February the 1st. I’m mere minutes away from missing this chance to post and make the first of this month, yet I prevail. Ha ha! Hopefully, I’m finally getting my act together. We’re already a month in to 2006, and really I haven’t had much to show. It seems I’ve been in a less than ideal situation up until recently. It’s resolution was equally as not so idealistic, so excuse me as I be vague, until the day we all look back and laugh about it....
Slamdance was last week. PuffBOMB was a finalist for the PopCap award. A game by the name of Odyssey took the award. Congratz to them. The rest of the results can be found here. It’s a shame, but I couldn’t make it out this year. That, and I’m still getting things off the ground here at Syko. I had heard from my “contact” there would be some PuffBOMB action at the festival, but so far my search for evidence has come up short....
Yes, it is certainly a newer year than before, and yet, I’m 3 weeks behind in declaring it as such. Ahh, this whole time thing you corporeal types take for granola. I’m busy getting things in order on this side of screen. Big year, lots to do. Many sites that need work, and a game development crunch to kick off soon. Stay tuned. Check back every minute. ‘cmon, show my host how much you love it....
I’ve brought with me this horribly bright colored monster to burn your cornea. Hurah! Right. Things are back and working in the Mike camp. Back to the grind and all. I’ve also recently finished a drawing pad, after slightly over 3 months. Doesn’t sound like much, but looking back it’s been taking me up to a year to fill one up. So IGF finalists have been announced. Funky. So many great games have been coming out later in the year, I’m not surprised PuffBOMB didn’t place....
There’s been a lot going on, which I’ll go in to in further posts. This one’s on Logos. Way back in July I dropped a note about some Rejected Logos. I still haven’t decided what I want, but I’ve been back playing the logo making game. Ahh yes, a smooth graphic design’ish logo. Hurah. Do I like it? I’m not sure. I’m torn between going with something more cartoony, or including a little face in the logo....
I’ve been trying to come up with a 3rd character to go along with the hamster and the robot for PuffBOMB. When I started redesigning the game, I wanted at least a male and a female character, but ended up with 2 males (3 if you count a butch hamster that I’d recently replaced with the robot). It seems I have something. What you see to the right is a concept for the potted plant girl character....
Oh don’t be scared baby, I’m still here. Yes, it seems I’ve been neglecting posting. On the plus side, there’s been some major progress, but equally major distractions. Since apparently leaving a job clearly means “2 month vacation”, there I was back at Big Blue for a week. All was good though. I was asked to help a struggling project meet a milestone, and that seemed to go well. Twas also nice to hang out with the guys there again, a fine group I must say....
Err… maybe that’s not the most appropriate post title. Yes, spreading is what we’re doing. Since I’m a nice guy, and since it’s probably a bad idea to wait, I’ve released the supped up classic 2003 PuffBOMB Prototype to the public. A download link can be found at the ‘official’ PuffBOMB homepage, PuffBOMB.com. Currently it’s only available for Windows. Hopefully, I can have the MacOS X version ready to go soon....
Alright, this was inspired from a game idea I had a few years ago. In the midst of working on my new physics engine, I’ve decided to revisit the idea and noticed an oddity in my design. Balloons. Balloons are interesting. Unlike most objects in a game situation, they have this odd property of opposing gravity and going up. With that alone, we can do a convincing simulation in a game by consistently giving it an upward force larger than gravity....
Well, well. The IGF 2006 Entries are now online, and we have a PuffBOMB clone to duel with. Impulse. It appers to be, according to the description, pretty much the same idea. Lets quote. Impulse: The player must place bombs and adjust their timers to make a ball hit the goal field. Obstacles, special elements and force fields provide varied levels. An interactive timeline helps controlling the game by jumping to specific times and guarantees a flexible and unique gameplay....