Screenshot

Adding story to Not a Clone

| Taro Omiya

Apologize for the lack of updates for a few weeks. Many of us are recovering from the exhausting trip at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), so this week’s update is a small work-in-progress idea we’ve been bouncing around. Born from our writer, Robert Denner, the loading screen has been updated to look like a messenger application, where your friend introduces you to Not a Clone store.  Here’s a rough sketch below:

NewLoadingScreen

Obviously, we have a lot of work to do on improving this screen, but it does mean we now have a progressing story in our game. In other news, Taro Omiya has been working hard on integrating leaderboards into the game, while Astra Wijaya and Chase Bethea has been adding new assets into the game. We may start a Twitch stream soon in regards to our development process, now that we think of it…

The Screen-Shattering Not a Clone Update!

| Taro Omiya

Last week, we shown a sketch of a few clicker microgames. We just finished integrating them into the game, and they’ll take the place of Box Clicker, posted back in August last year. Many thanks to Astra Wijaya for putting the graphics together.

Flower Clicker3

So how does one play Flower Clicker or Phone Clicker. Simply tap the screen by exactly the number of times noted by the instructions. Be careful, though: if you tap too many times, you may lose your screen!

Phone Clicker4

In other news, Taro Omiya has been very busy writing up an academic article for Game on Games on the G|A|M|E Journal. The full details of the development process for Not a Clone may be coming soon!

#ScreenshotSaturday: Untitled Game

| Taro Omiya

I apologize for the ridiculous number of private posts popping up on this blog. To compensate, here are a few screenshots of a currently-untitled game I’m working on:

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Character artwork is by 1001.com

Prototype: Murakami Progress #09 (November 2014 #OneGameAMonth)

| Taro Omiya

After a wave of events that happened at once around this weekend, I’ve took a bit of break on Tuesday before getting back on Prototype: Murakami. Right now, the current build is very broken, so there won’t be an automated post today, but there is a new screenshot to show off.

PrototypeMurakami09

Yup, Unity-chan is finally holding a gun. The plan is to have this as an equip-able item during the puzzle sequences, so there may be portions where you have to sacrifice your pistol for a brief moment to get through a certain passage. How thrilling!

And for early credits, the pistol was created by Lotnik, and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

Prototype: Murakami Progress #08 (November 2014 #OneGameAMonth)

| Taro Omiya

I update the point & click portion of Prototype: Murakami with a rear-view mirror and an inventory space to drop your items into. There’s no items per se in the game yet, but the graphics are there for demonstration. At least the plank of wood now doesn’t look that bad anymore.

PrototypeMurakami08

So what’s with the rear-view mirror? Well, the idea is that time doesn’t stop when you’re approaching a point & click puzzle. While attempting to assess the puzzle, you’ll also have to keep track of what’s going on behind your character. This means I might put a few jump scares during the puzzle portion…

Prototype: Murakami Progress #07 (November 2014 #OneGameAMonth)

| Taro Omiya

Yesterday, I spent some time working on the point & click puzzle portion…and found it a lot more difficult than I expected. The point & click puzzle itself exists in the 3D space, so to convert that space into 2D controls requires a lot more math. So instead, I switched tasks and started on something simpler: being able to look around in third-person aiming mode.

PrototypeMurakami07

Similar to Resident Evil 4, this causes your character to stop moving entirely. Additionally, aiming is done using a laser rather than a reticle. Killer7 fans should immediately recognize what this part is for: to emulate the incredibly disjointed combat portion, just in third-person perspective.

Prototype: Murakami Progress #06 (November 2014 #OneGameAMonth)

| Taro Omiya

Today was a an incredibly busy day with the Bacon Game Jam voting period going on and the inauguration of the Tech Valley Game Space. I was able to fit in a few hours for Prototype: Murakami, though, to start on the point & click portion of the game. Behold!

PrototypeMurakami06

Alright, I admit it, it’s just a plank of wood. And I don’t think I’ll get any cookies when I say getting to here was a lot harder than I expected. Rest assured the next update will be a lot more interesting. In fact, you can playtest it right now!

Prototype: Murakami Progress #05 (November 2014 #OneGameAMonth)

| Taro Omiya

Now that the Bacon Game Jam has started, here’s a quick update: I fixed the buttons from last time. I’ve also improved the camera animation to react more quickly. Similar updates has been made to the menus as well. As mentioned earlier, point & click puzzles will be next.

PrototypeMurakami05

While I’m working on Bacon Game Jam, there might be a mysterious post that claims it’s automated. That’s the playable build of Prototype: Murakami! Now that the game is in a testable state, I’ve configured the automated system to post publicly to this blog. The prototype is, well, in super-early state, but it should bring better context to these development updates.

Prototype: Murakami Progress #04 (November 2014 #OneGameAMonth)

| Taro Omiya

Yesterday, I finished the navigation, and had a working menu system to navigate from one path to another. Today, I added in camera animations to provide better view on the paths the character can take. I’m still working on update the buttons to indicate direction, but as you can see in the screenshot below, I’ve made some progress on that as well.

PrototypeMurakami04

Once I fix the buttons (you can tell the text leaking out of the screen), the plan is to start on the Point & Click puzzles. For a week-long effort, it’s exciting to see the navigation working, but I still have a long way to go!