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[brettchalupa]

Name: a005 (previously who am i?)
Release: Late April
Platform: Windows (possibly XBLIG, OS X and Linux post-Windows release)
Technology: XNA (MonoGame for UNIX OSes)
Genre: 2D Action-Platformer, Biographical

who am i? is a game I am working on as part of 1 Month Game (a community of devs who undertake the challenge of making a game in four weeks).

who am i? is a game I’ve been thinking about making for a while now, and it has a pretty simple premise. You play as an android who has just been activated in the laboratory. Upon activation, the android becomes self-aware. This leads to a series of questions he asks himself throughout the game. It's a 2D side-scrolling action game, that I would describe as a mix of Mega Man and Metroidvania games. While on his Journey of self-discovery, he discovers that something is terribly wrong in the laboratory (uh-oh).

I would definitely say the game is biographical, as all of the questions in the game are ones I often ask myself. I'm pretty sure other people can related to self-doubt and the emotions they go through with self-discovery.

I decided to take part in 1 Month Game to set a deadline (finish line) to work towards. I also needed a mental break from the project I was working on for the past three months. I'll be doing my best to explain in detail the processes that I use for game development. I am using videos, pictures, and words to help convey them (hopefully a little something for everyone!).

who am i? Website

a005.me

This is definitely still a work in progress. Nothing exciting or worth while on the site yet. Will be there soon!

Easiest Way to Find the Latest Development Update

who am i? Posts on 1 Month Game or look at the latest post in this thread!

I have been doing my best to update everyday, including adding videos, descriptions, and mental notes!

Including the daily posts at 1 Month Game, I am going to do a weekly round-up post at the Hokori Interactive website.

Development Videos

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Weekly Round-up

• Week 1 - Getting the Ball Rolling

Please let me know if you have any feedback or anything else to say.  

[brettchalupa]

(Week 1 - Day 1) - Announcement, Research, and Design Intro

I've announced the game, and posted the hands teaser. I also went over some of the more technical details. who am i? is being built in XNA, with an engine and codebase I already created a few months back.

I also go into some detail about the influences for what I have in mind for the game. This includes Portal, Futurama's robots, Quantic Dream's Kara video, and a few other games and videos.

Lastly, I talk about two different ways to approach progress in platforming games. I'm still working this out!

[brettchalupa]

(Week 1 - Day 2) - Tools Overview

I thought it would be beneficial for others to see what tools I use for development. In this post I go over how I use Trello for organization and keeping track of what needs to get done, Pixen for making pixel art and spritesheets, and Github for version control hosting and issue tracking.

I also worked on the level editor code, but I am not quite ready to share that yet!

[brettchalupa]

(Week 1 - Day 3) - Creating a Teaser Site & Level Editor Video

Today was a super hectic day, but I got quite a bit done. I created a kind of teaser website for the game: a005.me. I've got some of the basic stuff I want there, but in the future I will add things like the demo, trailer, and whatever else is appropriate.

I also signed up for Vimeo Plus, which seems like it's worth it. I remember reading that they switched their policy with game developers, so I figured I mine as well give it a shot. The interface is clean and nice, and I prefer it over Youtube. I will be uploaded my videos to both services though, as I think it will be good to have a backup and to test both out.

Awful screenshot captured from the Vimeo video, sorry!

Probably the most interesting thing yet is

I made for the level editor. It's still a work-in-progress, but something I thought was worth sharing.

[Franklin's Ghost]

Just checked out the level editor video and it looks like it's coming along nicely, like the simplicity of using it. Seems very user friendly.

1 month project is a nice goal and looks like you're making good progress. Once you fix up the tile collision it'll feel pretty complete for a beginning.

[Eendhoorn]

I'll be following this, seems pretty interesting. Good job so far, seems like you did quite alot of work in 3 days. How many hours per day do you spend on the game?

[brettchalupa]

Just checked out the level editor video and it looks like it's coming along nicely, like the simplicity of using it. Seems very user friendly.

1 month project is a nice goal and looks like you're making good progress. Once you fix up the tile collision it'll feel pretty complete for a beginning.

I forget the keys and stuff that I have bound to certain functions daily, so I want to work on making some visual elements to the editor.

Hmm, exactly my thoughts! I'll get the collision detection working, I am hoping to get it completely working today. 

I'll be following this, seems pretty interesting. Good job so far, seems like you did quite alot of work in 3 days. How many hours per day do you spend on the game?

Thanks! I mentioned in the editor video (which if you didn't watch then that's okay!) that the editor and codebase is something I worked on last year for about six weeks. I took that and started updating it on Day 1 of the 1 Month Game. I do this full-time, so typically 12~14 hours a day. 

[brettchalupa]

(Week 1 - Day 4) - Collision Detection, Influences, & First Sketch

Today I got collision detection working a lot better. It was numbers issue on my end. I've got a little bit more work to do on collision detection, but it's getting there.

I also did some more visual research with Kara (Quantic Dream's tech demo), Ghost in the Shell, P.N.03, and Star Wars. I played some of The Iconoclasts for some more action platforming goodness.

Lastly, I did a bunch of sketching, with only one that came out not like utter crap:

[Happy Shabby Games]

Hey Brett, I checked out the level editor video and it seems pretty neat. I'd love to switch between editing and testing levels that fast. I'm using game maker so it's not as bad as the process you described with ogmo editor, but it would still be super convenient. Good luck with this.

[brettchalupa]

Hey Brett, I checked out the level editor video and it seems pretty neat. I'd love to switch between editing and testing levels that fast. I'm using game maker so it's not as bad as the process you described with ogmo editor, but it would still be super convenient. Good luck with this.

Thanks! I'm not sure if it's possible to make an in-game editor in GameMaker, but maybe! It's definitely been useful for trying things out quickly and working on levels. 

[brettchalupa]

(Week 1 - Day 5) - Sketches, Scripts & Story

Yesterday I worked on some more sketches, which was a nice change of pace. I also started to organize some stuff I need to work on, as well as writing some parts of the tiny script. I've also figured out the scope of the game and the story, so that's pretty good!

I've never done any creative writing before or even really design a story, so this is all new territory for me. I am really enjoying it, and I am excited to get feedback when people play it!

Today I will probably post to screenshot Saturday, work on some more level editor stuff, plan out what the next week will be (set some goals), and probably start doing some more pixel art.

[brettchalupa]

(Week 1 - Day 6 & 7) Slow Saturday™ & Slow Sunday™

Just working on a little bit of everything at this point - sprites, level editor stuff, audio, and figuring out enemy variety.



Screenshot with an early shader for the first level (what you see is not the design of the first level, just random tiles). Won't be in the game much at all, as it is quite ugly.  

[brettchalupa]

(Week 2 - Day 1) White, Bullets, and Sprites

New Screenshots





I changed all of the backgrounds in the game to white, as it is much more fitting for the game. Now you can see the grid in the level editor. I also changed the fire to an orange-red color. The door sprite has also been changed (and the one is the pictures is old, as there was a pixelling mistake).

TODO

Here is a bit of an overview of what I am planning for the next two weeks. I didn't create this the first week as I wasn't sure of the scope of the project or what it would consist of. I know I am missing stuff, but that's alright! 

Week 2

• get bullets firing from the player
• implement enemies with simple AI
• refine collision detection
• work on the first batch of enemy sprites
• work on preliminary tile sheets
• implement layered tiling and tile select in the level editor
• work on place holder music and spritesheets

Week 3

• add text output into the level editor for the dialogue
• implement sound effects
• optimize code
• implement music for the levels
• fix camera bounds
• add zooming to the level editor

Week 4

• POLISH
• finalize the sound effects
• finalze the game's audio
• test the game
• send the game out for testing for those who are interested
• release a demo for Windows (host on the website or on AWS)
• update the a005.me website
• contact Humble Bundle to see if Humble Store is an option, prepare to put the game on Indievania
• port the game to Mac and Linux using MonoGame
• release the game

Week +

• test the game on Xbox 360
• consider the viability of releasing it on XBLIG
• think about releasing the level editor and source code to the public

Tomorrow

Sprite work! I didn't get around to working sprites at the time of posting this, as I am working on some other minor things. Then I will implement the new sprites in the game, get bullets firing, and add some level editor features.

[Inanimate]

Having everything white is pretty tough on the eyes, honestly.

[brettchalupa]

Having everything white is pretty tough on the eyes, honestly.

I definitely agree, but the white give me a better idea of the visuals for now until I have the backgrounds in there.  

[brettchalupa]

Was sick two days ago, programmed yesterday and today. I've almost got the different layers working in the level editor. This will allow the user (me) to press tab to switch between the current layer being edited in the level. I've also started to prepare for the placement of different tiles.

I had to stop in the middle of a strange spot tonight, so nothing exciting or new unless looking at code is exciting for you. 

[spolvid]

Looking cool so far!

Screenshot with an early shader for the first level (what you see is not the design of the first level, just random tiles). Won't be in the game much at all, as it is quite ugly.  

I think the shader looks good. What's the problem you're having with it?

[brettchalupa]

Looking cool so far!

Screenshot with an early shader for the first level (what you see is not the design of the first level, just random tiles). Won't be in the game much at all, as it is quite ugly.  

I think the shader looks good. What's the problem you're having with it?

It looked like too much darkness, so I've actually just increased the radius of the shader. Now it's a little less dark and further out towards the edges. Will post a screenshot with that update, as I think I may leave it. 

[brettchalupa]

(Week 3 - Day 1) - Layers!

I started off by making a video of me coding, per a kind request:

.

That may or may not be interesting. Depends on who you are! It's a ~3 minute video of me coding at 6x speed in Visual Studio 2010.

I've also got layers working in the game with the level editor. Right now there are three layers - the background, the mainground, and the foreground. Mainground is where collision and player resides. Background is exactly what it sounds like. Foreground is for some fun visual elements.




Today was a good day. Happy with my progress and looking forward to tomorrow.
 

[brettchalupa]

Wow, the week flew by super quick. I've redrawn some tiles, fixed some problems with the level editor, and just getting a few steps closer each day.