Time for the 3rd installment of IKWYDLW! Exciting stuff! I also just read this great article comparing the games industry to the history of the print industry and how technology has put the power in the hand of small groups of graphic designers over time. It’s a good read - check it out.
Murphy:
I started last week implementing a new networking method. This involves simulating the client ahead of the server and then checking for errors and correcting. This includes predicting the movement of objects over a period of time. Predicting the movement of the kart is not an easy task (which is why we use a physics engine in the first place!) so I decided to get a ball character controller working (which is easy to predict) to test the networking method. Refactoring the code to support non-kart character controllers (any controllers!) took 4 full days of work but is going to pay off big time down the road. I also spent a night getting motion blur working (it looks AWESOME when boosting). I also got e-mail reporting of errors in the game thanks to Max from Unknown Worlds, Thanks Max!This week I plan on getting the ball character controller finished (need to provide a better way to control it) and test the networking method a lot before moving forward with it. I also plan to improve the way the different camera controllers are managed so that we can swap character controllers on the fly.
marshmonkey:
Last week I started up my modeling for ZG again and started on a new track environment. It’s a giant “rats” style environment where you are in a scaled up room that makes all the characters appear tiny. Should be a lot of fun! Also have spent some time play testing Sky Burger. This week I am going to try and finish up the new environment enough to post a pretty screenshot!
eeenmachine:
Last week Sky Burger inched ever closer to a release candidate with minor bug fixes and new music. I also built an in game browser for our custom “NimbleStore” to browse our games which includes video youtube reviews and live twitter searches. Final touches on the game icon and attempts to thwart Marshmonkey’s attempts at cheating kept me busy over the weekend. This weekend I also added an unobtrusive news ticker to the main player menu to keep players up to date with NimbleBit news. Sky Burger will absolutely, no matter what, be submitted by this Thursday!
