Lately me and fellow XNAer, and good buddy Jeff of 1am Studios have been doing gamedev nights after work. Even though we’re working on our own very different game projects, it’s a fantastic way to keep the motivation up. In fact, I fully credit these nights for getting my Game #2 anywhere close to where it is now. And getting me back into the gamedev “ZONE”.

Before then the most I was managing was a couple of hours a week of gamedev.

That’s to be expected with gamedev being my hobby, not my regular day job.

It’s also a perfect excuse to feast on Pizza, music, and movies – comedies work best.

Anyway, I highly recommend it, if you know other XNAers in your area.

Speaking of Jeff. He’s been bringing new life into classic old games using XNA. Check out his latest project is a Carmageddon remake here. (before that he also did Need For Speed in XNA)

I made great Game #2 progress last night too:

• the Threat Indicator is all polished now and working wonderfully – very happy with it
• more annoying bugs squished
• and refactorings a plenty

And lastly, I’m finally on Twitter. Not sure if that’s a good thing yet. My blogs posts have been pretty short lately, so thought I might give it a whirl.

You can follow my ramblings here…

http://twitter.com/sharkyNZ

until next time, cya

Air Legends had mono sound, so any hint of where the enemy was coming from was suggested by skewing the camera slightly. I’m also a fan of games with minimal HUD. Where more natural cues suggest how damaged you are, where the enemy is. (the Peter Jackson’s King Kong game is a good example of this)

Many asked for a Radar, or Mini-map. A great idea – but I really wanted see if the minimal HUD thing could really work, and stick to situational awareness appropriate for pilots in WWII. Back then radar helped dispatch squads in the general vicinity of the enemy, but once in the air the pilots were largely on their own.

Game #2 will be similar, but with 3D audio which will help immensely, but…

• your enemies will attack in waves – lethal, more types of waves to come
• …so, I’ve added a Threat indicator for approximate direction to the target, but not too precise to ruin the challenge – DONE, applying polish!!!

In Air Legends rockets were earned with scoring streaks of bullet hits. For Game #2 it’s more about the death and destruction now…

• Exploded enemies drop their remaining Ammo – loot! – DONE, applying polish!!!
• You can pick up said loot! – DONE!!!
• tweaked player/enemy engine volumes for better 3D audio – IMPROVED, ongoing.
• stomped a few bugs – definitely ongoing!!!