2014 recap + update on my next game
Lets Recap 2014 for le M dot Strange
So at the beginning on 2014 I released my 3rd animated feature film I am Nightmare which you can buy on dvd here or digitally here or watch for free here
I also released the original soundtrack for I am Nightmare (w/ Mad Dashiell)
I did this presentation on I am Nightmare in LA
I released this album with my wife here
I released these 4 games here
I released this free Cinema 4d basics tutorial series
I did a presentation on filmmaking and character animation at Siggraph and a presentation of making games with Unity and Playmaker
I released two "music video games" Cold Pizza and The Curse of Marie
I released all 3 of my animated feature films for free on youtube
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Update on my next game
Work on my next game is moving forward steadily- it slows down a bit when I have to learn some new tools- like recently I realized I needed to learn how to use behavior trees if I wanted to do more sophisticated ai then I have been doing with Playmaker-
So I purchased Behavior Designer from the asset store- it took me about a week to get up to speed on it and behavior trees in general- but now I have a pretty good grasp of things and I'm able to work faster-
This article on behavior trees really helped me understand them and here is a link to Behavior Designer- an awesome asset with an awesome developer- I LOVE BEHAVIOR DESIGNER! If you buy Behavior Designer make sure you get the Movement Pack as well- its essential to get your ai up and running fast-
I'm also doing some game related work for little local game studio- they hired me to model, animate, rig, and setup the characters for their game as well as create the soundtrack- here's the characters I made
So on my own game I've finished the ai for 3 of the 5-7 enemy types that will be included in the games playable prototype which I plan to release in 1-3 months from now
Here's some videos I've posted recently demo-ing some of the enemy ai I've been working on
Here's the behavior tree for those robots
And here's a tutorial/walkthrough video I did showing my workflow for the enemies
So right now my priority is on enemy ai and player targeting- so as I build/test the ai I play the game and tweak stuff- I don't know whether to use a crosshair or a laser sight to help the player aim- so I'm screwing around with that while building out enemy behaviors-
I have so many ideas for the game I'm trying to not get sidetracked with non core gameplay stuff- I'm really trying to make the core gameplay fun and intuitive so I won't move on until that stuff is in a good place- I'm not going to assume my "cool story" or "mood" is going to make the game- its a game so the gameplay has to be fun-
When I got into games I guess it would have easy for me to create games that weigh heavily on narrative elements with weak gameplay but why would I do that? If I want to do narrative stuff I'd keep making movies-
I don't like games with crappy gameplay/no player freedom so I wouldn't make one- if I'm playing a game I don't want it to be like a movie- It would be easy for me to make a game like that but that would be the safe path- the safe path is boring-
So I'm not going to polish my game or build/detail the levels or anything like that until the gameplay is fun and intuitive- I'm not far from that- it just needs more work
I started learning game dev and making games about a year ago and I've learned a ton as I kicked out 4 little games along the way- game dev really is one of those things where the more you learn the more you know you don't know but its always fun because every new thing you learn can be added to your game to make it better-
I've been reading articles on static vs dynamic content when it comes to games and how being stuck on anything as your developing your game can limit it- so even though I came up with a whole narrative/mythology behind the game I'm not letting that dictate where the games goes- I'm just trying to follow the fun-
I'm currently visiting family until the new year so I'm away from my work pc and the game- I did bring a copy of the project folder on my 2008 laptop but its too old/slow/low res to do any serious work on- I plan to get a new laptop this year so I can do work where ever I go as I tend to get ideas/want to test stuff when I'm away from my PC
So yeh I hope to be even more productive in 2015 and put out an awesome game ^_^
Best of luck to you on your projects in 2015!
Brought to you by professional weirdo M dot Strange.