xenoclone :. blog :. xenoclone.com

mini chess beta coming soon
Posted by Chris on 2/25/2008
In about a week or so, I will release a beta for mini chess. It should feature:

Two game skins (classic and bottlecap)

A challenging AI with 5 difficulty levels

Both local and internet multiplayer support

So check-back soon, mini chess lovers!

project still very much alive
Posted by Chris on 2/13/2008
I haven't been able to update the blog much. A few non-game-related delays are at fault. I'm in the process of buying a house and moving. Plus, I'm writing my MS thesis, which --surprise, surprise-- is time consuming. But progress on the space melee continues. The character art is still being created by MauiZu, and I've got a new ship near-ready to insert into the game.

revised ship selection
Posted by Chris on 1/9/2008
The selection screen has been heavily revised. It now features a simple drag and drop interface for both ships and inputs.

This reflects several big changes. Specifically, the game is being scaled back in order to be finished at a reasonable rate. The changes?

12 species; 12 "scout" ships.... replacing 9 species and 27 ships

~4 levels.... replacing 9 levels

3 ships per fleet.... instead of 6 ships per fleet

No ship "previews"

No saving/loading fleets
Levels will not wrap.... a "soft" boundary instead

revised split screen HUD
Posted by Chris on 12/14/2007
The HUD's been updated with a thinner border around the energy and health bars. This will probably be the standard HUD I use for the next beta (along with a mini-map, of course).

Next up? A solution to the wrapping issue; either a visual cue for when wrapping occurs or a some type of physical boundary will replace the wrap.

xeno versus split screen width HUD
Posted by Chris on 12/4/2007
I've added a HUD to the split screen. Note that higher resolutions will be supported soon. So the HUD looks disproportionately big in the low 800x600 resolution.

Blog Archive: October - November