Posts Tagged ‘ iLoveWar

Factual Update

Thought it was time to collate where I’m up to with all my unfinished games, in order of oldness. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture I’m afraid.

Super Super Ice Balls – the Bubble Bobble clone I’ve written three times. The last time I got really far but put on hold because I wasn’t happy with the art style. I plan to re-do it in a pixel art style most likely.

Trip The multiplayer shooter I’ve been working on since ’91. There have been around ten evolved versions of it over the years. I hope to bring it to a console one day. Just waiting for the right opportunity, and a suitable answer to the one-player mode. Would also like to give it a graphical overhaul soon.

Amnesia A psychological survival adventure. The most personal project I’ve ever undertaken, and hopefully one day in the next year or two it will be a reality. Check my earlier entries for more info, I’m working away at it right now.

iLoveWar My iPhone SRPG. This has been put on hold not because I didn’t like the game, but because I feel it is the right time to make Amnesia. I will definitely finish this one day!

Soul Brother – There’s a feeling of solidity lacking from the game, perhaps in the mechanics, which Stephen Lavelle pointed out to me. My heart sank a little because I knew he was right, I felt it too. There’s nothing ostensibly wrong with the game (I know Dock is not a fan of the non-linear format and perhaps he’s also right), but I’m not really sure how to fix it. It might just come to me!

Back to work!

Besides making Rockabilly Head, I’ve allowed myself to have a month or two’s break, while I went through the stressful process of getting my fiancee over from her native Japan with official visas and whatnot, and found a nice new house for the two of us.  It’s been good for me though, as I’ve had a lot of time to think about where I’m going with iLoveWar [far less likely to be the real title now, as the story’s taken shape.]

I’ve finally decided on the balance of gameplay I want to achieve.  When I look at similar-genred games, such as the Advance Wars and Fire Emblem series’ I see them veering either one way or the other – the AW-like chess-style pieces (closer to RTS, really) which are completely chosen by the player, or the FE-like story-based characters, which makes for a far more puzzle-based experience.  FF Tactics seems to go for this too.

I want to somehow combine a strong story with the flexibility and strong ‘building strategy’ of a unit-based game.  I think I’ve finally got there!  Basically, all units will be of one of six classes (two variants of three types), some will be ‘Character’ types and some will be ‘Drone’ (or AW-style) types which are like characters with a low level-cap who all look the same (I have a good way to explain this in the story, too which is important to me.)

Anyway, I’ve got lots of solid design done which I’m keeping in a proper document, with a semi-formal schedule and everything, now that I have the talented miss Selina Dean (from UK manga collective, Sweatdrop Studios) to help me with portraits and background art.

Here’s a mockup with a portrait based on one of her sketches to whet your appetite.  It’s showing our lead character, Mono:

Meat & potatoes

Hi there,

I’ve been away from the blog for quite a while, mainly due to two months of net downtime (damn you, Tiscali!)

It’s been a busy few months, tinkering on various projects.

My meat and potatoes has been ‘iLoveWar’ an SRPG for iPhone, which hopefully attempts something new within the genre, rather than being a straight-up Advance Wars clone.

It’s played from left to right.  There are two campaigns, one for the Fish People, the other for the Bear People.  You must protect your Queen and get her to the next temple to summon units to aid you in your quest.  It’s about 30-40% done.

So far it’s been an interesting learning process, as I’m new to OpenGL and Objective C.  After a couple of months, I managed to build a pretty solid isometric tile / sprite engine which is actually true 3D, but looks like pixel art (everthing is in half-resolution.)  I feel it adds charm to the game!

Here’s a screenshot of the control system…  It’s fairly intuitive to use so far!

Meanwhile, I’ve finished a very short game this weekend called ‘Rockabilly Head’.  I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s a sort of Lynchian nightmare wrapped up as a dancing-adventure-game.  It has four endings, which tell quite different stories, and has many branching dialogue paths, depending on the player’s actions.  There’s also five or six original pieces of music!

You can find it here:
TIGSource Forum Thread

Keep being awesome, people of the world!