I’ve uploaded another preview build – this one vastly improves on the last one and shows off a great new feature I hadn’t mentioned before.

Thanks also to some generous donations “Air Legends” is now working on the XBOX 360 too, and you can try both flavours from the links below.

Think of this as a sneak peak, rather than an official release. There are known issues – things left to do before I’ll make an official release of it.

About that new feature I mentioned above…

The camera movement is a whole lot smarter now. I was getting fed up with how a lot of the time you’re shooting blind, because the enemy is often just outside the edge of the screen. One option was to zoom out, but I’ve tried something a bit different that I’m really stoked with.

It works like this.

• the game keeps track of the closest enemy aircraft
• the camera attempts to keep both yourself and the tracked aircraft in view.
• if the tracked aircraft is too far away (out of the screen) the camera movement and position of your own aircraft will still give you a sense of where the tracked aircraft is coming from.
• if you have an XBOX 360 controller you can use the Right ThumbStick to override the direction camera is focusing. ie. disregard the tracked aircraft and look somewhere else. After a couple of seconds left idle the view springs back to the tracked aircraft again.

Try it here

So if you’re keen try the 2nd preview build you can download it directly with the following links…

• for Windows
• for XBOX 360

If anyone feels game to try the “Coming soon-ish” features NOW, you can download a preview build directly here.

BE WARNED. There are a bunch of Known Issues that I still have to address before I’ll release this one officially.

I did a whole lot of refactoring along the way, so now it’s a case of putting things back into place again. Things such as Scoring don’t work quite right yet etc…

See this post for the full list of known issues/things to do

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…

In response to some feedback, I’ve made a couple of minor changes and released the new version here.

The changes are… 

• changed the Maneuver Xbox 360 control back to how it was before.  It’s now the “Left Shoulder” button again.  Which means the Change View button is now the “X” button.
• made the bullets a little smaller. Too chunky before.

Go grab the new version from the Latest Build page here.

One word – Busy… busy, busy, busy. Ok, so I cheated on the word count, but that’s how life’s been lately.  So much has happened since my last post. In work, play & personal life.  I’ll cut to the chase though.  Here’s my latest and greatest release of “Air Legends”.  You can download it from here.

There are major changes in the version. 

• Firstly it’s all converted to XNA 2.0 now, so you’ll need the XNA 2.0 runtime installed (or XNA Game Studio 2.0).
• Added basic Scoring, and stats.  Currently shows Score + accuracy for each player/cpu.
• Added a change View feature (to help you find the enemy). This changes to a view that focuses on you, but keeps
    the other player in view.
• Gave the aircraft different performance characteristics.  The Spitfire has a slightly better rate of turn
    but the BF109 is a little faster. It’s subtle, but should add to the variety.
• Added an Uninstall shortcut to the Start menu folder.
• Fixed cloud culling, so clouds no longer instantly vanish while still in view (as they were prone to do before).
• Improved cloud, smoke and explosion rendering to use proper Billboard styles (always facing the camera).

Go grab the new version from the Latest Build page here.  As always, it’s free!

It sure has been a while, but at long last I’m happy to announce my latest “Air Legends” release. Downloadable here.

There are major changes in the version. 

• Most notably I’ve fitted proper menus for everything.  This was no small task, I might add – quite a bit of code refactoring was needed on my part.  Microsoft’s Creators club “GameStateManagement sample” is awesome and forms the basis of all of my screens now.
• I’ve improved my Skybox, and made the sky textures all seamless.
• Added a brand new “Morning” scene to play in.
• Added gun overheating.  Sound to come.
• Replaced numerous uses of photoshopped textures for text, with new SpriteFont textures.
• New and improved Lobby screen.
• Help (aka. Controls) screen is now accessible while in gameplay from the pause menu.
• Changed keyboard controls a little.
  • F1 & F2 are now used for dropping in and out instead of 1 & 2.
  • Shifted Player 2 keys along one to avoid confusion with Enter key for menu selection.
  • So Player 2 now uses ] for shoot, [ for throttle, P for Skywrite & O for Maneuver.
• Improved the installer.
  • Now based on WiX v3 (Windows Installer XML).
  • Automatically uninstalls older versions already installed.
  • Checks .NET v2.0 is installed. Just a check at this stage.

Go grab the new version from the Latest Build page here. It’s free, so no excuses.

Check this out.  A great buddy & workmate Jeff, of SharePod fame, has been getting into XNA lately.

His new blog is the *imaginatively* named “XNA Game Development“!

His first game in-progress is very cool.  Check out his FPS styled, and code-named “Platform Jumper“

Hi folks.

I’ve been enjoying some productive coding sessions on “Air Legends” lately.  No one big feature in particular, but a lot of little tidy ups and improvements. So far, the next release will have:

• All models now produced and exported straight out of the new Softimage|XSI Mod Tool. No other tools necessary! 
• improved the Skybox.  Horrid seems are gone.  I’ve pulled out some photoshop magic to make the  Textures tile nicely, and the box (well cylinder) now has a ceiling, so I don’t have to avoid certain camera angles like before.
• Guns can now overheat, so controlled bursts recommended.   No more bleeding ears from trigger happy kids. 
• Thanks to the skybox improvements, your aircraft should no longer leave the screen occasionally.  Well maybe very briefly during some maneuvers, but good enough for now.
• …more to come… maybe Menus, 3D sound…

On another note, CrazySheep has asked me about how to create a Windows Installer.  Good idea, so I plan to blog a wee article/tutorial + sample about my “Air Legends” installer.  (If I blog about it now, I’ll be forced to actually do it!).

Before I do that I plan to update my installer from WiX v2 to WiX v3, and do a couple of improvements on the way.

Firstly, Hi y’all.

I’ve been completely silent on the XNA scene for a while now. Those of you that know me will understand why. Nothing mysterious, just personal relationship crap I’m dealing with right now.

Anyway, I’m slowly starting to work on my game again, and was welcomed back with this very nice surprise.

There’s a very cool new version of the XSI Mod Tool out! This is either brand new, or the news slipped under my radar somehow.

Here’s the juicy goodness…

• has built in support for publishing straight into your Game Studio Express projects! No more mucking around with problematic exports, IT JUST WORKS!
• based on v6 of the full XSI product, where before it was v4 based.
• Still FREE, but feels a lot less limited than before. Heaps of export/import options. Exported geometry is limited to 64000 triangles.

Check out the new Mod Tool here

p.s. also, take a fresh look at how my day job project is going. ActionThis

I’ve just been replying to a comment about my game on Gameprojects.com, but I got thinking I should really blog this one.

Synthcat suggested I do some Additive blending for the bullets (trails?).

I’ve tinkered with Additive blending but haven’t had much success with it yet. I had a go at making my clouds, smoke and explosions use Additive blending but I just couldn’t get them to look acceptable.

I followed Eli Tayrien’s (XNA team) great article about Additive blending.

As Eli mentions, the art assets themselves (textures) need special skill to look right with additive. I haven’t figured out quite how I should be producing them. Even my colorful explosions ended up looking like a white glare. Likewise for my smoke, which should darken rather than lighten as it gets thicker.

So far, I haven’t had much luck in finding a good explanation on how to produce good art for Additive blending.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?