My Writings. My Thoughts.
It’s out!
// March 15th, 2012 // No Comments » // Robofish
Robofish is on Xbox Live marketplace right now, stop reading and go check it out!
No big deal, just a release date
// March 6th, 2012 // No Comments » // Robofish
Robofish is invading the Xbox Live Indie Games channel next Thursday, March 15! Prepare for awesomeness!
Creating Sprites for Robofish
// July 31st, 2011 // No Comments » // Robofish
Robofish is my first real game project and when I started working on it I knew that using sprite sheets was the preferred method for exporting graphics to the engine but I didn’t have a clue how to set them up efficiently. Sprite sheets are basically large image files that tile out each graphic or animation’s frame so that the game engine can read the images in order according to the sheet and display them on the screen when called. That sounds confusing, I am not even sure I understand what I just typed! Simply, a game engine runs faster if it can see a bunch of graphics on one image file rather than thousands of individual images. Jacob, my Brother and the programmer behind our games, and I knew this but our first attempt at sprite sheets wasn’t quite the most efficient. Continue reading to see how first discovered how to make sprite sheets and how we had to modify our entire sprite sheet process about 60% through production, also pictures below!
Robofish Hit Effects
// July 23rd, 2011 // No Comments » // Robofish
Check out the latest video displaying a few of the weapon hit effects available in the game!
Hit effects are special abilities that you can apply to projectiles when you create a weapon in the weapon factory. Some of the effects include freezing, life leech, explosion, teleport, and many others. Keep checking back to see footage on other hit effects!
The Evolution of Robofish
// July 21st, 2011 // No Comments » // Robofish
As the graphic designer on Robofish I thought it would be interesting to go over the different concepts of Robofish from the beginning of the project up until now where we have pretty much a solid idea of what Robofish is going to look like when we release the game. Robofish is my first indie game and I have learned a lot during the process, pretty much starting with zero knowledge on how to effectively make 2D graphics in a game environment. I used Adobe Flash for the design and animation of Robofish.
Above you will see the very first few concepts of Robofish. Pretty rough around the edges! My main goal at the start of the project was to try and draw something humorous and interesting at the same time. I wasn’t taking our “hero” too seriously and didn’t want the player too either. After the initial concept I proceeded to create a more refined design with some shading and different colors and cleaner detail. I would say my favorite part of these concept designs is the jet-pack like thing on the right side of him. However the ugly “roundness” of the fin and the head had to go, and with a little help from my brother we slimmed him up and gave him a fresher look below:
Robofish Survival Mode Gameplay
// July 19th, 2011 // No Comments » // Robofish
This is a short gameplay video showing the survival mode in action! This is on hard difficulty with all of Robofish’s personal upgrades purchased, such as health, speed, size and shields. The weapon featured is custom made, centered around ice and freezing hit effects.
Robofish Shop Overview
// June 28th, 2011 // No Comments » // Robofish
New video uploaded today describing the shop and all the different categories of items players can purchase within the shop. Check it out!
Robofish Weapon Factory Overview
// June 26th, 2011 // No Comments » // Robofish
This video describes how the weapon factory works. The weapon factory allows players to create and customize their weapons as they progress through the game. Check out the video for more details!
Robofish Submitted To Dream Build Play 2011
// June 14th, 2011 // No Comments » // Robofish
We have just submitted Robofish to the Dream Build Play 2011 contest here! This is an annual contest to judge the best new games on Xbox Live Indie Games. Check out the new trailer below!
As you may have noticed, there’s a brand new feature in the game known as the weapon factory, which allows you to create your own weapons! We feel that this makes Robofish much more interesting and adds a lot of replay value. You can add up to 8 projectiles to one weapon and fully customize the looks, movement, damage, rate of fire, spread patterns, etc! It’s a really neat system, and we think you’ll have a lot of fun with it. We’ll be posting more examples in the future!
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