December 2011
1 post
Abilities, abilities, abilities...
Just a small update for all the curious minds. Haven’t taken a hiatus, rather some good news. Six of the abilities have been implemented. We’ve been spending time implementing and tweaking them. I’d say three of them are done, mechanically, they just need visual aesthetics to make them more pleasing. The other three need to be tweaked more to get them perfect.
The six abilities...
November 2011
4 posts
6 tags
Interview for Grizzly Pixel Blog
Zack and I were asked to do an interview about Moldering for a small indie game blog, Grizzly Pixel. The interview provides some insight into Moldering and also us as developers as well. If you want to check out his blog, we’ve given him previously unreleased screenshots showing off the current state of the game and the current abilities. Unfortunately, his post won’t go up until...
10 tags
Two New Videos!
Lighting, Weather, Parallaxing, OH MY!
Here’s two new video’s to show of some of the new neat-o-rama updates for Moldering. There’s also a few smaller changes, if you pay attention closely (or read the dialog boxes), that haven’t been in previous videos. The first video shows off the new volumetric and ambient lighting systems. There’s three in place. I personally...
6 tags
October 2011
4 posts
5 tags
The Devblog is Now Operational
Okay, small update here. Got the blog running again. Our hosting provider did some server upgrades and it took us a short while to realize that we needed to point our DNS (Domain Name Servers) to a new location.
In terms of updates, we’ve been doing some cool aesthetic work to Moldering and we should have a snazzy new video up soon showing off some of those features.
Stay tuned!
-James
6 tags
Social Integration and Blog Not Working
So, I’m working with my hosting to get the blog up and running again. With that said, you probably can’t see this post but will be able to once the site is running smoothly again.
On another note, I’ve integrated our blog posts to automatically repost to our facebook, the blog posts to post to twitter, and the facebook posts to also go to twitter. That’s a lot of automatic...
7 tags
Moldering on Facebook!?
Check the link on the right —->
Or, http://facebook.com/projectmoldering
Add us!
-James
11 tags
Still in Development? Ab-so-lutely!
I can’t always work on this game full-time, but when I do, I drink espresso.
I’ve been doing a lot of really solid programming the last couple of weeks and it really shows. The project is continuing to come together. With Zach working on the level creation, Bob on storyboarding, and Phillipe working on art, things are looking better than ever at each new interval (God, it’s...
May 2011
1 post
Finally some work done....
It took me about a month to get a map out with the new materials that Philippe supplied us with, but it got done :) Much of the time was spent dealing with making small supplemental art to have a bit more flexibility with the tile set, while making a map. I like what I came up with but, recording video is the next challenge to overcome. These programs do not agree with my lappy toppy very...
March 2011
4 posts
21 tags
Cut, Trim, Copy and Paste
It took me some time, but I finally finished chopping up the art work into a tile-able format for our level editor. I ran into a few minor problems along the way, but nothing a little game magic can’t fix (and/or hide from your unknown eyes, mwa haha)!
I have a very busy next few days with my paying job(s), this will slow things a bit for me, unfortunately. With my previous 4 day holiday...
Huzzah!
The first world graphics are done, and I got my hands on them tonight! … But there’s no time to work on them now. This weekend is a 4 day-er for me, so hopefully lots of time to play with them. It will be a challenge as it is going to be the first weekend that is above 10 degrees C in a long time.
-Zach
17 tags
Art and other things.... like more art...
Hopefully I’ll be getting my hands on the new artwork for our first world, and will be able to pump out some levels and some correlating artwork!
On a more unfortunate note, the small surprise I posted a couple weeks back is in quite a rut, my Photoshop skills need a bit of brushing up before I can show what I’ve in mind. So the release on that is… unsure.
19 tags
February 2011
6 posts
Things are moving...
Things are going well for the project, all around. Momentum is starting to pick up, and with the more visitors and feedback we get, the more excited we are getting about bringing you more content!
Our first world’s environment art should be done around the end of this week, and soon after that, more video to show off what we are working on!
I’m also personally working on something...
The last music file for this week. Maybe more next...
As promised, here is another original by our very...
This is one song James had in the vault,...
Yay! New animation!
I worked for a couple of hours on a new jump animation! I hope it blends well with the game so far. I have to wait until it can be implemented because my programming and/or understanding of code is minimal, for now (mwa hahaha). Hopefully tomorrow.
-Zach-
January 2011
4 posts
10 tags
Help Fund Moldering (And Get Some Sweet Rewards!)
Our page on 8-bit funding has just gone live. For those who don’t know it’s a community for donating money to indie game projects that seem promising. The developers get money to fund their projects, and the contributors can get some kick-ass rewards. Hopefully you think our project is promising and would like to contribute any amount. Please do (we can tell you we love you).
Click...
Secret Processes
I haven’t been posting lately because I’ve been working on parts of the game that haven’t officially been released to the public. Leaving parts of the game secret, I believe, will add to a more authentic experience for the player. I always enjoy exciting knew surprises when playing games and I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun for anyone. So, don’t let a lack of updates...
10 tags
Cutting Up Gifs into Strips
So, my main animator is great, he does these really cool animations for moldering in gif format. However, Moldering doesn’t know how to dissect gifs. I guess I could write code in Moldering to do it, however, I wrote a different program instead. This little program will cut gifs into strip animations. it will also cut out any extra space that isn’t necessary, as well as optimize and...
9 tags
Getting Things Done
So, lately I’ve delved into developing the actual game content of Moldering. This has been really exciting. The first stages of development were spent solely developing the engine and all of the tools necessary to make the game (which took a couple of years with school and all). A while back, however, Bobby Tew and I started drawing out story boards for the game and we wrote a good chunk of...
December 2010
2 posts
9 tags
End of the Year Level Design
I’ve been doing some level design lately. It’s great to finally start producing actual game content that will be used in the final product. I’ve been working on this game on and off since 2007 after taking just one semester of programming and it has really come a long way. I must admit though, for as strong as my programming skills are my level design skills need to be leveled...
6 tags
Inspiration can be Strange
I was playing Borderlands all day the other day now that school is out of session and I discovered a neat glitch. The glitch allows players to skip rounds of enemies in the Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot DLC (a round-based tournament-style game mode). It got me thinking about how the inner workings of the game must operate; I figured out what checks their code must be doing simply by playing the...
October 2010
11 posts
6 tags
Simple Map "Encryption"
The maps in moldering are stored as plain text files. This has its pros and cons. For one, it’s easy during development to make simple changes without the level editor. However, anyone can edit text files. So, rather than letting any Tom, Dick, and Harry edit the maps at their whim, I implemented some VERY basic map encryption.
Basically I serialized a class that stores all the maps after...
Forum Redesign
So, I didn’t want to do anything too involved today, but I still wanted to do something, so I took the time to totally redesign the Moldering Forum. I thought the site was very “1990’s,” so I went for something more clean.
It looks a lot better but I would still love some input. Do you guys have any suggestions/thoughts?
http://www.projectmoldering.com/forum
6 tags
This and That
No new screenshots this time, but rather a short update to let you know what we’ve been working on.
At this point we haven’t publicly announced all the features of Moldering. However, as much as I’m going to say about one of the features is that I’ve been working on a separate movement engine for a small sub-section of the game. I haven’t gotten this movement just...
New Features? Try them out!
Been keeping up on Moldering? Wanting to try some of the new features? Well now you can!
Click the link below to check out the latest build. All the new features I’ve been talking about (as well as the new movement tweaks) are in there. Let us know what you think.
Also, I’d be flattered if you flattr’d us. I just set up an account and would love to know that it works (and to...
8 tags
Bug Huntin'
Ah… the life of a game developer. It has it’s ups and it has it’s downs. I toiled away the good part of the day fixing a very minor bug that most people wouldn’t even notice. Instead of being productive and attending to matters in the real world I spent six hours making the player move the same speed when moving up slopes from the left vs from the right.
Regardless, I got...
Controls for Ledge Climbing
Moldering is about exploration, and knowing this I’ve been tweaking the controls to get them just right. As a design decision I’ve limited the character’s movement a great deal and increased the overall gravity pulling down on the player. Movement is a lot tighter, quicker, and reactive, and the player has a greater sense of control. However, he’s not as powerful as he used...
7 tags
Controller support; some tweaking.
I wasn’t happy with the movement in Moldering, and the keyboard wasn’t cutting it for testing it and tweaking it just right, so, I installed a library for controller input and I added support for gamepads to Moldering. At the moment I’ve only tested it on an XBox 360 controller, but theoretically it should work with any controller. The way I see it, if you’re not using a...
Small but Meaningful
So, Bobby and I finally had some time to sit down and work out some ideas for Moldering. We worked our way into the second world—the innards of a living breathing plant—and we got some cool ideas rolling around. Here’s a few examples:
Tiny organic spores that stick to you. As more get stuck on you, the more that “good” white blood cells actively seek you out and kill...
3 tags
August 2010
2 posts
8 tags
Some Moldering Fan Art
Courtesy of Robert Tew:
5 tags
First public download
It’s high time I posted some kind of demo. And since I’m applying for scholarships I figured I’d kill two birds with a single stone and post the game online as a sort of demonstration of my skills, while allowing anyone interested who’s been following the project to get a sneak peak.
The actual game content such as levels, cutscenes, and music is not included, so...
June 2010
3 posts
7 tags
Tasty New Screenshot
Here’s a screenshot of the Dark Forest that we’ve been holding off from publishing. There’s a few things we’ve been keeping secret and now is a good of time as any to release something new.
The Dark Forest is going to have three main layers: the ground level of the forest, the caverns underneath, and the top of the canopy. The Dark Forest is a maze-like area in which the...
A Little Publicitiy
..and I mean a little. It appears that Moldering is making these kind of small appearances all over the web. Thanks to John for writing in: “Hey was watching ‘109 indie games in 10 minutes’ on youtube and your game stood out, love the look of it!
From here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G_jq_otsYM&feature=player_embedded#!”
We didn’t know we were featured in...
Big Progress, Small Update
Hey guys. Just wanted to update real quick and let you know we’ve been doing some cool stuff. We’ve been brainstorming a whole lot and mapped out some of the areas of the game. I don’t want to spoil it to much so I’ll just say that you’ll love it. I’ll be sure to keep you guys updated as we move through the design phase of the project. At this point the engine...
May 2010
1 post
Sound Design is an Art Within Itself
Today was the last day of classes for the semester and I’ve already begun working on Moldering. When I last left off I was working on sound design. Last time I implemented some code to alter the position of the footstep sounds depending on where the player is (running on the left side of the screen played the sound more in the left speaker, and vice versa). Today I added some code to...
April 2010
1 post
Design Phase
Summer break is coming up in 6 weeks or so, so I’ll be able to get in a lot of time for Moldering. I think this time I’m going to start off in a “design” mindset and step away from the technical side of programming the game. I’ve been messing around with generating sound effects, putting thought into how the levels will be designed, and have been messing with music a...
March 2010
8 posts
Intro cut scene
Just a short update. I scripted out the intro cut scene and I am pretty pleased with it, if I do say so myself. The graphics aren’t final, but I’m going to tweak it a bit more and extend it and then maybe I’ll post a video online. I’d definitely like to get some feedback!
James
Revamped Lighting System
A while back I revamped the lighting system and since I recently wrote some code to record gameplay I figured the lighting system was a good candidate for recording and sharing with you guys. Notice how the light sources “bloop” together. Let me know what you think!
-James
Swimming! (look at him go!)
I wrote a short algorithm to output recordings of the game once per frame because I thought it would be cool to show you guys what the swimming looks like. I opted against going with the traditional Mario-style swimming where as the player you need to keep tapping a button to swim. I subscribe to the belief that water stages should be fun, unlike a great deal of game designers who apparently...
Music problems are no more! (Alas!)
For those who don’t remember, I had a lot of problems looping, loading, and playing music in Moldering. Alas, I have solved all of these problems! Music can load, fade, unload, and loop now without a hiccup. I was very frustrated with this a long way back, so this is good news for Moldering!
At this point there are no obvious glitches left. I play constantly as I try new features and I...
Programming Camera Work is a Pain
I started to rework the scrolling system. I wasn’t happy with having the screen lock on to the player at all times when he’s moving through a large map and I wanted something really smooth and fancy, so I decided to rework it. Little did I know how difficult this would become.
I reworked the camera system 3 times, and spent more than 6 hours on it. I finally settled on something...