so this is basically an update for gravi, my upcoming game.

so far i’ve got a working moving character (not a big deal for YOU maybe, but you don’t know how long it’s took me to make), three enemies and a nice little laser beam thing. the gravity shift is working so far and i haven’t found any bugs as of yet! one major thing though is improving on the visuals. a lot of the images i have right now are just place-holders until i can make them look nice and come up with a good visual style.

a big problem i’m having is with drawing text and such. i’ve never done it before so i’m having a hard time with that. i’ve got it working somewhat, but the text is fixed in place. i’m also going to buy game maker pro edition. it’s only £10 and i’ll be able to do a lot more with it.

but lately i’ve been distracted with the noitu love 2 demo and i’m currently downloading the aquaria demo to see what it’s like. i’ve heard good things.

well well well.

let’s see, due to popular demand here is my first ever game, platform ball.

platform ball

controls: W - gravity A - right S - stop D - right

aim: guide the ball to the exit by clicking on the blocks and changing them.

it’s really buggy but it’s my first game and was made in about 4 hours using game maker 7 lite. i hope it gets some plays at least.

in other news, i saw leigh on saturday. no comment.  

crayon physics deluxe. i cannot tell you how excited i am about this game.

crayon physics deluxe - kloonigames (petri purho) - release date: unknown

crayon physics deluxe is the successor to the freeware prototype crayon physics, in which players must draw shapes in order to get a ball to a star. anything you draw behaves exactly how it should, and it’s all drawn with crayons. before i discuss the game, i’ll discuss the author. petri purho is a finnish computer science student. in his spare time, he makes games. over at his blog, he is currently running a project to produce a new game every month. so far he’s kept to his word. although some of these games don’t work properly, others are simple and effective. crayon physics was a prototype that was created from this project. at first he had no plans to develop this game any further, but due to the popularity it gained, he secrectly developed it into what it is today - crayon physics deluxe.

now, crayon physics deluxe is a much more advanced version of the prototype, with the ability to create any object you want, and it will behave like it should. the game is more about creativity then challenges. with no limit to the number of ways to complete a level, it is entirely left to the users imagination. for instance, you could complete a level by simply creating a tilted oblong platform in which the ball will roll down. or, using a series of shapes and pivots, you could create a car in which will push the ball down a slope and swing round onto the star. the music is also fantastic, it’s one of those rare tracks that really takes time to get annoying. and the fantastic news is that the composer of the original track will be working on more music for the release of deluxe. the simplicity of it is what won it the IGF grand prize of $20,000. previous winners include the likes of aquaria, N, darwinia and so on, popular indie games that have hit the mainstream so hard that big time developers have had to open their eyes to the bedroom game developers.

since the IGF festival, crayon physics deluxe has become huge, with many people commenting petri’s blog with the same old phrase: “when is crayon physics deluxe going to be out?”. i imagine that this would get annoying for the young developer, and i wish him all the best. how he manages to fit his time to work on deluxe whilst still making games is beyond me. deluxe is going to be highly successful (in a recent interview, he said he had been talking to a publisher to take it to the DS). although i don’t see how it will work on the DS (the screen is rather small for the levels to fit on), it will be open to a large market, since i don’t think there is anyone who wouldn’t enjoy it.

rating: 5/5

the prototype is available here: http://www.kloonigames.com/crayon (it is not deluxe, and doesn’t even compare to the quality!).