Into the Backlog it goes!

I've toyed with a small but otherwise fresh game idea in the form of theWIREDworld - a game that involves players hacking one another in a drawn out game of Mastermind; I was pretty close to releasing it too - that is until I realized there's still so much that needs to be done for the game to be considered complete (tutorials, balancing, etc.). Essentially I've under-estimated the scope of a project again.

That's not to say that I've wasted my time, oh no, not at all. The project is my first experience at using a 3rd party backend solution, and it had certainly gave me a good insight into how I should managed/design around the need to reduce requests to server (they cost moolah!). Also, I have every intention to revisit the project in the future.

I doubt anyone reads this blog, but in case someone does, here's a poorly made video explaining theWIREDworld.

theWIREDworld

Beside working for James as a part-timer at Springloaded, I've managed to squeeze in some time for the past 20 or so days working on an experimental game project which I had just submitted for a local competition. It is grossly unfinished at this point and - if I were to get shortlisted for the judging, would mean that I have less than 5 days left to finish the game.

In case anyone's interested, the game is developed using Starling, a really sweet framework that makes use of Adobe's stage3D technology, and Flox (also by gamua) which is a service/framework that ensures that you can concentrate on developing your game without all the server-side hassle!

Stay tune for more news of theWIREDworld, or other projects.

Back to Flash?

Thanks in part to school work (and another part laziness), I've not been able to work on any personal projects for a long time. Naturally, this has caused quite a craving for some Actionscript action!

There has been quite a bit of discussions from my fellow classmates about HTML5 vs Flash - that is, they claimed that Flash is dying (or dead), and that HTML5 has taken over. As (quite possibly) the only guy in class who really liked flash, I've gotten several jabs about my supposed refusal to give up on flash (why the heck should I?). Certainly, I see flash player getting phased out for video play-back, for site banners and for those annoying advertisements - but that hardly undermines the ease of use of Flash as a platform for prototyping. What about games development? Does HTML5 offer a 'frigging-awesome' IDE that allows for the easy creation of art assets and the integration of codes, does it have some form of an established pipeline for content creation?

With AIR, and the Starling framework, it seems to me that Flash may have already moved on to become something else completely - a tool for creation of interactive media for the web environment, for phones and who knows, whatever devices the future holds.

Into the industry, before we know it.

This seems to be it. Several sleepless nights and crunch times later, I'm nearing the end of the final semester in Digipen. Everyone's excited of course. And a tad bit concerned - many waste no time in seeking job opportunities. Web sites are done up, resumes reviewed (again and again). And almost everyone is involved in the first ever Digipen Singapore career day.

I'll be there of course. But I will not be there to "promote" myself, to pull interviews and job opportunities. I will be there to observe. To see the standard the big guys are looking out for. To learn. Crazy as it seems, my intention is to go indie immediately upon graduation, and I'm not alone (a couple of friends are with me on this). My lecturers and an administrative staff have been supportive, and even gave some great advice - it's all quite encouraging.

And - ... uh, it's 3.30 in the morning and career day is today. Time for some shut-eye.

Time flies...

... and within a short span of slightly more than 1 academic year, I'm been through more than a couple of game projects. Check them out!

Trailers:

Download links:
Hot Chick
The Ward

Goodness Gracious, and that's 3 semesters of the Digipen life!

Oh man, school's tough. School's really tough. Now that semester 3 is over, I can finally catch up on all the sleep I missed out on. No more falling asleep while in the midst of studying, yes!!

We have been given 2 short weeks of break - about enough time for me to start a new short project! Hopefully this is one project I can finish before school starts =S.