•November 20, 2008 •
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LittleBig Train Heist makes another ‘Top Levels’ article — this time earning 18th out of 50. I had previously posted about how the level made a top 10 list from 1up.

Load in, drop a car into play, and zoom off after a speeding train full of point bubbles! This stage forces players to use plenty of caution when progressing through each of the train’s cars because they’re full of booby traps. And don’t die, because you’ll have to start the stage all over again while the train keeps chugging onward. We also like that the first time you jump to the train a well-timed photo op creates a keepsake actually worth holding onto.
The more exposure it gets, the more motivated I am to make appropriate improvements. One improvement will be to put the checkpoints in more intuitive locations: the article claims there are no checkpoints on the train, but there are two (three, if you include the one in the engine) — admittedly, it is a valid complaint, as they are easy to miss (again, the level is more a proof of concept — not a polished product). School has been swamping me the past few weeks and doesn’t look like it’ll be easing up in the immediate future, so it’ll be a priority of mine over christmas break.
Posted in game news, gaming, news
•November 7, 2008 •
1 Comment
•October 26, 2008 •
1 Comment

LittleBigPlanet has finally arrived! I beat the story levels in a single sitting with a friend in co-op, and I must say, it really surpassed my expectations. The story levels in LBP feature some of the best platforming this generation.
I have finished the first version of my first level — I call it LittleBig Train Heist:

You start off chasing the train in the car. Once you reach the train, you’ll jump from the car to the train’s caboose (and my level will even snap a screenshot of this as you do it). Once in the train, you make your way up to the engine while you avoid obstacles. There’s a switch at the front of the engine: if you fail to pull the switch down in time, you’ll face certain death; but if you do manage to grab the switch in time, it’ll send the train on an alternate track to lots of prize points and the finish.
I’ll be publishing it online as soon as the servers are up. My PSN handle is dfyb, so you can add me as a friend and easily find it.
Posted in game news, my work
Tags: lbp, level editor, littlebigplanet, ps3, PSN, user generated content
•October 24, 2008 •
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I got a week-long ban from neoGAF because I said that Super StreetFighter HD Remix should have been canceled. Turns out that one of the mods thought that was “trolling.”
My comment was a legitimate opinion — I actually do think they should have canceled the game. HD Remix is yet another remake of SF2 and it was intended to come out in 2007. Here we are, nearing the end of 2008, and the game is still not out yet. This wouldn’t be a huge deal, except it’s a budget-priced downloadable game and this extra year of development time is surely costing Capcom more money than originally anticipated. Not only that, but the sprites have literally been downgraded from what was originally shown (someone else was banned for simply stating this fact). At this point, the game’s art is comparable to poorly drawn saturday morning cartoons.

This was an example of the sort of quality we were promised by Capcom. They claimed this was an in-game sprite. But this is what T-Hawk in HD Remix ended up looking like –

Notice the reduced quality in shading and the outright omission of detail in things like his belt buckle. This is a flat out different sprite. All of the sprites they had been touting as in-game and real were replaced with these lower quality sprites.
Continue reading ‘neoGAF mods are silly and SFII HD Remix looks awful’
Posted in game news, news
•September 16, 2008 •
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I’ll be moving Raket (the 2D sidescroller game) to Construct. It will likely take a while to port all the work done so far, but I think it will be very worth it. Construct is open source and free of charge.
Construct has quite a few advantages over my current engine as well. It’s hardware accelerated, so I’ll be able to have more going on on-screen. It also supports shaders, so I’ll have easy access to lots of nice visual effects. Construct can handle some primitive 3D objects that I can incorporate into my 2D game. I’m excited to start working with Construct for Raket and will keep the blog updated.
Posted in game news, gaming, news
Tags: construct, indie game
•August 24, 2008 •
1 Comment


Well I took somewhat of a break. I tend to do that sometimes — after it gets to a certain point of completion (in this case, a working controller, despite all the wires and PCB just hanging loose), I tend to stop working on a project for a while if there’s no deadline.
For most of the wiring and soldering, I finished months ago and I either didn’t take pics or I lost them.. but I finally got around to mounting the PCB and getting it all enclosed. My wiring job was a quick one — barely planned out, as at that time I was just testing to see if everything worked. Except for the main ground line, I ended up just sticking with the quick and dirty wiring job instead of redoing it, so it’s pretty ugly inside.
…To check out more pictures, click here!
Posted in emedia, gaming
Tags: arcade, arcade stick, custom arcade stick, DIY, do it yourself, fighting games, home made, stick, video games