Project: FREAKS!
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Hi, I’m Mr. Hexagon.
I had a big thing typed out, but halfway through I realized how much of it was baloney, so I’m going to just get straight to the story of FREAKS!
Prior to Week 1
-Heard about and accepted the Ludum Dare challenge on Saturday, October 2nd which already put me a day behind the competition. It’s great to start on the right foot!
-Built a project schedule to follow during the month. The tough part was thinking about when I would actually have time to work on everything. The schedule went something like this:
week 1 do graphics and design the game,
week 2 finish up graphics and begin coding,
week 3 finish up coding and start music,
week 4 finalize and sell sell sell!
It’s funny to compare this idealized schedule to what actually happened.
Week 1
-Started with art like scheduled. I knew the art would have to be very simple because a month isn’t enough time for a single dude to properly animate multiple dudes (not with my busy life anyways).
-Posted the first inkling of game art at Pixelation for critique on Monday the 4th. I made the art in 10 minutes between classes. At this point I knew I wanted to have a simple, dialogue-based platform game.
-On the 5th, I finalized the main character, Lurch, and began working on an untitled character dubbed “monkey soot,” due to his uncanny resemblance to a man in a monkey suit. I was feeling fat, sassy, and achieved at this point.
-Secret things were done for the rest of the week that I’m not at the liberty to discuss. [Calhoun Red Jupiter Cheese Muffin 3, Roger IA FOA Bird Nest. Switch to channel S.]
Week 2
-Wednesday, October 13th, did minor character graphic work on a french looking character.
-Designed a red car for the characters to ride on the 14th. Now, if you'll remember the schedule, code should have been started at this point, and ALL graphics should have been finished. This was not the case, and here's why: a very tall blonde nordic lady with blue eyes was standing in my bathroom as I was getting ready for work on the morning of the 16th. She said, "Mr. Hexagon, you must not start coding FREAKS! yet. I am a Pleiadian, and we Pleiadians help developing planets prepare for space travel. According to our predictions, if you begin coding FREAKS! any time soon, you will disrupt the positive flow of energy throughout your star system. This will set your planet back many years in terms of space travel and will give negative energies a chance to manipulate helpless souls on Earth." Heeding the mysterious woman's advice, I chose to hold back all work on FREAKS! for the rest of the week.
Week 3
-Worked even more on the french character graphic and introduced a single item graphic on the 18th. This is an example of a good use of time.
-Created the Mr. Hexagon blog (http://misterhexagon.blogspot.com ) on the 18th as well.
-Finished the french girl graphic on the 19th.
-Launched a campaign to spread the word about FREAKS! on Wednesday the 20th. The game didn't exist in code yet. According to schedule, graphics should have been finished, code should have been nearing finish, and music should have been started.
-Spilled my coffee on the 21st. This is another example of a good use of time.
-On the 23rd, a miracle happened. A good friend and talented musician, Basic Bus Driver, agreed to do music for FREAKS! on the condition that I didn't tell anybody how to find his music. (You can hear his stuff at http://www.myspace.com/basicbusdriver )
Week 4
-The goal of this week was to sell, but it's always helpful to have a finished product actually to sell, so the bulk of the week was devoted to coding. I only hope that the Pleiadians and the people of Earth can find it in their hearts to forgive me if anything bad happens.
-This project post was supposed to be posted on Wednesday the 27th of this week, but something bad happened.
-That brings us to today. What's left on FREAKS! is finalization. The goal is to have it completely finished by Saturday afternoon in time for trick-or-treaters to have a chance to play it before they go out Sunday night for candy. I'll be sure to post the link here when it's finished!
Thank you for your time, and you are encouraged to share your thoughts and feelings about the whole process. If you've noticed anything I could have done better over the course of the project, I'd really like to hear it!
Sincerely,
Mr. Hexagon
P.S.
here's a screen shot:
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/1531/freaksscreen.png
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Good News vs. Bad News
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Posted 3rd Nov 10, by Mr. Hexagon
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1 Comment
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Hi!
I've got good news and I've got bad news. I'll give you the bad news first because it makes the good news so much better.
The Bad News
Unfortunately, FREAKS! will not be released. Sorry to disappoint anybody who was looking forward to its release. Here's what happened:
I decided to pull an all-nighter Friday night to finish everything up. Upon the final hours of completion, there was a knock on the door. The same tall, blonde, nordic lady that had appeared in my bathroom was visiting me once again. Knowing that nobody would believe my seeing this Pleiadian a second time, I turned around my MacBook to snap a picture with Photobooth. Assuming she was there for Halloween, I had to embarrassingly tell her I was out of candy. She thanked me for the offer, but corrected me and said she was not there for candy--she wanted my laptop, and snatched it right from my hands. I had infringed upon her earlier warning, she said, and aggressive preventative measures had to be taken.
Now, this was particularly disturbing to me because all my past month's work was in vein. Let me say this now to all other developers: Always back up your work. You never know when an extra-terrestrial will steal your computer.
However, she reassured me that creating games is not a fruitless endeavor, and that if I wanted to continue down the path of a developer, I must follow some spiritual and universal guidelines. The rules I am supposed to follow from here on out are outlined in an 8 page packet she handed to me entitled, "The Pleiadian Game Development Guidelines for Earth-safe Space Certification." She also gave me $90 dollars to put towards a new computer. We talked a bit about Halloween for a little while, and after that, she left.
The Good News
I was able to find a Pentium 4 3.0ghz, 512mb RAM, 80gig HD on craigslist, so I'm at least back in business in that sense. Production has already started on a new game. I can't say much about it, except that it is challenging making it conform to the new guidelines. I will definitely keep you informed about this project in the future.
So, I guess this officially brings the FREAKS! project to a close. My hopes for FREAKS! was for it to be a learning process, and I've learned a lot about myself, game development, and life in general over the course of October. I hope, too, that others can learn from any mistakes I've made along the way. As always, your opinions are encouraged!
Thank you,
Mr. Hexagon
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