knitjumpergames.

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!

This week has been much more productive than I anticipated- and happily so! The previous week led me to doubt the aesthetic of the game, and I was racking my brains as to how I could change it. But when I started to add the trees (which are just a pair of identical sprites set at 90 degrees to each other) and some of the buildings, it suddenly started to come together.

But it was when I added a particle system for the falling leaves that it suddenly felt ALIVE- one of those joyous moments when things just start to come together. At this point, I'm focusing on those elements that bring a scene to life, being various audio sources (such as the waterfall and the wind), and motion (like the car bobbing along). With each little addition, the scene comes to life more and more. This is my favorite part of making a game. It's also when I focus some on some elements I've ignored up till this point, such as a delay function that won't let you drive until a countdown is complete, a sound that plays when the car impacts something, and playing around with the sound levels.

And by Wednesday, I have a fully completed track, and with that, I have hit my MVP! Now I could stop there, mission accomplished, right? No, I have so much more I want to do with this before I'm done, but certainly I am considering releasing an early version of this first track for play testing in the near future. My stretch plan is to make two, longer andmore complex tracks- my thinking being that once the main mechanics are in place, focusing on level design should be simpler. I normally do a lot of drawing to help solidify the FEEL of a place in my mind. Not that I'm much of a painter mind!

Today consisted of some (for me) heavy programming. First, a comestic adjustment, where the engine pitch changes depending on the drivers input. I'm happy to say I came up with my own original script for that with only reference to the Unity scripting manual, which was a nice (if small) accomplishment. A slight issue is that the pitch change is only linked to the input of the "W" key- I can't use "Vertical" to cover all of the relevant inputs, as I'm using a boolean, which apparently doesn't mesh with that. Need to think that one out.

But more importanly, I created a new scene for the menu, set up a nice background, and added some basic function to the buttons and an intro animation. There some work still to be done (like a level select and scoreboard), but it's a very good development.

So, another week, and some progress has been made - first things first, I finally have a name, "Runabout Rally". I think it sounds whimsical, I'm always a fan of alliteration, AND, fun fact, a "Runabout" was a very early type of car, so it fits the Victorian period.

Now in projects gone by, I noticed a tendancy to focus on the aesthetic elements and building the game world BEFORE I have the main mechanics down- which is a problem. So before anything else, I need to figure out the other main mechanic; the lap and timer system.

Now I can't code. I mean, I can look at some C# and understand elements of it, but I'm not fluent enough to write my own code from scratch. I should learn really, I know I should, but life is busy, and when you only have a couple of hours to put into a hobby a week, you gotta make it count.

Which means either finding a code asset that works (a free one, because I'm poor as heck), or tutorials. So I go searching, I try tutorial after tutorial, and NOTHING works. The issue I find is that the tutorialized scripts are designed to fit within a VERY specific framework, and if your project doesn't fall within those parameters, it doesn't function. I got very disheartned, believing that this project was dead in the water.

Until I tried a Hail Mary. I asked an AI to help me write one. I had no expectations that it would work. But it did. I actually couldn't believe it, and with some adjustments, I had it functioning the way I wanted it to! I felt very relieved that this part was working, but also massively conflicted. I have some strong moral issues with AI, and moreover, I recognise that by doing it this way, I have not leant as much as I could. Really, it came down to a question of time. I don't have the time I feel I need to learn how to do scripting, but I am still DESPERATE to make SOMETHING. So for now, I'm using the code.

On a different note, I began trying to find the aesthetic of this game - I was thinking of leaning into the pastoral/watercolour vibe, trying to make it look like a Monet painting, but I'm not sure I can achieve this look to a satisfactory level. I've even dabbled with the idea of making the game grayscale, but it didn't look that convincing in tests. I will keep iterating. In the meantime, I played around with the skybox and main textures, built some models for the level, added a frame for the camera, and started tweaking the driving model. Although there's still a long way to go, I'm really liking the way it look!

As of a week ago I have a laptop, and can begin developing games again! It's been at least a year since I last touched Unity, so I've decided to start with a rather simple project - a time trial racing game. I'm quite excited for this one already, so I thought, for posterity, I would record my process and progress.

The first thing I start with is brainstorming ideas. This tends to be the easy part, as I have a LOT of ideas which I write down in a note on my phone. When I'm deveoping a concept, I try to bear in mind what skills and mechanics my prevous projects had, and what I would like to improve upon. But whatever it is, there MUST be an underlying artistic vision. I find I can't make a game if I'm not aesthetically invested.

On this occasion, I decided to make a 3d time trial driving game, set in the Victorian era. Once I have my core idea, I'll make a design doc.

This design doc will organically expand over time, but from the go get will contain a summary of the core concept, and the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). I would highly recommend the video series by Extra Credits on this subject, I have found it most helpful! I keep a playlist of game development tutorials as a helpful resource as well.

I then started doing sketches and paintings, as well as making a Pinterest board for inspiration - this is as much to establish the feel as anything.

At this point I also setup a Unity project and begin the process of importing the various packages I think I will need (Probuilder, Cinemachine, etc). I must say that it's taking a bit of time to get my head around Unity 6. Cinemachine in paticular has had quite a few changes. As the key mechanic is driving, that's where I start - slowly following a very detailed tutorial on the subject (scripting is not my forte!). I must say, wheel colliders are a nice suprise, of which I've not had the opportunity to use before.

As scripting makes me bored, I also started modeling the car- 3d builder is not exactly optimal, but it's what I have!

Everytime I export a model from this software into Unity, the orientation is all wrong, which makes a bally mess when trying to script the wheels to rotate- but with some effort and a plethora of empty game objects, I make it work- after which I take a break to make it look AESTHETIC- of course! Can't keep working on an ugly game. As this game is set in the victorian era, I sample colours from his paintings to start making textures. I also make a rudimentry engine sound by modifying a recording of my wife's spinning machine (which I was quite proud of!).

So at the end of week one, I have a lovely little driveable car, some nice textures, a rudimentory engine sound (which needs some work), and some nice physics based crates I made to drive into - a pretty good start I think!

time - album promo

I could, with some effort, release my music on Spotify, and it might reach more people - but I don't want to contribute to that monster of an institution. So I chose Bandcamp as my platform of choice. If you would like to hear my strange, short songs, they are all free to listen to and download via the below link. I'm currently working on an exiting music project, so stay tuned!