Monday, January 11, 2010

Pilgrimage to Derby

Between the snow, powercuts and personal injury I managed to make it to my appointed weekend meeting with Keith, the writer on Level Up and now my full partner in crime on Gather Up (2D Art, Concept Art, Design and Writing). He's been drawing up some awesome gun concepts that I'm dying to put up here.

I've added a new enemy type and worked on some persuit AI so I can continue to put the combat through it's paces. Got a few more enviromental bits to make so that the level is fully playable. Finger is still kinda puffy, but it's bearing up.

35 comments:

  1. Hey, what's going on? There was no post on the progress from half a month. Please relate you progress! ;)
    Cheers, Sidus

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  2. Hi there, who can I get in touch with regarding putting "Level Up" on my website? I just played it and I love it! Was hoping to spread the word about this awesome game.

    Couldn't find any contact info on the site, but if you want to get in touch with me I'm at bentley@playlaunchpad.com.

    The site, of course, is www.playlaunchpad.com. It's really young, barely an infant, but it's got a good heart and lots of potential!

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  3. What happened to this blog? I enjoyed reading your updates. Are you done updating? Did something horrible happen to you? Etc etc?

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  4. Agreed, you sort of fell off the face of the earth all of a sudden!

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  5. I don't keep close contact with Mr. Saunders, but he's been posting on the Flixel forums at least through the 5th:
    http://flixel.org/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=197;sa=showPosts

    I think he just forgot that he has fans now :) I suggest hijacking this thread to yell at him:
    http://flixel.org/forums/index.php?topic=1050.0

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  6. Hello. I have been a HUGE fan of Level Up since I first found it. I am very interested in where this is going. BTW, I found a bug. Just try climbing a ledge whilst being damaged and hold the down arrow. You levitate until you hit the ceiling.

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  7. Oh, please don't stop working on Gather, and please keep your fans updated on your progress...!

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  8. I know you were looking for another dodge mechanic so I've got a suggestion: Have you ever played Black Throne. Your third doge mechanic could just be having the character dodge in place by going to the background. This could be interesting because it would allow for another layer of hazards for players to beware, by adding another dimension of movement.

    Hey I Loved Level Up! and hope you can finish Gather up this year.

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  9. I've read through every post just now, and played the alpha of Gather Up, only to find that this blog has been... NEGLECTED?

    If you ever get back soon, I've got some comments on the rough demo.

    1.) It has been said before, but the 'toy' at this point is not yet 'fun.' (in my opinion)
    When I heard the premise, a big item-collecting adventure game played backwards, of course I had some ideas how it would work, especially after playing the excellent Level Up.

    I'm of course not a game designer, but I am a gamer, who's played and analysed a lot of games and what makes them 'fun'.

    I believe you may have 'overcomplicated' this next game. If you've played the 'Super Mario Bros. Crossover' game which is pretty popular at the moment, you can find an excellent example of how simple things can a have big fun-impact.

    You start out with small Mario (or any other character), who is a capable jumper, but quite the weakling. After getting a mushroom power-up, he grows and gains some extra buff. Then there's one more power-up, the fire flower. If you collect it, you can shoot. It only changes the colour of his clothes, but due to the simple graphics, your MIND can colour it in even more.

    So, to make a long story short:
    Don't give the player too much to choose from, and don't fill in the blanks too much. The power of suggestion is a big fun factor!
    You're an awesome dude who has a weapon that can defeat GOD.
    How awesome would it be to be bit-by-bit stripped of your kit? Sometimes your suit changes colour, then you lose a headband or gloves, all the while your jumps decrease in height or length, or the weapon beams you fire get less spectacular.
    And at the end, you'll have to save yourself as a simple country boy who throws rocks.

    Of course, you've been working on this game for quite a while and this is just one player's vision, but think about how to keep it as simple and intuïtive as possible.
    Level Up! worked fine with the jumping button and menu button.
    Gather Up has an added fire button, now all you need is a way to make jumping around and shooting enemies 'funner'.

    I hope you can use this comment in any way, so that it wasn't just a painful read!

    Regards,
    Rob.

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  10. Hello, I have something I want to ask you. Is there any chance you could provide me with the Gather Up hero's sprites? I need them as a base for sprites for a project I'm working on. I hope you can help, as it would be a pain to rip all of the sprites myself! ~Norngremlin, being annoying as usual.

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  11. y no updates in 6 months?

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  12. It looks as though we won't be seeing Gather Up anytime soon. If you look at this thread:

    http://flixel.org/forums/index.php?topic=496.30

    "Development on this project pretty much ground to a halt for two reasons

    Firstly I have a full time job working as a games designer for a flash games development company, which leaves me feeling not very inspired to go home and code some more.

    Secondly the whole thing has been going down a bit of a blind ally for the past 2 weeks of development. Gameplay isn't really fun and it's not really going to do justice as a sequel to Level Up without me scrapping a lot of stuff and re-writing it.

    Not dead for good, but on the back burner for a while. I do want to get another game out before the end of this year though."

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  13. Yes, you do have fans. I play quite a lot of online games, searching for ones with depth, and especially ones with high replay value.
    I will be following Gather Up and can't wait for its release.
    Good job and keep the work up.
    Andrew

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  14. You still alive? Please be still alive!

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  15. I haven't stopped loving your work.

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  16. Please say you're considering returning to the Gather Up project! Level Up is one of my favorite flash games ever, and I would be greatly saddened to see this project fall apart.

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  17. His finger that he mentioned in the last post got an infection and he died,I think

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  18. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  19. Nah, he's not dead, he just doesn't update this blog anymore. Here's his Fixel Forums profile.

    http://forums.flixel.org/index.php?action=profile;u=197

    He seems to use it more, as in at all.

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  20. If you are trading in NSE, BSE, MCX and in NCDEX then let sharegyan give you all stock trading gyan

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  21. If you are trading in NSE, BSE, MCX and in NCDEX then let sharegyan give you all stock trading gyan

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  22. when will the game come if you are still working on it?

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  23. Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. He Still Have The Twitter
      https://twitter.com/niftyhatguy

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  24. I wonder what he was doing right before the game stopped being developed

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  25. I wish gather up would come out. Even today, I still play Level Up at least once a month

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  26. Even if the game isn't coming out it would be nice to hear what the progress or official end of progress is.

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  27. I assume this project has been long abandoned considering it's been 7 years since this last post, but I wish the developer well. Every once and a while I'll think back on Level Up! and how fun of a game it was, and wish I could play the sequel. You never know what'll happen.

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  28. REJOICE REJOICE https://twitter.com/NiftyHatGuy/status/825973020904677376

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    Replies
    1. think you might have the wrong link theres nothing there

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    2. It was there a while ago, maybe it got deleted

      Delete