The online engine for Special Cube Force (SCF) is almost ready. Just some little adjustments, and perhaps some level editing too, and SCF is ready for the public beta. I tested the game over and over again, my friend was complaining about it (he had to test all the time) but I just wanted the engine to be OK. I suppose it is now, I don't think I'd find many bugs from now, and if I do, it wouldn't take too long to fix it.

So the engine works, level design is not so hard, but I still have one problem to face: What am I going to do with the game? What will be the goal of the player? I still have no idea, I suppose the Single Player version of SCF was a lot easier to make. Just a made up story, some conversations with other characters, and that's about it. The online version however, is a bit more difficult. You need to remove some things from the game. Like the ground pieces that fall down when you walk over it. If I put this in the online version, only one player can reach the other side. That could give some problems. An Other thing to notice are the enemies. It won't take so long until all enemies are killed by the players. A new player won't have any enemies left to get points from (for example). Maybee these things are not so hard to think of, but you still need to keep them in you mind. And besides: for all these things, you have to think of something to replace them. That could be difficult.

Anyway, enemies and falling-ground-pieces are removed from now on, one of the things I did not removed, are the user controlled doors. Other players can lock you up from the other side of such a door. I don't expect it to be a big problem, because the admin can always open them again (and perhaps use a door-button disabler aswell, if it should come that far).

I also need to make a register/login function in the game. Now you just have to enter your (nick)name, and you can play immediately after that. You could say it's annoying when you have to register, but still… If the engine gets more advanced after some time (I suppose it is not really the question IF, it will, but WHEN) you might want to save things like your score to the server.

The current version of SCF still has no goals for the player yet. But I would like to make something like quest in it, don't know precicely yet. Another aspect I want to make in the game, is teamwork. For some quests (or missions) you need more than just yourself, but another player too. The other player needs to help you up to higher ground, or presses a key to open a gate. Something like that.

To get an idea of the graphics, and the style of the world you'll play in: You can download the Single player game of SCF (the original game actually) on my webpage: Download page. If you don't want to play, you can also take a look at some older blog entries about SCF.

(64digits SCF game page here)

Tijn