Nostatic Software Dev Blog

Potential New Game

2012-05-22T11:50:00.001-07:00

So, the idea is to make an economic simulation and exploration game in the style of the Settlers or Anno games, but set in space.

I'm keeping the graphics simple - 2D with a pixelized style. I'm also focusing on a touch-friendly interface from the start, rather than adapting to it later.

It seems promising so far. We'll see...

"Quiet, Please!" Released on Xbox Indie Games

2012-04-12T08:41:00.001-07:00

After an annoying day at school, you just want some peace and quiet.

But everything at home is so noisy!

Explore, interact with your environment and solve puzzles. 3 kittens included with every purchase!

"Quiet, Please!" is now available on here in the Xbox Marketplace.

Android, cross-platform development and touch controls

2012-04-09T12:04:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been working on getting my 2D game engine running in Android. I had been planning on giving Android a try for a while now, so when Unity released a free version for Android and iOS it got me to finally take the plunge.

I picked up a Kindle Fire, and had things mostly working after about a day. It helped a lot that I had already ported my engine to Unity. I did this mostly to use their web browser deployment for Ludum Dare releases - people are much more likely to play a game if they can run it in a browser rather than downloading an XNA binary. It also really helped that I had already done touch controls for Windows Phone versions of my games. Aside from getting the build and deployment process set up, porting to Android didn't really add many platform-specific development challenges.

"Quiet, Please!" is now running pretty well on the Kindle Fire. I have a few more little things to do, and then I'll release it on the Amazon Marketplace and Google Play.

I've also been working on a mobile version of "Ascent of Kings", a little platformer I made for Ludum Dare a while back. Good platforming touch controls are notoriously difficult to do. While I wouldn't say my controls are great, I now have a touch D-Pad that feels pretty good to use. The gameplay in "Ascent of Kings" isn't very twitch, so I think it will work well enough.

Overall, I'm pretty happy right now with the state of my 2D game engine. With virtually no platform-specific game code, I can now deploy for Xbox, Windows Phone and Android. iOS should be an easy next step - except for the fact that I need to buy a Mac...

"Quiet, Please!" now available for Windows Phone

2012-03-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

"Quiet, Please!" is now available in the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Everything in the house is so noisy! You just want to be alone and go to bed.

Explore, interact with your environment and solve puzzles.

3 kittens included with every purchase!

Playing with Deferred Rendering in XNA

2012-02-22T10:53:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to do a deferred rendering of my graphics pipeline for a while, but hadn't gotten around to it until recently.

In standard forward rendering, your geometry shaders directly output the image that the user sees. In deferred rendering, they output an intermediate buffer (called a "G-Buffer") that contains more information for each pixel - generally color, normal and depth. The advantage to this is that it allows you to do various processing (most notably lighting) on the scene as a whole after all of the geometry has been rendered.

The simplifies the shaders significantly. In Block Zombies, for example, I have three main geometry shaders - one for the terrain, one for models and one for particles. In forward rendering, each shader needs to independently handle lighting, fog and shadowing. With deferred rendering, they don't need to do any of this - it gets done once on the entire scene.

Another huge benefit is the ability to have more lights in the scene. Block Zombies only has a single, directional light source. I would have loved to have more lighting - muzzle flashes, glow from flares, flashes from explosions - but it just wasn't practical in the forward rendering model. With deferred rendering, I can have pretty much as may lights as I want.

In the screenshot above, I have a very subtle directional light, a spotlight from a flashlight and point lights for all of the windows in all of the houses.

Overall, moving to deferred rendering is a big win for me and I think I'll use it as my primary rendering model going forward.

"Quiet, Please!" Almost Finished

2012-02-20T10:21:00.000-08:00

I'm getting close to completion on my little adventure game, "Quiet, Please!". Above is an overview shot of the current gameplay area.

I'm aggressively trying to control the scope on this project - my goal is to keep development time under a month (time actually spent on it - not calendar time). So far, I'm in pretty good shape.

The resulting game will, as a consequence, be fairly short. Hopefully it will still be enough to convince people to part with one of their precious dollars. We'll see.

Block Zombies Review Round-up

2012-01-26T09:59:00.000-08:00

Block Zombies has been out for a week now, and a number of reviews have popped up around the internet. The verdict? They like it!

Trendy Gamers gave it a 9/10, saying it "may just be the most outrageously fun and charming game a single dollar can buy".

Armless Octopus gave it 4/5 stars, saying "the game’s carefree visual style and upbeat tempo makes Block Zombies! an absolute delight to play". They also awarded it their "Bloody Tentacle" of the week.

Did Not Finish says "Block Zombies is the embodiment of everything that is right with Xbox Live Independent Games".

OtakuDante's Gaming says it offers "escape from the normal zombie titles that plague the video game marketplace".

Dealspwn calls Block Zombies "a damn fine shooter".

Block Zombies Released!

2012-01-18T19:01:00.000-08:00

I did up a little release trailer for Block Zombies, which is now available on the Indie Games section of the Xbox marketplace.

The marketplace game page is here.

Now on to the next game... :-)

Quiet, Please! Post Compo Version

2012-01-04T13:40:00.001-08:00

Since making "Quiet, Please!" for Ludum Dare 22, I've taken some time to improve on it and add additional content. I was really happy with what I was able to accomplish in the 48hr time period, but I had a lot of ideas that I was not able to get to.

The biggest criticism of the compo version was its length. This updated version has new areas, new and improved puzzles, an intro and a lot more sound and art assets.

The new version of "Quiet, Please!" can be played in a web browser (Unity) here:

Quiet, Please! Post Compo Version

The original, 48hr entry is here.

Here are a few screenshots from the new version of the game:

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T09:06:00.001-08:00

Quiet, Please!

2011-12-19T11:10:00.001-08:00

This past weekend, I made a little adventure game for the Ludum Dare 48-hour competition.

Whenever I do something like this, I'm amazed at how much it is possible to accomplish in two short days when you really focus. I'm also reminded how hard it is to complete a game in a short period of time...

Anyway, have a go at the game. It is called "Quiet, Please!" and it is about a girl who just wants to be alone (the theme for the competition was "Alone").

Play it on the web here.

Ludum Dare entry page here.

Title Screen Sequence for Block Zombies

2011-10-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

I added a bit of violence to the title screen sequence in Block Zombies.

First stab at box art for Block Zombies

2011-10-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

As part of putting together a playtest build of Block Zombies I took an initial shot at doing some box art. I'm going for something simple, but (hopefully) eye-catching.

Flamethrower and RPG in Block Zombies

2011-10-07T17:58:00.000-07:00

I've added a flamethrower and an RPG to round out the array of weapons in Block Zombies. I think that should just about do it for the core combat mechanics.

Block Zombies Playable Credits

2011-09-09T11:57:00.001-07:00

Block Zombies will carry on my tradition of having playable credits in my games. This is what I have so far.

I haven't decided exactly what the "game" will be yet. Maybe you get a trophy if you manage to take out all of the zombies.

Block Zombies: Aerial News Footage of the Infected Zone

2011-09-02T11:35:00.000-07:00

Here is a video using the CRT screen effect I mentioned in my last blog post.

I'm planning on using something like this as an intro scene, or perhaps as the backdrop for my game menus.

Using shaders to create an old CRT TV screen effect

2011-08-30T15:08:00.000-07:00

I've been playing around with adding an effect to make Block Zombies look like it is playing on an old, crappy TV. It still needs tweaking, but it is starting to get close to what I want.

Using a couple of screen-space shaders, I'm blurring, adding scanlines, desaturating and adding darkened corners.

I'm not planning on using this effect in-game, but I'm thinking that the intro will be some sort of news-ticker with footage of the scene of the zombie outbreak.

Block Zombies: Dark and Stormy Gameplay

2011-08-26T12:22:00.001-07:00

I've been working on adding darkness, thunder and lightning to Block Zombies.

I used a modified version of the technique I used for Kung Fu FIGHT! - tweaking parameters in my bloom shader to do most of the work. Because Block Zombies is 3D, I also mess with the light direction, which does fun things with the shadows when lightning strikes.

Because the effect is just manipulating lighting and bloom parameters, it is basically cost-free. I haven't added in actual rain yet, since that definitely wouldn't be cost-free, and I'm not sure I can afford the extra overhead.

The glowy zombie eyes, windows and sparks are done by reserving a section of my color palette that my shaders recognize and treat as being self-lit.

Block Zombies

2011-08-22T12:41:00.001-07:00

Here is the first work-in-progress gameplay video from Block Zombies - my next game for Xbox LIVE Indie Games.

The core gameplay is mostly done, and I'm now working on adding more variety to the enemies and environments.

I'm hoping to get it out the door in the next month or so.

Kung Fu FIGHT! now on WP7

2011-08-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

The Windows Phone 7 version of Kung Fu FIGHT! is now available!

I was worried about how it would translate to the phone, but it runs really well - even with the downgrade to 30fps.

I was also concerned about the touch controls, but that ended up not being a problem.

If anything, I think I might prefer the phone version to the Xbox one - it works really well with the "pick up and play for a bit" affordance that the handheld device offers.

If you have a Windows phone, you can grab it here:

Kung Fu FIGHT! for Windows Phone

Kung Fu FIGHT! on WP7

2011-07-16T11:30:00.001-07:00

The past few days I've been working on getting Kung Fu FIGHT! working on WP7. When creating the game, I was very careful to keep portability in mind. That has paid off, since it is already mostly done.

I just need to do some more tweaking on the UI and tighten up my touch controls.

MapCache - Offline Maps for WP7

2011-07-05T12:02:00.000-07:00

Update: MapCache is now available in the Windows Phone Marketplace here: MapCache Offline Maps for WP7

I have a shiny WP7 smartphone, but I don't have a data plan. I just don't need it enough to justify the hefty monthly fee. I like paying the roughly $8 a month that GoPhone service costs me.

Still, the phone has that nice GPS functionality, and having a map in your pocket can really come in handy sometimes. But how can you have access to a map without a data plan?

The solution - map caching. MapCache is an application that lets you browse around a map while you have a connection, all the while caching the map areas you view for later use offline.

Note that this isn't just useful for people like me without data plans. In can also be useful when:

you have a limited data plan that you want to minimize use of
you want to avoid prohibitive roaming charges
you want maps when you are in an area of limited or no coverage

A while back, I was in Tijuana with a group of people, many of whom had smartphones with data plans. Everyone wanted to use maps on their phones, but the roaming data charge was so expense that it just didn't make sense. A pre-cached map would have solved the problem.

MapCache has most of the features you would expect from a smartphone mapping application. It locates you via GPS, and you can browse around the map or use search tools to find places or businesses. The map tile data comes from openstreetmap.org which, unlike map services from Google or Microsoft, allows you to cache data. Place and local business search are provided by Yahoo! PlaceFinder and Local Search.

The application is pretty much finished. I'm wrapping up a few remaining items on my todo list, and plan to submit it to the WP7 marketplace shortly.

Kung Fu FIGHT! Released!

2011-06-17T11:24:00.001-07:00

Kung Fu FIGHT! is now available on Xbox LIVE.

You can find it in the web-based marketplace here:

Download Kung Fu FIGHT!

Kung Fu FIGHT! Dream Build Play 2011 Trailer

2011-06-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

This is the trailer I put together when submitting Kung Fu FIGHT! to the 2011 Dream Build Play competition.

OpenStreetMap Slippy Map in WP7

2011-06-02T12:11:00.000-07:00

I'm procrastinating putting the final touches on Kung Fu FIGHT! and have been messing around more with WP7.

I've pretty quickly been able to put together a simple draggable map using OpenStreetMap tile data. It is definitely cool to have such a high quality source of map data freely available. Fun stuff.