As much fun as it is to work on the game, there's a lot of other chores that need to be done first. In just eight hours of work thanks to the Unity engine managing much of the behind-the-scenes tasks for me, I was able to get through this laundry list:
- Version checking on client connections
- Dedicated server with full screen console
- Support for passwords to join games
- Complete console system with commands for player listings, chat, level changes, and more
- In-game chat
- Kicking and banning (for the lifetime of the process)
- "Waiting for players" area
Figure 1: Pull-down console
Figure 2: Wait screen
The wait screen comes into play when a player joins an empty game, and stays resident until a second player comes in. The behavior isn't set in stone of course, but it's a good start.
Coming Next
Now that these chores are done, I can get back to focused game development. Now I have to go through this list of features:
- Have a 5 second timer and all cycles stationary when the game is initialized so everyone can look around and get oriented.
- Following that, all cycles quickly accelerate to their default speeds.
- Score keeping
- Lots and lots of testing (makes me glad I have four computers to test with!)
The original Cycles3D had single player and "rugged" network play...once this latest list is done with, Cycles3D 2 should have as much game play as the original did. That's a critical milestone that I think will warrant an alpha release. Stay tuned for updates. In the meantime, go ahead and check out the other stuff I programmed by clicking the icons below!
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