SURPRISE, I’m back!  I’ll keep this real brief though.  Just as soon as I’m satisfied, I’ll be releasing a new version of “Air Legends” with some cool new things.  Take a look at this screenshot, and you might guess what… 

A clue?  Count the planes…

So here’s what I’m talking about…. 

• Still single player or 2 player Split-screen, but those extra planes are AI planes.  Made possible now because of my next point…
• I’ve improved the AI enormously. It is no longer the fake, more or less random & suicidal AI it was before.  It is fairly simplistic & home-brewed but very effective.
  The new AI…
  • only shoots when it makes sense to!
  • actually hunts you down and kills you
  • lead their shots – deadly.
  • have some simple self preservation techniques.
  • recognizes friend from foe and attacks other enemy AI’s.
• What this all means is I can now make the single player experience much more fun.  To date it’s been pretty much proof-of-concept and some cannon fodder practice for those just wanting to sample the game with.
• When you have two players & both select the same aircraft you get CO-OP play!

Why not release it right now?

I have some tweaks to do before I’ll be satisfied. e.g…

• The AI is a little TOO effective right now.  Some tweaking required.
• The AI doesn’t have the smarts yet to hold fire when a team mate gets in the way.
• I’ll be able to ramp up the number of aircraft to more than just 4, but I have to optimize a few things such as…
  • more planes means more particles (bullets, explosions, smoke etc…).  I plan to scale the quantities of particles back based on how many planes are buzzing round.
• Scores.  These changes mean I’ll need to revise the scoring to be Team scores – will retain stats per player if I can.
• Lobby changes.  I want to make the team sizes selectable at the lobby screen. So you can choose 1 vs 4, 2 vs 2 etc…
• Bound to be some bugs along the way.

So what about an XBOX 360 version?

I’m excited to announce I finally own an XBOX 360, so “Air Legends” WILL be coming to the console just as soon as I can manage it!

• I still have to buy my Creators Club Membership before I can start realizing the dream.
• Some unexpected car bills, and flooded house have delayed my start a little.  Of course donations are most welcome…  ;o)

That’s it for now folks.  Stay tuned…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 7:37 pm and is filed under Game Development, PC Gaming, XNA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.