NOTE: Flash is killed by Adobe so I expect all URLs listed here to vanish
Since Flash 11 is released yesterday, I thought I might as well try the Stage3D (Molehill), at least to set my development tools if I wanted to do something with it in the near future..
The information out there about Stage3D and setting it up with FlashDevelop is confusing and outdated, google didn’t help much, I followed what seems to be the main method to set up the incubator playerglobal.swc and an unofficial flash player debugger which I couldn’t get to “debug” things, then I just found that Adobe did release an official player debugger and playerglobal.swc yesterday! but google didn’t show it in the results probably because it’s very recent and I couldn’t find a direct link for it easily within Adobe Flex/Flash developers pages today (probably because I’m blind), so here it is if someone missed it: https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html
WARNING:this post is written while being very sleepy, my linguistic abilities deteriorate during this state, so excuse anything that doesn’t make sense hehe
Today, no sleep, and 7 hours of work, then I went to University to check whether my engineering BSc certificate is … made.. yet I guess, and it wasn’t, they postponed me to 1st of October (3 days from now, not bad).
Yes, a 3 day project that lasted.. well a lot more than 3 days obviously. I’ve been logging a few details about progress in twitter for reference, working is going much slower than the initial burst of work because I didn’t plan for something this big :-S
But I feel like I learned things and solved new types of problems, so it’s all in good sports :) here’s a little brief on how things went so far:
The most revolutionary documentary I’ve ever seen about humanity, it’s problems, and it’s future, and it actually presents impressive technological solutions.. a total eye opener.. I’m actually joining the Zeitgeist movement~! :D
Wolf gets 48 more hours of work now, so I need to concentrate on the basics of the game
I'm hoping to get to something playable at the end..
Processing.............................. .. . .
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I have a full plan dO_Ob !!
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Description
Day 1:
Optimize rendering area 0.5
up-down variation while walking 1
much faster motion and rotation 0.5
Custom billboard class 2
Enemy test, class/sprite/in level 2
Player vs Enemy collision detection 1.5
Player-fire var Enemy collision detection 3
Enemy can fire 0.5
Player vs Enemy-fire collision detection 1
TOTAL 12 hours
Day 2:
Test trigger wall 1
Player actions collision 3
Triggering works correctly with id 1
Windows 2
Shotgun class/sprite/in level 2
Random enemy motion, Pistol/shotgun working 2
HUD showing health 1
TOTAL 12 hours
In case Day 1 and 2 are successful,..
Day 3:
Add doors 1
Doors openable with triggers 1
Doors motion while opening 2
Design 3 enemies 1
Add 3 enemies to test level 1
enemy behavior 3
Main menu, prepare for multiple levels 2
HUD notification text "You found a mighty pistol!" etc 1
TOTAL 12 hours
This is getting rediculous
Day 4:
HUD weapons 2
HUD ammo 2
Design level pack class 2
Create a bunch of levels 3
Design 2 monsters 3
TOTAL 12 hours
... okay this is the last day
Day 5:
Add 2 monsters class/sprite/in levels 2
Monster 1 AI 2
Monster 2 AI 2
Custom cube geometry with hidden surface removal 3
Create more levels 3
TOTAL 12 hours
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Day 6:
Fog experimentation, performance adjustment 4
More levels, adjust for fun 5
Throw in some music 3
TOTAL 12 hours
Day 7:
Release, then fucking die of exaustion 12
TOTAL 12 hours
...
and to think I wanted to add spells and magic to it...
I couldn’t sleep yesterday, I slept this morning around 10 am (being nearly 25 hours awake.. typical) only to be awaken by the gas company wanting to install the new gas line in my kitchen around 2 pm, that’s 4 hours of sleep… but all is well :)
I was kinda harsh on Away3D, that’s probably because I come from a native performance background, when I draw a polygon and watch the framerate drop 0.01 frames I freakout and start running and cursing. In addition to that doing this rapid gamedev thing kinda twists how I judge stuff, I want to get things done as fast as possible (within minutes ideally) and if a solution doesn’t act the way I think it should at the time, it costs me preciousss minutesesss, and then I start cursing more.. yep, there is a lot of cursing involved in gamedev :D
Well I said I will stick to simple ideas, then completely went over that by trying to make a retro fps shotter with support for multiplayer in 72 hours max hehe
This is my first try, I called the whole thing “Wolf” not the game but the whole project. And of course, I didn’t quite make it, but I made something from scratch and by all means it’s an impressive result for 3 days of normal work, it isn’t a full game though, only a good base for one.
Watching the little gamedev twitter world, I find notch working on Minecraft and releasing 1.8, Chevy Ray is enthusiastically developing a new game with a bunch of artists, John Carmack like usual mumbling about weird things related to displays and refresh rates, I think he’s creating an intergalactic space ship out of old CRT monitors or something.. whatever it may be, it can probably reach escape velocity..
IndieCade independent games festival is announcing it’s finalists! http://www.indiecade.com/index.php/2011/Finalists/ then accusing notch of causing their website to go down hehe notch is like a living breathing DoS attack
And Terry Cavanagh celebrating because his game “At a distance” is a finalist at indiecrade!
And I’m coding my own little thing, I couldn’t help but smile =) I like this little world, and I want to stay in it..
It might be getting old, but I will again mention that participating in Ludum Dare was the best decision I made this year, I urge all game developers interested in the skill of making actual games (rather than just talking about it or making cute main menus -I did both hehe-) to try it and work hard at succeeding, the moment you succeed in finishing fun games within 48 hours,.. the results will surely send shockwaves into your future.. it’s such a pure concentrated experience in gamedev, it’s just beautiful.
Hi! This is the first day of Ramadan ending holiday, so happy eid!!! :D
After Prison Escapor, I had to come to Alexandria for the holiday submitting to my family’s demands, and at the same time I was interested in visiting a place in Alexandria (Egypt) called IdeasGym which is a wonderful project that concentrates on after-school activities for kids of ages starting from around 6 years up to 18 years.