Elecorn ® : The Animated Coder

Here is a link to the presentation I gave a while back.  Slides are at the beginning and slides with notes are at the end.

Enjoy!

Fun With Fixed Function!

One of my very talented designer / programmer friends is working on a reverse tower defense game.

http://www.incrediblebaron.com/

I visited him in Utah a couple of years ago and reviewed the game for him and game him feedback. Back then it was already a very fun and satisfying play experience.

Clever and fun characters, witty dialog, and polished art helped enhance an already great game.

I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reverse tower defense.

If you’re interested, they’ve posted a Kickstarter here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1802153885/the-incredible-baron/

Thanks!

The game I have been working on for the last 18 months has finally been announced:

Chroma

 http://www.harmonixmusic.com/games/#chroma

I was at Steam Dev Days this week and it was great!  I’m really excited about the things that are happening with the SteamOS and what it means for us at Hidden Path with Windborne and Defense Grid 2 and also what it means for Caster.

Over the past few months I have been doubling down my efforts on a significant update to Caster.  I even have a few artists on board to help update the visuals.

Here is a list of some of the things that have happened since the last update (in no particular order):

• Command console support. Toggle settings, enable features, mostly for those developing on Caster.  Just run with -dev to enable.
• Multi level tall building / structures (sky scrapers) structures support with crumble / topple animation.  This is for creating cities and being able to destroy sections of towers at a time.
• Debris when hitting buildings.
• Box collision: Yes, prior to now Caster only used cylinder and sphere collision.
• Shader support: Caster was 100% fixed function using OpenGL 1.1.
• Multiple materials per mesh.
• Custom SMD file based model format to replace the OBJ and HL model formats.  This is to make exporting and importing art from high end modeling software much easier.
• New terrain textures.
• Some new tree models and textures.
• Mostly done android port.
• Experiments with networking for potential multiplayer.
• Removed dependency on SDL_image.
• First person view mode.
• Oculus Rift support.
• Reorganized the code and project structure.  Caster now supports 7 distinct target platforms: Win32, Linux, Mac, iOS, Palm, Android (Casteroid), and Dreamcast… Mainly because Spencer Nielsen could not resist “Dreamcaster” as the name of the port.
• Improved game pad mapping.
• Add dash animation.  Rather than just running really fast, the character hovers above the ground.
• Water stream effect.  More like acid spew effect for the enemies.
• Improved -dev mode.
• Multiple game support.  There is a “caster.game” file that is used by default, however, you can specify your own “.game” file to play a different style of game.
• 2D side scrolling game mode.
• Fixed camera game mode for a twin stick like shooter.
• Animated models can now be scaled to any size.
• Build date on screen when using -dev mode.

I’m very excited about where Caster is heading, especially with the new opportunities with the Steam Workshop that will make it easier to drop in maps mods that others have done.

If you’re interested in helping out, drop me a line!

mike@elecorn.com

Here’s looking to a great future for Caster!

This speed run is pretty amazing.  Bingchang finished the entire Middon region in 8 minutes and 32 seconds.

http://www.twitch.tv/bingchang/c/2741773

We created Age of Empires II HD here at Hidden Path!

Available on Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/221380/

To motivate how easy it can be to make games, I made a quick game in Small Basic based on my daughter’s game idea about rescuing pets.  Enjoy!

http://www.elecorn.com/pet_rescue/pet_rescue.zip

Art mostly lifted from Ignition Entertainment’s Zoo Keeper game for Nintendo DS.

Hey everyone!

I’ve collaborated with the great folks over at IndieGameStand to post Caster up in a pay-what-you-want format.  Get it here:

https://indiegamestand.com/

The sale only lasts a few hours, so get it while you can!

10% of the proceeds go to support adoption via the Dave Thomas Foundation  for Adoption.
Thanks!

Yes… Finally after a long wait, we at Hidden Path Entertainment are starting work on Defense Grid 2!

We’ve been trying to get a publishing deal for quite some time for this project, but publishers have fallen through time and time again.  Since then, Kickstarter has started to prove viable for large projects so we’ve decided to use Kickstarter to get the funding we need to complete the game.

You can get all the details on the project here:

http://kickstarter.hiddenpath.com

Please tell your friends.  Without any publisher funding, we need your help to make this game!

Thank you for your support!

Let’s Make More Defense Grid!

#IwantDG2