I'm baackkkkk.

I RETURNNN! Yup, I've been on break from gamedev-ing for a while. Mostly due to my laptop needing to be sent back for repairs and school.

I'll be getting back to work on Lone: Outskirts Expansion pretty soon! I also want to see what I can do with Revelations. I also have a new ideas for the future of taeHD (tae3D just isn't viable for being done in Multimedia Fusion 2, the app I use for my game development) including a way to manage seamless "Frame" transitions, future Open World games will switch between areas much better than ever before, this hasn't been necessary for  any of the current set of games, though. Revelations or Lone. Nations will probably use this, as well another game concept I'm still thinking about. I'll say this much, I want to try making an RPG. I'll post about it later on.

Yet Another Info Drop

Yeaaaaah I'm still working on everything. Yet still not Nations really, that's pretty much still just in planning.

BUT HEY HERE'S SOME OF MY MORE RECENT IDEAS ON IT.

• a looooooot of 'taeconnect' integration. I.E. showing the most popular items to buy in the store at the moment. And a lot of statistics about the in-game economy and maps.
• A big chunk of the game will be the currency system, earning it, trading it, spending it, all of that. More info on that later but for now I'm still gathering ideas. There'll be something of a win/lose stock market thing in the game, I'll say that much.
• Instanced missions will hopefully not be very repetitive... as in having side missions, alternate routes, etc. Rather then just doing the same thing over and over for some credits, you'll be able to do it differently every time.
• Something of a multiplayer WILLLLL be implemented. It might be multiple profiles, split screen, LAN, online... something. I just don't have that down yet. FFFF IT HAS TO BE AS GOOD IF NOT BETTER THAN LONE DAMN IT.

And yeah, progress on the Outskirts update of lone.

... I still haven't gotten to finishing it. YUP.

and the live update to Revelations.

... I AM WORKING ON IT. Hopefully it'll be out sometime before I go on vacation next week. 

~fin.

A lot of information on Nations.

I'll be pulling out all the stops with this one. Taking everything I leanred from Revelations and Lone, with a ton of new stuff. Here's some of the stuff I want to do.

- A game-wide 'credits' system, you earn credits from doing pretty much anything in the game. Earning badges, travelling distances, blowing stuff up, or killing baddies and surviving high wanted levels.

-You'll use these credits to unlock new stuff, from character customization to weapon upgrades, and new missions.

-Something like lone Outskirts 'ePhone' except with more prominent usage. At any point while exploring the game world you can bring up this device, and it will host the menu system, gamepage implementation, your credit count, and more; hopefully a map.

-Missions. The original version of Nations wasnt going to have these because it'd just be too hard to implement mid-way through development, this one will have them. They will be repeatable 'siege style' instances seperated from the open world. They'll be repeatable, and award credits.

-The Open World: The story for this game admittably doesn't exist, as Revelations is now what really happened in the CSI 2 story arc. It'll take place in an Italian-style countryside with some city areas, water and one or more islands.

-Vehicles: Cars, dune buggies, helicopters, boats, and more. This'll be about going over the top.

-Weapons: Will be upgradeable with credits, you'll start out in the Open World with just a Combat Knife, kill some bad guys or commit a few crimes to get some credits then purchase (or find in the game world) your next weapon. My goal is for a Pistol, SMG, RPG, and Triggered Explosives, at least.

-Graphics: I'm guessing they'll be a little bit worse than lone. I know, not moving ahead in this department, but I'm only one guy, who's not good with drawing!

Here's some more information on the Credits Store idea.
There will be a high yeild of credits. Low-end new items will cost around 1000, while ammo packs will cost around 600.
Item ideas by cost (not counting upgrades, customizations and etc): Ammunition, Pistol, Triggered Explosives, SMG/Assault Rifle, RPG/Missile Launcher, and finally Missions.

Overhauling Revelations: Part 1

So While lone is undergoing a massive update with some 3D graphics, and a ton of new content, CSI: 2 Revelations is undergoinG a huge under the hood upgrade before any more new levels are added. Here's what's happening so far:

- Hugely improved interface.
- Title has been changed to emphasize "REVELATIONS" more than "CSI 2"
- Story cinematics have been removed, to be replaced with a simple "Here's what's going down" on starting Story Mode.
- AWESOME new Main Menu interface based around being connected. Game page content will be integrated directly into the menu, also with a new thing I'm calling the "LiveTab", a neat scrolling ticker at the bottom of the menu showing update news, high scores, and 'hot' Badges.
- First tae game with Badge integration.
- A good amount of connectivity with the "taeConnect" app. This update will release bundled with a taeConnect installation for maximum awesome. For instance, you'll be able to go to taeConnect from Revelations without leaving, post something on Facebook, check Badges for the game, then get back into Revelations.
- A lot of performance improvements and bug fixes.

And yes, Live Tab and Badges should be coming to Lone eventually, but thatll be after The Outskirts if anything.

EDIT: Scratch this. Revelations is dead, long live Prologue.

Don't ask!

Yeah, I forgot to upload that screenshot. MY BAAAAD.

Here's some news for CSI REV, I added a score saving system into Horde Mode, you'll now be able to see your last game's score. But no way am I done with that, I want to display high scores, and if I can't: I'll make it so it'll save and display your last 5 game scores in Horde Mode, in the far future I want:
Gamepage implementation.
An actual High Score grid.

This also means I'll probably start working on a Profile system for games, as Gamepage / TaeConnect doesn't use a real user system. Profiles will allow you to save scores and badges for your own player in that game, and will support other people playing on your computer.

On: Open Source taeHD?

I got a few questions over email about any plans to release tae (well, the HD version in CSI 2 Revelations and lone) as a Multimedia Fusion 2 (what I use to make this stuff) example file. Yup, I will! By the end of this 'Trevtech Generation' though, sometime in the summer, that way it will have all the improvements I'd of put in an early version of the taeHD running CSI 2: NATIONS that won't be in REVELATIONS. Not sure about updating it from there on though, it's up to whoever downloads it at that point.

tae3D is an entirely different thing. THERE'S NO WAY I'd release this in open source by then, it's done as an idea, sure. But so far in the example I have, it has NO FUNCTIONALITY. There's nothing you can do with it like taeHD has so far, it might as well not be a 'tae' at all, there's almost no similarities. None if you don't count lone. as a taeHD release.

One final thing that you don't see in this list, I want true GamePage integration into games. I'll start with lone. AFTER the Outskirts Expansion. Imagine being able to open up the GamePage wherever you are (and even from lone. itself) check out some achievement goals you can earn, then start playing Lone and being able to collect them. So far it's 100% in the idea stage with no sort of physical form, integration might not even come with it, as in saved achievements. I think I can work on it, though.

Trevor Houlroyd's Precious Little Projects (It's a Scott Pilgrim reference!)

So here's a screenshot of a fully-3D rendered taeHD game. (Much more of a tech demo.)
This is what I'm working on right now to take a breather from lone for a bit. This has a good chance of being featured in CSI 2: NATIONS, but development on that hasn't even been touched yet.

It'll use actual depth and parallax. So in a way, this is a 3D game. However, it's using the same 2D Character sprite as Lone right now, and definitely looks wonky in 3D, but that'll be updated later on. If you go further back, you shrink in your display, come closer to the camera, and you grow. 3D! So far it appears to still be rather limited, so I do need to investigate options for games with this still.