4th Annual CotGW Charity Gaming Marathon - "3 Days of Super Nintendo"

This is a good cause.  Donate a bit if you can tonight.  :)

- Brian

Jacko Hooper - Roaming (HD + Lyrics) (Not game related, but too beautiful not to share)

Updates: My idea won! (and other updates)

This is like two weeks late, but my Internet went out two weeks ago, and I spent all last week playing catch-up (amazing how much a week without Internet can set you back in work!).  Anyways, as you may have read my post about the Community Game idea now accepting ideas for its game.

Well, the submissions have been over for a while now, and so has the voting of those submissions.  And as my heading already tells you, my submitted idea won!  Cool!  Now, the game's going to be developed, and I'm even going to be contributing some help to the game.  Pretty cool.

In other news, I'll be uploading some game assets for sale pretty soon, and I'll post my new game assets' home website up soon, which is almost finished.  And also, I'm getting closer to finishing my demo for my Kickstarter soon.  I'm hoping to start my game's Kickstarter this month.  Another thing going on is that Operation Moogle is continuing where it left off last year, and I'm already working on our first animation for supporting our effort.  Just a lot of cool stuff happening right now!

That's all for right now.  I'll have more to post later, but it may be a little while until my next post.  As you can tell, I'm kinda busy right now!

- Brian

Why didn't I find out about this sooner?!

Get it free while you can!

I have no idea why and not that I'm complaining at all, but in case you didn't know already, DAZ has been giving away some of their flagship software titles for free for a while now (since about February, apparently).

They're giving the 3D terrain modeling and animation commercial software Bryce 7 Pro absolutely free, along with their 3D modeler Hexagon 2.5 and the normally-free Daz Studio 4 which now included commercial Genesis included for free--all free for a limited time.

I just one day last week went to this site by chance just to check out Bryce 7, and surprise!  It's free!  I just wish I had found it sooner!

So, if you're interested in checking them out, even just to fool around with them, go there and download them!  This goes well with Blender and Unity Indie version--both of which I use for my game development.

Though I already own other software for my game terrain, it certainly never hurts to have more!  Bryce 7 Pro in particular has some very useful terrain generation and rendering features.  And for free!

- Brian

The Community Game!

Just wanted to spread the word about this project going on here (esp. since I'm involved in it now).

The Community Game (at the Peripheral Games website)

Just check that out if this sounds interesting to you.  You can submit your idea for The Community Game and even offer to help David develop it.  It's an iOS and Android game that will be made by the gaming community, for the gaming community, and all profits from the game (which will sell at 79 cents) will go back to the community in the form of Kickstarter and donations all over the place!  If you're a gamer or just love indie games, go check it out!

(And hey, to some of my fellow Blender and Unity users in particular, check out some of David's useful videos on YouTube on using Blender and Unity.  He covers a few topics that you don't find too often.)

My sorta-brief review of E3 so far (Updated)

This will be "sorta-brief" because, well, I think this sums my feelings up best...

Microsoft, for the most part, stank (it was Kinectmania).  Ubisoft annoyed me with their host Aisha Tyler introducing games I generally didn't care about.  EA was EA as usual.  Sony did a lot more of the same--sequels with little-to-no major changes, a showy 3D-scanned motion-captured "cinematic" game (Beyond, from the makers of Heavy Rain but not as good), a shameless clone of successful Nintendo game, and introducing an stupid investment that no one who owns a PS3 will buy (WonderBook).

Now this leaves me to Nintendo, which whom, personally, I was favoring.  I'm quite fond of the interesting concept of Wii U.  I've followed its development from day one.  I can see its clear potential in gaming.  After a largely boring and disappointing E3 thus far, the ball was clearly in Nintendo's court.  But Nintendo really dropped the ball.  In terms of presenting, yet again they present an interesting piece of hardware but once again they failed to provide an impressive list of launch games.

They introduced a new system that was clearly the best hardware of E3 (the Wii U console--namely the Wii U GamePad controller), and started off by introducing the long-awaited Pikmin 3, which was nice.  And then a special-edition Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition was shown.  It was okay, but nothing outstanding that the game that's already out.  And then it just kinda went south from there, when Nintendo soon gave the floor to Ubisoft (and you know Ubisoft, they're 8 out of 10 of their games are going to be forgettable).  And, well, just watch some conference highlights on somewhere like GameSpot or the E3 website.  Overall, though, it'll leave you feeling like Lemongrab.

I think Wii U still has a chance to make it, but Nintendo just needs to get their act together by taking advantage of their advantages.  In case you haven't seen the E3 presentation or heard news from it, just know that they started off good and then it went all downhill from there, ending the evening talking about a game that frankly should've been left to the show floor to reveal.

But here's 12 announced and strongly-suggested games that I was hoping would be talked about more from Nintendo during their main E3 presentation, but they didn't and for the life in me I don't know why:

1. Zelda HD (it's in the works and would've been pivotal--why not show something about it, even if just concept art?)
2. Star Fox Wii U (one developed by Retro Studios, just as they said they'd like to do)
3. Golden Sun 3DS (there's more 3DS games to announce later, but my hopes aren't up anymore...)
4. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS (again, it's in the works and would've been pivotal--show something)
5. F-Zero Wii U (Miyamoto said he'd like to see it on Wii U--listen to the man!)
6. Zone of Enders 3DS (Konami tweeted about the game--show something)
7. Metroid Wii U (some guy hinted that it was in consideration--why not do it and show something?)
8. Fire Emblem Wii U (I was confident that this game would be announced...)
9. That announced RPG in development from Monolith
10. Project C.A.R.S. (again, it's coming to the Wii U--why wasn't anything on it shown?)
11. An MMORPG announcement from Funcom (as they indicated was a good possibility)
12. Ghost Recon Online Arcade (this game was one of the first games to exist for Wii U and would've been one of Ubisoft's better games to show--why wasn't it shown anywhere during the main presentation?)

Most of these games are actual Wii U games in development--why weren't they announced? It's so stupid, because the Wii U doesn't have to suffer the criticism it's now going to suffer if only they had announced some of these games.  I still haven't given up on Wii U yet, and I think it still has a reasonable chance at success, but I think Nintendo's made their already uphill battle just that much more harder for themselves.

By fumbling that golden opportunity of a second first-impression of the Wii U to more dedicated "core" gamers, they've especially disappointed longtime fans like myself who can also still see how much potential the Wii U has, but just didn't get met last night.  Now we currently look like fools for trusting Nintendo to knock it out of the part (for once).  We still might gain some vindication later from the Wii U later, but for right now, we're in bandages.

Anyways, while it wasn't a total lose.  At least I know that many of those games I listed are actually in development, and among some of the announced games for Wii U was the likes of Trine 2: Directors Edition a Wii U edition of Mass Effect 3, and a very interesting "mass-hero action" game currently called Project P-100.  As bad as Nintendo was on-stage, I've actually seen worse lineup of launch titles (even the recent PS Vita comes to mind here).  There's still more Nintendo 3DS games to be announced.  And things are still early even for Wii U.  So here's to looking on the bright side.

- Brian

Update [06/15/2012]:  Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata has spoken some more about just why Nintendo only announced their launch titles at their E3 conference, and furthermore, reason why I shouldn't have doubted them (and it's so simple, really): They didn't want other people to copy their upcoming ideas for Wii U, so they're keeping quiet about it.  Well, that's a relief!

But a lifelong fan, knowing their innovating characteristic and unconventional quirks for going against the grain, after many being relentlessly and shamelessly imitated, I should've known something like this was the reason why, because it was rather uncharacteristic of Nintendo.  I mean, even last year, they did announce new Zelda and Super Smash Bros. title before they were even in production.  All of a sudden, any remaining post-E3 stress I had has now died.  Though even before now, as you can see in my writing above, I was already waning in my initial disappointment about their E3 conference.  My anatomical structure has been prepared once again for Wii U, full throttle!

Agni's Philosophy -- FINAL FANTASY REALTIME TECH DEMO

Sweet chimichangas on a hill of black beans!  This is more awesome than a golden valley of eternal rainbows of phantasmal fire in an nebulous ocean in outer space past the light of the third sun of a galaxy made of cookies!

I hate to say it, Epic, but even though I don't know the side-by-side tech specs of either two engines, this real-time next-gen game engine demo left me way more impressed than the rather underwhelming Unreal Engine 4's demo did.

Another indie game I REALLY like: StarForge

Once again, I'm not only an indie game developer, but I'm an indie game lover.  I try to post up games that I just wish as many eyes as possible would see.  Last time I showed Megabyte Punch, and that game's really coming along (check that one out, too, if you haven't).  This time, check out this exciting game in development called StarForge.  To describe it in short, take Minecraft, Starcraft II and Halo, and throw them into a blender, and basically, this awesome game is what you'll get.

But this game is really its own game, uses a very unique voxel-building system, incorporates several genres to define its own subgenre of RTS game (something I myself can relate to), and is just quite a promising game.  It's already making some waves and gaining some notice in the world of indie games.  What's even more crazy is that currently, only two guys are developing this game, and they're using Unity game engine to do it (again, I can relate to those myself). These two guys are creating (part-time) a kind of game that even larger major full-time game development teams won't do. This game is both inspiring and interesting to me.

Watch this video on YouTube of one of the developers walking through some of the development of the game, and then download their pre-alpha "builder demo" here (or their website, if that download link should stop working for any reason).  Enjoy (and then support them by Liking the video, if you like it)!

- Brian

E3 is almost here and I can't wait!

My anatomical structure is prepared.

Looking forward to E3 coming up!  I personally don't much care about planned new on Kinect, Halo 4, PS Vita or the probable failure EVO 2--this E3 will probably be all Nintendo for me.

I saw the Nintendo Direct Pre-E3 video from Nintendo presented by Mr. Satoru Iwata today, where he revealed a little about Wii U, and I have to say that if that was just a taste, then Wii U is going to be quite a delicious dish.  And I think the purposely-cheesy funny concept video of a frustrated Wii U gamer seeking help with his game is probably going to introduce this year's E3 meme: "non-specific action figure."

Anyways, my guess overall is that in face of a boring presentation from Sony and Microsoft this year and in light of the high praise several major developers have given the Wii U before now, Nintendo's probably going to steal the spotlight at E3 again this year!

I'll post back later and talk a bit about E3!  Meanwhile, check out some stuff I'm posting on my game developer's blog.

- Brian

Introducing the Leap (and I'm so buying one)

This brings me one step closer to being Tony Stark!  Man, as a game/software developer, science-fiction fan, victim of non-ergonomic technology and just plain techie, this speaks to me big.  Quite honestly, this is revolutionary!  And amazingly enough, it's planned to be sold at just $70!  And even cooler, they're providing free SDKs to registered and qualified developers--I'm seriously considering becoming one down the line.  I've had an idea for 7 years that would make perfect use of this thing, and even now, my imagination is boiling.  I'm definitely getting one--maybe even two!

TWO demos for the Kickstarter and other news

I'm working on two different playable demos to present as the example of my game Cyka, which I'll be seeking some support with through Kickstarter.  What kind of two demos?  Well, one demo is being developed with the Unity game engine and one is being developed with Unreal Development Kit.  And they're both representing two great versions of the game Cyka.

One game, two game engines. six stores!

I needed two versions to fulfill the potential of this game.  I wanted this game to be available for as many platforms as possible and to play seamlessly cross-platform and persistent-world online between those platforms, and for that, I'm choosing the Unity game engine to develop the "standard" version of Cyka.  I wanted this same game to be even more visually-stunning, the environments to be even more destructible and interactive, and to be available for Steam (which currently does not support cross-platform with such other platforms as mobile devices), and for that, I'm choosing the UDK to develop the rather "enhanced" version of Cyka.

This second UDK version will be called Cyka: Steamed Edition (fitting for a steampunk-themed game), will include the Cloud Quest mode found in the non-Steam special edition of Cyka called Cyka: Cloud Quest Edition, and the present plan is that it will be priced lower than the original wider-platform version of Cyka.  But both versions will be huge genre-bending experiences, beautifully-rendered, done with 100% quality, and put you in the company of thousands of gamers online.  And we still plan to enter our a working demo of each version of our game into the Independent Game Festival (IGF) and IndieCade 2013 both next year, and yes, we aim to win the top prizes in both (we're that confident about the brilliance of this game).  My company PolyKhrome will be pushing the limits of both game engines, as our game pushes new limits in the genre of online action real-time strategy games.  I explain it all here on my developer's blog.

If you'd like to know a little more about what game I'm creating, please visit my development blog.  And if you have any questions or comments about the game or my company, please e-mail me at PolyKhrome@gmail.com (soon to be BrianLockett@PolyKhrome.com when our official website is complete).  Some details about the Kickstarter have already been revealed, and there's more to come in coming days.  I've got some great offerings in store for supporters, but without the demos, they mean nothing.  So PolyKhrome is diligently working to develop two demos that'll blow you away.

If you're interested in possibly joining PolyKhrome, send me an e-mail and provide me with a link to your website, blog, or portfolio, and we can talk.  I'll provide more details then, but I can say that while experience with Blender and Photoshop are preferred, we can work with users of other software, but good experience with Unity and/or UDK is necessary.  We'll be looking for an assets artist or two (characters, environments, props, and 2D elements), an additional game programmer or two (preferably one with some network programming experience), and an illustrator with some graphic design experience.  Later, we'll be looking for an additional game musician/sound designer, though we already do have plans for later seeking a particular amazing freelance game musician in mind.

Also, this summer, I'll be starting back my Operation Moogle effort on the side.  It was a project I started last year to respond to Square Enix's call for an organized effort to be enough of a united voice saying we wanted a Final Fantasy HD collection from them of their most beloved Final Fantasy titles of the past.  Last year, we went into a hiatus as summer came to a close, but this year, we're picking up right where we left--and our supporters are ecstatic!  And Square Enix are listening--we currently have an employee with some brass at Square Enix following us on our Twitter page!  If that sounds interesting to you, check it out, sign our petition, and take our poll--your voice counts.

And finally, I'm excited about the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012 (or E3 2012), just 12 days away!  Personally, I'm very interested in the only officially-announced next-gen console to be showed there, the Wii U from Nintendo, as both a gamer and an indie game developer.  I've been following the development of this console for the last year and a half, back when it was just a mysterious project, and when it was finally unveiled last year at E3 2011 (and I talked about it here on this blog last year), I can say that I immediately saw what I could do with that system.  It immediately addressed some of the things I wanted to do with gaming, and its controller is really all I can ask for as a game developer.  I can definitely say that the Wii U will be in PolyKhrome's future, as soon as we become a better established to do so with our current work!  I'd love nothing more than to see the likes of Cyka II (which is already being planned) on the Wii U someday...

Anyways, folks, that concludes this post.  I hope to hear from some of you soon!  I tell you, this is going to be one exciting summer, folks!

- Brian

I'm working on my demo to present with my Kickstarter

The title says it all.  I'm working on a demo to present as the example of the game I'll be seeking some support with through Kickstarter.  This is something I've been planning for three long months now, and really, I need to kick it into final production pretty soon.  If you'd like to know a little more about what game I'm creating, visit my development blog.  Details about the Kickstarter while be revealed soon, and I've got some great offerings in store for supporters (I'm talking just plain awesome stuff), but I just have to say that the demo comes first.  Without it, there's no selling the game with support through Kickstarter.  So expect me to take a little time and extra care on developing this demo.

- Brian

Wanna see a concept design of Commander Cyka?

Visit my company's development blog here to catch a early glimpse of the steampunk cybernetic commander (and to also download and try out our first development demo).  And be sure to take our quick poll--it'll really help us!  Later, y'all!

- Brian

Few game terrain screenshots on Facebook

I have a few game terrain screenshots today being posted on the PolyKhrome Facebook page.  It's early development shots of the canyon desert terrain for the continent Zapade in my game Cyka and this region alone about 21 miles big.  The continent in this game is expansive and huge, and fully-explorable as a persistent world in the game's online Conquest mode.  There's only the rough stage and you'll see them fully-textured and perfectly-tweaked for the game pretty soon.

By the way, as posted on the PolyKhrome developer's blog, which is undergoing a little reconstruction today as well, the first 100 people to Like the PolyKhrome Facebook page and leave the comment "I want Cyka!" will receive a free PC or Mac desktop version of the game when its finished.  If you want to know more about just what Cyka is about, be sure to check out this article on the PolyKhrome developer's blog.  Later!

- Brian

Folks, check out Megabyte Punch!

I don't just love making indie games--I love playing them, too.  I've just played one so good, I literally stopped in the middle of playing it just to blog about it.  The game is called Megabyte Punch, and this is a game that, after just two videos and only two minutes of playing its demo, I'm already calling one of the best indie games of all time.  Yeah.  It's that much of an instant-love game with me.

And what's more impressive to me is not just that this game is completely awesome, but also that this game was made entirely with the free version of Unity.  This game is like melting together Super Smash Bros., classic Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man, Custom Robo, and something else I can't find off the top of my head at the moment, all to a pleasing nostalgic platformer soundtrack, and still it somehow feels like its own original game.  Dude, just check the demo below out for yourself, and pass the word along to your gaming friends (the game is apparently multiplayer!).  (Also, consider going to Reptile Games' YouTube Channel, tell them how you like this game, and check out their other titles!)

Megabyte Punch demo!

- Brian

Update: A buffet of Cyka details coming up!

I'm getting ready to unload a whole bunch of stuff about my game Cyka on my developer's blog, PolyKhrome Blog.  Everything from my game design document to details about the game, to even a brief look at upcoming titles lined up behind Cyka.  I'm preparing it all right now.  If you don't see anything today, check back tomorrow.  I think you'll like what you'll see.  See you there soon!

- Brian

Hello and Here's My Game...

Hey, folks.  In case you've been one of the people checking back at this blog, sorry I've been kinda tardy (like 7 months tardy).  But I've had a lot going on with me personally, most of it good.  Very good, in fact.

Well, first off, I did find an apartment here in New York, so yeah, that's good.  I'm thankful that worked out.  But enough about that--let me get right into my game (or should I say, games).

While I'm still working on that RPG title I talked about last time (and conceptual development for that continues along), I'm currently working on another game.  While I won't share details about the RPG just yet, I'll go ahead and reveal some details about this game I'm working on now, and my new indie company PolyKhrome.

The name of the game I'm working on right now is called Cyka, and it's a wonderful twist to my favorite gaming genres.  Basically, in Story mode, you play as a robotic being named Cyka who is a commander of a medieval-style alien steampunk robot army of knights (yes, you heard me) in charge of defending his homeland against invading neighboring cities.  Development for this game will take about 15 months (subject to change, and depends on what all I can get done--though my personal deadline is 10 months), and it will released for PC and Mac, and I plan for an iOS/Android tablet release and possibly Linux (depending how much support I get for such).

The gameplay is so highly unique, I'm afraid of sharing some of it too soon here, but I will tell you this much:

• While the game's single-player Story mode is very fun and in no way watered down, the game truly shines in its online multiplayer modes, which include Versus mode and Conquest mode.
• The game will strongly appeal to those who like online RTSes and RPGs (in fact, it's defining a new genre, truly unlike anything done before, really).
• The game is a high-end indie game ("AAA indie game") featuring a highly-stylized realistic style, to be beautifully rendered by the Unity Engine.
• There is special attention going into the game's soundtrack as well, to truly make the world as fantastic as the game plays.
• This game will be supported by a Kickstarter fundraiser (which I am currently organizing and I will let you know when it will be available soon), and will be offering special editions of the game to early supporters.
• In Conquest mode, the game goes on while you're offline and your stats are affected.
• The game comes with a PC/Mac version of the game, along with an additional iOS/Android version of the game.  This will allow players to transfer their data from the computer version to the mobile device version of the game, and take their gaming on the road and access their Conquest mode game stats online from their mobile devices.  ( A Linux computer version of the game would be supported via Chrome Native Client version of the game.)
• This game will be DRM-free.
• This game will be made to look beautiful no matter what you play it on.  Whether you play it on your computer, ultrabook, smartphone or your tablet.
• There will be online tournaments and I plan to eventually host events at indie gaming conventions around in the U.S. and Canada (I expect this game to be popular with online team gamers and have something in the vein of StarCraft tournaments).
• I will enter the 15th Annual Independent Games Festival in 2013.  (Even though my game won't be 100% by time for submission, I will still have enough of the game built to showcase it.  I plan to still win something.)
• After I release Cyka on Steam and Desura, I will release a free browser-based version of the game called Cyka Free that features a unique blended version of the full Cyka game's Versus and Conquest modes.
• The target release time for Cyka is Autumn 2013.

I'm truly building a game that I want to play other people with, and have a good fair chance of losing.  It's truly that kind of game, and it's going to be one of those kind of games I think that you'll be playing for a long time.  It's an insanely addictive game.

I'll be showing work on this game on my company blog site, PolyKhrome Blog, but I'll show you the logo so far: 

Currently, the company is finishing Cyka's game design document and are working on an early prototype of the game.  I'll keep you updated.  (And I won't leave that long anymore!)  See you back here soon.  Keep exploring!

- Brian