Screen Res . .

. . will be 1024x768 - that is all :)

First Level Graphics

Above is a screenshot of the graphic tiles so far for what will be the first area of the game. It isn't the actual level design but is just how my graphics artist Adam put together the tiles to show how they could be used.

I'm really pleased with how they turned out. The next thing to ponder over is the screen res though. The graphics look great at 1024x768 but they look even better at 640x480 - proper old school! I need to look into the best way to do it though.

Size is everything!

Work is continuing on the first area graphics and they're looking really nice so far.

However, our main character may be a bit big for the environment! Now that might sound silly but the tiles look so good at their current size it wouldn't work if we increased them. So, do we reduce the size of the main wizard character??

Not sure yet. All the graphics aren't done yet so once they're all in I'll be able to make a decision.

Addictive 247 Summer Sale

It's that time of year again!

We're having a Summer Sale where all our games are now at the extremely low price of only $4.95! This offer is only vaild until 30th August 2009.

Be quick and get yourself a bargain :)

Super Laser Racer

Found this over at New Star Games and have to admit that I love it! It's fast, fun and frantic!

A nice touch is that it's really easy to get into.
By that I mean no stupidly long menus that take ages to get you to the game and no bloody ship configuration allowing me to change the paint job on my ship or any of that bollocks! Click, Click and you're in.

Go Play

Bugger!

Adam's on holiday at the moment and I'm really struggling with the style I want for the first area of the game.

Just when I decide on one thing, I change my mind and go in a completely different direction. The funny thing is that I know (in my head) what the other areas will look like.

Bugger!!

Wizard Video

This is a short video showing off the main Wizard player character. Ignore the brick tiles and background, it's just a test area.

You can see him firing the 3 different types of magic as well as jumping and double-jumping.

His other special move is "stealth", which is when he pulls his hat down, over himself. When he's in this mode enemies ignore him and walk past. This means you can let enemies walk past you before unleashing your magic on them.

In the top left of the screen you can also see the simple HUD which shows the Wizards energy and the power of your magic. As you fire your wand the magic power-bar decreases.

The Work Continues

It's been slow and steady on the game-front but I am getting somewhere. The final animations for the Wizard should (fingers crossed!) be finished this Wednesday.

All the code for how he animates is done already so it's just a case of dropping the graphics in place. I'll then upload a little video to show how he moves :)

I've done a bit of work on the HUD which is quite simple but shows the Wizards health bar and Magic Power bar. As mentioned in a previous post, when the Wizard fires his wand the Magic Power bar will decrease. This seems to work well but will need some tweaking when the "real" enemies are in place.

After that we need to move onto the first set of tiles for the "Edge of the Forest" scene/level. This will be at the very start of the game and will be where our Wizard hero first sees the Castle.
This will be a very short (scrolling) level but will include a rather large monster - friend or foe?? You'll just have to wait and see !

It's a Kind of Magic

This is a little screenie showing our wizard firing his wand. I need to record a bit of video footage to really show off the animation but you can see that when he fires his wand he jumps up in the air slightly as though he's struggling to control the power that he's unleashing.

I've also been thinking about how the firing of the wand will work. For now you can just keep your finger down on fire and have a massive blast of magic (like above). This looks great but I thnk it will make the game very easy as even from the start you'll have quite a powerful weapon.

One idea is to have an energy bar that depletes when you fire. If you keep your finger on fire it may last 10 seconds before you have to let go and let it charge up again. Short bursts of magic won't affect the energy bar.

It's probably far too early to decide and I'm sure the design of the game will go through many changes, but it's good to try a few things out to see which one fits.

Animated Wizard

Above is a few animation frames from the main player wizard character. Obviously he looks wonderful when in action but you'll have to make do with this screenie for now.
Still loads of work to be done on him including his special stealth animation which I think is going to be really fun and look fantastic.

For now the working title of the game is "Colmar".
There's a good reason why it's called this but I won't go into the details for now.

Nothing too exciting!

Made some more changes to the site and are now using much better payment forms with the help of BMT Micro.

Basically everything is on the one page and if you select to pay by PayPal you only need to enter your name and email address - nice and simple!

You can also download your newly purchased game immediately after you've entered your details. Previously you had to wait for an email, but now the links are available to you on the next page - fantastic stuff!!

New site design

Late last night I uploaded the new Addictive 247 design. Check it out at www.addictive247.co.uk (obviously!)

It's looking a lot better but I still want to change a few things too. It's sort of a work-in-progress for now. If you spot any obvious mistakes or bad links then please do let me know.

Back from Holiday

Well I'm back.
Had a great week, very relaxing and nice to get a break from the computer.

I continued with the website changes last night and hope to get the new design up there this weekend. I think it's going to be a bit of a work-in-progress though as theres a lot that I do want to change which will happen over time.

Summer Holiday!

Yay! It's holiday season and we're all off to Scarborough in the morning. We've never been before but have heard really good things from friends.

For a whole 5 days I'll have no internet connection and won't be spending anytime working on the new game or making changes to the new website. In fact I'll be doing nothing connected to computers at all. Kinda scary!!

Instead I'll be eating ice-cream, swimming and making sand castles on the beach with the kids. The weather is predicted to be nice all week so can't ask for much more than that.

See you soon!

Website Changes

I'm still working on the update to the Addictive 247 website. As well as the main logo being different I'm changing pretty much all of the site to have a new layout.

The main front page is already done (but not published yet) and really makes the games stand out. I've dropped the left side bar which was pretty redundant apart from the newsletter sign up form.

Just need to work on all the other pages now!