Pekka Kana 3 images

Because of public demand (mostly Ivan), I posted some development screen shots of PK3 to the forum. Many of the screens are quite old and from deleted test levels so they aren't images of the actual game. The game itself is about 5% done and might eventually look completely different.

Piste Gamez @ Assembly 2009 - Q-Lat3

News people! Piste Gamez is going to Assembly 2009 event this year, and we have something new to show! At the beginning of this year I prototyped a new version of Q-Lat with our new editor, and things got a little out of hand... Now after half a year Q-Lat3 is nearly complete, and soon ready for revelation. My first goal was to release it in March to celebrate my 30 full years of existence, but I thought that the game still needed some polish and love at that stage. So now the plan is that we'll contribute the game to the Assembly game development competition. So keep an eye on Assembly's site, since that will be the first place to find it!

Release of Q-Lat3 will also mean the first release of our new engine and a software with working title Piste Player, that you can use to play the games made with our new game editor.

All of this means unfortunately, that PK3 has been on hold for the entire year. The good news is, that while making Q-Lat3 we added a lot of stuff to the editor and engine, that can be used in PK3 too.

Merry X-mas and happy New Year!

Since year 2008 is closing to an end I thought I'd should write something about it. This year has been an exceptionally busy year for me. Unfortunately the busyness has been mostly work related, which means I haven't been able to spent as much quality to time with PK3 as I intended. So the bad news is that Pekka Kana 3 won't be ready 2009. :( The good news is, that the game editor we've been building to make PK3 has progressed leaps and bounds. A while ago I started doing a small tech demo for it, to see if it could handle a game that is completely different than PK3. As usual, things got a little out of hand, and the small tech demo grew a bit bigger than intended. So there probably will be a release in 2009 even though it's not poultry related. :) I'm sure this will be a disappointment to many, but that's how it sometimes is in the world of free games. The money has to come from somewhere else.
Anyways, lesson learned here is that there will be no more pompous release year announcements since it's too hard to predict in what ways the real world will mess with my hobby next year. I'll update the blog once we got something interesting to tell. I hope it's soon.

But despite of all that, I still dare to hope you all have a merry X-mas and a happy New Year :)

Slow, Slower, Piste Gamez

Has it really been 6 months since I last posted? Time sure goes fast.
A lot of changes have been made to the editor and the game, as you might
see from the updated picture on top of this page (if you still remember
the previous one). After reviewing some of the comments at the forum about
Pekka's new look (he being fat with big boobs), I decided to redraw him
once again (we do read all the feedback although were too lazy.. erm busy
to reply). I'm actually pretty happy with the new look now. Surprisingly
I learned a few new things while doing Elf Destruction which helped doing
the new Pekka. Even though it's 2008 I still work mostly with Deluxe Paint
via DosBox and use Gimp for post work like adjusting levels and making
alpha masks. The process is slow but sometimes I actually manage to do
something decent that way.

Jerome has done excellent job with the editor, and there have been big
changes since Elf Destruction. Scripting will be more important now and
there will be less hard coded stuff. Most stuff in the Elf Destruction
were hard coded to the game since time constraints, and are not usable
for PK3 anymore. What comes to Pekka Kana 3, I wouldn't call it even a
game yet, since even most of the basic functionality is still far from
done. We have collision detection and lots of pretty effects but no
actual game play yet. Well, once the editor starts to be in a stable
state the real work with writing the scripts will begin. Which is a lot
of work and year 2009 is coming fast. Or at least it feels that way.

Oh yeah, and we apologize for the black sprite problem with Elf
Destruction. There is a bug in the game that causes sprites to go
black with some new graphics cards. Hopefully this didn't spoil
your holidays.

Happy New Year!

Accompanied by a complete renewal of the site's design, our Christmas/New Year surprise is finally ready for it's public release. It was supposed to be little tech demo showing off the capabilities of the upcoming editor, but we go a little carried away with it... The game is titled Elf Destruction, and it's a simple jump & run game where you collect gifts, throw snowballs at snowmen and kick their ass (you can do that literally!). You know, the usual Christmas stuff.
We were planning to release the game dramatically 1.1.2008, but what the heck, I'm sure nobody minds if we are a little ahead of schedule ;)

One thing I need to say is that although it's a tech demo, there is a lot of hard coded stuff too, because we wanted to get the game ready in time. What is hard coded is enemy AI, number displays, Elf's attacks and variables that update when items are collected. But most of the work with enemies and levels were really done in the editor, and I think it's pretty decent game made in about 2 months by two people who have (real) jobs and all. It's not very long, but hopefully fun all the way.

So grab the game from our renovated site and enjoy! Or get frustrated, because it's not a very easy game. ;) Some beta testers did have problems running the game under Windows 98 and Vista, so it may not be the best present for everyone.

Still, Happy New Year and Post Christmas!

Santa's Coming Late This Year

Despite of our best efforts, we had to give our Christmas present a new deadline, which is now 1st of January. Christmas just came too fast this year. I never thought I'd say that...

I've also worked with a new site design for Piste Gamez that will (hopefully) see the daylight the same day we reveal our gift. So do come and visit us at www.pistegamez.net after you have recovered from all your New Year partying ;)

Wrapping Presents...

It just might be that this year Piste Gamez has (finally?) a small Christmas surprise to give. Or at least we are working hard to make it happen. No promises yet, though. If it doesn't make it in time, it just has to be a ... uh ... New Year's present?

And it's not PK3, if you wondered. But it is a glimpse of things to come, anyways. ;) And maybe a tradition we will repeat next year too.

Stay tuned for more information. And remember: Elfs are watching...