Sunday, December 20, 2020

Hollow Knight Softie

 

My son and I have been playing a lot of Hollow Knight on Switch lately (eagerly waiting for any more news on the release for Silksong!). In fact I played the game when it first came out almost (more than?) two years ago, and I remember I got about halfway through and then things just got a bit too hard :) and I moved on to other games. Recently my son picked up the game (with relatively little platformer experience) but already he is well past where I got up to (young minds learn new skills so fast), so I decided to start a new game again and I've been loving it.

Anyway, I decided it was time to get the old needle and thread out again and do another softie, this time making a little Knight. He will be a Christmas present for my son (who otherwise said he wants Silksong for Christmas, but we will have to wait for that one :)). I might end up making a few additional accessories and maybe even a Hornet doll to go with him if I'm feeling bored over the holidays!

Merry Christmas for 2020!


Edit (Feb 2021): So I also ended up making a Hornet doll, because it was fun and and an extra birthday present for my son. Making softies is addictive :)




Tuesday, December 1, 2020

PyWeek 30: Marooned

"Marooned" was my solo entry for PyWeek 30 (September 2020), a twice yearly video game development competition that gets competitors to build a complete game from scratch in seven days using the python programming language. This competition's theme was "Castaway", and I made a 3D platforming game where you play as an astronaut that is stranded in an asteroid field after your spacecraft was forced to self-destruct. The game requires you to try and build items that will help you on your quest to repair and re-launch your escape pod by using the scraps and debris that you find around you. While on the asteroid field, you encounter hostile alien lifeforms that escaped from your ship, so the game has a mixture of platforming and 3D shooting as well. 





I had a lot of fun making this one, and was pretty happy that I managed to get most assets of the game up and running (code, art, modelling, music, sound) myself, without having to rely on many third-party ones (I had to use a few fonts and textures from external, free sources). The game ended up coming second in the solo division with a score of 3.96/5.0, so I was pretty happy with the result :).

Playthrough Video:

You can also download the game and play in from source (required Python, Pygame and PyOpenGL) here.