Hey,
Well it’s been a good few weeks since I’ve last posted so I thought I’d make an update for those who are still reading! 
Firstly - since the last post, I’ve moved house - my girlfriend and I are temporarily living with my parents whilst we find ourselves some new accommodation. This also means my business has been put on hold temporarily whilst we relocate - I’m a self-employed computer technician and web programmer, so I’m flexible when I need to stop for a short while!
So the game! Well, the game has taken a different turn - as I knew it would. It’s not longer written in PHP. In fact, it’s not written in Flash / ActionScript either - which was the next (suspected) logical step.
It’s being written in C++. I originally aimed to make it cross-platform using Visual C++ on Windows, writing a cross-platform common library, and using SDL. So I tought myself SDL, got a good bit done and then realised a few things:
- SDL is not the fastest library in the world (not using OpenGL, mind you)
- SDL cannot do rotation without costly (as in speed) libraries (Again, not OpenGL)
- SDL is easy to use, pretty flexible, and cross-platform; but ultimately, fairly limited
Now I must say - I really LIKE SDL, and would consider using it again in the future. It has some smart features and I can see it’s appeal. But yesterday I changed my mind - and uttered those dreaded words that, in restrospect, I think may cause the demise of Humanity - “I’m going to remake this using DirectX”…
I’ve looked at DirectX / Direct3D before, briefly, and then ran away quickly. I’ve got a bit more time now, so thought I’d give it a proper try. So far, I have a rotating sprite on the screen, using DirectX 9 via Direct3D - so no DirectDraw or any old rubbish like that! (On a side note: I’ve seen lots of mention about DirectX 10 and losing a lot of features of DX9, oh dear oh dear! Just when you decide to learn one thing, another ambushes you with a steeper learning curve! Needless to say, I’m sticking with DX9 - I’m not, yet, interested in high-end features or graphics card).
I’m writing the game using my trusty EasyNote laptop - Celeron M 1.4Ghz, Windows XP, and half a gig of RAM. No graphics card that’s worth mentioning (!) but I do have a few other PC’s with better and worse specs - so the game will be fully functioning on a low-spec machine, that’s important to me.
There’s a learning curve with DirectX, a big one. What originally started as a simple space adventure & trading game is developing into one that should have a decent spread of action, strategy, adventure and mystery. It’s gone from a 2D Sprite game to a 2D game with a couple of 3D effects (like the background planets and lighting being 3D) to a 2D game using entirely 3D models - enabling some very funky effects, but still retaining the 2D playing field I wanted - the only game I’ve had the time to learn and LOVE that was a 3D space game was Elite: Frontier. 2D space games are easier to learn, easier to grasp what’s going on, and easier to make HUGE! And scale is extremely important to me… Hopefully that’ll become clear in due course!
Anyway, as ever comments welcome, feedback essential, and looking forward to having at least a basic demo of what’s-to-come in the next few days or weeks!