Monday, July 20, 2009
Greetings,
How are you? You are probably enjoying your summer vacation, maybe in some foreign country? Personally I don't really like traveling much, so I always stay home in my vacation. We usually rent a car and cruise around the country (that's not real travel, is it?). This year we'll do the same. First we will relax and enjoy the completion of our 3rd mobile game. Then we will cruise around a little bit, and visit places and people.
Ukko's Journey complete!
After 1 year and 1 month (plus in between breaks) we, at LuBlu Entertainment, finally managed to complete our 3rd JavaME project; Ukko's Journey, a 3-button arcade game for your cell phone. It's really great to complete a longterm project.
Visit www.UkkosJourney.com to check out the game. If you like arcade games, you should find plenty of fun and challenge in Ukko's Journey.
What next?
Having completed Ukko's Journey, there's the question of what project to dig into next. There are way too many interesting project ideas to choose from. In fact I have found 9 interesting projects I could start up next, and tried to list them with the most intriguing one first. At the top of the list, we see
- Learn Flash/Flex (ActionScript3) development
- Learn Android development
- Make another Amstrad CPC retro game
- Make my own project-management tool
- Make another JavaME game
You might notice that "Compose a piece of music" isn't at the top. It is on the list of course, but I can't escape the fact that I simply feel bored just doing a piece of music. I can do a track, but it has to be used in some project, like e.g. a game. And because of this, I have to stick with certain rules when composing, so that the track will be suitable for use in a game on the specific platform in mind. And this is why I haven't released any artistic tracks with a length of 5-8 minutes in some time now.
Another project on the list is "Move Dewfall.dk into a CMS". Doing this would make updates easier for me, and I would finally have a newsletter-sending system that worked again. But as you can see I don't find that project a whole lot interesting. Maybe later.
But the most intriguing project seems to be another JavaME game, starting with some experiments to see if what I have in mind is even possible on the JavaME platform. I still haven't made up my mind though, so it might be one of the other projects. We did buy an HTC Dream aka T-Mobile G1 (the first Android phone), because we thought we wanted to look into Android development, but it hasn't caught our attention a whole lot, because of the lack of buttons. (We want to make games controlled with buttons, not touch screen).
Amstrad CPC music
Before starting up a new project, I'm helping out other people with their projects. I'm frequently contacted by developers via IndieGameMusic.com, who's asking to use my music in their games, mostly freeware games.
I'm also doing music and sound-effects for Amstrad CPC retro game projects. The Amstrad CPC was the computer I grew up with, so there's a lot of nostalgia and memories connected with that machine, which is why I still find it very cosy spending time with it. And I'm not the only one. I find it remarkable that here in year 2009, 25 years after the CPC hit the market, new games and demos are still being produced for it, and they're showing abilities I never knew the CPC had. One such game you should check out is Star Sabre, which was made in a 64kb basic version and a 128kb enhanced version. Both of them are astonishing, and clearly shows that the CPC is capable of so much more than previously assumed. Even the AY music chip is capable of producing sounds I thought was impossible, such as a C64-like sawtooth bass and robotic sounds (and no, I'm not talking about the CPC+ here, just a plain CPC).
Ok ok, a bit too technical for you perhaps. Anyway, I did two tracks for the Amstrad CPC game "Eternal Light". Unfortunately the game only works with an emulator, and not the real machine. Download here. After doing the title music I thought it could be a fun challenge to do a MOD and MIDI version of the same track.
Recently I've also made the title music for a CPC port of the game "Robotron 2084". Check it out here.
And if you're curious about CPC demos, start out with DTC and browse on from there. :-)
Till next time.
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