Sunday, January 23, 2011

Home Brew Game development---PrePlanning

  It's been a busy week, Geek Nation.  I just started editing a documentary film on Thursday that seems like it will be a good project.  Its an incredible story, so I look forward to seeing in unravel in the Final Cut Pro timeline.

  Our film project, Rain in Hell, is coming along nicely.  I have over half of the effects done, and not surprisingly, have become a digital rain guru since half of our short film requires additional rain elements.  The bulk of the remainder of the film will be done within the next few days as long as the renders don't begin to creep.  The majority of the work remaining is digital blood effects, most of which has been hand painted/animated by yours truly.

  The portions of the film that do not have a soundtrack under them are currently being scored by Mr. Justin Evangelista from Turning Records Entertainment.  He has a packed schedule, so I am incredibly happy he was able to find time for us to work on the project.  Check out his work here:  http://www.trfps.com/

  However, the point of this particular blog post is to document the progress of my first home-brew game.

  I am constantly striving to be a more versatile storyteller, and I would be lying if I said I wanted to focus strictly within the traditional realms of film and literature in order to do that.  Being outside the traditional studio structure for the past several months I have become more aware as to how many games are bound by their financial goals, which leave little time for developing a story.  The majority of large success stories within the video game realm at their core are very similar to the success found within film and literature.  Mainly, if you put your passion into the project and give the public an engaging story and well developed characters you will not fail.

  That started to feel like a tangent beginning, so I will refocus.  I do not like being hampered by a lack of knowledge in an area.  In this case a program.  Flash.

  Its evil.  I have shook hands with Flash before.  We've chatted for a bit, but he seemed much more sophisticated than necessary and his accent was hard for me to understand, so we did not stay in touch.  But, in my contacts with various game studios it is very clear that a 2D artist who is not fluent in Flash will only get so far.  However, just sitting down and playing within the program would guarantee I would forget 90% of what I learned.  I needed a project, and why not a game.  I have been the art lead on enough web games now that I have seen my art moving and flashing on the PC screen, so its not as foreign of an idea as it once was. Several years ago I felt the same sort of magic when looking at Nintendo game art, so I knew it was something I could take command of. But until last week no game idea was coming to mind to focus my project around.

  Then it popped in there.  I was writing in my novel when it happened, so maybe my mind just needed to shift gears to let the kernel of an idea slip through.  Its a simple idea that definitely speaks to a specialized segment of the world, but it seems like it would be fun.

  So now, I am sketching and scribbling down ideas.  Its going to be a basic platformer with three core game play levels.  Perhaps a little of a challenge for my first flash project but why not.  I am putting together my basic design, enemy list, power ups, and whatnot before I start to digitize any art, but I am excited.
  
  Make it a good week, Geek Nation.  

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