Games by Andrex

Interview by Steph K.

A few days ago Stephanie K. posted her interview with me on Destructoid, you should check it out!

Some parts some people here may be interested in:

How has it been trying to handle a project by yourself? 
It’s really tough to stay motivated. It’s easy to say, “Well I had a busy day, so I’ll work on it tomorrow instead.” If I had worked on 4kg every day it would be out by now, maybe even a year ago. Designing the game was a blast, and even coding and putting the sprites together. But just pushing through is a trial by fire. That’s why having a complete design doc is so important, it lets you basically check things off a list and have a sense of completion and achievement. 

Is there anything you wish you did differently? 
Besides not having it released already, I would probably say I wish I had chosen HTML5 to start with. In the beginning, 4kg was for Android, but I switched after my artists dropped out of the project. I could have gotten a good bit of work done if I had stayed on one platform, although who knows, maybe not. 

When can we expect to see 4kg’s release? And is there anything else you would like to add? 
After nearly two whole years, 4kg will be released for free this November. Users of any modern browser should be able to play it, although the game is being specifically optimized for Google Chrome. I am thinking of making other versions, like for Facebook, Android, or iPhone, but I don’t know how long those could take, so I can’t commit to that right now. I hope you look forward to 4kg’s release, I know I am. I am actually a bit into designing my next game, which could be like something nobody’s ever seen before, so I’m excited to be able to finally move fully into developing that. 

And much more. :)
-Andrex

Year One: Done!

It’s been a year since this blog’s first post! Woot!

And of course, 4kg still isn’t out yet. But it’s really close! (About 15% left, to be exact!) I can’t wait until I’m ready to share the conclusive, final release date with you all. I hope you’re looking forward to it as much as me.

Thank you to everyone who has joined my journey over the past year, I wonder if I would have made it this far without you. Please don’t give up on me yet!

-Andrex

4kg Completion Update

Since the last completion update on July 15:

• Programming has increased by 3%
• Art has increased by 14%
• Sounds has increased by 48%
• Overall completion has increased by 13%

Wow, over 80%! I am almost completely floored by that. However, it may be a bit deceptive. Completion was about 74.4% before I finished off Sounds, which in all actuality was pretty easy but I was still putting it off nonetheless.

This is probably the last time there will be a “big” jump in completion between updates. From now on I would expect 3-7% increases overall from now on, as what remains is the really hard stuff I’ve been putting off. Well, some of the hard stuff I’ve been putting off — some of it I have conquered already.

This last 16% is basically what separates a really crappy, glitchy game from a good, fun, enjoyable one. Now is the time to buckle down and work on 4kg, more than any other.
-Andrex 

Backpedaling (Poll)

4kg has been targeting the Chrome Web Store exclusively since it was relaunched last December.

This is important: There will always be a packaged app version of 4kg available on the Chrome Web Store. And Chrome is still the only browser I’m working against.

However, I’ve been giving more thought to the decision to make it available exclusively on that service. Mostly, it was done in the name of simplifying testing, as well as alleviating hosting concerns.

However, now I think most browsers are accelerating and meeting 4kg’s requirements. Hosting isn’t an issue as long as I can use GitHub pages. As 4kg steps closer to completion every day, I’ve made the decision to offer a full, hosted website version of 4kg, available for anyone and any browser to visit. (Although obviously, the browser will need to support 4kg’s feature set if they wish to play it.)

This live website should support Firefox 4 and 5, Internet Explorer 9 and 10, Opera 11, Safari 5, and Chrome (obviously) if everything goes smoothly. Even the mobile browsers too, maybe, Akihabara is pretty good for that.

Aside from that, I’m also curious about other platforms, mobile definitely, but Facebook as well. And maybe even desktop OS’s (through Steam.) But I don’t know if I’ll have the time or ability to port 4kg to every platform, so I’m asking you to help me select the priority of platforms I should port 4kg to.

(Ports to mobile platforms will most likely use PhoneGap Build; ports to Windows/Mac might use Mozilla’s Prism or similar — although I’m unfamiliar with the process of listing games on Steam, I don’t imagine it’s terribly difficult right now; and there are already Akihabara games on Facebook, so doing a straight port shouldn’t be too difficult.)

This is not a guarantee of anything. The only platforms I am confirming are the Chrome Web Store (packaged) and the live HTML5 site (hosted.) It may be that even making the live website version work properly is much harder than I imagine.

The poll is multiple choice, so choose any combination you want. If you have another platform in mind, you can write that too.

The poll will end 11:59pm next Friday, August 5.

Screenshot Time (Again)!

My loyal followers (all four of you!) have waited long enough! It’s time for a set of another three screenshots (omfg)!

World 3: Submerged Powerplant: Level 1

Virtual World: Demo Level

World 4: Hovertrain Depot: Level 1

They look better in full res, btw. So click on those screens!

I think you can understand from these screens how much I put into making each world completely visually distinct.

I’m not happy with how World 2: Deserted Airport is coming out… so I held off on posting a screenshot of that. And the player robot… the more I look at him the more I don’t like how he looks. He’s the worst part of these screens. 

Anyways. The game is shaping up really nicely. A good chunk of the game is completely playable, and the controls are firming up all the time. Really excited right now. :D

Let me know what you think.
-Andrex 

4kg Dev - Night 14

It’s amazing what being without internet for a bit can do for your concentration. :P

So yeah, as mentioned in the last completion update, I have the tilesets and backgrounds for the first three worlds done (barring some tweaking), and since then I finished the (admittedly simple) tileset and background for the Virtual World. So that’s 4 out of 6 worlds done. Bam!

Besides that, today I got the water/swimming controls all done! It looks and feels pretty darn great, very happy with how it turned out.

I also wrote the code that chooses the correct background and music for each level depending on world, in addition to the tilesets. I didn’t need to worry about this for 4kg: Prototype, but obviously with six total worlds this is an issue. So I’m glad to have that finally done.

What I’ll be working on in the immediate future is re-doing the sprites for the player robot. I know I’ve grown a bit attached to how he looks now, but some things about how he looks annoys me. He’ll look basically the same as he does now, but probably be a little more compact and, well, consistent. Right now his head seems like it changes sizes whether you’re walking, walljumping, or climbing ladders. When I do this I’ll also add the swimming sprites.

I’ll also be programming the transitions between the normal levels and the virtual ones. If I can pull off what I have in mind it’ll look really neat. I also need to rewrite all the menu code, it’s really messy and buggy and I’ve been putting it off for a while, but no longer!

After all this, it will be time to go to the enemies, and program their AI and finish their art. As I mentioned, those are still big things to do. Especially the final boss, I need to pay particular attention to that and make sure it’s satisfying.

I was going to post a screenshot with this post but I decided to wait a bit. The next post will have three screenshots, all of different worlds. Hope you’re excited!
-Andrex 

The Level Editor

I am pleased to announce that 4kg will come with its own level editor and a way to save and load level data. So if you’re unhappy with the small amount or possible low quality of the 15 included levels, you can roll your own, or even share them with friends!

The actual editor itself is an improved version of the AkibaKa editor that is an “extra” in downloads of Akihabara. I will be contributing these improvements back to the community so that future Akihabara games will benefit.

There will still be some 4kg-exclusive enhancements though, mostly centered around saving and loading files. For these, I will either be using FileWriter + FileReader or localStorage + Base64, depending on if the former stabilizes adequately in Chrome by release.

Basically, how it works is this: After you’ve beaten the game, when you start 4kg up select “Extras” on the main menu, and then select “Levels.” Then from this screen you can load existing levels (even the 15 included ones!), create new ones, or import/export levels. The import/export option is what you need to do if you want to share levels, or play levels shared with you. Unfortunately, there won’t be a robust LittleBig Planet-esque network for seamlessly playing levels, but I think this system is adequate, at least.

Another limitation is that you won’t be able to create new assets. So you’ll only be able to use the sprites, backgrounds, and objects that come in 4kg by default. I’m currently looking into setting it up so that you can tweet your designs, and have them stored on Google Docs for download.

I’ll be highlighting the best levels that people make here on this blog every week or so after 4kg releases, giving 4kg some life even after people beat it.

Can’t wait!
-Andrex

4kg Completion Update

Since the last completion update on May 25:

• Level Designs has increased by 2%
• Programming has increased by 16%
• Art has increased by 13%
• Sounds has increased by 12%
• Overall completion has increased by 8.6%

It’s apparent here that in the past eight-ish weeks I’ve touched on every aspect of development (except for music, which was already completed.) It is so close to every aspect being over the 50% mark, just have to do some art. Speaking of, that’s been primarily what I’ve been working on this past week, although I plan on switching back to coding for a little bit soon.

The backgrounds and tilesets for the first three worlds are completely done now. What’s really holding the art completion back is the enemy spritesheets, mostly because not only do they have their own animations, but they also have at least one variation (for the Virtual World) — some have more than that.

Still, it was immensely rewarding booting up a non-finished level for the second and third world and knowing it looks almost just like what it will in the final game. For the first time it feels like I’m actually past the 50% point on 4kg as a whole (the completion percentage can be a bit inaccurate, but it’s still a good measure, I think.)

Well, gotta get back to work!
-Andrex 

Back to the Grind(stone)

I took a break after releasing 4kg: Prototype because I wanted to see how it would do if I wasn’t propping it up with blog posts here, and also because I had some other things I wanted to take care of first. Then, I got re-addicted to MapleStory, and then Google+ came out. So that was basically two extra weeks.

But now I’m back on the wagon. Yesterday I finally started work on the final level design for the game. If you remember, my last three completion updates have pegged the level designs as “94% complete.” This was because they lacked the final level. That level is now about 50% designed — it’s a really, really big level.

Coding-wise, I was able to get the fullscreen mode working correctly thanks to this post by HTML5Rocks. What do I mean? I mean that aspect ratio is now preserved when switching to full screen. I attempted to get this working before, but none of my hacks really cut it — so for 4kg: Prototype, I went with the simplest option: make it 100% wide and high regardless of aspect ratio.

I wish CSS had a rule like:

#game {

width: 100%;

max-height: 100%;

ratio: 1.0;

}

Or something, I’m not really in CSS mode so forgive me if that wouldn’t work. :P

The last thing I want to touch on is my interview with the HTML5 gaming blog, HTML5Grind. They asked about the project, engine, and what I was going to do next. Most of it all of you should know if you follow this blog, but I’ll repost this which you may not know:

H5G: What’s next?

AR: I’m in the middle of designing my next two projects right now. The next one is pretty different from 4kg and I’m really excited by the possibilities. Even counting all of videogames — console, mobile, web, PC — it’s not a type of game that’s been done all that much before.

The one after that… it’s kind of like 4kg. But I can’t say anything else without giving too much away. It’s an extremely ambitious project that will require a dedicated sprite artist and maybe even another coder in addition to myself.

Both will be HTML5 games and will be available on the Chrome Web Store. I haven’t decided yet if they’ll be “exclusive” to the Web Store, but they’ll definitely be optimized in every possible way.

Finally, although this something I do in my spare time (of which I do have a lot), I would really like to work on these games as a career. However it’s quite hard to get any sort of funding (either investments or donations) if you make games for the web, as compared to mobile. If it’s possible at all, then that’s what I’ll be doing.

I wanted to clarify some of the things I said here. Basically, even though I said I’m in the middle of designing my next two projects, I’m not seriously developing them yet. 4kg is still the primary focus of my game development, it’s just that I never stop getting ideas for games and when things pop into my head nowadays, I jot them down for these two projects. 4kg has been design-locked for a while now, and until a few months ago it was a real struggle keeping my creativity in check while I worked on 4kg.

As for the two games themselves, this doesn’t even mean I’ll be developing them simultaneously. The first game I talked about will come out some time after 4kg, and then the game after that will come out some time even later. So I’m not taking on the world and thinking I’m invincible, either. I know I can only work on one thing at a time.

Finally, for my last comment about working on these full time… What I mean by “if it’s possible at all, that’s what I’ll be doing,” I really mean that. Right now I’m exploring every possible option to see if it’s feasible at all. If there’s even the tiniest chance it is, I’ll do it. The thing is, getting to work on someone else’s game idea is relatively easy — you still have to apply for a job and go through all that, but the number of people working on an idea outnumber the amount of ideas being worked on… get it?

Anyways, if anyone out there knows about making a game startup, or startup in general I’d love to hear from you. Maybe just some advice or tips. For anyone else out there in a position like mine, this site seems to have a lot of great info, so check it out.

Back to 4kg, looking at some of the other level designs, I’ve gotten more confidence that I’ll be able to deliver a good game. I was disheartened to realize the game in its current state isn’t necessarily great, but I think the final game will be something special and worth playing.

-Andrex

4kg: Prototype enhancements and a rant on the Chrome Web Store

This is just a notice to say that I am going to be supporting and enhancing the 4kg demo/beta, 4kg: Prototype, going forward. In addition to a couple small patches, usually of the 1.0.x variety, I will be pushing a large “2.0” update in the near-future. It will contain the following enhancements:

• Ladder fixes (aka “ladder locking.”)
• Percentages on the main menu actually reflecting the state of the save file.
• World and level select menus. Well, only one world will be selectable and the rest will be grayed out (just like the levels you haven’t beaten.) This will allow you to jump in and out of levels to hunt for any orbs you’ve missed.
• Speaking of, the floating white orbs will actually do something: unlock the first cutscene of the game.
• Pause menu fix, allowing you to go back to the main menu by pressing the Esc key.
• Fixes for game objects being in front of the player and HUD, maybe.
• Cloud game saves, maybe. An extension sync API is currently a priority level 1 feature and is likely to make it into Chrome 13 or 14, so I’m considering just waiting for that.

Now this isn’t really “special attention” just for 4kg: Prototype, as it’s what will be yielded from working on the real 4kg. I just think it would be good to roll these changes into Prototype, so that it more accurately reflects what the final version will be like.

As for 4kg: Prototype right now, it’s doing somewhat decently on the Chrome Web Store. I didn’t expect it to set the charts on fire overnight, so I’ve been pleasantly surprised so far. It’s currently sitting at 49 users, 63 weekly installs, 10 ratings (4.5-star average), and 7 reviews (all of them short, but positive.) I’m recording this data daily for personal reasons and will probably do a thorough review of it in the future.

Still, I can’t help but feel it could be doing better. I really think there’s demand there for a packaged app and HTML5 game in one, as I’ve read comments on all the top games and most of the complaints arise from either Flash or the fact it’s “just a bookmark.” I hope there is demand. I’m not staking my well-being on 4kg’s performance (it is free and open source, after all), but its popularity could be used as a gauge for other game developers considering HTML5 or the Chrome Web Store. (Although I could be suffering from delusions of grandeur.)

I have some grievances against the Chrome Web Store (believe it or not), and one of the bigger ones is exposure of new apps. There’s no real “what’s new” section for any of the app types, which is a big issue. It basically means your app will only be discovered by people you point to its link, until it’s been approved by the Google brain trust to enter the inner sanctum of the “Featured” section. At that point, an app’s user count is multiplied by tens of thousands. There’s too large a disparity between featured and non-featured apps, I think.

Still the Chrome Web Store is new and there’s a lot of reasons to hope it gets better as time goes on. It took two and a half years for the Android Market to really start taking care of business, too. Although I hope it doesn’t take the Chrome Web Store that long.

-Andrex