Hi people!
CHECK OUT MY GAME I MADE :D

I've been working on this thing for several years, and I'm super excited to finally have something to show for it!
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?! go play it!

Sometime last summer, the project file for Sol got corrupted, and I ended up having to start from scratch (sortof...) I've been pulling art assets and stuff out of old archived files and piecing together the game. This is definitely not the first time this has happened (which is why this thing has taken so damn long to finish >:0) I think flash has a problem with large .flas or something because I periodically have to do this really bizarre ritual involving resaving the file onto a flash drive and then copying it back to the computer in order to get the thing to export a .swf, which is really not helpful to my productivity.

The good news is that since last summer I've managed to get a little more than half of the game working again, thanks in no small part to not being at highschool anymore and having basically as much free time as I want. Of course, I spend most of that time just trying to get a .swf exported, but hey, it's better than nothing. I'm starting to seriously think about doing the game in two episodes. It wouldn't be ideal, but at least it would get finished. I really just want to get this thing done, it's been waaay too long.

I don't know at this point if anybody's still looking forward to this or just given up on it or what, but I'm still working on the sequel to SOL. I had been having a lot of problems with CS3's compiler, but I recently upgraded to CS4 and discovered that adobe actually fixed a lot of problems with it! At this point I have a bunch of content made, I just have to get it all linked up and working, and then make an ending. I don't know how long it's going to take, but I'm aiming to get this sucker finished ASAP (I think I've been working on it on and off for like... 3 years? Crazy.) I'm really excited about it and I think the finished product is going to be really cool. I haven't looked yet, but I'm hoping to implement that newish achievements feature newgrounds has.

Whether it gets finished or not, a lot of material from the game went into my art portfolio for UCLA, where I'm happy to say I'll be studying Design and Media Arts next year!

I thought I might leave you all with a fancy little poster thing I made one day just for kicks. Newgrounds is going to scale it down, but I think you'll get the idea.

Hey everyboday!
It was just pointed out to me I hadn't made a post in just over a year... so I thought I'd give it a go.

I've been working on the new SOL game on and off for over a year now, and its still not quite done. I've been having a lot of problems with flash, it seems to like crashing randomly and it doesn't want to export the .swf file. so... work on it has gone pretty slow. It doesn't help that I keep getting new ideas for stuff I want to put in. I could probably spend another 3 years working on this thing and not get everything I want in there.

The game is already well over the 10 mb limit, and I'm not quite sure what to do about it. It's got amazing music that I really don't want to compress, and a bunch of artwork and stuff that seems to take up a lot of space. And I'm not finished with it yet >:(. I've been thinking about splitting the game into two halves, although I'd like for there to be side-quests that would involve you visiting previously explored areas. I'm really conflicted about this, I'd love to hear people's opinions.
Oh, and I've got to thank everyone who's messaged me about the game, I love all the enthusiasm!

I figure I'll just keep working on it, and put it out when it's ready. I've got a plan that I'm going to start adhering to now, rather than just add whatever I think is cool, so expect the last half of the game to have a little more... direction than the first.

I've included a loverly mountain scene from the game, for your enjoyment.
Sorry it's taking so long guys!
-Nick

HOLA!, it's been a while since I made a news post and I thought I'd show you what I've been working on over the summer. The game is looking good, although it's very time consuming because I'm trying to pay very close attention to detail with the graphics. Don't expect it to be finished any time soon, I've got a lot of work ahead of me and school is starting soon.

Anyways, about the picture; After playing DAWN several times through I was kind of unhappy with how you were just magically transported to the sunken city, so I thought this time I might take advantage of the clockwork themed enemies and make a kick-ass submarine for you to ride in! There's going to be more cool stuff in the level once it's finished, but I don't want to spoil too much.

Tom continues to produce excellent music for the game, I hope you'll check out some of his more recent additions to his myspace. I thought the track Sunken City and Clockworks was particularly awesome.

-Nick

Work on SOL is progressing slowly, but the game is shaping up very well! Right now I'm trying to work out how water will look. I know it's pretty small, but the picture I've included shows on the left a new technique for water I'm trying out versus how I've done it so far. I'm having a hard time getting it to look right though, hopefully some people have some suggestions?

My friend tom is writing music for the game, which is sounding absolutely fantastic. You can check out some of the stuff he's written on his myspace page. The first two on his player are going to be in the game, and the last one I think he's going to rework for a different area than originally intended.

-Nick

somebody hacked SOL: Dawn and made this trainer thing out of it, which is pretty cool. It lets you set all your stats, unlock moves, kill enemies instantly... I'm flattered somebody went to all this trouble, lol.

You can find the trainer here.

also, here's another pic of the sequel, this time from a cut scene. I'm trying to have an actual story in this one, simple as it may be. You might recognize the lady in orange from the last pic I put up.

Stolen Game
Wow, I didn't think this would ever happen to me...
These two guys decided to steal my flash game Squareman and upload it under their own names
. That's BS, my name is in the menu, and if you look at my profile there are 2 sequels as well.

I sent a PM to wade fulp, hopefully it gets taken care of, but it still pisses me off.

SOL 2
For anybody that cares, work on SOL 2 is going really slowly. I've just been really busy with school (and by that I mean band class) and haven't had the time to work on it. Here's a pic from the first level for anyone who's interested. It's a shot of the fight screen during sunset. I'm happy with how it turned out.

Overall, people seemed to enjoy sol, so I think a sequel might be in order.
I've been reading the reviews (almost 100 right now, wooaaah!) and I'm paying attention to all of your suggestions. I think that a real-time style battle system will be more interesting than the turn-based one , which will hopefully keep fights exciting and challenging. Certain bugs (wind god health up...) and lack of story are big issues, as well as inventory. All of these are things I'm definitely looking at fixing up in the next one. Thus far, the graphics are much, much better, with new times of day each with their own lighting effects (morning, day, sunset, night). I'm not sure if the clock will be real-time, as someone mentioned, waiting 12 hours for a certain move to become effective would be a pain. Inventory starts at 5, but can be upgraded, and you can carry two weapons and two sheilds at a time.
I think this one may be a little shorter, hopefully it won't take 2 years :S

Any input is appreciated, guys! I wanna hear your ideas!
also, here's a little preview pic of some characters I drew already:

SOL: Dawn
Check it out everybody, the game's finally here! sorry for the delay, my sponsor has been like on vacation or something for what seems like forever... but he's back so here it is!

Have fun!