itch.io

Yeah it has been a while. Things have been kind of uncertain for a very long time but I now have a plan for development.

First off all for those who have not seen this before Escape from Insect Mansion is a planned 3d platformer game where you play as a mad scientist who needs to collect batteries to return to their former size.

https://thebargainbeddev.itch.io/escape-from-insect-mansion

The revelation I had is that this series I am planning actually started as a Roblox project and I want to preserve some of that even if it is not Roblox anymore. As such I am planning on making some changes like making characters more abstract and using dialogue boxes instead of voices to bring the project closer to the original vision.  I also just believe dialogue boxes have a lot of charm even in 3d games.

I have privated all my old videos on the subject as they are now all outdated. 

Lastly, I am happy to say my digital art skills are improving quite a bit. I drew a sphere that actually looks pretty good.

So that is all I wanted to say I know it does not really mean much but I just wanted to be transparent.

Anyways I have to go otherwise my laptop will run out of battery. See ya. The image below is an outdated screenshot by the way.

So yeah there I want to share something but I have no clue where it would be most appropriate to post it because it is technically about my projects but not any one specific project. More just kind of a general update about what I am doing going forward.

Update: I am not going to be able to get the project page out as early as I wanted to due to issues uploading screenshots

This is a new project I have just started and do not have a project page for yet. I wanted to share some of my experiences and decisions going into this. Grab a snack if you wish to read because it is going to be a long one.

TBBD Demo Disc is a planned prelude to my to be renamed game series. It will also serve as a playable prototype for some of my upcoming projects and people will be able to mess with it and also discover many hidden secrets. As this is just a prototype it should not take too long to make. I have a release goal but I am going to keep that to myself.

The first thing I want to address is that my games are receiving some art style changes. I decided to go for a more playful and colorful art style because I like that idea. First off all this means characters will be made of simple "parts" and I will still do some work in blender but I will keep it fairly to a minimum. The second thing to address is that I originally said I was going to do hand painted textures. This no longer fits the art style and would have probably looked ugly anyway so I decided to change this to more traditional colorful textures.

Secondly my original idea for enemies in the game was to defeat them by jumping on them. This is very similar to a plumber however so I decided to take some time to try to think of a more original and interesting idea. What I came up with was a stomp attack that only works if you are falling. This is similar but slightly more unique, engaging, and probably will be easier to code.

Third, I have decided for a while to use mouse controls for at least some of the games. The idea is in games like platformers that need more fluid movement it will probably be easier to control with a mouse than a keyboard. Basically, you just click on the screen and your character will turn faster depending on how far to the side you mouse is and will move forward or backwards faster or slower depending on how high your mouse is on the screen. I am VERY happy with how this turned out because not only is it really fun but my dad who does not do too well with games said he can easily get used to the controls.

Last, to address the elephant in the room when looking at the screenshot. I have decided at-least for now to not implement the traditional "Shadow under objects" in platformers. I may change my mind when I make the actual game but there is 3 reasons why I decided against it for the demo disc.

1. All the methods of doing that seem complicated, computationally intensive, or just not convincing.

2. I have not found depth perception to be an issue in the current prototypes I have made.

3. I think it almost makes more sense to have players get used to "natural" light instead of using "fake" light just to give them an advantage.

Anyways thanks for reading. If dev continues to go smooth enough I should have the page ready by thanksgiving. Have a good day.

edit: just had a compromise idea for the last point. What if I project something onto the floor, it just would not be a shadow? Maybe for the demo disc it could be a disc.

Today I recently started getting back into the swing of things and I was working on a very small prototype for one of my games. I remember thinking "How am I supposed to tell if my game is fun or not?" 

Well I was playtesting my prototype and literally all that's there is basic movement, 3 collectables to touch.  and a platform with a grass texture I made on it.

I have become obsessed with it. Even in its current tiny state with no enemies or much of any platforming or anything I could not stop playing it.

I guess maybe I can tell if its fun.

First of all I don't know if I am posting this in the right place or not so sorry.

But anyway I recently injured my arm (just a scrape or rugburn. I don't think I need to be seen.) and I am not really worried about it but it does hurt. This is also happening at a pretty busy time for me in relation to my projects.

So anyway, what should I do? Am I being a wimp? Should I continue working on my game stuff or should I take a few days to recover? I know this is probably a stupid question but it is the first time I have ever had to make a decision like this.

I am creating this post to re-announce my platformer. Escape from insect mansion. This is currently in active dev again and will be worked on alongside a new project that will act as a prelude to the series story and as a demo of some of the games. The game is not out yet.

Escape from insect mansion is a 3d platformer about a scientist named William Tinkerson.  He shrinks himself and needs to collect batteries to regrow to his former size. But to do so he needs to work together with other characters to fend off insects.

I am making this post in part to search for playtesters. You can learn how to apply on the game page.

Also note any image or video may be outdated. The game's art style in particular is changing quite a bit.

https://thebargainbeddev.itch.io/escape-from-insect-mansion

I have decided to do this to expand the scope of the demo and get feedback sooner. The game currently consists only of an intro and one menu but will be updated about every week. You can view more info on my page here: Click here

Escape from insect mansion (will be) a 3d platformer about collecting batteries and battling insects.

I hope people support this decision, I know it's a bit risky but it will hopefully allow me to show more sooner.

I was not going to announce this until the trailer came out but since the trailer is going to come out much later (this is due to me splitting my remaining time between working on assets in the first half and working in engine on the second half) I am just going to announce it now for anyone interested.

To anyone this may interest, the escape from insect mansion demo releases 8/27. 

Escape from insect mansion is a 3d platformer game where you play as a mad scientist who shrunk himself and needs to explore a house, battle insects, and collect batteries to regain his former size.

You can view what the demo contains on the game page but in short, it will contain the first 2 major levels.

You can view the game page HERE

I honestly have no idea if this is the right place to post this but I just changed 2 of the pause menu icons (1 minor edit, one completely changed) and now I think it's a bit more consistent.

After seeing how well itch.io is responding to. Well, certain things... I decided to come back to itch.io. In the process I have released my updated music player which was previously on game jolt.

This updated version of my music player has 60 tracks for my upcoming games (10 more compared to the original) and has many more features like pausing, play in order, randomized order, and looping. This player will continue to be updated with new info as I release games.

On the game page you can also see an image of the original as well as an image of a middle version which was never released to the public.

https://thebargainbeddev.itch.io/thebargainbeddevmusic

So I was trying to figure out why my project was lagging so bad even though my scene contains 2 objects. Which lead to me literally implementing physics interpolation...

It still didn't work but then I changed my collision shape. I was using single convex collision and I changed it to simplified convex collision and now it works fine. 

Oh well! It looks like physics interpolation is recommended anyway so I suppose I will just keep it for now, lol.

I know this is probably insignificant to most people. But my music player just got it's first download that wasn't me testing (the other 2 downloads were me testing)

 Whoever cared enough about my silly music for games not even released yet...

thank you so much!

Call me crazy but I decided to give myself a self imposed deadline of until august 30th to make a demo of at least 2 playable levels or I quit game dev forever.

Why? Because it gives me an opportunity to prove myself. Prove that I can call myself a true game dev.

Wish me luck, lol.

Escape from Insect Mansion is a 3d platformer involving a mad scientist who shrunk himself and now must collect batteries to return to his former size. There are 15 main levels planned for the game split into 4 chapters. Each level is planned to have 10 main challenges. Completing challenges often involves switching between the 3 playable characters and collecting items to use to your advantage.

The playable prototype exists basically as a apology due to announcing the game previously when it wasn't ready to be shown. The playable prototype will contain functional main menus as well as a very early testing level. It probably won't be that interesting but maybe some people will enjoy messing around with it.

I just released a page for Escape from Insect Mansion so I'm probably gonna use the devlog feature on that page instead from now on.

The informational video is now out. This video goes more in depth on the gameplay, story, and art.

Be warned, There may be some flashes in the video. This is due to how I handled the transition screen. Luckily, it shouldn't be an issue in the actual game.

After careful consideration I decided to change up my plans to reveal a bit more a bit earlier.

July 10th: informational video

July 15th: menu reveal video

July 20th: gameplay reveal video

July 25th: playable prototype releases to public

After the playable prototype development will continue but be slightly sidelined to give me a chance to work on other important things.

I have an important announcement to make. Escape from Insect Mansion is going on hiatus until July 25 in order to polish some things and get some extra art done and be able to make a better first introduction.

I know this may be sad news to hear. To make it up to everybody I am planning on making a playable prototype for people to enjoy and mess around with. I don't yet know if the playable prototype will be on itch.io yet or if that will come later.

I'm sorry to break the bad news but the game's new introduction will look way more appealing then just a rough menu.  See you on the 25th.

Hello, I am a novice game developer who just started working on a 3d platformer inspired game called Escape from insect mansion.

The game will be about a mad scientist who shrunk himself and now needs to collect batteries to power their machine and return to their former size.

I have planned it for over a year and have some limited programming experience but have just started work on the game itself. I will hopefully try to update this about every week. (not anymore. I'm now going to update on the 25th)

In the meantime I currently have a very rough video showing an early menu prototype and some concept art.

Anyway I hope I have not rambled too much. Stay tuned.