It's been a while, figured I would post an update.
So finding Investors has definitely been put on hold. I'm deciding to take the company, in a slightly different route, to arrive at the ultimate goal. I'm currently working on a new Casual Game, and I'm teaching myself C++, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
The New 2D game
The new game, is a much MUCH better, and WAY more fun game than ManaGen. ManaGen taught me alot. From a Software standpoint I learned that I needed to upgrade to doing Hardware Accelerated apps. ManaGen would run too slow on some machines, or if even a couple small apps were running in the background on good machines. So I switched over to the Java Hardware Acceleration. Good news is, my next game will have a wider audience, as this version of Fusion exports to apps as Mac compatible.
In the Gameplay position, i realized I hadn't really made a "casual game" at all. I had really developed a Casual Game for Hardcore gamers. There were too many controls, the throw mechanic wasn't precise. It required you to have a thurough understanding of how more faster paced games like Super Smash bros were played to really play it well. So I went back to the basics, and I did more research. I wanted to do a game based on swinging, like the Ninja Rope in Worms, only problem is that is a very precise and hard to use item. Entertainment value would be high, but again, casual gamers are going to be quickly frustrated, and still too many buttons.
So I broke down the swing mechanic to be as simple as possible. You line up your cursor with where you want to fire, and then you shoot, all with the left mouse button. If you hold it your character will swing towards the location, and momentum will carry them forward (like swinging on a vine, while climbing up at the same time). To let go and land somewhere you just let go of the left mouse button. Ultra simple.
Prototyped it, and it was a lot of fun. I added Hazards the progressively get harder, pickups, and a timer to your demise. This one is looking way more promising. I'll post some screens about it, and the name, once I get working on the art for it. This one will not be free, unlike the last one. But I will release a demo, I'll also try to chart my progress on it as I go.
Me, Programmer?
It's not as crazy as it seems. Anyone who knows me, knows I am an artist at heart. But I have been programming for a long time. I used to do Java and ActionScript in highschool, created alot of Cpmmand Prompt apps in java (heh, gotta start somewhere) and did some very basic web stuff in Actionscript. I learned a little C++ for two summers, when I took some courses with internaldrive, It really got me learning about C++, and I releaized for what I was doing it was alot like the Java I had already learned. So I've decided its time for me to become fluent in C++ (hopefully C# afterwards).
I've dabled in C++ for the past couple of years, tinkering around in Torque, but I've never really done much because my foundation just isn't good enough. So I'm starting from the beginning. I'm going to keep working with it, and interface with Torque as I go, getting a better feel for a game engine that I really enjoy working with. This should also open some doors for me, because I'll be able to prototype, and from pitching to publishers, that was the one thing that most of them wanted to see that I was just not capable of showing them. So I'll probably post about how the programming is going as I push ahead with that, especially once I start modifying torque.
So where does that leave Algitt?
Algitt is still in the same position it was before. I'm not gonna give up on it, and It's only going to get better as I get better. I already have the Art side down, If I can get the some of the Game Programming to go with it, it will only make the company stronger. Stay tuned there is more on the way!
