Because I'm once again getting tired of Java's insipid need for everything to be declared over and over (and over and over and ...). I've started looking for a different library/language/toolset to continue building MGS. Currently, I'm looking into a Haxe + HaxeFlixel or HaxePunk combo as they seem particularly designed around portability and ease of use, plus it seems like it shouldn't be too hard to port what I have using either library.

Yes, I know. It's rather weird to switch programming languages in the middle of building a game. I just tend to learn new things easier that way, and maybe one day I'll find the "one", that special language that has everything I could ever want (which so far, Scala is the closest, but it's still not quite there).

I finished the music system, and music now plays while playing the game. None of it's polished mind you, but that will come later. The only thing that worries me, is that music is currently a component. Meaning, for a music track to play, it needs to be attached to some other entity, like a mech, or bullet. This seems odd to me, but maybe I'm just too used to thinking in "objects" because of my job. I suppose I could just make a music entity with the music component attached, and have it switch out tracks as needed, or just attach a music component directly to the player.

Anyway, I haven't finished the sound system yet, as 1) I have no sound effects, and 2) again, I don't know if effects should have their own entities, or get attached to others. Or other option: have a sound component be a collection of given sound effects, which can then be activated by the attached entity as needed. Either way, I'll need some effects to populate the game, before I really get the system working.

Began adding the music and sound systems to MGS. They're implemented as separate systems, because one needs to play one thing all the time, whereas the other needs to play all the things one time. Since I'm building the game with an entity-component-system design, it's fairly easy to add new things quickly, but it's slightly harder to make sure each piece of the game only does the one thing it needs to. And does it right.

But at least with an ECS design, it's also easy to tear things out and replace them, so I'm not too worried about getting everything perfect at the moment. Maybe after I get the audio working, I'll add some level generation, or AI to the game. Hmm, decisions, decisions...

While I'm not completely happy with my first music track, at this point I probably need to work on the actual game again, since it hasn't been updated in awhile. So here's the current form of "Hit the Streets", we'll call it version 0.7 for now.

So here's an updated version of the music I demoed last post, along with the pictures I mentioned before. This would be a longer post, but I don't know what else to put, so... yeah.

I've made lot's of progress on the mgs theme today. There's a lead, pads and a new section of the track! Unfortunately, the power's out tonight due to a storm. Hopefully, it will be fixed by tomorrow so I can show (play?) it off.

The right muse is out there, I know it! I have some new musical ideas, which hopefully lead to something good. It's just a bass-line and some drums, but have a listen anyway:

Yeah, internet still acting up. So no uploads again. I have been looking back at some of my favorite games for inspiration to get my creative juices flowing (or something).

I've been practicing my artistic skills with my newish tablet recently. Sadly, the internet is out due to a modem issue, so I'm updating from my phone. Pics will be present tomorrow.

So none of these are actually done, but I said I would post music, so I'm gonna post music! Anyway, here's a couple of idea I've thrown together for MGS. I still don't really feel these fit the game's atmosphere, but I think I may not have as clear a concept as I thought.

So I've done a couple of simple tracks for the teams I'm helping this Ludum Dare. I was originally going to make a game myself, but a bunch of people I know were attempting LD as well, and I'm the only one with any kind of musical know-how, so I decided I would just help them out with music and stuff. I would post the tracks, but they're on my laptop and still unrendered, so music downloads will have to wait until tomorrow.

In other news, I finally have a solid idea going for my MGS theme, so I can continue that as well.

So I've been working on a game for Ludum Dare, which has taken most of time today (and probably tomorrow), but I have been working on music! Hopefully, this will kick-start my creativity so I can finish a track for Mecha Gunbuster Squad (the game I'm making for the streak).

Music things are not working as quickly as I would have liked, so no file yet. Plus, I'm attempting Ludum Dare this weekend, so updates may slow to a crawl for the next few days.

Been working on music for MGS, though I haven't added any systems to actually play it yet. The track's not really in a renderable state yet, so I'll probably post it tomorrow.

Fixed the weapon shot offset bug. Didn't do much else, since I'm really tired today. I'm going to get some sleep and try again tomorrow.

Still working on weapons. For whatever reason, shots spawn at a really weird offset somewhere in the middle of the map, instead of near the player like they should. As I rarely get more than an hour or two to work on this images and gifs will probably take a back seat in importance.

In other news, I've picked up a tablet and have begun practicing pixel art in order to fix my issue of never having art for my game ideas. So have an unfinished image I created using a reference I found via google.

Day 7:

Weapons proving to be more difficult to implement than previously expected... One can only hope tomorrow I will fare better. Image supplies dangerously low, have yet to find a new source of pixels, lack of a web-based run-time is a severe hindrance to the search.

Day 8:

This is in the future, so unsure of what it will hold. Not actually sure why I chose to write this part of the entry today...

I had a bunch of other stuff to do today, so unfortunately all I did was clean up the debug mode and fix the animation bug. I'm hoping to get collisions and weapons working soon and possibly figure out how to post some pics or something.

So I have the level map displaying again, and the character shows up again, but there's a weird animation bug. On the plus side, I've managed to implement a debug renderer alongside the texture renderer, so I can have cool wire-frame lines everywhere!

Next is to fix the bug, and re-add projectile spawning so the weapons work again.

In the process of restructuring things, I've managed to regress the game to the point where there is only a blue screen. I am fervently hoping that bouncing back will be quick and painless. Though just one is fine too...

So I decided to restructure almost all the internals of the game, because it should help in the long run. Basically, I went from tossing everything into one giant pile of stuff to tossing everything into several smaller, slightly more organized piles of stuff. Because smaller piles are better right?

A couple of weeks ago I was in a game jam. That's unimportant though, what's important is that afterwards I was inspired to create a simple demo with Mecha in it. Mecha Gunbuster Squad will be that demo. And maybe more...