I finished God of War 1 two days ago, and I enjoyed it all the way through. It is really a spectacular game with great narrative, action and delusions of grandeur.

After finishing it, I was extremely pleased to find the extras. It was awesome (from a game developer’s perspective) to see all the movies of the creation process of a game like God Of War.

It is also great to see the iterative process of such a highly acclaimed game. It didn’t start with a complete game design, but grew along the way, removing the un-fun parts.

Now I really hope that more developers include extras like these in their games. It would be awesome to have “developer commentary” running in the background while you duke it out, don’t you think?

Well, 2007 has certainly been an awesome year for gaming and indie gaming. The standard has risen tremendously.

As for me (Shotbeak Games), 2007 has been fairly slow. I originally intended to have Roach Toaster 2 finished around May/June. Well, as you can see, it didn’t turn out that way. As previously said, I decided to set RT2 aside for the long-term (it will be finished eventually).

In June, I managed to learn XNA & C# and complete a remake of Roach Toaster 1 for Dream. Build. Play. I didn’t attain a finalist position, but I am already gearing up for DBP 2008.

In that time (June/July), I was porting Roach Toaster from XNA to Java for a school project. With 2 days left to go, I decided it just wouldn’t work. So, I managed to churn out a java game called Cyberjam in 2 days.

In other areas of creativity, I set up a MySpace page for my music. I also set up a DeviantArt account for my art.

I also decided to change the theme. (yay?)

I have only 1 established goal for 2008 regarding game development, and that is to enter Dream. Build. Play 2008 (and win).

Anyway, for those few people that read my blog (thanks), I’ll see you on the flip-side.

Keep Toasting.

I am going to update my site with a new theme, so if you find anything weird while I do this process, please hide by your nearest bus shelter.

Chances are nobody will even notice, since my blog isn’t that “huge”. Anyway…

On a quick sidenote. I felt very creative yesterday. It was nice.

On to main post:

I bought me an Xbox-360 controller today. I don’t have an Xbox-360 though. I am gearing up for DBP 2008. This time I am going to make a game that works with the controller so that it will have a better chance of erm… winning DBP 2008.

I always reminisced about the time when I can program a game and play it with a controller. With a controller, a game feels much more like a “game”, if you know what I mean.

So this is really cool. I’m going to get to work and prototype some random games.

On another side note:

I got my matric (kinda like A-levels, and whatnot) results today. I did really well (which is where the money for the Xbox-360 controller comes from). My sis and dad promised to pay me if I beat her, and I did.

I am getting a bit tired of slaving away at Roach Toaster 2. So, I thought I’d randomly try TorgueX today. Browsing around, I stumbled upon DBP 2008! Yes, its time to get cracking again! Last year, I managed to get an entry into DBP. I managed to learn XNA and finish a remake of Roach Toaster 1. Ziggyware has a neat page thing if you want to play it. You need XNA redist and .NET 2.0 though.

Anyway, I didn’t place as a finalist. Primarily I think its because the game was played with a mouse.

Anyway (I should stop saying that), let bygones be bygones. Now I am ready to show my mettle for DBP 2008. With TorgueX’s neat scene management, I’ll hopefully be able to do better in 2008’s DBP.

I have played around with it today, and I am quite liking it! Now I just need to get myself that Xbox-360 controller (teh sex). Hopefully DBP will keep the “make anything” theme.

This week I managed to get no devtime in. I was very busy for several reasons, but I think the main reason is because I am scaling down on the development of RT2.

I was kinda hoping (when I started back in 2006) that I would finish it in 2007. Well, 2007 is coming to an end, and it is far from done. I am starting university next year, so I am uncertain whether I would be able to get much dev time in.

I don’t want to force myself to work on it as it ain’t fun. I want to work on it because it is an enjoyable hobby.

So, Roach Toaster 2 is taking a notch down on my priority list. When it will be done, I don’t know…

I am not too sure if I will continue with the devblogs though.

Until whenever, Keep Toasting!

Well well. Dev.Mag Issue 19 has finally arrived.

It is jam packed with game dev goodies, including and interview with Bit-Blot, creators of the splendid Aquaria!

Enjoy.