So ten months ago I stumble across this awesome electricity effect and think, you know what, that would look Awesome as a shield effect. So I commented asking if there was going to be a tutorial and carried on surfing, expecting to get an email if anyone replied. So last week I found the video again and the author, instead of offering a tutuorial, gives me the entire source code :O

Can't describe how happy this made me, really restores your faith in humanity with these little gestures :)

Anyway here is a video of the original effect and once I get this contract out of the way and can get back to the game full time ill be working on getting this integrated with our mothership shields.

Got an email this morning saying we never got the spot at Eurogamer :( I don't mind it was a long shot anyway, our only video was something I threw together and has at least ten things in it I'm not happy about! I would much rather wait until everything is finished properly rather than be rushed to a deadline.

But with this I have to ask myself..am I ever going to finish this?? I'm already doing a double day (currently 10am till 3am straight) just to keep on top of this and my job but right now coding and balancing this monster is akin to beating a whale to death with a teaspoon. Anyway gotta stay positive so on the brighter side here is a link to the first draft of our boss scene, which I must say I'm really loving!

BTW I still don't have a commercial licence for the track but the standard licence should cover me for this blog :) For anyone interested the original song is here: Corrosion

Well we just got an email saying the competition to get the spot at the Euro Gamer Indie Arcade is open and needless to say its brown trousers time!

Ive just taken some new screen grabs so Matt can update the temporary site for the game so if anyone wants a look its over here:

http://sdgt.businesscatalyst.com/

So i've been away from development for a while now. I've had to take on another project so my bank balance looks a little healthier (who am I kidding two days ago I had £3 to my name!) and since things have been a bit hectic in my personal life I took this as an opportunity to take break from the game. But at the prospect of a new computer which means I wont have to wait 2 minutes to deploy a build for Every code change, seriously thats what I have been working with until now, I am full of enthusiasm again :D

I just spent the past hour pacing my flat coming up with new ideas and then throwing them down in a email to Matt who will have the joy of deciphering my verbal diarrhoea tomorrow! The result is a new utilities system that gives players a consumable boost that I think will finally get rid of my niggle that the game is missing something.

I still need to finish the boss mechanics but this is getting a priority as if we do get a spot at the Euro Gamer exhibition it will be important throughout the game whereas I feel only the first two boss behaviours will be needed for a good demo.

And whilst I am here the first draft of our game description:

Cohabitation has never been easy for the human race. There were always those single minded individuals where enough was never enough and the unobtainable had to be obtained, no matter the consequences. Thankfully after the chaotic collapse of the monetary system the human race finally learned to accept each other and its technology soared, taking them to the furthest corners of the galaxy. But not all races were so fortunate.

During only its first decade in space the humans soon discovered a race of aliens so chillingly single minded and hell bent on domination that war was inevitable. Or so we are told but what do you care? You are the humble owner of the new Galaxy Miner S and all you know is that the human race is back to its deceitful ways, alien ships are tough buggers, minerals are worth something and if an alien sees you mining them it’s going to shoot you. So shoot it back and move on quick before its buddies come back for revenge.

K2 Games proudly presents its debut title S.D.G.T that combines chaotically firing up to six weapons at once at anything that moves with a myriad of talent tree styled upgrade decisions. Learn to manage your power and prioritise your targets to ensure your ship stays in one piece and contracts are met on time so you can retire as a rich man.

So this was my second draft for S.D.G.T's promotional video, thought it would be easier to get an idea of the game from a video.  But as you can see the quality is terrible which was one of the reasons we delayed the competition until next year.

Well I suppose welcome to the development blog of S.D.G.T!

We are hopefully now about 3/4 of our way into development and I thought it was about time to setup a blog, though in hindsight we should probably have done this on day 1!

Today was supposed to be our celebration/relaxing day after submitting to the Dream Build Play competition but we decided the game just wasn't ready yet. It had been a few weeks since me and Matt had properly collaborated on the game and we hadn't properly talked about balancing yet so when we did we had some great ideas for boss and enemy mechanics. Turned out to be a double edged sword since we just didn't have time to get the mechanics into the game in time for the competition and I didn't want to ruin our only chance to submit. Plus the video turned out terribly which I Really wasn't happy about.