This has been a short and productive round. In only 8 days, there have been significant changes to the back end game logic in preparation for AI which led to the Radar being revisited. Also, several Front End issues were dealt with. As a bonus XSpace now has a shinny new paint job. Please take a look for yourselves; http://lefty2shoes.com.

Special thanks to Jens and his Nifty GUI Project that has made the Front End migration so quick and easy.

In the next round improvements will be made to the error handling and logging system in an attempt to learn why so many of you are having trouble getting the game running. If you are currently have difficultly with the game that does not include difficulty with asteroids, please let me know. There is a discussion board for troubleshooting. Just take a moment to explain your problem and hopefully it will be dealt with very soon.

Thanks,
--Marc

Screen - Front End Screen - Main Menu


Screen - Front End Screen - Logon


Screen - In Game Pause Menu

The next version of the game will feature a revision to the HUD radar. View this image to see the differences:



The most notable change is the round shape. Less noticeable is the object clipping that occurred on rare occasions when an item was transitioning from one region to the next. This is easier to see later in the game when the asteroids become significantly larger.

This is the first part to the planned radar revisions. Other revisions include multiple radar styles such as a sonar type pulse and a radar sweep. Each type of radar will have different features such as extended range, threat analysis and invisibility detection.

Stay tuned for the next release to see this new feature in game.

--Marc

Things have been very busy for me lately between visits and helping with All Negative sales, but I have been able to get a few new features in. The most notable is the score/stat tracking system.

This new system uses a generic statistics system to monitor the game and tracks certain events which are then used to build a score. Currently it tracks an arbitrary asteroid shooting score, accuracy based on the weapon energy usage and a play time.

The system maintains three aspects of each stat. The first is the current statistic. This is accumulated during play. The second is the best so far. When a game is over, the current is compared with the existing best determine the highest achieved stat. Finally a career stat is tracked by summing the results from each game.

The last part of this feature is a web page which pulls the user and stat information from the database and shows the top ten from each category. The page can be found here http://lefty2shoes.com/highscores.php This way you can track your best score, your overall accuracy and compare them with your friends.

As new features are introduced new stats will be created but for now, lets see how well you can do and if you can make your way to the top of the list.

Enjoy...

Some time has passed since the last update. I have been busy with a number of things. The latest version of the game has some interesting changes. Most of these are more interesting to developers, but they hint as to up and coming features.

First is the Front End system. We've recently added FengGUI to the project. At this stage, the Front end is VERY basic. There are just a couple of screens for registering and logging on. Now that this is in place more work can be done on screens for customizing and upgrading your ship.

Logging in is another feature that has recently been introduced. This will eventually control recording your ship information, progress, inventory, score/stats and accomplishments. Right now, it does nothing.

The game itself has changed a little. Getting further from the level based system, the game now spawns asteroids at a regular interval. As time goes on there are more and more. The goals is to see how long you can last before you are overwhelmed by the ever increasing number of asteroids.

As always, send me any and all feedback you have.

Enjoy,
--Marc

PS. There is some new art work. This was borrowed from http://digitalblasphemy.com/. The original piece is called the Crucible. The artist is not credited on the site.

The latest version of the game has a few new weapons.

First we have split the weapons into primary and secondary. Primary weapons are controlled by the 'ctrl' keys and the secondary is the 'space bar'. Second, we have given the Tie Interceptor some more Imperial weaponry. It has been outfitted with a pair of heavy blasters and a heat seeking photon torpedo.

Finally these weapons have been tied to the energy system. There are a few side effects because of this such as the occasional single shot from the blasters as there is only enough power for one of them to operate. There maybe some other issues as well. If you happen to see any, please let us know.

Enjoy,
--Marc