Woohoo! Alpha 2 is here! (Well, it should be up within the next day or so, depending on autho-time)
In Alpha 2, we bring you many new features, and many bug fixes.
So in Alpha 2, the sky IS in fact the limit, as is the very bottom of the world, thanks to 2 new blocks in Alpha 2, Sky_Limit and Bedrock (see above), which are indestructible blocks, appearing in barricades about 20 blocks thick at the top & bottom of the world, making sure you hooligans don't go gallivanting across the outer atmospheres.
Another new block is stone, a common block found everywhere under 10-15 blocks of dirt, right down to bedrock.
In Rees' spoiler, he talked about our new DSD, which as promised, has been fixed.
But of course, by far the most interesting addition to Alpha 2, is the all new Inventory system, which can be accessed by pressing I. The inventory is 4x9 grid, in which you can stack up to 100 dirt or stone in one square. Also, the rest of the game is paused while in the inventory, displayed by how it is greyed out.
Then of course is the Palette (not the hotbar) where you store all the items you want to use on the go, which can be selected by scrolling. This also counts as another 7 inventory slots!
Also, there is now a help screen which can be accessed by pressing F1
And now Rathguarde has an Icon!
Here's a list of bugs we fixed in Alpha 2:
+ Fixed certain Goblin animations
+ Fixed the game crashing when you went too low or too high
+ Various other errors
So have fun! Many features planned for Alpha 3, too many to list here, but sadly it will most likely not be done by next week, but i'll keep you posted!
- Have Fun!
Hey, looks quite promising, What are you writing it with to get such a vast platform compatibility range (viva linux)?
Also if you want I would gladly help with art/music even if not for final release.
Keep it up.
Thanks! Well currently i'm using C#, for the windows and eventually XBOX platforms, but i'll be shifting to Java and C++ for most of the others. As for your offer, you're welcome to send us anything you come up with, and if it's put in the game, you'll get full credit for it of course. Thanks again :)
Wouldn't it be wise to make just one version with Java? You don't have to port stuff then and if you're going to use it anyway...
That's what I was thinking, however I don't know if xbox permits java games, tha'ts why mincraft xbox was redone in C++
Well, there isn't really that much to it really;
Basically, the game began when i was toying around with XNA 4, where i went ahead a made the block engine (more or less the basis of Alpha 1), and we pretty much made a split second decision to put it up on indieDB, so things pretty much went from there. Also, Windows is more 'accustomed' to C#, and then there's the XBOX advantage. The re-write into Java/C++ isn't really that much different, meaning it should be fairly easy to give each OS one of its 'accustomed' languages, hopefully making overall better performance.
But Yeah, making it in Java would probably have been a good idea :)
I understand and the porting itself might be not too much work, but maintenance will be relatively a huge amount of work because you have to fix every bug in every version. But yeah if that is your choice then so be it :) Good luck with this project, I might check this out regularly.
Yes, but we won't be putting it onto the other platforms until we are much closer to the end of development.
Thanks anyway :)
Very very nice update. I'm loving every bit that you're doing, can't wait to see what else is in store! Keep up the great work.
Thanks! Although i didn't cover it in the update, pretty much the basis of Alpha 3 will be adding tools, and most of the crafting system, however this may take a while :)