What's your favourite Fruit?

A lot of time passed by :-(
I was then (and still) wrestling the bad job market in my home country trying to find a graduate rewarding job :-(
Of course I used the time to learn more (never ends guys ;-p   )
So I took on ObjectiveC ,iPhone SDK 3+ and Xcode quite bare handed at first I have to admit.
Since I had, as a requirement to start coding iPhone applications, to invest in a MacBook (OS X 10.6.2 :-)    )"how about a job first :-(   "
Anyway...  As of Today I am an official iPhone developer. The future applications Ill post will be under my name (just use JAKAMY as keyword in Appstore Search :-) of course not before I put there my first app :-p )

Normally iPhone Apps will have a general 1 month dev to store time-line (not like games that can take up a year+ :-|   )so I expect to release quite a few :-)
PS: to those interested into iPhone dev you will need not only to learn what I stated above but also to get a Mac and an iPhone since You can't test the interrupting phone-call situation with an iTouch(which I own :-p ) nor test the camera gps ....
and of course add to it an enrollment fee as an official developer in order to put your app for sale :-)

From Editors to level Debug :-)

The truth is that level debug starts gradually since the creation of the collision layer, but for this case its after setting up the level items :-p.

Levels never click right from the first design there is always something to fix to tweak to replace or delete :-p

I really hope you enjoyed the gradual steps to the creation of a platform level. Suprisingly this is not known to the grand public and remains shrouded in mistery :-o

had to learn on my own (T_T) . I hope Ive seen these Vids before :-p haha

My Scene Editor :-)

After the level is finished, comes the need to populate it with Items, enemies and smart Objects ;-)

Items are in fact very complex objects that are definied throught their ID (in other words they can go from being fruits to moving plateforms or any other thing very easily and with minimal code).

My Layers Editor :-)

This came a long way from the rudimentary version I had used for the first engine demo (Prehistoire By JAKAMY) :-)

Now It can created and manipulate layer size on the fly.

I can either edit one layer alone or load all the scene defined layers at once for real time impression of what I do :-p

the scene layers are defined as this starting from the top most layer (of course this is a developer preference and can be altered very easily :-) ):

2 "overall" plant layers, 2 after entities plant layers, grass layer, rock layer, pre mountain layer, mountain layer,sky layer. and of course the Data layer which is invisible.

A total of 10 layers (didn't counted prelayers, since they are mostly for rain, fog ... effects).

As I wrote the number of layers used is a developer choice since the engine can handle as much as you want (of course the hardware must cope with it too ;-) ).

Entity Editor:

This editor is for entities's animation extra data. Like Sprite boundaries (Body circling rectangle)

and like lethal areas (lethal red boxes on dangerous parts of the sprites like fangs and claws) which can be numerous and defined per animation or per frame.

of course debug mode shows all extra data rectangles in real time :-)

My Sprite animations Editor :-)

The Editors sprite's editon is in fact an animation data creator (frame per second, frames...) through the spritesheets I get on build time.

this video shows how to add a new animation to the SaberTooth. Which is much more quicker and incredibly easier than before I created the editors :-)

My Editor Mode :-)

Graphics are Ugly but very functional, after all its for developers only (for now ;-p ).

in creating my editors I choose to use my current Game engine to render it because I already made it flexible and multi purpose.

I needed then a menu like which I added as a three auto hide menus (plan to add a new bottom one later).

I needed too a system to read user's data through the keyboard (had to do my own key reading :-( [spacebar for example is reported in strings as 'SpaceBar'! ]) which I made as a multi question and answer reader.

and since I wanted everything to be mouse controlled I made It so that not only the cursor position is for the screen position but also at the same time when needed to be the loaded Inlayer position :-|

I finally sent my Microsoft challenge build :-)

Finally after nearly a 5 months every day marathon and few hours before the time limit, I managed to send a not Buggy build (to my knowledge :-p )of my game.

This year the challenge have seen many companies participating which will make it hard for the judges to chose their winners since after all companies have budget money, salaries and manpower....

while the majority of the others (me included :-p ) are on our own :-)

here's a screen shot of the tutorial level (the most nearly finished level :-p ) and a night effect (all shader magic :-) ) plus a support for XBOX360 Avatars(3D) :

the link to my project at microsoft's web site is: Amazi'n'gh roots

and a video of a fraction of the gameplay in is in my Youtube Channel wich have other very interesting videos on how the game's levels were created ;-) (what you never get a chance to see since its generally for companies use only!)

Coming soon on my next post : Comments on Editors videos :-)

PS: for the lazy :-p

The Submarine Emerge after a whole 3 months!

I can't believe it!. I lost all my free time ever since I registered to Microsoft XNA contest!!.
I didn't even create the game editor video (beleive it or not I didn't had any free evening this whole 3months :-( ).
as a status update:
the game editor is now very complex and at the same time easy to use :-)
the game engine is now very optimized and have new stunning effects.
the monsters animation and sprites are now in HD and fluid ;-)
Various mouth dripping fruits are now added to gameplay to aim for high highscores and 1ups.
Multiple AI per enemies (beside 2 of them).
2 Totally different gameplay( Normal pace, ala shinobi. and Very fast pace ala RunOrDie(sorry no game analogy cames to my mind now ;-p ).

I have to admit that I tried yesterday the demo I released many months ago and was shocked to feel how big the gap is now. Everything Is better and 'RockSolid'!. Graphics, animations, effects, levels diversity, enemies, gameplay, AIs.... Ever since I started creating the game editor I focused on reliability and retail-like quality. Which, by the way, was very tiring and hard but definitly worth it :-)

After the registration periode, the 7 of July will see the start of the project submission weeks. I am still far and yet close to the final build I want to submit. I really can't beleive how hard it becomes to work on a project when we came close to the last lane :-o

Since Ill be very busy to prepare my project submission, Ill again be unable to post, but as soon as I submit it, ill upload all the videos and write posts about all of it :-)

PS: sorry no pics yet(don't know If its by the contest rules to show visual progress or not :-p ) Thanks for you patience ;-)

When Time Runs Out!

I received my "visit your web host account" alert email today as I set it up to happen every 2 weeks, but to my astonishment my website disappeared to a 404 website not found error!??
Even my account got deleted and no email received to notify as to why, how or else ?!(I do respect all their rules though!).
Anyway I'm re uploading the website again under the same address and account :-p
also Id like to use this post to explain my lack of news... I finished the engine tools, they are incredibly efficient, easy to use and time saving :-))
I planned to do some video captures of them but didn't find time yet :-(...because I started a FULL XNA GAME development! :-)

Ill try to take a day break in the coming week and use it to create and upload the videos, posts and else :-)

PS: I compiled an XBOX 360 version of the demo(in 5mn!) and it ROCKS!!