Update 12/25/13

Well, Decoys is in another lull. I'm used to it by now, but there's something different about this one.


Normally, I spend my free time playing video games. Whether I'm by myself or with a group of friends, the go-to activity has always been playing video games. But ever since I finished the digital version of ye olde Decoys, I've played significantly less video games. Instead, I've been making them.

I come home from work and I sit down at my desk like always, but where I would usually pick up a controller or boot up Steam from there, I've found myself screwing around in Game Maker. Even when I'm hanging out with friends, I'm on my laptop trying to program something while they're playing video games. I never would have thought that coding games is just as much fun as playing them! Well, sometimes at least. Other times it's just as frustrating as playing them.

If you had told me that a year ago, I would have scoffed. I had been trying to program stuff for years, and while the few times I actually managed to get something working were incredible, most of it was me banging my head against the wall. I'm not sure what's changed in me - maybe I just 'get it' finally. I was tired of waiting around for Decoys, I was brainstorming game ideas with friends, I just sorta googled how to make different stuff in Game Maker, and now I enjoy programming.

This is exciting on so many levels to me. I feel more creative than I have in a long time, I can prototype game ideas faster than ever, I'm getting closer to making the types of games I want to make, I have more respect for professional programmers, and this may open up a new path entirely to me. If I get better (a LOT better), I could probably get a job as a programmer, and getting better is going to be fun because that means making more video games! I'm starting small but I can see myself eventually taking on larger scale projects! Too long have I had too many ideas to know what to do with! I will make them ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!

...

Ahem.

So what HAVE I been working on you ask?

Well the first thing I took on was side scrolling action platformer called Escape from Planet X. A couple friends and I spent a few nights brainstorming ideas for it, and I cobbled together a few systems under the guidance of several tutorials and forum posts. I guess it works, so there's that, but without a strong idea of what mechanics we actually wanted, I couldn't really take it anywhere special. I really like what we had come up with otherwise, so maybe one day I'll hammer out some concrete systems and tackle it again.

A couple weeks ago I decided to try my hand at a combat system. I spent a few hours at a friend's house making a simple top-down one-on-one sumo-wrestling-esque game for us to play. I was shocked how easily it flowed through me. It only took a couple hours, and it works exactly as I wanted it to (with one tiny exception that may have more to do with my laptop deteriorating than my code). That's never happened before, not without me viciously googling my problems.

It's a simple game - each player can move, attack and parry. Attacks knock your opponent back, parries block attacks and knock the attacker back. If you step out of the ring, your opponent gets a point. That's all - probably why it was so simple to make. The interesting challenge was in adjusting hit-box dimensions and timing, trying to make it feel just right.

And I continue to screw around with this sumo game. I'm currently trying to make a Soul Calibur type block/parry system. I assume this game is just going to get more an more intricate as time goes on, and I'm excited by that - combat systems are interesting to me. I'll just have to remember to preserve the original version for posterity.

So yeah, never thought I'd be a 'programmer', can't say I mind. Though Decoys is still a project I want to see through to the end, if only for the sake of doing so. People seem to take interest in it, and I'm confident that by the end of 2014 people will downright enjoy it. Wish me luck, on all fronts!

P.S. I can't believe it's the end of the year already. Gross.