A3P

It’s here, and it needs lots of play-testing! Please help me out and play it. You’ll need a Windows machine with a Shader Model 3.0 graphics card. I’m anticipating some technical issues with this release (it is an alpha after all), so if you run the game and now window appears and the process dies, [...]

I finished refactoring with components, added a reflection-enabled editor and XML serialization, finally got real PCF shadow filtering, and started experimenting with a somewhat cel-shaded visual style. I’ve been busy. The refactoring had a lot of ... [More] positive side effects. Serialization is now relatively easy, as the state of each component is determined by its properties, [...] [Less]

I’ve been refactoring my engine with the component-entity model, and things are turning out quite nicely. The one problem I always had with components was the way inter-component dependencies were handled. In the article I linked (one of the classics ... [More] on the subject), the author says his components originally referenced each other through a component manager, [...] [Less]

[These posts are now being mirrored on my GameDev.net developer journal. Check out their new revamped site, it's pretty sweet.] I am getting ready for an alpha release soon, very basic, with one tutorial level and a level editor. So looking at installer options for XNA games, this WiX XNA installer appears to be the best [...]

I’m going to poke my head in here to reassure everyone that the game is making steady progress. The environment now turns transparent when it gets in the way of the camera, and the player has some nifty new moves and mechanics, plus a very shnazzy looking power bar to indicate how much “juice” you [...]

I finally got animations working! I’m using a Blender to FBX script, along with this fantastic multi-take FBX importer. Apparently XNA depends on the actual FBX API for importing, and the API changed drastically just before XNA 4 released, so they didn’t have time to get multiple takes (animation clips) working in one file. This [...]

Okay, it’s time to shed some light on this project. First off, my goal is to release on Xbox and, if possible, Steam (if not, I’ll be looking at other online stores). I figure these are the two largest, most practical target markets. The release price will be between $1 and $5, with 100% of [...]

That’s right kids. I’s back with a new game project. I will post these two tantalizing morsels for you. Let the wild speculation begin!   I realize the chill music in the video doesn’t exactly match the motif of the above image, or the whole game really, but hey, it’s just a tech demo. No [...]

Do not be fooled by the elegant simplicity of the mighty closure! Behind its shiny dynamic veneer lies a powerful machine capable of destroying your immortal soul. Behold: function GetOutputFunctions() { var outputFunctions = new Array(); for(var i = 0; i < 4; i++) { var x = i * 2; outputFunctions.push(function() { alert(x); }); [...]

Well, I submitted A3P to IndieCade on Friday. It’s also currently in QA testing for an online gaming portal (BigPoint, still free of course). I won’t say that A3P is done, but I think it’s pretty stable. I need to do a bit more work on the connection establishment process (it seems a little fragile), [...]