Sep 5:
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I'm still alive, but life is busy. I'll get back at
it one of these days.
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Aug 14:
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Slow progress. Network stuff is a lot of work, but
continues to "get there".
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Aug 13:
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Network code is almost done. Just have to add some
functionality on the scripting side (for "priority"
packets). Will also need to work with the level
progression/cutscene code for all the two-player modes.
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Aug 12:
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The first 2-player mode level (Jump-Fu) is pretty
much working. I just have a few issues to resolve in the
network code before it's fully playable. The network code
works for the most part, but is not terribly robust as
yet. It's still unclear whether lag will make Internet
play unbearable (it'll definitely require low ping), but
LAN play looks like it will be fun.
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Aug 11:
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Just got back from a week's vacation. Got a little
work done last night - cleaned up a bunch of bugs
introduced during the 2-player overhaul. Cobra is done
his level faq, and it looks great.
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Aug 1:
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Well, two player mode over the network is now "playable".
Lots of stuff still doesn't work, but the game basically
functions. The whole enterprise is complicated by the
nature of the game - lag is just not acceptable in a fast
action game. As such, I can't do a true "lock-step"
sort of simulation. Instead, each player will be running
their own simulation that will be periodically (quite
often) synced. This complicates things a fair bit in that
the sync code for each object has to be custom written (in
script), but I think it's for the best.
There's quite the flurry of Jumpman activity going on
right now. I can play a good reproduction of "Easy
Does It" in "Jumpman Lives", "Jumpman
- Under Construction", "The Jumpman Project",
or "Classic Jumpman". Crazy.
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July 30:
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Often in software development, you go through
long stretches of work that don't seem to add up
to anything, and then a small amount of
development that creates a large amount of
functionality. I think I'm just about to hit one
of those rushes. The game's network code is
beginning to function - server and client modes
both start correctly and name resolution seems to
be working well.
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July 29:
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I got a lot of work done last night. Cleaned up a lot
of things, and started on the necessary menus (and other
boring stuff) for two player mode.
I've had a chance to play "Jumpman - Under
Construction" a little more, and my opinion of it
goes up every time I play it. In lots of ways, Chris and
I chose opposite paths in design. At first some things
about UC bothered me, but I think that's the product of
being very, very used to "how things are" in my
own game. There's lots of stuff I'd like to see in the
game, but that's sort of "to be expected" in a
first beta.
I think he's done a very solid job, and I look forward to
see where he goes.
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July 28:
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Ah, the joys of summer. Since last entry, I've got
the two player mode working pretty well (on one machine).
I tried to make the second jumpman black, but it really
doesn't work with the color scheme. As such, he's just
got vaguely different colored skin and different clothes.
Anywho, I'm still not getting any development done. I
will get back into the swing of this at some point, but
summer just presents too many distractions.
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July 21:
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Did some more code cleanup. Two player mode is kind
of working - both players can move around. Right now, it
looks like the "two players, one machine" mode
will play split-screen (two wide screens). I tried a
couple plans for shared screen, and none of them work
well enough. For networked play, you just won't see the
other player unless he's on your screen.
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July 17:
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The game is working again after the refactor although
in there's still some real ugly hacks in there. I think
I'm going to implement the second player (on same
computer), then do an optimization run.
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July 16:
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I am still alive, though summer is not a time when I
do a lot of development. Last night I started on a bit of
a code refactor. I'm considering adding multiplayer
support, but I'm tired of working with messy code.
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May 7:
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I'm getting dangerously close to just calling the
game done. I'm tired of fiddling with these compatibility
problems.
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Apr 24:
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Last night I fixed a wall bug and enabled the ctrl
key for jumping. The only other issue outstanding is the
RagePro graphics problem. I'm starting to think, though,
that maybe the problem is really just with my test
machine. Tests on very simple scenes (that work on every
other machine I have access to) show an odd but
consistent texture problem on this one. Anyone out there
with a RagePro type card want to confirm this problem?
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Apr 23:
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So far, only positive word back on the new beta.
There's still some outstanding requests, but all in all I
think it's close to ready. With luck, I'll be able to fix
the Rage Pro problems in the next few days and we'll call
the thing done.
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Apr 22:
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The fourth (and hopefully final) beta release has
just been sent out. It's mostly a collection of small
fixes accrued over time. There's still a lot of "heard
of this once" bugs, and there's still some problems
on older video cards. In the end, I think I'll have to
accept that I can't release a perfect game. Still, so far
testers have been generally pretty happy with the game -
and hopefully a good few people will end up enjoying it.
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Apr 21:
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Somehow, time just continues to not be forthcoming.
This is frustrating, as the game is very close to being
done - just have some bugs and tweaks left, but no time
to tweak and debug.
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Apr 11:
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The testers are doing a great
job - finding lots of errors. Things are
progressing well. I've made some changes for the
next beta - lots of things are slightly sped up,
and you will be able to skip the animation on the
title/game over screens.
If you've played the "Followers" level,
you know how this jump is going to turn out.
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Apr 9:
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Well, the beta version is out the door. If you were
wanted to be part of the beta test and haven't got your
beta test e-mail yet, write me (if you already have
written me, I may have just lost your address in the mail
stack). I wouldn't mind expanding the beta by a few more
enthusiastic people.
In other news, the game now has a game over screen - so
be careful how you spend those men. If you have the beta
and are having difficulty testing the different levels (because
you can't reach them), do not despair. Write me, and I'll
let you know how to jump straight to any level (for
testing only, of course).
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Apr 7:
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I really had hoped "this part" wouldn't
take so long. I'm fixing a lot of bugs, and tweaking a
lot of things - but it's like playing "whack-a-mole".
Still, things are progressing.
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Apr 4:
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Slow progress. Blame Nintendo and the new Zelda game
if you'd like. In any case, I've tinkered around a fair
bit, and things look really quite good I think.
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Mar 31:
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Testing is proceeding very well. More people have
been able to get the game running, so the testing is
moving away from "getting it to work" to "making
the game better". People are coming back with some
great ideas, and slowly I'm getting some of them
implemented.
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Mar 28:
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It looks like the game is going to have to require
DirectX 8.1 installed. It'll be a hassle for anyone who
already has DirectX 8, but such is life. I fixed a couple
problems with sound that were causing crashes on machines
with odd/missing sound cards. Things are progressing.
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Mar 27:
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The testing process has been going really well. Many
more incompatibility problems than I was hoping for (and
the requirements may end up being higher than I'd like) -
but we've been able to work through a lot of problems and
things are definitely looking up.
Thanks to all the alpha testers for their time and
patience.
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Mar 25:
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Have done some more work on compatibility, and have
gotten rid of some stupid errors. I've done a lot of
testing and tweaking, and have fiddled with some
backgrounds, level orders, and such. The second alpha
test version has gone out - I'm looking forward to more
feedback on compatibility and game balance.
I've pretty much decided against using a fancy installer.
Unless someone gives me a good reason not to, the game
will be packaged as a self-extracting zip.
I think things are looking good - though I'm a month or
two behind schedule. Such is life.
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Mar 18:
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Well, "real job" is still crazy, but work
on the game is progressing again. Last night I fixed a
compatibility problem discovered in testing - the game
wasn't working with new nVidia drivers. Turned out to be
a silly mistake on my part (shocker!). Anywho, I'll be
continuing this compatibility work for some time, it
looks like. Once it appears the game is ready to run on a
good percentage of machines, we'll start the beta.
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Mar 11:
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Wackiness continues. I have got a little work done on
the game - specifically the credit screen. We've had some
technical problems with the game on a couple test
machines, so I'm going to spend some time working on
compatibility.
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Mar 6:
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I'm finally back in Edmonton (home) - and may even
have a few hours to play around a bit tonight.
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Mar 3:
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Sad news for me over the last week or two - another
death in the family. That, and more significant work
commitments, have kept me out of development for the last
while. I'm still committed to getting this game done (and
have actually sent out an alpha release to a few people),
but progress is going to be very slow until things get
sane again. It's frustrating to have a game 95% done and
not have the opportunity to finish it.
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Feb 21:
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Things have been conspiring lately to prevent me
working on this game. Work has gone crazy (and up until
yesterday, so had my intestines). In any case, I am
making progress on some fronts. Just not much.
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Feb 17:
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After a week, I'm finally back at work. My
grandmother died, and I went on the road for the funeral.
An extended bout of the flu hasn't helped either. Once
I'm caught up at work/school, I'll try to get some
progress made.
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Feb 10:
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I got a good bit of work done this weekend. Lots of
stuff done, and big changes to plan.
My original plans called for a set of 5 "two player
simultaneous" missions (though I didn't tell many
people about this). I still want to do this, but it means
too much building and testing and tweaking for a first
release. Instead, I'll release the full single player
game, and continue work/testing on the two player game
while the single player game is being played (hopefully).
What does this mean? It means I have 25/25 levels working.
The menus, options, and end screens are also well on
their way. What's left? As far as I can think, just the
items in the "tasks outstanding" list at the
top of this page. You'll also notice that I plan on
finishing the game editors after release. It will be up
to you to make sure I deliver on this promise - I won't
bother to do these unless I know they'll be used.
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Feb 6:
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Progress has been a bit slow of late. I
really need a good block of time to get everything sorted
on the new level - and that's been hard to come by
between work, class, and everything else. Perhaps this
weekend.
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Feb 3:
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Got back to writing content over the weekend.
Finished off a mediocre level that's been on the plate
for a long time and started on one that's looking really
good. I'm very tempted right now to change that 25.5/30
to be 25.5 out of 27. I want to get this game done.
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Jan 31:
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In response to my pleas for help, Dave Eccleston
stepped up to give some Direct3d advice. I've started
working through some of his suggestions, and I've already
reaped some healthy performance increases. With some more
work on optimization and making some engine changes he
suggested, I should be able to get performance back under
control (and get back to working on content).
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Jan 28:
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I worked a bit on performance and made very little
progress. The game seems to be spending most of its time
drawing scenes, and I can't think of any ways to speed
things up that won't break stuff. Don't suppose anyone
wants to volunteer some Direct3d expertise? The game
performs fine, except for a few levels on slower machines.
Not sure what to do about this yet.
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Jan 27:
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Over the weekend I worked on menus, titles
and the like. I'm not going with anything grand -
but I think everything looks OK (and sounds
great, thanks to Andrew's work on the menu/title
music). I'm also starting on performance tuning.
The minimum requirements are likely going to be
higher than I wanted (as I'm not an experienced 3d
programmer, and I make lots of performance
mistakes), but I'm working hard to push them down.
The light is clearly visible at the end of the
tunnel, but I still can't commit to any kind of
ship date. I want to be free to make these last
few levels just how I want them. |
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Jan 23:
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I got a little work time in over the last few days,
but I've really had a mental block as to working on
levels. As such I've been working on the menus, and
they're coming along well. I like how things are turning
out, although I'm not much of an artist. The menus are
driven by the same scripting system as the game levels
and objects.
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Jan 20:
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Over the weekend I put in a fair bit of work. Got a
new level pretty much done - it was a lot of work for
what will be a really short level. But it should be fun,
and should be entertaining to those who've read
interviews with Randy.
I've got another level started, but I'm not sure what to
do with it. It needs something more, but I'm not sure
what.
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Jan 16:
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I took a moment to fix a few bugs that have been
introduced into older levels as I've changed things
around. All the levels play OK again, and hopefully I'm
on to new levels again.
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Jan 14:
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The new level pictured below is all layed out and
works pretty well. Last night I also did a quick run
through of all the old levels. Turns out my changes to
the Jumpman control routines caused a few problems on a
few levels. Shouldn't take too long to figure out, but I
won't be doing it tonight. I'm starting an evening course
in Accounting (it relates to my real job) that will use
up my next 15 Tuesday nights. Ow.
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Jan 13:
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The green thing in this picture
features prominently in the new level. It plays
pretty well. All that's required now is the
actual level layout, but that seldom takes very
long. The jpeg image captures turn out a little
blurry, but (despite what many of you seem to
have in mind) this is basically what the game is
going to look like. I'll leave the eye candy for
developers who measure time in days instead of
minutes. Still, the graphics are due for an
overhaul - will get to that once all the levels
are working. |
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Jan 10:
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Well, the new motion routines are all in place, and
I've got no outstanding issues there. Movement feels a
fair bit smoother and cleaner. I considered leaving in
some idiosyncracies (as the original game had plenty),
but I think I'm going to try to root out any that I can.
It will make it all the more entertaining for you, then,
when you find some place where "If I hold down while
I walk by the bottom of this ladder, he does a little
dance as it switches from the ladder animation to the
walking animation and back."
I've got ideas for the 23rd level, but I haven't been
able to make them gel into something coherent. Hopefully
I'll get a few hours over the weekend.
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Development History - Page 3 |