Ven Cluster: Black Ops - Dev Announcement

I've started my next project, titled "Ven Cluster: Black Ops" which is possibly more of a mouthful than it needs to be. It will be freeware, with a tentative release date of late February/Early March.

The first of a series of games to take place in the Ven Cluster, VCBO is a turn-based strategy game with action sequences, in which you will be able to direct a mercenary company of "Black Operations" specialists through the Ven Cluster Star Empire, working for the noble Houses of the Empire.

Features include:

• Gameplay takes place over 29 star systems and inside the Emperor's Court!


• The revolutionary new Porpoise engine, which procedurally generates a new story each time you play!


• 19 different types of missions to embark upon!


• 40 playable characters, each with their own stories, goals, and special missions!


• Court intrigues between noble houses for you to meddle in, from secretive, hidden romances to cruel assassinations!


• Continuity between games - help one noble become Emperor in one game and overthrow him in the next!


• Unlockable character backgrounds to allow a new beginning each time you play!

Over the next few months as I create the game, I'll detail each feature and the design of the game each week here.

Star Tumbler

Star Tumbler

Freeware

Synopsis: Star Tumbler is a puzzle-action game, with perfect information, no random elements, and “emergent difficulty”. It is also a single-button game. Achieve bronze, silver, and gold stars by beating the time!

Download

Edit: Updated to fix crash errors on Nov 22/2009 - If you got the previous version, please redownload

Can you get under 1 minute on level 30?

Star Tumbler

Goals: The purpose of this game was to test out an idea of “emergent difficulty”. By emergent difficulty, I mean that the game gets as hard as the player wants it, and increases as the player plays.

Result: I'm somewhat satisfied. Star Tumbler does do what my goals intended, but I had imagined it to be more chaotic. It could be more chaotic if it were faster, but I'm not sure that's a direction I wanted to take this game.

Further Thoughts: I think there's a lot more I could've done with this game, and ideas I scrapped. If I come back and make a sequel, I'll be including things like tubes that change the star's speed and other level configurations.