Wandering in the Wilds

I know your asking...Why I haven't updated my blog in a week? As I mentioned before I had about a month to work on the engine before I started back in heavily working on my freelance work (spriting) and it will eat up most of my time when I have the time.

This doesn't mean I have not worked on the engine or will not continue to work on it. It is something I very much think about the project regularly and keep notes on features and improvements, but actual time to work on it is currently sparse to be honest.

The work I do get to is mostly again, like the last post I made, all about working on the editor's UI and getting that ironed out. The core of the engine is there but it lacks the interface features to use them properly. Not to mention the plans I have for shadows and more interesting water I would like to get started on but I need the engine to be consistent and work correctly for anyone using it and that's why I need to get the editor and it's UI going so those features are usable.

Right now I am all over the place though, with the Isometric engine, my freelance work, and my day job getting very busy it is getting hectic for me but I continue to work on the engine just at a slower pace ;)

Thanks for reading my Blog! I will continue to update regarding the project and will move to at least a once a month post and more if I can and will keep you updated on any new screens or features I have for the engine. Again thanks for reading and don't forget to follow/comment below any questions you may have!

Progress

Hello Everyone :)

This post is more an update to the previous blog post regarding the very early alpha i had tested. Some had some extreme issues getting it to work while others it worked like I thought it would.

Starting off, to use the engine beyond just the push and load I had it setup to do, required a lot of editing and this was getting in the way of half my initial testers. I have a map editor in the works for this very problem as I knew it would be one and the early test just confirms it. I found several errors and bad error handling with this test and I'm still waiting on some feedback regarding some of the engines coding.

The general consensus I have concluded is that I may have released a to early of a version and to to many inexperienced testers. Which is a shame because a few was put off by it from a very early version. :(

First test version of engine passed out,

Yes the engine has started closed testing. Though it is extremely limited at this moment because the map editor isn't finished, I have been able to push out a test version to get a feel for how it will work for others both performance wise and ease of use.

There are a few hiccups though, the entire engine is being made inside GameMaker: Studio, which means previous versions of GM may have a few issues. I have ported the current test version into GameMaker 8.1, making all the necessary changes for that software. Regardless I get some weird errors (stream read error?), understand I have not used GM 8.1 in a little while so I haven't had the time to look over the entire engine for the problem but I am working on it.

I know guys, many of you still like GM8.1 and nothing wrong with that xD I will try and work out any issues and hopefully everything will work out good for it in that version of GameMaker. No link either ;) as I said this is an early test version when I do give a link I want it to have a map editor as that is an important part for keeping the engine simple to use.

Thanks for reading and sticking with me, I know all i have done for about a month is talk about it with nothing to download or show but it's coming!