Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 12:13PM This is the interview I did with Josh Mathews, that I mentioned in the previous post. It's the first time I've done something like this, so I think I sound a little overly earnest. But, it should be interesting to anyone who wants a little peak behind-the-scenes of the creation of Treasure Adventure Game.
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 5:04PM I've been meaning to write a post-mortem for Treasure Adventure Game. I keep putting it off because I find the idea of putting all the things I've learned, experienced and observed into words to be a daunting task. Today I was interviewed by Josh Mathews (@GamingFTL) (which will be available soon on YouTube). In that format I found that I had no shortage of things to say about my experiences during TAG's creation. I'm looking forward to the fans of TAG getting to hear it. It also has made me think about the idea of using audio (maybe video) as a way of keeping in touch with fans and followers as I develop games in the future.
Speaking of future projects. After spending some time with Construct 2 (which is a phenomenal no-programming 2D game-development platform) I've started developing an asteroids style space shooter game. It currently has no title. It uses Construct's built in physics engine which has really sped up the basic game play mechanics. I'm having a lot of fun with it, so far. I've already developed some convicing enemy AI that I'm really happy with. I think you can expect to see this turn into a full-fledged game. Like TAG, I'm hoping to give it a lot of depth, a good story, and quirky characters.
Here's a teaser screen shot:
I'll let you know when the interview is available and I'm also going to consider doing my own podcast/videocast sometime soon. Let me know what you think about that idea.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 3:47PM The response I've received from the internet, upon releasing Treasure Adventure Game has been overwhelming. So many kind words have been sent my way. I've tried to thank everyone who has contacted me, but if I missed you, hopefully this will work as a catch-all: Thank you!
I couldn't have asked for a better reception for the game. I feel justified in spending the last couple years of my life toiling away on this project.... frankly, it feels amazing! I'm super pumped and I'm ready to get started on another project.
The only thing that's been holding me back was wanting to get the Original Soundtrack for Treasure Adventure Game out to the fans. Many of you have asked about it and I wanted to do it right.
I'm happy to announce: Treasure Adventure Game OST is now available for digital download at BandCamp.
You can purchase any individual track for $0.50 or the entire album for a minimum of $6. If you buy the full album it includes 8 bonus tracks (some never heard before), a PDF file containing 99 sketches used in the creation of the game and an interactive map of the entire game.
By making this purchase you not only get over an hour of great music by the talented Robert Ellis, but you're also going to help support the development of future projects by Robert and myself. All proceeds made by the sale of the soundtrack are going directly to the budget for the next game.
Thanks again to all the fans of TAG. I look forward to a beautiful friendship with you all!
Monday, December 12, 2011 at 4:24PM Might as well keep this short and sweet: Treasure Adventure Game is finished!! Over the past month or so of public beta testing I came to the realization that this game will never be perfect, but I'm really really happy with it. Finishing this game is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for me. Ever since I played Super Mario Brothers I dreamt of making my own little virtual world to run, jump and have fun in.
And here it is: http://www.gamefront.com/files/21080788/treasure_adventure_game_1.0.1.zip
I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed making it.
Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 2:45PM Well, Beta 0.5 wasn't the last public beta after all. The amount of bugs and gltiches that the play-testers have found was staggering. I've always heard that the hardest part of making a game is the last 10% and I'm finding that to be true. I know that TAG will never be 100% perfect. If you could see the house of cards that holds this game together, you'd know what I mean. I'm not a programmer by trade and this is really my first fully fleshed out game. I made a lot of poor decisions early on that make's it difficult to change certain elements that should be easy.
Regardless, of that, the game has been getting so much great press and wonderful comments from the people who've played it. It's really amazing. I really wanted the game to be "gold" by now. But, I think I owe it to all the people who've playtested and wrote about the game to get it as close to perfect as possible. Therefore I opted to release another beta (0.6.1).
http://www.gamefront.com/files/21033504/treasure_adventure_game_beta0.6.1.zip
As long as there are no major game-breaking bugs in this version you can expect the final build soon. So, go ahead and try it out. If you find any bugs you'd like to report you can post them here:
http://www.robitstudios.com/treasure-adventure-game-forum/post/1659851
Thanks againt to everyone who's enjoyed TAG. You're all amazing people and you've made me so happy. There were so many times during the creation of this game that I thought "Will anyone even care about this when it's done?" Now I know that's not the case! All I can say is, "Thanks!". I've got the game-dev bug now and I truley think this will be my life's work.
P.S. You can move your save-files from previous builds into the new one if you don't want to start a new game. Just copy the contents of the "save_data" folder.