Creating our Logo

     A new logo is approaching (with a blog redesign)! One of the tasks on our Hack'n'Plan (a tremendous game planning web app, by the way) which wasn't directly connected to our game was designing a real logo for our studio, Elrel. Actually, many of you may not have heard of the word Elrel yet, because as far as this blog is concerned, it is only written in the footer. It is, however, our twitter handle and on the splash screen of our first game. The logo for our first game was rushed because we really wanted to release it. Thus, it was high time Elrel got a nice logo; one which can be easily recognized.

     I want to dedicate a whole entry to the logo's creative process because of this post, which highlights the creative process behind Tiny Phoenix's logo. Despite what some comments say, I think the logo is splendid, and I'm glad the team reached something they liked. Designing a logo is not easy, and I learned that first hand while making our logo. Not all of you will agree with the decisions we made, and some of

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Treading Deep Water

What time is it? It's progress update time! Today, I'll be showing you more art to look at and soundtracks to listen to.

Demo

To start, I've got a nice little demo for you all to try out, if you feel so inclined. Mind you, even though I call this a demo, we still are developing it, so it is more like a beta. Can you even have a beta without an alpha? I'm not sure. Anyway, enjoy!

Versions:    Linux    Windows    Mac

Feel free to email us or comment about the game here, or give feedback over at Feedback Friday on Reddit.

Art

The previous post's works were quite light, so this time you will see a darker tone.

Cave

I don't know what the rest of you think, but I was thinking The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle, with the one below. You know, the moor.

Lair

Music

I've got another soundtrack for you guys, and this one comes with an interesting "medieval" flute section. Let me know what you think!

Final Thoughts

Joraaver goes back to his day job (being a student) on Monday, so expect the release

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Diving Deeper

In accordance with the title metaphors, I believe it is high time for a game update! Well, it is actually more than an update, given how little information we gave you in our previous post, Wading In.

Let us begin with perhaps the most important part of the gameā€”its name.

The Sharpest Blade

The knight in shining armor must rescue the fair princess, taken by none other than a black magic wielding sorcerer. Typical. But how does a knight who has been stripped of his sword fight? That's the focus of the game here. True to its genre, expect to be thoroughly puzzled upon entering the levels. Most of the time, all you will get is the entry point, the portal to escape, and the name the sorcerer has aptly provided for the altered space you are in. It is up to you to connect the dots and make your way. It's not death you will be, or should be, scared of. Rather, it is being stuck in the void for all of eternity. Good luck.

That hopefully painted a fairly accurate picture of what has been in development for the past week or so. In case it hasn't, take a look

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Wading In

Head's up guys. This post is written by Joraaver.

We've given you the basics of who we are, but now, I'm going to dive into what the game is about, as well as what part each of us plays in the development of the game we're working on. The game has no name yet, so "the game" here means The Game.

The Game

This is a puzzle-platformer game. It's got a bit of a backstory, but the real focus is on the puzzle in each level. We hope players will learn to love the titles as they move on through the levels, because they'll get no other hints. Now, I can't tell you everything, can I? But perhaps a screenshot will satiate your hunger for now:

Teaser screenshot

Our Roles

     I'm Joraaver, the lead programmer on the team. I'm using the JMonkeyEngine, or jME version 3 RC2, as the game engine for this project. I could have gone with a more classic 2D engine, like Construct 2, or even have used Unity, which has just released a 2D framework in it's latest version (v4.3). However, I am most familiar with Java, I like the open-source nature

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