Migrated from FTP on my server

Blogger changed, so now you can't post to ftp directly anymore. I had it push my posts onto my websites homepage (http://www.chrismweb.com), and parsed the file using php to display only the content :D

Took awhile to get it working, and it stinks that it is no longer a valid option, btu I guess I'll start posting more directly on here.

I've been working a lot, and mostly on flash/actionscript.

I've bought a few flash books recently that I can highly recommend for serious game programmers, or really any actionscript programmers. "Actionscript for multiplayer games and virtual worlds", and "real world flash game development".

Both are very good books, and the second would have saved me months of work if I had known about it sooner.

I was very happy to find the multiplayer flash game book, and although it uses proprietary software to allow you to setup the multiplayer Java based server, I think it still does the subject justice. I'll be mainly focusing on that for the next few weeks, as my diablo clone in flash will need that information.

The author was also so kind as to explain a system of creating isometric tiles and house to convert the mouse coordinates to screen coordinates! And it appears the a* algorithm as well.

That had taken me some time to figure out before, mostly going off of peoples posts for c++ for A* (and the AI book I have), and putting together old posts from gamedev.com.

I have a game concept for the intel game competition, but it's due in August, and that is rapidly approaching. I want to have the prototype finished in actionscript soon, and re-create in in c++ after I get all the logic setup.

I need to also practice some art work, since for now I am a one man team :/

I can program the game without a problem, and can base a lot of the code of my previous 2d scroller, and the 2d engine I had mostly gotten finished, but there's some new things to learn such as box2d (with scrolling), and methods of creating realistic based fighting and combo attacks.

This week I haven't gotten much done on personal stuff, but I hope to have the basic interface for the game done this weekend, but will mostly try to finish the project plan/ timeline/ list of goals tonight, and try to get started piece by piece this weekend.

It would also be nice to finish up the diablo game to a point where it is playable again (converted it to my engine, which allowed it to have much less redundant code, but hadn't finished porting all the features over yet).

If there are any good artists out there looking for a programmer to work on a game project with, send me an email(from my website) or leave a comment!

Working on flash game engine

I've converted my latest side scrolling flash game into an engine over the last couple weeks. I'm making it to simplify a lot of the "loops" that need to be run through when creating a new game.

For instance all the listeners that need to be setup to load xml/images becomes just a bunch of bloated code. I've specialized the loader classes to take care of that, so all you need to do is load an image- and check when it's ready. Since you have a main loop, needing listeners seems to be just an extra step.

The engine will be setup to provide a good foundation for all 2d genre games.

Levels are seperated into "screens" so that I can patch existing screens together, and may be able to even re-use screens with separate graphics.

I was able to integrate box2d as the physics engine, but have an issue with it simulating everything, rather than just what is on screen (for a scrolling game). I might have to take it apart and customize it for what I need. For instance my RPG game has an enormous amount of tiles, and if a similar game needed physics, it should never be done on more than 4 screens at a time (assuming you stop in the middle of all four).

I have posted the side scroller created without the engine on facebook, but will finish it up with final graphics and with better transitions using the engine. After that, I will redo my asteroids game, and start on an arcade game like bejeled/tetris/connect4!

Added more graphics to the game

I found some added some tree models to the game. I've been tweaking the grass, but still don't have it looking right. Need to add more good looking variation, add a real building in, ect. Hopefully have it looking good soon!

Good progress on game editors

I've been working a lot on the map, and dialogue editors for the game. Still need to work on the quest editor, but that should be easiest.

I've also been developing a decent set of UI components in both of the editors that I can style differently and use in the game. Things like a 2d scrollable window, a class to handle, position, and handle children of those windows, and much more.

Right now I am again back to focusing on graphics. Worked a lot on trying to make realistic cartoon grass, but I think the details on top of the grass will be what makes the world more "3d" . So now that I have some decent looking roads and base grass tiles done, I'm going to be modeling and rendering out the other objects in the game.

Need to add:

-Trees
-Shrubs
-Grasses
-ditches/holes in the earth
-buildings (1 and 2 story along with round ones)

After that, I'll clean up the characters a bit- fully model the faces, correct the anatomy, and creat new monsters that generate better silhouettes than the wolf.

Finished main game of flash rpg, working on the map editor!

I've been working on the flash mmo RPG as much as possible on my offtime, but finally have the dialogue and quest system working properly.

I've gotten to the point of needing to start making many levels and quests/stories, so I am working on a map editor, quest editor, and dialogue editor.

The map editor screenshot is from 3 days of after work work. it's going to be a bit more involved than I originally planned, but I should be able to create maps very quickly this way.

If anyone wants to sign up for the alpha when it is ready send me an email or post on the message board!

New screen shot of Nemesis

I've been working on Nemesis as much as I can.
I have all the animations for a basic NPC, wold, and main hero finished.

I recently modeled all the equip-able items so far, and rendered them out with animations, so it will soon be possible to see the items when equipped, as well as better looking items on the item screen and on the ground.

I've been playing dragons age lately, and observing what elements I like from their RPG. The game is great! But it might be a different type of play than what Nemesis will be, since it does have a finale, I might need to look more into current MMORPG's and see what elements are most enjoyable/addictive.

Forum fixed, and contact form working!

I was able to finally get past the difficulties updating the forum (due to a custom skin), and have it updated, so it won't be going down again.

I updated since the old version of phpbb got about 8 spammer accounts a day, even though the forums are pretty dead.

Also, I realized my contact form had been submitting to nowhere for quite some time, and fixed it so it actually emails me.

Game programming

Other than that, I've still been working on the RPG flash game, I'm re-doing the look of the NPC dialog box to make it look better, and be simpler to interact with.

After that I'll start putting together simple quests with the NPC's, monsters and items, make sure all fighting animations work and look good, and continue working on the artwork/graphics.

I am also exploring building android applications, and will start some openGL based 2d classic arcade game clones very soon!