Hempuli's blog

So then. I just finished level 14 of Beyond the Black Hole, that endless project of mine. The engine is, as I’ve stated previously, very very awful, but the game has some really neat things going on so I really want to finish it. I think I’ll try to finish 20 or so levels and then call the game finished. I’ll definitely want to re-revisit the concept later, though, because it allows for a lot of creative freedom.

It took me 17 months to finish this one level. Cool? Nope.

Oh, and also, I’ve been adding parallax scrolling to Environmental Station Alpha. Like so:

Oh well, so Ludum Dare was last weekend, with the theme ‘Escape’. Wasn’t really my cup of tea, and in the end I didn’t manage to create anything of interest, just a simple engine for a possible future game (I spent so much timing finishing parts of the engine that I ultimately didn’t need).

On other news, I’ll be moving away from my parents’ soon, which’ll mean a pause in any updates whatsoever. Not that big a deal, but it’s pretty exciting for me! And then for the games:
Beyond the Black Hole: Yep, still not given up on this! The engine is old and horrid, but I hope that inspiration eventually strikes and I can get it done.
Masjin: I think I’ll make an update to fix the currently existing bigger bugs and then take some time off the project in order to pursue other stuff.
Paradise Fort flash: I recently found a much easier way to handle certain stuff, so expect to see some updates on this eventually!

Then there’re various smaller things I’m working on or at least planning to work on. As Usual, I’ll wait until they’re a bit more ripe before announcing ’em.

Stuff like this.

So then! Level 13 is finally here, let us all dwell in endless sjoy! The level is quite complicated but I think it’s not too bad. The teaser pic was already posted below so no pic this time, sorry!

I’ll put It’s a Frickin’ Cave for a pause up until I lose my motivation with BtBH again. I’d really want to finish this (and both!).
Here’s still a teaser pic from IaFC:

For some reason I wanted to make a video about BtBH. I hope you like it.

Oh, and this is the third time I use Movie Maker for anything. Sony Vegas looks rather interesting, but its middle name is ‘expensive’.

I’m currently multitasking several different games at once. I have no problem with that, but I should actually be reading to exams which are going to take place next wednesday. Oh well.

Anyway, I’ll list here some stuff I’m currently working on and tell a bit about their progress.
Firstly, there’s the world generator I made a couple posts about earlier. After a longish pause, I got around to add rivers and roads to the world. After a lot of struggling with getting the rivers look good, I think I’m getting somewhere. Next I should just make the generation automatic instead of manual click-to-create, and then start working on roads.

They look nice, don't they?

Earlier attempt.

The next thing is of course Beyond the Black Hole. I don’t quite know what I’m going to do with this, since I don’t think I can bring myself to create all the planned 35 levels. A possibility would be to finish the planet currently at hand, and then the last planet to get 20 levels. I continued working on level 13, as you can see in the post below, but currently I’m a bit stuck with the puzzle. For once it’s not just about motivational problems!

After making that Excavatorrr idea I became sad because I realized how much potential was lost in that one: I myself think that the game was really neat, and that it was positively addicting once the player got hang of the controls. That last bit was the problem, of course: Most players don’t want to take their time to learn a random game, much less if the game isn’t all that big and doesn’t take long to beat. So, last night I started pondering a bit if a remake/sequel to the game could be justified. With my new knowledge, I’d be able to create a much better engine, make a flash export, and possibly connect the game leaderboards to things like Kongregate and so on. That’d be kinda neat. Also the slowness and controlling problems of the original could be taken care of.

There’s also a fourth thing I’ve been playing with, but I wont say much about it yet because I’m quite sure it’ll fail like most other projects I’ve started. So pics will come once I know more!

oooOOOOooOOOoo

AAWWW YEAH! It’s out. And it’s my birthday!

Anyway, here’s my birthday present to anyone who reads this blog! I’ll just copy the description from other places, too lazy to write everything again! So here it comes:

Ok, so this is the demo of Beyond the Black Hole, a puzzle-platformer I’ve been working on for about half a year now with Multimedia Fusion 2. It’s by far my biggest project, and it’ll sure take a year or so still to finish it. This thing is a sequel to FIG, my earlier ‘big’ game, though there are certain big differences, the controlling system being the biggest.

This demo features 6 of the game’s 35 levels, all chosen from the finished 12 and stuffed to one planet. There’s also the tutorial level on top of that. I’ll stop here and let the readme speak a bit:

“In each level, your objective is to collect all the yellow stars (there’s usually only one, and none should be hidden from view) and reach the exit. Reaching the stars and overall solving the levels requires using the main character to carry things around, and the mouse to interact with other things. Most levels require both methods of interaction. In every level, there’s also a hidden blue star, which requires either extra skill or just common curiousness to be found. Collecting all the blue stars also results in a bonus, though not in this demo!

NOTE! You can adjust volume from the settings.txt!

** CONTROLS **

A & D = move left & right
W = jump
Space = pick up / put down
Left mouse button = throw when aiming, interact, confirm
Right mouse button = aim when carrying an item, return to planet menu
ESC = quit level/game
Enter = restart level

** CREDITS **

Full credits shall be in the finished game!

Idea, design, graphics & programming: Arvi Teikari
Musics: Johan Hargne
Main tester: Looki
Support and sound editing: Nicklas Nygren”

There were other people that should be mentioned there, I’ll list them here later.

GET THE GAME AAAAA

I’ve had a very cool day, finishing up level 12 (it’s now finished!) and working on the other parts of the game, such as the menu, the splash screen (or whatever the screen where I say stuff like “Arvi Teikari Presents” is called) and the credits screen. My idea for the credits screen is rather strange: I’m going to contact as many of the testers and other participants as possible, and then portray them as their creature of choice on the credits island, which’ll play like your average level. Hovering your mouse over the creatures would reveal the name and purpose of the ‘creature’. I also think that I am perhaps able to finish level 13 too before the release of the demo, but we’ll see how long I’ll keep this creative mood.

Tutorial pic:

Work on BtBH continues steadily. In fact, it’s coming together very nicely! Level 12 will be soon finished, and I’ve also created the tutorial and a credit page. I’ve also fleshed out the main menu, to make it more understandable. The demo shall be out 18th of june, which happens to be my birthday. I’ll have plenty of time to finish things up before that!