Devlog | Midnight Tangent Devblog

This past weekend I participated in my first Ludum Dare game jam and I’m alive and here to tell the tell! Admittedly, I did not spend a ton of time working on my game for the simple fact that I have 2 kids and wife that also need some attention throughout the weekend. I’d estimate that I spent about 20 hours in the allotted 72 hours for the game jam. Of course the final version of the game did not have all the mechanics and ideas I started with, but without a doubt it was an excellent learning process that has given me a lot of confidence moving forward with game development. Now, let’s talk about Hotdog Harry’s Food Truck Racing! read more

Planning is the key to success

When I started programming The Christmas Trail, it was a very fluid process. I thought about some cool game mechanics and implemented them, not thinking too much about how everything would work together in the end. I’ve found this to be a great approach when prototyping or exploring new mechanics. However, I got to a point where every time I went to implement a new feature or mechanic I was forced to do a lot of refactoring and bug fixing. I also came up with some better ideas to implement core functionality that I has sloppily implemented in the beginning. It was at this point that I should have put my hands up, stopped coding, and started planning. I didn’t do that. read more

The Christmas Trail is a game based off the 1974 hit educational video game The Oregon Trail. I’m not entirely sure where this game idea actually came from. I’m a big fan of Christmas time, and I tend to theme my crazy game ideas as such. There was a time I was very keen a dwarf fortress-like game based at the North Pole, where the elves were the dwarves and the goal was to please a rather eccentric Santa Claus and his over-the-top demands… but let me stay on topic.

The Christmas Trail

So here we are with The Christmas Trail. You’ll get to manage your crew of elves and reindeer through the long journey from continent to continent, delivering presents to all the good boys and girls in the world. The RNG gods will be active, determining if any of your crew comes down with an assortment of sicknesses. You’ll stop at major cities along the way, giving you time to evaluate your situation. Stock up on more cookies or carrots to feed the lot. Call in for a delivery of presents from the North Pole if you’re running low. Make sure this next leg of the journey won’t be your last! read more

We are currently working on a new PC/mobile game called The Christmas Trail! It is based off of the video game we all played in kindergarten while waiting for our bus number to be called… The Oregon Trail! We are pulling many familiar game mechanics including a strenuous journey filled with sickness, as well as hunting and applying to the theme of Santa’s big journey across the world to deliver presents to all the good little girls and boys. Game play will largely be centered around RNG which will dictate if good or bad things happen to you, but you will also have more than enough opportunity to prepare your sleigh carefully to make sure you have enough elves to deliver presents rapidly, cookies and carrots to keep your crew fed, along with many other actions that will keep the Christmas Spirit high and your sleigh flying by! Stay tuned here for in-depth posts about currently development challenges and solutions to the problems we are faced with. We learn new things every day, and we want to help you just as much as we want to get better! read more

Midnight Tangent Devblog

Ludum Dare 41 is in the books!

Game Design Documents Are Important (Or Any Sort of Planning)

What Is The Christmas Trail?

The Christmas Trail Development Has Started!