The Map

Sorry that the map is taking so long to build. I can't figure out a way of doing it other than placing every block. That is a lot of blocks; 2000*2000. Anyway I just want everyone to know that this game is still in development we just have been lacking updates as for what we are working on right now is a very slow and painful progress.

Bedrock Preview

Hey guys, I've been working on the first map. I finally got a bedrock texture that I think looks good.

You have to remember that there will only be blocks of this showing at any one moment in time. Here is the picture of it! Next picture there will be dirt on it, then the next picture there will be grass! Then trees!

Unity Releases Award Winners

Unity has released the winners of this years Unite contest. The winners definitely deserved recognition but some of the winners didn't really place where they should have. The list of the winners is as follows;

• Community Choice - Endless Space
• Best Student Project - SmartVCS
• Technical Achievement - Marmoset Skyshop
• Best 3D Artistic Experience - Guns of Icarus Online
• Best 2D Artistic Experience - Year Walk
• Best Gameplay - The Room
• Best VizSim Project - teamLabBody
• Best Non-game Project - Become Iron Man
• Golden Cube - Endless Space

All these guys did a really impressive job with their work but some of them aren't the best. For example Endless space has beautiful graphics and a complex structure but it just isn't a very fun game. This could be due to my personal hate for sci-fi fantasy games though so there is bias here.

The same goes with Guns of Icarus, they have beautiful 3d graphics for an indie game but they just aren't the best. I think that Endless Space should have taken the place fore best 3D artistic experience. Their art is much better. Especially when it comes to the explosion animations/graphics.

Other than those two I believe everyone is where they belong. This contest is hosted by Unity every year and any indie developer is allowed to enter this contest. Hopefully we will see one of YottiBit's games on this list some year.

Endless Space:

Guns of Icarus Online:

Year Walk:

The Room:

Check out the official website here!

First Map

Hey guys, my cousin went back south to his home so I'm back in action with the YottiBit Studios team and our upcoming game 8ite Bullets! I am going to start making the first map for the game! Things are starting to look good in my head as I think about what is left to do.

The structure of every map will be very simple. Each map will be 4 layers thick, except for where the terrain is raised to resemble hills and such. The first layer will be breakable grass, then 3 layers of breakable dirt then a non breakable layer of bedrock. On top of the terrain there will be trees and ruined homes/bases. All these will be used for scavenging supplies. Along with the map there will be spawn points for a random selection of tools, resources, and weapons.

Will keep you updated as I get back into my work flow!

We're Still Here

Hey guys YottiBit is still here! Sorry for the lack of updates as the game has been on standstill while my cousin is visiting. Although I haven't gotten anything done in the actual game a lot has been achieved in my mind about the design of things such as the HUD and the lobby.

I am leaning towards a simple HUD. It needs a radar, health bar, ammo, and an inventory for resources scavenged. I haven't yet got YottiBit's ideals on this matter but I'm sure they'll agree.

For the lobby we want 3 main functions. Join game, Host game, and Quit. Along with these 3 functions we want a server list that says the game mode and map names for each game. Also maybe tell the names of the players within that server.

We will also include a menu screen for when the user presses the esc key. On this menu we want a volume bar, graphics options, and a quit game button.

YottiBit also wants to include a chat bar on the bottom, this will allow players to socialize as well as strategize with their team members to make for a more meaningful and thrilling experience.

The last thing that I have been thinking about while away from my computer to catch up with my cousin is the effect on the players screen when receiving damage. We will want a red blur or splatter on the screen to enable the player to be aware of damage.



The photos in the slideshow are not of 8ite Bullets. They are from google search. I am using them solely to show the ideas that I am thinking about.

YottiBit will create their own content for the actual game. The images in the slideshow closely represent what YottiBit aims for.

Indie Games On Steam

Yottibit hopes to see 8ite Bullets hit Steam on it's release. This idea lead us to doing some research and we wanted to post the results for the audience to see.

Yottibit would be a unique game probably classified as sandbox. That makes us very happy seeing how many sandbox games successfully got voted onto Steam.

Check out the results below for 2012; we hope to see 8ite Bullets being part of the succeeded list in the future!

Keep supporting us and our efforts to provide a very fun and unique game!

Excuses Excuses.

Mainly I'd like to apologize for the lack of updates that there will be this week. I don't plan on doing much due to family visiting. I hope to get some simple things done while he is here but chances are you will go dormant.

Secondly I'd like to put everything together in an overview of the game and ideas. I'd like to wrap everything up and make sure it's clear about what YottiBit is aiming for.

We have worked hard on developing the idea and I thought it is necessary for me to overview it.

The Basic Ideas:

"8ite Bullets" will be an FPS with a voxelized terrain mocking the concept of minecraft with mods. We want to create a semi realistic environment accompanied by a destructible voxel terrain. We are doing it like this because we savor high definition graphics but want to incorporate a sandbox aspect. Blocks are the easiest to do this with so that is the reason for using them. The graphics of the blocks are even considered high definition in comparison to standard minecraft textures.

When You Join A Game:

Once the game is finally ready for release joining a game will be fairly easy. You login with our custom coded login system with hashed and salted passwords (for your security) and it brings you to the lobby, from the lobby will be able to host, join, or search for games.

Wrap Up:

YottiBit is trying our very hardest to produce an indie game that'll make an impression. The main goal of our team is to prove that anyone can put a video game together in todays world with enough time spent on it. I had no PHP coding skill andI managed to code a very secure login system.

I just want to wrap up the blog with putting the highlights of everything in one post;

 This is the model of the soldier for one of the teams. We will only use one model per team to make it easier to identify friendlies vs. enemies.
This particular soldier is very detailed and we really like it. Also don't mind the missing sky texture.

 This is the model for the other teams soldier. He has a blue texture to make identification much easier to create a much faster paced game that realies more on strategy than just getting lucky and not having your enemy notice you.







This is just a photo that shows where we are at with block placing. There currently is no other block other than dirt but we plan to have; grass, dirt, cement, and wood. The cement will need to be crafted but it provides a much more durable fort. This is to add strategy and time management to the "prep" period of each round.

The video is very shaky thanks to youtube and their shake filter but other than that and the minor glitches/bugs enjoy the first video of semi gameplay!

First Video

Name Plates

Sorry for the lack of updates today, I spend a majority of my time getting php and mysql stuff figured out. Finally got a login system working and then I decided to tackle something less confusing and add nameplates to the game. I think the font needs to be a little bit bigger but overall I really like it. Can't wait to see them in game. They are going to prove useful when communicating with your teammates and coming up with a strategy.

@YottiBit
#8ite Bullets

Probably Last Update For Tonight

Built a wall and aimed out the window to see how it looked. You guys can be the judges. I personally really like the looks so far and I can't wait to see what the end product will look like. YottiBit thinks that this game is going to be big. Do you agree?

Login Screen

Check out the login screen provided by Stoch from YottiBit! I love it. It all works perfectly together! We are continuing to get more excited about this game as it all starts to look good and work! We will continue to keep you updated. Please show your support by following us @YottiBit

Just wanted to update you guys with the player model that we are working on! The gun is just a place holder that we will be replacing soon! Anyway just checking i, I got to get back to work! I want to have a lot of main functions done by the end of this weekend!

It's Time

It is time. We are finally starting to work on guns. This is a huge step so we will be working on them for awhile. Especially since each gun requires its own animations. We will hopefully have a pistol done tonight so we can show you how it's going to look!

How To Make A Forum Thread That'll Get Views

We've all experienced the sadness yielded by posting a forum thread that gets a very important idea across and gets no views. You continuously click refreshing hoping to see replies and comments increase but they just stay at 0.

YottiBit has come up with a how to guide to solve your problem.

The steps to creating a good forum thread are as follows:

• Catchy title
• Quality Pictures
• Interactive Context
• Controversy

The catchy title bit is usually the most important in getting views because this is where users will decide whether they click it or not. You never want to be blunt about your title and just say "My cat is white". You want to intrigue the reader and make them wonder what the context of that thread is. An example would be "Is it a pile of snow or a cat".

Quality pictures are also super important to a good forum post. People like pictures and it's like they always say a picture is a thousand words. Put pictures of interesting things or to explain your argument/idea.

Do you like interactive context? Does it make reading more interesting to you when you have to think while you read instead of being hand fed by the writer? The two sentences before this are examples of interactive context. It'll keep the reader interested and make them think about the writing

Controversy is a great tool when it comes to getting replies and comments. If you provide a topic that is debatable then people will debate the topic in your comments. More comments means more views and this is exactly what you want.

Using these steps you can create a forum thread that people will enjoy reading and also leave feedback. This is a good way to get views and a great way to build up a following on projects or ideas. =

Interview With MinecraftRobot10

Hey guys I thought I'd get another interview on YottiBit Studio's upcoming game. I found MinecraftRobot10 on the chat at PMC.

Robot disagrees with most people on the topic of indie games and the appreciation for them.

"I feel indie games are very appreciated" Robot said. I found this odd since most others believe they are less appreciated and unnoticed.

This further peaked my curiosity to query his thoughts on indie game dev teams.

"I think [the] advantages [are] like, the game might be updated a lot because most Big Game Developers make tons of game and only few updates for each game" Robot said. In my comprehension of this statement I believe he likes indie dev teams because they focus more on their games instead of just pushing as many as they can into the public.

Robot also said something that made YottiBit change our upcoming game a bit because we didn't want his statement to be true.

"I think It is too similar to minecraft but it would be a good free alternative for minecraft." Robot said.

That is exactly what YottiBit doesn't want to hear. We don't want everyone claiming we ripped Minecraft off because of our building concept so we are doing are best to avoid a Minecraft like game play.

A Twist?!

How do these models go with the terrain/texture. I guess we are kind of leaning away from a pixel bit but definitely a good idea and a fun one! Each model represents a team! Also check out how that inventory and mini map fit the game. AH! It's coming together so nicely I love it and so does everyone at YottiBit Studios!

Unity Review

I just wanted to review the game engine that YottiBit Studios uses in the development of their indie games. We use Unity and we really love it and thought that it deserved a shout-out/review.

We really enjoy Unity because it is very simple to use.

We are able to quickly learn how to do new things and easily compile a nice looking game.

One of the big things about Unity is it's ability to maintain high graphics with minimal resource usage, it allows us to build higher resolution graphics for our game and provide more complex features.

Lastly Unity's community is what really draws us to it. If we are ever stumped on a question we can quickly learn the answer through google or youtube.

We really enjoy Unity and anyone interested in learning game development should check it out. There is a free version that is not limited too much and the learning curve is not very hard.

Cameron Pelkey And His Thoughts

Cameron Pelkey a 17-year old blogger for Supreme Court Cases discusses how he feels about YottiBit and our upcoming indie game.

He is a gamer but he has never really been into the indie genre. So YottiBit was really interesting to him. Therefore I decided to take the liberty in interviewing him after showing him some of the features and plans for "8ite Bullets".

"I've played many games ranging from MMORPG's like World of Warcraft to FPS games like Battlefield 3," Cameron said when I asked him what style of games he likes.

Cameron being a hard core gamer I was shocked by the fact that he's never ventured into the world of Indie games.

"I don't know I've just never really focused on the genre, it's really unnoticed which is kind of unfair." Cameron pleaded in defense to me questioning his lack of indie game experiences.

After showing him the basic build features he was in shock at how much work YottiBit has gotten done is such a short amount of time.

"You've only been working on this for a week?" Cameron loudly questioned.

I further pried information out of him as I asked him how he felt about the games functionality and graphics where they stand now.

"They are very impressive, I really like how the blocks' textures go together. Also the functionality of the inventory at this point is also impressive," Cameron answered.

YottiBit is very pleased to have some feed back from a gamer. We are very proud of where the studio is heading and hope to continue to provide updates.

Logo?

How's this for Yottibit studios logo? I like it, it resembles me while I try to code the block breaking/placing!

Redid The Inventory!

We found some assets on the web store that we are going to take 100% advantage of. What a beautiful inventory! Now I just got to tweak the mini map. It definitely needs a border before we can brag about it! Lots more to come!

Better Mini Map Picture

Just wanted to provide a better picture of the mini map. I don't know why I aimed at the clouds for the last one! Hope you enjoy!

Mini Map Very First Stages

The very early stages of a mini map. We are going to edit it so that friendly's appear as blue dots and enemies appear as red dots. Also the border of the mini map will be health and directly underneath will be how many rounds your gun has next to an image of which block you currently have in your tool belt and how many of them you have! Keep showing us support by following us on twitter @YottiBit

1000 Views!

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has shown support! We really appreciate the motivation and all the views, it keeps us working hard knowing that people are actually seeing this and showing some interest! Please keep coming back we will try our best to provide detailed updates on a daily basis!
                                                                                Thank you -YottiBit Studios

Staff Positions Updated

Hey guys,
YottiBit Studios is a new indie development team looking for staff. We are currently working on the project that you see in this blog. The realistic looking FPS. But we are also getting ready to start a new project and we need more people to help.

What we are looking for:

• We need someone who can fluently and efficiently code in java script or c#
• We need a 3d modeler
• We need someone to build and maintain a website
• We need someone to manage a twitter account
• We need concept artists

What we currently have

• Jack of all trades master of none
• Coder (can only do simple script)
• Network manager
• 2 Concept/GUI artists
• Website manager
• Modeler
• Twitter manager
  Now don't get the wrong idea, we aren't stuck here because of the staff we need. We are perfectly capable of making a game right now it is just that it will be a very slow moving project. Also we want to provide all the enthusiasts with a chance to finally get to participate in developing a game.
  
  Do I get paid?
   
  Sorry but YottiBit Studio currently is using all it's resources to fund the developing of the game. At the end of it all if the game makes money you will indeed get a cut. That being said there are no promises of payment, but you will have fun and learn some stuff. I mean who doesn't want to help develop a game?!
   
  Thanks for reading, If you are interested in a position add me on skype: kyle_-_strout 

Last Post!....For Tonight

Just wanted to premiere what we got done one last time! We are really happy with the amount of progress we made today and we hope to keep up such a good work flow. The things that you will see in the next few days are; the main menu screen, a block terrain (allow building of trenches), and probably a mini map! We hope that other people out there are just as excited for the game as us!

Follow us on twitter @YottiBit

First Sound Track!

Check this custom sound out! Dubstep like main menu music for the game! Click here

Thanks Stoch for contributing music to YottiBit Studios!

Follow us on twitter @YottiBit

WOAH! More Updates!?

We have just got shadows working! Adds a whole new aspect of detail to the game. Starting to look like something not from the 90's! YottiBit Studios will continue to work hard! We almost have out main menu music done! We will share that with you so stay tuned!

New Terrain?

We just made a new texture. Not sure if we want to keep it or keep experimenting. Just thought I'd share it with all of you!

Made Building A Little Bit Better!

Okay I'll be the first to say so far it looks like we are trying to replicate minecraft. That is not at all what we are aiming for. We just really like the build system and I mean honestly it's not like we can make a build system out of rectangles so we used blocks. Also I'll be the first to say that our textures aren't the best but we aren't after a photo realistic game, we want the indie to show.

This picture is just a quick fort I threw together out of dirt. I wanted something that would show why mountable turrets will be handy. Imagine mounting a turret up on the top left part and manning the windows with your pixel m14's and 50 caliber sniper rifles while an army of people charge at the wall of your fort. Will you be able to fight them off? You will soon be able to test your skills on the battlefield in "Bite 8ullets"

Keep showing us your support! Follow us on twitter @YottiBit

Inventory Is Almost Working!

After a lot of hard work the inventory is almost working! I'm going to have to keep working to finish setting it up so it works properly but at least we are showing some progress! Keep supporting us and keep us motivated to finish this game! We can't wait to finish this one and start our next! So many great ideas. I'll keep you updated! Also don't mind the terrain and sky, they are both just default while we work.

Keeping You Updated!

Well guys I've been working hard on the new pixel bit FPS on the more complex side of the game. I got block placement and breaking done. We are adding textures at the moment.

What we are currently focusing on:

• A login system
• Inventories
• Models
• A good skybox
• Better ground terrain
• GUI and HUD

We want to get the more complex parts and basic parts done so we can launch a kickstarter. After the kickstarter we want to remodel some things and also get a coder to look through our script and make sure it's not trash.

We will keep you updated on here aswell as on twitter @YottiBit

The website is almost ready for viewing!

Checking In

I just wanted to post really quick that I won't be posting anything new and exciting today. I' going to spend the majority of my time working on the pixel bit FPS. Don't worry we will start posting updated for that on here! You can already find them on twitter if you follow @YottiBit! Show us some support, we are working hard!:D

Building A Following!

Hey guys YottiBit Studios is currently trying to build a following as they start developing more games! We need your help in this and we really appreciate the support! Show us you're interested by simple following us on twitter! We are working on a website right now so everyone can be kept up to date on what the team is working on. Also we start the development of our new game today. We hope we can get a following so we have people to share our great news with on a daily basis.

Follow to show your support:

@YottiBit

@YottiBitO

 Thanks everyone we hope you enjoy the games that we will produce.

YottiBit Studios Staff Positions

Hey guys,
YottiBit Studios is a new indie development team looking for staff. We are currently working on the project that you see in this blog. The realistic looking FPS. But we are also getting ready to start a new project and we need more people to help.

What we are looking for:

• We need someone who can fluently and efficiently code in java script or c#
• We need a 3d modeler
• We need someone to build and maintain a website
• We need someone to manage a twitter account
• We need concept artists

What we currently have

• Jack of all trades master of none
• Coder (can only do simple script)
• Network manager
• 2 Concept/GUI artists
  
  Now don't get the wrong idea, we aren't stuck here because of the staff we need. We are perfectly capable of making a game right now it is just that it will be a very slow moving project. Also we want to provide all the enthusiasts with a chance to finally get to participate in developing a game.
  
  Do I get paid?
   
  Sorry but YottiBit Studio currently is using all it's resources to fund the developing of the game. At the end of it all if the game makes money you will indeed get a cut. That being said there are no promises of payment, but you will have fun and learn some stuff. I mean who doesn't want to help develop a game?!
   
  Thanks for reading, If you are interested in a position add me on skype: kyle_-_strout 
   

Woah Things Are Getting Real

The dev team finally name it's self. We are now called YottiBit Studios. We also are thinking about the name for our other game (the one that is actually going to be for the public). The idea most of us are agreed on at the moment is "Bite 8ullets". #Don'tjudgeus It'll make sense soon I promise! Anyway a website for our dev team is currently in progress so stay tuned. We promise you're going to like us, we have great ideas and are very capable of achieving them. For now though let's see what I can get done on that FPS for you guys to views. Thanks for reading!

Friday!

Finally Friday! Can't promise I'll be doing much blogging as my time will be consumed by my girlfriend, the football game, and working on the FPS. I'll try and keep everyone posted but there aren't any promises!

I Want This Kid As A Concept Artist

Check this kid out! He's doing a live stream of him drawing. I don't know how long he's going to broadcast but follow his twitch and watch him!

http://www.twitch.tv/skyleif

The true question

Hmm so I was thinking. Who wants to read solely about the progress of my developing game? I sure wouldn't be interested. So it lead me to the conclusion that I should be doing more woth this blog. What I mean is I should start making YouTube videos and posting them on here as a tutorial. It will keep you guys caught up with the development if The Broken Morale and teach you some basics in unity.

Reader Input

I'm going to leave the writing up to you guys on this one! Let's see if we can get some comments as I'm starting to feel like I'm talking to myself even though I'm getting pageviews. What are some of your favorite indie games? Post a link to a video or download in the comments. Let's see what you guys enjoy. Also how do you guys feel about indie games, do you like the more or do you find them bland?

Thought Spot #1

Hey guys occasionally I'm going to post a "Thought Spot" to write down my current ideas so I can go back and think about them. Basically right now I'm focusing all my time getting a decent map built. I'm really struggling with this because it is almost like I spend hours on one tiny chunk of the map and it still looks "unfinished". It haunts me to think about having to create more than one map and how tedious it will get. Also the idea of running out of assets and portraying a "repetitive" map. I don't want to bring something unoriginal to the table but I just don't have the patience or time to model any more assets. I think I'm going to have to find someone who can model, the only issue is if they're worth having then they don't work for free and I don't have the money for that. I want to kickstart this indie project but I don't have enough to show yet. Then again I could always make it resemble a closely finished game by getting the HUD finished and adding in sounds. This would look very impressive on kickstart but what would they think when they read that the game probably won't be released until at least another 6 months, then there will be the debugging phase which will most likely consume another 2 months of my life. All this with no profit. Which is okay because I'm doing this as a learning experience and for fun.

On the other hand I have started thinking about my next project, one that is intended to make me at least a little bit of profit. I don't want to release too much information as I don't want someone to beat me to it because it is definitely an original idea bound to go big. You will see this project soon. I am going to focus 80% of my time on the FPS but I will contribute at least 20% of my time starting to develop this other game. My team is very onboard with the second idea.

Anyway please leave some comments they help me a lot in the thought process and are very appreciated! Thank you.

One Last Thought

I had a thought before I head to prison (school). What if we make the teams bigger by adding enemy AI's to them. They will be less laggy but make the server rooms look much larger and feel much more thrilling. We will make the AI's have different intelligence levels and different classes. Such as a Technician would most likely be blowing up your tank. I don't just some food for thought.

For Today...

Welp, I didn't get anything new done unfortunately. I plan on adding a border to the radar and adding a main menu screen. I have been spending most of my time watching videos and trying to learn more. My interest in game design is increasing with each hour. I have so many great ideas in my head now I just need to figure out how to put them in my game engine. It's hard to do this not knowing any javascript or how to model. The struggle has definitely been real but I WILL make this game...

The first very unofficial "beta test"!

Okay the game is very UNFINISHED. Actually it needs a lot of work. But I wanted to release a little playable version so you could see what's up and comment on it. The map is kinda lame right  now but it shows some graphics and stuff. Test it out and see how you like it. It's going to get A LOT better! Thank you everyone!

Click here to download a sneek peek playable version!

Third Picture

Got the radar working! Going to do some touch-ups on its, probably add a border to it but glad to see it working! Guys leave some comments I really appreciate them!

Second Picture

Testing out trees and starting to build my first map. I don't know guys should I focus on the map now or work on adding more guns?!

First Picture

First picture of the FPS. We got the basics almost completely set up. We have an animated walking soldier, animated gun, sound effects are all working. The terrain is set up. We put in a skybox and a directional light. First tip: Save often, I had to redo all that work when I corrupted some files and it was really upsetting.

The Plan

Hello everyone,
    A group of dweebs I consider my friends are going to be working along side me to put together our game. We are aiming to make a FPS like no other. Many details are still not completely solid but will be posted soon. We want to get the basics working before we release too much information. Stay tuned pictures will be coming soon!

The Complicated Relationship Between Unity And I!

Hello everyone,
    My name is Kyle strout and I have a secret. I'm currently having an affair with Unity. I have developed a love for indie games and decided to venture out and test my skills using a simple game engine. As I journey through parsing errors in scripts to struggling to learn how to rig models I wanted a place where I could share my stories, achievements, and provide helpful tips that I learn.