Name

Here's the title to my game. This image also acts as my default install/title screen to use for my test builds, its a background image from one of the levels. 1080p too, but you'll only be seeing 800x400 of it at any one time during the game.

Short Clip

Here's a tiny, very badly captured video showing simple artwork, scrolling, animation and collisions. If you can tell, I need a better screen capture program...fail.

Hello World♦

Hello, my name is Michael Manning. I'm a composer primarily and have released music in the past on record labels such as Ai Records (www.airecords.com) and most recently NetLab (www.net-lab.co.uk).
I also have a Lamespace www.myspace.com/mikmanning where you can hear some of mah toonz innit.

Aside from music I am passionate about videogames. They intrest me greatly and I get great inspiration for the more innovative and experimentle ones out there. I do enjoy the Halos and Gears of Wars but they do not excite me as much as titles like Flow, Everyday Shooter, Electroplankton, Gravitation, Braid and Knytt Stories. If you havn't heard of these, look them up, Youtube is beautifull.

I get a buzz from games that experiment with gameplay concepts and I see that these games just mentioned really push our perception of what a video game is or can be.


A Universe Apart

The screenshot at the top of this post shows the first (very crude and very rough) screenshot from my home-made videogame. I hope to compose a game that plays very ambiently akin to Flow or Knytt, but which also gives the player a lot of creative freedom.

My concept, briefly; the player controls an organism which floats through space, this creature is part alien and part spaceship. It begins docked with a 'mother ship,' when your ship detaches, you are free to fly and roam about the galaxy that surrounds you. It is important to note at this point that the video game is purely in 2D and that the 'galaxy' is limited, you can only fly within range of the mothership.

At the moment, the decision is to have no ambient or background sound or music, but I am becoming increasingly tempted by some subtle sound design ideas. Anyway, as you fly arround you notice other creatures arround you, there are many types in groups which behave differently to each other. You are tasked with having to zap the creatures and then consume them. Once a creature is consumed you hear music, or rather, part of a track or a sample. You then have the option to keep the creature inside you or poop it out (depending if you like the sounds it produces.)

As you progress through the galaxy consuming creatures and building up sounds you are in a way composing music, you are collecting elements of music that fit well together. It will be such that there are many, many sounds and styles of music to allow for experimentation within the levels. Each creature-type behaves differently and requires a different gameplay mechanic to consume. Details for these will follow in future posts.

At the same time however, there will be an objective. The objective in each level is to consume the correct combination of creatures and then take them back to the mothership. At the beginning of each level the mothership will sing to you a tune and it is up to you to go out there and find the elements to this tune. Once you have the elements and have docked with the mothership, the ship will take off into lightspeed with you onboard. This will then take you to the next level.

Each level will host different environments, themes, sounds, obsticals and mechanics. Some levels will be on planets and others in completely abstracted planes of reality where impossible things could happen.

I want the sound of the game and its creatures to have an insecty element to it, so even though you are essentially collecting sampled loops of music, that music will have a life-like feel to it. At least, for the first level.

Visually I want the game to be broad in its artistic aproach (each universe will look very different from the last) but at the same time I want it to feel like you are quite obviously playing a video game, I'm not after any sort of hyper realism, at all times I want the player to be aware that he is moving pixles across the screen. I want the player to feel nostalgic within its lower resolution sprites but to also be absorbed with the new technology and gameplay that is powering the graphics. I want the game to be fun and simple enough for the 'casual' market to enjoy, but also deep enough that you would want to spend time playing it and hopefully enjoying it.

The point of the game is to showcase my musical composition skills within a video game environment, hopefully this can act as a great addition to my portfolio. I'm also just making this game for everyone, hopefully my art is kind enough for a child to enjoy but also intelligent enough for an adult to appreciate. I would like peoples reaction to the music not to be a strokey bearded 'this is very clever' but more 'cool' with a smile on their face.

Thanks for reading this, my future updates will not be quite so long and I will also be posting mp3's of music and eventually builds of the video game. This game will be free for everyone, even if I figure out how to port the fker to the iPhone I will do so for free.

Peace
Mik