knitjumpergames.

I have a question that I gotta ask, and, well I don’t want to upset anyone with my ignorance- I just want to learn. I want to understand others, and I want to understand myself.

So I think I’m bisexual. Now I’m happily married to my wife, and I have no plans to change that- I’m her’s till I’m no more. But I can’t deny that there are moments in my life before we were together when I’ve felt attracted to men as well as women- but only on a few occasions.

My question is then, can I call myself bisexual if I’ve only been attracted to a few men at the most? Like if it was a percentage, it’d be 99% attracted to women, and 1% men- does that count.

Lights roll ‘cross the ceiling

And in my mind

A single thought crystallised

Reaching out

I grasped it tight

This idea

Another day, another little set of updates! Firstly, the font- it’s been bugging me a bit, it was too fancy and difficult to read, so I started up an account with Caligriphr, made a font on Procreate, and voila! Looks pretty good I think.

Next is so more level work- a mountain hut and a vineyard. I think both turned out very nice, and they fit really well into this landscape- makes it feel more alive and lived in. They both draw more from Greek/Italian architecture, which enforces the more Mediterranean style I’m going for. I’ve also changed the road colour and texture for something lighter, more dry than what was before.

It’s time I also replaced all the trees- up till now I’ve been using the Unity Terrain grass mesh for trees- but the issue with that is that they billboard, and the result leaves the trees feeling like they lack substance. So now I need to translate those sprites into models I can add as trees to the terrain directly- not only will they have more volume, but colliders too, making avoiding trees a real consideration for the player.

“Oh deer”

Lil update for Per Avion- we now have deer, fire and a new water shader! The deer just add a bit more life to the island, while the fire real sells the destruction and impact of what you’re doing.

So a few weeks have passed since the release of the initial Alpha build 1.6,  and received some helpful feedback. The positives were the smooth flying, exploration, and cosy vibes. Issues were raised though about navigation, altitude, bomb aiming, and health. So, I've been beavering away addressing some of the larger issues, as well as some minor tweaks and things that I identified which need some work. So with some updates we now have:

A fully functioning health system, including visual indicators of damage.

A smoothly transitioning pause menu.

Smooth transition in and out of the aim camera. 

Improved flight characteristics. 

Fully functioning fule system, with UI.

A blob shadow to aid with altitude. 

A map and compass.

And more!

Per Avion - demo now available!

I’m excited to announce the release of the alpha build demo for my game, Per Avion! This has been a really fun project so far, and I’m excited to see where I can take things from here. If you have the time to give it a go and provide some feedback, that would be awesome!

I’ve wanted to make a video game since I was a kid. I remember the wonder I felt playing Shadow of the Colossus, the beauty of Journey. playing Coma and realising for the first time that even a single person, using Flash, could make something intriging and beautiful. And even before this, I remember drawing in one of my many notebooks, designing characters an vehicles and levels and writing about what I wanted- an inadvertently, I was making my first design docs, long before I even knew what that meant.

I faced a slight issue though- I have the patience of a gerbil, even less so as a kid. So I would try from time to time to approach Unity with no plan, or a plan WAY too ambitious for me to actually do, make some initial progress, thenlosing momentum and giving up. And it was like that for many years, on and off, until 2022, when I finally managed to narrow my scope to something I could actually accomplish, finishing my first game "Duck Park", after which I am happy to report I have completed 7 projects in total, each one a development on the last in one way or another.. But even before this first game, I had a project idea in the back of my mind-

per avion.

The idea of what this game is actually supposed to be has been...elusive. At first, I wanted to make it about delivering letters from island to island, battling through weather- but this turned out to be too complex for me at the time. The next idea was as a time trial type game- but I couldn't make the world feel cohesive enough. All I knew is that I wanted to make a game where you fly a very old airplane.

I’ve always loved old aircraft. The romance, the innocence of the pioneer age of flight, when just getting into the air was an accomplishment, and the desire to fly was not a commercial concern, but a decision born of the spirit of adventure. My father and grandfather used to take me to the RNAS museum near our home, and I still remember the smell of oil and metal, the faint hum of an engine turning into a roar as some old prop plane roared overhead at the airshows, my dads collection of old airplane magazines.

So when the idea of mking my own games began to embed itself in my mind, the concept of making a flying game seemed obvious. I think I have attempted this project three times now? Maybe four? I wish I had screenshots or recordings of some of those early attempts, they were...well, we're all learning!

My issue was that, beyond wanting to fly an old plane, I didn't REALLY know what it was going to be about. My first idea was some kind of postal/courier game- then a time trial game. The issue with the first was that making this idea fun would require A LOT of additional features, which at the time I did not feel capable of doing. The second idea was simply too boring.

But NOW it finally has the direction it needed - as a war game. Complex enough to be engaging, simple enough for a subpar coder like myself to actually make.

I have mixed feelings about making a war game. I'm categorically opposed to war, yet simultanouesly facinated by it. The apparent contradiction is not lost on me. Two factors have however bought me around to it- firstly, it's very cartoony. It's not designed to realistically replicate actual warfare, it's an arcade game. Secondly, the story and world building are inherently anti-war (inspired by the absolute trash fire of WW1, as well as the Balkan Wars and the Italo-Turkish war).

I have done a LOT of world building for this, intially in service to a different game (which I may make one day). I wish there was a good way to share it with someone, I'm really proud of what I have so far, I think it's really got some legs. I hope that I will find ways to incorporate this story into per avion in the long run, but I am not sure yet how to do this.

Progress for this project has been blindingly fast (at least for me!)- it's as if every lesson learned is suddenly coming together, and my capacty to create increasingly complex projects is growing. This is exciting to me- I have a swath of game concepts and ideas which I have been developing for years, but lacking the skills and knowledge to make them. Suddenly, they feel much closer.

So, time to start planning- contrary to my last game, I have subdivided my design doc into several dedicated documents. This is especially important, given the scope and general increase in complexity. This includes a dedicated section just for characters and world building. In addition, I have my usual dedicated Pinterest board, for research and resource gathering.

Now to get cracking- as this idea relies on a larger, open world, I've decided to use Unity's default terrain tools. In my early experiances with Unity, I tried to use this feature, but rejected it due to a lack of control, and, well, it looked like ass. But, inpired by games like A Short Hike (which uses the Unity terrain tool), I've decided to give it a go. But to make this work, I need to learn about shaders. Yay...

In the meantime, fun stuff- concept art and painting sprites/textures!

My technique is pretty straightforward; I paint, using water colours (I have no art experiance, especially with paints!), a texture or sprite. I then take a photo with my phone (gosh I wish I had a proper scanner), and if it's a sprite, I will remove the background. I then import them into Unity, and begin creating relevant materials and such. I want to make as many of the visual elements as I can fit into this washy, faded, illustrative aesthetic I'm going for, like a playable storybook.

But this is a 3d game, and I need 3d models, better ones then I have before. It's time to learn Blender.

So fun fact, if you make a carefully measured illustration, create a model in Blender with matching geometry, you can then overlay that drawing as a texture over the model pretty neatly! It's a cool idea, but complicated- I'll devise a more modular system in future, with base textures applied to multiple building models, then a range of window/door/other features to add as sprites in various configurations.

Blender is hard. But not as hard as coding. As always, I get caught up in the art before I even get anything moving- time to rectify that. The good news is that two of the key features of this game, driving and 3d platforming, have featured in my last two games- so I just kinda copied them in. Why not? Use what you've got. I even added a little sprint function, for funsies.

The issue is transitioning from one state to the other. I've not done that before. But I know how colliders work, how to access and enable/disable components, and the transform from standing tositting in the car- how hard could it be?

It was a pain. But I did it.

And with some more work, this is how it's looking;

So, Runabout Rally is now in a state which I would be happy to stop at- I may yet add further to it, but for the time being, I wish to let it lie so I may, as all game developers seem wont to do, turn my focus to another project.

I've now had the privilage of making 7.5 games (I will return to finish Per Avion some day!), each one a small progression and experimentation in it's own right. I've learnt a lot- enough to realise how much more there is to learn. But isn't that an exciting thought? The joy of possibilities. And looking back, my conclusion is that I feel ready to engage with a larger, more complex project.

So, what to do? I have made 3d platformers, and now a driving game, so it would make sense to combine those with an element I have not been able to truly explore before- story. Long, long before I started making games, I made stories. There existed in my mind worlds that I wrote and drew (badly) about. But no form of expression I tried could really bring these places into reality. My suspicion though, for some time, has been that games might be the medium through which I can speak.

My new game then will be called Courier.

You are a fresh immigrant to this city, trying to find a way to make a living. A rich passenger on the same boat as you arrives with his luggage to find his driver missing. He hires you to drive his motor car with its luggage to his house, during which you talk about where you came from. He suggests starting a delivery company. 

He invests enough money for you to get a small car and an apartment. From there, you take jobs from various people to make rent, keep your car running, and buy some nice things, all whilst meeting various people and getting to know your new home. 

And now, as always, time to research, plan and draw!

I am excited to release the latest version of my game, Runabaout Rally! There has been a plethora of updates and additions made since the last version, including but not limited to:

-NPC ragdoll physics

-A pause menu

-Skid trails and sound when making a hard turn

-An entirely new track!

-New music

Runabout Rally - Game Dev log 5

So, with the demo now out and floating in the ether of the internet, it's time to focus on making the next track- "St Olbans". The plan for this is a coastal city based track, with architectural influences from cities like Bristol, Wells, Amsterdam and Bath. From the beginning of this project, this has been the track concept which has made me the most excited.

It starts, as with all things, with lots of sketches. What I try to do is generate a series of "player moments", areas that are visually interesting, distinct, and fun to drive through. Once I feel I have enough, I find a way to arrange them which is both fun and mostly logical to the layout of a city.

I then sketched out the track directly onto a plane in Probuilder so I can test it before bulding the track proper. The good news is not only is the track more interesting to drive, it's also nearly three times as long as the first track!

I think I underestimated the sheer number of assets I need to make from scratch for this track- textures for bricks, cobbles, wood plants, spites for lampposts, fences, headstones, doors and windows, and a BUNCH of models for the various buildings. But slowly, it is coming together.

A very frustrating part is that there is no quick way that I have found to place windows and doors, of which there are a LOT- but in better news, I finally discovered the wonder of the Spline feature in Unity, which has not only greatly aided in placing large amounts of fences, but also a tram that can travel back and forth along the dock- very cute.

I've also been working on some further elements of interactivity- namely a skid effect when taking hard turns, a button for blowing the car horn (which doesn't have a gameplay function, it's just fun!), and best of all- a method for making the NPCs ragdoll when hit by the car!

It's DEMMMMOOOOOOO TIME!!!

So after a rather quick (for me) development cycle, I have released a downloadable demo for Runabout Rally!

The demo is really as much a technical testbed so much as anything else, to ensure that the key features are at least functioning. The last week before release were mostly focused on little polishes, tweaks and quality of life additions. For example, adding a reset button, incase the player tips the car over, and a script that plays some audio when you drive through water. I also spent some good time adjusting the physics of the suspension to make it more springy and improve handling.

So, now what? First, I have to promote the demo, which is not my strong suite. I don't exactly have a great many followers on Instagram, Facebook or Youtube, but I will do my best!

Recently, a very nice Youtuber, called "Walk with me Gaming", played some of my games, and posted a video about it, which was very cool, if a bit surreal. What I noticed when watching it back was how differently he approached playing my games- and from that I learnt that there is real value in having someone else play your games. They will find things that you will never have thought of. So really I am hopeful that I can get some helpful feedback.

The next step afterwards will be to create the next two levels. My main ideas are a city based track, with lots of bridges going over canals and such, and a track that follows a coastline (think the Amalfi Coastal road). I plan for these to be substantially bigger than the small test track I made, with more dyamic elements to encourage replayability.

But for now, let's see how the demo does- which you can download and play via the link below!