Title Needed Phase 2

Okay, I narrowed down the list of suggestions to just these few which I like. Let me know in the comments which one you like best! Think also about which one you'd want to play the most.

Phantasmaburbia,
Suburban Haunt,
Spirit Siege,
Suburban Souls,
Specterhood,
Battle Against the Underworld,
Urban Souls

Title Needed

Let's start with a new screenshot (click):


...and then get down to brass tax. I've made some good headway into the game, done all the major introductory stuff (first ~10 mins of gameplay). Now I'm asking for any help anyone can offer in coming up with an actual title for it! If you have any ideas or like anything listed below, please do respond either in the comments or twitter or whatever. If you need a refresher o what the game's all about, read about it here.

Words I'm thinking of are "ghost," "spirit," "neighborhood," "town," "suburb," "suburban," "home," "burb," "specter," "phantasm," "haunt," "soul," "underworld." (though many of those words are clunky and long).

Here are some ideas (though I'm not particularly attached to any...)
Ghost Town
Suburban Haunt
Suburban Underworld
Battle Against the Underworld
Suburban Shadow
Neighbourhaunt
Urban Souls
Suburban Souls
Spirit Siege
Spirithood
Specterhood
Phantasmaburbia
I will perioidically update this list as I get suggestions I like. If you like one of these let me know in the comments.

Welcome to Owl Creek!

Just wanted to share some more information about the RPG I'm working on. If you follow me closely on Twitter you've probably seen a lot of this already.


Here's a map of Owl Creek, the setting for the game. All of the events of the game will take place in this small region. From a young age I've found suburbs and their forestation very explorable, and I hope to evoke that with exploration in the actual game.

I'm planning to have the soundtrack done by Jason Covenant AKA Prophecy, the same composer I'm used to working with. I'm going to be using more of his full orchestrated work a la Escape from the Underworld, and I'll definitely be pulling a lot from his newer music that he's been posting to his website.
This will be the main battle theme.
This will also be a battle theme.

Most of my focus thus far has been on planning the game, so barely any real content's been made yet. Part of this is due to school making me pretty busy in the closing week(s) of this past semester. As of now I'm on break, so hopefully I'll find the time to really push the game forward.

Announcing my Next Big Project...

(Click to enlarge)
A role-playing game set in a modern American suburban town.
Ghosts and evil spirits begin to appear all over town, corresponding with the impending reincarnation of a transdimensional demon. A group of teens, armed with weapons found in their homes and assisted by spirits of their ancestors or former residents of their homes, set out to prevent the rise of this evil being.

The engine is based on Dubloon with a number of changes and upgrades. I'm setting out to make this story my best and most exciting yet. This is going to be my first commercial PC game; I'm currently planning to charge $3 for the final product. I still need to research what my options are for distribution and such.

My goal is to have the game finished by September 2011. Start saving up! :)

Nuzlocke Challenge Part 3 (more Pokemon comics)

I drew more Pokemon comics. AGES ago. I beat the game not long after my last post, but never got around to drawing the final comic depicting my battle against the champion. At this point I don't really remember that well and don't totally care either.

NEW:
9 | 10 | 11 |

OLD:
5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

What I remember of the champion battle isn't that great anyway. Was a pretty straight cleaning up of the place. At the end I had to sacrifice Mrs. Smells I think, but it ended with an epic Overheat or something from Strider. End of story.

The new games (Black&White) are coming out soon in America, and I'm totally snagging myself a copy of White version. Can't wait.

Pollushot Timelapse + New Crazy Over Goo Art

My iOS game now has a working title, Pollushot. Here's a video of me making a new enemy from scratch. No editing was involved, this is the speed at which I actually work. Stick around to the end to see some regular-speed gameplay footage.

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MEANWHILE, after a number of comments on Crazy Over Goo flash I underwent an epic adventure that involved redoing all of the graphics in the game in the span of a couple weekends. PHEW. The new art style takes after the one I implemented for Pollushot, and will hopefully turn our luck around with getting the kind of bids we're looking for. Here are some screens of the new style.





It took a lot of time and energy in a painfully short period of time, but I'm really happy with the results.

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Hey, you guys remember Prophecy? The dude who made the soundtracks to Escape from the Underworld, Assassin Blue, Dubloon, Crazy Over Goo, and Wolf? Well he's now AKA'd as Jason Covenant and he's launched a new site after being mostly inactive on the internet for several years.

I urge you to check it out.

Oh, and did I mention that he's got some bangin' new music with new track due weekly? Yeah.

New Year, New News

Happy new year, everybody! (20 days late).

I'm pretty bad with remembering to post on here, so I guess I apologize for that. So, here's the news:

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New Game
Remember that iDevice concept I mentioned last month? I made a prototype over the course of a few days before Christmas after posting, and then just tis last weekend came back to it to update graphics and polish. At this point I'm basically working on it full-time, and you can expect to see the game finished and playable sometime soonish. My self-imposed deadline is February 15.

Screenshots! (Click to enlarge)


What do you guys think?

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Crazy Over Goo Flash
Still on the search for bids and stuff! We've been fixing and changing minor things based on comments we've gotten from sponsors and players; so far it's been something of a learning experience in what's expected of flash games vs. freeware. Not sure how many details I can release at this point beyond that!

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EoYear Awards
Indie Games blog had a lot of Banov love this year! They named Dubloon #8 in their Top 10 Freeware RPGs of 2010 list, and they named Escape from the Underworld number ONE freeware platformer! Quite an honor, indeed.

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Escape from the Underworld... wiki?
I find this pretty funny. It's a wiki on Escape from the Underworld, with a humorous take on the game. Only 10 (brief) actual articles on there, all worth a read if you're into that sort of thing.

Branching Out

Hey dudes!

So while I wait around on Crazy Over Goo sponsorship offers, I want to share with you guys a newer game idea I've had. This would be a casual iDevice game, and I have a couple ideas for how I'd like to get this on there. This is all part of my "maybe earn some money for once" plans.

Here's the basic concept (click to enlarge):

More details:
There'll be about 10-15 different varieties of enemies, each with a unique attack/defense pattern. You'll fight them one by one in random order forever and when you die you'll get a high score. It'll be moving quickly like other good replayable arcade iPhone titles (Sollipskier, Doodle Jump, Canabalt, etc.) so it won't feel repetitive.

The best way to kill enemies and score points is to break apart their shields, catch the falling debris, and fire the pieces back at them. If there's no debris on the screen and you're unarmed, the game will drop occasional default meta-ammo shots from the top of the screen you can use, but it's worth less points to use. Enemy attacks will be energy-based and can't be caught; but anything solid can be caught and used as ammo.

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I'm looking for some initial reactions + ideas. You like this idea? Would you pay $0.99 to get this on your iDevice of choice? What additions do you think would improve the game? This is still in the conceptual phase so I'm open to all ideas.

Thanks! :)

Crazy Over Goo FLASH Edition Trailer

This has been a long time coming. I've been working with a dude named Kristian Macanga and we've ported Crazy Over Goo to Flash. This new version has 63 levels over the original's 50, with many of the original's levels moved, edited, or outright replaced. New unlockables, a new "medal" system for players who are interested in getting high scores, and general awesomeness is all in this package.

As of now we're currently seeking sponsorship. Look forward to it!

Escape from the College Homework

So this is cool.

A class at Worcester Polytechnic Institute had to write critical analyses of Escape from the Underworld for homework this past week, which is pretty surreal/awesome as far as I'm concerned. Check it out here! (you might have to scroll a bit to find the relevant postings).

Not much else to say; just wanted to share that.
Oh, and be on the lookout for news on a secret ongoing flash project I've been doing... we're in the final testing stages right now.

Escape From the Underworld UPDATE

I've just added an update to Escape from the Underworld following some (fair) criticisms of the original.



Get it at: GameJolt / YoYoGames

What's NEW?
-"Challenge Mode" and GameJolt trophy integration--unlocked by reaching the credits screen. Adds replayability.

-Config menu added so you can edit scaling properties to make it look nice on larger monitors

-Small HUD/interface fixes in areas like the Game Over screen

-Some terrain edits in places that used to be troublesome to platform in


Overall I haven't changed too much as far as the world design goes and nothing as far as controls go. Yeah, the rough terrain can be tricky to deal with but it's never unfair or impossible... just tricky. And since now playtimes are going to get a little more competitive, I didn't want to change the nature of the game and its platforming. Get used to it, people out there who've whined about it.

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Indie Kombat/Press
For those who haven't heard, by the way, Escape from the Underworld won Indie Kombat.

But more importantly, I want to give a big shout out/thank you to the sites that posted it after its release and gave such glowing reviews of it. It got an incredible response over at Indie Games blog, where it got 62 (!) responses (many of them members who disagreed on whether it was awesome or terrible). JayIsGames gave it a longer, more thought-out look. There were a few other places that syndicated it but those two drew the biggest crowds. The game's about due to die out into obscurity now, but it had a nice run, methinks. Now I'm just hoping for a Let's Play to pop up on YouTube...

EDIT 11-11
Escape from the Underworld is on BYTEJACKER! I'm up against some really tough competition (cactus and Pixeljam) so any support would be super appreciated!

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Developer Commentary
Also, for those interested, I did a developer commentary that's currently on YouTube (of the old version)...

And here's part two

The Nuzlocke Challenge, Part 2

Remember those Pokemon comics I drew? Well, I've had a bunch more sitting around. I meant to put them up once I had 4 new ones, but laziness/game making/college/whatever got in the way so I never drew anymore. Figured I may as well put them up now rather than waiting for a comic that probably won't ever be done.

EDIT an hour later: after putting them up I magically felt like drawing another one. So I added it.

NEW:
5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

OLD:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

In the actual game I got up to Victory Road and then just kinda stopped playing around a month ago, with the intent to catch up comicwise. Maybe I'll come back to this, I'unno.

Escape from the Underworld - Complete!

It's here.

Working on this game for the last month has been a thrill, and I am really proud of it. With its release comes an immaculate chorus of "oh snaps," raining down from the heavens onto a befuddled, defeated Andrew Brophy. This is victory. This is glory. This is Indie Kombat.

Get it at: GameJolt / YoYoGames

We Heart Fanfics

I've teamed up with a few people who live in my dorm to make a new YouTube channel, titled "We Heart Fanfics."

We find bad fanfiction and read it and laugh at it. We already have a couple videos up and there will be more to come. If laughing at others' poor writing is your thing, you should totally check it out and subscribe or something.

Here's the link to the channel page:
http://www.youtube.com/user/WeHeartFanfics

And here's our most recent video:


If you have any terrible fanfiction you think we should check out, we'd love to hear from you.

Escape from the Underworld - Second Demo

Yeah, it's here already. Since I only had a month to work, this has been moving pretty quickly... but I still like to put out a demo at major junctions. Here's the post from Indie Kombat, copied and pasted for viewing pleasure:


It's the same link as before, right here: http://www.box.net/shared/sttnon3e5z.

Playtime's been extended... drastically. And save files from old versions are still perfectly functional (and still will be for the final release) so you don't need to replay anything. Feel free to try it out, in addition to adding a ton of new content I've also gone back and fixed things that players didn't like before.

Hey, in other news, has anyone seen Andrew? I've heard rumors of sightings in Melbourne, where people have seen him shambling from place to place with a hopeless look in his eye, trying to cope with a loss so profound and so imminent. I guess I can't say I blame him, but at this point I practically feel bad for still having all these demos and screens to share while he remains silent. This is feeling less like "Indie Kombat" and more like "Indie Banov-kicking-Andrew's-pathetic-ass."

Escape from the Underworld - First Demo

I've just posted the first demo for Escape from the Underworld to IndieKombat. You can get the link/read the full post here!

Escape from the Underworld (Announcement)

So, this is my Indie Kombat game. It's a week into development, and it's frigging awesome. You should keep an eye on the posts Andrew I make on the Indie Kombat blog, because a lot of game updates show up there and it might be fun to watch us make fun of each other. I'm just going to reiterate stuff I've already said there:

It’s called Escape from the Underworld. It’s an exploration platformer and it has a bit of story, but no text or cutscenes. Most of the powerups you collect are items from Andrew’s games, and the exploration platforming has always been his shtick, so that all fits. But I’m going to be honest here: I don’t really see this game as an Indie Kombat game. This is a game I’m making for me, because it’s fun as hell to work on. I’ve been losing sleep at night because I keep getting little ideas for it. There are a lot of things in here that I’m trying for the first time, and they’re coming out surprisingly well. Bottom line: it’s going to be awesome.

And the fact that I will inevitably win this little scuffle with Andrew is a nice, secondary little bonus.

Look out for videos or a demo or something not too far from now.

Indie Kombat

I have a couple drafts I've been meaning to finish and post to this blog for a while, but for now I'm gonna forget about those and announce this: I'm in Indie Kombat this month.

"What does this mean?!" you ask. Well, Indie Kombat is a site based on indie game devs competing. Two or more developers state their rules and then each make a game, and at the end of their designated development time the games go up and people vote for the best game there. There is also some trash talking involved.

So over the course of October I'll be making a game against my friend hated enemy Andrew Brophy. You can read all about it --->right here<---

Excerpt of a Scientific Philosophical Discussion at 2 AM

Hey, why not. A friend (whose name has been altered) and I had recently learned through wikipedia that some scientific theories proposed that there were 10 or 11 dimensions, which got us a-thinking about misc. physics and math philosophy questions. It was kind of fun and enlightening, and here's an excerpt for your reading pleasure/brain food.

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[2:00:18 AM] Rose: but doesn't it freak you out that in the end all math is just a bunch of symbols we've agreed are real?
[2:01:07 AM] Banov: but math totally is real! right?
[2:01:21 AM] Rose: i mean to humans
[2:01:41 AM] Rose: but maybe it's only true in our minds? whatever that means.
[2:02:22 AM] Banov: I want to say that math
[2:02:30 AM] Banov: can't be just in our heads
[2:02:42 AM] Banov: rather it's our way of defining what we observe
[2:03:07 AM] Banov: like if I have a bottle of orange cream soda on my desk and put a second one there, I have 2
[2:03:12 AM] Banov: 1 + 1 = 2
[2:04:00 AM] Rose: yes but once you get into higher mathematics... and even zero!
[2:04:20 AM] Rose: like what's a cream soda divided by no cream sodas? No one knows
[2:04:27 AM] Banov: well
[2:04:43 AM] Banov: it approaches infinity on a graph…
[2:05:23 AM] Banov: it basically is infinity. but there's nothing to actually divide by so really the entire problem, and its solution, can't exist
[2:05:33 AM] Banov: (…is basically how I explain it to myself)
[2:06:02 AM] Rose: my point is even our own math proves that everything's relative
[2:06:15 AM] Rose: and these are only the phenomena we can personally experience
[2:06:40 AM] Rose: like there are dimensions we can't experience...
[2:07:19 AM] Rose: how can math that was created for four dimensions work for more than that without becoming horribly inaccurate or strained?
[2:08:24 AM] Banov: ah, you're totally right
[2:08:51 AM] Banov: well I think there are 2 ways of looking at it
[2:09:18 AM] Banov: I mean the theories and equations that we've come to accept DO accurately define and predict the things we can observe
[2:09:27 AM] Banov: and that's what they were made for
[2:09:59 AM | Edited 2:12:51 AM] Banov: so in the eyes of a dude who just wants a simple definition to explain the relationship of x and y, it's all true and acceptable
[2:10:25 AM | Edited 2:13:06 AM] Banov: but what you and i are talking about is what happens when we look at other dimensions beyond what we can observe
[2:11:01 AM] Banov: x and y might be influenced by an infinite number of other indefinable unobservable factors and only APPEAR to be related 3-dimensionally to us
[2:11:52 AM] Banov: so the theories we've made to define them, while accurate, might not be "absolutely" true as they don't account for every possible factor
[2:12:30 AM] Banov: and they probably never will. so when hawking says we'll never reach an absolute understanding of everything, he's probably right : d
[2:12:35 AM] Banov: probably.
[2:13:35 AM] Rose: yes. I guess it comes down to like if truth isn't finite or absolute, how can it be true?
[2:13:44 AM] Rose: and nothing is absolute, so nothing is true
[2:13:55 AM] Rose: and therefore nothing's wrong
[2:14:06 AM] Rose: it's a weird mental asymptote
[2:15:34 AM] Banov: I have gained an all new understanding of this jar of salsa

Banov Takes the Nuzlocke Challenge

It's been a while since I've posted here, and I apologize for that! Honestly lately I haven't been doing much game work (and for what I am doing, there's nothing I'm allowed to talk about yet), so I haven't had much to say.

Nuzlocke Challenge
I recently discovered Nuzlocke Comics, which revolve around a run of one of the Pokemon RPGs with special rules that make it much more difficult... and exciting! It's apparently spawned a lot of copycats, and on a whim I decided to do my own run + comic accompaniment. Below are the pages I've done so far. I'm not going to guarantee I play the run all the way to the end or that I keep doing comics, but these were fun to do for the time being.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
For those curious, a couple of the pokemon nicknames (specifically, Strider and Lalonde) are pulled from this really wonderful webcomic series called Homestuck. Lately it's become among my favorite places to visit on the internet, updating frequently (often many times per day!) and I'm completely engrossed in the story. It's tough for me to recommend it outright as it starts slow and then starts to get hard to follow as the story goes deeper. BUT, if you invest the time to read through the archives and immerse yourself in it, Homestuck is a story that will really pay off.

And now, a slice of Banov's non-internet life:
My particular school starts very late, and at this point all but a handful of my friends have long since departed for college. This leaves me home alone pretty often. It's vaguely depressing.

Formspring
I'd just like to point out that my Formspring account has been getting some pretty poignant questions lately concerning my future plans for game making so for those of you who are interested in that stuff you might like to check that out too. And I love getting questions, so if you have any for me or if you just want to give me something to think about or whatever feel free to send one my way!

Dubloon Deluxe CDs
Just letting you guys know that they're still available for a couple more weeks, until I leave for college. Get them while you still can!

Okay, that's basically all I have to say for now. Happy September!