Blog for Eric Armstrong at GarageGames.com

Lots o Stuff

Eric Armstrong — 2008-07-22T15:28:12+00:00

So.. once again it's been a while since my last blog post. I really need to do these more often, it's a great way to keep myself motivated and working, and to take in account of all the various things I've done and been working on.

So a quick recap since the last blog... 2006, wow I really need to do this more often.. I've continued to have a few contract jobs while working the boring day job, and simultaneously working on various personal projects also. This has kept me busy and out of trouble, and I've finally gotten to the point were I feel that I've reached the level that I can make a true concentrated effort at moving Trihex Software forward, and make a living at this whole independent game programmer thing. I have a number of different plans to move forward with, and just need to talk it all over with the wife and see how we can proceed. I want to have a final plan of action in place and working on it by mid August, so stay tuned.

On the project front, I've put quite a few irons in the fire, so I always have something interesting and fun to be working on, and ways to allow my mind to work on complex problems, while not sitting idol. One of the things I've learned about myself through the years is that I have to have more than one thing going on at a time. When I hit a stumbling block, or something I can't figure out, I have to step away from it and give my mind time to sort it out. So I'll often be jumping from project to project, doing little things here or there, and then going back to the big issue and plowing through it.

So with that in mind, I'm currently working on:

Four Falls
This is a fantasy RPG I've had in my head for quite sometime. This is my current focused project, and so the one I've made the most progress on. The back end RPG system is one of my own creation, and it has a unique battle system that I've never seen in a game before. I can't wait to get that prototyped to find out if it is actually any fun, but I think it will be.

By Mine Own Hand
This is an action Gauntlet type game that I'm making in TGB. Been working on this one for a while but progress has been slow. I'm currently in the process of moving all the previous development to the latest build of TGB, and getting everything done in behaviors. This is currently the lowest priority project, but it will cycle through in the coming months, and I'll have some things to show at that time.

Cyberfuge: Second Battalion
So, as some of you may know or not know, I work very closely with Idryonis Studios, and a couple of months back I received permission from them to sort of "resurrect" Cyberfuge. Basically, I'm just taking what was there from way back in the day and moving it into TGEA, and filling in a lot of missing game play elements. I've made some decent progress on it, I've moved all the HUD graphics and most of the functionality for that over, and have started a small game play test level. None of this is really official stuff, but so much was done on it way back when, it just sort of seemed like a waste to let it all sit there in SVN with nothing being done.

I'll be making some more updates to that in the near future also, and I'll check with the guys at Idryonis and see if it's OK for me to post some shots.

Unnamed Java Engine
So the final thing I have in the works is a Java based game/engine I've been working on. I'm currently using the JMonkey engine as the core of it. My day job is Java development and it's probably the language I am most familiar with, so I just kind of wanted to see what I could do with it. The JMonkey engine is a nice framework to build off of, and Java has come a long way in what it can do, and how fast it can do it.

So that's what I have going on at the moment, oh and of course on top of all the above, I've been in the process of revamping the Trihex Software site. It's still very much under construction, but you can go check it out, and I should have the forums up and running in the next day or two. You will be able to track the progress of all the above projects and whatever else I have going on there.

One final question for you all before I end this update. Four Falls is currently built on TGEA 1.7.0, and I'm going to update that to 1.7.1. One of the things I was planning on doing was starting to record my development sessions. Since I'm starting "fresh" with Four Falls on 1.7.1, I figured I would begin recording with that first session. My question to all of you is do think that would be something you would be interesting in watching? It might be kind of boring, I don't know, but I do a lot talking to myself as I code, about what I'm doing and what I'm trying to accomplish. It helps keep me focused and clear on what I'm doing. I thought it might be of benefit, but don't know. So what are your opinions? Is that something some of you might find useful? I'll probably start recording them either way, just so I have a record for myself, but just wondering if it would be worth putting them online or otherwise available to others.

Let me know what you all think.

Long Time No Blog

Eric Armstrong — 2006-12-19T22:45:00+00:00

Been a while since I posted here, so I figured I would let everyone in on what's been progressing. I had to take a little time away from By Mine Own Hand to work on a contract job, then I broke my hand, so things were slow going for a bit. I finally got the cast off today, so I'm back to typing at a normal speed.

In the mean time, not everything was wasted. I've just finished updating the RPG Dialog resource to work with TGB. I setup the dialog editor as a resource within the editor, and updated the AdventureKit project wizard to include the files needed to run the dialogs in the game. I added it to the Adventure Kit, as I'm using functions from that in some of the dialog methods. Here is a screen shot of the editor and the dialog in action:

Of course, all the graphics in the above images are from the Adventure Kit, which I'm using as placeholder art. I'm still on the search for a good 2D artist that might be interested in working on this...

I'll be doing further updates to the dialog editor, allowing the dialogs to interface with the questing system I'm planning on building. So essentially, you will be able to set quests for the player through dialog items, and mark them as complete, assign items, etc. Pretty much your standard RPG kind of things.

I'll probably try and package it up as a resource when it's ready... Or if I think there is enough there, I may look at separating it from the Adventure Kit, and maybe sell it as a low cost code pack... We'll see...

Speaking of resources, I did submit a resource for TGB a while back, but I don't know if anyone saw it. It was a resource to allow you to fill tile spaces randomly, so if you had say 4 or 5 different types of dirt tiles, you could have the editor automatically choose one of those tiles randomly when placing tiles. Works for both flood fill and single placement. Saved me time anyway. I haven't applied it to 1.1.3, and there was some minor code changes required, so you need to have a Pro license, and you may run into minor issues. I'll be putting the functionality back in here soon, as my work will be requiring me to make a new level here soon.

You can check out the resource here:

Random Tile Placement

I have another contract job coming up here in the next few weeks, so things may slow down again, but I hope to be back soon with further updates. I still have to get the path finding and flocking code back into the new version.

Flocking to the Right Path

Eric Armstrong — 2006-07-06T23:20:57+00:00

So I worked on getting path finding and flocking into By Mine Own Hand. They both went in very well, thanks to the flocking code in Advanced 3D Game Programming All in One, and Phil Shenk's path finding extension to TGB.

Really, the only thing I have left to do is the player movement and setting up the collision groups. Once those two tasks are taken care of, I can start to build the first level and getting the real game play elements in. Once I start on that, I'll get some screen shots of my amazing programmer art.

As always, you can read more about the development of By Mine Own Hand at my dev. blog.

Trihex Software Finally Gets Going

Eric Armstrong — 2006-06-26T21:35:23+00:00

Hello all...

My name is Eric Armstrong, I've been a Torque owner for quite a while (2001) but this is my first plan here on GarageGames. I've mostly been working with Idryonis Studios, but things have kind of slowed down, so I have taken that opportunity to finally update my website and start some work on some of the many game designs I've had tucked away for awhile. Since I was starting to get going on personal development things, I figured I would also get started on becoming a more involved member of the GarageGames community. Something I've wanted to do for quite some time.

You can check out the new website at www.trihex.com. I'm keeping a developer blog on the site for the game I'm working on, By Mine Own Hand. You can check that out at www.trihex.com/blog. There is still quite a bit of updating to do on the website, so excuse some of the rough edges.

I'm using TGB for By Mine Own Hand, which is a gauntlet style action game with some heavy RPG elements. You control the actions of a hero as he slowly descends into madness and brings ruin to the lands he once pledged to protect. Hopefully the blog won't end up just being a chronicle of MY descent into madness.

I just wanted to say hello to everyone, and let you all know that you will start seeing some cool things coming from me in the future. Stay tuned to www.trihex.com/blog and here for the upcoming goodness.