Wow, it seems you're coming along with this game quite nicely
And the nature graphics are fairly good.

Some parts look a bit flat, but other than that I like the detailled texture.

It mainly looks so flat because the texture has no shading and the persfective is turned off. But some normal maps would indeed make it better, but I'm not willing to pay €35 (rough estimation) for software I would probably use only once. And I also try to use freeware software when possible, so I don't end up not having enough money and having to sell my games instaed of giving them away for free.

You can do heightmaps by hand in GIMP, and then convert them to a normal map. It just takes longer than CrazyBump, which just goes off of your base texture and automates the process.

I just decided that it might be better to update this topic a bit more often. That way, you guys know how the project is coming along, and for me, writing about it makes me more motivated to do more.

Since my previous post, I've done a lot of programming. This is what I've done:
 - I have created a crafting interface. This works by having a central item, and on the sides of the item, you can add more items. When you've laid out a combination that matches a recipe, you can craft the item. There's a textbox next to the craft button to decide how many times you want to craft, and the result (item + amount) you will get after crafting one time is displayed. Next to the crafting grid, there's a list that contains the recipes that can still be made by expanding the already present items on the grid.
The only thing left to do here is making the interface give you hints abouth how to make a recipe selected from the list of possible recipes. Adding/moving items in the crafting interface or between the inventory and the interface is done by drag&drop.

 - The entity system is slightely improved. Okay, this doesn't really change anything gameplay-wise, but it makes it easier for me to add more entities with having to worry less abouth crashes (in the previous system, they were poorly initialized), and it made it possible to add:

 - An interaction system! A simple interaction system was already present in previous versions, but this one is a lot better. Firstly, it allows the player to interact by using items on entities. This is done by dragging an item from the inventory and dropping it on the entity you want to use it on. Secondly, the interaction system is now entity-based, which again makes it easier for me to add new ways of interacting with new entities, without having to worry a lot abouth typing mistakes. And finally, the interactions with entities give feedback, which makes it possible to make interactions do more than just change the entity. For example using a key on a door could destroy the key while opening the door (zelda style).

 - You can chop down trees again! This feature has also been present in previous versions, but it has been temporarily taken out because I converted the tree from being a model with interaction data stored in it's name and a controller class (for usage in the old interaction system) into an entity. The tree entity also has the added feature of supporting multiple types of trees with different propperties (like the time needed to chop them down), and it can react differently on different types of axes. The way you cut down the trees has slightely changed as well: instaed of right-clicking them with an axe in your inventory, you have to drag an axe from your inventory and drop it on the tree.

I've also fixed some things in the multiplayer controller class that were poorly initialized.

That's what I've done in that time. And as soon as I've improved the graphics of the new interfaces, I'll post some screenshots or a video.

This is the main reason why I never liked to participate in team projects, let alone start them. At least as solo author I have more guarantees that everything will move forward at my pace and without much pressure. For team work I usually prefer to just ask some help, such as for sprite design and coding small parts of the game, and I don't take the help for granted. With team projects it's almost guaranted that at least 1 team member will lose interest faster than the others, putting the project in jeopardy.


As for source I prefer things that are open-source now, but considering what happened to Doors CS 7, I can understand why someone would restrict source to only specific community users or even make their projects completely closed-source.

Ben_g, do you need a teammate? I know JME

You want to join the team? Well, I have to warn you, the code is a huge mess.

I'd also like to have at least one team member who's good at modelling and/or texturing, but I'll deffinately consider your application.

Funny that I just saw this randomly. Omnimaga needs a tag option? Yeah I can model, and I'd do it to. Pimath and my's game is currently on hold anyway so yeah...

Sorry Pi about the hold on Cogs of Rust. Got a little busy on a handful of other projects. (We are totally still working on it though!)