prototype up on the site. 

So, now Pirates is available to download, buzz on over to Prototypes and check it out. For me, it's a benchmark for how far I've come in the two-ish years. It's a broken game, but it's. . . .well, it's really broken. 

That's all for now, hopefully we'll have something a little more substantial Monday or Tuesday.

Wyatt White
Makin' Pancakes, bacon pancakes.

So I've been working this weekend on filling out the features of Doomer a little more. The biggest thing I've been working on is blowing out windows. The main thrust of this mechanic is aimed to be a clever way to clear out  a room of hostiles. I've had some issues getting it to work how I'd like. It sucks you out of the station fine, but once out, it tends to toss the player about, as multiple instances of the code fight to assign you a new direction. Needless to say it still needs work. 

SO! I've spent the weekend working on that, as well as adding in some new weapons, and a new enemy or two. This update's GIF is a quick look at some of the odd effects that the infinite vacuum of space appear to have on corpses of fallen Shot-Gunners. ​

Wyatt White
The Pumpkin Spiced Man