Here is a glimpse of what is to come, however:
It is time that I start running a tutorial series again. I don’t feel comfortable slipping back into the 2D game tutorial that I had run before, because much of it is inferior work, in my eyes. I want, instead, to write a series of tutorials going from the ground-up building a three-dimensional Pac-Man clone. This is something that doesn’t require any sort of amazing graphics skill, and is a great introduction to three-dimensional programming. I plan to have the tutorial use OGRE 3D for rendering purposes, and a number of other libraries – including SQLite (high score database), Squirrel (scripting for the ghosts), and OpenAL (Audio.. if you had to guess <3).

Second, I am going to start pushing work on my LCAR project when I return from the Oceanside area. It’s time I took to a project that required my learning, and growth of my knowledge. It’s not going to be anything amazing, graphically, but perhaps I’ll be able to turn that into a selling point, if I can morph it into something unique-looking with strange graphics shaders. At the very least, perhaps I can come up with some interesting things to throw into this almost neglected blog.

And finally, I am starting work on a two-dimensional, console-style role-playing game for the iPhone/iPod Touch. I don’t yet have an iPod Touch (and I don’t intend to get an iPhone), I do plan to get one at some point for the sake of this project. I also intend to get iTGB, which will be used for this project. This will be the first project that I have ever actually attempted to sell, and I’m going to be working overtime to make sure that this is worth every penny I charge for it. even if I only intend to charge approximately one-hundred pennies for it. D:

And so, in closing, it’s time for me to start accepting my life, and holding the results of my choices dear to me, even if they may not be to my liking. Most importantly, it is time for me to start pushing toward my goals. I fully intend to go to Casual Connect 2011, for my first attempt to pass. I’m nervous now, but one of my goals is to manage to overcome said feelings of foreboding, to conquer this fear of peoples’ opinions. It’s time that I allowed myself to flourish. No more hiding in the dark – I am here to stay.

Alright, so some nice things (and some not-so-nice things) have happened recently. Firstly, I’ve left KBFail for the umpteenth time, and I have no intention of going back. I’ve also switched (again) to using my iMac, and I’m hoping to stick with it this time around – it runs WoW decently enough, and I’ve found myself playing few games recently (Before it hits your mind, though I’m likely too late as it is, it is not because of WoW. I haven’t been playing that much, either), instead opting to do research, mentally prepare for my transition, trying to be a slightly more cheerful person, and working on development.

On the note of development, I’m still in a rut. I’ve come to the conclusion that I have to firmly put my mind to some tasks and force myself to push through and to apply myself to my goals – which is definitely an improvement. I’m starting to work out again, trying to get my body into better shape (again in preparation for my transition), eating healthier, and drinking less soda on the health side of things, while I’m trying to push through my distaste for my awful programmer art and trying to at least create semi-decent placeholders to allow myself to work on projects that I’ve been wanting to work on, such as LCAR.

And that brings me to the next topic: LCAR. The project is still very much in planning, and I’m considering taking it to another level. I’m currently considering the implications of investing in an iPad for development purposes – not only would it give me a better platform on which I could create programmer art (I may suck with a pen/paper, but I’m still better with it than with a mouse), but I have a new platform to target. I’m still working it out to try to determine whether or not I think it would be a worthwhile investment, and I’ll keep you posted on that. If I do get it, I intend to get the Torque engines targetting iOS (currently only iTGB, though iTGE is being worked on), and I intend to distribute LCAR on the iPad as well as my already-determined Mac and Windows releases. I think it’ll be pretty interesting, and we’ll have to see where it goes.

And for my last topic, I am going to be attending Casual Connect in Seattle, WA next year, mostly because I really want to meet the TorquePowered team. This is gonig to be my first time going out in public as.. well, me. I got some great encouragement from Mich Perry on the Torque team, and I’m confident that I, at the very least, am not going to have rotten fruit thrown at me for being what I am. At least, not from the Torque team – I can’t vouch for the rest of Seattle (:P). If anybody else is coming, or has suggestions for places to stay, I’m all ears. Looks like, on top of my development goals, I have a lot of work to do if I’m to be comfortable going out in public, and if I want to pass.

Wish me luck!

This first piece will be my initial design plans for my Lights, Camera, Action/RPG project (or rather, projects) – discussing some thoughts, some initial ideas on gameplay and development, etc. Readers will notice that my development style is very iterative – I don’t like to plan things out too detailed ahead of time, because it screws me up in the end, when I find a more efficient way of implementing a system. I prefer to focus on certain portions at a time, building on and optimizing what was present before.

Here is the first part of my build process – determining my initial plans.

As far as the design of the game goes, I intend to make the prototype an isometric, third-person 3D Action/RPG, much in the style of Titan Quest, Diablo, Torchlight, and similar games. I plan to use a cel-shaded graphics style, and will be using bright, stylish colors for characters, items, monsters, and spells along with dark, murky environments and static geometry to give a slightly contrasted mood in the game.

Character Classes
I’m planning on implementing three classes, each with a specific role in the game. These are Wizard, a ranged caster class that focuses on controlling/restricting enemy movement and area-of-effect damage spells, Warrior, a melee fighter that brings large blades to bear against hordes of enemies, and the Scout, whose focus on stealth and fast attacks allows him to quickly eliminate targets.

Multiplayer
I am planning on implementing a cooperative, multiplayer game mode. It will be a party-based gameplay system, played with two to four players over either remote internet connections or a local LAN. The Torque 3D version of the prototype will utilise the internal networking library, while the in-house engine will likely use the RakNet Multiplayer Game Network Engine.

Bye-ni~!

Starting out with the Nuzelock Challenge in Fire Red

So, I’ve started reading a friend’s blog recently (http://www.walnut100.com </shamelessplug>), and he’s started playing through a hacked version of Pokemon Emerald doing something called a “Nuzlocke Challenge.” I’m guessing that the name originates from the user who first came up with the challenge (or something), but here’s the basic rundown:

You play through a Pokemon game, but you add some personal, arbitrary rules to make it more challenging:
1) If your pokemon faints, it is “dead” and must be released. If all of your pokemon die, the game is over.
2) You can catch only the first pokemon you encounter in each new area.
3) No healing items may be used outside of battle.
4) You must use the SET battle mode, meaning you can not change your pokemon while opponent is switching (when you knock their pokemon out)

He’s added the following house rule, which I think I’ll play around with, as well:
-) If you white out at any point in the game, it’s game over

Since I’m already pretty far along in Soul Silver on my DS, I decided I’ll run it through Pokemon Fire Red, and I’ll be publishing my progress here. This is going to be a pain in the ass. >.>

Anybody who’s been to my blog more than one time will probably notice that I’ve changed the theme. I’m just playing around with some different themes and such, and I’ve been in a very Apple mood recently, so I decided to pop that up. Other than the time I’ve been able to spend with Erin, nothing’s really changed about my life, that’s worth mentioning, so I guess that about wraps things up here.

Sorry for those who are still waiting on the next tutorial! I’ve got a project that popped up that I’m playing around with as far as Torque goes, but I’m still planning on working through writing up the next tutorial. I’ll probably create a Google Code project for the tutorial series, so that people can get the most up-to-date code from a Subversion repository and play with things themselves, but I haven’t really gotten around to doing anything at all recently. >.>

Which brings me around to my next point. Unlike what I had planned, I am probably not going to be continuing this engine after the Pong clone is complete. I just don’t seem to have the time anymore, and I feel that my time is better spent with Erin and working on other life issues than releasing these tutorials. In short, I don’t feel that I could release the series in a timely manner. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to be programming, and I will still be developing tutorials – even a couple series tutorials. I’m just not going to be worrying about releasing the tutorials on any sort of deadline, and most of them will be one-shot tutorials (kind of like my XBOX 360 Controller Input tutorial at CodeProject).

Sorry if this is bad news for anybody, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I’ll still be available for help, if you want it. Best place to hit me up is #snoopy at Keyboard-Failure.

I’ve started working again on an IRC client – now under the name alienIRC (formerly SevenIRC, which was being planned solely for Windows). I’ve also decided to make it completely open-source, and intend to license it under LGPLv3, something it shares with the Qt framework that is going to power it. I’m going to be setting up a Git repository on Gitorious for the project, and will be setting up some development pages on this blog – including issue tracking, a wiki, and some other tools. Right now, my plan is to closely emulate the mIRC interface – mostly because mIRC is my favorite IRC client – and will be working to make sure it feels native on all supported platforms. I will personally be maintaining builds on Windows (32- and 64-bit), OpenSUSE 11, and Mac OS X Snow Leopard. I will primarily be using the IDE that comes with Qt, though I will work to ensure that it compiles in X-Code 3 and Visual Studio 2008/2010.

As far as alienIRC itself goes, I’m looking at the possibility of using WebKit for the chat windows’ messages. This would make it incredibly easy to add formatting, because I could easily change messages from the mIRC color character into HTML tags before adding the text to the message box. It all depends on how it runs compared to a custom text box. I also plan to implement a number of features that are popular with mIRC, such as scripting (Lua, specifically), “address books,” nick highlighting, file sharing, et cetera. I’m currently working on some UI concept work – since it will have to be different from SevenIRC’s WPF plans and the previous OS X-only alienIRC UI concept that relied on some UI elements only found on Mac (such as Drawers).

If anybody is interested in contributing to this project, send me some messages – I’d be happy to hear your input, especially on features that you feel would be good to implement. Make sure you sign up for an account on Gitorious – and that you upload your SSH keys and such. If you’ve never used Git, and you’re a Windows developer, this is a very useful link for seting it up on Windows: Git for Windows Developers: Part 1