————————/ Some BS ————————

The Black Shadow project is coming along rather well, I've been reworking the AI of the monsters so that they are more responsive to you despite what direction you are from them. A problem that if you played the demo you may notice in a few critters. I've decided to create a fork in the game once you finish the second stage that leads either through a long forest or down into the depth of a underground water way that will lead somewhere else entirely then the forest will. Why? Because I can and it gives me more reason for more levels. I'm now uncertain on how long this project will take to finish, but unlike the other it requires more artistic freedom then critical thinking.

————————/ Crawling ————————

On the note of that I've been working on various ideas to improve The Crawls level system. Currently like tiles and walls are seperate objects, I plan on changing that so if they are near they are also connect polygons instead of just connect shade patterns. This will in theory lead to better lighting and faster processing.

Currently each tile is composed of 5 to 9 points depending on its orientation to like tiles, however they are independant of one another and thus slowing things down when I have overlaying textures.

————————/ POV-Ray ————————

I downloaded pov-ray, a code based rendering engine that I had once used many years ago for game graphics and even a school project of a model of Shakespear's Globe Theater.

Its like the GML of renders and not terribly complicated to learn, however you have to sort of plot out in your head where things are in space. Besides that its capable of some amazing graphical rendering that at times rivals commercial renders, espicially since it's free and has useful plugins and sister applications(some not free).

With it I plan on resurrecting an old adventure-stratagy game I made awhile back, sadly I can't find a demo of it to demonstrate but it was similar to the original Dragon Court in movement. Much like The Crawl it had been redisgned several times and contained a intricate RPG stat and skill system.

It is a sci-fi themed game that will feature pre-rendered scenes similar to Myst and the later Zork games, featuring a panaramic 3d sphere effect that will allow you to look 360 around the room as well as limited degrees up and down. Unlike Myst however you will not be hunting for places to click and go to but be shown a map of adjacent areas that you can travel to.

I've already written a opening story that gives you an idea of the world you'll find yourself in when you start. It will have your basic RPG stats and skills but they will effect the play of game much more directly then just attacking and dodging or whether or not you can successfully accomplish something.

For example, in its original incarnation, depending on your intelligence, areas, creatures and items will be describe in different detail. An idiot would see a crazy beast and see just a crazy beast, while a highly intelligent character would be able to assess whether it is a danger and what possible alternative actions you can take besides running or killing it.

There is no single HP as you have localized damage that can be done to your torso, head, limbs and internals. So think of it as MYST RPG or something like that.

I wouldn't expect to have anything to show for it now, perhaps some snippets of scenes I rendered to give you a taste of how it will look.

——————-/ To Many Projects? ——————–

One would think so, but each project I have has a different manner of going about. Maybe its my austic ADD OCD mentallity that has never been diagnosed but self assumed, but I like variety. With BS its pixel Art, with The Crawl its making a 3d engine, Rick Jason is Photoshop art done quick and dirty and this fourth project will be like 3d art with a fairly high-end engine.

Interested in POVRay?

Just check here and check out the galleries to see the potential. I don't think I can exactly do some of the amazing things you'll see there, but it does make realism easier. You can probably pull of scenes like FF7-9 with it, but not neccessarily with characters and such. There are ways to import models from other pograms too, and the modifiers in the program allow you to morph, blob, cut-out and various other things that can turn a few spheres and boxes into something complex looking.

It also uses IF and LOOP statements altough not as complex and lacks ANDs and ORs.