Vacation

Starting tomorrow, I won't be updating the blog for about a week because I'm going to...



Virginia Beach! So, have fun not reading my blog and go get some sun!

The New Game Engine, Part 2

Until the new engine is done, I'm going to record my daily progress here. This should keep me more productive than before...

Okay, today's work:

-Begin work on new engine
-Announce new engine

Not much has been done today, since I'm still doing a lot of research.

Also, I've casually tossed around a few new game ideas with some people. I'm not announcing anything, but one of them that sounds pretty neat is a top-down deathmatch game. Again, don't take this as an official announcement, just a cool concept.

The New Game Engine

This is going to be a quick but important update. Today marks the beginning of my new game engine. Even though work on Project: Undead and Macabre is going well, I'm getting less productive each day. So rather than scrap those games completely and start something new, I'm going to put those projects on hold and write a new scrolling engine that I hope will support any type of scrolling game. If it turns out to be better than my current engine, I'll most likely switch over to the new engine for Project: Undead. I've never been massively productive on Macabre, simply because writing a 3D renderer is hard work and I'm still learning a lot of things about it. I haven't lost interest in those projects, but I need more of an incentive to work on them. It's a shame, mainly because those are my two most ambitious games, but maybe the new engine will give me more of a reason to work on Project: Undead. Another motivator would be to limit the amount of time I deathmatch in a day!

Network Code

Currently, I'm learning how to write networking code. It's an interesting subject, actually. I'm learning a whole lot about how sockets and packets work, which may sound boring, but when you hook two computers up over a serial connection and get a program working that can transfer numbers and letters, similar to a chat program, it's breathtaking! When I saw the two computers transfering information, it blew my mind. On my laptop, I monitored the flow of packets while my other PC sent and received them. Everything is working properly, the right amount of packets are being transfered and none are lost. This must have been what it felt like for the guy who invented the Internet! Or maybe I'm just a technogeek. :P

Deathmatch, Part 3

After trying for months, I finally got my friend, Jake, to download ZDaemon, the multiplayer program for Doom.

It's fun having 1-on-1 deathmatches with him. It reminds me of the old-school days of Doom when you had to dial a friends phone number and wait for a little while before you could deathmatch. Then, DWANGO came in and changed all of that! Even then, I prefered the old method, it was easy and free. DWANGO was a monthly service that you had to pay $10 a month for. They finally shut DWANGO down in 1998 when the Internet came along and people found free ways to deathmatch. Actually, if you look into the source code for any Doom multiplayer program, you'll see that it still works mainly through telephone lines.

Anyway, he downloaded it and got completely destroyed in deathmatch. I showed him the ropes, how to do stuff, certain techniques, etc. He's getting better, but I think he needs more training before playing in the big leagues. When he's good enough, we might even start a Doom clan and play as teammates.

John Karlgren's Video

On this blog, he's someone that shouldn't need an introduction. So let's just get to the good stuff.

As you may know, John has been developing a top-down action/RPG. Okay, he prefers to call it a "graphical MUD", that's a better name for it anyway, in my opinion. Well, a few days ago, he released a video of some gameplay. It's looking pretty cool.

Here's the video: http://www.terrorpunksyndicate.org/cyberpunk-rpg/Cyberpunk_Online_RPG_Project_Demonstration_Video.rar

The only thing I'm not crazy about is the character art. It's too bad he doesn't have the artist that worked on Action Cyborg. The textures he made for the buildings and environment are good, but character art is a whole different ball game.

Because his game is still in the early stages, there's always a chance someone will volunteer to do some character art. Other than that, it looks pretty badass!

Kevlar Games Videos

After getting some good reactions on GameDev's IRC chat, I'm thinking about making a short five to ten minute video once a month that chronicals the development of my projects. I have a few concerns about this, though:

My #1 concern: Documenting the creation of my games might consume valuable time that I could use for actual game development.

#2: People might steal my designs and ideas.

#3: If I create the show, instead of focusing on making a game that I want to play, I might end up making a game that appeals only to other people.

#4: I'm not John Romero. I typically like to stay out of the public eye until I have something good to show to the world.

#5: If the game that I'm working on doesn't totally kick ass, people will flame and rant against me for wasting their time.

If you have any advice or suggestions, please email at: kevlargames at hotmail dot com