Practical Entertainment Design

Leave a reply

So I’ve been out of the game design scene a little bit, and I thought I should post here to let everyone know why and what I’ve been up to.

For those of you who don’t know, I have been into costuming/cosplay and prop building for a number of years now. This hobby took a back seat for a few years as my friends who were into that scene kind of fell away one by one. But last summer I decided to dive back into it with a renewed sense of interest.

The past few months I have been working on a Gravity Gun prop build, and I have a few other Half-Life props that are brewing in the background. I also made a War Machine costume from Iron Man 2 last summer, and again have some similar things up and coming.

Frankly, I had a few things happen to me earlier this year that really burned me out of game design. I feel like I need to let my creativity simmer in that area, because I do have some ideas and a few people I am excited about working with.

But for the time being, you can follow my new prop and costuming blog, Overworld Designs.

Realization

Leave a reply

I just went back through my blog posts to clean some things up – moving to WordPress has actually been pretty not terrible! – and I came to realize something. For someone who loves games as much as me, I sure do not talk about them a whole lot here! Granted, this site used to be an update page for a number of other network sites that I am running / used to run, so there’s a lot of random notes about that stuff.

But I think I’m going to try and start posting more often about my own projects. Wish me luck!

One Game A Month 2013

Leave a reply

I recently found out about One Game A Month, a game challenge where the goal is to release 1 new game a month, every month, for the year of 2013. I really like this idea. As I’ve lamented to a few people that I know, I’m really unhappy that I wasn’t able to release anything in 2012. There are some really valid circumstances as to why but I’ll spare you all the details.

In the past I’ve been content with releasing 1 thing a year. Usually it’s a more focused idea and is mostly complete. #1GAM gives me a chance to released basically a series of demos and continuously update them with new features/content/whatever. It’s something I haven’t tried and I want to give it a shot.

I do have plans for 1 or 2 “complete” games to be made and released. A few others will be polished, finished, or playable versions of tech demos I’ve made thus far. I’ll also probably throw in some of my half-complete HL2 maps or things of that nature.

Wish me luck!

New Site

2 Replies

Once again I’ve moved to a new site! Right now it looks like WordPress (because it is) but soon I’ll change over my old layout. So it will look like my old site except if my old site was WordPress (because it wasn’t).

Yeah, anyway. On with the show.

Ludum Dare 22

Leave a reply

So the theme for Ludum Dare #22 is out: Alone

Unfortunately, the ideas that immediately jump to mind I either have nowhere near the artistic ability to make them, or they’re completely derivative of Every Day The Same Dream, One Chance, or Halfquake: Amen.

I’d like to stay away from horror, since it seems both too simple and far too complex to really pull off. And again, really overdone with games like Amnesia and Limbo.

Game Design 101

Leave a reply 
2:52 AM - msleeper: I'm recompiling all of my Source maps for my portfolio and I am reminded of a four letter word from game design 101:
2:53 AM - msleeper: FUCK
2:53 AM - msleeper: as in FUCK i don't have anything installed
2:53 AM - msleeper: then FUCK it will take 3 hours to download hl2 and episode 2
2:53 AM - msleeper: and of course FUCK i have to sit here for 30 minutes for this shitty map to compile
2:53 AM - MrTwoVideoCards: lol

Demo Reel – AWOL Project

Leave a reply

Here’s probably the last of my BUILD era videos I’ll be posting up, this time of The AWOL Project.

AWOL Project Demo Reel

The AWOL Project was a large and ambitious cinematic total conversion in development between 2002 and 2005ish. The project was sadly and unfortunately abandoned late in development, mostly due to lack of mapping talent. The source code, art assets and a treasure trove of 1/10th finished terrible maps sat on my hard drive for about 2 years before I decided to release it all to the Duke community.

The release includes 4 demo maps, seen in the video, which show off the headline effects in the TC – advanced friendly AI bots, useable vehicles, and so on. The AWOL Project used eDuke very early in it’s development and is one of the first mods to use the engine; many of the effects created for AWOL would not be seen or used again in a mod for many years down the road!

If you’re interested in playing AWOL, you can download the files at the Duke4.net forums. All you need is a legal copy of Duke 3D and the latest eDuke32. There’s not much, but it’s there!

Demo Reel – Grins of Divinity

Leave a reply

As part of updating my portfolio with more substantial media, I’m making videos of some of my older projects. First up is a total conversion for Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition called Grins of Divinity. I was the sole programmer on the project, responsible for everything from enemy AI, environmental effects, gameplay features, and a few “cinematic” moments where items would be airdropped in or enemies would paratroop from a UFO.

Of special mention is the particles used in the game (for smoke, blood, sparks and a few other things) was written from the ground up. The original Duke3D BUILD engine did not have any features like these.

Additionally, the AI for all of the enemies and civilians was completely written from scratch. It doesn’t seem to have aged very well though – the limited BUILD engine makes them seem pretty dated, though I guess the Duke3D engine is something like almost 20 years old now.

Grins of Divinity Demo Reel 1
Grins of Divinity Demo Reel 2

You can also read a review of Grins of Divinity from 2002 here.

I’ll be uploading the TC for download soon. You can play it completely unaltered from it’s 2002 release date, all you need is a legal copy of Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition and the eDuke32 port of the BUILD engine.

EDIT 12/2
Added a second video.