Hello guys, been awhile.
----
Xmas season and whatnot. Been busy and Jesus CHRIST have I been addicted to Tekken 6!
I don't even want to talk about how much of my salary goes into this frickin game.
You guys outside of Japan won't have played it yet but let me tell you it's a hell of a game. I pretty much gave up on Tekken after about 3. Far far better than the previous versions. Better, faster, more competitive, longer combos. To make it more interesting the game centers have a monitor unit that shows battles between Japans greatest fighters, very entertaining. You can also customise your own player on your mobile phone using a stats card buyable from a nearby machine. Unfortunately, I live in Fukuoka where some of the best players in Japan reside, that equals getting my ass handed to me on a regular basis. It's just frightening the reflexes of these guys- it makes me wonder how they'd handle themselves in a real scrap. Probably kick the crap out of anyone.
As for coding updates;-
It's tough trying to find inspiration to teach people how to make games in an almost obselete environment in AS2. People keep sending me mails about the beat-em up tutes and such but what you've got to understand is that sure, people are still making AS2 games for now but give it a while and watch while the next-gen of AS3 stuff comes out, utilising Papervision 3D and the extra grunt of AS3. In other words, continuing with the tutorials at this stage would be a waste of time. My aim is to gain enough knowledge of AS3 that I can convert most of the tutorials over, but it's extremely time-consuming. People forget that I can't program worth a shit. I'm very much an ideas guy, not so much into cutting-edge programming techniques but rather the whatever-works approach. I've got an artist guy just dying for me to finish him a tile-engine in AS3 and I'm finding it impossible right now. If anybody has some great links to making a flexible tile-engine in AS3, get me in the know OK?
I decided I want to finish off my current projects before I abandon AS2 completely. I've been getting on with the Nexus/Sirius demo. Currently developing a series of combat moves for the main character and found a great mocap resource at http://www.mocapdata.com/
Should be an update soon.