moving house

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

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

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

hmmmm........

it's a thought....

rss info

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

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

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

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

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

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

Winterbottom

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

http://www.winterbottomgame.com/

gorgeous work

clockworkvid1

a (very) early video showing the game running

the music is from the fantastic serenity soundtrack

another pic...

and here you go...

first 'clockwork' screengrabs

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

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

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...

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!

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.