In the May post, I mentioned I should talk about the 'plugin-based gameplay' thing I was doing. I'll talk about that now.
Mega-Risk is not meant to be a static game. It's intended to have as much community-created content as possible. Why? So that there can be as many maps, game modes, and various customizations as possible.
I described the settings system in April. The main purpose behind that was to allow players to tweak every facet of Mega-Risk possible to make every game a little different.
Along with this, I'm trying to make it easy for people to add their own custom content. I've already started to plan a content-creator/map editor when(or if) the base game gets 'completed'.
I was having a hard time trying to figure out how to make stuff made in this map creator into Mega-Risk when I found out Unreal has a built-in mod system (Plugins).
I have since decided to use this in the development of Mega-Risk. Everything outside of the base functionality (territories, multiplayer handling, etc.) will be built as a plugin. This includes any base maps or other assets that would be included in the main game. By doing this, players will be able to completely replace the main Mega-Risk stuff with their own.
That's basically all there is to say on that.
Friday, July 29, 2016
Well, there goes summer
I believed this summer would be all about putting Mega-Risk together and getting everything done 80s montage-style.
I was wrong. I was so very wrong.
For those of you who do not know me personally, I will be moving to Seattle this August to attend the Academy of Interactive Entertainment for the next two years before (hopefully) being trebuchet-ed into the hectic world of Video Game programming where I'll be paid to transmute caffeine into code.
The key word in that statement is moving.
I have never moved before in my life and my parents have not done so in about twenty years. Furthermore, none of us had any experience finding a home in a major market like Seattle. We had no idea how much that, as well as all the other things having to do with starting college, would dominate our lives.
So, in between apartment hunting and filing out paperwork and scheduling meetings with school people, I have not had 24/7 to develop Mega-Risk as I had hoped. Also, to be honest, some days I have spent some of my free time away from the project for good and bad reasons, taking in my last true gulps of free summer before the eternal cycle of adulthood becomes my life.
Anyway, enough about me and my excuses, let's talk about MEGA-RISK.
For the most part, I've been making that 'glue' that I talked about last post, connecting some of my disconnected code bits and adding some more multiplayer implementation.
I've also been reading about a lot of concepts I'm not too familiar with. Specifically, I've been looking into file manipulation (having the game do stuff with other files, for config purposes mainly), the built-in save game system, plugins(mods), and a lot of stuff on how to make a multiplayer game run without imploding or breaking immediately(this is the hard one).
Also, for the last month, I have taken a kind-of break from the main Mega-Risk project. Another IRL Mega-Risk thing is happening over here and The Creator is trying out a Westeros-themed board and ruleset with a ton of RPG-like mechanics.
After realizing how hard it was going to be to keep track of everything, I decided to make a Mega-Risk companion app of sorts that holds tracks stuff like how many territories/continents people own, current diplomatic statuses between players, and (now) all the Westeros-RPG stuff.
I also want to have it do some of the more tedious things like calculating reinforcements or letting us know when to play a special event card.
I've used this as an excuse to try out some of the more abstract features I want in Mega-Risk like save games and diplomacy and config files.
So I haven't strictly taken a break from Mega-Risk, but I have paused work on the main project itself. I don't want to make an promises about when I expect to be able to add a bunch of new stuff, especially with game school just around the corner, but I do hope to get back to the main game soon.
I was wrong. I was so very wrong.
For those of you who do not know me personally, I will be moving to Seattle this August to attend the Academy of Interactive Entertainment for the next two years before (hopefully) being trebuchet-ed into the hectic world of Video Game programming where I'll be paid to transmute caffeine into code.
The key word in that statement is moving.
I have never moved before in my life and my parents have not done so in about twenty years. Furthermore, none of us had any experience finding a home in a major market like Seattle. We had no idea how much that, as well as all the other things having to do with starting college, would dominate our lives.
So, in between apartment hunting and filing out paperwork and scheduling meetings with school people, I have not had 24/7 to develop Mega-Risk as I had hoped. Also, to be honest, some days I have spent some of my free time away from the project for good and bad reasons, taking in my last true gulps of free summer before the eternal cycle of adulthood becomes my life.
Anyway, enough about me and my excuses, let's talk about MEGA-RISK.
For the most part, I've been making that 'glue' that I talked about last post, connecting some of my disconnected code bits and adding some more multiplayer implementation.
I've also been reading about a lot of concepts I'm not too familiar with. Specifically, I've been looking into file manipulation (having the game do stuff with other files, for config purposes mainly), the built-in save game system, plugins(mods), and a lot of stuff on how to make a multiplayer game run without imploding or breaking immediately(this is the hard one).
Also, for the last month, I have taken a kind-of break from the main Mega-Risk project. Another IRL Mega-Risk thing is happening over here and The Creator is trying out a Westeros-themed board and ruleset with a ton of RPG-like mechanics.
After realizing how hard it was going to be to keep track of everything, I decided to make a Mega-Risk companion app of sorts that holds tracks stuff like how many territories/continents people own, current diplomatic statuses between players, and (now) all the Westeros-RPG stuff.
I also want to have it do some of the more tedious things like calculating reinforcements or letting us know when to play a special event card.
I've used this as an excuse to try out some of the more abstract features I want in Mega-Risk like save games and diplomacy and config files.
So I haven't strictly taken a break from Mega-Risk, but I have paused work on the main project itself. I don't want to make an promises about when I expect to be able to add a bunch of new stuff, especially with game school just around the corner, but I do hope to get back to the main game soon.
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