DragCore: How the Grid Works

    The electric grid in DragCore is how you attack enemies and kill them with intense electrical fury. You drag your finger across the screen to create a box. Enemies that touch it die instantly, or at least most of them. Some enemies are a bit trickier than that. Here is a look at how the attack grids work.

From Baby Steps to Passion Projects

     I've come a long way. My goal up to now has been to teach myself what it takes to start and finish a  game. One that works well, no game breaking glitches, fun and unique mechanics, appealing graphics and polish, and available on as many mobile devices as possible. I feel that with DragCore, I will finally succeed. I will have a great game out there to point to so I have proof that I'm capable of producing something when I start my ambitious projects.

    All games I make after this have a somewhat ridiculous scope, but they are passion projects I am willing to fight through. I've taken all the baby steps needed to get the skill to pull them off. Now it's a matter of taking this personal final exam (finishing DragCore) and start officially considering myself a competent game developer. One that knows what he's talking about and makes games to get hyped for.

   I have 4 finished games to my name now. I've learned so much about the process since high school and my determination has yet to falter. My next three games are on a much larger scale, likely taking more than half a year each compared to the 2-4 month projects I've been doing so far. Each on of those projects has taught me tons through all the mistakes, process experiments, and discovery of development tricks.

    I've made 3 arcade games, next I'll be doing an RPG, platformer, and another RPG respectively. It makes up for the total of my college career. After those, I'm cast into the "real world" where I have to make a tough decision. Do I give running an indie studio a try, or do I put those dreams aside? I'm depending on my next three titles to tilt my fate toward the former. Excitement is at an all time high as I'm just dying to get started on those games. I'll be done with DragCore by February. It's time for the home stretch!

Dragon's Flux RPG (1st Attempt at Dream Game)

     After a week or so of scribbling on note cards in class I finally started coding my dream game. This was back in high school of course and I had no idea what I was doing. At that point I had only just made a Pokemon fan game game where you could walk around a small overworld and play around with menus. I just dived right into this ready to learn along the way. I was also silly enough to think I could juggle two other projects alongside this one in case I got bored with it. Yeah. I was a dumb kid. Glad I'm doing things more carefully now.

Watch the video demo here.

Back to School (Spring 2014)

     Here we go. I'm ready for school. Game plan: finish DragCore, talk with the deans, finish this semester, complete summer school, skip fall semester, complete my next game, start making my platformer by fall, go back to school spring 2015.

    I'm kind of dreading my meeting with the dean now that the Alumni talked me out of it. It basically comes down to me having a strong passion and work ethic that other students don't have. No amount of curriculum changes will fix that, but I can at least try to talk my school into replacing some classes with open electives and marketing courses.

     I also have to consider starting a game development club when I return from my hiatus next spring. That's the best way I can see helping students get motivated to do portfolio work and help each other make games to get hands on experience. It's going to be a very busy year, so it's a good thing I'm ready for it.

Take a look at my class schedule if you're curious after the break.