Updates on the game now entitled 'INSANITY'

SEE IT HERE!

UPDATE 08/05/2007

Inventory system is up and running. Some simple puzzles have been thrown in, also included is a simple battle system. See if you can make it through the Belloc Room door. No bugs as far as I know now, so if you come across something please let me know.

UPDATE 01/05/2007
Coming along..coming along..there are a couple of bugs still in there though.
Now has inventory and a battle scene. Look out for the hammer that appears as you leave the wardrobe, you'll need it to fight the Statue.--01/05/2007 AGAIN. -oops completely forgot instructions for the inventory. You can drag items and try to use them on objects on the screen, when you're done with the object DOUBLE-C*LICK and it will return back and you'll leave ITEM mode. There will also be an EXAMINE for objects if you c*lick once on them (without dragging). It's all been coded I simply haven't gotten around to adding the ingame instructions.

UPDATE 22/04/2007
Thanks to those who have favourited the game. I'll keep posting updates every couple of weeks or so for a little while longer, and then the next update will be the finished product.
NEW EDITS:
*Text speed has been slowed down.
*Descriptions now embolded
*2 extra rooms explorable.
BUGS
* Not sure about this one but there is a strange Event bug that sometimes creeps up, I've got some theories but no solid idea exactly what it is yet so bear with me. If you leave the closet and the screen goes blank, refresh your browser. Should work second time round.
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This is a sample of a point+c*lick adventure I'm hoping to finish before July. It has no name as of yet so I'm using the title "House of Hell" for the time being- the same name as one of my favourite Fighting Fantasy books. Suggestions?
The story revolves around you waking up in a dark room. You're covered in bandages and don't remember how you got there. As you make your escape you find out that the house is the den of a man only named THE DOCTOR, an ex-chief of surgery who lost his sanity quite some time ago, and now dwells deep within the house working on crazed experiments involving the surgical creation of vivisects- humans with animal body parts. Going further into the game you realise that all is not what it seems, and that there are secrets to be discovered that will shock you to the core.
Although this is only a demo of the basic engine with some graphics, the story has been fully fleshed out and personally I think it's a great little tale not so different in vein to Saw.
As for the game itself, without wanting to sound over ambitious I'm aiming it to be the scariest Flash game out there. It's made in a kind of similar mould to such games as Exmortis yet differs in that there is more user interaction- certain scenes will require the player to make quick decisions before a timer countdown or hammer the mouse button to escape being prey to some creature.
This demo is seriously limited in what you can do but 3 rooms are available for exploration.

I'm just looking for some early feedback, hoping people can tell me if there's any obvious errors. Let me know what you like or don't like. You know the drill.

Updates can be found here on my blog.
http://ydjapan.blogspot.c om/

walkthrough:
-strike the lock to open it
-unsheath the beast within the cage
-talk to THE PRISONER
-you can DIE here if you don't do anything and let the counter rundown, the RETRY button
does nothing though so you'll have to refresh your browser
-ELSE hide in the wardrobe
-listen to the dialogue between the monster and THE PRISONER
-go through the door into the corridor
-only the BELLOC room can be entered so go through
-talk to the CLINICIAN about the Doctor and ways to escape the house
-examine the fishtank.

That's about it!More to come

Please check in for regular posts regarding the progress of the game.

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Feedback?

Just to let you know I've posted an (very early) alpha of the new point+c*lick game over at Newgrounds.com, in order to see what folks out there think so follow.
Follow the link to see it for yourself.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/491610

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Just to let you know I've had so many requests for AS3 tutorials that I began to compile a little conversion page for those of you who are starting to dip their toes in the AS3 pool. Check it out on the right in the Tutorial links. You'll find a few tricks for converting AS2 code to AS3, and the tutorial also breaks into overcoming some of the common AS3 issues you might encounter as you start to code (such as pesky MouseEvents).
--
Yeah, yeah, "When are some beat-em up tutes for AS3 coming out?". Well, sooner or later I'll definitely write some, so keep the encouragement coming and be patient. I really would like to finish "The Damned" series and also this new game I've been toying with first. After that I promise it will happen.
--
Seems like I've now recieved most of the collaborated animation I needed to get is in, so I'll be back on 'The Damned'. In the meantime however the new point+c*lick (still no name, ideas?) is going well. I'll be honest with you, from a coding perspective point+c*lick is frickin' easy. Iit's a lot more code than other games since you basically have to write nasty unique functions for every room/section.

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Had a bit of an epiphany the other night. Why am I bothering making The Damned a single game? If I could split it into 3 parts for each level I could not only stretch the levels out longer, maximise my advertising $$$, I could also get some positive/negative feedback from kiddies and generate some interest for the sequels. Smaller file size, hence a shorter loading time.

I'll rework the levels into say, a 10 level survival challenges with a boss at the end. It'll fit much more into the category of a Flash game that way. Short and addictive. I think seeing responses to the game will help inspire the other team members too, motivation is a sneaky devil; always hard to keep a hold of.

Just waiting on some work from a couple of peeps, after which things will really get moving.

Other news:
The point+c*lick adventure I'm working on in the sidelines is coming along well, I've kind of 'invented' a neat way to get extra detail within each image, well I say invented but really all it is is fiddling around with the layer blends. Does wonders for adding creepy little shadows and other particulars. I've been having some horrific dreams from my mind constantly brewing up nasty imagery of decapitated heads and such- you can't work on something like that day and night without it entering your head when you close your eyes. To be expected I guess.

If this point+click thing kicks off some interest I could quite happily continue with this medium. I actually used to be something of a writer (books and writing them being my second love next to video-games). It would be great to flesh-out some of my old horror stories within the Flash medium.
The synopsis for particular story goes something like this;
You wake up in a makeshift operating theater in an old Edwardian mansion with complete memory loss. After discovering another 'prisoner' in the same room you are told that you are to become victim of someone simply called 'The Doctor'- a lunatic ex-surgeon killer who spends all his time with his own sick and twisted form of butchery, vivisecting captured humans with the body parts of animals. During your attempt to escape you meet several characters, including 'The Doctor' himself. Within the arcane house lies a terrible and dark secret that will shake you to the very core of your sanity.

It's a juicy story, I'm sure you're gonna like it.....:-) Watch this space, I will continue to post the ingame shots as they are produced.

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pics

few pics of a little project I'm conjuring up whilst recoding The Damned.
point+c*lick adventure with a slight rpg twist. Graphics are being done with Google Sketchup for the scene reference plus a Photoshop touch-up.

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Few screenies and a bit of a demo..

Ok time for you chaps to have a quick peek under the hood of the upcoming rewrite. A tiny demo of a couple of enemies and not much else.


CHECK IT OUT HERE!

As you can see, it has a few bugs. Gun/Hand models are in the works, but the reload and gunChange functions are active. As for graphics- custom CS models with original animations to come. No death-scenes in yet. Planning to fix some of the lag when it becomes particle-intensive.



p.s. (shoot his trail, that's the weak point)

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It's back in the works..AGAIN!!

OK, so I finally got my ass in gear and have recovered enough from the pain and antagonism related to the development history of the game to come and finish it off. Yes, I'm talking about "The Damned".
Got myself a good sound guy this time, too early to anticipate anything miraculous and God knows I've let people down/been let down in the past many a time, but fingers crossed he seems to know his stuff.

I had MAJOR issues trying to get my head around Mouse events- which I'm pretty sure a lot of other coders also have- but thanks to Senocular and some of the guys over at FlashKit I'm pretty sure I've earned my Cub Scout badge for it all by now. Yup, the AS3 rewrite has been in session for a little while in fact and I'm not tooting my own horn but it's looking mighty fine so far- you might even say it's unlike anything else out there done is AS3.

So why have I not posted a demo? Just to keep everyone (all 2 of you) in suspense I suppose. Members of the development team and the kiddies who were really keen to see the game done have been sent links- hey ask nicely and you might get on the list!

Sneak Peek;

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Arrghh...

Yeah Arrghh***Just about had it with this damn blog.

Seems like everytime I try to reconstruct this thing something goes haywire and the result is I lose all my links, files dissapear, posts morph into zany fonts, so and and so on with the result being I end up with a head-ache. Ah bollocks to it, my old man would say. I will get round to getting the old demos back up there sooner or later but please bear with me, there are hot young Japanese girls that take up my precious time being taught English most of my daily life, and a few hours a night is about all I ever get for the personal stuff.

Saying that, at least the SplatterHouse tutes are up, those are the ones people ask for..and hey, on the subject of tutorials, let's talk for a bit..
Once I'm done with BH2 (or get sick to the back teeth of it) I will write a few Dumbies Guide To- style sections on AS3 game programming. I have noticed, as some of you have, that there really aren't enough decent ones out there on the web as of yet. A couple of good ones by 8bitJeff and not much else.

People get all baffled by talk of Object Orientated coding, Classes, encapsulation, polymorphism etc. and give up since there are no easy to understand tutorials out there for them to get to grips with. And it seems that those members of the Flash fraternity out there that can actually show noobs how to code in OO feel that it's too complicated and that they should really get their heads around AS2 first. In a sense I agree but what most peeps don't realise is that it's very feasible to code AS3 in a manner similar to AS2 without delving too deep into all that and still get everything AS3 has to give. Why bother learning AS2 only to have to relearn AS3? To my mind that's like taking driving lessons to charter a yacht. I'm not saying you shouldn't get round to learning OO one day- as naturally OO is the best way to code- BUT I'm thinking there are a lot of guys/girls out there who just want to make GAMES, have the hardcore perseverance to get over that barrier, but would rather dip their feet in the water before diving it first.

Once you understand all the AS3 programming methods for say, whipping up a physics engine, it's far easier from there to approach OO and converting that code piece-by-piece, figure out the necessary OO relative to their own projects- that's my theory anyway. Kind of a hands-on-approach, learn by doing type of education. Exactly how I teach English as a matter of fact.

So, when I have the time I'm going to endevour to rewrite one of our favourite classics of 80's-90's. Right now it's a coin-toss between Green Beret or Vigilante. They're both simple games to code (in theory), and yet feature some elements that most coders would want to study ; 4/8 way scrolling tile-engines, climbing ladders, fighting bosses, spawning multiple enemies with assorted health/energy, sfx coding, so on.
I could see how a tutorial could highlight all the aspects of games programming I want to share, and hopefully signify the end of AS2 games that crash my browser and meltdown my hard-drive.

Watch this space!

p.s.The BH2 demo has been updated, hit up the link on the post below to see it. Not so much done, ships now form a fleet and move towards a target. The leader can be destroyed and automatically another ship in the group will be designated as the new one. When clans meet they don't do much, just find themselves an enemy and circle around each-other. Decent AI has not been written yet, and shoot too many of the ships and you'll get them wondering off in weird directions as the code for them to auto-assign to another target from the now non-existing one has also not been done yet.

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Update-Updates

Some minor changes made to the Bounty Hunter demo.
Doesn't look like much on the surface but there's been quite a lot thrown in there behind the scenes.

CHECK IT OUT HERE

DON'T SHOOT THE LEADER though! There's no code to take care of what happens code-wise for the other NPC's after the main NPC clip has been removed. You might crash your browser due to null references.

Enemies can now be spawned as a clan/team. The properties of all the sprites are stored in objects and can all be referenced to each-other like a linked-list. When a new clan is generated a random member is designated as the 'leader' (and given a Glow filter) and the others will follow their boss at a set distance as if they were parts of an IK chain. If a leader is eliminated another will crop up to take his place (not implemented yet). Leaders of clans will go towards a set battleground co-ordinate in space and when they're within a desired distance the AI will switch over to battle mode and they'll be able to scrap it out until all that's left is space debris. From a coding viewpoint battle mode means an NPC will randomly select an enemy from the opposing clan and war it out until somebody is dead. From then on the dice are rolled once more and another is chosen, and this goes on until the entire clan is wiped out. Theoretically you could have all the enemies gang up on one poor guy, though I met set the odds more in favour of you being the target. Obviously you can eject once you feel your health is about gone, but this will carry some vulnerablility being that your gravity suit can only go so fast, you'll require a host ship to takeover, and it'll be a one-shot-you're-dead situation.. Later on I'll likely make it so the astronaut can fire some manner of feeble lazer to give him a small fighting chance to weaken ships and make them boardable.

Your job will be to protect your soldiers from getting wasted- at the same time you'll have to net other more powerful ships just to keep yourself alive, or maybe to add to make your team stronger for the later stages.
Technically the game is not at the forefront of AS3 wizardry but so far everything has worked out the way I saw it in my head. Still got some funny bugs cropping up- such as when you try to board ships (-related to swapping depths I'll bet) but it's playable.

Starships have nice jet-fumes now. The more fume clips I add the better the effect, but unfortunately it was slowing down the action heavily and I had to forsake beauty for muscle in this case. Although the results of running some tests using BitmapData instead of mc's proved to give more speed I couldn't quite work out a couple of nasty untraceable errors I was getting at compile time, so for the time being clips will do...

Hey when you think about it, we're not a million miles away from a game here. It'd be nice to get this one wrapped up as I'm itching to get back to my fighters. That SORF demo is just begging to be made into a full game.

As for all the rest, I'm thinking to rewrap Trivia Casino with some more functions and send it out with my blessing amongst some more portals. It's not a bad quiz game after all, though it's not bringing me in a penny right now-in fact I've a theory the MochiAds code isn't working- my stats say 0 visitors in the past month..

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