V is for Vortex!

jonmulcahy

I've got my next game uploaded. It's called V is for Vortex and its similar to the game portal, although much simpler. I've been working on it for about 3-4 weeks now.

Story mode plays each level in order, freeplay lets you pick from any of the 18 levels. settings lets you set settings, credits does nothing.

I still need to create the beginning and end, and get some sound into it, but let me know what you think so far:

http://gamesalad.com/game/play/26389

ktfright

I like your title styles!

CodeMonkey

Where is the cake?

jonmulcahy

ktfright

thanks some people will think it's lazy, but after Z is for Zombie, I came up with like 8 names for games I want to do. I'd love to have the entire alphabet, but that will take a long time.

jonmulcahy

there will be a cake in the game, it's going to be a hidden item. I've got it all drawn out, just not implemented yet. I want to get this wrapped up this weekend so I can start on my holiday game.

superNES

You are awesome!

Fafnir312

THE CAKE IS A LIE!

Nice. I like it.

gregr209

I love these hand drawn games. They have a certain charm.

Looks great so far!

Weswog

Great game keep up the good work.

Cheers, Weswog

jonmulcahy

the holiday game is S is for Santa. It's the sequel to Z is for Zombie. Santa turns into a zombie, and you need to go fight him. At least that's the idea right now, it's still in the sketch phase.

davnieli

mulcahy how do you do your awesome graphics and i love both your games and i bought z is for zombie

davnieli

and he just gets a scanner and puts it onto the computer? he mus have like 900 pieces of paper

jonmulcahy

yep, I had a bunch of graph paper sitting in my closet from college. I pulled it out to use to sketch out my ideas, and decided I liked the look. It's a long process. first i sketched it out, then I actually draw it. then I ink it, then I color it. I've been using colored pencils for now, but I bought some water color stuff too for when I'm feeling more ambitious.

after that I scan it in, clean it up if necessary and drop it into gamesalad.

butterbean

Cool concept for a game! Can't wait to see the finished product!

davnieli

awesome game i just beat it and thanks for telling me im starting to get an idea for how to make games graphics

butterbean

Yea me too! What a great idea, I'm guessing other apps like Para Panic used the same concepr too right?

Great job! And you can't beat hand-drawn art, if I have some really extra extra free time, I may try that too one day

jonmulcahy

how did you find the difficulty? too easy? too hard? too short?

I've played through all the levels myself, but I know how to beat each one. were there any that were too hard?

butterbean

Mulcahy, I'll test it a bit more and let you know
Question on your art though, when you made the individual characters, did you just draw them on separate pieces of paper large, and then resize them in a graphics program? Also, did you just use a magic wand tool to delete the backdrop you had the characters on?

davnieli

i think its just right theres not much i would change otherthen i think the guy should move a little faster but thats it

jonmulcahy

davnieli,
I'm still adjusting the player speed, I'll see about making him faster, I thought he moved too slow too.

butterbean,
I've got a set of 1/10th of an inch engineering graph paper. You can print your own from here:
http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/multiwidth/
every square is 1/10th of an inch, so a 10x10 square is one inch tall and one inch wide. I measured the iphone screen and it is pretty much exactly 3squares wide and 2 squares tall. So, I just draw everything exactly the same size on the paper that I want it on screen. Then I scan it in, and clean it up using photoshop. The magic wand tool works pretty well, but I always have to go back with the eraser tool to clean things up.

butterbean

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/custom/10-1Grey.pdf

Is this the one you used? Have you gone into trying markers or darker colors? Just curious, that might look really cool, I'm gonna try it this weekend and see what it looks like
Thanks for the help!

jonmulcahy

butterbean,

yea, that looks right. I bought the paper from staples or something, it's probably 8 years old and I had like 500 sheets of it. It's been put to good use now

I havn't tried markers, but I just bought a set of 50 colored penciles, I've been using a set of 12, so I've got a much better varity to pull from.

bgjoanbg

that was very good!! congratulations, you have talent and originality!

butterbean

Yes great job Mulcahy! Very unique idea! I tried sketching out a few things last night just to see how it would transfer, and I'm thinking of doing a platformer possibly when I'm done with my other 2 games, I love the idea, and great job with Z is for zombie and this game too!

jonmulcahy

Just uploaded the release candidate of V is for Vortex:

http://gamesalad.com/game/play/26389

I also resubmitted it to the app store (I found a few bugs)