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When i'm coding i'll try to be on IRC: #craftinspace on irc.chatnet.org

Wednesday 28 March 2012

Inventory Screen again

Heres an image showing the current status of the inventory screen:


I'll explain what is shown here.

The "058" in the top left corner is just a Frame Counter that i'm using during development and testing. It will be removed from the game.

Crafting Input
This is the 3x3 window where blocks and items are placed in a pattern. Depending on the blocks and pattern, an item can be crafted. There are many different blueprints which the game itself could use. As explained in an earlier blog post here, these crafting blueprints can be created by users too, for modding purposes.

Output
This is where the crafted item will appear to be picked up. In this image, you can see that there are 10 iron blocks created. These can be picked up and placed in the inventory or hot bar.

Inventory
There are 27 slots to use in the inventory. Each slot, as well as the hot bar, can hold 99 items or blocks. I might increase this to a much higher number later on, as actually it makes no difference in the code. Its more of a limit that should be used as part of the gameplay.

Hotbar
This is an exact copy of the hot bar that is shown and used during the game. The numbers underneath show the number keys that can be used during the game, to directly select that hot bar slot. It makes it easier to see them here, when loading items or blocks into the hot bar for later use.

The four squares on the right are part of the gameplay. I don't want to explain those at the moment, but they are planned as important parts of the game too. More details on that, and the actual gameplay once the v0.1 alpha is released.

Tonights progress

I took a few hours to clean up some bugs.

First, was to remove the option to delete a game, if no saved games exist (obvious bug!).

Next, I cleaned up the inventory screen code. Gives the inventory screen around 60fps now. Crafting is very fast to identify the input items and decide which output item to craft.

Also, the XML based crafting blueprints are really good. Just make a new one, or copy an existing one and make the changes manually. Restart the game, and the new crafting blueprint is available. Very easy for modding!! It will be updated to allow for properties of the item to be read into the game too. Take that later on in the alpha stage.

I'll keep working on the crafting code for a while, as it will be an important game mechanic. Crafting works, but some code is still needed to make it more enjoyable to work with.

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Progress

After the weekend, and yesterday evening, the following have been added:

1. Crafting framework (more on this below)
2. Mobs, animating with rigging
3. Inventory controller
4. World item controller

Crafting framework
This is based on blueprints. A blueprint is a plain XML file, with predefined nodes. It will allow anyone to easily add in new crafting items even if they are not part of the original game. So far, it allows for new game blocks to be created.

Once there are some decent gameplay entities (mobs) moving around in the game with some simple A-star algorithm or other pathfinding AI, I'll try to create a video and post it on this blog.

Not many screenshots lately I know. That's partly because the coding has been more of game engine changes, than anything related to graphics.

Friday 23 March 2012

Rigged testing: cube man

A short video showing basic textures on a rigged cube man for the game:



Hopefully should have this in the game within a few days

Thursday 22 March 2012

More progress

Hmmm, if the coding keeps at this tempo, it might be better to create a change log and link to it! Anyway, here's a list of updates from last evening's coding:

Sound
1. Added a music controller to manage background music in game
2. Updated the sound controller to manage in game sound effects
3. Added in code for 3D positioning of sound effects around player and at distance

Selection Block
1. Fixed a bug to stop selection when player isn't in range of a block, or not pointing to one
2. Fixed a bug where the selection block remains highlighting the previous dug out block

Particles
1. Added a particle system
2. Added digging particles when digging blocks

Water
1. Added a liquid controller to manager flowing of water when digging out around water. Water now flows into the empty space that is left




Wednesday 21 March 2012

Evenings progress

This evening was spent adding in the following:

1. Block placement has sound
2. Hotbar slot now highlighted with a border
3. Left/Right cursor keys used to select hotbar slot
4. Number keys 1-9 directly select hotbar slot
5. Mouse scroll wheel used to select hotbar slot
6. Digging now related to strength of used item
7. Mouse pointer now shows the selected item from inventory
8. Base code added for storage containers
9. Blocks for placement are taken from the selected hotbar slot

So, no new gameplay features, except small changes to UI and the start of storage separate from inventory.

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Progress report

This week was spent making some modifications to the main textures. Also, some rework was done on the hotbar.

There will be some further work done on the engine itself, which is likely to make the alpha a little later than expected.

Please remember that the v0.1 alpha is likely to be sparse on gameplay.

Don't expect more than simple block removal and placement, together with the ability to walk around on the first planet of the game.
Don't expect crafting.
Don't expect enemy types or combat.

There is code in place for some of these features already, but after initial testing, it has been disabled due to time constraints in demonstrating an upcoming v0.1 alpha.

The reason for such a sparse v0.1 alpha is to allow for that to be added in during the alpha stage, and refined during the beta stage.


Tuesday 13 March 2012

Profiling

I've been spending a bit of time profiling this evening also. I'll see if any improvements can be made

No Textures???

Strange this, if I remove the textures from the blocks, and just use the lighting at the moment, it starts to look like Cube World:


Not sure I like it. It moves away totally from the Space theme, and more towards a Toony look.

Monday 12 March 2012

Textures

I've been working in photoshop yesterday on new textures. Expect some new screenshots shortly.

Sunday 11 March 2012

Update

"1. Ability to delete saved games from the in game menu"  -  DONE
"2. A small bug with Y position on the world items"  -  DONE
"4. Rework of the main game HUD to increase FPS"  -  DONE


I'll try to get the other - Edit: 2 items done this coming week.


I'm not sure the inventory screen needs profiling. It's running at 60fps nicely. So, I'll cross that one off my list now. Which just leaves me to fix some textures which are copyfree, and get this alpha v0.1 out.


All those who are waiting for the alpha release from me - apologies :( I'm running a bit behind schedule. Don't want to pass over a version with those 2 items still on the list.

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Inventory working

I spent about 30 minutes this evening to fix a bug with stacking items in the inventory. That's fixed now.

I have a few small parts I want to tidy up before finally packaging the v0.1 alpha release, which are:

1. Ability to delete saved games from the in game menu
2. A small bug with Y position on the world items
3. Profiling on the inventory class
4. Rework of the main game HUD to increase FPS
5. Textures

This should get the game to a basic creative mode, with persistence of each world.

I don't think I can manage to get this done by Friday. So, a release is probably going to happen sometime next week.


Monday 5 March 2012

Free private alpha version

I'll send out a free private alpha version of craftinspace to anyone adding a comment to this post. Your email address is enough.