So here I present the near-final build for the IndieCade and PAX submissions. It's only a video right now but check back again on May 9th to try out the build I submitted to PAX and IndieCade. Until then enjoy this video of the latest gameplay!

I just saw the indiecade submission deadline was moved up to May 15 that gives me 2 extra weeks to add the polish the game deserves. It will also give me some breathing room to not burn myself out :) I kinda think this has something to do with the PAX10 deadline being the around the same date, but hey I'm not complaining.

No big updates to the game other than SMASH tweaks and High Score changes

As I keep collecting feedback on Gum Drop a couple of issues have popped out that needs to be cropped. Mainly the chatter feature that I implemented a while back. The chatter feature was originally meant to add depth to the game by adding back story, status reports, and tutorial tips. However as test plays were done people have complained that they never really looked at that screen. Only really looked at it during a lul in action which was not alot. I was somewhat using it as a crutch to get gameplay ideas conveyed to people. Obviously this did not do what I wanted and all it did was clutter the UI. Now I have to work on putting these "concept panels" in the launch screen to potray how these gameplay elements work with the game. Hopefully this would be enough idea to give the player an idea of what to do without overburdening text.

I'm also planning on getting better artwork in for the power ups to make them more inline in the game rather than make them look like children's blocks floating in space. The work never ends! 

So the funny thing with indie game development is that flip flopping major parts of the game is not that uncommon. Especially since decision making is done by 1 or 2 people, with greater tolerance for risk. I myself had taken that same action, from now on Gum Drop will not allow the player to fire any projectiles from his ship. The only means of attack from the player is from his new S.M.A.S.H (Structural Mining Automated Swinging Hammer) that allows the player to exact pain to the enemies in one clean blow. This is a stark change for my game because I once classified it as a shooter, now it is closer to a beat em up than a top down shooter. :)

This decision was not just a spur of the moment, I have been focus testing my game with different users and I have noticed that they loved swinging stuff around and collecting them. But when enemies can around, the comments dropped off as shooting became the means to kill the enemy and the supposed feature of the game took a back seat. This was under consideration for a long time, but the risk aversion voice in my head kept telling me to shy away from it. However if I stayed the course, my game will just fall into something generic and forgettable, Which will ultimately not win me anything but more "what-if this game had more of this cool feature instead of this over used mechanic" :) So with a few days before my deadline, I chose to take the plunge and take the game to a whole new direction. Hopefuly this pays off and makes the game the success I want it to be.

 This is what it means to be indie, taking risks and sticking it to the man :) Without further ado here is the video of the new S.M.A.S.H system.

Now that I have shifted focus on UI and the first time experience, I say that I am feeling better about the project. However that does not mean that I will be working on it any less, I will probably work on it more the next days. The first checkpoint is almost here and I am excited to see how it goes.

 Last I worked on with the game is improving the experience with the loading screen, actually putting a launch button for the player to press to launch the ship off the base. I still need to work on making it more fun to actually launch the ship :) Pop up messages are now additive blend so they are bright and shiny now. I've also worked on the base to make it more base-y and add more details and possibly doodads on it. Another big change was integrating the rest of the music into the game so the game now has three distinct music themes. 

 Well without further rantings, here is another video of Gum Drop

With two weeks left till Indiecade, the polishing rags have been brought out of their hiding. Time to take this Gum Drop and make it shine till it has a luminance of 1.6×10⁹ cd/m²

Anyways, development and QA has been humming along, big changes were done to the rendering of particles, switching from a alpha blend to additive makes the particles shiny and anything below them shiny :) Well thats how the particles were supposed to be blended but I forgot to put it out that way. I'm also changing the loading screens to make them more dynamic, so I can swap-in the controls screen so players can be introduced to how to play the game.

Also I have changed the base to something completely different, it looks more like a mining ship now instead of the motherly base ship. It's primary purpose is to mine for gum drops so it makes sense to make it have grinders that go after gum drops. It still looks pretty crappy but I will be refined and polished as part of the spit and polish pass.

No pretty visuals or movies today, but once I am done with cosmetic changes, I'll release a official preview trailer for everyone to see :)

Okay, I'm really trying to push myself hard now to get Gum Drop into a usable state. I have less than 2 weeks for the IndieCade submission deadline, followed by the PAX deadline a week after. I've been trying to pull in the assets a bit more to give the enemy a sense of theme. So far so good, but I've also been pushing myself to get the gameplay to be more fun. But since I am running out of time, it's getting harder and harder. Hopefully all goes well, and get this thing rolling.

Here's another vid of the current progress on the game

Okay, I've been wanting to change the color schemes on the enemies to better match the saying Red = bad, Blue = good. Now I have tried to do it. The enemies have now a dominant looking red color to most of them. I've also changed alot on the energy hooks and object mass which will make objects easier to swing around and actually can one shot smaller enemy fire if swung fast enough.

There's still alot to be done in the usability side though like adding configurable player controls, menu pop ups, the whole nine yards! But I am marching towards there. I'll be gettin gore music pretty soon into the game to add more variety. That is of course provided by the talented Erwin Peil :)

I'l be getting some more feedback tonight on the game from my DnD buddies, who also were professional QA Game Testers at some point in their career, it should give me some good insight into game balancing.

 Well here's a video of the most recent changes so far. Ciao!

After a succesful run at GDC, I have managed to refine this really rough concept I had for Gum Drop into what will be it's main focus. The focus will be on the Energy Hook which creates a energy based elastic bond between two objects. This new main feature allows the player to hook onto pretty much any object in the game. It may be the power ups to grant the player special abilities. The player can also drag enemy fire away from the base by hooking onto them. Heck if the player wanted to bludgeon the enemy with Gum Drops he is able to!

But really I would not have found this "fun" concept without great feedback from all the people who tried it out at GDC. Also I attribute being able to rapidly implement ideas brought up and have new people try out the refinements I have made. So anyone out there making games, be sure to ask every single person you know to try out the game and give you feedback. Because without that your game will never reach it's full potential :)

 Anyways, here's the video after I have implemented ideas that I gathered at GDC and post GDC to make the game better. Enjoy!