Yes, you are at the right place.

For my first post in nearly a year, I am going to answer some pretty standard questions that some of you may have.  Hopefully, I can just link back to this post for future reference and new comers alike.

What engine are you using?
Construct 2 with CocoonJS for converting HTML5 to an APK.

Where can I try this engine for free?
www.scirra.com

When did you start this project?
Well, its been floating around in my head for years.  I finally started putting things into motion about a year ago.  After trying a few different engines (GameMaker, RPG Maker, Genesis2D, among many others) and teaching my self the concepts behind an event driven game.  I found that C2 offered the best tools for what I needed to do.  I started learning the program in early December 2012 and purchased a license in April 2013.

How do you create the graphics you are using?
I use a mix of free textures and Adobe Illustrator on my tablet. Everything else is done in Photoshop.  Most graphics are just place makers and do not represent the final product.

What's it all about?
Can't discuss that yet but there will be an official About page in the coming weeks.  You can read the storyline there.

Can I have your babies?
No

Here I am setting up basic character movements, collisions, tiling, and NPC names.  I am building this game with comfort and ease in mind.  Too many mobile games have clunky controls that take up half the screen.  Am I right?

Lost My Momentum

I did it.  I did exactly what I said I wasn't going to do.  I lost my momentum.  

I haven't touched my game in over a week.  Ugh, what to do, what to do.  Well, enough farting around I need to get back to designing.

I have been working on another game in my spare time.  It's sort of a comedic Mario Brothers.  I wanted to approach this project a little differently.  I am starting with the Game Design Document and working from there.  I thought this was pretty boring at first but just sitting there writing down every thing that popped into my head was amazing.  I have absolutely no idea where I am going to take Eternal Light.  Yes, I know it will be an MMORPG and yes, I know it will have a decent story line, but what else?  Without the GDD I have been jumping around every where.  From working on my enemy AI, to different camera views, to terrain features.  But its like why am I working on terrain?  I don't know where any of story will take place or what it will look like or anything.  Gah!

So the GDD, is the most important part of any game, at least for its production.  I truly believe this, now, after creating one for my Mario Brothers game.  I can start focusing on graphics and know exactly what to draw.  I know which characters I need to make.  I know which levels to create and how the scoring system will work.  The best is anyone can read it and start working on assets right away.  Its brilliant!

I really recommend this to any aspiring game designer.  The GDD will cut down on your production time significantly.  Wow, totally lost track of what I was originally going to say.  Tomorrow I will fill everyone in, well like 10 people, on what I have done so far.  Cya Soon!

First-person Camera Setup and Testing

And on the first day, Steve created heavens and the earth.

Okay, maybe its just a skybox and a simple plane, but still pretty impressive, no?  Thats actually pretty far for my first day of designing and implementation.  I started working on a projectile system, to test out spells and ranged weapons, but I completely ran out of time.  Well tomorrow I have no plans and I think I might make a build for public use.  Then everyone can see how the game is coming along, just by playing it.

I have been trying to recruit people online and some of my friends but everyone is either too lazy or a terrible speller.  I hope I can at least share this project with someone along the way.

Momentum is VITAL

 I am finding Unity to be very challenging to use, AND, I lost my Hero Engine account!

So yeah, they switched to $99 a year, which is cheap, but I just have an issue with buying things online haha.  Anyways, Unity3D, as I said before, is proving to be very challenging.  Not as bad as starting from scratch but there is a lot more programming involved.

All the stress this past week have been purely from reading.  Its like brain exercise 8 hours a day.  I was trying to learn Unity, Blender, Maya, C#, and the concepts of an MMO all at once.  Not a good idea!  I have started my own "time management" paper thing.  Basically, I write down all my major concept ideas and things I need to learn.  Then I break apart each section into smaller tasks.  Then I try to complete one at a time.  So far its going pretty good and can actually feel the momentum coming back.  One thing I refuse to lose is my momentum.  Momentum is VITAL to any indie game developer.

Switching to the Unity3D engine

I am finally back on track putting all my focus into the Eternal Light project.  When I went back to HE to log in, I was confronted with a "You must pay $100 to login!"  So, yeah I got out of there pretty fast.  One of my main goals for this game is completing the project without spending a penny.  Gotta stick to my goals!

Any way, there is a loud ass lawn mower coming my way and I gotta pick up some friends.  I will post more this evening.

Switching to the Hero Engine

Ever since I made the decision to create an MMO, I have been stuck with a simple yet very complex decision, 2D or 3D? At first it seemed like a no brainer. 2D was easy and was really a good starting point for a first time game designer. After nearly four months of work now, the 2D perspective has been too limiting. Every idea is halted until it can be adapted to the engine. This is something I really can not put aside. I do not want to sell my self short or put something out there knowing it could be better if I had a better engine. Personally I feel if this is going to work then I will need to switch to 3D. For any G2D fans, there is nothing wrong with the engine, it's probably the best one out there for Dx7 and soon Dx8 support. I have different needs in the end.

So, I have switched to the Hero Engine. This has got to be the most advanced 3D engine out there. Although I have not spent more then an hour with it in development, I am very excited with the features this engine will bring. I have been following them closely over the past two months and I feel their professional standards and friendly community will reflect on my work ethic and allow me to produce something far better than running off into a corner with the Unreal Engine and hoping for the best. As my girlfriend would say, "oh god, another idea Steve?". I just like to think of myself as ambitious. :)

Switching to Maya I think will be the hardest part of all of this. Sure I can make a ball in Blender but a monster in Maya? Ouch time. I figure I will start with very simple textures and models. Over time I can improve on them and update them as necessary. Updates are so easy with HE.

I have other things to wrap up today and tomorrow. Hopefully my account will be completed this weekend and I can start setting up all the directories and so on.

On hold

Figured I should let anyone reading this know that I have put this project on hold until February. The new directx8 engine should be out by then.

I will still be working behind the scenes pen & paper style. Graphics take a lot of time as well so those will be tested and what not.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year! Cya all in 2012!

Interview today!

I have been spending the past two days writing dialogue for quests. I noticed that there is no real depth to questing. You kill or collect said item or monster and then you are done. Most of the work consists of short stories to go with the quests which is relatively easy but time consuming.

The reason I have been working on quests is because there is supposed to be a new release for the G2D engine out this month. But it's looking like it's for donators only. Not really sure I want to donate just yet. If I land this job today then I will for sure! Wish me luck.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

Okay, if you don't know which movie I just quoted in my topic, then please go Google it. If you did see the movie, "redrum! Redrum!".

Seriously though, I have been thinking and breathing this MMO for almost a month now. Not to mention all the work I did on the project before this (also an MMO). Heck I even started having dreams about the game. I was updating my blog as I drove, which was very dangerous, and I felt it was getting to be too much for me. Having the weekend off was perfect. I got some shopping done over the Thanksgiving weekend. It was Thanksgiving right? I am in Canada, we had ours a month ago.

I came back this evening with a clear head and a new set of ideas. I even did some research and found a well written article on creating and managing an effective economy. Although I do not understand some of the points the writer was making, nor do I agree with all of his ideals, it was a very informative read and has changed my economic model for the better, I hope.

Last night I was putting together some tilesets, again, and figured out a way to cut my work in half. Instead of making a blended tileset for each type of terrain, I can just make it half grass and the other half transparent. This way I can mix dark grass with sand or rock or whatever at any time, with out having to do any extra work. This will also cut down on my file size immensely.

I quit!

I quit! No, not really, but I feel like it. I know graphic design is probably the hardest part for me and that things will get easier, eventually. But it's such a time consuming and stressful process. I did figure out how to make my tilesets more vibrant which is a huge improvement to the look and feel of the game environment. Other then that all I can say is, "headache"!

I won't be getting much of anything done today. I got real life stuff to take care of and I gotta prep for Christmas. Setting up decorations and do some shopping.

I plan to release a playable client in January 2012. So stay tuned for that.

Beach Creation

As I said before TileForge is amazing. I really wish I knew who made this program. They deserve a donation.

I finished my beach tiles tonight. They turned out a lot better then I had hoped and they look far better than anything I have seen in other tile sets. Even the tide coming and going looked pretty good.

Unfortunately I had no real time to advertise today. This is showing in my blog stats. I am down to about 13 views a day. I was reaching over 75 a day, last week. I can't wait to see the turn around after my work is done on the advertising part.

TileForge is my Friend

I got some mountain tiles finally. Its better to look for "cliff faces" instead of mountains. I started looking at some of my rock tile templates and considered blending them with grass and water. This is where TileForge came in.

This little app is very powerful when it comes to tile blending. It's able to take up to three different tiles and blend the edges together. There is even a 3D blending feature for those more realistic drop offs. The only limitation I have found was that my output tiles are limited to 64x64 pixels. This just requires more creativity. Right now the Dark Grass and Ocean blend that I made is looking nice. Although a full grass field running straight to the edge of the ocean looks out of place. I am going to have to add some sand, rocks, and other shore like tiles. It seems like every time I unlock a door, two more open.

I also have to figure out how to animate the half water and half grass tiles. Well I know how to do it, I just don't know if I have the patience today, haha. I could actually re-render the two tiles in TileForge, using the rippled water, and come out with a pretty close tile. The random stitching will obviously not match up but I am hoping this will give a "waves coming and going" effect.

One last thing I am going to change is the ripple effect of the ocean. It looks good on paper and even in the examples. But, when it's actually animated in the game, and you are in full-screen mode, it's a real distraction. I want to keep the ripple effect for sure but intensity will need to be re-done. This sounds easy but it's not :(

One last thing I wanted to cover was the engine it self. There is a huge update coming next month. I plan to pay to get into the beta. With this new engine I am hoping to really get away from the pen and paper side and start putting out testable content. I have my server ready and waiting to go. Along with funding for a web site and domain. One of my maim concerns starting out is my bandwidth usage. I may have to limit the amount of time the server is up.

Landscapes

Yesterday I realized we are going to need mountains in this game and I have no idea how to make them. As usual I did a google search but came up with nothing. I don't even know where to begin with drawing a mountain. I guess at the bottom? Lol

So the sake of time I am going to go with the traditional rock face on a 90' angel. This is a short-cut I really did not want to take. My whole design idea is based around beautiful scenery and pushing the boundaries of a 32x32 tile. So this is a little bit of a let down but I need to be flexible. On the positive side I can always update the graphics later on in an expansion. Nothing is ever set in stone when it comes to online gaming. Write that down kids.

Tomorrow, or I guess it's today now, I will be free for about eight hours. During this time I hope to get the foundation for Human Starting Island completed. In between that and my mountain research I will be working on my ad campaign. I won't be doing direct advertising because I really don't have a product yet, but I will be doing demographic research and looking for any joint advertising leads. I believe working with other small time game makers, like my self, will be the most beneficial to both parties.

One last thing I wanted to mention tonight was the name Eternal Light. This was never fully researched by my self and I have recently come across other games with the same name. Now I don't believe those two words are copyrighted but this has made me reconsider alternative names. I have a few written down just in case. In fact I actually like this other name better. For now though, I will keep Eternal Light and do some research. There has to be some way I can figure out the copyrights on those two words being used together.

New friends!!

I posted on Facebook today looking for anyone who might interested in helping and I actually got three people who are. I went over a few ground rules with them and offered to send out my GDD. If you don't know what that is its a Game Design Document. It's basically a list of ingredients for your game and you share it with all your staff so we all can stay on track and know what is expected and how things will work together etc etc. If you are designing your own MMO, or any game for that matter, I highly suggest you get a GDD template and fill it out. It's a lot of extra work, yes, but it will help you out in the long run.

Mine is about half way done. I just started writing it today haha. I will be finished writing tomorrow and then I will be able to share it with my, possibly new, team members. It's a little nerve racking sharing your ideas with other people. I am not worried about their opinion. I am mostly worried about people stealing my ideas.

So all four of them, two guys two girls, seem to be more focused around the story/quest writing part, which is good. My sister would be my fifth team member. She is strictly a pixel artist and a damn good one. This is going to leave me with most of the work, which is fine. I really hope I can get a web designer into the group soon as well. I just don't have time to learn PHP.

Trees and shrubberies

Using my new techniques along with the grid tool I have been able to push out some nice tiles. I always say work smarter not harder, and that's exactly what I did today. Until I came upon trees and shrubberies.

These bad boys are so crucial to any environment. They seem so common and simple but yet they are so hard to design. And to actually make them look realistic is another story altogether. I looked on line for tree templates and tree generators with not much luck. Although there are some good resources out there, I cannot find that perfect tree. I may have to take Blender out for another spin and create my own trees from scratch. This is going to be a nightmare!!

Day 2 of tree'ing!
Well I was to find some nice resources online. A lot of editing is needed but they are going to look amazing after I am done. Even got some nice cactus and other plants to use!

Back to the fut... game!

Oh man, after all that testing I had to clear my head and just read a good fantasy book. The Element of Fire by Martha Wells is pretty good is you love the fantasy genre. I was amazed and excited way before the first chapter was over. Give it a read if you are interested.

I came up with some more tricks in Photoshop for producing tile-sets. I even found the grid feature, which will help me out nicely. All in all I have improved my production time greatly. What took me an hour before is taking me three minutes.

I will upload some tile samples when I get home later. I won't share too much because of the influx of uncreative leeches around the web. I mean I don't mind sharing a template and having others use it as a base for their own work. But when it's copy pasted it's just offensive.

No time to post!

Today has been rough. Studying and testing all day today. Plus another full day tomorrow of testing, gah. The only work I have been able to get done is in my head. I have decided to start an ad campaign for this blog. My focus right now is to raise awareness. Luckily I have a strong marketing background. More on this tomorrow. That is if I don't pass out!

Milestone #1

Most game designers may not call this a milestone but for me it is. I created my first house in about two hours! Pretty bad I know but I am proud of my oversized house, haha. Literally the house is three floors high, easily. The roof looks good but the walls need to be scales down.

I have been doing all of my art work in Photoshop which really hasn't been that helpful. I find that Paint is easier to use in the end. I need to find a decent program with with a grid overlay. This help me greatly. I know I have one on my harddrive somewhere I just need to find it.

My test is tomorrow so it's an early night for me. Hopefully I will be able to finish up my house after the exam. One good thing about completing this one house is that I have basically completed 100 of them. Not every house will look the same but there will be replicas for sure!

Issue number 485683-2

I should really start using issue numbers for my blog titles. And by issue I mean total road block.

If there's one thing I learned in school it was planning ahead. Honestly without this skill you really won't succeed in making an MMO. You probably won't succeed in any form of entertainment. Unless it's situational humor. Lol.

So back to the issues at hand. While I was making my first shop I realized that players will be able to block NPCs. Especially NPCs that are behind counters or tables. I did find one fix for this on the forums for the engine. I am able to place an attribute tile that will allow multiple players to walk on that same tile. This really helps the blocking issues and solves the other issue of people blocking door ways or cave entrances.

The other issue is being able to actually interact with NPCs behind these tables. Basically more than one cell away. I asked on the forums if there was a way around this issue and I am still awaiting a reply. If there isnt a way around this I may have to get a little creative. For now I don't plan to share the technique I will use. That would just give my competition a head start :)

Resourceful or creative?

These two words go hand in hand. I have had to be very creative the past few days. Did you know that vert is a word? Thank you auto-correct!

I finished up the rest of Human Island yesterday and started throwing together a resource pack for the island. I don't mind using the occasional icons or potted plants but when it comes to flooring, walls, roofs, trees, just about everything beside doodads, I want to be original art work. And by that I do not mean re-colours! That's how we spell colour up here.

Since I had no base template to work off of I had to go in to the game and measure out realistic sizes for housing, churches, shops, and inns. Pretty easy stuff for the most part. One thing I did get stuck on is house direction. A south-west placement would give players two sides to look at and lessen the feel that you are in a 2D world. On the other hand facing north and south creates more graphic challenges for me. For now I have consider that graphics can always be an update later down the road. Either a weekly thing or a complete over haul every 3 months or something.

On the plus side I was able to upgrade my servers ram by another gig. I also changed the location and added another internal fan so it will now run cooler.