Slooowly Progressing

Okay guys, sorry for the lack of an update. We are still waiting for college to be out so we can really dig in deep with the dev! I have been coding an animation editor that will help with importing sprite animations into the engine. Also we have sort-of changed again from the BeardKnights Idea. We really like the online multiplayer though, and are going to try to make a fun and competitive multiplayer game with some twists and humor. Hopefully I will be able to share more soon!

BeardKnights and... Online Multiplayer!

Sorry guys, no screenshot this time, but we have solidified a game idea! It is called BeardKnights, and it features multiple playable bearded Knights each with there own abilities and traits.

You select one of these Knights per stage with the option to switch at set checkpoints throughout the stages. The game will feature somewhat megaman inpired platforming just like our original Galaxy Bear idea but will feature online co-op!

The Networking will be a huge programming task, but the system I have in mind for it will make it so all of our Actors can be easily networked with a few extra lines of code!

The Knights will each feature a theme that gives them a certain usefulness and skillset. For example one knight may be a "Tank" featuring increased health and a shield, but mediocre damage and speed. The combination of knights you choose, plus which castlevania-style subweapons you take with you will really make each level unique to your playthrough. Additional Knights will be added and unlocked as you progress through the game to keep it fresh, and give a new spin on old stages (possible alternate paths, time attack?).

Still as of our last posts we will not be starting official development until summer, but the Engine is well underway and I will be working hard on adding a robust networking system and getting the basic game elements in before we get into the meat of it.

Thanks, until next time!

(P.S. If you have any questions about the code, design, or anything else feel free to leave a comment!)

Going in a new Direction + Engine

SO, I was wanting to make an update post about the development of the game. Honestly we have started to stray away from a 2D platformer and quite possibly the Galaxy Bear idea as a whole. We have have been discussing game ideas and seeing what kind of games we'd like to make that fill a more unique role, or feel a little bit more at-home to us. All the while I have continued working on the Engine/Game Library.

I'm pretty proud of what I have so far. Using Win32 - OpenGL - GLEW only, I have gotten this far. The classes are all designed to where I can abstract out and add multiple platform support in the future.

It's is currently called the Khimera Game Library ( Mainly because that was an old gaming screen name of mine ). Most recently I implemented 3D VBO based rendering + GLSL Shaders, Timing, Basic physics/ Colliders( 3D ), and an Event/Input Wrapper/Manager.

We still won't be starting actual development until the summer, but I'm designing the Engine to be able to handle any of the handfull of game ideas that we are tossing up right now.

I'm also considering doing engine development videos and tech posts just to keep a content flow happening while we prepare a game idea.

Thanks guys!

Engine/New Artist/Future

Okay guys! Just have a code screen shot this time, but... Instead of using Unity I have decided to write the Galaxy Bear Engine from scratch! This is big news, sort-of a step back, but it is very rewarding as a programmer and helps us to avoid future licensing fees. Currently the engine is Windows/OpenGL, but it is designed to support Mac/Linux when that time comes around and possibly other platforms in the future.

Engine development has really taken off in the time since the last post, and I'm done with a lot of the ground work as far as basic rendering and engine structure goes.

Now, I have other big news for the project! I have a dedicated artist joining me on this. We both work full-time and he is attending college, so we are planning to hit the development hard when summer break roles around and hopefully get a kickstarter in so we can make a quality project.

Look forward to updates about the design of the game, development videos, and Art/Programming!

Thank you!

-Kody.

Back from the dead!

Hey, this is Steven from Datamancer! Finally we are making progress on a project and I just wanted to update with a screenshot and some info:

Our game project ( as some of you may remember ) is called Galaxy Bear. It's intended to be a tough-as-nails Megaman-esque Platformer with a few surprises thrown in the mix.

The original version of the game was coded from near-scratch in c++ and SFML/OpenGL as well as having a functional map editor. We got very far on the original version, but unfortunately a hard-drive death resulted in us having lost the project. Years later we have decided to bring back the project with the power of Unity!

Now, I love coding the bear bones ( see what I did there? ) down to the metal c++ stuff but Unity is just so portable we had to go with it.

Right now we are still early in the project, but it has basic platformer movement, shooting, ladders, floating/moving platformers( all easily configurable in the Unity Editor ) and it's all working bug-free and very smooth.

Right now it's just me reviving the project but I plan to bring on a few friends, mainly to help with the Art Direction.

Expect a development video relatively soon and new updates on the blog!

See ya later!

- Steven

First Post!

Created a blog to post updates of the game as they happen! Stay tuned for the first updates...