Hello. I am a 23 year old programmer, graduated recently from New York and now holds a bachelors in Electrical Engineering. I enjoy cartoons and comics, especially flash animation and Japanese anime by studio Ghibli. I have been developing computer games since I was 16.

I have always had an interest in making computer games right from when I was little. My favorite games were side scrolling adventure games like Super Mario Brothers, Megaman, and Donkey Kong. I wanted the chance to create those types of games, and I began soon after I finished highschool. A friend of mine had doodled 6 (currently 5) Square-headed characters out of boredom. I found them interesting, easy to draw, and easy to animate. This is where the Square story begins.

[img]http://2.bp..com/-2xCq_96bJgQ/UAsVxiSYwNI/AAAAAAAACIc/0Hr10nX8lec/s1600/all+kyles2.png[/img]

Say hello to Kyle:
My first game was made in 2006 and featured the first Square character, Kyle. He is an energetic little guy who likes to dream of big adventures. So I felt it was fitting to make a game about his dream. This game was made in a similar vein to classic PC adventure games like Dangerous Dave.


The Squares: Kyles Dream Playable here

For a first game I was happy with it and proud of how it turned out. With that said, I wanted to make my next game bigger, better and more fun than the last. So I gathered up all my knowledge and what ever time I had to create the largest game I have made to date. This is where I discovered just how hard it is to make a game by ones self.


The Quest
In my freshman year of college I put together Kyle's Dream. This game was the second installment in the Squares series and I decided to pull all the stops with it. I made use of a program called 3D Flash animator (At the time, I didn't have photoshop), bought Game Maker (the game making tool I use) and Macromedia Flash (now Adobe Flash). I wanted to make this game to be on par with most adventure games out there and stuffed it with flash animations, 50 levels and an actual story this time. Here, Kyle is hosting a party for his friends when they all disappear. Now he has to discover where they have been taken and rescue them from an evil man named Source.


The original Squares. (Front from left: Lana, Vampy, Kyle, Vicky. Back from Left: Rex, KK)



The Squares: Kyles Quest Playable here

All the graphics and programming was done by me. At the time, I was not as proficient at programming as I am now. I ran into numerous problems coding enemy actions and game logic. Even the graphics had its issues. Never mind things like shape, shading, and form. I ran into technical issues like anti aliasing, jerky animations Flash Animation effects. Despite this, I had a lot of fun working on the project and was eager to release it. After spending many months developing the game, it was released with mixed results. Younger players praised the game for having interesting graphics and simple controls while others criticized it for having many, Many rough edges. So for me, it was back to the drawing board.

Experimentation
The Next few years were spent trying to find out where I went wrong as well as improve the game play. I remodeled the characters and game engine many times (I think about 6 or 7 times) while trying to find new types of techniques. I also experimented more with Flash animation, comic drawing and physics programming. In that time I began writing an internal mythos of the Squares characters. A story began to develop of how Kyle was originally a homeless boy who was befriended by the rest of the Squares, who live in a forest they own privately on the outskirts of a large city. This explains why he was so eager to fight for them when they were kidnapped in the last game. It also explains why The Squares are so attached to the forest they live in, it being there home. After many tries and gameplay edits I found my flaw. My artstyle, while easy to work with, was till very amateurish to be taken seriously. Also the Squares while easy to draw, where harder to animate since they lacked limbs, making movement unconvincing. The Methods in which I designed my games and The Squares themselves needed to be re-worked. Also my approach to doing so need a major upgrade.


[Link: THE SQUARE ADVENTURES BETA, made 2009]

[Link: THE SQUARES: THE GARBAGE MYSTERY BETA, made 2010]

Reinvention
Over the past year, I changed the art style of my game characters, giving them a more structured appearance. Originally, characters were made up of a square for a head, a rectangle for a body, blocky legs, and stick hands. After testing them out in different poses, I slowly began to change the characters, adding more features as my art improved. Now the characters have actual limbs and the faces have more detail. You can even tell the boys apart from the girls. I also started using Flash to animate my characters, giving them smoother more fluid movements. The results speak for themselves.


[Link: THE SQUARES THE PRINCESS IN THE CASTLE, made 2011]

Sketches I made back in 2010(notice the lines in the hands)

[img]http://3.bp..com/_11Mh1L2OXko/TLNDo6P0CMI/AAAAAAAABEs/kqWhDC1i-Vo/s1600/kyleSkel_walk.gif[/img][img]http://1.bp..com/_11Mh1L2OXko/TLNDoZgCzPI/AAAAAAAABEk/shHEO93Dey4/s1600/kk_wolf.gif[/img][img]http://2.bp..com/_11Mh1L2OXko/TMUIwyqUBHI/AAAAAAAABE8/yr83SHuvJso/s1600/lana_all.gif[/img]
Stuff I animated back in 2011

Getting ready for prime time
Now that my characters and game world are ready, I just need an audience for this type of game. I have checked out the indie game sites, but they are filled to the brim with lots of different game projects, aspiring developers, and egos (you will be surprised how many 13 year olds think they are better skilled than you). So I decided to return to my roots and deliver to the Nigerian gamers.

I want to make a gameverse that can be played by everyone, but is favored by the Nigerian community. I just want to know. Is this community going to welcome a quirky game like the Squares? And is this community ready for me?

For more on the Squares, check out my blog at http://mazi-madu..com
And for my currently made games. Click here

It seems this forum is uninterested in me and my games.

No matter, I will look else where.

I'm interested