All the silence is due to…  Hard work, of course!

My priority was shifted a while ago to working on a game called “Don’t Blow It!”.  I mentioned it in a long ago post when I had first made the prototype for Ludum Dare 20 last year.

Don’t Blow It! is a puzzle platformer with rigid-body physics.  Oh yes, that sounds cliché by now, but the focus is on cooperation.  Up to 4 players work together, tossing each other, building human towers, pressing switches and the like to complete unique challenges in each level.

Since I started working on it again, it has progressed greatly.  I’ve been hammering away at the engine, exposing much of Box2D’s features and getting the level editor ready for it all.  I’ve managed to keep the original feel of the game and get rid of lots of physics bugs along the way.  Don’t worry, there are plenty more! 😀

Getting this far with Don’t Blow It! also marks a milestone in my personal code library.  I was able to get SDL_gpu ready to use in this project.  That means Don’t Blow It! uses the graphics card (only through OpenGL currently).  Some profiling has shown the big difference one might expect when changing from software rendering to hardware acceleration.  There’s still work to do to fix some rough edges, but a whole world of graphical goodness (and better performance) opens up.

So, what next?  This game is far enough along that I’m considering funding options to finish it right and I’ve recruited a couple of others to help out.  There is lots of art stuff to do (see screenshots).  Depending on how all that goes, there will likely be a gameplay video up soon and perhaps even some sort of beta release in not too long!