The Basic Story Is Almost Finished (I Think...)

Two weeks have passed. It feels like I am close to ironing out most of the story, but the story seems to be dragging its feet. One of the hardest things, I have found, is to fill content areas in a creative way when there is very little to base them on. For instance, I have about 7 planets left which need cities and characters for the player to interact with. Those characters need a story to make them compelling. Also I have to decide how the main game plot fits into each of these planets in a cohesive way.

So here I am left to beat my head into the wall hoping I'll find creative goodies in the process. At least I'm not a monkey. A monkey would beat his head on the wall just for the sheer enjoyment of it.


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The following is a playable demonstration of the game engine. It does not yet reflect what the final game will look like, but it does give you an idea of how you will interact while flying your ship.

The wormhole links map (1,2) to map (2,7). The space stations are in map (1,2) and (2,2)

Story

Finally I feel like I have narrowed my game concept down to one story in particular which I believe to be rather unique and interesting. Many of the overall game concepts have been finalized as well. Now I have to focus on the nitty-gritty details of the story and game mechanics. I both look forward to and dread this process.


The following is a playable demonstration of the game engine. It does not yet reflect what the final game will look like, but it does give you an idea of how you will interact while flying your ship.

The wormhole links map (1,2) to map (2,7). The space stations are in map (1,2) and (2,2)

Some Simple AI

Well, I've decided to publish the current version of the game engine. I've fixed numerous bugs and have added a simple AI. The AI allows ships to fly between space stations. I also removed a few of the maps so that I can focus on developing components prior to adding content.

The wormhole links map (1,2) to map (2,7). The space stations are in map (1,2) and (2,2)

I had been hoping to publish a new version of the game before now, but a recent job loss has thrown things into disarray. Fortunately, I have enough of my wits about me to find some focus through all of this chaos. In any case, I have been working on the AI in the game. I have some basic AI agents that I am fine tuning before I publish the next version. I am very close and should have something soon!


The wormhole links map (1,1) to map (2,7). The space stations are in map (2,2)

Basic Layout Complete

I've completed most of the basic layout of the game. These changes include navigation through basic screens as well as a resizable mini-map, an in-game menu, wormholes, and dockable space-ports.

The demo here consists of 2 regions of space: Region A and Region B. Both regions contain a 3x3 grid of maps. The only way to get from one region to the next is through a wormhole in each region. The demo also contains 2 space stations. The space station screens are only stubs at the moment.

As stated before, most of the graphics are borrowed from various sources for development purposes. Once all game logic is complete, new graphics for the entire game will be developed.

The wormhole links map (1,1) to map (2,7). The space stations are in map (2,2)

Map Transitions

So I've added the ability to transition to other maps. No visual candy has been added yet so all you see is a crude transition. There are 5 maps in this demo one in each direction (up, down, left, and right of the starting map). If you move past the edge of a map, you will be placed in the next map if one exists. Otherwise, you will start on the opposite side of the map you are in (that is just default behavior right now until I put something else in place). The keys are the same, but if you click the admin button, it will take you to a screen that lets you pick a different key for each input. Those key inputs only allow for 'a' through 'z', the arrow keys, 'ctrl', 'shift', and 'spacebar'. Anything else will throw an error since I was too lazy to account for them.

Excuse My Procrastination

So this post is a much delayed post which I should have added soon after my last. Oh well. The purpose of this post is to show you the early conversion of my CrazySpace game into Silverlight. The little screen below shows my initial conversion efforts. Basically, its a window with your ship that you can fly around inside a blocked off region. Make sure to click on the window in order for the controls to work. The only keys it uses right now are up left and right.

Testing something new

So I found out today that Microsoft has had a Silverlight hosting site for about 2 years now. I don't know how I didn't know about this. In any case, this blog post will test the functionality of this hosting site with a sample silverlight app. The app has nothing more than a single button which does nothing. The important thing here is that you see the button, and you can click the button.