I guess I should have shared this a long time ago, but better late than never!
Don’t Blow It was included in a PBS Off Book feature about indie game development. Our presence at Boston FIG is the reason for this happening (you can see some other BFIG entries alongside us). It’s pretty cool to be informally recognized as “indie enough”, or at least Cassie’s art gave people that impression. 😉
We’re at 0:43, right after that heartwarming holiday photo of Team Meat.
Here’s a quick look at one of the new possibilities in the future of Don’t Blow It.
What you see here is the work-in-progress of creating structures in-game: Building. The new feature, which is pretty unusual for a platformer, lets you join certain “buildable” objects together. This lets you solve many puzzles and obstacles with tremendous freedom (and lets us design some pretty awesome puzzles for you to solve).
We’re still working on the new design for Don’t Blow It, so there will be lots to talk about soon. For now, I’ve thrown together a video that shows what the Boston FIG version is like. I hope you like it!
Let’s see what big changes there have been since last time…
First of all, I made a particle engine. Okay, it sounds like reinventing the wheel, and really… it is.
The Boston Festival of Indie Games submission period for digital games ended last night and I have to say… I’m happy with my entry.
I worked furiously to squash some bugs and get the BostonFIG demo level finished earlier this month. Shortly before the deadline, coding work on Don’t Blow It slowed a little as I began polishing it and I started to put more thought into the business side of things. There’s a lot to consider as I try to make not just a game to play with the kids, but a product that other people will want and be able to get. This festival will be a good chance to expose people to the game and judge their reactions.
The Boston Festival of Indie Games is a new local showcase for indie games in the Boston area. Lately, I’ve been working on the little details in Don’t Blow It that are important for the festival submission. That’s right, we’ll be showing off the game right there in Boston!
Take a look at the official site for details: http://bostonfig.com
It’s free to register and attend. If you’re in the area, sign up and come see us on Saturday, September 22nd!
Among other things, I’ve been making some new levels. Here’s one in development called “Pig Hill”:
On Pig Hill, you simply carry a round pig up to the top of a large hill. This round piggy likes to roll back down the hill, along with the oncoming logs that knock you around.
In testing, it’s a little frustrating because the logs come flying down the hill at crazy speeds. They easily send you back to the bottom of the hill if you don’t time your jumps well. A dash of linear damping should fix that. 🙂
We’ve just released a gameplay video of Don’t Blow It! Now you can see the craziness of 4-player puzzle co-op in action.
Also, look out for dontblowitgame.com. That’s where you’ll find all the official info about the game as it comes. You’ll continue to get dev updates on this blog (yes, right here, where you are looking).
Don’t Blow It has been steadily improving over the last few weeks. I’m running out of programming tasks! There are some new features I’m planning to add later, but more importantly, I’ll be producing a gameplay video soon (let’s hope for this week).
Here’s another screenshot to mark our progress:
It’s getting really exciting now, even as I struggle to manage the development. I can’t wait to play it for real… but that means I need to get various pieces in order, like level design, art, music, and networking. There sure is a lot of work left, but the game will be worth it.
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.