In recent The Underside news, I’ve been hard at work writing a text script for the game. It’s something I started doing with Merry Gear Solid 2, which helped me keep the game’s story focused, and less scatterbrained as the past The Underside iterations have been. With older versions of The Underside, I had been writing dialogue off the top of my head as I was writing the lua script files, and as a result, which is why the game was so unfocused, and lead you on a tenuous chain of events to a bunch of places without any real rhyme nor reason.

One thing I’ve noticed is that Multimedia Fusion’s lack of memory management has made the game hiccup every time a new weapon is fired, or when a new sound is played, which is a result of Multimedia Fusion loading files on the fly, instead of, say, pre-caching them. It’s a minor thing, but it’s something I definitely want to take a second look at in the future. I’ve got an idea as to how I’d  fix the problem, but it’s awfully hacky.

Anyways, that’s it. I’ll be focusing 100% of my development efforts on The Underside, and maybe, just maybe, I can finally free myself from this tortuous prison of expectations (which will be met, and hopefully, shattered by my unwavering talent).

Peace out, bros.

Glen Forrester and I (the dynamic duo behind the wildly successful Enough Plumbers) have started a new company called mak gam, which we’ll be releasing our Flash games (as well as anything else we think up). You’ll notice a new game is available on that site: a Flash based version of STREEMERZ, which features (besides being cross platform) all NEW game play modes! So check it out, and if you’ve got an account on Kongregate, where the game is currently being hosted, be sure to give it some “big ups” as they say.

(P.S. this is not the aforementioned NEW PROJECT … a trailer for THAT should be coming PRETTY SOON…)

After two weeks of work, my grappling hook platformer, STREEMERZ has been completed! The game is based on the Action 52 title of the same name (as part of the ACTION 52 OWNS project that I started), but I’ve taken many, many, many, many liberties with the game.

Download it today!

Glen “Radix” Forrester and I are one of the few still-standing veterans of the Klik ‘n Play community, so it only made sense that we’d eventually get together and create something beautiful. The end result is Enough Plumbers, a browser based puzzle platformer game which has the player controlling a gang of Super Marios Plumbers… all at the same time.

In an unusual and confusing turn of events, I ended up primarily playing the role of the musician for this project, pumping around three tracks in just a few days. Of course my expertise in the art of ripping-things-off came in handy when it came time to write the level select music.

Besides the music, I also did the programming for the platforming engine, and the pipes that appear later in the game (and play a vital role in the final boss). I also helped come up with some of the game elements, such as the powerups (notably the Mario World-esque floater powerup, and the fireflower powerup).

Anyways, it was a fun little project to work on, and it feels nice to get paid! Glen and I are already in the process of designing our next Flash game — one in which I’ll be playing more prominent a role in its development. Without giving too much away, I’ll say it’s got something to do with a tank.

A very small peek at a rogue-like-ish project I started 3 days ago and have been developing on Livestream. I’ve described it as The Underside meets Spelunky meets Borderlands. This video showcases an early test of the procedural weapon generation system. Work in progress name? Why, Buddylands, of course!