I’ve been moving out of Flash and into Javascript/Ajax. I’ve been meaning to get started on a multiplayer Javascript based battle engine, so i put together this demo to see how such an engine would perform.
http://www.bloo.us/javascript/tileengine/
No complaints so far.
After a couple month interuption (completely due to the arrival of the Wii) work on Spark is back on track. I’m still working on SDL stuff. I can move my characters around the screen with input form the keyboard, but only without a background image. Next week I’ll be working on animating characters within an environment and after that I’ll be working on interaction between characeters and the enviroment.
Progress is going well on the Spark engine. I’m using SDL and OpenGL instead of DirectX. I decided to go this route so that the game is open to as many people as possible – not just windows users.
I’m setting a goal now to have some kind of playable demo up and running by the middle of 2007. It will probably just be one town to explore and one battle – but that would me the core programming for the game is done, since shining games are basically just these two gameplay elements repeated over and over.
A lot of work still needs to be done on asset creation, which is why the demo will be so short, until more assets for various towns and characters can be created.
Shining Flash has had a change of URL, and accounts are no longer required to launch the game. You can find the updated version at the following URL:
http://www.bloo.us/entertainment/shining/
The old page is still accessible at http://www.bloo.us/shining/.
Just a quick update here to say that more models of characters have been completed. Current models include: A centaur (playable), dwarf(playable), human(playable), evil crustacean(enemy), insect warrior(enemy), and a stone golem(enemy). The have all been rigged and textured, there animations are being worked on now. I’ll be putting up screen shots soon on this site once I’m able to.
The game engine is also progressing slowly but steadily. Slowly being the operative word there ;)
