http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff402541(v=VS.92).aspx
Turns out that Isolated Storage DOES exist for Windows Phone 7. A port of Saint is much more likely now :)
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Immagickus Snowflake
This will be up on the manual at some point in my relative near term:
The Tome of Immagickus Snowflake
The tome known as the Immagickus Snowflake is a gateway into a world that the wizard Immagickus created within a snowflake, bound in parchment, and sealed for eternity. Immagickus created the tome as a means to study the common animals he had captured in the parched lands known as Makican. The Order has long sought the tome, but all who have dared to open the book have never returned. None know the boundaries of the world within the tome, but all agree: it is highly dangerous.
The Red Saint: Snowflake
Rather than try to aim for a full-blown sequel for The Red Saint on the android platform, I've ported over the new snowflake mechanic as a free mini-add-on to the Saint.
In order to activate this particular mechanic, you must first acquire the snowflake from Gin after completing the tome of Rat Immagickus. From there, the snowflake world is accessible by using the tome from the player menu. The boundaries of the worldspace aren't well defined in the tome, as Immagickus enfused a snowflake with his twisted magic. Your existing spells may (hopefully not) behave a bit differently inside the snowflake than expected, so be careful.
According to the manifest file, this is CE 1.0.20 of The Red Saint: Lamplight (Now known as Snowflake). My intent is to have this up on the market by tonight.
Thanks!
In order to activate this particular mechanic, you must first acquire the snowflake from Gin after completing the tome of Rat Immagickus. From there, the snowflake world is accessible by using the tome from the player menu. The boundaries of the worldspace aren't well defined in the tome, as Immagickus enfused a snowflake with his twisted magic. Your existing spells may (hopefully not) behave a bit differently inside the snowflake than expected, so be careful.
According to the manifest file, this is CE 1.0.20 of The Red Saint: Lamplight (Now known as Snowflake). My intent is to have this up on the market by tonight.
Thanks!
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
The Red Saint 2: Crossover Improvements
While working through fun-factor updates and upgrades to the core saint engine, I'm finding a few places that I intend to upgrade TRS1 on. This may have a fringe benefit of lowering both the memory profile as well of the size on disk of the application, which is exciting for anyone (like me) still stuck on legacy devices. In either case, it'll be general enhancements for TRS1 in addition to a spot of new content that I've been sitting on.
At some point, in the not too distant future, I'll be getting my hands on more current Android hardware to see what Saint runs like. As is, it's a guessing game. I know some folks have reported some issues with the newest crop of devices. Sadly, emulation only works so well and buying up all the hardware is expensive.
Hardware support is a huge frustration as an independent developer. It's incredibly difficult to maintain an application across a fleet of devices with quirks that you don't own. However, if some soul out there has some older "new" hardware they're looking to discard, I'll gladly take it to test on! Just bump me an e-mail.
Meanwhile, back to mapping out the world that built itself...
At some point, in the not too distant future, I'll be getting my hands on more current Android hardware to see what Saint runs like. As is, it's a guessing game. I know some folks have reported some issues with the newest crop of devices. Sadly, emulation only works so well and buying up all the hardware is expensive.
Hardware support is a huge frustration as an independent developer. It's incredibly difficult to maintain an application across a fleet of devices with quirks that you don't own. However, if some soul out there has some older "new" hardware they're looking to discard, I'll gladly take it to test on! Just bump me an e-mail.
Meanwhile, back to mapping out the world that built itself...
Friday, November 19, 2010
The Red Saint 2: Notes on Exploration
The first area that I wanted to solve is two-fold:
1. A sense of fresh locality and exploration
2. A world that would continue on, but with interesting variety
The second edition of Saint is still story driven. The story picks up largely from where the Immagickus left off, but then carriers the player in yet another quest to rescue Julia from herself. The true beauty of what I wanted to solve in TRS2 is the ability for the player to feel that sense of wonder and exploration that comes from being in a consistent, self-contained world.
TRS1 is fairly close and the world shifts about as the player completes quests. What happens to Harvey is one such example. I really wanted to revamp that idea a bit, using the Tome of Immagickus as a tool to making that happen.
The sense of exploration is the big rub. I love that feeling of "this is new, no-one else has been here yet" that one gets from games, especially the new ones. It's like the smell of a new car, the run from Kelethin to Qeynos before PoK, or forgetting that midnight was four hours ago in the matrix-colors of Smaug. Fun days there and, since I can't quite find a title to give me that experience, I'm going to try making one... again. :)
1. A sense of fresh locality and exploration
2. A world that would continue on, but with interesting variety
The second edition of Saint is still story driven. The story picks up largely from where the Immagickus left off, but then carriers the player in yet another quest to rescue Julia from herself. The true beauty of what I wanted to solve in TRS2 is the ability for the player to feel that sense of wonder and exploration that comes from being in a consistent, self-contained world.
TRS1 is fairly close and the world shifts about as the player completes quests. What happens to Harvey is one such example. I really wanted to revamp that idea a bit, using the Tome of Immagickus as a tool to making that happen.
The sense of exploration is the big rub. I love that feeling of "this is new, no-one else has been here yet" that one gets from games, especially the new ones. It's like the smell of a new car, the run from Kelethin to Qeynos before PoK, or forgetting that midnight was four hours ago in the matrix-colors of Smaug. Fun days there and, since I can't quite find a title to give me that experience, I'm going to try making one... again. :)
The red saint 2: notes on exploration
One key lesson for me on TRS:1 is the insane rate at which content is drawn down by players. You guys are awesome. Too awesome. Not just that though, but in day to day testing in a shop of one ( plus or minus) testing the same zone set over and over becomes a lumpy old tire. To combat these effects I have a new solution that I'm building into the story of Immagickus.
More soon!
More soon!
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