Last biographic news.

Or, in simpler words: what about me. i dind'nt update during the first half of July because, in first place, I didn't know what to write about (I have various drafts, though). Furthermore, causing my most shocking surprise, visits remained stable for someboy as impopular as me. During the second half of July, however, a fact came to alterate my monotony: I had found a job!! This supposed the real end of a long period of unemployment, in addition of being a real worker for the estate (until now, I had done work emperience or under commercial contracts).

This, of course, has meant that I have to leave a little aside my personal business. For the moment, I can't say my profitable occupation is at the same time my passion, a situation that has come thanks to a combination of bad luck, the political errors of the last decade in Spain and some of my own foolishnes. However, I can't go on living at the expenses of my relatives and it will arrive the moment when i will have to get my own shit done, even only considering that self-accomplishment leads easily to self-esteem.

This shouldn't affect so much my news about future works. After all, since I assumed some project related to a friend, I decided to take some time. About posting in this blog for the sake of it, it will happen when I'm in the mood. Meanwhile, I'll follow my lead.

My most recent projects.

Let's be honest since the start: I haven't worked in Thrylos since the last version. I had already explained then that the new released version of Godot was one of the reasons for the lack of progress of that prototype. The other reason is more obvious: Thrylos is based on a pretty open concept. It's better described as a game of games, which implies a great difficulty: I need to think carefully each of those games.

Due to both reasons, I decided to start something new for a change of scenary. This project is simpler, which implies a clearer way ahead that lets me focus better on my targets. I have also decided how to continue the idea, so step by step, I will finish it. I have already completed a big portion, aside from taking more advantage from Godot, which I exploited way below its full capacity.

There is, however, a great new in the fact that the project isn't only mine. The idea comes without doubt from outside (and other things) and it must be admitted that, while I'm doing the programming myself, the work also belongs legitimally to somebody else: to Mario Domínguez Soler. I'm basing the game in one of his characters, while at the same time it's a homage to The Revenge of Shinobi, a game I've always loved.

I'll inform again when the time comes.

Sources
Mario Dominguez Soler on Tapas.

Fourth version of Thrylos.

Well, it's here. This version brings languages, but it's notoriously shorter and lacks combats. I must admit thart a big part of the work has been dedicated to automatizing some operations not witnessed by players and to changing scenes. Other change that had an effect in my intention of introducing new characters was the stable realease of Godot 3.0 on Steam, which brings new favoured methods too long to list here.

I even considered not releasing this version, but I'v decided to do so for the only sake of the choice of language. ERASED due to personal reasons.

Reflexions about this year.

Let's see:

-I have published up to four games. Three of them are prototypes of the same project and the fourth was independent. All of them are found on the side column.

-I have polished my informatic skills with two programming languages.

-I have thought about the background of my sci-fi stories and have written a lot, still centered in experimenting so I could see which effect the narration creates.

-In this blog 33 posts have been published, including this. Especially, because it is bilingual since June.

-I have had talks with other fans and authors, which it has been useful to contrast my opinion with theirs. In general terms, we agree in some points about how things are marching in the scenes of comic, of animation and of video games.

It has not been bad, but I must improve and step up.

The third prototype of Thrylos! Godot for both good and bad.

Note: I erased the link to the game due to personal reasons.

Without any delay, I must admit that working with Godot has made things quite better. In special, animation has gained quite an improvement and it's one thousand times easier to create new elements and add them to scenes if wished... But there have been some minor problems. Blowing hot and cold, to be fair.

-In the case of Pygame, I myself created the elements and, while it was pretty annoying, at the least they worked like I considered better. However, Godot Engine includes its own collection of objects that hasn't always worked like I expected. I repeat that I hadn't any previous experience with engines thought specifically to make games.

-The former point has affected slightly the movement of boxes, that will need a new adjustment and in fact in this game they are exempt form certain situations. It also affects texts, which notoriously are only shown in a size. This happens because Godot doen't allow to change it unless you import a new one. That said, I hated the one I had to use on Pygame.

-Saving data had a strange issue, as I comented when I published Terror Story. But I have found an easy solution.

-As I have preferred to publish the present version before Christmas, there are other simplifications, such like enemies only detecting the character if it's in front of them. Other aren't notorious. After all, I had to check a number of things before making anything consistent.

Anyway, I can say the next version will be A LOT BETTER. What I have learnt will allow me to create something pretty more palatable, without a doubt. Here is ERASED, also present on the side column.

Erratum.

Before we start, my apologies. When I created Terror Story, I was on a hurry and I dind'nt realize that I left behind a file therically useful to make conversions (that file, besides, wasn't really necessary). This file took up an absurd memory, 210 MB. That's why I want to have an opportunity to relaunch Terror Story, erase the old link and, furthermore, now it can keep data correctly.

Of course, I update the original post and the link on the side column.

The Test.

Note: I erased the link to the game on 14/12/2020 due to personal reasons.

I'm no quite fond of challenges. In fact, there are few things I hate more than doing the same thing all day long. Thus, when I willingly face a challenge, I know well I won't deal with it all day long. So, I aimed to do a functional game for Halloween. Quite a simple game, to be fair.

But that wasn't my true intention. Although I'm not fond of challenges, I am fond of putting myself deadlines because I know it's the best way to make me fight for getting an objective. During my first steps with Godot, I focused on getting familiar with the physical features of Thrylos, my first game, especially because Godot distinguishes various kinds of objects and it's necessary to deepen to understand how they work... And, still, I find strange behaviours needing a review.

Whatever the scenary, I had been unattentive to feaures such as menu creation, cinematic scenes of transition between stages, loading and saving data (which implies loading and saving games), pausing the game and sounds. In general terms, I can say all of them are pretty easy in Godot, which is obvious as it's an engine thought to evade nasty complexities. So, I've already become familiar with such five important features.

But there are problems related to the system of loading and saving data, only for thw Windows version. I don't understand with a perfect grasp why is happening, but it seems that, once you've played it, data becomes "fixated" without possibility of changing it, except if you erase the game and download it again. I'll have to study what exactly happens.

About the game, it isn't spectacular at all. I've just implemented two or three silly things. In cinematic scenes, characters only speak. I've included no action to evade impredictable and too complicate behaviours. The plot shines so much as it's absent (loose translation of a famous Spanish saying).

Anyway, may it remain here and it will always support me for future deliveries. The file name is Terror Story because it was its provisional name. I have versions for Mac and Linux, too, but I don't find it ethical to distribute files that I haven't tested previously.

Stop presentations, here is the ERASED. Be fine!

P.D: The link was changed on 23th December because the former file took up a ridiculous portion of memory.

Last news about Thrylos.

Some aren't good, I fear. Others are fantastic!

I tried during summer to make some editors for my game. The problem is that I understimated the difficulty of the job. I have been able to make one for levels, but that's all. In short, it's due to the combination of having had less time to use the PC, of not refraining from thinking complicate scenarios and from having too much fun (Trails in the Sky, ahem!).

I have had this tendence of thinking in complicate situations, likely because I think that Thrylos would be great with a good level editor. However, my ambitions were too high and it's also fair to admit that I put myself a shorter deadline in the least recommendable situation.

But there are good news too. After testing it, I have decided to use Godot Engine. When I felt somewhat hesitant about if continuing with the other editors, my friend Daniel Robledo revealed me its existence. And it seems to work quite fine.

I knew about engines, but I wasn't very determined about which one to choose. However, this one is pretty recent (Godot 2 reached stability in February of last year) and the first things I found on the net were exactly the same things that had left me frustrated. Both facts made me feel inclined to give it a try.

So, it's mandatory for me to work in this until I can get a new version. For the moment, I can say the game is way better animated in Godot and I'm reaching the point that I achieved with Python. These years have taught me the basics of programming, which I can continue putting into good use. Also, Godot Engine includes 3D and it's a good moment to start. Pygame isn't really designed for 3D, so I was considering Ogre engine as an alternative.

And so, I'm back at work...

P.D: I use MacAfee and it detects, for some reason, the download page of Godot Engine as a dangerous one. You can download Godot from Steam (that's what I did), but I think it's better to give this adversiment.

Second prototype of Thrylos.

Noe: I erased the link to the game on 14/12/2020, due to persnal reasons.

I think it's time I start writing some posts in English. As you can see, Spanish is the main language here, as it's my mother's tongue, but nowadays video games are pusblished mostly in English. It makes little sense to publish my freeware games in English to speak about them only in Spanish!

So, I'll start a new page in English. I'm not tricking you: most of the posts will be direct translations of a Spanish-written post and I see unlikely that all posts will translated. After all, some of them will be likely about Spanish issues without relevance for people around the world.

However, I'm not discarding writing posts exclusively in English. Indeed, it's very likely that translations won't be literal and will have some fragments rewritten. Why? Because, while writing in Spanish, I won't resist making jokes that won't have sense in English, both/either because they may be untranslatable word jokes and/or may be based in particular facts from Spain.

This post is the very example, even if only for the introduction. And now, let's go with my game, as you'll be likely wondering what is Thrylos about. Around three years ago, I got this impulse of making a game. My experience with informatics until then was that of a advanced user of various Windows programs. My degree in Chemistry had made familiar with Excel and very specific maths programs such as Maple.

But I had learnt nothing about C++ or any other programming language. Incredibly, Spanish education has still some problems in recognizing the capital importance of informatics in every scientifical field nowadays.

It was then when my best friend, Daniel Robledo, spoke me about Python. He argued it was easy to learn and easy to handle. His asseverations were true, but I needed some guide to implementing games. It was then when I came to know about Pygame, a module specifically thought for 2D games. While it didn't have everything I'd have wished, it was a good start.

So I started practicing Python and, specially, Pygame. I also attended the course An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python in Coursera, which was honestly fundamental during my first steps.

Basically, Thrylos is a mixture between two very different kinds of platformers: cinematic platformers and single screen, non-scrolling platformers. I know it's a somewhat peculiar system, but the idea is simple: You must go towards the exit of the level. In some stages, some conditions will be necessary to meet to progress.

The main character is Xanthias, a girl captured in a slave raid that escapes when her new masters can't watch her. The adventure goes on until she reaches a bifurcation... and that's one of the concepts I want to introduce in Thrylos: alternate histories.

In some, Xanthias will agree to colaborate with her masters so he can still move. In others, with other people. In all of them, at the least somebody else will be a new character, controllable until the end of the stage. This stages will be the collection of levels with the same characters and the same condition to finish the level. Some of you must think in Lost Vikings right now. I think I played it only once at a friend's.

The game will continue until a ending is reached, and I must advise I don't want to define endings in terms of good and bad, much less as canon. Indeed, it's very likely that in every ending Xanthias will have a diffferent past. This comes from the fact that Xanthias will be a standard Greek-culture girl from 5.500 BC, the name likely means "blonde", as somebody with a good knowledge of Greek told me it was a common name for (blonde) slaves in Aristophane's comedies.

The mechanics of the game are similar of those of Abe's Oddyssey, for example, in that most of the movements are realistic. However, I've made the movements so they're dynamic and they don't depend on grids, like it's common in the cinematic subgenre. As I'm aiming for realism, one hit means death or significant injure, but you can just restart the game in any given moment.

This is the first serious attempt on Thrylos, as my two former works were mere practices. In any case, this is first one that has known two versions (the first is still at the link on the column). Anyway, the ERASED is here.