Still undecided

I'm still on the fence about which project to aim for, a "resource management" type game (which I've traditionally been crap at, other than Deuteros for the Amiga...) or a "platformer" style game which I've always liked, but never attempted to write.

In my last blog entry, I posted some pictures of ideas I'd been kicking around in Paintshop, and I went on to do some base routines which involved sprite positioning and overlap detection etc, using those graphics. As I was still not committed to that project, I threw together some graphics for the platformer, and they came out like this...

...which as you've probably guessed is a series of frames from a character animation. As yet, I'm not sure if that  would be the main character, or just an NPC (non-player character). Incidentally, here's how it looks animated - I know it's not too smooth, it only has 8 frames...

...and that is my first ever attempt (as far as I can remember) at sprite-based character animation.

Sooooooo, I'm still on the fence about which project to go for. Either way, I have a 4 day LAN-party rapidly approaching, so I doubt I'll be doing much coding then. Having said that, the last time I was stuck with a networking issue, an abundance of Magners helped me out...

Kicking an idea around

So I've been messing about, trying to come up with some idea of which direction I want the next project to take. I really want to try my hand at making a platformer at some point, and also some sort of resource management-type thing.

The platformer I have an idea how to start, it's pretty straightforward (he says, as if he knows what he's doing...) whereas a resource management game would be totally new to me. So I started throwing together some in-game art to see if it would lead me anywhere. I'm still working on the platformer art at the moment, but regarding the resource game, after half an hour with PaintShop this appeared...

...then an hour later, this...

I have a very rough idea for a game based on those graphics, but nothing solid enough to start coding. I'm going to see how the platformer graphics pan out before committing to anything. But, back to work tomorrow, so I'm not sure how long it will be before I get something off the ground.

What to do, what to do?

So....er, long time no blog post.

Things have been busy with work and stuff so I've been neglecting my coding projects lately (well, I have been doing the code academy javascript lessons, but to be honest they started out OK then just got progressively more boring) so I think it's time to start a new project of some sort.

And that's my dilemma at the moment, what kind of coding project to do. I have a LAN party with the guys from DaGodz over the Easter weekend, I've recently got into DOTA2 (cheers, Cypher for the beta key) and Diablo III is out soon, so I don't know what'll happen then, but right now I feel like doing some coding.

I did think of doing a platform style game, I haven't tried one of those before, but then I thought about doing a shoot-em-up, then some sort of adventure game, then a multiplayer battle type thing.... hell, I even thought about making a puzzler!

I need to make a decision then actually start something. Once I start it, I'll get engrossed and it'll lead me to all sort of adventures in code, but it's just taking that initial step that is the problem. I have a few days off work coming up, and I'm going to make a start on something. What, I don't know, but I'll keep this blog updated when I find out what it is :)


Disclaimer: The project might end up as a routine or something, rather than a full game. You know how my coding projects go...  ;)