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Jeff, slow yourself down there. Nothing wrong with prototyping anything at this point, but like the others said, producing overlays now probably isn't the smartest idea. You want to make this your best Jag game yet? Great. No offense, but that's not really saying much considering your previous efforts. Slow down and make sure you have EVERYTHING right. Don't be in a rush to finish the game, to produce overlays, boxes, etc. Concentrate on making the game as good as you possibly can first, and worry about the less important stuff later. Not that you're going to listen, based on our previous interactions, but have to say it anyway.

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Jeff, slow yourself down there. Nothing wrong with prototyping anything at this point, but like the others said, producing overlays now probably isn't the smartest idea. You want to make this your best Jag game yet? Great. No offense, but that's not really saying much considering your previous efforts. Slow down and make sure you have EVERYTHING right. Don't be in a rush to finish the game, to produce overlays, boxes, etc. Concentrate on making the game as good as you possibly can first, and worry about the less important stuff later. Not that you're going to listen, based on our previous interactions, but have to say it anyway.

This has certainly got to be the most promising idea yet, and if well executed it really could turn into something, but it does need that care and attention

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*implementation of light gun support, (which would friggin rock if I could get it going)

 

Yes please. There was a time a used to keep my Dreamcast around just for the light gun games. When the Nintendo emulator also had the light gun support I loved that too. :D

 

Good luck on this feature!

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Just an overlay guys relax. Thats the button final layout I am working around.

 

Look, as my last post maybe was a bit harsh I will try to say it in nicer words and this is the last comment, that I will make here because it seems that you don`t understand why people are worried about "just an overlay". This overlay is the perfect example for all the other things you did with your last releases, it shows how you think and that you want to get things out of the door and show people, no matter what.

 

The same reason why you promise to show less progress videos and can`t help yourself to still more. I can get that you want to share your ideas and your passion with others but at the same time it shows that your priorities are not set right. In other words, you are wasting your time on stuff that is not really important instead of concentrating on the important stuff, if you really try to make a good game.

 

And actually I could care less but you are not doing yourself a favour with that.

As someone above said, why write yourself into a corner with a "finished" overlay when your game is still in motion and could change and evolve along the way? What if tomorrow you get another great idea what to do with one of the other buttons on the keypad?

 

The fact that you don`t seem to understand why people are reacting in such way shows that nothing will change. In any case good luck with your project.

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You're producing the overlays now, before the game is complete? What happens if you need to change something or think of a new feature? You're effectively cornering yourself then and restricting your available options!

 

Actually I am not the one producing the overlays. I agree with you it limits my options to what I can do with the number keys however I feel that already having a set layout for controls will help me to stay focused on the original idea. This is a design decision and I know that somebody who has made such an impressive game such as Astrostorm can understand that. Think about this. Was the analogue control stick implemented during or after the development of Super Mario 64? I am am not entirely sure but I am willing to bet that it was implemented DURING or before the development of the game. The game was built around that controller in mind. That is what I will do here. What about a side strafe, rocket launcher or zoom in function? That is just not happening. The key here is to stay focused on the original idea and refine it so it is a quality product. These controls having the number key limitation is no different from having the limitations the Jaguar already presents to someone wanting to make a game. Don't get me wrong I do understand where you are coming from and what you are saying but for ME anyway having a predetermined control layout and then building and refining the game around that works best for my design process.

Lesson not learned

 

Actually lots of lessons were learned and that is a very presumptuous comment but it's ok I get it. Please see my comment below to Sauron

 

 

The first batch of carts are probably already in the mail.

 

Ha ha ha. You ARE a funny guy. But seriously, no they are not.

 

Jeff, slow yourself down there. Nothing wrong with prototyping anything at this point, but like the others said, producing overlays now probably isn't the smartest idea. You want to make this your best Jag game yet? Great. No offense, but that's not really saying much considering your previous efforts. Slow down and make sure you have EVERYTHING right. Don't be in a rush to finish the game, to produce overlays, boxes, etc. Concentrate on making the game as good as you possibly can first, and worry about the less important stuff later. Not that you're going to listen, based on our previous interactions, but have to say it anyway.

 

Hi Sauron. Thank you for your concern. I have made over 170 boxes folded, cut, scored and glued by hand for Fast Food 64. I have made over 50 boxes folded cut, scored and glued by hand for Frogz 64. I have also made by hand cut, folded and binded about 70 Frogz 64 manuals. (CD and cart) This is not fun and it is not making a game. Needless to say I am not making ANY boxes, manuals or overlays anymore. Gaz will be making my boxes and manuals going forward and somebody else is doing the fine looking overlays. My job is to make a game. The best game I have made yet. Up until this point I have been doing everything myself. I have figured out that it is best to get the production stuff done by other people that way I can better focus my efforts on the actual game. I would much rather build a game around a predetermined control set and make sure EVERYTHING works as intended. The overlays are done YES but as I already stated in the original post the game is NOT done.The game is being built around this control layout and one of the most important aspects of this project is the control. The control has to be right. I am happy with the overylay layout and the way the gun is going to work this layout needs to be what it is. Yes that's right a gun is being developed. I will also be using the gun myself and adjusting controls and fine tuning it as I go along with the person developing the gun.

So in short what I am saying to you is this is a design decision and I don't want to do ANY production stuff unless it's directly related to making the game better. Production stuff like boxes, manuals and overlays gets in the way and is too much for one person to be handling alone. These overlays will sit in a box with the clear red cart shells I have ordered and do nothing until the game is finished. (except for the one I will be using while testing)

 

I will thank you in advance for NOT locking my thread and staying positive about JagZombies.

 

 

I really didn't think folks would get that worked up over an overlay and it's a shame I have to go into such detail just for posting a picture but hey it's the internet!

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One of my genre favourites is 'sniper gun fanatic guy' taking out zombies from (generally) a shopping mall roof (could be another elevated position). Usually defending some form of gated entrance.

 

To do something like that would look amazing with a zoom in/out method (look down the scope). It's pretty much a genre staple, but unfortunately the overlay excludes that.....

 

I'm a big supporter of your work but this is a small example of what people are talking about. Don't l8nit yourself so quickly.

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One of my genre favourites is 'sniper gun fanatic guy' taking out zombies from (generally) a shopping mall roof (could be another elevated position). Usually defending some form of gated entrance.

 

To do something like that would look amazing with a zoom in/out method (look down the scope). It's pretty much a genre staple, but unfortunately the overlay excludes that.....

 

I'm a big supporter of your work but this is a small example of what people are talking about. Don't l8nit yourself so quickly.

I would rather have a pirate ship deck full of undead zombie pirates and skeletons with a raging moving ocean in the background for a level instead of a sniper function.... But hey to each his own.

 

Lol

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Fine-tuning of your gun live on the spot seems like a waste and I agree with others that making an overlay for it now is unnecessarily backing yourself into a corner.

 

Something to consider is how other popular games in the genre do it. In Virtua Cop (Saturn) or House of the Dead 2 (Dreamcast), there is a comfortable default speed that feels good, but holding down another button moves the cursor considerably faster. For further adjustments, there is are extra settings in the options menu if the default speeds aren't suitable (but the game should be designed so they are). You don't need a gazillion different speed settings for a game like this, you only need two that work well.

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@Jeffrey: I can relate that you are excited about the project and you want to share your progress. But the community may not be ready for that. Better share with other developers who are closer to your project and better understand the stage it is in.

I would like share a few related lessons I learned in professional game development as well as homebrew game dev if I may:

 

1) People may like the sausage, but they don't like to see how it gets made.

If you are working on an original idea game development is rarely the organized process that players believe it is. Not in professional game dev, much less in homebrew games. For creative people, builders and hackers the creative chaos is awesome. Hacking together a prototype is part of the fun and making games has to be fun, otherwise what's the point? It's what made the wild spirit of early 80/90s games and the demo scene.

 

Today people are used to serious and planned franchises big companies produce year after year. Often with a marketing budget as big as development budget or bigger.

All of what the audience sees from these games is staged. They see staged demos and staged appearances on events.

They read carefully revised interviews with people who's whole job is actually PR and not development.

If a team is really wild, there may even be staged workspace pictures, but they look nothing like their real workspaces.

All that is not done to fool players. It's done not to alienate them and give the right impression.

 

This is of course a very polarized view of things. There is something in between "creatives at work" and "people in suits demanding you follow their milestone plans to the last detail no matter what" and having entertainers present the results to the public.

But the thing to keep in mind is: The whole staging was invented to make the right impression at the right time. And that is true for any project, no matter how big or small.

 

1b) There is a time to show a prototype to a selected group. That time is the beta stage. If you show too early, people will just get irritated and confused, because they are not involved in the development process and can't tell what already is done and what is still being worked on.

You end up with a lot of feedback that you already know and at the same time people get the wrong impression because they always see what does not work. It's human nature.

One very difficult truth I had to learn as a game designer: The work of a good game designer is invisible. It's a natural part of the game. You only see it when something does not work.

 

2) For a professional team, making a demo is never fun. They do it because they have to. It means stepping back from actual development and building something artificial that has to look and feel good, but all that work is later thrown away. It eats up development time that's all.

This is actually a mistake I always made in my early years. I put too much time into building tech demos.

 

Some of my projects in a nutshell:

Star Alliance: Learning programming and building tech demos.

- all games in between: tech demos -

Eerievale (on the Jag): Building technology, learning adventure game development, writing story and building tech demos.

 

The first real games I made even though small were during my game design study.

 

Funny enough this can also happen in commercial game development.

On the first big project I worked on, my approach would have been to build a gameplay prototype first.

The idea was scrapped as a waste of time. We ended up building a nice looking product, that was more a tech demo than a game with gameplay being slapped on in the last minute. I had to fight hard to get the resources to add any gameplay at all. ;-)

 

Ah well, now back to topic. ;-)

Edited by Starcat
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Zombie Shooters drool.....

 

 

 

More Zombies, more ideas...

 

 

Can't see anything remotely close to the CarnEvil Arcade version happening, at all. The only thing I could see from the Zombie Raid would be the shot gun shells, would look way better. I'm not sure the expectations or ideas suggesting otherwise will be anything close to the reality of this project. Jeff, was there any sort of outline to what the game will contain exactly so people can better understand what to expect and what not to expect? How many levels, bosses, zombies, variety, music, etc?

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Can't see anything remotely close to the CarnEvil Arcade version happening, at all. The only thing I could see from the Zombie Raid would be the shot gun shells, would look way better. I'm not sure the expectations or ideas suggesting otherwise will be anything close to the reality of this project. Jeff, was there any sort of outline to what the game will contain exactly so people can better understand what to expect and what not to expect? How many levels, bosses, zombies, variety, music, etc?

 

Yes. I can tell you there will be zombies. There will be different zombies. There will be a variety of weapons. There will be bosses and there will be levels.

 

I can not reveal anything else at the moment as I promised to not give too many updates or details on the project too often. Maybe it will be ok in about 2 weeks to reveal more info on the game.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you Jeffrey for posting the demo. We played it with my son and the game looks very beautiful (the scenery background with the water pool), the zombies are excellent especially the way they move and the sounds are great too.

The only thing to improve is the move of the target: it is now very imprecise and that makes it difficult to aim the zombies while it seems that headshots are important because they kill any zombie with only one bullet.

 

Anyway great job and we can't wait for see more :)

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Since I have perfected Fast Food 64 on the PC as you can see here:

 

I decided it's about time to give a little peak at JagZombies again. I'm not going to show too much as we don't want everyone to see the entire process of making the potato salad here.

 

This video shows me unpacking 4 of the scenes and 1 civilian popping up. (you will need to avoid shooting them)

 

 

 

 

It's also interesting to note that the same guy who made my overlays for Fast Food 64 and Frogz 64 on the Jag has been in close contact with me and has developed a gun for the game. This is a motion controlled gun and should add a little something extra to the game! There will also be support for mouse input on controller port 2. You will have the option to buy the gun separately or bundled with the game.

 

 

post-45896-0-91246300-1513573928.jpg

 

 

Well that's all for now. I will update again in the future

 

 

 

If you like what you see so far, be sure to head on over to the Youtube Channel and give a big old thumbs down! I'm gonna go play Downfall now ;)

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What is different about each stage other than the background image?

 

 

Nothing at the moment. But the parking deck will have cars that can explode, the grave will have hands rising out that you can shoot for extra points and bats that will fly into the screen. The warehouse will have something truly special and the forest (not seen here) will have different hazards as well. There are currently 7 different types of zombies (including Starcats zombie) not shown here, Certain zombies will be unique to certain areas and other zombies will have special abilities. Like I said, don't want to show the entire process of making the potato salad just bits and pieces.... now gotta get back to eating the potato salad and playing downfall..... the jagpad has mustard and mayo in between the buttons now....

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Looks still promising ;-)

I wonder how the gun could command the targets movements on the screen but so far those movements with the paddle cross lacks of precision and hopefully you will improve that.

Another limit: I am afraid the game will be very repetitive but maybe you will introduce bosses and surprises to keep the player interest for going on.

Otherwise , your game has very cool graphisms and I like the way the zombies are walking: good job :thumbsup:

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