It's been a while now, due to other commitments (like completing the final year of my degree and working towards getting a real job), since I've worked with P&R. Considering the state of the TurnShip engine, I think this is a real shame. Over the summer we had a real drive and made huge progress towards getting TS finished, including a full widget/UI system, nicer network/server code with a lobby and several code overhauls and big bugfixes. As it stands, aside from some optimisation, TS is very near to completion from the multiplayer engine POV: we still need to iron out some creases in the server lobby code and make some additions to the way maps work, but the main basis of the game is there.
This year, I've two pieces of work that I think are worth writing about: Laika and BeerTracker. Both written in C++ and using OpenGL for hardware acceleration, I see them as steps toward maturity as a games programmer. More on both after the jump...
LaikaLaika is a space shoot 'em up with simplistic, coloured-line programmer art. Originally hacked together a few days before the deadline for submission for a place on Blitz Studios' open day, it's since been ported from GLUT to SDL, gained XBOX Controller support, and generally been optimised and improved to the point where it runs at a good 50 FPS on my EeePC. It *should* still compile for Windows, but I haven't found the time yet; when I do, I'll be sure to post a link up here.
BeerTrackerBeerTracker is a much more recent development. In fact, it was only a few days ago that I was making finishing touches. It's an app for the Nokia N900 which aims to answer the question "where can I get a drink?" with a minimalistic map which updates your position through GPS and plots the positions of pubs in the style of the Aliens motion-tracker. I originally intended to just hack it together using Python with Pygame, but I was reaching an incredible 5 FPS, which really ruined the whole experience. I took the plunge and dove into OpenGL ES 2.0, which removes some of the fixed-function pipeline and matrix handling and forces you to write your own shaders. Still, I've learned a lot in a short time and I think the results are definitely worth it.
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