Have you tried SFXR?

It is a program that is designed to create retro sound effects.  I've used it in my last couple of games and have been VERY happy with the results.

You might want to give it a try!

* Edit
Doh, you're right John.  I guess I should read more carefully next time!  I'm not quite sure how I missed that...

[STUFF I'VE DONE]

Holy cow!  I didn't realize it's been a month since the last update.  Jesus Christ that's a long time...

But, thanks for comments OneMoreGo and PGil.  I appreciate you taking the time to play the game!

I was supposed to be finished with the game LAST month, but am still working on it.  Luckily, I'm VERY close to finishing it.  In any case, in keeping with my previous posts:

STUFF I'VE DONE
Finished the bosses.
Completed all of the levels (minus tiling).  I've ended up cutting the number of levels by 4.  Yeah, it sucks, but the game is taking too long to finish so it had to be done.
Minor tweaks that were necessary.  I've changed the controls slightly, for example.

From what I can tell, the game is pretty bug free.  It still has that long loading time, but that's PROBABLY because levels are loaded externally.  I say PROBABLY because is possible that I designed rooms too big...

But, stuff is getting finished.  It's now just a matter of time...

UPCOMING STUFF TO DO
Tile each level.  This is a long and boring process.  But, at least, it's easy.
Design 4 more story sequences.  This ain't Citizen Kane, so this should be easy as well.
Finish spriting two more bosses.
Create a credit sequence.

I will actually try to find a sponsor for the game.  I originally didn't think the game would do well AND I didn't want to deal with finding each musician who's worked I used and working out an agreement with them (I found the music from 8Bit Collective).  After thinking about it, however, I figured, what the hell?  I might be able to make a couple of hundreds of dollars or so.  I figured that Earth Tower Defense managed to get around 300,000 plays or so, so I should be able to meet that same number.  That's gotta be worth something, eh?

So, hopefully that goes well.

On worse news, I actually lost about a week's worth of time because of the Great Computer Failure of 2010.  Worse than that, I had to switch over to using a Mac.  If you didn't know, Flash and Macs aren't exactly friendly with each other...

But, things could be worse.  And, work is getting done slowly but surely.  I'm excited to FINISH another game and am looking forward to working on something a bit shorter!

This has been mentioned before (by me, of course), but I think that the REAL money in Flash is in building a large library of games.  I don't think that you should necessarily look at each game as a make it or break it deal.

Just that each tiny game will help you in the long run of:
- learning new skills
- getting better at marketing
- gaining an audience
- making a tiny bit of money

For example, suppose you made a game in a month and it managed to earn no sponsorship and $100 dollars in ads over 6 months.  You might say that that is a failure.  But, if you could continue to make a game a month and earn the same amount of money, you're in a pretty decent position to earn some serious cash...

I could be wrong, of course

Agree on the menu part.  Only show that Menu screen once (if even that).  There's no reason to be seen twice.

I would also cut down on the dialog.  That's just a personal thing as I could see how someone else would be interested.

Agreed with the far West thing.  It was just something that slowed the video down a lot.

I might actually make a video that has larger words that flash on the screen that describe what the oncoming scene is.  Like, have a "Epic Magic Fireballs" and then show it.

The way the video is now, I kind of feel like I've seen the entire game.  

But, I liked the summoned creatures.  Maybe you should show those more.

And, increase the number of mages that you show.  I can understand that you want to keep that sort of stuff in the dark, but seeing the same three is kind of boring.

Overall, it was good.  
I'm just throwing out ideas that you might think about.  The video did a great job of showing the game off.  I've been familiar with the game for some time and I have to say that it looks beautiful.

I'm sure that, if I liked that sort of game, I'd be interested in buying it.

Yeah, just go for it!

If the idea has already been done twice, then the idea's already been ripped off.

Plus, the majority of games in existence are rip offs of another game...

The way I do it is the way that PsySal is suggesting.  Basically, the most important elements of a level system are...

- the naming of each level has to make sense. 
- you fit "room connectors" (ie things that move you from one room to the next) to fit that naming system.

Um.. to give a specific example:

Currently, in my new game Platform Explorer, there are essentially two types of levels:

1.  Platforming levels (a la Super Mario Bros).
2.  Tank levels

Each Platforming level has 3 rooms in it.  The rooms are named as such:
level_[the number of the level]_[the number of the room I'm in]

So, if I was in Level 0 and Room 1, the name would be "level_0_1".

Because I'm making a simple game, rooms are connected to the room above it and below it.  Rooms can have a MAXIMUM of two exits.

So, level_0_0 is connected to level_0_1.
And, level_0_1 is connected to level_0_0 and level_0_2.
And, level_0_2 is connected to level_0_1.

This is achieved by having two types of doors - a door that either increases the room that you are in or decreases the room you are in.  The doors look the same to the audience and perform the same action, it's just that one type increases a number and the other decreases.

With the two door system, I can essentially, build levels that can have an infinite number of rooms - for example, I would just have to add an "increasing door" to the end of level_0_2 to connect it to level_0_3 (which I actually do for bosses).

The two level types are connected by a Map, and the Map performs a pretty simple function - if it's a tank level, it moves the game into the appropriate tank level (levelTank_0, levelTank_1, or levelTank_2).  If it's a platforming level, it figures out the level to enter and will always start the player at Room 0.

It's a simple and effective system that works pretty well.  I like it because it was easy to code and easy to implement.

**************************
If, on the other hand, you wanted an infinite number of entrances and exits for levels, the best way that I've found is to create a system where door types are used.

The basic idea with this is that:
1.  Each Room can only contain one of each type of door.
2.  Each door will also contain the room that it should move the game to.

For example, if you have four rooms with the following:

Code:

Room_0:
   door_type0 [which connects to Room_1]
   door_type1 [which connects to Room_2]
   door_type2 [which connects to Room_3]

Room_1:
   door_type0 [which connects to Room_0]

Room_2:
   door_type0 [which connects to Room_1000]
   door_type1 [which connects to Room_0]

Room_3:
   door_type2 [which connects to Room_0]

Then, all you do is store the type of door that you used as a global variable, load the appropriate level, then move to the correct door type.

For example:

1. You're in Room_0 and touch door_type1 to begin the process of exiting the room.

2.  The screen goes black or whatever room transition affect you want occurs.

3.  You save type of door you left out of:

Code:

TheLastDoorTypeIUsed = 1;

4.  You probably will want to save the room that you will now load (in this case Room_2).  So, you save that somewhere:

Code:

TheRoomImAboutToLoad = Room_2;

5.  You kill / deactivate all of the objects in the current room.

6.  You load the Room that you need to load (in this case, it's Room_2).

7.  You scan the room to find the exit type that you just left out of.  So, in this case, you check to see if there's a door_type1. 
If there is, congratulations!  You can now start the room.
If there isn't, you made a mistake and forgot to create this door_type for this room.

Obviously, there is a lot more work in this system.  The chance of misspelling something or deleting something that shouldn't have been deleted is high. 

But, if that's the only way that I've ever come up with to do this...

Amaranth, the woman who makes the Aveyond RPG games, wrote a little quick guide about How To See Your Game Online.  It does a good job of going over a lot of the basic stuff (but, there's been some argument over her use of DRM).

In fact, if I were you, I'd just head over to the indie game forums and search "Sell A Game" or that sort of stuff.  The majority of the games on tigsource seem to be freeware and the same question has been asked (and answered) billions of times on the indiegamer forums.

Generally, the indiegamer forums are for people who are interested in "making a business" in selling and making indie games.  

Hope that helps!

Earth Tower Defense has had over 300,000 IMPRESSIONS according to Mocchi.  I didn't find a sponsor for it...

The game has earned me about $40 in revenue. Granted Mochi isn't known for paying well...

I don't think I've heard of ANYONE who has a 5% click through rate, let alone finds that many UNIQUE visitors.  I didn't even know that sponsors paid extra for unique visitors.

Of course, there are some people that strike lucky, like the I MA3D A GAM WITH ZOMBIES (or something like that the title) that sold a absurd amount of copies... But I am not relying on luck here.

It sounds to me like that's exactly what you want to happen... to get extremely lucky.

You basically want to be successful before actually being successful.  I think that's the hope of pretty much everybody who creates any sort of art...

Practically, nobody is going to invest in a project from somebody without prior success.  In fact, check out the indiegamer forums because the question of "How can I get money to continue designing games" appears pretty frequently there...

In other words, there is no catch-22.  You're in the same position as (practically) everybody else on these forums...

I've been in the same position as you many times.

Like everyone else said, you just have to learn to do everything that you can.  And, yes, assume that people will flake on you.

After you've completed more and more work and build more relationships, it should be easier to find help.

It sucks but that's the way life goes.

(Plus, try looking up gamedev.net resources for music.  There are places to get free music from.)

Game developers don't have to live in poverty in the USA, except perhaps during dire recessions.  There's nothing stopping anyone from working 3..6 months out of the year on something non-game that pays well, and the rest of the time on your own stuff.

I think it's a bit harder than that...

It's not like there are a bunch of GREAT paying jobs that just anyone can waltz in and get.

The better the job, the more people want it.  Do you know how many people would KILL to work only 3-6 months the year?

I'm not trying to say that it's not possible.  But... well, since, I'm looking for a job, it's kind of frustrating that you feel like there are just shit tons of great jobs lying around for anyone somewhat qualified...

[STUFF I'VE DONE]

Oh, boy.  About two weeks since the last major update... That's what I get for trying to get a demo prepared.

I've been sitting around busting my ass for the past two weeks just trying to get this to a level that is acceptable.  I finally have!

Click Here To Play The Platform Explorer Demo

So, give it a play and tell me what you think of it or I'll be upset.  Keep in mind that you can pretty much play until the second level (I haven't tiled more than two levels).

STUFF I'VE DONE
A bunch of enemy art was done.  They were done in that crappy art style, but I kind of like it, so, I'll stick with it.
Social Media buttons were added to the intro menu.  I think they're hidden by the background.  What do you guys think?
SOUND has been put in (finally).  This was probably the most boring and difficult part that I've experienced.  I basically scored the internet and used sfxr (which makes retro sound effects automatically).  The music came from some good people at 8 bit collective.
Saving and Loading has been put in.  Because I don't really have a full understand of Shared Objects, I find it difficult to work with them.  I was having a problem at first implementing saving and loading, but I finally got it.

As predicted, things were pretty easy, but just took a long time.  There were a shit ton of little bugs that I needed to fix that took a while...

As I mentioned before, all of that sound was a real pain in the ass.  I actually think that I hate dealing with sound.  Well, it's not that I hate dealing with sounds, it's just that I don't know how to make the sounds that I think would sound good for the game.  As such, I just end up listening to the same sounds over and over trying to see which one fits better...

Luckily, I've found some that I think suits the game decently enough.  If anyone has any comments, please share!

UPCOMING STUFF TO DO
Edit the levels that I've already completed.  I've finished about 2-3 levels that pretty much need to be tweaked.  Right now, I kind of think the game is too easy...
Finish the rest of the levels.  This is a long process of designing and then tiling.  So, that's no fun...
Design and program more enemies.
Design and program 3 more bosses.  I have actually made the game slightly longer than I originally wanted to because of the way the map is shaped.  If I hadn't increased the number of levels, the game could have been completed in about 30 minutes or so...

I suspect that the game wouldn't really do well on FGL, so I'm not going to bother finding a sponsor or anything like that.  Plus, because of the music that I used, I'd have to end up contacting each one of the musicians and finding out what the deal is with that.

As such, I'm just going to release the game as is.  I figure at worst, it'll earn a couple of pennies and drive a bit more traffic to the site.

If you've been reading the Official Jr. Jellybeans Blog, than you'd know that I'm getting kind of sick of working on this game.  Certainly, a part of this feeling is that I don't really expect it to go all that well.  But, I promised myself to finish the damn thing and that's exactly what I'm going to do.

Furthermore, I'm really looking forward to hooking up with some people in the next game.  I think that design wise, Platform Explorer isn't too bad, but, it lacks a certain amount of polish that I just won't be able to provide...  Hopefully, for the next game, I'll find a nice team to work with!

I think that people's impression of the flash market is now a little off.  It's just like the iPhone market in that there are some successes, but a lot more failures.

I suspect that people would be more successful if they did what the Nitrome team has does - produce A LOT of high quality games quickly.

[STUFF I'VE DONE]

Thanks for the encouragement guys!  That really means a lot and really encourages me to keep going.  I really appreciate that.

New Video -


This video is particularly interesting because it show's the workings of the Tank level with bad art.  I always found that stuff sort of interesting...

STUFF I'VE DONE
Tank Level is finished.  I need to create the art for it, but it's mostly programmed.
Random fixes.  Can't recall any off the top of my head, but I know that I've done some random stuff.

To be perfectly honest, THE MAJORITY OF THE TOUGH PROGRAMMING IS DONE.  Assuming that things are fun and enjoyable, most of the thinking has been done.  It's been fun and a challenge sometimes, but it's nice to get to some easy stuff again...

UPCOMING STUFF TO DO
Random bug fixes.  I can't think of any off the top of my head, but, I'll give the game a playthrough and see what I find.
All of the art.  I'm going to start with the Tank Section art, then work on the enemies.  This includes the actual gameplay elements, backgrounds, and tiles.
Add Twitter and Facebook buttons to the intro menu.  I've seen other games do this and would like to do it myself.
Create Preloader.
Put in the sound.  While this will be easy, I always hated doing sound stuff.  Mostly because it's hard to make / find all of the sounds I have in my mind...
Release a demo.  Should be pretty easy once everything is finished.


RANDOM THOUGHTS
There's still a lot of little work to be done, but, again, it's nice to be done with the major stuff.  I've had experience doing everything that still needs to be done, so, the rest of the development should go quickly.

I still have to build a couple of levels (and outright redo a couple of levels), and those take some time.  But, with the system already in place, adding stuff is remarkably easy...

On an entirely different note, I'm... frustrated because I wish that I had optimized the engine a bit more.  See, I've come to the realization that, instead of adding and removing children (objects) in each room, I should just create all of the game objects when the game starts up and swamp them in and out of the game as needed.  I'm assuming that this requires more RAM overall, but it'll probably help with the speed of the game as well as in making sure there are no memory leaks.

I tossed and turned over this for some time, then came to the realization that it would take too long to redo the engine as such.  Furthermore, I'd be afraid that I missed some stuff and make things worse.

Still, I'll try using it in the next game.

@ Paul I've looked over a couple of tutorials in the past, but, you're right that relooking over them, is probably a good idea.  I'll check em out.  But, I don't think art is my forte...

@ Kren That is a sweet picture!  I'd be interested in a collabo if you could figure out what your schedule is like in school.

At the end of the day, I'd be pretty happy with the art as is, however.  My biggest fear in finding someone to work with artisticly is that they'll just bail on me.  As I said, it's happened before, and I'm getting a little... irked by it.

My main concern with these indie games is that I just finish them.  Not just for the sake of finishing them, mind you.  But, also as a display that I finish projects that I start.  I figure that if I can finish more games, it should help when I need an art or a sound guy.

Plus, the way things are going now, I'm learning a little about art.  I figure that the only way to learn something is to do it, eh

Thanks for all of the comments!

Hey guys, thanks for checking out the game!

Yeah, there is a story and you guys are BOTH right - he's a cyborg ninja!  Imagine that!  But, there isn't much to the story.  I hope that, at least, the ending is kind of neat.

As for the art, I can't say that I like it much myself.  I had to do the art myself just like the last game (Earth Tower Defense). 

While I could find an artist, it would take a long time and I've had the last couple of artists just bail on me.  Currently, I'm going through a "FINISH THE GAME AT ALL COSTS" kick.  It's kind of annoying, but what can I do (I've whined about this subject on the blog if you want to know more).

I recently spoke with an old artist and we might do a collabo on the next game, so, hopefully, that works out okay.

In any case, thanks for the support.

[STUFF I'VE DONE]

Oh, boy.  I keep falling behind

Here's the latest video.  Not a lot has changed, but there have been a couple of things.
Youtube video -



STUFF I'VE DONE
The story system was put in.  This actually took me a while because I built a system that is two parts: 1) a "Story Controller" that controls the flow of the story and determines what characters say and do and 2) the actual text display message that displays text.  Basically, the system is the same I've designed for every Jr. Jellybean game.
Help Menu was put in.  This is really kind of an afterthought, but I thought it would help to design some sort of guidance so that people could know the full controls.  You can see this at the beginning of the video.
Map level tiles are set.  Levels now have numbers attached to them as you can see in the video.
Random graphic fixes.  You can see that now the level is finished when you touch the pile of energy.  In addition, I changed the look of the energy.

I, basically, fixed a lot of the smaller stuff that would have gotten done later.  The player wouldn't really notice them, but they had to be fixed.

UPCOMING STUFF TO DO
Basically, everything from before.
Adjust the backgrounds and tiles.  Things aren't really blending well together so the colors of some stuff will have to be adjusted.  I don't have an artists' eye, so this will have to wait until people play test the game.
Redo the end level countdown.  Um... without getting into too much detail, I'm going to remove a section from the end level countdown.  It's mostly the same however.
Create top down bonus level.  See below.

RANDOM THOUGHTS
The biggest change is that I WOULD LIKE to add a top down tank section.  You can see in the map screen, that you can control a tank, so I decided it would be cool to have random enemies throughout the level that you can bump into to fight.  Basically, like Bionic Commando.
That's probably going to take another week or so.  I'm just planning to really spit it out as quickly as possible.  If it doesn't work for whatever reason, I'll just drop it...

So, it looks like I'll probably miss the 2 month period.  But, such is life.  Work is getting done and, once I get that tank part put in, everything should be ready to just be cranked out.  I completed pretty much the rest of the "hard" stuff.

Lastly, if anyone has any ideas on what you'd like me to talk about on this devlog, feel free to share it.  I can understand if you just want to look at the devlog, but I'd like to know that people are interested in what I'm writing about.

Comments or suggestions are always appreciated!

(Updated 08/19/2010 - I had to adjust some text.)

[STUFF I'VE DONE SINCE LAST TIME]

Oh boy.  I took a long time to update this page.  Sorry about that.  The reason it took so long was because I wanted to add a couple of features before I updated the post.  Unfortunately, some of those features still haven't been completed.

The good thing is that I've made a ton of updates in the meantime.



New Youtube video:



Last Youtube video:



STUFF I'VE DONE SINCE LAST TIME
Starting Menu was mostly finished.  You can see it at the beginning of the video.
In Game Achievements were completed.  Unfortunately, this idea didn't work out and I had to drop it (see below).
End Level Countdown was created.  Now, you can tell what your progress was for a level.
The pink tile sheet background has been eliminated.  That was pretty easy, but I finally got around to doing it.
Weapon Level Up announcement was put in.  Now, it's easy to tell when you've gained enough weapon charges to gain a level. And on that note:
The HUD has been mostly fixed.  Some colors need to be changed, but it's looking great.

So, I ended up finishing a lot of stuff.  I think that once the Map tiles are in place and the story is put into the game, everything will be pretty easy.  It will take a bit more work, but most of the thinking will have been done.  And, that's pretty nice!

UPCOMING STUFF TO DO
Map Tiles.  I'll be doing that next.
A story needs to be put in.  Again, I've been thinking about how I want to do this and I think that I've come up with a decent idea.
Saving and loading system still hasn't been finished.  This should be pretty easy now, it's just a matter of getting to it.
Create more enemies.  In addition, I actually need to draw the enemies.  That might take some time depending on how many enemies there are.
Design the remaining levels.  This includes tiling the rest of the levels as well.
Sound/Music needs to be put in.  Should be easy.
Design 3 more weapons.  Currently, there are 4 weapons that the player can choose from and I want to increase that 7.

RANDOM THOUGHTS
I wanted to finish this game in 2 months and I've only got about a week and half left.  I'm pretty sure that I'm going to miss that window, especially since I'm going to be going back to work soon.

Still, within a week or so things should be mostly finished.  Again, once the map tiles are laid out right, I'll be able to go on auto pilot and just crank out whatever else needs to be done.

The one thing I am a little disappointed about is the fact that I had to drop the in game achievement system.  I guess I should get some feedback before I abandon it completely, but it just doesn't feel as good as it could.  There's a visual problem in that displaying achievements blocks out most of the screen and I just couldn't figure out any solution for that.

Still, things are progressing nicely.  I can't wait to put up a demo which should happen soon.

Comments or suggestions are always appreciated!

[STUFF I'VE DONE SINCE THE LAST TIME]

With the release of Earth Tower Defense, it's nice to get back to Platform Explorer.

I've been meaning to write an update for some time because a ton of stuff has changed.



New Youtube video:



STUFF I'VE DONE SINCE THE LAST TIME
The map screen has been created.  You can see it at the beginning of the game.
The tiling system has been fixed.  The game looks better, no?
The end level menu has been put it.  It counts up the percentage completion of the level and gives you a rating based on how well you did.
The game is optimized a bit better.

Overall, the game is coming along.  If I work hard, I should be able to bang this thing out in 3 more weeks.

Watch the new

and compare it to the previous video that I made for a really good look at all the changes.

UPCOMING STUFF TO DO  (I'll try putting this in the order that I'll actually do things in)
Create a starting menu.  Should take me a bit of time.  I always hate making menus...
Create a saving and loading system.  Should be easy enough.  I'm just going to allow people to save a single file this game.  And, the game will have automatic saving unlike the last game.
Build platforms that move up and down.  Easy enough...
Design and program more enemies.  Currently, the game has around 10 different enemy types.  That's not enough...
Design / program / implement the story.  I have a vague idea for the story that deals with creators and their creations.  Unfortunately, implementing it the way I first thought about it would take too much time.  I have to think of a way to implement an interesting story QUICKLY.
I'm putting an in game achievement system.  Something where you can earn awards and medals.  I've been trying to think of how to do that, and I think that I've finally gotten my mind around it.  It'll be a bit of work, however...
Design the rest of the levels.  I've got 8 more levels to go.  Each level contains 3 rooms.  Each room should take me about 2 hours each to design.
Adjust enemy AI behaviour.  I'll probably save this for last, however.
Fix all of the hud stuff.  Stuff is still off by a pixel or two.
Create credit screen.  Easy enough.
Tiling the rest of the game.  Easy enough.
Put in sound / music.  Again, easy enough...

RANDOM THOUGHTS
As confident as I am in my own ability to design games , I feel like this game is going to be hamperned by my crummy art.  It's a very specific type of game with a very narrow feel to it.  I wish that I could have gone with a really retro, NES type of look, but that's pretty much beyond my powers.

Even with better art, in place, I'm not too sure how well it'll play out for the flash crowd.  While the game is fitting nicely into the "vision" that I had for the game, I can't implement many features that I wanted to put in due to lack of time.

I'll probably do something similar to Earth Tower Defense, where I release one version of the game, then some sort of follow up with updated stuff.

Perhaps I won't...

In any case, writing these devlogs have helped me quite a bit.  I only started writing because I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do next.  I will probably, literally go down that list and do stuff in order

Any questions or comments are appreciated!

Check out the blog for more info, as I tend to write more on there: Jr. Jellybeans Blog.

Wow, it's good to hear some other people talk about lofty expectations.  I was beginning to think that I was crazy for doing so.

My next big goals are:
1. Make enough money on Flash games to pay my bills.  This goal is pretty simple to realize I think.  Essentially, it boils down to just FINISHING as many games as possible that are playable.  Might take some time, but it's fairly easy enough...
2. Find an artist and sound person to work with.  A lot of what is currently holding my game designs back is the fact that I'm now working along and can't draw or make sound.  As such, I'm stuck making simpler sort of games (which isn't that bad in retrospect...)

Of course, the long term goal is to make wonderfully great art that supports a company financially.