I’ve worked ALOT with files and ways to make the game “editing friendly”. By this I mean I’m creating Editors and ways to save and store stuff to later load these in the game. Currently I’m finished with the MapEditor, CharacterTexturePlaceHolderEditor (haha) and the EnemyClassEditor. But note that, nothing is never really “finished” – it can always be improved and adjusted.

Even though Jason have been extremly busy and packed with other work and we’ve hardly been able to meet up – these weeks it has been exciting. He’ve amazed me alot.

But aswell, ALOT of tweaks and adjustments aswell. Enemy AI, glitch fixes and so on. We currently consist of around 4 000 lines of code (which I actually feel is quite little…).

And yeah, Jason went for some sort of Business trip (I guess) for some days – meanwhile I’ll work with some more Enemy AI which is very fun and I hope to surprise Jason with alot of cool updates as he gets back.

Folks we’re moving forward!

changelog:
16 aug 09
15 aug 09
ItemShop basics set up
Small fixes to the map writer done
ItemShop items added
Added “item cost value” method for the items
Added buy option to item shop, with currency decrease
Grouped up inventory items, instead of using 1 single spot for 1 single item
Map writer modified to save item shops
Cleaned up the map folder from old maps
Todo: Ask jason regarding ground elements clean up
Todo: Character currency/inventory saves by map ends
14 aug 09
Ingame component now manage the character drawings
Added leafs (health and mana bars) loaded from the char file
Inventory system added
Inventory items added + toss option
Inventory use option added
Currency added to inventory
Removed “Ground Segments” from the map editor – since “SilentObjects” are more effective
Todo: Add inventory pick up support

It started of yesterday as Jason was working within the Map Editor. Until he eventually faced a very annoying issue. The end summary screen just kept showing up everytime Jason started the game.

Okay yeah well that’s okay. He got online later today and I fixed the glitch. But the thing is, this day was so awesome! Since Jason had drawn like awesome and created totaly crazy new content.

So as I sent him the new version, he unpacked it and then we didn’t realise that the newer version would overwrite all the new stuffs Jason had done!

We had no backup, and Jason had to leave same day for a trip during the weekend. “=)”.

So yeah, that’s about it. We lost all that amazing work and left there is only one screenshot of the art. So my plans for the weekend to work with just faded away, and instead I get todo boring stuffs such as glitch fixing and small stuffs here and there. >< Argh!

I wonder how many more of these we will achieve ?

Okay this I just awesome! Alot been going on this week, we’re working alot and the development is rolling on. We’ve also decided to throw in a little name change. So we’re now: The last Takumi: The rise of the Sakura spirit.

Okay so alot of you people might wonder, what is this game and what is it going to be? Well we’re aiming for to create a highly addictive ‘n satisfying 2D beat ‘em up game. With loads of touches of the ancient japanese culture. We will achieve this by combining unique ideas, high quality content, and polishing.

It has been alot interesting and exciting stuffs happening to the game these days. Jason have been drawing like ‘Awesome’, and I’ve been doing small stuffs like adding features to the map editor, cleaning code etc.

And Kevin has been having a flu so I hope he’ll recover soon! Alot of brain storming was done yesterday and today and we now have a quite good look at stages and the form of the game.

And yeah! Please let me state this from Jason: “this game is gonna kick ass…so save your pennies and tell your friends, lol”. Ahah !

So now I’m going to return to fix the huge Map save glitch I discovered ><. And aswell to watch as Jason is making freaking awesome new assets!

Rock on!

After many long nights among with Jason the map editor of the game has become quite powerful. These last days I finished the new midground system, added a sort of “block line” support for creating invisible collisions, layer support etc. Although there are a few stuffs to come aswell, such as animation support.

And yeah! I also did create some character basics, since we don’t have any character graphics we’re using a “black rectangle” for now… Maybe we should keep him?

And hopefully tonight I hope we’ll see some new graphical content.

And we also created a sort of “sub name” for the game. “The dead Takumi: The rise of the Sakura spirit”.

More to come, cheers!

Been using the power of the System.IO ref. It’s a great thing to store specific information regarding stuffs, such as a specific map in this case.

I’ve just started getting the character stuffs working, which currently is a “black rectangle”.

So we’re really moving now with the development. Everyday, we get one step furthur to our goal of Xbox Live Arcade.

So if you’d like to follow our journey of a Xbox Live Arcade game development, please feel free to come back when you want!

First off, let me apologize for the inactivity of this blog due the last months. To be honest, The dead Takumi Was canceled. Due or artist leaving we ended up with very confused and we putted the game aside.

I made a post on the Xna community forum looking for replacement. I had a huge income of mail in my mailbox but they were basicaly all Pixel Artist – and I wasn’t going to move on with Pixel Artists, because it just wouldn’t fit the style of the game I’ve had in my minds for almost a year now.

Until a few days ago I recieved a mail from a very passionated artist. And by now everything seems great and finally my endless nights with the tea addiction is coming back! I actually believe that this game will reach an even higher standar than we had before. Welcome Jason, you’re very awaited. And thanks Kevin (our musician) that you never gave up with the project.

Although we won’t make it to the Dream Build Play deadline – we still have the goal for an Xbox Live Arcade release. Aswell there have been a few changes to the story line slightly.

So yeah… we’re back!