Well I finally did it and am totally pleased. Though it is bittersweet!
I spent A GREAT DEAL OF TIME, making a really full-featured editor only to wish that it was easier, simpler and faster.
Thus this weekend I’ve been working on that. Though it wasn’t a total waste as I learned a bunch and a lot of those features still exist, but beneath the surface.
One reason I wanted it simpler was so that the editor could be consumer friendly and players could share levels online.
So overall it’s a lot simpler/slightly less pretty(no more parallax), but a lot of the advanced graphical stuff can be skipped while a fun level can still be constructed.
Over and over again, I re-invent the wheel with lots of whistles, only to realize the wheel everyone else has been using is better.
STAY TUNED!

A quickie post just so I keep this a habit!

The enemy corral is what I call basic enemy grouping. It involves a lot more however. The basics of it are enemy approach distance and attack distance. More advanced things include variations in enemy placement that look natural–like an enemy flanking you while another one rushes you. It also involves a lot of value adjusting for knockback and range on attacks.

Yesterday I got lucky with a some numbers. I set the basic enemy approach 100 pixels back farther than normal and it did wonders. It made the battles feel more controlled, but still manic and threatening. It also set up the enemies to be struck more frequently when other enemies are rebounded off of walls. VERY SWEET!

Just chugging away at developing enemy AI and interactive environments.

So 2beegames.com had their second independent game competition recently and Aces Wild was entered in the competition.  This was the second independent game competition on 2beegames.com that Aces Wild was entered in. Aces Wild was in the first independent game competition that 2BeeGames held and was one of the final contestants.  Unfortunately Aces Wild was not a finalist in this competition.

After sitting down with Tyler, the game creator, and discussing why he thinks Aces Wild wasn’t as successful in this competition it sounds ultimately like the game wasn’t polished enough, the level-design made it feel incomplete, and there wasn’t much context for players to use all the abilities and actions of the characters.  Tyler didn’t feel the other games were in much better shape than his, though.  He agrees his game does need improvement, and he continues to work daily on it.

I also think Aces Wild should have been a finalist in the 2beegames competition.  Of course, I’m not nearly as knowledgable about games or independent game development as the judges at 2BeeGames but I have been playing video games since I could walk and Aces Wild has some of the most amazing art I’ve seen in a video game and the fact that it was developed and designed entirely by one person is amazing.  We’ll see what the future holds for Aces Wild and Tyler!