The Shining Source

This will not be the last version of BABS, but it has been tested and largely debugged. Also, compared to the beta it has a bunch of improvements.

After all the programming today I’m too lazy to do screenshots, but you can check out the program here :).

Depending on community interest I will further patch and enhance this program. If the interest is minimal or non-existant, I’ll just focus on developing SSC instead ;)

Enjoy!

After BABS 2 Alpha and a bunch of hyping from my side, I thought it’s time to fullfill a few promises.

Therefore I now present BABS 2 Beta! It’s still unofficial, but at least not as unofficial as BABS 2 Alpha. The most notorious features over the alpha version are:

• Ranged attacks
• Improved interface
• Land effect and limited movement
• Real Cacophonous Midi music from my own making ;)

Of course, what would a release be without accompanying graphical terror? ;) Here you are:

Target lock baby.

Grayscale Elric going into the clouds ;).

As for the game itself, you can find it at: BABS-2.beta.zip

In order to run the game, you need to have the Java 5.0 JRE, which you can find at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp (third download link).

Finally, I would really appreciate bug reports and feedback about this program. It will be the last release before the final BABS version, so I want to be sure to have everything right by then :).

Considering that the topic considering the BABS 2 alpha release was completely ignored, I thought that perhaps posting some screenshots will help wake the community up a bit.

Time will tell :).

Progress goes faster than lightning these days. Here’s a small overview of what’s been added (forgive any omissions):

Overall:

• Configurable settings file for game options (called settings.cfg).
• Configurable settings files for map entities (called (mapname).entityfile: With this file you’re now easily able to program your own entities on the map and have a limited degree of control over their statistics.

SMEE:

• A few interface tweaks
• Transparent color in the color selection
• Added land effect editor. It is disguised as the ‘land type’ option to improve intuitivity ;). Land effect does not do anything yet, but that will change soon.
• Left the map format unedited. In the very least the new SMEE will be backwards compatible, and perhaps the old SMEE 1.0 is even forwards compatible. Haven’t tried yet really :).

Game / BABS 2:

• Added a real entity system, where you can put multiple sprites on a single map.
• Added a turn sequence, along with very simple battle menu’s and attack animation placeholders.
• Set up and implemented a statistics system. Characters deal damage, receive damage, gain exp, gain levels (yes, monsters too!) and die honorably in combat ;).
• Improved the controls to make them a bit more faithful to regular emulators.
• No AI yet. The intention is to make BABS 2 hot seat multiplayer only :).
• Added a few extra sprites and tiles. Most came from Ty & Newt’s Shining Online project (thanks guys!).

Technically I *could* release a demo, but if anyone could help out with an attack animation or two, I’d be very happy! A demo is so much cooler with graphics :P.

Well, with all the disappointing news on the SEGA front I felt it was time to get started on some serious work. Most of the entity stuff is going pretty well and today I set up most of the statistics system that I’ll be using.

The whole code is still a mess but I figure that it’ll clean itself up over time ;). Still, adding functionality is still do-able, and that’s what matters most.

I updated the progress page, so feel free to take a look at it here.