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IcyEyes

For those wondering about the status of Bombjammers; I'm very sorry to inform you that its public release has been temporarily put...

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Bombjammers (pre-alpha) Released!

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Before any of you get too excited, I just want to warn you that this is not the greatly improved port I was working on for months. This is just a slightly improved version of the old build that was originally played on UPF. It still contains many bugs and missing features. So consider yourself warned!

As many of you know, I had to put the release of my improved port of Bombjammers on hold, due to some difficulties me and my family have been going through. The community here was overwhelmingly supportive and understanding of this, but it still sadden me because it felt like I was letting people down. So a few days ago I just decided to put out the old version for people to finally try. However, I did end up improving a few things in this version anyway:

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Changes to Pre-Alpha 4

  • Power Kicks can't “backfire” on you anymore. So no more feeling like an idiot ;)
  • No speed penalty when holding the bomb now.
  • Bomb now has a timer, and will explode if you hold on to it for too long!
  • You can now create an all bot match! Just sit back and watch the madness unfold.
  • Updated some graphics (new logo, fonts, etc.) and renamed some menus.

Known Issues

  • Bomb can sometimes get stuck?!? (This has been fixed in the port.)
  • Very basic and somewhat buggy AI.
  • Pause menu doesn't support controller input.
  • Keyboard controls suck.

How to play

Keyboard is supported, but it kind of sucks. So an xbox controller is highly recommended!

Move = Left stick or arrow keys.

Power Slide (not holding bomb) = Left stick + A button, or arrow keys + space bar.

Throw Bomb (while holding bomb) = Left stick + A button, or arrow keys + space bar..

Power Kick (just before catching bomb) = B button, or Alt key.

>> Download the Pre-Alpha here <<

The (uncertain) future of Bombjammers?

I also wanted to get this build out there because, due to my current situation, I might be without a place to live soon and I still have no idea what I'm going to do about that yet. So I'm not sure when I might be able to get back to this. My housing and job situation has been starting to bother me because I'm still not bringing in enough to support myself, and I've found being productive at any kind of work extremely difficult due to a lot of depression. I'm also feeling really burned out on just about everything.

I originally started Bombjammers as just a silly little side project to help distract me from all this. But it ended up having way more potential then I ever imagined it could. It's also been the only thing I've found any joy in during all of this crap, which feels like a shame because I can't really use any of it to help me. But with things being somewhat desperate, I've been wondering if there might not be a way to use this project to somehow help support me?

I've thought about trying to go the ad supported way, by putting it up on gaming portals, but it would need to be extremely popular to make any kind of money there. I could also just ask for donations, but I don't know if that would bring in much either. The only other option I can think of, is just trying to spin this project off in to it's own, full-fledged commercial game. Like when you take a jam game and turn it into a "real" game. But would there even be enough interest to make that work? There does seem to be a lot of games like this popping up on Steam nowadays....

I'd really appreciate any thoughts you guys have on this, since I honestly don't know if I'm really thinking very clearly anymore. Anyway, thanks for being so awesome, duders! Hope you have fun with the game.

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Bombjammers delayed indefinitely :(

A few of you might be curious to know what exactly happened to Bombjammers. I had originally planned to release the first public alpha way back in August, but that obviously didn't happen. I was really close too, but some things came up that forced me to put it on hold. Unfortunately, recent events look to make that delay quite a bit longer then I had hoped.

To make a very long story short, we're losing our home due to financial difficulties we've been going through over the last few years. We've been trying to work something out with the bank to prevent this, but we've now been disqualified from every option except a short sale or foreclosure. As you can imagine, this is going to put something of a halt on everything else until we get things sorted out. It's also, obviously, a very stressful time for everyone involved.

To be completely honest, I'm not exactly sure where I'm going to go after this is all over. I was a co-borrower on the loan with my mother because she's disabled and couldn't qualify without my help, but the stress of supporting her over the last ten years has become more then I can bear. This ultimately led to my emotional breakdown and job loss in 2012 that created our current situation. I'm going to first help my mom relocate somewhere, but where I go after that is unknown. So I can't give you a definite date on the release of Bombjammers, but I thought I'd at least let people know I haven't abandon the project.

Wish me luck.

Bombjammers Premiere on Unprofessional Fridays

Still cheers me up every time I watch it. Much love to all you duders!

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PAX Prime 2014 Jammers Wanted!

I'm making a free Giant Bomb themed sports game inspired by retro classics Windjammers, Sanrio World Smash Ball! and many other "ponglikes". This is my pathetic attempt to blog about its development. If you'd like to understand my madness a little better than you might care to check out my other entries below.

  1. Games of future past: Giant Bomb Jammers

  2. Dev Log #465 - Hard Knocks & Cannibalism

  3. Gone with the Wind: Jammers Dev Log #3

Gameplay mechanics have been updated, but visuals here remain the same
Gameplay mechanics have been updated, but visuals here remain the same

With only about a week left before PAX prime I've decided to keep this post short, giving just a very basic rundown on some of the progress I've made over the past week. This is because blog posts take me a while to write and I'd like to stay focused on finishing up the first public alpha. I've set August 28 as my deadline for its release. This is because I think PAX is the perfect opportunity to allow a game like this to be played with actual human beings. Unfortunately, I won't be attending PAX myself, but I wanted to give other duders the chance to play it there anyway. So if you're going to PAX prime with a laptop and a few xbox controllers and would like to play this there. Please feel free to do so (once it's released).

New title screen
New title screen

I've finally decided to change the game's name from "Giant Bomb Jammers" to "Bombjammers". While I still don't feel like this is the best possible name, I think it's unique and descriptive enough to work. There has already been another community project by the same name too, but that open source project seems to have unfortunately died. So I don't believe there will be any issues with using the same name here.

The player input control system has become a real pain for me. I initially started creating a much more complex and robust system to allow for any kind of player input (keyboard/mouse/gamepad), but I quickly realized this was making the process take much too long. So I've decided to go with Xbox controller support only for the initial release. I also struggled a bit with how I should implement the new player selection screen, but in the end, I decided to go with a simple design that works pretty well.

Here's a preview of some of the visual/interface changes I've been making. Fire effect and backgrounds are not finished yet.

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If you'll be going to PAX prime and would like to host and/or partake in a Bombjammers session, then leave a comment below, or send me a private message. So I can let you know the moment it's released. I'll also be announcing it through my twitter account. Thanks for reading and see you next week!

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Gone with the Wind: Jammers Dev Log #3

I'm making a free Giant Bomb themed sports game inspired by retro classics Windjammers, Sanrio World Smash Ball! and many other "ponglikes". This is my pathetic attempt to blog about its development. If you'd like to understand my madness a little better than you might care to check out my other entries below.

  1. Games of future past: Giant Bomb Jammers

  2. Dev Log #465 - Hard Knocks & Cannibalism

working  title
working title

So Near and yet So Far

Work on "Codename: Jammers" (as I'm calling it now) continues, but unfortunately, I still don't have anything to release yet. This has made me think about just releasing my old pre-alpha to the public, but I've realized that I'm still not happy with that build at all and would need to spend some time improving it before doing so, but that would be very counterproductive. Since any more work done on that old version would be thrown out with the next update. So I guess there's no looking back. I'm also pretty excited about the improvements to this new version of the game and I hope this will make it worth the wait. The biggest challenge yet has been implementing the new player input and character selection system. Once this is finished the rest of the work should go more quickly.

Current Features I'm working on for the first public release:

  • New player input/character selection system.

  • Improved player controls and physics.

  • New scoring/points system.

  • New computer-controlled opponents.

  • Bug fixes.

Future Features / Wish List:

  • Ryan Davis.

  • More characters.

  • Character specific special moves.

  • Online multiplayer.

Design Choices

I thought this week I'd go into a little bit more about the design choices behind the game. The first decision was to decide exactly what the game would be. Should it be an exact clone of Windjammers? In the end, I decided against this for a number of reasons. First of all, Windjammers was designed around hardware limitations and I felt that strictly adhering to this would only benefit the most hardcore of retro fans. This also made my life a bit easier because it meant I didn't have to painstakingly recreate every little nuance, and I was free to be more creative and change things up a bit.

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For example, the original Windjammers was controlled with a standard 8-way joystick. The immediate problem here is that it means players can only really shoot in 3 directions, since up and down is kind of useless. The designers addressed this problem by making up and down actually fire the disc at 45° and angling the joystick 45° actually fired the disc at 22° (approximately). This gave players 5 directions to fire in, but it's still kind of limited. So not adhering to this design limitation means I can increase the amount of directions, and therefore precision, substantially.

Not being forced to create an exact clone also allowed me to play with a few of the mechanics. In Windjammers, when you catch the disc you stop moving completely, but in my game, I decided to let players still move, but at a much slower speed. This worked pretty well, but I've been looking into ways to improve this further and prevent players from holding the bomb forever. At one point I was even thinking of dropping (no pun intended) the grab mechanic completely, but I do prefer being able to grab and throw the bomb, since it gives you a lot more control and precision. This is also the one feature that I think makes Windjammers unique in comparison to other “Pong like” games.

Speaking of other “Pong like” games, Windjammers is not the only game I've actually taken inspiration from. Sanrio World Smash Ball! is an obvious one, but I've also gotten some ideas from another Neo Geo game called “Bang Bead”. I wouldn't consider it a good game, but the interface and artwork gave me some great ideas and It's actually what directly “inspired” the duder selection screen.

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Tough Decisions

Supernormalstep's art worked perfectly here and I'm really happy with how it all turned out, but unfortunately I'm afraid I'm going to have to get rid of it :( As much as I love it, it's really limiting my ability to add new characters to the game. Supernormalstep may of course add new characters in the future, but I think it's unrealistic an unreasonable to depend on him for this. So expect a new player selection screen in the next release. This is just one of those design choices you really hate to make.

In my next blog post I hope to go into more details about the improvements to gameplay and also let you actually see the progress I've made. Thanks for reading!

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Dev Log #465 - Hard Knocks & Cannibalism

I'm making a free Giant Bomb themed sports game inspired by retro classics Windjammers, Sanrio World Smash Ball! and many other "ponglikes". This is my pathetic attempt to blog about its development. If you'd like to understand my madness a little better than you might care to check out my other entries below.

  1. Games of future past: Giant Bomb Jammers

working  title
working title

To be completely honest, the title here is partly a joke. This only really feels like dev log #82, but the cannibalization part is very real. Last week I gave a very brief overview of the history of "Giant Bomb Jammers". Probably too brief in fact. So this week I thought I'd try to go into a bit more depth on a few points. I usually try to avoid writing any long-winded personal life stories because I think most people couldn't care less, but also because they feel a bit self-indulgent and egocentric to me. However, for this particular project I think it might be helpful to share a bit more about myself

A Brief History

I'm not exactly sure why, but ever since I was a child, I've enjoyed creating things for others. I first started with papercraft, creating entire kits and then packing them up in my own hand-drawn packaging and promotional material. I even made fake catalogs for toys that didn't exist?! Then I moved on to creating my own fake radio programs and dramas on cassette tape (yes, I'm that old). I like to think of myself as a pioneer in the concept of podcasting, since I was basically making them before they were even invented! Then I moved on to making my own home movies and even cartoon and stop motion animations.

I never had any video game consoles growing up. So my first exposure to video games was when my older brother bought a Packard Bell. I immediately fell in love with computers and video games after that. Since I already loved making things I began to try to hack and modify any game I could get my hands on. Years later, this would lead me to dabbling in map making for games like Day of Defeat and Team Fortress 2.

A Series of Unfortunate Events.

About ten years ago I moved with a few family members from Illinois to North Carolina for the warmer weather and to be closer to other family. The move didn't go very well to say the least, and this took a toll on me. My life from that point on has become something of a roller coaster ride through Hell. In late 2012 everything came to a screeching halt when I had a complete emotional breakdown from a confrontation at work. The experience was so bad that I was forced to resign from my job. This was a full-time position I had held for over seven years! Even worse, this was my primary source of income,and I was using it to support more than just myself.

At this point I had already been working on project "Gerztron" for a few months, but now without a job and things looking grim, I decided to turn to the only thing I felt emotionally capable of working on at the moment. I hastily put together a Kickstarter campaign for the game as I frantically worked on getting the prototype ready. I was hoping that I could somehow supplement my income loss with funding through Kickstarter, but unfortunately the campaign was not well thought out and I lacked an audience. The whole experience was also extremely stressful. Especially when you feel like a lot is depending on its success. Although my situation was quite different, I did feel like I could relate a little bit to Chris Taylor's very emotional Wildman Kickstarter experience.

The Light at the End.

The whole of 2013 was quite a blur to me. Emotionally drained, extremely stressed and a great amount of anxiety is the only thing I really remember. Even the sad and shocking news of Ryan's passing didn't have as much of an effect on me as I felt it should, but at that point it seemed like I had become quite numb. At the beginning of 2014 things started to look a little less bleak. I finally felt like I had a shaky hold on things again. I was also lucky enough to have found a new job, but several issues still remained. I've discovered in the last year that I have a few concerning health issues that I really need to get checked out. My vision has also deteriorated to the point that I know I need glasses now. Chronic depression and a lack of motivation are also two big issues I'm constantly having to deal with. I'm also not completely in the clear yet when it comes to my financial situation.

Unethical Game Development.

The existence of Giant Bomb Jammers almost feels like an accident. This is because the game was partly created by cannibalizing at least 5 other prototypes. Over the years I have worked on a lot of different prototypes that never made it very far. This is mostly because of my sporadic and creative impulses. I'll come up with an idea quickly, but will almost just as quickly get discouraged when it takes longer to develop than anticipated. This combining of different unfinished projects to create one single complete game feels almost like trickery on myself, and no one is probably more surprised that it exists than me. Considering my current situation, It is also both hilarious and a little sad to know that the first project I've ever really made any significant progress on is a free fan game that I cannot sell. This is, however, not to say that I do not feel adequately repaid for my efforts. Getting to see the Duders play it was the best kind of reward I could ever ask for.

What About the Actual Game?

Progress on the GB Jammers port from GameMaker to Unity is going slow but steady. Getting the basic mechanics and graphics working was surprisingly easy, however, I hit a snag with the menu (GUI) system. In GameMaker I was using a custom built menu system, but Unfortunately Unity doesn't provide any (at the moment) built-in solution to easily replace this. This has left me with a few choices: I can either build my own again or purchase a third-party solution. However, Unity is on the verge of releasing a shiny new GUI System that will essentially render both of these options obsolete. So I've decided to build a very simple system for now, as a kind of placeholder until the new GUI system is released.

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I originally wanted to keep this port as faithful to the original as possible, but since I already have to rebuild everything from scratch, I can't help but try and improve certain parts in the process. One area in particular I'm trying to focus on is the player selection and setup process. I have also come up with an improved player control scheme which I'm very excited about. I hope to have it (nearly/almost) completely ported over by this time next week. Sorry for the delay duders. I really hate to keep people waiting, but I do want to make sure you can actually play what I release :)

Thanks for reading and see you next week!

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Games of future past: Giant Bomb Jammers

Last week on the Unprofessional “Fridogs” show, Drew revealed “Giant Bomb Jammers” a Giant Bomb themed and windjammers inspired fan game created by myself (Isaiah Kelly) and featuring the amazing artwork of Supernormal Step and music of Midnight Brown (feat. Jeff Gerstmann).

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Watching the duders play something I actually made was both amazing and terrifying. To see Jeff Gerstmann examining your baby is nerve racking to say the least. However, everyone -besides Jeff- seemed to be overly impressed with it, which I suspect had something to do with alcohol, but in any case the whole thing went off better than I could have ever expected. It was a great honor and I felt extremely privileged to have played a small part in last week's awesome show. Thanks Duders!

Where can I get this?

Unfortunately, the game is not currently available for download. The version shown on UPF was a pre-alpha build that I feel needs more work before releasing it into the wild. I do, however, plan on getting an updated public release out as soon as possible, so I can start gathering feedback. I've already gained a lot of very helpful input just from watching the duders play it on UPF.

The Back story.

The origins of this project can be traced back several years to when I first began to experiment with pixel art of the Giant Bomb crew. The end results were better than expected and this inspired me to try other things. I've been dabbling in game development for many years now with not much to show for it, but I'd always thought a Giant Bomb themed game would be really cool. Naturally, this led me to the idea of a Giant Bomb themed Bomberman clone, but after working on it for about a week I lost interest. Probably because I'm not a huge Bomberman fan.

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A few years after that in late 2012 I decided to try making a dual-joystick shooter named “Gerztron” that built upon my original pixel art style. Food Fight influenced the design quite a bit; I liked the fact that the characters in Food Fight always faced you, and their legs simply flipped from left to right depending on their movement. This meant you didn't need to create sprites for every direction! I made a ton of progress and learned a lot of cool techniques on the project, but ultimately it had to be put on hold indefinitely.

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Then came the news of Ryan Davis's death in 2013. This made me really want to do something for Giant Bomb and the community. Something that would celebrate our community and perhaps, honor Ryan's memory too. I also thought this would be an excellent chance to leverage some of my unused assets. After the rise of Windjammers I decided that this would be the perfect kind of game to build using what I already had. I technically started work on Giant Bomb Jammers on Christmas Day 2013, but work continued on it sporadically between other things, so progress was very slow.

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When the news hit that Vinny would be moving to New York, I realized that the duders might never have a good opportunity to try out this game together after he left. So I worked frantically to get it into a fully playable state before the going-away pizza party, but unfortunately, I just didn't have enough time. But this did help propel the project forward, and a few weeks ago I finally got it to a state that I was happy enough with to show off. I thought it would be a fun idea to reveal the game on Unprofessional Fridays. So I emailed Drew the latest build and was pleasantly surprised to see it played on last week's episode.

What's next?

I've decided to port the game from GameMaker to Unity, primarily as a learning exercise. But this is no simple task so the next update is going to take a bit longer than usual. I'll be putting out a public build for everyone to try soon after. I'm also going to try and make a development blog post every week on its status to keep everyone informed. So stay tuned.

Thanks for reading!

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