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[VictorGrunn]

Greetings all. This is my first devlog post, so pardon me if I'm breaking any rules or the like - especially since, contrary to most of the other devlogs I see, I'm offering up some comparatively meager stuff. I don't have anywhere near the programming or art experience everyone else here seems to, and my project is very early in the works (though will hopefully be done fast, with assistance from my artist friend.)

I'm working with AS3 in FlashDevelop and the latest Flixel release, slightly modified by my past game making. victorgrunn.newgrounds.com

The meta goal of the game is to learn how to make fun, straightforward games faster, better, more efficiently, with better code, and more fun. I figure if I keep making games one after the other, that's the fastest route to learning, etc, and making something truly publishable/saleable. The emphasis in this game is on using some neat dynamic 2D lighting effects and general graphical flash.

The game itself - Midnight Sniper, tentatively called - is a click-sniper game from a first person perspective. Basically trying to take out enemies, and avoid hitting allies, in a dark night-time 2D retro map. Having to scan around with a spotlight, or notice lights in the darkness, or.. etc. Along with some weapons upgrades, different stages, etc.

As it stands, I don't have very much - I had to figure out a good way to do the most basic light effects in the game, and so far have a very rough build that's barely worthy of being called a tech demo, showcasing some of what I've learned so far.

Either way, said tech demo is here right now:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/15174088/lighttest.swf

What you can expecet to see: a shaky spotlight that was modeled after a kind of unreliable flashlight (hence the shakiness and general scale effects), some spotlighting if you click or hold down the mouse, and some boring flxsprites roaming around, whose main feature is that you can see an indicator of their lights in the darkness.

The next step is to get the most basic UI and gameplay skeletons in place.

Any criticisms and suggestions are welcome. And really, I do mean anything. I'd love to be an indie game dev for a (partial, if not full) living and, ahahaha, I know I have a long, long way to go.

[Box99]

Post some screenshots or art asap so we have a better idea visually of what you're after. I used the tech demo and it was interesting, but I couldn't make the little boxes explode by clicking on them with the light, so I was a little disappointed. I wish you nothing but success!

[VictorGrunn]

Thanks for the wishes!

Yeah, clicking on those guys does nothing right now - all clicks do is create some light spots/trails. The demo was mostly to see if I could get a situation going where a light on an enemy could show, even if the enemy did not - prior to messing with this I didn't even know how to get darkness onscreen.

(Actually, my first attempt was to write a class that filled the screen with 5x5 2d sprites that would detect if the mouse pointing was within X distance of them, and adjust their alpha accordingly. Cool effect! Pity it ran at like, 10fps.)

Let's see. Screenshots... don't have those yet. I'll hopefully have some screens to put up soon, or at least a far more working mockup. I'll see what I can swing by today.

[VictorGrunn]

Updated a bit. There's actually some vague semblance of a game in there right now.

Spent a good chunk of the day trying to figure out a reasonable way to make the flashing lights of enemy vehicles (placeholders in right now) show up in the darkness. Still a bit flaky - if there's any graphical data overlapping it in the darkness, it gets a little funky. But still, basic effect handled.

Also managed to whip up a very quick and dirty tileset for a building (not shown), and set up Flixel's FlxTileMap system to randomly spawn buildings of different types, though of a very narrow range of specifications, using said tiles.

Also learned how to permanently show environment damage in a simplified way using FlxSprites and stamping effects. Took a little digging to learn the nuances there, but it's still quite a neat effect for my money.

Getting close to having all the fundamental knowledge I need in place, so now I can actually start working on the basics of the actual game. Time to bother my artist-friend.

Oh, the flash file is updated too for anyone who wants to see some of this in action.

[VictorGrunn]

Updated once again.

Did a lot of work on the lightmap, by which I mean I figured out the basics of what a lightmap actually is. Lots of stuff learned, but the main thing you'll see here is some dynamic lighting in the game, dynamic static effects (bulletholes in the background), the addition of a pointless character (He's kind of a square, ha ha), and some tilesets. Oh, plus a bat enemy I animated myself, eyes in the darkness, a pretty basic health system for the game...

Starting to come together in large part. The OP link to the flash game is of course updated. Story, menu, interface, etc shall all come along soon.