I’ve got two games submitted for SCAD’s Entelchy competition. The first game is a quick flash game I developed entitled “Triwing – The Astraeus Conflict,” which you may have seen up at the main DeviateSoft page. I’ll be continuing to develop this game in my spare time over the next year or two, but NightRise will remain my priority. For now, I’m just trying to get it working up on the website. It’ll be up there at some point soon.

The next game is my board game SpideRip, developed with Julia, Alicia, and Jesse. I mentioned how to play it in the last post. This is the game I’m excited about. I’m fairly certain Triwing won’t win. It’s badass, but the game over screen doesn’t work and people are frustrated with the rudimentary collision detection. But SpideRip is flat out amazing… except for the print job Kinkos did. Grr I’m gonna have to give them a piece of my mind. $136 for a late, messed-up print job. But I still love how just about everything came out in the game, especially the spiders themselves. Pitch black with black-widow dots to determine the player color. The webs are also pretty cool, they’re magnetic so they can sort of lock together in the box. Personally I think the ends are a little big, but that’s a minor flaw, and it makes the webs easier to move around.

If either of my games are going to win, it’s going to be SpideRip, and that’s the one I’d prefer to win. Triwing is up against some serious competition, but I’ll be submitting it again next year in a much improved format (campaign mode and multiplayer included I’m hoping).  But SpideRip’s simplicity in play yet complexity in strategy, I feel, sets it apart from all the other games submitted. SpideRip has no cards or dice, and it only has about 6 rules. Some of the other games have about 14 pages of rules. Having that many rules makes a game unapproachable, in my opinion. But a game like SpideRip can draw anybody in, and its cohesive color really helps tie the game together. I can’t wait to see it at the Entelechy competition. Win or lose, at least it’s there.

And now the moment you have been waiting for – NightRise News.

The team is counting down the days to Studio 1. Kevin is still on board, but seems to be taking more of an interest in programming. Another friend of mine has expressed interest in joining up as well, so we shall see what happens there. Alicia and Julia are still in too. Over the next week I’ll be finishing up the Unreal 3 tutorials and setting up a schedule for my Studio 1 work. I’m still wondering what level to make, but that’s the easy part. The hard part will be realizing that something is actually getting done. That may take some time to come to grips with. I still haven’t, and I doubt I’ll be able to.

I think the end result, if good, will elate me about the whole thing. But in the meantime, my nerves are wracked. On the one hand, it’s just been sitting idly for seven years. On the other hand, it’s not sitting idly anymore?! CRAP CRAP CRAP! It’s moving! Catch it! Don’t let it get it away! That’s kind of how I’ve been feeling these last few weeks, and I know it will only get worse as more gets done. I know you’re supposed to get that “my game is the best game ever” feeling as you’re making it, but I think I’m going to have a “good Jesus, this sucks, I want to kill myself” kind of feeling, just because it won’t end up playing the same way I’ve been playing it every day in my head for the last 2496 days (whoa it’s almost existed for 2500 days!!!). I’m pretty sure there isn’t counseling for this sort of thing, so I just have to press on.

Here’s to pressing.