Spellblast now available on Steam Early Access

The game I've been working on, 'Spellblast', by Tonal Recall Games and published by Forever Humble PDX, has finally come to Steam Early Access!

Me and the guys at our studio, Talos Studios were contracted to create art assets for the game with our only limitations being that of the game engine; so nearly complete creative control. Its current build is made with Game Maker Studio Pro, but apprently they're currently rebuilding it in Unity3D, so if the game sees enough support, we can continue to update and expand the game.

'Spellblast' is listed at $0.99 US during early access and projected to go up when complete, but from now until the 29th of February, its an additional 20% OFF, bringing it down to $0.79 US.

Games Updates - Dec 2015

Oh wow, it has been a while since I updated, huh?

So lets see, what have I been working on this fine year?

Joe and I were contracted to do the art on a game, "Spellblast" which will hopefully go into Steam Early Access here soon. It's a hybrid edutainment/SHMUP game where players fight off gruesome aliens while collection letters and forming words to progress. Pretty interesting concept and its been hectic making the art, but it's been a blast!

The player fights the majestic space norwhalicorn in Spellblast

Ont top of that, we've been chipping away at a few projects in our spare time including "Root Canal" and "Wreckin' Ball".

"Root Canal" is nearly completed and will be an in-browser game for all to enjoy for free. Gameplay, it's similar to games like "Flappy Bird" and "Jetpack Joyride" and can be played with a single button. Hopefully once I get less-lazy, I'll finish it off and upload it to a few online arcades and maybe Facebook. Check back every so often and I'll be sure to let you know where you can play it when it's live.

Here we see the dentist using a water-pick

And then "Wreckin' Ball" is a basic sports game that is in very early pre-alpha (ie. not really feature complete playable yet, but we got somethin'). It'll be a multiplayer focused, 2.5D, violent, quick/casual game that has the potential for more competitive play-styles that we're sure will be a hit with players.

While I don't have a screenshot I'm willing to share at this time, I'll give you all a small taste in the form of a concept...

WOO! SPORTS!

But yeah, that's whats in the works that I can share. "Corruption Kings" is still being worked on, but its taken a back-seat to other, more beneficial projects that came up. 

All in all, we've got a few games in the air at any given time.

I'll update more when we've got more to share.

Until next time,

Dave

Back to the land of the living... with gifts!!

Wow, it's been a while...

I've spent some time away from my blog (and even making games) for a little bit now and I just wanted to let anyone whose out there know I'm not dead. Close, but that's part of the reason I was away.

See, some of you know I have a bad heart. This bad heart keeps me from being an athlete or astronaut or even a dentist. It does let me go to the front of the line at airports and theme parks, but I'm not a fan of travel or roller-coasters, so its kind of a moot point. 

A couple months ago, I started to get worse. The ejection fraction for my heart started to get lower, I started bloating, and lost nearly all my energy through-out the day. Doctors wouldn't directly say it was heart failure, but it was a term that was used. I ended up getting some new meds and things were starting to look up until a few weeks ago.

I started to get fairly severe abdominal pains and heaviness in my chest. Long story short; I got a blood clot that ended up in my spleen and killing half of it. Most people can live just fine without a spleen, but I kinda need mine. 

So yeah, been in and out of the hospital for the past month or 2 pretty regularly and it was only recently that the whole clot issue happened, meaning I have tons of new meds, a struggling immune system, and some pretty devastating pain that I have to deal with for a bit.

But game making must go on!

And in the spirit of continuing on, I've made a little sprite sheet to share with folks who are looking to get into developing games or maybe are vets but aren't that paint-ily inclines; either way, they might be looking for some pixel'd doods and here they are!

Now I know they aren't perfect or even spaced out properly, but they should be a good cast of characters to help make some fun games!

Right-click; Save-as
If someone is trying to charge for the sheet, tell them they're dumb.

Now get out there and make some fun games and enjoy life! Its too short to not do what you love.

Until next time,

Dave

Symbiotes, Robots, and Bears.

A little gift for my lovelies.

Hey everyone out there!

I haven't updated in a while, and I wanted to remedy that! And to do so, here is a lil' sketch I did of Marvel baddie Venom! Enjoy!

Now, if you don't know me, you might not know I have some health issues; namely my heart.
Nothing too bad, but enough to screw with life every so often. This time, it was looking like I had a valve going out. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. The valve is still weak but instead of getting cut open again, I'm just taking a pile of pills and "taking it easy" for a bit. Speaking of Valve and valve-related things...

Though that did slow down my whole "make a game a month" plan.
Which might be a good thing, considering more and more of game ideas that I thought were totes original are coming out as beautifully polished indie games. (See Matador reveal trailer below; its gonna be amazing!)

Matador is an upcoming perma-death-adventure (read: rogue-like) by Stellar Jockeys and gausswerks featuring isometric action and giant gun wielding robots and one life before starting it all over again. What's not to love about this game?! Can't think of anything? Then you must be a bad enough dude to vote for it on Steam Greenlight. They seem like awesome dudes, so give 'em some love!

Now some of the last news from me. 

Even though my "make a game a month" plan has kinda fell through, some of my friends have agreed to help me press forward with a lovely little game I had pitched years ago. Its an action-y, arcade-y little shin-dig where you enforce the law with massive, fuzzy claws of justice! *Cough cough* bearcop *cough*.

Originally I was going to produce and finance this game (completely tapping me out every month), but once these medical issues reared their ugly head again, I got a new pile of debt really fast. My friends agreed to help in their free-time and have already helped so much.

Once we get a good alpha, we might shop it around to get those who worked on it the money and recognition they deserve.

Until next time,

Dave

(Psst, I heard you like making games. If you want to make games with me, send me a message.)

Holiday Gift - PREVIEW

So I'm working on a fun little holiday greeting "card" for all of you so check back on the 25th to get your present! Woot!

Until then,
-Dave