Pixelmusement 2009 Archive Last Updated:
December 7th, 2009

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2009 Archive

December 7th, 2009:

Just want to quickly say this will be the last update of the year, as the new website will be launched Saturday, January 2nd, along with many new features! Here's some of the things to look forward to in the next update:

  • New downloads for TWO unfinished games! (Not just Space Fortress 2!)
  • Information on my abandoned games, including why I abandoned them and screenshots.
  • Over 50 free MP3s spanning several years of my musical talents.
  • Sections for my 2D artwork, 3D artwork and 3D animations.
  • Trivia / Fun Fact sections for each of my games.
  • Reuploading of some of my very old projects, including my work in Megazeux.

I also intend to have sections dedicated to my video game collection and any work I've done with video games, such as level editing and cheats/secrets I've discovered, but these sections will not be available in the initial update.

Again, this update will be Saturday, January 2nd, 2010, just after New Years. Be ready for it! ;)



November 22nd, 2009:

I have so little free time anymore... if I didn't have a steady job now (and if they gave me part-time hours like I requested instead of full-time hours) I'd've had the website updated by now along with all the new features I have planned. As it stands, in the past month I've had maybe five days where I've been able to work on my own projects, including the website.

A little patience is all I ask. The update is coming...



October 30th, 2009:

Sorry for the late update everyone, but work has been really eating into my time. I have today off though so I'm going to try to start getting the new website format in place this weekend. Also have a new link up on the links page to the website of independent developer Wendell Preston who's made a series of anthropomorphic beat-em-up games. Fun stuff. ;)

Also, for those wondering what's going to happen with Space Fortress 2, since the gameplay is virtually complete but nothing else, I'm going to whip together a quick little menu at some point and release the incomplete version as freeware. It would take years to finish it at this rate considering how much time I have to put towards working a day-job now. Plus, I have a better idea of how to expand myself as a game designer without requiring extremely large amounts of time to work on projects. Stay tuned for more on that!



October 12th, 2009:

Again, nothing new to report, beyond getting a day-job. Suffice it to say, it's cutting into the time I have to work on anything, such as my website...



September 22nd, 2009:

There's a ton of stuff going on at the moment, one of which will be a major overhaul of the website, thus there's nothing new to report just yet. I'll keep everyone up to date though!



September 7th, 2009:

Just a quick update. My "small" game idea ran into too many brick walls so I'm leaving it aside for now. I'll be back onto Space Fortress 2 soon and will not be converting it to use hardware acceleration... as tempting as the prospect is, with my life about to get much more busy and taking time away from developing my shareware, it would be a bad idea to introduce unnecessary additions this late in development. Plus, in order to satisfy the whims of some of my 3D game ideas I'm also considering making a very simple to use 3D modelling program. Something with a focus on rapid development of low-polygon, untextured models. If I do make such a program, it would be free for all to use.

Keep watching this space! ;)



August 24th, 2009:

I'm just finishing up some design specs and programming some raw binary data for the vector graphics of my small game and then I can start programming. I should have a screenshot or two by my next regular update, along with details of the game itself.

But... I also have a bit of a decision to make, so I suppose it might be a good idea to ask the fans what they think...

Firstly, in the process of designing this small game of mine, it actually became about as big as PixelShips Retro is, which means it will actually take about three to four months of effort to make, but more importantly, working on it also saw the completion of my OpenGL hardware accelerated wrapper.

Essentially, I can now make hardware accelerated games without a second thought! :o

So the big question is: When I return to working on Space Fortress 2, should I spend some extra time converting what already exists into a hardware accelerated format, or should I keep it non-accelerated?

There's pros and cons to doing this. The pros are that the game will run better and more smoothly overall, will be able to run at higher screen resolutions, would have customizable screen layouts, and better special effects. The cons are primarily a dramatic increase in the minimum system requirements, an overall loss of sharpness in the graphics and an overall increase in the time it will take to complete the game.

So what's the vote? Make SF2 hardware accelerated, or keep it non-accelerated? E-Mail me with your responses!



August 8th, 2009:

Anyone who's ever worked on a large project before knows that sooner or later, mental fatigue can really set in. For me, it tends to set in pretty quickly. The more varied and the more interesting the stuff I work on is, the easier it is to work on it for a long period of time.

Space Forrtress 2 still has a long way to go, even with the gameplay elements all there, but I'm at that point where I really don't want to look at its source code because I've been doing so for months now. Instead, I'm thinking it might be a good idea to make something small and free just for a change of pace, then get back to SF2 later.

Wow... freeware... haven't made a piece of that in quite awhile now! :o

Awhile ago I asked what kind of game my fans want to see next after SF2 and the overwhelming majority voted for an overhead shooter, but all of my overhead shooter ideas keep falling apart for whatever reason, except for one, but it's not big enough an idea to sell and I could probably make it pretty quickly.

So I'm going to take a bit of a break from Space Fortress 2. I WILL still finish it, I just need to recover my creative spark for it. Thus, I should have a simple and fun overhead shooter all ready to go before too long to tide everyone over with, then I can get back to Space Fortress 2 with a refreshed and more dedicated interest!

I'll have more details on this overhead shooter in the coming days, so keep an eye out for them!



July 28th, 2009:

Just a reminder that there's some low quality (but acceptable) gameplay footage of Space Fortress 2 hosted up on GameTrailers.

Other than that, progress has slowed down to a crawl, mostly due to job searching but also because I've been taking a bit of a break from programming, thus taking the time to just relax and plan ahead. It's not a big secret that I, Kris, run this website and produce my games pretty much solo, and when the website is overhauled next I intend to convert it from a business-type format to something inbetween a personal page and a business page. I'm still deciding on a format really.

One last thing, here's a screenshot of the title screen for Space Fortress 2. The stars in the background move in 3-dimensions and are inspired by the jukebox stars from the old DOS 2D shooter Tyrian. They can show up in various patterns and colour combinations and when you enter the sound test code you get to watch the stars roll by in their hypnotic patterns while listening to the game's sounds and music to your heart's content. :)

Space Fortress 2 Title Screen




July 13th, 2009:

Once again, work has been delayed for a variety of reasons, but to pass the time and prove that all the development hasn't been just pretty conceptual art, here's some gameplay footage! (Hosted on GameTrailers.com)

You'll have to excuse the lousy quality of the video capture, and no, the game usually isn't as hard as I made it look, but I wanted to demonstrate a full game in a short amount of time. Besides, just like with the original Space Fortress, difficulty increases the longer you stay alive for. ;)

Progress will get back up to pace soon. The current version is v0.083a.



June 30th, 2009:

Just a quick update to let everyone know that progress is continuing on Space Fortress 2, but numerous things threw the schedule out of whack again. Since the game is already virtually half-way done, rest assured, unless the world ends the game will be completed sooner or later! ^_^;



June 15th, 2009:

Well, Space Fortress 2 is up to v0.081a... it certainly took a lot longer to get that far than expected, but this is turning out to be a much larger project than I anticipated. PixelShips Retro is TINY compared to what's in store here!

However, v0.08a was special in that it marked the completion of the gameplay! Every aspect of Space Fortress 2's gameplay is now finished, leaving title screens, selection screens, tutorials and other special features not directly related to the gameplay to be implemented. Basically, it means the hard part is done, now all that's left is dressing... but there's a lot of dressing to do so it may still be a couple months or so to get this game done. As I've proven numerous times in the past, I'm not very skilled at figuring out how long these things take. :/

In the meantime, there's another development update to talk about some of the gameplay features not yet discussed, such as EMP effects.



June 9th, 2009:

The usual bi-weekly update on Space Fortress 2 will be next week so that a few details can be finalized. As it stands, the current version is v0.079a.



May 26th, 2009:

Apologies for the late update, but things have been hectic lately, so all I have to say at the moment is that Space Fortress 2 is up to v0.073a and should be at least v0.1a by the next update!



May 10th, 2009:

Just a quick update this time around. Space Fortress 2 is only up to v0.067a thanks mostly in part to Mother Nature who's been casting down numerous thunderstorms over the past couple weeks, one of which resulted in a strike just a few METERS from home. (Neighbours had their computer and a phone fried.)

Suffice it to say, v0.1a is getting closer, at which point, all that will remain is mostly interface stuff. (Which is a lot easier to program than gameplay stuff! ;)



April 27th, 2009:

Although Space Fortress 2 is only up to v0.063a from the past couple weeks, consider that the jump from v0.06a and v0.07a is actually pretty big, and that once v0.1a is reached, the actual gameplay component will be virtually COMPLETE, all that will be left are the menus, game selections, tutorials and such.

Not to mention another fundamental change was made, this time to the timing system in order to allow the game to run at the maximum potential of the player's system without burning a huge amount of processor power. (Which will be especially good for laptop users!) If you want more details, head on over to the Development Details for Space Fortress 2. ;)



April 14th, 2009:

Not to sound like a broken record, but progress on Space Fortress 2 has been delayed yet again. x_x;;;

Unlike in a big company, the temporary loss of but one individual in the production of a shareware product can bring development to a standstill. Roughly 10 days of development were missed in the past couple weeks for a variety of personal reasons, though things are finally getting back to normal around here.

That said, there has been some development, and Space Fortress 2 has reached v0.06a. With any luck, life won't throw any MORE surprises our way. Because developments made in the last version are primarily to the inner workings there's not much to show. Nevertheless, there's still a new development update to talk about the recent additions. ;)



March 31st, 2009:

Progress on Space Fortress 2 has been slightly delayed thanks to food poisoning. x_x;

That said, the current version is 0.055a and by the next development update in a couple weeks the version number should be much closer to 0.1a! ;)



March 17th, 2009:

Yeah, I'm a day late with the development update for Space Fortress 2... progress the past couple weeks has been slower than usual, but with version 0.05a done, attention can finally turn away from the player interface and focus on things like enemy AI, weapon resistances and such.

Other than the new bit of development info, not much else to say at the moment. ;)



March 2nd, 2009:

Yep, more development info is up for Space Fortress 2! The intention is to update the development info at least every two weeks or sooner depending on the speed of development.

It seems everyone wants to see the overhead shooter, so that will probably be the next game... though Space Fortress 2 is taking a lot longer to make than anticipated. So rather than try to guess when it will be done, the main Space Fortress 2 index page now has a development chart at the bottom, showing what needs to be done for each version and where exactly the development is at.

Once the game reaches a beta state, THEN it will be possible to figure out how much longer it will take to release. Until then, anything said would be merely speculation. If anyone would rather hear speculative dates than see progress charts, or if you like the idea of having progress charts instead and want to make sure they're provided with all future games, send us an E-Mail! ;)



February 16th, 2009:

More development info has been posted for Space Fortress 2! Today, you get to see some of the weapons in action!

Also, in case anyone is curious, so far the fans want to see the overhead shooter of the three game ideas I previously mentioned. I've re-evaluated the first person shooter as a year-long project, at least, so it's no longer an option until 2010. If anyone who visits this corner of the net would rather I make the platformer instead of the overhead shooter, you'd better speak up before it's too late! ;)



February 4th, 2009:

More info has been posted on the development of Space Fortress 2! Alas, it is taking much longer to make than anticipated, but is actually coming along very nicely. The expected release date at present will be around the end of March or early April at the current rate of development.

We're already looking ahead at our next project too and we're curious what the fans would like to see next. It's been narrowed down to three choices:

  • An overhead 360? shooter with a storyline, hand-made levels and bosses.
  • A platforming adventure inspired by Super Mario Bros. 3 by Nintendo.
  • A retro first person shooter with no mature content, a storyline and dialogue trees.

Fire off an E-Mail off to gemini@pixelships.com and voice your opinion of what you want to see next from Pixelmusement... once Space Fortress 2 is out of course! ;)

And no, PixelShips 2 isn't one of the games in that list. There's a ton of work to do on the concept still since it won't be a true sequel unless it's EPIC.



January 15th, 2009:

Our first development screenshot of Space Fortress 2 is up, fresh from v0.01a, along with some notes on the development process for all those interested into what goes into one of our games. Check it out! ;)

It's also looking like we're gonna see a March release date, not a February one, as there's still planety to do.

drex
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