Tengist has been released on Mac and Linux!

I have finally released a (slightly updated) build of Tengist for MAC and Linux (I hope I have the archive formats right...), it includes some fixes and improvements. I won't be releasing a Windows version of the build, though, I'm waiting until I have all (or at least most) the reported issues fixed, I'll be (hopefully) releasing all 3 versions of that build simultaneously.

That might not be for a while, though, as I have been given a truck load of homework from my college to do and test to cram studying for over the holidays (because it's not like anybody does anything during Christmas anyway, right?), so I don't have time to work on my games for until well into January, and I had the next build of Tengist scheduled for then, but it looks like I won't be able to make that deadline now.

By the way, I would like to thank everyone who played the first build and gave feedback, I've learned a lot about my game, and I have already fixed some of the most major problems that plagued the original alpha!

By the way, just letting youse know, it's pronounced "Ten-jist", not "Ten-gist", it was the first thing I mentioned on this page, but amazingly, everyone still got it wrong!

Anyway, I hope you Mac and Linux users enjoy the little the game has to offer for now, this is sort of an early Christmas present from me, that you'll use once, then never touch again...

You can download your respective versions of the game below (thanks IndieDb guy!):

Version 0.1.1.9 - Windows


Version 0.1.2.0 - Linux


Version 0.1.2.0 - Mac OS X
Speaking of presents, I wish you all a Happy Christmas, and a Merry New Year! I'll see youse in 2014!

...By the way, I would like to thank that guy on IndieDB who edited this post to make it more presentable, thanks man!

-Cobra!

Tengist has been released!

I have finally released the first build of Tengist... over a week later than planned! Hey, I got it released, which is further than any of my other games have gone...

For those who don't know, Tengist is a free game, it's sort of a testing ground, where we can test out our core mechanics, and try out new features! It's sort of like what "Nightly" is for Firefox, and what "Daily" is for Thunderbird.

This build only has one level, no music and the enemies haven't been given guns yet, and can only go melee attacks, but more stuff will be added as more builds are released.

Right now, I only have the Windows version up, the Linux version shouldn't be too long behind, and once I find out what archive and/or install formats MACs support, I'll release the MAC version as well.

That's all I have to say about it right now, so I'm going to conclude this article with some screenshots taken from the game.





In all seriousness, try and enjoy the game, and if you have any problems with it, report it to me, provide me with as much detail as possible. You'd be a great help if you did!

-Cobra!

New game coming out... hopefully tonight!

It's not exactly a full release, though, it'll be more like a free beta download, think of it as our equivalent to what "Nightly" is to Firefox, or "Daily"/"EarlyBird" is to Thunderbird.

This game, codename "Tengist", is a free FPS game containing the very core mechanics that we're developing and will be using for our upcoming shooter titles, we hope to update it frequently for feedback.

Don't expect anything too polished, remember, this is just a beta, made in like a week.

I've been working on this all week, whenever I could (Thanks to college, I didn't have an awful lot of time), I have a few levels made, I have the weapons made, and AI almost done, and hopefully tonight, I can upload the first build.

The only major issue is that the AI can't attack yet, I didn't have time to give them guns, but I hope that will be rectified in a future build.

So again, hopefully tonight, we will be launching Tengist! If not, well we'll be launching it tomorrow!

-Cobra!

Things have been sorted out, development can continue...

This is a quick update to say that everything has been fixed, so I can resume development for Rossies 3D.

After not working on the game for a while, and playing other shooters (most notably, Serious Sam, an indie shooter), looking at my game, is in quite a state right now, the updates to the Unity game engine hasn't helped, This looks like a train wreck (despite my best attempts to fix it), the AI aren't the best, the aiming (and shooting) is off and inconsistent, and the controls feel a tad on the clunky side, it may be a while before I get things up to standard, I'll do me best to make it look at least a little bit presentable, you know, give a good first impression. I know graphics aren't the most important thing, but I don't want people looking at gameplay footage, and then being put off of getting the game.

That is all I have for you right now, this is Cobra!, signing out.

-Cobra!

I'm having some major problems with developing Rossies 3D...

Alright, It's been a while since I have posted anything on this site, so I thought I'd update on on what's happening, I'm having some problems with developing Rossies 3D...

I have bad news, I been having trouble with the player models in the game, particularly the animations, the 3D modelling program that I'm using (Blender), has been acting up on me lately, and I've had tonnes of problems.

I've been trying to fix it for a month now, and we haven't got very far. Our team has pages of ideas to implement into the game, and we've written down how exactly we're going to do so, we have it all planned, however, most if not all of these ideas rely on the models working properly, so this issue is holding everything up and we are afraid that we may not be able to make out December demo deadline.

I'm not certain how long it will take to fix it, but the sooner it's done, the sooner I can get the demo out. I've resorted to calling for help on many forums and boards, but we've had nothing back. (If you want to have a look and try to fix it, I have started a thread here.)

On the up side, I have found out exactly what caused the bug, and I was able to re-create it on a new file, so I have the bug reported on Blender's 'bug tracker', so hopefully, they will pick up on it, and fix it on the next Blender release!

Just when things are looking up, here's some more bad news... I have recently updated my graphics driver, and I've had nothing but problems since, it keeps crashing on me, it always happens when I work on the game on Unity, the driver crash causes unity to crash, which, of course, makes me lose everything I had done in that session, I have tried reinstalling it, doing a clean install, and I had even tried rolling back to a driver that worked before, but no joy, the new driver seems to have done permanent damage! Of course, I'm trying my best to sort it out, I've tried to contact Nvidia about the problem, I'm not having much luck so far, though.

It's not looking good, we'd be lucky if we can even finish it, but we aren't giving up just yet! We might have to wait a good while before any of youse get to play the game, or get any positive updates on it for that matter...

-Cobra!

Rossies 3D demo may be pushed back further than we initally thought, if not cancelled.

I have some bad news, the PC I have been using to work on Rossies 3D, isn't as stable workstation anymore. Let me explain.

My PC keep crashing and freezing/hanging, and every time it does, everything, even user input, stops working, and I have to restart. Sadly, my PC chooses the worst times to do this, it always does it when I work on my game.

I was working on the school level of the game when my PC did this, and I had to restart, when I opened up the level again, it was corrupt, it opened okay, but the textures were gone and I couldn't re-assaign them, and the models no longer saved... luckily, I had back-ups!

The point is my PC is no longer a suitable workstation to work on my game, so in other words, I can't really work on my game unless I fix this PC or get a new one (and seeing my financial troubles a.k.a. I haven't got another £1000 to splash out, the former will most likely have to happen.)

Can't you just use any old computer for development? I hear youse asks, well, when developing the game, I run Blender (3D modelling), G.I.M.P. (Image editor) and Unity (Game Engine) Simultaneously, the former 2 take ages to export models for the game, and for some to load & import, and the latter takes ages to boot up, so it saves a lot of time having them both up. So to answer the question, I could, but it would take forever, constantly having to exiting and starting-up between programs, also, the school and outdoor levels of the game use lot of polygons, and even my high-end PC struggles at keeping it even 30fps (let alone 60), while I editing them. (For those concerned, the levels will run fine on most PCs, editing models seem to take a lot more processing power then rendering in game, don't ask why)

This isn't the first time this PC has done this, it done it when developing my last game (I hope this doesn't turn into a reoccurring theme!), I got it sent to get fixed, and it was fine again, only this time, the warranty has expired...

I am doing everything I can to fully restore my PC, make it stable again, for now, I have got my old laptop I can use, but it can't handle most of my models unless in wireframe mode (no textures or faces/polygons, just lines, for those unaware of the term), so I guess I can do a little bit with that. I'll do whatever I can to progress with development, but I won't be able to do too much, so I don't think I'll have the demo finished anytime soon.

I am sorry for this, but there's not much I can do right now. One thing's for sure, I am never buying from ASUS again!

-Cobra!

Rossies 3D Demo might get delayed...

It's been a while since I've last updated this page, I wish I had come back to give good news, but that isn't the case.

I've been developing the school level of the game, as you can see through screenshots of them I've uploaded a while ago, and I've been running across problems with developing the level.

You see, I'm using a tile-like system to make the level, each room is basically a set of tiles, and aside from the problem I'm having right now, It's done me good, level creation had become much easier, making gaps for windows and doors are much easier, connecting them up is easy too, since the tiles would align...

However, I've been having to leave gaps between each room, to avoid walls going through each-other (which slows down the game, and not to mention it looks ugly!), but that's caused a problem...

Imagine this scenario, they are 2 classrooms, right beside each-other and beside them is a corridor, and all of the rooms are to connect to each-other, the rooms can't align because I have to space everything out, unless I wanted to create a giant doorway between the 2 classrooms (Which I did not!). There's also the problem with making the schools exterior, obviously, the outside walls have to be separate and not touching the inside walls.

So I'm looking into a new, or modified method of dealing with these problems, I think I have one, and it worked great when I tested it. The problem is, now I'd have to recreate the school all over again. I have all the textures I need, and the design is up to date, so it won't take as long, nor be as tedious, but I fear it may still take a while, and I might not meet the demo deadline.

UPDATE: I have a new method for building the level like I would want to, but it involves using a tool in Blender that's still in the alpha stage, and is very glitchy, so I'd have no choice but to wait until it becomes stable...

I'm not sure how far the demo will be pushed back, I'd say a couple of months or so, but let's just say December 2013 to play it safe...

How about some good news? Well, with Rossies 3D, I wanted to try and recreate the feel of a 6th generation (Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube, Xbox) game, I think I'm off to a good start with the models being the same as your average 6th gen game (Cutscene Models are 3000 polygons each, playable models are 1000 each.).

That's not the "news", though, I've recently been playing a lot of early 2000s games, such as the Tony Hawk games, Broken Sword 3, Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in North America) and the Shenmue games, and I think I know what I'm aiming for now, at least when it comes to cutscenes, as I watched the cutscenes in those games, I figured I can recreate the style quite easily.

I can't guarantee that I'll succeed, but I think it's possible, I will try, trust me!

That's all I have, you may now continue to not care about my game and forget all about it, until next time, that is!

-Cobra!

Rossies 3D Development Blog - 3/5/13

I know I said I'd be taking a hiatus, but a lot of exams and assessments have been finished, not all of them, but a lot, so now I have a little more free time to do things...

I know, I know, I should be spending my time studying for the rest of the exams, but I put in a couple of hours a day doing that, after that, nothing to do, so back to working on Rossies 3D!

I haven't done much in comparison to other months, due to exams. I've mostly been working on the first level of my game, I kept modelling houses and things to try and capture that "Glasgow" feel, so I've spent a lot of time on them. I think I've finally got it, a second opinion from has said it feels like Glasgow, but friends tend to tell you what you like to hear, not saying I don't trust them, but I'm not totally satisfied about something untill I hear it from someone I don't know.

Speaking of friends, that same friend composed a song for the game, this guy plays in a band, they play a few gigs now and again, so he has experience in the music industry.
He sent me the music he made, and it's amazing! It sounds exactly what I wanted for the game! I never even told him what I had in mind for the game's music, It seems we had similar visions! It sounds very professional as well!

I would show youse the track, but it hasn't been uploaded anywhere, he sent me the song via. email. I don't feel comfy with uploading things that aren't entirely mine, so sorry, no previews! You'll just have to wait until the game (or rather, demo) comes out...

He said he would also do some more tracks for the game. If things go well, Rossies 3D will have a beast of an OST! I hope to release a CD/Download soundtrack, but it's up to him.

It's awesome to have him on board for the project anyway!

One last thing I remember doing for the game, is adding 2D objects, that constantly look at you, similar to some old 6th gen games did for small detail objects, such as lights, fans, chimneys, or even sometimes trees!

That's all that that's really happened since the last blog, I've spent so much time on designing and making the first level that I'm sick of look at blender, and textures of bricks... and windows... and doors... See youse in the next development blog.

-Cobra!

I'm going to have to put Rossies 3D development on hold for a while...

Due to problems and things happening in real life, I won't have time to develop for Rossies 3D, trust me, this is the last thing I'd want to do... well, the 2nd last, after cancelling it, and I sure as heck don't want to do that!

I'm having a series of problems in my life, such as upcoming exams (which is only made harder due to a very un-organised college, but if I were to go into detail, I'd be here all day writing this!), driving lesson/test, and my grandmother not being in the best of conditions.

How long it will be on hold I'm not entirely sure, It will most likely be for 3-4 weeks when things sort themselves out, I might work on it a tiny bit during those weeks, because I don't want to totally ditch it and/or forget things when I go back, but I won't be on it very often nor for very long.

So you probably won't see any updates from me this month, trust me, I really don't want to do this, but it's best that I do for now... Just as well I played it safe with the demo's release date, eh?

See youse in a months time...

-Cobra!

Rossies 3D Development Blog - 12/4/13

Progress has been going along very smoothly, I'd say I was ahead of schedule, but I never actually made schedule to be ahead of...

I've done the tutorial level, well, I have a playable state of it, meaning you can play through it from beginning to end, it's possible to complete it, however, it isn't 100% complete, because I have a few secret rooms and easter eggs to add!

I've also done the menus for the game with a whole bunch of graphics settings and what I hope is the biggest selection of resolutions in a video game! I have all resolutions from 300x200 to 4K! 36 to choose from! Would that be enough though? Hmm...

I've done enough to hand out an alpha build out to people for feedback, and I did, and so far, the game has received positive feedback, I've gotten a lot of bug reports and other annoying things as well, which is good, hopefully the game is more solid now.

I've also added a pause menu, but not like any normal pause menu, this one is kind of a throwback to the Goldeneye pause menus, but not an exact copy, that's all I'm saying for now.

However, some bad news has surfaced, the linux version has serious problems, for some reason, it's become unplayable, the mouselook has all sorts of problems, it's too senstive, all inverted, and is always registering as up, so you're stuck with looking at the ceiling.

I'm doing everything I can to fix this problem, I'm giving up on Linux users just yet! I love Ubuntu, and I've always wanted a game of mine to work on it, so I'm not going to let it slip by that easy, don't you worry!

I've sent a bug report to Unity about this, but so far, I've had no reply...

That reminds me of another semi-problem I'm having, I want to publish my game on physical media, on all platforms, and that includes Linux, as I've said in a previous blog, it's been done before, the problem is, every Linux kernal has different installers that only work on their respective kernals, for example, Ubuntu has ".deb" files, and that only works in Ubuntu.

So what does Linux CD games use for an installer? Do they just make the game run off the disc? Until I find an installer or a method of making the game work on all linux kernals, that's what I'm having to do...

Although I probably should be more concerned with the MAC version, because I have no way of testing that, at least not legitimately, I hope the Mac version will be stable, I would need a MAC tester to make absolute sure it is, either that, or just wait until the demo release, and hope a MAC gamer complains at the games technical problems...

That's all I have for you right now, I guess I'll see youse next development blog...

Rossies 3D has been cancelled... (April Fools Joke)

I have some bad news for everybody, my Rossies 3D game went corrupt, and my backups somehow did as well, so if I wanted to continue Rossies 3D, I'd have to start from scratch, and it took me months to get to where I was!

I was having problems before that anyway, I had no idea what to do with music, I had no tools or instruments to make music, and even if I did, I'd have no idea where to start, I have no experience with writing music at all!

So I guess this is the end of the line, then. I'm so sad I'm having to do this, but I'd been left with no choice... Rossies 3D has been officially cancelled...

Happy April Fools Day everybody!

-Cobra!

Rossies 3D Development Blog - 22/3/13

I'm nearly to the point where I can put the drag everything in the game together and release a beta, which I plan on doing a closed run of. Most if not all of the code is done. Also, an Easter egg has been added, I won't spoil anything, though.

Much has happened since the last blog, for one thing, I've actually added animations to the game, the enemies actually look as though they're running to you, whereas beforehand, they just slid to you.

I've also implemented objectives, just simple ones, such as getting to a location, or get/kill a certain amount of objects, or activate a switch. Then again, once you think about it, most objectives are like that in any video game, the game is supposed to be simple and to-the-point, so those will do, if anything else is needed, then I will add them when I need to.

I've added an easter egg into my game, not spoiling anything, but once/if you get to play the game, get yourself killed by multiple enemies, start holding the "Interact" key (E is default) when you're dying, and enjoy the show!

I've been thinking of possible box-arts I could do for the game. The game will come out on all formats in retail form. (Yes, that includes Linux, it's been done before!) So I had to think about it what the box-art would look like, after all, it's the box cover art that attracts us to a game, right? I have a PC template, and made a MAC and Linux one. All I need to do is thinking of something cool. Maybe I should leave that to when I've finished the actual game...

Anyway, like I said, most of the major coding is done, at least for the gameplay, all I would need to do is model the levels, drag the objects into them, and I'll be done.

The problem is, I'm worried that nobody will like it, I want someone else to test the game, because I've been with it since the beginning, so I don't trust myself. To me, the game seems solid and enjoyable, but you the public, the game could be broken and abysmal.

That's why I want to host a beta for the game, I want to hear/read the opinions of others, to describe faults, and to be honest with me, it would probably be hard to take, and even depressing to read what's wrong with the game, but it'll be for the best. *braces himself, anticipating pain*

If you're subscribed to the Gamerstorm newsletter (Which is free), I will hand-out the download link for the beta to everyone subscribed once it's done. That is if anybody wants to participate. If you know me personally, then if you like, I will personally send you the link, no need to go through the subscribing hastle.

The beta will be for all platforms, I encourage Mac users, because that's the only format I can't test on. Other OS users will be welcome too, of course.

That's it for this blog, I hope to catch you guys next time, hopefully when the beta comes out.

-Cobra!

Rossies 3D development blog - 09/03/2013

It's been a while since I've done a development blog, I know I said I wouldn't be doing more, but I had to make an exception here.

A lot has happened in the past month, some things important, some, not to much.

Sometime at the end of February, my game got corrupt! Lucky, I had a back-up, but it was a month old, so I lost a months worth of work, as you can probably imagine, I was really p*ssed off! Luckily, since I still had the resource, I was able to get back to where I was in about a couple of days.

Most important thing, the core gameplay for the game, most of the game's overall code, is done, dusted, finished! All I would need to do now is to model all the levels, maybe write a wee bit of boss-specific code, and menus, that's about it, maybe create low-poly models of the classes (as AI) for the gameplay.

I've started on the latter of the 3, because I realised as good as the models I've made are, they are about 3000 Polygons! Which is still low by todays standards, but not small enough, I wanted an early Dreamcast/PS2 look, similar to the original Hitman, or maybe Shenmue or Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy.

So I went out to try and create a low-poly model from scratch, and I achieved a base human model that is as many polygons as you're average PS1 model!

Once I added the clothes and hair for Alpha, though, it, of course, added up, but it totalled to roughly what I was aiming for, so I got there in the end.

Want a look? Really? Okay then...:


They're like the original models, minus the moving eyes, and the mouth, and with a nose so flat it can only be seen from the side, and simple, "triangle" hands.

I'll make all the other classes and the Kruncanite enemies, and then it's on to completing the game itself!

That's all I have right now, see yous next blog! That is if I make another...

-Cobra!

Happy Valentines Day! I have a rough release date for the Rossies 3D demo!

Well, it's valentines day... and I'm still lonely...

Anyway, just a quick, fun post, I don't know how or why, but I randomly thought up coding related pick-up lines, which is sort of related, right?

Well, I was thinking, "What if when Rossies 3D comes out, it gets fan art?!" I'd say no, but everything gets fan-art these days, so who knows. In all seriousness, I'm not expecting anything, but if I get any, great! If not, oh well.

Anyway, I was imagining valentines related art, and was thinking about Virtua, who, I'll reveal this much, a programming expert, and loves to code! So there, you have a rough image of a geek (In Rossies uniform) in your head. So I thought, "what kind of pick-up lines would Virtua use?", So I though up a few lines relating to C#, or any other programming language, they might be crap, but I thought I'd share them anyway, ready? Here goes:

• "With you, I'm going to have to convert my Short to a Long!"
• "Baby, a Long Int wouldn't be big enough to store my love for you!"
• "I have a Private Void just for you! Scroll down to see it!"
• "This.Inlove = true;"

Alright, here's my real valentines gift for you guys (I love you all, in a non-gay kind of way!), I have a rough idea on when the Rossies 3D demo will be released, now, like I keep saying, Rossies 3D's development is going faster than I could've hoped! However, in case something gets in the way, or I've done something totally wrong, and I have to do the ENTIRE thing over again! (Then again, it didn't take long to get where I am) I'm going to play it safe and say expect a demo by mid August, sound cool? Okay!

So all you guys (and girls, if any follow us) go and have a fun time with your valentines, while I got a curl in a ball in a corner and cry myself to sleep... or I could be working on Rossies 3D, whatever I decide!

-Cobra!

Rossies 3D Development Blog - 11/2/13

I'm back for another development blog, and this will probably be the last because at this point in development, I'd just be giving everything away, spoiling things. So I decided to make this my last blog.

The further I get from the last development blog, the harder it gets to remember what I've done that I haven't mentioned in the last blog. I'm having to look back to the last blog! It doesn't help that I have a cold and I'm sneezing every 5 seconds!

To get the boring stuff out of the way, I've now done stepping sounds, when the character walks, the sounds plays, the sound differ depending on the surface the player walks on.

I've got an almost fully functioning HUD, I said almost, it has a working minimap, and that if I manually put the health and armour values up or down, the bars respond accordingly, I haven't actually got it working by itself, the health and armour won't go down my itself, etc.

Here are some screenshots of the game I've taken thus far:


I had also made the bullet/clip count on the bottom right, but I added them after the above screenshots have been taken.

Not sure if I had told youse this, but I've been learning a little Japanese in my spare time lately, and I thought it'd be cool to translate the game to Japanese, as well the 4 other languages the game is going to be in (English and Scots included), I found out that it's possible through using "Phonetic Typing" on Google Translate, which translate Romanji into Japanese, very handy especially since I don't have a Japanese keyboard and since the Japanese layout does nothing when you switch to it.

I decided to do a Japanese logo for the game:


If you guys have been following me for a while, you'd have noticed that I keep going on about classes, I'll show you 3 of the 5 available:

Chances are, you've already met Alpha Ross:

• Alpha is the leader and commander of the Rossies.
• This guy is an all rounder when it comes to attributes.
• He has a "badass" personality.
• His inventory consists of a pistol, and a shotgun.

Next, we have the Arc Ross class:

• Arc is the Heavy weapons expert of the team.
• He is slow, but very powerful and resilient compared to his fellow comrades.
• He's a little more soft than he should be, but is violent and bloodthirsty when the time is right.
• His inventory consists of an assault rifle, a Minigun and a rocket launcher!

Finally, we have the Crystal Ross class:

• Crystal Ross is the all around weapons expert for the Rossies, he invents new weapons for other classes, and is currently testing 3 new weapons in this mission.
• He hasn't got as much stamina as Arc or Alpha but makes up for it in speed.
• This guy is a completely crazy, but is always happy, and always sees the bright side of things, even in the darkest situations.
• His inventory consists of a fan gun (It's basically a powerful fan with a trigger), a sort-of minigun, and a flamethrower! (Which basically consists of a lighter and a can of spray deodorant!)

So there you have it, I'm hoping to make a website soon and go into even more detail about these characters.

That's basically what I've done in the past week, I'll reveal the rest of the classes on an official website of sorts, if I learn flash, or something, although I'm scared learning Flash would push another language out, I hope not! I'm probably being paranoid, after all, I've gotten this far without forgetting anything... what was I talking about?

-Cobra!

Rossies 3D Development Blog - 03/2/13

Things are still progressing nicely, the game even now has things your average AAA game doesn't have! ...Alright, they're little details, but still!

I've done 2 more classes for the game... However, I discovered a flaw with all of the classes I've done, they have no eyes, and only part of a mouth, and doing them all individually would be a nightmare, so I'm starting from scratch, it would save me in the long run!

I've almost done Alpha again, and I have to say, the revision's looking great, the heads look a little more realistic, and I loves the eyes. I've done Anime eyes, they are animatable, but only through moving the UV around, these a plug-in on Blender that lets you make keyframes of the UV, but I'm not sure if it will work with Unity, we'll have to wait and see, don't we. I'm about to do the mouth, but I'm not sure if I should bother with the mouth.

What do you guys think? Should I move the mouths, making it look like Tony Hawk's Underground, or should I leave them shut, similar to 007 The World Is Not Enough on the N64?

Anyway, while you decide, I'll let you have a peak at the new Alpha model, close-up, glasses up, showing the eyes!



As for the gameplay itself, I've now made little details that aren't usually seen in your average AAA FPS, If you look down, you can now see yourself!
Name the last FPS you've played that! Okay, I can name a few, but generally, you never get that, why? It's not like they're complicated to do either, it was easy with Unity, a free engine, I can only imagine it'd be easier with, say, Source or Unreal, which costs hundreds of thousands!

I've also added life/armour bars to the game, I only managed to get them working today, actually! Just need to make some tweaks here and there, and they're complete!

I've also made the character crouch, "What's so exiting about that?", not much, I was going to make crouch-moving animations, however, the way he was crouch was JUST like goldeneye, I thought it looked so awesome, I had to make the player slide just like Goldeneye, and upon asking on the Rossies 3D Facebook page, it was unanimous, all my fans (All 3 of them!) wanted the Goldeneye sliding!

I've also been playing around with the enemy A.I., I have now made stationary, wandering, and patrol A.I.

Stationary is self explanatory, the enemy just stand until they see you.
Wandering is where the enemy literally wanders around aimlessly until they see you, I have a certain type of A.I. who are supposed to do that.
Patrol is there the A.I. cycles through waypoints (Not literally, though! Well, I imagine it's possible...), once they reach the last point, they go back to the start, this is only interrupted if they spot you, they then go after you.
The enemies can also lose sight of you by either something being in the way, or if you're too far, then they go back to doing their respective jobs.

That's really it for today, I hope to catch youse next time!

-Cobra!

A few changes have been made to the Gamerstorm's news section.

Right, just a heads up, I've changed the the news page a little bit.

If you guys thought the older one looked cooler, I couldn't agree more, it looked awesome in my opinion, and the fact it was done by hand meant I could make look anyway I wanted to.

That also rose a problem, the fact it was done by hand meant I had to insert the same code, over and over and over again, not to mention, I had to publish the same article on other sites, such as the blog, Facebook, Youtube, DeviantART and Twitter, and also it meant I had to translate into other languages the site's in, and do the code for the article all over again, it got tedious, and I was put off updating it for a good while, as you could probably tell.

However, using what I'm using now, the old but golden RSS, most of the posting is done for me, all of the trouble with the code is finished, I don't have to deal with that anymore, although I'll still add pictures and hypertexts the HTML way, just because it feels better that way. What happens is that I post the article to a blog made especially for an RSS feed, and the RSS feed posts it to other places, such as the website and Twitter.

I hope you guys don't mind the new update, because it certainly takes a lot of weight off of my shoulders, I can guarantee that the Gamerstorm website will be updates more regularly, giving people a reason to visit here now and again, eh?

The only problem is, for some reason, at the end, it says "...read more at http://www.gamer-storm.co.nr", that used to be the at the end of a summary, to tease the reader, I don't do that anymore, so I have to fix that.

So, what has happened while I was gone? Well, I'm sorry to say Rossies 2/Classic has been cancelled...

The reason being was that there was no demand for it at all, or anyone caring about it, so I ditched and started to work on a 3D game, suddenly, everything changed, people saying they're looking forward to it, giving me a whole bunch of ideas for the game, and to make the deal sweeter, I am working with a old friend, who, like me, was once a member of the real Rossies, and this guy's a nutter, in a good way of course! He's already given a ton of brilliant ideas, I honestly don't know what I'd do without him...

For the very few who sort of cared for a 2D sequel, I might work on one using the same engine as 3D, well, the 2D version, I'll save that until later, I have something in store with that.

Speaking of Rossies 3D, I have a development blog coming up, stay tuned for that! Until then... bye.

-Cobra!

Rossies 3D Development Blog - 22/1/13

I've started development of the game in late December, and less than a month later, I already have the core game made! Development has been progressing at an alarming rate! I never thought it'd go this fast.

I've almost got a full level made (tutorial level), I've added the weapon, giving it the ability to switch weapons (as many as I want), reload whenever it suits the player, and, this is the unique thing, all the gun will shoot out darts, and what you can do, is if you go over then, you pick them up and it goes back into your ammo, it's more of a novelty than anything, as being the type of game it will be, it isn't needed, but it's cool anyway!

I've also have basic A.I., so basic, the only things they can do are move towards you if they can see you, and don't if they don't, considering what you'll be fighting against, this is all they need! The boss battles are another story, but I shall worry about that another time!

I've also added a Mini-Map, which won't be entirely useful, except that they will guide you through the level, where to go, etc. The levels will be big, and maybe confusing, so this will be useful.

I've almost finished making one of the game's classes, the "Alpha" Class, who will be the commander of the Rossies, they will be 5 classes and all, I will reveal all the other classes as I make them, ooh! Exiting(!)

I expected the model to be a disaster, but surprisingly, it turned out awesome, at least in my opinion, What's that? You want a look? Well... Okay! Here!:


Trust me, the textures look MUCH better then they look here, I can see why no one uses Blender's default renderer any more...

I put him in a pose he would be if he was holding a handgun, the problem is, I haven't given him a gun to hole yet, I just wanted to see what he would like in the pose he'd be in for most of the game, it turned out good, although they are a few incidents of the clothes going through the skin, I hope to fix that soon...

What's that on the back of him? Why that's a No Smoking sign!
Why is that there!? Not telling, I don't want to spoil anything...

Want to see the enemy as well? Sure:


Without spoiling much, what you're looking at here is an alien, taking for form of a human, your stereotypical Glasgow ned, to be exact, only much dafter! I'll leave it at that.

Also, speaking of story, I'm working with an old friend of mine to help shape the story, and the game up, we both had whacky ideas about the Rossies way back in the day, and dare I say, this guy is a nutter! In a good way, though! He's come up with some awesome ideas so far, if things go well, we might have one heck of a game in our hands here...

One last thing, I have DSL (Damn Small Linux) installed on this machine via VMWare, but I can't transfer files from my desktop to the virtual PC, so I can't text the Linux version of the game, if anyone knows how to transfer files from a Windows Desktop to a Linux emulator, can you tell me what do I do? Anyone know a tutorial of sorts?

That is all for now!

-Cobra!