Spectre Software

To infinity and beyond!

I have been looking at doing some work on blowing things up now that I have laser fire in the Freeform Space engine. In order for the player to blow things up, I first have to create some collision detection code in order to detect when something has collided with something else. I figured that the easiest way to do this would be to create a test case with an asteroid field - after all, asteroids don't require all the clever AI that enemy star ships do.

Thinking about asteroids led me to improving the planet that I had got in the online demo because I wanted my asteroids to spin and not be static. [Continued...]

Radar added and bug fixed

I've been ill the past few days and spent them away from work recovering and so spent some time doing more development on the Freeform Space project in Flash. I've created a new blog here (which you may already be reading, but I'm echoing all Freeform Space information on Spectre Software too so there are two ways of getting to it). The upshot of this is the development of the radar system, firing and playing of sound files from within the engine.

The radar system wasn't half as tricky to implement as for previous projects (such as the original Freeform). [Continued...]

Online Freeform Space project

A while ago I had an idea to make a 2D version of Elite that ran in a web browser through Macromedia Flash. Elite as you may know is the basis of Freeform, one of our most successful projects and one I always wished to create a sequel to (called Freeform Space).

Recent discussions with work colleagues about procedural generation led me to explain how David Braben had managed to store eight galaxies, each with hundreds of star systems in them, in only 32k of RAM on a Sinclair Spectrum. A few days later, at the weekend, all of this added up to me making a start on a new engine in Flash. [Continued...]

Retrofit

The updates on here are getting less and less frequent and I really must do something about that! So here is my first post in a long time and Im going to talk about another project idea of mine.

Retrofit (working title) is an idea for a roleplay game where the player is trapped inside a virtual environment in the future. My influences for this idea are cyperpunk ones, I feel there hasnt really been a proper cyberpunk game for a long time and the forthcoming Shadowrun game isnt going to do this genre justice (honestly, an FPS in the Shadowrun setting might as well be UT, whats the point?). [Continued...]

Wizard Craft

Announcing Wizard Craft, an all new totally FREE strategy game from Spectre Software!

Wizard Craft is a game of tactical magic. You play as a wizard (and whatever creatures you can summon) and must defeat the other players who are also wizards. There are always four wizards, either human or computer controlled. No two games are ever the same - the map is different every time and so is your spell book.

The game is for both platforms (PC and Mac) and totally free. I've also created my first ever flash mini site to help promote the game (it mimics the spell book within the game). [Continued...]

The Forgotten City

Announcing a new RPG!

This is a project I started a while ago where the idea was that a tale would be told using mostly text and prerendered graphics in the style of paintings on a scroll. I created the main engine, including the battle engine, which created literary descriptions of the fighting but abandoned the project when it became clear that the battle engine (which was supposed to be fun) was quite dull and quite difficult to work out what was going on.

Ive recently come back to the project, inspired by a game on the Xbox 360 called Enchanted Arms, which uses a battle engine similar to the Final Fantasy games. [Continued...]

Web Development

Spectre Software web development launches!

I have spun the site off into two sections now, the games development and the all new web development mini section. This new bit is only three pages in size but I plan to expand it in future. It covers my freelance work for clients and site hosting and gives several ways to contact me.

Also, Ive started a podcast called Dark Creativity. Its an outlet for some of my ideas in the form of fiction and poems with very dark themes. If this sounds like something you would like to hear, check out http://feeds. [Continued...]

Blood Rune and Necrotech

I know it has been a long time since I updated the site, but that doesnt mean that there hasnt been any developments. Much of what happens here goes on behind the scenes and experimental, too early to really talk about.

I would like to share some good news though!

Firstly, Im aiming to have a third Blood Rune beta test ready for the end of the month. Getting stuck into Oblivion has provided some more inspiration for getting all of the ideas together for the new levels - the third beta will be part forest and contain a number of (optional) dungeons, so expect it to be fairly big. [Continued...]

Blood Rune latest version

There hasnt been any updates for Blood Rune for quite a while now, I have been tied up with other projects for clients (I also freelance as a computer programmer, if anyone wants software creating, feel free to drop me an email and Im sure we can work something out).

Anyways, back on topic. A number of you have been contacting me to let me know that Blood Rune has stopped working and is complaining that it is not the latest version. This was a feature I built in to the beta tests to get people to move to newer builds which would have bugs fixed, but because the project has not been updated in some time, this is actually becoming a problem. [Continued...]

Blood Rune concepts explained

After the most detailed feedback Ive ever received from a star tester showing numerous bugs and asking some very good questions, Ive decided to explain some of the concepts that the Blood Rune roleplay engines uses.

*Upgrading primary stats

Primary stats are upgradeable and every 3 levels. On those levels you can also upgrade your character skills as normal - which is really me just being evil because the primary stats are of more benefit to upgrade than the skills are, in the long run.

*Intelligence and experience

Intelligence is added to the experience awarded to the character. [Continued...]

Blood Rune improvements

I thought I'd write a little about some of the changes and improvements that will be in the second beta of Blood Rune. This is just a taste of what is coming up, there are many more things...

The home village has been expanded slightly with the inclusion of a blacksmith. This character can repair damaged weapons and forge new weapons for you, making trips back to the village from the enemy lair more worthwhile.

There is also a new class of weapons - the club. The club deals more damage than the longsword but is slower (above average speed rating). [Continued...]

Blood Rune public beta

This is it guys, the Blood Rune public beta test is ready! You can download the 68 meg file here. Blood Rune requires OS X Panther or Tiger to run, a G4 600mhz mac with 256 meg of Ram. It may run on lesser hardware but you will probably need more memory to get good performance... you are free to try and let me know the results.

The beta test is a fair chunk of gameplay (2 hours + ) and is designed to test most of the gameplay types in the game. [Continued...]

The Blood Rune setting

The setting for Blood Rune is more gritty and real than most other roleplaying games. After playing magic heavy games like Diablo, which are magic saturated to the point of being totally unbelievable, I was determined that Blood Rune would be less silly. The more magic there is any game world the less like our own it would really be and the less plausible the whole thing gets - quick example, what is the point in building a fortress to hide inside if your enemy can teleport through the 10 foot walls? How could a city function if its thieves can go invisible multiple times per day, or conjure fireballs at will?

Some might argue that it doesn`t really matter, that it is only a game. [Continued...]

Armour in Blood Rune

In the spirit of keeping you updated with Blood Rune, I thought I would discuss how I have implemented armour in this computer role play game.

Armour, like in any role play game, is rated for effectiveness using a numerical scale. The more points a piece of armour has, the better the armour is deemed to be at preventing damage. Actually, preventing damage is the wrong terminology, armour in Blood Rune absorbs damage. An enemy that struck another for 10 damage who had 5 armour points would only receive 5 damage because 5 points would be absorbed by the armour. [Continued...]

Character attributes in Blood Rune.

Blood Rune is a new roleplaying game that I am working on. In it, you play a barbarian from a small village in a land that is about to be plunged into war. See the attached screenshot to see the work in progress to get an idea of where I am with its development. Like all roleplaying games, the character you play is partly defined by his or her attributes, and this post is about those attributes.

The main character attributes in Blood Rune are strength, hand to hand fighting, dodge, constitution, intelligence, willpower and persuasion. [Continued...]

New recipe

What do you get when you put the Apparition engine into a pot with the Necrotech engine and mix them up a bit?

Blood Rune, a new RPG that Im working on (see screenshot!).

This is an RPG in the same sort of style of the old Eye of the Beholder and Dungeon Master RPG's, that is, the whole game is played out in first person view. This is unlike Necrotech which switched to a battle engine for every fight. In Blood Rune, the fights take place using the same engine. Another key difference is that in Blood Rune you will only have the one character - you. [Continued...]

Praise for Necrotech

'I absolutely adore this game! Its so great to have a quality RPG for mac that is also freeware!' Says Istara by email, something that really made my day :)

Panamania

Im working on a few projects at the moment, not least of which is Panamania. Panamania is a computer version of the very popular casino poker game Pan. In this game each player is dealt ten cards and the player who gets rid of his hand first is the winner. It is a fast paced and extremely addictive card game.

Im working with one of the foremost Pan players there is to create this game. He knows the game inside out and has played it for many years. He is truly an expert on Pan!

The screenshot I have put up is a work in progress shot, showing my graphics and one of my guides for positioning things on the screen. [Continued...]

Necrotech Patch

A huge thanks goes out to Istara who has helped me create a new version of Necrotech which addresses a critical problem in the game that stops it from being completed.

If you have downloaded the previous version of Necrotech, please go to the download page and redownload it. This will take you to version 1.5.0 (visible on the main menu), fixing this flaw and numerous file linking issues.

You can copy your saved game out of the saves folder on the previous version and into the new version to continue your game.

Necrotech - Dual platform, freeware RPG

You will find the link to Necrotech on the site's main menu. The FULL game is now totally FREEWARE and also now dual platform PC and MAC!

You're welcome ;)

Necrotech is going freeware

Remember Necrotech, anyone?

Apparantly some of you do as I sometimes receive emails about this futuristic RPG that I created a few years ago. It was published by GameThoughts but because they are now no longer in the games business I am going to release this game as freeware for anybody to enjoy, and theres more - I will also put up a Macintosh version!

Necrotech was an old school style RPG but set in the future. It had a twisting story line, with the player initially investigating the disappearance of his brother and gradually uncovering a frightening conspiracy as progress through the game was made. [Continued...]

Horror Squad sale now on!

Thats right, the Horror Squad sale is now on!

Pick up either the PC or the Mac version for only $9.99 now!!

The full version contains all three massive and challenging scenarios (Wolfman in the Warehouse, Frankenstein's Lab and the Mummies in the Museum), extra unit types and of course the two player mode. The demo, by contrast, only comes with one scenario. All three scenarios can be played at varying difficulty settings, extending the gameplay immensely.

You will also receive any updates to the game for free!

Shadows in real time

I spent some time yesterday implementing a crude but effective shadow algorythm that allows the units to have shadows that react in real time to the lighting. Im quite proud of this achievement, the Apparition engine is certainly coming along strong.

The shadows react fully to the dynamic lighting and animations on the 3d characters. The method isnt 100% perfect but as Im not prepared to develop a ray tracing engine it is certainly good enough.

Ive been working on a number of things to do with the engine, including its speed - it now runs faster than ever before. [Continued...]

Apparition Engine

The engine that powers Magefire Online and Horror Squad now has an official name - Apparition. Previously it was refered to as the Isometric engine but I felt it was time to give it a proper name, especially as it is maturing.

Ive decided to write a bit about the development that Ive been putting into the engine that will power our next generation of games here at Spectre Software. Ive been hard at work making improvements, and if you click the attached screen shot you will see that Ive recplaced the 2D sprite driven engine with a real time 3D engine. [Continued...]

Magefire Beta 1b - whats the story?

We are still working on the next beta for Magefire and the reason it is taking us so long is that we are overhauling a number of different areas of the game in order to try and get more feedback from the people who download and test it. From the (somewhat confusing) title screen to the actual interface, we are examining areas where we could improve to help make the game easier to get into.

We are changing the name of the beta as well to beta 1b to show that it is no longer a simple expansion, but a massive array of bug fixes and improvements. [Continued...]

Horror Squad 1.38 ... bug fixes

Ive fixed a couple of niggly bugs with Horror Squad that people had experienced (for example, a dreaded script error that sometimes occured during combat was linked to levelling up which is really legacy code from the Magefire Online engine - both games share a common code base).

Ive updated the demos and complete version files, and everyone who has purchased the full version has been sent a patch. Id recommend everybody to download the new version. Note - if your version says Build 138 on the main screen, you are running the new version. [Continued...]

Horror Squad page eaten by undead....

...and replaced with a tidier, less cluttered, and all round superior mini site!

Check it out... it even includes a strategy guide to take the carnage to the enemy.

Finally, you can lay those ghosts to rest.

I hope you like the new look on the front page too, the addition of the logos to accompany the category of each news item should help your eye filter out the news for the game you are interested in more easily. Also, if you click the logo, it will take you to the relevent bit on the site too, so its a convenient jumping off point to things that catch your interest. [Continued...]

What happened to Necrotech Warfare?

Necrotech Warfare was never completed, but it has been succeeded with its spiritual successor, Horror Squad. You will find many of the same themes running through both games, the most obvious one is soldiers fighting the undead.

Horror Squad is a more traditional squad based strategy game and the engine is better suited for controlling lots of units. I hope that if you enjoyed Necrotech Warfare that you will also enjoy Horror Squad.

For anyone that is wondering what Necrotech Warfare was, it was a strategy game against the undead but viewed from a first person view point. [Continued...]

Announcing... Horror Squad

Pit modern and high tech weaponry against the supernatural in this squad-based tactical game!

Face off against the terrifying Wolfman, mighty Frankenstein and the ancient Mummy using pistols, automatic rifles, bazookas, swords and shotguns! Send these legendary beasts back to hell!

Only the Horror Squad can stand against this rising darkness...

Download my newest release now, you can find the demo for both PC and Mac from the Horror Squad link on the menu!

Beta Expansion details

Some more details of the beta expansion - it WILL contain a new level and a new spell ... magic eye... as well as a slew of bug fixes and an improved replay mode and faster computer turn speed.