Monday, December 24, 2012

8 Bit Dimension Alpha 1

The download for 8 Bit Dimension Alpha 1 can be found here.

What is 8 Bit Dimension?

8 Bit Dimension is a Break-Out! style game, where you are a character that has journeyed into the 8 Bit Realm of video games to find the cause of missing and corrupt data. Trapped in the seemingly random assortment of blocks are objects and characters from retro video games that must be saved by destroying the blocks of code that imprison them. With your trusty shield, advance through the levels, gain power ups, and save the games!

Controls:

Left & Right Arrow Keys: Move the Shield back and forth to prevent your "debugging" spell from being destroyed.

Misc. Notes:

This is a bare bones playable version of the game with two repeating levels. Lives are toggled off in this version in order to allow the player to test bugs without constantly getting Game Over. Currently, there is no pause ability or controller support. Expect them for Alpha v2!

In order to run the game, download and unzip the .rar file. Then, in the destination you unzipped it to, look for the "8BitDimension v.0.3.6.exe" file and simply double click it to run. Feel free to rename the file in order to make it easier to find, but do not remove it from the folder with the rest of the files. The .exe needs all of those other files in order to run properly.

Future releases will see the addition of controller support, score keeping, power-ups, enemies, scaling difficulty, and sound and a few other surprises I'd rather not spoil yet.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

The Ring of Fire - Game Maker

And so, tomorrow will mark the end of my semester. It's been a tough journey, and it's not even over yet! I still have to somehow complete my final Flash project which is due tomorrow. Today was my final class for Game Design Theory and Culture and the one in which we all had to present our final project. I put a ton of work into my game, poured my heart and soul into it and... was unfortunately unable to finish it to my satisfaction.

If nothing else, from this project I learned that in the real world of development, you can't always put every thing you want into a game in order to meet the deadline. Think back on all of the games you've ever played, particularly those that fell short of your expectations. Was there ever a game that seemed like it had one REALLY good feature, that a lot of work went into, but the rest of the game was complete crap? Or perhaps a game that was visually stunning and the first hour or two is fun, but the rest of the game is copy/paste repeats only included to soak up time? These are the games I'm talking about. Games that, given Blizzard's development cycle (And not even then in some cases... ::cough::DiabloIII::cough::), could really shine and be amazing, but because of the demands of the industry, it just isn't possible.

So, even though my game may have been a failure in some respects, painfully so despite the fact I poured 20 hours or so working on it over the past two months, I cannot consider it a complete failure for the lessons I have learned along the way. Going forward, I will be keeping this in mind with all games I make. At home, programming at my leisure and keeping up with a development schedule I have lots of control over, I can afford to take time, focus on areas that may or may not be important, and release the game when ever I feel like it. I mean, 8-Bit Dimension is still in development hell (though I will be picking it back up after Christmas.) In the future, when I am working on projects that go beyond the realm of "hobby" I will have to weigh these factors and make sure I deliver a game that honors the expectations of my customers in addition to the work of the developers.

Regardless of how good or bad I think the game I made is, as promised, I will include a download link for all of you to try it. Although there are many shortcomings in this short game, the biggest was being unable to fully implement the battle system in time for my presentation. If I had literally 2 more hours to work on it I am positive I could have finished coding everything that needed to be done into an at least semi-playable state. I may go back and work on this some more in my free time to create a "Full Version" of the game, or I might just take the assets I used in making this game and program it outside of Game Maker. I'm still undecided at this point, but I'll let this project sit on the back burner until a time that I'm ready to give it more of my attention.

Please, feel free to let me know what you think. Much of the game is in an unfinished state, and there were many aspects I had to grossly simplify in order to get them to work on time for the final presentation. The download for the .exe can be found here.

That's all I have for now! Have a Merry Christmas everyone, be safe, and I look forward to sharing some very exciting news with you in the following weeks.

EDIT:
Something that completely escaped my mind when I posted this yesterday was to include the controls for my miniature game, so for those of you who may not have played it yet, here they are:

Arrow Keys: Move the Character.
Enter: Interact with People/Objects; Confirm
Backspace: Cancel
Spacebar: Open Menu

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Introducing: The Heroes!

Small post again, as I'm knee deep in working on three games currently as well as a veritable mountain school work.

Production on my final project for Game Design Theory and Culture is officially underway, and full production will probably begin sometime next week after our next to last project is turned in. As I previously stated, this game will be a top-down RPG as a tribute to my favorite game series: Final Fantasy. That said, I'm starting to discover a few problems with working solely with the Gamemaker GUI especially in relation to an RPG and I've already had to jury rig a few things to get them to work and I'm barely even 1% of the way through development. Oh how I wish I was allowed to use RPGMaker or even scripts!

Back on topic, last time I showed you a few sprites for some enemies that will make an appearance in the game. This time, I present to you: The Heroes!

Zane is the main character of this RPG. Orphaned at a young age as all good JRPG characters were, Zane was raised by the military as a child soldier. The game starts off with his first real assignment. Unfortunately, you won't see the repercussions of said assignment because this RPG is due in a playable form by the end of December, so you will have to be left in an eternal cliffhanger!

Esuna is another Orphan and probably the only friend Zane has. (Oh! Tragic Past AND Friendless! The JRPG soup thickens!) Esuna is even younger than Zane and decides to tag along to help him in his quest because Orphans and Street Rats really have nothing better to do. My only question is, who let this little girl go on such a dangerous mission!? Esuna is a bit eccentric and peppy, showing off her glowing personality in her obscure and frankly weird sense of fashion. (HINT: It's the "prettiest" amalgamation of rags she could find.)

Mathieu is the third in our traditional party of four, and he is a young Ranger of Kent. Kent usually chooses a dark, Hunter green to represent itself, and so Mathieu wears an outfit sporting his nation's colors. It also doubles as camouflage! While older than Zane, Mathieu still isn't quite an adult meaning that the next character has to be our token older dude!

Meet Master Park. Aside from just stepping out of the 80's, Master Park is a Major in Kent's military meaning he's also known as Major Master Park. Notice the Hunter green ensemble. Unfortunately for Master Park, tragic things happen to him throughout the course of the story. Luckily for him, he gets off lucky as the game will end long before any "unfortunate" circumstances were to befall him. Good for you Master Park! So why isn't Zane wearing green armor if he's also a part of Kent's military? Well, for one, green plate armor is hard to come by and two, ::REDACTED FOR SPOILERS::.

So there's your motley band of heroes for the RPG I'm making. Next month I'll be posting up my final project for better or for worse for all of you to play around in. Until next time!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Something Different

I know I promised an update earlier this month and apologies on the delay, but I have literally been buried under the weight of homework. I forgot just how much work you get in school, and now that I'm actually doing my homework, I see for the first time how insane it is. In any case, that's not the reason I am posting today...

Starting Monday, I'll begin production on my final project for Game Design and Theory, a full game created in Game Maker. Now, admittedly, I have never touched Game Maker. When I decided I wanted to dive in and learn programming in order to make games, I did give Game Maker some thought, but eventually decided against it because I wanted to learn the intricacies of making games from scratch and just what goes into it. After spending two classes with a tutorial that could have been condensed to a single class, I still find the "coding" part a little awkward, but I'm looking forward to using this for rapid game development.

After some thought, (admittedly, not much) I settled on making the type of game I've been wanting to make for a long time now - a top down, 2D RPG. I figured if I'm going to spend two months working on a project, it might as well be something I haven't done before to teach me something new. I'll be developing this game as a homage to Final Fantasy, and so while there may be some similarities, the end experience will be entirely unique. Luckily, I do have a few pictures of enemies that will make an appearance in the game to show you today:

This is your basic, level 1 Goblin. A staple of traditional 2D RPGs. What hero doesn't want to just run into hundreds of these pathetic creatures and kill them for equally pathetic experience points and gold?

And this would be the level 2 Goblin! While, yes, I will have some palette swaps, I am also attempting to make each sprite a little unique in it's own way. Not much more to say about these minions of evil.

Finally, we have the first boss, and major antagonist of my little RPG, Garrick, the Traitor. Story details will be revealed later, but the events surrounding this villain will reverberate throughout the entire story should I decide to expand upon it.

And that's all I have for now. I'll be going to Philly this weekend for mega-nerdom in the form of the Philadelphia Magic Grand Prix. Of course, I will provide updates on this and my other projects as more is available. Enjoy, and talk to you all again soon!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Work, work, work!

Sorry for the delay in posting up an update. I had a wonderful vacation this past week and found myself stranded 75 miles from home when my car broke down. Everything's been taken care of and I'm currently in the process of catching up with all the school work I missed.

Speaking of which, I should reiterate that progress on future releases is going to hit a brick wall. The work load with this semester of college is even heavier than I had originally anticipated, doubly so now that I'm rushing to catch up on all the work I missed. The good news being of course that I'm expanding my horizons and learning a new language in addition to getting formal education on another. This semester I'll be learning the nuances of both Flash and Java. I've already made games in Flash before, but Java excites me as it's a very popular language.

In addition to the above, I may have found just the guy to do sound for my game projects. Nothing's final yet, but when I find time to go into full production again, you can expect me to introduce you to him and belt out 8-Bit Dimension.

The number of downloads for Mana Clash have exceeded my expectations, and I hope those of you who have downloaded it enjoyed the game. One day I would love to find time to fix it up a little and add a few more features, but my focus at the moment is moving forward with new games. As always, I am always open to your feedback and take it into consideration with each release.

I wish I had more news for you, but with the school cram, sadly I haven't had time to make any progress worth noting! However, I will at least post up a screenshot of the pre-alpha build as it stands right now.






I'll catch up with all of you again next month unless I can find some time to belt out some code and get this game just a little closer to completion. Until then, take care of yourselves and enjoy what ever game currently occupies your platform of choice!

Monday, August 20, 2012

Progress Report

Greetings everyone!

I hope you enjoyed the teaser to 8-Bit Dimension I posted up earlier this month. I've been hard at work getting the game primed and ready so all of you can download the early builds and take the game for a spin. Admittedly, I haven't been able to put as much work into the project as I had originally intended. Summer is winding down and I've been trying to spend as much time hanging out with friends and going places as I can before I get sucked back into the grind that is school.

Despite this, I have managed to sneak in some time to work on my current project, and I am happy to tell all of you that as of today, it is in a playable form. Unfortunately, I won't be releasing Alpha 1 just yet. I'm not satisfied with the game-play and want to tweak it a little bit before releasing it as well as add in a few more features to give the game some substance. In addition, classes start next week, and then I am going on vacation the following weekend, so my development time is going to take a severe hit in the coming months while I focus on my school work. I will continue to post updates on on the progress of the game as well as other little tid bits periodically, starting with when I get back from vacation in early September. Look for it!

While I won't be giving you a playable version of the game today, what I can do is tell you what you can expect with 8-Bit Dimension.

8-Bit Dimension is going to be a block breaking pong type game, much in the same vein as Breakout and Arkanoid. You'll have your standard fare of block puzzles, power ups, and enemies, but in a twisted 8-bit realm of forgotten icons trapped in a glitch. Your mission is simple: To traverse the game by destroying the blocky monoliths of games that lost themselves in this dimension until you find what's causing the disturbance and neutralize it.

Also, I'd like to take the time to say that the release schedule will be a little bit different this time around from Mana Clash. There will still be two Alphas, followed by two Betas, and then a release, but the releases will be a bit more staggered. The main reasoning behind this is rather than implementing a few ideas, then releasing the build for critique, I decided that I want the different versions to feel much different. This is also partly why I want to wait on releasing the initial Alpha, as I want the release schedule to smoothly transition into launch while encompassing a greater number of mile stones for each version.

That's all for today, but rest assured I will return with more news, and the latest version soon! Until then, enjoy what ever games you are currently occupied with!

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

8-Bit Dimension

1983 was a bad year to start a Video Game Company, just ask Gencom.

In 1983, a group of college students decided that they were going to get in on the video game madness sweeping the nation and formed their own company, Gencom. The plan was simple: Release a Breakout clone for the Vectrex. Fate, however, had a different plan. With the video game crash of 1983 and the Vectrex pulled off the market mere months later, Gencom found itself treading water in an unstable industry.

After a year of uncertainty with mounting debts, Gencom was prepared to shutter it's doors when news of the Nintendo Entertainment System reached the collective. Borrowing money from their parents, friends, and any one else who would invest in their dream they pushed to stay afloat and survive until they could launch a game on this new platform. By the end of the year Gencom had come mere inches from their goal before a lack of outside investor support sealed the deal.

Oh, but our story doesn't end here. In fact, it is just beginning! You see, by October Gencom had completed their game and sought money only for marketing and distribution. Investors still wary of the video game industry weren't willing to risk their money on another failed venture. Ironically, the NES went on to become one of the most popular gaming consoles of all time and nearly single-handedly revived the entire industry. After selling all of their assets to repay some of the debt, all that remained of Gencom was a single prototype cartridge for their game "Brick Busters." A prototype recently rediscovered and sold on ebay to a video game archivist, left rest in the halls of brothers it never had.

Brick Busters had a secret. A terrible, dark secret. For shortly after Brick Busters was admitted into the archive, the games around it slowly stopped working. After twenty-five years of bitter jealousy and hatred something in Brick Busters had been locked in stasis, never to face the thrill of battling a human opponent. Trapping portions of the other games within it's own, it seeks to destroy the very industry that had condemned the game so many years ago.

This is where you come in! We're developing a program to allow you passage into this realm, and we need you to free the other video games from this disturbance before it's too late! Are you ready to travel into the 8-Bit Dimension?

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Mana Clash Release!

The download for Mana Clash can be found here.



This is it! My first public release of a game I programmed from scratch! At this point in time I feel that Mana Clash is complete. There were a few other features I wanted to add, but they were all auxiliary and unnecessary. If there is demand for me to revisit this game and add some more features, I may. But for now I'm going to move onto working on my next game full force. (After a brief celebratory respite that is.)

Now, that being said, I tested this game very thoroughly for as many bugs as I could find and fixed them. I played through the final build four times from start to finish after trying to break areas of weak coding, and I had no issues in my play-throughs. Of course, that doesn't mean that there aren't some obscure bugs lurking somewhere in the program. If you find any, let me know! I probably won't fix any non-essential bugs right away, but they will be top priority if I release another version in the future.

So, what's different with release from Beta? I essentially "turned on" the game.

- Added additional fixes for controller support. I am 99% certain that I nailed any loose ends that could cause the program to crash.
- Fixed a few bugs which could glitch the game making progression impossible under certain, rare situations.
- Added level progression up to level 20. If you beat level 20, you will be given the option to re-play level 20 as many times as you like. Sad to say, there is no ending, so if you are that awesome at the game go ahead and see how many times you can beat round 20 before you lose.
- Modified the initial placement of blocks slightly. Now you should have no more than 2 of the same type of block next to each other.

In the future I will be giving Mana Clash it's own dedicated page linked from this blog, and I will need to look into a different online storage provider that can host Mana Clash beyond the 30 day limit that Rapid Share has. Suggestions would be very much appreciated!

I hope you enjoy the game I made! It was certainly a learning experience programming my first game from scratch. My next game is going to be another take on an arcade classic. I wish I could tell you more, but it's only in it's early stages, and I'm still in the process of looking for someone to do sound for it. Rest assured, however, that I will post news as soon as it's available here on the blog. Until next time, enjoy, and feel free to tell me what you think!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Mana Clash Beta 2

The download for the new version can be found here.

Yes, I have been very busy working on finishing the game this week. This is it, Beta 2! This is the final release before the full version. After all the work I put into this game over the past week, I'm going to take a short break before I get down to business and blitz through what's left to complete the game. You can expect the full release 2 weeks from now at the latest, though schedule permitting and no problems withstanding, it might be available within a week's time.

Now, as this is the Beta v2 I would appreciate any and all feedback as I work to complete the game. I will be submitting this to pygame.org to feature and allow others to download and the last thing I want to happen is discover some game breaking bug after it's submitted. Of particular interest is a bug regarding controllers that my friend Neil pointed out to me after Beta 1 release. I put a work around in Beta 2 for those that do not have controllers, but I cannot duplicate the error on my machine, so I have no way of knowing if it is fixed for this release or not.

The Changelog this time around is rather small, but here it is:

- Fixed a bug that could cause the game to crash if the first mana pair in a game was rotated at specific intervals during gameplay.
- Tweaked Controller settings to allow the game to run if the user does not have a controller plugged into their PC. (I hope. I need more feedback on this!)
- Added basic game information that shows the level, speed, and number of blocks remaining.
- Added animated sprites to represent the different elements outside the game board.

There's still a lot that needs to be done in order to complete this game. At this point I'm not sure what I will keep and what I will cut to get a workable game done and out of the way. Most of my decisions in this regard are going to be made on the fly as I work on finishing the game. If there is a feature you really want to see, let me know! Otherwise, as I said in my last post, even post-release I may work on the game here and there to include some of the features I wanted in my original draft. Until next time, enjoy!

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Mana Clash Beta 1

The download for the new version can be found here.

So, I know I promised you the next version of Mana Clash in two weeks. Well, I lied. I decided to get down to business and hammer out the game so I have it done well ahead of schedule. In fact, as soon as I'm done posting this, I'm going to immediately start working on Beta 2 (though I do not anticipate it to be done before next week.) This would put Beta 2's release sometime next week, and the full version of the game available around the middle of August.

Unfortunately, I have decided that I am going to have to cut some of the content I originally planned for this game. I had originally wanted to include multi-play, but I feel that adding that element will take valuable time away from my other projects. As I stated before, the purpose of these games are to practice my ability as a programmer, and this game just isn't challenging me in the way it used to. That's not to say I won't revisit this game later on down the line and add in multiplayer mode, but it's not a priority for me at the moment. I should have a better idea of what is and is not going to be available at launch once I finish Beta 2 and see where I am.

Now, onto the meat of the topic. The change log!

- Added new graphics to differentiate between the elements eliminated.
- Added subtle animations to all of the Mana Blocks.
- You will now be able to preview your next Mana Pair in the upper Right hand corner of the screen.
- Added an animated Mage character in the upper right hand corner to represent the player.
- Put a placeholder stat board in the lower right of the screen. In this build it serves no purpose, but will be used to give the player basic game information in future releases.

As explained previously, the changes for Beta 1 and Beta 2 are mostly cosmetic changes aimed at making the UI a little more friendly. Also, I must apologize for my awful art. I am not an artist! My amateur attempts at game art are undoubtedly shining through with this release, but we're here to play the game, not critique the art. Right? ... right?

With Beta 2 I plan on finishing the game screen. Release will contain the scoring and level progression that will bring this beyond being just a demo. Ideally, I would love to add sound, but as bad as I am at graphics, I'm much worse at music. We'll see about that when I get there. Until next time, enjoy!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Mana Clash Alpha v2

The download for the new version can be found here.

I know it's been a while with no updates since the last version, mostly because I was wrapping up my summer semester. Thankfully it's over now and that means I can get back to working on my projects! Today I have the second Alpha for Mana Clash available, and I plan on having Beta available in two weeks, assuming I can stick to my development schedule. If nothing goes horribly wrong, I expect to have this game launched by the end of the summer before I go back to trudging through another semester of college.

I would also like to note that Alpha v1 is no longer available on Rapidshare, so don't try to download it. As a free member, they delete all of the files on their servers after 30 days. Seeing as how I don't make money off of these games, and keeping an outdated possibly bug ridden version available for download isn't exactly necessary... I decided that I won't attempt to re-upload it. To be safe, I do have a copy of the .rar saved on my computer, so if there is ever a reason for me to re-upload it, I can. I will also start looking into a different file sharing site for launch, so that I don't have to constantly re-upload Mana Clash every month. If you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know!

Now, as for the change log for Alpha v2, I made the following minor improvements to the game:

- Added the ability to immediately play again after successfully clearing all of the blocks.
- Added controller support. (See below for more information)
- Added graphics to indicate when mana and blocks are cleared.
- Fixed two separate bugs that could cause the game to crash under rare circumstances.

Controller support right now is very rudimentary and I probably won't be revisiting it unless there is a major problem. It was designed utilizing a traditional NES controller to recapture the retro feel, and there is no way to re-map the buttons in game, so you will have to use your own button remapping software if you are using a different controller.

D-Pad: Controls movement.
Buttons 0 & 1: Rotates the Mana.
Button 3: Pauses the game.

Currently, the idea for Beta 1 & 2 will mostly be cosmetic changes as opposed to game play changes. If I have some time during the development cycle to add more, I will, but expect the bulk of the content to come at release. During this time I'm also going to be working on prepping my next game which will be a collaborative effort, as well as tuning my other unannounced project. More on both of those in the future when I have more to tell you aside from hopes and dreams. In the meantime, enjoy! As usual, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to let me know what you think.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Mana Clash Alpha 1

The download for Mana Clash Alpha 1 can be found here.

What is Mana Clash?

Mana Clash is a simple puzzle game in which you control falling pairs of Elemental Mana, very similar to the NES game Dr. Mario. By matching four of a particular color in a row, you can clear out Mana Blocks that are preventing your character from casting the required spell. When all of the blocks in a particular stage are cleared out, the spell is cast and play resumes to a more difficult stage (Or, at least it would but I only have one level enabled in Alpha 1.)

Controls:

Arrow Keys: Move the Mana pair around the screen.
Ctrl: Rotate the Mana Pair Counter-clockwise.
Alt: Rotate the Mana Pair Clockwise.
P: Pauses the game.

Misc. Notes:

Currently, this is a bare bones working version of level one of the game. When you clear all of the blocks, the game continues on indefinitely until you either exit, or get Game Over. You can reload the level after Game Over.

In order to run the game, download and unzip the .rar file. Then, in the destination you unzipped it to, look for the "Mana Clash v.0.6.exe" file and simply double click it to run. Feel free to rename the file in order to make it easier to find, but do not remove it from the folder with the rest of the files. The .exe needs all of those other files in order to run properly.

Future releases will see all of the additions you would expect such as scaling difficulty, level progression, score keeping, and other assorted UI improvements. Ultimately, I plan on adding controller and Multi-player support as well.

Enjoy!

Introduction

Welcome everyone! My name is John Gall, and this is my Development Blog.

More than likely the majority of the people who come here will be my friends, family, and other assorted people who know me from somewhere. However, there exists the possibility that some unfortunate souls I don't know might stumble upon this so before I get into the good stuff, I thought I'd take a moment to explain a few things regarding this blog.

I'm an amateur video game programmer, writer, and all around awesome guy. I've been programming off and on for roughly six years now, but I only just started to get serious about it in 2011. Most of the games that I program are done in Python utilizing pygame, but I do dabble here and there in Flash and C++. Not all of the games that I make wind up here, but a fair amount of my serious projects in the near future will. I'm treating this blog as sort of an interactive portfolio that I'm building. I make a game. You play it and tell me what you think. I fix up the game a little, and the process continues until I'm satisfied with the end product.

I should also take a moment to mention that I have never actually blogged before. So, this whole thing is treading new ground for me. Don't expect daily, or even weekly updates to this blog. Right now my focus is on improving my programming, and you know, actually programming the games I'm inevitably going to upload here. Despite this, you can be assured that I will be checking the blog daily for comments and critique as well as uploading the latest builds of any of my games the moment they're ready. Eventually, I do hope to figure out how to add more features to deliver a proper experience to all of you readers.

Also, in case it wasn't obvious, all of the games I upload here are 100% free. You don't pay money to watch the local team practice, you shouldn't pay for any of the games I'm using to learn - even after they're done and complete. There is a Paypal donate button on the side of the blog, and this is probably the only time I'm going to mention it because I'm not here to get donations either. That's there mostly because a few people requested that I put one up on my Blog when it went live. I don't expect to make much from it, but any thing I do make will only be spent on assets to make better games or improve the delivery of said games. The only thing I expect out of any of you is to let me know what you think of the games you play and if you encounter any problems. I test and re-test everything before I upload it to make sure it works flawlessly on my system, and I clean out any and all bugs I find (unless I list it on the release notes). Each system is different though, and just because it works on my computer does not mean it will work the same on yours.

Finally, let me explain "GBIT". Because I suck at names, I spent months thinking up a name for my one man amateur indie studio, and finally settled upon the acronym of GBIT. Whether I actually came up with something that makes sense with that acronym is irrelevant. Back on point to explain the name, if you know me, you know I absolutely love and adore classic games, especially NES era. "8Bit" games are what they're commonly referred to, and I fell in love with the idea of using "bit" somewhere in my studio name. Thus after mashing a whole bunch of nonsensical words together that I liked, I came up with GBIT.

In today's gaming industry, it's indie devs and studios who are really moving things. New indie studios are popping up left and right. Some are seeing a level of success that makes the big name publishers envious, while other kind of just peter out and die a quiet death by the side of the road. While I am not sure that running an indie studio is the path I will necessarily take with my career, I won't rule out the notion either. Eventually I do hope to find some other talented individuals to work on games with me and see where our passion takes us. That is why this blog isn't simply "John's Games" it's "GBIT Games"

So, without further ado, welcome to the site and I hope you enjoy my games!