html5

Updates And A New Web Game In Development

by

For the past few of months I have been working on a new project (none gaming related), which explains the lack of updates between July and now. Thankfully that other project has since settled down a little, allowing me put some focus back onto game development.

 

I recently purchased Gamemaker Studio 1.4 from Humble Bundle and decided to give it a try. Starting off fresh on a new SDK is tough and I struggled at the beginning. As always, going through the tutorials is the easy the part. The hard part is when you try to implement your own gameplay elements into your game. To be honest, there were times I wanted to just give up and go back to things I’m familiar with but thankfully I managed to hang on and continued working on it.

 

I don’t have much to show at the moment but it’s basically another twist to the defense game genre. Hoping to get this up and running around next month November. Here’s a very early screenshot of the game with placeholder graphics.

 

My very early WIP game

 

On another note, I have also uploaded my previous game DefOp: Codename I.R.I.S Dual Blaster on this site. It was originally submitted to Scirra Arcade (the folks that made Construct2 ) with over 4000 plays, which is pretty awesome. Check it out if you are interested.

 

Working on I.R.I.S – DefOp HTML5 Edition

by

With the release of I.R.I.S – DefOp version 1.0.3 on iOS, I was deciding on what to do next. The choice was either to work on a new game or create a web version of I.R.I.S. I chose the later because I wanted to take a break from programming and just focus on the design aspect.

Wait … making a game without programming you say? Is that even possible?

Short answer is yes. Back in 2013, I purchased a game making tool called Construct2. It allows you to create 2D games without any programming experience at all. What you do need is logic thinking; ‘what goes where’, ‘what happens if x is triggered’ and so on. I will talk more about Construct2 in my next blog post.

sample 'logic code' from I.R.I.S DefOp HTML5
sample ‘logic code’ from I.R.I.S DefOp HTML5

When it comes to making the HTML5 version, I didn’t want it to be just a straight up port of the mobile version. Having access to keyboard and mouse controls brings a whole new world to the table. No longer are you restricted to just touch controls. Having said that, I still want to keep the core gameplay of I.R.I.S intact while changing things up a little … whichhhhhh brings me to the idea of putting … turrets.

Whats better than having 1 turret? 2 turrets!

You see, in the mobile version of I.R.I.S, your main defensive weapons are the two beam gates located on each corner of the screen. Holding the L / R touch buttons will activate the beam, killing anything that collides with it. From here, you can probably see the limitations of this design concept. Yeap, all enemies will have to move past a certain area in order for the player to destroy them. I did manage to get creative with some of the enemies (the annoying Orange ship) but at the end, an object needs to move from point A to B, with B here being the secret lab.

With the addition of turrets, the game is no longer restricted to the original design concept. I can now create enemies that attacks from a distance away and their movement paths are much more open ended. I can even throw in boss battles now.

At the time of this post, the game is about 50% complete. I will post up an early build over at GameJolt soon so do hit that ‘Follow’ button to get notified. Oh, and if you haven’t register as a member at GameJolt, do sign up. It’s a cool place where you get to play both freeware and commercial games using either your browser or in downloadable format. See you there!

Edit: The game is available now.

Work In Progress. A lot of effects are still missing