Victorian Science Fiction

I have been reading classic science fiction, pretty exciting stuff, a nice masculine old world theme with high tech guns.

Looking into the past from the future... or something.

I know I haven't updated in a while... but don't take it personally... It's not that I hate you or me, it's that I forgot about us... and our relationship... you know the one where you don't read my blog and the one where I write new posts... I suppose it's mutual... who knew?

Oh, and I put up a company website. http://totalcommitmentgames.com/

Anyway guy, here is what I have been working on.

Screenshot!


Video!

Transmutation

Visions often grow into delusions, the mind plays wretched deceptions upon itself, but fear not because I am immune to such plebeian hallucinations. Here at Total Commitment Games big things are happening, it's challenging and exciting. A lot of hard learning and tragic frustration over the last decade is finally transmuting into viability. I went to a game development event where a number of indie teams presented their games, I was characteristically unimpressed, but it reminded me of my early days, I reflected on the countless dead ends I have taken over the years and I realized how truly naive I was ten years ago. The games these teams put together probably took them months, I remember spending months on similar projects, but today I can make them in a long afternoon. Learning game development is work, it's counterintuitive, you do it for free, only an unflinching commitment to a decade or more of work will get you through it, I'm not to the end of the tunnel yet, but I can see the light, now only time will reveal this tunnel's end or the business end of a speeding train, but like I mentioned five years ago, it doesn't matter, I'm will continue to rush forward toward this mystery light, I will split the train. Total Commitment Games is growing and evolving, I'm still doing the bulk of the work but I expect this situation to be very different a year from now.

Living the Dream in the Extreme

As mentioned previously, I play my games like I play my life, set to hard. I don't pull punches and I never stop kicking... sounds crazy huh, and it is, but speaking of crazy, my new game is crazy, it's insane, I hammered out most of the glitches over the last few weeks and I'm working on content now. Game development lives three phases, the vision, the code, the content and the content phase of development is by far the most epic and for a practitioner of Advanced Programmer Art like myself, it's the most difficult and most unsatisfying. Imagine painting a house with a colored pencil, a colored pencil is more than just the wrong tool, it's retarded! But in a world of limited resources and the will to succeed, even the largest mob of retards can be defeated, I'm talking going to their level, going full retard until the end. Dumb analogies aside, I'm saying that if I'm the best artist I can afford, then I'm going to go all the way with what I have to offer, I'm go to bridge the rivers, climb to the stars... never surrender and never relent. Anyway. I'll post a true video game play in a few days or next week or something.

Fleshy Robots

Okay... so... another robot doom game isn't going to happen any time soon. Programmer art has it's limits, I admit it, my skills aren't up to the task, I can't make really good animations for a third person main character. So... I fell back on that shooter I was working on a while ago, I gave it the upgrades I made for the new robot doom game, and I'm back in action. Here are some screen shots from my first enemy.

The Land of Crack and Honey

I'm going down stairs to chat up the crack heads... ermm umm...

I'm back. Harder and Faster. So, it turns out that I dramatically overestimated the amount of time required to finish the new Robot Doom game. Good thing to. I'm about done with code and thanks to some advice, I have resolved the animation glitches I was having, so expect a new video showcasing the new characters and gameplay very soon.

Here is an early sample of the coverart I'm working on.

A friend to all is a friend to none!

Someone suggested I target a broad audience, go casual! The magic that is casual gaming success... When you target everyone you target no one! A friend to all is a friend to none! I believe that a developer should never make a game that a lot of people MIGHT want to play, he should only make a game that some people WILL want to play. Match Three can eat it's heart out! I'm not making a game to kill time with, that's stupid, I'm making a game that you will want to spend time with. MIGHT or WILL, KILL or SPEND - the choices we face... I will always choose WILL SPEND over MIGHT KILL... If that doesn't make any sense, that's fine, I'll take some creative absolutism, if you don't understand, than you're not part of my target audience. I bet you feel excluded, good, because that's what you deserve you filthy casual gamer!

Yes, it's true, I can reconfigure time.

Some people think that reconfiguring time is cheating, but they are wrong, it's so much more than that, it's like interpretive dance, but with meaning. I tell people "Don't worry, I'm from the future!" and I mean it, but they don't believe me, they can't see beyond their limited knowledge, their limited understanding of the temporal dynamics which shape our existence. The doubters imagine life as a series of chronological events, a simple perpetual counting sequence, 321,322,323,324,325.... some imagine that their future is set, others imagine that there is no future but what they make, but to tell the truth, there is no future but what I make. I can reconfigure time the way an accountant reconfigures the books, an account can make any business appear profitable (ahem facebook) in the same way I shape the inputs to produce my desired outputs. The horror, the horror...

Advanced Programmer Art

My graphics content isn't naked programmer art anymore, but it's still not art, I christen it "Advanced Programmer Art". I have been soul searching lately, it occurred to me, that by me not hiring an artist, I'm making you suffer. People other than me say that misery loves company, those people are just miserable an lonely. I'm miserable and loving it, it's the price of awesome, people say you have to pay your dues, well, the world be drowning in my dues in not time... hopefully right. But for now, I need to worry about keeping my stomach full and my computer running.

I added some more texture processing to the terrain shader, the close ups were looking crappy. Check it out, what do you think?

The Robotic Right to Self Determination

I ask you vegetarians, what makes plants more worthy of death than animals? This issue of the ages is only second to a Robot's right to self determination. Are Robots free or simple slaves? What makes Robots worthy of slavery - what makes Organics worthy of being even the lamest Robot's master? These are questions we need to answer, our very future depends upon the clairvoyant vision of a robot yet to be built... crazy talk? No. Publicity? Maybe. Spiritual? To the end.