I'm also heading home to Melbourne for a few days to meet up with family and deal with the usual admin that builds up over a few months. While there I'll be making use of the opportunity to use their better capacity internet connection to download more useful stuff. I'd really like to have a few more indie games to study. I'll probably head over to one of the big portals and sample a few of the popular casual games, ditto for Game Tunnel, maybe buy the full version of a few of the games I've tried before (like Gish and Democracy), and check out Moonpod's and John Hattan's games.
Since this is more of a visit than a holiday, I'll have my laptop with me. I expect to be doing a fair bit of research work, but I'll probably also get some more game dev done too. Since I've now decided on the second project for this game library I should be a bit more targeted in what I work on.
What is Ice Slider? - A Recap
Concept Art: The Ice Slider Kid
Since it's been a while since I worked on Ice Slider, a review is probably needed. Ice Slider is a puzzle game idea I was working on late last year. It's a simple maze like game; navigate from the start to the finish; however you can only change direction once you hit a wall. The idea stems from a mini-game I remember playing in RPGs like Ultima Underworld and Tales of Symphonia. It also turns out to be a somewhat similar mechanic to John Hattan's Duck Tiles, although I expect the finished game to play a lot different. I'll probably put in a maze generator to build the puzzles, or at the least attempt to.
The goal of Ice Slider is to complete a slightly more advanced project than Brixtar, expanding the capabilities of the game library in the process and getting some more experience. The new features that I hope to apply to new games include:
- A simple general purpose menu system (i.e. New Game, Graphics Options, Audio Options etc.)
- A tile based game system
- Introduction to character animation
The old look of Ice Slider
I've already got some code for the menu done in the old version, but it was very hacked together. I'm yet to see exactly how much is salvageable. At the least it does give me a good base to build the functionality off.
As for the tile based system; that may have to end up being completely different. The old system was even more of a hack, and the main reason the project stalled. It just didn't extend very well. I'm hoping my new library approach will be easier to manage.
I'm not sure how long it will take to finish Ice Slider. I don't think I'll force myself to work to a one week time limit like with Brixtar. However I'm hoping to get this done in two or three weeks if possible.
