2007 December | ArmorBlog

Here's the posts for: December, 2007

Site Updates — 11 Comments 13
Dec 07

T-minus….

The new and updated ‘ArmorGames’ website is nearing completion and should be live in the next few weeks. Here is an image of what the game play pages will look like. Highlights include the following:

*Ability to rate the game from 1 to 10 (No 5 point rating system for us)
*User comments
*Wide playing screen (We accept Flash of all widths and heights)
*NO POP UPS

What does everything think of the new layout?

-Daniel

Ps. There are quite a few other surprises coming that are not visible in the screen shot.

Random Musing — 8 Comments 12
Dec 07

Google had their annual Adsense partners day yesterday and I was invited to attend. It was my first to their campus and I must say that I was quite blown away. I can’t talk about everything I saw due to a NDA, but here are some things I can comment on.

*All food on the entire campus is FREE
*They believe in going ‘Green’ and installed solar panels on their roofs to provide natural electricity
*They have community bikes that are free to take and ride all around the campus
*Google is going to be taking over the WORLD!

That’s all for now.

-Daniel

Game Development — 2 Comments 10
Dec 07

Mr. Walter’s Primary Engine Done!

So the Mr. Walters Grand Excursion game is nearing completion, with the finalization of it’s rope-swinging engine! The rope-swinging was a long-winded process, starting with nearly three white boards of planning between me and James. The physics are just mind-boggling in the flash environment, and anything and everything will go wrong at times. Basically, the artwork was done in about two days, the rest in about two weeks. And still, I need to program the laser eyes! We finally got the ropes done though, and here is the result (bear with my Kenny Loggins choice, it was the only mp3 I had for some reason ).

Game Development / Office News — 3 Comments 10
Dec 07

Desk Makeover

James has been working really hard on his “Shoot Lasers into objects” game, and we really wanted to give him a hand in level design. Using yellow post-it notes, we sketched out several different configurations of lasers, satellites, and other awesome playing field objects (the game is a top-down, laser-bending game). The Post-It notes were the perfect size to make level designs out of, but really, the back sticky side of these Post-It notes really went to waste.

Putting 2 and 2 together, we realized that James’ inappropriately bare desk and our excess of Post-It Note levels could only spell out a winning combination (of course, our office policies clearly state that all desk must have a minimum of fifteen pieces of flair). His desk needed an office makeover.

Beyond these shenanigans James’ game is looking phenomenal, and you really got to play it to see how it is!

Random Musing — 1 Comment 7
Dec 07

Independent Gaming – Yahoo Article

Yahoo had an interesting article on Independent gaming and it references both ArmorGames & Kongregate.

If you have some free time be sure to check it out. (Click Here)

-Daniel

Office News — 4 Comments 6
Dec 07

Ball Revamped IRL

Ball Revamped Balls

Well, after months of pushing numbers, talking to stress ball representatives, and finally concluding with a final design, the real-life Ball from Ball Revamped is HERE! To be featured in the new Armor Games store when the new site goes up, the ball measures a good 2.2″ in diameter and features the exact four ball colors translated from the screen to the ball!

And these balls do squish! Throw them at your pets, your friends, but remember that you’ll be starting back at the beginning if you hit a wall. As a Flash developer, I would have never imagined four years ago that I would have my own toy finally. I always imagined I would be buying everyone else’s toys for the rest of my life, but to have my own squishy ball is fantastic.

Not yet available at the moment, you can find them once the new Armor Games Store goes live! The Armor Games store will sell all sorts of swag for your personal collection of tidbits and tshirts. The Store should go live shortly after the site goes live.

Random Musing — 2 Comments 5
Dec 07

Widget Bucks

We recently ran some advertisements for a brand new web company called WidgetBucks. The company launched a couple of months ago, and to celebrate the first round of payments; Dean Jutilla (Marketing Director) came to our office and dropped of a HUGE check. You can read all about it on their blog if you like.

If you run a Blog or Website I highly recommend giving them a try.

(WidgetBucks)

-Daniel

Game Development — 10 Comments 4
Dec 07

Ball Revamped Fans

BR1 It’s really neat getting an email from someone, telling me that they liked something I did. In the case of Ball Revamped 5, I got two really special emails from some young kids who are amazing with MS Paint and a marker.

The first comes from Zac, 8 years old, who drew me a picture of one of the levels he wanted to put in. He banks on 200 levels, and drew me level 199 (which without a doubt would be the most difficult level ever). The “Joker and the Thief” level features many of the original power ups from the fifth game.

The second comes from another 8 year-old kid, who goes by the name of Missingno (Pokemon fan for sure). He made me some clips of the game, called Ball Revamped 6:Yin-Yang. The game, from what I can interpret, is a dark-side/light-side sort of game, similar to what went on in the most recent Metroid game, or the idea of Dark Link from the Legend of Zelda. The ball has two dynamic personalities that it must face, and use the powers of each side to dominate the levels and move through the different realms. Pretty good for an 8 year-old, who says he wants to design games when he gets older!

All-in-all, it’s quite an honor to get fan pictures from some of my content!

Game Development — 51 Comments 2
Dec 07

Upcoming Flash RPG: “Sonny”

It’s December now, so I thought I’d post a little update on the RPG that will be released this month

The game is going to be called “Sonny,” named after the main character of the game. You are a Zombie, and you wake up knowing nothing, except that you have to get off that ship that you’re on! The game will take you on a journey through a twisted world, as you are hunted by almost everyone: Ghost Samurai’s, Crazed Light Wielding Paladins, and even the GSG9 Special Forces!

So far the game’s engine is 100% done, but I still have to add more content and balance out the stats a bit. The biggest obstacle will definitely be the story-animations… I’m really slow at that! But the game itself will pack in a lot of fun! There will be 3-4 classes for you to choose from, and they will all have different play styles… You can choose to build your character so that he deals insane burst damage, or you can play a powerful healing/support role, or a tank/survival build.

The combat will be turn based, but they will be a lot of strategy involved. I’m trying to steer away from the stat-building, attack-spamming nature of RPGs, so I included some aspects that will turn that around, such as buffs which reverse damage and healing, stuns to interrupt the enemy and cool-downs on abilities.

Once it has been released, I plan to add a new level (10 fights + Boss) every month, or 2 weeks, so that people may continue with their characters And I warn you… Some of those end-game bosses will be hardcore…!

That’s all for now! I might have an open-beta in a couple of days to get some express feedback before the game goes live, in which case I’ll let you know!

-K

P.S. Some screenies:

The opening level:
The opening stage of the game.