[Pimp] DN8:Pulse

[Squize]

Our first stage3D game, DN8:Pulse, is live. Cool.

We used away3D for the backgrounds ( With some nice bump and specular mapping on the planets ) and ND2D for the sprites / particles.

You can play that bad boy here.

As always, please feel free to ask any questions about it's development, that's what this board is for.

Squize.

PS. Hopefully the mobile ports will be out soon, it's just a case of finding the time.

[wideeye]

Verrry nice, slick as anything here, will have a proper play though later on

Did you use a framework for it or go straight to-the-metal stage3d? Using Starling at the mo for android so would be interested to hear of anyone else's experiences ;o)

Edit: doh! should've read your post properly. How'd you find ND2D?

[Squize]

Thanks mate.

ND2D has some obscure gotchas, but in overall use it's pretty straight forward, it's not a million miles away from the display list.
One thing I've noticed though is that it doesn't pool internally, so it's very wasteful ( I've ported DN8 to Android, and it doesn't run too bad, but I'm slightly concerned about the memory leaking away ).
Where I've got it running with away3D I've had a good hack at the code to try and tidy up what I can, but there's a point of diminishing returns. The GPU particles for example, they may run quickly but they create so many objects to get them running. Fine for something like a fire effect, but for explosions they're not really usable.
( I assume the GC kicks in and sorts most of this out, but that's kinda random, and it's the last thing you want when running on mobile ).

Also the change in workflow is a shock to the system, having to use things like TexturePacker ( Which is excellent btw, well worth looking at ) and making sure all your sprites are the right size.

I'm trying to knock my own framework up, it's just a case of finding the time, when you're indie you don't really have the luxury of R&D, everything has to have a fairly sharp-ish payback.

Hope that's some help mate.

Squize.

[wideeye]

Interesting stuff. I didn't know ND2D existed before I plumped for Starling so was interested in it for comparison. Had you dabbled with genome2d as well?

Having a few memory leaks in Starling as well, but I suspect my own code, I'm not the tidiest and probably got some orphaned objects hanging about.

TexturePacker, yup, bought and use regularly, does the job pretty seamlessly.

R&D... hmm, yeah, unfortunately money always wins these days, bills have got to be paid etc. Would be nice to just spend a month or so dabbling about with stuff

[Squize]

May be of interest, I've posted up some early stage3D stats on the blog.

<Edit, sorry Wideeye missed your question about genome2D, no not tried it, but it looks pretty good from the little I've seen of it >

Squize.

[.hooligan]

Absolutely wicked my friend!

[mbenney]

Looks rubbish

[Squize]

Yeah, rubbish like yo momma's vag.

Hey mate, I thought / hoped you were dead by now, so that's a pleasant surprise.

Cheers Hooly

Squize.

[mbenney]

Yeah still alive, it's been some time.

Thinking of putting a crack dev team together for 'Penguin Push 2: Peado Paradise'.

Interested?

[Squize]

You had me at "Peado".

Squize.