I am Working on a mech game, i am not sure if it will be RTS or twin stick yet, or maybe a combination of both like Airmech. Still to be decided, but I know the setting I want, how maps and mission scripting will work etc.

This is my first attempt at a walking sprite with legs, i think it worked out ok.

My hope is I can have mech controls similar to Brigador, on Steam.

My tank tracks have come along nicely as well,

Check out my first tank!

Side notes, I have been working on updating game engine to handle RTS controls and make it more modular for future ideas. Inspired by the likes of DF being in development for like 20 years before release, I have decided to work on my dream game. Something that combines games like Mech Commander, Brigador, Airmech, movies like Dune, Starship troopers, Edge of tomorrow and Pacific Rim. Awesome mechs and Mech Soldiers doing battle with a range of enemy types across worlds. But I think I'll just start with missilestorm 2.

Its been a long road, but its finally in the wild. Day one bugs all resolved and 1.0.4 seems very stable and enjoyable. It's hard to believe some people have already unlocked every medal.

Go play it! https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/869090

You might be curious to know the game has not death sprites. Each one is unique and generated on bot death to a process I like to call sharding, like a ball hitting the center of a window and splits into shards outwards from the middle. Each shard can then rotate and degrade independently.

I am not sure what I will work on next. My time is taken up a lot by DnD, Family, Work and tools for work like custom dashboards. I have some ideas for RTS games, but that's a lot of work and seem to have less and less time these days.

It would be cool to extend MissileStorm series maybe with a mech based twin stick this time.

I have been working for just about half a year now on a new shmup game with AtomicSlug! Its really starting to take shape now and I am pumped to finish the game off strong. Ive taken to just doing the coding this time, and am leaving the design and art up to Slug because I always hate my own Art. so its nice to have someone else with actual talent to those things for me lol.

Side note, I have been looking for kungfuspacebarbarian lately because I want to create another text adventure, but I cannot find him. His games and content is all gone from the web, wiped. but I loved this games and his attitude, so im going to try and carry on his epic enthusiasm. @KungFuSpaceBarbarian if you are out there man, DM me! i want to work with you again.

I have been scraping all of the content he shared with me, trying to build up some canon from his games. I may have to hit up some of the people he chatted with in the past to work as much of this out as I can.

Once I gather up the information I need, I may try to make another crypt shyfter by myself, in his great honor :D

So I was reviewing the feedback in the comments section of the original missile storm and one person suggested I add dynamic death animations instead of static sprites and I have to say the idea has crossed my mind many times before, but I never got around to implementing it. 

So this weekend I did just that! Getting the rotations right is the hardest part. For those interested, I had to split the original sprite into four chunks, then rotate those chunks by their centers around the sprites original center, before applying their own new direction matrix and rotation increment so they spin. 

That looked great, but it wasnt enough, having the pieces float in space forever was cool looking but the UI soon got very very cluttered with debris, so i added a dissolve timer, every 20 frames, the size of the chunk shrinks by one, until it is no more.

I am quite happy with the results and makes destroying the spam bots more enjoyable.

I think it beats the old spritesheet...

Anywho, I am fairly happy with the new coded animations, and will make some more complex ones with smallers chunks, and maybe even polygons instead of rects so they shatter like glass. 

Anywho, up next, new bots. Stay tuned!

I have found my self in some free time lately, and am now working on MissileStorm 2. 

Main changes
New campaign missions.
More Bots,  that are a little smarter.
More complex collision detection, so you have to shoot the shield generators on a boss or something before you can damage it.
More guns. Previous game had set missiles and mini guns. In MissileStorm 2 I am hoping to have a config screen where you can choose different weapons. Some for swarms and some for heavy targets.
 

Might also reach out to an artist about making a cool splash screen for the game.

No deadlines for me, since this is just a hobby, but I am working on it anyway.

having only 50 events is hard :(

Well It took 6 months of solo development but my HTML5 game MissileStorm has finally been published.

I dont want to set my expectations very high, but I have put a lot of effort into the game and I am hopeful it will do well. I love backend coding and hate UI coding, hence the reason my UI is not great but the gameplay should be a smooth 60fps, even with hundreds of bots on the screen.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/695062

I am not sure what to do now, I have a few ideas for new games but I want to try and reuse as much of the code as I can to speed up development. So I was thinking about either a tower defence game, or MissileStorm 2 with more guns, bots etc.

I guess I'll wait and see what the feedback on MissileStorm is like before I make any decisions. I know its not the greatest game ever made, but 4/5 stars is the target.

My first game in like 6 years is almost ready. Now that the game is nearly complete I find myself wondering why I made the game in the first place. I suppose I am finally in a place in my life where I have the time to be creative again. It’s great to be coding games again, and to be jotting down ideas for games/levels/stories. However, I find I am always disappointed with what I produce in terms of art. What I envisage is always a million times cooler than the junk I actually produce. Also, I hate building menus.

I am desperate for feedback on my creation but at the same time I am scared people will not like it, I may get a bad score, or bad reviews. Also, I am notorious for making games that are not fun. I think these worries are holding me back from finishing the game. I am so close now to completion, but my pace is actually slowing, I should have been finished a few weeks ago.

I think I have made some great improvements over the last few iterations, but I cannot ask my friends to play test it any more, they have played it many times already and I am sure they must be sick of it by now. I may try and find someone on the game dev portal to give it a whirl.

If you did read this far random stranger, whats wrong with you? Also it’s a bullet hell multi directional shooter with a high scoreboard and a 10 level campaign(about and hour to complete the campaign) made in HTML5. Ping me if you are interested in play testing it.

I have decided to start learning pixel art for real. I have been dabbling at it for years, but never actually followed tutorials or paid much detail to sprites or just used free sprites. But this year I am going to try harder. 

I think I will start with this tutorial.

http://makegames.tumblr.com/post/42648699708/pixel-art-tutorial

This little guy I did yesterday. Well at least, I can only improve right.