Better late than never! It was time to submit my entry in the competition, so this week was all about polishing, exactly as I expected.

 

Download the game: My Flag (Windows 7+, 32-bit)

 

03/23 - finished the level

03/24 - implemented vertex shader effects (moving in the wind)

03/25 - created FMOD sound system wrapper, working on sound effects

03/26 - started working on UI, created a basic menu

03/27 - started working on additional controls, created a sound options screen with sliders

03/28 - even more UI controls, created input options screen with remapping buttons and a slider

03/29 - did additional polishing work, created a graphics options screen - this includes fixing internal systems to support changing resolutions on the fly

 

So once again, a very busy week. This time, sound, polishing and UI hacking.

Just a couple of things to add:

• FMOD works really great. That's basically the reason it's at the top. A very solid library, easy to work with. They've thought of all my basic needs.
• The UI "library" is one big reusable, extensible hack. A very good hack but it's by no means a library or a platform for designs, merely a way to get pre-developed designs done in a rather clean way. And I don't think there's anything significantly better to be done with my resources. For TACStrike, I'll probably improve it and hardcode some design into it.
• I wish there was a UI compiler system - one that would take a design and allow compiling it into code, for maximum performance and extensibility without having its functionality fixed (along with the overhead of all unused features).
• I now have an almost-fully featured Windows game engine that supports all kinds of ideas. This would call for profitable side-projects.
• The editor is annoying me again. I'll upgrade parts of it to full 3D support. Possibly including a mesh editor of some kind, if I can think of a good way. Making anything detailed was a bit of a pain, quite unnecessary.
• Due to my participation in the contest, I'll reduce my workload for a few weeks. Will try to get something out regardless.
• My current main concerns for TACStrike were: character animation (aiming and ragdolls), game systems (like the ones I implemented previously) and porting the old enemy code. That's what keeps me away from publishing a small demo.
• The lightmapper was good enough to ship the demo but I smell some issues around the BSP tree implementation as well as lack of nearby sample merging and found some light leaks as well. None necessary to be fixed for the demo so I might leave things as they are for now.

 

If you think I can keep up the development, and if you're interested in what's going to be made here, please visit the Steam Greenlight page and vote for the game. It would mean a lot to me.