Latest Posts To: News
Sky Defender is now available in the XBox 360 Indie Games channel. You can download it directly to your system from XBox.com by following the link below. http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550246--Tom Ogburn
On April 26, 2009 I will be giving away one 12 month XBox Live Gold code to a randomly chosen person that retweets my StrikeForce-Psi announcement between now and then. The announcement is here: http://twitter.com/TOgburn/status/1575409771and after you do that, go ahead and download the game and try it. Go ahead, I dare you... :) --Tom Ogburn
StrikeForce Psi is now in review on Xbox Live Community Games and should be coming out soon. Of course I will update as soon as it is released. I also want to mention the people I worked with to get the game done. Art - Dami Digital http://dami.lt/Characters - Maxim Lyulyukin http://www.robomaniac.invitinggames.com/store/Audio - Spencer Sternberg http://www.spencersternberg.comLevel Editing - Tom Ogburn Ben Ogburn Dan McCollum http://www.danmccollum.com/Programming - Tom Ogburn More to come when the game goes live. --Tom Ogburn
A little more polish done and I've posted another playtest based on feedback received. SFP currently has 6 levels of what will be 12. Now informs users if they cannot buy the game. Allow purchase from 'Trial' message screens Lists actual button to press to continue on message screens Stopped vibrating controller bug on some message screens Fixed menu selection bug when switching controllers Edited menu background to make font more visible New first level Added animated loading screen between levels --Tom Ogburn
Made a few more updates and uploading a new version to playtest. http://catalog.xna.com/en-US/gamedetails.aspx?catalogEntryId=5a982d22-8ec7-4296-abd7-1188516a34a9&type=1. It's now coming down to adding in the remaining levels and polish. I'm planning for it to be complete and ready to ship very soon. Added Y button to crouch in addition to left stick click crouching jump moves at the same speed as a standing jump Moved selection of starting unlocked level from options screen to start->select unlocked level->actually start game re-added gold bars and scoring to hud, explain gold and scoring in how to play screen. --Tom Ogburn
It's been 3 weeks since my last update and I have been busy. I overhauled a lot of the code and graphics based on feedback from the last SFP playtest on creators club. It is back in playtest. Log in to your XNA Creators CLub account then follow the link to download and play. http://catalog.xna.com/en-US/GameDetails.aspx?catalogEntryId=e2f9b3b2-7d45-4c1d-8681-3596bb181e76&type=1Here's some of the list of updates: Increased size of characters, weapons, and bullets for better clarity on SDTV Added more cover in certain vulnerable spots of several maps Require 'Press A to start' on initial screen to set player controller Add in save game manager Support all video modes and tested them truncate save file before writing to it to prevent read errors Upsell during and after first level and return to menu if it is trial mode Options screen to alter volume of music and sound effects independently Allow selection from several control schemes Edit options screens to allow left/right on left stick or digital pad to alter values replace backgrounds Player crouching code and animations reset ammo count on death replace psk exit graphic with exit sign graphic fix bridge graphics lives carry across levels, ammo and grenades reset reduced a visual bug with player gun when jumping add 'Go Back' B-button text to controls screen song changes based on background world and menu save game/ load unlocked levels only if not a trial fixed bugs in trial/purchase code that allowed an attempt to purchase for unauthorized users and threw an error fixed a bug that only allowed storage selector to work with controller 1 grenades and bullets can both now go around crates but not through girders/platforms stopped players from scrolling outside the safe viewable area replaced all fonts added gunshot sounds replaced grenade explosion sound fixed a visual bug where bullets were coming from below the gun barrel instead of the end of it replaced gun images with clearer graphics music volume reduced during pause game fixed visula bug where enemies and player still animated during pause modified scrolling speeds of different background layers increased hud and font size to account for SDTV resolutions changed player animation to fall when running off a ledge instead of continuing to run replaced foreground tiles for arctic, jungle, and desert levels from the harbor girders reduce enemy reaction time from 1.5 to 0.75 seconds replaced enemy gun from same the same one as the player enemies now only see player if facing the player fixed visual bug where characters changed sizes in different animations allow more detailed animations, code allows animation graphics to be in several rows and columns instead of all in one short row fixed bug, controller doesn't stop vibrating on player death fixed bug, enemy gun shot sounds continue after player death fixed visual bug, gun now appears behind characters when facing left and in front when facing right --Tom Ogburn
I have made a lot of changes since my last post. Video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmdp-sQJnrg&fmt=22. replaced main menu screen graphics player has to plant charges before being allowed to exit mission replaced all the old PSK tiles replaced HUD text with images ("Lives" with player image, "ammo" with clip, etc...) tinted the HUD area moved the gun rotation point from the center of the gun to the players shoulder removed the timer (still limited to 60 minutes before mission failure) controller instructions only display if there is a controller connected (pc) fixed crashing bug when jumping above the top of the level created a map editor- tile map, collisions, and spawn points checkpoints are now scattered throughout levels and are invisible and automatic added more mission status texts and the status HUD re-sizes to fit the text fixed bug where enemies could see player from offscreen added new background music added some new sounds edited some graphics, particularly the player fixed player weapon animation to better align with the player in each player animation --Tom
I'm planning to update the website soon. The biggest thing is I need to add shopping cart functionality for my upcoming releases. Since I'm using an extremely old (2005) version of Community Server and it has worked well, I decided to check on the latest version of it. First, they have a very limited free version now, second they don't list their prices on the website. What I found by searching google made my jaw drop. They are now charging $5,000 to $10,000 or more. There is no way I can pay that kind of money for something, especially if I then have to buy additional modules for the functionality I need (shopping cart). So I'm going to look elsewhere. Probably DotNetNuke with CataLook since it ill be all digital sales and delivery. If any one has any suggestions, drop me an email (Tom at starlit sky games.com) or leave a comment.
Video here-> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAx4Te4yyH8&fmt=22Additions from last alpha: Enemies now shoot back - good luck :) Enemies have a 1.5 second reaction time after they notice you before they shoot
removed wind resistance from grenade for more perfect parabolic flight enemies only chase if they have a direct line of sight (you can hide) replaced background added randomness to enemy shots so they aren't always perfect
switched level 1 and 2 to better showcase background replaced SSG logo code updates to make future additions easier -angles to vectors in a separate class -templatized projectiles -moved gun functions from player class to gun class
deleted a lot of unused code and assets --Tom
Since the last update I sent out to my team on Tuesday, I've made lots of changes and updates. Including the following: Added 'Buy' to pause menu if trial mode (360 only)
'Buy' on main menu if trial mode (360 only)
precision aiming 0-45 degrees (360 and pc with 360 controller only)
slowed autofire (hold button down), fast active fire (button tapping)
fixed floating in player death animation
added empty clip sound
replaced background music
lots of backend code clean up and optimizations
only draw visible items
powerups/collectibles as templates to add others easier
fixed crashing bug when enemies stacked and were shot with 1 bullet
enemies now follow player when visible on screen, otherwise resume patrolling
replaced 2 of 3 enemy graphics, unfortunately they look exactly the
same at small size so I used my elite texturing skills to change 1 to
gray
replaced gem images with a gold bar
changed HUD text color from yellow to red One of the biggest updates is that we now have a youtube channel to showcase development in progress. The most recent video is from the update before this one, but I should be doing a new one in a few days when I get the new background images in place. --Tom
Starlit Sky Games has officially been changed to Starlit Sky Games, LLC as of November 24, 2008. It is registered with the Secretary of State in Texas. It only took 4 business days from the time I filed until they mailed out the certificate, and that wasn't even with their expedited processing.
Island Survival Run is a game I created for the Game 1010 Video Game Programming class at ACC. Screenshots are now in the photo gallery and I will have the game packaged up and ready for download soon. It was made using TorqueX on top of Microsoft's XNA Framework. The art and audio come from the TGB Adventure Kit. Synopsis:
You've been shipwrecked on an island. You must quest to the other
side, surviving 1 day at a time. Your journey is made more difficult
by the roaming natives. Thankfully you have a crossbow and arrows,
unfortunately so do they. Your arrow count is limited, however when
you kill one of the natives you can retrieve your arrows from them.
I just noticed it's been over a year since I've made a front page post. I've made several blog posts (http://www.starlitskygames.com/blogs/), but those don't show up here. I think I'm going to edit the site so all my blog posts show up on the front page. Anyway, recent news is that I'm working on my next company game, as well as working with a group of individuals on another larger game.
Sky Defender and my next few mini games will be free.
Click HERE for the download.
My last few personal blog posts tell why and I am writing an article with more details and the download links.
Sky Defender - Alpha 2.5 is available for testing. See my blog post for details...
The old addages are right, if you want your site to get more traffic - add more relevent content. A few months ago I was getting 2 visits a day on average, and 1 was usually me :). Now that I have begun writing more in my blog and released the alphas of Sky Defender, I am averaging 52 visits a day. I've only advertised the alphas on a private developer forum, but I did post a link to my blog in a public developer forum. I notice a lot of visits to the RSS feeds for my blog now, which I'm taking to mean people are interested in what I'm working on and are excited about seeing Sky Defender completed and my future games. Everytime I think about that it gives me a huge burst of inspiration and energy to work so I don't let them (you) down.
Another thing I've noticed, I picked a really bad name for a game. What do I mean by that. If you google, msn, or yahoo for Sky Defender there are millions of hits. Somehow, even with that I've managed to be #3 on msn and # 15 on yahoo. It looks like google hasn't reindexed my site for a while so I don't even show up in the top 100 there. Maybe this could actually be a good thing. If there are that many sites, then that means it is an intuitive name and hopefully a lot of people search for it. If I'm that high and I only posted on private forums, imagine where I will be when it's comleted and I issue a press release.
And finally, I posted some of my thoughts on a completely non game related topic in my personal blog over a year ago and it got a link from another site. I still get about 1 visit a week from that old link. The takeaway, no matter how seemingly insignificant a post you make is, it stays on the web forever and can drive traffic. So try to make them all interesting and useful.
Sky Defender - Alpha 2 is available for testing. See my blog for details.
I went to the county clerks office yesterday during my lunch break and filed my DBA. So as of 23-February-2006 at 11:55, Starlit Sky Games is an official company. Expect to see the first of my games released over the next few months.
The IGC videos are eating up bandwidth, more so than I imagined they would. I plan to keep them available for free as long as people want to download them, however I definitely wouldn't be opposed to some help with the hosting cost. :) If you would like to donate to the cause of the videos, or just to helping me get my games done quicker, please click the Donate button or text on the bottom of the screen.
I recently attended Indie Games Con 2005 and had my video camera
along. Below are links to videos of the sessions I
attended. The descriptions can be found on the IGC website. All are at 150 kbps. It was a compromise between
video quality and still having file sizes small enough that people
could download them.
GarageGames Kickoff
70.2 mb
Keynote: State of the Revolution
71.8 mb
Casual Gaming Roundtable
91.1 mb
Torque 2D Development
52.9 mb
Torque 1.4
65.7 mb
Torque Scripting
71.6 mb
KeyNote: Mac OS X Development
61.5 mb
Billion Dollar Opportunity
47.1 mb
Starting Your Studio, Legal Issues
68.0 mb
IGC Postmortem
12.0 mb
Ok, so I never really went anywhere - I just dropped off the site for a
while. The good news, I'm getting my life in order: The bad news,
it's going to cut into my game development time. Back to good
news, once I'm back in order things should pick up a lot more since
I'll feel much better. Check out my personal blog to find out
more...
There is still quite a bit of work to do to get my old games and plans
for new ones up here, but the forums and blogs are working.
Expect a lot more content over the next few days.
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