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reepblue

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  1. reepblue
    Over 2 weeks ago, I released a small demo showcasing my project's core gameplay on the Leadwerks Engine. Although I'm happy with the demo; it's a good landmark for the project, but it can be better visually and functionality. I learned a lot of new information about the engine on how to better optimize it, multiplatform diffrences, and I grew a slight hatred to a certain brand of GPUs. But the demo on the Game Launcher to me was a success.
     
    The stand-alone version in my opinion was a bit shakey as with stand-alone releases you lose the end user's ease of use when it comes to settings and the requirement of OpenAL. The Vectronic Demo was indeed targeted to work with the Game Launcher from the begining as I wanted to be more focused on the actual game scripting than the dirty stuff such as how settings are loaded, menus, etc. But I also wanted a stand-alone version out due to the launcher being in beta, and I wanted to let people on linux play it.
     
    I took Vectronic to the Portal community to see how they liked it. I mostly got back issues in actually launching the application. Besides the lack of OpenAL, most people did not seem to understand how they can run the Portal 2 (Which runs on a branch of the Source Engine that can run on DX9 cards.), and other games but not Leadwerks; especally on a certain brand of a GPU. One person actually got angry at me because he could not run the game. Overall, it was mostly things that Josh nor I can fix. (i.e it was ether outdated hardware or poor drivers.) However, the OpenAL requirement is something I can look into.
     
    Right now, I'm stepping away from the demo, and focusing on improving the stand-alone experience now since the soultions for the standard edition has been recently optimized. With the Summer Games Tournament coming up, it's a good deadline to stay focused, and to experment with non-Vectronic stuff. After this project is done, Vectronic will be back on track as I kind of need this done before I continue to work on my main project.
     
    I still got Part 2 of My Introduction Entry to write which I share why and how I moved the Project to Leadwerks, but I think I'll write that when I want to look back as right now I want to looking forward. I might also share various techniques I used in the Vectronic Demo as I think it will help with any user of Leadwerks; especially durning the summer tournament. I'll continue to write about whatever I'm working on here.
  2. reepblue
    Note: This is pretty much a copy and paste from this post here with a few tweaks.



    After 3 years of planning, modeling, texturing, and a lot of engine hopping, I was able to create a playable demo in the Leadwerks Engine for Windows and Linux (Debian/Ubuntu/Mint). You can download the demo from this page. A small demo was created not only to test the basic elements of the game in the new engine, but to also give back to those who have been supporting this project since I started talking about it.
     




     



     
    I'm also announcing that from here on out that the development will be more open. How open? Well first you can always check the Trello page to see the progress at any time, If you wish to help, drop me an e-mail. Feed back is welcomed with opened arms. You can do this simply by e-mail or twitter @reepblue. I'll do my best to respond if necessary.
    About Vectronic
    Vectronic is a first-person environmental puzzle game inspired other games of the same genre such as Portal, Quadrum Conundrum, and Q.U.B.E. Players must solve puzzles using special power balls that effect boxes that changes their behavior in the world. For more information, please visit the Q&A. For additional help, click here.
    Please let me know what you think. Although a short primitive demo, this is a big milestone for the project in the indie path.
  3. reepblue
    Hi,
     
    I've been reading and posting here and there on the forums for quite some time now, and being that my current project is taking shape, I think it's time that I introduce myself, and in the next post, I'll share some goals of my project.
     
    Quick Bio:
     
    As a Kid, I've had an interest in game development with my hundreds of hours I put into RPGMaker 2000/XP. At that time, I was mostly inspired by The Legend of Zelda series and other top down games that could be made in the program.
     
    When I was a young teen, I was not really into PC games. I stuck to my old Nintendo consoles while my brother would play Counter-Strike: Source on a daily basis. I remember him once showing me a custom map he made for CSS that be based off our local 7-Eleven store. He was showing me how he made the textures, and a bunch of other simple things. I can't recall if I was blown away, or wanted him to stop talking so I could do my thing to be honest.
     
    After a while, my interest in game development started to fade, and I got more into graphic design for websites and such. But then game called Portal. I was not into first person shooters, but I did like Puzzle games, and this game was one of a kind when it released. My brother got The Orange Box package and I played the living hell out of Portal. The game was so interesting to me and there came a point where I would turn on cheats, take the metal rectangles, move them into position, and save the game. Then a "custom puzzle" would be loaded like loading a saved state.
     
    And it begins!:
     
    To make a long story short, I eventually got The Orange Box for the PC, got a budget build, and made a lot of maps that never got released. Portal 1's gameplay elements where just a collection of base engine entities that worked together. I spent months on end learning how to make breakable glass, the indicator strips, buttons, doors, you name it! After I felt like I had enough knowledge of map making, and the I/O system, I decided to work on my first mappack called Blue Portals.
     
     



     
    The project was on and off. I was working on another project at the time, so these maps were totally remade from the ground up with a new art design.
     



     
    Through out the years and other side projects, Blue Portals was released on November 29th, 2010. The mod got mix reviews, and looking back on the project, I can say that it's not for everyone. But I can say that it does have a cult following.
     
    With the release of Portal 2, of course I was excited to work on custom maps. I first started to to work on a Blue Portals 2 to fix the flaws of the original, and to add other cool elements. But due to the different FileSystem structure of that branch of Source, and my lack of knowledge of it at the time, I canned it. It was a good thing too, because DLC1 made the unused Adhesion Gel weird which BP2 used.
     
    I've made some small mappacks such as A Little Higher, Tornate, and Feather Away. I also worked on most of the test chambers for Alive & Kicking while I was making new game concepts still within the Source Engine. After a while, Portal started to get boring, and the second DLC for Portal 2 (PTI) made me lose interest in making Portal puzzles because now anyone could do it, and it killed the art for me.
     
    I started a project in the Source Engine called Punt and to sum it up, it was me trying to find what I want as my own puzzle game.
     




     




     
    After a while, I got the gist that the main core concept of the Puntgun was not fun. That, and the code base was a mess due to the Puntgun being a mod of the gravitygun, and poor tracer code. Also, Valve released a new SDK base to replace the one from 2007, and I really wanted my mod to be less like Portal gameplay wise.
     
    In the next entry, I'll talk more about my project, the goals and why I decided to port it to LE3.
     
    In the meantime, you can checkout my Youtube channel to see what I've done throughout the years. (I hope to put Leadwerks related content on it soon!)
    https://www.youtube.com/user/reepblue
     
    And here is my blogger which as more of my writings and thoughts:
    http://reepblue.blogspot.com/
     
    Thank you for reading/watching. I hope you are willing to hear more!
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