Half way there

Alright, now that Thanksgiving is over, I can return to programming every day with less interruptions.

I am about to work on the sprites for the escape boat at the end of Death Toll. The campaign is just about done and just requires that escape boat to be completed. Once I get that in today and I test a little bit, the entire campaign should be fully functional. By the end of the evening, I hope to have started Dead Air by at least getting done the Green House tile set.

Its been a busy week, but wrapping up a campaign makes me feel like enough was accomplished. Not looking forward to writing some more music though. I feel like my internal audio well of creativity is drying up quickly. And while I do like what I've put together so far, it'll take a miracle for me to kick out something as productive as quickly as the last 6 original tracks have gone.

If I'm really luck, I can get a few screens in to Dead Air before having to be back at work tomorrow night at 11. Wish me luck!

-Eric

Left 4 Dead update time!

In about an hour, a friend of mine will be showing up to help me get some additional play testing done. Currently, I've finished up to the cabin on the road in "Death Toll." which is about the half way mark of the campaign. When he gets here, I'm going to record a 2 Player video that highlights more of the interesting play aspects of the game. I will then upload the video to youtube in under 24 hours.

Debating if I should add commentary...hmmm.....

Thanks for reading. I'll update with some more later this week.

-E

WOW! Just...WOW!

So, on November 16th at 5:30 pm, Alexander Sliwinski posted a link to my youtube video of "Pixelforce: Left 4 Dead" on Joystiq.com. Now, that same video holds almost 200,000 views! Just...WOW.

The feedback about the video has been tremendous, and honestly, I'm extremely overwhelmed. Unfortunately, all the sudden praise and notoriety has halted my game production since I've redirected my time to doing interviews, answering questions, and negotiating with companies. I'd love to talk more about it now, but I'm VERY tired and need to catch some sleep.

Thanks you SO much to everyone who commented and watched my video. I love you all and if you knew how this event has made me feel, you might understand why I chose to make games in the first place. :)

All the best, guys.
-Eric

Back to the norm

OK, so I barely finished and uploaded "Mean Kathleen & The Great Quack Machine" to the IGF ftp just in time. Now that I've got THAT finished (and I'm 100 dollars poorer), I'm now working on my NES style de-make of Valve's "Left 4 Dead." This project is not an original IP, but a chance to work within the constraints of someone else's ideas and plans (like Mega Man Rocks.)

So far, the project is turning out great. I've menaged to get both difficulties working on a 1 or 2 player game more than half way through "No Mercy" right now. All but 2 of the zombies are programmed as of now and I'm about to work on one of them. Only Bill is playable right now since I'm trying to perfect all game play through him before creating the other 3 characters.

Much of the sprite work is already complteed, as are fully functioning stage music and sound effects. I've actually made quite a bit of headway and I plan on having the "No Mercy" campaign completed by the time the REAL "Left 4 Dead 2" hits stores on November 17th. After that, I'll probably upload some videos to youtube or something and link to them here.

All in all, things are well and game development presses on!