I actually did stuff for the LowRez Jam today! In addition to improving the OversimplifiedJS engine, I got the ship movement working, and I’m getting some water particle stuff going. I’ll get a screenshot up when the particles are done.

The next step will be getting the islands to generate consistently and get some interaction going! Wish me luck! :)

The Sea - 2013 Fishing Jam Final Update!

Well, it’s certainly not perfect, but that’s why I’m calling it a Beta!

Apart from that (significant?) shortcoming, I’ve turned my 7-day game jam challenge into a 10-day game jam because apparently that’s what I can handle. The following download represents what I was able to to complete in my free time over those 10 days. If the menu looks really thrown together and last minute, that’s because it totally is. I’m planning to continue developing this game, however, because I really love the idea and I know it can only get better from here.

Be sure to read the “How To Play” section so you know what you’re trying to accomplish (and, you know, how to play). You should read the game’s premise below because at the moment, this story is not actually in the game. But as I said, I’ll be continuing development and it will definitely be in there once I’m happy with it in the future! My improvement plans include: better art and menus, better visual and sound effects, fewer (no?) bugs, more fun(?), significantly more awesomeness, collectibles and stuff (like game art, desktop art, soundtrack, etc.), Kickstarter/Indiegogo(?), If Kickstarted/Indiegogo-ed (Indiegonegone?) an OSX version(?), More cool things, Etc. (we’re also open to suggestions)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it in the meanwhile, because I’ve put some good effort into making it! …even though it doesn’t look as good as I want it to. But hey! I guess this is officially my first (semi-) completed game as a game developer! So yay Alamantus GameDev!

The_Sea_beta.zip (Fishing Jam Beta) download - 10.4MB (MediaFire)

Direct Download (Please use main mirror instead, if possible.)

Game Story:

The Ocean remembers a time when it ruled the world. Its fish swam free and there was nothing there to harm it. It was a paradise. But one day, land arose from the Ocean’s depths and the water levels dropped. Creatures emerged on the land and the cruel things began constructing monstrosities to glide over the Ocean’s surface and snatch up its innocent population with lures and nets. The Ocean was gracious at first, allowing the disgusting, dry creatures to use Its precious fish so they, too, could have a chance at surviving on this world. But over time, the horrible land-dwellers got more and more greedy, taking even more fish than they can even use or want, simply casting them aside to rot on the filthy land when they did not want the fish any longer.
Now the Ocean’s precious population is dwindling. The dry monsters have gone too far, and the Ocean, with nowhere to turn for help, has taken matters into its own hands.

Game Summary:

You are Sea, the manifestation of the Ocean’s beauty and power. The Ocean has created you to exact justice upon the land-dwelling demons by stopping their fish genocide. Using the power of waves, whirlpools, storms, and resurrected ghost ships, stop the filthy land-dwellers from leaving the Ocean empty because of their insatiable greed and work toward the Ocean’s wonderful goal of eradicating land from its surface once and for all.
(In “Game Instruction” terms, destroy the boats with waves and whirlpools, make them leave with storms and ghost ships. The bigger the boat, the more fish they take. Meanwhile destroy the islands with waves—to win the Story Mode, destroy all the islands and don’t let your fish reach 0! In Survival Mode, you can’t destroy the islands, so keep destroying and deterring boats for as long as you can!)

Bugs/Quirks:

There are a lot of them, and I know. I didn’t have a chance to kill them, but I will squash them all as I continue development:

• Fish can spawn under islands and get stuck.
• Best Time scores can easily be miscalculated.
• When a ghost ship spooks a boat, it plays the SFX repeatedly until the boat is out of range.
• Many others—Feel free to tell me when you find them, but please try to avoid duplicate alerts.

My Gear:

(a.k.a. What I used to make the game)
System: Game Maker Studio
Sound: Audacity, BFXR, Erick Leedberg’s music, Wolfram Tones, NatureSoundsFor.me
Art: GIMP, Inkscape, Charas-Project

One Final Word:

If you have criticism for the game I openly accept and appreciate it! Please let me know what you think of it!

Just don’t be a jerk about it. If you are mean, pretentious, condescending, patronizing, or any other adjective that could fall into the category of being “a jerk,” then I will make a public mockery of you and show the world what a terrible person you are and how you don’t have any friends as a result.

Neither of us wants that.

So just don’t be mean, ok? Or stupid, for that matter.

Got it? Good.

Thanks. Enjoy the game! :D

Read on Alamantus.com

The Sea - Fishing Jam Update 5/25/2013

Wow! Another good day of building!

Today I: discovered and fixed a game-breaking bug that prevented any higher-powered boats from ever spawning after spawning once, added a level meter and fish monitor to the game screen, made the game screen a little big smaller so more screens can accommodate it, added more shapes of islands, and created a new type of dock that only spawns on bigger islands that only spawns the higher powered ships, including the commercial ships that suck up hundreds of fish at a time!

You’ll need to utilize all of the powers at your disposal as quickly and efficiently as possible to stop the fishing boats from reducing the fish population to 0! There are several large schools of fish swimming about in the ocean that help refill the fish population, and they multiply after a while, but if any large fishing boat catches sight of them, they can make quick work of the poor fish, gradually destroying them completely. With so many islands in the ocean, you’ll need to think and move quickly to combat the threat to the fishes in The Sea!

Here, have some more screenshots!

The next things I need to do are make the islands destructible based on your sea level and add a story/tutorial, game over screen, win screen, and a title and menu screen! Shouldn’t take too terribly long, but I suppose I won’t know until I’m working on them!

See you tomorrow!

Read on Alamantus.com

Fishing Jam Pre-Jam Post

Holy smokes, it’s so close! It’s practically already here! :O The 7-Day Fishing Jam starts tomorrow (May 20) and lasts for a whole seven days!

I’ve been making some art assets for The Sea today in preparation for tomorrow! I just finished making the fishing boats, which you’ll spend your time defending your precious fish against, and I’ve refined Sea (the main character/personification of the ocean)’s sprites. There are 8 different kinds of boats that you’ll need to defend against. Mwahahaha!
Here’s a fishing boat:

I have almost everything worked out in my head. You’ll jet around on the ocean trying to protect big areas of fish from the fishing boats. You protect them by either discouraging (with storms and ghost ships) or destroying (with waves and whirlpools) the boats. But the boats are just a symptom of the bigger problem. To truly remove the threat and take back the planet in the name of the ocean, you must destroy the source of the boats: the islands. There are many varying sizes of island, and you must grow larger to destroy larger islands.
You will have a couple of different meters on either side of the screen – one that shows the ocean’s water level and one that shows the fish population. You’ll also be able to hold a key (shift or ctrl) to open a mini-map that will let you fast travel to areas of the ocean. Using the fast travel creates whirlpools that can also help destroy fishing boats, but since you have a mini-map in your way, aiming can be a little bit difficult.

I’m really looking forward to what I’ll be able to make of this game! I’m already thinking it’s going to be better than I initially thought it was going to be, so that’s good! Yay optimism! :D

Unfortunately, my wife has bronchitis at the moment, so I’m hoping that 1) I’ll be able to find time to build the game whilst caring for her and doing my day job, and 2) that I don’t catch bronchitis and become unable to finish the jam. Fingers crossed!

Read on Alamantus.com

7-Day Fishing Game Jam!

Hey there friends,

Either last week or a week ago, I heard about this “Ludum Dare” thing that a whole bunch of game devs I follow went nuts over. Unfortunately, I didn’t follow up on the dare or even check to see what it was about until it was finished. Apparently it was a fun challenge for game devs to try to make a certain type of game in a certain amount of time just to show off what they could do. Pretty fun!

But as I said, I missed it. I wouldn’t have been able to manage with the restrictions for the dare anyway (48 hours to make a game that fits the category of “minimalism” or something like that).

A couple days ago, however, I saw a post on Tumblr that pointed to another game jam that’s going on this month! It’s being put on by Sophie Houlden (a game dev who’s made lots of games for Ludum Dare, by the looks of her website), and the rules are simple (and found here if you’re too impatient to wait til I give the link):

• Make a game about or inspired by Fishing, in a week!
• Jam dates are 20th-27th, you can pick whatever 7 days you like *around* this time. There’s no pressure to do it in exactly that amount of time unless you want to
• If you say it’s a game then it’s a game, if you say it relates to fishing then it relates to fishing.
• Use whatever tools/techniques you want to make your game.
• You need to make a thread for your game in the games forum. Updating it through the week is your choice, but it’s more fun if you do!
• Feel free to start your thread whenever you like, if you want to share your idea that’s cool!
• When your game is done, make a post about it in your thread, and link to that post in the submission thread.
• Don’t be a jerk on the forum, I’ll kick your ass. This is a friendly fishing jam

Because this Fishing Game Jam sounds so inviting and laid back, I’m joining in! I’ve had an idea swimming around in my head for a while that I just needed an excuse to try implementing, and this is that excuse! It’ll be a good way to at least show what I can do while you’re waiting for Life, Afterlife, and it’ll also be a good little break from Life, Afterlife so I can come up with more ideas for what should go into the game.

The jam doesn’t officially start until May 20th, so there’s still some time before I really get into making the game, but I was told I was allowed to start preparing and gathering/creating resources whenever I want (as I said, this thing is super laid back and awesome!).

So that’s what I’m doing.

I’ve got super basic mechanics in place already and it’s going to be controlled by the mouse and the shift key. I’ve also made some unremarkable graphics, but I’m hoping I’ll have the willpower to make them better by the time the jam actually starts.

Anyway, on the the interesting part: what am I doing?

Since it’s fishing themed and the rules are super loose, I’m spinning those loose rules to allow me to make a game where you control the ocean! Or at least a personification of the ocean. Your goal as the sea (incidentally, “The Sea” is also going to be the title of the game) is to reclaim the planet for the ocean. You start off by using your ocean powers to clear trash from the ocean’s surface and move on to trying to thwart the worldwide fishing industry until eventually you’re trying to destroy as much land in the name of the ocean as possible! I’m trying to work out more gameplay elements that’ll make the game more interesting, but to me the idea is already interesting enough to work through until something happens. :)

If you want to get in on this game jam, head over to http://jam.legendaryfisher.com/forum/index.php and register on the forum, check out the rules so you know what you need to do, and follow the Fishing Jam’s Twitter for the latest!

It’s gonna be lots of fun, and I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with too! :D

Read on Alamantus.com