I started work on a little menu system today for the Adventure Engine. It is a basic menu where it will display the text in a box, and you can pick an option. I'm not sure if I will include it into the engine itself, or if it will be a specific part of the game I will create with the engine.

Anyways- the menu system is all in one header file for ease of use. All you need is allegro, and the file, and you can declare your menus away. It can take any amount of menu items to list. It is very versatile, even in its first day of development. It will draw a box around the text with the use of any

• font
• color (to fill the box)
• text length
• position on the screen

and can also use any border size. It is pretty nifty so far. I still have to add in the actual item 'selecting', but for now I am very pleased with how this is working out. I'll upload a screenshot soon, so you can see what I mean.

I added a bunch of cool stuff to AE as well as fixed a couple things! First of all - I added some menus to the editor, which makes things much easier! It's a lot better than hardcoding in a mouse coordinate:) I also added midi support for the engine. It will load up whatever midi the map specifies, and if the song is already playing - it will continue playing :)

The big thing that I fixed however was how it displayed, and stored the animated tiles. The old version used a single tile for EACH animation frame- whether the tile was animated or not. I decided upon 5 for the amount of frames for now (that could change). 5 frames for EVERY tile? That is a lot of tiles!

I found an easy way to condense the tiles into larger bitmaps and have the program 'cut out' the tile it needs from the larger bitmap. Now each animated tile is in its own little set - making organization much easier.

Great news everyone! Seeing as how school got out early, I have just been working on AE nonstop! I drew up some crumby graphics and whipped up some cool animated tiles - and now... Ta-DA - a walkaound demo - to show everyone that even though I DID lose half the game, I am still working on it - and will not give up on it. You can get the download from the AE page itself, or from here: Adventure Engine Alpha Walkaround Demo

I am pretty sure this will work in both 15/16 bit modes. The FPS timer should work correctly. I have never implemented one before, so if you get crazy numbers, please let me know.

Don't forget to give me some feedback! I'll be waiting to hear from you!

I added a tutorial to my Allegro Newbie Tutorials. Tutorial #5 covers double buffering.

Be sure to check it out, and as always - inform me about any errors/etc.

I did some rebuilding of my Adventure Engine. I went though the code and completely super-commented for the map editor. The rebuilding process is going to be a bit different than the first way I programmed the engine: I think before I start creating the event editor over again I will take the path towards implementing animated tiles.

This will allow for 'moving' grass on the ground, or whatever else I want to move: water, leaves... you name it - if I can draw it, it can be done. I have to find a good amount of frames to set up for these animations though. I think I just might base it off of whatever amount of frames a simple water tile will like.

It is possible to make different animation lengths, but I think that would hinder the overall process. Maybe I will add that in later. Even if I do implement animated tiles into the engine and get it working, I have to test it out on lower-end computers. I don't think it will really make much of a change, seeing as how it will only add an extra for loop to determine which frame of animation for play. We'll see how it comes along. The first step is to actually draw some animations. I could take the easy way out and just make 'numbered' tiles - with a number drawn on it... but that's takes out the whole fun of watching something come alive on the screen!

You are probably also wondering about that huge new thingie on the right there! Well, if you haven't already taken a look at it - it it just another little addition to my page which will dish out information on the current projects I am working on. As I think of new features/finish old-thought-up features, I will edit the little Current Project box. I think it's pretty neat. If you have any questions or anything of the sort - just drop a line!

I have added the "allegro.cc banner network" banners to the top of this main news page. Make sure to check out all the other allegro user's pages.

Hrm. I had one hell of a time trying to reinstall allegro. For some reason it just wouldn't work, and then - miraculously when I tried the beta version 4, it worked. So, it's off to programming now :)

Ah yes, I also added a little links section to the left bar there. Go check them out! They are links to friends pages, and other pages with just plain old good information about allegro, or programming in general, so quit reading and give them a look... just don't forget about this here page, ok?

I am sad to inform everyone that over the past few days my harddrives were wiped out. AE has been set back a long way - as how the only saved version I had of it OFF of my harddrives was a version that only supported maps/collision and map changing. I'll just have to reprogram everything in, I guess.

I will keep you informed on the progess I make.

I finally got my hands on a scanner to scan a couple of sketches of possible characters for the game that will eventually arise upon the completion of the Adventure Engine.

Take a look at them here: Male Character Sketch 1 Female Character Sketch 1

I hope you like them. I know that you can see drawings 'floating' in the background - that's because I didn't tear the page out of my sketchbook when I scanned. Just ignore that other stuff :)

I have been working on some sketches for possible characters and sprites in the game that will eventually be created out of the adventure engine. I would love to show them to you, but that isn't possible at this point yet. My scanner is busted and there is no real way of getting them into my computer - unless I find someone else with a scanner :)

No real storyline or plot has been created for the game. Just basic sketches that will hopefully lend an insight on how to draw the sprites, and the world in which the game will take place in.