I've posted an early alpha video of Motor Psycho (a Road Rash style motorcycle racer/fighter) up on youtube. It is a short video of a small level I'm using just to test the physics, pathfinding, fighting, etc. I'm expecting the game to be done in the first half of 2010 and to ship on XBox Live Indie Games.
Click here to go view the video, then let me know what you think in the forums, twitter, or facebook.
--Tom Ogburn
Starlit Sky Games, LLC is currently working on an unnamed motorcycle racing-fighting game, similar to Road Rash. View a screenshot in the gallery at
http://www.starlitskygames.com/photos/motorcycle/picture203.aspx and help pick a name. Either post your suggestion in the forums or send me a tweet at TOgburn with your suggestion.
Tom Ogburn
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.