fter some very constructive feedback from a few players (Rich D and Mark G especially), I have posted the final version of Jack's Beach Blitz (save some minor bug fixes). It now has 20 levels (I added 5) and I have modified the player start procedure as well as the transporting procedures. When the player starts, there is a new indicator that tells the player exactly where he/she will start blasting. When the player hits a transporter, there is now an indicator as to where he/she will be transported. Also, the enemy freeze for 4 seconds when the player transports to help ease the transport transition for the player.
Also, I changed some of the levels to make them slightly easier, but also have made the number of enemy kills needed to upgrade the bonus multiplier much higher on later levels. All in all, it makes for a richer experience.
fter making some last minute story and graphics changes, I have finally finished release candidate #2 for my latest game, Jack's Beach Blitz. It started out as a simple re-skin of Pumpkin Man for Halloween, but eventually turned into a completely different game, roughly based on the same game engine. The main character was Special Agent Jackson Orange on vacation. He still is the main character, but now disguised as a beach ball. The beach ball was chosen because it looks less like a pumpkin (and more beachy) and I was trying to keep those two games separate. Plus, it allowed me to modify the color scheme of the game somewhat. The collision detection has been modified from rc1 to make enemy hits to the player not as strict, but make player missiles hits to the enemy easier...
his type of thing happens as you get older. Jack's Beach Blitz was launched yesterday (last night), but unfortunately needs to be brought down for maintenance. The current version on GameJacket will not work. This is not a technical issue, it is an editorial issue.
I have finally put the finishing touches (at least for tonight) on my latest game, Jack's Beach Blitz. It started out as a simple re-skin of Pumpkin Man for Halloween, but eventually turned into a completely different game, roughly based on the same game engine. Up until yesterday, the main character was still Percy Pumpkin, but after discussing the possibilities of distribution with the Game jacket folks, I decided to change the story behind the game and the main character. With Mari's help, I was able to swap the main character out from a Pumpkin to an Orange in one day. While Pumpkin Man was a Pac Man based action puzzle game, Jack's Beach Blitz is a Gauntlet mixed with Wizard of Wor hybrid.
I have been working all weekend long to put the finishing touches on Jacks' Beach Blitz. I failed to hit my deadline of having all 15 levels complete by today, but I have put a 99% complete 5 level preview on both Flash Game License and on GameJacket, hoping for the cash up front ad sponsorship. If none of those work out, I will be more than happy to just put it up with Mochi or GameJacket ads and promote it myself. The point was to make a game that I wanted to play in a short amount of time, but have it contain at least a measure of quality. Of course it isn't going to win any awards for super visual effects, and it aint (sic) going to win over too many of the blammo kiddies. But when you have so little time to actually sit down and do what you love (make games) rather than what you have to do (pay the bills), the nuances of success are much brighter with ever smaller triumphs.
Here is the description I just came up with for the game. It describes the major functionality and most of the features. I only have 5 levels complete so far, and there is a picture of each of the first 4 after the description. A lot of the tiles animate, but they will not do so in the static pictures below...
Note: I have been working on a game the last few weeks in my spare time to try and hit the Halloween holiday (sic - I know it really is';t a holiday per se, as we have to work that day, but what the hell). That means I need to be complete with it by this Sunday to have any chance it making a splash before the 31st. I started working with an existing engine to save time. Because of this, I have had to make many concessions in game play because of time and engine limitations. The basic premise: You are Jack, the Jack-O-Lantern and you are on vacation. Your nemesis, the evil Gordon Gruesome keeps kidnapping your girlfriend and on each level you will need to rescue her. The original engine was a Pac Man variant, but I wanted this one to be an arcade shooter in the Wizard of Wor or Gauntlet realm. I am now just about 90% complete. Given that the only similarity between Pac Man and Wizard of Wor is the maze, I this has been quite a struggle. The good thing about using the existing engine is that is is a solid base that has features such as animated tiles, triggers, power-ups, and other customizable game code that other-wise would have had to be completely re-done. The down-side is finding all of the newbie AS3 bugs I put in when I originally wrote this engine and replacing them new bugs that I will complain about next time I try to re-use the engine.
Here is a list of the items I have on my to do list. I have made some good progress since the last time, but I have a ways to go yet...
I have changed the name of my game from Pumpkin Man Beach Blitz to Jack's beach blitz. Although the original name of the character in Pumpkin Man was Percy, I think Jack (for Jack-O-Lantern) is a better fit and much more catchy. I have been working very hard this week in my limited spare to get the original to do list taken care of and add in more items as they come up.
1. Gun upgrade path and messaging
I created a new sprite sheet and 10 levels of gun upgrades, but I need to go back and re-color the missiles as yellow on a sandy beach looks like crap (what was I thinking?). (50% complete)...
For the last week I have been working on a new game with the working title Pumpkin Man Beach Blitz. It is going to be a cross between Gauntlet and Wizard of Wor using the basics of an engine I created this time last year for the original game called Pumpkin Man. As of my last update on this conversion I had begun the slow task of changing the main character's movement and collision detection, as well as adjusting the game world rules to allow shooting of the enemy and not eating them. I left with a 15 part to do list. With roughly 7 days left to finish the game, I am way behind, but trudging along as best I can...
Last weekend (not two days ago, but 8 days ago), we decided it would be a good idea to make a second version of Pumpkin Man for Halloween. It started off as quick re-skin with the hero negotiating a beach setting to rescue his girl from the clutches of evil. After sitting down with Mari and Steve for a GAMESTORM, I decided that while it would be EASY to just do a re-skin, I was sick of the Pac Man style control and confinements of the Pumpkin Man engine. One game play element that I had left out of the original was the ability for the hero to pick up a weapon and shoot his way out of trouble. So, with that in mind, instead of the relatively simple re-skin they wanted, I set about to make more changes to my game engine than were necessary to transform Rugby into American Football...
fter some very constructive feedback from a few players (Rich D and Mark G especially), I have posted the final version of Jack's Beach Blitz (save some minor bug fixes). It now has 20 levels (I added 5) and I have modified the player start procedure as well as the transporting procedures. When the player starts, there is a new indicator that tells the player exactly where he/she will start blasting. When the player hits a transporter, there is now an indicator as to where he/she will be transported. Also, the enemy freeze for 4 seconds when the player transports to help ease the transport transition for the player.
his type of thing happens as you get older. Jack's Beach Blitz was launched yesterday (last night), but unfortunately needs to be brought down for maintenance. The current version on GameJacket will not work. This is not a technical issue, it is an editorial issue.
ew 8bitrocket Game Goes Live: Jack's Beach Blitz
aking Games: Jack's Beach Blitz Pre-Mortem