This is the first ever finished game to be written entirely in HAL, the editor / scripting language I’ve been working on for six years. The project really helped me see what I need to do to improve the language and tool, so for that it’s been invaluable. I’m reasonably happy with how quicky I could get new content in with it.

I entered it into the 48 hour game compo, Ludum Dare. The theme was ‘Enemies as Weapons’. Here’s a screenie, to whet your appetite - would love to get your feedback over on the submission page!

Link to the entry page, where you can play it now.

I wonder when they sold their last crab?

Just to let you guys know things are being worked on.  I think it won’t be long before I can put together a teaser trailer as it’s getting to a decent level of polish now.  Have completed about 30% of the art and animation, only about 5% of the sound though.  But I plan to be actively working on that from now on (taking a break from my music career to do so).

I plan to enter Lone Surivor into IGF this year, and have the game finished by New Year… so wish me luck! As El Crab Shack’s owner likes to say: ‘Go Loco!’

I feel like the guy in Shawshank, slowly tunneling away towards it…  Progress is excruciatingly slow, but it never ceases, and neither does the hope that burns with it!

This is the fun part I’ve been waiting for, and slogging through all the nasty bits for…  It’s time to make the game proper!  Now I can enjoy the rest of the project a great deal more because it’s all about:

- making graphics

- making sound and music

- making levels

These parts are why I make games - programming and engines are all a means to an end - and I’m pleased to discover that the engine is adapting well to having lots of shiny new content thrown at it.

In that sense I really feel like I achieved my goal of reducing all the bullshit you have to do to get stuff into the game - it’s now just a case of coming up with the creative stuff, and getting it in there is [almost] pleasurable with the editor.

So far there’s heaps of new locations, sound and animation - but I’m going to hold off on releasing any more demos until I reach the closed beta stage.  If anyone would be interested for signing up for this in the coming months, bear it in mind, and maybe even get in touch through twitter or info [at] superflatgames [dot] com (sorry, spam paranoia!)

I’ll leave you with a new screenie - recalling Soundless Mountain II in some ways (I like bathrooms, what can I say?)

In other news, there could be some wonderful things about to happen with Superflat Games - I will tell more when it’s confirmed - but suffice to say things could get quite a bit more serious in the coming months…

Here are links to a couple of games I never finished…

Trip:One

Trip One, version 0.41

Controls:

L/R: Turn
U/D: Thrust / Reverse

X: Ok / Primary Item
C: Cancel / Back / Secondary Item

ENTER: Bring up upgrade screen (can only upgrade when parked on top of the dropship).

HP is your ship’s shield. You can get it back by sliding on striped surfaces.
SP is your ship’s energy, and you won’t be able to use items (such as guns / shield) unless you have some. It replenishes over time.

Notes:

You can hold the X button to get rid of all the text. I’d recommend doing it first. I meant to improve the textbox system so they were more like auto-popups as in Starfox.

I had planned to make the inventory screen so you could actually swap between items when away from the dropship. Won’t probably get round to it now.

There’s quite a few items to be found. You can upgrade them or your ship by collecting starmen, which are used as currency.

If you die, you drop your starmen, and if you don’t then make it back to where you snuffed it, you’ll lose them forever. In general it’s best to upgrade as soon as you can (such as at the start, because you begin with 200 or so starmen).

* * *

Soul Brother

Soul Brother, version 0.5

There is actually a version 0.6 around which has quite a lot more in it as well as bugfixes. I will definitely post this at some stage soon. Just needs packaging up!

Controls:

L/R: Move

X: Ok / Use / Unique Move (such as Fly / Jump etc)
C: Cancel / Back

In other news, I can finally announce the game I’ve been designing in my day-job:

As it’s finally been announced at E3, I guess it’s ok for me to say.  It doesn’t get much more mainstream than this, folks!