Update Central

Greetings peeps,

Yes, I have been busy. Just had my Japanese style wedding a few days ago, and boy am I glad that's all over. Anyone who's ever had an 80 year old relative sing karaoke at their wedding will know exactly what I'm talking about.

But somewhere inbetween in between the sake drinking and the speech-making, I managed to find the time to sneakily work on The Damned, and in fact I have quite a few updates to report (as if anyone reads this shit).

The third level is going well now. I rewrote the entire enemy spawn function, and also made the decision to reduce the dimensions of the sprites. It's amazing how much faster the game runs now, and without any serious compromise in visual quality. Sure, the monsters look a bit blockier when they get close, but the extra frames of animation more than make up for it. This was the way I should have had it from the start.

Got the little Crow dudes running around in there now, and I FINALLY invented a method that works successfully in simulating fog with movieclips. Further more, the modified weapon code is functioning well now, and can accommodate any other firearms I decide to include (not likely until The Damned 2). Another addition (though still in testing) is the implementation of a power-up symbol that gives you extra shotgun rounds if you shoot it. It's done but needs a cool sound effect.

One last amendment is the inclusion of a new beastie. Yes, I thought just having CrowMen to shoot might make the level a little bit bland, so I've gone ahead and designed my own Garrador/Dr.Salvador hybrid. No name for them as yet (any suggestions?). I downloaded (oops, rented) Friday 13th the second part the other night and the whole sack on the head thing was working for me. My character doesn't wield a machete, but a karambit, an ancient Indonesian style hunting tool. It's a lot uglier.

Check him out;



The other day we were chit-chatting on FlashKit about C64 remakes, and I was thinking how I'd love to remake the Friday 13th game. Making a Jason character now might save me some time in the future if I ever do pursue such an idea.


More to come real soon!

Back at the helm..

So, for the past month or so I've been a little busy. My wedding is on the 4th of November, and I've been up to my ears in prep. I'm actually already married so the whole event feels a little pointless, yet this is how they do it in Japan- marriage at the local registry first, wedding later on in the year.

I took a coding hiatus from The Damned for a while in order to work on my isometric engine, but I'm back now. I've basically spent the last month teaching myself how to use 3DSMAX, and I've been learning rather than creating. FINALLY, I'm getting the hang of working with a mesh in Max, though for almost a week it's been an awful wrestle trying to get to grips with texture mapping enough to produce an end result I can be proud of. I suppose I've got more of an advantage over your average noob though, having mastered other programs such as TrueSpace and Lightwave in the past, and know my specular from my ambient mapping. The change was inevitable really, as Poser is well...shit.

Presenting my first mesh success 'CrowMan';



Picture this little squawking freak coming at you from out of the fog, because that's what will happen in the game.

He isn't the boss, just the standard enemy for the 3rd (and final) level of the game.
I have yet to rig him up and attach wings, but the mesh and texture maps are finalised. He's not perfect- yes, the mesh seams are visible close-up; yes, some of the textures don't blend nicely- but from a distance he does the job. I figure later on down the line I'll probably come back to this game and improve on all the graphics/code one day anyway.

It's a high-mesh model of Poser's James, exported to Max and altered quite a bit. As mentioned, texture mapping was the hardest to do. Only until I came across an easy method using a combination of UVW MAP and UNWRAP UVW,to keep all the textures in one jpg file. At anyones requests, I will write a mini-tutorial on how to do this.


All for now.


Progress on the game should be faster now that MAX and me are starting to like each-other.

Well howdya do..I wasn't going to bother to blog today, but my little peach is asleep already, and here I am.

I figured out a little trick today. Have you noticed that all my demo's run a little bit faster now, yes?


Well, want to know the secret?


RAMP UP THE FPS ON YOUR GAMES. BIG TIME.


I know, I know, every respected programmer will beg you never to go over 30 fps - because do you know - the poor cheap bastards out there who haven't upgraded their PC since 1999 and can only dream of figures and specifications such as 64mb ram and 1.4 ghz won't be able to play it.
Well screw 'em, that's what I say. After all, they're in the minority. I say boost it up to 60, and while you're at it, get some real sprites on the screen, not peewee space-ships that expire with miniature explosions.
Why stop there? Make two versions of your game, one that runs at 60, and one at 80 with twice the action - for the people with real graphics cards. And screw the guys who tell you not to push your fps beyond what is deemed considerate. Because the fact is, Flash simply can't handle big, fat, in-your-face bitmap games at 30 fps. MY little 500 pound laptop runs them fine at 50 fps (though online it slows to about 30 -JUST RIGHT-). And I don't know anyone who has a shittier laptop than me. Anyway, people who are regularly into games tend to own high-spec computers. Even kids who are not into games that much will nag their parents to buy high-spec until they give in.
My old dear has a fairly decent PC and believe me, she doesn't know the difference between the vacuum cleaner and the electric toaster. That's just the way things are these days, PC's are faster, better built. So there you have it. Focus on making the games you want to make, not the ones that are built to serve redundant specifications.

So push forward with your evil-self and slam the fps to the hilt. 'Cos unfortunately with Flash, it is so often is the only method available to whip some honest performance out of the slow-ass biatch.

p.s.New FLASH GTA demo on the sidebar.