Ahoy! Long time no see. I’m not very good at updating this blog but I hope to change that starting now. Usually I just post to my Google+ stream and call it a day, but starting from this post I’d like to try to post at least once a week.
Tag Archives: FlashPunk
Halloween Battle 2012 – A 48-Hour Game Jam
It’s been far too long since I’ve updated this blog. I’ve been working on quite a few things lately, but haven’t had anything concrete to show until recently.
Recursion Viral Launch
I don’t know why I delayed posting this for so long. I could say that part of it was that I was waiting for a gameplay trailer that never got finished, but that’s an excuse and excuses don’t really do anything. So without further ado…
Recursion – Development Time Lapse
Sorry for the period of inactivity, I’ve been working on a project that I’m not yet ready to reveal yet, mostly because I’ve had to rework most of it over and over and I’m still not happy with the architectural structure of everything.
That said, I finally put together the time lapse footage from Recursion‘s 3-day development period, which you can view below or on YouTube. Recursion has found a sponsor and the game will be available soon – I’ll put up an official launch post when it is, but until then, enjoy the video!
Range Man Viral Launch
As I briefly mentioned yesterday, Range Man, a quirky little spin-off of Melee Man, is now in active viral distribution. I uploaded it to both Playtomic and Flash Game Distribution channels, and to a few of our favorite games portals – details below!
Zethama
Before I share some of the other links, I’d first like to give a shout-out to the game’s sponsor, Rob from Zethama.com. Without working closely with Rob, this game would not even exist, and for that, I owe a debt of gratitude. Thanks Rob, and I hope the game performs well for you. For those of you who have not yet checked out his website, I encourage you to do so. He’s still a bit new to the scene, but his website has a lot of great games available to play free of charge.
Play Range Man on Zethama: World of Games
Kongregate
Range Man is also available on Kongregate! As with the previous game, I plan to upload it to Kongregate Arcade for mobile at some point as well. Stay tuned for more on that.
Play Range Man on Kongregate – votes greatly appreciated!
Newgrounds
Range Man is, of course, also available on Newgrounds, should you prefer playing there more. It’s the first time I’ve launched a game on their new platform, so it was quite different uploading and getting the game to work on their site. If you come across any problems or anything I could have done better, please let me know!
Play Range Man on Newgrounds – votes greatly appreciated here as well!
MeleeMan.com
Of course, being the spin-off that it is, Range Man will have its own special spot on the Official Melee Man Website. It would appear that I never got around to updating the site with a news area, better presentation media, or a distribution package, so I’ll be adding that this time as well. You can expect this update to roll out by tomorrow! The new website is live now!
Distribution Feeds
As I mentioned earlier, Range Man is available in my two favorite distribution feeds. Here are the links to their pages:
Range Man on Playtomic
Range Man on Flash Game Distribution
Feel free to grab the game and upload it to your personal website, blog, or games portal. You’re free to post it anywhere and everywhere that you can, and I appreciate the help getting the word out!
Android Marketplace??
I know that I mentioned in the Melee Man Viral Launch announcement post that I’d have it and Jetpack Jerome on the Android Marketplace shortly. I apologize for the unintended deception, but I found that the games just don’t run reliably enough on this platform in their current state. What I do plan to do, however, is rewrite the games in a more optimized fashion and possibly bundle the 3 of them into one single application. Being the retro games that they are, the file sizes are relatively small, making it easy to offer them in this manner.
Other Thoughts
I uploaded the game to my Products page and my experimental portal, Ninja Dart, as well. I’m considering the possibility of making a PC installable version of the 3-game bundle too, so let me know in the comments if that’s something you’d be interested in. I hope you enjoy the game, and please let me know what you think of it. Thanks!
Play Range Man on this blog
Play Range Man on Ninja Dart
The Community Forums are now clear of spam as well – well, clear of everything really, haha.
Melee Man Viral Launch
The viral version of Melee Man is now available on a few different sites and will soon be available on even more – details below!
Kongregate
Melee Man just went live on Kongregate! As with Jetpack Jerome, I’ll be developing a Kongregate Arcade version for mobile as well.
Melee Man on Kongregate – Votes appreciated!
Newgrounds
Melee Man is also available on Newgrounds, which just so happens to be the sponsor site! It comes complete with Newgrounds Medals identical to those found in-game.
Melee Man on Newgrounds (with Medals) – Votes appreciated!
Ninja Dart
A new portal site that I just launched, Ninja Dart, is also a proud host of Melee Man. This portal is mostly an experiment with AV Arcade Pro, so please excuse any strangeness you might encounter until I can figure out all the odds and ends. 
Melee Man on Ninja Dart
MeleeMan.com
The Official Melee Man website now contains a link to play the game. I’ll be updating the site soon with better presentation media, a news area, and a distribution package!
MeleeMan.com
Distribution Feeds
The game will go up in both Playtomic‘s and Flash Game Distribution‘s distribution feeds sometime tomorrow.
Android Marketplace
Both Melee Man and Jetpack Jerome will soon be available on the Android Marketplace as downloadable apps. I’ve already got both games ported and just need to make a few optimization and quality assurance passes to make sure they’re ready for you fine folks. I’ll post a link when they’re available!
That just about covers everything Melee Man related. I’m flying down to Louisiana to visit my family over the holidays, so I apologize if my next post is delayed a bit (as this one unfortunately was). Thanks for reading!
A Collective Status Update [2]
Here’s another group of updates on what I’ve been up to lately:
Shatter Blocks 2
The sequel to my most-played game, Shatter Blocks, is well under way. I’ll post more about it in a development preview later, but for now, screenshots!
Community Forums
The forums fell victim to a massive spambot infestation not long ago, so I had to purge them. I’ve installed some new security plugins and so far there hasn’t been a single spambot account, so here’s hoping.
If you had already registered, you’ll have to do so again. I apologize for this, but I didn’t have the time to sort through 3000 accounts to find the handful that were legitimate. As always, you can find the forums by clicking on the Community tab above, or going to www.thevillageblacksmith.net/community/
Melee Man
The result of a GameBoy-esque mockup I drew in 20 minutes became a complete game just days later! Melee Man is currently up for sponsorship bidding on Flash Game License. It’s a brutal retro platformer featuring the music of chiptune wizard, Daniel Davis as well as sounds and levels by David Carney of David vs Goliath! I plan to release it on Android and PC as well. Here are some screenshots:
You can view more screenshots on the official Melee Man website. Many thanks to Chevy Ray Johnston and Matt Thorson for developing the tools that made this game possible (FlashPunk and Ogmo Editor respectively)!
Another GameBoy-esque Game?
I had so much fun working on Melee Man that I’ve decided to mockup another!
I’m not sure when I’ll get around to developing this, as I still have Shatter Blocks 2 to finish, but I’m really looking forward to working on it!
Things are going to get very busy going into the holiday season. See you next time!
That Game I’m Working On – Development Preview
Wow, it’s been almost a month since my last post. I really didn’t intend for that to happen.
As I stated in my “A Collective Status Update” post, I’ve been all over the place with what I’m working on. I’m actually juggling 3 or so projects right now, all of which are going great. Today I’d like to talk a little more about the game I hinted at last time. While this game still doesn’t have a name (I’ve been calling it “That Game I’m Working On” since I started), it does have a lot more meat to it.
This game started out as one of my many FlashPunk Friday Game Jams on Flash Game License. After releasing Jetpack Jerome, I decided to go back and finish it up. Shortly after my last blog post, I hired Trent Sterling to help breathe some life into the project. Trent is an extremely talented programmer who can usually be found tinkering with his proprietary 3D Flash game engine. Trent has brought a lot to the table in terms of cool concepts and visual effects. Looking back, my original concept is really bland compared to where the game is at now, and I owe most of that to him.
“That Game I’m Working On” (“ThatGame” for short) is a retro puzzle platformer starring a little robot test dummy. The game starts with the scientist booting you (the test dummy) up and running you through some beginner test chambers. As you play, more mechanics are introduced and the difficulty scales up and there are multiple goals in each level for the completists out there. We’re using FlashPunk and Ogmo Editor for our workflow and so far both have been really great to work with.
As of this post, the game is about 85% finished. Over the next few weeks we’ll be stuffing it full of content and polish. I’ll post a link when it’s available for preview on Flash Game License. Till then, ciao!
A Collective Status Update
I’ve been all over the map with what I’ve been working on lately, and it’s been hard to narrow down one thing to share, so what I think I’ll do is just pool a bunch of different small updates into this one post.
Jetpack Jerome is out!
Jetpack Jerome is finally out, thanks to a generous sponsorship by Armor Games. Non-exclusive licenses will be available in the Flash Game License Game Shop starting August 15th. The viral release of the game will begin Monday, August 8th, so look for the game to hit Kongregate, Newgrounds and the Products page on this website at that time. Until then, you can always play the game on Armor Games.
New Logo/Splash Screen
I had to come up with a splash screen to ship with Jetpack Jerome, so I sat down the other day and created this:
I’m pretty happy with how it turned out – I’ll see about adding in some stylish animations for the next game I brand with it.
Kawaii Defense
The Kawaii Defense project has been temporarily put on hold while David finishes up some music work for other clients. We’re really excited about this game and want to be able to make it top priority during development to ensure that it’s the best it can be.
This Website
While David takes care of that, I thought that this would be a good time to fill out some of the half-empty pages on this site. I’m currently working on adding the game descriptions and credits to all the game pages in the Products section. Afterwards, I’ll clean up the product hub and add short descriptions and icons to it. I’m also going to move some stuff around and make room for That Game I’m Working On.
Another Game?
That’s right! There’s been a little-over-half-finished game on my Flash Game License account for some time now. It was the result of the first Final FlashPunk Friday Game Jam that I hosted on FGL. I don’t want to give too much away right now, as I’ll need fodder for the official Game Preview that I’ll post in a week or so and I don’t even have a name for it yet, but I will leave you with a screenshot of the game as it currently looks:
Kawaii Defense – Development Preview
I had planned on releasing the Jetpack Jerome trailer before I leaked information about my next title, but unfortunately it’s still not done and it’s high time for an update to my blog.
Over the last week or so I’ve been working on a new game, code-named “Kawaii Defense” (working title). With Kawaii Defense, collaborator David Carney (DVGmusic) and I are looking to bring the Tower Defense genre to the super casual demographic. The description we’re keeping in mind is “Intro to Tower Defense”. Everything is being designed so that you can play the whole game using only the mouse (and with touch in mind so we can easily port it over to mobile when the time comes). Of course we’ll also be adding achievements, unlockables, and juicy replay value for the more hardcore of gamers.
Here are some screenshots I’ve already leaked on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
And here are some brand new shots taken today.
This is somewhat of an earlier preview than I gave with Jetpack Jerome. All of the art you see in the above screenshots is just placeholder stuff I threw together, and will be replaced with David’s debut art. I’m using the FlashPunk framework for rendering and entity management, and Ogmo Editor for map editing, for those curious. I hope to have this game up for sponsorship on Flash Game License by mid-late August.
If you want to see updates from this or any other game more frequently, be sure to subscribe/follow/like me on the various social networking platforms. You can find all of my information in the contact page.
