Status Report and Project Updates

I haven't updated the blog with actual information about the status of my projects in a while, so here it goes:

First off, my primary focus, Project: Undead, is going along ok. I'm still in the engine phase which is always tough when you start a project. It's somewhat frustrating because I have a bunch of neat ideas for new designs, levels, etc. Nevertheless, it's been going a lot better ever since I rewrote the core functions of my tilemap renderer. I'm still having some trouble parsing the text files that make up the tilemaps, but that shouldn't be a problem for much longer since I've been coming closer and closer to a solution. Scrolling is actually one of the easiest parts of writing a platformer engine, so that's not even a concern right now. Other than that, not a lot of progress has been made towards actual gameplay. Some of my gameplay ideas have already been coded and stored in other project files, which should make developing the game after the engine a whole lot easier.

Secondly, my secondary focus, Macabre, is also moving along nicely. I recently switched from the Irrlicht API to SDL and OpenGL. It was a hard decision to make, but in the end I think it will be a lot better. SDL is a lot better for input, sound, etc. and OpenGL is the best graphics API out there. I'm still not going to say much about Macabre, since it's still at a very early stage and won't be finished for a while.

Thirdly, the Action Cyborg levels have been put on hold, as I've been doing a lot of extra programming for the game while John Karlgren works on his new project. I haven't made much progress with it, since I'm still learning the basics of his engine. I completed my work on the game's cheat codes and now I want to begin working on some special effects like fog, dust, etc. It might take a bit of time to finish this since I've got my own games to work on, but I'm working equally hard on Action Cyborg too!

Lastly, I've been considering making a Breakout/Arkanoid style game. Despite the fact that I've been a Breakout fan since I was 3 or 4 years old, I think that there's a lot of room for innovation in that genre. As a programmer and a designer, I have some ideas that can push that genre forward. Over the past 20 years, that genre has been abandoned with only a few good clones here and there. I think that as an indie developer, I can, for the most part, do whatever I want with a lost genre. If I actually do decide to pursue this project, I'm going to do whatever I can to push the genre forward and hopefully help bring it back.

And that, my friends, is what I've gotten done since the last update. Hopefully everything goes well with all of my projects!