Wednesday, November 8, 2006
I've been inspired by the Ksatria game engine and my good friend Simon to restructrure the Chaos engine so that it'll be easier to use.
I'm going to start by separating out the GUI(2D) engine because I intend to use it for another project.
| permalink
Friday, September 22, 2006
A couple of days ago Ced asked me whether or not I had done any work on Swords. I had not. But now I'm really itching to resume where I left off. To my defense I have been really busy. Really.
The vision I had for the game is intact and I still want to see it realized. Hopefully someday soon I'll pick it up again.
| permalink
Friday, August 4, 2006
I've arrived in Singapore and I've started at my new job. My computer is still lying in pieces in my room. I need to get a few things to get it working again. Thinking about getting them this weekend.| permalink
Friday, July 14, 2006
I'm leaving for Singapore some time in the next following week. I'm still waiting for word about my tickets. Better practice on my english: "I want hot coffee from a proper copper coffee pot. I want hot.."
[Update]
Turns out I'm not leaving quite yet. I'm booked on a flight that leaves 1st of August from here. Until then I will work from home.
Note: No information about my work at Ksatria Gameworks will be posted here.
| permalink
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
I haven't updated for a while. I thought that I should clear up a few things.
Q: What's the status of the project?
A: The project is still officially in the works. I took a break late may. It's not the first break I've taken (there was also a gap in february), but it's definetly the longest.
Q: What have you been doing the last month?
Two things. Like I said in the previous post, I entered an artistic phase where I really felt like drawing stuff and improve on my estetic skills. I received an awesome response from other artists on deviantArt, pushing me even further.
The other thing is I have been job-searching. I got two responses, one from DICE in Stockholm and another one from Ksatria in Singapore.
I got the job in Singapore, but I waited quite a while for word from DICE. A couple of weeks ago I recieved a negative response from them saying they're primarily looking for senior programmers. That meant I started getting ready to leave for Singapore.
If I could just pack a bag and leave, I would. But it's not quite that simple. It needs extensive planning, vaccinations, a passport (I only have an id-card.. that expired 2003), not to mention a ton of questions to be answered.
To sum it up. I haven't really been focused on programming lately.
Q: What will happen now?
A: I'm hoping that I can still keep running this project even while I'm working in Singapore. I'm sure they won't mind as long as I keep it to my spare time. Before I leave I need to break myself out of my artistic phase, and I guess one way to do that would be to work some more on Swords.
This means I might post another update before I leave, but I think it's safe to say you shouldn't expect updates as frequently as it has been.
Q: Why haven't we heard of this before?
A: Two distinct reasons. a) I didn't want a conflict of interest between DICE and Ksatria, so I've been very discreet publicly. b) Until I got the response from DICE I never really knew where I was headed.
I hope this clears up some questions you might have had.
| permalink
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
No, I didn't die. I've been mostly doing mental work. I started thinking about implementing a real scripting-language instead of the xml-commands I currently use.
The tricky thing is deciding how the scripting model should look and which functions should be scriptable. Should I use it for just scripted events like story-stuff and skills, or should I go all the way and make the AI scriptable as well?
I've been looking at two scripting API's. The first one is Python. The other one is Angelscript. I like the syntax of Angelscript more (it's just like c++), but I've heard lots of good things about Python.
Also I've been offered a job.. maybe two. We'll see how that goes.
| permalink
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
I've spent some time figuring out the inventory system. It started when I wanted to display which weapons the characters are wielding in the character dialog.
It wasn't as easy as adding some text and an icon. That would be cheating. I had to create an item-class that held all it's properties and make sure that the character's had ownership of items.
I have three types of items in the game: The first type is just an ordinary item. It can have a script, meaning it can be used (e.g. a potion), or it's just a useless item that can either be thrown in combat or sold in a store.
The second type are equippable items that have attribute modifiers to increase or decrease a character's stats. Like armor or a pair of shoes.
The third type is weaponry. Weapons are treated a bit different from equippables and I had to make that distinction in the code as well.
Characters will be able to possess one weapon and three equips. All other items are shared between all characters. (I hate games where every character have it's own inventory.. and when that guy with all the potions die you're totally screwed)
| permalink
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
I wrote various fixes in the code today. I added a concept called resource grouping. It lets me create groups of textures in the resource XML. A good example where I can use this is with the different environments.
Instead of changing all of the textures in the map-file I created two resource groups, one containing the snowy textures and one containing the grassy textures. I then type which group to load in the map-file.
I did some tests to figure out how the healthbars should look. I settled with the look shown in the screenshot above. Currently they're just placeholders, but it should be easy to implement the real deal later on.
| permalink
Next
