Microbe Stage Final Draft

First release will look like a sphere representing your cell moving around, with some spheres representing other cells around. Nothing else.

And you can decide not to go to multicelular ever.

Wait, so the microbe stage that is planned to be released at the of the year is just going to be circles and dots? I don't think that will have the desired effect to bring in more programmers and such. To bring lots of new people we need something more than that. and how far along is it currently? do we have our base program yet?

Basically, we are going to release each tiny part as soon as it works. Actually, the first release is going to be much simpler than what i said, just a background. As we very recently gave up on some things we wanted to get working before doing anything else (namelly MyGUI), i expect that this first release with only one background will be done really soon. If we had something playable prepared, it would be out.

Actually, that plan on releasing something at the end of the year was planned for last year, but it didn't happen.

Oh, ok I see. If we can code were should I go to help for that?

So instead of releasing something like a full stage, we release a background and perhaps moving circles around it?
I think there are enough programers, we lack in the artistic point of view. If I weren't so busy I'd help. For now, I can try to make a similar GUI to the one I made for the editor, you know status and all that.

The simple background and circleswill be the first step. Then we add more.

If you prefer a full, completelly finished stage as first release, you can have it. You only need to ignore all the partial releases.

Let's put it in other words. Say we need to write a 1000 lines long essay. We would have to write the first line, then the second, and so on. If we want to show it to the public, we have two ways. Either let everyone see the essay as-is, partially done, releasing each line as we write it, or we keep it secret until it is done, releasing it as a whole then.

As this is an open comunity, there is no way to keep it secret. Especially hard to choose who gets access, and who doesent. We would have no right to do so, either. And it helps gunt down bugs, as we can solve them as they appear, instead of all at once. And it makes more people get interested in the project. And as we are talking about programming, there is no line that marks where something is done, you can always keep adding features, so there is no way of deciding when the stage is finished. And...

Ok, i'll better stop here. Sorry if this sounded harsh.

Daniferrito wrote:

If you prefer a full, completelly finished stage as first release, you can have it. You only need to ignore all the partial releases.

Let's put it in other words. Say we need to write a 1000 lines long essay. We would have to write the first line, then the second, and so on. If we want to show it to the public, we have two ways. Either let everyone see the essay as-is, partially done, releasing each line as we write it, or we keep it secret until it is done, releasing it as a whole then.

As this is an open comunity, there is no way to keep it secret. Especially hard to choose who gets access, and who doesent. We would have no right to do so, either. And it helps gunt down bugs, as we can solve them as they appear, instead of all at once. And it makes more people get interested in the project. And as we are talking about programming, there is no line that marks where something is done, you can always keep adding features, so there is no way of deciding when the stage is finished. And...

Ok, i'll better stop here. Sorry if this sounded harsh.

Don't worry , it didn't sound harsh. Ok, now I understand what you meant with releases.
Still, the stage can be perfectly programmed (which I know it's imposible in any program written ever) but I the rest parts are also important. Im just saying we are focusing too much on the programming and ignoring all the visual and sound parts.

Because programming comes first.

We have lots of visual ans sound anyways, but its pointless without programming.

NickTheNick wrote:

Because programming comes first.

We have lots of visual ans sound anyways, but its pointless without programming.

Will the next programming step be editing CommanderKeen's prototype? As in, adding in the 3D models that some users have made? I think there's been the heat eater and light eater so far...

Did Keen made a prototype? I though roadkillguy was the only one tho make a microbe stage prototype. Anyway, Keen hasn't been around for a long time, and we've got the very first release of the microbe stage here, finished a few hours ago.

What needs to be done is transforming the models that are posted into Ogre models, so we can use them. For tools for exporting into ogre models (.mesh), this page covers most of them.

I've downloaded all of the microbe stage prototypes I could find, but some error message always popped up after I clicked the .exe. All of theme told me I was missing something ending in .dll, and there have been many error messages with different missing .dll reports.

If you are looking at the thread i sent you to, you can find one of my posts with two dll that will allow you to execute the exe.

It works now! Thanks!javascript:emoticonp(':cheers:')

Anyway, I read somewhere that some things won't be found in the "initial ocean vent biome". If we're going to have to swim up and away to find such things, then why are we making the microbe stage 2D?

What do you mean? What things you won't be able to find?

Daniferrito wrote:

What do you mean? What things you won't be able to find?

Well, they say light-eaters aren't available in hydrothermal vent biomes in the microbe stage since it's too dark. I was wondering how one would go somewhere else to find them.

MitochondriaBox wrote:

Daniferrito wrote:

What do you mean? What things you won't be able to find?

Well, they say light-eaters aren't available in hydrothermal vent biomes in the microbe stage since it's too dark. I was wondering how one would go somewhere else to find them.

Over the next few releases, we'll add more biomes.

~sciocont wrote:

MitochondriaBox wrote:

Daniferrito wrote:

What do you mean? What things you won't be able to find?

Well, they say light-eaters aren't available in hydrothermal vent biomes in the microbe stage since it's too dark. I was wondering how one would go somewhere else to find them.

Over the next few releases, we'll add more biomes.

OK. I was just wondering how we would get to them when they're added. If said biomes are further up in altitude, then it would be troublesome for the player to get up there in a top-down 2D environment, since I've seen in the prototypes that you can "swim" up and down.

MitochondriaBox wrote:

~sciocont wrote:

MitochondriaBox wrote:

Daniferrito wrote:

What do you mean? What things you won't be able to find?

Well, they say light-eaters aren't available in hydrothermal vent biomes in the microbe stage since it's too dark. I was wondering how one would go somewhere else to find them.

Over the next few releases, we'll add more biomes.

OK. I was just wondering how we would get to them when they're added. If said biomes are further up in altitude, then it would be troublesome for the player to get up there in a top-down 2D environment, since I've seen in the prototypes that you can "swim" up and down.

This is something we can definitely discuss. I think it might be good to just include different currents in the biome, some of which will sweep you away from the surface you're on and transport you into an open biome. You'd still be in 2D, since there's really no point in having 3d locomotion on such a small scale.

The moving up and down is because i was using the controls that seregon did for the camera, which alowwed for going up and down. I simply was too lazy to remove four lines. Actually, i believe the controlls are still there.

However, you are not suposed to be able go up and down. You will only be allowed to go on the two dimensional plane that you see.

Daniferrito wrote:

The moving up and down is because i was using the controls that seregon did for the camera, which alowwed for going up and down. I simply was too lazy to remove four lines. Actually, i believe the controlls are still there.

However, you are not suposed to be able go up and down. You will only be allowed to go on the two dimensional plane that you see.

Thank you both. That clears up the whole ordeal.

This may seem asinine on my behalf to some of you: but I think I may be missing the point of the game here; it just seems to me that I am watching a green dot (which I assume to be me) float around in the current until it dies.

If I click long enough at a certain point I think I can slightly change the direction of my cell, but ultimately it feels more like a simulation - watching my cell float aimlessly - than an actual game.
This isn't meant to sound antagonistic in the slightest, and I apologise if it does, I'm just genuinly confused as to what my goal is in the game.

That's the prototype, and we've made it quite obvious what is the actual release here. Plus, that focuses more on evolution than on gameplay.

NickTheNick wrote:

That's the prototype, and we've made it quite obvious what is the actual release here. Plus, that focuses more on evolution than on gameplay.

QFT

also
click and hold and you will notice it has a much better result.