Platypotamus

Imagine for a second that I'm working on a kind of old school game.  Imagine further that as I'm working on said game, I'm open to suggestions and other sorts of help from the Internet at large, rather than going it alone.

Now, if I were going to do that, it's possible that the game would feature a sort of overhead-ish perspective for some/most/all of the game.  There's a decent chance that this game would feature sort of arcadey actiony gameplay.  If that were the case, a combination of my indecisiveness and the fact that I'm just not an authority on visuals might lead me to be unable to choose a perspective.  So imagine you're in the position that you're imagining that I'm in.

Here's some screenshots of some older games with some  overhead perspectives that I think might be good for visualizing what perspective this imaginary game might take.  This hypothetical me could definitely use some feedback here though, as this isn't my area of expertise.

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I've started making quick prototypes of games out of captchas, because really, "why not?"  A general post mortem follows.

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Gamasutra - Features - Making Games On The Side: Development In The Real World.

Great article that profiles a couple of folks working on game projects in their spare time.  A pretty inspiring read, particularly if you are trying to do the same sort of thing.  Good advice from the developers too.  Read it.

"I guess my main thing is I try never to force it, I don't try to stress myself out doing it," he says. "If I feel like I have something to say or a game that I really want to make, I'll take the steps to do it, but I'm not 20 anymore so I don't really feel like spending 24 hours of my weekend jamming on a game so much. I do have a wife, so she wouldn't be too happy with that.

Since I was on vacation in the Bahamas over the past couple of weeks, I don't have a big Dungeon Generator update ready. Not to fear though, I've been meaning to do a slightly related update for awhile now, and this gives me a good reason to do so.

First, a small sidebar: I think the blog is an important part of this process, particularly once things get far enough along that there's actually something for you to play with. It's a great way for people interested in the project to know what I'm thinking, and eventually, me to know what they are thinking.

So as I started this project, I committed to maintaining a development blog alongside it, both to keep my thoughts organized, and to share the project with folks. I probably wouldn't have, though, had I not been inspired by a couple of similar blogs.

Dwarf Fortress

Dwarf Fortress is a truly remarkable indie project that has seen a number of releases and is about to see a new one. In the game, you manage a small expedition of dwarves in a bid to create the next fantastic fortress with a functional economy, defense, etc. It has possibly the most detailed procedural world generation I've ever seen. It also has a fantastic development blog, updated daily, with news on exactly what was accomplished that day.

Zero Gear

Zero Gear is a kart racing game currently in development by a friend of mine from back in the Troika days. He's also behind devbump. I'm not sure if he ever sleeps. He and his cohort have been working on Zero Gear for awhile, and they've kept up a blog covering their advances. One of my major goals for this blog is to get to the point where I am posting a lot more video/images/interactive updates, the way they do over there. Also, it looks like from their count down that they are attempting to enter the IGF. Good luck guys!

Well, the dungeon generator is finally far enough along that I'm comfortable unveiling it here for you folks. In the coming weeks, I'll be sharing some interesting details that have gone into its development so far. As new features get added in, I'll share those as well.

Quick summary, as well as a link to see it in action below.

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