Level-licious!

Things have been moving smoothly this weekend. I sketched out the first part of the level and have been putting together the rough hull. You can see the screenshots below.

Problems
Of course there are always problems. I'm using a program called constructor to build the levels, which may be one of the best level editors I've ever used. Except that I like to view my level in the game all the time to check how things are going.

But every time I export the level after the first time it won't export any of the new collision until I restart the program. (what a pain in the arsel!) But now that I know the cause, I can always restart the program whenever I want to run through it. Still a pain, but at least it works.

Pretty soon it'll be time to texture the level, so if you want to contribute some textures, email me and let me know!

First in game video!

Alright! So I fixed Norman's animation problem.

WARNING!! NERDY TECHNICAL INFO AHEAD!!

The problem was that I used a biped as his skeleton, and added the root node (Bip01) to his skeleton tree. When you export the .dts file with the Bip01 in there, it adds an additional transform to the character, forcing him to face a different direction during his animation. Pulling the Bip01 out of the skeleton tree and adding it to the remove list in the config file fixed the problem.

END OF NERDY TALK

He's still got some other problems,....he's floating and his arms are cutting into his body in the root pose, but those I can live with for now.

So now I can get on to working on an environment for him to play in before I get to the heavy duty (nerdy) writing code stuff. woohoo!

and as promised, here's the first gameplay video of Norman chasing himself:

Well at least he's animating now...

So the good news is that Norman is in the game and animating. The picture above is the first ever screenshot from Dragonfire Riots: The Game. Unfortunately, even though he's facing left, he's running forward. I don't know why he's facing the wrong way, but at least he's playing the correct animation.


So What's Next?
Once I get this crap fixed (hopefully soon) I can start working on a real environment for him to run around in instead of the snowy wilderness. The good news is that I'm pretty good at making levels. The bad news is that I have to learn a whole new editor to do it.

anyway, here's the first official screenshots (soon that crossbow will turn into Norman's weapon of choice: The Microphone!):

Great news from Danny-Boyo!!

I just got some great news from former member Danny Boyo, who left after Justin mysteriously sprained his finger.

I've been talking to him, and he's agreed to appear in the game. We're still working out his role, but we're happy and glad to have out good friend make an appearance in game. Now if we could only get Gothabelle too....

Dragonfire - the video game!!

Welcome to the dev-blog for Dragonfire Riots the video game! This is where we (I) will be posting the status, screenshots and tons more information about the development of the companion video game to Dragonfire's upcoming album - Dragonfire Riots!

oh, and if you're totally on another planet and somehow stumbled on to this blog without knowing who Dragonfire is, go to Dragonfire's Myspace Page

anyhoo, on to the information:

The game is going to be in full 3D using the Torque Game Engine - pretty cool stuff for only $150.

Starring:

Norman "Pipes" "Sticks" Tilles
Justin "Frets Fisticuffs" Harrison
GunTrafficRadio
TheToddball(tm)
Tim "Rotten" Tomatoes
Ace Facial
The Dragonfire Wizard
The Party Devil
Dragonfire Defender
Va-Va-Va-Gina

We're planning for other people to appear in the cast, but I haven't heard any confirmations from them yet! If you're interested in making an appearance or contributing to the game, email me. There's a lot of models to do, and I'm not too good at that, so if you've got XP in 3ds Max, lemme know!

How the Game's Coming Along:

I got Norman Modeled from his T-stance pictures. He looks pretty good, but I'm not the best modeler. His skinning still needs some work, but it's good enough for now.

Last night I finally got him to appear in game with his textures. turns out the texture needs to always be pointed to the game directory and not a development source directory. So I guess I have to always edit out of the game directory. Looks like it might be time for some source control.

He's still not animating though. He animates in the preview tool, but not in game. I'll post some screenshots when I get that working. In the meantime, here's some shots of his model (Click on them for better images):