So, first off, I’ve been doing more work on Fix (which is going to get a new title some time between now and release), and I’ve got a little video to show one particular aspect of it:  NPCs!  I haven’t worked on the NPCs for very long yet, but it’s already looking promising.  Here’s a video to demonstrate:

Pathfinding test

The behavior that explains how to follow the player is still pretty clunky, but the pathfinding itself is really solid.  It works with more complex levels than this, like ones with doors that open and close, etc.  It’s also insanely fast–way faster than I expected.  The last time I made any pathfinding in ActionScript, I was using AS2 and it was so slow I had to calculate it over the course of several frames.  This time, even though the logic is much more complex (mostly because it’s a platformer, so gravity applies…), a path can usually be computed in less than one millisecond on my machine.  A big part of this is AS3′s improved performance, but I assume that I’ve also gotten at least a little better at coding.  Regardless of the reason, I’m definitely pleased with how it’s coming along and I think that the NPCs in this game will really shine by the time I’m finished.  Since the “other people” are one of the big focuses in this game (in contrast to Company of Myself, which is all about Jack), this is a very, very good thing.

I’ve also got a little bit of news involving what I’ll be doing next year, but first, a little refresher on what I’m doing now.

I’ve been in a four-game sponsorship contract with Armor Games for a long time now.  Viricide was the first game for this contract, followed by Work of Fiction, and most recently, Fisher-Diver.  Fix will be the fourth and final game.  This contract has been incredible for me because it equates to consistent work in a market where I previously never knew the value of a project until it was already completed.  (For all of you who have never tried making Flash games, imagine trying to organize a project involving several paid artists when you don’t have any idea how much money you’ll be able to pay them until some time after all of their work is complete.  Summary:  It’s balls.)

Anyway, recently, I got an email from an old friend about a possible games industry job for me.  I’ve been following through, and it’s looking very plausible.  I don’t want to bother getting into details about it here because I still don’t know how it’ll turn out, but it’s for a very notable company and it seems that they like me.  I’m not looking for a permanent job right now, but having some experience/presence at a company like this seems like a good idea to me.

What does this mean for you guys?  Well, if I don’t get the job, it means nothing will change.  If I do, however, then Fix might be my last independent project for a little while.

I guess that means I’ll have to make it extra good, just in case!

First off, you noticed the new layout, right?  Maybe this is how coquettes feel when they decide on a new hair style.

Basically, I fucked up the old website with my goofy shenanigans and couldn’t seem to fix it, so I reinstalled WordPress and picked a shiny new template.  It’s wonderfully simple and ought to make browsing this site a little more pleasant.  Props to the designer (whose link is sitting at the very bottom of the page)!

Second, Fisher-Diver is juuuuuuuust about ready for release.  Literally any day now.  Not sure how long Armor will take to put it up (since they have all this stuff prescheduled), but they usually take a week or less.

Finally, just for fun, here are two photographs I took a couple of days ago.

Alright, there’s been some problems with spam on the blog lately, so I set up a new spam blocker.  Hopefully it’ll work better than the previous one.

In other news, This is a Work of Fiction continues to move along.  The gameplay is starting to work now (it’s an implementation of the Link-A-Pix puzzle style), which means you guys will probably get to see it relatively soon.  Keep an eye out–I’m really satisfied with where the game is going.

Whoops, turns out my website was broken in a few ways.  Comments didn’t work for blog posts, and category pages didn’t work either.  The culprit was shifty URLs for both of them.  Should be fixed now.  Quick, post comments and stuff!

Alright, so the site is finally back online.  A friend of mine was hosting it for a while, but the surge of people visiting as a result of Spewer was enough for him to kick me back out onto the street.

The site’s back now, though.  I’m gonna be picking a new visual setup and trying my best to get things running smoothly again, so be patient, for the moment.  Once all this shit is handled, I’ll get back into showing off what I’m working on.

For now, try to stay entertained with the rest of the internet.