Platform Hack is out on XBox Live!
Check it out now!
Free Trail
$1 for the Full Game
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Cover Art!
The cover art for Platform Hack is complete and it looks great!
Thanks to Mike D and Ena M for the great work!
Thanks to Mike D and Ena M for the great work!
In other (related) news, there have been some holdups with the playtest. Some of the new features I built (namely the Dragon Breath) run much too slowly on the XBox. So its back to the drawing board to increase the optimization.
It's a pretty busy month for me with other things going on, but I still hope to get the playtest out soon!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Powers Preview
Power-Ups are coming together! The powers are selected when a player gains a new level, and are split into three "trees" - Attack, Defend, Explore. Here's the menu to select the powers:
Attack will contain upgrades to the sword and gun, as well as a new attack called "Power Beam". This shoots out a beam of pure power in a short player-directed burst.
Defend contains upgrades to health (double health, quad health), as well as a spherical Shield that will protect the player from attacks. At higher levels, the shield will even do damage to enemies in range!
The Explore tree contains all the jump upgrades (double, triple, wall), the grappling hook and a new ability, called "Power Jump". This is basically a jet pack, that lets the player "fly" anywhere in the map for short bursts.
All powers are limited by a "mana" meter that will slowly refill over time. Stronger powers (Power Jump, Power Beam), will drain the mana meter faster, so watch out.
I'm thinking the powers will be a lot of fun, an the three different trees will give players different ways to play the game. Of course, by the end game you'll have all the powers. One of the keys will be tuning the enemies and maps so the game is still a challenge with the full arsenal!
Still some more backend coding to wrap up, one last boss fight, then putting it all together. Hoping to have a playtest available for both PC and XBox AppHub first week of September!
Attack will contain upgrades to the sword and gun, as well as a new attack called "Power Beam". This shoots out a beam of pure power in a short player-directed burst.
Defend contains upgrades to health (double health, quad health), as well as a spherical Shield that will protect the player from attacks. At higher levels, the shield will even do damage to enemies in range!
The Explore tree contains all the jump upgrades (double, triple, wall), the grappling hook and a new ability, called "Power Jump". This is basically a jet pack, that lets the player "fly" anywhere in the map for short bursts.
All powers are limited by a "mana" meter that will slowly refill over time. Stronger powers (Power Jump, Power Beam), will drain the mana meter faster, so watch out.
I'm thinking the powers will be a lot of fun, an the three different trees will give players different ways to play the game. Of course, by the end game you'll have all the powers. One of the keys will be tuning the enemies and maps so the game is still a challenge with the full arsenal!
Still some more backend coding to wrap up, one last boss fight, then putting it all together. Hoping to have a playtest available for both PC and XBox AppHub first week of September!
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Script and Maps and Such
Added two new features.
1. Scripting window. This is for conveying story to the player. When the player runs over a trigger, it pops up a "dialog" window that can be read (press A) or bypassed (press B). Poor man's cut-scene!
The game is coming together quickly. One more boss and the level-up / power system.
Then its on to fleshing out all the levels and polishing till it shines!
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Boss Fights Delivered
End result of a day of programming, two new boss fights!
The mummy boss chases after the player and melees them on the ground. If the player is off the ground, the mummy will cast a spell which will launch the player into the air.
The dragon boss emerges from a random side of the screen and breathes fire. Afterwards, he's vulnerable for a short time. In between attacks, fire blocks fall from the ceiling to crush the player.
Lots of fun programming behind these guys, mostly abstracting all the code written for the spider boss, and cleaning up code for "beams" - which are basically a list of vectors that can be used for collision or "drawing" lines with particle effects.
Next steps - a world map, and some scripting for dialog/story!
The mummy boss chases after the player and melees them on the ground. If the player is off the ground, the mummy will cast a spell which will launch the player into the air.
The dragon boss emerges from a random side of the screen and breathes fire. Afterwards, he's vulnerable for a short time. In between attacks, fire blocks fall from the ceiling to crush the player.
Lots of fun programming behind these guys, mostly abstracting all the code written for the spider boss, and cleaning up code for "beams" - which are basically a list of vectors that can be used for collision or "drawing" lines with particle effects.
Next steps - a world map, and some scripting for dialog/story!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)