I made a project at SourceForge and it’s waiting to get approved.  So in the meantime, here it is!!!

http://cid-e4f1227696c43a98.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/sc2code-jul3108.rar

And now onto the normal progress post- Well despite the previous post, not a bad week

Most of my project time has been spend on creating the new screen for 4 player melee. I’ve trying to make it look like classic arcade game, so I am going to call it Arcade mode I’m hoping to have this mode implemented in a couple weeks. Today, I spent some additional time debugging the AI and now the Arilou is acting normal, and Orz is aiming the turret correctly. Finally, some AI progress!

Last week I said I wanted to post a new build, well here it is!

The usual Windows build:

http://cid-e4f1227696c43a98.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/UQM|_XNA|_Melee.rar

Annnnd.. for the FIRST time, I’m pleased to present a playable Xbox build!!

http://cid-e4f1227696c43a98.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/UQM|_XNA|_Melee-Xbox360.ccgame

• Some notes: It takes a long time for the game to load on the Xbox for some reason(a full 80 seconds of black screen). Slylandro doesn’t function properly with the new rotation style mode (its too late to fix it, I gotta sleep).
• If you dont have a Creators Club account, see my post about getting a free trial account.

Also I finished my little flash game project last week and released it on MochiAds. It’s been wreaking a little havoc on my productivity since then I can’t go an hour without checking my stats. :p

Anyway, heres the latest UI mockup- I wanted very much to add the sweet SC1 portraits, but could not work them in, without making it too full. However, I am still looking for other places to put them.

<->

Phew! Well, thats it for this update, let me know what you think

So, a new XNA announcement came out last week that wasn’t very good news for this project

Anyway, now its called XboxLIVE Community Games (or XCG) and surprise you can make money of your XNA games!

However… thats the only choice you have!  FREE games will not be supported and that disappoints me personally as a gamer(who loves free content) and developer(who wants to distribute free content).

I’m not going to rant about it too much but the chances of seeing this project on the Xbox platform just got slimmer.  The reason being is because UQM: XNA is licensed under by the creative commons license where it explicitly states that the game must not be sold as a commercial product.

From the beginning I pretty much assumed it would always remain pretty much restricted to PC- but it kinda looked like for a while there that seeing a wide release on Xbox would become a reality!  So thats why I’m bummed at the moment.  : P

I’m going to continue on as usual in the meantime, while I think of other options.  If I am looking at strictly a PC release, I am probably not going to keep developing on XNA.  Anyway, I am still hoping XCG will support free games in the future.  Fingers crossed!

New this week:

• New 4-p melee interface- still have to make a nice 4p ship selection screen though
• Options menu- where you can toggle controller vibration, music and Rotation style
• Bug fixes as usual

I wanted to post a build this week, but new bugs are popping up after re-activating the new rotation style, and changing the rendering methods again.

Anyway heres the mockup UI I’ve been working on, I think I managed to keep all the elements from the original intact:

A fairly big milestone has been hit- All ship abilities are complete!!!!!!!  Time to celebrate!  Woo! 

Things done this week:

• Slylandro lightning finished!
• Revamped laser code
• Finished up Orz Marines
• AI  Slylandro, Ilwrath
• AI can now detect when a laser will hit
• Bug fixes

I want to get the AI nailed down next, but while I do that I’ll also work on some mockup screens for the 4player mode.  Nowadays its fashionable to have the least amount of UI as possible, but I couldn’t bear doing something like removing the captain or even the ship portraits.  However adding another sidebar makes it feel cramped.  Hmm..

On the UQM forum there are some nice SC1 style portraits of SC2 ships posted by VileRancour.  The new ships fit in quite perfectly with the classic SC1 ship portraits!  Perhaps they will appear in a future build 

Heres a random idea I was pondering:  Counter-Strike style Melee!  Start off as default Precursor ship, and buy upgrades each round.  I’m guessing having the biggest gun would win most of the time.  There would have to be another objective besides killing.  I suppose some kind of capture the flag?

Again not much new this week, I forgot when writing last weeks update that I was going camping for a few days, so that is my excuse :)  However, although its not finished,  I did work on the Slylandro lightning.  It remains a little tricky because of my not so awesome laser code, but that will all be fixed eventually.