Welcome to the official site of independent game developer/music producer Julian Kantor, alias Funkmasonry Industries. Stay tuned for weekly updates about the upcoming musical action-adventure The Groov Cosmos. Email me with questions, comments, suggestions or criticisms!
I figured I'd post a new video, since I've made some good progress since the last one, although it isn't immediately apparent.
This video is EXTREMELY early. All it is meant to show is it will look like to be flying around shooting at stuff in The Groov Cosmos. Well, it doesn't even show that, as the camera is horrible and not at all what it will look like. So...just focus on what the ship looks like.
By the way, you may notice that the music is similar to the music from the last video, but decidedly worse sounding. This is because it's being played by the in-game music system, which is still nowhere near final quality but is coming along nicely.
Since I last posted, I've made a lot of progress on The Groov Cosmos. I've made some progress on the music system, which wasn't implemented when I posted the last video. Plans are to include the song from the last video, but at the time I had just pre-recorded the track and synced it up with the music system from the original Groov, which was silently driving the visuals in the background. I've been planning and implenting a much more advanced music system for The Groov Cosmos, and I hope to post some results soon (it's still a little early to show off).
Something I have gotten a lot of work done on is the "Scene Designer" tool that I've been developing to help me create the visuals for Cosmos. I've finally gotten it into a fully functional (if a little buggy) state, which means I no longer have to journey into the absurdly long text file in a potentially fruitless attempt to remove a stray light or add an architectural structure. The fact that I can now create a scene from start to finish using a visual, real-time system has made a huge difference for my ability to just think creatively and quickly prototype new ideas. Here are a couple of screenshots that show some of the progress I've been making:
I hope people are enjoying hearing about the process behind creating this game -- it's a very new and exciting experience for me to be building a game like this!
Anyone reading this site is probably wondering why I haven't come out with another game since Groov was released. I've been busy learning a lot about graphics programming (I basically knew nothing about it while making Groov), and have been slowly but surely been getting progress done on my next game. It's going to be a follow-up to Groov in a very loose sense: you'll still be flying the conductor around, blasting enemies into musical oblivion. But instead of an arcade-style dual-stick shooter, The Groov Cosmos (working title....) will be a story-based action adventure! Music will still be an integral part of the experience, and is worked into the storyline in a cool way. I'm posting some concept art and a VERY early video of the "game."
What you're looking at in this video is a procedurally modeled environment that will be like many that the player encounters early on in The Groov Cosmos. The video also demonstrates the deferred shading system that allows for many dynamic lights in the environment, which I hope to use to create a dance club-like setting that will enhance many of the battles the player will fight.
Also, an important note: this isn't exactly a game "announcement." Part of the reason I haven't posted anything for so long is because I'm very unsure about how long it will actually take me to complete this game. It might be a year, or it might be 10 years. Seriously. I hope to one day release it, but it might have to be put on the back burner as I exit school for the treacheries of the real world.
Thanks again for making Groov such a big success guys! It's nice to finally post something about my new project, and I'll try to keep posting updates as I make progress.
In the summer of 2009, underground rapper Vice Verse turned to the beat-making team at Funkmasonry Industries to produce his latest album, Cookinville, and the end product is now available for free download at Funkmasonry.com!
Download the album now or keep reading for more information, including a full track listing.
Groov has been nominated for the "Best Indie Game" category of the first ever Inside Gaming Awards! We here at Funkmasonry Industries would like to extend our thanks to the people at Inside Gaming for this great honor. And, we need the help of all the people who have played Groov and enjoyed it to support the game in the Gamers' Choice category -- more details coming soon!
Update on Friday, November 27, 2009 at 2:24PM by
Barryman
Voting has opened! You can click this link to vote for Groov as best indie game!
Barryman | ;)
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