Kratoes Potatoes

Oh shit...

2009-04-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

Rico doesn't know it yet, but I'm going to finally crack down and write the whole story to re-open the development of the game...

DON'T TELL ANYONE.

-Coded One

Postponement.

2009-02-27T15:24:00.000-08:00

Due to personal issues, the games under development will be postponed indefinitely, and likely halted.

The Bitter Wind

2009-01-17T23:53:00.000-08:00

That first winter morning, when everything went to hell, is still vivid in my mind. It was only cold enough to bite when the wind blew, but the wind blew and blew and blew. I remember her being so content, so normal and ready for life. She was perky, the Texas autumn had made her soft, unprepared for when the bitter winter winds rolled in.

She was so alone.

When I first walked outside, and felt the bitter wind, I shivered. It was more than a simple shiver, it was a shiver for the deaths of Napoleans men marching into the bitter Russian cold, for all those lost and trapped in arctic regions, only to die alone and frozen, as the cold seeped in and reached their bones. It was the first time I shivered this winter, and I knew it wouldn't be my last. I tried to push the cold out of my mind, focus on the warmth in the soles in my feet, but it was useless. I shivered again.

This time, I shivered for her.

A lump formed in my throat, as if I was anxious or nervous about something. I knew that she would come back. I knew that she would return, but... I knew that she wouldn't be the same again. I knew that the memories would still be there and that everytime we touched, she would stiffen remembering that bitter winter. I knew that when we sang along to the radio, she would only mouth the words with her mind still focusing on the bitter winter. I knew that everytime we kissed, I wouldn't feel warmth beneath her skin but only the winds of a past bitter winter. It wouldn't be the same.

I wouldn't be able to live with her like this, but I had no one else.

She was attached to me. She was more to me than just a friend, she was my life. I knew that after this, she would only turn to me, and even though she would never be the same, I couldn't let her go. If I did, she wouldn't be able to live, wouldn't be able to recover. I was her only hope for a life, her only hope for happiness. As my years grow, I will grow to hate her more and more, but she will only see the outside of me. She will only see the content supporting man.

She will never see how I truly feel.

I marched on. The wind was blowing harder now, I could no longer find any heat in my body to focus on. I could only think about other things. I tried to put this all out of my mind. I tried to put her, the cold, even the feeling of my cracking lips, I tried to put it all behind me, like a dropped letter too unimportant for me to stop and pick up. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that when I walked back home the same route, that letter would still be there, untouched by the very wind that seeps in my skin. It would be right there, in the middle of the sidewalk, waiting for me, and this time, I would have to pick it up.

The winter ended, and I saw her for the first time again.

She fell in my arms. She was sobbing, apologizing, stating every mistake she's ever made, begging for me to forgive her. I had no choice, I sat there and stroked her hair and told her that everything was alright. I knew that now was when my life would end. I would have to act as a baby sitter, watching her, being her only support. It would be torture, giving up my life for hers, but I would have to do it, because I knew that all this was my fault.

The next winter came.

The memories came back. It had only been a year, but she thought that she could disregard her past. I walked with her now, I protected her from the cold. My arm around hers, trying to keep her warm, I could feel her shiver. It was her first winter shiver, and I knew that she did not shiver for any lives lost in the cold, but that she shivered for me.

She looked into my eyes and saw my true feelings. In that instant she saw all that she had done to me, all that she had forced my life to become. We kept walking in silence. That night, she didn't come home.

It's been 2 weeks since I've last seen her, and I know that I'll never see her again.

Finals

2009-01-13T17:59:00.000-08:00

Finals this week, no work was done on my game (probably Mush's too) due to studying. In the mean time:

Garden Gnome Carnage

So much for story...

2009-01-02T12:17:00.000-08:00

I'm the story guy. I'm not meant to have ANY idea how to program, and Mush has the final word on almost all gameplay decisions. Well...

Mush has been bugging me for a while now to buy GM pro. I've never been very interested in the program, so I've been a cheap bastard. Well, yesterday I downloaded GM Lite... Fuck.

Now I'm amazed at the abilities of the program, It certainly doesn't compare to something like Visual C++ or .Net Framework, but it's quite impressive in its own right. I also am amazed at the range of *excellent* games that have come out of GM. When you first browse the Game Maker website, you see MANY shitty games by kids probably around 8-12 years old. However, for every 100 shitty games that come out of GM, one truly brilliant gem will stand out. For instance, games like Iji or Spelunky.

I've begun to make a simple platformer in GM. I really want to make it in a similar vein of the game Citizen Able: Gravity Bone. Gravity Bone is not a game. It's a story. There is only one ending. There is only one path. It's amazingly brilliant. The game (or better yet, the story) only takes about 20 minutes to complete, I highly recommend that everybody try it out NAOW.

So essentially, I want to make a short platformer that (hopefully) doesn't suck and that tells a brief story. Needless to say, this will be my first GM game and I doubt that my first GM game will be anything near as amazing as Derek Yu's first GM game. So keep your eyes peeled for my first shitty attempt at a game.

Twitter

2008-12-30T00:37:00.001-08:00

Hey people ill twitter on game progress.

CODED ONE: NO. THERE WILL BE NO TWITTER SHITTER IN THIS HOUSE. YOU DO THAT OUTSIDE.

CODED ONE EDIT2: I swear, I WILL remove that twitter bar at the bottom...

Expect some work done.

2008-12-20T10:56:00.000-08:00

Hey, this is Mushrooshi.

Work on the game has slumped. There was an obvious lack of posts, and I haven't actually made significant progress in the past month.

As Coded One would say, "SCREW YOU HISTORY". It is the biggest offender in terms of homework, and as much as it would be fun to blame it on that, it isn't actually such. I BS all of it in engineering graphics, and I just skim over it. However, it is actually my lack of focus that is actually it. See, I pretty much think scattered, in which I will be reading Engadget, playing random flash games, kill time on Steam, take naps, play with my guinea pigs, or watch TV, or pretty much do anything EXCEPT make my game...

However, I will make significant progress in the next 2 weeks. It is the holiday break, and as such, I will be bored for a long time. As such, I will be working on the game.

Also, I just lost the game.

"Hey Marcus."

2008-12-19T16:33:00.000-08:00

"Hey Dave."

Dave waved, and Marcus waved back. They laid there waiting for someone to let them out. They were in a circular room, both inside a small glass sleeping pods. Marcus was transported here from his room in order to keep him safe.

Marcus was in his airtight sleeping pod when the glass window in his room blew out. Before he knew it, the station had transported him to the security area. He figured Dave must have had a similar experience. Apparently, a security guard had to come to release them from their pods, as if they were prisoners.

"This is a shitty way to do it," Marcus muttered under his breath.

Another pod slid into the room. What was inside it... wasn't human. It was dead too, but Marcus didn't know this. He also didn't know that that thing would only be dead for the duration of the incubation period. He also didn't know that the incubation period would end in 7 seconds.

It's heart beat again. Not a human heart, but a heart with no morality, only desires. It only desired one thing, Death.

Marcus watched as the figure twitched.

It moved, alive again. There was no struggle against the pod glass, no indication that it would even attempt to escape its chamber. It just did.

It one swift movement it destroyed the glass, escaping into the room. He could see it's face. It was the face of someone once human, but now something much simpler.

The thing moved towards Dave...

--------------------

Sorry if the intro is shitty, I really wish I could explain the setting better.

-Coded One

Rebuilding engine

2008-11-29T20:36:00.001-08:00

Isn't that sexy? 45 degree top down.

The final game won't look like that, the graphics will be so much better...

Mushrooshi's Notebook

2008-11-11T19:58:00.000-08:00

I scanned in everything. I felt like censoring, just to piss you all off. All the weird weapons that seem 'strange' that aren't censored are not included in the game, as in not included in the game.

The 1st page:

Download now:
http://www.box.net/shared/bqlvorg90e#scanblog

I don't like cursing

2008-11-06T17:46:00.000-08:00

If my posts have cursing, coded one edited it.

CODED ONE: Stop it Rico.

2008-10-29T19:34:00.000-07:00

I am trying to achieve this...

The image was manipulated in Photoshop, by the way. Right now, it has no blurs :(

Also, if you're wondering, the icons and the weapon onscreen are simply placeholders.

Gun Control and Weapon Switching

2008-10-28T18:30:00.000-07:00

As it stands, you can have up to 5 different weapons on you at any time in the game. There is a menu that works nice and streamlined in which you can have weapons selected, switched out, and such.

The variables were a bitch to code!

Speaking of which, there is also a thing called 'Gun Control'. It is simple an invisible object I can place in any room, and the weapon's ammo won't run out.

Here is how experience will work in the game:

If you have low experience, your damage is from 10 to 30
If you have high experience, you damage is from 25 to 30

Obviously, in real life, your weapon doesn't magically deal more damage simply with more use.

Instead, there is, ironically for a video game, a more realistic system. Weapon experience increases your chance of higher damage and accuracy and range, whilst an upgrade kit will upgrade for features and damage, and such.

The experience is shared with similar weapons. 3 pistols will share experience, as will 2 RPGS or 4 semi automatics.

Oh, and I need to do my English homework.

Screenshots

2008-10-27T20:16:00.001-07:00

Click +1

2008-10-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

Coded One here, haven't been on in a while:

So we got a snazzy blog hit counter, we got about 20 hits (Woo!). Yeeeaaah... 'cause thats a LOT.

Anywho, so the story is going well, Im focusing on getting personality on paper now, probably write the story (think novel/prose form) soon. Script comes last.

Engines working well too, Mush's got a basic hud, and gameplay seems to be functional. Lemme tell ya, the sprites is really what makes a game good, these placeholders really send your head for a spin.

I'll try and keep this place updated more, I blame history homework.

Download links removed

2008-10-26T10:59:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, this is Mush, I needed to remove the download links for your own protection.

When Coded One downloaded from me, he said he got a trojan.

Recently, I have been backing up my sister's laptop. With her being 12, she probably had several viruses on her laptop, and my MacBook is unprotected from it. I was so used to 'Its a mac, it gets no viruses' that I forgot to load antivirus on my windows partition.

Sorry if you all got viruses, I was oblivious and too careless that I didn't catch if. If you downloaded at all, please, get your antiviruses mounted and scan your computers.

Then again, Coded One uses Norton, so...

Signs of life

2008-10-23T17:33:00.000-07:00

Just a little showing of the HUD that could be in the game

EDIT: Me and coded one decided on something similar to this design:
With messenger disengadged:

With a messenger engadged, and with sean connery

And a possible render of the space station...

Sprite/Mouse position

2008-10-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

Sup, Mush here...

I am working on getting the sprite so that, if the mouse is in a certain position, the sprite looks like how it should...

I can't use the current image rotation, since this is a 60 degree top down shooter. The current build (1) is at 90 degrees. Coded One said he would like a side scroller, for it would give the player more interaction with the character by seeing the face. That was one of the gripes I had with Ratchet: Deadlocked, in that I couldn't see Ratchet's face.

Well, instead of seeing a blob of hair, you will see the face too... 7/8ths of the time...

Shutdown Initiated...

2008-10-08T19:37:00.000-07:00

So, to elaborate more on the basic mechanics:

The basic game idea is a series of boss fights that, as you encounter and defeat the bosses, would shut down different systems of the space station (think heating/cooling, security, oxygen, etc). The failing of systems allow for smaller (possibly even re-used) level design, the problems and puzzles presented by the lack of certain elements makes the player take a new approach to each level.

The Big 6 are the 6 bosses that you will encounter along your journey through the space station. Of course, these bosses will have the ability that they possess shut down after killing them. Yeah, that Ice boss that was such a pain in the ass? Well, all cooling is shut down on the station, have a fun time in THAT heat.

Lucky 7 is the final boss, he's separated from the rest due to his importance to the storyline.

As the story guy, I want to try and make this game have a decent (hopefully better) story. This may be a top-down shooter, but that doesn't mean I can't bring it to life with some good dialogue. I intend for the characters in the story to connect with the player. This game is not planned to have story-driven player decisions. However, I hope to bring the main characters flaws to life by the choices that he makes.

Currently, I can't say what causes the Big 6 and Lucky 7 to become what they are. Let me just say that this isn't your standard Alien attack...

Lucky Number 7

2008-10-07T20:11:00.001-07:00

It's Coded One, the ideas and story guy.

So, we made some good progress on the story of our little game, that is for now titled 'Space Disaster'. I basically just cleared up the intentions of the game to the programmer (Mushrooshi). I'll mention the details later, but this should be a new idea for a game.

Now, the Big 6 and Lucky 7, they are a mish-mashed bunch. I'll explain the basic concept of the game later, and how the B6 and L7 fit in, just know that you will have a fun time fighting these bunch.

Oh, and the engine is apparently doing well, the vision cone is done, now he just needs to patch it up a bit.

Sorry for this quick little post, It's late, and I need my sleep, I'll edit it up tomorrow.

Work on first game started

2008-10-06T18:29:00.000-07:00

Mush here, work on the first game of Kratoes Potatoes is underway. Basically, Coded One (who ironically stated himself isn't very good at coding), and I (who sucks at storylines), are making a game that, while we won't release the full plot, is about a dude (robot?) who must save the inhabitants of a space station from a very bad infection.

I am working on the game engine. Coded One will mainly be doing the blog posting, but anyways there will be some snippets scanned from my notebook.

Working Title will be 'Space Disaster'