You can download the demo from the Shining Online project page.

Make sure you swing over to the SOS site and show your support, and keep working on those great fan games. We’ll get one finished yet ;)

“I suppose I’d best make an announcement about this.

Firstly, I’d like to say a massive thank-you to the people who’ve voiced their support for the project. I realise some (most) of you were just posting ‘cos people here made you, but I’ll let that count :P

Anyways, I’m sure some of you are eager to know if work on SO will resume. The old code is more than a little dated, so most of it is being scrapped. Fear not though, the new features should make up for this short delay in restarting things. There’s still some kinks in the design to work out, but it’ll all get sorted in time. As always, anyone who wants to suggest a feature is welcome to. No idea when the next demo will be out. I wouldn’t count on it being in the next few months, as I have a degree and a girlfriend to take care of. I’ll be using the worklog feature on the site to keep you all updated, so once I fix the site up you can check there to see what me and Newts are doing =)

So in other words, yes, it’s back.”

With such an in depth title, could this topic get any more intellectual? This is going to be a difficult post for me to write. Not only because it’s a subject that is important to me, but for some strange reason it’s important to other people. Plus I’m in a terrible mood at the moment… I’ll try and keep this short and free of over sentimentality.

First things first, Djobi is 100% correct. I’m sure he’ll be pleased to hear that. It’s not easy for a developer to admit that a project failure is entirely their fault, but in the case of SO it was my fault. I started coding it well before I was ready, and it was more of an experiment than anything else. Maybe in that respect it should have died long ago.

Negative feedback does get me down. I worked hard on that game, and to have someone dismiss it as crap without even giving it a chance gets me. I don’t expect everyone to like it. Hell, I didn’t expect anyone to like it, but some of the comments I got just made me wonder “Why should I bother?” That kind of thing kills all motivation.

So where does this leave SO?

It isn’t an easy decision. There’s a lot of work involved, and it would have to be started from the beginning. As you can imagine, that increases the burden a lot. I’m in no doubt over the amount of work that would be required. I’ve learnt that the hard way.

Enough boring shit. Here’s the answer. Will SO return? Yes.

And there was most definately much rejoicing! :D
Feel free to party away on YOB :P

No guarantees we’ll be listening, though :P

[20:22] [Ty] Who here wants to know a secret?
[20:22] [Devlyn] I'm really curious about what you've got on your mind :).
[20:22] [Newts] Not me
[20:23] [Ty] You know SO demo 3B?
[20:23] [Ty] That's as far as it'll ever get :P
[20:23] [Devlyn] Really?
[20:23] * WeirdGuy covers
[20:23] [Devlyn] Are you gonna can it??
[20:23] [WeirdGuy] aaah, its the evil Tymaster
[20:24] [acebloke] so you gave up on it and started demo 4
[20:24] [Ty] Get in that can!
[20:24] [Ty] demo 3B was a baby form of demo 4
[20:25] [acebloke] so thats it ? no more SO ?
[20:25] [Ty] All good things come to an end

I’m off on holiday on Friday, so the hate mail will have to wait until I get back.

It’s buggy, it’s not finished, and it smells of wee. Still, it’s better than nothing, eh? ;)

Rabid excitement ensued the upload as Acebloke and Seanikins struggled to become the first player to *ever* beat the infamous first battle… and Seanikins came through in fine style, proving once and for all why he’s the game’s number one fan. We’re currently devising a nice prize for him, whilst Acebloke gets nothing for being second, except this piece of advice – if you want to stand a chance next time, try upgrading your computer once every ten years :P

Devlyn is expecting to release SMEE sometime near the end of the month, replete with new features and a brand spanking new interface. As for the other projects, feel free to quiz their creators over at Ye Olde Blah :)

We don’t know when we’ll be uploading the *real* Demo 4, but it won’t be for a while yet. Hate to tease you all like this, but it’ll be worth the wait… just ask Seanikins :)

Keep the faith!

Hopefully all graphics problems should be conquered this time around, and the challenge is this – can anyone beat the first battle? We haven’t managed to do it yet…

A lot has to go into the demo for it to be considered complete, so beware that there is much to be added :)

Anyway, I just wanted to say enjoy it, and drop by the Shining Online forum if you have any comments, feedback, criticisms or just general observations :)

Above all, keep the faith!

Send all your fanart to me here. Whoever is judged to be the best will get a very nice prize from Ty and myself, so please, get drawing!

Either way, apologies, but university is more important than demo 4 :P