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posts dated from: may 2016

To SFML or not to SFML

To SFML or not to SFML
That is the question on my mind these days...

I think things would be smoother if I were just running the main C++ version of SFML, but unfortunately I am just way more comfortable in C# which means only having access to SFML.Net.

Don't get me wrong, SFML.Net is pretty great, but I think more and more I'm feeling like I should jump off to something else. I like SFML's API, and I think it does a lot of things in ways that make sense to me, but the support from the game development community just isn't there.

I know I am probably experiencing the old grass is greener feeling, but right now it feels very tempting to start to build Otter to run with something else underneath it. If I were to switch to anything I think right now my best option would be XNA/Monogame.

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This is just a quick little test, but it is running in XNA with something much like Otter. Monogame seems to have the biggest support lately when it comes to portability which is pretty appealing. Right now I can barely get the latest version of SFML.Net to cooperate and that's after having someone else send me a compiled version of the library because for the life of me I just cannot get SFML.Net to build.

Just rambling a little bit here. I did manage to get SFML.Net 2.3 working with Otter... but with an unfortunate downside with texture smoothing that for some reason doesn't exist with 2.2. Texture smoothing for whatever reason now has a weird effect on the edges of textures, and when I try to use those textures in shaders I get weird results when sampling pixels around the edges.

Just feeling pretty frustrated I guess! I'm going to go down the XNA rabbit hole a little bit inbetween finishing up Sky Sisters... maybe it's possible to get an XNA build of the game rolling but who knows!

Doodle Post

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Visual Studio and Itch.io Refinery

Visual Studio and Itch.io Refinery
Itch.io just released their brand new Refinery tools to the public and I immediately jumped into them head first. After just a little bit of set up I was able to get their new magic up and running for Super Sky Sisters. I have a set up now in Visual Studio in which I can select "Itch" as my build target and push F6 to build and deploy the game to my beta testers on Itch.

So using Visual Studio 2013 (and probably other versions can do this as well) here's how to set up your game to publish on Itch with just the push of a button!

Doodle Post

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This was a fun moment in the Pathfinder campaign I'm in! (My character, Ryn, had a conversation with this cloaked four armed dude that may hint at crazy things to come for my character but who knows!)

Dev Log: Health Pick Ups

Dev Log: Health Pick Ups
Whoops I have been totally neglecting my blog this month. I've got a lot of posts to catch up on! I think when I stream a few times a week that actually gives me the same feeling as making a blog post, so I end up just totally forgetting to make a post about what I've been up to.

One of the things I'm playing with to make the demon sisters boss fight a little bit more fair is having the demon sisters drop health whenever they're knocked out by the players. Basically the demon sisters obey the same rules that the players do so they can be temporarily disabled by damaging them enough. Eventually they will revive though and continue their assault.

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Sometimes the best course of action in this fight is to try to knock one of them out before they unleash one of their crazier attacks. Right now this boss fight is incredibly tough but most of their attacks are a lot easier to deal with if one of them can't join in. I think I'm actually approaching the end of this boss fight and that just leaves a few things left on the list (until I add more stuff but I actually don't see that happening again for real this time.)

Doodle Post

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