Limb bounding box and rotation points

What I've been up to
I've been playing as usual.  One of my favorite projects that ended too soon is www.potter-bo.com, my harry potter site where you can create a character, play mini games, multiplayer quidditch, earn clothes, broomsticks, and wands, and sell them to other players.  All of these things are still functioning, but it was never flushed out to the extent I would have liked.  I wish I could continue the site, but since its all written in AS3, its hard to convince myself that its the right thing to do.  AS3, the programming language of adobe flash, is not only inefficient but its quickly dying out.  It's time to say good-bye.

The real problem is: there is no real successor to AS3.  Of course, everyone wants to talk about HTML5, but HTML5 is steeped so deep into javascript and it completely lacks object orientation.  Since the code needed to do a basic game is much more complex and lengthy than in AS3, that last point is especially bad.  Until HTML5 and object oriented programming come together, I don't think I am interested in learning.

One of the strangest phenomenon I have noticed: HTML5 is slow.  As slow, if not slower than AS3.  Of course, nothing is slower than adobe flash.  That is one of the cardinal rules of the internet.  So saying that HTML5 could be worse is nothing short of blasphemy.  But one only needs to browse the HTML5 art engines and HTML5 game tutorials to realize that its difficult if not impossible to make a complex game in HTML5 with a steady frame rate.

So for now I will continue with C# and my interest in programming for Windows 8.  So for fun, I am putting together my classic brooms online characters into C# Monogame.  I haven't gotten very far, but I would like to do it right as I might use them for multiple projects in the future.


Star Sky.  Sorta
I am still actively working on Star Sky: Liberty...  An open RPG version of my Windows 8 arcade shooter.  But little progress there.  You can collect credits from destroying ships, venturing further away from the single station to come across more difficult enemies, then spend the credits on items, ships, weapons, and weapon attachments you purchase at the station.  The cadvet?  I still haven't gotten the game to successfully save, nor have I got the co-op mode to work.  So it isn't going to be published anytime soon.

No, in reality I have barely worked on star sky.

I have done some non-game projects though.  Luckily, programming is not my day job as I am not very good at it.  For my day job, I am an eye doctor.  One of the things I've noticed while doing upgrades to my office is that certain things are oddly expensive.  For instance, the Visual Acuity chart that you read off of to measure how good your vision is...  Those cost at least $550, with some up to $1500.  This is the part where I take a cheap surface RT laptop and combine it with a cheap bluetooth keyboard to create my own chart for a fraction of the price.

And I am selling it online:  www.simpleacuity.com

Lss

Joyrider: Credits & Ship Upgrades

Take a look at the attached picture. There you will find the ultimate minimalist RPG experience: Items that can be replaced with stronger items that are bought and sold.

Joyrider is getting its first update soon, and that screenshot is from it.

I am adding a 'docked at space station' screen between every 3 levels in the game. This will allow you to relax a moment, regain your shields, and spend the in-game credits you have earned. Exactly what you'll be spending your credits on is not set in stone yet, but I already have multiple ships and weapons in the shop and hope to add more.

These 'station' visits are actually a step towards making this game an RPG. Of course, after removing the linear progression 'levels' from the game, it will need to be renamed and published under a different name. For now though, we can incorporate some RPG elements into an otherwise arcade-y game.

Lss

Star Sky: Joyrider

I just submitted my first game to the Windows 8 store for approval. I call it joyrider.

Click Here to Get it From Windows Store

In this game, the player is given a small ship and is put up against 12 levels of other ships; sometimes fighting 10-20 enemy ships at a time. The game objectives unfolded as I experimented with asteroid-like space physics and a flexible ship/weapon system that could be used in a future RPG-esqe game. This game is a simple arcade shoot em up though, it certainly is not a 'digital world' game.

Joyrider is written in C# using the MonoGame module. I am finding it to be very enjoyable programming in C#, once I passed some original hurdles. It now comes as naturally to me as Actionscript3.

http://www.monogame.net/

Joyrider is a return to my multiplayer space shooter, Star Sky, but with a very key component missing... The multiplayer. I am using Joyrider to learn C#, but it has turned out really good, so I went ahead and submitted it for publishing to the Windows store.

Lss