BYTE update 0.5.7: stuck-detecting and more
Aaand new version is out!
We added a couple of “user-friendly” improvements to…well, improve “friendliness” of the game:
- Firstly, the stuck-detecting system. From now on, your cyberdeck will show a warning message each time worm gets locked.
- On-screen controls reminder. Just in case you got amnesia or simply tired of reading tutorial chit-chat.
- Small fixes in level design for smoother experience (including the annoying one on Level 11 “9s Bit News Blog”)
- Lastly, many typos have been ruthlessly eliminated. For great justice!
As always, you can play up-to-date BYTE alpha demo here: dividebyzer0.com/byte
Nothing personal
A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine gave me a nice hint – major media company looking for game journalists for one of its franchise. I instantly thought about it like a good side-job opportunity. A nice match to my skills and interests. I was working as a reviewer for a small news site in high school days and my last full-time job was in scenario department. What could go wrong?
(more…)
New firmware for your cyberdeck
Ding! BYTE 0.5.5 version is live! What’s inside:
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Bug fixes. Bug fixes everywhere!
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Minor level design tweaks
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New sounds added
As always, you can play up-to-date BYTE alpha demo here: dividebyzer0.com/byte
P.S. Electronic music, anyone? Roller just released a couple of his tracks for BYTE on soundcloud. Enjoy!
New project, new teammates, new horizons
Surprise! Still alive we are. And this time, we got some major news.
WARNING! A wall of text incoming, so for those who want to catch up quickly, here’s TL;DR
- We have redesigned BYTE game mechanics from scratch. A playable alpha demo available here in the web.
- New teammates! Nik, Sergey, Sasha – guys you rock!
- …and thanks to them, we are happy to announce our new project – SpaceCat! SpaceCat is a VR endless runner for iOS and Android about cats, cosmos, and high-speed velocities.
- ..and yes, pre-alpha demo of SpaceCat is also available. Note: demo for Android phones with gyro only, you will also need a cardboard-like device.
Da tools for BYTE
Hello everyone! It’s status report time!
Okaaaayy… aha… hm… well, it looks like there is not much to show right now. But everything in motion, slow but steady: artists working on game objects, our code wizard experimenting with shaders and particles for backgrounds, and me struggling to find god damn time for level planning.
So, we’ll update prototype with some new art and features next month.
Right now, I want to tell you folks a bit about our game/level design tools. Maybe you will find something useful for your own projects.
As a game engine, we chose Construct 2 – HTML5-based tool for 2D games. Extremely easy to use, yet powerful enough for small-to-mid projects, supporting all major platforms (mobile, web, PC, OS X, Linux). But even if you are using Unity (or anything else) for your 2D game, me can recommend C2 as a super fast prototyping tool, thanks to sets of game objects behaviors, drag’n’drop canvas and visual programming through event lists.
Cons: rough version control systems support (problems with parallel commits), lack of HTML5 native support on mobile, and finally C2 is windows-only.
And the next game isss…
Well yeah, dat news probably tells us two things. First – we are not dead, yet. And second – we were REALLY trying to work on something for last couple of months.
So… As you may guess, we call our new project BYTE – it’s a 2D top-down stealth-puzzle game, where player controls a sneaky cyber-worm performing some malicious deeds in the network of the near future.
Main gameplay may kinda remind of “Snake” from your old Nokia phone, but who cares: every time you steal valuable data, your cyber-worm is getting longer, which makes it harder to control and evade anti-viruses.
Throughout the game you will be able to upgrade your worm in both passive (+% to moving speed, downloading, etc.) and active (adding jaws, that help you break ICE, for example) ways.
The game itself is not just a sequence of levels, by the way – there is a web map, where you can choose your next run, examine stolen stuff, read newsfeed and more.
The plot is revolving about mysterious and powerful web virus, capable to down modern, heavy internet-dependent world, on its knees. Player acts as an anonymous hacker, making his own way through the non-linear story.
Ah, almost forgot – the game will be playable on Windows, OS X and Linux somewhere in early 2016.
Next. We start BYTE devlog on TIGsource. Hope to update it regularly, as well as post news here.
And the last, but not least – there is something for you to see! Right here hides little playable prototype, showing off the very basics of gameplay in our upcoming game. Feel free to drop-off your thoughts over the project thread on TIGsource or in our trollum.
Phew… Okay folks, I guess that’s enough for a humble announcement. Stay tuned.
Just Jump!
Winter holidays and trips are done, so we are…em..I mean, we are done with vacations. Almost.
Just a few days ago, I was riding in a metro, on my way to “Sokolniki” station. The world is a cruel bitch, ya know? We are getting older with every year, and simple things like hanging-out with friends are turning into nearly unsolvable puzzle. Everyone has a lot of work, things to do and not to do, some even have their own families and stuff… And, under these circumstances, it feels just like a miracle, when we finally can find a time to hang-out all-together.
We met each other (our team and some good friends of ours) at 23:30 and set sails to “JustJump” – one of the largest trampoline arena in Moscow. Aaand as you may guess, that 1 hour of jumping (and falling into a foam pit) was crazy, fun and full of positive cosmic rays. Plus! Arena is completely empty during a night time, and cheaper, too! Hmm… may be we should pay a visit to this place in a future?
Okay-okay, let’s get back to work for now. I mean, seriously.
Results so far
…are surprisingly positive, I must say. We just finished our first playtest, received important opinions and made some tweaks. I know, I know, only complete slowpokes make their first playtest after 3 months of production, but it seems we are lucky here. People are digging in core gameplay, which is great, as you may guess.
The bad thing is, that there will be no announce before winter holidays. I dunno, may be in February. The project is still very very raw. But nevertheless, we got a tiny present for ya! See dat picture behind the goose? Its a shot from our current prototype.
What else… oh, we just had a little party – on December 16th Dividebyzer0 has grown 2. Two solid years of fighting with procrastination and day job for a dream work, lol.
P.S. In the light of recent events in the motherland, Roll just made a wonderful joke – “I hope we release our next game before the new Iron Curtain will descend…” lol.
P.P.S. Oh, almost have forgotten – happy holidays to everyone!
Heroes of thermo-morphing
What can be more fun than snowboarding? ‘Course snowboarding with friends!
So, on the past Saturday, we opened snowboarding season in “KANT” – the only place where you can (almost) normally ride, without leaving the city. And yes, it’s open air which is kinda cool, in all senses. Why “almost”? Weeeeell, because it’s awfully short. Reaching the bottom in a minute, maybe two – depends on your laziness and speed.
Moreover, Dima a.k.a Stranger, our code-wizard, was on his first ride! I mean, the very first! And ya know what? He was absolutly focking awesome. Ok, maybe it’s because he skating from time to time, but still. Dude rocks.
What was less awesome, that is Stranger and Roll were late. Our team and some other good friends of mine agreed to met at 13:00. Almost everyone showed up to 14:00. Except those two. So we did around 5-6 rides, had a lunch in the nearest cafe and wait, wait, wait… At last, they arrived – in 16:20. On our attempts to know “WHAT TOOK YOU TWO SO FREACKING LONG!?!?!?” they simply answered, dat they were “thermo-morphing their boots”. Lol.
Solving puzzles
You know, life is like tetris. Have a different kinds of activities which are perfectly represented by these tetra blocks. Some of them are “want to do”, some “need to do”, and some are somewhere in the middle. And each damn day you have to find the best-like combination, and make it fast – because clock is ticking and blocks are falling right on your head.
So we are. Trying to find dat best combination, every day juggling with work and fun.
Ok ok, let’s cut the crap – what about our uber-awesome-megahit next game (don’t laugh, I’m dead serious right now)? Well, it’s making its way, slow but steady. I hope we’ll be able to achieve some meaningful milestones in development and announce our project by the end of the year. That’s it.
And may the Force be with us all.