New Iron Select Menu

The Iron Select menu has been improved. There is now an arrangement of nice-looking boxes for the text to go in, and the statistics and description of each iron are displayed beside a rotating 3D view of the iron when it is selected. As usual, the changes are on Sharesource.

Making Progress

The game now has a new menu – an “iron select” screen – where the player can choose from a list of available irons, see a rotating 3D view of the iron, read its statistics and click “Start” to launch the race they had chosen in the previous menu. It’s all coming along nicely, and most of the features I have added to this menu so far are now uploaded to Sharesource. There will be more changes coming soon, and I hope to have a nice-looking iron select menu with all the bells and whistles I wanted it to have before long.

I’m still on the way to getting Flyin Irons working on Windows. It’s not coming along very well in this respect, because I’m having great difficulty in using py2exe properly and getting it to put all Flyin’ Irons’s dependencies in the right place. This is something I’m looking for advice on!

Arcade Mode!

Flyin’ Irons now has an arcade mode with countdown timer! Head over to Sharesource to download the latest version!

Trees – for real! Smoke!

The rendering issues I was having with the trees have all been solved, so there is now a small forest of fir trees in the first part of the test track!

The engine smoke, brake smoke and ground smoke are now much more cartoony and Wind Waker-like, which helps the game’s visual style.

Now is a better time than any to download  Flyin’ Irons and play it yourself!

Further progress, trees

Windows users, I have not forgotten you! I’ve been trying and failing to get Flyin’ Irons to work as an all-inclusive EXE, but it’s not happening. I will try again this afternoon.

Here’s my first attempt at adding a tree. As you can see, the edges are mainly leafy, rather than straight, which is good,  but there are still some dodgy rendering issues. I’m almost certain this is due to my bad Blendering, and if you know how to fix it I’d be very grateful for any help!

There are now different sounds played when the player hits different objects – currently a wooden-type one and the one for hollow metal poles that I’d added before. I’m also wrestling with getting a ground impact sound working, and an airflow whoosh whose volume increases with the player’s speed.

I’m also getting much better at flying the iron, and I reckon the “perfect” lap of the test track could be about 25-30 seconds with the current mass, gravity, thrust and air resistance settings.

Sounds abound!

Flyin’ Irons is now in-line with OpenLander, code-wise, and I’ve added a nice steam hiss sound effect for the thruster and another sound effect for when the iron hits a metal object like a checkpoint gate.

If you hit the gate slowly, the sound effect will be quiet, but if you hit the gate really hard, the sound will be much louder.

Still to come is a “whooshing”  airflow sound effect that gets louder as you fly faster, and one for landing on the grass.

All the changes are on Sharesource – download the latest version now!

Flyin’ Irons on YouTube!

Go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3nrXii99vA

to see a video of Flyin’ Irons in action as I fly the Tefuel Trident around the track in 41 seconds.

Also in the video is the new refuelling feature: land on the ironing board to refuel the iron. Watch the fuel gauge fill up as it sits on the ironing board at the end of the video.

New start gate, fuel consumption

I have now added a new start gate (visible in the above screenshot) and support for fuel, which is consumed when you use brake and thrust. When it runs out, you can’t fly the iron any more! There is a fuel gauge on the HUD now, above the health meter. (not in the above screenshot). In the future, you will be able to refuel by landing on a refuelling station (pit stop).

I have also done some other stuff like renaming textures, in an effort to make the game more reliable.

I have had reports of invisible grass textures and such, and I would like to see if anyone else gets these errors, or if anyone at all can see the grass properly. Please let me know!!

Head over to sharesource to download the latest version!

Flyin’ Irons preview release 1 now available!

The first Preview Release of Flyin’ Irons is now available from Sharesource! Head over to the Flyin’ Irons sharesource repository and get downloading!

To download, click “bz2″ or “zip” at the top of the page, which will get you a compressed archive of the latest version in the format you chose. Unzip it into your chosen directory and, provided you’ve got the required stuff installed, you’re away.

Build it with “python setup.py build” (no quotes), and when that’s done, type “python fi” (no quotes) to start the game.

Read on for instructions of how to get going, particularly in Windows XP. I had no luck installing Soya for Python in Vista, so it’s probably not worth trying in Vista. Fear not, though, when I get the standalone EXE working, Vista users should be able to get it running.

New iron!

I’ve finished the new iron model and also what will do as a first texture for it, and these will be included in the preview release.

I’ve also added the option to select which iron you want to fly, on the main menu, but it currently doesn’t work, and you’re stuck with the same iron every time, but you can change it by simply changing one line of code.

I’ve been starting to make the Windows standalone EXE, but haven’t got to the stage where it works yet.

Finally, the more reliable method of putting the development of FI on the Internet as a repository will soon be possible, because I’ve registered the project with Sharesource and am currently awaiting their approval. Once I get my head around Mercurial, I’ll be able to upload it and then you’ll be able to download it. I’ve included installation instructions for Windows users (it’s a bit complicated and there are several downloads if you want to do it this way, I’m afraid, but it will allow you to download and build any version you like and not just the ones that I turn into EXEs).

The irons will be flyin’ … soon.