For the first of my weekly prototype projects, I’m trying out a mechanic that draws inspiration from Kingdom Hearts, Minicraft, and Skyward Sword. Basically, there’s an energy meter that regulates your attack combo. When it empties, you perform a more powerful attack, but then can’t attack for a little bit. Large enemies require the stronger attack to be finished off, though they still take damage from the weaker attacks. I’ve found that the feel of the system changes significantly when tweaking the timing parameters for the energy meter – how quickly it refills, how long it takes after an attack before starting to fill again, and how big a chunk of it each attack takes. Depending on the parameters, it can feel like a “traditional” combo system (with the result that the energy meter feels largely superfluous), or on the other end something more akin to a rhythm game. Try it out for yourself.
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The updated and improved Flash version of Dragondot is now up on Newgrounds and Kongregate, and on our sponsor site Age of Games which has the exclusive Endless Survival mode! Enjoy!
So, a lot’s been keeping me busy lately – getting back into school, my computer croaking, Ludum Dare 21 (two days after my computer croaking), and getting some of my top games ported to Flash. The results of all of this:
- Planetary Mission, my (not very good due to lack of computer) Ludum Dare 21 entry, made in Flixel!
- Missilebreak Outvaders, a renamed Flash port of Spaceout, up on Newgrounds and doing quite well for itself!
- A significantly improved and expanded Flash port of Dragondot, licensed to an actual sponsor for a tidy sum, coming soon to a variety of flash game portals near you!
Sorry it took me so long to get around to posting here, but here it is now – my Ludum Dare 20 entry, Kobold Goes Alone. The theme was “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this!” Since I’d already done a total zelda ripoff for the last Ludum Dare, I decided instead to revisit the Dragondot universe once again. And the thought of a kobold beating things up with a stick amused me greatly. Changes in this version from my LD entry include an extra hit point for the kobold, the ability to continue from the screen before you died at, and some improvements to the worg’s Fang weapon. Go alone!
…but that’s about to change. Know why? LUDUM DARE, baby!
You stoked? I’m stoked. Got a pack of Mountain Dew, a fridge full of junkbrain food, and an itch to Make Some Game. Let’s DO this thing!
Seems I’ve had polar coordinates and touchscreens on the brain recently, as well as Danc and Raph Koster’s thoughts on building fun one skill-atom at a time. So here’s a simple little arcadey game about defending ice cream from fireballs. No, I don’t get it either. But it seems to work. Try it out!
This game’s title was provided by Nathan Wilson.
9:30pm Got most of the core mechanics going, and have added some sounds. Need a break, so I’m putting up what I have here for now. Still no score or loss condition.
So, I’ve got a year’s worth of game designing and prototyping under my belt at this point, and I’m getting the feeling that it’s time for me to move on to projects that are a bit more ambitious in scope. There’s a few directions I’m looking at going with this, and I’d like to hear what you all think:
- Rework one or more of my existing games for a mobile platform and publish it through an app store
- Create a proper PC game of a moderate scope, similar to The Polynomial, and put it up for sale
- Create a PC game of an ambitious scope, with a Wolfire-style public development process, either solo or with a small team
- Finish and publish a non-computer game, such as the card-based tactical game I’ve been working on
- Something else I haven’t thought of yet – suggestions?
My overall mission is to create a game that is financially successful within a year; my personal deadline for picking a project and starting work on it is the end of this month.
Also, Dessert Stressed will be going up tomorrow night – need to keep my game-making skills honed. 
Setting the record straight
Okay, it seems a number of people are either inadvertently misinterpreting or willfully misrepresenting my stance here, so for the record:
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