Sorry for the lack of updates on this project. Nothing has happened in a long while with this project. Seeing as MiniB3D runs painfully slow on lower end PC's I kinda lost hope as I was wanting to be able to work on this game on a low-end laptop.
Well, just this morning I decided to try and see if I could load one of the test maps up using the original Blitz3D and come to find out, everything works at proper speed using the old DX7 renderer.
So yes, I'll be downgrading from Blitz Max & MiniB3D to classic Blitz3D.
Unfortunately, there are some downsides to this downgrade, I will not be able to publish this game for Linux or Mac computers (or really anything that's not a PC :P ) but fortunately DX7 still works with Windows OSs as recent as Windows 7 (not yet sure about 8)
Now there may be some alternatives for Mac and Linux based systems, I'll have to do some digging around for it though...
I'll update you guys when there's more news. For now I'm kinda keeping my focus on Spikes Quest
So I've thrown together a simple webpage that not only showcases my current work on the mini-game projects, but also enables a nice little chat enviroment for people curious about my current activity on all the projects!
The month of January was a bit of a disastrous month for me, both financially and productively. Sure, I got the Castle Pinkiestein project started (and have successfully gotten some very important elements working for it) but I ended up having to abandon Spikes Quest to do so.
For the month of February I've decided to set things straight. I'll begin working on both of these projects like I had originally intended to do so from the start. Alternating between the two on a daily bases. Remember, I still do have a deadline to meet for Spikes Quest (for the month of July) and I refuse to fail that deadline.
So where am I at on Spikes Quest right now? Honestly, I'm still working in the hook-shot mechanics. I've managed to get the code into the game's engine, but there's still a few bugs hindering progress on it. I intend to work out those bugs asap so I can continue to add the other items to the game. For the first two weeks of this month I plan to get the entire item system completed so that I can begin to add sprite-work and animation for Spike done.
Concerning Castle Pinkiestein, I'm just now finishing up on the door system . Applying the need for certain keys to unlock certain doors and I'll soon be adding secret walls that activate via Wolfenstein style that will unveil secret areas.
This past month was pretty rough going as far as it being CP's starter month. I've had horrendous problems concerning slow-downs, collision detection and a huge struggle deciding on which coding language I should use to develop the engine. At the moment I'm still sticking with Blitz Max and the miniB3D module.
The engine is running quiet nicely on my main living room computer but still runs at a crawl on my lower end Acer Aspire One laptop. This problem may not be resolvable, unfortunately. :(
Also, I'll be looking to port this project to Linux and Mac OSX (just like Spikes Quest)
Brony Micro Games Project:
February also marks the beginning of my work on a series of micro game projects that you will be able to play in your internet browser (if said browser supports html5, which if your still not living in 2001, shouldn't be a problem). These games will be rather simple and not as complex as Spikes Quest and Castle Pinkiestein.
I aim to complete at least one micro game project each month. The first game being Pinkie's Balloon Adventure (a bronyafied version of Balloon Trip for the Game Boy) and will have Pinkie Pie floating around a scrolling playing field by balloons and avoiding electrical sparkies. Here's an example of what this game-play will be like: [couldnt find Gameboy gameplay for this so here's the NES version]
Balloon Trip was really an added game-mode on a game called Balloon Kid (for the gameboy) and Balloon Fight (for the NES). there was actually a story mode where you played on actual levels with actual platforming elements, which I may or may not add to this project at some point.
Other Micro Games include other simple games such as Chips Challenge (renamed Snips Challenge) and a few others to be named. I'll strictly be working on these games on weekends (Friday evenings to Sunday evenings). this would allow me to work on the more major projects throughout the rest of the week.
First, I'll apologies for the lack of updates here. The production of Castle Pinkiestein has been a bit rough-going and for a number of reasons. One, I've found that on some lower end computers (namely, my Acer Aspire One Netbook) runs at a crawl, so I've been trying to work that out (struggling on the decision to either downgrade back to the original Blitz3D or find another language that would handle my project regardless of hardware). Two, I've been struggling with collision detection regarding seperate meshes that are not apart of the global world mesh (again prompting me to debate on downgrading to Blitz3D) and Three: I'm still experimenting and learning on methods for creating Quake style geometry for the world meshes.
All these things have been very time consuming and I've had to put my other major project (Spikes Quest) on the back-burner until I could make Castle Pinkiestein production friendly
I've just managed to put together a half functioning door system that hides/unhides certain rooms while certain doors are opened/closed which kinda helps with the slow rendering situation (or so I hope, havent tested it on my Acer Laptop just yet) so there is still hope.
On the downside, if I do have to downgrade to Blitz3D, that means no multi-platform support (Mac OSX and Linux based OSs) because Blitz3D only supports DirectX7 which is strictly PC based. So let's hope I'll never have to do that :P
I'll start updating more again soon, once I get things rolling again.
