Closedown

I’m thinking that I’m going to close this blog down.

I’ve been haemorraging readers for the last 6 months as I just can’t find the time to do regular updates anymore. I always said that if it came to that then it’s best to just shut it down and leave it at that.

I’ll leave the blog here, for the curiosity of anyone who might want to have a nose through, and the games on here which haven’t been archived over at the games site will be. The games site will stay open, as new games will be made, and I will still be on Twitter, when I remember to be.

Thanks for all the comments and stuff!

Competition time #3 – a drive for feedback

It’s that time of year again. Time for me to run a competition with an actual prize.

This year the competition is different, and the prize is much better:

The prize is a graphic novel of Judge Dredd: The Apocalypse War. It’s not that common, having for some reason been out of print since the early 90′s.

So, what do you have to do to win this? Simple – play Angry Street Wanking Man and then review it. Reviews must be between 250 and 350 words, and can include images. If you’ve got a blog then feel free to upload it to that, but also email it to vacillatingdichotomy (at) hotmail (dot) co (dot) uk.

The competition will run for 2 weeks, ending on Sunday 6 May 2012. Entries only open to UK residents, as I don’t have the first fucking clue about airmail. Best review wins (note – this isn’t about just saying the game is great. If you think it sucks, say so – but say why. I’m looking for good games writing here.)

Good luck!

The UKResistance memorial post

I’ve been away from the internet for a few weeks, due to a broken-down HDD. I managed to keep most of my work this time, although somehow my backup didn’t completely work and I lost some source code. But that’s still better than losing everything.

Anyway, in the time I’ve been offline I missed the anniversary of UKR’s demise. So here’s the content of the shattering final post Gary put up just over a year ago. A day when those blue skies darkened a little more. So, 5:21 of silence in honour of a fallen comrade:

God, I’m all choked up now.

=(

“I’m a (feature) creep…”

Well, Angry Street Wanking Man has been out for a few weeks now. So maybe now is a good time to reflect on the development cycle and on how it was received.

ASWM was originally designed as a minigame hidden in the unreleased downhill skiing game Tit Fuck Slalom. It was designed to be a like Go! Go! Sonic! in that the player wouldn’t stop running and you had to dodge obstacles to survive and reach the end of the level. Typically Tit Fuck Slalom turned out to be a bit shit.

By then ASWM had taken on a life of its own. I’d been playing Pitfall and got some ideas from that to turn it into a tribute game. There were a few firsts in ASWM – the parabolic arc of the semen, the deadly laser maze and the checkpoint halfway through the 3rd level amongst others. I really wanted every level to introduce something new.

Feature-creep was a huge part of the game – it ended up totally different to how I planned it as whenever I had a new idea I went back and rejigged the game to add it in. And the main game idea came from feature-creep in Tit Fuck Slalom.

Having been released, it attracted glowing praise from UK indie gamers and devs. Some very kind people RT’d my game all day long and it went a bit nuts on Twitter for a while. Across the pond it fared not so well – with one notable feedback comment (from reddit) saying “looks bland and immature.”

It also attracted this message to my email inbox:

“Dear sir,

I must strongly take issue with your game – “Angry Street ****ing Man.” The contents of this game is total inacceptable to all people. Since when must sexy be a part of games for the children?

I know you must have God in your heart somewhere, and that you must kno that your game is blasphemous. I beg you to look to Jesus and turn away from the grasp of the Devil and repent the making of that game.

Yours

(NAME REDACTED OUT OF PITY)”

(sic, generally)

Angry Street Wanking Man – new game!

Here’s a new game I’ve been working on. It’s a hardcore platformer, with some super secret hidden stuff.

Plot: One balmy summer evening, your character escapes from Hambly House for the Criminally Insane. Who is he? What does he want? Where is he going?

All these questions might be answered as you guide the Angry Street Wanking Man safely through the increasingly dangerous levels!

Controls:

Arrow keys – move

SPACE – jump

X – “shoot”

(On the title screen)

H – show the highscore table

S – wipe the highscore table

Screenshot:

Here’s the link.

We are one year old!

…well, about 6 days ago we were anyway.

One whole year of technical wibbling, game and snack reviews and very angry rants. Thanks to everyone who reads and comments, as it’d be pretty sad if it was just me here talking to myself.

Here’s to at least another year of blogging!

My concern about the indie ‘scene’

I love making games.

I spend hours making things for other people to enjoy. To some people this might seem like an insane way to spend one’s downtime, but I find my peace and relaxation in building mini-worlds for others to play through. And although I don’t get a lot of feedback, any I get whether negative or positive gives me a happy little glow as it means people have played and engaged with my games.

But there are some times when I wonder if it’s all worth it. Why?

Come clean – who’s been screwing with the time-stream?

Well?

It’s the only reason I can think of for this bastardised Mario clone on a SEGA system…

GAME is struggling with its creditors

As has been reported on pretty much every site in the whole internet, GAME and Gamestation are struggling to make ends meet. Weeks of heated speculation has culminated in EA pulling their support from the ailing retailer, citing concerns about being renumerated for the stock.

But you didn’t come here for that. This blog is in the style of the much-missed UK:Resistance and as such is the equivalent of an angry tramp wanking into a cup in the street while shouting boozy obscenities. So with that in mind, I went undercover…

Red Faction: Guerrilla – a belated review

Basically, it’s fucking awesome.

An open world destroy-em-up with little obligation to follow the moronic plot, Red Faction: Guerrilla pretty much lets you play the way you want to. It also has a fantastic physics system, utilising Geo-Mod 2.0 and Havok physics. You can play stealthy and sneaky, but there’s no more fun than blowing up a skyscraper or leaping off a cliff in a humvee and crashing through the roof of a building.

The guns are great, explosions are chunky and the vehicles are all overblown Tonka Toys. If you ever smashed your sibling’s sand-castle you need to play this game.