Cave of Atman DX – AVCon 2018

Last weekend The Cave of Atman DX made its first public appearance within the Indie Games Room at Adelaide’s AVCon. I’ve been working on updating the original game from the start of the year. It was great to finally be back showing a game at AVCon, the last game I exhibited there was Expand back in 2014.

As mentioned The Cave of Atman DX is an updated version of the 2014 flash game. The game has been ported across from FlashPunk to HaxeFlixel. It now includes four new mechanics, an over world map, 32 new levels and the much requested ability to undo your moves. I’ve also added the ability to record user replays and crashes and send them to our web server.

I pulled out the following stats from our replay data.

Number of Sessions: 76
Average Session Length: 19.5 minutes
Median Session Length: 15.5 minutes
Longest Sessions:

  • 2 hours 20 minutes
  • 1 hour 43 minutes
  • 1 hour 17 minutes

Overall we were really happy with exhibiting and the response to the game. Thanks to everyone who checked it out.

The next few months will be quite busy for me so progress might be slow. However this is what I’m looking to work on next.

  • Steam Integration – Namely linking replay data to users
  • Improved Replay Tooling – Setup playback markers for level start and improved playback controls
  • Fix Bugs – Several minor bugs related to mechanics appeared at AVCon
  • Level Fixes – Improve tutorial levels and smooth out difficulty
  • Shield Mechanic – Create Prototype
  • Art References – Build up setup of references for artist

Current world map.

Adelaide Game Playtesting Session – December 2017

Sorry for the late posting on this one. We’re having another playtesting event tomorrow.

Date: Thursday 7th December 6:00pm – 8:30pm
Location: AIE Adelaide Campus, 32 Grenfell St. Adelaide, SA 5000
Facebook Event for additional details

I’ve made some progress on the line game I posted about previously but it’s currently not in a playable state. Instead I’ll be working on a small PuzzleScript game I started doodling on last night.

Adelaide Game Playtesting Session – September 2017

Next week there is going to be another games playtesting event at AIE. This one is going to start half an hour earlier than our previous events.

Date: Thursday 28th September 6:00pm – 8:30pm
Location: AIE Adelaide Campus, 32 Grenfell St. Adelaide, SA 5000
Facebook Event for additional details

I’ve been busy with prepping Expand for PS4 lately and so I may not have a new thing to show. After a conversation at the most recent ARGGGH gathering I decided that I will finish a thing I started about a year ago. Here’s a screenshot.

Moirai, Interview and Indie Games Room

So I thought I’d post up a bit about a few things that have happened recently.

Firstly Moirai has been taken offline and is no longer available to download. You can read the community announcement here. Shaun Prescott from PC Gamer interviewed me about it and wrote a good piece.

Back in May I did an interview with Angelo Valdivia from Player Attack. We talked about Expand, Moirai and the Slaughterhouse.

And lastly, the Indie Games Room at AVCon was a few weeks ago. This was my fifth year involved in volunteering for the event. Monkeystack put together this short video from the room on Sunday which was pretty neat.

Adelaide Game Playtesting Session – July 2017

In the lead up to the Indie Games Room we’ll be running another play testing event at AIE Adelaide. These events will now be running every 2nd month, instead of every 3rd.

Date: Thursday 13th July 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Location: AIE Adelaide Campus, 32 Grenfell St. Adelaide, SA 5000
Facebook Event and Additional Details

Unfortunately it’s not looking like I’ll have anything to show. Been a bit busy lately with the Indie Games Room (Did you see our the promotional trailer?), Moirai (will post more about soon) and another thing I can’t talk about yet.

Adelaide Game Playtesting Session – May 2017

Just a quick post to that this week there be another games playtesting event at AIE. It’s been a while since we had one. My hope is that we’ll be running these a bit more frequently now but we’ll see. Anyway come along if you’re free.

Date: Thursday 25th May 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Location: AIE Adelaide Campus, 32 Grenfell St. Adelaide, SA 5000
Facebook Event and Additional Details

Here’s a screenshot of a new thing I’ve made. I’ll be showing it at the event and posting up about it soon.

Adelaide Game Playtesting Session – October 2016

We were intending on having another playtesting event last month but it was cancelled due to the recent storm in Adelaide. Unfortunately I forgot to post up about that one. Either way we’re running a replacement event later this month. Here are the details. Hope to see people there.

Date: Tuesday, June 28 at 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Location: AIE Adelaide Campus, 32 Grenfell St. Adelaide, SA 5000
Facebook Event and Additional Details

I’m working on a new game that I’m hoping to demo. It’s a different game from the midi controller game.

Adelaide Game Playtesting Session – June 2016

It’s been a little while but we’re having another games playtesting session. Here are the details.

Date: Tuesday, June 28 at 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Location: AIE Adelaide Campus, 32 Grenfell St. Adelaide, SA 5000
Facebook Event and Additional Details

I’ve also started working on a small game that uses a midi controller. Hoping to have a new build ready for the playtesting event.

Pokebot, Playtesting Session and Expand on Kotaku

I haven’t posted here for a little while so I thought I’d do an update especially considering that quite a bit has happened this week.

I’ll start by running through the heading in reverse order. During PAX Australia this year my friend and creator of Hacknet Matt Trobbiani and I were interviewed by Mark Serrels from Kotaku Australia. On Tuesday he posted his article based on that interview. It gives an insight into the human side of game development. I won’t say much more. I think you’ll enjoy it.

mbeyZN71

On Wednesday we ran another game playtest event at AIE. The weather in Adelaide has been terribly hot lately but even so it was great to see a good group of people turn up with their games.

Today I pushed out my first Twitter bot. If you’ve watched the Pokemon TV series before then you may remember a segment called Who’s That Pokemon? The idea is that a greyed out Pokemon is display before a commercial break and when returning from the break the show reveals the Pokemon. This bot generates images based on the segment each day and reveals the answer before posting the next Pokemon. Follow @WhosThatPokebot to play along.

pokemonscreenshot

So that’s what has been happening with me lately. I’m working on a few other things on the side. I’ll be sure to post about when I have something to show.

Adelaide Game Playtesting Session – July 2015

Good news. We’re doing another playtesting event AIE Adelaide. This event will be on July 3rd from 6:30pm – 8:30pm. If you’re working on a game, a prototype, art, your pitch or anything else related to games then you should come along and get feedback. We’re also after players who can help test games. All the details you need to know are on the Facebook event page.

videogame

Image from Video Game Pattern by Gilbert Ford.