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"Train Tracking"
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| Total Entries: 2 | myke-p
Entry: 2
02/22/2003
08:28 AM
| Finally after a year of hard slog, my first commercial game; "Train Tracking" is now finished and available from the Demon Star website. There's a demo version available for anyone interested (oh, and a "buy now" link for the online download version too. ;) )
Find out more at the game's official website: http://www.demonstar.co.uk/traintracking/
Now.. What's next on the agenda.
| myke-p
Entry: 1
10/02/2002
10:48 AM
| Jeez. It's been ages since the last Train Tracker worklog on Blitzbasic.com, and to coincide with the new one there, I thought I'd take advantage of BlitzCoder's new (to me, at least) Worklog feature.
So what exactly have I been upto apart from moving to France?
Well, I can't deny there's been a bit of a 'feature creep' issue, but I really think it's been worth it, especially as I'm now past all that and on the home stretch to coding a fully working game. :)
The really exciting developments have begun to show themselves in the last three weeks.
#1. The Station Editor
I took a week to code this up around September 15th and since then George Bray, Ravey, Snarty and XMystik have given it the once-over. I've just finished fixing bugs and looking at gripes and stuff that they found. Version 1.1b is now a reality.
But what is it? Well, Train Tracker's viewpoint is built up from graphic tiles on three (plus a hidden fouth) layers. I'll be buggered if I could find a way to generate good-looking and functional station layouts using the Rnd() command, so I figured a nice GUI coupled with the aesthetic decisions of people was the way forward.
All the screenshots you may have seen in the past were flat Paint Shop Pro mockups that took around an hour each to produce. With the editor, I can 'knock up' an identical layout in 10 minutes or less. :)
Here's a shot of the editor working on one of my favourite layouts created by Steve 'XMystik' Smith.
#2. The Game Engine
Most exciting of all is that the initial stages of the game engine are up and running. Coupled with the layouts produced in the Editor, I've now got trains zooming between the scenery, random train-livery (colours/patterns) and glorious British weather all running seamlessly in front of me.
For my own self-glorifying benefit, here's Steve's level plonked into the game engine.
Next thing on the list is level timetabling, so that the game is fair to play. Once I've figured that monkey out, it'll be time to tie it together with the clicky-game-interface and that's it - the first playable version of Train Tracker!
So, while I apologies for any inconvenience caused by recent delays, I'm happy to announce that it won't be long now. :) |
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