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Currently working with Haxe/OpenFL. Wish to develop games in C, and later Jai (Jon Blow's language) for making games from scratch.

Luke @brutalexcess

Age 31, Male

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SGS College

United Kingdom

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brutalexcess's News

Posted by brutalexcess - June 14th, 2015


You know that post I made early last month? Fall of Atlantis is finally done, and the first chapter can now be read! The full description is below, and here is the link:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/659206

3884629_143430405711_vGX8gU6.png

Atlantis was a rich, wealthy city built by the original Maron of the planet Olath. The Maron sought to grow their imagination by bringing life to inhabitable planets in the universe. The Maron – a white race of humans – had but one purpose: to prosper as wealthy and powerful beings. The Fai – a troll-like race – on the other hand, did not approve of the Marons desire for wealth. The cause would be great enough to tear worlds apart and bring them falling through the dimensions, which the Fai have warned them on multiple occasions.

As they spread throughout the universe, they gathered intelligence of other species. Of all of the ones they had came across, there was one that stood out for both the Fai and the Maron.

The homo sapiens. A species that ravage the lands they walk on, difficult to negotiate with but yet strong and courageous. The Maron were very interested in becoming a part of their order, but the Fai saw only destruction in their wake. Homo sapiens soon took the powers granted by the Maron to expand their knowledge to different planets, and of them was Earth.

The Maron helped them build a city called Atlantis, a circular city encapsulated by reinforced glass, with two outward arcing spires that allowed the sun to emblazon the waters at the bottom of the city, even at night. For almost three hundred million years, homo sapiens triumphed over their glory and wealth. Then the Maron returned.

They came with fire, destruction and in a war that caused the great civilisation of the Atlanteans to fall to the fourth dimension, controlled by cultists from above.

The Fall of Atlantis lies ever closer in the hands of five young heroes, attempting to uncover the mysteries of the current uncorrupted lords of the Maron within their own dimension. Will these heroes be able to stop cultism before the fall, or will the cultists be victorious once again?


Posted by brutalexcess - May 6th, 2015


Hello people of Newgrounds! I have been absent for at least two months on here, not really doing anything in my spare time other than figuring out what to do with my life. However, now that I am no longer employed, I feel I have self-motivated myself into starting a business. "How will you do that?" you ask? I am currently creating an interactive story (from scratch) in HTML5, using jQuery for grabbing data, saving and loading files to the users system, some neat CSS3 and a body of images to back it up. I have employed someone here on Newgrounds to complete some art in the aid of this endeavour.

Below is a screenshot of the current progress of this interactive story:

3884629_143094429052_9eOyXQ2.png

I am using the power of Brackets (an awesome editor for HTML5 and CSS3), which allows me to make changes and seeing them in action without ever needing to alt-tab and refresh; live previewing is a great feature, indeed!

I am also implementing some responsive features so that it may work on tablets and phones well:


3884629_143094428963_vdR82Ww.png

As you can see the game engine is nothing fancy, believe me I'm still getting my head around CSS3 and HTML5 (my JavaScript is better than both combined). Also, as you can also tell, the game is called Fall of Atlantis. I will release a small version of it here, but I do intend to sell this product for the purposes of starting a video games business.

Credits

Art by Ray "MasterMerol" Monter

I will keep you updated on both the engine, content and potentially Art assets.


Posted by brutalexcess - March 29th, 2015


Not much has really happened lately... I started work on a new version of StoryDev, so that it would be more of a visual novel than a text-based interactive story engine. But it seems that is falling apart considering Art is relied on so much, and drawing Art is not my strong point! And with many people disagreeing with the pay rates I am introducing over on the Art forums, I have little support to go by.

As a consequence, I may postpone Ancient Domain until I have the finances to support a project as large as the said game.

I think I will go back to using Twine for the purposes of writing an interactive story; I am not entirely sure what kind of story it is going to be yet. I may create a text-based adventure using Twine and see where that takes me.


Posted by brutalexcess - February 6th, 2015


I have decided - after trying out so many editors online - to choose Weebly as my preferred website design and hosting choice. After much consideration, I believe I may be saving a lot more money than I would using Webs and much of their broken tools after the merge with Vistaprint (a company which clearly does not give a damn about Webs). Webs was a great web host, they allowed me to upload my own customisable website using HTML and CSS code, right off the bat. I could create my own folders in the file manager (which you can no longer do now); I could edit blog posts without links arbitrarily breaking half way through the link itself (which it now does); I could get Webs support within just 5-10 minutes (waiting times are about 30+ mins now). Now Webs has become a money-monger simply out to get every inch of my bank account as humanely possible. Okay, maybe not that ridiculous, but you get my point.

 

With Weebly, I get more features on their Pro package than I do with Webs on their best package for about $40 cheaper (which in my case is about £27). The additional option of selling digital goods is a grand plus, considering I will be selling my video game Ancient Domain (at some point).

 

You can laugh or attempt to embarrass me, but I am not one for website design or development. I would rather pick up a template and work from that, customise the template to my liking and go from there. The reason I do this is because I do not want to spend a year or so designing my own website when I already have tools like Weebly to do all this for me. And as a video game developer, I feel I now have everything I need to get myself started. Laugh all you want, I feel I have made the right choice.

 

My website will eventually become available on this domain. You may wish to come back at a later point when this website finally reflects the changes made to its DNS settings.


Posted by brutalexcess - February 3rd, 2015


The very first mission that you will be introduced to in Ancient Domain is your introduction at Kansan Point. Firstly, you will be taken through a history on why you are the female character Akata Naasun, and then you will be taken to her bedroom at Kansan Point at present day (2043 AD).

The structure can also be used as a guide for later use when playing the game if you wish.

Below is the structure of the entire mission, and here is a link to the original image.

3884629_142300768113_1ReporttotheLieutenant-General.png


Posted by brutalexcess - February 1st, 2015


Ancient Domain, if you are not aware, is going to be an interactive story based on the ancient history of civilisations leading up to Atlantis. The artefacts found within the game will resemble these ancient civilisations in some way, mostly Atlantean artefacts lost when the supercontinent Pangaea was divided over millions of years. There were many times during these periods when the capital populous of 20,000 inhabitants at Atlantis would freeze in time, until it was safe to return to the present.

Atlantis was structured and designed to mimic that of their creators - the Maron. The Maron are the most intelligent, and potentially the oldest, Human race known in the Universe. Their scientific advancements led them to biological cloning, with their final experiment being Homo sapiens, before their final ship got ripped apart by a supernova as they were returning to their home planet.

It was at this time when all Human clones became disconnected from their ancestors and lost the scientific knowledge they once had. Over the millions of years Humans inhabited within Atlantis, many lost their knowledge to the systems used and this became evident in their abuse over it. You see, abuse becomes ignorance, which leads to further abuse.

The artificial systems of Atlantis practically kicked the inhabitants out of the city - one by one - until there was no one left but the city itself and its automated systems. This once glorious city is now a ghost town, frozen in time since 23,618 BC. In that time, the surviving Humans fled North and divided into separate civilisations, leading to further division and - eventually - what we see today.

Ancient Domain is a journey starting at Kansan Point, within the Atlantic Ocean at the Easter Caribbean Reef. Kansan Point will be free forever, to download and play. This area will be used as Testing for future content, which will be released in Chapters.

I am not 100% sure on the amount of Chapters I wish to write, but I can assure you they will be lengthy and well-written!

For a design and overview of the missions to expect in Kansan Point, below is an image, and here is the link to the original.

3884629_142284037773_KansanPoint.png

 

 

 

[EXC] - This means Exclusive. Only one out of the current branch missions may be chosen by the player.

 

I will be using this image here as well as on my forums to show you the progress of missions and details of the game as they are being written.


Posted by brutalexcess - November 13th, 2014


I am currently on a work placement, which means there will be many changes to the way I will be able to deliver content. First of all, for those of you who know about StoryDev, I will be unable to do any video tutorials during the weekdays as I would prefer to do this when I am fully awake and know what I am actually doing, while also having the space required for me to record without interruption. Because of this, I will only be able to upload recorded YouTube videos on the weekend.

This does not mean I will not be updating other websites or at least writing documentation, which I will also be focusing on.

I am also rather excited about the release of Warlords of Draenor, but since a lot of the new content has zones that are almost unplayable at the time of this post, I am considering waiting a while (several weeks) before I decide to get back into it again - if I do.

Starting tomorrow, I am going to be writing some more documentation on the use of StoryDev - the engine and the editor - to help you get started with it. I am very passionate about this project and there are many plans I have yet to reveal, but at present I am not going to say anything yet.

What I will say is that when I eventually get a job and start earning money for once, I will be spending some on marketing StoryDev and also paying someone to overhaul my website. The current website is okay, but it's not the service I ultimately want. In addition, the new website will feature a paid Pay-What-You-Want subscription that will allow you to access multiple services and goods, but I will not go into too much detail right now.

Anyway, StoryDev is my main focus from a business standpoint until I have the finances to fund said website.

I hope you can continue to be patient as I write documentation for this product (if you're even interested in using it to begin with), and I thank you for your patience.


Posted by brutalexcess - November 12th, 2014


For those of you who do not know what StoryDev even is, it is an interactive story engine/editor which allows you to create visually-engaging interactive stories. For a full list of features, you can check them out in a previous article.

Engine

  • Added newLine() function to be used when adding links via code to prevent parsing issues.
  • callEvent() can be used in links again.
  • Added arrows beside the Volumes and Quality control to solve scrolling issues when targeting the Web (using Flash).

Editor

  • Added Import JSON functionality.
  • Provided the ability to change the ID of Game Events and Passages; conflicting IDs do not save.
  • Save, Load and New Project functions no longer creates a project when cancelled.
  • Video Tutorials and Documentation now links to their respective URLs.
  • Added Refresh button to prevent using the Combo Box all the time to refresh the list.

You can download these changes here.

Here is a screenshot of the Import JSON functionality in action:

3884629_141580229083_imWMLKq.png

The above code shown in the lower-most window is code for a Combat screen. The player has 5 turns total to defeat the enemy by clicking on the "Damage Enemy" link, which takes off a random number between 5 and 10 from the enemy. If the enemy falls to 0 or below before 5 turns ends, the player is Victorious, otherwise the player will be Defeated.

For some video tutorials, check my YouTube playlist.

Happy developing/writing!


Posted by brutalexcess - November 8th, 2014


StoryDev is an interactive story editor and engine which allows you to create visually-engaging interactive stories for players to read. For those of you who do not know, here is a list of features you can expect from the engine:

  • Write Passages with Markdown-style formatting to present rich text.

  • Write code in Passages and Game Events to add game mechanics to your passages.

  • Use the Haxe Math class to execute complex algorithms.

  • Customise the look of font colours, sizes and format of links and raw text.

  • Transition the size and location of the Passage and Character Images.

  • Display Character and Background images.

  • Play sound files on multiple channels

  • Use JSON to get creative and make complex data such as enemies, RPG-style combat and even a custom modification on top of this engine.

And here are the features you can expect from the editor:

  • Write Passages and Game Events in an organised manner.

  • Using the Fast Colored Text Box library, you can write code for your game with auto-completion and syntax highlighting.

  • Test your Game easily (currently there is only one target: Flash). We will support native platforms later when OpenFL is more developed.

  • Process Rich Text or Code so that paragraphs, speech marks and the likes are translated into one line compatible for strings in code.

Patch Notes 1.0.2

  • Fixed a bug causing an item to crash the application when clicked twice.
  • Fixed parsing of strings in the exported JSON (use single quotes for coding strings, and double quotes for JSON within single quotes).
  • Fixed the delete function.
  • Added a message for successfully saving and loading projects.

Patch Notes 1.0.3

  • Revamped Game Events; the callEvent(); function can no longer be used with links to fix a problem with the same function outside of links.

You can download the latest version here (ZIP file).


Posted by brutalexcess - November 7th, 2014


Looking for a release of the StoryDev engine and editor? Look no further.

Here is a list of features that you can do with StoryDev:

  • Write Passages with Markdown-style formatting to present rich text.
  • Write code in Passages and Game Events to add game mechanics to your passages.
  • Use the Haxe Math class to execute complex algorithms.
  • Customise the look of font colours, sizes and format of links and raw text.
  • Transition the size and location of the Passage and Character Images.
  • Display Character and Background images
  • Play sound files on multiple channels
  • Use JSON to get creative and make complex data such as enemies, RPG-style combat and even a custom modification on top of this engine.

Over on Github is the source code for the engine and editor. The engine is written in Haxe and OpenFL; currently it only supports Flash for the time being until OpenFL supports some more TextField functions required for it to run natively on Windows, Linux and Mac. The main aim of the engine is to target multiple platforms, of course. If I am feeling ambitious enough, I may even attempt to port the engine over to Android and iOS, but that's talking too far in the future at present.

The editor, on the other hand, is written in C# and currently only available for Windows users with the .NET Framework 4 downloaded and installed. Eventually, I wish to create a GTK# application with MonoDevelop, but some features, such as the Fast Colored Text Box (beautiful library, by the way), may need to be sacrificed for this port to work.

You can download and install the latest version of the StoryDev editor here.

Looking for screenshots?