Nick Howard

Well, as Super Space Surge is starting to come to a close (sadly), I've been taking a lot more screenshots for things like #ScreenshotSaturday and the likes. I figured I might as well upload some screenshots here!

It's really been fun, lately, creating all these new effects, making new bullets, shooting effects, lasers, bombings, little things wiggle around and jiggle and fly and figgle! It's really been an adventure making everything "come alive," so to speak!

All I have left to do now is finish up some more graphic effects, compose music for the last 3 levels and the extra stage, make the options menu fully functional, and... make people interested in this game!

じゃあ、行きましょう！

I can honestly say that I will eternally be in awe of meeting, conversing, and later selfie'ing with Dr. Michio Kaku. He held a public speaking at Western Kentucky University this previous Monday (Mar. 17th), and it was fantastic. Not only did I run into him before everything on a stroke of luck, but also he picked me out of thousands of people to ask and answer questions. I've always had a huge interest in theoretical and astrophysics. I figured that I would spend my whole life learning about the Japanese language and Japanese culture, as well as computer science and focusing more on programming --along with being a game developer and helping to make some of the world's greatest games. (I'm no where near that, but who knows. Maybe in the future?) However, this has given me new life. A new drive. A new spark of inspiration to chase after my long sought out dreams, and I just wish I had the ability to transfer to an out of state college, study under the greatest minds of the world. I know I have the capacity to be great. I know I have the ability to make changes in the world. I want to continue my journey of being a polyglot. I want to continue being a computer programmer. However, I also now want to continue my love of mathematics and physics. I want to make a discovery in the world. I want to make a difference on the world and help humanity in a whole! I know I could. I just must work hard, diligent, and put in every ounce of my brain power to make my dreams true.

I will make a difference.

I can't stop playing my own game. I don't know what it is about it, but after finishing everything, adding a bunch of particle effects, and well... it's just plain fun to me. I enjoy my game immensely; it's spectacular, and I can't wait to share it with everyone! Since it is now my spring break in college, I have just one quick little midterm to take tomorrow afternoon, then I can focus on non-stop programming for a full week straight.

I'm having so much fun adding new particle effects, though. So, it's going to be more visual and audio enhancements as opposed to programming-specific ones. I'm wondering if I should release another demo, since the playable parts of the game have been completed, but I'm not sure. I might just finish tuning up everything, and release a fully suited up demo of the first three levels (like the first one was), except this time it'll be completely up-to-date, and it'll be my standing demo as I finish the extra stage of the game! Thankfully, I can say that everything else is done. With the exceptions of a couple of attacks I want to make longer or shorter, they're all pretty much how I want them to play, so who knows. I might toy around with the idea of what other people would expect out of a demo version of a game.

Either way, I'm hoping by the end of March to release Super Space Surge. If not by the end of March, at least by the end of April at the absolute latest. Also, if I can crank out games like this (with the lovely thanks of the Unity engine) every 3-5 months, maybe I'll work on making them the absolute best I can (not like I'm already doing that, but making them even better!) and start selling them. Super Space Surge, like I've said from the beginning, will be completely free and open to anyone who wants to play it! I'll have downloads set up on here, Itch.io, the Facebook page (if I ever update that...), Twitter, and who knows where else.

I have finished the full game play of Super Space Surge! Now I'm just on the long up hill climb of adding visual effects, spicing up already in place effects, adding more art and graphics, optimization, and making it feel just right!

I'm hoping by the end of March to fully release it, if not by mid-April!

Recently, I've transitioned into a full on site domain of: www.ikizami.com! It's pretty nifty, if I do say so myself. However, in actual news pertaining to what this blog is actually about, I've been working on the final boss of my game for nearly two or so weeks now. And it's because I'm absolutely infuriated with how it's coming along. Everything I program, I end up wanting to change; everything I put together, I want to alter to be different, have different colors, different bullet sizes, etc. I guess I'm so overly striving for perfection, it's causing me to be unhappy with everything. However, like I've said: it's my game, so it's gotta feel right to me, right?

I figure this time around, I'll have it working how I want. I mean, it's seeming to play how I'd expect a final boss to play, so let's just hope it turns out well!

I finished level five, and I'm about to begin programming of the final level of my game. I'm so excited! After I finish the last level, I have an extra stage to work on, then touching up EVERYTHING graphically! It's been an amazing journey, and I've built up a small following, but I cherish everyone whose bothered to keep up a little on my development. I'm hoping in the near future, that I can start making more desktop games + mobile apps; entirely for fun of course. Money is nice, but enjoyment is priority.

I also got my college degree today! :) It's the first step toward having my Masters in Japanese Literature and Language and in Computer Programming, but hey... I did it. Step one is out of the way, and no one can stop me now!

Ah-ha, it's finally happened! I finally enjoy the play and feel of my game, and (at least to me) it feels like a true bullet-hell. It's finally difficult enough that it makes me want more, and it's playing smooth enough that I'm content with it.

And with that, I've wrapped up level five! I'm going to be working on the fifth level boss all day today, then I'll work the final level + extra stage. Then I suppose, it'll be ready for the last few touch ups, then I'll finally release the game!

Since my last update, I've added a lot of new things.

Health and Energy bars are now textured.
High scores now properly work + save between instances.
New bullet textures. I'm still likely to change these up, however.
More particle effects.
More and more enemies.
Obviously the fourth and fifth levels are now complete!
Lasers now shoot properly!
Bombing now works properly, too!
Inverted color effects. (I may have overused them throughout the game, but that's a-okay because they look kick-ass.)

I want to add multiple ships to play as, as well as make the shooting and bombing more visual. They function exactly how I want them to, they're just not "pretty," haha. After I get the mechanics of everything down and finish the extra stage level, I want to go back and hopefully redo the backgrounds. I've had an idea to make it seem more "3D" despite just going to be various transparent 2d images (or randomly generated particle effects) flying past one another at varying speeds. I'll play around with that at a later point, though!

Nick Howard

Popular Posts

Blog Archive

Label Cloud