I love writing tools. There's always one more nifty time-saving feature to add and the constant promise of the whack things you're going to make with it. Lately I've completed a fairly intense block of tool development and am reconfiguring my brain to shift back into creative content-manufacturing mode. So now might be a good time to show a few things I've been working on. Also to confirm to RSS subscribers that the feed is actually working (first post!).

Most of my tools are quite hacked together and behind the scenes. Voxatron's sound synth designer, music mixer, BBS code for sharing and previewing levels, and my trusty sprite editor are all gangly monstrosities that noone else should be exposed to. The thing I'm most excited about is the Voxatron editor, which is starting to feel like a user-friendly piece of software. Rather than considering it a peripheral feature that hard-core users can engage with, I'm hoping to make it a central part of enjoying the game. It should be possible for an average player to plonk some monsters, items and blocks into a level and still have fun playing it. Here's an example room that took about a minute to make:

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I made this video for a freestyle rap band. The stills were captured from a screen that has a lamp behind it (backlight was broken) which is why the lighting fades out towards the top.

Click here for video!

You mentioned in your blog post that you plan to ship a more advanced version of your voxel editor with the game, and considering that your games are very user-generated-content-friendly, I was wondering if you know yet if there will be much opportunity for users making things for Voxatron. Granted, I still have virtually no idea what gameplay will be like, but the bright, flashy, and color things in the sword video are inspiring and make me want to create my own little world. Are there plans to allow things like mods or other forms of user-generated playable content?

How do you transfer Zen garden to a new computer?

the title says it all the game looks epic from the video

None of the pickups in Voxatron are as useless or as fantastic as the sword. Choosing to use one against oncoming hordes is much harder than any of the robot's long range weapons, but at least if you die, you can go down with a bit of honour. It's also good for smashing scenery up, and comes with a two piece set of dandy armour.

The first half of this video shows the voxel editor I'm using to make models for Voxatron. Something similar will ship with the game, but with a nicer interface (at the moment it's like a cross between Blender and Emacs).

[code]
Title: My Castle
Author: Anon.
Difficulty: 3
Wall: 3
Floor: 3
Validation: 0
-----------------------------
W W . . . . . . . . . . F F f 
w W . . . . F F F F . . F F F 
W W W F F . . . . F . . . . . 
. . W F F . . . . . . . . . . 
. . W F F . . . . . . . . . . 
. . W W W W W W . W W W W . . 
. . . . W # # W . . . . . . . 
. . . . W # # W . . . . . . . 
. . . . W W W W . . . . W W W 
. . . . . . . . . . . . W # W 
W W W . . . . . . W . . W W W 
. . W . . . . . . W . . . . . 
. . . . W W W . . W . . . . . 
. . . . W . W . . . . . . . . 
. . . . W W W . . . . . . . . 
-----------------------------
    
-----------------------------
[/code]

Cart #1402 | 2011-04-18 | Embed ▽ | No License

Play this Games ok :)

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This is a table

hmmmDescription

Thanks to the magic of Adobe Alchemy, it's now possible to play puzzles on the BBS directly in your web browser. Just click the 'Play' links in listings for Zen Puzzle Garden and Chocolate Castle to get a flash version. If you're up for some punishment, I urge you to try Robin Houston's set of gardens.

In other news, there's now an RSS feed of the blog here.

Here are my puzzles from the old BBS, originally posted in February 2006. Only two of them (broken barbell and Stretch-a-wretch) have ever been solved, as far as I know.

[code]
Title: broken barbell 
Author: puffinry 
Difficulty: 3 
Season: 0 
Validation: 74e2a820 
Rocks: cgbabgchhahhaaaahhahhegdadge 
------------------------------- 
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # 
# # # # . . . . . . . . # # # # 
O O O O . . . O . . . . O O O O 
O O O O . . . . . O . . O O . . 
O O # O . . . . . . . . O # . . 
. . . # # # # # # # # # # # . . 
. . # O . . . . . . . . O # O O 
. . O O . . . O . . . . O O O O 
O O O O . . . . . O . . O O O O 
# # # # . . . . . . . . # # # # 
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # 
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # 
------------------------------- 
[/code]

Cart #1391 | 2011-04-15 | Embed ▽ | No License

1

[code]
Title: etch-a-sketch 
Author: puffinry 
Difficulty: 4 
Season: 1 
Validation: cf6e4020 
Rocks: aaaaaaaaaaaaaadaaeaaaaaaa 
------------------------------- 
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # 
# # O . . . . . . . . . O # # # 
# # O . . . . . . . . . O # # # 
# # O . . O . . . . . . O # # # 
# # O . . . . . . . y . O # # # 
# # O # # # . . r # # # O # # # 
# # O . . . . . . . . . O # # # 
# # O . O . . . . . . . O # # # 
# # O . . . O . . . . . O # # # 
# # O . . . . . . . . . O # # # 
# # O . . . . . . . . . O # # # 
# # O # # # # # # # # # O # # # 
------------------------------- 
[/code]

Cart #1392 | 2011-04-15 | Embed ▽ | No License

1

[code]
Title: sketch-a-ketch 
Author: puffinry 
Difficulty: 4 
Season: 1 
Validation: 540e12a0 
Rocks: aaaaaaaaaaaaadaaeaaaaaaa 
------------------------------- 
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # 
# # O . . . . . . . . O # # # # 
# # O . . . . . . . . O # # # # 
# # O . . O . . . . . O # # # # 
# # O . . . . . . . y O # # # # 
# # . # # # # # r # # O # # # # 
# # O . . . . . . . . O # # # # 
# # O . O . . . . . . O # # # # 
# # O . . . O . . . . O # # # # 
# # O . . . . . . . . O # # # # 
# # O . . . . . . . . O # # # # 
# # O # # # # # # # # O # # # # 
------------------------------- 
[/code]

Cart #1393 | 2011-04-15 | Embed ▽ | No License

1

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To test the linux versions of my games, I made a build of Jasper's Journeys with bundled SDL libraries. If it works then the others should too. So please try it out! It's the full version nudge nugde

Download (3.3M)

EDIT: fixed music (thanks despens)

At the moment it's a copy install - just unzip it somewhere and execute jasper-run from terminal:

1. open: Applications->Accessories->Terminal

2. type:
   cd Desktop/jasper (or wherever you unzipped it)
   ./jasper-run

EDIT: OR, just double click on jasper-run

I tried it under Ubuntu 10.10, and a clean install of Slax under Virtualbox, both on a Macbook.

Player preferences are stored in "$HOME/.lexaloffle/Jasper's Journeys"

testing

Hello, I heart Minecraft and also the Voxatron trailer which I found on Ars Technica today and am really looking forward to seeing what is created here. When I first saw it, I was for sure it had to be the mysterious "other game" that Notch's company is working on but apparently not. Good luck to the devs of this amazing looking project!

I'm a computer science student in college right now ... how do you get into making games with pixels and/or voxels that are portable and run on modern platforms?? Is Java the best approach to doing that? I'd like to become familiar with game design tools where I can decide to either to sell the finished game if it's good enough, or release it open source if I don't think it's commercially viable - I don't wanna get hooked into using stuff that has license restrictions that prevent me from going either way. Anybody have any suggestions on how to get started doing that kind of thing?

A few people asked about the music used in the Voxatron preview trailer, so here's a copy in mp3 format & the original .xm. Note that I wrote it with the trailer in mind, so it's quite short! For the final soundtrack I'd like to make an extended version.

voxatron_trailer.mp3

voxatron_trailer.xm

The tune was written in Milky Tracker, which you can also use to view/play the .xm file. There's a bunch of unused pattern data lying around in there, which I sometimes like to have a nosey through in other people's tunes to get an idea of how it evolved.

Most of the instruments are generated by the in-game synthesizer and derived from game world sounds: the drums are from collisions and the sound of bullets hitting the armadillo shell, etc. If you'd like to use them for anything, feel free to grab a copy from the .xm.

.. and some wallpaper for good measure.

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[Edit for googlers: the game is now available!]

If you've noticed an increase in the amount of voxel-based graphics around the place, this is why.

Voxatron is an arena shooter that takes place in a world made of voxels (little cubes, kind of). Everything in the game is displayed in a virtual 128x128x64 voxel display, including the menus and player inventory. If you look closely, you can sometimes see the inventory (score/life/ammo) casting a shadow on some of the objects on the ground.

I've been working on voxel rendering and modeling tools for a long time now, with the ultimate goal of making a large explorey adventure game. About half a year ago it fused with work I was doing on arena shooters for Conflux, and this is the result.

It's quite a simple game at heart -- mostly just Robotron set in a 3d destructible world with goofy creatures. I'm unsure how major the implications of destructibility will be for gameplay, but it sure is fun to blast away pieces of wall. I've also added an experimental wall-building pickup you can use to construct barriers to hide from scary monsters.

The game takes place in a small set of arenas. Some of them feature rooms with set action pieces, somewhere between Knightlore and Smash TV. This is some of the original adventure based design sneaking back in, and an excuse to create thematic environments.

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