What's been happening?

Make Something Unreal Phase 4 Results are in -- January 14th 2010 -- 20:40

Well, the Make Something Unreal Phase 4 results have been posted, and there's some very good news for Hazard: The Journey Of Life! I managed to win 1st place for Best Level, which was completely unexpected considering the calibur of the other levels I was up against. I took the approach of abstract 4D space and dynamic geometry over high level architecture, as there's no other way I could compete with most of the other contestants. I also managed to pick up 3rd place for Best Non-FPS Mod as well! All in all, I went much better than I had expected. Now I can just see how I go for the Grand Finals, in which Hazard is entered into both rounds. If I walk away with anything, that's great. If not, well that's okay too. Essentially, these wins are spot on with how I plan to finish the development of the game. I already know people find it be a conceptually fun game, so I'm now just really polishing up the game and bringing the overall experience to a much higher level.

Honourable Mention for Hazard in the IGF -- January 4th 2010 -- 17:40

Another update for the world of Hazard. I unfortunately didn't make it into the IGF Main competition with Hazard this year, but it was named as an Honourable Mention for the Nuovo Award. I'll still be waiting for the results of the student category coming mid-January, and the Experimental Gameplay Workshop, so there's still the possibility that I'll be going to the GDC, but we'll have to see how they go.

So what does this mean for the game? Not a lot really. The plan remains the same. Finish the game, make it amazing, and release it this year. Essentially, I'll just now be working that much harder to make sure that this game reaches its full potential. You can't win them all on the first try, and if anything, this just gives more reason to keep trying to make the game amazing. There's always next year.

Thanks guys.

Hazard at Game Connect Asia Pacific -- November 17th 2009 -- 02:10

Just another small update. Hazard is a finalist at the Game Connect Asia Pacific exhibition, and I'll also be presenting there on Sunday the 6th of December. Just thought I'd write an update for anyone who would already be at the conference and wanted to try playing the game.

I also need to update my website at some stage. Make it more modern and stop having to write updates manually!

Hazard Standalone and the UDK -- November 7th 2009 -- 18:00

I've had some people email me since the Unreal Development Kit announcement saying that if I use the UDK then Hazard no longer has to be a UT3 mod! Just thought I'd update my site to let people know that I know this, and have known about it since Sense of Wonder Night, but just had to wait for the tools to be released. I'm currently porting Hazard over to the UDK as we speak, and took a quick break to update my site and let people know what the situation was.

So what does this mean? Well, Hazard is coming as a standalone game, yes, but still not for a while. I plan to make the final release of this game even more special than it currently is. There's a fair few issues with the version as it currently stands that I'm not happy with, and rather than continually applying patches, I will be substantially changing parts that aren't as ideal as I'd like. There's heaps of work to do until it is at the quality that I believe it deserves as a commercial game.

For those who still want to try it, the UT3 version will always be around (though I'm no longer updating it), which is still a "complete game". For those who don't have UT3, I may have a demo of the game up and running in the coming months, but don't count on the official release being any time soon. The plan was never to use the UDK to quickly release Hazard as a freeware game. Making this game solo has been a huge effort, and I am making sure I do everything right.

In short, it's coming in 2010, but I am not looking to make a quick buck out of making it standalone. I am looking to release it as professionally as any other independent game that gets released.

Interview with Uncommon Assembly about the Art Style of Hazard -- October 20th 2009 -- 03:45

Another small update...

I recently did an interview with Russel Fincher from Uncommon Assembly about the art style in Hazard. Check it out if you're interested in reading up on the development of the game.

Uncommon Assembly is a fairly new website devoted to the bizarre, unique, and stylistically innovative of videogame art. It's quite cool.

Hazard Sense Of Wonder Presentation is now online -- October 15th 2009 -- 01:25

Although Sense of Wonder Night was several weeks ago, video footage of it is now available on youtube.

NOTE: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS. Just thought people should know before watching.

Hazard is a Make Something Unreal Best Non-FPS Finalist -- October 10th 2009 -- 03:00

Just a quick update... the title of this says it all. I'm pretty stoked. Whether I win anything or not... I'm not fussed. Just being a finalist is great at this stage!

In other news, I'm currently optimising Hazard a LOT (the biggest optimisation that it needs) so that you can have infinite geometry without the same performance hit as there is in the game right now. I have algorithms for everything and am in the process of implementing them. I figure I'll try my hand at the IGF while I'm at it.

Fingers crossed, but I thought it was worth an update.

Sense of Wonder Night 2009 and the response to Hazard -- September 30th 2009 -- 22:15

I'm back from Tokyo and now have time to write up about how things went at the Tokyo Game Show. Japan was amazing, and I wish I was back there right now. It's such a fantastic place. I met up with some amazing people over there, and I wish the best of luck to all of the other entrants who were involved in Sense Of Wonder Night. There were some pretty cool projects being presented.

The presentation of Hazard at the Sense Of Wonder Night went well, though unfortunately the video of my presentation isn't available online yet. When it is, I will link to it from my website. While in Tokyo I spoke with several people about the game, and am currently seeing whether I can chase up any opportunities for getting Hazard released as a standalone title, and whether I can secure work for myself.

While I was over in Tokyo, the game was mentioned over on Indiegames and Rock, Paper, Shotgun which is pretty cool. The comments from people who have played the game are that it's pretty amazing, but there are several issues that I still need to address. The main criticisms of the game are that it's not standalone, which I'm looking to fix, that it has some bugs, which I will also fix when I have time, and that it needs optimisation, which I know.

I appreciate the feedback people have given me, and will be looking to keep improving the game when I have time. I have significantly less time than I would like for the next several weeks while I get the rest of university out of the way, but development on Hazard will keep going. I want to make it professional!

It's been suggested that I make another trailer so that people can see more of the actual game, because there's heaps of stuff that isn't even referenced in the trailer. I will also look at making video walkthroughs of all of the puzzles when I have some time (starting with some of the most obscure ones), as people have been doing some pretty strange things to get through puzzles. It can't hurt having solutions so that people can see how the game was intended to be played, as not everything is perfect right now.

I'm sorry to those who are unable to play the game as it stands right now due to it being a mod, but if things manage to go well for me in the future, there should be something standalone to look forward to. I'm certainly trying.

Hazard is online and available to play -- August 31st 2009 -- 03:50

I've now submitted Hazard - The Journey Of Life into the Make Something Unreal constest, so there's a version available to play now available on the Hazard page. There's some quick install notes on the Hazard page when you go to download it. Please read the file titled "READ THIS" before playing.

It's almost 4am in the morning and I now have to get back to everything else in life, so for the time being, the version currently available is likely to stay as the most complete version for a while. I have really been putting everything else in life on hold while I finished it, so although there are some issues with it, I don't believe they impact the intended experience too much. At some stage I would like to fix the remaining issues and get music back in, but I won't be able to touch it again for a while, given I also need to keep getting ready for my trip to Tokyo!

If you have any feedback about the game, don't hesitate to send me an email.

Hazard will be at the Tokyo Game Show! -- August 26th 2009 -- 16:52

Hazard - The Journey Of Life, was selected as a finalist in the Sense Of Wonder Night competition held during the Tokyo Game Show.

For those who are curious to know more and want to play it, I will be submitting it to the Make Something Unreal competition at the end of this week, and will put it on my site to download freely after I do that. Unfortunately, as it is an Unreal Tournament 3 total conversion, you will require Unreal Tournament 3 to play it if you're keen. Hazard itself will be made available freely, but it is a mod, unfortunately.

Hazard Trailer is Online -- August 13th 2009 -- 01:21

After 2 years of not doing anything with this website (I've been busy and had no new projects to show!), I've now added a trailer for my upcoming game: Hazard - The Journey Of Life.

Hazard Preview

Hazard is a fairly difficult game to explain, and posting images won't help at all (they will just make it more confusing), so watch the trailer for it to get a better understanding of what it is. If you want to see one of the cool systems it uses check out the Dynamic Geometry page. It's been heavily changed since that stuff was made, but if you compare it to the new trailer for Hazard, you'll see that this game has come a very long way from being just a cool looking tech demo.

As the game is currently an Unreal Tournament 3 Total Conversion, it will be available for free on my website when it is finished, at the end of August.

Other changes -- November 27th 2007 -- 02:32

Messed around with some other stuff on the site. Uploaded Metamorphosis, as I don't really plan to change it in the near future. May jump in one day and fix it all up, but there's no point delaying uploading it forever. Moved some videos around to their proper pages. Some pages need to be completely fixed (Hazard, for example, is now entirely wrong, as that game has taken a completely different direction), others still need to be completed (I'm looking at you Particle Characters). Main information is still around the place though.

Roboblitz Isolated is Online -- November 27th 2007 -- 00:16

There's now a link to a downloadable version of this, as well as a video of it in action. Watching the video may give you some sense as to what's actually involved with the puzzles, because although the level isn't the most aesthetically pleasing thing ever, some of the puzzles are deceptive. If you don't like puzzles, watching the video may be enough for you as far as this game goes.

Update after eGames -- November 18th 2007 -- 22:37

Unexpected results from this years modding comp. I decided to randomly enter Metamorphosis for Best Mod and Roboblitz Isolated for Best Single Player Level. Didn't really expect Metamorphosis to get anywhere, but was hoping Isolated would have a decent chance at winning its category. That's... not exactly how things ended up going.

Metamorphosis not only won Best Mod, but it also won Best Character/Weapon and Best Multiplayer Level. I guess "different" was more impressive than "finished" as far as that result goes. Roboblitz Isolated ended up being the Runner Up for Best Single Player Level.

Roboblitz Isolated -- November 2nd 2007 -- 16:51

Well, that was a long break with no new updates whatsoever. Anyway, I've been busy working on this for a while, and a page will be up for it eventually. Here's a screenshot:

Yay Pretty Colours

Advanced Support Weapons is Online -- August 21st 2007 -- 22:29

Hooray. I've finally hosted it after ages of not doing so for no real reason whatsoever. If anyone wants to mess around with this mutator, head over to the Advanced Support Weapons page and get it from there. This was my first attempt at UnrealScript, but I still think it's fun. Enjoy.

System Videos are up -- August 20th 2007 -- 02:24

As I said, they'd be up soon after Freeplay. So, here they are. You can now see a video of Particle Characters and Recursive Space over on the Metamorphosis page and videos of Dynamic Geometry over on the Hazard page. They may get moved later, as I'm not sure what will happen with the games pages given they were both testing grounds and won't be subject to lots of further development later on, whilst the systems will. Guess will find out with that when something changes on the site.

Downloads are still currently unavailable. I realised that while I was making the videos, I changed some variables that are kinda important. I may hold off on adding the download of Dynamic Geometry specifically, at least until I've added a few more configurables for creating levels which would also be helpful to me, as they're currently not there. I'll see what happens. But yeah, at least the videos are there to watch now so people know what they are.

Update after Freeplay -- August 18th 2007 -- 11:57

Presented my work at Freeplay tonight, which now means that I've got new videos of all of the games systems to put up. If you want to see the videos, you'll actually find them on the Hazard and Metamorphosis pages (when I've put them up, which I'll do later tomorrow as I'm really tired right now). I'm putting them there, because those games are still essentially where the ideas that you'll see were used at this stage, as the systems themselves are ongoing development.

I'll also throw up some downloads tomorrow of Advanced Support Weapons, which should have been up a long time ago, and one of the Recursive worlds so people can see how its built. Unfortunately it won't show the beam weapons working, but the level structure itself is more important as far as new ideas for it goes. I could also upload a version of Metamorphosis for people to see, as that's at least been rewritten and back in a game state now although the objective has been removed and there are some bugs. Could do the same thing for Hazard. These wouldn't be uploaded as final pieces, but rather examples of the work so people could play around with them, as I should have done it ages ago and there was some more interested generated because of Freeplay. Expect another update tomorrow or Monday.