The Developer's Corner

Thu, Nov 08 2001

I've not been working on the game I've been mentioning as much as I would like to - mostly because I got sidetracked by 3D Studio Max but also because I have been reluctant to get back into coding. I had originally done some work for the game using JavaScript since the engine I use, WildTangent, allows you to use a variety of languages to do the coding. But I realized after I'd done quite a bit of coding that JavaScript would basically leave my code open to the rest of the world :p So I decided to recode everything I'd done in Java as an applet but while I would often think of doing this during the last week or so, I never actually did <g> I finally decided to get off my rear-end and do it a day or two ago but it turned out to be not so easy - I should have known, right? :p I did finally got the basic stuff in place but then I've run into problems with the actual in game components ... aargh!

I had been working till now with basic objects (like spheres, cones etc.) to represent the in game objects but now I wanted to have actual, good looking (or not so good looking since I was doing some of the models myself :p) models and then I discovered that WildTangent could only work with DirectX (.X) format models and I was doing my stuff in 3DS Max! I found a couple of freeware converters which would convert .3DS files to .X files but none of them seem to do the job perfectly and the better class converters are obviously commercial and cost a lot of money. Now I'm on a quest to find a good converter that I can use ... ah the joys of working with computers :p
posted at 09:03:28 AM link comment

Mon, Nov 05 2001

I got a PlayStation 2 after I came back from Sri Lanka - I'd been waiting for the prices to drop but I got tired of waiting and decided to go for it :p Maybe I should have waited since I discovered after I bought it that the new Sony DVD remote doesn't work umm ... exactly right with the model I have <g> Don't get me wrong - the remote is great! I first tried the Mad Catz remote and that was a piece of crap compared to the Sony remote which works like a charm except for a little problem ... it needs a newer version of the DVD player software (than what's on the internal ROM I assume) and so the DVD player needs to be copied onto a memory card and the memory card needs to be always plugged in ... bummer! I hear that there is a different PS2 model out there - I believe SCPH-3001R) which is supposed to not need a memory card plugged in - probably because the ROM has the updated DVD player) but I don't have that ... so I have to have a memory card always plugged in and for some reason I don't like that :-)

Anyway, I'd got "Dark Cloud" with my PS2 but after playing it for about a week, I found myself extremely unsatisfied <vbg> I had expected more from the game after all the hype about it being "the game to get for PS2" but I found little quirks in the graphics (like the characters in some of the cut scenes moving like puppets - you know, their feet hardly touching the ground) that I didn't really care for. Plus, I had thought that this would be a classic RPG and was disappointed to realize that it was not - it was an Action RPG with lots of button mashing and I'm not particularly fond of that. The good news is that a lot of great classic RPG's (like Grandia II, Grandia Xtreme and Wild Arms 3) are coming to the PS2 but the bad news is that they're not here yet :p

In order to while away the time till all the classic RPG's come out, I went out and got "Ico" and "Escape from Monkey Island" yesterday and I must say that I'm pretty impressed with both the titles. "Ico" has this brooding, eerie feel to it which is almost palpable and the world of "Ico" just seems to come alive as you play the game and the puzzle aspects of the game are pretty interesting - not your usual, get this key, pull this lever, open this door kind of thing. I have only played through the first level (and I hear that the game is pretty short - only about 20 to 30 hours of game play ...) but so far it looks very promising. To fans of LucasArts games, it is not even necessary to say that "Escape from Moneky Island" is a great game :-) The humour, the characters and the settings are all back and except for the frequent stops while new scenes are loaded (and that gets to be really irritating after a while - this is where I'd like to have the built-in hard drive from the XBox :p), the game is really neat ... I do wonder though, are the puzzles in this incarnation of Monkey Island easier, or is it just me?
posted at 09:45:04 AM link comment

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