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The Esa Dialog Engine has been completed! All the dialog possible in the game is an XML structure. This structure has multiple conversations. Each conversation has a bubble. Each bubble has text, a speaker, and optionally, choices. Each choice has a consequence, and optionally, another bubble. I have created a sample zone to the west of the starting area that shows off some of the possibilities. Of course there is no visible effect of the consequences (unless you have FlashTrace) . . so you'll have to use your imagination a bit.
Next I will create code to have the characters mill randomly around the screen... with an eye to installing some AI functions for hostile characters. ~mp |
Okay so I have decided to start working on the Esa Engine Demo again, after months of neglect. Here are the current issues I am facing.
First of all, the slowness. On my own computer and some others, I have noticed the engine runs VERY slowly (the guy takes 3 seconds to get to the next tile). It used to be that I noticed it on my own computer and no others, but now I notice the issue on most computers. I was trying to troubleshoot this with Kyle and we have a theory: it's a problem with Flash Player 10 browser plugins. When the swf is run alone with Flash Player it is fine, but from a browser with Flash Player 10 it is slow. I have seen one computer with Flash Player 9 installed on IE run it slowly though... more tests are required. I am going to ignore this problem for the time being. But I would appreciate some feedback, I'd like to know what computer/browsers/plugins run it ok and which run slow, and if this problem will be solved soon. I can find very little on this issue online. This must be one of the great advantages of developing for a standardized console (XBOX, Wii, etc.) - you don't have to take these kinds of performance differences into account!
I need to fix a bug where the pointer on speech bubbles doesn't always point to the right place.
I also need to implement and test the XML speech/conversation structures I've designed.
Then I will be able to move on to other aspects of the game; there are a lot of things I want to do with this that I haven't touched yet. ~mp |
Hey guys. I know I haven't been keeping up the site in several months, sorry about that. I've been busy with work, and playing chess, and such.
I have updated my online pgn file. They include games up to the Chicago Class tournament this weekend where I did okay (3.0/5.0 in Expert)
I am trying to figure out whether I want to move forward with my Flash AS3 RPG Engine (see Esa Engine Demo) or experiment with Unity. More on this later. ~mp |
The Esa Engine Demo now has some basic puzzle elements in it!
- Blocks: They can be pushed.
- Buttons: They can be pressed down, some need to be held...
- Doors: Some of them need to be opened by pressing buttons. Others can be opened by the hero but only from a certain direction.
Just these elements alone can combine in lots of fun ways. There is a sample puzzle north of the starting screen in the current demo. ~mp |
Within the last couple days I have made a lot of progress on Esa. Here is a short list of functionality added:
- expanded map
- can move in between screens, via walking off the edge OR new defined 'door' tiles
- improved performance when multiple keys are pressed at once to prioritize new directions
- fixed font embedding issue
- fixed focus issue
I recorded a 9 minute demonstration of the engine. As I type this it is being uploaded to my YouTube channel.
I'm feeling pretty good about what I have going on so far with this project! It's in a solid state now .. not sure where I am going next. I will keep you posted, secondepoch readers. ~mp |
For those of you who have been waiting for it, I have finally published a demo of the Esa Engine, my lastest attempt at a tile engine in Flash AS3. You can play with it - go to the Games page.
The character can now move, the screen centers around him as he walks, he does a 2-frame jig as he moves from place to place, changes facing direction, and detects trees. All in a night's work! ~mp |
Not much news. I have finally really started to get into my tile-based AS3 engine. It uses the E4X XML parsing technique that Kyle introduced me to. The code is much cleaner than the HKNC demo was! So far I can read in a stage from an embedded XML file and display the tiles (in two layers, Terrain and Wall.) Currently I am working on getting a player character in on the stage and walking around. I will be plunking the character graphics in a spritesheet too, rather than taking advantage of Flash's animation capabilities. Next I will work on scrolling the screen correctly to attempt to center the player, for various stage sizes (11x11, 20x32, etc.)
No demos. Maybe next time. ~mp |
I have added a JavaScript UNIX Millenium Bug Countdown to the site. In case you want to know exactly how many seconds remain until all our calendars are thrown into chaos, now you can.
My fit of retro gaming addiction continues: I have been playing Final Fantasy 1 on my Wii. My party is Fighter-Fighter-RedMage-WhiteMage, which is a rather unorthodox combination. I have not read any "reviews" of this party but it is very effective. The RedMage (whose name is Matt) will focus on supportive and status magics as opposed to attack. But I decided I had to have FIR2 because at this point in the game (Elfland) it's really important to have *some* magic offense.
More excitement: I have decided to start working on another Flash game. If completed it will be my first game written in AS3. It's going to be a tile based RPG and the map data will be stored in embedded XML. That is all I know so far. Kyle Sebestyen has been helping me develop strategies for creating an efficient engine. More on this project in the months to come.
Go Colts. ~mp |
I spent a little bit of time straightening up some tables around the site - mostly trying to improve consistency.
Also, using archive.org, I found a walkthrough for one of my games, GreenCastle Double Exodus, that someone had written long ago, and put it back up on the website in its old location.
Finally, I worked on the Second Epoch logo a little bit. It was the oldest thing on the site. At first I created a brand new design, but I didn't like it. So I decided to just do a simple variation on the old logo. It doesn't stand out too much which is probably good.
I have been playing The (original) Legend of Zelda on my Wii lately. I like that the game is very open and there are multiple techniques for finishing it. ~mp |
I have had the good fortunate of having some time recently to add content to the site. Taking the most effort was my AJAX tutorial, geared towards novice web programmers to teach them how to understand and start building AJAX applications. It's a work in progress; I'd appreciate any feedback on it.
I have finished an AJAX application of my own, LevenshteinMind. It's kind of like Mastermind. Give it a try.
Also made some CSS tweaks, updates to the Links section, and threw in an IP checker for good measure. ~mp |
It's been a while since I made an update to secondepoch.com ... but this one was a doozy.
- Firstly, I designed a new background pattern for the site.
- Secondly, I took out all the AJAX navigation. This I felt didn't add anything to the user experience and possibly created problems for some of my users with dinosaur browsers (not to mention search engines, though I don't care about that so much). Now the site is arranged into separate pages - with common elements included via PHP header files - like it should be.
- Thirdly, I redesigned the Games page to make use of the SWFObject library. And a couple of my older Java games are now back on the website! Check them out.
- I worked on the Contact Form a lot. It no longer uses AJAX, the output is neater, and it is much more secure than it used to be. I implemented Epoch timestamps, and timestamp offsets (to take into account the difference between the client computer's time and the server time). It was quite a fun project.
Renovations aren't quite finished but I am quite pleased with what I have so far. ~mp |
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