Blog

Camera Obscura IGF Update

Here's a long overdue update on Camera Obscura. It's been quite a while since I've posted about it, but work has been continuing on. We submitted the game to the Independent Games Festival, for which the results are expected in January. The current plan is to beginning working on release at that point, hopefully with some more recognitions to our name!

There's tons of new stuff now, including over 50 levels, a vast array of background and tile art, and a number of new features for tracking statistics, best scores, and achievements. Oh, and a final level, complete with cutscenes and a "final boss" of sorts. This video should demonstrate some of the new shinies:

Windows Phone Code Release

About a year back I wrote a couple of classes to aid rapid Windows Phone app development in my development group. I've decided to release them on my site and announce them in the hopes that anyone else might be able to make use of them.

This includes these three files: The static TMicrophone class and the static TAccelerometer class, which provide wrappers on the the existing microphone and accelerometer APIs that greatly simplify their use - most useful functionality is available through simple wrapper methods. The final file contains Sprite and SpriteSheet classes that provide simple, lightweight spritesheet loading and sprite creation, with variable-speed playback and circle-to-circle and box-to-box collision.

For more detailed information and downloads, visit this page: https://www.brianmacintosh.com/code/code.php?id=3

Primeval (Tiles) Update

I just uploaded a small update to Primeval. It fixes a bug where the music did not loop, and improves the animations for transitioning from win and lose states.

New Game: Primeval

I just posted a small game I've been working on lightly since the Ludum Dare 24. The game, Primeval (not to be confused with Primeval Labs), is the second of the two ideas I was considering for the Ludum Dare. It's a rather mind-bending tile-swapper combining mechanics of Conway's Game of Life and Rock-Paper-Scissors. My goal in creating this game was to learn Flash and ActionScript 3 while experimenting with this idea. I had opted to create the more traditional and straightforward Primeval Labs for the Dare because I wasn't sure how well these mechanics would balance or whether the game would even be viable. After a few iterations in Flash, fortunately, it is, and now you can play it right here!

Here's a picture:

Side-Project of the Week: Randomized Dungeons

This week, my friends Chris and Kevin and I were hanging out late one night. This, of course, led to a number of crazy ideas being bounced around (this, of course, is how most software engineering gets started). I actually decided that one of these crazy ideas might be doable, cool, and useful: a program that procedurally generates tabletop-RPG-style dungeons: monsters, loot, and most importantly, interesting and complex maps. I'm also using the project as an opportunity to learn more about rendering custom controls in a native Windows Forms project.

This is what it looks like, about three days later:

It can certainly generate some very entertaining map layouts, what with the occasional hallway where the floor is lava.