I propose we stop talking about talking about videogames and start talking about making videogames.

Fixed.

Hm, I would not disagree with you.   (Though, of course I see the benefit of discussion.  I wouldn't be moderating this forum if I didn't.)

I think theoretical discussions would be more fine in my book, if so many people wouldn't get stuck on that level and never go any further. You can always discuss your design principles after you make an awesome game based on them . It's a well-deserved break from development then, and discussing existing games/designs always seems more valuable to me than theorizing till the cows come home. 

Good for them that they already follow the latest trends

I propose we stop talking about talking about videogames and start talking about making videogames.

Fixed.

"Dress up as a mage and get the game for free" contest anyone? 

It's on!

Congratulations to all the nominees! 

[must]

I wouldn't call them "sprites".
 

Heh, what would you call them then? 

Yeah, I'm wondering too. What makes them not sprites?

Do you remember this? Well... I made matching earrings*  :

Awesome .

We should start selling ArcMagi merchandise... and then start ArcMagi clothing line... and then start a trend that every fancy kid must dress up like a wizard... 

It is true. I was pretty surprized at first too. One of the GM's biggest problems imho is that it doesn't really leave the choice of having a value as a float or integer to the user. And it uses floats for most stuff. It sometimes causes problems with inaccuracy if you are not aware of that.

image_speed is a float value that is added to image_index every step. It gets inaccurate after few cycles. I just ran a simple test to make sure I'm not telling bullshit. I set image_speed to 0.1 and started watching image_index in debug mode. After few cycles of it going normally: 0.10, 0.20, 0.30... I started getting 0.100000, 0.200000, 0.300000, meaning that there was some inaccuracy several places after the coma. if(image_index=5) statement was never true. 

first.
what is the proper spelling of beseech?

Beseech.

second.
i am having some code trouble. when a player collides with this empty patch of dirt, flowers sprout. I have a 6 frame animation of the flowers growing. the problem is it never stops. it jsut loops the animation over and over again.

here is the gml I am using.(variable grow is set to 0 on create)

called during a collision event

if grow=0
    {
        grow=1
        image_alpha=1
        sprite_index=spr_grow_middle
        image_speed=.1
    }


if image_index=5
    {
        image_speed=0
    }

Okay, for starters why the image_index check is done within the collision event? In that case it will only apply if the player still collides with the patch of dirt. If he will lose contact before the animation ends, the animation will loop endlessly.

As for the main problem, it's caused by inaccuracy. Image_index will probably never be exactly 5 to make the if statement true. You could replace it with...

if floor(image_index)=5
    {
        image_speed=0
    }

and put it within the step event of the patch object. Or you could do it the right way and just create animation end event (it's within other category) in the patch object and put this there:

image_speed=0

The second solution is more optimal.

Thanks. We hope to have the gameplay improved by the same level .

The girl and the monster (friendly one)

Awesome  .

the forum link is broken

Thanks. Fixed.

when archmagi will be out?

Summer 2009 perhaps. Just don't take my word on that .

Let us know how the price reduction works out!

Sure.

[List of changes and more info Demo download Purchase link]

Time for me to spam TIGS with my first announcement.

We released a new version of MAGI, dropped the price to $15.95 and started a cool promotion that will grant a 50% discount for ArcMagi to anybody that bought (or will buy) the original game.

Many factors are involved. The recession is at rampage and I don't feel like charging full price for my game, when people have troubles with their day-to-day expenses. Also, the sequel is coming. It's expensive to make, and frankly, I need every single sale I can get.

The 50% off promotion is my token of gratitude towards all the great folks who bought the game. Without them there would be no ArcMagi. All the money I raised through the MAGI sales were used in the development of updates and now the sequel. Thanks, guys.

So yeah, if someone wants to kick some wizard butt for 15 bucks, now's the chance .


List of changes and more info

Demo download

Purchase link

Screenshots:

From other news, a section about ArcMagi was crated on our forum. Every now and then we will drop interesting bits of development info there. Check it out if you want. We already have a music composition diary by Rob and a post about drawing and animation techniques used by Lurk.

Also,  .

640x480 is fine for most games. I kind of regret making [Immortal Defense] 1024x768 -- it looks nice, but just the fill rate makes it much slower. Use dedicated resolutions, they work faster than windowed and much, much faster than stretched.

 
the world seriously needs a better game editor than this one :\

Don't take Rinku's words too literally. That he said he thinks 640x480 is enough for most game is his personal opinion, not GM's limitation. Of course, lower resolution always means less fillrate for any game, but it's not like GM can't handle more. ArcMagi is in 1024x768, very heavy on graphical effects, and still has no trouble running even on a 6 years old laptop with integrated Intel graphic card.

Also, Rinku's games tend to be more CPU heavy because of the coding techniques he uses (checking most stuff every "Step" instead of using dedicated events) and general architecture of his games. Still, Immortal Defense ran smoothly on my old Celeron 1100MHz with GeForce5500fx.
 

What a year 2008 was. I:

- Finally fully established my position as a professional game designer
- Met Marius - my current programmer and reminded myself how awesome indies are
- Got lots of consoles and great games to play
- Started my work on ArcMagi
- Earned more money than through my whole former life
- Spent more money than through my whole former life
- Learned that living on my own is cool but has some disadvantages (see the above)
- Released one fun casual game that enjoyed mild success
- Released one fun casual game that enjoyed big success
- For the first time had to let a member of my own development team go
- Met Lurk and again reminded myself how awesome indies are
- Hit 5 years mark with my relationship and realized I'm still as in love as when it started
- Got the first project at my job where I act as the main designer

Brace yourself, 2009! Here I come!

I play the games that I like.

But my main point of the post is that sex or even anything vaguely sexually related in videogames seems to be looked down upon

Which reminds me of an anecdote. When we were working on The Witcher, we had a request from ESRB to somehow cover the nipples on vampiress' breasts for the USA version of the game. So we covered them with blood splatters, and everything was fine.
Covering breasts with blood, gotta love USA's moral principles .

[worst]

Seemingly childish, maybe. But it's not the worst kind of self-promotion, is it?

Running around throwing fecal matter at people yelling the name of your game through a megaphone isn't the worst form of self promotion. It's still not a very good idea though.

But boy is it worth it! 

Why do I get the impression you did not enjoy Aquaria? I'm only ten and a half hours in, so I can't really pass judgement yet, but so far I have not felt that my money was wasted.

Oooh only ten and a half hours of swimming around doing nothing challenging. But it's so pretty and you're EXPLORING, right?

Why did you buy it then? The demo shows pretty well that it's a relatively slow-paced game.

Actually, the pacing changes as the game progresses. That's one of the interesting things about the game, especially for people who assume its either just laid back swimming around all the time or action all the time.

Sure. But it still apllies that he had the demo to check if the game fits his tastes. And it features the slowest moment of the game, so his complains about Aquaria being too laid back mean he either didn't played the demo, or bought the game even while he knew what he's getting.
It's okay to dislike a game. But it's hard ro blame it for "wasting your money" when you are given simple opportunity to test if what you get is what you want.


Anyway, is the $20 price a timed promotion or permanent thing?

Why do I get the impression you did not enjoy Aquaria? I'm only ten and a half hours in, so I can't really pass judgement yet, but so far I have not felt that my money was wasted.

Oooh only ten and a half hours of swimming around doing nothing challenging. But it's so pretty and you're EXPLORING, right?

Why did you buy it then? The demo shows pretty well that it's a relatively slow-paced game.

I would make a totally awesome game where two mages beat the crap out of each other with fireballz and particulz, and damn, more particulz!!!

Fuck, wait...