The attention madnessMADNESSmadness has been getting is... wait for it... madness

Long blog title. Ah well, it works for me. It summarises what I have to say, too.

madnessMADNESSmadness didn't place in GameJolt's Minimal contest. However, any mild disappointment I get from that (not too much, there were better games entered) is more than neutralised by everything else that's been happening.

For starters, it got featured on YoYo Games. This makes for my fourth featured game (the first three being Elemence AuX, Innoquous, and Innoquous 3). It also a couple of days ago replaced the feature with a YYG Spotlight, the first I've had. Then, and this is to me the most important and pleasing one, it got onto Bytejacker's Free Indie Rapid Fire!

Last but not least, today it entered the GMC Cagematch. This marks the third time I've had a game in the GMC Cagematch. I'm hoping it's third time lucky too, as the previous two games, EverScrollingHue and FKR3, were both knocked out in round one. I've never won a round!

To make matters better, I've had positive comments on the game from quite a few high-up indie developers, including cactus (on YoYo Games) and Joe Larson (on Bytejacker). Both, of course, had criticisms, which I'm seriously considering working on in some sort of spin-offy sequel thing (I won't call it a direct sequel - I'll probably shave most of the name off and re-form the game into something extra. There will still be the ol' get-chased-by-big-wall arcade mode).

I collaborated with Jack Brockley (Broxter) on a game for the 14th Mini Ludum Dare. Having spent three days on an entry which turned out to be far too large, we (mostly he) made something completely different in the last 24 hours. It's called GETSUMCOKE, and can be found on Game Jolt. I mainly did the trippy graphical background and menu design, he did the rest - gameplay, online highscores, in-game sprites etc. We'll be continuing the game we spent three days on whenever - don't know yet.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for now. Until the next, probably-miles-away blog, goodbye!

This is not Sparta!

Has been a while. Oops! Oh well, time to dive straight into the contents of this.

As some of the nine or so readers of this blog may already know, a couple of days ago I released a game called madnessMADNESSmadness (capitalised like that for no real reason, and shortened to mMm) for the current Game Jolt competition with the theme "Minimal". It closed a couple of days ago with nearly 50 entries, including quite a few great ones, so I won't be disappointed if I don't win.

Having said that, the reception mMm has got is astonishing. It's a small game, made in about the same time as my entry for GJ's first competition, Infidels. Infidels took about a month to hit 100 plays on YoYo Games, and is currently on about 300. Its online highscore list only hit 100 recorded entries about a week ago (taking about four months in total). Compare mMm, which hit 100 recorded online highscores in one day and throughout the four days it's been out has fast approached 400. It's on an accumulated nearly-700 plays on GJ and YYG, more than Infidels, is currently on a respectable 4.1 on YYG and a big 4.4 on GJ, and has nine posts in the contest thread on the GJ forum devoted to how great it apparently is. It's now more played, rated and commented than any of my other games on Game Jolt, and is continuing to rise quickly.

This is a game that took 7 weeks less time than Innoquous 3 to make. A three-day-developed game. It has about 45 seconds of level in and is basically a bog-standard platformer with a weird graphical effect. 4.4 by 31 people on Game Jolt. Crazy.

And yes, the "Madness?! THIS... IS... SPARTAAAA" jokes have already come. Missed your chance, fans of 300 and/or internet meme followers. Sorry. :P (having said that, if you like internet memes you may as well say it again, because as most people know memes are the most annoying, overused, repetitive thing on the net).

I've done four reviews on Game Maker Blog and am unlikely to stop any time soon. As I usually mention before/after the reviews, if you have any games you want to see reviewed there you can reply to this blog entry, PM me on Game Maker Community, etc. Wherever you know I still am. I'll also be reviewing something for the upcoming GMTech issue 18 (the Christmas issue), though that'll likely be something chosen by gamez93 if he can bag an exclusive.I reckon that's it. See you in another hopefully-less-than-nearly-a-month!

GMB, Flash, Talast, Commercialism?

A few different things to talk about in this blog entry, methinks. I'll go through them in title order.

I applied for a position reviewing games on the popular Game Maker Blog yesterday. Was surprised to be accepted about 20 minutes after applying! Anyway, I posted my first review and the comments seem to be positive about it, so I'll continue reviewing games for it. You can check out the review, which is of Elmernite's Rosetta Stone, here.

I've started learning Flash. I have a copy of Macromedia Flash 8 (have had it for ages) so figured it may as well go to use. Part of my reason for wanting to learn flash is the playing figures on popular flash site, Kongregate. Loads of games on it top 100,000. Some have even passed 1,000,000. They offer ad sharing on their games too. While not massive, a game with 100,000 plays, with Kongregate's 35% shared ad revenue, would earn about $200. Not too shabby. It'll be a while, of course, before I make anything worth 100,000 plays in the program, but hell, may as well learn now.

Talast is going spiffingly. Unknown Gamer recently moved it to its own server, meaning we (he) can now add plugins and stuff to it. There's a fair amount of reviews on it now, too.

Commercialism. Hm. J. Rhodes (of Roket-Games) recently asked if I'd like to make something commercial. If I did, and made it Roket-Games exclusive, I'd get $20 from the get-go and 80% of the cost of the game per sale. Therefore, I'm planning on making Innoquous 4. I wouldn't publicise this information due to tempting fate, but I did it with Innoquous 3 and it actually managed to work. Here's some planned stuff on it:

• 40 new levels, with the 60 from I1-3. All 100 playable in all three modes from I3, as well as some undetermined new ones

• Level editor, integrated into Roket-Games for easy uploading and downloading of levels

• Speedruns of the whole game, possibly of the levels from each individual Innoquous, and individual fastest times for each level in Standard mode

• Extra in-game items to keep it fresh. This may possibly include things I tried for I3 but couldn't get to work, like moving platforms. New items may be included in older levels too

• Graphics overhaul. I3's weakest point was its graphics. Colour is definitely still in, but I may ditch the "outline disappears when ball is on floor" thing altogether

There may be more (or less) if I do pull this game off. Oh, one thing on it - it will probably cost $5 or £3 to start with, if all of the points above make it into the game. I'd consider that reasonable, taking into account the amount of work I want to put into it. If you have any suggestions on other additions, think the price should be adjusted, or think I should go with something else for commercialdom instead, feel free to comment. I take all comments into account.

Anyway, that's all for this blog. Fair amount covered - guess that makes up for the reduction in quantity. See y'all later!

Talast

PLEASE NOTE This blog entry is no longer valid. All Talast posts have been merged into this blog!

This blog is mostly to let you know the reason I'll be blogging less here.

I've started a blog which reviews music, films, products etc. I've done this partly to get paid for blogging. It's already been accepted by a company that pays you to talk about certain products and services, so it's going well.

Anyway, it's called Talast. If you like it, feel free to comment on reviews, either about their content or suggesting games/films to review. I will occasionally look at indie games, though these will likely only be high-profile ones such as Braid, World of Goo, etc.

Why Talast? It says why under the logo - "Taking A Look At Some Things". It was the catchiest name I could come up with while being unique. After all, most well-known sites have abnormal names.

On a gaming note, I released a poor shooter called RKF not so long ago. It can be found on my Game Jolt account and on YoYo Games.That's about it. I'll blog about games and personal life here, but it'll probably be less often now Talast is in my life.

~NAL

Magazine Coverage, Part 2

I got a game in a printed magazine again, so I'm happy. This time, I got into PCZone, a UK (again) magazine focusing on - get this - PCs. The game in question was Innoquous 3, my personal favourite creation.

I found out about it via a PDF version of the page in question (which you can read by clicking this), and am now trying to find out if that issue is the current one, or if I'll need to order a back issue. I'd like to get a copy of the magazine, as I did with last year's EDGE that featured the original Innoquous. It's a long shot, but if any of the readers of this blog happen to get PCZone, I'd appreciate a comment on the issue number or date of the magazine with the Innoquous 3 review in (page 96). Thanks!

Not yet touched any of the other videos I got from the charity shops (see previous blog). I doubt I'll watch Titanic or Independence Day any time soon, and I'll be downloading the Indiana Jones trilogy so as not to unwrap them and reduce their resellability when I'm bored of them. I'll watch Harry Enfield's shows, the Connolly stand up, and the Mr Bean episodes at some point, though.

Still not making much progress with game creation, what with the distraction of all the other entertainment I have on offer. TIM is still my active project. I've an urge to make some kind of puzzle game though - kinda like Bust-A-Move/Worms Blast, both of which I thoroughly enjoy (I still have my old copy of Worms Blast. Still play it too). I may end up canning TIM if I can't think of anything awesome to do with it, or going Innoquous 1 and half-ass-releasing it with its source code.

On a different note, my old school rang up yesterday. I failed all but one A Level. They thought my IT was close to a pass, so are allowing me the chance to tune up the work from home and re-entering it. I accepted - I don't have to go back there, and I could get another shiny notch on my slightly grubby education record. Suits me!

All bases covered? Fo sho! G'bye!
-NAL

Charity Shops are the Tits

That sums up what the majority of this post will encompass.

Had to wake up at 8am today (when you've fallen into the habit of sleeping between 6am and 2pm that's a kick to the nuts) to go with my mum to Diss (closest town to here) to withdraw money to pay bills and stuff. Anyway, Diss is a small town, but it has a huge amount of charity shops. Quite a few people no doubt look at charity shops and die a little inside. I know a couple of my friends that won't buy anything unless it's new. I consider myself more sensible, though.

Charity shops, to me, are the key to legally downloading near-free films. Put it this way - I can walk into a charity shop, and pick up five old VHS films for £1. That's 20p each. I then have the license to the films, so regardless of the quality of the VHS, I can download their .avi files legally. Easy peasy. Of course, they're not all 20p - it just depends on the charity shop.

So today, I bought the following from charity shops:

• Little Britain Live on DVD, wrapped, for £3

• Two Mr Bean videos, comprising two episodes each, 29p each

• Indiana Jones trilogy (not the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull shit), £2 - later discovered all three videos are wrapped

• Billy Connolly live show VHS, 20p

• Titanic VHS, 20p

• Independence Day VHS, 20p

• Harry Enfield and Friends, three episodes VHS, 20p

• Being John Malkovich VHS, 20p

The last one, Being John Malkovich, I'd been wanting to watch for a while. I did so earlier today - all I can say is "wow". If you haven't seen this film, next time you see it I'd advise you to buy it. It's stunning.

I'm up to 11 levels in The Inverse Man, but apart from that, no new game making progress to report.

Another story. About ten days ago I went with my dad to a car boot sale. I love these for a similar reason to charity shops, though with a car boot sale you can get ANYTHING cheap. I have a first edition PlayStation 3, aka a backward compatible one. I gave my dad my PS2 when I bought it since I didn't need it any more - I didn't consider errors in running PS2 games on a PS3 because I'd not experienced any problems five years prior when upgrading my PS1 to a PS2. Anyway, turns out there WERE a fair few problematic games:

Ape Escape (PS1): "Press Start" won't recognise the pressing of start
Canis Canem Edit: Occasionally freezes
Metal Gear Solid 3: Frequently freezes
Ratchet & Clank 2-3: Runs at about 15FPS
SSX3: Works for five minutes in-game then freezes

I'd wanted to play all of those for a while now, so when I went to the car boot sale I decided to scout out a PS2.

Got one with two controllers for £4. Works perfectly. I also bought a memory card for it, which amazingly cost £6. Sweet imbalance.

I also got DRIV3R for £4, Ratchet & Clank 1 for £4, the first two then-WWF Smackdown games on PS1 for £1 each, and two live Al Murray stand up shows.

That's pretty much it for this blog. I'll try to balance the game making and life sides of blog entries in the future, though, at times like this, when one is being more dominant than the other, something like this one will appear.

Goodbye for now!
-NAL

Yay, Pokémon Cards!

A while ago I joined a site called Swagbucks, which gives you virtual money for using their search (it's Google and Ask powered so it's not a bad search or anything). They give away a range of stuff. Anyway, I'd been using the site for about a month (total of 46 Swagbucks) when I suddenly found out a lot of the merchandise you can "buy" is US only. I was a wee bit disappointed, so I decided to spend them on something and quit using the site.

I found Pokémon cards. 15 Swagbucks each, though the cards would all be "common". So I got three. Today, I received them.

Anyway, since then, I've regained my interest in Swagbucks. I'm not gonna raise enough to get a good prize any time soon, but I'll probably keep getting weird stuff like Pokémon cards for the hell of it. :P

For those that actually give a shit about Pokémon cards, the three I got were:

Kangaskhan from some weird looking deck with a blue "e" in the bottom left corner
Scyther from the same deck
Machop from the Team Rocket deck

Game-making-wise, my active project is one called The Inverse Man. This is a several-level soon-to-be-artsy game with Innoquous-style level twisting and some other gimmicks, such as the man always being the inverse colour of the background.

A demo, you say? Oh, go on then.

In the land of sequels, Dreaming On E and Rockit are sitting patiently in line as their advanced brothers are slowly developed. Have a screenshot of new Dreaming On N and R2CKIT. TIM is priority at the moment, though, so don't expect these out any time soon.I sauntered over the $1 mark in ad-revenue on Game Jolt a couple of days ago. Only a few more decades and I can afford that car! Or, more likely, I'll cop out in a few months and buy something cheap off Steam with it. PayPal's handy like that.

I think that's all bases covered. Until next time!

LittleWaterPlanet

Yay, I got into the LittleBigPlanet Water beta! I'm not allowed to discuss it with anybody though, so that's pretty much it on that subject, other than you can see a video of it here.

I've started a game... then hit a wall. There's an error which pretty much breaks the game's appearance. I've added a topic about it to the GMC, and am still searching for a solution myself, but no such luck as yet.

I'm going to the dentist later today for a checkup. At the moment, I have a git. He seems to be incompetent. Last time I went for a checkup, for example, he jammed a metal tool into my gum, then told me it was bleeding as if it was my fault. The last dentist I had was Polish, and first time I had her, she told me I needed a "feeling". Scared me for a bit.

Anyway, short blog today. :P G'bye!

999

Had to make a blog entry on the only day of the year where all three numbers are identical. 09/09/09. Might as well celebrate 'em while we can, this is the last year the resulting date has a nice ring to it (101010? Psh), and there will only be three other dates like it in our probable lifetimes... unless we somehow make it to the first of January, 2101.Anyway, anyone that's following me on Twitter probably heard about a new, hour-long game called PixHell. For those that didn't... I made an hour-long game called PixHell. It was the result of a bullet-hell impulse. It turned out to be a very difficult game, but only because I wanted to make it look pretty with its bullet patterns.You can play PixHell from Game Jolt and YoYo Games. Alternatively, if you like chatting and gaming simultaneously, you can play a miniature, embedded version of it on the SigmaNine chatroom (along with a miniature, 45-level version of Ne Touchez Pas!). I'll likely be making mini versions of other games for that chatroom - they're not much effort and pleasant to play.As far as making games is concerned, I've had quite a few people say they'd like to see a follow up to Dreaming On E, a game which I finished purely because I had nothing else to do, and ended up pretty popular. To be honest, I'm leaning that way myself - DOE was fun to make. This time, I'd, of course, put a lot more effort into it. If you have a look at the last few blog entries, you'll see other stuff I'd like to make. Comment if you have any preference as to which game you'd like to see next.Anyway, that concludes this blog entry. See you in the next one!~NAL

R.I.P. Fan

The hottest summer in years, and my room fan has just decided to die on me. In other words, until I get a new one, I'm living in a microwave. Great.

The Game Jolt competition results were released yesterday. Neither It Only Takes A Second nor The Hilarity Of Murder placed, but I lost to three amazing games so there's no shame in that. I'm sure, come their third competition, I'll enter again, maybe that time without the added annoyance of Softwrap screwing up on me and losing me over half the making time.

I'm currently at a stage of game making I don't really like - bouncing between a number of concepts until I find something I want to continue working on. This takes a while - I'm very indecisive. Usually, as soon as I start working on something, one of the alternatives seems like a better idea. I have the ground engine of Rotatarama done so that might end up becoming my next active project. However, I'm still kind of wanting to remake or make a sequel to Elemence AuX. I still enjoy that game, and at the time (and for quite a few months after too) it was the best game I'd ever made. The only problem is that it aged badly - looking back, I see some of the design work I put into it and just think "why?!".

I just finished my third shift at the shop I work at (literally, about half an hour ago). I don't have to do another shift until next Monday, so for this week I hope to have something to work on properly.

Despite stiff competition from Sealegs, The Shins' song "Split Needles" remains Song of the Moment. I'm really into The Shins at the moment. Infact, while working, I actually listen to their three albums on repeat.

So, yeah. That is all. Goodbye!

~NAL