So it was only a matter of time until I weakened, and added texture support to VectorStorm. I’d been thinking about doing it on the sly, and revealing it in a Game in a Week where your character was in search of some impossible artifact which turned out to be a textured object in a vector graphic world.. but that all seemed like too much work. And I’m going to need some basic texture support for the thing I’m thinking about for the Lovecraft compo over at TigSource, so I finally hooked all the pieces together.
In the screenshot, that’s the standard vector font, and a texture of a screenshot of the “Muncher” sprite (so technically, it’s being double-glowed), and a shot of my own ugly mug, all being affected by the standard glowy vector shaders.
Textures still aren’t going to be the norm in my games (as I’m certainly no artist), and I’m still calling the engine ‘VectorStorm’, but I wanted the ability to use a few textures where they’re needed, so here they are.
I’ve also migrated all the VectorStorm library improvements back from MMORPG Tycoon to the core VectorStorm testbeds repository, so if anyone’s really curious to see the various engine changes, that’s the place to look.
So TIGSource has started a new game competition, this one based on HP Lovecraft’s Commonplace Book (a transcript of which can be found here), and running from October 17th to October 31st.
I was planning to do another “Game in a Week” after getting MMORPG Tycoon 1.1 into alpha testing, and this might be exactly the thing to give me something very different to sink my teeth into. We’ll see.
And yes, I already have one picked out.
Just a quick snapshot of the updated left toolbar from the in-development MMORPG Tycoon 1.1. I’m rather pleased with how this is coming out.
Colour is important! Colour is life! Don’t be repressed by De Man who wants you to live in a greyscale universe! Join the resistance and paint your world in all the colours of life! Want to know more? Just read our.. um.. instruction manual that’s printed entirely in black and white.
Pay no attention to the typesetter behind the curtain!
Continue reading “De Blob”
I just wanted to make a quick post here about how things are going with MMORPG Tycoon 1.1. I mentioned about two weeks ago that I was expecting to have MMORPG Tycoon begin alpha testing today. As it turns out, that’s not going to happen, but it won’t be more than one more week.
In game development, there are several stages that a game passes through. Many games have pre-production, which consists of design work and other conceptual work performed before anyone starts actually building the game. Then you have general development, a first-playable, alpha, beta, and then one or more release candidates, before you have your gold master.
Now, the precise definitions of some of these stages vary from company to company, but here I’m going to be using the most common definitions I’ve encountered, which I’m also using for my VectorStorm games, and then I’ll explain why MMORPG Tycoon is missing its alpha testing date. All that and more, below the fold.
Continue reading “MMORPG Tycoon 1.1, the progress to alpha”
Hi, folks! This is just going to be a quick post, as I’m pretty busy working on MMORPG Tycoon, but I’m searching for some good music to include in v1.1. I liked the electronica that I used in v1.0, but I’d really like to move toward something a little different for v1.1.
I can’t offer money at this point (I don’t earn anything from the games offered here, so there are no profits to share), but as you’ve probably seen from the games I’ve released so far, musician credits are always above mine, and include website URLs and whatever other information is appropriate. I can’t guarantee what sort of reception v1.1 will get, of course, but MMORPG Tycoon 1.0 had well over 10,000 unique downloads in its first four weeks, and has been mentioned in a couple of print magazines and a whole bunch of major websites, so one could certainly get a little exposure from being included here.
For MMORPG Tycoon 1.1, I’m currently hoping for something orchestral and rousing, without lyrics (though the right track could certainly change my mind about that). It really needs to be at least three minutes long, and longer than that is better. But I’m always keeping my ear out for fun music, and I’d be thrilled to hear other styles as well; my list of “music tracks I’d like to use in a game someday” is starting to get a little low.
So if you have music samples, or if you just want to chat or something, you can reach me at ‘trevor *at* vectorstorm *dot* org’.
For your entertainment, a screenshot of the current development build of MMORPG Tycoon 1.1. The new buildings you can see here are a dungeon in the northwest of the region, a capital city in the northeast, and a tavern in the southeast (the little tent-looking thing on the road between the town and the starting area).
As you can see from the new building pane on the left, there’s space for one more build button. I did have something in mind for it, but I seem to have totally forgotten what it was. But I’m sure it’ll come back to me soon, so I’m just going to be leaving the space blank until then.
I’m planning to have MMORPG Tycoon 1.1 into testing toward the end of next week (sometime around October 12th), and then it’ll just be a matter of sorting out any
So it was only a matter of time until I weakened, and added texture support to VectorStorm. I’d been thinking about doing it on the sly, and revealing it in a Game in a Week where your character was in search of some impossible artifact which turned out to be a textured object in a vector graphic world.. but that all seemed like too much work. And I’m going to need some basic texture support for the thing I’m thinking about for the Lovecraft compo over at TigSource, so I finally hooked all the pieces together.
