Hi ,

It's been a while.

I added at lot of features since the last post. This includes (but not only):
- randomly generated bosses
- fully operational on-line playing
- new bosses
- new monsters
- an agriculture system
- some littles workers you can give orders to (such as farming, woodcutting, of fighting)
- you can submit your "stories" online
- etc.

I hope you will enjoy this new version

In bonus, some screen-shots:

I made a small video to present the Building mode.
The next video will be about the Survival mode, I promise!

Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoJ_LHEiPhY&hd=1

Hi Java Gamers,
I am pleased to announce you the new version of Build and defend. I had a lot of new features (and remove a lot of bugs).
There are also a lot of news features to come very soon.
The url is: http://buildanddefend.com

The news features include :
- Bosses
- New monsters
- New items
- New turrets
- Wood harvesting
- Pet companions
- Custom characters
- Dungeon instance

I hope you will enjoy it.

As I said, some time the server get over loaded and do times out.
Try again or download the stand-alone version of the game

Hi all

I am currently working on the water physics. It's not done yet, but it is already pretty cool.

Here is a picture of the world after a fall of meteorites.



Ps: Water will probably part of the next release.

Also, I created a web site for the game : http://buildanddefend.com/

Enjoy

Hi again

>>_Al3x
To buy potion (of any other stuff), you have to go close to the marchant (a little "buy" appears on his head), open the marchand menu (button 2), put the cursor on the potion (arrow), select it (button 1), validate the buy (button 1 again).
To drink a potion that is in your inventory, you have to open the menu (button 2), but the cursor on it (arrows), select it (button 1), validate (button 1).
Actually there is a tutorial at the beginning of the game, but it is easy to miss it.
I might have to do a proper "tutorial mod" if a lot of people are confuse with that.
The camera is a real problem for me now.
In one hand, I want the game to be playable by several people on the same screen, on the other hand the game is a 3d game and players are not necessarily close together. I am still working on it.

>>davidllanos22
The game is actually slowing be cause of the music.
The music is encoded as ogg and I am using jorbis to decode it.
During the transition of the day/night the music of the day fade and the music of the night grow.
Therefore, for a few second, the two musics are decoded simultaneously -- and that is killing the performances (according to jorbis's devlopers).
In the last version, I cut that out. The transition are a little hard, but there is no more lagging because of that.

>>ReBirth
Arg!
At some poing of the day, the web server has a lot of visite (some other web site), it may be because of that.
A stand-alone version of the game is now avalable.
It has been test on windows 32, windows 64, linux 32, linux 64 and mac os x.
You can download it on the game page http://shlum.wtfcontent.com/

Hi,

The game is now fully playable with monsters and everything.
The scenario system is not yet fully enable, but I think you can enjoy

New picture:


New video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6vex7Kc_Gk

You can play it on http://shlum.wtfcontent.com.

Most of the bug have been corrected (except for the stair's one -- I'll deal with it tomorow).

I am trying a "occlusion wall see through" solution to display hidden players.

Here is a example of what I've got so far:


I will probably "smooth" the edges of the cut walls and add some semi-transparency.

Bonus:
The pyramid (I don't know who did that, but that's pretty cool)


>>Eli Delventhal
I don't have Mac, therefore it is difficult for me to debug the Mac applet.
I was expected for lwjgl to work directly -- what a fool.
If at some point you figure the solution, please tell me. Other wise, I'll ask a friend for a Mac.

Hey
Thanks for your returns.

I took a picture of Gjallar's castle before I restarted the server.

Hi,

Here is the first video of the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2altNI64eU

Also, you can try thedemo on http://shlum.wtfcontent.com
I started a server, so you can also play online.

The monsters are disabled --  it is a building only demo.

Enjoy!

Ps:
The applet seems to be have some problems with Linux 64bits and some version of Firefox.
I am on it.

Ps:
>>Archibald
You are right. In the case of large fortress. I should find something else.

Ho yes I was really feeling like : "I already saw that, but I could not figure where..."


(Top right of the picture)

>>Archibald
Using a doom like camera would not allow to play in cooperation (unless you split the screen).
All the game and the game play is designed to have an external camera.
We don't need a new Infiniminer

>> Cruiser
I am not using any existing framework (I am kind of developing mine).
For the rendering, I use lwjgl (good guess >>ReBirth).
I hope to re-use this framework for a small bomber man game later on.

>> Archibald
What is FPP?
Since there are several players that use the same screen, I can't use a rotating camera.
The only thing I can do is making the camera to aim the center of the positions of the players (and eventually zoom accordingly).
The hide/transparent wall idea is also an option: With some shaders, I can put a "glow of transparency" around the players.
This might be an evolution. However, I want this game to be playable in slow computers -- therefore, I want the player to be able to disable the shaders and still be able to play.
I don't see the problems with the two current solutions and the displaying of monsters or coins.

Don't worry, I am working 100.01% on the game.
Everything is almost in place for the first demo (this weekend).
Mean while, I would like to know your opinion one something:

Characters (and monster, object, etc.) can go behind constructions (walls, inside houses, etc.). However, they should still be visible for the players. I am looking for the good way to display them (see attached picture).


(you can enlarge the picture)

The current version (the blue ghost one)  makes the game a little weird since it is kind of "broking" the perspective.
The new version (red contour), is less bothering.
What do you think?

More powerful than "pics or didn't happen!" -- this seems to be a good new stuff for vaporwares

Yes, there is a simple player mode.
Right now, there is not differences between the single-player and multi-player mode (excepted for the redistribution of the drops).
Therefore, the single-player mode is a bit harder (building takes time -- and it is only safe to build during days).

Right now, I am thinking to four possibilities:
1. Let the single player mode as it is (a bit harder)
2. Increase the building/crafting speed of the single-player mode.
3. Add NPCs that will build and fight build with you.

Ps: I am a big fan of Cave Story, and it may has inspired me a little.

Thanks for your comments.
I'll post a video before the end of the week (and some other pictures of course).

I will make public a test version with only movements and constructions (no monsters, no weapons, no traps and not "bad events") to stress-test the network engine. I'll keep you in touch.

Bye

Hey all,

Here is my last video game. I started it a couple a weeks ago, and it's still under heavy development.
In a few words, your goal is to survive in a very hostile (and unpredictable) environment.
You'll have to build your own fortress, craft or buy your own weapons, traps, and of course cooperate!
Build & Defend is a cooperative multi-player game. You can play on the internet or/and with several players on the same computer.

Hey! Here are some pictures of the game.






EDIT:

Videos of the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6vex7Kc_Gk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2altNI64eU.

You can play the alpha 2 version on http://shlum.wtfcontent.com.
The game is fully playable

Thanks for your answers.

>>ra4king
For the TCP, that is why I was speaking of the correlation between the delays of packets.
For the UDP, it's kind of the idea of the piece of code I made.

>>65K
I'll test that. Thanks

>>sproingie
I know form experience on some of past games, I learned that you will always get problems with the network if you don't stress (bugs or conception problems).
The problems are very easy to get with UDP, and event TCP can give surprises.
I my case, I am using Client-side prediction & Lag compensation (+ some other stuffs), and it's easy to build something that works on LAN by not on average Internet connections.

Anyway, thank for your answers.

Hi,

I am developing a real time internet multi-player game (that I hope release it soon).

Unfortunately, I have only one computer and I can't really test the game on several machines (Lan or internet).
I developed a small piece of code to induce fake lag on connection:

Currently the delay (lag) of every packet is computed randomly according to a Gaussian distribution (with different possible parameters). This is a simple and practical choice, but I am sure that I can be more accurate.

Do you know if any other distribution that would better fit the  actually internet distribution?

Also, I believe that there is a strong correlation between the delays of packet propagation. If somebody had an idea about that, it would be even better.

Thanks in advance