Soliloquy of a Madman www.soliloquyofamadman.com
Just a quick media update since it's almost 1am and I've got a full day of work tomorrow. I've finally got the character morphing art to a point where I'm happy with it as a first rough draft pass. There will be plenty of time to perfect it later, but I think this more than adequately shows what I want to convey in the prototype. I'm aiming to add new animations, an environment and then move on to building an enemy and some gameplay. Hopefully I'll get all of that finished around August before the Unity's Unite event here in Vancouver. Wish me luck!
Soliloquy of a Madman www.soliloquyofamadman.com
One of the key features for my game is the idea that the actions you take as a player when confronted with enemies and obstacles in the world will ultimately affect the outcome of the game, pushing you either towards enlightenment or self-destruction. Given this, I've been pushing hard to prepare both the main character's art and the technical structure behind the scenes for this mechanic.
As of right now, the character morphing is almost complete. I'm quite happy with the self-destructive morph - he looks delightfully evil and awesome - but I stil have a ways to go with the enlightened state. Also, unfortunately my free Unity Pro trial ran out, so I've lost some of the visual flair I need... I'm just not prepared to spend $1500 on a license just yet. Maybe tomorrow.
Pole Force One www.poleforceone.com
I haven't talked about Pole Force One for over a year and to be honest it was largely because I didn't know what to do with it. I had written a rough story, got a bunch of early concept art made and even built a quite prototype to feel out the idea, but it was lacking a clear direction of how to take it from an idea towards a commercial venture.
The original plan was to just go it alone and try to pull off the impossible by creating this game entirely by myself. However, after defining the scope of the project I soon realized this was the kind of game that needed a small team and I had to shift my focus. Which is why I picked up Soliloquy of a Madman to be my "personal thesis" project, because the scope was reasonable for one crazy guy to pull off on his own. So for the past year or more I shelved the idea and let it stew in the back of my mind until I came up with an actionable plan that made sense.
After a year of contemplation I came to the conclusion that I wasn't actually developing a game but rather I was developing an intellectual property. A world and universe in which the character lived that could be used to create all kinds of entertainment media. My focus is on developing a strong IP around the Pole Force One universe and building out a business plan to leverage something that I can pitch to interested parties such that I can get the funding required for a small team to actually build the game and it's related media.
Okay, so now that I've rambled long enough about where I am with this project, you're probably wondering what the state of the project is? Well, I'm putting efforts towards building out a pitch bible which illustrates the main character, the game's setting, the levels the girls must fight through along with samples of the enemies they must defeat.
I've been working on the written concepts and figuring out the best way to present the world while a colleague of mine, Chris Taylor, has been volunteering his time to put together some amazing concept art for me, for which I am very appreciative. Below is a sample for one of the girls, named "Kiko"
So I've got a lot of work ahead of me before I can pull this off, but the thing that makes me happy and confident is that I now finally have a clear plan that has matured beyond wishful thinking into something I will make happen. Just need to put a lot of sweat equity into it first!
Just making a quick post today, been super busy lately between work, personal projects, client projects and personal life!
Soliloquy of a Madman www.soliloquyofamadman.com
Did a little bit more work on the camera but mostly spent time doing some look development and playing with Unity's post processing effects, which are going to be absolutely key in achieving the overall look and feel that I want. Check it out in the video:
Rat Dissection
I've been working on this client/research project for close to a year now and it's nearing completion. I got over the latest gigantic hurdle and finished up the actual dissection process (well, the technical aspects of it anyways). Have about a month and a half left to finish this thing up, going to be quite a few long nights after work in order to pull this thing off. Check out the latest demonstratoin video:
I think it's safe to say I'm addicted to this whole "game development" thing, have you heard of it? No, oh, well it's this activity that you do where you sit at a computer for upwards of 12 hours a day, mash away on the keyboard and then pretty colours happen! It's amazing!
Vote or Die!
So there's this contest I entered the game in and part of the judging criteria is your social media skills. I'm not a well-known developer yet, so every "Like" or "Tweet" I can get will go a long way towards helping me win some prize money that I can put towards this project. Help a honky out and vote here:
Lights, Camera... Action!
Well, it's placeholder lights and the action hasn't been animated, but at least the camera is there now! Finished up a camera controller script which allows the player to look around, camera re-orients to follow the player actions and it checks for geometry occlusions. I'm sure I'll add a few things to it later like controls for camera shake and snapping to other objects, but for now I'd say it's a solid 3rd person camera, which really adds quality to the experience.
The Master Plan
So aside from development, I've spent quite a bit of time looking at what I have and what I'd like to get done and have come up with breakdown, schedule and plan for the first phase of this game. Without going into too much detail, I'm aiming to have a playable prototype ready by the end of April along with a pitch package and all the media that goes along with it. In the prototype, you'll play the polished version of the main character, enjoy a closer representation of the overall art style and be able to use basic combat techniques to fight off waves of enemies. The goal will be to present the basic mechanics and style of the game in order to get feedback before moving on to more involved phases of development.
