Tuesday, October 1, 2013

October 1st News

Just a quick note to let you all know what's going on. Took a side contract to cover some unexpected vehicle expenses, so I'm presently working on that in addition to my part time job. It's short-term, five weeks or so, and I may still get stretches of free time depending on how the chips fall. That's all, hang in there!

-G

Thursday, September 12, 2013

September 12th Update

So despite a harrowing few weeks, I've managed to finish the design work on our lovely Bride of War. Isn't she just a -jewel-.   Now to get her slimy blue self into the game somehow.



Thursday, August 29, 2013

August 30th Update

Still working on the Bride of War! Got her rough animations done, and beginning cleanup work now. It's not much but here's what she looks like so far at her actual in-game size.


Friday, August 23, 2013

August 23rd Update

No build update, as I am doing design and animation work this week. The subject is the "Bride of War", Townseed's first actual dangerous monster.

The Bride of War needs to stay moist, so it stays underwater when the sun is up, and it tends to stick to coastal regions. Through a combination of its sinewy tail and its buoyant air-sac, the Bride of War is able to maneuver on land, albeit slowly and carefully. Its gossamer train gives off a soft, sparkling light. Underwater, this attracts creatures looking for schools of fish, but on land the glittering light attracts curious humans and valkain alike.

The dangerous part of the Bride of War is its 'bouquet' - actually a mass of tightly-coiled poisonous barbed tentacles. When it senses movement nearby, it lashes out, inflicting painful lacerations. While not directly lethal, their poison is quite adequate to stun small fish, and to cause larger creatures a good amount of pain.

Luckily for hapless survivors, the Bride of War is quite fragile. Any wound to the air sac will cause the Bride-of-War to be immobilized, and once it is on the ground, it is helpless. Parts of its body may prove useful to discerning craftsmen.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

August 15th Update

New Build available!

Fight mode has been added, and the training dummy is now available. Now you can build a wooden man and beat the crap out of him!

Use the 'E' or the right trigger to enter fight mode and club the crap out of your poor wooden friend. Use Q to go back into work mode!


Thursday, August 8, 2013

August 08 Update

Greetings survivors! No build update, but I am working on fleshing out the combat portion of the engine at the moment, and wanted to show you how it's going so far.

I've added the training dummy, a constructable "combatant", who will be a nice easy target for the clubbing, as well as improvised weaponry. For humans this weapon is a simple club, and for Valkain it's a fire lash. Screenshots attached!


When the fight engine is finally finished, I'll definitely be updating the build!  

See you next update.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

August 1st Update

You know what's more fun than staircases?  Monsters.

For the time being (and maybe even forever) I'm going to put aside multi-storey construction and focus on something a little more meat and potatoes. We're going to add Townseed's first monster next, as well as your survivor's first weapon. That's probably going to be a crappy constructable training dummy and a wooden club, but after THAT we're going to add the Bride of War.

Still working it out but I wanted you guys to know what I'm focusing on!

-G

Thursday, July 25, 2013

July 25th Update!

Hey there survivors!  Remember me?

Not a big update, but I wanted to let you all know that the side project I was working on is now finished, and I am just tying up some loose ends with it. This means that I'll be able to start actively working on Townseed again! Itching to get back to it!

-G

Sunday, May 12, 2013

May 12th Update

Heppy Mother's Day!

Just a quick update to let you know what's going on. I'm still working on the staircase code, and thinking that part of the solution will involve me changing how the roofing code works. Fiddling with that a lot today.

Also as you may know, I work part-time at an educational institution. With the coming of summer is the coming of seasonal unemployment, so I am also splitting focus on some things to try to maintain an income during the summer months.

It adds up to slow progress basically.

In other news however, look what I've got!
For those of you who are confused, these are the controllers that will be sent out to the contest winners and people who got them as a preorder bonus!  I just have to work out the vinyl-wrapping (which I've experimented with some already and shouldn't be too bad)

Anyway, see you next update!


Sunday, April 28, 2013

April 28th Update

I think everybody can understand the frustration of having to start something over. Today I've been wrestling with implementing staircases, and I've ultimately come to the conclusion that my approach is not a good one.

On the one hand, I feel like a putz for not making any progress and wasting time, but as they say "I haven't failed, I just succeeded in finding a way that doesn't work", heh. I'm going to take a step back from the staircases (No pun intended) and attack them from a different angle conceptually.

For those of you desiring a more technical explanation -

My initial plan was that building a staircase indoors would cause all roof pieces for that particular room to disappear and be replaced instead with floor pieces. Thus, adding a staircase would essentially convert a section of roofing into a second floor.   Where this falls apart is when considering things like.. for example a catwalk that isn't indoors at all. Without a roof to convert to a floor, the staircase is suddenly ineffectual.

It was also my intention that stairs and floors be built realistically - no giant platforms hovering in the sky without proper supports for example. Seeing as this seems to be the order of the day in most other construction-based games, I am re-evaluating the merit of this approach.

Anyway, I just wanted to keep you all updated. I'll let you know how it goes.

-G

Friday, April 26, 2013

Little bit late!

Hey there survivors, little bit busy this week so the update is gonna be late. Will update over the weekend! Hang tight!

Thursday, April 18, 2013

April 19th update

Still working on getting the staircases properly implemented. They're designed, and can be constructed, but they don't actually WORK yet, as in you can't climb them. Still working that out.

I won't update the build for this, but here's a picture of how the staircases look in game.


Will update again next week, hopefully with fully functional staircases!


Thursday, April 11, 2013

April 11th Update

A new build is available on Townseed.ca!

Constructing buildings now generates roofs for those buildings. Roofs that disappear when you enter them!  It's all very snazzy. Try it out at the site!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

April 4th Update

Hey survivors. Sorry for no real update this week, I've been preoccupied with an emotionally-draining side project this week (For those of you who follow my art accounts, you know what I'm talking about) and also preparing for a seminar I'm giving this weekend.

Can you imagine? Someone wants to pay me to be a guest speaker at a post-secondary institution and talk to some students.

Anyway, next up is going to be getting roof generation working correctly. I am still leaning toward automatic roofing for buildings, so we'll see how that goes.  Thanks for your patience folks.

-G

Friday, March 29, 2013

March 29th Update

A new Build is available at Townseed.ca

Room logic is now in place, so the game knows when you've built an enclosed room, and (mostly) appropriately culls light sources and blocked terrain.

Notably, if you build a campfire directly in front of a door things seem to mess up, but I'm working on that.

Anyway, full details for what's changed in the update notes at the site!

-G

Thursday, March 21, 2013

March 21st

No updated build this week, as I'm mostly working on logic at the moment. My current task is getting the game to recognize when you've built an actual building, and not just a few walls. I think that I'm going to have the roofing applied to said buildings automatically as well.

Anyway, just wanted to keep you in the loop! 

Friday, March 15, 2013

March 15th Update

A new version of the Townseed test build is available at Townseed.ca

Loghouse building is now available in-game with the exception of roofing. See the update notes for full details!

Friday, March 8, 2013

March 7th Update

A new build is available on Townseed.ca

Floors can be built in game, and the beginnings of drafting mode are now in place. This is what will eventually become a standalone (as well as in-game) utility allowing you to design full buildings for easy building in-game.

To access what little of it there is, you may build the new drafting table object and then work on it. Press ESCAPE or ENTER to leave drafting mode, and please note that you can't do much right now except move the cursor around and get an idea of how large a building you'll be able to make.

See you next week!

Friday, March 1, 2013

February 28th Update

Hey survivors!

Still working on the multi-storey and advanced construction items. Sorting out a lot of stuff, working out how things are going to fit together. The log style is finally all designed, and I've got a lovely example image to show you. No update to the build yet, and it'll probably be a bit before I get all this stuff sorted out, so please hang tight! I'll let you know how things are going again next week!



Friday, February 15, 2013

February 15th Update

Please forgive me the late update, I'm sure you all know what yesterday was.

This week I worked on implementing flooring. Floors will automatically extend toward nearby walls for a clean connection. Also note that presently there is no way to rip up placed floors, I'll work on that next.

Not updating the build for this so here's a shot of what it looks like!


Monday, February 11, 2013

Townseed Getting Started Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eJahsYYV7o

Here you go! If you're having trouble getting started try this.


Thursday, February 7, 2013

February 7th Update


This week we focus on visual updates, as the Valkain get their full compliment of sprite art. A few more outfits for women have also been added.

Full details and test build available at Townseed.ca 

Furthermore I have a few samples of Valkain concept art that I wanted to share with you. Enjoy!



Thursday, January 31, 2013

January 31st update

Doors are now functional!

First get some wood (of any type) and make some rope (you'll need a workbench and a stack of kelp to make rope)

Then make a few barricades, plop a gate into a space between them, and you'll have a door! You can open and close the door by "Working" on it.

Full details available at Townseed.ca!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

January 24th Update

Heya survivors!  This week I'm working on adding functional doors to Townseed. They're not finished, so I won't be updating the build just yet, but here's a screenshot of how the barricade-style doors are looking. As you can see, the doors link together with wall segments to form a continuous stretch. I did a LOT of noodling over whether to include the vertically-oriented doors are not. They're comparitively difficult to see but for the door's threshold, and they tend to be avoided in orthographically-oriented games, I assume for exactly this reason.

Ultimately however, I decided that more options are better than fewer, so I'm doing both.

These options aren't very exciting for the barricade-style walls (even less so once I put the windows in) but this is laying the groundwork for future construction objects as well.


Thursday, January 17, 2013

Townseed Update January 17th

A new test build is available on Townseed.ca
This particular build focuses on refining recipes, which can be accessed through the blueprint panel when standing near a workstation.

Full details and the download link at the site!

-G

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Just a wee bit longer

Perhaps the 10th was too eager a day for me to reach. Between jet lag, home heating problems, and a surprising number of shifts at work (the other girl I work with isn't back from vacation yet so I'm working all her shifts as well as mine) I haven't had a chance to even crack the lid off of Townseed this week. Fear not, things will calm down next week, assuming my coworker returns as scheduled.

Bear with me, and thanks for your patience!