Xomnus Games

AFTERMATH 8 YEARS SINCE:

It’s been over 8 years since I released my first actual indie game, Aftermath(metroidvania rpg/platformer), back in 9th grade. Still to this day I wonder what in the world made me decide to make such a long epic. Anyways heres a map of the full game!

As you can tell I wasn’t the best artist when I was 15.

(Link for Bigger picture: http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad119/Xomnus/CU_Aftermath_Map.png )

But the scope for the game was crazy for a game I made in highschool. 17 boss fights, 10+ areas, over 4 hours of gameplay. Still today I get mail from gamemaker game fans about how much they loved the boss fights. Atleast I did something right! I learned a lot from this project.

PS. I am currently finishing up Homeward, Pid Rescue, and Virtual Sprouts this semester. Then I’m moving on to new projects. There’s a lot to come!

Welcome to my website! Heres a short video showcasing most of my game projects:

I am currently in the process of applying for a design internship so I’m investing most of my time into that! Keep a watch on my website for updates and more info on past projects.

Well this semester has given a new meaning to “hard work”. I am working on 3 student game projects not including all the classes I’ve been taking. I am also working on two small game prototypes in the meantime. I also started working out, going to the gym a lot. Needless to say, I’ve been sleeping less than 7 hours every day to get stuff done.

To start this post off, I’ll be making a lot of changes to the website soon to reflect all the new work I’ve been doing. I’ll be posting TONS of theory of design as well as actual level design stuff.

Starting up, I made a Knytt Stories Level for class but I was very proud of it. It took me about 3 days, about 4-5 hours of work each day. It’s decently short, about 8-10 minutes long.
You may watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiG8vzGWaLE

Or play it here: (Download the original game: http://nifflas.ni2.se/?page=Knytt+Stories   Download the level: http://www.mediafire.com/?k4xep11at6i627k )

Hope You like it! I’ll changing up my web tabs by “Game Projects”, “Level Design”, and “Game Design Rambling” where I talk about my personal design philosophies.

Also Homeward, the advanced game project I’m Lead Design for is going swell.

Look forward to it…

Summer has been busy!  Putting up a short post since there isn’t a lot to report on.

Although I expect my work with Pid Rescue to be done by the end of the summer, it probably won’t be released until a bit after that. Since there won’t be much to report expect a lot of pictures and game design theory posts coming up. My follow up to my boss battles post is very much overdue.

As for my second project Homeward, which is a USC advanced game project. The design is way ahead of schedule so I will focus on finishing up Pid Rescue before continuing. Look forward to both games! Homeward has been submitted to Indiecade, hopefully we get in!

USC semester is almost over and projects keep piling up!

First off I’d like to mention that Obscuro was picked for USC’s First Move Event at the Directors Guild of America. This was a great experience as we had great positive reactions from all players in the gallery. The fact that the game is about 10 minutes long makes it great for a gallery setting.

Check it out here:

TRAILER

DOWNLOAD

I am currently working on an independent Ipad Game currently code named Rocket Rescue as well as an advanced game project at USC called Homeward.

Sorry for taking so long to post, more coming very soon!

Play as a small stubby creature trying to save the mystical forest from evil robots!

Download(Windows)

 -http://www.mediafire.com/?ncvv6112j7xax8w-

Youtube Trailer (Gamplay Footage is Sped Up)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjdLCZeepPc&context=C3a28a85ADOEgsToPDskKtYtGJVIks3KaeCSoBsxcu

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SoundTrack Download

http://www.mediafire.com/?wlv7785vwu4kzl5

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The platforming game I’ve been working on is almost complete! Expect it to be finished February 1st! =D

Incase you don’t know much about it, here are the details:

-You play as a stubby character that can change elements

-Adventure focuses more on puzzles rather than platforming

-Its a short adventure (1 hour)

-There are angry robots with lasers

Other than Out of Element, me and my friend Alex worked on a game called OBSCURO over the weekend for a 48 hour competition!

It was for Mini Ludum Dare 31 and the theme was fear! D=< We were pretty impressed with ourselves, its pretty scary.

Heres a link to the game(if you dare):  http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-31/?action=preview&uid=4843

Hey! I’m making a small post to celebrate being done with my semester. Over the winter break I’ll finally have time to finish the Four Elements game and hopefully apply for some summer internships!

That being said! If you are checking my website while reviewing one of my applications then welcome! Make sure to check my “about” section and thanks for considering me.

I know this has been a fairly short post, but I surely post some more soon. I have to finish “My History With Boss Battles” and I am also writing a criticism of Dark Souls.

I really enjoy boss battles. I like playing them and I like making them.

I am writting this post mostly because I came to realize the inmense amount of time I have invested into brainstorming cool boss battle ideas. I have made in total over 50+ boss battles. Yeah… thats pretty intense. Unfortunately over half of those are pretty bad xD. I really learned a lot over the years and I just want to put in writting how my boss battles have evolved and also give you an idea of mistakes designers SHOULDN’T make.

Cyberworld:

Oh yeah! Its my very first complete game, it was a top-view zelda/bomberman hyrbid. It wasn’t that good on graphics (Actually the graphics where straight-up paint and it was UGLY), but it did have awesome level design. 8 bosses populated the game, and ALL of them where way too hard. Of coarse I was 14 years old back then so I made bosses with attacks that where both unpredictable and hard to dodge. I expected the player to get all of the upgrades and all of the secrets before fighting each boss which also turned out to be very challenging. My friends would get to the second boss and quit because it was too hard.

What I learned:

• Don’t playtest bosses yourself.
• If your character takes damage when in contact with a boss, don’t make him have to stand right next to the boss to attack him(Yep lol).
• Challenge does not equal fun.
• The greatest boss battles turned out to be the ones that felt most fair.
• Make each boss unique, don’t give them simillar attacks
• Make intro bosses teach the player something.

All of these seem pretty obvious today hehe.

School:

School is a top view game where you must go around a school solving puzzles and beating up bosses with dodgeballs. This game had 10 bosses, most of them where very simple, only having one or two attacks. What I aimed to do with this bosses was to make them short and sweet. Each boss would have a different twist. This for the most part worked out extremely well. One thing that made the fights better was the context in which you fought each boss. One boss, “The spanish teacher”, was known by the characters in the game for being boring. Many of the npc’s tell you about her making the confrontation much more exciting. When the player fights her, he already knows what to expect, her abilities included shifting gravity and slowing time. As the fight goes the player and the objects in the room get pushed around. .

What I learned:

• Giving each boss a signature ability is awesome!
• Short bosses are good, but boss battles that last longer than 3-4 minutes are epic!
• I almost hit the sweet spot with the difficulty in this game, I just need to make it a notch easier.
• Most of my friends/playtesters got to the final boss and quit. Thats bad.

To be continued….

Unfortunately on the day after my birthday last month my computer decided to explode on me. I lost a couple of weeks of progress on Four elements, that is also why I have not been able to put many videos on my youtube channel. I was pretty bummed out but mostly because I was really excited about the channel I was setting up.

On a brighter note, Dark Souls was phenomenal. I recently finished my first playthrough. Certainly one of my favourite games this year. The game plays pretty differently from Demon Souls, sometimes in a good way! I did feel some areas where more linear than in Demon Souls and some bosses had some specific issues… As for my favourite boss, I’d say hands down “Ornstein and Smough”. Play it!

I have been busy this month and it seems that will not change for a while! I will try my best to finish up Four Elements ASAP so I can go into newer projects…