Hows progress?

[Robert Cummings]

For all you lot actually making something, post here where you're up to. We're done with the tool chain and main game, only media and level design to do now!

Is this your first game? do you expect to do well? and so on...

[princec]

Titan Attacks!

Cas :)

[Christian]

Ehem...im making a game for a contest, ill not sell it, probably im going to give it for free as an advertisement for my future indie company.
I dont have to make the levels, i made a script to automatically make the levels for me, the only thing that is left for me is to make more gameplay elements, finish graphics, make music and sounds.
Its not my first game that i am making, but i hope it will be the first game that i will complete, all others where playable but unfinished.
I hope that it will become a fun game, and if i win the contest, i can claim that its a good game because it won an award :)

[Nexic]

I'm still (kind of) working on Desperate Space. It's my 5th game (though I like to pretend Astral Phantom never happened).

I expect it to sell better than Xeno Assault II, but not hugely. As long as it doesn't sell worse I should have made a half decent, *can be lived on* kind of income for 2005.

[Black Hydra]

I'm still working out the last few little kinks and useability flaws before I can make all of the levels for my game Piko's Odyssey (which I started in January). This is by far my largest project I've worked on so I am still fairly inexperienced with game making. Recent feedback from the game has been good and I would be happy if it sold well, however I'm really not expecting anything. Being my first commercial project I want to use this as a learning experience more than anything else.

[yanuart]

I'm still making levels.. yes levels !!!
This is like the worst phase in the development.. the game has the feeling of "almost" done but yet there's still lots of work to do :(

Apparently the guy who says "20% of the game took 80% of the time" really knows his business..

[KNau]

Nearly finished (less than a week remaining) on my first cell-phone game. Doing it as an experiment to see if there's any money for a little guy in that market. Probably not.

Once that's out of the way I have a 3D action game that I'm supposed to work on but I'm starting to feel a little burned out. Like the last thing I want to do is make another game. Fortunately I am able to scrape by on earnings from my existing games so I might take some time off.

I have some friends who came into money and want to shoot an indie film, that sounds more appealing at this point. It's just as much of a crap shoot as the games industry but the potential payoff for a success story is much, much higher.

I've decided that after that I'm making games for "love" from now on. I want to try a text adventure and maybe a hardcore strategy game. I've learned enough about the marketing / sales side that I know I can at least pull a survival wage off anything I make, if not a comfortable living.

[Hiro_Antagonist]

Apparently the guy who says "20% of the game took 80% of the time" really knows his business..
I've come to learn it's more of a 90/10 rule than a 80/20 rule....

Land of Legends is almost done. Today or tomrorow, I will finish my 2nd pass on campaign balance, and we'll be done except for bugfixing, security (regcodes), and our online web application for creating onling lobby/matchmaking accounts.

We're scheduled to go gold in about 2 weeks.

After that, we're going to make a kick-ass .NET/C#/MDX game framework for all of our future games, and then I'm going to build my next game on top of it.

I'm really looking forward to making my next game. It wil be easier than LOL to develop in some key ways, and debatably even more fun!

-Hiro_Anatgonist

[Bad Sector]

still working on the engine and at the same time considering ideas for the game :-)

there was also another project i was working with another team (the reason i made my 2D engine), but i've to hear from them for a long time now...

[Savant]

I'm within a few days of posting a beta version of my match-3 game on this message board, in fact...

[soniCron]

I put my main project on hold for a bit and started on something smaller and more managable. It morphed from a silly little web game to attract visitors to a solid product that I'm hoping will sell fairly well. (Of course, it's my first game, so if it sells one copy I'll be happy!) The game will have both web and downloadable playablility and cater to the casual crowd. It's almost entirely complete. I'm giving it another week of polish then I'm taking a week off so I can give it a final once over before it goes gold.

ETA: ~2 weeks max

[HappyCat]

Working on finishing my first game - Eridani, a simple little 2D shooter that I'm using mostly to "learn the ropes".

Code is done, just trying to finish the graphics (which seems to be taking ages). I hope to have an alpha/beta/demo out in the next week or two.

[ggambett]

Making some kind of match 3 game nobody will buy. You see, we need to wind down after 12 months of Wendy, we need a project to improve the game framework and test new things, and we need to release an odd-numbered game quickly, because experimental evidence clearly shows our even games sell and our odd games don't.

[Nexic]

*does some basic math* I thought Wendy was odd? :P

[Nexic]

Even if wendy was even, I thought betty did end up selling fairly well?

[soniCron]

*does some basic math* I thought Wendy was odd? :P Yeah, Gabriel. If WWW is a failure, then I hope I suck bad!

[Chris Evans]

Even if wendy was even, I thought betty did end up selling fairly well?

He's released games in this order:

1. PegSweeper
2.Betty's Beer Bar
3. FaceIt
4. Wild West Wendy

Don't get thrown off by Blox Forever on his site. That's an affiliate title, ArcadeTown developed it.

[Chris Evans]

Regarding the original topic, I'm in a similar position as Sonicron. I'm currently focusing on a small web game to generate traffic to the site. My big project isn't on hold though, it's just been bumped down the priority list until I finish the web game.

The web game will be totally free initially. If there's enough demand I might make a deluxe version at some point, but I don't want to make a "free web demo", instead I want to do a high quality "free web game". If I do a downloadable version it will basically be a sequel to the web game.

When will it be done? Probably in a month. I'm making good progress though.

[Travis Dorschel]

Finishing up my website to hopefully release my first two Living Desktops next week. After that, marketing find affiliates and work on my next two Living Desktops.

[wrench]

I suppose this is my second game, like the first (Multi-player Battle Zone) it was written primary to play at work in lunch hour as we are not allowed to install/download any games.

Game itself is a multi-player combat hovercraft shooter, can be played single player but like most things its better multi-player.

Never expected to make any money off it, just a bit of fun.

What stage is it at? Well its mainly polish now, but I’ve been saying its 90% compete for the last 4 months :) .

[mahlzeit]

Started last Thursday on a web game that I'll be giving away, finished it yesterday. It would have been done sooner had I not completely redone all the graphics, which, in hindsight, I tend to do on all my projects because halfway during development I get sick of them. :) Of course, I'm really procrastinating as far as the grand scheme of things is concerned.

[ggambett]

Yeah, Gabriel. If WWW is a failure, then I hope I suck bad!
Heh, not at all :) The list Chris Evans posted is the right one. As you see, our even games are BBB and WWW. WWW isn't doing as well as BBB or as well as we expected though :(

[simonh]

Not working on a game at the moment :(

I am working on a downloadable games site though for a certain company which hopefully a few people here will benefit from...

[illume]

Mostly doing art work for my existing mini-games. That is doing art for games done in 48 hour competitions(I have 11 mini-games now).

Working on getting the next version of http://pygame.org/ released.

It's really part time at the moment, and for fun. But hopefully I will be able to save up enough cash to try a one month full time stint.

Doing art for games is really what I am enjoying now. Art and doing minigames in 48 hour competitions.

Also doing some art for my released-but-no-one-bought game holepit. Working on getting some more characters into the game.

ps. here is the full version of holepit if anyone wants to have a play, and let me know what can be improved?
http://rene.f0o.com/holepit_setup.exe


Cheer.

[Jay_Kyburz]

I recently decided that my 2d war game should be 3d and I switched to Blitz Max for its new language features. I'm a part-timer and in no hurry. Just waiting for the 3d module and doing initial engine stuff.

Making basic architectural decisions, A resource manager, messaging system, localization, UI objects, performance meter, basic actor functionality.

Soon to start doing things like save/load, umm copy protection , umm music and sound management.

I guess I should start actually implementing the game soon.

[DangerCode]

I'm working on the AI. It's the biggest challenge for me on this game, but I'll make it through. ;)

[Hiro_Antagonist]

Soon to start doing things like save/load, umm copy protection , umm music and sound management.

FWIW, I recommend waiting until the very end to do copy protection stuff. After all, if you never finish (and let's face it, the vast majority of people don't,) it's better to have a more playable game prototype than a copy-protected nothing. =)

-Hiro_Antagonist

[FlySim]

Our 3 month game is going on 1 year+ :eek:
Should be beta soon, but contract work and kitesurfing slows me way down....

[Gnatinator]

I just recently finished a little flash game for the 72 hour GDC: Zombie Air Assault (http://www.photonikgames.net/72comp/zombieairassault.zip)

I'm currently porting Crystal Cave Gold to the mac platform. Aswell as other various forms of contract type work. Busy busy busy.

[mj32]

Well we are busily rewritting and changing just about everything about our "Mixem" game since we got feedback on the original demo we showed here!

Our quick experimental cell phone -> PC game port has so far pretty much taken 3 months of full time work by 2 people and is still a loooooooong way from finished!

All good fun tho - and the PopCap FW has eased the load somewhat!

:rolleyes:

[Kai Backman]

Working on 2.4 release of ShortHike. ETA a few months give or take. About three years fulltime of this space station game stuff behind and ten years ahead it seems. I've always wondered about all you guys who manage to do two games, I'm still stuck on my first .. :)

[DanMarshall]

First game, and it's looking great.

I've done 6-and-a-half of my planned 27 maps, and am currently trying to make my AI competent at playing through them.

All game architecture, physics etc are in. Just maps and structure to do. Lots and lots of maps... aaargh!

[Stefan Maton]

Well... after I had a major burnout at the end of last year (I made some posts in here), I've managed to regain quite some motivation.

I did some game engine research and restarted working on my own engine. Since it's already quite complete, I use a TBA project as a testbed.

Actually we're progressing quite well: The game design is fixed, the musician has already created some themes and is currently working on the web pages for the game itself. The graphic artist produces 3D objects and characters. I'm currently working on the ingame editor and the engine enhancements.

I still have to do a major rework of my company web site...

Best regards,
Stefan

[Jay_Kyburz]

FWIW, I recommend waiting until the very end to do copy protection stuff. After all, if you never finish (and let's face it, the vast majority of people don't,) it's better to have a more playable game prototype than a copy-protected nothing.

Finding out how to do things is the fun part. Designing games is what I do for work. Yuck. Last year I decided Armadillo was the best choice for PC for me, had it all sorted so that a key would unlock features in a demo etc. Now I have to work out how to do it for Mac. (and perhaps Linux). Got to track down a cross platform solution.

There is a business opportunity for some of you programmers out there

Jay.

[Nexic]

WWW isn't doing as well as BBB or as well as we expected though

I thought WWW was doing really well? O.O Damn :-\

In my opinion WWW is a much better game than both BBB and Diner Dash, I can't fathom why it would be selling any worse :(

[chanon]

Nice thread.

For our game, all the gameplay code and main graphics are done. Levels are all done but will need some tweaking. Lots of details and small things to clear out in order to get it ready for release. We'll do a small release of the game first in order to get feedback. This will happen before the end of this month, since we will be entering the IGF! :D

This is our first game. We hope it will do well. I expect that at least it will give us some cashflow while we work on the next games (and software products).

[Cartman]

I'm working on a Sokoban game. I've got all the core stuff done, just have to do the tedious work of levels and get a fire under my art guy. :) Hopefully have it done for IGC.

[ggambett]

In my opinion WWW is a much better game than both BBB and Diner Dash, I can't fathom why it would be selling any worse :(
I agree. The buyers don't. Guess who I'll listen to :)

[Nexic]

But WWW has been in lots of top 10s, and as far as I know, BBB didn't?

[ggambett]

But WWW has been in lots of top 10s, and as far as I know, BBB didn't?
See the Yahoo Top10 (http://get.games.yahoo.com/home). BBB has been there for a month and counting, it reached #1 a while ago. WWW only reached #2 and disappeared after a month. In our site and in ArcadeTown BBB outsells WWW 2:1.

The reason BBB hasn't been in the portal's Top10s is because several portals didn't even want to sell it.

[Nexic]

Oh I see, so infact you were stinking rich ages ago, and just didn't tell us? :p

Well thats certainly shame, but it's good to hear betty still doing well. Perhaps you should approach the portals with "Betty is on the Yahoo top 10, can you afford to miss out on those sales?"

[Tertsi]

Just finished my game yesterday and the demo version of it was finished today!
So I'll be marketing it etc. before starting on a new product, which will likely be a Mac port for it or Battles of Norghan Gold Version.
I suppose Terin will make a post about it here when he gets back so I didn't bother.

[GBGames]

Just starting a simple project codenamed Oracle's Eye. I described the purpose, high level design, and plan outline on my blog:

Simple Game Project for August: Oracle’s Eye (http://gbgames.com/blog/index.php?p=114)
Oracle’s Eye Planning (http://gbgames.com/blog/index.php?p=120)

Basically, I am doing this project to get more experience under my belt, so originality and innovation are not high priorities.

[ggambett]

Oh I see, so infact you were stinking rich ages ago, and just didn't tell us? :p
No, I'm not. Far from it. I did quit my day job though :)
Perhaps you should approach the portals with "Betty is on the Yahoo top 10, can you afford to miss out on those sales?"
Their reply is "yes". Go figure...

[C.S.Brewer]

Progress on UnEarthed Gods is going steadily, there's more detailed stuff and screenshots in the links below.

All major systems are in place and more and more of the game comes together each day. There's still a lot of content work and balancing to do though before I can start polishing up the art.

[Fry Crayola]

I've been suffering from depression for quite some time now and it has negatively affected my work to the extent where I look back on the last year and realise I've barely done anything in that time. Worrying.

Having said that, I've started to kick myself and I reckon I can get my football game to a playable state by next July. From there I'll be refining it and building on the database with a view to releasing it before the end of the year.

I've pretty much decided that I want to go back to university (my depression mainly stems from the crushing realisation that I despise my current job and want out as soon as possible, but have few options that appeal) which would mean I start at the end of September 2006 to do Physics, a far cry from the Computer Science degree I have. That requires money so I'm hoping that I can kickstart a business and make a part-time wage from this and subsequent games during my course.

Unfortunately, it's my first game so there's an awful lot of work to be done. But it gives me focus and it's made me happier this last few weeks.

[Pallav Nawani]

I am working on improving my game, Riotball. I thought that the game is fun, so why not improve on the weak points and sell the improved version. I hope to finish in 1 more week (But I have been hoping that for a month now) :) After that, I plan to try and promote it as well as I can.

[DGuy]

Working on a snake-clone for about the past 2-months.

The first 1-2 weeks where R&D. The next 3-4 where spec'ing it out (which resulted in about 80 pages worth of documentaion.) The last 2-3 have been implementation. Coding should continue for about the next 4-6 weeks. Then probably announce it here to hopefully get a little feedback & tweaking done. Then the whole thing, gets released ... for free, code and all. :)

This is mainly a project to 1) familiarize myself with the PopCap framework (I spent the mouth prior to all this, really giving the framework a going over to see what it could do), 2) improve my c++ skills, 3) put together a full, commercial quality game (not just a little, quickie demo or week-long hack), and 4) built up a game portfolio (which is why it's all has to be viewable by everyone, potential employers included.)

My ultimate goal is to, in the next 6-9 months, after probably one more project like the current one (i.e. a clone), is to work-on/release an original product. Maybe, maybe, maybe even apply for work at one of the more established game houses (i.e. PopCap, GameHouse, etc.)

[wazoo]

Wrapping up work on my book, which has really soaked up every available second I've had.

I just want to do the best job possible, and I have learned a lot of techniques (both writing-wise and coding-wise) throughout the process, so I'm happy.

But I still can't wait to get back to making games.

http://book.wazooinc.com

[dustin1138]

Ok, I've been lurking long enough. This looks like a good place for my first post...

I'm working on my first game on my off time (what little there is). It's a puzzle style platformer, a distant cousin to Wonderland or Professor Fizzwizzle. I've created all of the features except for one (the most challenging to progam, of course). Then it'll be level design time followed by art content. For me, the programming has been the hardest challenge while the art/animation will be the easiest (that's my dayjob).

My target is *next* year's IGDA competition. So my deadline is a very distant Sep. '06. Which means I've obviously got a loooooooong way to go.

Dustin
www.mediumedge.com

[kevryan]

I am getting very close to finally finishing up my Minigolf game.

Screen shot with old artwork: http://www.topmeadow.com/plans/mg6.jpg

Perlin noise mesh I played around with (with even older artwork): http://www.topmeadow.com/plans/pnmesh.jpg

Video of the perlin noise mesh (4.5 MB): http://www.topmeadow.com/plans/booster.mpg

[Stefan Maton]

Well, since we progress quite well for now, we decided to work on our teaser site which you can find here: Tombs'n'Treasures (http://www.tombs-n-treasures.com)

Nothing much to see yet but at least you can get a glimpse of Jack, our main character. It's a shot of the ingame mesh... all real time ;)

Best regards,
Stefan

[Battleline]

Epoch Star (http://www.epochstar.com)... for the past 2 1/2 years. It just won't go away. Luckily I have a day job ;)