Time to look back and reflect a bit on what happened.
The start was pretty quick. After about a month of talking how, what, and when we decided to just go ahead and do it, and created the FreeRCT project.
It has been an interesting ride so far.
I started with some world-display code into the project, while Richard provided some first sprites. (Probably everybody starts with a display of the 2D world in a game like this, I think :) )
Then the real work started. Since the project literally started from nothing, lots of infra-structure got created in the past year:
- A 3D voxel world holding ground and paths (and tomorrow shops and rides).
- Display of the world to the screen.
- A GUI system for creating and managing the windows.
- A string system.
- Mouse, keyboard, and screen handling.
- Time and clock ticks.
- Random numbers.
- Colour/brightness parametrization.
The infra-structure is still not complete (no rides yet), so in the coming year it will be expanded further. Also, existing parts get replaced or expanded when the need arises (like the replacement of the Python code that generates the RCD files, and the string system that got unified with added translations).
The highlight of the past year was of course the moving people video. Your response was heart-warming. A clear sign that many people still like these games. Many thanks for your support, let's hope we get another highlight like that this year.
Last but not least, a sneak preview of what I am working on (very green currently).
A year flies by when you are having fun. I look forward to carrying on contributing. I really look forward to the moment with the first shop, first ride and first roller coaster!
ReplyDeleteDammit, where is that 'x' button? :P
ReplyDeleteNow, that would be a 'birthday present! :)
Great to read the update. Great to see progress on new part. The scroller looks really great, but I think your skimping on the Ride selection list by using a click item then click select button, whereas in RCT it was a graphical button that showed 'raised' when hovered, and you could click it to build the item.
ReplyDeleteWhen I did the UI in IsoMatrix, I looked at all ui items in RCT and tried to work out how to recreate them with minimal object variants as possible. I think buttons came raised, lowered, reacted to mouse over/leave for hover effects (backcolor, edge), and to add sprites for + - and things like the dialogue your working on such as individual rides.
Love seeing the progress. Wish I had time to invest, but at the very least I will stalk your work for the rest of my life.
Changing the UI is relatively easy, so I prefer to just quickly hack something together that works for now, so I can concentrate on the 'real game parts' instead. Once that starts to move, I have a good idea what windows etc exist, and what to do with the UI.
DeleteFor me, the goal is not to make an exact clone of the UI. If I see a way to improve it, I will take it.