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[Stegersaurus]

EDIT: THIS GAME IS OUT ON THE TOWN! GO! GO PLAY IT NOW ON YOUR XBOX!

I've just started on my latest XBLIG game, which from this topic title is clearly unnamed still called Mega Monster Mania. I've decided to try something with this and I'm going to try to maintain a daily video-cast of my progress on the game, and see if I can fit in some design talk in the videos over time. Hopefully my video-presentation skills will get better (though don't expect my voice to get much clearer, hah) and maybe people can make suggestions or have questions about game development that I can answer on the show. This is my first time attempting something like this, so I'm hoping to get better as it goes on, but if you're interested go check it out!

Latest Episode
Episode 40: Feedback!



Episodes so far
Episode 1:


Episode 2, Rat Crossbow! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1hwj-q81Fg
Episode 3, Bloody messes! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDiMYfLUGxw
Episode 4, Bunnies that shoot arrows! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd32yEidfgA
Episode 5, Inventory! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt_oJ1auo1E
Battle Beat Diversion Day 1, RROD'd!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGwH0_QSDIs
Episode 6: Maps! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebafWLQvMio
Episode 7: Split-4! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYYs1jgs1jk
Episode 8, Cyclops! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBJfhDQ1ppY
Episode 9, Bullet Hell! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUKP5jdnYv8
Episode 10, Swords and... swords! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNUumVIwZiE
Episode 11, Shapely rooms! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8bS_FAhSCY
Episode 12, The HUD! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhgFFz6PoBE
Episode 13, Start Screen! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuPjaV2cQD0
Episode 14, Fog of War! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_WCbXugEyI
Episode 15, Weapon Select! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmRRUtpBv9s
Episode 16, Lazy Excuses! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp5zdJ_MZQA
Episode 17, Happy New Year/Optimize! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8JU6wH2oJE
Episode 18, Super Optimize! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azYVpKxIzHQ
Episode 19, Tiles! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMekHxtFOoc
Episode 20, Property graphics! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98oK5THZn7Q
Episode 21, Saving and Loading! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPZH3HR76R0
Episode 22, Sparkles and  Enemies! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2S2BoxBKUA
Episode 23, Level advancement! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVGqrE8qXbg
Episode 24, Tool! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mOpufWtm28
Episode 25, Sell! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwc03wVkHN4
Episode 26, Armor! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPY_ZFpaTvY
Episode 27, Fix and Polish! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WCAn0rRPcE
Episode 28, What's in a name? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQeck1Qxz4Y
Episode 29: Balancing Act! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL-lej64qTI
Episode 30: Overtime! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIQ7GBZP1xo
Episode 31: Balancing swords! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y77zXMQMEc0
Episode 32: Shopping! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rldrzo57xM
Episode 33: Blink! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMG_Gpe7WIQ
Episode 34: Boxes! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88mIJTayjZs
Episode 35: Start Screen again! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcaoUxsm0mM
Episode 36: I dunno! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiGtKVqHlWo
Episode 37: iPad rant! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWYPWEE-yrs
Episode 38: Sounds! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfaFVqRS3IA
Episode 39: Lives! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iLui6XLtDY
Episode 40: Feedback! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdkrH7D4FrA

[Stegersaurus]

Day 2 is out! I've got level geometry, elemental attacks, and a rat-crossbow! Clearly this is a marvel of technology.

[BlueSweatshirt]

If not, this is clearly an awesome idea. 

I'm subscribing to your channel so I can get easy access to your new videos daily.

[Stegersaurus]

Thanks for the encouragement Jakman

Day 3 is online! Bloody messes! Transitions! No new optimizations! All this and more!

[Damian]

That little head is just brilliant! Actually all those square creatures look awesome.
The game seems really hard from the third video. I'll be watching daily

[Stegersaurus]

Episode 4 is up! With the way progress is shaping up (sometimes slowly or hard to notice changes from day to day) I'm thinking future episodes may get more ranting and less "describing changes on the screen". It may make things a bit more "interesting" to watch later on also.

[Stegersaurus]

Today's episode (day 5) is up! Tomorrows will likely be trying something new, because yesterday's work progress didn't have anything done that would be really visible to people watching the videos. Eep!

[Bones]

This is looking great and I expect it to go well.
I think the hud is a little too in the middle of the room, is the resolution going to be as large as the video shown?
If so maybe try a more contained GUI rather then large icons displayed.

The big spinning floating sword is quite a distraction.

What if you had the characters hold out their weapons at all times?
That way the weapon does not just disappear suddenly.
Like for the sword it could start on the left side and after a swipe it would change sides of the player.

This video shows exactly what I'm trying to say.




I also think this video will give you some awesome inspiration towards adding new things to your dev. :D

[Stegersaurus]

Thanks Bones. I've looked a bit at 4hr RPG which has a lot of similarities . I think the main difference between them is the class-based and leveling system in 4hr RPG and the focus on multiplayer in my own game (yup you heard me, I won't have leveling).

Not a traditional episode today. I sadly didn't work on the game this Sunday and was instead doing final testing on my game Battle Beat, so I talk about that instead.

[Bones]

That and yours has like pushing physics among other things.
Hmm, no leveling eh? So it will all be equipment based then I assume? Will there be any magic? Or are all the weapons just going to be elemental?

If that is the case, maybe you should think of having two attacks like, perhaps a stab and a slash?
Just an idea.

Too bad you didnt work on it. 
I was looking forward to an update of some kind.

[Stegersaurus]

Those are awesome sprites Bones. I gotta step up my game for art. Sorry that yesterday's episode was pretty much nothin. Today's episode is made now. Been working on the map generator!

Episode 6: Maps!

[Bones]

Nice, glad to see your work on an algorithm for map generation.

I'm thinking your HUD is a bit LARGE and I dont like how the effect of the sword is effected by you moving around.
Like it trails as you move, and it looks odd for it being a HUD item.
If you made it show the weapons are always showing then you would not need a weapon icon hovering above the character.

Also maybe think about changing the mini map with the health bar.
And then you could have the stat bar on the middle right side.

Right now placement of everything looks kind random not very organized for the eye to read it, things are floating in the middle of the screen.
The health bar being at the top right while a huge potion bottle and sword take up more space then the player does.
And because of this they draw attention away from the center of the screen.


Heh...  these are really fun.
I'd offer to do art for you but it's pixel art which doesn't tend to rotate well.

[Stegersaurus]

The HUD is large, especially when you consider the screen can be split into 4 quadrants. I mostly haven't gotten to reorganizing it yet, so everything is kind of randomly placed just so I can track the information, even if it's a bit "ugly" to look at. The map itself probably won't have separate maps for each player, so with split screen I'll probably put the map near the center of the screen as opposed to alongside health and other stats. One thing I have to be careful of is also the 80% rule for XBox Indie games. If you make a game for XBox indie games all important info has to be within the inner 80% of the screen's real estate, or else it's not guaranteed that players will see it. Also text has to be of a certain size (at least when rescaled) so people with low-def TVs can still read it.

Anyways, episode 7 is up too!

[Stegersaurus]

Episode/Day 8 is up, showing new enemies starting to crop up.

[iPope]

I am loving this series, really do keep it up! The game is looking great.

[Stegersaurus]

Episode 9 is up, and more enemies are there! With all these projectile enemies I feel like I'm playing a shmup!

[Stegersaurus]

Episode 10 is up, with a variety of nicer swords/bows and a new usable item (but no new menu graphic for that one, pfft!)

[Stegersaurus]

More procedural level generation! Replaced those generic square rooms with custom shapes I can define internally, as well as a way to make "wrong" paths. This should also help provide some more variation once I have different world themes in place.

[s0]

Just dropping by to say I've been following this and it looks like it's shaping up to be pretty good! Shame I don't have XBLIG in my country. 

[Stegersaurus]

Thanks! I might push out a PC version as well. The biggest hurdle for me on a PC version though is setting up a "proper" installer for the game (packaging in the XNA requirements and not using Visual Studio's fairly lousy "publish" feature is not something I jump at the opportunity to confront)