Hey,
It has been a while since last post, I haven't worked a lot in past few days (after Clean'Em Up release) because my morals were down due to lots of stuffs happened to me recently.
So I figured out to make a new game for MochiMedia June Contest (60 Seconds Gameplay) and I started thinking about the idea till I was cleaning my room. I found lots of my childhood magazines and comics (mickey, flash, smash) and I remembered how I always love "Connect the Dots" game in them.
So I decided to make a game as a contribution to these old days :) I wanted to make something new than just connecting dots to get shape, So I inspired by IncreparePuzzles game and English Country Tune so I decided to make something with the game which have some thinking and at same time connect the dots to get a shape.
Due to that Connect was made where your aim is to connect the nodes of the graphs and at same time make all nodes balanced (have zero value). I know its a weird idea but I decided to test it in that competition :).
Hey,
I have said in the 100th Post that I will publish lots of my game codes and will talk a lot about the development of each one.
The first game that I am going to talk about is U.F.O. you will notice its one of my abandoned games, this game was done for LudumDare but I get bored and at that time was having some issues with my life so I didn't continue the game and didn't submit it to LudumDare and no one ever tried it except me :)
The game is about a U.F.O. who want to terminate man kind so he kidnap people by using the anti-gravitational beam but the U.F.O. is malfunctioned so any person is kidnapped is thrown away after few seconds but at that time the U.F.O. acquire any weapon those people had so he can use it to kill more people (sounds weird).
The source code of the game is here(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9791999/Abandon/UFO.zip) and the controls if you want to try the game Arrows to move and X for anti-gravitational beam (the swf file is in bin folder) the shooting is not functional yet.
That's everything for now hope the code is useful for some one :)
Last thing today will have some give away and competition on Twitter just keep tuned with @OmidosGames for these competitions.
That's everything for now stay tuned :)
Hey All, Clean'Em Up is finished and will be released on Desura in 3 days (22/6/2012) :) Keep tuned to @OmidosGames twitter account on launch day for competitions and gifts for the game launch.
Also the game got a nice review by Final Boss Fight website you should check that :)
Hey All,
First Thing I am announcing an Arabic Game called Kabba(Syrian Food) for GameTako website where all its revenue will go as donations for Syria and I hope it gets lots of money :). Kabba game is Ta'mya game (same game engine) but different graphics and thanks for Ali GameTako Graphics Designer for amazing graphics created.
Second thing Jesper Post a cool guy played The Power and made a large map for the game connecting all rooms with each other :) nice work :) from him but it is a spoiler by the way so if you didn't play the game yet don't look at it unless you got stuck and wanna know where to go next :)
Don't Push the Button get nice feedback on Newgrounds which I didn't expect its till now my most played game on Newgrounds it got around 9k views and what makes me more happy that some people understood the idea behind the button :) Karbunos wrote a very amazing review about the game about the game that I loved so much and here is it:
Excellent game. Poor presentation.
By this, I mean that the gameplay is pretty good and thoroughly planned out. Each press of the button introduces a new gameplay element, and each encounter with these obstacles steadily increases the difficulty of timing your jumps. The controls work fine, and while they may be difficult to get used to, adapting is simply another part of the game's challenge.
However, the presentation of the game is what drives this game downhill. No story is apparent, and there is no goal other than pressing the next button and getting the gold. From your description, though, it appears that you're trying to tell the story through the gameplay, and upon completion you'll tell us everything, or enough at least, of what the game is about. The problem with this is that you've mixed two extremely volatile elements together: "hardcore" gameplay and artful storytelling. The only way to understand the story is to get to the end, and the only way to get to the end is through an unforgiving gauntlet which puts you all the way back to the start upon death.
I understand that you want to keep the reasons behind the story and the goal to find gold a secret until the end, but it has hurt your score because not everyone is willing to complete a game that is really unforgiving of their mistakes. They want to feel as if they've made progress, and sending them all the way back to start prevents that. In addition, the camera becomes a problem in the later levels. I've only reached the level where the lasers disintegrate the green platforms, but at that stage, it becomes slightly ridiculous when your character becomes a speck on the screen.
Overall, I like this game. I think you could have done a lot better if you had more thoroughly explained the story and difficulty of the game: Many people prefer to know what they're getting into before playing! This game has potential, but it fails to be understood, which really hurts its score.
I hope your game does better over time, and I hope to see more from you in the future!
Another thing I didn't get any comments about Clean'Em Up Website so please devote a minute and write your opinion here in the comment section or by e-mail as the game is nearly finished Today I finished all the tweaks in the game and made the game support WASD and Arrows for the AZERTY keyboards and still waiting for the music from Mikael Bauer.
Another Thing Alone in the Park is fine and its almost finished as we are now working in level design :) and that's what is missing with some art for the intro and outro of the game :) and here is a reveal for the second character :)
Last Thing is a screenshots from Mountainer Android Version running on Abdulla HTC one X (thnx for abdulla for testing the game for me)
That's all of it now I am going to continue playing EvilQuest :) will try to write a recap of E3 Press Conference soon :)
Hey All
I didn't work today because at the morning I was at college monitoring students at exam :) and when I returned I decided to purchase EvilQuest as I tried the demo I love it looks like a zelda like game with awesome boss fights so I decided I should buy and also its cheap only 2$.
I played it for 1:15 hour by now :) finished near half the game but what I can say about the game that its more like The Power with some RPG elements and spells and potions.
So if you liked the power so you will love this game as its larger and made in top down (more action in my view). So why I am saying it looks like The Power first of all the game is divided in areas which is like the power (I know lots of games have areas) but the areas here have some similarities with the power areas (Snow Area, Caves, Sewer (looks like water levels)).
Second thing I though the items are more like Diablo style where the item doesn't restrict entering an area, but that was not true as I said its more like The Power in that point especially that the lava area tells you its too hot their which looks like the ice area in the power where he tells u its too cold to go there. The ice area require getting fire weapon to enter it like most of The Power areas you need a special item weapon. Also the main idea he wants the Chaos Axe while in The Power you are seeking for the power.
I know saying its like The Power is too harsh on it as I didn't finish it yet and also It has lots of cool boss fights and nice story with some fun elements :) as Its my first time to play with an evil lord try to destroy the whole world and in order to do that he needs the Chaos Axe, the game have nice animations and cut scenes at the game beginning :)
So Lets recap all what I said.
Advantages:
Nice Boss Fights
Nice Story and Cutscenes
More gameplay than the power and lots of exploration and areas and enemies to kill
Spell system where you get variety of spells each with new effect sometimes the level 2 of the same spell have different effect
Cheap Just cost 2$
Disatvanges:
After sometime killing enemies is not fun a lot as some enemies are the same behavior but with different colors or graphics (ex:bat is like the bird, the earth golem is like the ice golem
Returning from a cave after you kill a boss in level 5 to the top sometimes is annoying
If you played The Power you will feel at some points by some repetition but not much
Some small bugs but I think it will be solved in the next version
Some people won't like its retro pixel art
If you like The Power and like the retro games and graphics I would recommend to BUY IT, its a nice game and worth for sure the 2$ and you will spend fun time.
Last thing I want to say that The Power is got reviewed by some sites which is cool :) I am happy for that :)
Hey,
From the title my new game will be called Crappy Dreams, I have talked a little bit about it in my 100th Post, I will keep you updated by all the process of its design and its development on (Tigsource Forum DevLog) and at same time whenever there is a major update will post about it here or a major design issue :)
Crappy Dreams: This game is an experimental game, and its inspired from Dys4ia and POP methodology experiment 1. The game will consists of 5 dreams. These dreams are divided into sub-dreams where you play them in shuffled order but maintaining same order of sub-dreams (means if dream one have d11 and d12 sub-dreams and dream 2 is d21 and d22 sub-dreams, we can randomize them but we must keep d22 after d21 and d12 after d11).
Target Platforms: Since the game is written in flash (as3) then I can publish it on Windows and Mac and iOS and Android and Blackberry :) but the game is designed for touch devices so expect it for iPhone and Android and Blackberry first :)
Game Art: I wanted the art to be crappy and looks weird to represent the weirdness in my dreams for example like RunMan: Race Around the World Graphics and you can see from the game banner.
I have just started with this game, I will post updates regularly on DevLog (P.S.: if you wanna understand more about the game idea check the DevLog).
Second thing I want to say that Clean'Em Up is almost ready for launch Just few music tweaks by BauAir Studios and making game support Arrows for movement too. So since its near launch so I hosted Clean'Em Up Website on Google sites and will buy the domain as soon as my bank send me my credit card (YaaaaaY its my first credit card). Plz check the site and give me your opinion :).
Hey All
This gonna be the largest post of all time, which will make you remember old days when I was writing about lots of stuffs and concepts and lots of amazing things.
This post is so long so if you are busy now you can check it later as it will took alot of time to check everything in it and this post will be starting for series of posts which gonna talk about my career and my coming games and my thoughts.
Let's Start the post with some music and tracks from games that you must buy them without hesitation, these tracks are so beautiful that you must at least check them
Second thing I just wanna say that my dream movie (Indie Game: The Movie) will be released on 12 June on Steam Store by the way I am very happy with their success and their marketing strategy is amazing also what makes this movie good that as a movie that the music is a master piece and every scene in the movie in my view can be and talks are so inspiring for anyone who is out of the indie scene or outside gaming, I adore it a lot and here is the link for details and here is the launch trailer :)
Third thing will just tell you about amazing games that are worth your money and you should at least check it some of them are not so new by the way :)
These are not all amazing games I know but just couple of them and you should at least check them out Humble Indie Bundle V is so amazing and if features these games in it which is a very amazing deal where you get 5 amazing games and also helps charity
These are just some indie news and music non about my games and progress or anything so the next part of the post will be totally revolving around my games and progress.
First thing Ludum Dare results were out long time ago but I didn't wrote anything about the game (Don't Push the Button) or about the results.
Let's see the results first:
As it is obvious from the results I didn't win nor got advanced position as usual but this time I have to analyze this.
It was my first Platformer since long time ago besides I am not good at playing Platformers
I made the game and I was the one who tested it so I wanted to make my Platformer difficult and fast so I adjust the gravity and speed to be a bit high and since I always test it so I get used to it and never noticed that it's too fast to the player
I don't have good exposure in indie scene beside I don't have lots of friends their although I am trying hard so my game is played and rated only about 40 times which is not indicative at all
But I am pretty happy with the game, It was made as intended ,regardless of the speed issue, and people loved the zoom effect but I don't think anybody notice the idea behind that, I hope someone figure it out (link).
The Next couple of new if you where following me on twitter(@amidos2006) I think you know most of them.
First thing do you remember my Collaboration game with Alexitron :)
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.
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Yes you are right The Power
Is now out by GamePirate you should go and try it as I consider it one of my best games so far (link).
As you notice this game took so long to finish it and so long to get a sponsor deal at the end the deal was low but we decided (me and Alexitron) that it should be published so may be some are asking why this long.
I will explain, the core mechanic of the game was finished in about 2 or 3 months after starting the game and the only stuff remaining was the boss fights and the conversation system and menus. I started working on them and I finished the first boss in less than a week with most of the menus, but at that period I was recruited by the army (its a must and there is no way from getting away) so I spend 1 hell year trying to work on The Power but I couldn't and I find myself starting to forget about game programming so I decided to start a new project (Project Cupid) and it was intended for a competition but since my vacations in army period was not good so I couldn't submit it in the competition and continue to work on it till I finished it and put it for sponsoring.
I didn't get a single bid on the game so I got somehow depressed so I decided to try to finish The Power and started to work on it again at October 2011 and by December I finished the game with everything and we were happy (me and Alexitron) and the only thing that was missing was the boss fight track since Alexitron have lots of nice friends and amazing people on Poppenkast so he asked Brother Android to continue on the project and finish the last track and he agreed.
Alexitron start a beta testing for the game on Poppenkast and we got nice comments about the game and we fix lots of bugs.
Here are some of the nice comments we got:
Andy: hey yeah, i've heard of Amidos. He's cool and he's really active in the indie world and just overall has a good presence. good luck on the project, guys!
Andrew: this is exciting. good luck buddy, keep us posted!
Stampede: Super! The Power was really good game. You gonna get lots of players with this!
Pgil: Sounds like things are going nice. I loved the Power...
DeadHeat: The power was great fun, hopefully this one goes just as well
Br.Android: The Power is awesome by the way.
Br.Android: Also also, this project is turning into basically an orgy of talent, and that's superexciting.
Alexitron: Awesome ! Amidos is so cool to work with
ChevyRay: Lookin great babe.
Andrew: this is shaping up great.
By end of 2011 we uploaded The Power to FGL and I was so excited and I was imagining that lots of sponsors will be bidding, but that doesn't happen the game was online on FGL although it good high editor rank and high developer rank but none of these helped to get a bid.
I decided to send emails to sponsors and I collected lots of sponsor emails and start sending about the game, and start waiting and after a month I got the first bid I was so excited and was imagining it will be at least 1000$ but what happens is that it was just 500$ so I got shocked and depressed and waited for more weeks but no reply from emails and also the views of the game started to decrease so I decided to leave it and start with new projects till it get a better deal.
After 5 months of waiting and I asked Alexitron to publish the game without sponsoring but he said "its better to start Last Call and see what we can get" (its a system in FGL to indicate sponsors that I am going to close bidding and start to choose a sponsor for my game)
I started Last Call and during the 3 days of last call I didn't get any sponsoring deal except one from GamePirate (btw they are very nice and working with them is fun) although it was still low (<1000$) so we decided to make approve with his condition and he became the sponsor.
As you see the game took around 5 months to finish as work and in the end we (me, Alexitron, Brother Android, Pgil) got a very low amount of money that doesn't compensate our expenses :( but I see its a great game and working with these amazing guys was great experience as it was my first time collaborating with someone and it was so fun :) also I noticed that long adventure games aren't what sponsors are searching about.
By the way one of the most amazing thing I love about the game is its music as it is a result from collaboration of two talented musicians Brother Android and Pgil and the tracks were amazing and you can check the album on Bandcamp its free.
Another thing I think someone will ask about it "why don't you try to make Indiegames Weblog or any other review site talk about your game so you get better exposure so may be more deals came?". I tried that and sent emails to lots of website but as usual because I am not known and its only me whom is sending emails, I didn't get a preview on any website, also I don't think with exposure I can get a good deal as for example Celestial Mechanica by Roger Hicks is much more amazing and beautiful than The Power and it got exposure on IndieGames Weblog telling people that it is looking for sponsorship and after about 2 or 3 months I found Roger Hicks decided to sell the game on his own rather than trying to find sponsorship which means that(I think) he didn't find good sponsor deal and decided to go on his own.
Some people might say "why don't I do the same like Roger?" the answer is obvious The Power is just a flash port to Alexitron game which he made long time ago using game maker which runs on PC so the only way is to get a sponsor for it (link).
After this I knew that sponsors are rarely interested in long adventure games and I think they thinks its doesn't worth and that's because most of flash players are casual players who needs fast and easy game to play not long adventure game.
After finishing The Power in last December and put for sponsor I wanted to make another Collaboration game so I wrote on twitter if anyone is interested to make a game with and I got a reply from @Vartagh which is an italian game developer and best know for Steampack and Steampack C64.
We started talking with each other on skype the game we want to do, So I thought choosing a theme will narrow down our search. LudumDare 22 was just finished and its theme was Alone, so I told Vartagh about what about Alone theme as it looks nice, and he like it too. We talked about games we love and we found we love top down shooting games so we decided to do a top down shooter game and this decision came from our love to The Binding of Isaac and Hyper Princess Pitch and how these games are funny and at same time very addictive.
Varatagh told me lets make it looks cute and funny and that's by using mushrooms as enemies (evil ones) and you are alone in a park where evil mushrooms started attacking you so the game name was inspired from that and told me let's name it Alone in the Park as a Parody about Alone in the Dark and I told him that's nice.
Then we started to work on the game he worked on graphics and design and I started coding the engine and helping in design and we are still working on it. I didn't post screenshots about it here but I posted about it on my twitter account so I will repost them here again.
The game now 95% finished just some story lines and some editing level design and it will be available for beta testing before looking for sponsorship on FGL (as usual) hope to get a better sponsoring deal than The Power.
About Clean'Em Up, I told you that it is participating in two competitions (ImagineCup, IndieCade). ImagineCup round 3 results were released a week ago and the game didn't proceed to round 4 which made me sad some how but not much at same time as I know the reason for that :) but before talking about reason I will show you 10 games that proceeded to round 4 and I think it will give you a good indication why our game didn't proceed.
Do anyone realized why it was not one of the 10 :) the most obvious solution that our game contain lots of action and shooting that make the game doesn't deliver the theme (How technology can solve World toughest problem?) quite well. We got this in feedback email from round 2 and we tried to make the game more involved with the theme but I think it didn't do well in that.
I am hearing someone saying "Where is the relation between Clean'Em Up and theme in anyway?" its simple the problem we chosen was Cyber technology Threats and the solution is using Antivirus systems and we converted this into an cyber world where you play with the antivirus and trying to eliminate the viruses and worms and other forms of threats.
About the reviewing the game didn't got feature at any site or got a review :( which sucks and non reply on my emails and the only site that replied on me was TruePcGaming and they were busy so they just made a preview for the game on their site but Adams is a nice guy :) btw and there other two reviews done by two Arabic review sites (first, second) and thanks to Abdulla Hamed (CEO of GameTako) for helping me to reach these sites as he is a well known person.
I wondered why all review sites didn't reply on me so I sent to PixelProspector as he is sweet nice website but he was busy so he send to me some tips and hints to how to make a good email for press release so I updated my email and sent them again to reviewers according to his tips but I didn't get any reply so I asked him on twitter why no one reply on me although I made everything better than past time.
As I told he is a sweet person so he asked me to send him the email with all data I sent, so he modified on the email and gave me some advice to be better and told me to send a follow up email when the game is released.
So I am waiting to finish the latest stuff in the game and I am asking again if anyone want to beta test the game or review the game contact me (amidos2002 (at) hotmail.com) or on twitter (@amidos2006).
Last thing about Clean'Em Up that it is expected to be released later that month (I hope so) as just some final fixes and adding more music tracks. I hope it do better in IndieCade.
I think the post is long enough by now although there are lots of stuffs I wanna share with all people :) but I will end this post and prepare for lots of incoming posts about my game making history where I am going to share the source code of lots of old games and abandoned games.
Also I started with new project for mobile devices called Crappy Dreams its an experimental game about dreams (my dreams), This project I am gonna share most of details with you and how I designed it and formulate it from my dreams and you can help me by giving me some comments and feedback about everything to try to improve the game.
Last thing thanks to Andy Moore and his DevVlog (especially these 1, 2, 3) as I was totally depressed with everything as whenever I ask someone for help rarely some one reply to me and its rarely I find a comment here in my blog about anything, beside none of my games got a mention or played with many people example Project Cupid is only played 127 times which is so low and didn't get a feedback on it. May be I got depressed because my games always fail but who said that this is failure?
I said they fail because I was measuring success by how many plays and will it get feature but that is wrong measurement and I shall not treat games like that and I should change success goals and failure goals as they never been my dream in any day they evolved due to stress and pressure of work and low response. So I changed my perspective and I now make games like old days because I like making games and I love that and I wanna share my thoughts and experiences with people not for fame nor money (but I don't say No for moeny :D as I need it for living)
I am inspired by Andy Moore and will post a lot and talk a lot and try to be more social with the indie scene and try to improve my games and my game design skills and I hope everything will be better in future and my main goal now is to enjoy what I am doing and let the stress away :) and I hope one day some people may say that I contributed a lot to the society and the gaming scene.
