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[Craig Stern]

Update! The map editor now loads and displays object images dynamically.



This helps a lot with visualizing the battlefield, but unfortunately interferes with useability by obscuring certain tiles. There's the ability to toggle object visibility, but I'm still not happy with it. I think I'm going to shrink the object image to fit precisely within each tile. This makes it easy to see what objects are where, but maintains the useability of keeping each tile a self-contained thing.

[Craig Stern]

I've settled on a sort of "iconographic tile" approach to destructible objects placed in the map editor. This has the benefit of both (1) making it easy to identify objects and (2) making it easy to edit the map.

[Craig Stern]

A small update: I've also made it easier to quickly drop lots of different objects in the map editor: the objects menu stays open as you switch between objects and drop them onto the map. Even better, it now displays a preview of each object as you select it so it's easy to browse the available objects.

As a sort of small added bonus, I've also fixed whatever issues popped up in the map editor during the last couple of updates.

[Craig Stern]

I've made the current build of the map editor available as a standalone download. Grab it here and let me know what you think! Any and all suggestions for improvement are welcome.

[Craig Stern]

No opinions on the map editor, hm? Well, I suppose that's fine. I'll just, you know, weep myself to sleep or whatever.

Anyway! Inane has begun work on some insanely awesome character animations. Here's the Swordsman doing a downward Shove:

[Craig Stern]

Good news! I've just received word that Telepath Tactics has been chosen for inclusion in the Chicago Games Showcase going on at Tech Week later this month! Now I just need to be a finalist at Indiecade, make it into the Pax 10, and win the IGF--then I'll become an Official Indie Darling.

...that is how that works, right?

[Craig Stern]

More pixels! Here, we can see a rough draft of the swordsman's standard Sword attack in all four directions.

[Christian Knudsen]

Those animations are fluid as heck!

[Craig Stern]

That's the idea! I'm aiming for something that compares well to the 2D Fire Emblem titles of old.

[Garlicguy]

Digging those frames man, Also congrats!

[Craig Stern]

Thanks, man!

So, I played a match of Telepath Tactics last night with my dad, little sister, and a computer AI. It looks like there are still a few bugs that show up in matches where the turn timer is turned on, so I'll have to go back and fix those.

Unrelated to anything: I finally managed to snag the URL SinisterDesign.com. I can't even tell you how long I spent waiting for that URL to finally open up. (There was a really, really, really lousy web designer squatting on it for the last six years.) I am super happy about this. That is all.

[ANtY]

Maybe it's a good time to redesign ur website?  Sorry but I hate looking at it

[Craig Stern]

Funny you should mention that--I've been negotiating with a web developer to handle that for me. A visual redesign is in the works!

[ANtY]

Funny you should mention that--I've been negotiating with a web developer to handle that for me. A visual redesign is in the works!

Awesome! Can't wait to see it, everything u use after using placeholder looks amazing so I bet the same will happen with ur website. 

[Craig Stern]

A small update: a bug crept in when I sped up the game's camera tracking alongside character movement. The bug allowed you to select and issue commands to a second character while the first character was still moving. The engine isn't built for this, of course, and it caused all kinds of havoc with the game from that point on.

I don't think I would have even noticed it but for my dear old dad, with whom I played a match last night. He has a rather short attention span, and went around clicking on characters while others were moving. I'm glad he caught it--that gave me the opportunity to fix it in advance of this week's playtesting party.

TLDR: I fixed a weird bug.