Dark Omen Games

So, now that the XNA Community Games has started, all be it in Beta, I am going to remove the UDP/Socket networking from the game and go for full XBox 360 compliance and so be using Live Networking. I will continue to develop the prototype in Windows, but intend to try and get it on the XBox Live Community Games so anyone can download and play it on there 360.

I can't wait for XNACG to go full release...

Nemo.

Dave (who can't blog at the moment) has just put up a clip of Nebulon showing off it's super cool particle system.

Nemo.

Well we have a channel now for our game clips, Dave has just sent me a clip on Nebluon (looks awesome!) which I will be putting up soon and posting on later. You can find our channel here.

Nemo.

Well, as I am sure you all know, I have very little imagination and have gone with a new name for WH3D which as the title says is Nova War. Nova War will be then working title for this game and I dare say if I have a moment of inspiration I will change the name again. So now I have to move all the post tags regarding this game to Nova War, what fun that will be.

Development has kind of frozen a bit, work has been a bit mad and I have been posting a bit on the blog. Need to get some game dev time booked....

Nemo.

Well I am going to change the name of this game. I have been in touch with the guys who wrote the original and while they have been thinking about allowing me to use the Warheads name, I have decided I am going to change it anyway. This is because the game will not look or feel like the original 2D, this was never my intension, but being the unimaginative fool that I am I took the first name that came to mind. I would also like to try and get it onto XBox Live Community at some point and should the guys over at Warheads.net decide to do a release for the 360 then this name may confuse the issue.

That is neither here nor there, the point is that this game is a game in it's own right (or will be). The original Warheads game has just given me the inspiration for it. I have downloaded the new version by the way and it is still as good as I remember it, get a copy now and have a play, you can get it for free here, but the free version has the network play disabled.

So, what am I going to call this game......I really don't have a clue.....guess I best start thinking eh...?

Nemo.

OK, just added my GUI component to the Game State Manager, this GUI component will also be released in the RandomChaos.GameStateManager Beta.

There are only a few options in there at the moment and they currently don't have any functionality behind them, but you get the idea of what they can do. The GUI items sit in a GUI stack, the current stack allows you to add GUI Items one after the other and they are stacked one on top of the other, or if the stack is wider than it is tall then next to each other. You can see the stack element as it has a semi transparent red background in the video.

Also this video shows how I intend the camera to behave as you defend you home world and launch attacks. Don't know if this makes the controls a  bit complicated so might fix the warhead launcher in the centre of the screen rather than where the cursor is, just another design decision I guess...

Nemo.

In this video I was testing my WarheadLauncher class used to fire warheads at your opponents, as well as the new chase camera logic derived from my SimplePhysics library. There are also the basics of what I hope to be used defined warheads, in the clip the variance is in drive systems, a combustion drive and an Ion drive. I intend to have warheads that have different fuel, drive payload and deployment types. So you could have a chemically powered combustion drive with a multiple warhead deploying 5 nukes..... etc..

Nemo.

Just a quick post to let everyone know that OctaneX is not dead - the game is still in development.  Since the switch to XNA 2.0, I've had some issues getting the game to run properly (FPS and post-processing not working) but once these issues are resolved, and I've overhauled the engine code a bit, I'll put this up for download.

Hi folks.

Well, I know things have been quiet from me lately, but a heavy workload, a new baby, and getting into XNA 2.0 have all taken their toll on my time.

Anyway, firstly - for those of you waiting for OctaneX - the project is not dead - simply on hold.  I'm re-writing most of my engine from the ground up, so OctaneX will be released when this is done, later this year.

In the interim, I've got a couple of 2D retro games in the pipeline.  The first of these is called Nebulon - a Geometry Wars style, particle-effect heavy blast'em up.  Here's some screenshots of the particle engine in action to whet your appetities. 

I have just put up a video showing my physics engine and scaled 3D particle system that I will be using and building on in Warheads3D.

In the video you can see an orbiting earth with a moon orbiting it, there are 3 warheads sent after the planet. I have not given the warheads any velocity, just dropped them out there and let the planets gravity pull them onto target trailing smoke as they go.

As ever comments are welcome.

Nemo.