Red Ice, "Death Pants"

So what's up with me, you may be wondering. Well, I've pretty much been doing artwork for a couple projects, Red Ice and "Death Pants"(name WILL change).

Red Ice is an action/arcade style hockey game that the gentile fellas at STRd6 are cooking up. They've got me arting it up all over the place! I'm putting up most of the work on my Imgur account, take a look see if you like. Also, you can play the prototype of Red Ice with an HTML5 compatible browser here. You'll need a gamepad btw.

"Death Pants" is a running game that me and several other fellows are putting together, I'm on art duty here as well. Nothing to show officially yet, but expect much more info in the future.

Working on my own projects has pretty much slowed to a crawl at the moment, the plate is full. Apologies to those who look forward to them being updated regularly.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. Thanks for stopping by.

Convert long term.

Ok, first off, new build of Convert.

Second, new video.

Ok, what I’m going to talk about here is future gameplay plans for this thing. Basically how it’s slated now is there are 7 major areas in the game, stage 1-1 through 1-5 are in one of these. The first 4 of these areas are to primarily warm the player up to the different units and their uses, as well as challenge them to overcome natural obstacles. After that 4th area, the Gromm show up, the game shifts into a territorial defense/offense deal, where instead of simply fighting nature, the player is pitted against a force like theirs that can change and adapt. Here’s a breakdown.

-Once Gromm are encountered, Conquest and Defense missions become active. The player also gains access to NPC commanders who have different behaviors and preferences.

-When the player captures their first Factory territory, Resource missions become available. Manufacturing can then be used to enhance structure and unit abilities globally and build more structures.

-Each “round”, the Gromm attack any stage the player controls. The player can choose to defend it themselves, or assign an NPC commander to the task. Assigning an NPC frees them up to take a different mission this “round”.

This all goes on until the player gets far enough into enemy territory to trigger a certain event, I’ll cover that late stuff, well, later. Instead, here’s a short description for the mission types mentioned above.

Conquest - Just like a regular mission, only you’re taking territory from Gromm, who start out at an advantage.

Defense(Incursion) - The Gromm attack one of your territories away from the front line. You are at an advantage.

Defense(Invasion) - These occur on front line territories, basically you have to survive massive waves of Gromm units for a certain period of time.

Resource – More player vs nature mostly, but with a time limit and no HQ. Collect as many resources as you can!

Convert Feedback

This here blog page thing is reserved for feedback on Convert!

Just leave a comment and I'll get to it shortly, unless I'm dead, then I'll get to it never.

Convert Stage 4

I've added another stage to Convert. Some other additions...
-The title screen now has a stage select.
-Pressing "r" mid-level will restart the stage.
-Pressing escape will return to the title screen.
-New enemy and spawner, Gants and Gant Mound.
-Sentry Mode, click on a unit to turn on/off their sentry mode, costs 10 energy each time.
-Pilgrimm sentry will reverse the move direction of friendly units.
-Strigrimm sentry will temporarily increase the move speed of passing friendly units.
-Sturgrimm sentry will stand guard and slowly regenerate hit points.

Download the game file here, PC only.

I REALLY need to get a separate page for this.

More on Gants and Gant Mounds
So the Gant Mound is a destroyable spawner that is aligned with neutral territory, so if the ground under it is converted to anything else, it gets destroyed.
The Gants are a fast spawning weak unit that move erratically, and converts land by slowly draining energy from it.

More on Sentry Mode
Pilgrimms can be used to round up your units for a massive push, or keep them from wondering into danger.
Strigrimm can be Sentried at intervals to make other units reach the front line quickly. How this works code wise is, the Strigrim's maximum speed per step gets applied to the passing Grimms, and this effect lasts for 3 seconds.
Sturgrimm regenerate their HP based on adding their speed to HP every second.

What's Next?
At the moment, I have 3 more unit/spawner types planned, and another special spawner.

Chillin' with Shark : The Great White Destroyer Summer Sale Week 1

The madness continues! Here's a quick recap of the rules...



This week's discount is %51 off!

Here's the video proof, plus cat.



Take a swim, if you dare!

Chillin' with Shark : The Great White Destroyer Summer Sale

It's that time of year again, when the heat forces people to flee towards bodies of water. This makes my buddy Shark pretty happy, easy meals are good feels. When Shark is happy, prices drop.

It's a summer sale event, Chillin' with Shark!


That's right, for the whole month of July, The Great White Destroyer is on sale, and the price depends on the dice. Let me explain with the power of video.



Let me reiterate the rules here, in case your brain melted from the awesome.
-Every Monday during July, I'll roll three 10 sided dice, the sum of these rolls + %30 is the total discount for that week.
-Anyone who has dice can make their own roll on video, if it's higher than mine, it becomes the new discount for that week. The video must contain no cuts in action, I have to see the dice roll and land.

So it looks like the first days of July have a %50 discount, not a bad start. Who knows how low it will go come Monday? Check back and see.

Weekend update, mostly Convert.

Convert prototype is what I'm calling it at the moment. That little experiment I started last week. I liked what was going on with it so I dumped the Backyard Ninja avatar and went with a proper control scheme.



Presentation wise, this is bare bones, all placeholder art, just the gameplay itself. Genre wise I think it falls somewhere between tower defense and an rts. I'm putting it up for free for people to try out. There's only 3 stages at the moment, I'll be adding more every week. When I get all the gameplay elements represented I'll consider turning it into a full game, art, music, all that jazz. Until I get a proper link on my webpage, use the one below.

Convert prototype file

Feel free to leave feedback here, or drop me an email, backyardninja@dumbmanex.com .

The Great White Destroyer News, no work to show this time around. I am devising a sale for next month however, more info on that later this week.

No video, only this blog post.

Rats and crap turds! I've simply been too worn out these last few weekends for the video bullcraps. So here I am, posting some update stuff about a few things.

The Great White Destroyer ver 1.4, it keeps on rolling. Here's the rub since last time.


The Gun Cops are the first line of assault and only show up after Shark is caught breaking the law. They'll close in and begin firing slowly, and will reload when out of bullets. That's your chance to rush in and disarm them, or eat them, whatever.


Shotty Cops are a lot like Gun Cops in behavior, with a few differences. They're slower, and like to get a little closer before shooting. They fire spreads of bullets naturally, but unnaturally the bullets travel slower than normal.


I love the name Swat Cop! Trained in the art of Three Shot Burst, as to be deadly and quick. These guys not only shoot Shark with their cool auto-rifles, but sport some tear gas as well.

As you can see, to save some time I re-used some art from the other fish and added to them. It works out very well, they look great in action. Next up I'll be working on the law escalation system, sorta like the Grand Theft Auto thing. Instead of it resetting every time you evade the law like in GTA, it continues to increase unless you avoid breaking the law for a while, or take a day off, or wear a disguise, but more on those mechanics at a later date. Plus, lets all shoot Shark!




Hellhol news, there is none. The game is not forgotten, I've just been busy.

Free Stuff will get a few more bits sometime tomorrow. That crappy Fall/Winter tileset will get on there, as well as another character from the defunct Snowball's Chance 2.

Backyard Ninja Adventures I'm toying around with this freebie game here where I showcase different game mechanics in a 2D sidescrolling fashion. This thing here is a take on one of the first games I piddled around with, dealing with taking territory by directing flows of units who behaved in predictable patterns. Anyhow, I'll probably make a few stages based on it and put it out there, see what people think. More at a later date.



Thanks for stopping by.

Summer bummer.

Summer can be a bummer! I'm talking lousy humidity and high temperatures. I'm talking sweat is yanked from you even while in an air conditioned environment. I'm talking, being miserable and wanting to slouch the day away. At least until you get used to it again.

What? Video? Yes, of course.



Thanks for stopping by.

Double The Shark + Elementimals

This week's video...


I play other folks' stuff.


Thanks for stopping by.

Weekly update I guess.

Well the world sure is taking it's sweet time ending. Video!



Drats, I found another targeting bugger with the Lad. It only rears it's head when fighting something larger than 1 48x48 square, origin point related. I whiteboard that sumbitch, easily fixed, sometime next week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Midweek artwork plus more.

Hoyooooo! Yeah, so I've got some pieces of art for The Great White Destroyer up on the Facebook.

Hellhol!

I've got the little girl unit(Lass) functional. She can give enemy units(male only) cooties, which puts a damper on sp(super points!) recharge and gives them one additional random malady. It only lasts for a turn or two. She can also scarf down chocolate to refill 1/2 of her max hp.

I also toyed around with one high level unit versus low levels, fun stuff! A level 50 Gorky vs level 1 monsters. I went about surrounding it and keeping it distracted until I could drop something bigger on top. If you can damage it and have the unit survive, you get your own guys to level up. I think a level one just hitting him gave it 5 levels of advancement. Status effects help too, good old blind might keep him inactive for a round or two.

Random name generation. I've got it working for Gobbys and Trollgees. It selects a name from list A and adds another part from list B. Here's a few examples for each monster...
Gobby - Stikkreddy, Antfud, Greenyget, Gorgik, Gopgem, Rumppussgox
Trollgee - Trokbush, Mendtras, Wulktrix, Mabranch, Tusktrig, Mendhungr

I think I'll work on the Gorky names tonight, it's silly fun.

Also, a friend of mine(Ian) is venturing out into indie game territory and has begun to blog about it. He's much better at it than I, here's a link to it.
Game.Dev.Life

Thanks for stopping by.

Irrelevancy abounds!

Here's the video, in all it's glory.



I forgot to mention that some other work did get done for Hellhol. I made some more tweaks to the target finding code, and had some random name generation working for the Gobbys and Trollgees.

Thanks for stopping by.

Adding game mechanics, and more.

A video for video's sake. That made no sense.



Thanks for dropping in.

Hellhol visuals, more units, art for sale.

Behold the video and all will be revealed!



Thanks for stopping by.

Gobbys bleeding and dying all over the place!

It's true, and they explode whilst leaving a rather large block of bones behind. Check it out plus mooooore!



A reminder to any indie gamers out there, Pixel Prospector's Big Video Project is ending this month, so if you want to win some games by making videos of games, get on it!

Yoyo Games put out Gamemaker 8.1 yesterday. Some new stuff in there, mostly I'll benefit from the extra functionality on the room editor.

I forgot to post about it last week, but I'm throwing some of my better artwork from my unfinished projects up for cash. These will mostly be tilesets and character animations. I'll be adding new pieces every Monday(until I run out), unless other business calls. Check it out.

Thanks for stopping by.

When Gobbys Attack!

It's Bullcrap time! All is explained in the video.


Magicka is a pretty rad game. I wasn't sure I'd like it from watching the gameplay, but being able to tackle any encounter with so many methods is very enjoyable. These methods being the dialing up of spells. It was a little clucky at first, but you start to roll with it. When enemy wizards start throwing beams around, and you start throwing beams, funny stuff happens! Usually one party explodes gloriously.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hellhol Bullcrap 4-2-2011

Video!


I'll most likely stick some more pics up on the facebook photo album soon.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bullcrap of a different sort.

Not the kind with videos, no. This week my pc was acting wonky, chugging when it shouldn't have, plus the internet connection had turned south. I'm talking 1 to 2 kb per second south. The problem turned out to be several things at once! Our wireless router was biting the dust, the internet lines out here are being upgraded, and my compy had a few trojans on it. So after much teeth gnashing, some phone calls, some virus scans, it's all back to normal now.

So the rest of the week I spent prototyping an rpg/puzzle, or puzzle/rpg, whatever. More details on that later.

Also, I picked up one of the Sega Genesis collections through steam, there were a few games from the Shining series in there that I never got to play. Focusing on Shining in the Darkness at the moment. I still find that type of thing enjoyable, my only real gripe is that the labyrinth can spit monsters at you every step sometimes. Ha, this old stuff doesn't hold your hand either! No map, no mercy, few details about your quest. Who knew I had to clobber a giant effing crab(who will stomp your ass flat) to progress the story!? I actually looked that up to make sure, now that I have a grasp of how the game is set up, I'll hoof it from here. I managed to memorize the layout of the first floor, but some of the others I take the "lets go left/right at every turn" approach. Good times.

Bullcrap 3-19-2011

Have some video!



I'm still fighting this damn ear infection! It's been trying to come back for 2 weeks, now it can taste the wrath of a different antibiotic!

Thanks for stopping by.

Website Redesign + Shark Demo

After being down for a week due to a damned ear infection, I began work on changing the look of the Backyard Ninja Design site. It's pretty much done and I'm pretty happy about how it looks. Thanks to Jason Campana, he simply suggested I go with a white background after looking at it in progress, and the end result started trickling in.

Now I want to talk a little about The Great White Destroyer demo.

As some of you may know, it constitutes half the game content. This originally sprang from my own experience with demos, my knee jerk "Only a few stages, come on!" reaction. I fear this was a mistake, as the player may be satisfied with the experience due to consuming so much of the content.

Half a meal versus a little taste. What would excite you more?

So I'm reworking the demo to make it shorter. The player will have access to 3 stages from destroyer mode, 3 from manatee. They can't post scores to the online table, and achievements are locked out. You can still get them but they won't show up unlocked. Most of me loathes this change, but I need to develop a business side for this to work right.

So next week I'll be testing this new demo build to make sure it's less bugs, then I'll be making some changes to The Great White Destroyer site. I can't wait until this is all wrapped so I can get back to developing Snowball!

Bullcrap 2-26-2011

Video action!



Here in the next week I'll be working on updating my website! It's been the same for a long while. I'll also be making some changes to The Great White Destroyer Demo, I'll discuss that in more detail at a later date.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Great White Destroyer B-Day Sale/Giveaway Finale

This is the final stretch of February, and your last chance to win free copies of The Great White Destroyer! This week I've asked 5 questions about various stages in the demo, send me the answers and you could win one of 10 available copies.



Act fast, this promotion ends February 28th. For a more detailed look at the rules, visit http://www.dumbmanex.com/TheGreatWhiteDestroyerHome.html

Questions? Comments? Contact Brent Anderson at backyardninja@dumbmanex.com .

Bullcrap 2-19-2011

Video!



Thanks for stopping by.

2x Bullcrap 2-12-2011

It's a double video this time, twice the bullcrap! Let's gooooooooooooooo!





So my next goal is to get the chaty chat chat working for the cut scenes. That would entail the artful display of text and locking down the controls on all in game objects. Shouldn't be a problem as Shark was full of them. I might use some of that code and refine it down now that I know more about it.

Also, round 2 of Pixel Prospector's Indie Games : The Big Video Project is under way. He's got a small list of games that need some video footage, who will step up and contribute? I don't know. Well, I will, so I guess I sorta know.

Thanks for stopping by folks!

Bullcrap 2-5-2011

Video action!


Week 1 of the Shark birthday was a bust. I was expecting people to at least try for a free version, I hope it's not because it would require a minor effort on their part, haha. Oh well, week 2 coming up anyway!

Next week I may begin working on roughing out the first enemy or one of the solid obstacles, most likely both. Hopefully more that that.

Thanks for stopping by! Until next time.

Bullcrap 1-29-2011

First off, video...


Let's see, next month will be The Great White Destroyer's first birthday! To celebrate, the game will be half off, plus I'll be having a quiz on the demo version, the prize being free copies to the winners, 10 a week.

Also got some more free games from the PixelProspector big video contest(round 2 is around the corner) so a big thanks to these guys for laying some good games on me!

PiEyeGames
GURUY Entertainment
BlitWise Productions
Wolfire Games

Ok, that's it for now.

What a crappy week.

What started out as an awesome week quickly went south with the appearance of flu bug! I haven't been hit this hard by one for some time. So naturally not much work was to be done. Hey, here's how I spent Wednesday night...

As well as the vomiting, my mind raced about all kinds of random garbage and was driving me a bit crazy. Sleep was no where to be found! It was a pocket hell. I'm pretty sure that was the low point of my immune system and the push back is under way.

So next week I'll try to get some work done with my flippy energy levels, frequent naps and all.

Bullcrap 1-16-2011

First off, video...


Next up, PixelProspector recently had a video project/contest which has concluded for now, I'd like to thank him and and everyone who donated the prizes. I've had a chance to play them and it's aces all around. So I shall linkify them!

Rake in Grass
Charlie's Games
Incitti.com
KloonieGames
TimeTrap
Elecorn

Lastly, my work objective for next week, I'm not sure. I'll have those land slopes done in an hour or less, I guess maybe work on stuff related to the player, get some kind of hud in order. Who knows.

Well thanks for stopping by, until next time.

A new year of Bullcrap! Yay!

First off, video.




Now for those concepty pictures I mentioned in the video.




And that's that, until next time.