So last week I ran into one of the biggest hurdles I've had to deal with so far while developing Sword 'N' Board. One that was a bit heartbreaking at the time - I'm over it now - and also a hurdle that has now caused a great amount of excitement.
When I set out to do this game, it was really about getting something put together to really have on my portfolio and to show people so I can get out of the job I'm in - albeit a good job, but still and get to doing some real design work.
However, I'm also making this game because it's really a game that I would love to be able to play! And because of that, I want other people to enjoy it along with me. I want to take them on a fun little adventure, and just escape for a little while. Given the fact that the game will be largely a parody of the Legend of Zelda, and other adventure/RPG games I really didn't have to heart to make people pay for a game like that, and so I decided to just let people be able to access the game for free, and they could play online from their browser. Sounds great right?!
I was using a engine called GameSalad, it's largely a "drag and drop" engine, though there's a little bit of special "coding" you would still have to do here and there. Since I'm no programmer, and I'm trying to put this game together, it sounded like a perfect solution!
After about 2 weeks of learning the engine, the User Interface and the "programming" - whenever I say I'm programming the game I always use finger quotes, I can't help it - I had a working interface for the game, character movement was solid and I had some basic enemy AI working, things were really going well!
However, that all changed when I decided to publish it. I was trying to publish it to HTML 5, that way I can add it to a web page, and then anyone with the address to the game could access it and play it for free! However, one limitation with GameSalad is that it will only publish in HTML 5 to their special "arcade" and that it will only publish in a size of 480x320. Entirely too small for my game. 2 Weeks of work was lost.
So, I went looking for a new game engine and came across 2, that I really like. Game Maker Studio, and Construct 2. When I first started using Construct 2, I found it was easy to learn, so much so that I managed to program in about 5 hours what took me that 2 weeks in GameSalad. What I thought was going to push me back a few weeks for production, may actually end up saving me some time! Which is absolutely exciting. I guess some things happen for a reason.
Also, a friend of mine who I went to school with at IADT, who happens to me a talented audio guy, and musician has signed on to do the main them for the game, as well as a Dungeon theme!
He asked me to give him a deadline, so I gave him the next 2 weeks to get them done. So once I have something from him, I'll probably upload it so everyone can check it out!
For now, I just have to keep on keepin' on.
When I set out to do this game, it was really about getting something put together to really have on my portfolio and to show people so I can get out of the job I'm in - albeit a good job, but still and get to doing some real design work.
However, I'm also making this game because it's really a game that I would love to be able to play! And because of that, I want other people to enjoy it along with me. I want to take them on a fun little adventure, and just escape for a little while. Given the fact that the game will be largely a parody of the Legend of Zelda, and other adventure/RPG games I really didn't have to heart to make people pay for a game like that, and so I decided to just let people be able to access the game for free, and they could play online from their browser. Sounds great right?!
I was using a engine called GameSalad, it's largely a "drag and drop" engine, though there's a little bit of special "coding" you would still have to do here and there. Since I'm no programmer, and I'm trying to put this game together, it sounded like a perfect solution!
After about 2 weeks of learning the engine, the User Interface and the "programming" - whenever I say I'm programming the game I always use finger quotes, I can't help it - I had a working interface for the game, character movement was solid and I had some basic enemy AI working, things were really going well!
However, that all changed when I decided to publish it. I was trying to publish it to HTML 5, that way I can add it to a web page, and then anyone with the address to the game could access it and play it for free! However, one limitation with GameSalad is that it will only publish in HTML 5 to their special "arcade" and that it will only publish in a size of 480x320. Entirely too small for my game. 2 Weeks of work was lost.
So, I went looking for a new game engine and came across 2, that I really like. Game Maker Studio, and Construct 2. When I first started using Construct 2, I found it was easy to learn, so much so that I managed to program in about 5 hours what took me that 2 weeks in GameSalad. What I thought was going to push me back a few weeks for production, may actually end up saving me some time! Which is absolutely exciting. I guess some things happen for a reason.
Also, a friend of mine who I went to school with at IADT, who happens to me a talented audio guy, and musician has signed on to do the main them for the game, as well as a Dungeon theme!
He asked me to give him a deadline, so I gave him the next 2 weeks to get them done. So once I have something from him, I'll probably upload it so everyone can check it out!
For now, I just have to keep on keepin' on.
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