kedaunglandlord

Progress continues. This is a screenshot from the second trial. I'm not sure if I should include lots of sexuality changes (not like that, but changes to whether or not you feel comfortable in your female body). As it stands, the only way to max out femininity is to religiously follow the bimbo path, which is not my intent. I'll have to include ways to increase femininity without sexual actions. I think I've worked enough on TTF for today. I might work on Cursed instead. Or maybe I'll tackle any of the myriad things that need to be done around the house so I can move in four days.

I'll have some updates tomorrow (with pictures, even!), but today, I have some things that need to be done around the house. I'm moving in five days! Very exciting.

So, talking with OTPiccolo today in the chat about the current contest run (fingers crossed!), we noted that RAGS (and RAGS derivatives like fever.dreamer's DayDreamer engine) seems to be dominating not just contests, but most of the content on TFGamesSite. I mentioned I probably wouldn't enter whatever the next contest would be, and he somewhat indirectly challenged me to look into programming alternatives. So, I'm wondering if I might be able to pick up Flash or Inform or something. It's not my specialty, obviously (I prefer bending RAGS in new ways), but I do love a challenge. Something to think about for the next few days...

Taking some time away from some code is always a good thing. It let's you take things in with a relatively unbiased view. In this case, I've been looking at the Cursed code, and noticed some really bizarre design choices. For example, player arousal is on a 1-100 scale. That makes sense, easy to track and so on. Player skill level (for the various skills) is on a 0-46 scale for some bizarre reason. I know why I did it, actually. For each "level" of skill (from abysmal to awful, for example) required one more point than the previous level. So going from abysmal (the lowest) to awful only required one point. Going from awful to poor required two points, and so on. It makes a kind of sense, because it means that true mastery take more effort, but dammit, even when I set up the skill increases, they make more sense on a 1-100 scale. So now I have to recode relatively significant portions of the existing code to account for the fact that the various scales in the game (ski...

Who cares about theory? Let's look at some mechanics! Some of this might be a slight restatement of stuff that I've already posted at TFGamesSite. So, in Cursed, you play a man who has been transformed somehow into a woman. The causes are kind of vague, really. Anyway, once you're a woman, then what? Well, there's a couple of obvious things that happen, and a couple of things that kind of don't. First of all, your body is set based on prior actions. You can have small breasts, big breasts, or zonking huge breasts. There's a problem with the zonking huge breasts, though: if your boobs get too big, you'll lock in a bad end. I'm not sure if that's going to stay, but given the fact that I don't want breasts to be capable of getting infinitely huge, the best course of action right now seems to be if they get utterly (udderly) massive, which in this case is an H-cup, then you'll have to deal with the consequences. In other words, you'll have to...

Jon over at Khurasan just released the kit conversion for the 15mm scale  Siler tank ... This conversion updates the Siler and adds some Vroom Vroom speed to the massive vehicle. The model is 96mm long and 60mm wide. Priced at $15.99 for the tank with treads and $3.99 for the upgrade kit its quite a deal! Now go support the Indi manufacturer and pick up the platoon of three. Check out the release on TMP

 Since the flurry of bug reports from the "early" version of TTF has died down a little bit, I was able to spend a couple of hours working on the game today. The second trial is supposed to be a little less complicated than the first, but I'm still struggling to figure out the overriding "theme" of the trial (the first is the quest, or more specifically, how you react to strange circumstances, i.e. a karma test). That being said, I've never let anything like being directionless slow me down, so three new TFs have begun!  Tomorrow might be a bit of a minor work day, since I have other things going on, but we'll see if I can get anything done. Saturday might be a good day for some work too.

Unfortunately, yesterday was a "very little progress" day. It happens, especially when I have other things occupying my attention (in this case, a wonderful caffeine withdrawal issue). I did fix a few more bugs in the posted version of TTF , and figured out how the second trial is going to work, a bit, anyway. Other than that, I spent most of my day organizing my thoughts and working on some non-game related projects. Hopefully, later today I'll have a better status update.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

One of the things I've always liked about using established, "limited" game engines, like RAGS, is finding new and enjoyable ways to bend them, make them work outside the established uses. Text adventure games like Nuku Valente's Flexible Survival, or flash games like Xadera's Nimin Fetish Fantasy and Fenoxo's Challenge of Champions are particularly inspiring, because they're taking what looks like a linear engine, and using it to create the illusion of a sandbox. I say "illusion" in this case because coding a true sandbox in a text game is pure madness. There are far too many variables to keep track of, and no matter what happens, there's going to be an option that you didn't include that someone will inevitably try. Taking a text game off the rails is all but impossible. You either go crazy trying to plan for every eventuality, or you plan for the eventualities you want to include, and go from there. So, sandbox in a text game, imposs...

I do actually enjoy talking about my games, even when I'm notoriously tight-lipped about the details. The mechanics are secret for a reason. The creation process really shouldn't be. So, in that spirit (and because a bandwagon of developers with blogs came by and I jumped on to it), here's my blog. It will hopefully be informative and helpful to people in regards to my game creations, and helpful to me as a method of keeping on track. The game I'm working on right now is The Trials of Taihra-Firanae , which was created for the TFGamesSite winter 2011 contest. It's not quite done yet, but there is a version up at the site. Once that's done, it's back to the magnum opus Cursed (which I am considering renaming to Changes , but I haven't made that decision yet). And then, any other games that pop into my head will likely end up here as well. Feel free to leave comments, which I will be likely to respond to, and enjoy your stay.

I just updated a few areas of the DreamForge-Games website. This update centered around the game system, factions, history and tech. Start your tour here and use the menu bars at the top center of the page to view the new content. Enjoy! and please let me know what you think about it.

The Leviathan Mortis and Crusader are at the casters right now! Molds are being made of all components, including, add-on armor, left and right Mauler Claw arms, left and right Vulkan Cannons, Executioners Sword and Reaper Scythe. If you remember my earlier statement about not accepting pre-orders, you will be happy to know that I am going to break my rule on this. I would not do so if I did not have full confidence in my contract caster. He runs a full time shop with eight employees doing nothing but this kind of service and utilizing expensive equipment, resin injection machines and HUGE pressure tanks. When I receive the first article (cast) and fingers crossed there are no issues, I will post pics of the actual casing from this supplier and open pre-orders for the Leviathan Crusader and Mortis. Available options will be additional weapons and armor upgrade (armor seen in pic of Crusader below). We are sitting about three to four weeks out from when I open up pre-orders, so...

I have been pulling together models for what will be my 28mm and 15mm minis. I first build a mesh in Rhino, and then export as an OBJ to Zbrush to flesh out details on fabric and leather items. Nothing beats Rhino for hard surface items such as armor and helmets but Zbrush is ideal for the soft items. You can see here the base mesh for the Protectorate Trooper.   Here you can see the Zbrush detailing to the boots and pants. The folds are symmetrical now but will be corrected when the model is posed. Here are a couple of shots of the Eisenkern WIP. The feet, hands, and some details have been oversized. When you shrink it down to its 28mm scale it looks more appropriate to the scale of the figure.

Here is the helm based on the concept art posted last week... You can see I'm a better modeler than digital painter. I like the way it came together, now I just need to find time to make the rest ;)