Town Artwork!

I know it's been a while guys....but what do you think of the new background artwork?

Becoming a Company

Hi everyone!

So, it's official, CeltCraft Games is now a company!

The process was actually quite easy (if time consuming). The first thing was to buy the dot-com. So I went over to www.register365.com and registered www.celtcraftgames.com for about €20 for two years. With the dot-com I got a free one-page website and free dedicated email address: alan@celtcraftgames.com. The free website editor is terrible, but if I subscribe for €5 per month I get two databases, access to PHP MyAdmin and a free '.ie' URL. This is something I may consider down the line, but for now I am quite content with having a very basic website sitting there, just saying; 'Hey! Look at at me...I exist!'

Once I had the website, I then (on advice from Charlene) proceeded to look into registering the company. The companies registration office is where you go: (https://www.cro.ie/). The website is terrible and it took me a while to actually find out what to do, but once I found it, I could enter all the details online, and process the payment. Then. to finalize it, I printed out a from, signed it, and sent to the office to be validated. The registration cost another €20 in total; which is quite cheap in my opinion.

I then set up a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/celtcraftgames), and a Google+ business page, both of which were quite time consuming.

The last step to completely cement the companies name and image is to come up with a logo and patent it. This process, as you may imagine, is a little slower. The logo is a very important piece of the puzzle; it needs to be simple, yet distinctive, memorable, and unique. I'm not even sure if the need to patent it is necessary, as I already have the company registered.


Has anyone had experience in this? I know patenting something is very expensive, and I'm just not sure about the need. Any feedback is welcome!

Alan.

Santa Flight: Official Game Prototype 02!

The second official prototype for the upcoming Christmas game: Santa Flight. You play as the big man, Santa himself as you try to delivery the gifts and avoid the obstacles to keep your Christmas Spirit high and visit every house in a night!

The game is made in Corona SDK and is scripted with Lua.

Coding Vlog 03: Mechanics - Game Development

Hello!

The third instalment of my coding Vlog! I'm running through my game mechanics, touch listeners, and enter frame handlers...saucy stuff! :)

As always, please let me know what you think...all feedback is good feedback!

New Artwork - Santa & Background

Happy Monday Everyone!

Here is some new art to distract you from work:

Santa Base Sprite - Green

New Background Artwork

Artwork by Jytarus Barefield

Santa Concept Art

Hi Guys!

Here is our very first iteration of concept art for the big man himself! Let me know what you think!

Artwork: 

Jytarus Barefield

Don't forget to subscribe and like! :)
Alan.

Coding Vlog 02: Parallax & Game Loop - Game Development

Hi Again!

Here is the second installment to my Lua coding video blog. The game is called Santa Flight: Christmas delivery, and will be available on Android before Christmas. If you like it, please share! There also more where that came from! :)

Enjoy!

Coding Vlog 01: Asset Loading and Setup - Game Development

Hi Folks!

Here is my first coding vlog! It runs through the structure of the game, up to displaying assets.
Please give it a like or a share, and let me know what you think!

Enjoy! :)

My Goals in Making a Game For Less Than €100 - Game Development

Good Afternoon!

For this instalment, I'm going to talk a little bit about what my goals are in making a Christmas game.

So, I was sitting at home thinking about doing my coding vlog, got nervous, and then decided you all needed one more solid blast of text before you were ready to witness what I have in store. Don’t worry though; the vlog is definitely on the way.

Okay, let me start by saying that I have no money. Yes, I work a full time job, but every spare cent from that goes into paying off my hefty student loan. Doing my masters enabled me to discover two things; the first is that I love making games more than playing them, and the second is that I get enjoyment out of making a game even without any guarantee of return. It’s a one-sided relationship I know, but you never know…maybe all that will soon change. I believe it is very important for me to keep these two facts in my head at all times; that I make games because I love to make games, not because I love to make money.

That said, I have to say I really enjoy the gamble and risk for a very slight chance at success associated with making a game. There is always a voice in the back of my said saying what if…?! It’s that feeling of having your work appreciated by people who have never met you which helps keep the drive and passion alive when everything else seems to want you to stop. I believe that everyone seeks gratification in recognition of an accomplishment at some point in their lives, and I am no exception.

I feel like I'm running the risk of rambling now, so I’ll just put a pin in my philosophical thoughts on the nature of man, bury them deep inside, and never mention them again.

As you may have already guessed then, my first goal in making this game is to enjoy myself, and take pleasure from what I have created. Everything else comes second after that. I have outlined a more specific set of goals however for those of you interested:

• A Blog (check!), Facebook page, Twitter page.
• Artwork done by November.
• Game completed and released by 1^st December.
• My budget should not exceed €100, or about $150 (as most things I am spending money on are paid for in dollars).
• An in-game economy with some simple micro-transactions.
• Mostly non-intrusive, profitable advertisements.
• Social media integration.
• More than 5000 downloads within one month of release.

I realise some (or all) of these goals may not be achievable. For this reason, I'm taking the approach of: do what I can, and if it’s not done in time, then release it next Christmas! By the end of development, I would also like to have source code which I can re-use. For example, if I were to re-skin the game to be set in space, I can tinker with the controls, replace a game mechanic, and I have a new game. That is all dependant on how popular the idea proves to be however, and is very wishful thinking on my behalf.

I hope you all have a better idea now on what I'm trying to achieve here. My choices so far have been simple as they have all followed the following format; if I like it, do it. I like games, I like Christmas, I like dual-mechanics, I like 8-bit music and art, and I own an Android phone. So why not combine them all into one little APK of awesomeness!