Fantropics

Alright!

I can't remember if I have mentioned this in my blog yet or not but here it is anyways.

I have been working on a remake of Startropics, I dubbed my version "Fantropics". It was one of my favorite games as a kid and I played the crap out of it. I decided that I was going to learn XNA and I thought the best way to do that would be to remake an old game. I had been playing it around christmas when I decided to start and I had beat it about 3 times.

The actual engine for the game came together almost instantly it only took a week or two to remake the basic engine. Since January I have been working on the level editor which has taken up most of the project.

I am working with someone else to do the graphics as I am quite inept. I was originally going to do the background but then changed my mind... But then a certain graphics artist who will remain nameless decided to get all busy with school work I decided I couldn't wait any longer and I did the backgrounds myself. I think they turned out absolutely fantastic. My next steps are going to be to load the levels into the the engine. After that is done it will be rather easy to whip up the first dungeon and have my mini remake complete.

Here are the first few rooms in the original startropics



And my remade version of those three rooms

Click for a bigger version

I think it is looking great. I might change to graphics a little or if that nameless artist would get his butt in gear I might let him change them...

Lolz Christian Bale... And XML

Christian Bale(Batman) flipped out yesterday on the set of terminator and the audio made it's way onto the internet. here is the audio. It's pretty cringe worthy to listen to him chew this guy out so I understand if you don't listen to the whole thing but it gives this post context




So now with that in mind this is why I love the internet and all who use it



Yep people pull this stuff out within hours of it hitting the internet. Woot a user driven world.


Onto stuff people won't care about... So I have been working hard on an Editor for Fantropics. It's proving to be far more work than I had originally expected I have easily spent twice as much time on the editor than I did on the engine. I had been putting it off for a long time because my XML and XPATH-fu are not strong. That sounds lame because in theory they are mark up language crap so it should be easy. It's not the concept but the C# syntax that throws me off. The XML classes in C# are a little messed up and confusing to me. I was able to get the XML a-flying last night though and have C&D of CRUD (Create Replace Update and Delete). So tonight filling out the rest should not take long at all. The editor should be done this week I hope