Blog for Chris Jorgensen at GarageGames.com

Xeno Sola Full-Featured Beta!

Chris Jorgensen — 2008-05-16T16:40:30+00:00

Hey there GG'ers.

I've got a beta available for my Carcassonne-style game, Xeno Sola. I'd love it if you could check it out and tell me what you think!

Any feedback would be great. Abstract bugs? Ideas for features? Or perhaps you know of a publisher who likes this sort of game? Please let me know. :)

Download here: www.xenoclone.com/downloads/XenoSola_Beta.zip

It's set to expire on May 31st.

Look Out, Carcassonne Lovers!

Chris Jorgensen — 2008-04-16T20:34:16+00:00

Inspiration struck me a little over two weeks ago. My wife and I were playing Carcassonne, one of our favorites, on our Xbox 360. It was a promotional free download a while back. We'd never heard of it until the XBLA version. (Though much to my recent surprise, it is loved by many.) I'd just wrapped up Mini Chess --the adorable board game without a home-- and felt energized by the concept of cranking out a few similarly simple games. As we played, I just thought to myself, "Gee, I bet I could program this."

And it turns out I could!

I'm officially at the 2.5 week mark. The goal: be done within another 2.5 weeks. I've gotten thus far by following the motto: use what I've got. I've imported art and code from both Xeno Versus and Mini Chess. Appropriately, it is set in the XVS "universe" and at the moment is called Xeno Sola: Tile Placement Game. (I considered doing XenoSonne, but thought that was a bit obvious.)

The rules are mostly in place and have some significant changes from Carcassonne. But the heart of the genre is still present. The gameplay is thus near done. It simply needs end-game scoring. Some art is missing as well: final interface, final tile-section "scored" marker, and other misc. bits and pieces like particle effects. No AI yet, though that should be simple compared to chess. No networking yet.... but hopefully some TGB experts out there can help me get going on that one.

Here are a couple quick pics. Click the thumbnails for higher res. Black stars overlay sections that have been scored.... if anyone has ideas on what would be a good "scored" marker, I'd love to hear it!

Mini Chess Beta 2.0

Chris Jorgensen — 2008-03-14T20:39:39+00:00

Mini Chess Beta 1.0 Expires on the 16th. But the feedback and responses have been very good! So I thought I'd go ahead and upload a Beta 2.0 for people to try out and give me their thoughts.

Updated Features:

* Plays three different mini chess variants: western chess, makruk, and shatranj
-- Now displays which rule set you're playing in-game

* Challenging AI that has 5 difficulty settings
-- AI tweaked for improved performance; the splash page now shows the difficulty under the rules

* Undo button / Hint button
-- Bugs fixed with selected pieces

* Play as black, white, or two players
-- Game now starts immediately; the difficulty can be changed in the settings prompt

* Chess fact ticker
-- Now shows more facts and has a font fix

Download here: www.xenoclone.com/downloads/minichessbeta2.zip

Big question: Do you feel this game needs internet and / or network play?

Little question: If you've tried the first beta, how does this version compare?

Options if you don't want to post here:

* Email me: chris@xenoclone.com
* Yahoo Group: games.groups.yahoo.com/group/minichess/
* TGB Forum thread: www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=72926

Note: Beta 2.0 will expire on the 23rd of March, 2008. I will also pull the zip off the site (xenoclone.com) at that time.

Download and Play Mini Chess!

Chris Jorgensen — 2008-03-10T20:33:16+00:00

Mini chess is here!

Features:
* Plays three different mini chess variants: western chess, makruk, and shatranj
* Challenging AI that has 5 difficulty settings
* Capacity to handle multiple themes/skins: beta has two
* Undo button
* Hint button
* Play as black, white, or two players
* How-To-Play Tutorial section
* Full screen toggle; music toggle
* Chess fact ticker

Download here: www.xenoclone.com/downloads/minichessbeta.zip

Please try it out and let me know what you think!

Some questions I'd like answered:
* Is the AI too hard? Too easy? Does it take too long to think?
* Do the art and music appeal to you?
* Is there a feature you think is missing? Or one that is there but you find useless?

Options if you don't want to post here:

* Email me: chris@xenoclone.com
* Yahoo Group: games.groups.yahoo.com/group/minichess/
* TGB Forum thread: www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=72926

Note: The beta will expire on the 16th of March, 2008. I will also pull the zip off the site (xenoclone.com) at that time.

Reclaiming my name... and Mini-Chess!

Chris Jorgensen — 2007-10-29T22:10:47+00:00

Taking my name back

Over seven years ago, I registered xenoclone.com. I thought it was the perfect oxymoron to describe myself and my projects. I used the site as a home for my projects, such as my Total Annihilation mods. Later, I even used it to blog about science fiction movies and reviews. But when 2005 rolled around, my life changed.... I started grad school, I got a full time internship, and I started dating the gal I recently married. As as such, poor xenoclone.com went without an update for a long, long time.... Plus, my host killed its Coldfusion support, and my site was 100% CFML.

I took for granted my high ranking in google. If you wanted a Star Trek: Enterprise review or a cool TA mod, my site popped up always in the top 5.... the top 5! Oh, how I miss those days. Best of all, googling "xenoclone" meant xenoclone.com came up first. Now? Number two. In 2005, a poorly-received game called Project Xenoclone cropped up. And I find myself frustrated that my handle is no longer unique to me. Googling "xenoclone" now pulls up countless links to the game. Why should my name be buried by some latecomer to it?

I've decided to take action. For starters, xenoclone.com will now be maintained regularly. It contains my development blog, sections for my projects, and (in time) more. I also intend on running more of my testing through the site. For example, the second "late beta" testing of Xeno Versus: Space Melee will be done through the site. So check it out and let me know what information would be interesting to my fellow indie developers.

Announcing Mini-Chess!

Mini chess is a speed chess variant. This type of game has gained more and more popularity in recent years. Most forms were invented in the 90s. Currently, I have a complete mini chess game in a late alpha / early beta stage. It has a solid computer opponent AI in a tiny package. The AI is fully integrated into the executable, runs fast, and employs many professional AI tricks.

The plan is to add network multiplayer, custom skins, and more (for example, Intel laptop gaming technology). I have asked the kind folks at Garage Games to take a look. What says "casual games" more than casual chess? :)

Here is a slightly dated picture.

I never thought I'd have two projects running at once, but I have a different set of teammates for each. And that's made a huge difference! I've got 3 artists (besides myself), 1 programmer (me), and 1 musician. Now if I could just get an assistant programmer.... then I'd be set. ;)

That's it for now. The next blog will undoubtedly be about the space melee again, as that game continues to inch closer to the finish line.

Xeno Versus Beta: Now Available to All :)

Chris Jorgensen — 2007-09-26T22:37:57+00:00

Howdy folks. I think this is the first time that I've blogged twice in a month.* But these are important times! I'm just at that point where I need feedback, dang it. I'm calling the Yahoo group idea a flop. People seem to be weary of joining it. I personally like the service, but the reservations on the general Internet users' part is understandable.

With that said, I'm just going to post the link here. If you could post feedback in my TGB forum thread, or here in the comments, that would be super awesome.

ZIP file (Win XP): www.xenoclone.com/downloads/XenoVersusBeta.zip
Short Guide: www.xenoclone.com/downloads/xvsbeta_guide.pdf
Hidden key maps: www.xenoclone.com/downloads/xvs_keys.txt

I need comments and ideas on how to improve the camera. That's the single biggest issue by far. But comments on any bugs or anything else are also desired. My goal is to get the beta in a solid enough state to submit to IGF... but without that camera perfect, I'm not sure it will be ready. Given that submissions are due by October 1st, you can imagine that I need input fast!

As a reminder, the beta expires on October 7th. Thanks. I hope to see some feedback soon!

*In fact, I might be blogging three times as I have a second project also nearing beta.

Xeno Versus: Public Beta Available

Chris Jorgensen — 2007-09-20T18:18:07+00:00

At long last, I've got the first Xeno Versus public beta out and online. The development snapshot is up now. This beta is available about a month later than I'd hoped, but the late alpha testing dug up a few more flaws than anticipated. Plus, I got married... the adjustment to my wife moving in with me took up a good chunk of my time normally dedicated to hobbies. Here's the snapshot thumbnail.

So first the beta info, for those prospective testers:

Join the beta group here or subscribe to the mailing list at xenoversusbeta-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to get access to the beta. It is fully playable with a limited content set: 9 complete ships and 1 complete level. The last playable day is Oct. 6th before the game won't run anymore. The link is in the group's links section. Please don't publish the link here. I'm trying to keep track of users via the Yahoo group. Odds are, I'll have at least one more "late beta" to compliment this "early" one.

I want to give a big shout out to Clint Herron. Not only has Clint been following my progress and cheering me on, but he's also begun to provide some code support. His first big contribution is his improved camera algorithm from his project Air Locked, which is faster, simpler, and better than mine all around. It's a major contribution, to say the least, since the camera was the #1 complaint from the alpha testers!

I also have a hi-resolution version of the development snapshot here. The character artist is Mauizu. The level artist, whose work isn't duly being shown off or credited in this beta, hopefully will have some info up soon as well. Both gals are very talented and I wouldn't be nearly as far along without them.

That's it for this announcement. Head on over to the the group and sign up. Any feedback from bugs to missing features to gameplay is welcome. I need input on anything and everything. Thanks!

Xeno Versus:Space Melee Vids/Pics...

Chris Jorgensen — 2007-06-28T19:59:30+00:00

Hey, an update!

First of all, I didn't think it would be this many months since my last post. For some reason, I thought a couple terms of full-time electrical engineering grad school would be "easy" and I'd have lots of "spare time." Nonetheless, I'm finally back to updating my beloved Xeno Versus, as well as job-hunting (I'm broke, tuition will do that to you), and prepping for my wedding in August. Yes, it will be a rich, full summer.

Sooooo.... I'll start off by saying that sometime in March I went out and got feedback from a variety of sources on XVS. The feedback ranged from gameplay, to ideas for weapons, to complaints about the GUI, etc... and I listened! For example, I am in the process of finishing the re-done ship selection menu. You can click on the small image to see the full-resolution version.

There are several nice things about this setup.

A) All 4 players can simultaneously choose their ships
B) Any input can be assigned to any player
C) It could theoretically support downloadable ships (since no limit on screen space any more)
D) It's faster than the old selection interface
E) It automatically forces you to have a valid fleet (that is, the rings can only be filled in order)
F) Simpler/more intuitive for both ship/level selection

As you'll notice, I've for right now committed to a Xbox 360 controller. (Note: I really want to fix my icon for it. I misplaced the d-pad and right stick. Ugh!) Though I think a button-map and alternative button images for a different controller are fully possible. I can see myself at least doing a Logitech mapping as an option. I honestly would love to do tons of custom mappings, but that's probably too big of a time-consumer to do.

What's not visible in the picture is the amount of internal code cleanup I've done. I now understand Torque's scripting language much better and have been able to considerably shrink large chunks of inefficient code.

Sadly, I have no update on the levels. The 'Rocky Rings' board still has no rocks. And the AI has yet to improve. A professor of mine convinced me that artificial neural nets could make a nice basis for an AI. I will say that while I produced very smooth tracking/evading controllers, I was overall very disappointed with the result of my term's-worth of work. I will probably end up writing an FSM with a few configurable parameters for ship/weapon properties and call it good. The big challenge of the AI is that there are, right now, 27 distinct ships. Each have 3 unique configurations. (See example pictures.) This means the AI has to work for basically 81 ships. Obviously, balancing is an issue here as well. Right now, some battles between two very different ships are a blast, while others are tedious.

Finally, here are a couple videos: one from February, one from today. The low-resolution conversion of the fraps video clips out a lot of cool details. For example, several ships launch "mini-ships," which are AI-driven baby attackers that chase down your enemy for you. There are also a few powerups floating around, but it's not clear what they are in the 2nd video.

Feb: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKRt3z8v-04
Jun: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQJncaba7jc

Overall this project has been much more complex than I'd originally thought. Part of that is I allowed feature-creep for a little too long. (I've since cut many ideas out.) Part is I just underestimated how complex it could get.

On a separate note, I do have a far simpler game in the pipeline: mini-chess. This is a miniaturized version of the classic board game, complete with a solid AI and easy to use GUI. I wrote the AI as a term project and a friend of mine is doing the art. It's virtually done, unless we decided to put network support in. If I put a theme-changer into MC, you can bet a XVS theme will be an option. :)

Xeno Versus: Progress! Horrible Progress!

Chris Jorgensen — 2007-01-11T08:04:50+00:00

I believe the last time I posted was sometime in October. The time for a status update is now. "Xeno Versus", my Spacewar!/Star Control: Super Melee clone is moving along well. Progress has been such a long string of incremental updates, it's hard to recall what's been done over the span of the last couple of months. Recently, however, the trend has been adding new ships, weapons, and "special" abilities to the game. The goal is 30 ships, each with 3 different configuration levels (achievable via powerups), all with a unique weapon and a unique special ability. As you can see in this screenshot, there are right now something like 25 ships basically at this point -- though some are still in need of their weapons and all need their attributes tuned.

You might notice in this screenshot that four fleets of six, in this game mode ("free for all"), are used. They can be saved and loaded as well. The idea is that you strategically pick/save/load a fleet to counterbalance the opponent fleets, as well as take into account the board/level you're about to play in ("Space Sewer", in this shot).

Unfortunately, level progress has been slow. The goal is 10 distinct levels, 1 per each of the 10 species, with each specie's ships ideal for its environment. Not one is finished, though "Space Sewer" is close. The purple planet level below is called "Rocky Rings" and, as you can see, the rocky rings have yet to be added!

I am, however, pleased to announce that my manga artist plans on providing a drawing of each species as well, to accompany the ships/levels. I've seen the early sketches and, I must say, it's more impressive than what I shared in the previous blogs.

The AI, while improved, has struggled to handle the new weaponry added to the game. The weapons are unique enough that I may need to write some custom AI per weapon type. I may have a big update on the AI soon. :)

Okay, well that's enough rambling! I guess I just wanted to share that I'm still working hard on this game and my hope is still to have it at beta stage by March. To close, here are a few random screens. Nothing's too impressive yet, but I'm slowly integrating more unique/appropriate particle effects in there to spice things up.

Xeno Versus: 2D Space Combat -- Early Screens

Chris Jorgensen — 2006-10-10T16:02:09+00:00

Well, I promised I would put some screenshots up last time (instead of more splash screens) and today I've finally gotten around to doing that. This game is very far from completion, but I thought I'd share my progress. Some things are missing (final particle effects) and some art is temporary (the smooth green fog overlay, the bubble shield in the first pic), but I think these pictures are representative of what I'm trying to do with this project.

This last week I finally converted the game over from 2 player to 4 player, complete with appropriate default keybaord/joystick/AI assignment to the ships. (Though I haven't yet given players the option to change that default yet.) That made for a good excuse to rewrite a bit of lousy script. :)

So the game has 3 levels of zoom. The idea is that the camera follows the center point between the ships and zooms to a level that keeps all the ships in view. It is still being tweaked, but basically is working. I'm using zoom levels because constant zooming in/out tends to disorient the players, I've discovered.

Anyway, on with the pics! These are from a foggy/nebula level that I'm working on.

Zoom Level 1:

Zoom Level 2:

Zoom Level 3:

So the theme is basically manga comics. I thought the gray strip on the right looked like a black/white comic strip, though that wasn't my aim when I made it. the colored rings around the ships are supposed to indicate which player is controlling that ship. (Red is always player 1, blue always player 2, etc...). Before the battle starts, each player pics a fleet of 6 ships, and then uses 1 at a time versus the other 3 in battle. (As you can see, my AI is pretty dumb at the moment. It likes to snuggle the other ships rather than attack.)

I'd love feedback if anyone has any. This is still pretty early on in the process, but now seemed like a good time to post a blog update and get some thoughts.