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Geek Culture / Hello again TGCers

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Fallout
22
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Joined: 1st Sep 2002
Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 29th Aug 2013 14:25
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'Ello again you lot. Just thought I'd drop a quick post to say I'm back in the game dev scene after a little break and will be stopping by to get involved in the community again.

After Carnage went boobies up, I did some freelance stuff for TGC to pay the bills and then took a job in the motorcycle tourism industry, working in sales for more reliable income. That was epic, but it came to an end. Now I'm in the process of becoming a fire fighter (fingers crossed) and working on my next mobile title, which is going to be a second version of my game Space Squadron (Android). As much as I'd like to use AppGameKit, my plans for full 3D and various in-app purchasing APIs mean it'll probably be another Native game, but no firm decisions yet as I'm still designing.

Anyway, it's good to be back in the game dev mindset and letting my creativity out once more. I've enjoyed checking out some of the newer and long running WiPs and I'm getting my geek on once more.

Hello to the oldbies that know me, and ello to the newbies too! That's me done for now.
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Van B
Moderator
22
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Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 29th Aug 2013 16:06
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Great to see you back, sounds like you've had an interesting year or so!

I think you should try some 3D in AppGameKit - it's sorely lacking animation support, but you might not necesserily need that. I mean, you might be able to do your own animations with code - it does have a lot of useful 3D movement commands, you can move an object locally or globally, so moving parts on objects could be done that way. I think it has a lot of potential, even in its current state. Plus there's some awesome shaders out there.

I am the one who knocks...
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Fallout
22
Years of Service
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Joined: 1st Sep 2002
Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 29th Aug 2013 16:28
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Afternoon Vanster. Yes, the year was definitely interesting, and I'm still in a rather hectic time of life right now, so juggling game dev will be a challenge.

I will definitely dive back into AppGameKit and see where the 3D state is. I will probably need animating characters, but only on a basic (far away) level, so perhaps it is something I could do myself. I found working in AppGameKit actually a really positive experience and deploying to many platforms is obviously very appealing from a business perspective. My only concern is the project is pretty ambitious in terms of 3D requirements, and I've seen the huge performance advantages of writing your own OpenGL ES rendering when I started work on a zombie game years ago. It's highly likely I'd be able to get twice as much detail into a natively coded app.

Anyway, there's nothing to stop me doing some tech tests in both environments and seeing what the score is.

Cheers for the welcome back mate.
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Satchmo
19
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Joined: 29th May 2005
Location:
Posted: 29th Aug 2013 16:34
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V2 of AppGameKit will have bone animation. Also welcome back.

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TheComet
17
Years of Service
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Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 29th Aug 2013 17:17
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Because I've been playing Assassins Creed III, I read your entire post with that awesome "Bri'ish accent slang".

Welcome back, nice to have you haunting these parts of the internet again!

TheComet

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Chris Tate
DBPro Master
16
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Joined: 29th Aug 2008
Location: London, England
Posted: 29th Aug 2013 19:19
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Good to have you back; but even better to hear about your job situation and desire for some more games development.

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Wolf
17
Years of Service
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Joined: 8th Nov 2007
Location: Luxemburg
Posted: 29th Aug 2013 20:38
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At least I'm not the only one who's career is all over the place

Best luck with your firefighter thingie and welcome back!

http://www.serygalacaffeine.com
"absurdity has become necessity"
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MrValentine
AGK Backer
14
Years of Service
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Joined: 5th Dec 2010
Playing: FFVII
Posted: 30th Aug 2013 11:25
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I thought we got rid of Fallout, oh Oh OH Hi! I thought we were talking about the game... Hi Fallout welcome back!!! I thought we were a man down...



Fire-fighters deserve massive respect, whether you succeed or fail to make the ranks, you have my respect for having the cojones for trying!

I have a shop in my city here, and the building next door was burnt so badly, they are currently reworking it, good old British construction work, just an empty shell now... luckily it did not burn down completely...
Sadly a Fire-fighter was killed and another injured during the ordeal[scroll down for three other related articles], this brought home the valour of fire fighting... In the video on that link my shop is in the building on the right...

I am sure you heard about this Fallout...


{off-topic}

{/off-topic}

Again, welcome back!

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Matty H
16
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Joined: 7th Oct 2008
Location: England
Posted: 30th Aug 2013 16:55
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Mighty good to have you back.

Good luck with the fireman job, there was a fire in my house when I was a kid and my nan called 999 and said "the house is on fire, come quick!" and hung up I think my dad called again to give them our address

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MrValentine
AGK Backer
14
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Joined: 5th Dec 2010
Playing: FFVII
Posted: 30th Aug 2013 16:59
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Quote: "there was a fire in my house when I was a kid and my nan called 999 and said "the house is on fire, come quick!" and hung up I think my dad called again to give them our address"


You just made my day

In the UK these days if you are calling from a Fixed landline Number [literally [FLN] they already pull your address upon calling them but they ask you to tell them your address to both confirm and assess your physiological state... at least that is what I remember from somewhere... Watchdog?

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Fallout
22
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Joined: 1st Sep 2002
Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 30th Aug 2013 18:17
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Thanks for the welcome back gents. I'm getting involved as a retained fire fighter, which basically means I can work from home all day and then only get called in when we get call outs, rather than bumming about a fire station twiddling my thumbs. I live about 30 seconds jog from my local retained fire station, so it's ideal.

One of the main problems I've always had with self employment is going absolutely bat shiz crazy at home by myself all day. Literally, it drives me up the wall, so this way I'll be able to balance coding with saving cats from trees and get my social/action fix. Another source of income won't be a bad thing either!

Anyway, cheers gents. Now to go and investigate what you've all been up to. Mwahaha.
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JLMoondog
Moderator
16
Years of Service
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Joined: 18th Jan 2009
Location: Paradox
Posted: 31st Aug 2013 05:39
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Welcome back buddy! Glad you're back in the game development scene. Was afraid you gave up.

Inmortalis Nox
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Fallout
22
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Joined: 1st Sep 2002
Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 31st Aug 2013 15:43 Edited at: 31st Aug 2013 15:46
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Alright Joshster? What are you doing these days? Still freelancing?

Last year I was working on a PC game, which is like an extreme advanced version of Space Squadron (previously worked on under the name Dreadnought Commander). Basically it's a full on space ship simulator, with space battles, full crew control, boarding, fully destructible madness. It's something I'd like to return to one day, funds allowing. Would definitely be in the market for a partner to help me with the visuals and universe design.

It's not something I can return to yet, as I need to go down the mobile avenue and see if I can get some more money coming in, but it's definitely part of the long game for the Space Squadron franchise. Single player sim, multiplayer next, and maybe one day an MMO universe if it prove popular.

Here's a screenie from last year (GDK game) ...



All components are destructible, as is the entire hull, and they all have animations, function and context menus. So you can open/close doors, the docking gate, repair armour, configure turret turn circles, etc etc etc. Something you'd be interested in perchance?

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Matty H
16
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Joined: 7th Oct 2008
Location: England
Posted: 31st Aug 2013 20:16
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That's a great idea for a game Fallout, you could totally do a smaller mobile version first. You could even use AppGameKit with animated planes for characters if you keep some sort of isometric view of the ship internals, perhaps another window for full 3D view from the bridge.

I hope you get a chance to work on that idea soon.

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Chris Tate
DBPro Master
16
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Joined: 29th Aug 2008
Location: London, England
Posted: 31st Aug 2013 21:55
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Reminds me of a game I was working on with a group of people rougly 5 years ago. It featured modular spacecraft that the players needed to build to defend their territories; much of the emphasis was on the crew who had their own measure of experience and attributes; and are used to carry out the player's duties.

Good luck with it. I think there is plenty of room in the Sci-Fi genre for an outer space battle game centered around modular equipment. It might attract alot of StarCraft fans wanting something a bit more creative and navigational.

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JLMoondog
Moderator
16
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Joined: 18th Jan 2009
Location: Paradox
Posted: 1st Sep 2013 07:03
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Quote: "Alright Joshster? What are you doing these days? Still freelancing?"


Lol, still doing the freelance thing and now I'm renting kayaks in my back yard.

I remember you showing me a working demo of your space ship modular game a couple years back. It was one of the working ideas we were looking into teaming up on. I'd say go for a 2d mobile version, with AGK. I'm always available to help you out.

I'll have to send you the 'other' design stuff. Seppuku and I continued our previous work and came up with some interesting designs and story lines. I hope we eventually come back to that game someday.

Hit me up on email or messenger when you have the chance!

Inmortalis Nox
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Phaelax
DBPro Master
22
Years of Service
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Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 1st Sep 2013 20:12
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Quote: " now I'm renting kayaks in my back yard."

I'll take one! Hope it's less than the $20 trapper johns charges.

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Seppuku Arts
Moderator
20
Years of Service
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Joined: 18th Aug 2004
Location: Cambridgeshire, England
Posted: 2nd Sep 2013 23:09
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Hello chappy, good to see you around again, nobody truly leaves he he. Good to see you've not given up on the game dev malarkey.

Odd to think of you as a firefighter, but awesome regardless, my distant uncle is a firefighter, a bloody tall bugger though.

Quote: "Seppuku and I continued our previous work and came up with some interesting designs and story lines. I hope we eventually come back to that game someday"


I would like that very much, it would be an awesome project ha ha, even though we never got it off of the ground.

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Fallout
22
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Joined: 1st Sep 2002
Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 2nd Sep 2013 23:25
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Ahh, that project was a very cool prospect. I remember the story premise, the augmentation, the concept of the visual style and view angle etc. It would be pretty epic, a crazy undertaking, but not one I'd discount. It's something I'd like to return to when the bills are paid. Keep it ticking away in your brains gents!

As for the Space Squadron game, my single main goal is to make it profitable, and ASAP. I'd rather the goal was more noble, but right now it can't be. So I'll go down whichever route makes sense right now. There can always be a v3 later on.

How the hell are you still the forum prez Sep? Who did you sleep with, or is your reign coming to an end?
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Seppuku Arts
Moderator
20
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Joined: 18th Aug 2004
Location: Cambridgeshire, England
Posted: 3rd Sep 2013 09:27
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Good point, probably time I should pass the torch, I'll be sure to create a thread when I get home from work.

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Fallout
22
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Joined: 1st Sep 2002
Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 3rd Sep 2013 09:53
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Good to see I still have supreme power here. I just swan in and topple presidents in a few days. Call me Fallout Usurper Baggins.
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Blobby 101
18
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Joined: 17th Jun 2006
Location: England, UK
Posted: 3rd Sep 2013 11:41
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Viva la revolution!!

Ahem. Good to see you back, Fallout. Shame about Carnage not taking off, I loved the look of that game :/ Any plans to revisit that at some point?

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