Riding the Lightning

And beyond Heal and Fire, there becomes Shock. The following video shows the current progress on this particular effect. Only a few minor mods are needed (particle and trail timing, mostly) to make it worthy of in-game use. And beyond this, there are just a handful of other effects that are needed to make the KISS CE demo come to full fruition. Then, I can plug it into the three-area World Two RPG Demo which all of this is subservient to.



Yarghh! What a long and winding road! (But I am traveling it gladly! Although it will be very nice one day to have individual departments or working groups of people devoted to all of these various video game pieces (code, art, game/story, effects, etc.). I mean, I'm basically a one-man-band (or army, depending on circumstance) in all parts of my life, but this has to be the most number of positions I've filled, and spent the most amount of time, on a single personal-project/hobby before. Don't read this as a complaint, it's just a reflection on the facts ;-)

Heal & Fire

I took a rain/gwg day off of money-work yesterday to get a jump on abstracting my "sketch" special effects code for the KISS Combat Engine. Indeed, I got bogged down for about six hours trying to figure out one crucial piece to the code-puzzle... but after a fabulous meal of Trader Joe's Vegetarian Burritos, a few hours of Persona 2 (a thoroughly enjoyable PSOne RPG by Atlus), and a contemplative night of dreamwork, I awoke to the solution this morning -- just as the Prophet of Last Night said I would. The following video shows the surface of the beauty of the code below. It's still nothing spectacular to look at, but the foundation is layed for easy special effects manipulation and rapid attachment to KISS CE events in realtime. O come the Day of Integration!



For now, I head back into Persona 2 for a while before feasting and giving thanks for all of the good things in my life: my daughters, my family, my friends, my employer, my coding advancements, jME, Great Work Games, etc., etc., etc. Of course, everyday is Thanksgiving at my house but I suppose that this day its more notably especial due to it being a nationally sanctioned holiday and a paid day off from money-work... so I guess I can and will be thankful for that too ;-)

Proto-Heal

Over the past couple of weeks I have been working on special effects for the KISS CE and have recently upgraded jMonkeyEngine (the graphics rendering engine that I'm currently using) from version 1.x to 2.x and refactoring my code to work with it. The following video shows a prototype for a "heal" effect. Since this video was made, I have received some good input on how to make it look more heal-ish, but this vid is a good ("got to start somewhere") representation of where it all beagn.

KISS CE View No. 2

After a bit of menu and target control reworking, and adding cast functions (such as the all important "heal"), the KISS Combat Engine is starting to feel much more like a game. After a few more steps in the code (adding animations, camera movement, leveling, item equipping process, and a reinit loop to make it work like arena combat so that the player can play for as long as they can endure and win) I plan to release the Demo as either a Java Webstart application or a downloadable package so that others may enjoy this simple pleasure or rip it apart with constructive criticism.

The following video shows menu navigation (and escaping to previous menus), single and multi targeting of spells, and from the player's perspective a "comeback" from what would surely have been certain "death" or "KO". Of course, keep an eye on the HUDs and their now happy disposition of "functioning as designed" ;-)

A View From the KISS CE Combat Zone

Over the past month I have been working on what I have termed the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) Combat Engine. It is coming along nicely -- and its nearly ready to plug back into World Two as a real game mode! The below video is a sample of where things stand right now: operative HUDs, simple combat rules, and turn ordering. The next steps are to build the Cast and Use Menus... and then... I can get onto the fun stuff of combat animations and special effects -- the infrastructure of which is already in place but awaiting the menu selections for the player to activate them.

It has been quite an exciting and educational journey to get to this point in the game/lab, and one that will, I am sure, serve Great Work Games well when a real-world endeavor is finally pursued (in 2009? ;-)

But for now, enjoy the view of life (and death) in the KISS Combat Zone!