ChainWorks Rebuild
by Rob Sandbach · 02/27/2006 (1:50 am) · 3 comments
Well this is a quickie because it's my bday and I got stuff to do :P!
With the release of the beta build of T2D I decided to restart the coding side of chainWorks from scratch. After completing the first tutorial, I rushed into chainWorks eager to get my hands dirty, and it's a credit to Melv, Josh and the rest of the T2D crew just how much and how quickly I was able to prototype my game. I've been working with t2D for about 4 months now, and I learn more every single time I open up codeWeaver. As a result I look back to the ealry depths of the program and cringe at the hacks, work arounds and long winded ways I did things, which make later development much more difficult.
I certainly dont claim to be any form of expert with torque script now, but im happy to say I've progressed since then. On that note I decided that a rewrite of the program, with a careful eye on performance, memory consumption and neatness of coding style would allow chainWorks to develop into a far more robust title. I also bought a mac mini so I can deploy mac builds as I go :)! With that I removed the buggy features of the old chainworks prototype, and bundled a mac and windows build up. Anyone whose interested to see the basic gameplay mechanic can grab a hold of either build from the links below. I seem to be having some issues with the mac build though, it works fine on a friends imac g4, but not on my mini or another friends ibook :S. I think it may have something to do with the large filesize of the backgrounds.
Anyhow, the basic gameplay is there, needless to say this release does not in any way shape or form reflect the final quality or style of chainWorks; it's just a chance for me to release what Ive done, and hopefully show just how easy it is for a complete novice to make something quick and dirty in T2D :)!
Mac Version
Win version
I appreciate there is little to comment on, but any feedback or ideas would be much appreciated :)
Thanks all,
Rob
With the release of the beta build of T2D I decided to restart the coding side of chainWorks from scratch. After completing the first tutorial, I rushed into chainWorks eager to get my hands dirty, and it's a credit to Melv, Josh and the rest of the T2D crew just how much and how quickly I was able to prototype my game. I've been working with t2D for about 4 months now, and I learn more every single time I open up codeWeaver. As a result I look back to the ealry depths of the program and cringe at the hacks, work arounds and long winded ways I did things, which make later development much more difficult.
I certainly dont claim to be any form of expert with torque script now, but im happy to say I've progressed since then. On that note I decided that a rewrite of the program, with a careful eye on performance, memory consumption and neatness of coding style would allow chainWorks to develop into a far more robust title. I also bought a mac mini so I can deploy mac builds as I go :)! With that I removed the buggy features of the old chainworks prototype, and bundled a mac and windows build up. Anyone whose interested to see the basic gameplay mechanic can grab a hold of either build from the links below. I seem to be having some issues with the mac build though, it works fine on a friends imac g4, but not on my mini or another friends ibook :S. I think it may have something to do with the large filesize of the backgrounds.
Anyhow, the basic gameplay is there, needless to say this release does not in any way shape or form reflect the final quality or style of chainWorks; it's just a chance for me to release what Ive done, and hopefully show just how easy it is for a complete novice to make something quick and dirty in T2D :)!
Mac Version
Win version
I appreciate there is little to comment on, but any feedback or ideas would be much appreciated :)
Thanks all,
Rob
#2
-JF
02/27/2006 (7:06 pm)
Great looking game! Just needs some more polish and shine (tutorial, skill levels, etc), and you could have a real winner there! I'm especially thankful that you made a Mac version!-JF
#3
His gameplay does not involve clicking on the items; depending on the mode you can just pass over items or you have to avoid them if you do not want to influence them. This 'not clicking' makes playing less tiring and adds the aspect of 'avoiding items' that ups the skill required.
Here is a link to the page from which you can download Raspberry. It is well worth a look:
number-none.com/blow/prototypes/index.html
03/02/2006 (12:49 am)
I came across a prototype game called Raspberry from Jonathan Blow (he wrote the Inner Product column @ Gamasutra for a time) which shows similar gameplay to ChainWorks but from a fully different perspective.His gameplay does not involve clicking on the items; depending on the mode you can just pass over items or you have to avoid them if you do not want to influence them. This 'not clicking' makes playing less tiring and adds the aspect of 'avoiding items' that ups the skill required.
Here is a link to the page from which you can download Raspberry. It is well worth a look:
number-none.com/blow/prototypes/index.html
Torque Owner Robert Norris
One suggestion I have to alleviate the stress though is to allow multiple selection using a bounding box; I kept wanting to do this when neighbouring (and no, that is not a spelling mistake) fireworks of the same colour came my way.
What I would really love to see is a version set to music that I can pipe in myself.
Keep it up.