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.