Update 23: Alpha 1.6 - Lots of stuff finally released!

Alpha 1.6 has been released. This represents about 10 months of (part time) development, and is finally a little mini game. Admittedly a game without much depth, but still a game! Included in this release (since Alpha 1.5) are:

• New cameras
• Timing fixes all over
• A very basic AI
• New character models and animations
• More dynamic explosions
• Targeting indicators
• More advanced stress testing
• Links to the currently active test levels
• And lots of little bug fixes

This is all pretty exciting to me, and I've started working on a story/theme for the next step, while I also add in some feature requests and refine some of the mechanics a little.

Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think!

http://www.samsmithnz.com/content/tbe/tbe_alpha1.6.zip

Update 21: Alpha 1.57 - Upgrading the character model

With the timing fixed, it was time to take the next step in implementing line of sight. 

An early line of sight mechanic highlighted how simple my character models were. As my characters are still just a single object (cylinder), cover effectively made my targets invisible if the one point of balance in the center of the cylinder was behind cover. It was time for me to develop my characters a little, to have multiple points (head, arms, body, etc).

Heading to my sketchpad again, I tried to design a simple model about the height and width, with arms, legs, a body and head.

The new model ends up looking a bit like this (with the old model to the left). It's a little silly looking, but is enough of a person for me to continue building the game engine.

What does he look like in a level? This is some basic animation I am using to aim at a target (The right arm is at 90 degrees - like I said "BASIC"). There is still a long way to go, but this is at least an upgrade from the cylinder.