Dark Time

Looking for a new game to check out? Dark Time is a free game developed by me for the Game Jolt FEAR contest. The game is a puzzle game that uses the manipulation of a light orb (the only source of light) to complete levels.

You can get the game at Game Jolt here.

7 Hours

I recently updated my virus software and installed a second one. The second is this new cloud based one called Immunet 3.0. I thought it would be a good idea to do a virus scan with the new program. It wasn't. It has now been 7 Hours and 1,004,985 files scanned and it is still not done! Is this ridiculous to anyone else?

Google+ Has Games Now!

Did you hear? Google+ has games now. What's better about the games on Google than on Facebook is that game invites and the other stupid game related junk stay on a seperate feed than the normal status'. Meaning less spam on the front page and you never really have to ban apps from appearing. There's about 15 games on there now. Nothing exicting though, I'll show you guys how to get to it if you wanna try them out.

Easy huh? On the game's front page there is a "Featured" games spotlight that you know shows off the most awesome to the max games. Below the awesome to the max games spotlight section is the game status stream. Any thing from highscores to people giving uber exciting gift to one another will be posted there. On the left side there's a "All Games" tab which does exactly as it says, it shows you all the freaking games. I'll now post a screenshot of all games Google+ has to offer.

There's all of the non-exciting games that are being offered... wait a secound what's this? There's a 16th game, what is it? It can't be, but it is.

Oh my Baby Jesus! It's Angry Birds! Google+ is one of the greatist gaming platforms ever! It deserves the rating of 10/10. Screw my PS3, Angry Birds on Google+ is the way to go.

I just made this quick project. It was designed as a relatively simple debugger beyond the abilities of a normal debugger.

What is Game Maker console?

A simple game object that can be added to any room or any game. You can use GMconsole to create instances on the fly. Adjust object positions or execute any other scripts you may need to.

How does it work?

Simply. You can toggle the console by pressing Tab. Then just type in the script you want to execute and hit enter. It will then execute the script. You can also use GMC to create variables etc.

This is a very early version (I made it in an hour) so their may be a few problems. Make sure to tell me what you think so I can make changes and improvements.

You may Edit, Modify and Redistribute it as you wish.




Download Link (Media Fire)

Binary Clock

So, I was feeling lazy and browsing ThinkGeek I stumbled across their sales and found an LED clock. First I was excited, then disappointed (the clock was/is $30). Then I realized two things. First, I have 2000 LED's sitting in my room. Second, I have a computer. So, with that in mind I wrote a little program to display the time (hours, minutes seconds) on my computer. Maybe one day I will get to making the actual clock.

If you want the program you can download it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ybgr6w1jam4vmhc.
If you use Game Maker and want a copy of the source (I didn't want to reinstall Eclipse today) you can have it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?8mgmlwzigdh24na.

The program displays the time in two ways. It shows a graphic representation in 24 hour mode. With each digit having it's own column. Additionally the window caption displays the current time (also in binary) for your viewing pleasure.

The above time is: 11 hours, 17 minutes and 14 seconds.

Numbers from the bottom are 1,2,4 and 8. Just add the column to get the time. It's simple!

If you want an actual LED Binary Clock then you can order one from ThinkGeek (they are on clearance at the time of writing this). Or check out the stock of them over at Amazon.

Particle Field Prototype

I just spent the past five hours watching some Farscape and writing this game.

Particle Field Prototype is a quick prototype of the XBox game I am working on in C#. This should include many of the features that the planned game will have and may even share the same highscores (for current highscores see above or this site).

I would appreciate it if you checked out the game at Gamejolt and tell me what you think.

I'm still working on adding a background... and sound.

I take advice and feedback seriously so please don't hold back. I am especially interested in other abilities and particles that you want added.

 Check out the game here. I'm interested in what you think.

Current Abilities:

 Grants extra points on use.

 Holds particles in place for a short time.

 Pushes particles from your position.

Creates a vortex that draws all particles towards it.

Creates a shield around you that makes you immune to particles.

League of Legends - My Shaco Guide

 I play LoL... a lot. Though hardly as much as some other people. One of my main hero's is Shaco (because who doesn't like a deadly clown assassin?) and I have been told I'm good with him so I'm going to write this guide to (hopefully) help you get good with him as well.

My Items:

• Start Every game with a Cloth Armor and 5 Health Pots. Shaco is relatively squishy and this helps solve that. This build also sets you up great for farming minions and jungeling as Madred's Razors is only a small way away.
• Once you get enough gold you want to finish your Madred's Razor and start working on your boots. You are going to want a lot of attack speed for this build to work so you will be building Berserker's Greaves.
• After you have your boots start working on your Phantom Dancer. You will want to start out by building Zeal first before buying the other two items for it.
• Next build an Executioners Calling. This gives Life Steal and increased Crit Chance (this is even better when you get an Infinity Edge) 
• After you have your first Phantom Dancer and Executioners Calling what you build is up to you. Their are three things I would recommend: Infinity Edge (For crazy crits), Madred's Bloodrazor (If your playing against tanks) or another Phantom Dancer.
• Infinity Edge:
• Pros: Increases Crit Damage
• Cons: Expensive
• Madreds Bloodrazor:
• Pros: Great for Damage, Good vs Tanks
• Cons: Items cost a lot to get
• Phantom Dancer:
• Pros: Move faster still, Increases Attack Speed and Crit Chance
• Cons: Attacking a ton is no good vs a tank usually.

 That about covers the build. Once you get this far in if you haven't won yet then build a different one of the three final items. If you lack creativity then build three Phantom Dancers and watch your opponents shudder (not the most effective but definitely the most amusing method).


Runes:
 For runes I build AD, Armor and Cooldown Reduction with Attack Damage Quints. I prefer to take the strait bonus rather than the scaling one because my strategy involves getting ahead fast. That's about all you should need to know in order to get it right. If not, here is a pic:

 

And that about sums up my runes.


Summoner Spells:
I take ignite and flash. Ignite is great and can be used to add extra damage and reduce healing on tough opponents. Flash is a second deceive that allows you to cover most of Twisted Treeling in a matter of seconds.


Play Style:
 Shaco is a great hero for 3v3. Thus I primarily play on Twisted Treeline to better out manuever my opponents. This advice is mainly for those that play 3v3 though some of it can be carried over to 5v5's on Summoners Rift.

Should you take top? Yes and no. If your team lacks a carry than yes you should. However if you are playing with skilled players and have a Trynd or other carry let them take top.

If you do take top then do some dancing around hitting whoever your against with an occasional poison dagger. Once you reach level 2 and if the enemy is not a tank you should be able to deceive behind them (make sure your behind to benefit from Shaco's passive) and attack. They should start running away almost immediately. Keep hitting them without throwing your dagger. Finally when it seems they might get away throw your dagger to finish them off. Always cast ignite immediately after you start attacking them from behind (not before because it breaks stealth) to maximize the damage they take and reduce effects of potions the enemy should have. Also remember during this first kill that you have a second deceive (flash) hidden up your sleeve. If the opponent dodges out of reach or spins away then flash up to them and finish them off.

After the first kill you should do fine. Whoever your against will leave you alone since they will be lower level than you and you will now own the battle.

Map Awareness goes hand in hand with a 3v3 Shaco. If you play Shaco you need to know where everyone else is. If your allies get ganked you have the resources to get to them in five seconds and eliminate the entire enemy team. You need to be able to take advantage of that. Shaco is capable of deceiving over walls in the Twisted Treeline and, since the bottom lane is easily ambushed, Shaco has the resources to leave the top lane and kill an enemy that has pushed to far (anywhere beyond midway) before the top lane can call MIA. You need to learn how to employee this skill and use it too your advantage.

Shaco also has a powerful ultimate that can make him easily take out towers. Use your clone to tank the damage from a tower as you bash it to pieces. You may need to do this a few times per tower but in the end a dead tower is a dead tower. Remember: you can control Shaco's clone with the Alt key. Rather than run away with a clone following use the clone to harass or misdirect the enemy. A clone bomb can do significant damage and if two Shaco's run in two different directions they are almost impossible to kill.

Shaco is also capable of soloing the dragon by level 9 and the Lizard by level 6. Once you reach level 9 wait for your ult. Jump to the dragon and hit him while deceived. Cast your Jack in the Box and clone and destroy the dragon. When done right you take no more than 200 dmg (although you lose your clone). Start taking the dragon at every possible instant you can. This gives your team a huge boost over the enemy.

When it comes to the end game remember that Shaco is a powerful dodger. I have won multiple games where I have run circles around the enemies Nexus at 100 health or less while casually dropping hits on it as well. When you play enemies that must use skill shots to kill you (Lux is a good example) than you will want to use all your resources to stay alive as long as possible. As soon as you enter a patch of brush drop a Jack in the Box. When someones following you Deceive over a wall or back the way you came. Use your daggers to slow an enemy for a short time while you make your getaway (this is particularly effective vs melee hero's) or your clone to confuse them. Shaco is the #1 getaway champion in League of Legends and you don't want to die more than you have too.

I hope this helps all of you noobs (or not so noobs) that want to play Shaco. He's a fun hero... trust me.


If you don't play League of Legends make sure to join the fun here.

Isus the Void Warrior

I created this hero idea for LoL and was looking for some advice. If you have any suggestions feel free to drop them here or at the LoL page here. I need some suggestions before I finish the numbers and stats. Thanks for checking it out and Happy Wallpaper Wendsday!


Main Task: Overwhelming Numbers/Utility

Skills:
Damage ?? (+???? / per level)
Health 350 (+75 / per level)
Mana 250 (+50 / per level)
Move Speed 315
Armor ??? (+? / per level)
Spell Block ?? (+? / per level)
Health Regen ?? (+???? / per level)
Mana Regen ???? (+???? / per level)

Abilities
Passive: Power in Numbers: Isus gains additional AP for every minion/voidling that she has under his control.

Mind Corrosion: (Q) Target minion or spawn comes under the control of Isus for a set number of seconds. Once the time is expired then the creature returns to it's original control.

Void Warp: (W) Isus and target minion switch positions. This spell channels for 1 second before taking effect. During this time both Isus and the minion are held in stasis. This ability may only target allies.

Infectious Void: (E) This spell creates a harmless magical aura around an enemy for a specific period of time. If that unit dies it's life energy is used to open a portal to the void and spawn a voidling in the minions/heroes place. Voidlings spawned in this way last for a set time before returning to the void. Additionally this spell reduces the infected units armor.

Death in Numbers: (R) When you cast this spell you kill all spawns you have. The spell deals damage to a target player equal to the number of spawns killed. Their is no maximum damage that is enforced.

Notes:
All Voidlings spawned can NOT be controlled. However they will stay close to Isus and will attack whoever attacks Isus.

History:
Haven't done this yet. I'm still working on it.

Quotes: (I just whipped these up, suggestions are appreciated)
"Power is in the Void"
"My Pets shall feast on your blood"
"Bow before my minions"
"Let the Void consume you"
"You shall know fear"
"Come to the Void"
"Your soul is mine"
"I am the void"

Strategies:
Isus was designed as a hero caster (yes, another one) to be similar to DotA's Brood Mother. Her abilities focus entirely on the use of minions.

Isus is able to use her voidlings to easily tower dive and can also use them as support. However the main focus of Isus is to get a lot of voidlings summoned and then use your Void Warp ability to get near an opponent before blasting them with your Ultimate (Death in Numbers).

Isus does have a run away ability however she requires voidlings/minions to use it. This means that Isus is the greatest when she is paired with minions or spawns.

Without Spawns Isus is extremely vulnerable.

Spawn Minions whenever you have the chance. An army is exactly what Isus is good with.

An enemy that lanes against Isus will likely accumulate more gold as they will be able to farm her voidlings as well. You can deny these kills and lure your enemy with Void Warp

Isus can rarely take advantage of the brush as her voidlings will attack anyone that gets near or simply ignore the bushes all together and run around outside of them. This makes Isus fairly weak in an attempted ambush.


If you don't play LoL then you should defiantly check it out.

Gears Reaction List

Here is a list of all reactions in Gears and the results (not the final list):

• Water + Acid = Water
• Water + Sodium = Explosion
• Water + Dirt = Mud
• Water + Mud = Water
• Mud - Water = Dirt
• Fire + Wood = Fire
• Water + Electricity = Electrified Water
• Acid + Wood = Acid
• Oil + Fire = Fire
• Water + Fire = Boiling
• Ice + Fire = Water
• Ice + Water = Slow Freeze
• Iron + Fire = Heated Earth
• Rooted + Fire = Dirt

I am adding Sand to the game which will make building your base a lot harder. Sand will fall down if you open a cavern below it and will cave in if you build a room that is too large. Sand will also let water through and can be heated to make glass. Sand can also be used to dilute acid by draining it through the sand. Doing so results in water.

Again if you have any suggestions for reactions or new materials then let me know. I would prefer more than this small list.

Gears Terrain Demo

Since nobody reads my dev blog except Sucio I have decided to post this here.

I have been working on gears terrain and lighting for the last two days and have come up with this:

The style is (at least right now) a retro look with slow animations and blotty almost 8bit sprites. I am also working on the reactions and a few of them are working. Sodium (the pale white in the bottom left) reacts explosively with water when they come in contact. This destroys the sodium and all times near the sodium as well. Right now this causes water to flood into the exploded area extremely fast (instantly) and I will probably be slowing that down.

Another reaction is that of dirt (the gray and brown tiles) and water. If exposed to water for an extended period (a second at the moment) the dirt becomes mud (the brown tile). If mud stays in contact with water for 10 seconds it is replaced with water. This requires the player to build some form of water control or risk being washed away.

I have also added ice (the lower right blue clump) that melts if it comes in contact with water or if fire magic is cast on it (not implemented yet). Also Rune Stone (the upper left black and red tile) has been added and it will have to be mined in order for the player to cast their spells and enchant their traps.

Finally oil (the circle in the middle right) has been added as well and can be used to create a slow burning pit of death.

As you can see I have mined in from the top of the dungeon and thus all tiles adjacent to an open tile are revealed (this is why the outer tiles are so light as they border the outside of the map).

I am looking for more resources that can react with one another. If you have any ideas (you can include magical/made up reactions) feel free to post them below. I would appreciate it. 

The Gears Are Moving

I'm moving all news fo development of Gears to my development blog. If you are interested in staying up-to-date on what is going on with the game then just come visit Rune Studios.

Feal free to throw ideas at me. If you don't like sometihng about the game or want to suggest something let me know.

Gears

So I just posted a post about the new Gamejolt Contest and you can read about it here. I have come up with an idea that I am currently calling Gears. Here is the brief introduction I wrote abotu the game:

Gears is a game of technology and skill. You have to build yourself a powerful and working dungeon. This is harder than it seems as traps must be rigged manually as your master inventor was crushed under a pile of oxen manure. His body was never uncovered.

As the winter winds build and the enemy goblins and trolls begin moving among the trees you must find a place to hide your treasure and hide it well. Should someone find your dungeon you must have defenses prepared to defeat them even if you are absent. Use summoned creatures and demons to defend your base or use mundane traps such as deadly pits and dangerous spear statues.

Hide your treasure at the end and hope that noone finds it. Then when you have proven your dungeon is worthy of rebuilding send your plans to the dwarven leaders back in Dweum'Helm. See how your dungeon compares to the others made by various other expeditions or attempt to prove the weakness of another dungeon. Prepare your picks and grab your axe the hoard is near!

The game will end up being a lot like Dwarf Fortress except that the game will be more graphical and the point will not be to build a fortress but a dungeon where you can hide your treasure and destroy any invaders. Additionally you would be able to delve into other players dungeons and attempt to steal their treasure or upload your dungeon to see if other players could do the same.

My question to you is this: Would you play it?

Gamejolt's New Contest

I have written about Gamejolt before. It is a site designed for game developers to upload their game creations. Unlike many game sites such as Addicting Games or Kongregate Gamejolt is different. Gamejolt promotes users that upload more than just flash games. The site fully supports the Unity webplayer as well as Java and Flash programs for those people that want to play online games.

However, for those people that want something more Gamejolt allows users to upload full games that users may download or play through Quickplay. Thus I have uploaded many of my games to the site.

I just recieved a new email from Gamejolt about a new Invention Contest. The final game is due on Valentines Day so I will need to get started.

Does anybody have any ideas? I was planning on having a "build your own Mech" battlefield. A 2D platfromer where you must construct a powerful mech warrior from various parts and fight the bad guys. I am not really fond of this idea though so I am looking for ideas, thus the question.

If you are interested in entering/creating your own game you can check out the Contest page here.

If you have an idea please suggest it. Who knows, I might make it.

Yet More Setbacks

The Attack of the Red Spiders has been set back yet again as I have lost my AI programmer. That makes the team a total of, you guessed it, one person: me.

If you are interested in helping with the game and know a little about programming in Game Maker 8 than let me know. I could use some help to get this project done and finished with.

Hopefully I will have time to work on it soon.

All help is appreciated.

Now, on a high note, I have received the music for the game. The music was created by Jet Peks and is interesting to say the least. Hopefully I can make it work in the game. This means that Geomatrix will be set back as well as I attempt to finish The Projects and Attack of the Red Spiders.

Some advice: Never start more projects than one. You will never finish them...

Steam's Counterpart, Desura

ModDB has recently launched an online Mod and Game distribution tool that they call Desura. The tool allows users to browse the wide variety of mods on the database and install them as well.

Desura allows users to purchase or download content developed for a variety of games.

Additionally Desura allows developers to create and distribute their games for a price and integrate the Desura API into the their games. This allows them to get the username of Desura users and get information.

You can check out Desura at their site: desura.com

Custom Apps for the Zune HD or Zune

 Alright, yesterday I posted about trying to get custom apps on my Zune HD. I was successful, well at least partially. You can find out how to run custom Zune Apps on your Zune by visiting this site: http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/download-xna-applications/47143-howto-deploying-apps-zune-hd.html. The page describes how to do everything you will need to do.

Now for the setbacks:

• Since the Zune was not designed for this and it is not Microsoft Supported you risk getting a virus.
• You need to download over 200 megabyets of software.
• Their still are not that many games out there (only a hundred or so, I didn't count)
• When you close an XNA game or app on your Zune it will restart. Like turning it off and turning it on again. This means you lose the songs you were listening to.
• XNA games lack the ability to run 3D. Even though the Zune fully supports 3D images.

Their is a light at the end of the tunnel however. OpenZDK was developed by some hackers over at zuneboards.com. It allows you to use 3D and avoid the problems you face when running an XNA game. I have yet to try a OpenZDK game/app yet so I can't say if they are worth it or not.

Anyway, if you want custom apps on your Zune then you know where to go. Thats right, right here.

Finally you can see a list of all the games I found here: http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/download-xna-applications-207/.

Currently Zuneboards is the only site I found for these hacked games. Enjoy.

Add Your Site to the Blogofractal

I did some thinking and some wondering and a little dance and I had this idea: do I really need to write about all the sites on the blogofractal myself? I came to the answer of no.

So here is how to do it:
I set up a "secret" email that you can use to submit any site you please.

To learn how to take advantage of this and submit your own blog or somebody else's please read the page for submitting Blogofractal sites here (http://blogofractal.blogspot.com/p/submit-site.html)

Feel free to submit your own site if you like.

Programming Updates

Geomatrix 2 - Geomatrix has been and will be on hold for a while. I have run into problems with Attack of the Red Spiders and thus need to improve that. Additionally, I am attempting to get "The Projects" to a running copy sometime within the next three weeks.

Attack of the Red Spiders - It's coming, but not fast. We are trying to make it perfect and that takes time. Can't say when we will have a playable beta out but it could be soon... or it could be a long time.

The Projects - This is just a quick program I'm working on in Esenthel. Hopefully I can use this as a beginning to creating a Glitch remake. The game is originally going to just be a quick free running game with less features then you want and worse graphics (esenthel should help us with that a little though).

Other - Their are a few other things I am tinkering with at the moment. None of them seriously: A Descent remake, an RTS, an MMO, an FPS. I doubt I will ever complete any of these.

Anyway, thats the update on what going on with my programs.

Breaking News: Republicans take over and plan to make Obama's work dissapear. This is going to be an annoying 2 years. Why is it that we always elect the people who are more concerned about their pockets then their country? Seems silly to me.

Down with the Sickness

I'm sick so I'll keep this nice and quick:

I got my new keyboard today, a Logitech G110. It looks Bad-Ass so I'll be sure to post a review of it soon. I've been jamming to Glitch In the System's Soundtrack all day nostalgia-ing about the good old days.

That's been about it. I hope they make a Metal Arms 2 some day. If not maybe I'll make one. It was such a kick ass game.

Anyway, until tomorrow...

Endless Origami

I read a lot of web comics: xkcd, explosm and Endless Origami are just a few. These web comics are amazingly funny because unlike many comics they possess a true intelligence behind them (perhaps excluding explosm from that). xkcd is written by a programmer/physicist and Endless Origami by a college student. The comics their are always funny and will really crack you up while taking a look at what life is really like.
Here is a quick sample:

As you can see the comics are amusing and I assure you their are better ones out there. Endless Origami is updated almost daily with hilarious comics so make sure you subscribe to the RSS or set it as your homepage. You never know when you may need to laugh.

Check it out here: EndlessOrigami.com.