I finished the transition screen for Oswald's Chocolate Factory, and I think it actually looks pretty good!
The actual in game transition is smooth and beautiful. It was a steep learning curve, but I'm ready to start incorporating similar techniques in future games.
Speaking of future games. I'm starting to give serious consideration to designing games for Steam. It looks like a really good community (I've already started purchasing indie games that caught my eye there), and as I'm learning C# I think I'm ready to start working on a title. I'm going to finish Oswald first, and I intend to work on one or more flash games while I work on my Steam title. I'm really excited to start working with a new language and environment, though.
Labor Day is coming up. Does anyone have any interesting plans? I plan to be at work...on Labor Day...the irony is not lost on me. Oh well...The downside of my day job. Maybe when I get home from work, I will have a BBQ or one of the other many activities that people do on national holidays. Maybe I will just do some work on my games instead. :D
Anyway. Just felt like giving an update on Oswald, and ranting a little bit. *BIG HUGS* for everyone.
I attended another class on AS3 today, and I can't even begin to show my excitement about all the wonderful things that I have learned.
Let me start by giving a little background about me. I haven't done any kind of real programming (I don't count Access and Excel as real programming) for almost 20 years. At that time, I was doing most of my work in C. Let me be clear, that is C, not C++ or C# (They didn't really exist back then). Before that my programming experience was in Basic and LOGO. None of these programming languages were OOP (LOGO was close, but not really the same thing). With this in mind, my approach to AS3 has been a little backwards. I've been creating classes, and communicating between them, but I never really utilized the mechanics that make an OOP worth learning.
Today's class focused elusively on what an OOP is, and how to make programs written in AS3 use the power that this style of language makes available. It was a really fun and really educational experience. I would highly recommend any similar classes available to any of my readers. If you happen to be in the Sacramento area, check out the Meetup and the upcoming events. It is a great community, and even my short time with them has offered me resources that I could not put a price on.
http://www.meetup.com/gamedeveloper/
Of course, I know that a lot of my readers are eager to hear about the progress of my next game, Oswald's Chocolate Factory. It's been slow moving these past couple of weeks. My work away from my games has been...well...work, and my time at home has kind of been taken up with keep up the home. I should have some new screenshots sometime next week, and I'm hoping to have a preview video sometime the week after that.
Went to a class Sunday that was hosted by the Sacramento Game Development Meetup. It was lots of fun, and I learned all sorts of new things that I will be using to make my games even better :)
I've also started going through some online tutorials on C# and XNA. I'm still working on Oswald's Chocolate Factory, and should have it ready for Beta sometime next month. I've been having so much fun learning, that I decided to make a day of it today.
Sometime in the next week or so, I should have some more screenshots from Oswald's Chocolate factory. I've run into some interesting challenges, but I'm having lots of fun working through them! :)
I-write-a-new-game-that-has-gnomes-and-gremlins-and-chocolate-and-trucks-and-tubes-and-kids-and *pant* *pant* *pant* no-butterflies-or-faeries-but-they-are-mentioned-on-the-pause-screen!
Okay, breathing again.
Anyways,this is my touching tale of programming and chocolate.
I love Easter chocolate. Not Cadbury, or Lindt, or Ghirardelli, but the really cheap crispy hollow bunnies. Right after Easter, I buy them in bulk (They are usually 50% off...GLEE). I store them in the freezer, and snack on them lightly when I need a little sugar in my system.
The night I started working on Oswald's chocolate factory, I ate three boxes of mini bunny crisps. They say they are mini, but a box is like eating two chocolate bunnies. I think I must have been majorly buzzing, because the game I was looking at the next morning (I really don't remember most of the work that night) looked like something that Hunter S. Thompson dreamed up.
I've been polishing it since, and am happy with where it is going.
I was hoping to have it done by the end of this month (I was also hoping to do a bit more blogging than normal this month...Sorry everyone), but I've been up to my eyeballs with Alyshia. I would like to thank everyone who has posted comments on Kongregate. Some people would play the game, get upset with something that didn't work, and walk away. You guys gave me the opportunity to fix my mistakes, and improve on the initial concept of the game. *hugs* for all of you :)
