One Month to make a game!

No Download Required!

If you’d like to play Victorian Matador in your web browser, I have recently updated it to make that possible! Find the new version here. I will also be using this blog for my other games and game design thoughts, if that interest you. Thanks!

Day 31: Release Day!

It’s release day! Download Victorian Matador here! (Click on “File” in the upper-left-hand corner and then “Download.” File is under 10MB.)

The game does not require any installation or other programs to run. Just unzip it wherever you want and play. Be sure to keep the exe and data folder together though. When you run the exe, it will ask you about some settings. Pick whatever you want, but I would recommend to leave the graphic quality setting on “Good” - other settings are blurry or introduce artifacts.

Here’s a quick how to play explanation. Try to get the highest score by being a matador and having your llama automaton bash into various enemies around the stage. Don’t let enemies or the llama hit you! Press ‘Q’ to signal your llama to charge, escape to pause, and the arrow keys to move. Check out a more in depth manual in the Options screen.

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Day 30: Squashing Bugs

Well today was very productive! All the art and sound assets are in the game and I’ve been looking for any last bugs. I found a few and have been spending the day fixing them. There are still more to go!

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Day 29: Sound

Today I mostly worked on sound effects! As mentioned yesterday, the tool I’m using to create sound effects is called Bfxr. It’s a neat program that generates retro-sounding effects. Usually I still need to do a little processing on the sounds it exports - adjust the volume or levels. For that I use the free program Audacity, which is also very nice.

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Day 28: Sprites and More Sprites

Hey everyone. Just a short update since I basically did the same thing today as yesterday. It’s really fun to watch as the game comes to life! Graphics and sound are really the “icing on the cake;” sure you can play a silent game with pink and grey boxes, but it won’t be nearly as tasty.

Tomorrow I’ll continue doing this kind of thing and hopefully play with some balancing. I found a really nice retro sound effect generator called Bfxr which I’ve been playing around with. I’ll also write what I’ve learned about it next time. ‘Til then!

Day 27: More Spritework

The game is really coming together! Today Darth Frog finished the character sprites and I’ve been touching them up and importing them into Unity. This is mostly just making sure they’re all visible against the background and setting up collision boxes, anchors, and animation speeds. Thank goodness I created all those placeholders a while ago or the work would have been really dull.

I know you’d like to see the sprites. But since we’re only a few days away from release, I think I’ll keep them as a surprise!

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Medals

Since I didn’t a chance to last week, I wanted to write up a short extra entry about “medals.” Medals are basically the achievements/trophies we know and love from various platforms: small extra goals the game gives you just for the sake of it. You might be wondering why I bothered with achievements with such a short period to build this game. I have a few reasons.

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Day 24: Records

Hello all! The records system is complete. It’s just like the high scores you all know and love. It will record your best scores, giving you a goal to try and do better each time you play. The above screenshot is of the records screen. I’m happy with it, except I would like the score text to be right-aligned. Hopefully I’ll get to that!

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Day 23: HUD

A quick update since it’s very late tonight! Today, I was able to complete the HUD, or heads-up-display, of the game. It shows information such as health, score, and playtime. Some other things not visible here are score multiplier and chain timers.

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Day 22: Title Spriting

Hello everyone! You can see today’s work in the screenshot above. I basically spent the day spriting the title screen. It took some time because the portrait of Louisa turned out to be pretty intricate and larger than I expected. But, still a fun break from programming.

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