That was soooo cool. It is starting to shape up and would love to see a little Beta issue to play around with elementary blocks and weapons. Maybe you could use one of our elementary levels??? On the 3-D view of the elements, it seems that the z-axis is truncated but not a problem... Good work! Watching your posts and waiting patiently! :)
I'm thinking of doing a closed beta, an open beta, then some final polishing (graphics, try and source some music) and release.
I'd like to get the Level Pit up and running before the beta, though. That way maybe I could solicit levels or level ideas from you guys through the Pit, perhaps in return for various goodies. Not sure yet, just an idea.
I'm not sure if he means what I see, but the boxes seem to be not as high as they are wide; with the textures like that it looks like they were cubes half stuck in the ground.
About the Level Pit: For me, sharing level ideas would be goodies enough already.
By the way, I also wanted to ask you about sound effects. Have you decided what sounds you'll use yet? I remember trying to imply simple melodies by letting bullets hit various targets in a certain order - probably not one of my better ideas but it still was fun. And one of the blackshift levels had a nice rhythm, too.
Those textured cubes are all placeholder graphics; they'll disappear soon enough.
I've been working on sound effects too, though my chosen method of video capture doesn't pick them up. You'll be able to make rhythmic levels, don't worry. Actually one thing I was trying to implement was environmental sounds, such as a dangerous-sounding hum that you hear when you're near grills. Turns out it's hard to do well though.
I believe in the Blackshift game, we could change a parameter to slow it down especially if we had fast computers (or old hands - he he he). Might be nice to be able to adjust the speed or, the program does it - either way, it would be good to harmonize the speed.
"Not sure what you mean about the z-axis?" Using a 3-D effect, in a 2-D graphic, it is probably normal that the block height (z-axis) should be truncated as you are looking down at an angle (possibly 10 to 15 deg from straight over). Looking back at the old game maps that I made, the blocks were different in that they only had symbols on the top and not on the sides. In the new game, the symbols are on the side as well, and they get truncated (as with the old game). Certainly not an issue...
The Beta idea sounds great - can't wait. Great work Rob, you da best! ;)
Great !!, I still remember when i downloaded the original version from allegro.cc website for first time....Blackshift is an awesome game and this reedition looks also incredible, Congratulations for this awesome game !!
Meanwhile, on Earth: "Our great and powerful Rob sent us a message! I'm not sure what to make of it though. I'm glad to see he's alright, but it isn't exactly what I expected. Hopefully it means that he is putting every effort into his special mission and thus didn't have more time to spend than that." "Calm down, Wunk. I've seen Commander Rob overcome troubles before. He always does it his own way, no matter if it's a lot harder. Maybe we should just remind him that we're all still here, waiting together, so he doesn't even get the idea and become lazy." "Thanks, Obie, I think you're right. Rob, if you can hear this: I'm not going anywhere. When you come back make sure to bring some cookies and be prepared, for we'll be there and I'm not sure if we'll be able to hold back!" *wink*
Before we start, I think it's only fair to warn you that this article contains scenes which may offend. Some parts may make you want to glue bread to your body. There's one bit that could cause you to spin round and print icons on your cat. Honestly, this is pretty hardcore.
So. Picture a backlit, sullen morning in mid yesteryear. Traffic streams through haughty fog in vibrant aisles of anonymous pride. And for every flake of wit that infests our firm fair country, a sodden hand brings forth a spiteful peck at the next man down.
I was coding at the time -- this is when I still worked at the Foon News -- when suddenly a word confused me so hard it caused me to reach for the dictionary with such wanton vigour that I almost forgot to place my Blackshift Code in the attractive wooden MemStick holder that adorned my desk.
After finding my dictionary had no pages, I was about to return to work when a thought came to me: What if I had just placed the Code down on the internet? It was an awful thought, I knew, black and slippery and oozing a pungent foreign goo. It casually bent an iron bar (without even thinking about it) and winked at me evilly.
I found it hard to sleep that night, and while I tried to pretend it was because my room had no walls and my bed was stuffed with jagged hexagons, it was really because I kept thinking about Blackshift. It span and spat and jockeyed for a farce, and it clamoured the whole night through with a pestilent pitiless fortitude. If gods could fry and mountains could sizzle in the night, you'd hear about it.
The next morning I did everything I could to stall my journey to work. I had in excess of five breakfasts and instead of just waving the children goodbye, I attached them to elastic cords and invited passing bums to place bets. But eventually I had to go, and go I did, and the bus was not kind.
Halfway there I stopped to greet a pelican when I decided this was silly. I was going to go straight to Foon.co.uk and I was going to storm in there with a lot and a thunder and a steadfast right and a hella cool, and I was going to march up to that Blackshift Code and give it what for. And I wasn't just going to put it down, oh no. I was going to drop it. Right on the internet!
Not even Jesus himself could stop me now, on my way to Foon.co.uk, even if he built seven brick walls and sprayed them with smelly paste. Neither hell nor horseback nor fifty one of your best men could break forth from a trap and spring their might and rally the hordes of ages on. You'd better believe it.
And I got there, and I grabbed the code, and I have to say I hesitated some. I mean, it's easy when you're doing it in your head, and nobody's watching, but here I was. This was no head. And if I didn't do this soon I'd come to my senses and lose my chance. So, trying desperately to ignore the woeful predictions my mind was spitting at me, I did it. I released the Code!
And do you know what happened next?
The WHOLE FLOOR turned to LASERS and this angry great STEAMING ROBOT steamed up out of nowhere, and he had a knife for a mouth and a meat processing plant for a butt and everywhere he looked he fired pirates out of his eyes, and all the people in the office started screaming and a few mutated and this one guy just dropped the clipboard he was holding and grew ten extra heads right there and ate his girlfriend JUST FOR FUN and the editor ran in but as soon as he stepped on the floor (which was still made of lasers, if you're keeping count) a STEAM ENGINE burst out of his chest and ran over like 6 people and then the whole building fell down and this kid saw and went to take a picture on his Iphone but when he pressed the button the phone shot a bowling ball Ap in his face and both his legs came off and started running around the town square kicking people in the shins and screaming.
Lol, am I to interpret this as "Damn it robin finish blackshift already?"
If so, keep your pants on, I'm doing it. I've been busy with like work and shit. As soon as I finish the autoupdater I can relea se the beta. It's just a really boring thing to write. ReplyDelete
That was soooo cool. It is starting to shape up and would love to see a little Beta issue to play around with elementary blocks and weapons. Maybe you could use one of our elementary levels??? On the 3-D view of the elements, it seems that the z-axis is truncated but not a problem... Good work! Watching your posts and waiting patiently! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking of doing a closed beta, an open beta, then some final polishing (graphics, try and source some music) and release.
DeleteI'd like to get the Level Pit up and running before the beta, though. That way maybe I could solicit levels or level ideas from you guys through the Pit, perhaps in return for various goodies. Not sure yet, just an idea.
Not sure what you mean about the z-axis?
I'm not sure if he means what I see, but the boxes seem to be not as high as they are wide; with the textures like that it looks like they were cubes half stuck in the ground.
DeleteAbout the Level Pit: For me, sharing level ideas would be goodies enough already.
By the way, I also wanted to ask you about sound effects. Have you decided what sounds you'll use yet? I remember trying to imply simple melodies by letting bullets hit various targets in a certain order - probably not one of my better ideas but it still was fun. And one of the blackshift levels had a nice rhythm, too.
Those textured cubes are all placeholder graphics; they'll disappear soon enough.
DeleteI've been working on sound effects too, though my chosen method of video capture doesn't pick them up. You'll be able to make rhythmic levels, don't worry. Actually one thing I was trying to implement was environmental sounds, such as a dangerous-sounding hum that you hear when you're near grills. Turns out it's hard to do well though.
Awesome! So many memories :')
ReplyDeletevery cool,but it looks faster than last edition.
ReplyDeleteCould be. I didn't try to match the speed.
DeleteI believe in the Blackshift game, we could change a parameter to slow it down especially if we had fast computers (or old hands - he he he). Might be nice to be able to adjust the speed or, the program does it - either way, it would be good to harmonize the speed.
Delete"Not sure what you mean about the z-axis?" Using a 3-D effect, in a 2-D graphic, it is probably normal that the block height (z-axis) should be truncated as you are looking down at an angle (possibly 10 to 15 deg from straight over). Looking back at the old game maps that I made, the blocks were different in that they only had symbols on the top and not on the sides. In the new game, the symbols are on the side as well, and they get truncated (as with the old game). Certainly not an issue...
ReplyDeleteThe Beta idea sounds great - can't wait. Great work Rob, you da best! ;)
Oh that! Those are just placeholders; the plan is for everything to have proper 3D models.
DeleteGreat !!, I still remember when i downloaded the original version from allegro.cc website for first time....Blackshift is an awesome game and this reedition looks also incredible, Congratulations for this awesome game !!
ReplyDeleteWoah! I downloaded the original Blackshift years ago, and I just found this today! Trully awesome, looking forward to it.
ReplyDeleteRob - We're dying here for another update! I have most of the better builders monitoring this page and awaiting more!
ReplyDeleteUmm... Closed beta ..o0( hope i can be a part of that ;)
ReplyDeleteIs there Lego bricks in This version, I really hope there is. It's my favorit block in Netshift ;)
ReplyDeleteYes, they're in :)
DeleteRob - any time frame when you will be ready for a Beta?
ReplyDeleteStar date 2014, no word from Commander Rob. Commander CarbonBusiness says to Pov - Take us to warp factor 3, nothing to see here!
ReplyDelete:)
DeleteMeanwhile, on Earth:
Delete"Our great and powerful Rob sent us a message! I'm not sure what to make of it though. I'm glad to see he's alright, but it isn't exactly what I expected. Hopefully it means that he is putting every effort into his special mission and thus didn't have more time to spend than that."
"Calm down, Wunk. I've seen Commander Rob overcome troubles before. He always does it his own way, no matter if it's a lot harder. Maybe we should just remind him that we're all still here, waiting together, so he doesn't even get the idea and become lazy."
"Thanks, Obie, I think you're right. Rob, if you can hear this: I'm not going anywhere. When you come back make sure to bring some cookies and be prepared, for we'll be there and I'm not sure if we'll be able to hold back!" *wink*
A brief history of Blackshift
ReplyDeleteBefore we start, I think it's only fair to warn you that this article contains scenes which may offend. Some parts may make you want to glue bread to your body. There's one bit that could cause you to spin round and print icons on your cat. Honestly, this is pretty hardcore.
So. Picture a backlit, sullen morning in mid yesteryear. Traffic streams through haughty fog in vibrant aisles of anonymous pride. And for every flake of wit that infests our firm fair country, a sodden hand brings forth a spiteful peck at the next man down.
I was coding at the time -- this is when I still worked at the Foon News -- when suddenly a word confused me so hard it caused me to reach for the dictionary with such wanton vigour that I almost forgot to place my Blackshift Code in the attractive wooden MemStick holder that adorned my desk.
After finding my dictionary had no pages, I was about to return to work when a thought came to me: What if I had just placed the Code down on the internet? It was an awful thought, I knew, black and slippery and oozing a pungent foreign goo. It casually bent an iron bar (without even thinking about it) and winked at me evilly.
I found it hard to sleep that night, and while I tried to pretend it was because my room had no walls and my bed was stuffed with jagged hexagons, it was really because I kept thinking about Blackshift. It span and spat and jockeyed for a farce, and it clamoured the whole night through with a pestilent pitiless fortitude. If gods could fry and mountains could sizzle in the night, you'd hear about it.
The next morning I did everything I could to stall my journey to work. I had in excess of five breakfasts and instead of just waving the children goodbye, I attached them to elastic cords and invited passing bums to place bets. But eventually I had to go, and go I did, and the bus was not kind.
Halfway there I stopped to greet a pelican when I decided this was silly. I was going to go straight to Foon.co.uk and I was going to storm in there with a lot and a thunder and a steadfast right and a hella cool, and I was going to march up to that Blackshift Code and give it what for. And I wasn't just going to put it down, oh no. I was going to drop it. Right on the internet!
Not even Jesus himself could stop me now, on my way to Foon.co.uk, even if he built seven brick walls and sprayed them with smelly paste. Neither hell nor horseback nor fifty one of your best men could break forth from a trap and spring their might and rally the hordes of ages on. You'd better believe it.
And I got there, and I grabbed the code, and I have to say I hesitated some. I mean, it's easy when you're doing it in your head, and nobody's watching, but here I was. This was no head. And if I didn't do this soon I'd come to my senses and lose my chance. So, trying desperately to ignore the woeful predictions my mind was spitting at me, I did it. I released the Code!
And do you know what happened next?
The WHOLE FLOOR turned to LASERS and this angry great STEAMING ROBOT steamed up out of nowhere, and he had a knife for a mouth and a meat processing plant for a butt and everywhere he looked he fired pirates out of his eyes, and all the people in the office started screaming and a few mutated and this one guy just dropped the clipboard he was holding and grew ten extra heads right there and ate his girlfriend JUST FOR FUN and the editor ran in but as soon as he stepped on the floor (which was still made of lasers, if you're keeping count) a STEAM ENGINE burst out of his chest and ran over like 6 people and then the whole building fell down and this kid saw and went to take a picture on his Iphone but when he pressed the button the phone shot a bowling ball Ap in his face and both his legs came off and started running around the town square kicking people in the shins and screaming.
It was awful.
Lol, am I to interpret this as "Damn it robin finish blackshift already?"
DeleteIf so, keep your pants on, I'm doing it. I've been busy with like work and shit. As soon as I finish the autoupdater I can relea se the beta. It's just a really boring thing to write.
ReplyDelete
LOL I will go find my legs! :)
Delete