Unity 3D Platformer Video

Although it has been quite a while since I’ve posted anything regarding my Unity 3D platforming game, rest-assured development has been ongoing. To prove so, I present an actual video demonstrating the gameplay:

All of the basic functionality and gameplay are present and working with just a few lingering placeholder items and animations. I have also nearly finished a much more extensive blog post regarding the development process from when this project first began to where it is now. I should be posting it in the (very) near-future once I’ve compiled screenshots and other media to go along with it.

Venture in to UDK – That ended with Unity

Starting with UDK and venturing in to Unreal Script.

After working in RPG Maker and getting a grasp on Valve’s Hammer Editor I decided I wanted to pursue a standalone 3D creation utility. Having watched many tutorials and created a basic map using the editor with Unreal Tournament 3, I decided to give the UDK a go. Many of the things I learned in the Unreal Tournament 3 editor carried over to UDK so straight away I was presented with a familiar interface. This was great for level creation however there was still so much more to UDK that I never had to learn with Unreal Tournament 3. Items such as importing resources, creating materials, and working with skeletal mesh physics and animations to name a few.

Sidescroll2-UDKI would learn to address these over the coming weeks as I decided on the type of game I wanted to create. Given the abundance of first-person shooters churned out with UDK, I wanted to take a slightly different approach; the platformer (which there is also no shortage of using UDK). Given I am far too inexperienced to create a platformer akin to Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie, I decided to go with the sidescrolling platformer route – ala Contra. I eventually came across a blog on the Vectorform Labs website with some great starter code to create a sidescrolling shooter through UnrealScript. It was implementing this when the realization set in that I would need to gain at least a basic understanding of this programming language.

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Putting the Raspberry Pi to Use

After countless months just sitting in my closet, I have finally found a practical use for my Raspberry Pi. I made a previous post about making a power box for it, and I finally decided to finish it. The box itself was all wired and basically set to go but after sanding it, I never painted it. Well the paint is (finally) drying on it as I type this.

Before doing that however, I hooked it up and began to configure some software for it. After installing the newest version of Raspbian (Debian), I took to installing PHP, Apache, MySQL, and Mantis Bug Tracker; the later being the most important. I’ve been considering bug tracking solutions for a while now, but popular ones such as Jira are just too expensive and the WordPress plugin was a bit too simplistic. Finally comparing Mantis to Bugzilla, I decided to go the Mantis route.

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Geomagnetic Background Information

Geomagnetic Plight (working title) is a side project I decided to start up to develop alongside The Ethereal Plains. I figured I could use something to distract me when I start to find work in The Ethereal Plains too tedious. In addition, I’ve been wanting to start up a project which takes place in a more modern setting (inspired by games like Earthbound/Mother 3).

The general premise for this game will revolve around strange things occurring after the magnetic poles shifted (known as geomagnetic reversal) and our “heroes” set out to find the truth behind the event. The story is still a work in progress, but in addition to not taking itself too seriously, it will take place in “this world”. When I say that, I mean there will be references to things in real life (video games, events, pop culture, etc). While not the primary focus, there will be a minor time travel element which plays in to the main story as well.

Again, this is simply a fun side project to my main one so it likely won’t see the light of day until work progresses further in to The Ethereal Plains. Or I may become completely distracted by it at some point; who knows? 🙂

Raspberry Pi Power Box

Upon receiving my Raspberry Pi, I immediately got all sorts of ideas as to how I could implement it in to a fun project. My original plan was to build a case out of acrylic and implement a keyboard on to the top of it, similar to a Commodore 64. However since I have no access to tools capable of cutting acrylic correctly (and I don’t want to pay to have it laser cut), I scrapped that idea.

Next I thought I could modify an enclosure to house it and a USB hub together. I picked up a project box from Radio Shack after figuring out how much space I would need and proceeded to work with it. I eventually found it far more difficult than once though. Primarily due to having to re-route all of the various I/O ports from every side on the Raspberry Pi to a single side on the box. I knew I could get the cables and ports necessary to do so, but that would really cramp the inside of the box. In addition, having to dremel openings for all of that as well as the USB hub itself was a task I just did not want to do.

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