Good News

[Axonn]

Even though my Imperion addiction as well as my part time job have been eating a lot of time, I've still been able to achieve quite a bit during the past few weeks. First of all, I would like to share a very nice news I've got a few weeks ago: ASD Clock was translated in... Chinese! Hahaha ::- ). That's thanks to some very dedicated students over there: dreambear and lyklykkkkkkk, ASD Clock will soon be available in Simplified Chinese. Kudos to them! Now... if I would only have the time to update the project on SourceForge. I will, I promise. But not this June. The end of July sounds more likely. Actually, I think I'm going to have to do some Polyphasic Sleeping this period because otherwise I simply can't see how I can cope with all the stuff that I need to do. So, about that:

Alien Invasion is still on track, thanks God. Delendum, our new designer has been working diligently at the graphics, and even though his full time job allows for very little time, his work is fantastic and better than anything I've been given so far. We're still kind of short in the finance department but that has never stopped anybody with a serious drive & ambition and will certainly not stop us. I am trying to invest as much as I can in all this stuff, but my C# part time job doesn't produce a lot of cash. In any case, Alien Invasion is about 70% ready in terms of graphics, which is fantastic. If Delendum finishes before I start programming, it'd be something to write in the calendar about ::- D. And of course, there are plans for other games he can work for hehehe.

But we can't talk about Alien Invasion without mentioning the two other projects it is dependent on:

GAS3 is nearing the first production-ready version with huge leaps. All essential Framework features are now in place and I already begun work at the final Widgets: the CheckBox, the Radio Button, the Image, the Image Roller and the Tooltip. When these 5 babies are done, GAS3 is ready to hit the road. The CheckBox is already 60% done: roughly 4 hours of work in that, so I expect that I'll be able to finish all widgets by the end of the month. And that means that the month of June should see my GAS3 work done, at least for a while. There is still work to do at the external-graphics version of the library (which is required for Alien Invasion), but that's only a derivation of work already done, so I don't expect any nasty surprises there. I will take a break before doing that, however.

Epic Game Studio is progressing again! I managed at the end of the last month to clear up a few issues with the folks at DevExpress, things which were irking me and were seriously hampering my productivity & mood for work. So I resumed work at my super duper Game Design tool and I hope to reach a first production version by the end of next month. Only when these two steps (GAS3 & EGS) are completed, will I be able to truly start work on Alien Invasion, as the game will be created using these two tools. All the UI & story & gameplay design will be made EXCLUSIVELY with GAS3 & EGS for the sole purpose of sharpening & perfecting them, as they will be the cornerstone of all my future game development. Or at least for a good time to come.

So what's that thing I said earlier about a break in GAS3 development until reaching the functionalities required for Alien Invasion? Well, while working at Epic Game Studio next month, I intend to test & perfect the current version of GAS3, before working at the external-graphics version. And how exactly am I going to do that without a game? Well, there's a fourth project on my plate *laugh*:

Imperion Deep Space Command is what I'm talking about. It will be a GAS3 + PHP/MySQL Server Side. The two interact using a smaller project I made, called sAStellite, which is basically a PHP <-> AS3 HTTP interaction protocol. I wrote it from scratch because I didn't want to start learning SOAP or REST or AMF3. Learning SOAP or REST would've been nice I guess, but I simply didn't feel like it and wanted to re-invent the wheel a little. It pleases my programmer spirit to do that sometimes, *laugh*. So what's Imperion Deep Space Command? Well, firstly, it's a tool for the game Imperion, of course. I've already made it clear that any true game developer has to be a gamer foremost, but I'm addicted to that damn MMO ::- ). I crossed some dangerous thresholds and have played enormously in the past 6 months. Luckily, I also designed some scripts to help me play less ::- D. But even so, the game is taking a huge chunk of my time. On the positive side: I learned a shit-load of things about MMO environments, gameplay ideas, and I met great people and made good contacts (people to help with testing mostly) which will hopefully help me in my future game development projects.

So what is this Imperion Deep Space Command (IDSC) supposed to do? It's a tactical assistance tool for Clan/League/Guild Leaders and for users as well. The Imperion map is very retarded and functionality limited, and IDSC will fix that by bringing a super flexible & fast map, complete with zooming, ultra-fast panning and instant loading! Initially, I wanted to do this only for my League & allies, to help in the wars we are conducing. This is a 100% legal script, not a cheating bot. It's completely independent from the game servers. It's simply a tool to be used by players. But here's the catch(es):

1. I intend to sell it. Only I and a few friends will have a full account. Other people wanting to use it will be able to access only a limited number of functionalities. The full user version will cost only 5$ while the full administration version will cost 25$.

2. (and this is the greatest) This will actually be developed as an engine for a future space strategy MMO *manic evil laughter*. Much to my (very pleasant) surprise, I found that a lot of people in Imperion pay money in the game. So that fills me with hope for selling IDSC (maybe even porting it to other games) as well as for a future game I might make with the engine which I will develop inside IDSC. Imperion features an extremely cheesy storyline and a rather primitive engine. I believe I could do something a lot better, given time & money (as always, the limiting factors - I don't have a team ::- ( ).

So... a game to keep playing (and the server won't get reset this summer ::- (, only in the winter, damn), a part time job to work at, GAS3, Epic Game Studio, IDSC and Alien Invasion. Oh, and an update to ASD Clock. I'd say I got my work cut out for me this summer, isn't it? There will be no vacation for me this year... no visit back in Romania (thanks God I'm still in Sweden, and thank my girlfriend's job) until late December.

Next update will be when I finish IDSC. I don't want to prolong it too much. Simply a side-project to work at while I get the Epic Game Studio up to speed. A few database selects and quite a lot of using GAS3 for UI work. IDSC will practically be 100% GAS3 use. I actually already started work at IDSC and it has pushed development of GAS3 in the right direction in several areas. So it's a perfect interlude to sharpen up GAS3 for the final update to it (the external resources version) which will pave the way for starting work at Alien Invasion.

Pfew... now that was a long story to tell ::- D. Back to work now!