NEaB Today

28 May, 2010

Nebula Rider (official name of the game to come) is progressing slowly. It's certainly not yet features complete, nor in any shape ready to be beta-tested. However the code size increase and with it the number of features implemented.

Just to give an idea, the real coding started 12th May, and 16 days later we do have 3800 lines of code which means a good average of 237 lines of code (counting weekends where I don't actually code).

Currently the game offers a smooth (on windows at least) experience, with plasma shoot, worm holes, space stations, planets and suns gravity attraction, asteroid fields, sounds and music. The initial stock exchange code is there, and you can buy and sell stuff... however each space station offer the same goods at the same price... which means => currently not much fun.

The graphical user interface is also taking shape, and is more and more complete.

ETA is still in about 2.5 months to really have a beta, so be patient, as much as us at least, and be assured we do our max to bring you a great new game.

14 May, 2010

After 5 years, NEaB reached a point where all what I could think of as been already done. Some times in a good way, some times not so, however we do have so many features that it's simply overwhelming, both for new players as well well as old one and specially for those which should touch the code. Also, as project NEaB offer less and less "fun" for a developer, as too much as been already done, and the code is as messy as possible. Finally, even after all that work, what new players see is the "poor art" and disappear without even trying it really.

Now, honestly I did all I could with the technology used. I cannot speedup more the map, I cannot cache more the tiles, and for the art, we (Zorich, me and some others) worked as hard as possible with our own skills to bring a good compromise.

For all those reasons, it's time for me to switch a bit my time to something new. At least it will cleanup my mind. That doesn't mean I will kill NEaB nor that I may never return to work on it. Simply, currently I need a fresh new project.

So what is it? Well, the new project will be as different from NEaB as possible. And here is what I have in mind currently:
- It will be a space trader / fighter game.
- You may have missions
- You may travel inside a huge universe
- You may trade between space stations
- You may kill some bad guy
- You will see each other and maybe combat against other players
- Your ship will be under your control, where you can customize it as much as we will be able to code.
- The game will require Silverlight but will certainly work on Windows, Mac and quiet certainly on Linux as well.
- The game will be real time
- The game will be full graphic with sounds effects

Currently Iya and Nasrudin shown interest to help me with the new project, and we shall see how far we go. Be assured you NEaBian will be the first informed once we have a beta to test!