Well it looks like I am taking a couple weeks break for now. I have asked my programmers if they needed anything before I went on vacation and they seem okay for now. I may work on some concept art or adding more to the mockup, but I wouldn't expect much until I return on June 4th.

I got a initial mockup for the tutorial section of Supernatural Defense: http://www.esnips.com/displayimage.php?pid=34094589 (you may have to watch it twice as esnips loads it slow or something the first time). It will show players which weapons to use against each foe. Still working on sounds, though I may have some background music now. Projects are almost set to go on hold for a week as I go on a vacation with my family on the 26th though.

Hopefully by then my programmers have caught up a bit and I can hit the art a bit harder then I have been. I really am looking forward to entering the contest Westwood is offering for these games I am creating, but a lot is riding on: can the programmers create something close enough to the original design plan and will it be fun? Still, I am happy to continue working on these sorts of projects as they provide valuable experience; they are also quite fun to create!

I have made contact with the programmer for Supernatural defense and he says things are going well, but the base defenses are not tracking properly. Some design compromises might need to be made but I told him to try and get the original design to work. As such the mockup was put on hold due to this, but I will keep in touch and I have all the elements ready to go except sounds. For now here is how I envision a screenshot of the game to look:

Just a simple hp indicator in the upper left corner with some way to track score and progress on the bottom of the screen. We also see the holy water cannon selected and being put to use on a demon. Some refinements may yet be made, but for now this will be the basis for my mockup should my programmer get those turrets to work correctly.

Sorry for the slow updates... I always seem to slow down a bit towards the end of a project (mainly to let my partners catch up it seems, since usually one should probably rush to finish the game when near the end). The art is fairly quick with simpler games where one knows details will be less noticeable due to screen size. Currently all that is left is to get some sounds and make a mockup of the game, maybe a couple interface elements. This week I revisited another old project that should do nicely for the intro screen to this game:

We have our werewolf silhouetted by the moon and various creatures in the background, I always figured the best way to introduce a game is to show a player the enemy first. Of course, previews of the scenery are not a bad idea either. This actually started as an illustrator file (vector art), I decided to make the werewolf softer and more like a painting though with my tablet and Photoshop.

Anyways, I am still waiting to hear back on the progress from the programmer, hopefully I get news soon. C ya next week!

Sprite animations complete! Upper left/center is Fae units, far right are demons and lower left are werewolves. We should now have everything we need for a basic game: enemies, a map with various time settings, a base with defenses, and projectiles to kill the enemies.

Next up is finishing up the very basic interface which should include a health bar for the player, a wave counter, and maybe a score indicator. Also I need to work on an intro screen and various sounds to go with these animations.

Supernatural Defense is moving right along, and I can't wait to hear what updates my programmer has on the project.