On progress

So this week I've been getting into the swing of things, a lot of the first couple of days were spent doing everything work usually gets in the way of, hanging out with my partner, getting my cars oil changed and just cooling off a bit, after going so long working with only (fairly packed) weekends for breaks it's good to get a few days to yourself, even if the heat does play havoc with the old brain pan, spending the week almost (but not entirely) sick wasn't what I had planned but that's just something that's bound to happen.

So onto the project, I've got a fairly rough sketch for a character, this was mostly to get an idea of the kinds of characters and visual I want for the project, the sketch focused on the head and was key in deciding style, in the end I've decided to shy away from a serious storyline and more go for a heavy arcade havoc, as well as giving much more flexibility, this also allows a lot of variation visually, at first I'm going to try to keep all the characters to one style, likely adding more variety later.

Visually speaking the characters aimed for more 'cybergoth raver' than military

Personally I have grown quite wary of the current standard and fairly brown/grey environments games seem to be attached to, I understand when you're trying to portray a cruel harsh warzone that works, but I'm not aiming for that, immediately the game is going to be focused on a more outlandish portrayal, that through cloning advances and augmented reality, these chaotic (and illegal) rooftop brawls have become something of a spectator sport for the rich and elite. There's no focus on moral ambiguity or questionable motives in this game, the goal is simply chaotic arcade fun.

As for systems, currently I've got the following implemented:

-Movement and replication of 'players'
-Basic player representation (capsules)
-'Zoom' according to weapon/stick input, a shotgun will only show a short range compared to a rifle

the goal for the rest of this month is as follows:

-Player spawning and 'point priority'
-Aiming and projectile spawning
-Player health and damage
-Getting started on a 'base' character mesh that will be used as a place holder

If anyone has any feedback and suggestions I'd love to hear them, this game is being built as a personal project and as something I think would be enjoyable for people, and so it's great to hear personal opinions.

Starting with a blank slate

So normally when i start a project, I start with a blank slate, that is to say, I create a new folder for the project, clean up my desktop and start work from scratch.

This time it's gone a bit further as I've wiped my desktop along with everything else on my hard drive after my computer went a bit dodgy.

This means I've got a completely blank slate which is nice, but I have to reinstall everything which means starting the project is a little slower than expected.

So I really can't think of titles, and welcome

Hi there, so I started a blog.

Mostly it's a tool, to get me motivated, maybe get some feedback, and actually try to keep a consistent schedule with the project.

So here's the deal:

I'm a 23 (24 soon) year old guy who finished university at Teesside University in 2013 where I studied game design and spent a bit of time teaching myself so (fairly basic) programming, I love games, they really capture my passion, I'd say I'm fairly good at a few areas, I'd even go as far as to rate myself as talented in the programming/design side, but I'd also say I'm at least competent with modelling, texturing and concept artwork (though some of the wonderful people I know put me to shame).

Shortly after I finished uni, I started work in admin with a fairly large amount of photoshop/design stuff included after my boss realised I have a bit of a knack for it, I love working for the company I work for, I think my colleagues are great (but for banter reasons they can never know this) and while the job has it's ups and downs, it's an actual joy working there and the pay isn't bad either.

But a small problem lies in this, or a large one, since university my game output has been close to 0 and I have yet to see a project through. I love games, I really do, and it's where I want to work, so I plan to get the ball rolling again.

The idea is this, I'm going to build a game, whenever I get a free minute to myself (which in itself is fairly rare) I'm going to be putting in the effort to knock some stuff out, it's going to be slow, anger inducing at times and depressing at others but it's going to get done.

The concept itself is starting fairly low end:

A small top down shooter (competitive) in Neo-Tokyo

It's not ground-breaking, I'll be honest, but it seems a good starting point and a great way to get into development and I think could be a fun little idea.

Over the coming weeks I'll be sharing info here, whether it's models, videos of (extremely rough) gameplay or just design ideas.