00:00
00:00
blakemoso
Blake Mann @blakemoso

Age 30, Male

Student

Canada

Joined on 4/2/11

Level:
5
Exp Points:
200 / 280
Exp Rank:
> 100,000
Vote Power:
4.19 votes
Rank:
Civilian
Global Rank:
79,870
Blams:
12
Saves:
65
B/P Bonus:
0%
Whistle:
Normal
Trophies:
1
Medals:
249

Blackwood Prologue

Posted by blakemoso - July 19th, 2012


My game, Blackwood Prologue, was published to Newgrounds today.

This is my very first flash game, slowly developed over the course of a year, with a lot of trial and error along the way!
It's (meant to be) a moody atmospheric side-scrolling game, more focused on art and sound than actual game play. This style, some might recognize, is based off of games like Coma and Nevermore.

In-fact, Coma was my main inspiration for this game.. As I was playing it for the third of fourth time, I thought, "I could make a better game than this!". A pretty bold statement, because I quite like Coma, but the reasoning behind it was the fact that Coma lacked a real tangible storyline. The storyline of Coma is obscure and more of an allusion to a storyline. By that, I mean that rather than having a storyline, Coma forces you to imagine your own storyline for a game. A cool Idea, but I think a game that has a solid lengthy story, as well as the deep atmosphere and feeling of these types of games would be even more well received, so I began to plot out a story for my own game. Blackwood Prologue is not that game though.

As I had never made any games before, I wanted to make a short little game to test my skills, and see if I could actually pull off the game that I wanted to make... Blackwood Prologue was born! I didn't put much thought into the storyline, and in-fact, it has no storyline... it simply carries symbolism and hints that point towards important events that will happen in the true Blackwood game/series. In this regard, it came out looking a lot more similar to Coma than I had planned (with the whole dreamy atmosphere, the purposeful confusing state of mind that it puts you in as you try to work out the symbolism), and I hope that no one, least of all Coma's creator feel like my game is a rip-off of his great work.... I certainly promise the next Blackwood game I make will stray much farther away, and truly be it's own game.

That being said, I'm taking a break from Blackwood while I work on my new game, as I wanted to try out a different style, so a sequel to Prologue will be quite a ways away from now. Hopefully by then I will be able to shore up my weaknesses that were clearly evident through the development of Prologue, and be able to create a game of higher standards. That's not to say that Prologue is a horrible game, I am quite proud of it, especially as my very first game, but as my first game, I could only accomplish so much, and there are places where it is lacking. But those are my own opinions... make sure you go play the game and leave me yours, so I can see it through your perspective!


Comments

For me the games reminded me of Skinny, (created by the same person who came up with coma), because of the orb searching and the spiders were similar. i like the plotand style of coma and skinny, thats why I played blackwood.your games is more interesting because it will continue in to a longer story than coma or skinny.

It's been so long since I've played skinny I don't even remember what it's like... Coma was definitely better for me...

Anyways, thanks! I'm taking a brief break from Blackwood to work on a slightly different game, which hopefully will be finished within a the next couple months, then after that, it's full steam ahead on the development of Blackwood, and I've got some pretty big ideas for it!

Unfortunately, big ideas mean lengthy development, so it's probably a good way into the future. :(

Nice mate, really did a great job here :)

I love this moody style of games, you managed to creat a great atmosphere and a real "dreamy" feel to it, I'm looking forward for the real game

I really do hope you continue to make more. The game was great and did remind me of both Nevermore , The Coma, Skinny, and...(um...forgot what it was called. Woops). But anyway keep up the good work.

I remember the name of the other game now, It was Prior.

Coma skinny nightsky naught nevermore1-3 Q-compressing the heart ErlinE grey armed w/ wings1-3 prior all have the same art style, some more than others, but they consist of my favorite style. Sooner or later Brackenwood, all of it can join that list. My new favorite game /art style. The music in the games are awesome too. It completes it all.

I don't want to sound like an impatient jerk or whatever, but any news? I understand that making flash games can be difficult at times, or if problems in life (things not involved with the computer,school,work,etc.) get in the way, but the fact you made an awesome game then went totally quiet has gotten my attention. So please let me know if you wish to continue. Thanks.

I'm glad you're interested enough to be concerned! Truth is, I waited until I was finished with school and settled down into a job before even putting any thought into continuing game development. I've also decided to move away from flash. But I haven't given up on Blackwood!

I'm currently in the process of teaching myself c++, with the intention of developing Blackwood as a much larger experience. So what does this mean? On the good side, it means that the game will be a vast improvement over the prologue, and much larger and more in-depth. In terms of bad news, it also means that development time will be exponentially longer.

It will take me quite some time to get my knowledge of c++ up to the level it needs to be before I can even start development, but as soon as I start getting art assets put together, I will start posting them around and trying to raise awareness for the game.

Thanks for asking!

Okay, thank you for responding. For a moment I was starting to get worried, and I understand your reasons for taking time. I just wanted to make sure you didn't just quit.

Good stuff. Blackwood has got me wondering if it'll be better than Pinstripe. That's the first big and not free game by the makers of Coma.