Sunday 3 October 2010

Monster Mash and Much More...

It’s been a while since I made my last blog post, but I’ve been busying away on a number of games and projects. I’ve been working full time on game development since I graduated in July, so an update on what I’ve been doing is in order!

Competitions

I took part in Ludum Dare 18 in August, where I made Mind Control Monster Mash. It wasn’t a massive success as a game, mostly due to poor controls, but it was enough to show me the premise worked. As a result, I’ve started the project again from scratch and have big plans for it!


Greedy Bankers

In July I released version 2 of Greedy Bankers, and then took a bit of a break from the game. I’m working on version 3 now, fixing some of the small bugs, tightening the mechanics and addressing some of the issues that players pointed out.

The new version should be a bit faster and I’m adding a few power-ups to spice up the gameplay. I want the player to be able to do something to fight off the robbers who some players found frustrating. I also want to make it easier to fight tooth-and-nail to stay in the game, to increase the tension. So far adding these power-ups has highlighted a couple of bugs which I need to sort out, but they’ll be on their way out soon.

I’ll point out all the changes when I publicly release the new version later this month.

Version 3 has another special surprise coming up, but I will keep my lips sealed on that for now. It should be fun!


Mind Control Monster Mash

Following my Ludum Dare entry, I began working on a new version using FlashPunk in early September.

Your city is attacked by giant Godzilla-esque monsters, and you must use your team of monsters to fight them off. You can hypnotise a certain number of enemy monsters and take them under your control. Different monsters are good at fighting off different other monsters, so you need to think strategically in order to win. At its heart it’s a strategy game, which will be simple to pick up but allow players to develop their own complex tactics.

The game is in the early stages at the moment, but is developing nicely. There’s a lot of animation for me to do, as I want the artwork to be fairly detailed. Animating the monsters is harder work than I’d anticipated, but I’m very happy with how it’s progressing.