Senior Project

The time is finally upon us - senior project! Well, actually, it's been that time for a while now, but I've been so busy with the project and the other classes I have that I haven't had time to update about it. Senior project has been coming along nicely, and, as expected, I'm working with Team Playground on it. That is, I'm working with Gabe Sifre, Ernest Caravalho and Tom Jordan. We're using UDK, Epic's awesome free Unreal Engine standalone setup, and are presently halfway through the project. Here's the run down:

Ernest - Project Lead, Audio, Mapper
Gabe - 3D Modeler
Tom - Mapper
Dorthu - Programmer

And you might be asking what project we're working on. It's none other than ShadowCast. Remeber ShadowCast? The project we abandoned because of problems with the Leadwerks, among other things. Well this time we're doing it in Unreal, and it's showing a lot more promise. The Unreal Engine is, in my opinion, the best commercial engine on the market, with an unmatched editor and unparalleled documentation. I've taken to using gVim for coding for its simplicity and syntax highlighting (I was surprised to see that it worked with UnrealScript without any modifications at all) .

The first eight weeks (thus far) have been focused on gathering assets and fleshing out the concept. The next eight is about coding the game and putting it all together. So, as of now, there isn't a lot to look at on my end. As soon as I have some gameplay to demonstrate, a video will go online. And as soon as Mastering Unreal Technology volume III comes out, I'll have all the coding documentation I need.

Until then.

SpaceFighter3D Released!

I am proud to announce my first iPhone Game released for VG Ware Tech, SpaceFighter3d (link opens in iTunes).

SpaceFighter3D is made in Unity, and is an arcade-style shooter with addictive gameplay and exciting visuals. Coupled with the catchy original soundtrack, the game is a lot of fun and hard to put down. Some additional features include a highscore table, intuitive name entry for said table, and audio on/off button for convenience. Roll the screenshots:

The Game's Main Menu

Gameplay Screenshot

Gameplay Screenshot

The game is on iTunes and the App Store for $.99, and I guarantee is at least a dollar's worth of fun. A "Lite" version is coming soon, and will be free but lacking some features. I will provide a link to that when it become available.

First iPhone Game Sent to Apple

After days and days of a horrible codesigning error, we've finally managed to compile my first game, Space Fighter, and submit it to Apple. There is a review process involved, but hopefully all will go well and it will be on the app store within a week. Upon its official release I will post links to its site and its app store page. This is very exciting for me, and I hope to see the game do well. It will be selling for $.99, and I gaurentee is at least a dollar's worth of fun.

On the subject of submitting content to Apple, it is quite possibly the least intuitive, most frusterating process I've ever had to deal with. I would normally talk about going through a process, but in this case I was definatly dealing with this process, as it was clearly aimed only to frusterate and annoy the developers for no real reason. We ended up having to replace all of the certificates, profiles and keys no less than two times apiece before it finally decided everything was in place. Also, the instructions provided by Apple are often inaccurate and unclear, and in general the entire thing is either a scheme by Apple to make you buy tech support tickets or was designed by Neo-Hitler, who no doubt works for Apple regardless.

As for a next project on the iPhone, let's leave it at that I have an idea. But first, the "lite" version of SpaceFighter, which I will also link to here in case $.99 is too rich for your blood.

In other news, Team Playground has been working on a "Pun-tastic" RPG, which will function as a 2D Tactical RPG. We've got myself on coding (along at the moment, but I'm working on it), Ernest on audio, Tom on story and new addition Adolfo Sanchez as our lead graphical designer. More info on here when there's something to show and on Team Playground's site when I get around to updating it.

Farewell

Yesterday was Scott's last day with the company. It's a shame he's leaving, but it was unavoidable. He's leaving on good terms though, and will still be in contact, specifically to provide support for the Awe+ Engine he wrote in Objective-C for the company. I'll also be getting a device shortly which I can test programs on. It'll be pretty sweet.

In other news, Team Playground has done absolutely nothing since my last update. And I still haven't finished that Asteroids game. I'm really hoping I'll be able to link to my first application with this company when it's finished (within the next two week, graphics allowing), but I've been asked to keep things quiet still.

Employment

I have recently come into employment with a small start-up company in the area. I will be programming for them. I have been asked to say no more, or even possibly less, but I put this here to provide an explanation for my apparent inactivity. I assure everyone that I have not lost my programming drive, and that good things are on the horizon.

Team Playground has also been kicking back into gear, if slowly. I will update on this as progress is made.

Asteroids Clone: Near Completion

Remember that clone of Asteroids I began coding one weekend last May? Well, I picked it up again the other day and added some finishing touches. The biggest problem I had been having was getting SDL extension libraries working, namely TTF and Mixer, but I have them operational now and have implemented a basic in-game display, a high score table, a menu screen with adjustable options, and am in the process of adding sounds. And once sounds are in, this thing will be complete!

I intend to distribute this open-source, so I've done quite a bit of housekeeping, cleaning up the code to make it as understandable as possible. Also to avoid embarassing myself with bad programming practices. It'll be another day or so before it's out, but it is about two feet from done.

Thanks again to Mike Sovey, who did all the graphics including the new splash screen. The game looks great, and plays like Asteroids, so it's fun if you like Asteroids, and if not then it's still written from scratch in C++ with SDL.

iPhone Proposition

Good friend and esteemed peer Skitch contacted me the other day requesting we meet at DeVry. I seldom get a call from him, so I was quite intrigued. As it happens, he has been working on games for the iPhone with a small local outfit, but he's more than a bit dissatisfied with the job, and he met with me to discuss a business venture into the same feild. Now, I'm not sure just how solid it is yet, but I told him I'm up for it because, in fact, I am.

The idea is to continue in the feild he's been in, developing games for the iPhone, which can apparently be pretty lucrative if it's done right. Just based on the available inputs on the device I'd say there's a lot of potential for entertaining, casual games which are addicitive enough to be worth a couple bucks but easy enough to put down that you can play them on the train.

All iPhone apps are written in Objective C, which is very similar to C from what I understand, and are made with a special, all-inclusive and surprisingly intuitive SDK, which unfortunately can only be run on Mac OS X 10.7 or greater. This would mean that we would both require a form of Mac (a Mac mini is avaiable, with student discount, for $545, the cheapest possible solution) and at least one iPhone between the two of us, as the SDK comes with an emulator.

Scott was talking about getting the business aspects worked out, Trademarking Awe+ Games and such, opening a business bank account and getting a business loan for the hardware, which is all important I guess, as I suppose there isn't much more we need to look into before moving ahead. As I said, I'm not 100% this is going to come through yet, but I'm hoping for it. The innovation possible with the iPhone's controls are quite exciting.

In other, unrelated news, Team Playground will be meeting for the first time since our GSP360 class ended this coming Tuesday, and we'll see how serious we are. I might be working on two indie teams at once, which is more than fine by me.

ShadowCast Holdups

There hasn't been any progress on ShadowCast, and in fact we've taken at least one step backwards, since my last update. The reason is because the team's taken a 3-week break from production, I assume out of general consent, and the new version of Leadwerks only accepts .GMF and .DDS files, so all of our resources are no longer applicable and our maps are no longer compatible with the engine. Which means that when we get back to work (March 18th), we'll have our work cut out for us.

I've taken this opportunity to look more into hosting a website for Team Playground, along with a private Trac system and SVN. I can get us unlimited storage and transfer for $170/year, plus an extra $10~15 for a domain name. I'm hoping to have it all up and running before the 18th, but I need someone else on the team to front the money (it can't go on my card at the moment).

I've also been looking into testing the draw buffer for shadows, but I haven't had a lot of luck yet. I'm thinking I'll get it before too much longer. It sure would make everything else easier, not to mention it would be more correct.

The final thing I've been doing it looking into post-render effects and GLSL. Not a lot, mind, but a little. They are interesting as well, and I feel they are the key to making the game look polished. Hopefully we can cross the line dividing amateur-looking games and professional-quality games.

ShadowCast Progress

Our GSP360 class has just about come to a close, and with it will come the "in-class release" of the game. Keep in mind this in no way reflects the finished version of the game, but instead is only the version we're being graded on in this class. Here's a spiffy video demonstrating it, with props to CamStudio again for being awesome.



As you can see, two working levels with the ability to transition between them (unfortunately not polished), Shadow Hopping works, a gun which interacts with physics objects (there is sound too, I just couldn't record it) and full range of character movement. I've got to admit, I'm pretty impressed. The code's been completely rewritten since the last video, making it more structured and workable as well as making it easier on the eyes. In all I wrote this game four times.

The team has been a pleasure to work with all-around, and here's the credits for this video:
Meshes/Textures - Mike Sovey, Gabe
Audio - Ernest
Level Design - Ernest, Rob
Programming - Dorthu
Splash Screen (new and improved) - Rob

I'm more than stoked to continue work with this team and make ShadowCast a full-scale game, to be released commercially (should we be fortunate enough to make it there). Look out for new updates in the future!

ShadowCast Progress

We have been working at ShadowCast, and I am happy to say I have another demo video to show our progress, again thanks to CamStudio.



All graphics in this video made by Sovey and Gabe, all audio (if it actually recorded it) by Ernest and most of the programming by me. Rob made the splash screen last-minute and we threw it in, it looks a lot nicer than just a blank window. I believe the level was made mostly by Ernest from his own level concept.

This level is supposed to be a warehouse, although given the limited resources we had it is quite repetitive. Props to Ernest for making it looks so good with only the meshes he had. As you can see, we have a biped in-game (unfortunately untextured) and we are working this week on animations and AI. I expect to have a Path Network, similar to that of Unreal Tournament 2004, coded by Sunday. By way of animations I'll need to wait for some exported animations from Sovey. We expect to get a lot accomplished in the next three weeks because this project is also being used for our GSP 360 class, and although I doubt it will be complete when turned in for the class, it will be close. Look for another update video next week when we turn in our "beta" for the class (again, don't expect to see an official ShadowCast beta for some time).

ShadowCast Prototype

Work has officially begun on ShadowCast, and I am excited to say that in a week's time I was able to produce a working prototype to illustrate some of the main features of the game. And you're probably thinking "well isn't that nice, but can I see it?" You sure can, thanks to CamStudio and their wonderful open-source recording software. Mad props to those guys.



This video shows examples of "shadow-hopping," the aiming system we're going to have (right now it involves holding Q to change the mouse from control player to control aim) and dropping a flashlight (the long rectangle). Eventually dropped flashlights will be able to create shadows which you can hop into, and will be recoverable. All graphics in the video are default for Leadwerks, hence the player being a cube.

Much more work is being done on the game, and already numerous meshes have been produced and an alpha version is being coded. This game is coming along. I intend to update again when notable progress has been made, possibly with another video.