Pocket Cafe Developer Diary #4

Since you guys have been so enthusiastic about Pocket Cafe, here are 2 screenshots of our work in progress (a mish-mash of sketches, 3D, completed artwork and code):
- Above we have the serving counter screen where you have to serve the right deserts to match the customer's order.
- Below is the "recipe invention" screen where you can experiment to come up with new cakes and pastries for your cafe.

Don't worry, there won't be any vegetables or raw chicken as ingredients for the cakes when the game is complete). The ingredient sprites aren't ready yet so I just took the sprites from Ramen Ramen to use temporarily.



The character sprite is supposed to be a waitress in the game, not a chef but the chef isn't ready yet so I just used it as a substitute. The characters are done by our new artist, Lee Lian. You can visit her website at lian.exorsus.net


While we're at it, here's another one of her sketches for you to gush over that will eventually be colored and in the game.

Mobile Weapon 2: Developer Diary #6

Comparing performance of Flash AS3 and AS2

Sometime ago we were all set to programme the MW2 systems in Actionscript 2.0 since it would be a real hassle to have to get adjusted to a new syntax of Actionscript 3 (and the new quirks that might come with it like this example).

Then I decided I should at least try to find out if there was a significant performance improvement if we switched from AS2 to AS3. I think the chart below speaks for itself:



I found the comparision chart here. You can check it out for more performance comparisons.

It seems that most of the improvements impact calculations and loops rather than the graphics rendering. This will make an important consideration for us since MW2 will be more intensive on the graphics so we might want to just ignore the preformance boost in favor of being able to code faster in a familiar language.

However, better math caculations means we can do more path finding, generate larger maps, have more moving NPCs on screen. Which means that the MW2 world would be alot more vibrant. Of course, it also means we need to buy a copy of Flash 9 (a.k.a. Flash CS3 Professional), US$699! which will probably cost more in Singapore.

A document from Adobe on the tuning that has been done for AS3 can be found here. A review by CNET on Flash 9, here.

Another consideration will be if our wrapper, Mdm Zinc, will have a patch to make it copatible with Flash Player 9. A possible alternative would be Apollo. I'm guessing since it's from Adobe it would certainly be compatible with Flash 9. Here's the video primer for those who haven't seen what Apollo is all about below:

Pocket Cafe Developer Diary #3

Revamping the TYLER blog

We've been using the same blog template for close to 2 years now, so I've decided the give the blog a new look.

The new blogger layout system drove me crazy at first (I still think it was easier to edit when everything was just one big chunk of HTML), but I think I've gotten then hang of things and this blog should be fully functional by tomorrow.

Perviously I avoided using Flash for any part of the blog because of I'd have to host the Flash files on tylerproject.com and that can get quit unstable sometimes. Addtionally I don't think there's any way to fix the IE "Activate Flash control" problem if you embed a Flash file on blogger.

Do let me know if the Flash header and other images don't load properly very frequently and I'll transfer them to one of our more reliable servers.