A Year Along

Wow it’s been just a day over a year since my last update, kinda telling how screwy my life is these days. Anyways what have I been upto? Well constant work on YouTube content. Added to Fallout 76, Final Fantasy XIV and Retro series.

Beyond that its been a little design work and beginning work on a brand new project, yes I’m sure eventually I’ll finish one but this leads back one anyways.

So as you can see I switched out to Unreal, and currently I’m working on new mechanics and systems for a new updated and simplified version of the game promised almost a decade ago.

Its been a horrific year and has indeed taken it’s toll on my mental health, so a majority of this year has been spent working on that, after all I think you folks might miss me if I did anything stupid.

Day 20 of 30 Day Challenge

So the 30 day challenge has taken a temporary suspension this is due to a situation at home that requires more attention than gaming. But figured I’d assemble this to show where things stand at the moment. I have almost got the story to the same point I was before, but I have opened up Ishguard!

So I’m ilvl113 which is in large part due to the fact that the 2.1 story upward gives access to ilvl90 gear which originally had to be farmed for and then purchased with Tomes of Soldiery. This is no longer the case and you can grab the gear simply by playing to open up Heavensward content.

I have also grabbed my Relic weapon, which I’m just working through the Book of Braves to power this up to where it was before. I will then continue to power it up further. The good thing this time is even though my crafting classes are low I have saved money by not relentlessly chasing them. I’m still working toward the Platinum for this but basically that is now solely reliant on FATEs which I’m well under way with. I have a nice tidy 445,000 gil tucked away.

I will of course be levelling my CNJ back to 30 because of that darn Unicorn mount but tend to do this when I’m headed to bed and waiting on raids just isn’t worth the time. I have a few low level quests I can target to do this I will then begin levelling Lancer for the Blood 4 Blood cross class skill. I will also open up the new classes so they are in place to begin running through once I get everything else back on par with my old character.

The advantage with restarting a character is all the XP I picked up during the post 2.0 story stuff has translated to an extra 3 levels vs where I was originally so I can vouch that a new player can catch an experienced one by making their way through the base game. So for now the plan is to deal with stuff at home then resume the 30 day challenge, right now I’m doing nothing that constitutes real game play other than getting myself back to the position in was in beforehand.

Game Development – Updates April 2015

So it’s been a busy month or so development wise, mostly for Devils Inc Studios as we wrapped up on our title “Star of Destiny” we just need to iron out one or two more issues and we can get it released. Which means can move along to our next project which all the ground work was done by myself and you guys might remember the 2D scrolling shooter that was Task Force Alpha, this has been significantly revamped into a brand new title. A early demo is available on the Devils Inc Website. What this version is vs what we are planning is actually quite a step away from the demo. I will update you guys in due course but you can of course follow Devils Inc Studios on Twitter or Facebook.

So that brings back me to my personal projects, I recently began updating The Vampire Legends game with the improvements Unity 5 now allows for. The improvements to the water system alone as stunning and sexy.

Reflections better lighting, a few of the systems need revamping and I’m having issues with the custom built camera system, the character controller also need some work as the input is still a little unpredictable but not sure if that’s the way Unity 5 handles animation now vs the old legacy system. But all in it isn’t looking too bad. I have also a new model to use for the main character and this will be installed once I fix the camera system. I may also add a changing room style thing to allow for a little customisation but for the most part I’m still working out the final details with this one, beginning to think the main level is just too big and may restart the whole design of the world again.

Confined is under way and I have the game play figured out I just need to implement a few things like the GUI and gun shot mechanics so we shall see on that as well.

So all in all still coming along as we stand but for the moment it is what it is.

 

Resident Evils Revelations 2 : Review

OK so picked up Resident Evil Revelations 2, I will try and keep this spoiler free, or as spoiler free as I can without breaking the idea of what I’m trying to say.

Got to say I’m impressed aside from desperately wanting to put a bullet in Moiras head, much like I did with what’s her name from RE4 as well? But mayhap that’s just the impatient adult in me wanting to eliminate the whining teen, who knows maybe she’ll surprise me later?

First notes are that I like the style it has early Resident Evil creep factor, something they seem to capture well in the Revelations series, We are given Claire Redfield from the main franchise cast in this one, which is awesome, who doesn’t love Claire and a new organisation Terra Save, seriously makes me long for Umbrella and STARS I’m losing track of those involved now, between Neo-Umbrella, Tricell and BSAA I’m fairly sure there are plucking acronyms and organisations out of thin air! Still the first scenes brought back some memories, namely those of Claire in Code Veronica, which was the last real Resident Evil in many ways, second up the creepy prison is lots of fun with a few puzzle solving systems in place as well, including good old run halfway around the level to come back style ones!

The enemies on the other hand, just don’t seem truly terrifying, maybe I’m just a fan of a good old licker and a horde of undead, these Uroboros clone cross things just don’t do it for me, while they are tough and the axe wielding heavy guys are a little unnerving, and take some serious hammer to put down, the regular scary enemies just aren’t scary!

On the other hand the story is again told with the irritating mysterious voice been a royal pain the ass pretty quickly, the story has potential including the odd twist at the end.

Barry has a child as a tag along? Sounds very familiar don’t it? And yes Barry Burton makes his RE in game debut as a campaign character a lot of us had been waiting for this, he gets a kid with psychic powers as a partner, which isn’t too bad, she has her uses, it was her power that let me figure how to take down the enemies you get thrown in his campaign, her power will pinpoint its weak point which saves you a shed load of ammo! It’s weak point will glow a brighter yellow than the rest of it, hit this to reveal the balloon like weak point then pump another few rounds in to put it down, trust me when I say it took everything I had to put one down the regular way! The stories as ever lap over each other which is good a thing Capcom mastered a long time ago with Resident Evil, I look forward to the story as it unfurls though this episodic formula is kind of irritating.

I look forward to part 2 which I will be picking up fairly soon. So it’s a weighted balance between the old resident evil feel and creep factor vs the new un-scary enemies that just don’t make you nervous anymore, it has an added layer of tag team combat in that you can use the second partner, Moira or Natalia to stun the enemies as the main character drops them for you to finish them off fairly easily, which at least gives you another way to save ammo, which is back to conserve as best you can as it’s not in abundance in this one, well certainly not Claire and Moira, I was a little better off with Barry and Natalia.

Environments look good, and have an abundance of scare the pants off you potential, lock picking somehow made it into this game which is both new and fun.  Each character has their part to play as ever, areas only reachable by one or the other, plenty of nasty traps awaiting those not paying attention and a skill tree that we are yet to see how it really unfolds. So there’s my thought on Part 1 catch me soon for part 2.

Short Story Available On E-Readers

So I recently finished a short story, well if truth be told it’s a little longer than a short story but alas, it is finished, a story that is set within the Dentarius Universe but is set ahead of previous time lines and events. The reasons for that are kind of simple in that I wanted a new balance to introduce new characters and roles within the universe, it is also likely these characters will be adapted for other areas of the world.

So the story follows a human girl who is brought to Dentarius to help fill the void left by the murder of the realms previous healer. It has a very well versed lore written deep throughout the story as the realm itself opens up to both newcomer Stacy and those reading as well. It also features some very intimate areas as well, of course you’ll have to purchase the book to see how it all turns out in the end what I will tell you is that the first in this series (aptly titled season 1) is only the beginning, I am almost ready to wrap up the second story which only gets darker.

Its fun and yet serious in many ways as Stacy learns the role of her new place as well as seeing that even in the worst of times there is good in almost every situation, friends new and old weave their way throughout and it’s all available for just $0.99 on Smashwords.

These stories are also likely to tie into the games I’m currently working on so the universe is always going to move along and evolve, while events on the Elcarus Mansion site are set before these writings eventually they will catch up, as I said it is and always has been an ever evolving universe.

Devils Inc Studios Release

So as you guys know or may not know depending on how long you’ve followed the site, my Company has been working on titles for a couple of years now but only last year did we finally put together something we could truly put out there.

Entitled Snowmageddon it can be played FOR FREE on the Kongreagte game portal, it has no Pay2Win elements, no hidden charges just good old fashioned FPS shooter elements, we have of course mixed it up with a little tower defence in there too.

This game is a lot of fun to play, and of course with the power of unity3d at its heart is a robust built game too. Fast and furious as you fight wave after wave of snowmen, using festive ammunition ranging from the humble snowball to the explosive Christmas present, it is hard to explain just how much fun this game really is. Our recent update is the one that put all the pieces together the 1.2 update transformed the game from to really fun. 

The games art style is simple and all artwork in the game is in house created so gives the game a fresh feel, in essence it has a semi retro feel to it which is what we are aiming for with this title.

The gameplay tutorial can be found below

And of course you can play the game for free right here. Every play of the game helps our studio just a little be more so we are ever thankful, and you can feel free to leave your thoughts or even ideas below.

Vampire Mini Game Update November

Vampire Mini Game
Dev Log

This will be my personal development log as I learn both Unity and Scripting by follow video tutorials to create a small Hack & Slash style game.

I will use the following to keep track of my work.

Added – Adding New Functions
Adjusted – Altered a Key Component of the Design
Fixed – Fixed An Error
Updated – Updated an element
(xx.xx) – The time of the error
(V0.0) – My Build Versions – When I compile to a full Development Build

So I started with two cubes one at 100x1x100 to use as my floor and one to act as an enemy, also added a directional light for lighting and a FPS player system for the moment.

20.10.13

Added – Player Health Bar (V0.1)
Added – Enemy Health Bar
Added – Basic Enemy AI – Will track and chase the player around the environment (v0.2)
Added – Melee controls to Key F (V0.3)
*Fixed an error which prevented my Health Bar script from Executing missed a } at line 38 caused a compiler error. This has now been fixed.
*Fixed a NullReferenceException that was causing my debug line not to appear, the error was on line 26 in the call function had mistyped my awake command (should have been Awake)
*Fixed compile error which prevented AI script from initialising had myTransform instead of myTransform.position (19.56)
*Fixed script error that prevented the attack script from compiling and starting correctly in the Unity environment (21.49)
*Fixed spiralling enemy when Enemy AI conflicts with Enemy Attack scripts. (v0.4)(22.14)

21.10.13

Added – Textures to objects and replaced the crappy floor textures just to make it a little better to pull individual objects
Added – targeting system, which will select a target and then allow for a targeted attack (17.43)
Added – Character Classes and Stat control systems. Just need to visually implement them now (v0.5)(21.59)
Adjusted – Directional light
Adjusted – Level maps and floor mappings
Fixed – Several compile errors where I’d got get & set backwards!(23.10)

24.10.13

Added – Character Creation (v0.5.1)
Fixed – Compile error where I had missed a ; which caused a compile parsing error.(11.13)
Fixed – Placement error that caused the + Button to place incorrectly and in the wrong size (19.15)
Adjusted Code Layout to make it look cleaner (v0.05.2)
Adjusted Code to make for easier changes to GUI later

25.10.13

Added – Player Data
Added – Save Data function (v0.6)
Added – Skybox to Primary Level, mostly just to make it look better in terms of aesthetics
Fixed – Compile error where by Unity 4 prevents broken scripts allowing compile of adjusted scripts later (15.31)
Fixed – Error with typing that caused GetVital to not compile correctly (21.18)

26.10.13

Added – Loading Function
Fixed – Error that wouldn’t display Health, Mana, Energy right – Forgot to set the Dont Destroy Function!(22.05)
Fixed – Error that failed to trigger camera tracking (17.36)
Fixed – Error that prevented character creation after load values were entered (19.34)
Fixed – Error that prevented Debug launching as I had miss named “Character” Instances with “pc” for some reason it kept returning “GameSettings.LoadCharacterData () (at Assets/Scripts/GameSettings.cs:54)” errors (20.08)

01.11.13

Added – New targeting system
Fixed – An error that stopped my enemy health bars updating, turns out I’d just used the wrong health bar informer(20.28)

Playstation Plus May Line Up

Wednesday 17th April: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) has today announced the May line-up for PlayStation®Plus (PS Plus) subscribers with impressive titles such as Hitman: Absolution, Catherine and MALICIOUS heading your way on May 1st, when each of these PlayStation®3 (PS3) titles will be available to download.

Take on the moral dilemma of Agent 47 in Hitman: Absolution as he is faced with the most complex contract of his career. Forced to choose between the wishes of his agency or the life of his acquaintance, he’ll need to use all of his skills to survive and uncover the truth.

After several unexplained deaths in the city, things begin to take a dark turn for Kevin in the psychological horror adventure Catherine, when he has a strange encounter with an irresistible woman and his nightmares turn into a dreadful reality.

Enter a world of chaos in the unusual action title MALICIOUS in which the Kingdom of Santville lies in pieces and traitorous King Eldrake’s forces have been slain. You are a spirit vessel summoned by the prophets to battle the dark force that has emerged and come to be known as the MALICIOUS.

Like to game on the go? Then grab your PlayStation®Vita (PS Vita) and enjoy the unique shoot ’em up hit Sine Mora, which will be available on PS Plus from 8th May. Alternatively, prepare to be impressed by the ultra-sharp and stylish visuals in the innovative space-age shooter Velocity Ultra HD, available from the 15th May.

PS Plus provides subscribers with access to top-rated games* on PS3 and PS Vita throughout the course of the subscription. Gamers also have access to great PlayStation®Store discounts as part of their subscription package.

PS Plus subscribers receive an array of exclusive features and access, including 2GB cloud storage (1G for PS3 & 1G for PS Vita ) for game saves which will be welcomed by subscribers keen to take advantage of the Instant Game Collection. Automatic update and beta access, as well as a huge collection of exclusive dynamic themes and PlayStation®Network avatars, makes PS Plus the place to be in 2013.

PS Plus is also available on PS Vita, extending the service to two platforms for a single price of £39.99/€49.99 for a one-year subscription or £11.99/€14.99 for a 90 day subscription will give users the same fantastic features including exclusive access, special features and huge discounts.

*Top-rated is based on a meta-critic rating of 70+

Skyrim – My New Obsession

OK so after around 100 hours of gameplay I decided to share my current character build. I am currently at Level 28 and have spaced my stats down as below. Mostly plugged into Two-Handed and Armor two offset the way I do things. As a result my stats are as below.

[ Destruction – 20 ] [ Restoration – 28 ] [ Alteration – 16 ]
[ Enchanting – 18 ] [ Smithing – 25 ] [ Heavy Armor – 30 ]
[ Block – 32 ] [ Two-Handed – 86 ] [ One-Handed – 45 ]
[ Archery – 46 ] [ Light Armor – 65 ] [ Sneak – 33 ]
[ Lockpicking – 58 ] [ Pickpocket – 24 ] [ Speech – 37 ]
[ Alchemy – 18 ] [ Illusion – 21 ] [ Cunjuration – 18 ]

[ Magicka – 160 ] [ Health – 270 ] [ Stamina – 230 ]

So as you can see I tend to favour a Light Armor and two handed weapon, this isn’t the best set up but it works for me, I am also getting into the habit of using Restoration Magic to help heal whilst dealing with the dragons, though the other it saw fit to pit me against three dragons in only a short space of time.

Though granted I started this post three days ago and put a near solid day in the day I started to write this post things have changed somewhat, but the fact still remains I can see why this game got so many great reviews. It title as Game of teh Year was indeed well deserved.

My only regret is I waited so long to play it. Rest assured I will be going back through the series at a later stage.

Game Design

So this blog is also now going to double as my personal Games Development blog, I have just started work on a Game Design course with Train2Game and will be working toward a degree in Game Design. In doing so I found a side effect to be that I have made a few friends and we have teamed up to bring a brand new exclusive IP title.

A zombie game with a difference I wont be letting too much slip only that the game will provide a challenge for gamers of any level. I have also made two or three small games that can be found on the Devils Inc website.

M A Games

These games are simple scrollers or point and click adventures.

The reason I decided to do such a course was simple I’m a very passionate gamer, just look at my gaming tag as proof of how much time and effort I put into games as a whole.

PSN Gamercards

I decided I wanted to turn a passion into a career and having a rather never say die attitude I spent hours on google check the credentials of this course, it has ALOT of bad press but google tends to display negative long before it displays positive if you take time to watch various videos from the site itself you’ll realise that it as a good an opportunity as you’re going to get.

This isn’t a sales pitch either merely a personal observation, but as mentioned above I have made some good friends and we are now knee deep in development of our own independent title. I will from tiem to time update you on the status or you can follow along on our Facebook Page.