ScottTykoski's Articles
July 22, 2020 by ScottTykoski
Greetings fellow Armchair Politicians! Well...isn't this the craziest election year we've ever seen? I've been on every single version of TPM, and between Coronavirus, Protests, Economic uncertainty, and Biden's "turtle" strategy, I've never seen an  election cycle like this! But that just means it's time to get out an update for The Political Machine! Currently being tested by QA, the 1.3 update will be out soon. In the meantime, here are some of the goodies you'll get wh...
May 5, 2020 by ScottTykoski
Hey Everyone! We've been hard at work on The Political Machine - some cool v1.2 stuff that I can show you now, but also some super secret stuff that I've sworn an oath to keep under wraps!    Our next update is v1.2, where we'll be updating the game with new issue tweaks, candidates, ideologies, and fixes.  Our two big additions are Barack Obama and John McCain, the stars of the 2008 Presidential Election, each with their own Ideology Trees. ...
October 26, 2012 by ScottTykoski
With Fallen Enchantress cooling the sting that was 'War of Magic', I'd like to look back on one of the things I enjoyed most from the original Elemental: the 'retro' intros made for the beta builds (you can still see these videos here and here ).  They only took half a day to produce, but got a great fan reaction (there were even major news outlets that posted about them). We had discussed doing something similar for FE, but deemed them far...
January 10, 2012 by ScottTykoski
http://indiegamerchick.com/2012/01/09/tales-from-the-dev-side-you-gotta-have-style-by-scott-tykoski/ Just did an editorial piece on Art Styles and Indie Games.  If you're looking to make your own game, this should be worth a read Enjoy!
November 14, 2011 by ScottTykoski
Hey Everyone! If anyone out there has an App Hub membership (that they use for making XBox360 games), I'd greatly appreciate some feedback on the first game I'm trying to get out the door.... http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/93797.aspx My ongoing dev log for the game is here... http://www.indiedb.com/games/elfsquad7 Now, it IS a Christmas game...I don't know why I make projects for a theme that most gamers cringe at, but as a game it's pretty solid (espec...
June 27, 2011 by ScottTykoski
Ages ago (or, at least, what FEELS like ages ago) when we were nailing down the art style for Elemental, one of the key factors was creating a world where the cutscenes weren't in glaring opposition to the in-game graphics. This was around the same time that Fable 2 was released, where a beautiful pre-rendered intro felt (IMHO) fairly out of place in comparison to the mid-game cutscenes (which were beautiful in their own right). It was that realization - that paintings brought to life...
June 21, 2011 by ScottTykoski
One of the 3 main design pillars being tackled for Fallen Enchantress is 'The World'. Wildlands, randomly generated maps, more quests/lairs/resources/creatures...we've taken all the feedback from WoM to ensure FE delivers with some really engaging worlds. When you start a new game, half the fun will be simply exploring the land! On the visual side, a simple piece of technology that we'll be utilizing to make the world feel more magical is the old-school trick of 'atmospher...
May 10, 2011 by ScottTykoski
Greetings, Just a short entry this week, since I’m working on cutscenes, which need to stay under-wraps for a while. One of the shots you’ll be seeing when FE hits 1.0 involves...GASP...shards of magic   One polish points I wanted to pull off was to have the magic from the crystals wisp off and either dissipate or come back to to the shard. I got pretty close to this effect at a different time when playing with ‘caustics’: the simulation of water refraction...
May 7, 2011 by ScottTykoski
So I have a question for my fellow gamers.... Is the Kickstarter system of project funding something you view as a positive way to get involved (and possibly score some unique rewards) or as a system for developers to beg for dough? Thanks for any insight! 
May 2, 2011 by ScottTykoski
Hey everyone! This weeks animation forgoes the step-by-step rundown for a fast-n-fancy timelapse.  It’s cool seeing all the little tweaks and adjustments that go into these animations, though you never get to properly see milestones as catalogued in the step-by-step versions. Perhaps I can go with a hybrid next time. Todays motion sees the end of one of the 10,000 ‘Butchermen’: human sacrifices that went unaccepted by Curgen at the Red Spring. This is the day they&rs...
April 26, 2011 by ScottTykoski
First off, sorry this was a day late...we had a 4 day Easter weekend that cut into my weekly journal. It won’t happen again (until our next Monday off)  Todays animation is the ‘Cast Ranged Spell w/ Staff’ motion. In FE, we’ve added the ability to make weapon-specific spell casting animations (a wizard with a staff with cast differently then a warlord with a sword, etc.) as well as made tweaks to what animations are played for what spells (adding a targeted RANG...
April 18, 2011 by ScottTykoski
Hey Everyone! I know information on Fallen Enchantress seems to trickle as of late. This is an unfortunate side-effect of adopting a 'large studio' pipline (rather than our previous indie-team system, where our excitement tended to go unchecked on the forums). Know that the game is on track and design decisions have been fueled by the feedback gathered post-WoM. Now, with the role of Producer in MUCH better hands, I was given the opportunity to pick up a new art form that is near a...
April 15, 2011 by ScottTykoski
For the last 8 work-days I've been spending my lunch to make some pirate designs for a side-game I'm working on (using XNA, so I can make a PC and 360 version). Here are the creations from days 2 through 8.   Enjoy! Pirates at Lunch Series: Day 2 by ~ boogiebac on deviant ART Pirates at Lunch Series: Day 3 by ~ boogiebac on deviant ART Pirates at Lunch Series: Day 4 by ~ boogiebac on deviant ART Pirates at Lunch Series: Day 5 by ...
April 6, 2011 by ScottTykoski
Since I miss drawning, I thought it'd be fun to sharpen my skills with a lunchtime 'character design' series. Over the next two weeks I'll be shooting for 12-15 interesting pirate designs. On my first day I was able to get 2 made...   The one on the left is the 'Sad Sac'. Formerly a captain of his own ship, he's since lost his rank, then in 4 strokes of bad luck lost both his hands and feet. He's...seen better days. The pirate on the left is the bird-lady of the crew. Her f...
November 17, 2010 by ScottTykoski
Since launch, one of the major complaints about Elemental: War of Magic was that the last bit of our title (the "Magic" part) was found to be...lacking (to put it gently). Global mana addresses areas of cheese, but without a significant overhaul to the Spellbooks and Spells you’re casting, that side of the game would still feel weak.  We’ve taken the following steps to rectify this in 1.1.... 1. Spellbook Re-evaluation: There were several problems with the way spells have be...