Playing tetris and making progress

Yesterday, we had a local Idol-style singing contest, which I entered. When everyone had done their act, and the judges had made their decision, it turned out that I was the winner. The song I performed was "You raise me up" with Josh Groban, a song I bet pretty much everyone here recognizes. It was really a great night, everyone had a lot of fun and we who entered the comp finished the night with a visit at a local restaurant (though it wasn't such a small competetion, I'd estimate that about 400 people was there to watch). Though that was not really what I wanted to mention... In the basement, where me and some other guys hanged out during the competition, they had a original Atari arcade machine anno 1988, with Tetris on it! That really made the night for me, and me and my friends spent a lot of time with that machine. I really wish I could have one of those standing besides my computer... Tetris is amazingly addictive, but I guess we all knew that ;)

Anyway, music and classics aside... I have pretty recently started up two new projects, which both are progressing along nicely and quickly. The first one, a break out/arkanoid style game, has captured most of my attention, and have most graphics as well as code finished, but there are still just two levels finished, for testing purposes. Hardly any of the menus are finished either, so I still have a lot of work ahead of me before it is polishing time. The game will, as my plans looks now, be sold for 9.95$ a piece, in order to establish a big newsletter whom can be used to reach a bigger audience further on.

The other game is easier to create (yep, easier than breakout), and will be a fun game to produce levels for. It's a simple logic 2D game, where the player must gather all of the collectables, and then get to the exit on each level. The game is viewed from a top-down perspective, and works pretty much like sokoban, except that the player moves in a direction all the way until he collides with an obstacle. The game mechanic has been used before, but isn't overused as I see it. This game hasn't had any attention to graphics, sound or levels yet - all of my focus has been on finishing off all the game mechanics and the obstacles code (In other words, looks like shit but plays fairly nice). I would also appreciate tips on what theme you think would be suitable, as I really haven't figured out that part yet...

The games won't change the world or have revolutionizing gameplay/design, but it is something, and something is more then what I have done the latest months. I'm hoping to have them finished before summer's over...

Breakout style game(WIP name: Brickbreaker), image about a week old:



Edit: Might as well add this...

The tool used for creating both of these two games is Gamemaker, and I know that it is a little off to recommend it on the website of another 2D game creation tool (or more appropriate for GG, game engine), but...

I own TGB. I used it for a while, played around with it, was farily interested but in the end, decided on using Gamemaker, a infamous tool in most programming societies. I think that most people immediatly judge the tool and the people who uses them, as people who say that in public on gamedev.net often get chopped to pieces by people telling them "Gamemaker is for people who can't program, learn C++!" In my case, TGB was the beast and Gamemaker was the beauty. TGB can do anything for anyone who has the knowledge to control it, and I simple didn't. Gamemaker can definatley not do everything that TGB does, and it isn't as expandible (as you can't get the source), but it can do a lot and it can do it quickly and easily. Creating a game mechanic in GM is a matter of minutes, and in the right hands, Gamemaker is really a amazing tool.

I bought Gamemaker the same time as I bought a book, The game makers apprentice, that covers the bases of Gamemaker and gives developers new to it a solid ground to stand on. Most stuff in the engine is pretty much the same as any programming language, except that you can use Drag and drop. Note the use of "can" in that sentence, as it wasn't forced upon me to constantly drag and drop different actions for different events for different objects - everything is also accessible via the neat GML, game maker language, a easy and very comfortable scripting language.

Well, I guess this plan got a little out of hand. I am not trying to claim that Gamemaker is for everyone, as little as GG claims that TGB is. Gamemaker did suit me though, and that's why I decided to use it. I know that TGB is a great development tool, and I am positive that given some time, it will become much, much better.

Thanks everybody :)