After quite a long break, I've decided to resume work on the Solaris Machinae Engine. Basically, there are a number of features that I want to add to the engine to make it more versatile and easy to use. I've also made the engine open source, so I can share the code much easier, and take advantage of project tools, such as google code.
1. Adapt a component based architecture
By adding components, it will be easier to customize objects, and edit them. These components can provide a much simpler wrapper around the graphics and physics engines.
2. Allow the loading of maps and files from xml, not lua scripts
XML is a much more versatile format for defining objects, and fits in well with the component based architecture. It will also make it easier to "derive" objects, and basically only modify certain attributes about it.
3. Start to "de-nativize" code
I'm not sure what the actual term is, but I basically want to start moving most of the code for loading maps and objects into lua. This will allow for easier customization and faster development, seeing as everything doesn't need to be compiled as often.
4. Add audio
The engine, currently, has no audio module, which is pretty stupid, seeing as that's pretty important.
5. Add features to the map editor
In it's current state, the map editor can only be used to create extremely basic maps such as the one in the tech demo. There are a number of areas of improvement, such as a better GUI, a tile editor, object specific editing, etc.
After releasing Mr. Cow Part 1, I've decided to port the game to run in flash. This is partly because, to most people, downloading and installing a file is a pain. They prefer to have it embedded in a webpage. Also, in flash there is virtually no security concerns. I had never used flash before, so when I began, I really had no idea what to expect. After goofing around with FlashPunk for about an hour, I cam up with this small demo-like swf:
I was a bit surprised at how easy it was. Maybe not easier than pygame, but simple and intuitive nonetheless. I recently just finished porting the entire game part. I just need to finish doing the menus and stuff.
In about a day and a half, me, Nick Safford, and Randy Brookins made a game!
This small project was really more of an experiment, to learn about stuff, and get hands on experience. Using Python and pygame, we designed and created an game, which is intended to be the first in a trilogy.
Star of Doom is an idea. It is a concept. It is a universe.
A lot of Star of Doom can summed up in the following extremely annoying song:
Anyone who played the second iteration of Star of Doom knows it well. But what is Star of Doom. It is a planned game. One that was never completed. It has gone through many iterations, yet always been too ambitious to survive. Star of Doom is my goal. Actually, the truth is that it was originally called Legend of the Fire Star. Star of Doom just sounded better.
First Iteration
Back when I was in sixth grade (2006), I had just failed at my fist attempt at creating a game when I first conceived Star of Doom. I began by planning out the characters and settings, imagining a whole galaxy filled with planers and stars, and nebulae and all kinds of alien life forms with rich histories and backgrounds. It was months later that I naively tried to actually make this a reality. After almost a month of coding using my own custom built DirectDraw game engine, the Cow Moostache 2D game engine, I had accomplished very little. I had a menu, a first cut-scene, and the beginning of a first area. At this point, my artist, Nick Safford, had to leave the project. Stranded, and not making much progress, I decided to abandon it for the time being. Failure Excuse: Lack of Experience.
Second Iteration
The second iteration was the first 3D attempt at Star of Doom created using the Irrlicht3D engine. It was also not only the most popular among my friends, but also the farthest of any attempt. I started this attempt towards the end of 6th grade, I believe. This attempt featured a full fledged RPG system with items, conversations, a pause menu, and so on. Well, you might ask what stopped me from finishing. Well... After a while, I begin to have massive code organization problems. It was simply too much to work with. My application started to break down bit by bit, and I was unable to isolate any of the causes of the problems. Failure Excuse: Lack of Organization
Third Iteration
I started this version around 7th grade The third iteration was similar to the second, but far more graphically intensive. This was due mainly to a switch over to the Ogre3D engine. I now had access to shaders, post processing, shadows, and much more. I could even have day and night cycles. It was during this iteration that I started a blog for the project: http://starofdoom.blogspot.com/. I began to work on more advanced effects such as water, terrain, and much more. This iteration somehow just dissipated, and I'm not even sure why. It was more of a lack of motivation, due to school, and homework and stuff. Failure Excuse: Lack of Motivation / Too Much Stress
Fourth Iteration
The fourth and most recent Iteration was spawned out of a desire to fully realize the dream of Star of Doom. Imagine if you could explore spherical planets in a dynamic universe, and travel to other planets and back, without any seams. Yeah. That would be awesome right. The video below shows as far as I got. Remember to watch the entire thing, otherwise the sense of scale doesn't hit you. In the video, I fly off the planet, and hyperdrive away to the black hole. I screw around there for a while, then turn back to face the planet. You see the planet as a tiny little speck orbiting its star. Even the star is not static. It orbits the black hole at massive speeds. Failure Excuse: Overly Ambitious.
I recently registered a domain for myself: varunramesh.net.
There's currently nothing there, so typing it in wont do anything. I did, however, set up a page for my science project: http://varunramesh.net/portfolio/right/ScienceProject2010/index.html. It includes a description, a video, a list of awards won, and downloads for the report and the source code.
