RobotLovesKitty

Good to be home!

2012-03-09T16:31:00.005-08:00

Screenshot Saturday

2012-02-18T04:54:00.000-08:00

Here is my Screenshot Saturday post on Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/pv33c/screenshot_saturday_54_game_development_is_quite/c3shj7w

More new Stuff

2012-02-14T15:32:00.000-08:00

Added a quick save button and filename readout (as requested).

Colored bricks,
colored backgrounds,

4x4 No-Break Bricks,

spikes, and snow piles.

Economy

2012-02-12T11:35:00.000-08:00

Sell Princesses, unlock stuff.

Penguin

2012-02-06T21:11:00.000-08:00

They wont hurt you, don't stomp on them!

Live Action

2012-02-03T17:23:00.000-08:00

Tony

Construction Zone etc...

2012-02-02T20:43:00.000-08:00

Today I finished all the basic nuggets for Level 3 - Water World and Level 4 - Construction Zone!

This level is my favorite so far :D

On top of that there are 5 new blips, and a fire breathing pipe snail! Oh! and ice bricks that only break from fire, for the Ice level that is coming next. Good to have the networking out of the way for a moment so I can focus on adding fun stuff :D

New bilps are:

Lava Blip (plumbers can't catch you if you are on fire)
Fast Blip

Bullet Blip (turns into a bullet when hit)

Ghost Blip (floats, there is one in the screenshot above)

Coin Blip (will give a up a coin when killed, so do some of the other new blips)

Egads, also, I added a mega coin worth 10 coins. Damn, I got a lot done today.

What I've been working on

2012-01-31T21:48:00.000-08:00

A whole bunch of new stuff...

Ghost bricks, falling bricks, bouncy bricks, ice bricks. Ice world bits, and stuff for the construction zone.

Zilla Suit

2012-01-25T06:09:00.000-08:00

I made this yesterday. Still have to finish and upload the higher res ones.

Low-Res version of the Zilla Suit Wallpaper

Also of note, if you haven't heard elsewhere, the Online Multiplayer version of Tiny Plumbers is available for download!

I still have a lot of bugs and features to work out of it. Most notably, it needs to be easier to find an online game to join. Lots of work to do, lots of code to write! But it was super fun playing that first game with some random person just after I uploaded, feeling very accomplished!

ಠ_ಠ

2012-01-14T19:10:00.000-08:00

This should not be one of my most frequently run programs.

On an up note, Tiny Plumbers Multi-Player is nearly complete!!! I just have to clean up some of the new gui and sync a couple more things :D

That's not right...

2012-01-03T09:17:00.000-08:00

Despite the lack of Tiny Plumber updates I have been working my arse off trying to get MultiPlayer ready for the masses. Seems to be lots of one step forward two steps backward. Synchronizing the game is a real pain, but it's so much fun to play when it works :D

Multi

2011-12-21T13:12:00.000-08:00

Just played a test game with PainLemon
Still needs a lot of work, but its fun :D

Octosub

2011-12-17T19:22:00.000-08:00

just a tiny preview

There is also this.

2011-12-09T09:31:00.001-08:00

Just something I've been toying with before sleep.
More info after Tiny Plumbers is done.

Net Working

2011-12-08T12:54:00.001-08:00

Oh look, powerups display cross the network!

Most importantly, I have a good plan, and this first test of how to sync things up across the network says it will work. Thats pretty cool. Still a lot of work to get this thing awesome, but at least it seems I know what I'm doing.

Um, that's not supposed to happen...

2011-12-07T10:51:00.001-08:00

Working on the networking....

I'll get it right eventually...

There we go! Now I'm getting somewhere.

iTween

2011-12-04T12:14:00.001-08:00

I've been messing with iTween and it's pretty awesome. I needed a way to put a set of sprites on a Catmull–Rom spline and animate them for the water boss, this is going to work very nicely.

But in the process I gained a bunch of very nice animation tools! Very happy about that.

I have also been putting a huge amount of thought into the future of RLK and N8. Still lots to think about.

2D in Unity3D

2011-11-30T09:46:00.001-08:00

A lot of people have asked about how exactly I'm doing a 2D game inside Unity3D. So I'm putting all the info into this blog post :D

the Start Menu scene.

So it appears to be 2D, but it's not.

Everything is mostly fixed to one Z depth. Things like the bushes, and clouds appear in the forground and background so the player will move in front and behind them.

Now the Camera isn't running as Isometric, but Perspective with a low FOV:

This is to let the far back and far forward clouds have a perspective and move across the screen at a different pace from the player.

All of the parts you see in the game are textures on a small 2D plane.

Unity didn't have one of these so I had to make one myself:

tiny.FBX

All the objects I want the player to walk around on have colliders on them.

And anything that moves around has a character controller attached to it. Inside the movement script I lock them to the Z axis each frame, so they don't fall off.

You may have noticed two colliders on those guys up there... I'm not sure if I need to do that, but it's to detect different types of collisions. I'm really just making this stuff up as I go. Also the player has that extra box collider? That's the Neko Power-Up tail. It stays disabled until you get the Power-Up, it's just a trigger.

As for the player I am doing a cool trick to get his shirt able to change colors.

So there are two planes for him, and they animate in sync.

For the animation,

I load all the frames into the script and set them with:

Sprite1.renderer.material.SetTexture("_MainTex",duck);

Shirt.renderer.material.SetTexture("_MainTex",sduck);

To make all the pixels nice and crisp,

And in the shader,

And well, that about does it. If anyone has more questions I'd be glad to go into more detail in another post.

The Gunman

2011-11-29T07:31:00.001-08:00

He's kidnapped the Peanut Butter Princess to ransom her for snacks!

Choo Chooooo!

2011-11-26T17:32:00.001-08:00

Still a work in progress...

Snow Day

2011-11-23T11:46:00.001-08:00

Here at the RLK tree fort we are having a snow day.

There is about 5in on the ground, and its still falling. Also, not much sun, so we are taking it easy on the solar power.

As for Tiny Plumbers, I've been adding a multi-selection tool to the Nugget Editor. Beyond that, I've been deep in thought about the future of Neverdaunt.

File Dialog

2011-11-21T10:25:00.001-08:00

Woot!

I ended up extending this script: Improved File Browser to be a File Dialog of sorts, able to set save names :D

I should probably update the wiki with my code... but it's very hacky. Well if anyone reads this and wants my version, just ask.

I'll definitely have a new build up today! ..if I can figure out why it wont load custom Nuggets outside the Unity editor...

Edit: Ah, figured it out, Uploading now :D

Failure to Build

2011-11-20T18:34:00.001-08:00

Well, I really wanted to upload the new version today, but apparently the editors file dialog, (for saving and loading stuff) which works perfectly fine in the unity editor, refuses to build with the game.

So it looks like I have to write some kind of in game GUI file dialog... bleh.

I also ran into a bit of madness with dynamic font sizes making HUGE texture fonts. Ended up exporting the texture font via some cool code on the Unity Wiki and using that bitmap separately. Then I went and changed all text textures everywhere...

Snail shell transportation is dangerous.

On the up side, I made a bunch of new train cars for the 2nd Boss Level, they are pretty rad.

Mmm... Blip Nuggets

2011-11-19T13:51:00.001-08:00

The Nugget editor is nearly good to go.

Nugget Editor

New Nugget in Level!

I ended up getting rid of the tool buttons and decided to do, left click move, right click rotate. There is nothing cool like, multiple object selection... and pipes don't work yet. But it's nearly ready to play with.

Oh see that lava colored square? That's the eraser.

Also, Nuggets are saved into folders labeled 1-8 for each level. When you start a level it reads out all the Nuggets in there and uses them to generate the levels.

I bet I'll have the new build up with this sometime tomorrow :D

New Powerups

2011-11-16T13:12:00.001-08:00

In order to answer what everyone has been saying.. "It's a M**** Clone!" I have decided to skip out on the editor today and add two more of the planned Power Ups...

You may have noticed this one on the website title.
This is the Robot PowerUp.
He shoots energy bolts and has twice the gravity.

And the Blue Zilla Suit.
It makes you able to run really fast and do spin attacks when you jump.

Oh, and there are large blue Zillas too...

Perhaps these new images will sway your opinion? Probably not...
:D oh well. You have to take internet comments very lightly eh?

OH, and one more thing... the art here, it is INTENTIONAL. Egads, low res art is a challenge, not a crutch.

A familiar Pallet

2011-11-15T16:20:00.001-08:00

Expect a later level to look a little like this.

Tiny Plumbers Nugget Editor

2011-11-15T11:27:00.001-08:00

Working on the editor today, starting to get somewhere.
Tiny Plumbers levels are made of Nuggets, bits of levels with start and end points that get semi-randomly slapped together to form a new level for you to run through. I have been building them right inside the Unity Editor:

But really, I can only make so many Nuggets...
However, I am aware of the immense creativity of the players of video games! So, I'll let you make your own Nuggets, and they will appear right away inside your levels. Also, you can submit your Nuggets to be included in the full game. Which means once each level has a couple hundred Nuggets, you will be constantly running into new areas to play through!

Tiny Plumbers

2011-11-15T08:04:00.001-08:00

After much deliberation, I decided to move all the content from my Tiny Dev Blog over here. Because it just didnt make sense having two dev blogs, and I want everyone to be able to see what I have in store for Tiny Plumbers.

Train Ride

Mmmmm.... Lolly Pops.

This is the progression to 'Full Resolution' that I went through to make the wallpapers for the Neko PowerUp.

It really is amazing how after seeing the high-res version, its what you see in your mind while playing the game :D

You might have noticed that unlike some other platformers where you can fly for a while and then they drop you back to the earth, Neko lets you keep flying depending on your takeoff speed. The problem being that, players once obtaining the power, can glide over the whole level avoiding everything.

The Solution... Neko Police:

Run! its the Fuzz!

If your in the air too long, Neko Police will fly at you Joust style trying to knock you out of the sky. If you take out the first one, more will appear until you have a real problem.

===

Split screen mode is almost finished!

Couple of bugs to work out before its playable. Right now its taking you back to the title screen when one of the players loses all his lives... its also creating two player ones... :\
But yeah, this should pave the way for full networked multi-player.

Building a (Tree) House : Part 3

2011-10-14T08:26:00.000-07:00

We are completely moved out of our old house, and nearly all moved into our Tree House! It's pretty rad. I took some pictures of the inside while Ix was putting up some bubble wrap insulation. (DJ Ix is a Bubble Rapper!) You will have to excuse the mess, we are still sorting everything out.

Awww, sleeping kitties on the bed!
Eventually the bed will go up to the top floor and we will have more space downstairs.

Look at Ix's pants! Britches be CRAZY!

We put up those black plastic bags to help the cats not freak out.
We will take them down soonish. Lots more insulation to go up.

Note the cat-flap on the bottom right?
That goes to the litter box room, which I have been calling "The Internet"
...as in, "Hey look, Hobbes is using the Internet."

That's the door over there, I need to paint it so its not light purple...

And our wood stove that JME helped me make. We are calling the stove Jack. It keeps us toasty warm.

oh, I guess that's all the way around again... But you can kinda see the top floor in this one.

Behold Jack's stove pipe!

Building a House (part 2) and N8 development

2011-09-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

Work on our house (now called the TreeHouse) is going great. Its nearly finished.

Its hard to get a good shot of it... you kind of need to be there.

Ix watching the sunrise after our first night indoors.

Me safe inside during the "Hurricane"

The day after, when the town below was with out power... I had solar power in the TreeHouse.

Uhh... yeah, i was up there.

however, yesterday while applying some tar for weather proofing, I fell off a ladder (in a much safer position then the one in the pic above) and hit my right hand pretty badly. So today I'm working on N8 for a bit, and hoping I don't need to go to the hospital.

On my list of things to add/fix:
Better Week Long Build (more integrated into Teams)
Tronic Totems.
Personal Totems for Construct Cells.
A way to increase Construct Cells.

What I've been up to: Building a House (part 1)

2011-08-07T09:11:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I have been in the woods, on a mountain, in Vermont... building this awesome house.

its like a tree house...

building stuff...

the view from our windows.

I have a ton more pictures, and it is a lot more finished then this, but I left the camera in Vermont with all the pictures. Ix and I are about 2-3 days away from having the roof up! But first we are spending a few days in NY gathering things and going to dentist appointments.

Anyhow... Yes, I am still alive and looking forward to working on N8 again! It wont be long now till I can get back to development!

Wizard has gone ahead and created an awesome new forum for us! http://n8.pixellegacy.com
It's very cool :D
...but it looks like all our old data is lost... which is uncool....

Still have to get the wiki and news working again, will happen soon.

Web Host Troubles

2011-07-28T17:06:00.000-07:00

Having some technical difficulties. Forums and Wiki are still down... But server is up and running.

I made a solar panel...

2011-07-10T00:06:00.000-07:00

Old Stuff

2011-07-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

I found some old old stuff sifting through some online photos...

This is from nearly the first day of N8*

yep.

Super early Pre-Alpha stuff.

Old timey pre-radio Console. Testing some commands for the first time.

Aion and Ix as Chibi's in Neverdaunt*

A Monster and a Chibi in a hoodie.

Test Island

A Monster with items.

The top hat shot rockets...

Monster with a tie on a roof.

Neko on the arcade.

Just had the first successful test of Week-Long-Build

2011-05-31T15:19:00.000-07:00

/rockout

Now I need to create the Epic that will cause cells to transform to these new modes... Should look like something cool... *searching through the item database for something I can use*

I am going to have the item flip-flop between setting cells to capture times on Saturdays at 11am and Wednesdays at 7pm.

I think I have enough in the steam pack to release... just need to finish up week-long build.

2011-05-30T10:29:00.001-07:00

Yurt Tower Hybrid Concepts

2011-05-26T11:23:00.000-07:00

What I've been working on today. It's just a rough design.

Theres no door because you enter from a hatch in the bottom. :D

Oh, and this is the tower in question: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_8krFyYLsU
Jaimie abandoned it in favor of the aircraft hanger (banana building) robot workshop. So I am hoping we can make some use out of it.

Spent today learning Unity and Javascript...

2011-05-15T21:40:00.001-07:00

Here are the results: http://8bit.neverdaunt.com/TEST/WebPlayer.html

(z,x and arrow keys)

Steam Punk Pack

2011-05-13T17:13:00.000-07:00

Or right, I have a dev blog....

2011-05-11T18:16:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't been doing much development lately. Most of my time has been spent refreshing craigslist, looking at cars to buy... Helping Ix design and build a Yurt... looking at solar cell and battery nonsense...

The only Dev stuff has been working on Tronics in game, and revising the monetization nonsense for the next update. I am planning on doing a few new block packs very soon though.

I will however post pictures and maybe video here of our move to the forest, setting up the Yurt, that kind of thing... should be interesting.

Microphone...

2011-04-24T20:09:00.000-07:00

Spent Easter with my family... on my laptop... writing code.

Look a microphone!

Chain in\out colors

2011-04-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

Simple, but effective.

Battleships

2011-04-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

I need to fix the alignment on the battleship and carrier.. but you get the idea :D

Dr. Neumann

2011-04-16T09:58:00.000-07:00

Pain Force Field Tronic

2011-04-14T12:22:00.000-07:00

Ludus flow can set it to any size.

So... theres that.

2011-04-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

I've been getting a lot done lately.

Tronic NPC Projector

2011-04-08T20:03:00.000-07:00

Pretty cool.

Dropped stackable ammounts

2011-04-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

This was requested a lot, should be useful.

by the power of Reddit!

2011-04-06T12:03:00.000-07:00

all that from this:
http://redd.it/gjiy0

Death Message

2011-04-04T21:18:00.000-07:00

Getting so much done lately

2011-04-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

I have ended up separating the Animate Tronic into Animate, and AnimateGet. This way you'll be able to grab a frame of animation with AnimateGet, and input with Animate without it writing to a data every flow. So those are all done and working, but I want to test for a little longer to make sure its not going to thrash the server\networking.

I animated this to test... I'm sorry.

'IMPORT' command is finished, basicly its 'LOAD' without deleting everything, now we just need 'SAVEATTACHED' :D

Speakers can output any sound in the data/sfx folder. Just send it the filename :D

Working on the Set\Get Data GUI right now.

Forest Pack Upgrade

2011-03-26T14:18:00.001-07:00

Will be in next update :D

Don't watch this...

2011-03-26T07:21:00.000-07:00

Vending GUI

2011-03-23T21:03:00.000-07:00

Simple and Effective.

DemoQuest

2011-03-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

New Ludus Tronics are working great... Red box gives a quest to go press the red button.. blue box gives you a token....

Now for something more complicated.

Statistics.

2011-03-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

Where did you hear about N8?

23 people heard about it from either my mother, or their mother. with entry's like, "Your Mother. Oooh." and "UR MOTHER".

304 people heard about it from the internet.... with entry's including, "I clicced in on a internet bitch" and "FRIENDS FROM INTERNET TOLD ME ABOUT GAME. ALLCAPS." and even, "browsing teh internets...can i has a cookie now?"

898 people came from YouTube.
406 people came from Google.
378 people mention IGF
330 from Rock Paper Shotgun
196 from PC Gamer.
165 from Facepunch.
161 people mention Minecraft.
146 from Roblox.

59 people just said "what?"
295 people just responded with "no".

Tronic Grid

2011-03-19T01:51:00.001-07:00

2011-03-15T18:19:00.000-07:00

I just Nerfed jumping through small cracks... (well.. unless you are a chibi)

Getting close now

2011-03-14T15:26:00.000-07:00

double pixel icons in the shop.

Advanced Menu!

The local movement Gizmo is complete.. and its awesome. It's so much easier to build now.

by the way...

2011-03-12T10:24:00.000-08:00

Did I mention that I more or less solved the Z-Fighting problem?

            Dim ra As Single = 0.001
Dim r As Single = rndz.Next(-100, 100) * ra
            Dim s As Single = rndz.Next(-100, 100) * ra
            Dim t As Single = rndz.Next(-100, 100) * ra
            value.x += r
            value.y += s
            value.z += t

Works about 90% of the time!

Other Stuff

2011-03-11T09:56:00.000-08:00

Equipping Swords\Shields will cause them to go directly to your hand. Pressing F or R will auto hold items on your back (punching will require you to un-equip items). We are also getting little noob helper icons that say things like: "F = Use Sword" and they light up when you use them (you can turn these off in the config).

I am having a bit of trouble with the Gizmo sliding, I need to figure this out: http://www.truevision3d.com/forums/tv3d_sdk_65/lookatpoint_confined_to_an_axis_not_just_y-t20614.0.html
So if anyone has some info on that, that would be rad.

Animate Tronic is going to be 1000x awesomer...est. Make a Robot, attach all the parts to each other proper, and have them all attached to the waist block... attach a single Animate Tronic to the waist... pose the robot. It will output to a data info containing the positions for every block attached (with limitations obviously). Put it in an array, add a second array with speed per frame... fully animated stuff with Tronics. So yeah.. that's going to happen. :D

yay menus

2011-03-09T14:56:00.000-08:00

Control Changes

2011-03-06T21:56:00.000-08:00

I am systematically going through the entire interface to N8 and simplifing the controls, reducing the amount of button presses, and making everything super obvious. But first we need to get rid of the unnecessary bits.
Click to move = gone

Clicking on a player shows the name tag.
Clicking on an item(hat sword etc) shows the "That is a..."
Clicking on a dropped item in range causes you to walk and pick up the item.
Clicking on a block in a mode besides Build shows the "That is a..."

Clicking on a Block in Build mode selects it. A Gizmo like the one in the Maker will appear, along with a menu displaying: Place, Attach Place, Copy, Delete, Advanced

Advanced toggles the display of text precision editing, snap selection, global and local gizmo, detach, attach, and rename.

All the old key combo's (ctrl click to place) will still work as shortcuts. There are more changes coming as well, but these are the first to go in, and even here in the hotel I've been able to get a lot of this done. :D

Also, much thanks to Wizard and FingerFactor for brainstorming all of this while we were at the GDC.

Post GDC Awesomeness

2011-03-04T19:22:00.000-08:00

So its all over, and I'm sitting here in the hotel full to the brim with ideas and inspiration.
Some more changes are coming to simplify and streamline the controls... and other things which I'll talk about when I can talk about them.

Time to get to work!

IGF Award Ceremony

2011-03-02T23:34:00.000-08:00

the Booth

2011-03-01T18:09:00.000-08:00

Setting up the Booth.

Its for reals.

First day of GDC

2011-02-28T18:34:00.000-08:00

someone found us!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/officialgdc/5486841135/

2011-02-27T18:14:00.000-08:00

Ix, defying gravity finds a place for the lunching.

Wizard and FingerFactor Appear!

Trip to California (for the GDC)

2011-02-26T22:43:00.000-08:00

Bye Kitties, we are all packed.

Aion + DS + back of car on the way to airport.

At the airport, NOTEBOOK OF SECRETS!

Thats our plane! and.. sky chefs... i guess...

awesome.

Ix is crazy. We are on a plane together.

barf bag was not used.

Spectacular.

And now, we are in our hotel... slumber awaits us.
Tomorrow, we meet FingerFactor and Wizard! and maybe go get our GDC passes.

Animate and Ludus Tronics

2011-02-24T12:49:00.000-08:00

Amidst the whirlwind of GDC madness, I have managed to get some work done :D

Just got the Animate Tronic working. I ended up keeping speed and position\rotation on separate data's... I know that's not what we talked about but trust me, its going to be awesome like this. I'll put together some kind of animated Tronic creature and it will all make sense.

The Ludus Info and Give Tronics are also finished. Info will tell lots of stuff about who started the flow, and give is capable of creating items like tokens, and bombs etc, as prizes for playing games. I am working on upgrading Give to hand out unique game items that activate remote Tronics when used, instead of the magic system... closer and closer to making almost anything you can think up possible.

Sadly, I probably wont update until I get back from the GDC. I refuse to leave you guys with a broken and buggy game. Hold on tight though, N8 is going to get even more amazing.

i never posted this here.. but this was on my whiteboard for a while.

2011-02-12T17:44:00.000-08:00

First working Function...

2011-02-03T12:03:00.000-08:00

all it does is add two numbers... but it successfully transfers data back and forth between the two flows!

Mr. Keyboard!

2011-02-01T14:59:00.001-08:00

Yay, block renaming!

FDat

2011-01-31T22:42:00.000-08:00

Completely rewrote the way Tronics handle data today. FDat's work great on the first try. All the foundations for functions are ready, I bet they'll be working tomorrow.

A functional FDat. This Tronic counts to 400 if you press all of the buttons with a Data in the FDat's place. But with the FDat it counts to 100 4 times, once for each flow, and resets to nothing when each flow completes.

testing a looping with an If=. The active wire is lit up cyan, but it shows white in real time, weird.

I did a bit of a rewrite\cleanup on how the server stores and sends wires, hopefully that will clear up some of the wire bugs that have been reported
.
I am also going to be adding the much requested and needed data manipulation Tronics, and a standard format for arrays and sorted lists.

data|data|data|data = array
sort:data|sort:data| = sortedlist
(this is just the preliminary idea, speak up if you can think of something it will break)

New Tronics that utilize this format are:

Get (DataB = the index\sort in the array\list to return data for)
Count (Outputs the number of entrys in the array\list)
Contains (will return "yes" or "no" if DataA contains whats in DataB)
Remove (DataA = data to remove, DataB = the data it is to be removed from)
and possibly a few others.

I will also be adding a new Tronic called Animate, capable of both moving and rotating with a variable speeds.

Testing Topdown \ Tronic Wire Mode

2011-01-27T19:49:00.000-08:00

Flow looping is working pretty flawlessly, I can have any number of flow running at once without slowing the server or clients down at all... now for Functions, Ludus Tronics and the Tronic grid!

Changes.

2011-01-22T08:30:00.000-08:00

I am working on some changes to N8.. I want to bring it back to some of my original goals for the game, but to understand why I am about to do what I am going to do, I will have to give you guys a history lesson.

I opened alpha testing to a small group of programmers who also worked in the Truevision3D engine. The cell size was 1/4th what it is now. There were no powerups. Jump did not charge up (it was only the shortest jump). There were no Bombs. No Monsters. No gravestones on death. And every time you changed a cell you got a loading screen.

Obviously we have come a long way, but we lost something on our way as well. People used to build mazes to their shrine, so someone would have to run the maze before taking the cell. It worked somehow, no one was greedy over cells, and everyone kept their shrine takeable... until people started realizing they could completely block it off. Bombs came out and that all changed... the entire game dynamic changed... suddenly floor stacks and token farms appeared... And some of the magic of N8 got lost with it. And I think I lost my way a little to.

Change is coming, and it might be in small pieces...

Shrines will no longer Produce Tokens. I will be adding in a set of Ludus Tronics. These Tronics will be capable of creating games and giving prizes like bombs, tokens, points etc. These will come along with a major Tronics update that will let Tronics replace the magic inside all items.. so Tronics will be able to control the 'code' inside things like epics and allow for improvements in every realm of gameplay. You will be able to play a game of tag or soccer and get tokens as prizes.

Obviously Shrines no longer making Tokens will cause some other gameplay changes, but I'll get to that in a second. The main point here is that currently the only way to get Tokens is via grind... something I thought N8 would never have, but that's exactly what it is, and I am going to get rid of it, and replace it with fun.

More Public\Construct Cells and new Build Totems. I haven't worked out all the details of Totems yet but players will be able to use their own Build Totems inside Public cells to 'own' cubes of the cell for periods of time. This is to increase the amount of places players can build and at the same time cut down on grief-ing.

Also, within normal cells I will be adding Tronic Totems that can be programed with a player names to give them build access to portions of your cell.

Week long Build Mode. This is probably the biggest change, and it will take place slowly, a few cells at a time. Back in the beginning of N8 I had to use short build times because there were few players online and no public cells. New players couldn't have a place to build if they couldn't find a static cell. Now we range from 15-30 players online at once, public cells will be abundant, and there will be plenty to do without owning a cell.

Static will last one hour and will happen for half of the cells at the same time, twice a week. Cell capturing will no longer be attacking the shrine. Instead attacking players will need to stand inside the shrine and take a capture stance, in which they can not move or attack. A capture timer will appear over the shrine and they will need to hold that position for 3 minutes. If players wish to capture a cell, they will likely need to work as a group. Once a cell is captured the new owner will need to defend it for the duration of the global static time, giving the previous owners a chance to reclaim it.

Players will only be fighting over the ability to build in a cell, it will no longer produce tokens.

I realize this is going to upset everything, cell leveling will need to be revised. Team levels will work as they do now but protected cells will no longer be in effect. I will try to make the changes gradual so we can test things out each step of the way and smooth out any bumps we find. Understand I am going to be adding and removing things from this plan as we go, and trust that I am going work my hardest to make N8 as fun as possible.

Vending machine UNLOCKED

2011-01-11T19:34:00.000-08:00

is that a guitar?

the glove of power

2011-01-11T14:19:00.000-08:00

it's so bad.

Team Tokens and Points

2011-01-09T20:42:00.000-08:00

Whats Complete:
Epics\Commands
Items
Generator Orbs
Cells
Protected Cells
Player\Cell Visuals
Point\Token Inventory

To do:
Token Generation
HQ
Vend Unlocks (buy-able with team tokens)
Power Items (powered by team points)

Changes coming with Teams

2011-01-09T20:10:00.000-08:00

Dropable XP
Generate up to 30 XP
Cell Levels only drop 1 when taken

Freakin Teams, How do they work?

2011-01-08T15:58:00.000-08:00

Orbs will be given to the team leaders.. on activation they will recive:

Recruiter Staff - allows access to commands:
TEAM RECRUITER Playername - give recruiter sign
TEAM UNRECRUITER Playername - remove recruiter sign

Boot Hammer - allows access to the command:
TEAM BOOT Playername - remove a player from the team

Construct Wrench - allows access to the command:
TEAM BUILDER Playername - gives them a hard hat that allows build access to any team cell
TEAM UNBUILDER Playername - removes that access and hat

Crown - commands:
TEAM RECALLWRENCH
TEAM RECALL HAMMER
TEAM RECALL STAFF

Leaders will also get the first Team Sword and Recruiter Sign (so they can add new members)

Hitting players with a Recruiter Sign will give new players a team invitation that only they can open. Once opened they will be a part of that team. Team members will get a Team Sword and shoulder armor with a color that signifys that team.

When a team member takes a cell using their team sword, that cell is a team cell. Only Friends on the same team will be able to build (along with any team builders)

Team cells surrounded on each side by 4 team cells makes the cell protected, and unable to be taken.

Next post, more finalized info on team levels, tokens and xp.

Blue - default shoulder armor

2011-01-06T19:43:00.000-08:00

I amuse myself while I code...

2011-01-06T17:27:00.000-08:00

    Public Function DoYouHaveOneLike(ByVal ItemShape As String) As Boolean
        Dim gofish As Boolean = False
        For Each i As KeyValuePair(Of Integer, Thing) In InventoryItems
            If i.Value.shape = ItemShape Then
                gofish = True
            End If
        Next
        For Each i As KeyValuePair(Of Integer, Thing) In AttachedItems
            If i.Value.shape = ItemShape Then
                gofish = True
            End If
        Next
        Return gofish
    End Function

Green

2011-01-06T13:11:00.000-08:00

Functional Team Items

2011-01-06T09:50:00.000-08:00

See how it shows up grey in the inventory? It gets its colors from its team :D Next I have to make the symbol change as well.

This is the Team Booter Item. The team member who holds this hammer is in charge of kicking players off the team via a console commands. Each of the team commands will have an item like this that drops after 32hrs of Logout.

Team Shrines

2011-01-05T22:25:00.001-08:00

Also, blogger is all kinds of messed up right now... why is the picture way over there? --->

Hacker wanabe

2011-01-04T18:54:00.000-08:00

Dear whoever was trying to bruteforce my honeypot sqlserver for the past couple months,

I was kinda waiting for you to get the password right so I could find out just what it was you were trying to accomplish. However, I am tired of waiting for you to get in and have disabled the default sql ports. Thanks for trying, sorry it didnt work out. Maybe some other time?

all my love,
Aion

Team Stuff

2010-12-30T15:19:00.000-08:00

Adding the ability to make team items in the maker.

these two aren't connected like that... its a shoulder and helm.

So it will colorize and set the proper textures when it loads up in the game. Should work with blocks too.

Working on the map...

2010-12-28T22:08:00.000-08:00

I have it reading and displaying location data for cells when you mouse over them. (only for locked\sacred\safe cells)

Target and CoinVend

2010-12-23T17:08:00.000-08:00

I have this coin vend rigged to open a door. There is a switch so it can be moved to a special location inside where you can withdraw tokens from it :D

Oh, and that target behind me sends flow with swords\shields\punches

o_o tronics...

2010-12-22T16:44:00.000-08:00

2010-12-21T18:58:00.000-08:00

after some thought, I modified Movers and Rotors to better show how they work on the inside. (oh, and ignore how the wires look here, I was just screwing around with them and forgot to put it back)

Mover

2010-12-20T17:59:00.000-08:00

to give you an idea of how they will look.

New Tronics

2010-12-20T16:36:00.000-08:00

This plus bigger easier to click on nodes, a 0 perspective top-down camera mode, and single clicks to add and remove wires. I think it will be much nicer when its ready. Also making Changes to the other Tronics so they can be wired up from a top down mode too. (you may notice I took a bit of inspiration from Wizards Tronic icons)

Just felt like working on these today :D

2010-12-20T12:01:00.000-08:00

So the plan has been to put in Move-With-Blocks next... but after careful consideration I think there are a few more gameplay elements that need to be added first. Move-With-Blocks is going to take a while to write, and I want to make sure you have enough content to play with while I work on it.

The Map. Pretty self explanatory.. It would be quite valuable for new players to have a map. It will likely replace the compass.

A handful of useful Tronics:
TokenSlot
Speaker
Target
etc..?

Teams. This is going to be a bit complicated. Going to start out with 3 Teams: Red, Green and Blue.
Here are my unrefined notes:

team cells on four sides = protected
team cells are taken with team swords (you start out with a lvl1 team sword)
mutual friends can only edit team cells if they are also on that team.
team color will appear in Info Bar.
Team XP - each cell +1 - each protected cell +2 -> Team levels unlock stuff
Levels unlock special vending machines.
Team Tokens - for various tasks
cells generate team tokens
taking a team cell = 10 tokens
killing a team player = 1 token
expanding to a new team cell - 2 tokens

Team HQ
Taking the HQ causes all team cells to revert, first cell taken with a team sword becomes HQHQ shop - copy code from the shop mostly -- buy with team tokens.
team swords - buy 5 levels (team Zanbato?)
team sholder things? - 5 levels (base sholder not removeable...Capes if I can do it!)
buyable team sheilds - 5 levels

binding of team items - only team members can equip team items.
team inviter - Join Team Red! sign -> creates Invitation (use to accept)

Leader command = Leader playername - server tallys votes, leader owns HQ
Leader and his mutual same team friends can edit any team cell.
My hope is to allow for self organization and government of the team. Democracy's, Monarchy's , Anarchy's and everything in-between should be possible

names for each, perhaps a vote on the forums.
Red -
Green -
Blue -

New Updater

2010-12-14T15:36:00.000-08:00

Title images fade, 4 new titles.

Loading music keeps playing after launch until the song is done.

Also, less buggy.

Suspicious...

2010-12-12T20:01:00.000-08:00

just in time for the holidays

Ok...

2010-12-07T08:51:00.000-08:00

Chibi powerup is in, and thats awesome. Everyone seems to be having fun with it, and I am happy.

Wizard just sent me software to convert all the old type monsters/hats/stuff over to the newer type that doesn't use Pixel. Totally blown away... that was insanely hard to do... expect mildly faster loading time soon, and the ability to update and modify all the older files in the game :D

So now.. before I start the "Move With Blocks" update, I do have a few other things to finish up.

Website design revision
Password recovery
A few ideas to smooth out cell loading a bit more

That and I am still not completely sure how I am going to make the whole move with blocks thing work... There are a lot of things I would like to be able to do. But I have to pick the ones that can be done in a reasonable amount of time, with the most impact on gameplay, and do those.

2010-12-05T20:50:00.000-08:00

new arcade cabinets!

Chibi Crazy

2010-12-04T22:51:00.000-08:00

mostly all that's left is making adjustments for combat.