Contemplating game modes....

          With the scheduled relaunch only a week away I'm still thinking of game modes to develop post-relaunch. I'm currently working on a Stargaze mode which will be a truly idle game mode. I also want to do a "Classic 2" which will be similar to classic but will involve you and your new found lover working together to manage resources on a larger scale. There's also "Owl Mode" which isn't an idle mode at all but is rather a trivia kind of mode. As per user suggestion I also want to do a mode that's dedicated to minecraft in some way. "Adventure" mode, which would be kind of like "A Quest for Idle", and I want to do a mode similar to Idle Mine. Honestly, I don't even know where to start with the modes I want to develop and it's kind of overwhelming...

Plans for Re-launch

          Survival Idle is still live and is going to be kept live, but sometime in early January we plan on re-launching the game and taking a different approach. We're going to plan on adding new game modes and content to it on a regular basis and make it more "Anti-Idle"-like. There were also a ton of bugs and problems people were having upon release that didn't get fixed because the developer I work with lives in a different time zone so that really hurt the games initial rating. The game is at around a 3.4 and slowly dropping.

          This really isn't about the rating as much as it is about the amount of plays the game will get. Unfortunately, your game pretty much needs to maintain a 3.5+ rating on Kongregate to get any decent plays (Unless it's a promoted game). I'm hoping that with the new game modes and overall changes we make that the game will be better conceived.

Survival Idle is Live!

          You can find Survival Idle at the link below:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/Hokage4354/survival-idle

Survival Idle Nearing Completion

          With less than two days left in my deadline we're right on track with where we need to be to have this game released on Kongregate in time. At this moment we're working on adding the music, credits, and soon after adding Kongregate api. We'll have have a whole day to polish out things that we may have missed and we'll be in the clear from there!
          At this moment I'm actually working on the post for KCG about the game (and also a walkthrough) that will be made public once the game also goes public. The plan is to release the game on Kongregate and in about a week or so release it on the mochi-network. The game probably won't perform well on mochi-network though since Idle games are fairly Kongregate exclusive.
          In any case, I better get back to work. I really can't wait for release!

Official Announcement: Survival Idle

          Today I posted on the forums with the official announce for the game, which can be read here. Here's a copy-paste of the post for those of you who are feeling lazy today.

          Hey ya’ll, after a few weeks of contemplating the design, artwork, gameplay, and plan for release of this project I’m finally ready to announce that Survival Idle will be released between December 21st and December 24th. Optimally I would like to release it on December 21st but it really depending on how long testing and polishing the game takes. I would much rather released a well-polished game with close to no bugs than the opposite.

          Survival Idle is a pixel-art, peaceful, atmospheric Idle game with artwork inspired by danielben’s I Wish I Were the Moon . You will be able to both actively and passively play this game as you try to thrive out in the wilderness. 

          The game will recognize you differently based on whether you’re new or if you already have a save fileand you will be able to play as either a Male or a Female (Innovative). You will be out in the woods and have to thrive in your surroundings. Collective food, water, and supplies in order to upgrade your humble abode, supplies area, as well as yourself and quite possibly a feather-y pet you might find! Take some food and water with you and head on an adventure to a throwback-location in order to gain more supplies.

          You will be totally control of how you would like to play the game. You can decide to have minimal active participation and passively gather resources, or actively chose what upgrades you want to shoot for and shape the way you play the game. There’s also tons of video-game pop-culture references throughout the game so keep an eye out. 

          The following is a mock-up sceenshot I made last week. The game will not look exactly like this upon release, but this should give you a feeling for it.

What are the odds....

         You think you have a solid plan for a game and then... what? Somebody comes out with a game with similar ideas to yours, of course. I suppose great minds think alike, but did it HAVE to be a week before I release my game? Really?

          For anyone who's really confused right now, the game is I'm referring to is Idle Farmer. It's a pixel-art idle game that involves a mix of passive and active participation, but the developer leans toward you actively participating. It has funky music and three main stats- money, skill, and exp. Granted, my game has more 8-bit-like pixel art, but still... Whyyyyyyyy but this game be so damn close to my game.

          A good portion of my selection for when to release my game is that it would be enough time for the hype of Idle Mine to totally die out. I mean, this game isn't really getting a lot of hype seeing as it only has a 3.48 rating, but still. I really didn't want to have to be worrying about competition of the same game genre for the date of my release. I suppose this just gives me an incentive to make the game the best I possibly can. :)

          I don't think I posted a follow-up on this, but I did end up finding and picking a developer to work with, and let me say that he works FAST. The game is already technically playable (as an early alpha version) and it's only been... 4 hours? This guy is on point with getting this game done by our deadline. At this rate we might have an extra day to just make tweaks and test the crap out of this game, which I'm pretty happy about. Honestly, I'm the one slacking now because I still have to animate the ending cutscene... Bah.

"Survival Idle" and overcoming challenges

          This project has been a mess so far and has has more downs than ups. Some of you know about this project, some of you don't, but I'll start from a clean slab for those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about. "Survival Idle", originally with the pet name "Camping Idle" is this concept for an idle game I've had for at least 2 years now. It features a man out in the woods set with a relatively dark color scheme, at night, and with pixel-art. It's an idle game but you can either passively rather resources or actively do it. There's also 3 main resources of value: Supplies, Food, and Water.

          I had this concept since about 2 years ago as mentioned but I didn't really have the urge to finish all of the artwork for it until recently. I worked for about 2 weeks straight and got all of the artwork for it done minus the ending animation. I had also found a developer who was interested in working with me and we had our plans to have the game released by December 21st. Unfortunately, things didn't work out and yesterday he messaged me basically saying that he can't do the functions of the game (He only has a small amount of experience with actionscript).

          I had basically been placed with a big decision to make on what to do. Do I just cancel the project? Do I find a new developer and plan for a later release date? Do I find somebody quickly and still aim for the same release date? Well, I ended up messaging somebody who had originally said they were interested but I declined his offer initially. He replied and sure enough, he's still interested in working together. I sent him enough of the game details so he knows what he's getting into and hopefully after that we can get straight into work. The really good news is that he says he can probably get it done in a week, and if that's the case I'll still pretty much hit my initial planned deadline.

          That's where the project stands as of right now. The faster we get in contact and I fully explain the game to him the faster he can start working and the higher the odds are of us getting this done. The only thing that kind of sucks is that I still dont know when I'm actually going to get the ending done since I'm pretty busy this week. In any case- I hope he really is able to get this done in a week. That would be AMAZINGGGG.

Welcome!

          Hey y'all, welcome to my new blog purely dedicated to the game development endeavors I involve myself in. You can come here to keep up with anything new I might be up to, any project ideas I talk about, or even give me suggestions for projects you might think I would enjoy doing. I'm planning on keeping posts on this blog pretty informal but at the same time this isn't going to be a personal blog or anything (like tumblr). I'm only going to post things you could might be interested it, not what I ate for breakfast this morning. #nofilter #food #gettinskinny #toomanyhashtagslolol

          Stay tuned for update posts I might post within the next few days. I should mention this now, but this blog doesn't have a posting schedule or anything, I'm just going to post things as the need arises. It might be a few hours in-between posts or just an hour- it all depends. For those of you who might be interested in a blog that has posts on a more consistent basis, feel free to check out the flash gaming blog I run, Kongregate Collective Guides.

          Thanks for checking this blog out! I can't wait to fill you guys in on this idle game concept I have. *hint hint*