With the other developers making comments on the game design and codeexplanations, I'm going to use this time to give a synopsis of GalCiv2'sprogress in a Visual Segment I'd like to call "Best GalCiv2 WeekEver!", where I pick the top 5 images that best show how GalacticCivilizations 2 is progressed this week. #5 - This ship is a test of the "Component" system we've worked up forcreating Custom Ships in GalCiv2. Here we have a fighter Hull Equippedwith Phaser Weapons in the front, ...
Since I suppose you need MULTIPLE installments of a series comparing weekly progress of a game...here's week #2 of 'Best GalCiv2 Week Ever'! The last few months we've been busy getting a playable version for Brad that could be taken on a "Media Preview Blitz" at the end of January. Since that has date has come and passed (with relative success, judging by the previews generated), we've re-focused on our next milestone: The March Beta. Jake and I have made it our goal to create ...
With the 4th of July cutting into the work-week of most Americans, and a miscommunication of company policy giving us the 5th off as well, everyone on the game's team had the pleasure of a four day weekend. I spent most of this time in Pennsylvania to celebrate the 4th with family, but was back on Wednesday to get some work done before another weekend decapitated my productivity. A roadblock was reached in the art department 2 weeks ago when we realized that there was no system in-place t...
Wow...You don't realize how busy you are 'till a milestone is reached - when you stop running, look around, and say "Where am I and how the hell did I get here?!" In the last month I've... - Prepared Web Content for the new phase of TotalGaming.Net - Attended my first E3 - Took my Wife of One year to Swim with Dolphins in Florida - Moved into the new Stardock Office - Wrapped up Beta2 and - Compiled a Long, LONG list of things we've committed to getting into the final game ...
It's that time of week where it's time to talk about how we spent our time during the week! Since March is looming which means our work on the Beta will have to wrap up pretty soon, I spent most of my week trying to finalize some important GFX, as well as look forward to future graphical related projects! #3 - First we have a test that I did to see how well Corel would work for making Ship Textures. The current problem we have is that, to get all the textures into the game wit...
Well, I forgot to post another Journal last week and got the "Disappointed Glare" from Brad, so I'm going to make sure never to forget again by lowering my standards! From now one, I'll only be showing the top 3 images of the week...not because it's less work, I just want to make sure to keep some surprises in store for the players. #3 - I always Enjoy seeing Concept art for Movies and Games, so this is a side-by-side comparison of the finished, in-game "Warp Dri...
With August half way past and summer slowly drawing to a close, our deadlines for Dark Avatar are beginning to loom. Luckilly, we've kept at a steady pace the last few months, meaning much of our hard work is starting to really come together nicely. Here are some of the major features we're working on right now.... Race Logos on Ships That's right, this is MY ship. Jesse, the man behind the "rotating jewelry" solution (for those that don't know, 1.0 didn't allow you to...
With the Epic Generator coming in at #3 on the poll, I figure it's time to give the faithful an update on the progress. When I first tackled this project, I was under the false impression that the difficulties would lay in the writing. Turns out I was wrong... very wrong. In my last dev journal on the subject, I went though and determined what story events I thought were needed to develop an interesting and accurate story. You guys posted some comments on other events that should be lo...
Ah, the UI of a turn based strategy game…so much info to convey, so little time to get it all 100% perfect. As players have invested hours and hours on our little space game, they’re finding many little UI issues that hamper the gamplay experience and can quickly turn a joyful galaxy-wide extermination into a click-fest nightmare. Well…perhaps not a nightmare, but certainly not as enjoyable. After the memory issues of 1.1 that went hand-in-hand with playing on a Gigantic galaxy, the wh...
While I believe the list hasn’t been finalized, Brad has given me the go ahead to begin work on one of the many new features that will be included in the expansion pack: the Epic Story Generator. As a simple lad with simple programming skills, the task seemed easy enough…write enough text so that, each time the player finishes the game, the player gets an multi-page story similar to the After Action Report’s Brad has posted. However, after playing a few games and mapping out the many MANY ...
Not much time to chat, but jsut wanted to update everyone on what's up on my side of the GC2 universe. We've been handed a short but intense crunch period as we get a preview build ready for our freinds in the press. This will most likely be the final write up done of the game before reviews start popping up, so we have to get some key components in to kick-up the 'wow' factor. On my plate we have the Human Ships. Hopefully you've realized that the current ships being used by the ...
Warning : This journal has nothing Frightning or Really Interesting about It. Read at your own risk of boredom. Hey GalCivers! Time for another trip down memory lane to see what got acomplished this week. The first thing that needed to get wrapped up was the Starbases. I never would have guessed they'd take this long, but, SUPRISE - I suck. Here we have all 5 phases of the four base types of starbase station you'll be able to build. Later on we'll of course have Terror Star...
This week was all about bugs , as you'll be able to tell from Mudflap's journal. After all the activation crap players had to put up with with the original Beta2, we figured a good ol' fashioned "Bug Fixes" build would be much more appreciated. If you've played 0.21 it you should notice a stabilization of saved games as well as a lack of crashing when dealing with enemy invasions. All good stuff that gets us closer to game game that can actually be completed! As for the art side, I got ...
** WARNING: This article contains shameless plugs of other Stardock software. If you're easily offended by cross-product whoring, I suggest skipping directly to another journal. ** Well, unfortunately I wasn't in the office much last week due to a death in the family (my Grandpa), which is never fun, but It's always great to get together with my family no matter what the circumstances, so It's all good. I got to see some of the pictures from my Grandparent's Wedding, and it's funny ca...
Currently available on Impulse is Beta1 of GCII version 2.0 (we're shooting for only one major Beta, but there may be more). I'll keep exposition to a minimum, so here's that list of remaining features you'll be receiving... New Negotiation Options Tech Brokering is a game setup option that restricts the trading of technologies to only those you've personally researched. This keeps tech-trade-spam to a minimum and gives some extra muscle to races more...