It's been pretty quiet here the past few weeks since news years eve. Due to this, we've all been taking a much needed break from our regular duties, and just kicking back for a few weeks. Everybody needs a holiday, in particular me ! Although for me, a holiday is getting to mess around with ideas that have nothing to do with the business side of UW, so their just for fun.
So what can you expect in 2005 ?
After a flat out 18 months of virtually PlayBasic exclusive development, we are now entering a stage where we can distribute our time more evenly. So our time can be focused upon the continued development of PlayBasic and DTAB.
DTAB updates ?
The Infamous DTAB update, this has sadly turned into a soap opera I know.
But it's indeed true, that before the Xmas/New Years break, we've been slowly slogging away at the next major release of DTAB. This version not only has TRIPLETS included but a new display engine and control system also. Effectively the new revision is a re-write of the inner workings of the program. This is a somewhat a problematic and tedious task, as you can imagine. I had genuinely hoped to get a release (or even a rough BETA) of DTAB out in January, but this now appears unlikely.
However, My holiday finishes tomorrow ( Wednesday), and at thus all my creative energy will be focused back in DTAB for the majority of the next few weeks at least. But we really need the DTAB community to be more active in this process. Please if you have an interest in DTAB's direction, ideas for even TAB submissions, please sign up on the Underware Design forums and participate.
PlayBasic updates ?
Currently we have been compiling a small bug fix update to address the more immediate issues. We'll probably release that early next week. It'll be release as 1.06x, Since, It's not really V1.07..
PBV1.07 will have various GFX engine improvements and time permitting, some compiler updates (since the compiler is for the most part, a year old now).. The GFX engine features i've in mind, will focus mainly on the speed of _some_ existing features and perhaps we'll be changing the internal implementation of certain buffers also. This will give us certain freedoms we don't currently have. While some pre-testing was very positive, we'll have to wait and see.
Publish Your Game ?
Since I've been getting this question a lot lately, I just wanted to state, that yes, we are certainly interesting in publishing game software developed by PlayBasic users (and other languages). Be it FreeWare or Shareware titles. Drop us an email some time to discussion this option.
2D Artist
We currently have the need for a reliable 2D artist. This position would be largely voluntary, but ideal for somebody willing to develop their portfolio in real situations..
Styles
* Application Interfaces (we desperately need somebody for DTAB) * Logo's * Sprite Animations * Tile/Mapping
Competitions
This year we have a few ideas developing about holding not only Game Making competitions for PlayBasic users, but also TAB creation for DTAB users. If you have any ideas, feel free to contribute them. Nothing is set in stone ATM.
Specials
Like always, the best place to get Specials / Betas / insider info on anything Underware Design related, be it our titles, affiliate titles or just what I had for lunch yesterday, is by signing up for our low volume mailing list. You can sign up on the www.UnderwareDesign.com home page, just enter your name into the news letter field.
The End
Well, thanks for your time, your support and I hope you continue to be involved in UW in 2005. I have a feeling 2005 is going to a year of many challenges, and many oh-so-sweet successes...
This release represents the competition of the full version of PlayBasic. What had been lacking previously ,was the documentation. But not anymore. The release includes over 737 pages of documented commands, each with examples, fact lists as well as various extended tutorials.
Not content with just updating the documentation, the PBV1.06 package includes the very latest compiler and IDE revisions.
This release is mostly documentation related, mainly to keep the demo as up-to-date as possible. The command help files now have over 585 commands documented. New help files cover Sprites, Math, Compiler, Core, Cameras, World Buffers and more, There's also some small Compiler + IDE bug fixes too.
For more information, please visit the PlayBasic home page, download the demo and dive right on in..
Url: www.PlayBasic.com
Registered Users The retail version of the update will be available ASAP. Hopefully tomorrow.
This release is mainly documentation related, but there are some bugs too. In this edition, the Help files now have over 330 commands fully documented. That's over 100 more than the previous 1.01 demo release..
Registered Users The retail version of the update will be available later today.
For more information, please visit the PlayBasic home page, download the demo and dive right on in..
Finally, the retail edition of PlayBasic (V1.02) is online and shipping. As you would expect, this version includes the ability to not only create release & debug stand alone exe's, but also includes the removal of various enforced media limitations and No compile time splash/delays.
Since the documentation is sitting around the %40 complete mark (at the time of writing), then this edition falls into the early bird special price of $24.95. Which is a saving of at least $10 over the normal retail price.
Special Opening Price: $24.95 (us) Early Bird edition
For more information, please visit the PlayBasic home page, download the demo and dive right on in..
After a solid month of development PlayBasic 2.21 hits the site. While the bulk of the drawing engine has changed, the impact on users should be virtually transparent. The focus of this update has been to improve the feature set/speed of traditional vector graphics, address bugs and provide all the latest updates.
While speed was an objective, with some speed improves from 100% to 500% upon previous releases (circles, ellipses, shapes + dots mainly).. The most exciting addition has been the new sub-set of unique Ink Mode features. These controls allow vector art to be blended in various ways and even perform logical bit wise operations with them. While these effects need to be used sparingly, they will allow programmer to achieve a whole new level of visuals with minimal effect.
Not content with just stepping PB a level up in 2D terms, PB2.21 brings you the latest editions of PlayWrite V0.82, the current help Files (30% done now) and yes more bug fixes..
Twintrix is heavily inspired by the Atari ST classic Klatrix, which is a mixture between Klax (Atari's attempt to steal the puzzle game crown from Tetris) and Tetris itself. It's also similar to countless other puzzle games like Columns.
This version of Twintrix was coded in PlayBasic (www.PlayBasic.com) and only requires DirectX 3.0 or above.
Gameplay
The principle behind Twintrix is simple, connect rows of identical tiles to destroy them. The minimum length of a row is 3 tiles and they can be in any direction. Several rows can be destroyed at once, and when the remaining tiles fall down, new rows are often created causing further destruction and giving more and more score. The more tiles you destroy per move, the more you score.
Tiles fall down the screen in groups of 3, these can be shuffled into the required order then dropped onto the piles at the bottom of the screen. The next set of tiles is displayed; always a good idea to plan your next move before the current tiles fall home. The game is over if any tiles reach the top of the screen.
Twintrix is for 2 players, but it's also independent multiplayer, so the game is really split in 2 - one half for each player. A head-to-head game can be started by both players selecting head to head then one of them selecting it - only when both players have the head to head option highlighted can they start a head to head game. In head to head mode - the game is identical, except when you advance a level, you punish the other player with a fresh row of tiles that push their existing tiles up. Once a players game is over, the game continues for the other player so they can build on their score, but they can also start a single player game for themselves.
PlayBasic is full featured game creation language for windows. It was designed in such a way to make it easy for beginners and yet still powerful enough to produce exciting games. It achieves this by including as much inbuilt functionality as possible, letting you focus on constructing your game, and not learning the techniques behind it. Making it a great gateway to learning programming for those budding game designers out there.
