I did some major work to Zep's Dreamland today. Hooray for that! I had to update a bunch of things as I was reverted back to an older version since one of my harddrives died. Apparantly the drive has been dead for a while, but Windows never detected anything. The problem is solved now - so more than likely there won't be any reformatting any time soon.

I restructured how loading and saving of files works in ZD. It's a lot more intuitive now. I also created the custom level "loader" stuff, so now users can make a "loader" file which tells the engine to load different levels from the default ones. The saving of files has been made much easier. Prior to my fix, the levels were required to be two levels down from the current executable directory. I wanted to change this because it's terrible to force users to put their levels in a specific folder. Now the levels can be saved to wherever they want, so long as all the levels are in the same folder, and you make a loader level which contains information as to what directory the levels are stored, and the names of some levels. It's a really great fix, and it will make level creation for the end user a lot easier.

I added some more fixes to the config files, and also added some more stuff to the "settings" file. Not only does the game remember what your sound and music volume settings were, it will now startup in the video mode that is set in the options screen. So, if you like to startup in windowed mode, you sure as heck can!

I also added some more level fixes, and converted all the current levels to the new naming/saving/loading system. After all of that I finished up a new level that's quite fun. There's some re-ordering that I must do, however. The levels really don't progress in difficulty as they should. It jumps from something hard to something easier as you beat the levels. I need to tweak some more stuff!

Due to discrepancies with the way LS Button was written, I have changed it. There were many people unhappy with how ever data member was declared a public; as this defeats the whole purpose of making it a class in the first place. I've made alterations so now only member functions are public, and all other members are private.

Downloads have been uploaded on top of the previous LS Button distribution, so redownload from the same link to get the new version!

I've been quite busy with school-work, so nothing really new to update. Just letting you know I've fixed the url errors with the Archives section of the pages. Apparantly the links were broken.

They are fixed now.

LS Button is now complete and ready for download. The documentation is complete, and there is also a simple example download file that goes along with it as well.

It took a little longer than expected to get everything finalized and finished and all that. I'm sure I'm missing something, as well. Chances are I will be re-uploading revised editions, etc. Either way, I'm glad I finally made LS Button the reality it now is. I had wanted to create this for the public for quite some time, but stopped the endeavor after receiving negative comments on creating such an "addon" for allegro. Well, now it is here, finally. I'm quite happy. It would be a shame to put such a cool utility to waste.

So, go ahead and try it out. And, as usual, if you find any bugs, anything wacky, or anything else you feel like talking about, just send me an email: jay(at)loomsoft(dot)net. I'll fix it up as quick as possible.

Well I pretty much finised up the documentation for LS Button today, so now all I need is to get them proofread, and hopefully add any suggestions I get from the proofreaders. After that it's time to write some example tests of the class, and then: upload time!

Stay tuned!

I've been working on a documentation file for LS Button. It's coming along quite nicely. I've got a couple more things to add to it, and then have it proofread. I also need to make some example code that goes ahead and shows the great spiffyness of the LS Button code. It may be a couple days before I get much up, but I'm working on it.

I also found some bugs/made some fixes to the button class. Prior to today, it couldn't really be put in allegro timers and set to function at a specific timed rate due to a lack of a function which operated separate from drawing. Now the drawing and logical portions of the code have been separated to allow for the use of the button class in conjunction with allegro timers.

I also added lots of error checking stuff. It doesn't check if the bitmaps you pass it are legal, though. That's your own ground. Other than that, it will fix any bogus values you try and pass it. Take, for instance, setting the volume it should use when playing a sound: if you enter some bogus value like 3000, it will autoset that to the max volume, 255. I'm quite proud. :)

It's pretty keen. I've been playing around with it and adding lots of functionality to it. Fun stuff!

I've created an official page for Ghosts of Dex. I fixed up some other minor bugs, but kept the version at 1.1 I made some other cosmetic changes. Now it's official, so if you haven't downloaded it yet, make sure you go do that right now!

I've also dragged out my old LS Button code. I'm going to have to rewrite documentation for it, but it will be worth it. I have someone who is interested in checking out the code for it, so I figure I might as well get a manual ready and just plop it online for all to download. I'm not sure when it will be done, though. Hopefully over this weekend.

College work takes a lot of time, so promises are hard to make. Therefore you get no promise that it will be done. You do get a promise that I'll do my best to try to get it done, however. Have fun with GoD (I recently was asked if I named my game Ghosts of Dex to make this acronym on purpose, which I did not.)

I spent a great portion of the day fixing up Ghosts of Dex. There was a huge bug that was created upon quitting. I didn't utilize the given menu system the way it should have been, so it caused some major problems. I also found some errors with deleting the enemy vectors, as I was always leaving a couple of junk enemies behind that would end up messing up each level. I created my own menu system which allowed me to integrate the whole thing into timers which is the style I prefer. This allowed me to keep all functions running separately (not inside of eachother continuously in a spaghetti style).

So now Ghosts of Dex 1.1 has been released. No crashing problems, enemies health have been reduced from 10-100 to 10-50. Enemy speed has also been reduced from 1-7 to 1-5. Everything else is much the same. Go take a look at the new version if you had great troubles with the first "official" blitzhack entry.

I also completed a new level for Zep's Dreamland today. I was had the whole level design out, but just couldn't get it to be solvable. I finally hacked around a little bit and made a solvable level out of this one design I had been working at for so long. It's quite a toughie. I started another level after that completion, but didn't get far. I thought it best to leave editing alone for a bit before I started to make any more levels. Things work out so much for the better when I have a fresh mind-set when going in to make a brand new level.

The Blitzhack competition is officially over. You can check out my entry here: Ghosts of Dex.

It's still quite buggy, and apparantly gives problems upon quitting. It might hang up your system. This is probably due to the fact that I used a custom menu system which was included as a code snippet for the competition. Granted, it's not the custom menu system that broke things. It's just the way it worked, it halted the program and waited for input. I'm not used to that, so to work around it I kind of have a spaghetti code thing going on with tons of functions calling other functions within themselves. I think once it breaks the cycle, it just gets stuck. If I end up making a full release (read: bug free [for the most part]) version of the game, I'll end up putting in my own menu system, which would probably fix things up for the better.

Today was my first day of classes for semester 2. This hasen't dampened any of my plans for the upcoming weekend, however. I'm still competing in the blitzhack competition (and I need to remember this when night starts creeping up so I make sure I get enough sleep to wake up for the early start.)

I added two new screenshots to the current screenshot bar. Hopefully those will give you a taste of what's to come in the later, harder levels! I also added a links section to the site. Make sure to check it out, as you'll find lots of different stuff there!

Good luck on the BlitzHack goes out to all the participants!

I added some more levels to the list of ZD levels last night. Some of them are looking pretty slick. They're kind of hard. Levels 10-20 will be of the same difficulty as levels 1-10 pretty much. After that they will increase in difficulty as I am allowed to use many more aspects of the game. This is all in terms of the general standard level set. I may even go out of my way and make different level sets besides the standard one, etc. It all depends.

This coming Saturday I will be participating in the first ever BlitzHack competition. Check out the site for more information. The alias I am using for participation is "Ultio", the same which I use for my forum alias over at the allegro.cc boards.

December news has been moved to the archives.

Happy new year everyone!

Last night I played around a little bit with some PHP, and made my own version of the quickmail utility. It now actually fits in with the site and works even better than the previous one I had that was hosted elsewhere. I've tested it and it works fine.

I also played around a little bit with making a random image displayer. It can actually display a random amount of just about anything. I have yet to implement it into the site yet, though.

And what's more? I just finished creating/testing a level in ZD. I don't really know what the top count for how many finished levels there are. I know there's at least 16, but I'm betting there's somewhere up to 25 fully complete levels. I've been jumping around with them, and have started making levels with some of the new stuff the engine is capable of doing. These levels will be used as higher numbered levels, so not everything goes in direct order. I have 1-16, then it starts jumping... 20, 25, 30, etc. :) I've just been placing general level numbers onto the levels to signify their difficulty/useage of new techniques.