power up

moving house

2009-07-02T22:18:00.002+01:00

Hi all..

I've decided to pick up and move on to a new blog. Go check out my blog on wordpress

The blog's probably (for the moment) going to move more toward design theory than a production diary, should be an interesting change of pace...

see you on wordpress :D

i'm on twitter

2009-01-14T17:09:00.002Z

anyone who would like to follow me, I'm known as

mikeBithell

on twitter... i'm more likely to blog on there at the moment, until I have something pretty to show off :D

Buccaneer

2009-01-14T12:37:00.002Z

Hey, long time no post Just thought I'd let you all know about a pretty cool game a couple of mates have put up on steam recently. Two guys made this. It's a gorgeous piratey arcade game. Have a look at the demo, blog it and tell everyone about it if you would be so kind :D http://store.steampowered.com/app/23110/

go on, root out those 3D glasses, I dare ya

2008-09-17T22:01:00.000+01:00

hmmmm........

it's a thought....

rss info

2008-07-31T20:22:00.002+01:00

well.. to anyone who wants it.. the rss feed for the Power Up blog is this

i will be adding a link to the menu bar on the right too

apologies annonymous :D

bits and pieces

2008-07-31T20:07:00.003+01:00

a sheet of detail pieces which will be used in the game.. i have decided to go for a more jazzy, cute look... that old atmosphere was a little dark for my liking.. these kind of details will be placed in the scene around the level geometry to keep things looking cool

oooh, and i have very, very, nearly renamed the game magnet head.. a name more in keeping with the lighter style

Pixaritus

2008-07-31T02:27:00.002+01:00

OK, so every time I see a pixar film I get this uncontrollable urge to turn on the mac and have a play..

the end result of such a late night doodle urge...

I like it, I'm wondering if I should take a more cartoony, bright paper cut out style approach to clockwork (or magnet head, as I'm informed it should be called).. what do people think?

I'm definitely an oil man

2008-07-28T23:07:00.002+01:00

I know, I know, I'm late to the party...

I've just been blown away by 'There Will be Blood' (Kermode is right, where should the emphasis go?). It's one of those films that I know will sit with me for some time.. anyway, my second inspirational pic from a film in as many days... apologies

A beautiful shot from an incredible movie

2008-07-27T22:50:00.004+01:00

saw the new batman flick with friends earlier, a truly incredible film with some insane (in both meanings) performances from my old fave Aaron Eckhart and the revelation that was Heath Ledger..

Anyways.. one image stuck with me for several hours after.. a shot of the Batman standing on a girder in the wreckage of, well, i won't spoil it :D.. it's a great shot, and the use of silhouette and colour was inspiring to me.. the crappy youtube capture above doesn't even begin to do it justice. It's made me want to delve back into the art side of Clockwork, and see if I can't set some scenes that are as evocative as this one..

anyway, rant over, just wanted to post the pic :D

parallax

2008-07-21T23:36:00.001+01:00

not exactly the most exciting vid in the world, but it's the little victories... :)

Winterbottom

2008-07-21T09:49:00.002+01:00

Wow... looks like I wasn't the only one watching Chaplin movies and getting ideas...

http://www.winterbottomgame.com/

gorgeous work

clockworkvid1

2008-07-09T22:46:00.001+01:00

a (very) early video showing the game running

the music is from the fantastic serenity soundtrack

another pic...

2008-07-07T21:56:00.002+01:00

and here you go...

first 'clockwork' screengrabs

2008-07-06T14:42:00.003+01:00

Hi,

not an enormous amount to report, but after a manic few weeks at work I've been able to spend a little more time on clockwork, here are a couple of pics of magnet head messing around in engine... no vids yet I'm afraid, until I build a big enough test level.. I'm still not completely sure on the look.. but it's getting there

A finalized style

2008-05-26T13:02:00.003+01:00

Just a little update here to give people some idea of what to expect from my next game, clockwork.

Story

A small village is besieged by an enormous clockwork war machine, tearing apart everything that stands in its way. The machine is impervious to attacks, until one young scientist puts forward a plan; he will build a group of electromagnetic bombs which, if used at exactly the same time across the machine's mechanisms, will stop it cold.

These electromagnetic creations, each named after a reason for their existence, are sent to a different part of the machine. If they can each get to their target at the same time the village will be saved.

Gameplay

Each level follows a different automaton in a different part of the machine. The player must use their character's athletic and magnetic abilities to get to a target area.

Players run and jump as they would in any platform game, but thanks to the electromagnet in every bombs head, objects in the world can be used to stick the character to surfaces, or slingshot them to out of reach locations.

Here's an image of the game, the character 'Love' standing on the side of an enormous drill. On a side note, I'm amazed that after all the research, all the 50s cartoons I've watched, I've come back to a style not dissimilar to visiting day.. my first ever game :)

another pic

2008-04-20T18:07:00.003+01:00

here's an attempt at what the game would actually look like to play... still working out what I wanna do with this one...

new projects...

2008-03-24T13:54:00.003Z

Hi all, long time no post, thought I'd give you a quick update on what I'm up to... just in case people are still reading this.

My professional life is going well, our current project is looking great, and it'll be out by year's end (still unannounced I'm afraid). Game development is a great field to work in, challenging but fun, and I'm working with a great team.

As for stuff I can talk about, in my spare time I've been playing around building a flash physics platformer engine on my shiny new Mac, and have started having a go at some artwork for a game I'm planning to make with it. Clockwork will be a Steampunk adventure starring a young boy with a magnetic hat, with a visual style inspired by belleville rendevous and the Pink Panther. It's a tinkering hobby project, so I've absolutely no idea how long it will take, but as I'm hoping to get a fully orchestrated soundtrack for it (thanks to a very talented composer friend) don't hold your breath.

Cheers.. and hopefully this blog will start to come back to life a bit now :)

still alive!

2007-08-21T13:45:00.000+01:00

Hi all, just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive... having a bit of a mad time of it (Thanks to E3 and Liepzig) but it's all going very well.

Not much to comment on, just wanted to say hi.

Mike Bithell - professional game designer

2007-06-30T10:05:00.000+01:00

So, I, erm, got the job!

I went for my two day interview, where they intentionally asked me to do some design work on a mainstream male teen game, just to test that I wasn't all about fireflies and gesture controls. They saw promise, it would seem, and have invited me back to work there for a probational period.

The Good

The company I'm now employed by is one of the bigest independent studios in the world, working on several tripple A games at any one time. It is a really exciting place to work, and the people there are fantastic. I can't go into detail (I've signed enough contracts saying I won't) but they have some really neat games in the pipeline that it'd be really cool to work on. It seems I won't be experiencing that, at least in the short term, tho, as they have, amazingly, put me on the pitch team. Basically I will be part of the relatively tiny team responsible for comming up with concepts and pitches for new multi million dollar games. This is obviously every game designer's dream gig and I'm still in shock to be honest

The Bad

Well, this blog really. My issue is that as a concept designer, the work I will do will be secret even from most of my new collegues, let alone the interweb. It goes without saying I couldn't post on anything I was making, but even mentioning the kinds of games I'm playing may give me away, a risk I can't take. So, assuming all goes well in my new company, this blog will simplify into more of an online scrapbook, with links to news articles on games I worked on, or things I'm looking forward to playing myself... there'll be some personal posts, but again, I will have to be very careful in what I let slip. And who knows, way further down the line I may make a little side project in Flash, and I can show that off to you.

Many thanks to all of you for reading this blog, and for helping to get my work out there. I genuinely couldn't of done it without you. I will post again, you have not heard the last of Mike Bithell... promise :)

I survived the interview

2007-06-22T09:47:00.000+01:00

wow, well, first interview survived!

The studio I was interviewing for (that's right, still un-named) is about 3 - 4 hours away by train, so after a very long journey there, i accidentally arrived about an hour and a half early. Me being me, I immediately found a nearby game shop and browsed, got a coffee, got some lunch and then went to their office.

After struggling with their door (it never fails to amaze me how someone who loves videogames so much can have serious trouble 'pushing the door when you hear the beep'). Embarassing. I then signed a comprehensive non disclosure contract... so no, I can't tell you all the cool things they're working on.. very cool though.

The interview itself was great. We went through my CV and portfollio and had a chat about Reunion, which they liked. The projects and concepts we discussed that are going on there are really impressive, and I'd love to get involved. After that I was invited to come back next week for a two day interview.. basically I have a trial run, working for them for a couple of days and see what they think of the work i produce.

Very excited, plus I'm going to the finest films awards in Newport tonight, it's the awards ceremony they lay on for film and animation students.. sadly the games design students aren't part of it, but I'm going along anyway to support my friends and, obviously, my girlfriend

Interview!!!!

2007-06-14T11:43:00.000+01:00

Yay.. just got invited to my first games industry interview... very excited, obviously

I've decided not to write which company it is yet, as I don't want to jinx it... I will say however that it's the only company I applied for a job at so far, it's definitely my first choice... can't wait to go, and obviously this humble blogger will keep you up to date...

In the mean time, http://www.mikebithell.com/portfolio.pdf is the place to go for my swanky new portfolio in pdf format (this is what I will be showing my interviewer at the amazing interview next week).. it contains the already released reunion concept doc and artwork.. plus documentation for Visiting Day and Tally and Dit, oh, and some brand stonking new Visiting Day imagery.

Cheers for the support readers, couldn't have gotten this far without the blog

massive media magnificent, erm, mextravaganzer

2007-06-11T14:16:00.000+01:00

ooohh. many things to put up.. so i'm going to split it over a few posts... first.. the graduate show...

i know.. top hats and waistcoats.. well it is Britain after all. That's george at the controls (a very talented animator who's apparently completed the game 3 times now). In the middle in white is fellow cgder Keith, who did the trombone playing for the game.

A massive canvas I did for the show, acrylic... below it are some screenshots from the game.

The show went really well, I met some great people and handed out an absolutely ridiculous number of toy paper kits (these will appear on the blog in the next media upload). I got lots of people to have a go.. one insanely cute 6 year old got through the opening section of the game in what seemed like 30 seconds. The gamers of the future are gonna give us designers a lot of challenges.

As for job hunting, the search continues.. I'm currently putting together my portfollio (and yes, of course, this will be available online when it's done) which features concept documents and artwork for Reunion and Visiting Day (some of which has not been shown before).

Well, to keep you occupied till then.. here is the long promised concept documentation for Reunion, for your viewing pleasure. It's really interesting to see the game I started off planning, and then where it went in production. Link away :)

art book ... www.mikebithell.com/reunion/reunion_artbook.pdf
concept document ...http://www.mikebithell.com/reunion/reunion_conceptdoc.pdf

enjoy

graduate show

2007-06-01T16:02:00.000+01:00

Today is the start of the UWN graduate show, so if your interested in seeing a display of Reunion amongst the other graduating work from the students here, visit the University of Wales, Newport from now till the 4th

(free reunion model kits for everyone!)

photos from the show will appear on here, hopefully, next week.. along with the long promised artbook, post mortem, and I may well even put up the concept documentation for the game too

and time passed...

2007-05-29T15:28:00.000+01:00

oops.. blog, I have neglected you

Wow, a really busy couple of weeks.. the game is doing amazingly, appearing on pretty much all the casual flash sites. Thats led to a total player tally that puts my earlier numbers to shame, heck, it puts some major cities to shame :)

Not that that really matters, what does is that some people seem to have found genuine pleasure in the game, despite the niggling flaws that are bound to plague any student project. I've seen some really cute blog references to the game, type my name into google and you can too :)

So all in all, a happy experience. Now, to find a job. Sadly I have to keep schtum on who I'm talking to, but fingers crossed I'll soon be doing some very exciting work at a very cool studio.

So what now for the blog? Well I'm not starting any new games at the moment, as I've got to focus on finding work. What will be appearing in the short term, though, is a post mortem of Reunion, which hopefully will be interesting to some readers. Oh.. and I've almost finished designing my official Reunion folded paper character kit for the boy... it's a piece of swag for the graduate show attendees at the uni, but a version will be downloadable from the site, so you too can have an origami reunion kid sitting on top of your monitor.

Thanks for reading.. and watch this space

and the players kept rolling in...

2007-05-15T12:32:00.000+01:00

wow.. lots of hits in the last couple of days.. here are some of the places reunion's cropped up...

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/

http://www.lazylaces.com/

http://www.flabber.nl/

http://www.gamershood.com/flashgames/3272

more to come... trust me :)

1500!

2007-05-13T13:16:00.000+01:00

yay! people are comming to the game, and lots of them are playing it for faaaar to long :)

The game's appeared on a couple of blogs... http://mougrounage.free.fr/blog/?p=122 being one of them. Very kind words, and I really appreciate the support.

Hopefully news of the game will continue to spread... post again soon!

Reunion's first day

2007-05-11T16:37:00.000+01:00

Well, the game seems to be a bit of a slow starter... on the good side i've had 700 players so far, on the bad thre's only one online review, and it's rather critical... http://www.tigsource.com/, fair though, the points raised are all very true. also a mention on http://www.indygamer.blogspot.com/, which points to a review by gnome, which doesn't seem to have surfaced yet... hmmm

Anyway, back to the job seeking, and I'll see how things pan out for my little game...

Reunion, ahem, ONLINE!

2007-05-10T13:40:00.000+01:00

there it is.. blog it, email it, stick posters in your windows, signs on your front lawn... do it... oh, and play it too if you have the time :)

hope you like it ;)

www.mikebithell.com/reunion

Jobs done this week!

2007-05-01T16:54:00.000+01:00

Earlier I bought myself an Xbox 360... now, to justify playing on it this close to deadline, I shall list all the cool changes I've made since the alpha...

Sound Engine: the sound engine now crossfades, along with improved audio levels on effects
Running: Running now maintains input even after character drops off a branch (based on advice from Blitz)
Learning Curve: added some hand holding to the opening section, to ease people in (again, Blitz)
Added, then removed a new dynamic camera, it was a bit crap
Changed the advice system from the note seen in the trailer to a white firefly, this prevents miss readings by the player, an issue that came up in testing the game with friends
Level changes: Altered some bits of level just to clean up progression

The only big remaining job is fixing some of the boy foley... and opening my copy of viva pinata!

Reunion hits Alpha!

2007-04-27T16:40:00.000+01:00

yay! all in the name really

I now have a build of reunion which goes from opening to ending (that's where the new videos are from). I'm currently testing it with just about everyone I can find. I'm afraid there'll be no pre-release build put online for this project, as it kinda backfired with my last game, the media coverage for the game started with the beta, and had fizzled out by the time the game was actually finished.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the testing process has been the offer by some of the staff at Blitz Games (whom i visited a little while ago) to play through the game and give me their opinions. I've recieved loads of advice on pacing, level design and difficulty curves, which has led to direct changes in the game already. These guys (and gals) have been a massive help, and given me a bit of a wider perspective on the project.

So all in all, good progress so far, the game is still pipped for a May release, and I'll post again soon

Reunion Gameplay 3

2007-04-25T16:28:00.001+01:00

whatcha think?

Women in Games

2007-04-21T16:53:00.000+01:00

Amazing

really amazing

Such great work... here are some links

http://www.kariina.com/ great musician, really kind about Reunion

http://maryflanagan.com/ a force of nature.. brilliant, plus I had the unenviable job of following her.. then my demo fucked up... long story

http://www.arct.cam.ac.uk/ArchIntranet/group.aspx?rid=1874730&p=1&ix=67&pid=17&prcid=5&ppid=1 amazing team, doing some really cool work

http://www.1up-zine.com/ drool.

all in all an amazing experience, far too much stuff to write about. All the speakers blew me away. visit www.womeningames.com again and click every link

As for my presentation.. It went well, I only got 8 out of my intended 20 minutes.. due to a massive computer balls up (not my fault) and resulting bouts of embarrassment (completely my fault). despite all this, people liked the game, and were really supportive. I have lots of business cards and lots of follow up conversations to have with people. It's amazing to get that kind of support after sitting in a darkened room coding for a couple of months. Suddenly a career actually making videogames doesn't seem like such a far fetched idea.

Thanks for reading.. I'll blog again soon :) xxx

p.s. if you are new, enticed by a business card, please leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you...

wii no more

2007-04-16T12:03:00.000+01:00

It's very dissapointing, but the game engine just won't work on ninty's kit... it seems it uses a version of flash that can't handle my lighting engine. Sadly there's no easy solution except, well, starting again.

On the upside... the PC version is coming along nicely. Really looking forward to showing it off on Friday. I've looked back through the last few posts and seen a distinct lack of screenshots.. well here's an update...

long time no blog

2007-04-04T15:01:00.000+01:00

Wow, it's ages since I posted. Long time readers will know this is a common issue for me when I get my head down to work. So much new stuff to talk about...

The game
Development is going well, I'm halfway towards finishing the sound engine, so all the needed footfalls, music and environmental stuff is falling into place. The game engine has also been streamlined so as to run faster and more stable on more PCs. The game's lighting system does mean that higher spec PCs will run it better, but it's also scalable so it can be played on computers that are a few years older. The opening musician section is also done, so there's some neat electroplankton inspired note pulling to be enjoyed. All in all I'm well on track to my planned May 10th release date

Blitz
The youtube videos of the game got a bit of attention, and got me invited to Blitz studios to chat about the game and take a look around. Blitz is an awesome british game studio with loads of games on all systems (reservoir dogs, spongebob squarepants and the Krusty Krab, Sneak King), and I got some really good advice on the game. I even got to meet Phillip Oliver, one half of the Oliver twins, creators of the Dizzy games. Everyone was really supportive and I hope the game lives up to their expectations.

Women in Games
The official unveiling of the playable game code is in a couple of weeks time, I've been asked along to the Women in games Conference (http://www.womeningames.com/) to demo the game and introduce the project to a raft of new people. A great oppurtunity to spread the word on Reunion, I can't wait.

well.. I think you're all up to date now,I'll post again soon. Tommorow is the first Wii test, fingers crossed it works... we shall see...

Reunion Gameplay Video 2

2007-03-15T21:03:00.001Z

here it is.. a higher res vid of the game in action.. as well as some new and cool content.. plus the first track from the soundtrack

cheers for watching :)

new video

2007-03-15T16:12:00.001Z

until youtube posting works... heres the url for the new video... sorry about typos in the intro :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbGpTvfXdOk

telling the time

2007-03-09T09:50:00.000Z

wow.. a long week. I've built a first draft geometry for the game world, as well as adding in a swarm directional indicator (they can form arrows to direct the player now) and a time of day simulation, so that you get a sense of night turning into day. Screenshots? Oh go on then...

Visiting Day stolen!

2007-03-08T11:18:00.000Z

i guess i should be flattered really :)

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/366771

feel free to spam dear readers :)

and then there was sound

2007-03-05T12:15:00.000Z

Oh dear, a little while since my last blog entry. The main news is that the sound recording for the game has been done. These sounds ranged from wind and twig snaps to the full soundtrack. Musically the game features a really cool accoustic sound, courtesy of Andrew Gordon on Guitar and Keith Trebble on Trombone. I'm currently processing and editing the theme they recorded, and that will form the soundtrack on my next demo video (probably online in about a week, and hopefully with better image quality than before).

Special thanks to Sharon Knight, who has voiced the many grunts and jumps of the boy.

More soon...

Reunion Gameplay Demo

2007-02-23T23:41:00.003Z

here it is...

Reunion Gameplay Demo

2007-02-23T23:41:00.001Z

Here it is guys, the first vid of the game, blog it, email it, do whatever you can to get word out :)

until youtube starts working...

2007-02-23T13:20:00.000Z

youTube seems to be taking its time indexing my video, so in the meantime head here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoOo8jTsJnE to see it.

Blog it, email it, stick up posters in your local area.. all that jazz :)

stills

2007-02-23T13:07:00.000Z

here are some stills to go along with the slightly shody youTube demo

reunion latest

2007-02-15T11:50:00.000Z

wow.. a long time since my last post, and, well, the main reason is that i've been locked in my room for a couple of weeks, hard at work on the game engine.. the main achievement being the implementation of analogue control and procedural animation.

Unpacked, that essentially means the player has much more precise control over movement through the world, and a character avatar which reflects it. For example, whilst drawing the run gesture, the player can shorten the line, slowing down the character to a tip toe if wanted, and when you stop drawing a move, the character will actually move slightly with inertia in the direction he was going. The animation is all built from code, which maps the physics and volumes involved in each move. Jumps work in a similar way, as the character shows the correct amount of anticipation for each jump, moving governed by realistic (if slightly exagerated) physics

Full on, I know, but it all adds up to a really cool asethetic and play experience. More on that soon, I'm looking to have the first videos up sometime in the next week or two. Anyway, I'm off on holiday now till the middle of next week, with plenty of squared paper to do some level designs on :)

more from Andrew

2007-02-15T11:49:00.001Z

the next step on, andrew's work just keeps getting cooler and cooler

a crumby cameo

2007-01-29T11:34:00.001Z

in a little break from my production diary, here's a pencil test of my mate Andrew's short film, Bread. The voice your hearing is a cameo appearance by the humble writer of this blog. I'm so proud. I'll chuck on a link to the final inked and coloured version when he has done it :)

Character (Day 14)

2007-01-25T12:08:00.000Z

Well, with another big old chunk of coding done, here's another breakdown of my week

Wednesday

After making my last post I went home, and begun work on building in save and load functionality into the level editor, this would allow for data to be shared between the editor and the game engine proper.

Thursday

In the morning I managed to get the game engine working with the .cat files generated by the editor. Cue dynamically created world from external files.

In the afternoon I did some of the groundwork needed to get a character into the world

Friday

My sole achievement on Friday was to get the character to fall, and to land on a branch. Sadly I had to go to work, so couldn't do much to expand upon this.

Saturday

Added running to the characters abilities, he can now run down a flight of stairs. A couple of issues involved here in collision detection, but they were overcome

Sunday

Had an accidental day off, played Zelda and watched Deadwood, a good day, but no games were made

Monday

Begun work on the jumping mechanics for the game, lots of bugs, but I'm getting there

Tuesday

Lots of bug fixing, and added sticky tree sap in the morning, decided to go shopping in Cardiff in the afternoon, bought The Day Today on DVD, got home and enjoyed the fine work of Chris Morris and Armando Iannuci

Wednesday

More bug fixing, and added wind to the engine, which prevents players from falling to their doom

cheers for reading, and here are some pics of the game as it stands (please note that the game graphics are placeholder, and in no way represent the final appearance of the game, they are really simple to keep programming easy).

The level editor (Dev Day 6)

2007-01-17T14:08:00.000Z

Ok, well, the first week(ish) of development is over, and I've got some neat stuff to show...

Friday and Saturday

Spent these two days (which I have less time on due to working commitments) sorting out the tile world engine on paper, drawing up the necessary plans. I find writing up this stuff before touching the computer very useful indeed, as it leads to more professional and considered work once I get there

Sunday

Spent the day in Bristol, at the Silent film festival they were running. Watched a presentation by Paul Merton. Very good, but little help to game production :)

Monday

Begun work properly. Built the tile and associated camera systems in flash. This basically resulted in a crosshatch panning, but represented a big step. I realised that coding an engine to fill the tiles with content was neccesary, so I began work on that.

Tuesday

Continued work on the level editor, built in Paralax and layering system, strengthened the code so it was far more stable.

sorry if the post seems to short, I'm in a bit of a rush today, here's a picture of the editor as it looks right now...

Reunion goes into production

2007-01-11T16:38:00.000Z

Well, a rather shambolic couple of months as far as posting goes, I apologize. As I was slaving away at canvases and keyboards I suppose I never felt I really had anything useful to show off, and definitely nothing at a finished enough standard that I was prepared to put it online as a 'this is what my game will look like' piece. Well pre-production has slowed off now, and tommorow I enter full blown production on the game, for completion at the start of May (the 10th I think).

This blog will now switch into a full blown dev diary, kind of like when I was working on Entropy last year. You'll see diary entries each day (although the blog itself will only be updated every few days) detailing the process that goes into producing a four month project.

Needless to say, this dev diary isn't going to be particularly arty for a month or so, which could mean a bland-ish blog. To fix this, instead of producing a PDF artbook, I will be using all the concept artwork I produced to illustrate the dev diary, at least until there start to be interesting things to show from the actual production.

Here we go, dear readers, and I'll see you on the other side :)

Merry Christmas (or whatever you're celebrating)

2006-12-23T14:57:00.000Z

Well, I'm back home, and as long term readers will know, the old internet connection I use down here is at best clunky. I also don't have access to all my files here, so nothing really to show. Trust me when I say, though, that the downloadable artbook is nearly done, as are my sketchbooks (scans of which will be put on this blog). I'm also writing up a design document, sections of which will appear on here in due course.

The deadline for preproduction is january 8th, so then the blog will convert to production diary, as I begin the rigmerole of coding what is, if im honest, an annoyingly complex and ambitious title.

Ooops.

Oh, and in other news, MuttonJeff.com is now finished (ish) so head on over there to see how it turned out.

Cheers

a plug

2006-12-19T11:16:00.000Z

in lieu of new artwork, may I direct you to my friend Andrew's blog... He's an animation student who's also working on his final year project.. mmmm, bready...

www.breadfilm.blogspot.com

check it out. Immediately.

Final Work (ish)

2006-12-07T10:32:00.000Z

As I enter the last month of pre-production I'm now working on final concept artwork to go in the book. which will be handed in all printed nicely, and available from here as a pdf for all you guys... first some orthographic work, which acts as a reference for production...

And a poster, which will act as a free handout at shows / festivals etc

lighting

2006-12-01T12:54:00.000Z

OK, well, I haven't been idle during my absense, and the pre production on the game has come a long way.

One of the major selling points of the final game will be its unique lighting and control system, which I've grafted into Flash 8. I hope to upload some animated stuff in engine soon, but in the meantime here are some preproduction mockups to give you an idea of where the game is heading right now (the images show a mid point of the game, half way through a sunrise, and a moment near the end, breaking out of the tree canopy as day blooms)

oops

2006-11-29T13:52:00.000Z

yep.. nearly a month without a post. shocking. I really do apologize, I hope someone is still looking at this blog :)

well.. my only excuse is that I've really had my head down with the dissertation and the pre production on Reunion. There will be some uploads of artwork soon, and as an apology for a lack of updates I'm going to give away a free PDF artbook to every reader once it's done (late January)

Sorry again, and expect to read more soon.

hundredth post!

2006-11-01T16:03:00.000Z

yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is the hundredth post on the blog, an exciting day indeed. I will be marking this illustrious day with another load of concept uploads...

some wood panels, currently stuck up over my desk

A model (made from wire and fimo, and painted with acrylic) of the boy.

The following three images are colour studies of the journey that the boy makes from the base of the tree to the top. They are acrylic, and inform the colour scheme of the game more than the character or world design

And on the second day.. he uploaded even more

2006-10-19T11:09:00.000+01:00

Here is some more artwork from the game.. please note that this and the last post represent pre-production, and are therefore open to crit, and to change...

This first one is of the boy from the back and side.. orthographic images as I try and get a handle on his physical form. Still needs thinking though, as he is a bit on the podgy side.

These two pages feature more hand tests, and a full body drawing

A concept pic for the flying machine minigame...

And finally a sketch of the character leaning from a branch.. kinda heroic I think :)

media, media everywhere!

2006-10-18T13:45:00.000+01:00

ok.. well I now have a working scanner.. so...

mmmm, leaf prints (from old school potato stamps.. a fun evening :)) looking to possibly use this print style on actual assets in game

the cat (acrylic on canvas) very sharp forms which contrasts with...

the boy (acrylic on canvas) soft S curves

a concept image for the canon mini game (pencil, then wacom painting)

the boy hanging (pencil again) trying to work out the 3D form of the character, and almost getting it

hand study (pencil) a more focused attempt to work out how the character's hands work

leg study (pencil) same again, they're too long though

wiggle board mini game concept (pencil) notable for the back lighting style that i'm currently toying with

flash render of the character.. using the doohickey for making a less 'flash' looking character which i mentioned before. still needs work

.......more to come

Psychonauts.. mmmm

2006-10-16T12:06:00.000+01:00

Yep, well, still waiting on getting artwork for Reunion onto the blog, thanks to the aforementioned missing usb cable.. I am going to go buy one in a minute to replace it. I've been sketching, painting and generally messing around on the game this week, also trying to put together a graphics filter doohickey for flash that will give the game a more textured style.. examples will of course, appear here. I've also signed up a sound engineer and musician for Reunion.. so the sound side of things is now definitely covered.

In my spare time I've been playing Psychonauts. Found it really cheap in a shop last week and haven't been able to put it down. Beautiful design, incredible writing and fantastic gameplay. If you can ever get your hands on a copy then do it... you will be pleased you did.

Reunion

2006-10-12T13:11:00.000+01:00

Well, here it is.. the handout from my pitch for my next game.. Reunion. No pictures yet... as I've lost the usb cable for my scanner :)

Introduction

I will be developing a Flash 8 game for PC and Mac

Over-riding goal to expand upon Visiting Day, while learning lessons from the development of that game. Of course Reunion is a new game, and nothing in my last game is considered sacred.

I will produce a small and well refined game, aiming at something like fifteen minutes of solid gameplay.

Reunion

The boy's cat has climbed to the top of a tree. The boy wants to save her. He must ascend the tree in order to reach her.

The tree has been inhabited over the years by a number of children, for that reason it is full of eccentric and exciting inventions to interact with.

The exploration and climbing of the tree (using the directional pad) will be combined with the use of these inventions (via mouse gestures) will form the interaction model of the game.

The aesthetic of the game will use basic shapes and colour combinations. In order to extend the visual style of Visiting Day I have been exploring acrylic and print making techniques. Whether these experiments will simply inform the resulting vector based graphics, or form the basis of a painterly artistic style in the final game remains to be decided.

Lessons learnt from Visiting Day

The language barrier – Key elements of Visiting Day are displayed in the form of text, making the game less popular overseas. Thankfully I have run across blogs which translate some of the menu text and have alternative instructions.

The importance of focused pre-production – I want to know exactly how the game will work, and what will be possible before typing the first line of code. Muddled design goals and impositions led to a longer than necessary dev time for my last game.

Simplicity – The minigames which work best in Visiting Day are those which are immediately understood. Confusion and Difficulty are two very different things, and I will hopefully cut out the first all together.

Design goals of Reunion

A game without language – story, control tips and player stats will be represented pictographically.

The game will combine simple directional pad controls with a mouse gesture input system.

The game will be visually engaging and beautiful, a hero's tale told with emotion

The game will designed as a fun experience for casual players. I want everyone who starts the game to have the capacity to complete it.

Breakdown of the mouse gesture system
Helicopter example

The player walks up to the helicopter with the directional pad, and presses up. This causes the character to climb into the helicopter.

A graphic will be displayed showing that a circular mouse motion is required, The player will then learn that doing so causes the helicopter to lift off.

Another image would then show that the helicopter can be steered by moving the circles being made to the left or right.

Upon reaching goal the player disembarks, returning to conventional directional pad movement.

The rush is over

2006-10-10T11:49:00.000+01:00

Well, weekends without the internet are definitely an interesting experience, I have been painting a couple of canvases for my game pitch (these will be scanned for the thursday post, promise) and have generally had a blog and youTube less three days.

Anyway.. this is just a mini post to let people know about the reception Visiting Day got, as the entry figures seem to be waining.

I've logged roughly a thousand playthroughs of the game, and that's not counting the psp online play mode, which my stats software can't trace. 350 of the playthroughs logged were downloads of the gamepack, which means my game is now residing on 350 PSPs, which I consider a big deal. That's probably all the buzz for the game for now though, so back to concept art for Tree methinks, before my ego really inflates

Fame, but a distinct lack of fortune

2006-10-06T16:49:00.001+01:00

Hello all, I'm back, and I'm very sorry for leaving you all for a week.. needless to say, it's been a bit busy. Today's post is going to be a bit of a catchup for me as well as you, so bear with me as I try to cover everything...

Visiting Day
So, I like made this game.. it's about kids and aliens and stuff... can't remember if I've mentioned it here at all. Well, last Thursday I released it.. and no one played it. Well, no one who didn't either know me personally or read the ever insightful and skillfully written gnome's lair. So I took matters into my own hands, firing off a couple of emails to websites I thought might like the game. In the last 24 hours 1000 people have played the game, and I hope they enjoyed it :)

I'm still waiting on the music, but it will arrive eventually. Thanks to Chentzilla the game will be featuring on the cover of an upcomming Russian games magazine, and a very kind lecturer is handing out those postcards I showed you before at the London Games Summit right now. So hopefully this is not the last post I'll make on the game :)

Some of the lovely sites that have featured my game...
http://www.pspfanboy.com/2006/10/05/visiting-day-a-quirky-flash-game/
http://indygamer.blogspot.com/
http://psp-news.dcemu.co.uk/
http://gamesetwatch.com/

... I'll post any other sites I find it on

Mutton Jeff
Every now and again a job comes along which is fun, scary, interesting and cute all at the same time... usually I have more time though :) A flash site for a really cool Welsh design studio.. www.muttonjeff.com - Me creating a site from their designs.. a great gig

Tree
Well, what do you know, suddenly I'm done on Visiting Day, looking for a new game to develop. Luckilly my degree requires me to build a cool game for a July completion date, so I can make something bigger, and better. Now till christmas will be spent on pre-production, and then a mad four month crunch to actually make the bloody thing.

Obviously I want to build on the success of Visiting Day, and make something addictive, beautiful and above all fun. The game will be officially pitched next thursday, and I think thats the best time to do it here aswell, as I'll have a finalized (ish) story, game design and maybe a little preliminary art. More to come, as this blog slowly but surely moves to focus on the development of the game, which for now at least, will be known as 'tree'

As I still don't have access to the internet at home, the next post will be on Monday, see you then

Visiting Day Launched!

2006-09-28T15:31:00.000+01:00

I know I've been missing for a while, but I'm back, and I come bearing gifts.

Today I release Visiting Day for PC and PSP two days ahead of schedule :) There is now a minisite on www.mikebithell.com/visit which you can access for both the PC and PSP versions of the game. It should all be working, but please report any bugs that you find. It's also worth noting that the psp version is being released both as an online game via my server, and a download to be transfered via usb (specifically designed for bus stop play).

Oh, and no music as of yet, Odeevil has been sick (even the immensly talented can catch colds) so that will be added into the game in a few days, alongside a blog post.

can I just take this oppertunity to thank those who've been involved in helping to promote the game, and those who gave the great advice on the beta. It's all really appreciated, and your stuff has really aided in making Visiting Day the game it is. Hopefully people will play and enjoy this game, and that's where I'm gonna have to ask you all for help again. Please blog this game, let it spread like wildfire over the internet. The beta recieved a good deal of attention, and I'd love to build on that.

Thanks again, and enjoy the game :)
www.mikebithell.com/visit

the invisible games designer

2006-09-19T12:25:00.000+01:00

hello...

I'm still alive...

I'm using a university computer, and my girlfriend's logon to make this post, as we're still sorting out an internet connection at home. For the time being I will continue to be a bit sporadic in my posting. The game coding is going well.. and the new improved emulator for PC play is comming along rather nicely, so I'm all set for simultaneous release for PC, Mac and PSP. PSP will still be the favoured format, but at least those without can still have a go.

About to go for lunch with a couple of lecturers who have been kind enough to offer advice on the game, so expect another list of jobs to appear very soon...

more info (and media) next time :)

collector's item of the future?

2006-09-14T17:34:00.000+01:00

possibly.

This image shows the custom designed Visiting Day publicity postcard. 25 have been made, and on the 30th of September they will be recieved by my favourite game design companies, magazines and newspapers. Coordinated with a press release (an altered version of the introduction which appeared on the blog back in June) these postcards will hopefully start the publicity for the game going.

This post is also part farewell, for the time being at least, as I'm moving soon... Once back in Wales I hope to unpack really quickly and get back online to carry on with the game, but if for whatever reason I dissapear for a few days, don't worry... I shall return :)

jobs left before the key test

2006-09-11T12:35:00.000+01:00

well, I've completed the last list of jobs, so here's a new one.. things i have to do before the sit down play tests on psp that i mentioned earlier...

fix the qte microgames so they too respnd to the difficulty settings picked at launch
make it so the halving of the score, which happens if you fail, produces an integer rather than a decimal... i've seen my little sister score 130.329721089 too many times
fix a couple of the fail animations.. they are a bit shit
sort out the pc shell so it looks purdy. I really want the emulated pc version to be available on the 30th along with the psp version. No promises though.
produce a little trailer for youtube
prepare a list of email addresses of important industry types to send info on the game to. I will stop at nothing short of international fame for this game

psp portal

2006-09-10T18:26:00.000+01:00

Right, I've decided to be brave (at least initially) and provide the portal for online play via the psp (as opposed to the download pack, which they can get from their PCbrowser) from my own site. With that in mind I've been doing some good old fashioned HTML coding to put together the PSP frontend. Obviously the flash site on mikebithell.com that I'm sure ALL readers view daily is too complex for the architecture of psp flash, so this provides a nice, clean way for eager alien destroyers to get into the game wherever they can get to a wireless hotspot...

it's kinda cool to be back where I started, coding very simple webpages... imagemap goodness :)

more soon...

forget memory sticks

2006-09-08T14:57:00.000+01:00

and now for something a little different

2006-09-08T12:36:00.000+01:00

well, my work at the moment on visiting day has gone back to the usual tweaking and bug fixing, so nothing that exciting to report. For that reason I decided to write a post on the music of the game. I then remembered that my knowledge and understanding of music and the way it's created is 'i like it' and 'i don't like it'. Sadly Kittyhawkdrive, the band who were working on the music have dissipated for a while, but Odeevil Jazz, the friend i initially approached with the project, has promised to keep going on the mix. I've asked her to give you guys a little introduction to her, her music, and what she's going for in the soundtrack to visiting day. That's enough twaddle from me though, I'll let her talk now...

odeevil jazz

Don’t ask me where the name came from, I’m really not sure. When I was a teenager and wanting to be punk rock I racked my brains to try and think of a stage name like “Polystyrene” from the X-ray Spex or “Manda-rin” from Bis. I think my friend Dave misheard the word oedema (thank God!). Odeevil was born in a sixth-form common room to a 17 yr old girl who loved to play jazz on her trumpet...

Music was a constant fixture in my life, and then one summer I bought a four-track tape recorder. I took it to my friend Alex’s house and then forgot about it for a year as we took up getting stoned, listening to Jefferson Airplane and playing Super Bomber Man with a vengeance...we ran out of money for weed which was fantastic because then I remembered the four track and my tentative beginnings at songwriting began. I played guitar (badly), I could play keyboard (by “play” I mean I owned one) and best of all my keyboard had pre-programmed drums, so that was great (groan). It’s surprising how good you can get when you hear how bad you sound on a very unforgiving format. Kittyhawkdrive was the band and the learning curve. It strengthened my song writing skills, my voice and my resolve. I could write songs and people did like them! I had a fantastic partnership in Alex who could write the hooks to perfectly complement whatever vocal style I was going for.

Fast-forward and somehow by virtue of a cobbled-together Myspace page and the fact that I am willing to dance like an idiot at work Mike has asked me to compose a soundtrack to a video game. It’s all rather exciting and quite naturally I jumped at the chance. Luckily I had the perfect track half-done, already waiting. Some years previously I had begun work on an instrumental track inspired by Papa Lazarou’s circus from the television series of League Of Gentlemen: a brooding eerie piece with a fairground feel of a derelict funhouse filled with clowns like Stephen King’s “It”.

I’m sure that the constant reworking to get the right length, the endless battles with split clarinet reeds and face muscles that just want to give up after constantly flitting between the clarinet and the trumpet will all drive me completely potty. However, I was keen to do everything I could to enhance the feel of the game. I find Visiting Day an absolutely beautiful little premise. The story line is cute but the animation is quite dark. I loved that juxtaposition and want to help Mike achieve that through the music. The tune itself is sinister and this atmosphere is heightened by the presence of sweet tinkling bells and chimes faintly playing in the background. Visiting Day is a fantastic project and I am very grateful to have been given a part to play in it. Odeevil xxx

rhys in technicolor!

2006-09-06T16:54:00.000+01:00

video here

huzzah!

looking good and playing well so far (although as you can see in the video i am by no means an expert yet).

The big job now is making the game work in any context. At the moment it can be played through game select, but is not yet compatible with solo play. This boss fight is not available through the multiplayer mode, as it's not a points battle, all you are fighting for is the 'good' or 'bad' ending. There is also no QTE in the level, as it would really interfere with the brain exploding. This level should be fully integrated in the next few days. we'll see. Then it's a break from Visiting Day for a week so I can finish off some uni work i've been doing. Then I move back to Wales with my girlfriend. Then i sort out a web connection there. Then I do some in the flesh testing on the game with some local game designers who have kindly volounteered to help. Then.... I RELEASE IT! Then you can expect a PC / MAC port a couple of weeks later.

A busy few weeks ahead

the brains of leadership revealed...

2006-09-05T23:49:00.000+01:00

a few more pics of the now working rhys level. No text (i'm tired) but I'll be more talkative tommorow, and I will have video :)

the updated game select screen...

looks better with 5 games doesn't it :)

rhys being attacked, whilst trying to hit the brains with his trusty pair of alien killing yoyos

more to come.. and that image is of me actually playing, rather than just a mockup... video tommorow. promise.

purple

2006-09-04T15:53:00.000+01:00

just a quick post today to show off a proof of design image.. just checking colours, shapes etc before i type the first line of code.. all subject to change of course, but im liking it so far...

progress report.....

2006-09-03T16:14:00.000+01:00

I've decided to get more reliable with my posting, if only as a sign of respect to the number of people who have supported me in my recent quest for world domination, and PSP coding.

Today I'm doing a bit of everything, I've been writing for my university dissertation, watching dvds and coding for both my website and the game. The dissertation writing will be expanded upon in later posts.. but I just want to let you know what I've been up to coding wise...

mikebithell.com
Primarily I browse the internet with firefox. I don't do this for politically motivated reasons, I just think it's faster and more comfortable to use than ie. For that reason the testing of mikebithell.com was done in firefox, and it seemed to work well. It was only when I tried to access it from a PC with only ie that I realised just how incompatible it was. The front page didn't load at all, and those industrious enough to get past that were confronted with external links which produced ugly, nasty frame arrangements. Thankfully I've now fixed it, so I know the site to be 100% ie and firefox compatible. I still have to test it on a MAC, not to mention all the other browsers out there. If anyone has any troubles on the site please let me know...

visiting day
Nothing knew or exciting to report here I'm afraid. As previously mentioned QTE now works great, and the difficulty system is now working with all the games, so that you can enjoy the game no matter what your experience of videogames. The neutral difficulty is in line with the beta, with the hard and easy settings falling either side of that. I am now working on making Laura more user friendly, and have started sketching out the designs for the final level.. Rhys' Battle, in which the player must enter the visitor mothership and fight their terrible leader. No more on that yet, as it only consists of some biro scribbles, but more to come in the next few days. The game will go through my usual design mockup, code test, combination and execution stages, all of which will be shown on here. I think the development of this level could serve as a pretty neat insight into the process I go through to design the mini-games which make up Visiting Day, so keep on watching.

Oh, and I got my little sister the mario dancemat for her birthday. If Nintendo can make the wii controller half as much fun as the mini games on that, I can't wait.

the most important screenshot ever ;) ...

2006-09-01T21:42:00.000+01:00

...an image that will make more than a few of the guys who've played the beta very happy...

so.. i've got back to working on Visiting Day, and it's going well. The QTE issue is fixed, they are now far less frequent, as well as there being an option at startup to disable them altogether, for players who would rather have an arrowless game. In fact, on seeing the above screenie, I think that arrow really needs to be orange, anyways, not important.

I've started on the difficulty toggle, which will appear upon loading the game... the input's working, and thus far it dynamically alters the play of Team B to make it welcoming to all skill levels... I just have to implement it in the other three games... then I have to fix Laura's readability issues, and then maybe that final game I keep talking about.

I've been looking into online distribution of the game (not download, but live online play direct from the PSP, download play will be available from mikebithell.com), which I aim to do via one or several of the many flash games sites... not being a big player of flash games (i find my self lost in them for hours when i do) I would really appreciate any advice on which sites may be interested in hosting what I think is the first freeware mini-game collection set in a welsh primary school for the PSP. The only site I've contacted so far is Newgrounds.

a to do list

2006-08-31T17:12:00.000+01:00

Hey readers,

I've been busy today, having major dental surgery, so no new stuff to report. The buzz seems to be dying down now over the Beta version, so it's now my job to actually fix all the problems that have been pointed out. The list bellow is as much for me as it is for my readers. The jobs I need to do are all listed, along with how difficult or time consuming they should be...

fix the QTE microgames so that they aren't as ridiculously common. Useful for testing that the code handling them was right, not so good for actually, like, having fun (really easy to fix... 10 minutes work)
clear up the Laura game to make it more obvious what's going on (more a conceptual challenge than a code challenge, something to think about)
Difficulty settings. The big code challenge. People who are new to this kind of game complain its too hard, people who are long time connoisseurs say the opposite. As I want absolutely everyone in the world to have a great time with the game, I will make a variable difficulty setting. A big old job, but one I think is really important
another mini game, maybe? I have an idea I really wanna get into the game... we'll see how the time works out.

If you think I've missed anything out, then please feel free to leave a comment, and I'll get to it!

only 24 hours....

2006-08-30T20:21:00.000+01:00

wow... a lot of things to cover in todays post.

First, thanks to gnome's excellent powers of publicity the game is growing in popularity and word is spreading via some very cool sites... a few of note are

www.edge-online.com (the site for the fantastic British magazine, of which I am a proud reader, oh, and my first backlash thanks to 'chef')
http://indygamer.blogspot.com/2006/03/news_3072.html (great site... of which i am now a reader)
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2006/08/its_visiting_day_on_psp.php (another great site, worth a read)

thanks to all these sites for their kind words on the game, I just hope I can create something that lives up to your hopes.

I'd also like to plug a friend's new blog, evocative stuff, but parents beware... http://thecoloursthatburn.blogspot.com/

and last, but by no means least, version 1.0 of mikebithell.com is now uploaded... take a look, and let me know what you think :)

www.mikebithell.com

thanks to all my long time readers for your ongoing support, and welcome to any new people visiting for the first time.. as ever feel free to comment, or email me at my new address of contactme@mikebithell.com (mikebithell@hotmail.co.uk still works too).

Visiting Day BETA!

2006-08-26T19:46:00.000+01:00

that's right. There is now a version of Visiting Day online for playtesting. Just a couple of points to make before I give you the URL....

1) This is a PC/MAC emulation of a psp game, for that reason the frame rate seems very low. This is because on the psp screen a lower frame rate is neccesary. Also worth noting that the multiplayer mode is designed for a console which can be passed around a group, so no online matches i'm afraid.. something I may look into down the line

2) The rotation of the console required for some of the games is faked with a rotating screen. This will be done in a far more interesting way on the actual release.

3) Don't try and put this version on your PSP, it won't work. The PSP version will be released soon

4) No music, but there will be, and of course you guys will be the first to know

5) Please feel free to give advice, and constructive crit. I really want to gauge opinion leading up to the release, which I'm now planning for the end of September (which will neatly coincide with the 1st anniversary of this blog). I will read every comment I get and give feedback (and credit) to those who's advice helps the game.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, now go have a go at the game :)

http://www.reflectionsinthemirror.co.uk/visitingday/visitingPCshell.html
Visiting Day

In other news, the site is comming along nicely, the colour scheme has been significantly altered, screen grabs soon... I think I've given you enough for one day :)

a break from Visiting Day

2006-08-20T15:40:00.000+01:00

In order to distribute Visiting Day (an issue comming up soon), I will require a website... I have begun...

Mikebithell.com is designed to both be a simple site to navigate, and a showcase of my abilities at game design. For that reason the site has turned into something of an enclosure, into which are dropped small creatures who show the info of the site, as well as doing their own things... some screen grabs...

so what do people think?

the designer emerges

2006-08-18T14:56:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone.

Just a quick message to appologize for the lack of updates. My work is at a point where there really is nothing to report, things are being tweaked and fixed. The game is nearing the testing phase, and I have begun a pretty cool temporary site to host it on it's release. More on both those little projects as they chug along.

Once again sorry, me and the game are both very much alive, and I look forward to posting again with a little more info.

Thanks for supporting Power Up

an overdue update

2006-08-07T12:28:00.000+01:00

As i've been spending time doing boring bug fixing behind the scenes of the game, I didnt really have anything interesting to share. Until now.

I've been expanding and refining the four existing mini-games, with an eye to adding one or two more levels. Ive pushed back the deadline for the big test till september, as that's when I'll be back in Newport with the people I want to test the game. This gives me plenty of time to turn Visiting Day into the game I originally imagined. Anyway, here's a quick intro to what's new in the game...

1) Story Mode - Allows a single player to go through the mini games in sequence, with an overall score at the end. (100% done)

2) Damage animation - Code which makes it so that when a character in a mini game gets hit, you can tell. This was a big missing component in former builds (50% done, and my job for today)

3) End game animation - When all lives are depleted, a quick animation to show the character getting captured, rather than the scene just cutting out (50% done)

4) Quick time events - something I've wanted to add for or a while, you must quickly press directional buttons to maintain the points accrued, or double them if you do really well. Lots of fun. (100% done)

the word is in

2006-07-31T18:16:00.000+01:00

Hey all... sorry for dissapearing, life kinda got in the way, as it has a way of doing. Spending time with my friends, family and girlfriend is a great way to while away the hot summer days, but doesn't help with the making of games. That said I've been passing my PSP round some friends and getting some great feedback.

Well, my girlfriend has gone back home and my friends are fast running out of money, so nows a great time to get back to my PC and dive back into code. The feedback I've had is gonna help to get a layer of polish before I get my old partner in crime Jules to let loose his incredible nitpicking powers upon it in September.

I'm also preparing for a big website job, as well as researching for my upcomming PC game project and a dissertation, and lets not forget a game pitch I'm taking to a company with a cartoonist friend. Busy days.

No media I'm afraid... but I'm working on it

menu video

2006-07-14T17:03:00.000+01:00

Today is media day... here are two pictures of the as of yet unseen Laura and Team B levels (formerly known as David)...

That brings the grand total to four, which is the number of minigames that will be present in the first release. Oh, and by the way... here's a translation of that Russian news article from yesterday...

"PSP: the choice of independent game makers.

English designer Mike Bithell (url) has announced the start of development of the first lawful free game for PSP. Visiting Day is being created using Flash and will be launchable from the PSP web browser. Let us remind you that PSP supports Flash starting with version 2.70. If the creators manage to overcome the technical limitation of the console, the game can open the eyes of other developers to the possibilities of creating home-brew projects for the PSP."

yay!

Plus, for your viewing pleasure, a video showing the menu, the chapter select screen, and the laura level.. www.reflectionsinthemirror.co.uk/visitingday/menuLaura.wmv check it out and as ever, opinions welcome.

there is a bug in my monitor

2006-07-13T18:12:00.000+01:00

no. Not a code bug, an actual bug. Somehow it got in between the glass and lcd, and is now crawling around. I think I may train it to follow my cursor.

Anyway, on to more interesting and dare I say, important things. The game is going very well. The music is progressing, the art is pretty much done and the code is comming together. There are now 4 games (simon's escape, hugh's soup of the day, the b team's header, and laura's test flight). They can now be played in multiplayer mode by up to 4 players, or via a game select screen similar to a dvd chapter select screen. I just need to make a story mode, which my little sister is narrating, and I will be quite happy to call that the initial release version. Im currently having a holiday with my girlfriend, but am gonna go out on a limb and say... version 1 goes to testers in a month. i know, im shocked too.

As for the music side of things, its coming along nicely, with my friendly neighbourhood composer sorting it out for me now behind the scenes. She's doin a great job, and the music will be implemented into the game for the first release.

Oh, and I'd like to start a new game.. it's called 'visiting day spotter'. I'm gonna actively start pushing the game at industry peeps, websites and magazines, so if you see it anywhere be sure to let me know.. to start things off here is a scan i was sent of a russian gaming mag, i made a news story in the last issue! :)

screenshots of the game at the moment to follow... along with video of me and my friends 'testing' the multiplayer portion. thanks for reading

designer in transit

2006-06-25T12:19:00.000+01:00

Hello there :)

First off, I'd like to thank everyone reading the blog for doing so, as well as thanking you all for your kind comments. I'm currently sleeping on a mattress in a function room in my dad's pub. My PC is sitting on a windowsill and my chair is a bar stool. Very rock and roll. I move into my new place in September, so life is going to be a little transient until then. In fact, I have no internet connection at the pub, so I am currently using a borrowed machine, I'm working on the internet connection issue, but expect posts to be a little irregular until then.

so...

the game...

It's going fantastically right now.. a couple of major hurdles have been jumped. The first issue for me was the graphical side of things. I wanted to simplify the look of the game, so Simon's escape level became a test bed for me. After many itterations this is the look I came up with.. compare and contrast to the earlier pics..

Brighter, and generally more fun. The scale has also been altered to make him look in more peril. The bright colours also look great on the PSP's screen. The second game I worked on is the canteen level, where different coloured sauces are used to fight contrasting tentacles.. heres a pic of that...

At the moment I'm working on a keep me up level, which makes use of a vertical mode. Code complete, but no graphics just yet.

I know what you're thinking, you want to see the game in action don't you. well. here's some more shakey cam footage of me playing it on my psp.. no more music I'm afraid, as I've decided to wait for KittyHawk Drive's latest version...

www.reflectionsinthemirror.co.uk/visitingday/visit25-6-06.wmv

whatcha think?

video!!

2006-06-12T14:02:00.000+01:00

thats right.. I tok some time out from the packing to upload some early gameplay footage for you guys to look at.. all in a test phase, all could possibly change etc etc etc

www.reflectionsinthemirror.co.uk/visitingday/simon.wmv

Those are my thumbs on the ocontrols, and my girlfriend filming. The music is an early test by Odevil Jazz, my own personal music god, and was produced with Kittyhawk Drive. All comments on all aspects of what you see and hear welcome.

Oh.. and btw, I may be noticably absent over the next week, moving and sorting out new internet connections and the like. Hopefully when I re-emerge it will be with new imagery from another of the mini-games which make up Visiting Day.

Watch this space

boxes, boxes, everywhere

2006-06-11T16:36:00.000+01:00

I'm moving home on Tuesday,

As a result my flat is now full of boxes, and as an obsessively tidy person I find it very hard to work in that kind of environment. For that reason I have taken the weekend off, playing Shadow of Colosus on my as of yet unpacked ps2. It's a fantastic game, I wish I had access to the kind of team to turn a simple gameplay idea into something so beautifully realised.

In one of the boxes, no doubt the bottom one, is the eyetoy I jury-rigged as a webcam, the self styled 'blog-o-cam'. So no gameplay video today. I'm gonna borrow my girlfriends dv cam tommorow though, so I will be able to post up a video then (with a rough recording by KittyHawk Drive).

In other news, the blog has picked up a couple of new readers (thanks gnome) so hopefully you can all help me to spread the word about visiting day.

dodgy days

2006-06-08T15:21:00.000+01:00

I have just had a couple of really awful days. Having left my mobile phone at a bar I was working behind on tuesday, I was surprised when Jules (a good friend, and collaborator on mirror and entropy, and soon to be lead tester on visiting day) IMd me to let me know that my phone was now being answered by a teenage girl. After a charming conversation with the new owner of my mobile phone, i was told I could have it back.. but have yet to recieve a follow up call. That said, apparently she payed £25 quid for it, and I am strangely proud that such a crappy posession could catch such a large amount on the black market.

Anyway, back to the games side of things.

Coding has fallen behind because of the issues I've been up against personally, but I'm cracking on. I have upped the framerate for the game to 7fps.. and I think that might be as high as it goes. It's a shame, but the games are still genuinely fun to play. I have altered the looks of the enemy to tie in with Kittyhawk Drive's music, and it's all working rather nicely. No new media as of yet, but I shall be putting some cool stuff up over the weekend, including the first video.

Oh, and just for any new readers visiting the blog for the first time, welcome. I am always pleased to hear from new people so drop in a comment. I'm also always looking for testers and people to inform of releases, so drop me a line at mikebithell@hotmail.co.uk

more soon...

lucky monday

2006-06-05T20:39:00.000+01:00

One mini-game is now code complete.. all it needs now is a graphical overhaul based on the music that is being produced for the game.

One major stumbling point I've run into is that of frame rate. The game is now running at 6fps, which would be shocking on a desktop pc, but is definitely playable on the mobile psp. I still hope to bring that up though, which means tiding my code and graphics up a bit to save space in memory. I'm enjoying the challenge actually, and it's definitely bringing up the quality of my coding.

I now have a logo for the game.. it's preliminary however, so I'd love any feedback you may have. I'd like to say too that you're all more than welcome to use the images i'm posting of the game on your own blogs for publicising the game, or just to show what's going on out there. Hopefully the game will hit local press sometime soon, and I'm really hoping to bolster my number of readers so that I can grab lots of testers (down the line) and realease the game to an even larger audience at launch (further down the line).

So thanks, hang on in there (and Gnome, your video is comming)

[edit - logo is now in.. there have been some problems with blogger]

friday update

2006-06-02T21:53:00.000+01:00

'Visiting Day' is now in full swing. Having upgraded my pc with CS2 & Flash 8 (for a ridiculously high price) the game's visual qualities are already improving. I'm still scratching away, with the bulk of code for two of the minigames done. I'm hoping to get another 3 together for the initial release (2 - 3 months away). I am aiming to spend a month or so ballancing and fixing the gameplay to produce something small and refined rather than something big and haphazard.

The music for the game is really comming along. My main contact in the band has sent me a work in progress for the main theme, which is a weird mix of cirque du solei and phantom of the opera... very odd. It's completely changed my plans for the visitors. It's going to create a very cool mood in the game.

so... more to come, obviously.. here's a couple of pics to keep you ravenous blog readers happy for a little while :)

more details

2006-05-26T20:37:00.000+01:00

so, development is started on the game proper... and I'm gonna start giving more detailed info. Here's a rundown of what the game is right now. (sorry if it's written in a slightly dry way.. this doc is actually written for a PR guy).

Title
Visiting Day

System
PSP (initially) and then hopefully a PC & Mac port

Synopsis of Plot
A small Welsh primary school is invaded by evil aliens, halfway between assembly and reading time. The children must fight off the aliens using whatever skills they have in order to save their beloved school, and by extension the whole of Gwent.

Gameplay
Play the parts of the school's inhabitants. Help the football team to keep bombs out of the school field or help the dinnerladies ward off the aliens with a particularly strong brand of custard fueled justice. Play on your own or compete with friends to see who is best prepared for the terrible future which awaits us. Visiting Day is al about fun, fast gameplay. Oh, and no loading times.

The people behind it
The game will be designed and created by Mike Bithell. The music in the game will be played by indie band Kittyhawk Drive. Mike will also collaborate with other students to bring the best available talent to bear on the game.

So there it is.. I'm currently building rough playable tests for each gameplay mode. I will be honest and say I'm withholding some stuff, as I don't want other developers to see what I'm up to, plus I want to keep some surprises up my sleaves. Oh, and if you don't own a PSP then rest assured a PC & Mac version will be made.. no doubt with a few little multiplayer extras for you to dig into. So yeah, if you want to support the game then tell everyone you know, comment about it on your blogs.. get the word out. This game could be really cool.

Oh... and here's a little screen grab for you (test image only)

long time no see

2006-05-24T20:29:00.000+01:00

the last couple of weeks have probably been the least productive of my life, I have had a great time with friends, as the uni year is drawing to a close. As a result there's not really been much to post work wise... I have however had a bit of a break through today, with the help of some of the incredibly talented people at the university. Here's a clue as to what I've been up to...

That's right. Today I've finally managed to get gameplay running on an unmodded, un-hacked psp. Thanks to the nifty 2.70 upgrade to the system I can now put flash content up for people to download and play on the move. This test marks the start of a 2 month dev time i've set myself to make a fun, fast paced game for the system. The first legal freeware title for PSP. You read it here first. This is now my priority, although other work for clients remains on-going.. here's some actual gameplay screengrabs

watch this space, updates are about to get a hell of a lot more frequent.

a busy week

2006-05-06T16:11:00.000+01:00

So.. a week has passed since my last post, this has been caused by a large pile of work. I'm going to do one of my round-up style posts to explain where all my projects are right now

TV Project
Sent off a first draft of the intro sequence to the client, who likes it. We will be meeting to discuss the soundtrack and incorporate it into the cartoon. It's already looking pretty polished, and just the right mix of cuteness and nastiness which is needed. The character is kind of a Tazmanian Devil formed of goo.. lots of fun to animate.

Colour Grading
As mentioned before on this blog, my girlfriend is a stop motion animator. She is currently working on a short film, and was in need of some colour correction work. So I've been batch proccessing in photoshop to get everything bright and stable.

Mikebithell.com
Lots of sketches and plans, going to begin this one very soon. Lots of really cool interface elements and ideas for interaction. I've decided to supplement the flash gamespace with a traditional html page, as many people may not like what I have in mind as per the interaction models.

UWN Animation Graduate Website 2006
Having made a little site for them last year (link on the right) I've been asked to come back and do this year's. The advertising for the show should be using old fashioned printing press styles, so the website could be really interesting to build. Starting on this in the comming week.

Websites for two local businessman, plus update on Votehughes.co.uk
To pay the bills, I have a couple of paid jobs comming up, just waiting on info from the clients. Not the most exciting tasks in the world, but they put money in my pocket.

quick plug

2006-04-29T15:23:00.000+01:00

not that he needs it from me (he's in the UK national papers and television already) but just a quick plug for my mate Cargill, who's site i've finally got round to visiting.. a great idea, i wish i had his self publicisizing skills

http://www.themilliondollarmovieproject.com/

random sketchy goodness

2006-04-29T14:43:00.000+01:00

As I'm out earning in my day job over the busy bank holiday weekend, all things artsy have been put to one side. As I don't want to install my scanner before I get CS2 (only a couple of pay slips away now) I am instead using my eyetoy to capture a few sketches from over easter to spice up the blog. A bit blury, but better than nothing. See you in a couple of days :)

i just can't stop drawing these two guys.. the dit i'm liking, the tally is a bit crap... the shapes are too confused, and the hands, well, they aren't exactly brilliant are they.

I think this was a self portrait, drawn whilst waiting for pizza with a few mates. Watching life aquatic... not a massive fan

Here's an attempt at the main character for my website, a fisherman who will guide the player on their journey through the interactive sections... looking forward to seeing him rendered and moving within flash. You wouldn't believe the pages and pages of face treatments I've been through.

Here's another feature of the site... this is a large crab shaped house which sits in the middle of the lake the fisherman frequents. I'll give some more detail on that, and the site's structure, as I begin to develop it.

animating blobs

2006-04-27T21:39:00.000+01:00

I've been putting my knowledge of squash and stretch to fine practice today, animating for the TV project. Gave me a chance to snoop on some proper animators, working on their final films towards their degrees. There will be a screening of their work in a couple of weeks, which I'm really looking forward to.

Haven't got anything to post for now, although I may be doing a little bit of work on the HL2 mod, as the programmers still need to work towards a deadline. The next big interactive project I do will be my website.. should start on that in a couple of weeks.

There's a meeting comming up with my producer, so hopefully I can show off some of the animation I'm doing right now. Also I negotiated another website project yesterday evening, which will bring in a bit more money and some more examples towards my portfolio. Graduation is now only 12 months away.. I need to get some options for full time employment before I leave.

charmingly niave

2006-04-26T16:53:00.000+01:00

sorry...

really sorry...

I went home for Easter and forgot to make a post on here. Sadly I have no access to internet there, so wasn't able to update till now.

Once again, sorry.

Well easter was pretty non eventful.. nothing anyone would be interested in. Got back to find the storyboard for the as of yet under wraps tv show... promise to get permission to show that stuff off soon. The next week will be spent on that mainly, as i wanna get some pre-audio work sent back to the producer. I'm also gonna start work on my website. Should be neat, and have some interesting sketches I wanna try out, scans will follow in later posts.

Oh, and just in case there's any spamming, i seem to have irritated another student, who has been typing away homophobic crap about me on a forum for the HL2 project I was working on.. i appologize in advance if the guy posts any trash on here

The title? a quote from the programming lecturer describing my blog.. i quite like it :)

Drawing to a close

2006-04-04T20:24:00.000+01:00

Hey, well, today I have been getting on with written work, listening to radio and visiting other campuses.. it's all been towards the entropy project. My last official dev diary entry will be tommorow, but obviously I will keep you informed in my usual way...

Dev Diary: Day 57 - 04/04/06
A meeting

Started the day off today by being reminded I had to write a post-mortem on the game project, which I then wrote (proof reading, I'll post it up tommorow). I had a meeting scheduled in Allt-yr-yn for 1:00, but through my own stupidity ended up getting there an hour late, which was really confusing. Jules didn't show, neither did Dave. Adam had done some more work on the map, and Ed had implemented my graphics and cutscene into the UI for the mod. Looks cool, but is still a bit unfair in raising the expectations of the player before the dissapointing quality of the game under it.

For some reason the design students were cross examined by the programming lecturer. His repeated rudeness remains a source of entertainment to me, as does the question as to why I indeed have to answer to him (Barry is the lecturer who is responsible for me and my grade, and if he likes my work I don't honestly care what Mike's opinion is).

Also I found out today that our programmers keep on being assessed until the presentation (a month's time) so they should be able to get the bike working in time. I live in hope. That said we are edging closer to a successful and professional end result. If they don't get there it will be dissapointing, as I've invested a lot of time and a fair amount of heart into this project.

2D forever

2006-04-03T18:25:00.000+01:00

had an odd day, woke up late, schmoozed with some university suits, bought food, bought a couple of CDs, sat at a computer... and textured the main character for our game.

Dev Diary: Day 56 - 03/04/06
My first character map

Today I have mostly been texturing the main character for the game. He is modelled as part of the bike, but I want to check he's working before working on that. It was challenging painting texture without perspective, but we'll see how it looks wrapped on to the model, which looks like this btw
(not my work)

My updated UV map looks like this...

I've only done some very vague shading on the bike segments, as I'm a bit shakey on what's what... fingers crossed this'll look nice on the model, and we can work out where to go from there.

More thoughts and pics when I have them :)

i still hate sundays

2006-04-02T15:49:00.000+01:00

haven't posted for a couple of days as I've been away from all things computer earning my daily bread. Back in the studio today though, putting together some work for the mod. Just a quick note to all those I've got on my list for testing. It's looking like that may be postponed indefinitely now, as even though we have some great level design in place, it is far from ready for play testing. We hope to complete the game, but will be doing so in our free time, rather than as assessed work, so obviously production will need to slow. Here's a dev diary for today

Dev Diary: Day 55 - 02/04/06
Completion on the intro

Today I've been finishing off the opening cutscene, adding a game screenshot to the end, and moving one of the images earlier to improve the flow of information.. the finished video is up on www.reflectionsinthemirror.co.uk/dio/entropy.wmv

The game will hopefully be in a very presentable state by the time we have to, well, present it. My only remaining job is to do the texture maps, a job i need the wacom tablet for, so it'll have to wait for tommorow

uv mapping

2006-03-30T17:45:00.000+01:00

Well, after writing up my blog post for yesterday I went shopping, then got on with turning all the dev diaries you've been reading into a document for submittal. It came to 5300 words in total... shocking.

Oh, and then I watched the copy of Serenity I bought in Tescos. It was the most fun I've had watching a film in ages. Incredible, and my copy of firefly is already in the post.

This morning I put together the presentation slides for the SIFE people, came out pretty nice. Then I moved on to entropy

Dev Diary: 52 - 30/03/06
A UV test

Our attempts to get something together for deadline continue. I timed the cutscene for Jules, why he was incapable of doing this himself remains a perplexing mystery to me. After that I put together a test UV map and sent it to the forum to get dave to test it out on the model. Definitely not the sexiest image I've produced yet.

my character background (the close up portrait) is now working as a menu screen, and the level design is comming together. This should make for a very professional presentation

bad blogger

2006-03-29T17:17:00.000+01:00

I am sorry for not updating in a week

My university is sorry for pulling out the wrong plug and disconnecting internet access for almost a week

The protestors yesterday are sorry for prolonging my disconnection for a day

So.. no internet access, but plenty of work done... my SIFE brochure design is chugging along, along with the presentation they need. I'm waiting on all my other projects for people to get in contact. Here's my dev diary for the last week...

Dev Diary: Day 51 - 29/03/06
Textures, textures everywhere.

Another week without updates I'm afraid, here's a break down of the time I've been gone

Thursday
Meeting at Jules', mainly spent the session looking around Adam's map, then trying to get some kind of swarm working in game, as Ed had been unable to do it. I suggested a swarm made of brushes, which works pretty well in game. It won't be done for the deadline, but at least shows we were going in the right direction.

Dave seems on top of UV mapping, and should have something for me to work from next week.

Ed has agreed to try and alter intro hud for our mod

Saturday
I had scheduled a lot of work on sorting out the texture for the bike for today and tommorow, but due to internet connection issues at the university this is impossible, as I'm unable to get the UV maps from Dave. (These problems continued through to Wednesday morning, preventing me from doing anything on the project

Tuesday
Met with the team in Caerleon Campus, as strike was enacted at Allt-yr-yn. Ed's changed some text on the HUD, but beyond that very little has been done by anyone, largely because of the internet issues. Dave gave me the UV maps on usb memory, so I will be able to work from those later in the week. My task list for the week is...

Intro length info for Jules, re-arrange intro sequence, texture work, prepare for presentation, folder

That's all for now....