Posts categorized “News”
I copied a big chunk of my design document and placed it on the Link-Dead page in a place called Codex Link-Dead, which is a wiki dedicated to everything LD. You can read all my weapon and item plans. Don’t forget to also visit the screenshots gallery. And last but not least, there’s only 24 hours left to vote for Link-Dead for Indie of the Year 2010, go vote if you haven’t yet!
I’m going to have a lecture at the Warsaw Institute of Technology on Wednesday were I was asked by a club of game makers to make a talk. I’m excited to be there. The title of my lecture is “How to live from making games?”. Facebook page.
BUILD 1880 RELEASED
Bug fixes release.
Changes 1878-1880
[optimization]
– fixed minimalist render performance & improved overall lighting performance
– edge shadows don't render on low preset
[other]
– fixed grenade.png not found on server
[interface]
– increased menu scrolling speed
– fixed kill msgs colors
– your kills now appear brighter in console
– kill msgs are stamped with ! for kill and – for suicide
– changed channel button help is rendered at the bottom
[visual]
– disabled post-processing saturation filter (it's not so dark now)
[rats]
– fixed laggy rat behaviour
– fixed some rat behaviours
– rats appear on dead bodies during match
[network]
– fixed not destroying certain objects (this may have caused slow downs)
– fixed ragdolls appearing at top left corner on join server
[editor
– fixed editor collision delete crash
[balance]
– 5% less recoil on Hoor
– Nidhogg is 15% more accurate
– Scram cannon is lighter by 2.0 and 0.5s faster
BUILD 1878 RELEASED
I felt I need to make something for people that just start the game for the first time and need to target practice or are just waiting on an empty server for someone to join. An idea popped into my head: MUTANT SEWER RATS! When you join the game now the map will be inhabitated by living rats. Now these aren’t just moving sprites, they function as a little eco-system. Meaning they fight for food, mate and avoid predators. This mini-game in Link-Dead is a tribute to a game I played years ago called “Rats!” on Windows 3.1. Enjoy.
Changes 1874-1878:
– added rats
– fixed crashed caused by non-existing bots
– fixed crashes that appeared from crashrpt
– fixed console log crash
[balance]
– Scram cannon requires two shots at one spot to kill
– Nidhogg has a much bigger fire arc
[editor]
– fixed editor loading infinitely map when “Don’t use disk” option is on
– duplicate edges are automatically removed
BUILD 1874 RELEASED
Lots of changes that will auto-download once you start LD.exe.
Most important things are 2 new weapons for Ubermen & Mutants 
Scram Cannon – ramjet technology long distant rifle
Nidhogg – automatic grenade launcher
Added blinking lights, teamchat, a lot better use of pie menus when switching items and added a lot of fail safe methods to keep the game and server from crashing. Below is the complete changelog. Please note that the Factory map has been improved and edited so when you run this version for the first time it will need to render again, this might take up to 2 minutes.
To start playing go to this page.
Changes 1865-1874:
[gameplay]
– added team chat (toggled with right ctrl in chat console)
– ragdolls are now more responsive to bullet hits (more force applied on hit)
– fixed grenade not causing damage through platforms
– fixed explosion hit going through wall[weapons]
– added new Mutant gun – Scram cannon (sniper)
– added new Ubermen gun – Nidhogg (grenade launcher)
– Glitnir slugs now pierces through bodies
[map]
– added blinking hanging lights
– added more details to Factory underground
[interface]
– added grenade throw mouse cursor
– fixed changing key when clicked on preset
– pie menus: changed entire concept
– items are now in certain slots and are always in the same position from inventory
– pie menus: menu with 1 item is now called only on half of the pie
– inventory: only ammo from guns chosen appear in ammo belt selection
– inventory: last added item appears under mouse cursor
– action menu: grouped weapon actions in weapon group
– main menu: added “Don’t use disk (if pauses when moving)” option
[network]
– fixed possible double player respawn bug
– added fail safe methods to network code to prevent random data crashes
– fixed ragdoll velocity values over network
– disconnection if too much bad deltas
[other]
– moved light textures to Sprites/Lights
– added more detailed map loading messages
– map parts that were changed are now redrawn on map load
– added build number next to FPS
– fixed “Sounds/metal/bullethit_metal” file not found
– fixed messages on startup not being logged to console.txt
[engine]
– fixed more than 2 lights a time visual glitch
– optimized proper light+shadow rendering with RTT
– optimized shadow drawing (reduced shadow polycount by 90%)
– particles don’t draw out of screen too
– fixed not rendering sprites out of screen algorithm
– fixed fullscreen shader ATi compile error
[visual]
– bullet trails are rendered now with additive color
– fixed particle lighting on shaders
– modified flashlight texture
– UM bullet shells are now grey
– chrome difracts more
– ash particles don’t show on low presets
– fixed blood artifact on shaders on
– fixed minimalist render brightness
– new menu cursor
[editor]
– brushes can be saved and loaded
– added sprites context menu editing
– added free of GUI play test mode to editor
– map automatically compiles before play testing
– fixed playtest exiting
Stop what you are doing, go here – and VOTE Link-Dead for ModDB game of 2010!
New build 1865
I sat down and did some major optimizations. A couple ones were very obvious but I never got to do it cause I waited until it was really needed. The time has come and I present a new build of Link-Dead alpha. An interesting thing is a lot of performance waste was because of the sound engine, I didn't suspect that. Anyways I hope this works great.
Changes 1864-1865:
– added grenade explosion decal on wall
– fixed pickup and drop menus rendering outside screen bounds
– increased item pickup radius to allow picking from ceiling
– fixed editor crash
– fixed server crash when lots of traffic
– fixed loose parts of gostek warping from top left corner
– optimized sounds when body hits ground
– optimized many sounds playing at a time
– bullet impact sound pitch now varies depending on bullet velocity
– added splat sound when blood hits wall
– optimized decal painting
– reverb sound effects play only if fps > 60
– optimized actor raycasting
– optimized ragdolls
– fixed sliding ragdolls
– optimized sprites outside screen borders
– fixed climb speed when legs hurt
– fixed bug causing linux server to consume over 30% CPU
– removed player light
– fixed respawn queues not destroyed on client on map restart
– fixed double player after map restart
– fixed not respawning automatically after map restart
– player scores don't reset after round restart
– fixed wrong time and units count on server join
[controls]
– removed sneak option – walking is now silent
[balance]
– increased power of mutant pistol and shotgun by 10%