Announcing new RPG project
Submitted by Earok on Thu, 04/01/2010 - 11:32I have been thinking for awhile that I have dabbled in all sorts of game projects, from strategy to first person shooter, shoot em up, platformer and so on. One thing I have never even attempted to do is an RPG, and why not? RPGs are great fun and a hugely popular genre in both the East and West.
I was thinking I would like to do an RPG with a contemporary setting but with fantasy creatures. Vampires, Werewolves and so on. Since most RPGs are set in fantasy and sci-fi worlds I thought this would be a refreshing twist from the norm.
Therefore I am proudly announcing that I will be using the rest of this year (After Screnzy is finished) to develop a fan game of Twilight. This is going to be awesome. Stay tuned.
Screnzy starts tomorrow
Submitted by Earok on Wed, 03/31/2010 - 19:26Script Frenzy starts tomorrow. 30 days, 100 pages of film script to write. Oh joy.
I decided that I would just write what I would probably have the most fun writing, regardless of any artistic merit the idea may or may not have. So, I have decided to write a Science Fiction film about giant robot warfare. (Don't laugh! Films with giant robots are all the rage these days, from Avatar to District 9!)
The script is tentatively titled BattleSuit and is based on a game idea I intend to make someday. It's sort-of a sequel to Derelict, but set much farther in the future.
Not sure if I will ever release it publicly, but being able to legitimately claim that I am a scriptwriter in addition to being a novelist would be awesome.
WitchBlaster on New Zealand PC World April 2010 edition
Submitted by Earok on Sun, 03/28/2010 - 12:27WitchBlaster, as well as seven other Global Game Jam 2010 entries from NZ has just been published on the coverdisk of the New Zealand PC World April 2010 edition. (Thanks again to PR genius Stephen Knightly for making this happen).
What's more, WitchBlaster won Editors Choice! PC World editor Harley Ogier had this to say in the extended review included only on the DVD coverdisk:
If it were a shareware game, Witch Blaster would be impressive. As a game put together in 48–hours, it’s even more so. If you play one game from the PC World DVD this month, it should be this one.
I am completely stoked about this! Not only is one of my games published on a magazine for the first time, but it gets a terrific review at the same time.
My TV Interview
Submitted by Earok on Thu, 03/18/2010 - 20:38This is the segment from Media7 about the Auckland Global Game Jam that had me in it. Enjoy.
What do I write?
Submitted by Earok on Thu, 03/18/2010 - 19:11Writing this in a hurry so it might sound like bit of a ramble.
ScriptFrenzy, the script writing counterpart to NaNoWriMo, starts in April. Basically the goal is to write a 100 page script for a movie, play, television show, graphic novel etc.
Since I am apparently bit of a "Goal Junkie" (According to Arran at least) I definitely will have a shot at it. The problem is, unlike when I did NaNoWriMo, I have no idea of what I'm going to write.
I had lots of thoughts, like a movie adaptation of Derelict or my NaNoWriMo novel from last year, or a 'Game Script' outlining both the story and level design of a Mecha FPS game I'm currently planning, or a 'FanFiction' sequel to.. I don't know, James Bond or Avatar or something.
So, lots of very vague ideas, but nothing I really feel comfortable committing an entire month to writing on. I may just end up writing random stuff to see where it takes me. Any thoughts, anyone?
Crap Flight Simulator 3
Submitted by Earok on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 17:05It's a tradition of mine to try and make a bare bones flight simulator in every 3D engine that I adopt, sort of my version of 'Hello World'.
Crap Flight Simulator 1 was my first attempt at a DarkBasic game (Actually my first attempt at a 3D game, period.) which was primarily to test out the terrain capabilities. A few months later I made Crap Flight Simulator 2 when I was trialling BlitzBasic, and I was so impressed by it's capabilities and ease of use that I immediately decided to switch.
On Sunday I spent half the day working on Crap Flight Simulator 3 in XNA, and well, here it is:
I guess that makes me officially a XNA user now!
Okay, it's not really much to look at (The terrain is stolen from the Creators Club Tutorials) but I am happy with what I have achieved. The main thing I worked out was how to rotate vectors (Which are used for representing 3D position) around quaternions (Which are used for representing four dimensional rotations - Don't ask) and then move those vectors forward/backwards, left/right and up/down relative to their local rotation rather then the rotation of the game world.
One of the things that bugs me about XNA is how it lacks a lot of the stuff Blitz3D had to make it easy to use. The quaternion based rotation above is a good example, in Blitz3D you never even had to think about it as it did all of that stuff in the background. It also lacks built in support for heightmap based terrains, creating primitive meshes (Spheres, Cubes etc), collisions and so on. I find that you have a lot more power with XNA, but it takes far longer to get anything decent working.
That said, I have started to code a Blitz3D inspired Library with C# and XNA that will help me build my future projects. I may open source it if it becomes any good.
Probably going to go quiet on the blog for a bit. Going on a vacation soon, then straight after that I'll be doing ScriptFrenzy.
I was on TV
Submitted by Earok on Fri, 03/12/2010 - 17:52
That's me and my game on TVNZ's Media7 show. Media7 is only on the Freeview digital channel 7 and channel 97 on Sky, so it certainly isn't a mainstream channel (A friend who was also on the show joked that it wouldn't really count as being on Television if no one was tuned in!) but it was a pretty awesome experience seeing myself there for the first time. Thanks to Stephen Knightly for liaising with the Media so this could happen.
I was interviewed about WitchBlaster for a segment on the Global Game Jam. I hope the ten seconds that I was on the show didn't make me look like a total git! The segment might also be of some interest to Brit gamers as it includes Kevin Toms, the now New Zealand based creator of the million selling Football Manager game.
I think they're replaying the episode this Monday at 9.10pm. Episodes of Media7 are available officially on YouTube but I don't know when and if they will upload this one.
The show can be watched freely on TVNZ on demand at here (About the last 1/3rd of Chapter 2) however I don't think it can be watched Internationally, at least without the help of a certain Greasemonkey script.
Special thanks
Submitted by Earok on Wed, 03/10/2010 - 07:16Special thanks to Glen for using my DropBox referral link. Now we both get an extra 250mb of space in our accounts for free.
WitchBlaster: Now on Mac
Submitted by Earok on Sun, 03/07/2010 - 20:41The awesome Cobra Blade has generously supplied me with a Universal Binary compiled version of my Global Game Jam 2010 entry WitchBlaster, allowing play on both newer Intel Macs and older PPC ones.
This makes the second Mac game on my site after The Kiwi's Tale, and the first that can run on a PPC Mac. I'll see if Cobra is interested in making a Universal Binary of The Kiwi's Tale, but it might be quite tricky because of big/little endian issues.
Well, that's all I have to say, really. Download it here if you are interested.
DropBox
Submitted by Earok on Mon, 02/22/2010 - 17:38The best kind of backup is one you don't even have to think about. Dropbox is one of my favourite new applications because it facilitates that kind of backup.
Basically, it creates a folder on your computer which is automatically synchronised with a storage cloud. It's really that simple. However, it also offers:
- Dropboxes can be synchronised between multiple computers.
- Clients available for Windows, Mac, Linux and iPhone.
- Files in your Dropbox can be downloaded from a web browser.
- Version control, making it easy to roll back to earlier copies (The downside to this is I am now too lazy to set up Subversion repositories!).
- Easy file sharing, each file saved in a public subfolder of your dropbox has a public link that can be shared.
- Although there are multiple pricing options, the basic 2GB option is absolutely free.
- EDIT - Entire folders can be shared with fellow DropBox users. Thanks @arran4 for reminding me.
I'll admit I have an ulterior motive for writing this post. If you use this link to sign up for a DropBox account, then both you and me get an additional 250mb of storage.