LittleWaterPlanet /  by Allison James

Yay, I got into the LittleBigPlanet Water beta! I'm not allowed to discuss it with anybody though, so that's pretty much it on that subject, other than you can see a video of it here.

I've started a game... then hit a wall. There's an error which pretty much breaks the game's appearance. I've added a topic about it to the GMC, and am still searching for a solution myself, but no such luck as yet.

I'm going to the dentist later today for a checkup. At the moment, I have a git. He seems to be incompetent. Last time I went for a checkup, for example, he jammed a metal tool into my gum, then told me it was bleeding as if it was my fault. The last dentist I had was Polish, and first time I had her, she told me I needed a "feeling". Scared me for a bit.

Anyway, short blog today. :P G'bye!

999 /  by Allison James

Had to make a blog entry on the only day of the year where all three numbers are identical. 09/09/09. Might as well celebrate 'em while we can, this is the last year the resulting date has a nice ring to it (101010? Psh), and there will only be three other dates like it in our probable lifetimes... unless we somehow make it to the first of January, 2101.Anyway, anyone that's following me on Twitter probably heard about a new, hour-long game called PixHell. For those that didn't... I made an hour-long game called PixHell. It was the result of a bullet-hell impulse. It turned out to be a very difficult game, but only because I wanted to make it look pretty with its bullet patterns.You can play PixHell from Game Jolt and YoYo Games. Alternatively, if you like chatting and gaming simultaneously, you can play a miniature, embedded version of it on the SigmaNine chatroom (along with a miniature, 45-level version of Ne Touchez Pas!). I'll likely be making mini versions of other games for that chatroom - they're not much effort and pleasant to play.As far as making games is concerned, I've had quite a few people say they'd like to see a follow up to Dreaming On E, a game which I finished purely because I had nothing else to do, and ended up pretty popular. To be honest, I'm leaning that way myself - DOE was fun to make. This time, I'd, of course, put a lot more effort into it. If you have a look at the last few blog entries, you'll see other stuff I'd like to make. Comment if you have any preference as to which game you'd like to see next.Anyway, that concludes this blog entry. See you in the next one!~NAL

R.I.P. Fan /  by Allison James

The hottest summer in years, and my room fan has just decided to die on me. In other words, until I get a new one, I'm living in a microwave. Great.

The Game Jolt competition results were released yesterday. Neither It Only Takes A Second nor The Hilarity Of Murder placed, but I lost to three amazing games so there's no shame in that. I'm sure, come their third competition, I'll enter again, maybe that time without the added annoyance of Softwrap screwing up on me and losing me over half the making time.

I'm currently at a stage of game making I don't really like - bouncing between a number of concepts until I find something I want to continue working on. This takes a while - I'm very indecisive. Usually, as soon as I start working on something, one of the alternatives seems like a better idea. I have the ground engine of Rotatarama done so that might end up becoming my next active project. However, I'm still kind of wanting to remake or make a sequel to Elemence AuX. I still enjoy that game, and at the time (and for quite a few months after too) it was the best game I'd ever made. The only problem is that it aged badly - looking back, I see some of the design work I put into it and just think "why?!".

I just finished my third shift at the shop I work at (literally, about half an hour ago). I don't have to do another shift until next Monday, so for this week I hope to have something to work on properly.

Despite stiff competition from Sealegs, The Shins' song "Split Needles" remains Song of the Moment. I'm really into The Shins at the moment. Infact, while working, I actually listen to their three albums on repeat.

So, yeah. That is all. Goodbye!

~NAL

Unsureness /  by Allison James

...of what exactly to make now. It Only Takes A Second and The Hilarity of Murder are both now finished (and Game Jolt's competition deadline has passed - now to see if either of them place).Referring to an earlier blog entry, which mentioned three halted WIPs, the Aargon remake is unlikely to be completed any time soon, Rotatarama never got off the ground, and Innoquous World will be a steadily-made game I'm not going to work on yet.The idea I'm most tempted by is a Pro overhaul of The Hilarity of Murder, with its gimmick removed and online play installed. I'm fairly proud of the engine I managed to make for it, and would like to see it go to better use personally.In other news, I have a job! And it's voluntary! :P I do occasional/frequent (not yet sure) 2.5 hour shifts at the village shop. The village shop in question is tiny. So, yeah. Fun.Last thing: I've changed the Song of the Moment. :)Well, that's all. Frequency of blog entries will probably be slow now, but I aim to get at least one a week written.Byee!

I got Pro back! /  by Allison James

Incase you didn't see the tweet, I got Pro back. Two days ago I sent a helpdesk ticket to YoYo Games about it, saying I'd not had a reply from Softwrap. Not so long ago, I got a reply from the helpdesk saying they'd reactivated my account.You can complain about YYG all you want, but they can be damn helpful when they need to be. As a result of this, I'll be buying GM8 regardless of its price as thanks to the company. I'm so kind.It also means IOTAS is finally back on track. Maybe it'll accompany THoM as a Game Jolt competition entry? (well, I'd be silly not to try it)So yeah. Huzzah!~NAL

Speedy update /  by Allison James

Shortenable to "Speed date" maybe.I've not been blogging much since I'm working my nuts off to finish this Lite game for the Game Jolt Competition. That brings me to some points.

- I still don't have Pro

- Softwrap remain yet to reply to my email.

- The game is now called The Hilarity Of Murder.- It's named like that as it now has one of the ten GJ axioms into it.

- The axiom is "Laughter is the Best Medicine".

- In the game, you have an illness which's deadly effects are only stopped if you're finding things funny.

- You find murder funny.

- It's doing well.

I'll blog when it's done or I know I'll have some time free to post.On another note, I plan on finishing It Only Takes A Second after this game is made and I finally have Pro again.

Filler Entry /  by Allison James

Not blogged for a couple of days, so here's a filler blog entry.I'm still working on LTW since Softwrap are still yet to respond to my email. I made a GMC WIP topic about it here with the latest demo (though not hugely new - since then, I've completed work on the rocket launcher and grenades).When I used to blog on TwilightPhantasm and 64digits, I used to include a Song Of The Blog in every entry. This basically showed the song I was hooked at at the time of making it. Well, it's partially been brought back in the form of Song of the Moment. This is located in the sidebar to the right. Clicking the song name or artist will link to the song on YouTube.That's all. Later!~NAL

Sigh /  by Allison James

Still waiting for Softwrap. They only took a day last time I needed something from them - typical that they're taking longer when I really need Pro ASAP.

Oh well, guess I'd better update on Lite Town Wars.

It's going well. Since the last blog entry, I made several improvements, including one which changes the drawing engine to incorporate perspective. Notice in the last screenshot, the tops of the skyscrapers are identical in size to the bases. Now, they're not. I'd upload a screenshot of this, but it's hard to tell since I made the skyscrapers so damn high. Making the perspective was a fairly easily calculation though - it just works out the positions of two opposite top corners separately, instead of a single calculation for the centre of the top.

I've also done the HUD, and incorporated a system to do a few things I've not really attempted before - levelling up, max. health increases, multiple weapons (pistol, Uzi, rocket launcher, grenades), and limited clips of the pistol and Uzi (so, for example, you have to reload the pistol after 8 shots).

I won't bother with an updated demo yet - I'll wait until there's at least a little extra gameplay.

Well, that's all. See you in another blog entry!

~NAL

EDIT (6:49pm GMT)

Here's a screenshot of Lite Town Wars so far.

As usual, click it to see it in full.