Development Continues… Unity 3D Textures For “Drew and the Floating Labyrinth”

I haven’t made a post in a long time. Don’t worry, I’m not dead. I’m just really focused on development for “Drew and the Floating Labyrinth,” my hand-drawn 3D puzzle platformer, the first true hand-drawn 3D game of its kind. So a lack of posts this month is a good thing.

I actually spent most of this month still working on “Drew” ‘s animation. I was hoping I was mostly done in May, but part of the game is that you slowly regain Drew’s color as you progress through the levels. I’m talking adding color to each PNG file one at a time, now giving me over 8,000 unique PNG textures (please stop laughing). It’s a shame it took so long, especially since I still haven’t animated a planned idle animation for her, and I still haven’t animated a second “guide” character planned. But I have done more than enough to at least focus on the levels, which I should really focus on this week, just to see if it’s still possible for me to finish this for an August release (I still think it’s possible, but I’m really cutting it close).

Drew at the beginning and end of "Drew and the Floating Labyrinth"

Drew at the beginning and end of “Drew and the Floating Labyrinth”

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After One Week On Steam Greenlight…

Ok, then. It’s been about one week since my indie game in development, a hand-drawn 3d puzzle platformer called “Drew and the Floating Labyrinth,” was listed on Steam Greenlight (see that page here). I hesitate to write about it yet, since I’m sooooo close to reaching 1,000 “yes votes,” but the visitor count has slowed down to a crawl, so I won’t get there for at least a few more days.

Have you seen a hand-drawn character in a 3d game before?

Have you seen a hand-drawn character in a 3D game before?

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IndieE3: An Early Review

What is IndiE3?

Most people already know what E3 is: one of the largest video game advertising outlets in the world. They show a variety of AAA and indie games, most of which from the biggest companies and publishers in the world. But what about the rest of the indie community? There are thousands desperately trying to find their place to shine, most of which actually deserve it with great games worth playing. But as expensive and limited in time as E3 is, it feels exclusive against these people.

And so, IndiE3 was born in 2014, days before E3 began, through a couple comments on Twitter. It blew up into a (somewhat) huge event, with hundreds of indie games on show, dozens of panels by fans and professionals on a variety of topics, and over a thousand people tuning in to the live streams. It was a revolution, and one indie gamers and devs have been waiting for a long time.

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E3 2014 – A Review (And What Is IndiE3?)

Ah, another E3 has come and gone. Well, technically it only just started, but the press conferences from the big companies and all the big announcements always start the day before the convention opens to the public. The Electronic Entertainment Expo is known as the largest gaming show of the year, with millions of viewers. Despite that, I’ve talked with other people who actively play games, and even employers who are technically in the gaming industry, and most of them still have no idea what E3 is. It’s still a time for the hardcore and truly dedicated, and not nearly as mainstream as one would think, even if updates in gaming this week will be read more than updates in any other entertainment medium.

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Further Developments…

A lot happened this week. I should talk about it.

Firstly, demo for “Drew and the Floating Labyrinth” turned out to have a couple bugs in the menu system I didn’t see before. Thanks to the good people on REDDIT who pointed out the flaws. I don’t normally like to update demos continuously anymore, but it didn’t seem fair to leave the game as it was. You can try the demo if you haven’t already here: http://drew.fromdustscratch.com .

Secondly, a gameplay video that shows the levels seen in the demo (and one extra one from the trailer). If there was any question about gameplay, this should fix that. It can be seen here:

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