Random World Generator

These last few days, I've been taking a short break from hardcore gamedev. During this time I've been messing around with a terrain generator in JavaScript.

I'll be writing a tutorial on some of the techniques used here soon but until then, here are some screenshots. I took a screenshot after every major change so you can track the progress and the steps that were taken fairly well.

Basic terrain generation using 3 different Perlin values per tile.

Modified water depth falloff .

Added beaches.

Smoothed out the Perlin noise and enhanced the water falloff further.

Implemented a basic occlusion shader.

Enhanced the shader.

Implemented full ambient occlusion in the shader.

Modified the water depth falloff even further.

Added color interpolation for the heightmap and scaled terrain.

Just a test to see what it would look like without an ocean.

The Official Website is up!

Here's the link. Go on, click it!

The last week, I've been spending some time getting all my scattered info, screenshots and code together and made a pretty website where you can easily check the state of my projects.

Don't worry though, the blog will still be your main source of getting up to date information on what crazy things I've been keeping myself busy with and on that note, you can expect a post on my One Game a Month: January game soon.

It's that time again!

The holidays are upon us and the air is rife with festive spirit. The perfect conditions to stock up on supplies, close your curtains and shun humanity. If you're not with me yet, I'm talking about Ludum Dare 25. That special time of the year when game developers (both professional and aspiring) hone their asocial skills and attempt to make a game in 48 hours.

Despite what my lack of posts these last few months would indicate, I have not been idle. Since LD24 I have been working on my very own JavaScript + HTML5 game engine which I plan on using in LD25.

Here's what the engine includes so far:

• Basic interval/callback management
• Keyboard + Mouse input control
• Simple, yet dynamic, UI creation
• Random number generators (Including Perlin noise)
• Simple canvas management and drawing routines
• An AI subsystem utilising the A* algorithm

To test the library (and make sure its functionality stays generic) I have been working on 6 mini game that utilise it. Included in this is an HTML5 version of Scorched Earth. 

Hopefully, LD25 will inspire me to start being more active on the blog again and maybe even to get back into some C++ development.

So, please check back this weekend as I will be updating t his blog often as I make progress on my submissions. And feel free to let me know if you will be taking part in LD25 so I can drop in when I have a few seconds to spare.

Where's the Wofl?

From the depths of inactivity, I welcome you back to my blog. For those of you who visit regularly in the hopes that I've gotten around to posting something; my apologies for keeping you waiting this long.

The cause of my hiatus is twofold. Firstly, Diablo 3 was launched and I've logged a lot of hours on it (let's call it research, shall we?) and secondly, I have a huge deadline at my RL job that's coming up very soon. That said, I will be posting something new this weekend.

I haven't been 100% idle with my indie development. I've been doing some experiments with statistical models for generating random data - specifically Gauss Distributions and trying to find better ways of generating data based on that model in code. D3 has been quite an inspiration concerning RNG and I hope that my new ideas will translate well into what I would like to achieve in my game projects.

So, until this weekend, I bid you all adieu.

Continued Absence

Just a quick note to apologize that I haven't posted anything recently. Ludum Dare left me very unwilling to do any sort of typey-typey. Regardless, I will rectify the matter post-haste come this weekend.

Until then, thanks for checking back.

Where have I been?

Many of you might be wondering why I haven't made an update in two weeks. Largely my absence has been due to me not having implemented anything presentable in this time. Also, I have been working on a new voxel editor.

As many of you know, Ludum Dare is taking place next weekend and I'm hoping that I can do another mini voxel game for it. The improved voxel editor is something I'd like to use to create my assets with for LD so hopefully I can get it in a state of semi-awesomeness before then. Like last time, I'll be using this devblog to showcase my progress during the competition.

I'm still here.

Hi all, I've noticed lots of people have been checking back for updates and I just wanted to let you know I haven't disappeared.

I've been reimplementing my voxel engine (the architecture was rubbish) and I've also written a voxel editor. Check back in the next two days and I should have some screenshots up as well as a more thorough explanation of where I'm going with this game.

Until then.

Back in 2012

It's a new year and I'm sure everyone's terribly excited to be in it. I hope you all had wonderful holidays and parties and that you came out on the other side with your dignities intact. But, it has ceased to be 2011 and started being 2012; a miraculous occurrence which warrants making unbelievably imprudent (and sometimes impudent) decisions regarding what you will achieve in the new year.

'New year's resolutions', or as I like to call them: 'the best way to ensure something will not get done', are a farce and I will not take any part in them. That said, announcing that this year will be the one in which I actually finish a project may sound a little bit Pharisaical. 'Fair enough', I might respond to such allegations, without offering any counterargument. 'Counter-argument looks better when written with a hyphen, you barbarian.', you retort and I shamefully accept the remonstrations of my obviously superior subconscious. But I digress.

I am not completely ready to announce what project I will be completing but you may take comfort in the fact that it will be amazing and possibly very closely related to the original idea for Project Vox (which was basically an experiment and not something I intended on completing...cough). Am I the only one who ever worries that his full stop's may be italicized?

So happy new year everyone and check back soon!