Put Clever yet Emotional Title Here

The fact that I'm blogging is good, it means I'm helping move my game forward. Even if I'm moving it the same amount as a limbless old blind snail pushing a mountain, I'm still doing something. 

There's so many things I want to cover in this post, like why am I finding it so hard to do something that I supposedly love doing? Why can I not find motivation to do it in even if it is seen as a bit of work? Why is reflecting on immortality and it's implications and reflecting that in a game so hard for someone like me to do?

I do love making games. I have a whole list of potential game ideas, and they're not bad. Every time I think of a new one I go through my old ones and usually delete a crappy idea I thought before was good. I guess it's difficult because I have a very common combination of traits; I'm optimistic yet lazy. I have to face the fact that rather than simply drafting some ideas for even an hour I ended up going on a FIFA 12 rampage, watched episodes on Disney I'd already seen, played more FIFA then watched 2 entire movies back to back. I might have mentioned before how I daydream and fantasise about standing in front of a huge audience, holding an award for Eternality and knowing that I made it, my position was secure and that people appreciated me. It's hard to work because I've already felt that rush of excitement just imagining it (no innuendo there by the way) and what come after that? A wave of disappointment, this is life, not a movie. And I know that people in movies say that but no, that's a phrase for real life. Those kind of movies are made to make us forget that real life requires more than a montage of effort, it requires real hard pain and sacrifice. It's the reward at the end, the trophies, fame and satisfaction that is meant to pull you through that difficulty. But if you've already felt it then where's the will to succeed?

Here's a short story; once I was at a school award evening and I had won an award for something academically challenging. it wasn't something like OMG AMAZEBALLS but (lol I'm finding it hard to describe) it was just difficult enough to be worth it. There are also a bunch of other students who won awards, for academical reasons and sporty achievements. But one person, a guy who in school acted like a real douche, won an award for (this is not the exact name for the award by the way) being brave when moving from his country to here and handling it all well and stuff... I was definitely annoyed and made my point very clear to my parents, who seemed to be on his side...

I mean I guess the point of the story is that people put in effort in different ways, I did it academically, he did it emotionally. To be honest I had forgot about the awards until I got one. So that shows how much effort I put in. I just felt robbed because he was given so much praise and he didn't deserve it, sure he like went across the globe single handed at such a young age surviving and stuff. Maybe I was jealous? It was all to long ago, I can't remember my feeling too accurately. 

What's weird as well is that I always dream of people reading my blog and playing my games, but now there is actually a chance someone might read this, and because I know them personally it kind of put me off blogging. But now I've been thinking, if I can't handle someone I know reading my blog, then how can I be comfortable with strangers, potentially cruel strangers, reading it and spoiling it with harsh comments. It's always easy to look at famous people and be like "your worried about haters? I wouldn't worry about anything on top of your piles of money/massive good fanbase" although I don't have that yet. Will I even get that? If my first game or even the first impression of myself I give is bad then how will anyone ever like me ever again?

All is not lost though, I do tend to have really depressing phases, I start thinking about abandoning Eternality and starting something else, or just waiting till University starts and ends and then make games. Oh that's another thing, I got into university... Now I can't even play the "I wasn't good at anything, but my passion for gaming shone through and saved my butt" card because I'm successful. I have no emotionally scarring backstory driving me, well except for the usual things like minor anorexia, bullying problems and that kinda stuff. Well I guess you could count the fact that I hate that I never have anything to complain about, but then I sound like a stupid twat. That's a different rant altogether, how I want something to go wrong or be wrong so I can have people show me sympathy... Yeah I'm kinda messed up like that. Hm I shouldn't be talking about this so calmly, is this calm? What's going on?

Where was I? Oh yeah the bright side of the silver lining! I am not a giver upper! I am not only succeeding for my sake, but for the sake of everyone who thinks they can't make it, who thinks they are never going to be something, who thinks there are such a things as 'dream jobs', who thinks it's 'too late'... I'm here to prove that with a will to learn, effort and passion, everyone is capable of doing what they want to do most. 

And that my peeps, is the end of this level. If anyone is reading this, follow me on twitter @Originalhussain for game and life updates. I'm really glad I'm writing this, I hope it helps either just me for motivation, or one person to follow their dreams. It's weird, random and probably doesn't make a lot of sense, but I'm working on it. Just like how I'm working on how to make an outtro that doesn't take a million years. See you peeps next level!

To Blog, or Not to Blog

He was very sleepy, as usual. Again he had done no work during the day and made up for it at night. 

Tomorrow would be different for him, well, he hoped anyway. 

He knew this was going to be a short post but it is a post nonetheless. Meaning he has weakened the force of wanting to not do something...ness

He will see his peeps on the next level with more stuff and possibly pictures!

Slow but Steady

He was abusing the saying slow and steady. It seemed to him merely a myth, that a race, a challenge defined by speed and recklessness, can be won by remaining cool and collected. 

He was typing nonsense because he was very sleepy. Although it was not the amount he had set out to complete tonight, he had done enough to satisfy himself for now and give himself a jump start tomorrow. 

He notices his posts might be getting shorter. That's because he's staying later doing more work. Although he's scared to share more game elements in case they get stolen, or even worse they already exist. 

He will let his peeps know more about the game when a decent demo is out. Then he can freely mention what elements and gameplays he is planning to add and improve in the full version. 

Sleepily I drifted between tenses possibly ruining the immersion for the audience. He was never good at English even though I studied it at A Level, he forced himself to stop typing by saying see you next level. 

A Slow Start

He thought of a Pokemon joke instantaneously because of the title, it was almost too easy to say "just call me Regigigas" so he didn't. 

Unfortunately he didn't do much in the morning. A few annoying attempts at an epic level layout stressed him enough to go to sleep. He knew time was running out, so he would ensure that the day will make up for the morning. He might even blog again with updates. 

His peeps must remain without information until then. Also without progress he hasn't really gone to the next level, so he already sees you this level. 

He reread what he writ and realised he should really sleep. 

A Days Worth in a Morning

He sat comfortably by light of the lamp, even though shining through the living room glass doors came the natural sunlight of the early morning. He didn't necessarily feel tired, but for some reason he stopped working. You should have seen him this past hour! New ideas flowing out of his ear holes, sketches upon notes of designs and concepts, furiously being neatly noted on plain and lined papers. Then he stopped. Maybe it's because his throat hurts a bit, maybe it's because he's worried he'll get tired tomorrow, maybe it's maybelline, whatever it is, he's packed up and is ready to hit the sack. 

A new idea floats happily in his mind. He considers lightening the tone of the entire game. No one likes entirely 100% doom and gloom he thought. That's why the Dumbfounding Guards 101 for Dummies was such a great idea to him. It would be hilarious, helpful and great fun for him to write and design. 

Writing about writing this book also reminded him to write in the blog he was writing, that it seemed to him that the platforming element seemed to tax his patience when designing, yet planning the guard mechanics was an absolute joy. To be honest he couldn't have a clear view as he has barely started planning the first guard room, but he has done 3 other platformer rooms and they were really, really dull. 

In any case the boss is still yet to be planned out and that should be a great source of fun for him. All he needs to do is do more work in the day and not just the mornings.

Yawning incoherently he finishes up his blog post by humorously saying good morning to his peeps, and that he will see them in the next level

The Day he Wrote in 3rd Person

It had been a long time since he opened the Blogger app and wrote. He promised himself when he started he would write everyday, even if it was not relevant to the game. But the trials and tribulations of the world got in his way. 

But not today. 

He didn't want people to think he had given up, he never gives up. Well sometimes he gives up for a bit, but you can trust that he will come back sooner or later. 

He yawned infectiously in his bed, the battle between blogging and sleeping was a long and arduous one. He decided to keep it short, for everyone's sake. 

The Deadline had been made clear to him. On the 15th of August his life most likely will take a turn for the worse. This game and the support and feedback it shall so hopefully get is the only thing that can lessen the blow of that tearful day. 

The plan seemed simple to him; make a demo featuring the first level which naturally shows off all the elements of the game, hope that it gets the amazing feedback and attention he thought it deserved, wait for someone to say "do a kick starter! I'd totally support this!" Then show his Parents and say something along the lines of "I'm sorry I didn't do so well at college, but X people have donated X money to make me a game designer. This is a viable future for me and my future family. I love the job, no matter how tough it can be." 

He was very tired now, he still read his success speech twice. Hopefully he'll have nice dreams of them, dreams that will motivate him to pour his blood, sweat, tears, heart and soul into this game. Then people will love it as much as he does. 

He types his final sentences and goes to sleep, reminding himself that tomorrow a whole bunch of work should get done. And that maybe the blood and soul bit was a tad extreme. 

"Goodnight peeps," he writes sleepily,

"See you next level!"

Image Updates

Hey peeps I'll need to keep it short because my internet is flickering on and off so I'll upload the image of the tiles, which were already on DeviantArt (Look up Trilaterus) but I'll put them here so there can be another copy of them somewhere.

I used MS Paint for this one so mind the white background, I kind of like it because of it's simplicity. Anyways I wrote these notes on a notepad while analyzing some levels so I hope they  make some sense:

There are 3 sets of tiles used in the floors of the levels:

1. The generic obviously repeated floor (the ones I mimicked for my cave floors)

2. The tiles that cover the invisible tiles
   There are a set of tiles (just think of the tileset that built up the path in AdvanceMap, you needed up, down, left, right, the corners and the inside corners.
   Same with this except there are two variants of each tile/most tiles and an invisible tile behind that, which can be used to accurately make maps.

3. Using the 'tiled background' feature in Construct there is a layer full of random square block images tiled in the empty space between paths/ceilings and the edges of the screen


This combination should create the look of an art style platformer while maintaining the accuracy of a tile based platformer.

So yeah I did do a sheet labeling which tile is which but I would need to export that to show you and that's kind of long :O

So yeah now my plan is to get a grip on Construct slightly and start doing the boring technical part of measuring everything up, I'll need to choose a display size that is effective and I'll need to see if I can put on a lock/clip/guideline that'll make placing the tiles more easier.

Hopefully this saves and publishes, so peeps I'll see you next level! :)

Problications

Hey peeps, this will be a really short post because I'm doing it on my phone! What? Why would he need to do it on his phone? Why does it have to be so short?  Well I've had a tough time putting hours into project Eternality because I've had cousins staying over... Younger than me. So I hope you can imagine the amount of torturous playing on the PS3 I had to do. I calculated (for once) the amount of hours I put in today and it was 1. Yup, 1. On the bright side I got a ton of work done, I've finished the cave floor tiles and have started deconstructing the art style overlay. Yeah this isn't going to be interesting because I can't show you sprites because... Yeah you should know. 

Sorry peeps but this level has been very dry. At least with the app I can blog even if I don't do anything noteworthy. It'll makes feel guilty for the next day. So on that note, I will see you next level. 

Inspritations

Hey peeps, sorry I've not blogged in like a few days. If I don't it's because I'm busy or because I haven't done anything noteworthy to share. I'd still like to write what happened in my day but most of the time I don't get a chance because I leave my blogging till the end of the day, then I'm too tired to want to write and everyone else in the house is sleeping and I feel bad tip tapping along.

But enough with apologies and baloney let's get to some work I've actually done!

I can't stress enough how much "The Iconoclasts" has inspired me, I've downloaded both alphas and I'm forcing myself to pace my way through the old version (that means no, I haven't played to the end of the 2011 alpha, just the freezing end of the 2012 one). It is a majorly awesome game and is literally my exact aim to be like that. As in an entirely one man band making an awesome game, and by awesome game I mean a game that fully complies with Raph Kosters theory of fun (another major inspiration of mine!). It has a gripping plot, intuitive gameplay and to top it all off some outstanding graphical design. So I'm admitting now, if my game resembles Iconoclasts, then it is because it is a huge motivator for me right now and if it wasn't for that game, I might not have made more progress for weeks.

So onto what I did today, I'm sure my writing is all over the place but, yeah who cares about that. I did say that I need to change the Old Man character so I did attempt to do that, I'm still not pleased with the version I have now but I can't improve it at the moment so I decided to move onto the next task which was creating the cave floor tiles. If you actually read the story synopsis (I think I might have mentioned it :S) but the player starts in a cave, so I thought I should work on the tileset for the cave. I'm running out of time just writing this blog so I'll keep it short and explain it tomorrow, I'll keep it so short that I'll upload the sprites that I've done and say goodbye!

And yup before you ask the first line of mud like tile things are from Iconoclasts :P

Well I can't exactly remember how I ended it last time but I'll just wing it I guess,

See you peeps next level :D

New Adult and Child Sprite!

Hello guys it's me again! Just a quick list of things I think I should mention that I didn't in the first post:
1. This game simply put is a 2D Adventure Platformer with some puzzle elements
2. My parents are not evil as I may have made them out to be, they are supportive and kind. Although if/when they find out I'm most probably going to fail then the demons from within them will rise and crush me
C. I know the entirety of the blog looks kind of bleak, I really want to make it epic so people look at it and go "Wow, I should really actually read some of these HUGE blocks of text!"
D. I should get around to writing out a proper brief of the game, I'll set a word limit and do research into other peoples game intros and stuff and put it somewhere
E. I should number/letter my lists appropriately

I know I said that I don't go through my posts but that was the first one so I was a bit nervous that I had left stuff out. And of course I did.

Ok before I spoil you with sprites and images of stuff I guess I should tell you that I'm on DeviantArt! "Yay" say "It's not that big of a deal!" I say. I guess it's for people who don't necessarily read this and skip to the art. Do people do that? Meh if you do than watch me on dA! [Trilaterus on deviantART]

Now what did I do today in regards to Eternality? Well my plan was to get the three sprites (that is child, adult and old characters) all done ready for criticism on various forums or just straight up animating. Although I'd probably start working on my cave tiles and backgrounds before animating anything. But yeah that kind of happened, I worked on the adult and child and got them complete with relative ease (the hand drawn design really helped) but I need to do the old version again because, well... he isn't facing the right way. I know it's a silly mistake but I've done it now let's just sort it out... weeeeell maybe tomorrow. Here are the two sprites and their respective large versions (I work on them in their original size then enlarge them so you can see them kind of better so if there are a few pixels off in the enlarged version then whoops!):

Now the reason why the adult version is rocking a chain one of the versions is because I was thinking that there had to be some key factor that made sure the player easily recognizes that these are all the same person. So what came to mind were things like: similar hair, similar clothes or a unique accessory. If this was any other games I could have given him a unique and wicked looking weapon of some form but he doesn't really use weapons. Well unless you count the walking stick in the old version. So if you have any ideas then feel free to comment :)

Now I would give more information about the game but I don't want to end up having nothing to write... I guess I should work hard enough everyday so I do have something to write!

So since we are talking about all three characters as one person as the main function of the game the player can choose what age the character is at. Now as to when he can change and where he can change and to what age he can change to is a different thought process that is still being, well processed. But what is clear is that each age has a few abilities that the other ages cannot do or cannot do as well, for example:

In oldest age the character had learnt the ability to use levitation, use this ability to solve various puzzles or potentially knock enemies out cold!

At adult age the character is most strong, having the most health (if a health system is in place and if it is it'll have to be in percentage so it scales equally between ages) and jumping and running the fastest. His main perk will most probably be to climb climbable walls and such

At child age the player will be able to crawl. Yup that's all I can think of at the moment but it's a good ability! As he is young and small he can fit into places grown men can't reach. Making his age excellent for sneaking around to a good hiding place to change again into adult age and beating someone up!

So yeah, there are some sprites and some mechanics. A quick shoutout to anyone reading this who knows me as AdvanceMapFreak (see this website [Advance Map FREAKS!] to see what I  mean if you don't) I don't do Pokemon ROMs and stuff anymore, my YouTube channel (shoutout and promo number 2! [http://www.youtube.com/user/AdvancedMapFreak] I know it looks a bit sketchy at the moment but can you blame me? I'm working on Eternality!) is going to be a bit stale for a while. Until I get my new computer (Woo!) and some better kit like microphones and maybe a webcam, then I'll start uploading videos of crazy games with killer concepts.

So thanks for reading this guys... girls... peoples? Gah I need a new interwebs name for you peeps too?... Aah!

So peeps, see you next level! :D

Hello World!

"Write a blog" they said, "It'll be fun" they said.

Well actually sitting here typing my thoughts is kind of nice. A time to myself where I can just relax and pour my thoughts onto the screen.

I don't mean to sound like a grumpy pile of... grump, but if your still reading I'll let you in on why I'm starting this blog; it's my development and documentation of my first game! "Woohoo!" you say, "I know!" I say. I have started with things like concept ideas and stuff a couple of weeks before this blog even existed but hey, now that I've got some sprites on a screen that don't look half bad this great game might become a reality! "Woah what? Sprites? Lemme see lemme see now!" Hold your horses either me from the past reminiscing about the game that made me millions... or readers, I want to talk about why I'm making this game and what it's about :)

Wow where to start, a bit about myself? Nah I'll drop that in as I go along. I should tell you my style of blogging is just writing what comes in my mind, I try not to go back and delete stuff and make it make sense so make like an animal and 'bear' with me! (Oh warning: lame puns may occasionally be dropped :P) So about this game (Que the epic back story music):

This game is set in Medieval times. The story follows one man who had lived alone in the forest for most of his years, he had stumbled across a cave he had never come across before. He explored deep into its depth, when he found a fragment/huge crystal. He thought he was rich, he could have it all, this gem or whatever it was so rare the King would bow to him! He picked it up/touched it and a surge of energy passed through him. (Notices how long this intro is) After recovering he realizes he has become younger, back to his adult self! Also at will he could change between. But a curse had come with this blessing, fate was so kind to him that he could never die, not by age, not by man. Soon he had become so tired of the world he ventured forth to find a way to end his curse, of eternal life, immortality, eternality! (Dum dum duuuum)

So yeah read that if you dare! It is a very serious game (really... no sarcasm here) and I hope to portray the themes explored in this game in an eye opening way. The reason I'm making this game kind of falls into two categories: one; I want to be a game designer professionally and to do that I need to make/be part of games right now, two; my A Level results are coming in about a bit more than a month and (don't tell anyone) but I'm pretty sure I'm not getting into University. It's not that I'm a slacker/is dumb, it's just... the nerves got the better of me :/ So by making this game I can prove to myself and my family that I am still dedicated to my dream job (game design, keep up guys! :P) and hopefully I can charge for it (not too much because it's not too long) but this will show people (more specifically my parents) that I can make some money (moola, dosh, squid whatever fits your bill :D)

Enough of my life story! This is my like first blog ever yakno :O So yeah without further adue here are some of the sheets that I have written about the concept of the game Hmm, I'll keep those to myself. What you can have a look at is some character designs!

Oops, I forgot to make a larger size example of Old Man Sprite... Meh, the small version is what everyone will see. I do notice the legs are a little off and he doesn't look quite finished, I'm just having trouble refining him further than that. I might put him on a forum but most ask for a whole showcase so I'm going to carry on working on the adult/middle aged man, keep in mind they are the same person (spoiler! :P) so I'm trying to mimic that by keeping hair styles and clothes kind of similar.

Well that's all I can think to include, I'll try to do daily updates but knowing me it'll end up being a few long ranty ones :P If you like that, great! If you like the sound of this, great! If you can give some tips and advice, I don't mind! If you don't like it, well sorry! Maybe my next game will appeal to you :)

I guess I should end with a catchphrase of some kind too, yaknow kind of make my image/mark on the interwebs...

See you next level B-) (please say no one uses this already :O)