Long time…

Sorry about the lack of updates; I’ve been quite busy lately. A lot has happened since my last update though.

First off, I’m no longer working on Malathedra; I wasn’t able to fullfil the position like I wanted to, so we talked and I left.

I also stopped working on MalykAI. It was a great game idea and I had a bunch of work done on it, but it just wasn’t enough to keep me working on it. The storyline will probably reappear somewhere along the line in RPG form.

I also started a new project, but I haven’t really released any info on it yet (I’m planning on releasing the storyline and a few of the main characters come Monday; Tuesday at the latest.)

That’s about it for now. I’ll keep updating as often as possible; keeping you informed on my current projects and whatnot.

Update

I’ve been pretty busy lately. The rewrite of Dragon Forge Technology (my code base) went really well. I’ve got tons of functionality, a consistent design, and it’s pretty easy to use. I’ve started working on the 2D layer which will be used for (surprise) all of my 2D games. Simple stuff like sprites, batching, etc. I’ll also be adding some more advanced stuff once I get the time (particle engine, transformation for stuff like water, etc.) I’m also going to be writing 2 or 3 different libraries along side my next 3 projects (Project MalykAI, Project Asrion, and Project MalykAI2.) These will include generic stuff for that genre. For example one library will include platformer physics for both Project MalykAI and Project MalykAI2. The same library will also include stuff like my entity system and map system. Another library will include my generic RPG stuff.

After I finish the 2D layer, I’ll move onto the GUI system (which will use said layer), and then hopefully I’ll have everything finished and I can move onto Project MalykAI.

As a sidenote, Raymond (owner of Ethereal Darkness Interactive and the main developer for The Lost City of Malathedra) has moved his journal from gamedev.net to here.

I’ll try to start updating more, just been a little busy.

<edit> I almost forgot, I finished the base of Quill (the 3D map editor for TLCoM. Base meaning I got the terrain rendering and colored as well as camera movement done.) You can check out a screenshot here.

Also, no, I won’t be doing a lame play with the 2 in Project MalykAI2 (meaning I won’t try making it look like MalykAI squared or anything like that.) I doubt the actual game name will even include a 2.

Genius

Well, I’m a genius. The proof is in the fact that I wrote nice HTML logging for MalykAI and then, for some reason, decided to use it once. The only debug information that is output is whether or not a Direct3D device was created, and if so what kind of device was created (hardware or software.)

This, coupled with a couple other design issues, sparked a complete rewrite of MalykAI’s engine, which I’m just about finished with. The new engine is ten times better just for the fact that it uses a code-base that I’ve tested a hundred-billion times rather than a bunch of classes I threw together when I had need for them. It also makes use of HTML logging like it should as well as Exceptions (which I’m probably abusing; this is my first time using C++ exceptions.)

Anyway, back to work for me.

Edit: Wow, the fact that I spelled genius wrong makes this entry all the better -_-

MalykAI

MalykAI continues to move forward at the moment. I abstracted the Entity class last night so now I can use the same class for all of my entities rather than just the player.

So, now my system looks like so:

• BaseEntityController
  • UserEntityController // Being moved to the AI.dll file
  • HorizontalAiController // Being moved to the AI.dll file
  • FlyingAiController // Being moved to the AI.dll file
• Entity

With Entity holding a pointer to BaseEntityController. With the derived classes being in AI.dll I’ll be able to update the AI pretty easily if I run into any problems.

I’m also revising some of the design document (to fix a few story issues), so I’m taking this opportunity to add some new features to the game. A quick list of what I’ve come up with so far:

• Computer terminals – allow you to move around the map and possibly to secret areas.
• Moveable blocks – Allow you to reach higher places. Will react to spring tiles.
• Armed rebel – Shoots at you.
• Transport blocks – Activate as soon as you land on them. They follow their track to the end and then return to their origin.

I’m thinking that’s all I’ll add, but I’m not sure at the moment. Come Monday night I’m closing the design document for good, so this is my last chance to include anything.

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Malathedra has been frozen for the next few weeks while Raymond finishes up the last patch for his first game Morning’s Wrath.

Overloaded

So, I’m currently working on several projects.
Project MalykAI – 2D sidescroller similar to Super Mario Brothers {Just me}
Project Siris – 2D RPG; precursor/history teller for Project Asrion {Just me}
Project Asrion – 3D RPG {Just me; frozen until Project Siris is finished}
OpenXNA – Website about Microsoft’s XNA {Me, Rob Loach, and John Sedlak}
Dragonfire Games Code Library – The code base that I’ll be using for my future projects including Project Asrion {Just me}
DxD5.XNA – A game engine started by John Sedlak; I’ll be doing the GUI {Me and John Sedlak}
The Lost City of Malathedra – 2D/3D graphical adventure game. Top of the list priority wise. {Me, Raymond Jacobs, and David Rodriguez}

If you’ve been watching for a while or have seen my dev journal at gamedev.net, you’ll realize that this means I’m working on 3 GUI systems – one for C++ and DirectX, one for C# and XNA, and one for C# and DxD5.XNA. Plus, I’ve got a GUI article in the queue. Hopefully they come up with some cloning stuff soon, I’m falling way behind in my article and proejcts queue.

Fun stuff. And I’m currently working on The Lost City of Malathedra by myself because Raymond is working on the final patch for Mornging’s Wrath (his first game) and David is advertising and such. Speaking of advertising, some of TLCoM’s movies found their way to IGN.com, which is pretty awesome in my opinion. You can see the movies here or you can go to www.malathedra.com for newer movies and other goodies (avatars and wallpapers.)

Speaking of The Lost City of Malathedra (TLCoM), we’ve finished part one and it’s looking really good. We did that around August 1st and then proceeded to take a month break (so Raymond could add some new features to TLCoM’s engine and take care of some Morning’s Wrath issues.) Then, on October 1st, we started back up again and we’ve got a pretty good start. We’ve finished the basics for almost all of the part two maps (about 18 maps. And when I say basics, I mean basics. There’s a map and you can be on it and that’s about it.) So, in another couple months hopefully we’ll have part two done and be ready for another break because I really need to do some modification on the map editor; it’s got some wicked bad bugs.

If you’re interested in following my projects, check out my dev journal here. I update it alot more often.

Also, if you’re a programmer and you’re interested in XNA, check out www.openxna.net. We’ve got a few things up there and we’ll be adding more soon.

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In gaming news I beat NFSMW and all four episodes of the original Doom. Sadly, I spent over $650 USD total (plus whatever interest is on my card) and I’ve been playing classic arcade games and new arcade games (like Doom, PacMan, Geometry Wars Evolved, etc) which I already have (Doom for the PC and super nintendo as well as the ROM for my SNES emulator and PacMan for my atari.) Plus, I’m shelling out more money for microsoft points to buy these things. The wireless controllers are nice though.

The only thing that has me upset is they have the Halo Wars theme on xbox.com and they say it’s up for download in the marketplace, but it’s not.

Anyway, I have to be up in a few hours to do actual work instead of programming, so it’s bedtime.

GUI Work-In-Progress

I’ve been working on the dftGui version 2.0 since I want to use it for the in-game map editor for my next few projects. I’ve gotten a few of the controls done, but I’ve run into some unexpected obstacles while doing them. The rest of the controls are pretty much going to be the same, so it’s shouldn’t take long to get them done. Anyway, here’s a screenshot (using my crappy test skin so that I can be sure textures are being applied correctly.)

I have buttons, scrollbars (vertical and horizontal), labels, cursors, and the delayed tool-tip system setup. Next up are:

• ProgressBar
• Tally
• Counter
• TextBox
• ListBox
• Dialog

I’ll update as I get stuff done.

Hey guys!

Hey guys, this is my first blog post. I’ll be doing my best to update it as often as possible. I’ll pretty much be posting information on my current projects, which are (at the moment) a 2D sidescroller similar to Super Mario Brothers and “The Lost City of Malathedra” which is a 2D adventure game.

So to start off, I’ll post some info on my 2D sidescroller. I’ve got the map system partially done; all that is left is setting up a file format and events. I finished up map-entity collision earlier today, so now entities collide with the map no matter what they’re doing (moving, jumping, or falling.) I also have the menu system done. It’s not the best, but it works pretty good and looks nice. It looks like the background and overlay system is next in line. The map will consist of 4 layers, a background texture, a color above that, the actual map tiles, and then an overlay (for fog and such.)

Another project that I’ve just taken on is writing a source code formatting plugin for WordPress. I have a PHP function for doing C++, but it doesn’t follow any of the standards, so I have to modify it. Plus I have to add support for other languages (specifically C#.) I’ll probably add others along the way, depends on how many projects I load onto myself at the time.

Anyway, I’m off to work on my 2D sidescroller, which btw is named Project MalykAI at the moment.