Blitz Games, Henry Hatsworth and looking onwards.
Quite a lengthy title, I know. I just hope that the post content can live up to the standards (I “adlib” everything on this blog when I’m writing, I don’t really plan anything that isn’t part of an over-arcing game idea).
I’d say “a lot’s happened over the last week” but that would be a goddamn lie. But I do need to catch some people up with what’s been happening and where I’m gonna go from here.
So, over a week ago now, I ventured to Blitz Games in Leamington Spa for an Open Day. I was joined by my partner in crime Daniel O’brien and my friend Shaun Spalding, whom are also aspiring to work in the Video Games industry.
I’ll try and keep what happened pretty brief else it’ll end up sounding like a “What I did on my Summer Holidays” essay that someone in Primary School would write. But suffice to say, the day was incredibly valuable – I learnt a huge amounth about what’s required of me to get into the Industry as a Designer, what I need to be doing and how I should be doing it. I got feedback on my Portfolio by a few members of their team, including a games designer by the name of Mike Bithell who’d attended a Blitz Open day three years earlier! Which, I might add, was incredibly refreshing to hear considering – as a games design student – I keep getting told it’ll be almost 100% impossible to get a job in the industry (I mean, I know it’ll be hard – but at least I know it’s possible now!)
The day was amazing and I strongly urge any students – present or future – to try and attend the next one or whenever because it’s a real eye opener.
So, we all should know by now I was toying with a Puzzle RPG idea aimed at the Nintendo DS. I got linked to a video a few weeks back that seemed similar to my idea except it was a Platformer and not an RPG game. But it came out sooner than I thought. So I gave it a go, and it really helped me visualise what I was going for:
For starters, to play a puzzle element, the top screen has to pause – you can’t do the two at the same time (though the puzzle continues to build up throughout the game whether the bottom screen is active or not). It also has a very nice visual-style that works well to it’s favour, which is something to consider.
I could write more but I’ll be rambling.
I recently purchased Game Maker Pro and am looking to start building something with it – I’d like to do a Platform game as there are a multitude of Platform Game engines pre-made for it so there’d be very little programming on my end. But the problem with a Platformer in this day and age is trying to keep it unique. Games like Eversion and – though some may disagree – Don’t Look Back do interesting things with the Platform genre. I guess the only thing I can do for now is play different Platformers and see what sparks my imagination, right?
Check back later this week, around wednesday, I’ll have something by then I’m sure. I’ll also have refined my Portfolio a little bit for post-Blitz critique.
- Chris Out
Oh and if you’re on Twitter – add me! chriswalter89
You missed loads of the good parts without saying much on the open day!
Like the Daz! and Imre and staying out late at the pub etc ^__^
Before actually using a pre-built platform engine, look into seeing how they work and have a crack at building your own from them, properly tuned to your needs and stripped to the basics you want. With a handful of examples I managed to build a platform engine, capable of double jumps and pixel perfect collision in less than an hour, entirely out of ‘call script’ events. I don’t know if you’ve ever coded before, but GM7s language is very quick to break through the “Argh! Code! Scary!” barrier and be very use able very quickly.