News — Tardis.dk Remakes

Project Future…not so much into the future.

February 25, 2008 By Sokurah

Just a quick update to let you know what’s happening with Project Future.
The programming is done, the graphics are done and the presentation is also the way I want it to be. This weekend was spent making sure the map is working correctly and that the player can’t get stuck in the scenery anywhere. That took ages, but I’d decided not to do it until all the final pieces of graphics was in.
Yeah, yeah…always leaving important things until the last moment. 😉

The only thing I can think of now, is swapping some of the soundeffects with some better-sounding ones, and record a few phrases of speech for the the game…and writing a ‘readme’. That should be all (as I keep saying) 😀

…It should be out sometime later this week.

Funny thing really – I’m usually just running the game in windowed mode, but the last couple of weeks I’ve been running it in fullscreen mode more and more, and it seems…faster. It shouldn’t – the framerate is locked to 60fps, but for some strange reason it seems faster in fullscreen mode. Hmm, so this is not just an arcade-adventure…this is an arcade-adventure – with emphasis on arcade. It’s fast – really fast.
Good luck – you’ll need it. 🙂

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Project Future

“Weekly” update.

February 18, 2008 By Sokurah

Okay, it’s been a while since I’ve updated this page and I think it’s time to do so again.

I’ve finally come the the realization that my friend, who was supposed to do the remaining graphics for Project Future for me, will never return to the project, so I’ve done it myself. All that’s needed now is to clean up the sourcecode and test the game to make sure that it can be completed and no big bugs are present. Ohh, and I can’t remember if I’ve put in a gamepad option, but if I haven’t, then I’ll have to do that as well…but it’s a small thing.

I’m expecting a release of this in a week or so (perhaps two, but no longer).

…things just take a little longer thee days as I’ve been a bit distracted lately – I finally bought that Xbox360 about 10 days ago, so I’ve been using that a lot to play Burnout Paradise. So far I’ve completed 43% of it.
Yay. 🙂

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Project Future

So, why do my games work the way they do?

January 25, 2008 By Sokurah

The answer to this (and many other problems) is “Beer“!

Yes, the very thing that makes the games into what they are, is the very thing that makes them better (read:tolerable) during play. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been programming slowly, but surely, on X-Quest 2, and I am (as usual) doing it past midnight, listening to loud music and drinking beers – long past my bedtime. The most important bits I’m programming right now is the visuals and the AI. Gameplay and tuning comes last. I’ve just put in the AI for a couple of the enemies and the moment it worked I couldn’t help but sit and laugh at it. “Why don’t I just make the movement ramdom?” I thought – “I looks like they’re moving ramdomly“. Actually it’s a bit more complicated than that, but with all the factors that are calculated, it does look a bit random….but there is an idea behind it (although randomnes is also a factor to avoid making it too predictable.)

For those of you that are keeping score I can tell you that this remake of X-Quest 2 will contain the same amount of powerups and enemies than the original game – 15 enemies and 9 different powerups and it’s looking good so far – no pictures though..that hasn’t changed much.

Completely unrelated to remakes I’d like to mention some other distractions that”ll affect my time (and wallet) this year. Two, possibly 3 vacations are planned for 2008.

One week in New York. I’ve always (well, since 1979) wanted to experience Pat Benatar live and I’ve come to the realization that she’ll never come to Europe so I’ll have to go to the States. Luckily she’s touring every year, so hopefully I’ll take a trip to NY in April this year to finally hear her.
I’ve been talking with my best friend about to going to Transylvanina (Hungary) to visit Dracula’s (alleged) Castle. Sort of a pilgrimage – we both love horror and monsters.
The most ambitious trip will be at the end of the year – november or december, and be for 4 to 6 weeks. I’ve decided to go backpacking through Laos and Cambodia . I’d rather not go alone, but that’s probably the way it’s going to happen.

…ohh, and I’ll probably buy an Xbox360 in a week or so – Burnout Revenge just came out and I need my yearly racing fix.
😀

Filed Under: Misc, News Tagged With: Vacation, X-Quest 2

Sleep well…

January 16, 2008 By Sokurah

D’oh! – of course I’m not sleeping…it’s not like I can post this my sleep, right?
(but it must feel like I’m asleep with my current lack of updates)

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know what’s going on. I’m still working on Project Future…sorta – I’m still waiting for my friend to deliver the last pieces of graphics for it. The crazy thing is that I could’ve made them myself 10 times over, but I’m still waiting for him to do it. What a sucker I am.
😀
The good thing is, that it means I’ve got more time for other things, so I’ve started on two more projects. That means I’m currently working on no less than 4 games.

One of them is a platformer. It’ll have big graphics, it’ll be bright and it’ll be made for kids. It won’t be a remake though – just some random platformgame elements strung together to make something that’ll hopefully be fun to play. It’ll borrow ideas from other games though…I just don’t know which ones yet.
🙂
The other game I’ve started working on is a remake of an old DOS game called X-Quest 2. I’m hoping to make this one very visually exciting, so there will be a lot of particles, explosions and colors flying in your general direction. It’s a bit different from my other games as this is a shoot em’up that are 100% controlled using the mouse. Currently I’m re-using some of the graphics from the DOS version, but when I’m closer being done I’ll see if I can get someone else to make some nicer graphics for me.

Here’s an early picture (click to enlarge);