So, a few updates.

First off, I don’t know whether or not the text game will get finished–I’ve got more important things to work on, since that was just a “for fun” sort of project.  I still have no intention of actually competing in JayIsGames’ casual game design competition, because as I said before, if I submitted my game, it’d get disqualified.  We’ll see what kind of time I have to work on it.  It’s still a possibility.

Second, and more importantly, I finally started writing code for the next “big” project, which is a semi-sequel to Company.  The theme of the game is grief, but I don’t want to give too much info on how it factors in quite yet.  I can handle talking about more vague stuff, though, so here’s a few quickies:

It’s a story based platformer that is heavy on exploration and discovery.  You play as a character from Company, but not Jack, the original protagonist.  That only leaves two other options, since Company doesn’t have a whole of characters.  The game is set in the same universe, but it stands alone, so you wouldn’t need to have played the original to understand what’s going on.  I’m using Box2D to give the game some physics, but I don’t really want to call it a “physics based platformer,” since the focus isn’t on the physics.  There’s a strong trend right now, especially in Flash games, to base an entire game on physics (usually with Box2D because it’s so damn fast).  It works, and these games can definitely be fun, but I’m starting to get a little sick of it.  Maybe that’s just me.

I’ve got pretty big plans for it, so I’m gonna have to be getting help from more people than I’ve ever had before–The game needs lots of music, at least three voice actors, and probably two artists (one for static things like the level art, and one for characters and animations).  I’m pretty set on music and one of the artists, but the rest is up in the air for now.

This game is going to require an absurdly powerful level editor, and like Company, I probably won’t be able to release it with the game.  It’d just be too hard to make it userfriendly.  I might put it up on my site though, once it matures a bit, just so you guys can check it out and fiddle with it.

Alright, so here’s the most ridiculous thing that’s happened lately.  This is Corey, and he’s got balls of steel.

There’s gotta be someone who can top this.  Any takers?

JayIsGames has occasional game design competitions, and I’m going to enter the current one.

And I’m going to get disqualified.

The idea is that everyone makes a text-based game where you have to escape from a room, and it’s all jolly and fun.  You’re supposed to use Z-Code to write it, because it’s basically the standard for making these kinds of games.  My first fault will be not using Z-Code.  I’m just gonna make my own text engine.  They’re simple enough to crank out anyway, and Z-Code doesn’t do everything that I want it to.

That’s a pretty minor rule to break, though–The other rule that I’m breaking is the real problem.  They say that the games have to be an equivalent to “rated Teen” or lighter.  Fuck that.  This game is going to be pissed off and proud of it.  This game will be the drunken uncle of text-based games.  This game will hate you as a player and a person, and will tell you so at any opportunity it gets.

It’s going to be called “You Find Yourself In A Room.”  And it’s going to be awesome.

The Company of Myself continues to collect viewers and spread around the internet like a video of a cat falling off of a table into a vat of molten lead.  Unfortunately, due to agreements with the sponsor, I wasn’t allowed to put in a counter to keep track of the total number of plays across the whole internet–I can only check on individual sites, and only when they publicly list how many plays a game has.  Armor, for instance, has the game played over 300,000 times.  Newgrounds has something like 130,000.  The game has also reached the “best of all time” list on NG, currently sitting on #6.  We’ll have to wait and see how it shifts around there over the next few days and weeks.

I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I want to work on next, but I don’t want to say too much about it just yet, as it’s got a lot of room to evolve.  Once I become more sure of the project and have something to show, I’ll post about it.  For now, enjoy the Zen demo, because that’s not it and it’ll disappear eventually.