Wow... three post combo.

After some serious thinking, I believe it is time that I invest in a new computer. My laptop is 5 years old now, and even though it is plenty capable of doing what I want it to do, I am afraid that it will soon become unreliable. I am working on several projects that need a capable, reliable computer. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm looking for a desktop under $1000 that is capable of running FL Studio 9. I would love to build the computer myself, and if anyone has any suggestions on parts, please let me know. I figure I could build a monster of a machine, and have it last me a long time. If the "juice is worth the squeeze", I would be willing to spend up to $1500, on it.

Lappy2 had a good run, and helped me create some of my greatest works. I don't plan on getting rid of lappy2, seeing that it still works, and I'll have it's battery replaced. Lappy2 will just go into retirement, being nothing more than an entertainment device and serving the purpose of being a mobile machine. I know I abused the crap out of the machine, dropping it a -ahem- few times, and having to replace it's power cord a number of times due to constantly moving around.

No, I'm not looking forward to the hole that will take it's place in my bank account, but I will be looking forward to a more powerful machine, and the ability to keep working on videogames and music.

Are you F**king Serious.

Okay, SERIOUSLY I am so pissed off I could punch a nun. First off, I unplugged my laptop and it shut off, not only that, but it was in the middle of saving all that code I just wrote, which means that the entire file is corrupted, LOSING ALL THAT CODE! Second Off, My laptop needs a new battery, which sucks. Seriously, that was 3 hours of work, down the drain.

Worked some more.

Wasn't feeling very good, must be this darn heat. Finally finished most of the animation for my game, it's running smooth, I just programed some of the basic platforming code, and it looks good. I think I have to thank Nintendo for this one, A few frames of Good animation, can do better than many frames of poor animation.
I also realized, giving him the staff, just made his animation look poor, got rid of that. I know it might look weird, but I think I will only make his staff appear when he is casting a magic spell.

New Character

 Working on a Game, finally put some hard work into this character. Thank you Capcom for helping me out. I am not going to release the details on this game, but I am excited, because this game is going to look good!

What I can tell you is that is will be a platformer/puzzle game, staring our currently unnamed pony friend. I will redraw him with his appropriate weapon, a staff, in which he will use to cast magic.

Please help me come up with a name for my new character friend! Writers block on a name... you could say.

Working on humans.

Working on a human character, as of now. I feel I am getting better, but when I look at this character, I don't like the way the chest doesn't move, but I haven't been able to make it look good. I'm just going to have to take time an experiment with this one.

Animation

Just an update. I've been working with animation as of late.  It looks like I got the goblin to run around now. It looks okay I think. His head moves from side to side as he runs. I'm not fond of the shoes, but it's not the end of the world. I'm getting better, and that's all that matters.

Doing some art.

I think I am getting better at making sprites. I asked a friend of mine what I should make a sprite of. He told me, "Make a goblin." I said, okay, I'll give it my best shot. And then I made this goblin here. I'm not going to go in detail. I made a rough outline, using Megaman as a rough proportion. I kind of made him like Emperor Pilaf from Dragon Ball, with the blue skin and the bald head, pointed ears, but I made him taller, and not short and stubby. Like I said, not getting into detail. Hopefully practicing with things like this will help me get to creating better characters with more flair and style. Maybe I could try animating this guy... see what happens. Who knows. I do feel a slight improvement in my pixel art skills... Level up? Ha!

Anyways... getting some much deserved rest... after all, it is 5am; and no, I wasn't up all night making just this. I got distracted with Street Fighter III Third Strike (which by the way has some of the GREATEST sprite animation of any Sprite Based animated game, complements to CAPCOM again.). And I was distracted by my ponies... as usual.

Good Night, hope to post more soon.

First Post

My First Post:
I decided to start a blog to help motivate me into finishing my video-game related projects, since I have a hard time staying motivated with almost all of my projects. I'm just going to keep this introduction relatively short.

About Me, Daleo Star:
I've been playing music my entire life, have been composing since I was 13, and have been programing since I was 12. I've always had a strong love for video games, and I've always had a strong love for music. As my goal, I plan on writing music for many high trafficked games. If you wish to check out my music, you can visit that here at: http://www.youtube.com/catboydale

The Project,
Anyways, I've started a new project (What else is new), and I feel pretty confident. Though, I don't feel comfortable sharing the project just yet, I will let you know it'll be a 16-bit 2D plat former/action game. I am currently looking for an artist to do character sprite animations (I know, old school right?). Though, it isn't necessary that I have one, he/she would make this project easier, seven fold. I will also be looking for play testers (Steve, you don't have a choice), but I'm thinking ahead of myself at the moment, I don't even have a beta, let alone I just got a few character concepts down.

A bit of inspiration and a side note about video games in general:
A game that inspired me pretty recently is a title known as "Iji". It is a Metroid style shooter/platformer game that stars a woman who in short, saves the world from an alien robot race. It was created by a guy named Daniel Remar (of Remar Games), who did art and programing and storyline for the game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33mxD4FjD3w is a trailer for the game. I give this game a 8.5. It was a really good game. It is challenging, and there is a lot to explore and do. I don't really care for the graphical style, especially in the cut scenes and, though the robots look good, I feel like the main character could have been better drawn and animated. The music was great, enough said. The level design was good, sometimes it felt kind of crowded with robots at several occasions, but that's just being nit-picky. It has a lot of elements that have already been done, but I really like the hacking parts of the game and being able to screw with the robot's interior to cause them to blow up or attack their friends. A solid game, could use some cleaning up in places, it could easily have been a 9, or even a short 9.5.

People often wonder when I talk about games... what deserves a 10?
Zelda, ocarina of Time, is a 10.
The game is well designed, the graphics are great (for their time), the story even though was sub-par, I never got lost, there was A LOT to do, the world was nicely designed. The music was excellent, the swordplay was great. Puzzles were awesome, and I had to use my brain. There was never any "Auto-Pilot" modes. I remember a lot of sections in the game and I still talk about this game with friends. It seems that everyone who has ever played that game, remembers quiet a bit about it, and for very good reasons too. It's rememberable, and it's good.
I look for a lot of things in games in determining their score:

1. Do the graphics look good?
1. Has nothing to with how powerful the graphics are: Do they look smooth and do they fit the game?
2. I can tell what things are, I shouldn't have to read any kind of guide or watch a walk through because the graphics have confused me.
3. They went above and beyond with detail.
2. Is there good music?
1. Every good game has good music. Period.
2. Something that fits
3. Nothing Distracting or Distasteful.
3. Does it play well?
1. Controls are easy to learn, fit the game.
2. Enemies aren't hard for the wrong reasons. Bosses aren't grueling.
3. Games with RPG elements use less need for "Grinding"
4. If it has multiplayer, why is it fun?
4. Do I remember this game?
1. Was it funny?
2. Was it epic?
3. Why do I remember this game, what makes it stand out?
4. ***WHAT WAS THE JOURNEY?*** What did I do to make it from point A to point B?

In closing:
When my newest project is complete, and I plan on having this project done this year, I plan on creating more games. I'm looking forward to this. If anyone is interested in joining my team, please contact me and let me know via e-mail at: catboydale@gmail.com. Please let me know your abilities upon e-mail.

Stay Tuned, I will post more after I put some work into this,
-Daleo.