Hey,
I haven't been doing much updates recently (actually none in the last 3 months!), but the project is still alive!
I used this long summer break to look into new programming methods that could be integrated into the game engine such as entity component system, lua scripting or AI path-finding. I'll probably be talking about these techniques soon, but for now, let me just tell you what the plan for this new year is.
I'm going to keep working on Castle Defender, but I'm alone now. Paul and Rachel, who were helping me last year, have finished they studies and started their new "working life". They might still help me out a bit, but there won't be regular meetings any more.
So keeping the motivation high will be quite a challenge. Presenting the game last year (for me the year starts and ends in September!) at the Game Republic Showcase really helped me staying focused in having a "finished" game by a fixed date. And I think I need to register to something similar this year. I'm not quite sure where yet, but I'm thinking in registering to Rezzed, a big indy game event in the UK. But this might be only for big games, I need to look into it...
Last year, I managed to write a (sort of) good code base. But parts of it have been rushed and overall the game suffers from having a lot of dependencies (sometimes hidden ones!) that make it harder to maintain. Therefore, my main focus over the next months will be to rewrite the core of engine in order to have it clearer/cleaner as well as allowing the addition of new features and the creation of new assets to be easier. This will make both the job of the programmer (me) and the job of the designer (me/anyone-who-wants-to-help!) much easier.
This means that the next updates will not improve the visual aspect of the game, but will (hopefully!) make my job easier in the future. I'll try not to delude myself, though. This is also about trying out new programming techniques, it might actually end up being useless or too difficult to implement. You never know what the future might reserve you.
Before I forget, I should probably mention that the game is available for download on Windows from my website: http://castledefender.co.uk/
What are you waiting for? Download it now and let me know what you think by posting a comment!
If you're too lazy to play the game yourself, or if it doesn't work on your computer, you can watch a video of gameplay here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtExV0WD7jM
See you next week for more updates.
Nick
I'm going to keep working on Castle Defender, but I'm alone now. Paul and Rachel, who were helping me last year, have finished they studies and started their new "working life". They might still help me out a bit, but there won't be regular meetings any more.
So keeping the motivation high will be quite a challenge. Presenting the game last year (for me the year starts and ends in September!) at the Game Republic Showcase really helped me staying focused in having a "finished" game by a fixed date. And I think I need to register to something similar this year. I'm not quite sure where yet, but I'm thinking in registering to Rezzed, a big indy game event in the UK. But this might be only for big games, I need to look into it...
Last year, I managed to write a (sort of) good code base. But parts of it have been rushed and overall the game suffers from having a lot of dependencies (sometimes hidden ones!) that make it harder to maintain. Therefore, my main focus over the next months will be to rewrite the core of engine in order to have it clearer/cleaner as well as allowing the addition of new features and the creation of new assets to be easier. This will make both the job of the programmer (me) and the job of the designer (me/anyone-who-wants-to-help!) much easier.
This means that the next updates will not improve the visual aspect of the game, but will (hopefully!) make my job easier in the future. I'll try not to delude myself, though. This is also about trying out new programming techniques, it might actually end up being useless or too difficult to implement. You never know what the future might reserve you.
Before I forget, I should probably mention that the game is available for download on Windows from my website: http://castledefender.co.uk/
What are you waiting for? Download it now and let me know what you think by posting a comment!
If you're too lazy to play the game yourself, or if it doesn't work on your computer, you can watch a video of gameplay here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtExV0WD7jM
See you next week for more updates.
Nick
No comments:
Post a Comment