Day1 Hello and welcome to my game development blog, please bear with me i have never used a blog before. I am writing this not only as a good reference for myself and progress reporting, but to share with you guys the process i will be taking for it. A little about me, well i am due to graduate in November this year from my course Computer Games Development BSc, throughout the course i have developed a keen interest in programming and a passion for making games, i have 3 published titles to date and over 20 unfinished prototypes, the biggest problem for me is graphics, in fact most people would say i am graphically challenged and i couldn’t argue. The look of this game will be basic probably sticking to shapes, as a indie dev you soon learn that even the simplest looking games can be the better games, artwork costs money, so until i start making money i have to use the skills god gave me, hence the Square. What is the Square?. The Square is an idea, the idea being the player must complete X amount of levels within a given time frame, to begin with for the sake of the project this will be set to 1 hour, the number of levels will increase over time as and when the ideas come to me. Game-play will initially be a platform game with simple tight controls, the player will need to avoid hazards and complete a task to gain entry to the next level. Each level will be set in the same sized room changing the rules of each level as well as is some cases the controls, each level will have a hint as to what is required by the player in order to complete that level. What do i have today? Just this idea, i have no ideas regarding level design yet, all i have is a Square :). Staged progression As i am working solo on this i won’t be doing a project plan so to speak, i will also design as i go which is not a great way to make a game, it is best to have a solid design and tweak when you face problems. But to give you some information i will have a action plan detailing what i hope to do in which order and when. Stage 1 - Create the menu system, this is a tedious task at best and shouldn’t be too difficult, as far as design goes i will keep it simple, a colourful text menu with simple controls, i may add a start burst effect when the player cycles the menu options. Stage 1b - Continuing with the menu i will set up a credits screen, for this i plan to make it a scrolling text credits list, think Start Wars opening Scenes. So in the menu i will have “play game”, “Credits”, “Load game” and “Exit game”. That’s the plan it may change. So for the time being this is the beginning of the Square, i hope you have read enough to at-least look at the next entry in this blog.