Just got back from a trip to Spain, Morocco, Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Vietnam, China, Japan, and Hawaii. It was pretty crazy. I'm also pretty sure it will make me a better game developer, if only because I learned and saw a lot of interesting stuff.
I had a lot of time on the ship in between ports and made good progress on Aurora, the stripped-down RTS I wrote about earlier. All the basic systems are complete, except for a decent AI. The code (which was wholly rewritten at one point) is clean and in good shape to expand. At one point I was really worried about performance issues. I think I've got it in a good spot now, though. Each army can have a lot of troops floating around, and it's only when several hundred converge in battle that things get choppy. We'll see if that ever becomes a problem.
I'm also seriously planning to spend a weekend revising Azure. The text idea didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, and the game gets boring pretty quickly. I'm thinking that if I add another handful of patterns of movement for the player to follow, the game might remain as engaging and hypnotizing as I want it to be. The game could switch between them in random order after every minute or so of success.
I also really want to get MUTE up to speed... sigh. So much to do!
December 18, 2009
September 8, 2009
World Travel
In an attempt to make myself into a more interesting person, I've embarked on a journey around the world. I'm spending this fall in the Semester at Sea study abroad program, so please forgive the lack of posts on this blog until early next year. Right now, I'm typing from Cadiz, Spain.
I'm equipped with an underpowered netbook for the voyage, but that's enough for me to continue programming in-between the ports. I ultimately passed over the revisions I ought to make in favor of building a new game. The working title is Aurora; it's an RTS stripped down to its essential elements, inspired by the indie RTS Dyson. I'm hoping to have it totally finished by the time I get home.
I'm equipped with an underpowered netbook for the voyage, but that's enough for me to continue programming in-between the ports. I ultimately passed over the revisions I ought to make in favor of building a new game. The working title is Aurora; it's an RTS stripped down to its essential elements, inspired by the indie RTS Dyson. I'm hoping to have it totally finished by the time I get home.
July 20, 2009
2nd Place
I'm the first loser of the 2009 Imagine Cup Game Development competition!
But seriously, I'm very excited and proud. This is a thrilling victory.
More about the IC.
Now I'm trying to figure out my next project. I still need to start getting my hands on some commercial game engines, but there are a lot of other things I want to do. For a school project last term I built the prototype of MUTE, and it would be nice to flesh that out and write some significant content for it. I'm also considering revising Alternex (I got a lot of good suggestions at the Imagine Cup) and maybe submitting it to the IGF. Plus, I really want to iterate on Azure; I think it could do better if I had multiple levels and dropped the text.
Decisions, decisions...
But seriously, I'm very excited and proud. This is a thrilling victory.
More about the IC.
Now I'm trying to figure out my next project. I still need to start getting my hands on some commercial game engines, but there are a lot of other things I want to do. For a school project last term I built the prototype of MUTE, and it would be nice to flesh that out and write some significant content for it. I'm also considering revising Alternex (I got a lot of good suggestions at the Imagine Cup) and maybe submitting it to the IGF. Plus, I really want to iterate on Azure; I think it could do better if I had multiple levels and dropped the text.
Decisions, decisions...
June 17, 2009
Destination: Cairo
Against all odds, my one-man team and it's three-week game has advanced to the finals of the 2009 Imagine Cup Game Development competition. In a few weeks I'll be flown down to Cairo, Egypt to present the game and get a shot at the grand prize with five other finalist teams.
I actually found out over a week ago, but it's taken until now for the initial shock to wear off, and it's time I started working on my presentation. As with the other stages of this competition, I'd be completely satisfied if I didn't progress any further... but it'd be really, really cool if I did.
Of course, now that I'm a finalist, I'm a public figure! And so I won't spoil the details of the final presentation by giving up all my internal brainstorming as I usually do. Hopefully, all will be revealed in about two weeks when I can share some video of what I've cooked up.
I actually found out over a week ago, but it's taken until now for the initial shock to wear off, and it's time I started working on my presentation. As with the other stages of this competition, I'd be completely satisfied if I didn't progress any further... but it'd be really, really cool if I did.
Of course, now that I'm a finalist, I'm a public figure! And so I won't spoil the details of the final presentation by giving up all my internal brainstorming as I usually do. Hopefully, all will be revealed in about two weeks when I can share some video of what I've cooked up.
April 30, 2009
Alternex UI Iteration
Alternex now looks like this:
The only immediately visible change is that the numbers under the cities have been replaced with a progress bar and separate city icons to indicate their size (town, city, metropolis).
The more important change was the drastic reduction in notification popups. Rather than giving a popup window every time population grew in an unsupported city, it happens only the first time and cities emanate an obvious red glow when they're in trouble.
I'm not entirely satisfied with the way the UI turned out here; there's a lot of floating point numbers floating around the screen. It works fine, but it's still ugly. But I realized that my time is not nearly as infinite as I had led myself to believe, and I'm now just focused on finishing the high-score functionality and the extra levels. One final result of all of this UI stress is that I'm seriously considering buying a UI design book in hopes of figuring it all out. I'd love to avoid this sort of situation in the future.
The only immediately visible change is that the numbers under the cities have been replaced with a progress bar and separate city icons to indicate their size (town, city, metropolis).The more important change was the drastic reduction in notification popups. Rather than giving a popup window every time population grew in an unsupported city, it happens only the first time and cities emanate an obvious red glow when they're in trouble.
I'm not entirely satisfied with the way the UI turned out here; there's a lot of floating point numbers floating around the screen. It works fine, but it's still ugly. But I realized that my time is not nearly as infinite as I had led myself to believe, and I'm now just focused on finishing the high-score functionality and the extra levels. One final result of all of this UI stress is that I'm seriously considering buying a UI design book in hopes of figuring it all out. I'd love to avoid this sort of situation in the future.
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