Armed, but not very Dangerous

I've been chatting with one of the programmers I work with about The Glow. Like me, he's very much into the more gritty, sci-fi games, so he was naturally hesitant when I brought up the concept of Quig and his battle against these cartoony aliens.

He, however, had been out of state for the last few days, and when I said "but looook!" showing him what I had done with the game over the last couple of days, it was a little more encouraging.

Personally, I find working on this game incredibly refreshing. Sure, as with all games, there are a hundred things you need to consider and keep track of, but with The Glow we can always step back and say, "This is what the game is about, does that support it?" Life is so much easier when you can clearly see the path. (I think Buddah said that... or at least thought it.)

Meanwhile, I've been chiseling away at my to-do list. I have been reminded, yet again, why I hate working with raycasting. The basic structure of combat is in place, though nothing is really working at the moment. I may be working at that for the rest of the night.

On the upside, an artist that I often work with has lent his skills to the project. We now have some very nice foliage in the scene. It sure beats the colored cubes and spheres I've been staring at.

As you may have guessed, the visual style is largely inspired by old-school, 8 bit RPGs.

"But why would a platformer need trees like this?" you ask? Well, that's part of my little secret. You'll just have to keep watching to find out.


With these nice additions, I've also mapped out the first area of the game. These firsts are always tricky, because you have to show players all of the mechanics of the game without throwing it in their face with demeaning tutorial text. I'm actually quite proud of what I came up with.

As we move forward, I will continue to post new images, music, videos and, dare I suggest, even playable demos? Check back soon!