Site shutting down

Hello folks! The time has come to say good bye to this page and embrace my newly opened site at

http://naslunddevelopments.wordpress.com

The new site will be more active, with more content and more updates. Time to redirect your browsers!

Thanks for all the time here I hope we’ll have as or more fun on the new page.

// Marcus

Escape soon to enter beta stage

Escape! is a labyrinth where you use the mouse cursor as your character, instead of controlling it with your keyboard.

There might not be much to see here, but that’s the basic idea. The white cross denotes your mouse cursor, and you must move it from the green area to the red area, without hitting any wall or leaving the game window.

Things may sound easy, but there’s more to it. Enemies! Curious little creatures that want nothing else than to fire their weapons or eat your cursor. And if you move the cursor too fast, you lose, as well.

Escape! is due out for beta by the end of the week.

Escape!

I had a small revelation last night and have been sitting the entire day with a new game, available for release some time next week. Escape!

Basically – Escape! is a game where you use the mouse to move your cursor through a labyrinth without touching any walls or moving too fast (then you lose). There are also enemies, moving objects and people firing at your cursor, while you have to move it from point A to point B through a series of levels. I think it could have some potential.

Hope you think so as well. Screenshots will come up in a few days.

// Marcus

The fifth month

This is the fifth month of what is, well, no longer the TP640871 game development blog. It’s been slightly renamed to the Näslund developments blog, with a new logo (thanks to Anders Forsberg over at Oneplace.nu), a slightly new site design and hopefully more work done by me than before. I know these past few weeks have been pretty… quiet. But I’ll do better!

The main projects now are of course finishing the game which never seems to get finished, Salvation, and also getting somewhere with a sideproject called TrackDeal. More information on the last game later!

Have a good one!

// Marcus

What’s Salvation like?

A lot of stuff has been happening with the development of Salvation:

Everything is coming together nicely now. The game itself is pretty much done now, and there aren’t really any major (or a lot of minor) bugs to be adressed now either. The first level is finished, and the second is being developed right now. There will be three more levels to the game.

As those levels are written, scripted and tested during this week and the next, expect a beta release some time after that! I hope you’re all excited. It’s going to be awesome.

// Marcus

Awake from my coma

Has it really been three weeks? Wow.

I thought I’d just take a small nap – and wow – I was gone from programming for three weeks time. There’s been a lot going on for me these past few weeks and programming hasn’t been a priority. But now I’m back (like it or not) and that means there will be future Salvation development diaries coming along.

Speaking of which, a friend of mine will be writing a preview of a pre-release version. As such – expect a beta of Salvation within the coming weeks. (I hope to have version 1.0 or at least a working beta out before christmas).

Thanks for sticking to this blog even though it hasn’t been active for three weeks!

// Marcus

Salvation back on track

Due to enormous pressure from my giant fanbase (Please, read it without the irony), I’m back working on Salvation:

During the past few days, the AI is completed and is functioning properly. Civlians have therefore been implemented into the game (see the above picture), of which you can speak to ALL – which will also be a vital function in order to complete the game.

I am done editing the intro movie and one of the ingame movies for the first level, both of which are by now incorporated into the game. Next up is to decorate the Sector 4 – building, where the action really kicks off.

More on Salvation later this week!

// Marcus

LennyBrowser Beta 1 Release

And so, the recently-announced LennyBrowser beta is now up for release here on the page. It is very small (136 kB) and contains what you need to get around on the web. It supports pretty much everything a modern browser provides, browsing-like (javascript is still quite slow, and SilverLight support is non-existant).

Try it out here!

A new web browser

Just dropped by here to let you all know that there will soon be a new web browser out there. The working title is LennyBrowser (although subject to change) and is based upon the .NET 2.0 x86 web rendering kit. The release date for the first beta is some time next week, so look back here for a download.

// Marcus

Windows Vista Service Pack 2

Microsoft has now completed the first external build of the second Service Pack of Windows Vista, entitled, brace yorselves, Windows Vista Service Pack 2. It’s actual release date is still uncertain but various sources report it to be anything from late this year to early next year. I guess we’ll see.

So what’s new? Don’t expect anything grand – Vista is already strong, stable and anything that was wrong with it upon release, has since long fixed. Service Pack 2 will include all updates and patches to Windows since its RTM release (including SP1), as well as Windows Search 4.0, support for Bluetooth 2.1 Wireless and VIA x64 processors.

So if you’re still out there with XP and don’t want to upgrade because Vista…
a) is still broken
b) is really slow
c) is full of bugs
d) stole my girlfriend
e) ate the last muffin
…this changes nothing for you. Though I suspect that if you still feel XP is superior to Vista, there is no point in persuading you. There won’t be any magic fixes for Vista because, quite frankly, it’s already been fixed.

If you’re just using XP and will be getting Vista with your next computer, fine. XP is (still) a strong OS and there is not (yet) any overwhelmingly compelling reason to upgrade right now. With Windows 7 coming out late 2009 or early 2010, you will of course feel time picking XP apart. Bit by bit (Get the pun?)

// Marcus