A Monster Boy Update

Update 2-23-2012

"No news is good news" many people would say however I have yet to hear back from a few of the testers for QuikSprite so I'm going to hold off a little longer on that release just in case. I'm looking at possibly next week. This week has been fairly busy for me anyway for being an unemployed "starving artist."

In other news, I started a new game. This game's name is "Monster Boy" however most of the other information on it I am keeping under-wraps until I have more work on it completed. As of right now it is a fairly simple side-scroller based on horror movies with a classic-style game feel. The game will feature four levels with multiple stages. That is really the most I can tell you right now. I have some video recorded of the current build that I am willing to share with you however keep in mind all of the graphics in the video ARE subject to change and most of them are only there for testing purposes (such as the bodies left over after the enemies death lol).

In the video you can see I'm playing around with particle effects for many things from blood to bubbles while the character is under water lol. As I make progress on the game, I will give you more information.

QuikSprite - Update 2-17-2012

Development of QuikSprite is going very well so it would seem.  With each Beta that I put out for the testers, I find more things to add and some things to make better.  The list of things that I had to fix is currently empty and all that is left is any new options that I think of from now until I release it for public use.  This project has taken up most of my life for a couple weeks, however.  This weekend, I will be having a little "me" time.  This will give my testers plenty of time to test the program on their spare time and get back to me with more bugs that they find, if they find any. 

Here is a preview of what you might see in the final product.  Changes are always happening to the functionality but so far the interface has remained unchanged minus a few additions.  Depending on if I find a layout that I like better or not, this may or may not be what you will see..

When this is released, it will contain a few sprite pieces that I design myself however I am looking for artists to create a sprite-pack which will contain their own templates (nothing from a different artist because I don't want to get in trouble for providing someone else's hard work without their permission).  These sprite-packs will be released separately for the user to download on their own.  This makes it easier to give credit to the artist and to separate the styles.  If you are interested, leave a comment in the comments section with a way to get a hold of you.

On another note, I added a donate link to the sidebar.  This donate link will help pay the bills and help to keep me plugging away at this software and any future software.  I will also add it at the bottom of this post for giggles because I cannot stress how important it is.  While it is sad that I would have to resort to such things, trying to develop software solo is a time consuming task and despite it being a hobby of mine, it does take away from time that I could be trying to make money in other ways.  As always, all donations are appreciated. 

At any rate, have a wonderful weekend folks and remember to check back daily next week because I may be sneaking the release of QuikSprite on you when you least expect it.

QuikSprite - Update 2-12-2012

QuikSprite is the Character Generator program I started developing this last week.  As of right now, it is finished with initial development.  I am releasing a closed beta to a few testers as soon as some testers have been chosen.  I am also looking for people who are interested in making some art assets to use with the program. 

Until the program is totally tested for any errors, here is just a glimpse at what it looks like followed by a rundown of it's features.

Features:

• Flexibility, allowing you to use your own templates to make anything you want at any size.
• Change the hue of the individual pieces to make a different character each time.
• Choose your background color to better match your needs (or choose a color that will be your transparency color and save your character with a transparent background).
• Save your character anywhere.  No need to take a screenshot and paste it into paint or photoshop to crop it.

Update 2-7-2012

This blog is something of my baby now, it seems.  I'm proud to say this is becoming slowly successful every day.  I may not be reaching thousands of readers every day, but the numbers I am currently getting says success to me and I am proud of what my work has done.  Regardless, that is not why I wanted to post this.  I wanted to give you guys a heads up that I am not in any way being lazy.  In fact, here is a list of things I've been doing.

• Tileset creation (a tileset for my game that I may release to the public)
• Working on my game (kind of falls in with the first one, but I've been creating other assets for it as well lol)
• Promoting this blog (hey, if I don't promote it, how else am I supposed to keep interest in keeping it updated?)
• Last but not least, coding some programs for release on this blog.  Yeah, you saw the "Randomize It!" program, but I am creating something now that is far more applicable to pixel art and spriting that this blog is all about.  I am designing a Character Generator program that will (hopefully) promote a community effort to create assets for download.  The generator will basically be like the one here ( http://www.geocities.jp/kurororo4/looseleaf/ ) only not web based and will feature a fully customizable group of assets.  The program itself will not come packaged with any but I will provide a separate zip file that will have an assortment of assets for you to use if you choose (mostly as an example).  

More information on all of that later, but for now, keep an eye out for updates.  Subscribing to the blog or RSS feed would be the easiest way to get all the information as it comes, so make sure you do that.  Now, I'll talk to you folks later.  It's Skyrim time.

Thieves Hideout (Work in Progress)

I spent a good majority of the evening last night putting together a tile set for a game I am currently working on and so far have put together many assets just for the one map.  There are a few temporary assets thrown in to give myself a general idea of what I want there (and a few objects that I created that need a bit more detail thrown in) but aside from that, it is coming together very nicely and I'm looking forward to seeing what the end result is.

The main idea for this is that it is a hideout for a band of thieves located in the back area of a weapon's shop in a major city.  This is the staging area for many of the thieves meetings and interrogations.  Believe it or not, the blood in the tile set was made with random squiggles of the pencil tool.  I love it when bad ideas come together perfectly :P