Oh yeah, Nintendo also announced that 3D video recording would be added in November, which is cool.

From the same article on Eurogamer:
"The feature will be added in a forthcoming firmware upgrade which will also include refinements to the Mii Plaza and eShop." "Iwata hinted that Plaza upgrades would include new SpotPass activities for those who'd already completed the existing Puzzle Swap and StreetPass Quest minigames."

Fingers crossed for some way of sharing photos too. I have some intensely cute 3D puppy photos that people on my friends list must see.

I don't see the point of selling a bulky awkward add-on like that just for adding one thumbstick.

It adds L2 and R2 buttons as well.

I really don't know what to think about the whole thing. I mainly hate that it's even necessary, both from the points of view that it should have been part of the hardware to start with, and also that people should be able to design games without it, like moi said.

Sure, it's optional, but if people are designing games for the dual circle pad and/or four shoulder buttons, then the standard controls are in danger of ending up a poorly implemented afterthought.

I could not buy one, but probably end up wishing I had it. On the other hand I could buy one, but then feel obliged to carry it around wherever I take me 3DS, because otherwise games that I'm used to playing with dual analogue will suddenly feel pretty gimped.

Best outcome: developers will just pretend it doesn't exist and design games for the original console.

[Update]

Update

• Cleaned up a bit of code; compressed some of the more similar player state classes into single classes with parameters.
• Added a couple of new minor player states.

Not a huge amount of progress today sorry! And not even any visuals to look at. Here's another really old sketch of Trix.

Did my thing for page 1000. Rather more rushed and generally sloppier than the occasion deserves, but better than nothing!

Cool, just googled for info about this and the first result brought me straight back to TIGS.

Good to read a bit of info about it. Including the DLLs in the directory seems like the simplest option to me.

Have you managed to think uses for the roll after jumping yet? Only asking because I could share a few things I'd make for a skill like that.

Currently the roll is mainly just something that looks cool (and more realistic for falling long distances). It also acts as a bit of an inconvenience to the player, so if they do a long jump and don't allow space for the roll, they'll crash into a wall or something and break their momentum. If the roll goes off the edge of a platform, Trixie grabs the edge, so an accidental roll shouldn't cause you to fall further than you intended.

I'm interested in hearing ideas and suggestions.

1000 pages! Bloody good show everyone.

I promise to edit this post tonight with some pixels. (I'm at work).

Edit - rather more rushed than the occasion deserves, but better than nothing!

[Update]

Even if I don't reply to comments, they're all really appreciated Makes the development much easier knowing there are people excited by the project. Cheers!

Update

• Added the concept of upgrades to the code, and I can toggle them on and off with the number keys.
   
• Implemented the Grip Boots upgrade. They enable full-speed running and wall jumping.
   
• Implemented the Grip Gloves upgrade. Not gonna say what they do, but they're gonna allow for some awesome not-touching-the-floor sections. It's an ability I've wanted to put in a platformer for ages, and have never seen in another game.

[Shmup]

Good thread idea.

Shmup
I've started so many scrolling shooters (both horizontal and vertical) that it's embarassing I've never finished one.

Lightbox
A 3D puzzler thing with loads of tasty lighting. Moving over the surface of an object that you have to light up, or something.

Knight Chick
2D action platformer as awesome as Legend of Princess.

Cat Game
A 3D open-world single-player game set in an idyllic modern Japanese city (inspired by Ghibli films The Cat Returns and Whisper of the Heart). You play as a cat, and have to (or just "can" instead of "have to") help the humans out without them knowing, befriend people, play with other cats, etc. Lots of blue skies. Lots of catlike free-running across walls and rooftops.

Pretty much requires a AAA studio to make it, unfortunately.

Cool, dude! Reminds me of D/Generation.

I said the same thing when I first saw this. High five.

o/

Me too Based on my memories of the screenshots on the box, I think. Don't remember it actually working on my Amiga.

[Update]

Update

• Added skill roll! Now up to 185 frames of animation.
  
  
   
• Started the system for placing proper tiles (rather than just the single repeated tile I've had so far) - see below.
   

I'm calling 10% completion on it. Just guessing of course, but I'm at the sort of place I wanted to be at before I changed the thread icon to 10%.

Technical Fun

Instead of going for my normal method of placing every individual tile by hand, I'm going for a material-based system. A material could be, for example, grass+soil, brickwork, etc. Drawing continuous shapes merges the tiles together into one big block.

This is my current test material.



And this is how it looks in-game. I can get some variety in without having to constantly pick tiles from the tileset, and it's really easy to edit.



Each tile stores a Material value, as well as a MaterialInstance value. This value is how the game knows where borders are between individual blocks of the same material. So when I draw tiles, it simply uses the same MaterialInstance for all tiles drawn before I release the mouse button, then uses a new one next time.

I'll be adding inside corners, multiple layers etc in the future.

[Update]

Update

Added a slide ability (run and press down).

Never been much into environment drawing, but I figured I should make a start on some concepts, so here we are.

Looking forward to daily sketches, keep up the good work.

Thanks guys

Oops, the thread was locked; I think that was due to a rogue tap on my iPod screen whilst attempting to change page. Unlocked now.

A ledge grab upgrade may make sense if it were, say, climbing gloves or something that would enhance one's grip.

That's a good point; I already have different plans for the ability granted by grip gloves though so hadn't really considered it. It might be worth me experimenting without the ledge hang, to see if it'd be worth holding that back too until the player gets the gloves.

Please, please tell me that you're planning to release a playable alpha in the near future.

Maaaaybe. I might release a similar sort of playground thing to this, once I've improved it a bit further. It'd be handy to get a bit of feedback, and test that it runs fine on everyone's PCs, etc.

Those are beautiful Kevin. The grass looks fine to me.

I'd say enemies are very unlikely at this point. I'll probably take the environmental hazards (aka spikes) route.

I think the wall jump will be an upgrade as I can tie it into the grip boots or something. Ledge hang and stuff would be silly though like you say, it just doesn't make sense for a character who's meant to be good at exploring to start out basically helpless.

[Update]

Update

Added a couple more animations to make things flow better.

I put a build of the game on my laptop ready to take to the Midlands Indies meetup tomorrow. I thought I'd get into the spirit of this open development and put together a video of a playthrough of that build! In the past I've been a bit reluctant to show too much of my games off, as personally I like to see as little as possible of any game I'd like to play.



It shows the majority of Trixie's abilities so far. The camera's just a quick placeholder one, so it's pretty shonky.

I found a comment at the top of a file that I wrote about a year ago and then forgot about.

Code:

// cEasyMenu
// "It really takes the misery out of making menus"

also, this is the best magic number ever created apparently:

Code:

i  = 0x5f3759df - ( i >> 1 );               // what the fuck?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_inverse_square_root

That was fun to skim through.

[Update]

Update

Added some helper abilities, for example Trixie now crawls into a tunnel automatically if the player is pressing forwards.

Technical Fun
I'll add technical bits in my updates occasionally if I think it might be interesting.

Here's some of the XML that defines Trixie's animations.

Code:

<Strip name="Idle" filename="Idle.png"/>

<Strip name="Turn"
   filename="Turn.png"
   cels="3"
   length="0.06">
</Strip>

<Strip name="Walk"
   filename="Walk.png"
   cels="6"
   length="0.1"
   dx="2"
   initialCel="1">
<Cel index="1" dx="1"/>
<Cel index="4" dx="1"/>
</Strip>

Idle is a single frame so doesn't need any details.

Turn is a straightforward animation - 3 cels (frames), 0.06 seconds each.

The Walk animation also includes movement info (dx is change in X position). So Trixie moves forwards 2 pixels per animation cel, except on cels 1 and 4 where she moves only 1 pixel. This ensures movement of the sprite is exactly in sync with the animation, so her feet don't slide around on the floor.

In the same way that I've specified dx for specific cels, it's also possible to specify animation timings per cel, so if necessary I can tweak anims quite precisely (though I haven't needed it yet).

It looks a bit long-winded, but most animations don't use cel-specific details or have movement info, so it's quick enough to add new animations to the file.

Still hyped for this. Keep up the good work