One step forward, two steps back?

We’re a quarter of the way through 2009 already (!) and progress has finally been made on Flyin’ Irons.

Using the instructions from Thierry Brault on the Soya mailing list (which were excellent and only required a few small amendments), today I successfully built Soya 0.14 for Python 2.5, with gcc-4 and pyrex-9.7.2, on Windows.

I then installed and built Flyin Irons using Python 2.5, and was able to play the game on Windows using Soya 0.14 and Python 2.5 for the first time!

It worked remarkably well – it looks “better” in general, the main thing that I noticed first was that text looks much better in this version.  Is it me, or is the smoke system looking a bit better too?

Happy Christmas! New logo!

It’s Christmas at last here in Australia, and Flyin’ Irons has a brand new exciting logo! Happy Christmas to you all.

New logo!

Ghostly goings-on in the Vertical Steam Championship!

The latest revision of Flyin’ Irons includes a new, exciting Ghost system in Time Trial mode!

When you set a new lap record, the path you take around the track is saved as a series of points for the Ghost Iron to follow.  Then, when you next play Time Trial, the Ghost Iron (currently a Kensworth Drake but soon to be a unique Brawn Ghost) will race you along your record-setting path!

Head over to Sharesource to download the newest revision!

Here’s a screenshot or two of the ghost iron in action:

Self-righting irons!

I’ve made a big step in development: the control system now allows self-righting, that is, your iron will automatically tilt itself so that it faces upwards while you are flying it. This makes hovering a lot easier, and controlling the iron using the Pilot Camera and Chase Camera is now a lot easier as well.

Here’s a screenshot of another development: the Debrief screen, which will appear after a race.

Debrief screen as of 20/12/08

New features for Flyin’ Irons

Here is a list of the latest improvements to the game:

-  Fully functional menu system, including a new Options menu, in which players can change game options in-game! Currently, the only adjustable option is the mouse sensitivity, but this will expand in the future to include lots and lots of options.

-  New iron! The Kensworth Drake is low-powered, but its relatively light weight and low air resistance makes up for this.

- Count-up timer in Time Trial mode (replaces the static 30-second countdown timer), so you can see how your current lap is progressing as you fly.

The Kensworth Drake - third flying iron in Flyin' Irons

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.

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.

Ready for release!

Checkpoints now work in a portal system, so you have to fly through an invisible sheet to trigger them.

Lap times are given to 2 decimal places and stack up.

The grass and mud textures have been replaced by my own, which are closer to the graphical style of the game that I was aiming for.

The next thing I’ll be doing is putting Flyin’ Irons on the Internet. Awesome!

Air resistance, cel shading, working laps

The track now works in a circuit, and the player receives their lap time (sadly, currently in whole seconds) after each lap.

Gravity is increased to make it less floaty, and make the iron seem smaller. Thrust is increased concordantly.

Cel-shading now works for the iron. This is slightly less stable in Windows than non-cel-shading.

Adjustable air resistance now exists for all moving objects (ie, just the iron at the moment). It certainly helps dissipate some of the energy!

Next thing to do is to get the checkpoints to be set off when you fly through the gate, and not when you fly within a radius of the centre of the checkpoint. Other than that, there’s not much to be done before it’s time to wrap it up in a preview release and start announcing it!