So the starting village is now pretty much complete. It has a neat atmosphere and villagers who look at you and say disparaging things.

Is there anything more demotivating than disappointment?

Now to work on the rest of the game.

So I’m reasonably happy with the (very) basic interactions I have so far. No doubt I’ll decide that I want some more depth to the gameplay far too late to change it, but for now it’s turning out to be an (hopefully) interesting journey game.

Someone won't be home for Christmas.

It’s about someone exiled from their home, the journey they make to the South, and the people they meet along the way.

I’m done for the night, and my screen capture software is having a well-deserved breather.

Here’s a couple of shots that I think exemplify my day of work. Me doing hard work (and enjoying the view!):

And, of course, everything falling over spectacularly:

3ds Max goes on strike

More work tomorrow! I hope you all enjoy the game when it’s done.

No dirty jokes, please. I’ve been working on my back-end a bit.

I’ve now got some nicer systems for showing messages to the player. That seemed kind of important since that’s how the storyline (such as it is) will be conveyed.

It doesn’t make for very pretty screenshots, though, so here’s another one of the troubled pilot – complete with a new texture smeared lovingly all over his face.

Just noticed that I should have listed any odd code libraries I’m using before starting my entry. Hopefully, however, the Unity standard assets count as part of the engine, not as code libraries.

If I’m misguided, please tell me so in the form of an angrily worded message.

But, seriously. I’m winging it from scratch with only a select few of the Standard Assets to help me along.

I’m gradually progressing with the environments. Two left.

I’m now working on the snowy wastes between the player and the coast. It’s cold here.

For bonus points, check out the AWESOME 'COMPASS' at the top.And by compass I mean arrow. And by arrow I mean cone.

So, yes; my game is ‘serious’. It’s more about different interpretations of alone than it is about any gameplay.

I hope people give it a chance and can relate to one or two of the things they encounter.

Not long left…

Oh no. I succumbed.

Good luck finding it, though.

Cute, redefined.

The game is finished and making it’s way across the intertubes. Soon it will be ready to be beamed into your face.

So Head South is now free to roam the infinite wastes of the internet.

If you haven’t played it, it’s available at http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=preview&uid=7835 . If you vote after playing, please be kind; this was my very first Ludum Dare entry.

What did I love?

Making the art
I’m not normally one for 3D modelling, but I managed to whip up 16 separate models in under 48 hours. That’s got to be some kind of record.
I deliberately kept everything low-poly, and not just because it’s ‘fashionable’ to be lo-fi in the indie games scene. I did it because I spent a lot of time playing on my PS1, and as soon as I finished making the first little village huts I realised that was the art style it was reminding me of. Set all textures to ‘point’ filtering, optimise those models and relish the pixels.

The music
The music actually only took me about an hour to do, but it’s something I always enjoy if I’m in the right mood. I opened up a synthesiser, tested a few notes and then hit record. Aside from a couple of test tracks, whatever came out of me at that point was what you can hear in the game.

The coding
Okay, so it’s nothing impressive at all and the bulk of the gameplay mechanics (looking/moving) were pre-written Standard Assets that come with Unity. I still wrote 10 scripts of my own, and I think I did pretty well to cram all the functionality I needed into them without them becoming unwieldy. Commenting was, sadly, not done. No doubt I’ll regret that at some point in the future, but I like to live in the moment.

What would I do differently?

More of a game
There are plenty of things to be proud of in the final release, but I have that nagging feeling that it will turn off a majority of people simply because there isn’t really a win/lose condition. It’s more of an interactive story; you can choose who to approach, and you can choose how to interpret that person’s situation. That being said, if even one person plays Head South and genuinely feels something then I’ll have done my job.

More life
Probably the most fun I had in the development process was after I was done creating a landscape. I got to play God for a little while and create people with stories. There was a lot of passion that went into creating things like the little lost submariner, and I wish there was the time to do more. More to explore and see, and more to think about.

More expanse
This is linked to the above point, really. I fluctuated between different terrain sizes, but I think I should have stuck with the larger ones. They take longer to traverse, but they have so much more scope for interesting things to be going on.

I’m sure there are plenty more things that will come to mind. Probably while I’m trying to go to sleep. If I think of any other major points of evaluation I’ll stick ’em up in another post, but otherwise I’ll wait until the votes are counted and evaluate based on what people said. I can’t wait.

Okay, so there’s some swears in the game. I’m a fan of grown-up humour, so sue me.

And if you think swearing doesn’t count as grown-up humour, you suck balls.

Okay, so it’s been radio-silence so far, but not deliberately. For LD48 23 I’m working on a Jam entry with one of my buddies.

We’re building a quirky adventure game using AGS, and we’re pretty happy with how it’s going so far!

It’s a cautionary tale of science-gone-awry in the future. Failing that, a convincing argument against family holidays.

Work is progressing steadily over at Team… er… well, we don’t have a team name, but work is progressing steadily.

I’m not sure there’s anything in the world as fun as writing adventure game scripts.

I’ve finally finished the storyline for the game, and I’m fairly confident it’ll be done by tomorrow. Smashing.

We’ll see how many cheeky pop-culture references you rascals manage to spot when the game comes out.

I’m proud to announce that Carl Sagan and Albert Einstein will be appearing in super-awesome completely-unofficial guest starring roles!

Now that’s some real science-cred.

Note: If you haven’t already played our kooky adventure game subAtomic, please go here and check it out! We think it’s brill.

But I NEED to go through - that's where the game is!

At the time of writing, subAtomic has received 43 ratings, which is way more than I expected (I barely got over 10 with my last entry). If the ratings are as good as the comments people have left, I’m pretty confident we might actually be able to show up somewhere notable on the final results! Not that Ludum Dare is really about that.* Incidentally, thanks muchly to everyone who has expressed their joy at having played the game. It’s good to know that the jokes don’t just sound funny while they’re bouncing around inside my head, and I’ll definitely be doing more adventure game stuff in the future.

Shameless plug: If you want to keep up-to-date with what I’m doing, make sure to follow me on Twitter (@GameDevIdeas).

But how would I change subAtomic, given the chance? I’m sure my dev-buddy Dave has his own ideas for improving the character animations, but here’s my two-pence:

• Full voice-acting
  Yeah, for every character, in a separate (optional) voice pack file. I’m not 100% sure about adding this, as I’m a bit worried that the voices I record could never be as amusing as the ones people come up with in their heads. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter!
• More variety in music
  I didn’t really take much time over the music; I just wanted something in there other than deathly silence. As a first attempt, I just sort of whacked my face onto the keyboard a few times in FL Studio and saved what came out. I like that the tracks all sort of feel like they fit together (thanks to using the same instruments), but I do wish they were a bit longer/more varied. I hate hearing loops.
• Saving/Loading
  So AGS has save/load features built in. They’re right there, in the game. Right now. You just can’t use ‘em. I’d like to turn them back on and shoehorn a GUI on top.
• A GUI
  Yeah, it was meant to have one but we just didn’t have time. You didn’t seriously think we were sadistic enough to deliberately on-purpose no-kidding release a game that has no GUI, did you?
  The game needs a simple help screen and a button to click if you want to quit, at the very least.
• Some major code re-writing
  If you could see the AGS script for the last few scenes of the game, your brain would probably scream for mercy, do a backflip and die outright. By the time I wrote it, I was tired, hungry and smelly. I’d like to re-write it so it doesn’t make my vision go fuzzy when I try to understand it.
• Re-make the title screen
  This was totally my fault. I forgot that it’s pretty difficult to get AGS to rotate a sprite (without delving too deeply into the more complex graphical scripting capabilities), and as a result really regretted putting a FRIGGIN’ CURVED HILL on the title screen of the game. If seeing the car make its way over it made you cringe, don’t worry. You are not alone.
  
• Add an extra warning before you stand there and get nuked
  SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
  I’d say 50% of new players choose the option to just stand there and get nuked, expecting it not to work. It works. They do a sadface. Now I’m all for player choice, but I’d like to at least give them one extra chance to say ‘oh, crap. This is actually going to let me do this.’
  
• Misc. rewriting
  This is scraping the bottom of the ideas-barrel somewhat, but there are a few bits of dialogue that I’m not properly happy with. I’d like a chance to go and smooth over the rough spots with 400-grit sandpaper of love. Lovepaper, if you will.
  

“Okay Murray,” I hear you saying cynically, “it’s all very well posting a wishlist, but what are you actually going to DO about it?” Well. Provided I have the time to spare (I will) and reception of the game has been good (it has), I’m hoping to release a… SPECIAL EDITION!

That’s right, folks, for just an extra £0.00 you could find yourself the proud owner of a brand-spanking new copy of subAtomic, replete with gobsmackingly awesome new content and features! Now wouldn’t that be something?

* Okay, it is a bit about that. No-one really enters Ludum Dare without at least a little bit of them going ‘WOOO! YEAH! LET’S GET ONTO THOSE MOTHERFLIPPING SCOREBOARDS!’. Unless that is just me. Which would be worrying.

Apologies for the radio-silence thus far.

Dave and I, the ‘dream team’ (in that it makes no sense and you feel sort of weirded out when it’s all over), are working on a new adventure game. It’s a little more ambitious than subAtomic in its scope, hence the complete lack of time to update social media with progress reports.

I’ve been working steadily on the background art, and I’m approaching the point where I can start putting the game together. If that last sentence made you gasp and shake your head, don’t worry – I’ve been doing the same thing.

Fortunately, I’ll be stealing making good use of the modified UI code from subAtomic which I’ve been working with extensively for the last few weeks (as part of an upcoming commercial release called Astroloco).

More updates (and perhaps even some gameplay!) as it happens.

My skills with Paint.NET have increased dramatically since we worked on subAtomic. If you don’t use it for this sort of low-res art, I’d have to question your sanity.

My particular favourite features are: bezier curve lines, colour replacement brush, pattern fill and gradient fill (with alpha). All in all, it’s invaluable for this sort of work.

Feel free to commence drooling.

Plan M is now out and, as far as I know, completable. So that’s good.

Give it a play here!

What went Right

• The art is a continuation of the subAtomic style, and I think we’ve pulled it off pretty well in Plan M. My skills with Paint.NET have increased dramatically since subAtomic (thanks in large part to using it for other games in the meantime), and it shows in the increase in visual fidelity. On the other hand, you might hate gradients.
• The font is fantastic, isn’t it? I just wish there was a dedicated ‘outline’ version. It’s ‘Burvetica NC’ by Jayvee D. Enaguas.
• The humour is well and truly in-place. I didn’t have as much time to spend on dialogue as I had during subAtomic’s development, but I think the characters shine through their speech.
• Scale. I mean, bloody hell. Plan M is at least twice the size of subAtomic, and twice as long to boot. That’s something to be proud of.
• Speed of development. Plan M was coded entirely on day three of the jam. That’s got to be some sort of record for speed-adventure-game-scripting.
• Features to make playing the game easier. subAtomic didn’t have saving or loading. Plan M has BOTH!

What didn’t go so right

• Bugs. Ugh. I found 3 different game-breaking (as in ‘oh I can’t finish the game now’) bugs in submission hour. Every time I fixed one, another one appeared. If anything, it was because it was 2am and I was causing more problems by trying to fix things. As far as I know, it’s all now completely playable as intended, but I feel bad for anyone who tried to play it between last night and this morning. I hope they try again with the updated version.
  I also uploaded debug versions a couple of times and had to quickly replace them. If you’ve ever used AGS, you know that giving a debug version out to the public is not a good idea.
• Audio is non-existent. To be fair, subAtomic didn’t exactly excel in this area – it had one or two bleepy-bloopy sound effects, and some really rubbish music. Plan M, however, has neither of these things; we simply didn’t have time. They’ll be in for the post-compo version, though – so keep an eye (ear?) out for that.
• Scale. Okay, this is a good point and a bad point. There were a lot of things that we wanted to be in the game, and they had to be cut out if we were ever going to finish. A lot of this is to do with developing the character of Dr. M, who is practically a side-character in the Jam release. Again, this will be rectified in the post-compo edition.
  Oh, and the scale made it a complete nightmare to test for bugs.
• Gameplay variety is lacking, in my opinion. This may well be just because I’ve spent so long working on it, so I tend to overlook 99% of the gameplay. There’s a dialogue puzzle (subAtomic had several), but most of the game is an item fetch-quest. I’m not sure I like that. If I had time, I would’ve added some neat minigames, but them’s the breaks when it comes to Ludum Dare. If you want minigames, go check out my upcoming commercial point & click game Astroloco. It’s gonna be awesome. [/shameless plug]

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or (heaven forbid) bug reports, you can reach me in the comments below, or on Twitter (@GameDevIdeas).

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have 1404 other games to play.

Sorry guys No new point & click from me this time around – even though I’ve got a whole boat-load full of ideas. I’m going to be too busy flogging MY NEW, COMMERCIAL ADVENTURE GAME AT ADVENTURE X 2012 IN LONDON HOW COOL IS THAT GUYS SERIOUSLY

Yeah, I’ve been working really hard for the last few months on a new adventure game based on the solid foundations laid by subAtomic and Plan M – this one is bigger, longer and funnier by far. And it actually (properly) has full voice acting. It’s called Astroloco: Worst Contact, and I’ll be at the University of East Anglia in London (near Liverpool Street station) all weekend promoting the game and (hopefully) making friends with other adventure developers!

The event is completely free, no tickets required, so please do pop in if you’re in the area and not too busy with Ludum Dare! More info here – http://www.screen7.co.uk/adventurex/.

This is all thanks to you people – everyone and anyone who has participated or is participating in Ludum Dare. You voted me as the funniest person in the Jam twice in a row, and this wouldn’t be happening if it wasn’t for you. I think that’s a good thing, but you can make up your own mind once you see the finished product.

If you want to find out more about Astroloco, and especially if you have a Steam account, click your way over to http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=113074281 and help us get the game onto Steam!

Don’t worry, though. I’m not gone forever, and I haven’t sold out. I love you guys. Provided the next Ludum Dare doesn’t clash horribly with my new, jet-setting, rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, I’ll be in for that one. And properly in. Not just a little bit. I don’t want to end up just making formulaic (but hilarious) adventure games for every LD – I’ve got some ideas to revolutionise the genre that will blow. your. minds.

Watch this space.