Silly Hats On Mars

So, the network stuff for necklace is stretching on and on -- partially because I'm not working on it very much, partially because of other events.Like, for instance, viewing new art while wearing formal clothing and silly hats (yesterday afternoon). I'm second-from-the-right by the way.

Necklace Net code

I'm chugging along on some network code for necklace. The first release will be about the basic pervasive multiplayer element (i.e. a unified solution database). The next milestone after that is a decent level-sharing mechanism-- not that pasting text to your friends over IM doesn't work or anything.
One reason (among many) that this release has been taking a while is that I'm debating what really constitutes a "similar" level.In the most general sense, it's the graph structure on the pieces and the bitmap of the obstacles -- but I think that finding a canonical form here might well begin to look like graph isomorphism.Not to mention that there is plenty more path to travel here (reflections and rotations of levels are pretty much the same level).Perhaps I should just avoid this slope altogether.

New Necklace Compile

I did a quick compile of necklace version 2343. This one has editable levels (but no randomized levels -- they'll be back). I also improved the graphics (though more work to be done there).
Please download it and give it a try. I'm especially interested in the level editing -- by constraining the pieces to begin in a similar adjacency relationship to that in which they end, am I crippling level design?

Tchow Pixel-y Logo

For a long time, I've favored a hand drawn look for the TCHOW logo-- though such a look has rarely actually appeared in projects as Imainly just have a clean gentium-face string.But, in pixeling out some of the icons for this site, I came up with something:

Intense, huh? And that's at double size pixels.It gets even sweeter when you blow it up bigger.

It's clean. Precise. Minimal. Bold.Expect to see this in future games.

Necklace Graphics Upgrades

This past week, I've been concerning my game-programming time (what little there has been) with doing a graphics overhaul on necklace.At present, I've got some shadowing and some refraction, which makes things a bit nicer looking.Next up, particles to indicate desired tangency (instead of those ugly pink lines).
If I continue at this pace, expect a graphically-updated release of necklace around the end of next week.
If you've played the current version of necklace, you'll notice that the level structure has changed significantly.This is because I'm moving to authored, rather than generated, levels.These are more satisfying to me -- though I'm not ruling out bringing back generated levels at some point.

New News Component

I'm adding a news system to TCHOW.This should encourage me to keep the site regularly updated, and allow releases of content in even smaller batches.The end goal, you see, being to make transparency that much easier for both you and me.

New News Component

I'm adding a news system to TCHOW. This should encourage me to keep the site regularly updated, and allow releases of content in even smaller batches. The end goal, you see, being to make transparency that much easier for both you and me.