I've Fallen into a Social Media Black Hole (and I can't get out)!

I wonder if Life Call can help with this one.  Instead of working on the things I should be working on, I have been on a social media blitz these days.  Trying to work some magics on the interwebs I have set up a few accounts and pages on the social medias.  Some accounts are pre-existing and others are brand spanking new.  Here is an official rundown:

Of course I have a personal page, but now my game developer persona Arcade Fiction has its own page as does Mech Inferno the game I am currently working on. A bit premature on that last one but you should probably go and like it anyway.

Nothing new on the Twitter front, just same old me posting random stuff and announcing when I have new blog posts and what not.

Blame this one on my wife. It is a good place to keep images and tutorials, plus I have a few boards dedicated to inspirational images for Mech Inferno, so you may want to check it out and follow me.

Just pics and images of things I find interesting, usually accompanied by attempts at witty captions which are only occasionally successful.  Follow me at your own risk.

So this one is brand new.  I started a separate blog on Tumblr called Arcade Fanfic.  This is an experiment of sorts, but essentially it is fan fiction and art inspired by video games.  Extremely geeky, so don't tell anyone.  I would hate to ruin my rep and/or lose all my street cred.

And finally, I am on Reddit now.  Yup.  So I am still trying to figure this one out, but I hear good things about it.  I guess you can do something similar to liking or following me on here but I am not sure what it is and I don't know that it would be of any benefit to you. Sorry about that.

Mech Inferno on Indie DB

Check out the new and improved Mech Inferno page on Indie DB.  It is a WIP but its a start.  Also it may or may not feature some concept images that no one has ever seen yet.  For your eyes only.

Also I am just going to throw this out there - if something is new how can it be improved.

What's in a Name?

Okay, so I think this is it.  After much thought and careful deliberation I may have come to a decision on the name for my project.  Perhaps I will call it Mech Inferno.  This title has beaten out the former project title of Gomorrah: Hell to Pay.  Maybe I will still work the subtitle Hell to Pay in there somewhere, who knows.

And just in case I feel like changing my mind and flip-flopping back and forth I went ahead and registered www.mechinferno.com.  Oh and I spent some time coming up with this thing here:

So now if I change my mind I will have wasted all that time working on the above logo. So take that indecisive brain of mine.

Belated Shout-Out

Special shout-out to The Guild of Independent Game Developers who have meetings at Full Sail twice a month; one open development meeting and one lecture.  These meeting are open to the public and you do not have to be a student to go.  You may have to bang on the door to get them to let you in, though.  :)

I usually go to the open development meetings to get out of the house and work on my game.  The organizers are happy to help when you get stuck on something. For instance, when you want your game to use one bullet prefab to instantiate when shooting in any of four directions but for some reason you can only get it to work by having four bullet prefabs that are each unique to a given direction.  Thanks David.

Meet My New Project

Here, have a cigar and take a look at my bouncing, baby, top-down shooter.  Isn't it so cute?

Hmmmm, well I guess I can see that.  Yes you're right.  No, no, I agree.  It has graphics that only a mother could love (or father in this case) but that is because THIS IS A PROTOTYPE AND ALL IMAGERY IS ONLY PLACEHOLDER GRAPHICS AKA don't judge.  This is simply a proof of concept to see how the gameplay feels.  If you need help using your imagination, please refer to the flavor text found below the video.

The hulk of miscellaneous metal stood there looking all Mad Max in style. It was a mech built from scraps and made for one purpose - demon hunting.  Before it laid a wasteland of salt and bone, populated with some of the nastiest hell-spawn imaginable.  The air crackled with electricity as its blasters began to charge.

So now let's talk shop.  For my first game I decided to make something kind of simple but hopefully with some unique mechanics.  I want to do something arcade like with a retro feel but modern 3D graphics.  I love 2D stuff but my talents lie in 3D modelling so that is what I'll stick with (for now).  The idea is to not bite of more than I can chew as I am doing this by myself (for now).  I am using Unity for the game engine and fumbling my way through coding it in C#.

So far so good.

Controls are made for a controller but function on keyboard as well.  If you can imagine a Super NES controller, the D-pad moves your mech and each of the face buttons (A, B, X, and Y) shoot in a given direction (left, down, up and right). Holding down a button will charge up your shot a-la R-type.  Holding one of the shoulder buttons will boost your mech around at a faster speed.  In addition to a health gauge there is an energy bar.  Shooting and boosting uses up the energy bar which regenerates over time.  If the player completely depletes the energy bar the mech will discharge and cannot boost or shoot until the energy bar fills back up again.

So that is it in a nut shell.  I'll be posting more info soon.  See you then.

Welcome to Orlando

So, we just moved to Orlando.  And by "just moved" I mean we have been here for over six months.  And by "we" I don't mean the royal "We", I mean the "my family and I" we - not to be confused with the Nintendo Wii or the Wii U.  So I have procrastinated until just now to sit down and write my blog's inaugural "Welcome to Orlando" post.  Better late than never, right?

Anyway, things are going well.  I am happy to report that Orlando has a thriving and seemingly ever growing independent game community.  There is a chapter of the IGDA here and they have a great monthly meetup/annual expo called IndieNomicon.  Check those out if you get a chance.

I also compiled a list of some local indie companies and events over to the right there --->

Half of those links were methodically chosen by myself based on events I have attended and interactions I have had (some real and some imagined).  The other half were picked at random by a very elaborate Rube Goldberg machine.  Please, do check those out as well.

And now the big question-"What have I been doing with my spare time?"

Well, I have been working on a game of my own.  It is an arcade style top-down shooter in the vein of Robotron 2084 or Smash TV.  I'll be telling you all about it in a future post, so to-be-continued and all that.



 Thanks for looking and hope to see you again.