Whoops

I have a blog...

I totally didn't forget about this until now.

Anyway. There's been a lot going on since the last blog. I've participated in two Game Jam's; EDAC's weeklong Game Jam and a 48 hr Global Game Jam

In the EDAC Game Jam, I, along with seven people made a game called Fyote. The constraint of the Game Jam was Twofold. The first was to make an interactive art piece. The second constraint was Coyote. Our team's idea was to take a spin on the Native American story of how the Coyote brought fire to man.

In the Global Game Jam, I, again with seven(different) people, made a game called Family Reunion. The constraint of the Game Jam was what home means to you. We decided to go with an awkward kid at a family reunion shooting words at people to get out of conversations. With only 48 hours to make the game, it was, an interesting game when it was complete.

And during all that, I've been working on my individual project. I decided to go with the rage game because I like watching people suff— master difficult controls to progress in a game.

I've got it up online right now in beta if anyone would like to give it a try.

Newgrounds
Game Jolt
Kongregate

That is all for now. I'll see you when I see you.

Prototypes

So the last few weeks have been busy ones. I spent them making three different prototypes, one of which I will turn into a full game, that will be played on Newgrounds and other online sites. That'll be fun.

These are my prototypes in action. I've gotta pick one of these and polish it even more. That's it for this week. In two weeks I'll be participating in the EDAC Game Jam. We'll be making a fully polished game over the course of one week.

I'll post updates when I can.

Cinematics

So here I am again with another attempt of my weekly blog.

It's a few weeks late

A few weeks ago, we worked on Cinematics. Had to make a little video in Unity. I think it turned out well. It got laughs out of the people I showed it to, so that must mean something, right?

Here's the video in question.

Kickstarter, Mistakes, and Consistency

So, Murder Manor has been live for a while, now.

Yay.

Our month is almost up and we raised $928 so far. Not the best for our $7500 goal, but it was more than I had been expecting for our board game project to go. I'm sad to not have gotten it even halfway to done, but in a way, I'm almost relieved at the same time. I can see why the original length of time for the Kickstarter was seven days. Not enough time to get funded and have to create a product alongside going to school.

We made the mistake and forgot to change how long we wanted our Kickstarter, but our teacher rolled with it and had the other group change theirs to a month as well. It was a learning experience either way and I've learned one thing from it.

I don't like marketing.

The thought of having to go online and signing up for whatever I could to spread the word that there's a game that a few classmates I and put up is exhausting. It was especially hard to find places that allowed self-promotion. And being consistent on it was not an easy thing to do.

But I digress.

Three months into the school year and I'm liking it so far. For the past few weeks, we have been learning to code in Unity, and I've always liked coding, so it's been fun to do. Right now we're learning how to make a cinematic. So far this course has been pretty well-rounded. I can't wait until we make our big group project.

And I guess I should address the last part of the title. I'm gonna have to start learning how to be consistent on here. I started writing this post in October.

When the Kickstarter went live.

So now, I'm going to be starting to make a weekly blog like thing. Maybe with pictures or stuff from my projects. Get my portfolio started right away.

Speaking of; this is what I've been working on for the past week or so.

Marketing is Weird

I've spent the past two school days scrolling through social media and making forum and blog posts to advertise for the board game. An interesting experience for sure. I would never have thought that a productive day at school would be on Facebook. The same goes for how exhausting it can be. Not to mention, the Kickstarter is going live tomorrow.

Busy busy busy.

Murder Manor, Marketing, and EEKFEST

So after weeks of coming out with ideas and shooting down the ideas of my team members(I kid, they're cool people), we've come up with an idea that may be a good game, and well themed for the time of year. It's called Murder Manor if the title of this post didn't give it away. It's a game of underhanded tactics, where you can use the items to your advantage or hinder your opponents.

And as a marketing push for the game that's going to go on Kickstarter, we've decided to do The Four Days of Hype: Four days where we reveal small hints of our game before the Kickstarter is released to build up the hype. I've been a bit lax on blogging about it.

Here's day one: The board.

Day Two: The Item Cards

Day Three will be posted later today.

Also, on Saturday, we will be at EEKFEST in St. Albert from 11-5, I will only be there till 2, playtesting our game with anyone who drops by, so if you feel so inclined, come see us and our board game.

So this is a thing.

Better late than never.

I started school on September 2, 2018 for video game design. One of the first things I was told was that I needed to create a blog and post occasionally to slowly build my portfolio. Made the blog the day I was told. And now it's time for my first post. 

I guess the topic of this blog will be board games.

First project of the year is to make a board game with three other people. So far, it's been about as fun as building a board game from scratch sounds like; not much. But sometimes, design can be awful, and that's a part of making games, whether it be cardboard or computer.

I'm sure that I'll figure out how to blog more effectively as time goes on, but for now, it's a start. 

Signing off.

Kole