Well, it's been a while since I've had a real proper blog… and I have my reasons. Basically, I've just been so busy with other stuff, I haven't been able to keep up a steady routine of supplying you guys with long, wordy blogs. But the absence has ended, Fred has returned. It's 64Blog time.

First things first - I am very excited about how well received Aces High Over Verlor Island has been, here and elsewhere. It's been cool, I've been watching AHOVI slowly rise up the most-played ranks on Reflect Games… it just overtook Linked a couple of days ago! I've also been closely monitoring my bandwidth because of AHOVI, because shortly after I posted it on the GMC, a couple other sites picked it up. That, combined with the continuous load of people downloading Hover Tank 3D, was quite a lot for march. For the curious, here's what a few of the more popular hits I see on my referrers list:

http://indygamer.blogspot.com/2007/03/aces-high-over-verlor-island.html

http://plnehry.idnes.cz/akcni/asces-high-over-verlor-island.html

http://baixaki.ig.com.br/download/Aces-High-Over-Verlor-Island.htm

By the way, if any of you can read the languages on the bottom two, I'd love to see what they have to say about the game!

I also spotted this article on Indy Gamer, which points to Hover Tank 3D, as well as a few other finely crafted GM games:

http://indygamer.blogspot.com/2007/03/best-of-game-maker.html

So it's been a busy last month of first getting out AHOVI, then patching it a little bit, and finally working on a big update to the Reflect Games website. This update, which I will have ready as soon as I get done coding a forum from scratch (yikes) will include Reflect Credits leaderboards, a store you will be able to use these credits at, as well as a revamped user page / user profile page, and more… it's been a long time in the making. After that… then I get to update the Reflect system itself, so that it will be able to support cross-game friends lists, and a few other things that need to be added. I'm excited about all this stuff, but man, is it a lot of work! Add to the mix my 2 web projects (for paying customers), one of which I just finished last week, and you'll probably come to the conclusion that, yes, I am in fact busy enough to not blog.

But I laugh in the face of busy-ness, and obligations. Ha! HA HA! Take that, responsibility! For I have also started working on another game, and I think it's coming along very nicely. After only 4 days of work, the basic engine for the game is running great, and the whole project is looking to be a great thing to add to the arsenal of games already using Reflect. Instead of trying to describe the game (and without giving too much away about where it's going) I'll throw down the gratuitous screenshot:

The trees and the walls both have 3D effects applied, and the explosion you see is done with particles in GM. The player is what I am most proud of, however… The movements are so fluid, it's unfortunate that you can't capture it in a screenshot. I don't want to say too much about what I'm planning on doing with this right now, but I will say that it will probably be online. [;)]

You'll see more of this later, once I've gotten it farther along in development. I am excited about this project though, so hopefully that is sooner rather than later!

Anyway, I'll cut it off here, since this is already pretty long… it's good to be back with the 64Blog though, and thanks again to everyone who downloaded and played AHOVI. Good times!