Grimind is in beta now!

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My game Grimind is now in beta stage and it’s available to all people who did preorder. Of course you can still do preorder and get instant access to beta version on the official website www.grimind.com On this occasion I created new scary teaser trailer (watch in HD):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wluyc-PmtJ8?vq=hd720]

Finally Grimind development comes to the end. I finished all 15 chapters added 15 secret places (each level consist one). Finding all secrets unlocks alternate way to end the game 🙂 This could be also great option to integrate steam achievements if the game gets into Steam (I really want that!)

I also went to Fastspring as payment processor. I’m very satisfied with their features like instant download after payment, accepting credit cards, free payouts, custom outlook of store etc.

Official Grimind Demo & Preorder + Bonuses

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Long time since last post. Here are the Grimind news:

Progress:

I have 12 levels done. There is only 3 more to make. That means I need 3 weeks to complete whole game ( 1 lvl = one week rule) . But unfortunately I need to do some beta tests after that to check if everything works. So, game will be completely ready and polished approximately in the middle of December.

Demo:

You can download Grimind demo for PC (possible Mac, Linux  bit later) from official website:

http://www.grimind.com/#demo

Demo contains first 2 out of 15 chapters.

Preorder:

I started to take Grimind preorders. You can get your own  for 10$.

Moreover, if you would like to influence on the project then I created some more preorder options (something like my own Kickstarter):

  • name inside the game (optionally with hyperlink to tweeter, blog etc.)
  • monster named with your name (+ previous one)
  • your own secret room  (+ previous ones)

For more information see http://www.grimind.com

Grimind gameplay trailer

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I created official website for Grimind http://www.grimind.com

And the first gameplay trailer is ready, after some troubles with uploading on youtube

Basicly, I spend whole day on struggling with youtube video quality. Every time I uploaded my trailer to youtube, there were unacceptable glitches in the video. Of course on my computer the video looks fine, there was only problem when I uploaded it to youtube. I tried sending different extensions ( .wmv , .mp4 ) , with different frame-rates, bitrates and resolutions – they were ALL corrupted! Finally after some research, I found the solution. The problem was not in my output video but with process of sending it.  I have quite poor internet connection and while uploading video some packets were lost.

This is the link witch I used for uploading videos with glitches:

http://upload.youtube.com/my_videos_upload

and this is the link that sends videos very well

https://upload.youtube.com/my_videos_upload

See the difference? The second one is ssl youtube uploader which is reliable and it sends acknowledgment for every packet. By the way, I don’t know why youtube doesn’t use ssl uploader by default.

Here is glitched trailer if you want to see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3K7wyr2ync

Character change and progress

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My friend Młoteczka created for me player graphics which in my humble opinion is awesome! I really like it. So forget about little green mint, now there is great, mysterious and mature green character that perfectly fits into game world. Thank you Młoteczka for that. Check out the art bellow( it is print-screened from game ) and compare with the old one.

And what about game?

Development, Development, Development.

I have full hands of work with Grimind. But hopefully there is progress, I planned everything carefully and I really believe that I will finish the game before next year. For now I have done 5 levels, not much you say? Yeah, maybe… but I really want to polish every detail in game, that’s stronger than me. And I am not talking here about polishing only graphics but especially game play. Every level has his own story, non-repeating game mechanics and puzzles . Now I think about some speeding up work and I came up with new system. I decided to create one level every week, so:

[code]
1 level = 1 week
15 levels(planned) – 5 levels(done) = 10 weeks + C
C = constant of delay
[/code]

Except the game, I plan to create first game trailer soon

upgraded logo and GRIMIND alpha v0.3 release

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Helllooooo!

My friend Marcin Dragan updated logo for me, previous one (letter “M”) was too similar to monster energy drink (link lol). Actual one is perfect for me, thank you Marcin. And it’s final logo ( I don’t care about similarity anymore)

Also the game itself got update. Version 0.3 contains the same level as before. But there are few changes, mostly added because of your feedback(thanks a lot):

  • added possibility to pause game, return to menu etc.
  • now player can die/drown if he’s too long under water
  • reduced heaviness of the player, so he’s now easier to control
  • when player stays too long in shadows or dark area, then he starts to be scared. You can feel his heartbeat and disturbed breathing
  • annoying cut scene is shown only once
  • fixed grammar mistakes

mirror: http://www16.zippyshare.com/v/90778184/file.html

And one more thing: I plan to complete whole game to the end of this year, so it could be possible to play GRIMIND during New Year’s Eve party (link related)

GRIMIND logo and game playtest

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Yeah, as you noticed above GRIMIND now has it own logo which is designed and drawn by my friend Marcin Dragan. thank you Marcin, I like it very much. It fits well into game theme =dark | scary | horror like.

Since the last post ie. form GRIMIND alpha release, I got huge feedback from people. Not only from my close friends and academic community, but also from people I don’t know personally. That’s good, I like it. The most noteworthy is the video created by the user Pandara from tigsource.com. He’s hardcore tester, I really enjoyed watching his video review. Generally, many people gave me lots of helpful tips (I am waiting for more) that will take into account when creating the next levels of GRIMIND. Here is the Pandara’s play-test:

GRIMIND release v0.2 – fixed launch bugs

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I had some troubles with deploying my GRIMIND setup. Here is link to upgraded (hopefully no more bugs) version:

download upgraded GRIMIND v0.2

The freshest version of Grimind is available on www.grimind.com 

There was actually two problems:

First. The game wasn’t running at all on some computers that have had graphics card with OpenGL support less than version 2.0. This was a failing from my side because I forgot to delete some lines from source code which I put some time ago when I was playing with GLSL shaders. Only OpenGL 2.0 and higher supports basic GLSL

Second bug was not my fault. Some group of people which uses Windows 7 was saying that game has a bug and crashes when they change something in game menu or at the beginning of play. On the other hand there was  group of people who have no error occurred (naturally also Windows 7 users). To solve problem and force game to run correctly they have to set program compatibility with Windows XP service pack 3 (operating system which I’m developing on) or run it with administrator rights. I was very confused about this. How is that? some people have bug, some not, and operating system is the same. Cause of the problem was Windows 7 itself and its data protection. I read that Windows 7 doesn’t allow to modify files on partition where operating system is located ( most cases “c:” drive). So now I know, that the people who said that game is broken have installed it on drive “C”. Finally, I solved this issue by forcing application to be run with administrator rights. Fortunately, Visual Studio has such possibility included, and enabling this feature is pretty simple:

Project Properties -> Configuration Properties -> Linker -> Manifest File -> set UAC Execution Level to requireAdministrator

That’s all, now after building project our executable file will by always forced to run as administrator

To sum up, the new version contains following changes:

  • now game runs with OpenGL support less than version 2.0
  • solved issues with runtime errors on win7
  • removed light border on screens that have display ratio different than 16:10
  • simplified game part when the “…” – that was actually to hard as for first level 🙂
  • game resolution can be changed without game restart

alpha version of GRIMIND released

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It has began.

Alpha version of GRIMIND is released to public.

recomended: see upgraded static page for game configurations details

Download GRIMIND alpha

(click download now button)

If you have runtime crashes then set compatibility with windows xp (service pack 3) changed to upgraded version, bug not exist

Two words about game and gameplay:

  • Game contains only first level / episode which is rather easy (i think). Gameplay is maximally linear, the puzzles are also not really complicated. Next chapters of game will give more freedom to player, also scenario will expose more details about player and his amnesia.
  • Actually tiny group of people have already played that game. I have noticed that most difficulty is to get used to player dynamics and his inertia. After about 5 minutes of playing you should start to feel player
  • You should really play in dark as welcome text suggests. This is because 2 reasons:  first- game is more climatic, second- game is really dark, in some moments you wont be able to see your main character if your room in full of light
  • Level contains nearly 1 000 objects mostly rectangles, and about 20 hard coded scripts which are really comfortable to use

As I said before: this is teaser i have used only couple mechanics that are possible in current state of engine, there are many other things I want include in game.

I also love to see your feedback about the game, especially if it was fun to play? what you dislike? how long took you to pass level?

Good luck in playing GRIMIND early version

Enjoy!

GRIMIND

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main character of GRIMIND

Finally, I started to develop game named “GRIMIND” – physics based platformer,  more about game itself you can read on dedicated page.  Since this time I am actually focused on building the game,  so levels, scenario, puzzles, valid sounds. Previously I was mostly extending possibilities of my engine “Szamanegnine”  and world editor, now these things are quite in working order and there is no more serious bugs (I hope).

During creation GRIMIND I spotted that this whole thing which is game design it’s not like programing which i was used to. Maybe this is quite obvious but for me It was new experience. Whole thing is based on tools and requires some fantasy in thinking (especially in designing puzzles). Now it’s time to think what playable value my engine has, what will gamers like to see. Turning engine features into game mechanics that’s the deal.

 

 

Currently I’m creating first level. So, stay tuned – playable early alpha demo of GRIMIND is coming!