Game Design

Ohman... 1999 beta is sooo close I can taste it! It tastes like... like... guava!
It's going to be pretty great; you Mac-using folks are going to miss out. The good news, though, is that the Macintosh version of Game Maker is probably going to be released soon; hopefully that will cross-compatibility.

Anyway, basically, I shouldn't even call it a "beta version," as it's just an early thing so people can see what it's like. Basically, all it is is the normal multiplayer battle, and you can unlock more planes (right now there are 22 unique planes, each with two colors; so, a total of 44) to use by playing a lot times. Right now, all you can do is fly your plane around and shoot, and pick up capsules that either give you a new weapon (which lasts until your plane is shot down), or cause an immediate effect, like launching a homing missile or repairing your plane.
The full version will improve on the basic combat engine, adding stuff like weapon cooldown and fuel consumption (the latter being a cool idea of Adam's). Also, there will be more planes, (I'm shooting for 34 unique planes, 90 counting recoloring), more modes to play (including ones for one player), and tons of fun unlockable things; unlockable content is going to be a major focus of this game (and was from the start).
That being said, you probably shouldn't expect the full version until mid-late next month at the earliest, but it depends on how much I work on it (which I hope is a lot, but we'll see).

After that, I think I really want to get cracking on Fafnir-Cola. I really like the general concept, and I think it's pretty unique. I want to make unique games, I really do. 1999 is nothing radical, really, but its main purpose is to grab people's attention, and get them to start expecting more cool games in the future. That may not have been the goal going into it, but I guess it has sort of become that.
My previous games have actually been pretty different (Nautanks wasn't really unique or special, though; it was more of an exercise, and my first decent game.); you should check out the "Elastic Apogee Minigames Collection," which is particularly unique (again, though, no Linux or Macintosh). So far it only has fourteen downloads, which I think is really a shame.
All of my games could really use to be played more, so do yourself (and me!) a favor and check them out!

Anyhow, as I was saying, I try to make my games unique. I want them to really stand out from the rest, not necessarily because they're that much better, but because they're different. I've been slowly getting more serious about game design; I think it may (may) even become a career. I'm not so sure, though.
I always used to think that no real people had jobs like that, up until recently. Suddenly I realized, "Hey, there are still people who design games for a living. It doesn't really matter how good I'd have to be or how many people really have jobs like that; I could still be one of them."
I also used to think that designing games meant you had to know a lot of complicated programming stuff. But that's not the case; games are designed by large staffs of people, each with specific jobs. The people who are "in charge," and actually designing the games, just have to design the games, that's all (I realize this isn't always the case, especially with independently-designed things, of course). I have a lot of crazy ideas, and I really think I could do it.... Could. But should? I don't know the answer to that question yet.

So, moving on. One of my big sources of inspiration has always (ever since I first played one of his games) been Jesse Venbrux.
He designs games using the same program I use, and they're just spectacular. In his case his games stand out because they're really different and they're of high quality.
The first game of his I played, Wubly, is really interesting. It's sort of like DDR or something, but you won't immediately recognize that, because it's actually a platformer. This little pink creature, Wubly, rolls across the screen, and when he reaches a yellow ring, you have to press an arrow key: up to jump, down to bounce, left to slow down, and right to speed up. Once you've gotten the pattern for the level down, it's just about timing. I think it's cool because it's like one kind of game disguised as another. It also has heaps of unlockable content, which is always cool. One thing that is pretty different but may not be all that good is that you must keep Wubly fed, or he'll pass out, and your save data will be deleted. I've never had that happen though, as the game always warns you when he's hungry and you need to go back and feed him.
Jesse Venbrux's latest game, Frozzd, is pretty cool. It's very unique, though it does use 360 degree gravity (as he himself even admits) inspired by Super Mario Galaxy. It's two-dimensional, though, so it's still quite different, and it's just how you move around the stage and whatnot. The object of the game is to unfreeze creatures called Mubblies. You can't unfreeze them yourself, but instead other Mubblies follow you around and shoot fireballs; if they're set to "unfreeze," they'll fire at frozen Mubblies, but if they're set to "attack," they'll attack the evil Frozzd you encounter.
You can check out both those games, and all his others (yes, only for Windows), at his YoYo Games page.

Anyhow, that's about it for today. I was going to post some screenshots of 1999, but... Oh well. I guess it can wait until tomorrow, or something.

"I'm a scorpion, and I'm grinning!"
--My brother Luke

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII