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[anosou]

Proud to say I've written some music for this game and will probably write some more. Ghostwheel's art is just spectacular and writing music to accompany this unique visual style is going to be a great experience Look forward to a trailer!

[ghostwheel]

Proud to say I've written some music for this game and will probably write some more. Ghostwheel's art is just spectacular and writing music to accompany this unique visual style is going to be a great experience Look forward to a trailer!

  Thank you anosou! As soon as I get the level complete, I will upload a video with the tune. Thanks a billion!

[ghostwheel]

I've made a decision about this game project. Because of delays (with a potential coder), and my own inability to code anything, I've decided to make my project a full-blown notgame (http://notgames.org/). It was barely a game to begin with. On reflection, to a certain extent, I believe I was attempting to candy coat it - to make it more "gamey" and less artsy.

As an artist, (not)game enthusiast and musician, I've always felt like the three were separate, which was always a frustration for me. Zlythy will allow me to combine all three. It will will include my music and video work as well.

I'm cross posting this to my blog (where you can find out more about the project): http://zlythy.blogspot.com/

[fraxcell]

For some reason I keep thinking the ground is water. Regardless, it looks pretty cool.

[ghostwheel]

I've started work on the Zlythy soundtrack. It's alot harder to get the right pacing than I anticipated. I have to slow the tempo waaaaaay down, even more so than what I did on The Fall of Man/Groovfuct. I'm trying to work a little differently from what I usually do but it's so easy to fall back into old habits. And in this case, that won't work for this project.

I'm also considering merging my game and music blogs, I just haven't figure out the best way to do that. I don't know which name I want to put it under, Ghostwheel or Shadowjack or both. I've had my music and art as two separate things for so long, bringing the two together is... something I don't have a word for atm.

In any case, I feel I'm on the right path now. I just have to keep pushing forward with whatever it is I'm doing.

[ghostwheel]

Unfortunately, I recently found out (last night) that there is a good reason no one uses the Blender Game Engine: it stinks. Get more than a few objects running even simple logic brick tracking setups and the framerate plummets.

I'm not a coder. Even the simple logic brick arrangements I had were incredible difficult for me to make work. And now they aren't an option. Sure, I could completely change that particular level but how long before I hit another serious limitation with the BGE.

Unity is a possibility, sort of. Again, it requires at least some knowledge of javascript. I have none. I suppose I could attempt to find a coder to help me but that didn't work out the last time I did that.

I don't know what I'm going to do now.

[QOG]

Unfortunately, I recently found out (last night) that there is a good reason no one uses the Blender Game Engine: it stinks. Get more than a few objects running even simple logic brick tracking setups and the framerate plummets.

I'm not a coder. Even the simple logic brick arrangements I had were incredible difficult for me to make work. And now they aren't an option. Sure, I could completely change that particular level but how long before I hit another serious limitation with the BGE.

Unity is a possibility, sort of. Again, it requires at least some knowledge of javascript. I have none. I suppose I could attempt to find a coder to help me but that didn't work out the last time I did that.

I don't know what I'm going to do now.

There are a lot of unity tutorials at http://unity3d.com/support/. It hopefully won't be too hard to figure things out, and even if you can't they've got some helpful people on their forums.
This game looks really cool, I really hope you don't give up on it.

[+peter]

hey ghost wheel, I'm wondering what your doing to obliterate your frame rate? I've seen some pretty complex logic setups ... are you sure your problems aren't GLSL related?

[ghostwheel]

I not sure of anything. Even the simplest game logic is extremely difficult for me. However, when I have all my creatures in the scene without the logic brick setup, it runs fine. When they have the logic, the framerate goes way down. The more creatures, the worse the framerate. When I have just as many creatures but no logic, the framerate is excellent. The creatures are not overly complex (4766 faces). So the only conclusion I can draw is that logic bricks = terrible framerate.

[ghostwheel]

For some reason, I forgot to post last week's video blog thingy I'm doing. So you can see last weeks and this weeks at the following URLs:

Shadowcast 01:


Shadowcast 02:

[ghostwheel]

Shadowcast 03 is up on YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/32etfub

[ghostwheel]

I need some help with the coding. AI, movement, raycasting and anything to do with math and such are way over my head. I'm using Unity. Anyone interested?

[ghostwheel]

Shadowcast 04:

[ghostwheel]

I've got a coder now! I met him hanging out in #tigirc, the official (I guess) TIGSource IRC channel. He goes by the handle Aquin and you can check out his website here: http://www.aquinhasa.com/

Zlythy Zero is a "test" level to help me and the coder get some sort of workflow and organization for the full game. I will likely release it if it doesn't suck. With it will be released two or three new music pieces. I won't call them songs because it's a soundtrack, not a conventional album.

Here are a few early screenshots for you:


Full size: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xl8UY_dibME/TETBBgWAWkI/AAAAAAAABMo/yS_JYTZuRIk/s1600/z0_wip_01.jpg


Full size: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xl8UY_dibME/TETBVWYzGnI/AAAAAAAABMw/5Ybnx1Hfxyc/s1600/z0_wip_02.jpg



Full size: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xl8UY_dibME/TETBdY9S67I/AAAAAAAABM4/tiNAaXuiR8M/s1600/z0_wip_03.jpg

More coming soon!

[ghostwheel]

I've been working on my portfolio/self-promotion stuff for job hunting for 3 weeks now. I've put a ton of work into it and there's lots more to do. But I need a break and I need to do some work on Zlythy so this week, that's what I'm going to do. There's a fair amount texture work, animations, audio and well, everything that needs to be done yet. Aquin is working on his own stuff until I get some more assets to him. That's all for this update. Once I get some more stuff done, I'll do another video update.

[ghostwheel]

I'm going to rework my concept for Zlythy 0. It feels half-baked as a concept. I want there to be more to it. I don't want it to feel like a hollow level design demo. And I'm afraid that's all it is right now. I'm also considering dumping the black & white look. I don't want it to be compared to another, much higher profile, indie game that was recently released. I have some ideas but it needs a lot of work.

[ghostwheel]

Me and the coder are putting time into the game. It's moving forward. I've been sick for the last week and I've been spending most of my time in bed for the last few days. Nothing to look at yet but as soon as there is, I will be posting it.

[Nugsy]

From watching the world preview, the camera feels as though it's zoomed in too far. Like it's infront of your character instead of where his/her/its face should be.

[ghostwheel]

I'm still recovering from this flu. I've been slowly working out toys. It's really hard for me because I'm making this up as I go along. I've never done anything like this. I'm just hoping it all comes together at the end. I think it will. I'm fairly optimistic, which is also new for me. I just wish we could move a little faster but don't see how at this point. Coming up with something like this from scratch is way more difficult than say, another FPS.

Damn, why didn't I just do an FPS!  /jk

[ghostwheel]

I'm going to be ordering a new iMac this week! I'll be able to start work on the music and audio, finally. I'm going with Logic Studio, M-Audio Profire 610. I'm also picking up a new Wacom, I'm not saying goodbye to Windows, I need it for games! I'll probably be getting a graphics card and memory upgrade for it. I'll also be getting a Drobo (not this week but soon) so I can do proper backups. I wouldn't want to lose Zlythy to a harddrive failure.

In other news, I'm going to try my hand at Flixel. It seems as good a place to start as any. I've had the idea for sci-fi metroidvania for as longer than I've been working on Zlythy. It will have puzzles as well and a (hopefully) interesting story to go with it. The title is Escape from Cygnus X-1.

And last but not least, Aquin my coder sent me the first Unity build of the first AI test/prototype for Zlythy!