Welcome to IndieZen.org, home of the Indie 2.0 Revolution

This week I spent the bulk of the time working with CEGUI.

I integrated the Lua scripting so that I can directly access CEGUI from FracU scripts, but I'm being careful as to not add a dependency to Lua in the common Zen scripts.

I added some functionality to the StateMachine implementation so that it'll handle nested state machines, and then I created a new state machine that handles transitioning through a series of splash screens, and you set it up by defining your own custom splash screen Lua table.  The FracU one looks something like this:

local splashScreens = 
{
    -- State machine to which this splash screen sequence will belong
    stateMachine = game,
    stateName = "splashScreens",
    nextState = "loginScreen",
    sequence = {
        -- image is the image for the splash screen, can be nil if method is not nil
        -- duration is time to display the splash in seconds
        -- interruptable is whether or not the 
        [1] = { image = "FracU.jpg", duration = 5, interruptable = false },
        [2] = { image = "gbslogo.jpg", duration = 5, interruptible = true }, 
        [3] = { image = "IndieZen.jpg", duration = 1, interruptible = true }
    },

    showMethod =          function(state, splashItem)
           ... this method shows the splash screen
        end,        
    hideMethod = 
        function(state, splashItem)
            -- Clean up in the state's onExit function 
        end, 
        
    onTick =
        function (state)
            ... this method handles fading in / out 
        end
} 

12 December 2009

Working through the weekend…

We all know the perils of neglected backups, but what do you do when your backups fail? I recently had a glitch while installing FreeBSD 8.0 in a multi OS configuration. It seems that with a SATA drive array one can cause all manner of problems with a simple alteration of the drive configuration.

As I mentioned, I was installing FreeBSD to boot from the same drive as another OS, Ubuntu, when I encountered a glitch.

Since my blogging efforts have lagged a little behind actual "weeks", this blog will cover the weeks from Nov 30th to December 10th, and I'll start blogging on Thurs or Fridays to cover the previous week.

For Fractured Universe proper, the only thing I completed in this past week or two has been to get the game client functioning on both Windows and Linux... I can't seem to find enough time on a Mac to get the Zen build docs completed, so I don't have a fully functioning Mac development environment yet.  Oh well, I'll work on that when I get some time.

I'm pleased with how I have the Subversion repo set up so far.  I used the "external" property so I could link to the IndieZen Lua scripts directory, and I placed that in FracU/core and FracU/mudbot.

For those that don't know, mudbot is my Lua IRC bot that I wrote as the beginnings of a MUD (multi-user dungeon).

It's not a fully functioning MUD at the moment, but it is useful enough to test different NPC and AI subsystems without having to use a full 3d GUI.  I prototyped my current NPC dialog and quest system using mudbot and I'll probably continue extending the functionality for additional tests and prototypes.

5 December 2009
Welcome to IndieZen

Getting it done, Indie Style. plus:
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Summary of the book by Patrick Lencioni

Indie Game Developer’s Guide – Team Building
Written by Tony Richards
Thursday, 03 December 2009 14:13

Whether you’re a beginner, hobbyist, aspiring game developer, or a seasoned veteran, this article provides some great guidelines and hints for creating a great Indie game development team.

The article assumes you’re putting together a zero or low-budget team to build an Indie game. It answers questions like “Who is the leader?” and gives you great advice on how to keep your team motivated and making constant, steady progress on your game.

If you’re considering starting a game development project or if you’re already part of a team, this article is definitely a must-read.

This article is a work in progress.. I don’t pretend to be an expert on team building. Lets discuss this in the forums under this topic (click here) and we can collaborate and polish this article. –read more–

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

There are five things to look for when building an Indie team. One of the most difficult points to handle in the Indie Community is the geographic isolation of your members. This makes the next five topics all the more significant when choosing your team members.