I’m working on a Big Game that will likely take me more than a year to finish. It’s nowhere near content complete. I don’t know what all the puzzles and levels look like. I haven’t finished writing all the bosses. I’m still learning to draw as I go, so sometimes I have to go back and update my art assets as I become a better artist. It’s very rewarding and I’m looking forward to finishing it.
It’s also kind of a slog, so I thought I’d take a break and write Blaster.
As of right now (Sept 27, 2015) I estimate I’m about 50% of the way through the game. I think I’m far enough along to start writing interesting things and highlighting dumb mistakes.
Goals
- Finish and polish a complete arcade game.
- Have fun!
- Write a set of meaningful tutorials about my process in writing the game.
- Expose my methods and development to public scrutiny in hopes of learning something from it all.
Motivation
I loved Robotron: 2084 as a kid. I loved Berzerk. I’m effin’ terrible at Geometry Wars. This type of game, the twin-stick shooter, seemed like the perfect type of bite-sized project I needed to refresh myself. I wanted to prove to myself that I can take a project from start to finish, polish it end-to-end, and have something that I’m proud of once I’m done.
My other goal with this project was to make a tutorial that was a bit beyond the “hello world” tutorials that frustrate me whenever I’m trying to learn a new technology. The unfortunate truth of our industry is that you have to have working knowledge of ten different technologies in order to have a realistic shot at getting something out there. I wanted to provide something that was more of a “glue” tutorial, writing about all the things in-between the stuff other tutorials would talk about. As such, I do not intend to show you new ES6/ES2015 features that I’m using, or how to set up browserify. Those are the boring bones; let’s get to the meat!
Design
Blaster will be a fast-paced, twin-stick shooter with simple, monochromatic geometric figures. It will play as a succession of waves of enemies of few but varying kinds. It will be endless and play until the player runs out of lives.