Sucker Shark

Initial 3d model of an enemy tentatively called the "Sucker Shark". They travel in packs, are quick and agile and attach themselves to the players ship sucking the oxygen out of it.

The oversized reflective eye is required for the deep sea low light environment.

The new book has arrived

The new xna book I ordered has finally arrived and I'm definately going to have to step up my progamming skills to put it to use but it looks like it will be very help on many fronts. I really like the way it's presented, in a "problem/solution" type of manner. It definately wasn't designed to be read through in a linear manner. It's more bite-sized bits of programming.

The majority of the book seems to be centered around 3d games, which will come in handy later, but there are also several lessons or segments on things I've been wondering about for "Deep Blue", such as save game states, game components, and signing in to xbox live.

So I'll be reading through sections this weekend.

Good 'n Broke

Oh yeah, she's good 'n broke now captain.

And I now have a plan "A" and "B". Plan A: is I continue trying to straighten things out as is (a plan that's taking much long than expected). Plan B: I've got my new XNA book coming in and maybe I'll find something that will help and make things click in there...but that isn't supposed to arrive until the next Friday :(

So, back to plan "A" for now.

Purchased a new XNA book

Just ordered a new book from Amazon: "XNA 3.0 Game Programming Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (Expert's Voice in XNA)"

The bad news is, it's not going to get here before my extended Memorial Day vacation is over. Whenever it gets here I guess we'll see if I've graduated past the "beginner" XNA developer stage.

Working on more concept art at the moment centered around the game's story.

Stone Squid Animation

Here's a look at the initial animation test for the heavily armored "Stone Squid".

I has no ranged attack but instead rams the player with it's heavy protective forward shell.

(rss feed folks may have to follow this link to view the video http://deepbluexna.blogspot.com)

Music is excerpt from an original piece for the game.

Christmas Lights...

I like Christmas lights, I really do. All bright and shiny, flashing and twinkling. They really set the mood for the holidays. However, putting the lights up may be one of my most disliked tasks. You dig out the box from the attic, open it up and pull out a huge ball of wires and bulbs.

No matter how well you TRIED to pack everything up the year before, it always ends up a mess. A mess you spend probably just as much time untangling, sorting, and testing as you do actually hanging the lights up.

"Deep Blue" right now is a lot like that ball of wires and bulbs. It's going to take a lot of untangling, sorting and testing to get things all straightened out. But I still believe that I will be able to get it all done, and when I do it will finally be done in a way that will be easy to adapt to and use in the future.

I'm studying the platform sample that was included in the XNA documentation at the moment. It's something I probably should have done, and would have done earlier had I know where to find it. Anyhow, I'm reading up on loading in an external file for level design and also still trying to encapsulate the classes in an intelligent and helpful way.

I'd say "cross your fingers" but at the moment, I don't think I need anything else crossed.

Another major restructuring

Crossing my fingers and toes as I'm about to hit the code with a great big sledgehammer with hopes that I can come out with a better structure...and not shatter the entire thing.

Major refactoring and encapsulation about to take place to improve the engine and lay a better foundation for the next game.

...here goes...