Taking a Toll

As I mentioned in the previous post, working solo can be rather difficult. After this weekend, I decided its time to take an extended "break" from Combo Storm and work on some other stuff for awhile. I have a project I'm working on with a friend and its been slow coming mostly due to business and ComboStorm. I think I'm going to switch gears and focus on that for awhile.

I like working on my game but I think I've been stressing out too much on it. Part of me is turning it from "this is fun" to "zomg must do or else fail and die!" - its taking it toll on me and I feel Laura too.

So I'm not going to stop doing work at home, I'm just going to dedicate more time to cooperative projects exclusively. I think some fun stuff is brewing. Also, I'm going to play more SC2 (even if my gut instinct tells me to play some other game). I woke up early again cause of that bastard cat and finished a mission and forgot how much fun the game can be when you go in with a proper battle plan.

Making it for me

Working solo on a project can be rather tiresome. The constant loop I find myself in is ultimately wanting to talk about my game all the time and giggle over all the little things can have been done and can be done to make it more awesome but realizing I have to force these conversations on my friends and family. If I was working with someone else, I'd imagine it'd be natural to be constantly excited with them. I tend hit my lowest points when this thought grows too strong - I simply enter the "wtf is this all about" phase. It is not fun.

I hit one of those on Sunday night after implementing all the upgrades. I was so excited about it and wanted to talk about it...but found myself sort of staring at the wall. That led to Monday which just sucked. Laura was being incredibly sweet to me - she made my favorite Mozzarella sandwich. I tried to be a little more cheerful to show I cared but was finding it difficult. So my sulking continued all the way till bed time. It was there that Laura said the most meaningful thing to me. I won't give the exact words but rough translation (to me) was "So, is this what your gonna do? Get up."

And I did.

New features coming to Combo Storm

• Movement speed being modified based on how far away you are moving from your heading. This means you will go slower if you are firing and moving backwards.
• Power Pads - these are fixed areas that when you come in contact will grant a boost. Right now the list has giving you a super powered weapon as long as you are in contact, a temporary speed boost, and am auto-turret.
• New "Spawner" enemy type.
• Very far down the road: an "AI Director" to drop in enemies at unexpected times

Good night and tell my wife thanks.

Too Hard!

Quick update:

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I reduced the difficulty to get the first tier of upgrades. Keep trying for that Chain Laser, its awesome. I guarantee it.

Light it on fire!

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This prototype is all about upgrades!

• When a combo is made, the weapons involved gain some of those points towards leveling up.
  
• The pistol (Left Mouse Button) now has 3 levels
  
• The laser (Right Mouse Button) now has 3 levels
• All new level showing off blocking geometry (well blocking tiles really)
  
• All new wave configurations - 7 waves now present!
• New music!
• Updated HUD - the life bar has been removed (rely on the screen darkening). Weapons now show the current level and % till upgrade (0-1).

Protips: Keep the combos up, especially 1-2-3 (which is 2 lefts and 1 right) to get the weapon experience flowing. Another easy one is gas can (Spacebar) and laser the victims (Right).

Lots of Bothians died to bring you this prototype. They even included a video to entice you. Don't let their deaths be for nothing . Hit me up with feedback!

...to see how it feels

Here is a little sneak preview of the new upgrade to the laser gun...CHAIN LAZERS!

In the lab...

Been a while since I posted, so I figured I should let y'all on in.

Amidst utter madness and imbalance going on right now, I've still been dedicated to Combo Storm. I really do feel that this is finally going to be the 'game.' So among the many things post-charger the newest system to be added is Weapon Upgrades.

Here is how it works: When you perform a combo, you do some bonus damage - that bonus damage is also considered combo points. A portion of those points get added to each weapon that was involved in the combo. Once you earn enough points with a weapon, it will upgrade. My hopes with this is to create a bit of "level strategy" where you will want particular upgrades to help with waves at different points in a level.

Right now upgrades have been kind of lame - I just have the main gun shoot faster, etc. I'm going to spend sometime this brewing up some fun ideas and then wrapping that up for a new proto. What I'm hoping is the the upgrades will do more of a status effect to the enemy rather then simply more damage. Some suggestions:

• Gas Can upgrade makes it a proximity mine
• Hip Shot (LMB) becomes a faster submachine gun
• Laser causes slow down

Not much to work off, but I think its a start. If you have any ideas hit me up here or at my email!

I'm out-y 5000.

From the Rafters, LIKE A BAT!

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Oh man, you ever had one of those moments where you thought something would work out and instead it breaks your concept of awesome and creates some new kind of SUPER awesome!? Yeah that is how I feel about this update! First off, shout out to Austin and Grant for taking time to play my game and giving me solid feedback. I think Austin is the primary creditor for the new enemy: THE CHARGER!

• New Enemy: The Charger! This pesky guy will move into range and take flight and charge at you. Watch out! Staying in contact with him while he charges is very dangerous to your health!
• Goo Man will now spawn a vomit puddle at your feet if he hits you with his vomit
• Modified the waves so they are a little more challenging.
• Slightly improved enemy AI so they try to intercept you.
  

I really like this new enemy - it really makes you keep moving and makes herding enemies a pain.

Coming Up:

• Exploding Enemies
• Multi-room enviroments
• Combo Point / Time Tracking

Get out there and give it a go! Tell me what you think!

In the works

first off i'm testing a new app on my phone to help blog on the go (no tweeting for me) so apologies for bad spelling,etc.

I'm going to be working on a new enemy this weekend called the charger. Rest assured, he will charge.

A little less jiggle

I reduced the camera bob in Proto 0.3 a bit. Feel free to re-download it and tell me what you think.

The Inception of Camera Bobbin

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So this update doesn't have a slew of new content in it but I felt like posting it.

• The download has been reduced significantly. This is due to finally getting mp3 support working which allows for vastly smaller music files. Enjoy the new tune!
• Camera Bobbin! If you find this annoying please hit me up with some feedback. I like it but do feel it need some work.
• The icons at the bottom will now be faded out when they are recharging. I am going to work on a way to fade them slowly in to give you a better idea of how long.
• The black bar that used to represent energy is now health (as well as the screen getting darker).

Up Next

• Improved AI - less chase and more intercepting!
  
• Improved Power Icons (the fading in I mentioned above)
• Improved level - going to spend some time tuning the spawning
  

As always, hit me up with your feedback. I'll be rocking SC2 for a bit but I'll try to stay on it!