Rising and Falling
The development and management of Age of the Fallen
Tuesday, October 3. 2006
Holy cow
People are apparently still reading this....
Good! Cause I'm still developing Fallen (now Age of the Fallen). I've also gotten married, graduated college, commissioned in the US Air Force, and moved from Mississippi to California for training. It's been a busy year and some since my last post!
I started from utter scratch and have rebuilt the system to a MUCH more advanced code base (which I'll eventually release for others who want to develop plugin-free real time browser games, chats, etc.). The system absolutely screams and is capable of a tremendous amount. To stop blowing smoke up my own butt, suffice it to say that I am very proud of what I've accomplished here.
The game is going to be opened to anyone registered on the day I decide to start Beta testing, which is coming soon, so sign up! I've posted a new screenshot showcasing much of what I've changed and added, from PvP skills to NPC presence and attacking to the new map system. And keep in mind — everything you see has occured in real-time (within seconds)! No turn-based poop in this game! And no plugins of any kind, assuming your browser supports javascript (a fairly given situation).
A big thanks to all who've supported this project and continue to read this blog! Now sign up and play the game!
Very sincerely,
John
posted by Tlanuwa :: Comments (0)
Tuesday, August 23. 2005
Stuff
Yeah so, I start back to classes in two days... Dangit... 3 semesters before I graduate college! Woot! Sort of....
I think I might actually want to turn game design into a career, though you might not see a knack for it if you've been playing Fallen... :-D, but I'm also, at the moment, obligated to service in the Air Force, which is also pretty firggin sweet. So basically, I still have no clue what I want with my life.
What does this have to do with Fallen? Oh, nothing. I'm just talking. I seem to have gathered a few readers, or a lot of people are viewing my posts repeatedly. Either way, I'm happy to have SOMEONE listening to me :-D.
Ok, I'll talk about the game. It's progressing well. I've received a lot of complements on what is there and on the things and the speed at which I'm adding new features. It's really all very exciting, this whole building a world thing. And I had the idea for my second game today. It's gonna be sweet. But one step at a time, I suppose, one step at a time...
And the next step for me is pointed towards the bed.
posted by Tlanuwa :: Comments (1)
Sunday, August 21. 2005
The First day of the First Beta...
Wow. I didn't think it was possible to get so many bug reports!
But dang what an experience!
A dream really came true for me on August 20th, and I'm having a blast now, even having to fix the multitude of bugs and such.
I can't wait to get the rest of the world in place and open Fallen for public registrations, but for now, keep those beta signups rolling in!
posted by Tlanuwa :: Comments (1)
Wednesday, August 17. 2005
Duh duh duh... (It's scary music...)
Of course...
Well, the days seem to get shorter and shorter. I've got 2 left before Fallen goes live for the first beta testing session! Woot!
I've got a great team of people working with me as Divines (but gawd, I'm still the only programmer/artist/designer... It's been a long 4 months and an even longer 220 files of code...). I've got a good sized group (about 53) of beta players signed up.
The only thing left is to see if I fall flat on my... erm... face....
For those of you who read this gibberish and are signed up — I can't wait to see you in SaLeanne. For everyone else, I hope, assuming this project doesn't go to poopy, to see you soon. And with that, I'll more than likely be out a couple of days — I've got a lot of work to do.... :-D
Blessings,
Tlanuwa
posted by Tlanuwa :: Comments (1)
Tuesday, August 16. 2005
Had a good scare last night...
There I was, working on the NPC attack algorithms, when I logged a second character on to test interaction and such, and my whole life started into a downward spiral into dark hole into a fiery abyss. You know the place.
Ok, so maybe it wasn't THAT serious... but it sucked anyway....
Suddenly my chat routines, which are more integral to this game than anything else, started flipping smooth out. Doubling some messages, dropping others — basically, completely unstable stuff. I messed around with every idea and line of code I could think of, and it either got worse or stayed just as it was. Fallen is quite a haus when it comes to server load, and to this point, there still wasn't enough to jolt my local server enough to indicate a coming problem, but now, with TWO people on, it seemed it was all falling (no pun intended) apart. All these months of work. The 220 some odd source files and many thousands of line of code — all disappearing rapidly into uselessness. So I fixed a “beverage” and got in bed.
Well, to make a long story longer, I got up this morning, took a fresh look at it, tried one idea that didn't correct the dropped or doubled chat inputs, but did speed everything up in general, and then realized exactly what the problem was, fixed it, and all is well again.
The only sucky part at this point is that I'm fairly sure I won't have EVERYTHING done that I wanted to for the beta opening on Saturday, but they'll be there within days of it in any case. Oh well. This is the game industry — I better get used to it.
posted by Tlanuwa :: Comments (2)
Sunday, August 14. 2005
Pressure!!
Oh crap! What have I gotten myself into!
Ok, so Beta I is set to open for Fallen in less than a week, and I'm, well, freakin out.
Everything I've worked on and left out is going to become painfully apparent next Saturday. This sucks. Sort of. It's actually, I suppose, kind of neat. This idea of people loving or hating or not caring one way or another about what I've worked so hard on.
AND I'm stuck now having to finish up a list taller than I am (and I'm pretty tall) of things that really HAVE to be done for this world to function. Like, oh, NPCs. I've put them off for so long, primarily because I hate them, and don't really want them at all, but the sheer enormity of my world means that unless there are a couple of hundred at LEAST people online playing, there's not going to be a whole helluva lot for players to do. *sigh* Oh well, gotta just do it I suppose.
If you're signed up for the beta, thanks again. And I'm sorry. :-D This is going to happen one way or another, just, please, try not to laugh too hard...
posted by Tlanuwa :: Comments (1)
Friday, August 12. 2005
I hate computers (and love being a game designer)...
Kind of ironic, since my livelyhood depends on them....
I just got (nearly) finished reinstalling my entire system. Even more irony — my external DVD burner arrived just in time for me to need it tremendously.
Alright, enough of that.
Last night was the first meeting I've had with all of my “Divines”, and it was a blast. This was another milestone on the road to readying this project for opening. They were excited as all get out, and so was I, and I can promise anyone who happens to play Fallen that there will be no issue with inactive, unfair “gods” or “admins”, because these are some devoted folks.
Well, I've gotta game to write.
posted by Tlanuwa :: Comments (1)
Wednesday, August 10. 2005
Epiphany!
I need to get this in writing so hopefully people will either say, “Sweet!” or “Holy crap, are you an idiot?!” and so that I can actually remember it later this evening....
So there I was, trying to figure out how I was gonna fit everything I want to — including allowing space for player-created cities — into my 1200 cell world map. I toyed with making it a 2500 cell map and such, but my load times are already a bit too long for my taste.
And then I went to get lunch and it hit me. Make NINE world maps, and only make them 900 cells. So I have smaller load time, plus I've increased the size of my world by 800%! WOOT!
So let's see. If I have 8100 rooms (!!) on the world map, and each one leads, potentially, to another 122 room area... I've got... an even more ginormous number than before (exactly, I'll have an available 988,200 cells to work with... more than I'll probably EVER get to...). And that's just the MAIN world — there are going to be at least 3 other worlds available eventually.
I love this job...
posted by Tlanuwa :: Comments (0)
Wednesday, August 10. 2005
Waking up at 5:00 AM....
Hoo boy, does it suck.
When you've only had 3 hours of sleep, that is.
That's how I lived for a long time. I'm in the Air Force (ROTC), and we have exercise sessions 3 times a week at 6:00 in the morning, and I live 20 minutes from town, so I have to get up at 5:00 to have enough time to wake up with enough energy to drive there and make it alive.
What, you may ask, does this have to do with anything? I'm getting to it.
I've started going to bed at some time between 9:30 and 11:00 P.M., and then waking up at 5:00 to 5:30 in the mornings. “You're insane! It's the summer!” you're probably saying, and I know. But see, I have a game to write...
In the last two days, before I ever left for work, I implemented half of the remaining items (about 20) I had left to do before the beta opens on August 20th (4 days, not coincidentally, before I return to 19 hours of classes). Amazing!
I think I'll keep this up. At this rate, I'll be ready to go with plenty of time for final checks and that sort of thing, so when it DOES open, it will be as ready as I am for technical beta testing.
That will be all for now. :-D
posted by Tlanuwa :: Comments (2)
Tuesday, August 9. 2005
Money money money...
I hate money. But I love blogging at work while I'm making it.... :-D
While I'm on the subject, though, it brings up an interesting debate I've been carrying on with, erm, myself, about money in the browser-based game market.
See, servers are damned expensive. And my world is going to be HUGE (remember those 1200 cell maps? Yeah, I've got 4 of those planned, and each of the 4800 cells on those maps CAN lead to 122 other cells, and 4800 * 122 = ... a whole bunch ...), and I intend to be able to support many more than 100,000 players (assuming some, of course, are duplicates). With that many people and that kind of server load, I'm gonna be paying several hundred dollars a month to support it.
So then the question becomes how to charge, but more importantly, how to convince people that it is worth it to pay for the service that is Fallen. The most obvious answer is also the most commonly seen — players will (in Fallen) have an “endurance limit” that gets reset on a daily basis. Every action takes endurance and blah blah, and once you're out, you're out until midnight (because of the real-time nature of the world, players will have the option of using a “divine intervention” type of thing once a day for reincarnating players, twice for permadeath players, so you can afford protection if you get stuck fighting the ginormous whatsit and run out of endurance). So players that either “donate” or “subscribe” for the set amount (haven't decided how to structure it) will be granted, among a few other goodies, unlimited endurance, since they are helping to cover the extra load they are causing. Now, while I will never support cheating, I welcome players to have “multis”. So for THAT subscription plan, people can purchase unlimited play for as many characters as they want on one email address (no two characters registered to the same email address can ever be on at one time).
As well, I already have plans for some pretty amazing merchandise, in-game content, etc. that may be purchased. Now on the in-game stuff, because I don't like offering unfair advantages for a price that some simply don't have to pay, anything I sell can also be found/earned in the game without ever paying a dime — it just may take longer.
Like I said, I hate money. But hey, if that's what it takes to cover the bills and provide a great game, then I simply pray that there are enough bored people with money to burn....
posted by Tlanuwa :: Comments (0)
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