Changing address

Chris Unarmed was submitted into formal play-testing yesterday. With just weeks to go before its release, this blog has served its purpose and I've decided to start a new blog pitched to to the masses.


Thanks to those who have kept me accountable (that's you, Debstar!). You can find the new blog here.


Chris out.

Getting serious

A wonderful thing happened this weekend. I realized that I'm on the verge of completing my game. All levels... done. Loading and saving... done. Sound effects and music... not quite. Oh well, 2 out of 3 isn't bad!


I began to realize that with less than 2 months to go, only a few people even know Chris Unarmed exists. Time to do something about it. And I have!


Check out the first trailer for Chris Unarmed!


As if that wasn't enough, I decided to start raising awareness too. Check it out:

1. Emuholic's Game Blog


2. xnPlay


3. XBLIG

I've even created a Facebook page!

Windows beta 1 now available

I'm far from finished my game, but all the core gameplay is complete and I need to finish the level design, backgrounds, music, sound effects, etc. Now is a good time to share a beta with some friends, and start collecting feedback. So I've cut out all the Xbox dependencies, and I've published a Windows beta and given it to some friends.


Here is what I've learned so far:

• It is too difficult! I've been playing it since January as I've been building it, so I know the controls and the levels intimately. But what normally takes me 40 seconds took one of my friends 12 minutes. I need to find a balance between incorporating cool elements into the early levels to keep people's interest, and making it easy enough to support a learning curve.


• Rather than returning to the last door when the player dies, I need to have other points midway through each level where the player will spawn if they die after that point. Someone commented that the game is too slow, and I think this comes from his frustration when dying towards the end of a level and having to replay it over and over.


• I might consider adding difficulty levels, because there is a clear difference in skill amongst my friends, and the game is a little slow for the more skilled players.


• Wall jumping needs to be refined. Currently, if you're in the air and facing a wall, you press jump and the character will leap off the wall. But everyone's intuition is to press jump and to move the character away from the wall, and this often leads to the wall jump not registering properly (because the character has already left the wall by the time they try to jump). I've already started making refinements to how this works, but I may need to do more.


• The controls take a bit of getting used to. If you jump through the air the character will maintain their horizontal velocity (unlike many other games, that quickly bring the character to a near vertical fall) unless you steer them back in the opposite direction. I don't really want to change this, but I'll continue to observe players and see if this is a problem.

I'm glad to see people finally playing my game, even if my first review is "It's like watching paint dry" (thanks Brad :). I'll continue to refine things over the next few months.

Level 3

I'm still slogging away creating levels. There are 4 levels in all, and I've now finished 3 of them. So I'm getting there!


Here is a short preview of level 3.


The platform shoots up quickly, so get off or meet the spikes:

Grab the green key to proceed:

So many doors to choose from:

Hanging out with my evil twin:

Flying through a tunnel of spikes:

Name that game

With about 3 months until its release, my game is in search of a name. My favorite so far is "Chris: Zero to Hero", but "Zero to Hero" has heaps of Google hits and is probably trademarked. As of today, the working title is "Chris: Unarmed", which is a play on the fact that the character has no arms.

Can you do better?

Conveyor belts

In case you were wondering what the amplifier-looking things were in my previous post, they are conveyor belts. Check it out:

You can even use them to scale walls, which opens up some interesting puzzle situations. Anyway, here is a sample room from level 3 of my game. As usual, ignore the red and yellow borders and the palm trees in the background:

Slowly but surely, things are coming together.

Faker

Most people who know me well will know that I'm a huge Masters Of The Universe fan from way back. I collected the action figures as a boy, and more recently as an adult when the new series came out in 2002. The 2002 release even marked the only time I've ever bought a comic book. Not to mention the time I turned up to a Lord Of The Rings themed birthday party as He-Man because... well... He-Man is better than Aragorn.


Which brings me to the newest enemy in my game. Since my game's inception, I wanted to incorporate some puzzle elements, and I've had an idea of an enemy who responds to the player's movements and mimics their every action. Introducing... Faker!

His name and his blue skin are a tribute to the Faker character from Masters Of The Universe, a robotic replica of He-Man. In this game, he is a replica of Chris, except for his spiky hair and pointed chin (and a couple of subtle touches, like removing his eyebrows to make him appear more evil). He makes for some interesting puzzles too!


Here is just one example:

Avoiding a Faker is no small feat. For instance, jump a little too high and the Faker beneath you will land on the same platform as you and you will die. Try to wall jump with a Faker beside you, and you'll find yourself colliding with them as they too jump towards the wall. Time to get your thinking cap on.