The interactive story engine, StoryDev, is finally complete. This is the engine I said I was creating. The engine has the following features:

• Separate Audio volumes (Music, Vocals and SFX)
• Background and Character images
• Passages
• Game Events (loopable code blocks)
• Uses code directly to manipulate and change Passages, and also has HTML capability.
• Can use the Math class from Haxe, and also stringify and parse JSON. You can also execute mathematical sums using the "string" function.
• The ability to undo, but only once, using the "goBack" function.
• Transition and customise the size and location of Passages and Character images.
• Save and Load games (exclusive, meaning only one save slot)

So what makes this different from the rest of the interactive story engines?

Firstly, it is written in Haxe, which means no HTML5 or JavaScript. But I have kept the engine as complex as the others by giving you the ability to add code to make Passages as complex as can be.

Secondly, this engine, unlike Twine for example, has an options menu with separate audio sliders, adjustable texture quality, and native sound support. Twine does not support Sound natively, and meant that you needed to download a macro that allowed for that support, or required you to have JS knowledge otherwise.

Thirdly, the editor is going to be designed in a way that meets both the programmers and authors needs by using WYSIWYG interfaces, while also providing the tools to go more complex, such as coding.

Here is the final product, which unfortunately doesn't work very well in a browser as a consequence of using the mouse wheel for changing sound and quality options (maybe that was a terrible idea?). The good thing is that this game is cross-platform, which means you do not need a browser to play with this game engine.

Alternatively, if you don't like the awkward volume control options in a browser, you can download the SWF, along with the source code, over on Github.

Please give me feedback and let me know what you think. An editor is on its way!

Me and MintPaw are currently in progress of developing a video game engine known as StoryDev. It is an interactive story engine mostly supporting Flash at the moment, but we are going to look into supporting Desktop and Mobile platforms (at some point). For now, the engine as it currently stands is on Github and is mostly completed, all that needs to be done is a Main Menu with Sound control options, Save, Load and Return to Main Menu functions... possibly Display options as well in terms of texture quality, fullscreen on or off, and resolution options for the desktop port.

I am currently working on the editor and hope to get it done soon. Soon could, in theory, mean any time, as I have revamped the design so many times that it's beginning to get frustrating. However, now that the engine's core functionality is pretty much complete, I no longer need to worry about redesigning the interface every 5 seconds.

Excited? I certainly am. I personally cannot wait to complete the Editor, not only for my own sakes, but for everyone wishing to create their own interactive stories. When it's complete, I will show you all of the features of the editor.

By the way, you can create interactive stories with StoryDev and sell them if you wish, or give them away! That is entirely up to you, and the license gives you full opportunity to sell your story. Although I would appreciate it if you didn't sell the engine itself, nor the editor.

With that in mind, you can write an interactive story with StoryDev without an editor, but it would be difficult to say the least. Since it is written in Haxe, and you want to create games with the engine, you will need pre-requisites: the Haxe Toolkit and OpenFL - then either FlashDevelop or Haxe Studio for an IDE. It is possible with a text editor, but I would not recommend it.

The editor is being written in C# - sorry non-Windows users - since it is a lot easier and faster to write GUI applications in .NET over any other IDE/language.

Still, I hope you like the sounds of this and I hope the editor will be done in a week or so - two weeks maximum.

For a more up-to-date version of the game engine, I have a fork on Github with more features.

Try out the latest test here.

Anxiety... It's a condition I have suffered with for many years, which I truly believe to be caused by my caffeine addictions. Anxiety I also believe to be causing me to do some stupid things, start new projects and then discontinue them. I don't know why I bother sometimes. I really want to make a game, and then anxiety kicks in and I feel like the project won't get me anywhere.

Because of anxiety, I have a lack of self-motivation and self-confidence. Anxiety is like a starting point before full-blown mental depression occurs. Anxiety can keep us in-doors, because we fear that we may upset someone, or we fear nothing will get done; we become pessimistic about ourselves and our ability to develop ourselves as a person.

Anxiety is a mental barrier for inner progress, the ability to develop and improve on our personal skills and abilities. That is what anxiety is doing to me right now. It is causing me to fail on countless occassions, and yet I continue to drink away at the caffeine that I know is inflicting me with this condition. Caffeine is a drug with symptoms for being on it, and symptoms for withdrawing.

They say caffeine is the least harmful drug; physically speaking, yes; mentally speaking, no. Caffeine is one of those drugs that can deal serious mental damage in the long run. It makes us do stupid things, make stupid decisions and even cause us to rely on the drug to keep doing our daily activities. Caffeine is like that for me.

That is why I am getting no where with my projects... One day, I really do hope to create a game. But this requires not drinking caffeine, and slowly but surely removing it from my system. Until that day, I guess I won't be making anything or completing any projects.

Sorry everyone...

Only the Shadow, which some of you may know, is going to become a collectible crystal game and interactive story in one. The aim of the video game is to teach the player that maintaining mental health and seeking inner peace is essential for mental survival, if not survival overall.

As we are all fully aware by now, Human life - just like all other life - have survival instincts. We all do what we can to survive. This game teaches you how to survive from a spiritual perspective, taking into account real-life events and materials. All known crystals, using Judy Hall's "The Illustrated Guide to Crystals" book as reference, will be added to this game, and its properties mimicked to match that of the game's combat mechanics.

If you are a contributor, you will be listed below under one of the following roles: Artist, Coder, Writer or Musician.

Artists

None yet

Coders

Myself (brutalxcess)

Writers

Myself, Brian Brown

Musicians

None yet

As a reward for your hard work, you will gain a reserve of money via Newgrounds monetising system. Later, I wish to put the completed game on my own website and collect Pay-What-You-Want donations to the project (accessing more content to the game), which will then be shared with members of the team. However, MONEY IS NOT THE FOCUS.

The aim of this project is to help contributors improve on their skills through this collaborative work, otherwise I would not be writing this project to begin with.

In a way, I tend to get carried away with wanting to make such a large project that it never gets finished, because I lack the self-motivation to do so. This is a huge problem I have which I hugely wish to overcome, and I cannot do that without contributors and your support. This is a large project, but an ambitious one.

With all your combined efforts, we can make a game to stand the test of time and really make something unique and original. Those of you who are in the list above, I hope we can all help each other in improving our skills and building a game together.

Seeking Peace is currently a work-in-progress video game that I have recently uploaded here and is undergoing some pretty hefty changes. Over the course of the next few weeks, I am going to be learning JavaScript, CSS and jQuery to make this game more interesting.

In the next patch, I will be implementing city exploration. As you explore, you will discover new people to speak with, be able to find gold, and there will even be a mini-game known as the Science Festival where you will make virtual games and show them off to the public. These features are being planned and implemented as we speak, but it is a huge amount of work for an already short game.

If you have any JavaScript, jQuery, HTML and CSS experience, then PM me and you can contribute. You will require Twine and possibly a JavaScript editor to make your life easier. This is voluntary as I do not have the finances to pay you, but I can share any revenue I receive through the game! The more people that volunteer, the less share of the revenue you will get - simple.

...stop saying I am creating a game until I have actually completed one?

Crystal Empires is being abandoned... Sorry. I will probably go back to that project later when I am financially secure and am able to recruit people to develop it with me, otherwise I will keep going backwards and forwards not doing anything. What I need most is motivation, and I lack self-motivation which is probably as a consequence of caffeine addictions.

Maybe I will create a game... one day...

I have finally made a game... That sounds weird coming from me. But it is in its Beta phase, at the moment. Here is a brief description and some features.

Crystal Empires is a video game made with RPG Maker VX Ace. The project hosts a variety of interesting features influenced by other games, including Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft.

These features include:

• The ability to earn reputation with factions as you aid people within them by following their discussions and making the right decisions.
• Unlock spells by acquiring items and handing them in to the respective character. Once they gain enough intelligence, they will reward you with a spell book which you can give to any character.
• Dungeons that can be reset and allow the player to obtain larger amounts of experience than normal.
• Obtain and purchase high level items from factions (at a given reputable level) to claim and defeat secret bosses around the world.

You can find a link to download it over on Github. Because of download sizes, I may resort to one major update each month for your convenience. Please let me know in the comments if you have any problems loading the game.

This is not a game... it was a game idea, but not anymore. It is now a script and I am actually considering to seek people on this website to produce an animated short film with that script at some point. Oh, you want to read the script?

No problem! Here is a link. It is available on Wattpad for anyone who wishes to read it!

Where are games?

You may be asking yourself. Colour Matching has not been updated in a very long time, and I have a reason for that. I am not sure how good of a reason it may be, but let's get started.

Colour Matching is going to be a game, but not right now. It is too complex to develop at this time, I do not have very good Flash knowledge, and developing a complex game with little Flash knowledge on the Flash platform is just rather stupid. I am moving on to simpler games in environments I am familiar with.

I am going to be developing an open source and free video game which I will primarily be earning income from ad revenue via the videos I am producing explaining how this game is being made.

Before these videos go up onto YouTube, however, I will be producing videos up to at least near completion of the Gameplay mechanics before I decide to upload, as well as some other features to add to the game to make it possible to pause the game and navigate a somewhat featureless main menu.

This may take several weeks before this actually happens, but I thought I'd let you know now so that you are comfortable something is happening. It is a game I have enjoyed writing a story for up to this point. I have written 53 pages worth of dialogue to put into this game, so I hope I continue these efforts in order to make something possible.

Thank you for your patience!

Alpha Testing for Colour Matching is now available to view here:

http://www.newgrounds.com/projects/games/702252/preview

You must be a member of the project to view the preview; however, you may send me a PM or comment below asking for a project invite. It is in a Pre-Alpha build at the moment, but during this time I would like first impressions on the core mechanics of the game.

As instructions for the game, use A, S and D to match colours to their respective colours (Red, Green and Blue). From time to time, secondary colours appear and respective colours will be highlighted, these colours mix to make that visible secondary colour. Press one of the two highlighted colours for score.

The scoring system and the skill system are simply for visual purposes and do not do anything special as of yet (I will be implementing high score boards when the game is at a sufficient build). For now, I would just like some opinions. Thank you for your consideration.