Around the World in 33 Days now released!

Around the World in 33 Days is officially released here:
http://gmc.yoyogames...howtopic=482242

Be sure to watch the release trailer as well!
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=ZkxoryDdP_Y

Thanks for the support many of you have shown towards me and my game. Also, I would like to thank all testers and players that have helped out with the polishing of this game. Finally, thanks to my musical artist, sir Xemic, for providing the beautiful music in the game!

- Brice Lwo

Mostly completed

-EDIT-
The Epilogue (cutscene-like segment) is also finished. This game is now at version 0.8.0 with everything but 3 pieces of music done.

I originally planned to have a Final Errand as a small unbeatable joke, but I decided against it. It didn't feel very appropriate (not age inappropriate though!) for the game and it's probably not that funny anyways.

The end of this game's work seems so close. Now it's all on my musical artist :P

Endgame designed and completed

Day 33, the endgame level has been completed.

[Spoiler alert...that is if you can call what I have a story XD]
After enjoying a witty pun, you get to jump down a fun rabbit hole where you travel for half a minute through little underground tunnels to finally reach the Core. The Core is the Tribe Skin's tower's power source which provides it immunity. The whole of the story is based on the rivalry of the two tribes, Tribe Fuz and Tribe Skin. When both of them create towers, Tribe Skin's being dominant due to its satanic power, the player needs to destroy the Core to defeat Tribe Skin.
[/spoiler]

Anyways, there are now 2 things left to finish. The Epilogue of the story (the story is broken into 3 sections, the Prologue, Part 2, and the Epilogue) and the Final Errand. Here's a picture of the player watching the Core explode:

On another good note, my musical artist, sir Xemic, has finished 3 of the 6 pieces of music being used in this game. For now, the other half are just placeholders.

"Day 32": Shmup minigame

Day 32 is finished. As the last minigame in this game, I made it as flashy as possible. It's a basic SHMUP with 3 types of enemies:
- homing, shooting enemy that takes two shots to kill (spawns every 3 seconds)
- static, 360 degree shooting enemy that takes five shots to kill (spawns every 6 seconds after 45 seconds in the game has passed)
- bouncing enemy that takes one shot to kill (spawns every second after 75 seconds in the game has passed)

There's a health powerup that spawns quite often (every 3 seconds) that adds 2 to your health. You'll need it, though, in the last 45 seconds or so when everything's pure chaos.

As always, I love making the colors change :P

"Day 31": Aether Escape mission

I'm done with Day 31, the Aether Escape mission. I thought it'd be kind of fun this time around to just make this level filled with random gameplay gimmicks. I think it's a bit easier than other levels, but it was fun making and I think it'll be fun to play (to those who can bear with the game long enough to reach this level XD). This mission is based on a Skinny Dam, which is just a hydroelectric generating dam-like...dam.

Fun fun.

"Day 31": Aether Collect mission

Day 30 is finisherminocamitisaroficious.

It's a basic Collect mission that utilizes almost everything accumulated from other Biomes--flying platforms, timed walls, timed spikes, spinning walls, spinning spikes, hidden spikes, doors, fake walls, etc.

Game is 88% done now :)

I've now got six days to finish each of the remaining levels to make the deadline. In fact, I have six point six days. Point six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six...

Design: Polishing the interface

I did more polishing today, which was going to be done sooner or later, so I'm going it sooner. Notably, I smoothed out the transitions between menus and levels, and just smoother in general. This includes fading in and out between the two and also this intro pause to each level:

This creates an intermediate between when you select a level and when you start it. You can also use this time to read the instructions to Errands (if the level you choose is a minigame). It's very smooth in the way that it fades in, the level name (in this case, "Imperial: Day 28") scrolls, fades in after you begin, etc. Details are probably pretty boring for you to hear.

Anyways, a somewhat high priority is going to try to fade out music:
- after selecting a mission from the main menu
- finishing a mission (when the Completed or Failed screen comes up)

GM's function for fading in and fading out is pretty confusing in that I can't get it to work anywhere I put the function.

Small update, I'll be chipping away at finishing levels, but I really want to make this game smooth and not awkward at all. To the extent of my skill, that is.

Design: Incorporating PC and PSP control schemes

I realized yesterday that I'm pretty much finished with my game. A couple of more level designing sessions, a simple endgame level, and an epilogue, and it's all done. That is why I'm going to be lazy and not do anything for a while.

Instead, today, I polished quite a bit. I updated the game so it looks like in both PC and PSP mode (chosen through Options), fixed many bugs, optimized the code, cleaned up some code, and made some of the Errands more efficient and better-looking. It was about two hours' worth of work but most of it was looking through code and playing through to test. It's a nice break.

By my calculations, I have 7.0 days to work on each level to meet the deadline. Ah...

What I mean by PC and PSP:

I had some sound advice to separate the two control schemes as to not confuse the player. Rather than showing Press [Cross Button]/[X Button] to select or [Circle Button]/[C Button] to continue, it'll just show one. I do agree when I see Comp05/Comp06 entries show both the PC and PSP setup, it miffs me. If that makes sense.

Design: Three new enemy "turret" types

I didn't really work on any new missions, but I did a lot of work on three new features introduced in the Aether Biome (the cloud world). There's the Helix, which is essentially a turret which shoots spinning bullets at you. There's the Smoker, which shoot a homing rocket at the player (which actually is kind of annoying with its somewhat accurate following and loud proximity beeping). And then there's the Flasher, which is pretty much just a turret that shoots lasers at you.

The Flasher is in the style of N/N+, where the laser creates a crosshair which homes onto the player. After it's aimed at the player, the laser will be fired. There's somewhat of a chance to avoid lasers as long as you continue moving in one direction.

Helix

Smoker

Flasher

Yes, the names are pretty stupid. And, yes, I realize that a laser doesn't really make sense. BUT LET ME DO IT.

As I said in the previous post's comment, if anybody wants to play the current progress of the game, contact me wherever you see fit (if you know me from the GMC, YYG, 64D, etc.) or just post in one of my blog...things. If you want to test, and have your name added in the list of Testers in the credits, tell me also. G'day.

"Day 26": Core Escape mission completed

Day 26, the Core Escape mission is complete. Though the player can escape the wall of doom, I can't escape making levels for this game. Heheheheh...

Also, Day 27 is the second part of the story, which deals mostly with the discovery part of the game. Yes...the game is superficial enough to use a superficial story as its theme.

No screenshots, but you can imagine Tribe Skin's (antagonists in this game) evil tower compared to Tribe Fuz's stout little tower. In fact, Tribe Skin managed to sell their souls so they can power their tower on the power of Hell.

I hate Blogspot. I think I'll delete this blog soon and try again. Even if I wanted to add screenshots, the picture button is gone. Along with the title form and half the buttons that are supposed to be above me.

Story: Redesigning the Prologue

I've redone the Prologue part of the game, which is a non-controllable (aside that you can control if you pause it or not :P) cutscene. Before, it was a scrolling background with the player and text fading on the screen. NOW, it's a scrolling background with the player, Skins, flames, Fuz Tower, and text fading on the screen. Big improvement, huh?

I think it's actually better now. Here's the picture of the Fuz Tower I made just now :3 It's towertastic...as far as towers go at least.

"Day 29": Aether PapiJump-like minigame

Day 29 is done, the first Errand mission in the Aether Biome. I know I skipped Days 26-28, but I just wanted to make the Errand before. This Errand is essentially Papijump, where you bounce on clouds up 5000ft., boosting up on springs and avoiding mines. I originally wanted to make the opposite, where you fall down while moving side to side dodging spikes and collecting powerups but I didn't like that idea much.

I've been working on Day 26 a little bit, so it should be done soon as well.

"Day 25": Core Collect level completed

Day 25 is completerilific.

It's getting to be kind of a chore making standard levels (making a game made of 33 minigames would be more fun for me) but with the introduction of new features in each Biome, it's not that bad. I'm having fun thinking of ways to using spinning walls/spikes and disappearing walls.

10 more days left. Yes, there are 35 days in this game. It's pretty counter-intuitive, but I'll think of a way to make it make sense. So close...

"Days 23 and 24": Core standard and Pong-like minigame

I've finished Day 23 and 24 :D Yes, I get lazy with blogging so I'm grouping days together. Day 23 is a standard Imperial mission in the new Core Biome. Three new objects are introduced here--the disappearing walls, spinning walls, and spinning spikes. They're pretty interesting to design levels with :)

Day 24 is a awesomely stylish Pong. Deal with it.

"Days 21 and 22": Mountainous Escape and marathon Errand minigame

Day 21 and 22 have been completed.

Day 21 is the Mountainous Escape mission and Day 22 is the last Mountainous mission. Day 22 is Marathon, which is an Errand where the player has to reach all 10 checkpoints in 60 seconds, with 5 seconds added for each checkpoint reached.

Day 22, Marathon

Now it's on to the Core Biome!

Day 20, Mountainous Collect mission, is finished. Small update :o

"Days 18 and 19": Mountainous Errand minigame

Happy Merry Fourth of July!

I finished Day 18 and 19 in the Mountainous Biome! Day 19, Errand, is called Click Click Boom. In this Errand, you steer a missile avoiding walls while trying to hit an escaping Skinny Caravan.

Day 18

Day 19

I've already started a bit on the Mountainous Collect mission.

"Days 16 and 17": Desert Biome finalized

Day 16 and 17 are complete. For the Day 17 Errand, I made Fuzzler, a fuzzy version of Frogger. For those of you who don't know what Frogger is, play it online for free (hundreds of Flash remakes). Basically you use the directional arrow keys to guide a Fuzzlian across a road filled with lethal cars and then hop over a river by jumping on planks. Jump onto a Tribe Fuz flag to rescue the Fuzzlian. 10 Fuzzlians in 2 minutes :)

Day 16 (Escape)

Day 17 (Fuzzler)

Now that I'm done with the Desert Biome, I'll start work on the Mountainous Biome :D