I've been having a problem, getting motivated, staying focused and actually finishing my projects.
So for the year of 2012 I'm planning to pull my finger out and release a new game every 7 days.
I made a small video explaining what I plan to do.
http://youtu.be/lcAnFnLmM4Q
I really don't think this would be possible without the power of GLBasic and this forum.
Thank you everyone.
Go for it. Jayenkai (who runs SoCoder) has done the same thing (although not with GLB) and come up qith some absolute classic games - small, simple even, but perfectly formed. He admits that it's not been easy, but the results speak for themselves.
It might be worth chatting with him about some of the difficulties he faced and how he overcame them.
Anyway, the best of luck to you :)
BTW it is definitely possible to do at least one game a week - I released at least 12 apps this year (2011) commercially or freely, but have numerous others that are either R&D or ideas and finished articles for myself or completed but not released apps/games together with some ports to other formats of my older games/apps.
nice video, it can be done, go for it!
centuries ago there was this writer who would publish a tale per week, at the end of the year, he would compile the more famous ones into a book. Can´t remember his name, but he is famous for being one of the firts to do so.
as I recall, things were 2 days planning-pre production, 3 days writing, 2 days revising and voila!
Quote from: quangdx on 2011-Dec-31
I've been having a problem, getting motivated ... http://youtu.be/lcAnFnLmM4Q
Positively, I think there should be more encouragement for others to produce vlogs related to GLB development!
Subscribed and stuff. Good luck. :)
a game a week is quite a challenge. Be sure to post all of them to an app-market and cross link to them. Once you have 50 apps (1 year), you might easily get $50/day from them in average.
Runaway Santa now updated with online score saving and a few added options.
http://www.facebook.com/asobitech
Got my thinking hat on for this week's game, should be released on Sunday 8th.
Updated Vlog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwMtTP1LRag
hehe great!
The first game of 2012 is ready
Bed time now, but I'll try get a youtube vlog up soon.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=205606226197722&set=a.197709486987396.45076.121366111288401&type=3
That's a really nice game. Reminds me of FantaVision for PS2 =D
A great start :good:
+1 on that, well done! :good:
Glad you like the first game :D
Game number 2 is now ready for download. Have a go and enjoy,
Sue, She Sells Sushi
http://www.facebook.com/asobitech
Would be really helpful if people could test they can press all 6 in game keys, Z,X,C,J,K,L
so that it release all 6 pieces of sushi at the same time in the two player game.
If not please let me know what OS and what keyboard you're using.
Thanks.
If I was you I would make a Warioware type game at the end of it all. Have the option to select any of the games like in a Namco arcade type app but then have a Warioware mode where you play each game for like 10 seconds each to give an overall score. Would be pretty cool if could be made so that 10 seconds (or maybe more) was possible in each game.
Cheers
I had no problems activating all 6 keys at the same time on my laptop.
A clever little game, which unfortunately lost my interest all too quickly, due to its repetitive nature. Fun for a few minutes though. :)
Quote from: Crivens on 2012-Jan-16
If I was you I would make a Warioware type game at the end of it all. Have the option to select any of the games like in a Namco arcade type app but then have a Warioware mode where you play each game for like 10 seconds each to give an overall score. Would be pretty cool if could be made so that 10 seconds (or maybe more) was possible in each game.
Cheers
This idea has already crossed my mind,
I'm a big fan of the Warioware games.
Sue, she sells sushi, is my variation of a mini game in Bishi Bashi Champ,
and New Year Boom's inspiration is taken from Hypersports.
With 52 game ideas at the end of the year, I'll have lots of things to work with.
Quote from: Ian Price on 2012-Jan-16
I had no problems activating all 6 keys at the same time on my laptop.
A clever little game, which unfortunately lost my interest all too quickly, due to its repetitive nature. Fun for a few minutes though. :)
Cheers for the feedback Ian,
with only a week to make the games, they're all gonna be quick li'l fun diversions for people to play when the have a moment or two.
These games live and die by the hiscore.
The two player mode is fun, if you can find someone who's around the same skill level as you.
quangdx
Nice work, this is a big challenge!!!
Besides GLBasic what are the other programs you use to build your games?
To build graphics and sprites for instance.
Do you have a GLBasic game framework?
Even though it's been discussed several time, I like the idea of Warioware or even Lazy Jones like with a framework for a game a week.
Quote from: matchy on 2012-Feb-03
Even though it's been discussed several time, I like the idea of Warioware or even Lazy Jones like with a framework for a game a week.
I have some plans for this sort of thing at some point in the future.
Possibly for an iOS release.
Sunday 5th of February game is a fun zombie game,
Zombie Invasion
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=223224087769269&set=a.197709486987396.45076.121366111288401&type=1&ref=nf
Quote from: quangdx on 2012-Feb-08
Sunday 5th of February game is a fun zombie game,
Zombie Invasion
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=223224087769269&set=a.197709486987396.45076.121366111288401&type=1&ref=nf
Heh heh, superb! :D
Reminds of that burning building fireman game where you have to move the trampoline under residents that are jumping out escaping from the fire. But in reverse.
HaHa! That's pretty cool. Very unrelenting.
Nice one =D
Quote from: Nathan on 2012-Feb-09
Heh heh, superb! :D
Reminds of that burning building fireman game where you have to move the trampoline under residents that are jumping out escaping from the fire. But in reverse.
Cheers,
yeah there's many games that use this theme, when I was a small boy, use to have an LCD game and watch, where you was a ninja with sword, and had to bounce other ninjas out of your dojo.
And then there was a game on the Atari ST by Infrogrames called Bobo, which was a bunch of mini games,
one was bouncing prisoners out of the prison yard over the wall.
Quote from: Ian Price on 2012-Feb-09
HaHa! That's pretty cool. Very unrelenting.
Nice one =D
I'm getting reports that this one is just too hard.
This guy seems to be doing the same thing. Or used to do, not sure.
http://www.alexandershen.com/blog/tag/52-weeks-of-game-development
Quote from: quangdx on 2012-Feb-09
Quote from: Nathan on 2012-Feb-09
Heh heh, superb! :D
Reminds of that burning building fireman game where you have to move the trampoline under residents that are jumping out escaping from the fire. But in reverse.
Cheers,
yeah there's many games that use this theme, when I was a small boy, use to have an LCD game and watch, where you was a ninja with sword, and had to bounce other ninjas out of your dojo.
And then there was a game on the Atari ST by Infrogrames called Bobo, which was a bunch of mini games,
one was bouncing prisoners out of the prison yard over the wall.
I think the first version I played involved me typing the game into my BBC Model B from a magazine listing. Which was also a good version of basic.
(I think).
Firemen? Wasn't it called Bouncing babies?
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_s4yaF0W2Dis/TEOiDeU5QKI/AAAAAAAARIc/Eni0jFNaXss/s1600/bouncing-babies.png)
Cheers
Hah hah, those babies are superb. What platform is that on, looking at the tasteful colours I'm guessing it's DOS PC with CGA graphics card?
Yep. Played it last in about 1990. Once the 286s came out the game played like too fast. In those days timing code wasn't exactly used that much (even Elite played too fast). Almost definitely CGA, although I think we used simCGA on a green screen Hercules card. Sucked big style.
Best CGA game though was Sopwith 2. Almost feel like I should remake it with multi-player. Almost definitely been done though... Brilliant game to play after getting back to college from pub and you are a bit wasted :) Either that or Tetris...
Cheers
It seems there are both a freeware remake from '96 and a commercial one from '06.
http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/triplane-turmoil-series
:offtopic:
Quote from: Crivens on 2012-Feb-09
...Once the 286s came out the game played like too fast. In those days timing code wasn't exactly used that much (even Elite played too fast)...
I soo much wished stunt car racer would run faster on my powerfull a4000 :'(
Guess they harcoded it to run about a500 speed no matter what.
There are alternatives nowadays for that itch of mine, but nothing 100% perfect!
QuoteOnce the 286s came out the game played like too fast. In those days timing code wasn't exactly used that much (even Elite played too fast)...
Indeed. When I got my very first pc it came with 1 bunch of games - Elite was one of them. I so looked forward to playing it as I'd really enjoyed it on the CPC. Unfortunately it ran at a billion times the speed of other versions and was thusly unplayable. :(
Please vote for your favourite Asobitech 1UP game of January.
http://www.facebook.com/questions/225691784189166/?qa_ref=qd
This weeks game is two days late, but I got there in the end.
working with collision detection for a playfield that loops on itself has been hell.
Go on over to the facebook page and play Abduction.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=229255363832808&set=a.197709486987396.45076.121366111288401&type=1&theater
Quote from: erico on 2012-Feb-09
I soo much wished stunt car racer would run faster on my powerfull a4000 :'(
Guess they harcoded it to run about a500 speed no matter what.
There are alternatives nowadays for that itch of mine, but nothing 100% perfect!
At that time most Amiga and Atari games used the VBI to limit the speed to the update frequency of the monitor. This removed all problems with tearing and speed problems when you upgrade the computer. I have no idea why this is so hard to do on PC. Still you see games that does no VBL limit at all... It's even a feature to NOT limit to VBL.
This is also very background-process friendy since it leaves cycles unused between every screen refresh. Multitasking on a normal 8 MHz cpu :-)
problem with VBL limit is, that some monitors (espacially in the 1990s) were up to 120 Hz, where others are still 50 Hz.
With TFT displays it's either 50 or 60 now. But that's also bad. We played TEKKEN back then for PSone with an EU/JP version that was 50 Hz, then bought TEKKEN2 from an US source and got a 60 HZ game, which was really noticeably faster.
In the 80s, I ran my Amiga 500 on a direct output to RGB 15" video editing monitor (deep box) at 60hz and the crispness at least surprised local PAL 50hz composite video consumers. :P
Don't suppose anyone has had a chance to play Abduction yet?
all feedback would be helpful,
I think this game is the one I spent the most time on.
Abduction works real well. The funny audio was a great idea.
How anyone survives long beyond level 2 to get over twice my highscore amazes me.
It is a great game! Best so far!
Seems like a mix between choplifter and some atari 2600 game I can´t remember the name , ark something (you are an ufo abduction alien forms).
What I think needs improvement:
-UFO control needs to be less strong, either you are at the top or bottom. After a few plays, I can manage the control but I think you should have it more on the easy so not to scare new players
-GFX concerning sprites has borders, you have to try and get rid of them (or is it only here?).
-needs an artistic direction. your games will benefit from having a visual style, the way I see it, you currently have a mix of them, like vectors, drawing over pictures and pictures. It is just too much imho, and resembles fast done flash games (which is not the case).
-Sprite sizes could be more balanced, maybe some of them smaller to leave more play area.
Just my humble opinions, don´t take me wrong, doing a game this fast is a great thing to start with! congratulations again.
Sound and music are great too. As well as the overall package.
keep em coming!
ps :sorry to mention of topic things before...got carried away ;)
ps2: I will beat that top highscore, you wait and see! :rant:
edit: score could increase if you abduct from higher altitudes?
edit2: YEAH THE HIGHSCORE IS MIIIINE!!
edit3: while the program is checking internet stuff to upload highscore, my pc reports it not responding, then, things go back to normal.
Quote from: quangdx on 2012-Feb-16
Don't suppose anyone has had a chance to play Abduction yet?
all feedback would be helpful,
I think this game is the one I spent the most time on.
I'm sorry but it said "facebook" in the download-post and that was when I just blanked out. Don't have it, won't have it.
Quote from: Wampus on 2012-Feb-16
Abduction works real well. The funny audio was a great idea.
How anyone survives long beyond level 2 to get over twice my highscore amazes me.
Cheers for the feedback,
Since I've started the game a week project, a lot of my friends have wanted to get involved,
either music techs or artists.
I think my friend Robin has done an excellent job audio wise for this one.
As for getting past level 2, takes a while, but you learn a few tricks,
like hiding behind the other ship, or luring the tanks/choppers to a different part of the map.
Really appreciate the feedback erico,
the inspiration for this game is indeed Defender, just from the aliens perspective.
Had a quick look for the atari 2600 game you mention and I found this
Cosmic Ark - http://youtu.be/7SU0aTXlGVQ
I agree about the vertical movement of the spaceship, it could do with some fine tuning to give you better control.
Graphics were done by a friend in illustrator, and for some reason gives rogue white pixels, I didn't have time to go manually clean them all up.
And I know what you mean about it being a mish mash of art styles, but I quite like the mix of cartoon and photo, sort of a weird South Park thing.
The problem with the sprites being do big, came from after the background was laid down, everything had to be of relative scale to it. And by the time everything was put in, I then realised it didn't give you much room to maneuver, once again not enough time to rescale all the graphics. There was gonna be 3 enemy types, tanks, choppers and jets, but by the time I was adding the jets, there was just no space and it made it way too hard.
I love the fact that you kept playing to get the high score, means I've made a good game.
as for the program not responding when accessing the server, I'm not sure how I would fix that,
actually.... as I was typing this, I think if I add a SHOWSCREEN in the loop I use NETWEBGET, it should solve that.
The Online HiScore routine has been the same since the first one, I've not had time to go back over it and fix it up, yet.
Quote from: Moru on 2012-Feb-17
Quote from: quangdx on 2012-Feb-16
Don't suppose anyone has had a chance to play Abduction yet?
all feedback would be helpful,
I think this game is the one I spent the most time on.
I'm sorry but it said "facebook" in the download-post and that was when I just blanked out. Don't have it, won't have it.
I completely understand your aversion to Facebook Moru,
I originally wanted to do a proper website and video logs,
but all these have been put aside, as my time is spent with work and making the games themselves.
Facebook was just an easy way to distribute the games and get comments.
I've made the Facebook page fully open, so you don't have to join facebook to access it.
As soon as I get some time off, I'll make a proper website.
You should not blame things on time, a game a week´ is certainly going to be a time fight.
This all is a great experience, I see a lot of improvements from the very first.
My daily work is time based and I get either 1/2-1/4 of the required time to do it or the whole thing is already due 5 days ago.
I take this (and the fact the I too, have inspiring problems finishing a game properly) as the point that attracts me to your project.
When exporting your gfx from the likes of corel or illustrator to a png, for example, people usually select the object and hit export. I take that is what causes the border lines, as it also does when exporting to after effects for example. So, try selecting a few extra pixels around or make an invisible box around it.
You should always use an image processing program, like gimp, to set things up at the end, specially alpha related issues.
I still see some strange antialiase on the gfx too.
About the facebook issue, it´s hard to please everyone, I, for example, have great disgust in using image shack, and for such, could not display images on some other forum. Tried to upload full psd images for everyone to use by sendspace, and people got pissed too. I take
there will always be problems when using no-direct-money-charging services. You could have a page up, but there may arise some problems too. If you already have a domain and server, why not try a very simple single minimalist page with your logo, short description of the project(like on the head of this thread) and the links with game name and date. In case that is not possible, maybe use a couple different services other then facebook, like sendspace or yousendit or the millions available(maybe polling people on a solution?).
I see you primary objective is to develop the game a week, but you should give some thoughts on the distribution.
You do know you can just upload them on the showroom here on glbasic.com? Ofcourse you don't have as much control over them as if you run your own server but you certainly have more control than on facebook...
Quote from: Moru on 2012-Feb-17
You do know you can just upload them on the showroom here on glbasic.com? Ofcourse you don't have as much control over them as if you run your own server but you certainly have more control than on facebook...
:D
yep I do know, and i have been doing so. every single one has been uploaded to the showroom,
by the looks of things, I'm the only one uploading stuff to it this year.
Shame there's no comments system.
Gernot, is that something that could be added?
Especially for you Moru,
I've made some web pages for Asobitech 1UP game series.
http://www.asobitech.com/a1up/index.html
Great, thanks a lot! Now I could download it just fine.
The game looks very hard but the helicopters tend to cluster together when you hide in the ship. First two rounds I barely could catch even one person because those tanks aim so well. But when I only look at the radar I can go much faster and then they won't hit me as easily.
I got a hiscore but seems I lost connection to the internet just when I was typing in the name. It just locked up for a few seconds and hiscore did not change. Mabe the update should try again if it fails?
Great gameidea and thanks for putting it up on your homepage so I could get to it :-)
Quote from: Moru on 2012-Feb-19
Great, thanks a lot! Now I could download it just fine.
The game looks very hard but the helicopters tend to cluster together when you hide in the ship. First two rounds I barely could catch even one person because those tanks aim so well. But when I only look at the radar I can go much faster and then they won't hit me as easily.
I got a hiscore but seems I lost connection to the internet just when I was typing in the name. It just locked up for a few seconds and hiscore did not change. Mabe the update should try again if it fails?
Great gameidea and thanks for putting it up on your homepage so I could get to it :-)
Thank you helping me get the motivation to finally write the HTML for the web pages.
I see you found the unfortunately exploit with the enemies grouping together.
I should have put a random factor, where they scatter every now and then.
The online score stuff, was put together in about a day for the first game, and I've never had time to fine tune it and fix it.
I actually had to learn enough MySQL and PHP to make it work. I'm 100% sure there are many better ways of doing it.
I think I'm gonna do a v1.1 update for Abduction and the other games when I get some time.
Very good job with learning PHP and SQL in that time too, no wonder the game was a day late :-)
There is already at least three different free online highscore solutions for GLBasic. The one that comes along with the samples of GLBasic uses the GLBasic server, just ask Gernot for a key. I have a server version you put on your own homepage using MySQL and PHP (see my homepage if it's still working...). Also does some simple cheating protection. I'm sure I saw a third one too on the forums a while ago.
Quote from: erico on 2012-Feb-17
You should not blame things on time, a game a week´ is certainly going to be a time fight.
quangdx, helpfully speaking, everyone has time management issues. Excuses won't build a road to your goal.
Quote from: matchy on 2012-Feb-19
Quote from: erico on 2012-Feb-17
You should not blame things on time, a game a week´ is certainly going to be a time fight.
quangdx, helpfully speaking, everyone has time management issues. Excuses won't build a road to your goal.
Thank you Matchy,
this is exactly why I'm doing one a week, so it forces me to finish a game, rather than leave it going for too long.
The excuses I'm making, are why 80% or so of games are rubbish, they didn't have enough time.
Not enough time to test it, not enough time to fine tune things, not enough time to add extra features.
the games will be done in a week, and they'll the best i can make them in that week,
which may sometimes mean rubbish graphics, bugs in gameplay.
p.s. I'm gonna try and get a VLOG or two done real soon for you.
Quote from: quangdx on 2012-Feb-19
The excuses I'm making, are why 80% or so of games are rubbish, they didn't have enough time.
Not enough time to test it, not enough time to fine tune things, not enough time to add extra features.
They are not rubish, they are an outstanding feat for the ´1 week´ proposal.
Not every player will catch that, but those who do games will.
That is why I say never blame on time.
Some of my movies get some bad reviews, I don´t care, they were done in short time and very little money, that is what make them special for me and others that knows about it, but I won´t blame time nor money.
I have some friends that started 3d some 5 years ago, they come up with outstanding images, but then again, such image done on free time on a lot of money and taking 6 months? No industry will accept you , can you do the same in 4 days? for quite cheap maybe? no? it is the difference between know industry and hobby.
See the process and result is above the difficulties on pulling out something. I hope you see good on my words, it´s my intent.
Quote from: erico on 2012-Feb-19
They are not rubish, they are an outstanding feat for the ´1 week´ proposal.
Not every player will catch that, but those who do games will.
That is why I say never blame on time.
you miss understand me, I wasn't talking about my games,
I was talking about all games in general,
made by large software houses as well as small. tight deadlines kill games.
ops, now I understand, got that wrong.
But you have a great feat going on there!
With helping my girlfriend move home and being ill.
This weeks game is two days late.
Please download Typop and give me your feedback.
Many thanks.
http://asobitech.com/a1up/
Quote from: quangdx on 2012-Feb-22
With helping my girlfriend move home and being ill.
Thanks for that informative update. :S
Quote from: matchy on 2012-Feb-22
Quote from: quangdx on 2012-Feb-22
With helping my girlfriend move home and being ill.
Thanks for that informative update. :S
Bwahahaha! okay, I get the point.
You're not interested on my goings on. Just the product.
=D
oh my, some people got a couple extra zeros over my high score on abduction :'(
Quote from: erico on 2012-Feb-26
oh my, some people got a couple extra zeros over my high score on abduction :'(
People have worked out, if you hide behind the mothership and wait,
all the enemies will group together, and you end up just having to avoid one tank and one helicopter.
I need to release a bug fix version, where the enemies will scatter every now and then, like the ghosts in pacman.
Game number 8 is finally here.
Go download and play Lightrider, possibly the best game so far?
(http://qdx.me.uk/a1up/A1UP08_Lightrider.png)
http://www.asobitech.com
Nice complementary colours. :good:
site looks great! will check the game soon.
Quote from: quangdx on 2012-Mar-01
Game number 8 is finally here.
Go download and play Lightrider, possibly the best game so far?
Nicely done. Looks great. Abduction has been the best so far imo but I enjoyed this a lot.
Boom!!! Just when I thought it was never gonna happen,
Game number 9 is finally here.
Penguins Are Mean
http://www.asobitech.com/
http://www.facebook.com/asobitech
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/428579_243483649076646_121366111288401_515678_1081972600_n.jpg)
Excellent job this week. Liked this one a lot. The sound design is a +1 too. Made me laugh.
Sad times,
I've changed webhost, now the hiscore code for games 7 and below no longer works,
and it just causes the game to crash, because the hiscore file is never created, due to incorrect MySQL settings.
Ah well, will have to go back and fix all 7 games, plus runaway santa.
But will give me to apply any bug fixes that are over due.
8 days late, but finally here. Game number 10.
Blackbelt T.D.
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/306580_249759405115737_121366111288401_531055_1258172606_n.jpg)
needs Chuck Norris XD
I was able to get Tom Dawkins' (UK wrestler) permission to use his face.
Don't think I would get Chuck Norris. But that would get me some serious exposure.
I like that pacman clone of yours. Sound effects are high class. The fighting game is lovely trashy.
One thing that came to my mind playing your games:
The worst thing in keyboard layout for a game is using the z or y (at least for the german forum members). They are switched in Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slowakia, Bosnia & Herzegovia, Croatian, Serbia ,Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. It is damn hard to use the key more right if you want to go left :rant:
I always wanted to find out which keys are best.
.......I know I could switch keyboardlayouts in seconds :nana:
Quote from: monono on 2012-Mar-20
I like that pacman clone of yours. Sound effects are high class. The fighting game is lovely trashy.
One thing that came to my mind playing your games:
The worst thing in keyboard layout for a game is using the z or y (at least for the german forum members). They are switched in Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slowakia, Bosnia & Herzegovia, Croatian, Serbia ,Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. It is damn hard to use the key more right if you want to go left :rant:
I always wanted to find out which keys are best.
.......I know I could switch keyboardlayouts in seconds :nana:
thanks for the feedback. You make a very good point regarding the keyboard layout.
No idea if GLBasic reads the key position, or the letter.
Can someone with a non-standard QWERTY layout keyboard tell me if key(20) and key(21) respond to the two middle keys on the keyboard?
If you ask the computer for the scancode of a key, you should (almost) always get the physical position of the key. Not all keyboards are physicly identical though so some keys are strange. But all letter-buttons should be the same even if it's french, german or english. Or Dworak for that matter.
How about a simple "Define Keys" option?. If you made the function flexible enough you could just include or paste it into future games that require it.
TBH nearly every game I play I end up changing the controls or some of them because a muscle problem in my hands certain keyboard control layouts can cause my hands to cramp up. Take the cursor keys, while up/down & left/right are fine for me as separate controls having to use all 4 like in Doom 2 for example gives me pain after a short while. Whereas Q/A for up/down & O/P for left/right gives me no problems at all.
Must be that I am just odd :D
Lee
Quote from: fuzzy70 on 2012-Mar-22
How about a simple "Define Keys" option?. If you made the function flexible enough you could just include or paste it into future games that require it.
A redefine key option would be a good idea. just gotta get around to coding one.
Game number 11 (only 41 left to go)
Oldskool space shooter.
(http://asobitech.com/a1up/a1up11.png)
http://asobitech.com/a1up/a1up11.html (http://asobitech.com/a1up/a1up11.html)