June 2000
June 30
After I created the city wall
structure in Meridian, I decided to play around with the character animations
and try to find a worthy replacement for the spin or the thrust.
There were a few that looked like they would work, but in practice, there
were collision detection errors that made weapons pass right through enemies
during the animations. I also tried to find a new bow and arrow animation
for the magic attacks, but that didn't work either. Drakan's animations
are just too specialized, and there's no way to make new ones without an
expensive program. Even then, the original Rynn animation file has
not been released, so it would still be impossible. The original
animations will have to do.
Today, I added a few more sections
to the first level of Meridian, and I planned out the caves and other structures.
I'm planning to make the caves just like in Dragonmech, but instead of
nulling out all the textures where the ceiling and floor meet, I'm going
to leave them textured. This is because in Dragonmech, projectiles
would sometimes disappear instead of exploding when they hit a cave wall.
Also, it will be a lot easier for me, not having to worry about getting
the boundaries just right.
I haven't taken my Japan pictures
in yet, but I got started on that new single player Drakan level.
It's called Meridian, and it takes place in a swamp that is, of course,
surrounded by tall mountains. At least it is in the beginning.
Maybe on the second Meridian level, if I make one, I'll have a wider area
for Arokh to fight through, and it will only be surrounded by air currents
or something, like on the Islands level. Or perhaps a better obstacle
would be a series of indestructible lightning zappers that you couldn't
get close to or else you would be fried, so that would be a limit on where
you could go. It would also add to the theme of the level in that
you would have to find an underground passage to a secret cave, where you
would destroy a power crystal, which would in turn power down or destroy
the lightning zappers. But, that's looking a little far ahead.
On the first level, I'm going to have Arokh be blocked by a force field,
and Rynn will have to go through a cave to an ancient city guarded by monsters.
There, she will find a magic rune and a few spells to cast, which will
take the place of bows and arrows. In the city, she will find a switch
that will disable the force field. I'm planning to add a few tricks,
such as making all the melee weapons and none of the spells armor piercing.
Then I'll give certain enemies 100% armor. That way, I can make it
so that you have to engage some enemies, like knights and plate-armored
Wartoks, with a melee weapon instead of magic. I'm also making the
flight ceiling 1.5 times as high as in Dragonmech, because Arokh can fly
higher than the mechanical dragon of that level set. The best part
of Meridian is that I can keep making all the new versions I want because
it's not a multiplayer level, it's not a big file like Dragonmech, and
I'm going to make it so each version has a new level added to it at the
end of the previous one.
Lately, I've been tired, even
today. There is so much I need to catch up with. I just finished
some of my e-mail, and I posted a few big messages on the forums I visit,
but I really don't know what to say now. There won't be much talk
about my Japan trip on here because I'm saving the interesting stuff for
the web site. As soon as I get those pictures developed and scanned,
I'll start work on the Japan page right away.
Sorry about the lack of recent
updates to my Nalenna stories and games page. I've been planning
a new arcade-style game called Lunaria, but I just haven't had the energy
or the attention span to do it. I think I really need to learn to
focus, and that brings me to my next point. If I try to make that
Ethereal Light game, the way I've planned it so far, as my first game,
it probably won't turn out well at all. I just don't have that kind
of knowledge, and besides that, I don't want to look like I'm turning my
back on anyone by having it be my first game and then making other kinds
of games as well. That's why Ethereal Light will be a few games away.
I've always liked action games, like Drakan, so I might try to work on
something like that first. Once, I had an idea for a game that started
out in space and you went to planets to explore, in an interface like in
Out of this World. Now that technology has improved, I can do a lot
more. Right now, I'm planning on making a new Drakan single player
level, with magic spells like in my Spellcaster multiplayer level.
It will be sort of like Heretic II in that sense, but it will be totally
different with the dragon flying and huge outdoor areas.
This is my latest Question of
the Week, which ran while I was away in Japan. I usually put up a
new one every Sunday, but this has been here for long enough. Here
is the answer I got:
| Question of the Week: Which do you think will be the more profitable platform for electronic games in the future: PCs or consoles? Are consoles better for their ease in compatibility and their game-dedicated design, or are PCs better for their versatility and upgradability? |
| Answers:
I'll definitely go with PCs. I want games with online communities, Player created levels and Mods. Half the fun of Drakan is making up my new levels or playing with my own SP game to make it more fun. With consoles, when you're done, well that's it! have fun in Nippon, SteamTeck |
I have to give credit to some console games for including a level editor or new modes of play, but for the most part, PCs are able to do a lot more. It is harder to code for a PC because of all the hardware differences, so I think a good way to fix that would be to make a few universal game code translators, where games could be configured to a uniform set of instructions and the translator would change it to be compatible with one specific computer. More people buy consoles because they're less expensive and have fewer niche games, but if you can afford a PC, there are some great games that are well worth it. The future of console and PC gaming, however, remains to be seen. I know that answer is sort of a cop-out, but there's so much going on with the next generation of consoles and video cards that it's hard to tell what will become of it all.
I have returned from Japan, and
there's so much I want to talk about. Not now, however. I'm
really tired now from everything we did on the trip, plus staying awake
on that 13-hour plane ride. When I got home, I took a 6-hour nap,
but that still wasn't enough because I had only had 4 hours of sleep the
night before, so I could go and see a fish processing factory. Tomorrow,
I'll have the energy to do more and talk about everything I've done, but
now I'm just going to check up on a few web sites and go to bed.
The Japan trip page will be up soon.
I'm leaving for Japan tomorrow
on a two-week trip for Eastview High School. I'll be returning here
to Minnesota on the 26th, so this page will have to be put on hold until
then. For the last few days, I've been falling behind on my correspondence,
so I'll catch up on that tonight. It's just been hard making sure
Spellcaster was finished before my trip. Farewell, everyone.
I didn't get an answer to my last Question of the Week, so I made up a
new one to be answered while I'm gone.
My latest Drakan level, Spellcaster,
is done. I don't know how well it will work in multiplayer.
I've heard that people aren't really getting into Shock Arena 2 because
of ping delays, and that Drakan is really more suited to melee combat.
Spellcaster uses mostly projectile weapons, though. Go ahead and
say it, that I'm violating some kind of law, that what I'm doing is unnatural,
that I'm trying to do something that is supposed to be impossible.
I've heard it all before. Here's a screenshot:
A Thunder Shield-protected Rynn
casts a Flame Fury spell.
There are 20 spells and items in all, and most of them were inspired by Heretic II. You can definitely see the resemblance in most of them, but many of them work a little differently. For example, the Storm Bow from H2 fires arrows which explode into a rising storm that rains down on enemies, while the Tempest Bow from Spellcaster fires arrows which explode into a stationary, vision-obstructing, damaging cloud of smoke. The Freeze Shard is an ice grenade that has no H2 equivalent.
The Eastview graduation was today.
I got there a little late and had to find my place in line at the march
to the stadium, but after that, I didn't do anything that would end up
on World's Funniest Graduation Bloopers. That might not actually
exist, but I'm sure some overpromoted Fox executive will believe it's a
good idea. We listened to some speeches, mostly pep talks, and went
up to receive our diploma cases. We didn't get our actual diplomas
yet, though, because some people had unpaid fines and couldn't get them
yet. I guess the school didn't want to humiliate these people by
saying "Here's your diploma..." and pull it away as the student grabs for
it, saying "Oops, sorry, you can't have it! Ha ha!" We had
to march all the way back to the gym to get the diplomas, and they let
us keep our caps and robes because we paid for them. At my brother's
school, they just borrowed them for free and gave them back. The
Eastview graduation wasn't as intimate, or as personally moving for me,
because I spent most of my time at the SES. Besides, it's not really
over for me yet at Eastview. I'm still going on the Japan trip with
some students from the only class I took there senior year.
I added some buildings and raised
surfaces to Spellcaster today. I also put in most of the textures.
It's really good, for large outdoor areas, the way Drakan levels have layers
that are painted with randomized textures instead of individual textured
polygons. In other games, like the Quake and Unreal series, a flat
floor with a grass texture would be a single repeating texture, but in
Drakan, provided you use the Randomize Over Range function, that grass
texture is actually a grid of squares, each with a random variation of
the texture. It might be possible to do something like that in other
games, but it would take more time. In my first few Drakan levels,
I hadn't learned how to use Randomize Over Range, and it shows. Arches
and Crossroads are particularly obvious.
My school year at the SES is
officially over now. I no longer have any classes there, and I'll
probably never see most of my classmates again, except maybe at a reunion.
The party was fun, but it was kind of sad knowing that we would have to
part ways. We went on a boat ride on the polluted Mississippi River,
which was kind of ironic but fitting in a way, and then we saw the hypnotist.
I don't think he was a professional hypnotist, though, just someone who
knew how to get people to do what he said. It was all an act, but
it was still amusing. The people that he brought up there did things
like forget numbers and names, use shoes as binoculars, and think it's
really cold. Tomorrow I have the Eastview graduation, but it's not
over for that school. My trip to Japan will be for Eastview, and
when that's over, I'll be done with high school for good.
I started work on the actual
Spellcaster level layout and geometry today. It's an octagonal field,
like many of the Shock Arena 2 levels, and there's a big dome in the middle
with the ground, a ledge, and the roof. I'm also going to put in
an underground area, because with all the new spells and items created
for the level, I need plenty of space to keep it from becoming crammed
full of them.
I had my graduation today, and
now I'm about to go to the senior party. There's going to be a boat
ride, followed by a hypnotist. I've never seen hypnotists at work
before, and I'm kind of skeptical, but it will be interesting. I
really don't have any idea what the boat ride will be like either, but
this will be the last time I get to see most of my classmates. That's
really sad because I'm going to miss them, but I'll get to meet new people
next year at college and try to give a better impression. Before
the graduation, I did get a chance to change a few of the spellcasting
object models because they were too small. I really want to be done
with this thing before I leave for Japan on June 12, but I've been getting
to bed earlier because my grandmother is here to visit and also I want
to get more sleep so I'll actually be focused on all these things I'm doing.
Tomorrow I have my graduation
from the SES, and then there's the senior party. That's going to
last all night, so there might not be an entry here tomorrow, or I might
do it early. I made some of the Spellcaster MP powerups, including
different power levels of random spawns for spells. For example,
there might be a few low-level spells in the main open area, some mid-level
ones around the edges, and an out-of-the-way area where the powerful weapons
spawn. I also added the Force Ring powerup, which makes you invulnerable
for one second, but there are 5 per pickup, and the Freeze Shard attack,
a gravity-affected ice spell.
I got most of the icon stuff
done today in my latest Drakan level, and I tried out all the weapons in
Heretic II to see how they compared. The Drakan spells don't look
quite as substantial because of the limitations on magma followers, but
they're still impressive. I've decided to call the level Spellcaster
because the name Fortress doesn't really indicate the new weapons.
There's a lot of graduation stuff going on this week, like the rehearsals
tomorrow and the actual graduations, from both the School of Environmental
Studies and Eastview, on Wednesday and Friday, not to mention preparation
for the Japan trip. I'll still try to get Spellcaster done before
I go.
The entire Fortress weapon set
is complete now, except for the icon references. The current weapons
are the ones I named in the last entry plus the Tempest Bow, the Pyrotorch
and Flame Fury, the Vulcan Bow, the Disintegrator and Obliterator, and
the Steel Death, plus the defensive spell translations, which are the Ice
Tornado, the Asteroid Ring, and the Thunder Shield. I couldn't turn
the Ring of Repulsion, Teleport, Tome of Power, or Morph Ovum into suitable
Drakan weapons, but I'll substitute a short invulnerability potion for
the Ring of Repulsion. The shrines can all be reproduced to some
degree. Now, as to the actual Fortress level, I was thinking it could
be a big circular castle-like structure, with an open outdoor area in the
middle, more outdoor passages on the edges, and stone tunnels as hallways
and corridors. I'll see what works out best, and I might make more
levels using that database after the first one is done.
There's only a preliminary ground
layer on my Fortress level, because I'm still working on those weapons.
So far, I've made the Slasher, Fireball and Firebomb, Solar Rod, and Electrozap
and Electrobolt. They are modeled after the first four weapons in
Heretic II. The Slasher is like the blade staff, with 3 different
power levels, and it uses the orc club model. I couldn't get a bow-based
weapon to have rapid fire, so the Solar Rod fires four shots, simultaneously,
but which form into a straight line. Also, the screen says these
magic weapons do 0 damage because the real attack is in the "followers,"
whose damage is not displayed. That may cause a bit of confusion,
but then again, you can't really tell how much damage your weapons are
doing in Heretic II either, unless you hit the chicken in the tutorial
level.
Nalenna, my game-development
and storytelling side project, has made only a few 1980s arcade-style games
using C++ Builder. I might, however, decide to start making real
games one day, and seeing the disaster of Daikatana, the unfortunate fate
of Looking Glass Studios, and criticism of Quake 3, I should come up with
a few rules for myself. I've already established that Nalenna's games
probably aren't going to be very popular, so my first rule is to keep budgets
small. Daikatana cost millions of dollars to make, but a better game
could have been made with much less. Second, if anyone else ever
decides to join Nalenna, I'll treat them well and have open communication,
because that could lead to better solutions for problems and a greater
collaboration of ideas. My third guideline is to not overdo it, to
keep it subtle when it should be, and to have a consistent design in my
games. Once again I refer to Daikatana and its overuse of colored
lighting, and its attempt to have sidekicks with "attitude." John
Romero said he was influenced by the excellent RPG Chrono Trigger, but
Daikatana lacks any of the personality, subtlety, and humor of that game.
I loved Chrono Trigger and played it many times, but I know what makes
it good. These days, it's hard for one person to start making games
that people will want to play, but I'll work hard and if this Nalenna thing
evolves into something more. For now, I'll stick to arcade-style
games, and level and mod making.
I originally had an idea for
a Drakan level where there would be teams, and each player would have a
healing staff. The players on each team would have to stay together
and walk through an environment that slowly takes away health while hitting
each other with the staff to keep from perishing. Points would be
scored by collecting special items that would appear in different places.
But then I realized that a level like this would require at least 4 people
to work, and in the Drakan community, that is kind of difficult.
Now I've decided that, since I've been enjoying Heretic II multiplayer
lately, I could do a level that uses spells, magic arrows, and a blade
staff just like Heretic II. The level is called Fortress, and while
there are some things that just wouldn't work in Drakan, a lot of it should
be able to make the transition. They won't be the exact same weapons,
but they will have some similarities.
It's June now, and graduation
is only a few days away. That means high school will officially be
over for me, and I'll be going to college not long from now. I don't
know if I'll be able to update the site from there, but I'll try to find
a way. The Sine Wave will definitely be off for a few days in the
beginning. There is also that Japan trip coming up later this month.
I have a few new ideas for Drakan levels, so I'll try to get those done
before I leave.