I guess I've arrived in the blogosphere...

Hello all of you random readers out there. I'm new here. I play video games, and I make video games. This is my journey through making a true, real game with innovative gameplay and acceptable art.

The project: WasTeLanD
Date started: Real programming started almost 2 weeks ago.
Language: C++
Libraries: Irrlicht, Micropather, irrKlang, Bullet, and Boost ( all subject to change )
Progress: 10% - framework is done, working on basic gameplay mechanics, programmer's art only

Thoughts: So far it's been a great experience in programming for me. I've learned how to make a true OOP framework for real time applications(aka games), and how to utilize a manager class to run the logic and bind all the different classes and functions together to (mostly) prevent global variables ( I have a global struct that holds a few ints and bools and a couple of void pointers to pass around).

Right now, I'm working on the Environment Warning System, the main innovative gameplay mechanic WasTeLanD will employ. EWS gets rid of the HUD. Entirely. There is no health, no ammo counter, nothing except perhaps a small status icon in the corner of the screen. All the HUD's data is displayed either in the environment through a holographic projection or on the weapon/item the player is holding(ammo count on the weapon's stock, tablet has readout of HUD information,etc). This should help the player better immerse themselves in the world, while creating a different type of experience in a frantic firefight. The point of EWS is not to force the player to remember how many bullets he's shot, but instead to let the player focus on the firefight without constantly seeing miscellaneous items in the HUD that don't apply to the situation.

The most interesting thing about EWS, is that it isn't truly updated in real time. The only time it is updated constantly by the game, is when there is a warning(hence the name) where the player must know this information immediately. When this warning state is entered, then the EWS system automatically displays on the environment in the top left or right corner of the screen, with a different alarmed color scheme and animation to tell the player the information(low ammo/health/shot from behind/etc).

Once I'm done with that aspect of the game, I'll be implementing some slightly better media, and then moving on to the gunplay of the gameplay.

Hope you enjoyed my presentation of my new mechanic, I'll update this soon to reflect my progress.