Darkened Dreams Game

We've moved!

2011-08-17T16:16:00.000-06:00

Still care? Didn't give up on us?

http://califergames.blogspot.com/

Looking for Testers!

2010-03-11T10:23:00.002-07:00

So the coding for Siphon Spirit is finished! Peter's working hard in getting the levels, art and story in and Dave is getting us some more audio. As soon as we get everything in we are going to have a final testing stage before releasing the game. If you're interested in playing it and finding problems then sign up! Email califer@califergames.com to get in the queue.

RIP DD2

2010-02-18T16:25:00.002-07:00

I'm wrapping up on Siphon Spirit now. The code is feature-complete and I'm just prettying things up and cleaning some bugs. Peter still has a good sized chunk of work with putting in the story with cutscenes and making more than 100 levels. Dave has still got some sound effects and music to put in. So then I thought I'd go ahead and get back to work on Darkened Dreams 2.

Then I got depressed. We've been working on it for a while, and what we have is pretty cool but it'll still be a few more years until it's feature complete. Once it's feature complete we can start making the actual story, then we can start testing it like crazy for balance issues and all that crap. For a tiny team like ours that could be a very very very long time. Okay, I knew it was going to take a while when we started.

Then I mentioned to Peter another RPG idea that I wanted to do. He told me that I should just make it a mod for DD2. I thought, "No! I want it to be fun to play and I don't like how DD2 is set up." Then I realized that if I didn't even want to use it to make mods how could I count on players wanting to make mods with it?

The more I thought about it the less likely it seemed that we'd be able to really sell DD2. And no wonder, we weren't planning on selling it at the start. It was good to work on it. We learned a lot and got a good music guy to team up with us. Darkened Dreams 2 is ... well, I won't say that it's completely dead. I'll just say that it is on the back-burner indefinitely.

On the bright side, I'm going to start a new game next week. We don't have a set name for it yet or anything, but I'll let you know as soon as we have something set in stone.

-Califer

Califer Games

2010-02-06T16:21:00.003-07:00

Well, we've finally got something for everyone to check out! We made demo discs to hand out at the Indie Game Night and got some good feedback. We've cleaned up the demo a little bit and put it online for your downloading and playing pleasure! Also, we got a website to put it up on. We're getting pretty excited about getting close to finishing it, though we probably still have about 100 hours of work to put in (2.5 weeks if we were doing this full-time). Enjoy the demo!

-Califer

Putting in the extras

2010-01-21T13:08:00.002-07:00

Well, I've been hard at work getting those new features in! We've got various types of leeches which steal your energy but you can't steal any from them. We've got magic spells called Reveal and Shield. The shield protects you from damage (probably didn't even need to describe it...) and the reveal shows you more about the stage. There's also a bomb that slowly ticks down until it explodes. You'll need to make sure that you have a shield charged up before it goes off!

After that I mainly have the stage selection to put in and then it's just tidying things up. I'm fairly confident that my side of things will be ready by this time next week, but it looks like I won't get the stuff in for DD2 that I wanted to.

-Califer

Siphon Spirit Continues

2010-01-14T08:45:00.002-07:00

Our new goal for Siphon Spirit is to have it finished by Jan 28th, just in time for indie game night. What's the hold up? Why isn't it finished? Feature Creep.

Yes, Feature Creep. The tendency of a product to keep adding more and more things to it. It was really hard for me to say no to any of the features that popped up for one simple reason. They were all good features that would really improve the final game. So what's better, getting a game out early, or getting a game out later than you said you would but making it better? According to the Duke Nukem Forever team, getting the game out later but better was the best option. After 12 years of full-time development the company finally ran out of money and the project was canceled.

Of course, getting games out too fast is also bad. E.T. for the Atari is well known as being the worst game ever made. I actually owned this when I was a kid. My main memory of the game is "What am I supposed to do?" I was thrown into the game without even a hint of my objective, and no clear direction of where to go. Why was it so bad? Critics blame the fact that it was only a single programmer working on it given only 5 weeks. Now, I'm sure that if Peter and I were able to work full time on Siphon Sphere we could have it done in 5 weeks and be a pretty darn good game at that. But this was the Atari 2600. Programming wasn't nearly as developed as it is now, so the programmer had do code every part himself where I am able to use objects that other programmers have made.

Another famously bad 'game' is Animal Soccer World. The animation is so bad that if I had a few weeks I could probably learn to do it myself. Don't try watching all the videos in that link. I only managed the first two before I felt myself slipping off into a coma. The worst part is that no soccer actually happens in the game. Aside from those cut scenes it's just some kind of coloring book. The developer, Phoenix Games Group, seems to be quite happy with their monstrosity. They claim "Ordinarily the average development period for a game is 18 months, whereas Phoenix need a mere 3-5 months." Here they clearly are trying for games that are popped out quickly rather than trying to make a good game.

I hope that we're in the middle ground. Peter and I don't want to put out any games that we don't ourselves enjoy playing. But at the same time we actually would like to put a game out. Hopefully we'll get Siphon Sphere out on time!

-Califer

P.S. I did another guest post at RampantGames which can be read here.

Siphon Spirit

2010-01-08T20:33:00.003-07:00

Welcome back! Sorry that it took so long to get another post up here. You see, our game in a day stretched on and on. we're now sitting at game in a month and it's really coming together.

You play the role of a priestess going off to fight some demons. You have an aura of purified energy and you need to use that to absorb energy from the demons, purify it, and use it against them.

The name of the game is Siphon Spirit. It's fairly close to completion, we just need audio and Peter needs to get some more art and levels in. I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out and we'll have a demo up once we have our website all situated.

As for Darkened Dreams, we've got a showing happening at indie game night out here at the end of the month. I'm planning to have combat all finished by then, as well as making it look nicer. This includes having a combat log that you can look up and getting gold and items from fallen enemies. There will also be creature and item respawning. Hopefully I can get all that done as well as Siphon Spirit for indie game night!

-Califer

Game in a day 1

2009-12-11T09:04:00.003-07:00

Well, not much going on in Darkened Dreams 2 right now because we're gearing up to do a game in a day! We're going to be getting together tomorrow and trying to crank out a game. More info next week!

Just a heads up....

2009-12-09T14:15:00.002-07:00

It's been nearly a year after I stopped working at Sensory Sweep (still haven't been paid my back wages yet). There's a news article that came out today that tells what's been happening with that.

http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-9896-sensory-sweep-shortchange.html

Dark Cloud....Not that bad

2009-12-04T12:19:00.002-07:00

Just as I was getting ready to move onto a different game my stubborn streak came out and I was determined to finish Dark Cloud. I was annoyed at my stubborn streak but I guess that's all that's keeping me still working on DD2 (yes, I AM still working on it!) so I guess it's alright.

Once I got Ruby, the genie, on my team things got a lot better. She's a ranged fighter that does decent damage. Ranged is important in Dark Cloud because those weapons don't wear out so fast. I basically only used her whenever I had a choice. This cleared up a lot of the stress in the game and I started having fun figuring out how to level up and modify the weapons. I stopped working on the main character because his melee hits would still take a lot of damage while fighting. Plus he still looks stupid.

Still, if you have a team of characters to play with you shouldn't be forced to use the other characters. Especially when there is no story, rhyme or reason as to why they should be used. A "mysterious force" making me play a certain way just makes me annoyed, as well as having arbitrary gaps in the floor that make me switch players to the cat girl to jump over it and immediately switch back to the player that I like playing as.

The bottom line is, after I got Ruby the game became fun. I am actually interested in getting the next game after I finish the other games I got. Also, it was good to know that the real Dark Genie (spoiler?) actually looked pretty cool.

But onto Darkened Dreams! I got abilities working in and out of battle so that's cool. Trying to decide what to work on next. Peter and I are getting together next week to try to make a game in a day. Should be interesting!

-Califer

Dark Cloud

2009-11-13T15:08:00.002-07:00

I've finished Sly Cooper. It was fun and not too long, plenty of moves to learn and good action. I'll probably get the sequel after I finish going through the rest of the games I bought.

The current game I'm playing is Dark Cloud. Most of the games that I got are games that I found on top 20 sites. Dark Cloud was one of them, but I just can't imagine how anyone thought it was that good. You play as a skinny kid with plastic hair that wears a green turban. A dark genie was released that destroyed half the world in a single day. The fairy king, realizing that he and his people were outmatched, decided to lay the fate of the world in your inexperienced hands.

Your job in the game is to collect all the parts of the villages and put them back together. This might have been interesting, but after seeing the people at a festival in the introduction I just couldn't care about them enough to want to put their village back. One of the villagers is named Macho. He's about three or four of your character and he wants his house next to the dungeon so he can fight (though it's just to work out, he never helps you) and he wants his weights placed at his house etc etc. Then there's the fat guy who sleeps all day and wants me to risk my neck to bring him his candy box. Then he gives me a piece of cheese. I'll go off about my (in-game) mom later.

This might have been remedied by making the dungeons fun. They're not. I was concerned at first about my 'thirst meter'. If I run out of water, I start losing health and can't fight well. This turned out to not be a problem (at least not so far, I'm still in the first dungeon) since there is usually a pool on each floor that I can just walk into and I'll be full of water and life. No, what REALLY got me is the hit points on the weapons. I would go through a bit of the dungeon floor then I'd have to leave so I could run back to the mayor's house where he would give me one package of 'repair powder' which magically fixes weapons. So I'd talk to him, use the powder, talk to him again then head back to the dungeon. Later on I had four weapons, but I still had to leave the dungeon after only one floor because all my weapons were about to break. Then I had to go through the boring process of talking to the mayor, getting one pouch, healing one weapon, on and on until I finally healed all my weapons then went to play through only one more floor before having to run back. When I finally got the shop guy and his house and all the items that made him happy enough to start selling me things (c'mon man, you need to be bribed to sell things to me after I saved your life and your home?) I ended up selling a good chunk of what I'd found (most monsters don't drop cash) in order to heavily invest in repair powder so I could actually go through more than one floor without having to run back and forth all day long.

Which leads me to another reason that I can't care less about the villagers. They can't care less about me after I rescue their 'atla' (soul? essence?) from the dungeon, dredge up their homes and possessions and kill tons of monsters and undead that live right next door. For getting all their possessions back to them they'll give me something basic (thanks for the single piece of cheese). Does anyone offer to help me? Don't they realize what happened? If I died in the dungeon (which I did) would anyone ever do anything useful again?

Duels. Some monsters are 'too strong' to actually fight, so I need to duel then instead. This is basically a poor man's rhythm game with no music. These are easier than regular fights, especially against those lousy cave bats that fly just above where my sword swings half the time. The second duel was against a mysterious guy who wanted the bracelet I got from the fairy king. He told me that I had no hope of beating the dark genie, which is pretty much what the fairy king said.

I tend to agree. I'm still slicing away at bats and crap and I can't level up. I can only use the weapons until they have enough xp to level up. Level the weapon up enough and it can change to a stronger, different weapon. Apparently the weapons are made of Pokemon. I did manage to break the weapon I'd put the most work into because my last hit took down more weapon hp than I thought it would. It was like losing a few levels because it was my only decent weapon.

I did get my first ally though. It was a cat I rescued that I used a potion on so she became kinda human. Her slingshot is super weak at the level I'm on. It only does 1 point of damage to the big enemies which have lots more HP. So by the time I've killed ONE of them my only weapon is about to break. Want to know the best part? I'm on a level that will only let me use her. So she can't kill anything, but I need to kill everything to find the key to the next floor. I'm stuck. Even when she died (didn't take long) it gave me the option of switching to the main guy or losing half my money. But it wouldn't let me switch.

That's not the only kind of limit that they put on you. There are floors that make it so that your weapons LOSE exp each time you kill something. Why? Because the makers hate you. You HAVE to kill to progress. Killing hurts your weapons like crazy, but at least you get a little weapon xp for it so you can eventually get stronger, but on these levels it makes playing the game a punishment. (regular levels are just a chore. The difference between cleaning the bathroom and cleaning the bathroom with your tongue.)

On the bright side, it made playing Destroy All Humans all that much more fun.

-Califer

Old Code and Glass Cannons

2009-10-08T16:46:00.002-06:00

There's a well-known saying among programmers. "If you haven't seen your code for 6 months it might as well belong to someone else." Meaning that your own code will make a lot less sense if you haven't dealt with it in a while. It's been a while since I went through the chain of events that happen for combat. I tried to catch up while watching a TV show, but it just wasn't going to happen. I'll give it another go tonight without a TV show in the way.

Instead of complaining more about my code, I'll give my first impressions on an older game; Sly Cooper and the Theivius Racoonius. My first time playing it was pretty short, since I'd got a number of used games and wanted to make sure they all worked.

In the first stage I got a little confused because it apparently only wanted me to die when I was sure of safety. After my first heist I was attacked by a cop with a big gun. I was about to make a run past a bunch of cop cars to get into my van, but decided to hold back. The cop proceeded to shoot the same cop car over and over. I felt pretty darn safe since she wasn't aiming anywhere near me so I went into first person view to look around to see if there were any pickups or anything. I didn't see anything so I went to regular play, but before I could go anywhere I got shot and it was game over. She spent about 1 minute just blasting her own cop cars before finally aiming at me!

I was annoyed at having to start over so I tried to jump off the building. I couldn't. Then I got somewhat serious and started going through the level again. As I was going I jumped at the edge of the building again just for laughs and I flew off the edge and died again.

Whoops.

I played it again later since it turned out my copy of ratchet and clank had a scratch that wouldn't let me go further than I was. I rushed through the first stage this time and got to the main story. This is when I found out that Sly Cooper is a glass cannon. Very powerful, but can't take a hit. There was a huge enemy swinging a hammer that looked twice my skinny raccoon size that I took out with one hit. Then I saw some vines with thorns and I decided to hit them to see if they'd break and give me coins like a lot of other things were. Apparently the swing brought me a little too close and I was instantly killed.

Despite all my deaths I actually am beginning to enjoy the game. It's cutesy, but still fun.

Not that anyone ever comments on this blog anymore, but what do you think? Is it good to get an update of what's happening and a short game review, or am I getting too off-topic by mentioning anything but Darkened Dreams 2?

P.S. There hasn't been any art on this blog for a while. Peter, would you be so kind as to post some art?

Guest Post

2009-10-05T10:20:00.003-06:00

Before you get all excited, I should clarify the title. No, I didn't get someone to replace me for a week. Jay at RampantGames unfortunately had to go on vacation in Hawaii (poor guy!), so I did a guest post for him. It's not great, but it's better than nothing. Here it is!

Display Redone

2009-10-01T14:43:00.000-06:00

Okay, the creatures are no longer limited to being in boxes. Instead they spawn in a random location in a pre-defined space. Now we can see the large monsters with no problem!

Part of the reason that I had even set things up in boxed space was to make it easier for me to write the clicking code. The easiest way was to just allow a click on any part of the picture, even parts that were invisible (0 alpha). If pictures overlapped then it would be very easy to click on the wrong picture just because it was a part that you couldn't see and couldn't tell which was in front.

That's the other problem that I fixed last night. Now button presses will be ignored if they happened on something that can't be seen and will proceed to check whatever else may be behind.

Now it's time, finally!, for me to get back to working on the abilities. It's been a long time since I first was about to work on abilities, and I've changed a lot since then. It will be very satisfying to me to finish off the abilities because that means that I'll be getting past where I had stopped to look back so long ago. I'm excited to finish this off, get battles looking even nicer, and then move onto new things!

The big question is, what next? Should I focus on multiple maps (overworld maps and dungeons) or NPCs? What do you think?

-Califer

New Display

2009-09-24T08:42:00.002-06:00

So I ... wait, I last posted a month and a half ago? Crap, sorry about that. I got a new job and my schedule got changed around.

Anyways, both Peter and I are doing triple-time at the moment. We both have full time jobs, we both are working on Darkened Dreams 2, Peter is doing art for another company in his spare time, and I'm working on a tool for editing sprite sheets for use in 2D games. Also, we're married (not to each other >_>) and each of us has a small child. That's why there hasn't been too much progress lately.

Not to say that nothing has happened! Peter's been getting me new art, and I've managed to speed things up. We had a problem with timid creatures grabbing a spot in an opposite direction from the hero and run through the path-finding code to find out how to get there. Unfortunately, because of the test map setup this led to a nasty problem. They would almost always choose something that was outside of the boundaries, use up some time trying to find a non-existent path until hitting the limit of places I allowed them to look, try a different direction which, likely as not, ALSO ended up outside the boundary!

If we had more than one at the same time looking like that it would slow the game down considerably. I started testing to figure out what I could do, then realized that I didn't even need to get them a path. They weren't trying to get to a certain spot, they were just trying to get away from the hero! The next problem is that since they didn't always run away from the hero (maybe they didn't see you or just don't feel like running) it was hard to tell if they were really running away or just happened to travel in a direction opposite you. Peter got me some recolored versions of the creature icons so I could give them a different color depending on what their AI state was. That's when I found out that timid creatures would run right at you! lol. Then run right past you as if you weren't there. I negated the direction and it all worked right and wasn't slow anymore.

The next problem is with the display. I have things set up so that there are a number of boxes that a creature can fill in depending on the size of the art. It's first come, first shown and they can't be kicked out until you get far enough away from them. This means that once you kill something the bones are just going to sit there forever (not doing any decay and respawning yet). Also, anything that's too big won't show up. I found out that the biggest monster that Peter drew doesn't fit at all, so that made me see I need to rework it.

I've come up with what feels like a good solution, and I plan to implement it sometime this week. I'll let you know if it works :)

-Califer

Invasion in an RPG

2009-08-12T12:00:00.004-06:00

So I was playing Super Mario RPG and got to a point (near the beginning, not really a spoiler) where the mushroom kingdom was invaded by shyguys. There was a steady stream of them coming out of the castle, so it should be obvious that in order to stop this invasion we need to go and take out the main force in the castle. Is that what I did? Heck no.

See, this is an RPG. Big bosses and main forces will wait while I take care of small fry first. I avoided the main castle like the plague until I had visited every single house and cleared out the few enemies that were bouncing in place scaring people. Because I stopped in houses and defeated every static enemy I ended up with some items that would permanently boost my MP. I wouldn't have gotten those goods if I had rushed in, beat the boss while taking on as few flunkies as possible, and made all the bad guys run away. The people just wouldn't be GRATEFUL that way.

RPGs are great at this. Show something in the story that shows you probably won't be able to get back to this exact spot and it makes the players nervous about actually continuing for fear of losing out on things that they'll never be able to get otherwise.

I personally just think it's annoying to have to search everything all of the time just in case you won't be able to get things later, but what do you think?

Indie Game Night

2009-07-31T12:08:00.002-06:00

Last night Peter and I went to an Indie Game Night at ITT Tech. There was a presentation about making games on the iPhone, free pizza, and a time to show off what we were working on.

The presentation was given by Chris Evans of Morphosis Games. He started with the history of the iPhone and went on to describe how big the iPhone market is. In order to become an iPhone developer you need an Apple computer, and need to pay $100 to register. Once you become a developer you get the iPhone SDK (software development kit) and you can put the programs you write on an iPhone. You can also sell your application in the app store, but remember that there are already TONS of apps there. Apple reviews each app before it releases it to the store, and apparantly if apple rejects it they sometimes won't give you enough information to fix it. Yay Apple!

So onto the money! Everyone hears stories about how some game or app has made the developers hundreds of thousands of dollars. But if you don't make $250 dollars you'll never see a cent of it. Also, Apple will take 30% of the money made from the app. That's not really that bad of a deal for a publisher. But you should expect to not make a whole lot of money developing for the iPhone.

Thanks Chris! Onto the games!

The presentation went a little long, so I didn't get to see very many games after I had done a little demoing of Darkened Dreams. Here's what I got to see.

Tusk by Jon
It was a space shooter that he made. A person from Germany liked it and wanted to put his art in it so they did, then Jon was able to sell the game to the German company.

Kiten by Josh Jones
Another space shooter, with an emphasis on the AI. The ships would change colors depending on what AI they were running. Blue for defensive, red for attack, and purple for a little of both. While I was watching the person whoi was playing it was getting slaughtered until all of the ships turned blue to give him a chance to rest and get some revenge. It was awfully nice of them :)

A dancing game by Les Pardew
I hope I spelled his name right. I can barely make out my own handwriting >_<. It's actually being developed on a console, and I was asked not to say a whole lot about it for that reason. In any case, the graphics look great, gameplay was smooth, and there were no noticable bugs.

Radioactive Joe by ???
The creator wasn't there when I got there, and it seemed to have some trouble running so I never found out what it was all about. Something about a redneck named Joe who starts the game in a toxic waste spill...

Tank General by ???
This game was broken when I came by, and the creator was too busy debugging it to answer any of my questions.

Jay at Rampant Games has a more detailed list of games, though what he says for Darkened Dreams 2 leads me to believe that he didn't see all the changes to the maker.

Drawing on forms

2009-07-25T08:26:00.003-06:00

A month or so ago Peter was playing with the map maker and was surprised at how slow it was. I then responded, "Yeah, that's currently my wors.....my second worst bug."

The worst bug was how data was set up. This made it so that you couldn't delete anything, and it took forever to search through (yes, it's a fairly loose usage of the term 'bug'). That's what I've been working on for the past while, and I'm happy with the changes. Now it's time to tackle my new worst bug, the slowness of the map drawing in the maker! I've picked up quite a few new tricks since I started working on the map maker back in the beginning, and I'm already seeing some speed boosts. Just need to finish it and get the game working with the new save data (which should be trivial) before next Thursday. Thursday is the next Indie Game Night, and I don't want any more bugs cropping up like last time!

-Califer

How Enchanting!

2009-07-18T17:41:00.002-06:00

I've been chugging away on the Maker for the last little while, and I'm getting near the end! I'm almost finished with the items, and after that I can go in and fix the map maker.

The reason that I haven't finished the items part of it (besides what I said in the last post) is that I never really had enchanting set up at all. Now it's all decided, and I just need to change all the item types that can be enchanted, as well as the items that do the enchantments.

-Califer

P.S. My wife's computer got a virus that deleted some windows files the day after my last post, and we had to format the drive. Thankfully, my friend Steve was able to save our most important files. There was no way we could have gone back and re-taken those baby photos! I was going to pick up the drive from him the next day, but then my car wouldn't start. My dad towed the car to the place he always goes to, and I had to tell Steve I couldn't make it. He was cool enough to not only come back with the drive and the data backed up on DVDs, he also bought us a pressure cooker to replace the one that exploded! Thanks Steve! The next day my car was delivered. It was just a battery that had shorted out.
P.P.S. I was mopping the floor and found the missing chunk of metal from the old pressure cooker a few hours ago. Until now I had thought it had lodged itself in the ceiling somewhere.

Note to Self: Don't Tell Peter...

2009-07-09T10:56:00.002-06:00

Note to Self: Don't Tell Peter What I'm Planning on Finishing Today.

It never works.

Califer: "Hey Peter, I'm going to get all the items rewritten and meshed with the new game-maker."
Peter: "Cool!"
Later that day...
Wife: "I need to get some stuff done, watch the baby for a few hours."
Califer: *oof, that'll make it hard to finish what I said I'd do* "Sure."
A little later...
BANG!! HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Califer: "What the crap was that!?"
Wife: "The pressure cooker just exploded!"
:O
Luckily no one was in the kitchen when it happened, but the cat did suffer from a minor nervous breakdown as she wandered the whole house peeking around corners trying to find the alien fleet that attacked us.
So then I spent another hour or so cleaning green paste from the ceiling, floor, cabinets, walls, washing the stove, and then of course washing myself.

This was a more dramatic example of why I can never get things done after I tell Peter about them, but it seems that whenever I tell Peter that I'm going to get something done SOMETHING happens that makes it impossible.

Also, everything's been breaking ever since I quit my job. First to go was my DS. Then the fridge, the doorknob, the actual door, the lawnmower, the modem, Darkened Dreams 2, the garden hose...

Peter was nice enough to lend me his DS, since I'm a DS freak and he spends most of his gaming time on Neverwinter Nights now. I gave it back to him last week because so many things were breaking that I was afraid that the DS would be next, and if I had the money to replace his DS I would just get one of my own. So the DS dodged the bullet and the pressure cooker took it instead.

Wait, Darkened Dreams 2 is broken? Yeah. Sorry about that.

I think I mentioned that the maker had some serious flaws and so I was working those things out. In the meantime the data that I have is being converted to a different type so I can reach in and get what I need instead of having to load it all at once. Since the data is changed I can't run it in the game right now, so it's effectively broken. However, after I finish getting the items and the Map maper redone I should be able to get the game working again without to much trouble.

...

Do I get bonus points for my longest post ever?

-Califer

Game Artists (And Audio Guys)

2009-06-14T13:34:00.002-06:00

In response to a comment in the last post, I'll add that there ARE in-house musicians at most big studios.

Audio Guys-This is a job for people good at mixing sounds. You may not need to play any instruments as long as you can put things together in the computer, but instrument talent always bolsters what you are able to produce. You don't just do music, though, you'll also be in charge of converting audio from audio libraries into different formats for use in different game engines and cutting audio into the usable/needed parts. And don't forget recording...Many games require voice and possibly other sound effects recorded with a mic. You might just work out of a small room with a little sound insulation, but that's all going to depend on where you go.

Artists- Let's break this up into parts, because there are lots of kinds...

The title "Artist" might apply to you if you, like me, work at a small operation and you pretty much do everything. Otherwise, at a bigger studio, you will get a different title.

Concept Artist-Concept artists usually are very good at using digital painting programs to make the kind of flashy stuff you all like to put on your desktop background. They need to take a few written notes from a design document about characters and environments and imagine the ultimate incredible scene as it might look in the end. They also need to expect the final product to look absolutely nothing like the awesomeness they envisioned.

UI Artist-Creates and designs the life bars, frames, menus, and buttons that go into a game's User Interface. Should be pro at Illustrator, Photoshop, and a little motion graphics like Flash or After Effects for some of the more polished, cooler stuff. Expect to redo the interface 2 or 3 times, since no matter how cool it is, by the end of the project, someone will get bored of it and decide that's because it wasn't as good as he originally thought.

Character Modeler-Must know Maya and/or 3D Studio Max typically, and have a knowledge of how to create characters that animate/blend well. You'll also want to know how to get your character to look amazing, even with a polygon count limit. For low-polygon models, that means less than 500 triangles usually. For hi-res stuff, you may get up to 2000, 5000, maybe even 7000. But you'll want to also understand mapping UV's for texturing, painting texture maps, painting specular maps, and painting normal maps. You'll be working with model exporters that are sometimes built in-house, because game engines don't use maya binary or max files directly.

Environment Modeler-Much like a character modeler, but you are expected to make environments that fit the poly-count limitations and keep everything within a certain art style for the environments. You may also have to do lots of environments very quickly.

Technical Artist-Can mean a number of things, but I think most common is for this person to be in charge of adding rigging (animation functionality) to character models. They also write scripts for 3d software that aids in production for the other artists (or themselves) to use to speed up those dull, repetitive tasks.

Animator-This is what I used to be...Usually means taking 3d modeled, rigged characters, and making them do all the actions they need to do in the game. Can also include cutscenes, but sometimes there is a whole other position for that "Cinematics Animator". I got to do a little pixel animation as well. The "funnest" part is trying to use animation exporters which turn your animation data into usable game data.

Storyboard Artist-This person visually plans out the game's cutscenes, he usually has to work from a script and he should have a great knowledge of cinematography (camera angles, types of camera movement) and he should be able to whip out cool drawings in all kind of perspective very quickly, showing lots of character emotion.

2D Animator-You don't see this much any more. I was just an animator and I did this a little bit with pixel animaton. 3D animation is much cheaper to make now, so learn the 3d stuff if you want to make games professionally. 2D is still cool though, so having this as an extra skillset will help.

Want to work in the game industry?

2009-05-22T12:37:00.002-06:00

I've had a few people telling me that they want to get into the game industry. Since I don't have a lot to say about DD2 right now (I was on vacation last week, studied alternative methods of storing game data the week before, and have mostly been looking for a new job this week) I thought I would go over the different positions in a game company.

Producer - These are the people that talk with the publishers and are basically the boss of a team. They make sure that everyone is working on the right thing and that everything will finish on time. Producers need good management skills and good writing and speaking skills.

Designer - Designers are the people that not only come up with ideas about games, but also the people that end up doing a lot of the grunt work on a game. For example, while making My Japanese Coach we would get a large sound file from a two hour recording session. A designer would then use a tool to cut the sound files, name them, and get me a list of sounds that had pops or clicks in the recording that needed to be redone.

Programmer - Programmers are the people that write the code that makes everything happen. For major games we usually use C/C++. Smaller games may be written in C# (such as Xbox live arcade games), Java, Flash Actionscript, and even PHP.

Artist - Artists are the guys that make all the action worth looking at. I'll let Peter go into more detail about the types of artists that work on games since he knows a lot more about it.

Tester - Yay! Play games all day long and get paid for it! Hehe, sorry. It sounds a heck of a lot better than it is. First off, the games that you are testing are not finished games up until the very end, so you'll be playing a broken game. Over and over and over again. Also, you don't get to just choose which games you'll be testing. After a few months of testing on Barbies Fabulous Pony Ride you might not be so excited ever the idea of being a game tester anymore.

Of course there are also the other jobs that will be in most companies, such as human resources and IT.

Is there a job you want to about in more detail? Any question? Leave a comment!

IGDA Night

2009-05-04T10:33:00.002-06:00

I think I've mentioned that I'm a member of the local IGDA (Independent Game Designers Association). Every three months they have a big get-together where we can display the games that we're working on. Two bloggers mention what games where there, and of course they both mentioned us! Check out Rampant Games and Monkey-Time for more information. And as Jay at Rampant Games mentions, the game did crash a few times during the night. That'll teach me to try adding new features as I'm walking out the door to demo it. >_< I did get all the bugs fixed the day after.

Also, what most people got excited about was the game maker. So I took another look at it and ... didn't like what I saw. Sure, it's nice and easy to use in many instances, but it still has a few things in it that I think will be an inconvenience later on. So... I'm re-writing it. Not really from scratch, but I won't be finished this week. I'm also looking at saving the data differently, since the current method requires me to have all the game data loaded at the same time.

Lastly, when Peter and I were chatting we came up with a new game idea. By this time the response from us was just to write it down to look at it later. By the time we finish Darkened Dreams we will easily have more than 100 game ideas.

-Califer

P.S. Good to know we at least have one reader left.

Screenshot

2009-04-28T22:02:00.001-06:00

Here's what it looks like. Our first "screenshot" with "final" art.

Feelin' RACEY

2009-04-16T20:36:00.002-06:00

In the world of Darkened Dreams there are two different races. There are the humans, the normal inhabitants of the world, and there are the Heroes, the creatures summoned from a different planet to combat the encroaching darkness, kill annoying creatures, and in general be heroes. Since you can't play as a human, and can't get a human on your team (since they're all either too lazy or too weak) the difference in race isn't anything that I had to worry about code-wise.

The thing is, Darkened Dreams isn't the focus anymore. I'm sure that there will be people out there who want to have different races in the game, so they can have a group of a human, an elf, an orc, and a cute sidekick thing they make up just for their game. Because of this I've put some extra effort in to allowing players to make races and classes in the game maker.

Peter's been getting some work done on the UI, and it is looking NICE!! I'm not quite finished putting it all into the actual game yet though. I'm sure Peter will get a new screenie up when he's got it 100% ready.

-Califer

Darkened Dreams has lost the focus

2009-04-10T17:07:00.002-06:00

That sounds kind of bad, leaving it just like that. The reality is that Darkened Dreams is no longer the main focus of our current project. What it is now is a RPG making tool. I was considering giving it a nice name since Darkened Dreams is going to be the name of the first mod that you can play with the maker. RPG Maker. That sounds good. Oh wait, that name is taken.

The question that should shoot up first is "Why are you making an RPG making program? Doesn't RPG maker already do that?" Yes, it does. There are a few problems with it, however. It can get pretty complex in trying to figure everything out, and it's pretty expensive. The DD2 maker will be more simplified, as well as being cheaper. You can even make games and post them on our site to sell them. Also, RPG Maker employs a traditional view, where DD2 maker has a new style of gameplay. Check the movies if you want to see what I'm talking about ;)

-Califer

What am I doing?

2009-03-27T16:02:00.002-06:00

I've been building us a nifty website. It's going to be Flash based, so things will move in a fanciful way. Should be online in a week or two, I'm guessing.

Fight!

2009-03-20T15:55:00.002-06:00

It's come to the time to put fighting into the game! There are a number of things that will be different about fighting this time around from the original game. For those just joining us, the original game can be found here. The fighting is now going to be time-based instead of input-based. If you haven't selected a special ability or item by the time you need to have an attack in you will simply attack with your weapon, so it shouldn't be too hard to use.

Another thing that will change from the original is the accuracy. Missing happened far too much at lower levels. You could get a whole page of "you missed the bunny." "The bunny missed you" before getting a hit when you were just starting. There will still be a chance of missing attacks, but it will be relatively rare (5-10%).

I hope to have all the timing set up correctly before going to bed tonight, but actually doing damage, showing the numbers, and showing the damage animations will have to wait until at least tomorrow.

-Califer

P.S. Peter's been getting stuff done too. He should probably post soon.

They walk, They LIVE!!

2009-03-12T17:55:00.002-06:00

It used to be that there were a few ugly little monsters that would sit on the ground and not do anything. You could get close to them, you could look at them, but that was all. The items were much better because you could pick them up and you could drink the potion to heal yourself.

Now the monsters are on the move! They'll randomly travel around their location using a path-finding algorithm. I've also put the path-finding algorithm on the player so that when you click on an item that isn't close to you the Hero will walk up to it and pick it up.

There were a few bugs because I had to rewrite some hefty sections of code, but it's crash-free now and almost ready to go on to the next step!

But what is the next step?

-Califer

P.S. Yes, I do know what the next step is. I just want to have something to talk about next time.

Cough Cough, Hack Hack

2009-02-19T17:52:00.003-07:00

Funny thing about programming. You really need to be able to focus on what you're doing in order to get anything done. Funny thing about sick, it's really hard to focus on things correctly.

So, I haven't gotten a whole lot done this week. I just got over being sick yesterday, and my wife is still a little sick. Miracle of miracles, even though we were both sick for a week the baby never got sick!

But this isn't a blog about my home life, it's about Darkened Dreams 2! It WAS worked on! I cleaned up a problem on movement and got to the next level of overhauling the collision system. There are still a few bugs in it but I hope to finish those tonight and get auto-move working correctly.

-Califer

Achievement Unlocked!

2009-02-12T21:28:00.002-07:00

We've got some good news! Darkened Dreams now takes up the first two slots in a Google search! Take THAT, emo poetry!

Also, a week or so ago I visited the local Independent Game Developers Association (IGDA) meeting and showed off what I've got for Darkened Dreams 2 so far. Two bloggers made mention of us! Check out Tales of the Rampant Coyote and MonkeyTime. Be sure to check them out, they were both pretty positive in their previews.

As for what's been going on here, I've been sick the last few days, as has my wife. Fortunately we've been able to keep little Celeste from getting sick. I haven't got a lot done, but I did notice that moving around wasn't quite to my liking so I've cleaned it up a bit. I'm hoping to have enough time to get the monsters to move around on their own before Saturday, but unfortunately I can't promise anything.

-Califer

Monsters!!!

2009-02-05T17:12:00.003-07:00

Now we've got monsters showing up on the top screen! I even got a screenshot to show you how it looks now. The further a monster/item is away the more faded out it will be. I've also got some icons in to show how close you are to if (difference is color), plus a number to match on the map.

And how about those monsters? I think Peter needs to practice his art skills a bit . . . (kidding, of course. This is programmer art through and through.)

Fairly soon I'll be putting in creature movement. I already have it set up in the maker where you can choose what kind of AI it will use for moving around. Some examples are 'Timid', 'Aggressive', and 'Pack'. Once we've got them moving around all nice and everything it'll be time to beat the ever-loving crap out of them!

-Califer

Going the Distance

2009-01-30T21:09:00.002-07:00

There's a big problem with trying to display the map as top down, but the top screen as side-view. That problem is that we need to show how the map matches up with the top screen. I've set up a system so that if you are far away from the item it appears in the distance at 1/4 the size, and when you get close enough it moves to a closer position. When I got it all working I tested it out and . . . it's busy. Really busy. Once the animals and such get added in it'll be a real mess. So now I need to undo all that stuff and get a new way to do it.

Peter had a good idea of how to handle it, and one of my friends from IGDA had another one. I'm going to try using the both of them to help get the idea across. Once that's all set up it's time to make the animals/monsters do the same!

-Califer

New Year!

2009-01-01T21:27:00.002-07:00

I've got to admit, I haven't gotten a lot of work done on Darkened Dreams lately. Working a full-time job and having a baby around took a lot out of me :)

But I've got some more stuff done now! Just this week I got the mouse enabled, set up a button system, and made it so you can pick up items from the ground using the mouse.

I've also got an inventory screen basically built. I just need to add some button information into it so it can display your inventory and let you drag and drop items.

Should be fun!

-Califer

The Tale of Despereaux

2008-11-20T09:47:00.002-07:00

See some pics of the game here. This was the first commercial game that I worked on at Sensory Sweep, and it's looking pretty good (I haven't worked on it for a year since they pulled me to other projects). Unfortunately, the company that was paying us for the game, Brash Entertainment, has run into trouble with the economy problems and is shutting down. So . . . we still have the game since it's not completely paid for. Hopefully we get a new publisher soon so that the first game I worked on gets out to the world in time for the movie!

-Califer

P.S. I know Peter did some artwork for it, and I'm pretty sure Steve did some too.

Writers Guild

2008-11-13T09:56:00.002-07:00

I have to admit, not a lot happened this week on the game front. I started work again, and when I get home until I fall asleep I'm on baby duty. But I think I might be able to get something done anyways without the programming. Apparently some people at work are starting up a writers group and they asked me to join up. I think I will join, and write up the storyline of DD2 for my project. That way I'll be able to get some work done on it even though I can't really get any programming done right now.

-Califer

I'm a daddy!

2008-11-06T22:00:00.002-07:00

Remember how I said last post that the baby due dates are rarely accurate? It turned out to be exactly right for this one! Her name is Celeste Karen Mirci, weighing 7 lbs 6 oz (3.334 kg).

She's really cute, but hasn't yet got the hang of that sleeping through the night thing. As a result, I'm really sleepy. I haven't worked on DD since she was born. Peter tells me he's gotten some artwork done, so at least the games still being worked on even though I can't really do anything about it right now.

The next thing that I'm going to work on will be using the mouse and setting up a system for clicking on different things. But I have to admit that I might not be able to start on it for a while.

-Califer

Ability and basic inventory are go!

2008-10-30T14:02:00.002-06:00

Basically everything that I said I'd get working from the last post I got working. I can walk around on the map, see which items are around, and pick them up using an ability that is run by scripts. This is a HUGE step and I'm really happy that I was able to get it done before the baby comes along. She's due to be born November 1st, but those due dates are never very accurate...

-Califer

Scripting

2008-10-23T14:44:00.002-06:00

Alright, I have the scripts set up so that they run correctly. For anyone who is interested in making their own mods, start studying Lua since that is what is being used. I'm currently working on adding a script-writer to the game maker. Hopefully by this time next week I'll have a hero with an inventory and an ability! The hero would then be able to use the ability (gather) to get all the items nearby and store them in his inventory.

Next up, start getting menus up an using the mouse!

Of course, if I happen to become a dad between then and now I probably won't get that all finished.

-Califer

My Japanese Coach!

2008-10-16T12:32:00.003-06:00

From my last post, I decided to go with option 1. This could have been decided with a simple coin toss, but instead it was decided by Peter. He mentioned that we could handle the mouse interface differently, so I'm going to go through and decide exactly what I want the mouse to do before I get into programming what it will do. Adding in scripting is exciting for me since it allows for players to make their own content.

Peter mentioned beforehand that we both did some work on My Chinese Coach and My Japanese Coach for the Nintendo DS. I did some work on My Chinese Coach, but spent most of my time working on My Japanese Coach. The biggest things that I worked on in the game were translating the dictionary, writing the lesson plan, and helping make design decisions. Even though my title at work is 'programmer' I didn't end up doing as much programming as I'd have liked because there was so much other work for me to do on it.

Looking at Amazon today My Japanese Coach is listed as the 8th best seller for the DS. 3 of the top sales are actual DS's, so it is the 5th best selling DS game on Amazon right now! I'm pretty excited about it :D I just wish that Amazon would start selling them, seeing as how it is for sale in gamestop since yesterday... Anyways, I'll be stopping by gamestop on the way home to take a look at the box so I can be happy about the second game that I worked on being in stores :)

-Califer

Item Fantastic!

2008-10-09T10:47:00.003-06:00

Now it's possible to simply put in that a location will have 5 red berries and when you run the game there will be five berries randomly placed in that location. This is great for making maps since I no longer have to systematically place every single item on the map that will be on the map. They show up on the map as little bags, and when you walk up to them they display the actual item picture on the top screen.

There are two big things that I could work on next. I can either (1) start getting skills, abilities and scripting in followed quickly by an inventory system so that I can create a gather ability to get these items, or (2) set up the inventory system and then make it so I can use the mouse in-game and set up things to display menus when the mouse goes over them and make use of those menus.

Next I can work on fixing that nasty run-on sentence. In any case, when I finish either of them I'll start working on the other one. And I imagine that it doesn't really matter to you guys which one I do first since it won't be released any faster no matter which I do first. Not even sure if we still have readers since no one put a comment on the last post that I asked for feedback. Oh well.

-Califer

Guuuuuh

2008-10-02T11:09:00.002-06:00

I got some basic things done this week, but not a whole lot to talk about. I blame it on the bout of insomnia that's been beating me up all week long. It's hard to focus on getting work done on a project when you've already spent the whole day at work programming.

Anyways, at work I've been working on the multiplayer part of a DS game that has not been announced. This is the second DS game that I've done multiplayer for, the first one hasn't been announced yet either. With all this multiplayer going on I'm highly considering making a MMO after I finish Darkened Dreams 2. Or should I start working on my book again? Or should I do something else entirely? I already have a collaborator for the MMO, we've got a wiki hidden away where we put in our ideas of how we want to set everything up, and he's able to get a server for us to host it on. It will NOT be Darkened Dreams based though...

Lastly, Nintendo has announced a new DS system! Am I excited about it since I'm a DS fan? Not really. It's got a camera and a music player, but that's not really a big deal for me. I'm more upset about the loss of the GBA slot, since I always seem to have a game in there. And what are they going to do about games that use that slot like the guitar hero game, my health coach, and arkanoid? And what about the awesome idea that I had and was going to start programming a demo for at work as soon as things slowed down? :(

-Califer

It's all about the location

2008-09-26T09:27:00.002-06:00

And now I'm delving into locations. I have it now so that you can specify the color, the background, and the items that will spawn. For example, all I'd have to do is tell the location that it will have five rocks and it will spawn those correctly in random places in the location without me having to go through and specifically place all of those rocks.

This same setup will be used for monsters, NPCs and leveled lists. Leveled lists allow percentages and the players level to determine what shows up. Using this you could make sure that a player never fights anything to hard no matter where they go, or make it so that a certain treasure laden cave is protected by a nasty monster until the hero is high enough level. This also helps with making sure that rare treasure stays rare by giving it a 5% chance of spawning while giving other items a larger percentage.

But I'm not certain if I'm going to do both levels and percent. Which do you think is better? Leave a comment!

-Califer

The Planning Stage

2008-09-18T21:20:00.002-06:00

And now I'm back to planning things out. Figuring out how to get the randomly spawning item data in is a little more tricky than I thought it would be. It would also help if I had gotten a single good night of sleep this week. Every time I sit down to start working on it I'm too tired to really focus :P

-Califer

Movie time!

2008-09-11T21:55:00.004-06:00

I said I'd do it, and I eventually did! I've got two movies here, one of the game maker, and another one of the actual game. Take a look and enjoy!

Hey, it's looking pretty darn good!

2008-09-07T16:46:00.002-06:00

Alright, now walking on the map REALLY works. There were all sorts of problems with it before, but I'm really happy with it now. I've also got it set up so that we can make random heroes and show them on the screen. I've also got collision working for where you walk. This also means that location information is being stored correctly.

We've also got it so that we can change backgrounds and skies on the fly, though I still need some different backgrounds and skies in order to really test it out.

I should have a movie of it in action this week.

Also, sorry I posted so darn late :P

-Califer

Character Art

2008-08-30T07:52:00.002-06:00

I put all the art for the Male character together at last. So far I have 6 faces in 5 colors, 3 costumes, and 11 hairstyles in 7 colors, making 110 images all together that can be combined in 8470 different ways...Cool, that number sounds pretty big, hehe.

Califer, the images are in our email, so you can start experimenting with them at last.

-Peter

By the way everybody--Califer and I both worked on a Nintendo DS game that teaches Japanese, I didn't do near as much as him on it, but I also did a little bit on one that teaches Chinese. My Chinese Coach appeared in stores this week, My Japanese Coach hits stores the 24th of September, so get ready to learn some languages :)

It walks, it lives!!!

2008-08-28T20:28:00.002-06:00

Walking on the map works! It's very basic at the moment, but it works! When it's working all the way I'll get that movie made like I was talking about.

Recently I've decided to play all the final fantasy games in a row (skipping 11). I've just beat 1 and started on 2. The way that final fantasy 2 handles leveling up is quite interesting. There are no levels, but your stats increase according to how you've been playing. The more often you use magic the more MP you will have, the more you get hurt the more HP you'll get. I like those kind of leveling systems, and will probably make a game that uses a system like that sometime.

But I'm not going to make that for Darkened Dreams. That kind of leveling system just wouldn't work with classes.

Well, back to coding!

A nightmare is kinda like a darkened dream

2008-08-21T09:26:00.002-06:00

Right? I only ask because it was a total nightmare saving off all the data in the game and making it possible to load back into the game maker and into the actual game. I had originally thought that it was going to be a simple step for some reason. I'm not sure what the reason was, because I had previously told Peter that connecting the game and the maker was going to be one of the hardest things to do...

Anyways, 1 week later and they're being good friends and talking to each other. Just BARELY got it working last night. Now I should be able to get images going without too much trouble since I have already got some graphics working. Now I'm going to get a system set up for the real game and hopefully make some visible progress by next post!

-Califer

P.S. Peter's on vacation!

Play nice together!

2008-08-14T13:47:00.002-06:00

Once I had the map-maker working nicely I decided that it was time to implement those maps and start walking around. As it turns out, windows forms (which I'm using for the game-maker) and XNA (mentioned in a previous post) don't handle images the same way. Because of this I had to go back and spend a few hours modifying the way that the map data was saved and making the map maker still work correctly and display everything just as it used to.

The big downer about this is that if all you do it look at the running game-maker it looks like I didn't do anything even though I worked on it for two hours and got a lot of things cleaned up! Oh well, at least I'm getting closer.

-Califer

The Tale of Despereaux

2008-08-07T14:50:00.003-06:00

The map maker has been cleaned up some more, it's ready to start holding information about the different locations and where the player can walk. It'll be a very short amount of time before it'll be all finished and have a map saved away.

Once it's saved away it should be easy to load the data into the actual game and walk around. I just wish that I had more time to work on Darkened Dreams!

On the other hand, the game that I was working on when I first started at Sensory Sweep has been announced! I was only on it for 6 months (it's an 18 month project) so I don't know any of the recent details, but here's a link about it on gamespot. Also, here's a link to a trailer of the movie that the game is based on.

-Califer

Moving finished!

2008-07-31T21:39:00.002-06:00

And I also got the map maker to select, write tiles, erase tiles, and even give two layers of tiles for that extra level of detail!

Internet still a little wonky in the new place, so a short post.

2008-07-26T14:22:00.002-06:00

Still alive, just exhausted.

I'm moving next week and I only have the evenings to pack everything up and move. Hopefully it'll all go smoothly but work on the game is pretty slow this week.

However, I did make it so that the map maker will load up a texture map, chop it up and show the different tiles in a part of the map maker. Next up is being able to select them and write them in the map maker. Then making all new location and walking boundaries.

And sorry for not posting on time. I totally spaced it.

-Califer

Back when the map-maker was finished...

2008-07-17T18:44:00.002-06:00

A while back I finished making the map maker. It's nice and easy to use, though it does require the user to draw a map with an art program to really get use out of it. Then I found a library to use for making games. (I'm using XNA, which means that it could possibly be ported to the Xbox360's live service.)

Anyways, I got some programming done with XNA and set up a small character that could move around and have a scrolling background. This was enough for me to figure out how to make the map work and scroll correctly, but it turns out that chunking up the map is the best way to make it work.

So before I can get the map working, I need to completely rewrite the map maker. But I think it will be better than before, since it will be possible for people to just use tiles that have already been made to make new maps.

-Califer

Just so you know...

2008-07-15T11:08:00.003-06:00

I am still drawing pictures, I got four more drawn last weekend. I'm not looking for any help, it's just gonna take some time to do them all, but I appreciate how people are giving encouragement and showing at least a pint of interest in what we're doing.

-Peter

Ummm . . . j/k?

2008-07-10T15:51:00.002-06:00

Yeah, I decided to just go ahead and work on Darkened Dreams instead of the book. Right now I'm working on finding a good library to work with so I don't have to write anything from scratch. Walking on a map, here I come!

-Califer

Back Burner Time

2008-07-04T10:33:00.002-06:00

As it turns out having two major projects at the same time is not a good idea. I'm going to put Darkened Dreams 2 on hold until I finish chapter 8 of my textbook. When I finish chapter 8, the textbook will go on the back burner until DD2 is finished. I finished chapter 4 last week and am currently studying up on things that I'm going to put in chapter 5. Chapters 5 and 8 should be the hardest. I'm planning on it taking about two months from now.

Sorry for putting DD2 on the back burner, but in the long run this will make it possible to finish it much quicker.

-Califer

Creatures!

2008-06-26T09:26:00.002-06:00

Note that those are all first drafts of creatures on the previous post. After he goes through the entire list we'll go over it together and decide how we want them all to look in the end. Most of those creatures are summon creatures, but there are a few from the original game. Look for the foaming cat, lizard, rat, blue angel and shrike.

Since we have so many summon creatures drawn here I'm going to go over the summon skill a bit. When you start the summoning skill you'll learn a single summon spell. After that it depends a lot on the other skills you have. For example, you won't be able to summon the shrike until you have a certain amount of both lightning magic skill and summoning skill. This isn't limited to only magic though, if you are good at summoning and animal training you can learn to summon the beast king (the winged lion)!

-Califer

Uncolored Creature Art

2008-06-23T08:42:00.001-06:00

A treat for all 2 of our devoted fans :)

Hooray for posts noone will read!

2008-06-19T20:30:00.003-06:00

Hi, this is Peter reporting for the week!

Since I think I'm the only one who reads Califer's posts, that means noone will read this.
But the vitally important task of reporting the week's progress on Darkened Dreams 2 falls upon my humble shoulders nonetheless...

Califer probably hasn't done anything, he's on vacation.

I have done very little also, except that I am filling up a sketchbook with drawings of all the monsters for the game... I think I've done 8 or so of the 130 monster drawings, and I haven't colored any yet, so there's lots left to do!

The monsters will be simple stills, and probably a few battle effect animations will play on top of them when they fight. They might shake and flicker when they get hit or fall in battle, that kind of thing. It's a similar style of fighting animations to Final Fantasy 1-6 or any Pokemon game.

-Peter

Edit (July 15)-I misspelled Hooray as Horay... one of those important words my elementary school conveniently forgot to give a spelling test on.

Welcome to . . . Nothing!

2008-06-12T23:15:00.002-06:00

We had two super late nights (ended up being mornings!) so my whole schedule was rocked. I got some done on the book, but I've still got a little ways to go. Also, no post next week as I'm going on a family vacation.

Be patient! Progress is still happening, it's just slow.

-Califer

Survived a week!

2008-06-04T18:38:00.003-06:00

Since I got IM'd asking how I was holding up under all of the stress, I think I should give an update.

Schedule has been changed to next week for the testing, and with a 1/200 chance I'm not really worried.

The offer was accepted for the house, and they ran a 72 hour clause to see if the people in first position would give up and let us buy it. So we should have known last night, but still no response. We have decided on what we will do if it's a no though, so we're not really stressed about that anymore.

We're finishing one of the games that we're working on tomorrow, which means it will be a late night. That's why I'm posting tonight instead. Not that I really mind. After we get a build ready for the testers to find problems with we have about an hour in which not a whole lot is happening on our end so it's a good chance to play games with each other. Plenty of games in our library at work :)

After I showed the professor how my lesson plan worked he was really happy with it. So I decided that I wouldn't change how I had chapter 4 planned, but did go back and change a section or two of chapter 3 because of the meeting. I got back just ten minutes before class started.

As for the actual game, I haven't worked on it this week to get it ready. I've worked on the book to get all the previous chapters ready for review and I've got some work done on chapter 4. When the walking around is ready I'll take a video of it to show that progress is actually being made!

-Califer

P.S. Peter, when are you going to post again?

Game Maker now saves!

2008-05-29T09:37:00.002-06:00

And . . . yeah, that's all I did.

My life has been mugged and beat over the head recently. Far too much stress.

My wife is pregnant, and we just found out that there is a 1/200 chance of it having down syndrome, so we need to change our schedule around for further testing.

We've put an offer in on a house, but even if it gets accepted it will be in a secondary position, in case the current offer on the house falls through. My wife and I are sick and tired of looking at houses, and so we're trying to figure out what to do if this one doesn't work.

Work has been busy because we're just about finished with the games we're working on (but since they still haven't been announced I can't say what they are.)

I've been getting crap on how my lesson plan is set up for my Japanese class, so I need to meet with a professor of Japanese today which might make me miss teaching class tonight, which is bad because it's lesson 1.

Also, I haven't wanted to work on chapter 4 on my book because it directly relates to my meeting today.

....

And you want me to work on a game too?

-Califer

Map Maker finished!

2008-05-22T13:40:00.003-06:00

The Map Maker is now working! Now it's time for me to take a little break and work on the book a little. I've just about finished chapter 2, but there are a few things I want to add in. Since I've spent a lot longer on Darkened Dreams than I have on the book recently I'm going to get chapter 4 finished before I get to making it so that we can walk on the map that just got made. Should take me a few weeks, it's a very busy time of life for me.

But it is happening!

-Califer

Map Maker: Round 2

2008-05-15T12:46:00.003-06:00

Last time what I showed you was a picture of what I wanted to have happen. It does draw lines but those lines are meaningless since nothing is being written to map data. Now writing actually works and you can make new maps and all that. I just need to add two fairly simple things and it's all good.

I could have finished last night but I was busy celebrating my third anniversary and going over details of houses that we are looking at buying. Many women, when pregnant, get cravings for different foods. My wife seems to get cravings to play board games with me. So if I get enough time I can finish the Map Maker tonight. If not I'll finish it later.

After that I need to get back to my book for a little bit. I still need to rewrite chapter 2 so that I can have people read through it again.

-Califer

Map Maker!

2008-05-08T09:25:00.003-06:00

Here it is! The Map Maker works for the most part, and I've even got a picture to prove it! When making a map you choose an image to use then draw all over it. In the picture here I'm drawing a boundary along the edge of the sea, so that in-game you couldn't just walk on water. It's like 1000 times faster than how I was making it in Darkened Dreams 1!

You can also make different regions and locations. Regions are larger areas and hold different information for your reputation, how NPCs in the region react, as well as weather patterns. Locations can hold information about what kind of plants grow, what kind of creatures are randomly generated, and where NPCs go during the day. For example, an NPC with a farmer job would go to the farm that is just to the right of what you can see on the map there during the day, and return to his home at night.

Lastly, about the interesting thing that I ran into in Daggerfall that I mentioned last week. I had just found the NPC contact that I was looking for and finished my minor little quest. I thought I'd see if the innkeeper had any food that I wanted, but as soon as I talked to him, he accused me of stealing his amber. He then disappeared and a warrior came through the door to get me. I had been framed! It was difficult, since I was only a level 1 character, but I managed to beat the warrior and snagged his stuff. I was pretty hurt, but I thought it would be safe to try and track the guy that accused me down. Everyone seemed to think he was still in the inn that I had come from.

Eventually I went to the other inn in town to rent a room. That innkeeper called the guards on me but slipped me a note. I was too hurt to try and fight, but I managed to slip through and went to the house that was in the note. It was locked. I had no lock picking skills. I bashed the door down, getting the guards attention again, and talked to the guy who let me know that I had been framed by the leader of this town. He let me know where her stash was and where her house was.

I went to the house first. Unfortunately no one was there (I was in the mood for a fight . . . if I could survive it) but I did find a note that proved I was framed and also explicitly mentioned who I should take the note to. Found him easy enough and then I just had to go into a dungeon to find the amber and clear my name. It was all unexpected, and I had a blast doing it. Coyote at rampant games had a similar experience.

So what do you think? What if there were random quests that just jumped at you like that every once in a while? Would you feel it was interesting, or would you just groan and reload your last save?

-Califer

Being taught a lesson

2008-05-01T20:32:00.002-06:00

The lesson that I'm learning is to not let the readers of this blog know when I've got a grand plan for finishing something by a certain date. Last time I said I would have the map-maker finished by now, but because I said that I ran into all sorts of trouble. On Friday I worked a double shift. That left me tired for Saturday, and we also went house shopping. Then I realized that in order to do a really good job on my book the rewrite would take a lot longer than I thought. Then when I was just getting ready to get going again, Monday reared it's ugly head and I ended up working until 4:30 in the morning. I got Tuesday off but I was so tired I just managed to finish cleaning up chapter 1.

That's not to say that I didn't still get some work done on it! I managed to figure out all the drawing methods, though they're all going to change code-side once I get actual map data behind it all. Peter's working on a few buttons to help with making it all look nice, and I think that once I have the map data behind it all and am able to change the size of the area depending on the picture used for the map it should all be downhill from there.

On another note I started playing Shadow of the Colossus (Which was in Peter's top ten game list) and I've got to say, I'm really enjoying it. I've only killed two of them so far though. I've also started playing Daggerfall again. I get about 45 minutes a week with it. I need more free time!

Next time I want to talk about some stuff I found in Daggerfall that I think would make things more interesting in Darkened Dreams 2. Stay tuned!

-Califer

Back on Track

2008-04-24T09:56:00.002-06:00

Well, we're back at work. The flooding got cleared up and the building is safe to be in so we only lost two days. Every once in a while cleaning people come by to make it a nicer place to be in, but otherwise it's business as usual.

I've been slow about getting the map-maker going because I'm busy rewriting chapter 1 of my book into chapters 1, 2 and appendix A. Appendix A is almost finished, and chapters 1 and 2 shouldn't take too much longer. Then I'll have 3 chapters and an appendix finished! Yay!

As for the Map Maker, it is still being worked on! I've got it so the form is split up, it loads a map image by default, and you can draw on the image. Hopefully I can have it working by the next post. If I get it working I'll take a screenshot and show you guys.

-Califer

Free time because of a flood

2008-04-17T19:57:00.001-06:00

Well, I get today and tomorrow off of work because of flooding at the place I work at. I was one of the few people that was inside the building when it started (I get there early to exercise) so I got to check out the walls cracking right before my eyes and watch the water slowly try to take over the building.

This is only half a blessing, because odds are that when things get cleared up at work we'll need to work weekends to make up for the days that we weren't there. We still have milestones that we need to keep with the publishers!

But back on the Darkened Dreams side of things, I finished the item maker and have started on the map-maker. I got some code off of the internet showing me how to use the mouse to draw, so it should be easy to put in different boundaries on the map. This will be nice because when I put in a boundary that cannot be crossed it will be that way no matter which direction you are going. Players of the original Darkened Dreams may remember bugs where they could walk into the ocean but not walk back. That will be a non-issue now.

But before I really get cracking on the map-maker

Right after the map maker is finished, well, I'll probably work on chapter 3 and cleaning chapter 2. But right after THAT I'm going to get the game-maker save files working, get actual programming in the game, and get me walking around on the map that Fox got me.

-Califer

Crap, I left my DS charger at work. Guess my game time is limited this weekend!

Munchies and Bling

2008-04-10T17:51:00.002-06:00

Almost done with the item maker! I'm currently working on the food, which will be followed up by armor and clothing.

The big question is . . . can armor and clothing co-exist?

The bonus of having clothing instead of armor is that it can hold more powerful enchantments than armor can. Common sense dictates that you can put on a chain mail shirt on top of a cloth shirt, but common sense also dictates that wearing an iron helm and a baseball cap is rather silly.

The two easiest scenarios are as follows . . .

1. Each armor and clothing use a location guide and each location can only have either a piece of armor or some clothing in it.

2. Each armor and clothing use a location guide and each location can have both a piece of armor and some clothing in it.

Either one spits in the face of common sense. This results in a Califer that fuddles around trying to find the best solution.

Darn me and my commitment to excellence!

-Califer

Ace of Base

2008-04-03T21:03:00.002-06:00

Now I'm starting to actually program in details for things that can be crafted. For some games I imagine it doesn't take a lot. No matter how high your skill gets you can never make the item better. But not in Darkened Dreams 2! You'll be able to put points into what you are going to make the focus on then luck and skill helps determine the final product.

In order to make sure that we don't end up with beginning equipment being super-powerful and to make sure that high level equipment has some real benefits from a skilled crafter I need to make a 'base' for all things that can be created. The base is going to hold the max and min values, as well as hold onto the recipe.

So, the last tricky thing I need to do before programming in making recipes is loading that base information in for making regular items. Bases are not going to be actual items, but just guidelines for making items. Thus if you want to make an iron sword to put in a treasure chest in the game you should load up the iron sword base to make sure you're not making it stronger or weaker than it should be.

Meh, this post is a little programmer-oriented.

On a non-programming side (kind of) I'm going to shoot for finishing the item maker this week.

-Califer

Catching up

2008-03-27T21:54:00.003-06:00

This morning I started the day by thinking of what was special about Thursday. I knew there was something that I was missing, but my tired brain eventually just accepted that Thursday was the day that I taught Japanese after work. Well, during work today since the teaching happens at work and I was working late. 9:30 PM rolls around and I remember that I need to post something!

So, the game maker is coming along nicely. The item-making section of it could be done in a few weeks depending on how much extra work I need to do at home and at work. On the plus side I needed to bring my laptop into work last week (Friday) so I was able to show my semi-functional game maker off to people at a professional gaming company. One person did complement it saying that it was easy to use and made sense. w00t! Peter didn't get to see it though since he had the day off because he had to work a lot of overtime recently. And he still manages to get some nice-looking artwork for Darkened Dreams too!

Fox assures me that I should get a map eventually.

So, remember when I kept saying my wife wasn't well so I had to take extra time to make dinner, clean up, take care of her, etc? It's morning sickness, I'm gonna be a daddy!

Last off, I've been playing ICO recently. I figured I'd mention it since Peter lists it as one of his top 10 games. I really like it. The atmosphere is wonderful and the puzzles are challenging without being too impossible. I'm not sure if it will make my top 10, since one of my rules for getting in is that I could play the game over and over again. Even with me now knowing most of the puzzles, I might just end up forgetting everything in a few months, so who knows. It might get up there after all. Next up, Shadow of the Colossus!

(Can you believe that I've never played these before?)

-Califer

The best games EVER

2008-03-25T10:48:00.003-06:00

Hi! No art updates today, but here's my all-time game favorites, and these are in order ;)

1 World of Warcraft (PC)
2 Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
3 Secret of Mana (SNES)
4 Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1)
5 Final Fantasy 9 (PS1)
6 Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 (PS2)
7 Dragon Quest 8 (PS2)
8 Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
9 Beyond Good and Evil (PS2)
10 ICO (PS2)

I like a bit of variety, but I certainly am a fan of Fantasy overall.

World of Warcraft is great because I play with friends, it's one of the few ways a married guy can get some time to play games with buddies every now and then.
Shadow of the Colossus I'd say is my model of perfection in games, as the game managed to present 18 hours of straight challenge without one bit of repetition. This game also has the best soundtrack of any.
Secret of Mana was my predecessor for Warcraft, it's the game I played with friends over and over before online gaming existed--love the art and story, too!
Final Fantasy Tactics has a ruleset and job system that allows you to replay the same game over and over in infinite ways, I love how you can always find new parties to assemble and new strategies are everywhere.
Final Fantasy 9 is gorgeous to look at. I love the characters and environments, I also love the writing, the characters are so well developed.
Dance Dance Revolution lets you get in the beat of music and after sitting at a computer all day, it often helps me get a necessary bit of body movement.
Dragon Quest 8 is the longest game besides World of Warcraft that has actually kept me entertained the entire time (92 hours). Many other rpg's I feel like I have to work hard to get through the dumb parts, but this one never got boring. A lot of that has to do with the enemies being presented in a kind of cute manner, they always did silly things when they attacked you. The music in this game is live orchestra, I can never play games with midi-music any more without cringing.
Zelda a Link to the Past has an amazing art style--When the Super Nintendo wouldn't support graphics like our current-gen systems, they found a way to make a super appealing style. The music was the best of any Zelda (there still aren't any live orchestrated ones :P ) And the gameplay was extremely fun, including the great puzzles.
Beyond Good and Evil-- If you've never heard of this game... poor you! Stumbled upon it by accident and I was totally blown away! This is a game that mixes so much variety into one game, there's never a dull moment! It also has a humorous tone to it that keeps it fun. The main character is a fun and attractive girl with a sense of humor.
ICO preceded Shadow of the Colossus, and is worth looking at just for that, but it's also got some fabulous puzzles. It's a bit short and the girl you have to escort through the enormous castle is a little hard to lead around sometimes, but the puzzles and stunning visuals will keep your brain on high attention the whole time. It has one of the best endings of any game, and it can teach you a little something about yourself.

-Peter

Top 10 Games

2008-03-20T09:50:00.002-06:00

To give you a bit of a feel of what games I like, here are my top 10 favorite games. Of course, it has to be a game that I've played before for it to make the list!

In no specific order:

1.) Morrowind (PC)
2.) Bionic Commando (NES)
3.) Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1)
4.) Pokemon Diamond (NDS)
5.) Secret of Mana (SNES)
6.) Heroes of Might and Magic IV (PC)
7.) Twisted Metal Black (PS2)
8.) Final Fantasy 6 (SNES)
9.) Final Fantasy 7 (PS1)
10.) Super Mario Brothers 3 (NES)

Runners up
Twisted Metal 2 (PS1)
Daggerfall (PC)
Super Metroid (SNES)
Mario 64 (N64)
Black and White (PC)
Tecmo's Deception (PS1)
Soul Caliber II (PS2)
Prince of Persia (PS2)

Lastly, my system of choice is the Nintendo DS.

-Califer

P.S. Oh yeah, Darkened Dreams 2. Still working on it! More info next week.

P.P.S. I started writing in details for each game but it was taking forever. :P

Art progress

2008-03-18T18:04:00.004-06:00

Califer asked me to post something... about two months ago... so here it is!

Here are a few sample character combinations, of over 25,000 character combinations you will be able to customize.

Where did I get that number?

In Darkened Dreams 2 you'll get to make a male or female character. Each gender will have 20 hairstyles in 8 different colors, 6 different faces in 5 different skin colors, and 3 different starting outfits (determined by character class).

Some NPC's will be randomized, using the same art that you use to customize your character. You never know who you'll meet in the game.

I've made a lot of progress on the art for the characters. The jpg image posted above has just 4 of the combinations demonstrated. Enjoy!

-Peter

Weeks like this . . .

2008-03-13T21:14:00.002-06:00

Weeks like this make me glad that I don't have a publisher. I was able to break down some important things and learned a good deal about GUI programming, but since my wife wasn't feeling well I lost a lot of programming time. On the plus side I got a lot more meal-cooking practice. A few more and I might get a new level!

One of the big ugly things that slowed me down this week was trying to figure out how I could get item crafting to work well so I could know what kind of objects to make so I didn't have to redo it all later. I eventually decided to tone it down since it was getting really complicated. It's still going to be done in a way that you will be able to make items that are different, and even let you put in what your focus is. Do you want your new sword to be sharper or better balanced? Also, some items will be more useful for different points of the item. If the recipe asks for so many units of a metal, you can put in steel for more strength, or you could use gold, which would add to the beauty and value, but put nothing towards the toughness and sharpness.

Coming next, ingredients, ability books, and chapter 2 of my Japanese book!

Tune in next week for my Top 10 Games!

-Califer

Game Maker is Go

2008-03-06T09:59:00.003-07:00

I've learned a few important things from when I made Darkened Dreams.
Number 1: Make sure that the save file and other data storage doesn't make it a pain to add anything new.
Number 2: DON'T MAKE OBJECTS IN CODE!!

Everything was hard-coded in. That meant that I had to write code for every single thing in the game. The maps were especially terrible, since I had to go through and fill in every single thing for every square. This included which directions you could travel in. This made maps take FOREVER to make and left them prone to error.

Now, I'm making a game-making program where I can make and store items, maps, npcs, monsters, etc. It slows things down a bit to start, but I am convinced that it will make things much faster and nicer in the end. Especially since it means that Peter or Fox could also make stuff for the game without having to learn programming.

The basic plan behind the Item Maker part of it is finished, I just need to put in the rest of the details for all the different item types.

Peter made a rough mockup of what the game may end up looking like. The top right corner of the game is the map (which is going to be very different). Below it is where bad guys appear. The player shows up full-size, and pets, summoned creatures and hero allies show up behind. Commands will not be issued through text anymore. This GUI will probably change as we think about it more and actually get the game working.

-Califer

Items and Study

2008-02-28T10:12:00.002-07:00

I now have all the data for the item types put into the game. This turned out to be a little more difficult than I originally thought because of items that can have varying values. Items with varying values have been put in mainly because of crafting skills. In other games where crafting is possible but no matter your skill you just can't make something better (such as in Rune Factory), I found myself stopping caring about making stuff. Once you've made the weapon there's no point in making another except for grinding. You could also do it for money, but I was already really rich by that point anyways.

Most of my crafting was done in Star Wars Galaxies back in the day before it completely changed around. In the crafting there you were able to put points towards what you wanted to work on (do you want the gun more precise or do you want it to be more sturdy?). You'll be able to do that in Darkened Dreams 2 with crafting tool, traps, jewelry, weapons, armor, food, potions, etc.

That's part of why the item-maker program isn't functional yet. The other reason is that it's been a long time since I used the GUI programming for C#. I've been studying up on that and I've got a good idea of how I'm going to do it, I just ran out of time this week.

Speaking of GUI, we've got something that looks really nice! Peter sketched up a mockup that I'm going to be basing the GUI on when we get to that point. The map will be a big part of the game, so we're hoping to get a basic map sketch from Fox pretty soon here.

On the Japanese Textbook front, I borrowed a book from the library that I'm going to buy. It's called "Making Sense of Japanese Grammar", and it's a very good book if you already have a working knowledge of Japanese. This made me put off chapter 2 until this week, but I have got all the studying and planning done and I am ready to start on chapter 2 tonight.

-Califer

2008-02-21T08:08:00.003-07:00

I've decided that I'll be posting every Thursday with an update.

As a programmer I find that the hardest part of a project is getting it started. In this case, I need to brush up on my C# to really get things going, and I have to make sure that all my base objects will work with each other well before I can actually test to see if they do.

Although, I do have a good amount done already. I have a general idea how the story line runs (big chunks at the beginning and end are decided, as well as a few smatterings in the middle), and I have a fairly good idea what items, abilities, skills, classes, animals, monsters, etc. are going to be in the game.

It does feel a little like I'm biting off just enough to make chewing unpleasant. I spend half of my evenings working on Darkened Dreams 2, and the other half writing a Japanese textbook. They're both fairly early in, but I don't see myself dropping either of them.

This is my third time around on the Japanese textbook, and this time it's going to work. I've gone through numerous other books, both books in Japanese and textbooks for Japanese, and picked out everything that's worth teaching. It's all sitting in a database so that I can simply look up the concept I'm teaching and it tells me where all my sources are for it. This book is going to be awesome.

Then I remembered that this is the Darkened Dreams Game blog and not the Whatever Califer is Working on Blog. Anyways, I've got a lot planned for Darkened Dreams, and it's making steady progress. I should have an item-maker done by next week this time.

-Califer

P.S. We're going to be setting up the main ideas for the GUI tonight. This is another instance where it's great to have artists on the team, since I'd probably end up making it look just like Darkened Dreams 1 :P

We've got mention!

2008-02-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

Even though we're just barely starting with the game we've been mentioned in the Rampant Games blog as a 2008 indie RPG! I guess we're really committed now :)

I've got all the main object types decided and got some programming in. I'm hoping to have a functioning game-maker program by the end of the month.

Also, we've got art! Here's a picture of a female scout that Peter drew. You'll be able to choose your gender, face, skin color, hair style, and hair color at the beginning of the game. Your outfit changes depending on what your class is. Odds are you'll be able to go to a hair stylist to change your hair style and/or color.

Lastly, Fox has been working on maps since I finally gave him enough details for the full starting island. Hopefully those will be posted soon.

-Califer

Changing things up from the start

2008-02-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

The original plan was to keep pretty much the same gameplay as the original Darkened Dreams. After a bit of thought we've decided to change two major elements of gameplay.

First, things will no longer be text-based. We haven't decided exactly how things are going to work, since there are a lot of abilities, but we are going to make it as fun as possible.

Second, the map will no longer be blocky. Travel, items, NPCs, creatures, etc. will be smoothly placed on the map rather than all in a certain space.

Short post, but we'll have some artwork to show you soon!

-Califer

Darkened Dreams 2

2008-02-11T10:40:00.000-07:00

Califer-

The Darkened Dreams Team is composed of three members; Califer (Programmer/Designer), Peter (Artist: Characters and Creatures) and Fox (Artist: Maps). We all work full time for a game company, but we also wanted to make this game outside of work as a freelance project.

We have begun work on a new game, currently titled Darkened Dreams 2. It is loosely based on the original Darkened Dreams (a free game located at http://www.cs.utah.edu/~mirci/Darkeneddreams) in that you are a hero summoned to a new world to fight against the darkness that is slowly destroying the land. You are not the only hero that has been called to this cause, so you will have opportunities to team up with other heroes and discover the secrets of your past.

Because we are just starting this project we don't want to give too much away. We will be giving out more information as the project develops. We look forward to seeing you around!