Tag: videos

VGM

It’s Wednesday, and there’s not much to report on the Escape Goat front. I’m currently making sure the game can cope with multiple worlds, so the player can play the campaign or user-created worlds from the title menu.  Straightforward so far: fingers crossed.  From here on out, it’s just ticking off the boxes until it’s what I consider beta.

For a change of pace, I’d like to offer up some video game music favorites.

First off is a page of metal and classical guitar remixes of NES and SNES tunes, by Famicom Guitar.  (Hint: subscribe to @Surasshu on Twitter to have awesome links like this land in your feed.)  Be sure to check out:

  • Disc 3, track 5: Final Fantasy IV, The Dreadful Fight
  • Disc 3, track 9: Dragon Quest II, file select theme
  • Disc 3, track 10: Ninja Gaiden, (level one theme?)
  • Disc 2, track 7: Adventure of Link, town theme
  • Disc 1, track 2: Ducktales, the freakin’ MOON
  • Disc 1, track 4, Megaman 2 opening theme monster ballad
  • Disc 1, track 5, Super Mario Bros. 2 main BGM
  • Disc 1, track 8, Dragon Quest 2 overworld
Now let’s move on to some YouTube classics.
YouTube also has great modern game music on tap:
There, you have your next workday playlist.

Soulcaster II Preview

OK, so the press is going berserk over the Winter Uprising, and this site (being one of the top links in the press release) has had its traffic go up something like 5000% in the last couple days. Awesome!! But that also means I gotta provide some more info on the game here. This video should tie everyone over until development is complete…

Still want to know more?

Vitals:

  • Price: 240 MS Points
  • Release date: First week of December 2010
  • Platform: XBOX 360 (XBOX Live Indie Games)

What’s new in Soulcaster II?

  • Upgraded graphics engine
  • Four new tilesets
  • 30 new levels
  • All new soundtrack (including a new Merchant theme)
  • Four new monster types (including an exploding skeleton)
  • Exclusive upgrades for each of the three summons (which appear when you max out all other upgrades for that summon)
  • Better enemy AI
  • Improved performance, game can handle over 150 monsters on-screen now
  • New level mechanics, enabling new puzzles and level progressions

Preliminary feedback from playtesters on the Creator’s Club has been great so far!  Thanks to all my XNA peeps for your support and VERY helpful feedback.

Behind-the-scenes: Soulcaster 2 Level Editor

This is what I’ve been working on in the last few weeks.  There are a few new features, including:

  1. Multiple background layers (sky layer which is drawn above characters, for high walls or canopy)
  2. Animated decorations (e.g. torches, waterfalls)
  3. Base layer tile with optional locked scrolling and autoscroll (quick and dirty parallax or simulated palette animation)
  4. Scripting engine allows floor and trench type gates, so there can be one-way doors, collapsing bridges, cage traps

See the video here and bear with my first attempt at a narrated video:

And part 2:

This may not be too exciting for the average Soulcaster player, but maybe other developers will be interested to see how I made an editor using Windows Forms and XNA.