Nearly at the end of my Gunstorm marathon. Today I recorded the main gameplay videos - the first time I've done this on my new computer (well, apart from taking the SFXEngine videos, but that was a Windows Desktop program). This took (and takes) a lot of time, as the gameplay has to be about right, and show a reasonably large amount of the game. Then the videos need converting then editing. Both games have 4 videos each, each of about 3 mins. Shorter is better.
I also needed to take the screenshots of the games, though this is yet to do on Gusntorm II. I've also re-done the Gunstorm II Steam graphics:
It's hard to make the 'II' glow exactly the same way as the main title, as this was composited from the actual game colour and alpha maps. These new graphics look better. They have a darker fade to the edge, and uses the correct 'nebulae' for this game.
I also tested and got working the game controller input. The controls were labelled wrong, so that needed fixing. These are translated too, so each key (300+) needed translations into French and German.
I'm feeling stressed and uncomfortable, overloaded with things to do, but the end is in sight. The next steps are the Gunstorm II screenshots, then the Steam integration programming.
I've decided to release Trax as it is on itch.io at some point. This was my first ever 3D game, my first after over a decade of making 2D games on the Dragon 32, the Commodore 64, the Amiga. The game itself is not great, though a suitable update to Burnout, my last Amiga game, and could and should ultimately be better than that game at least. It does, however, look and act worse than almost all of my other 3D games, partly because it was my first game of that sort. It would be quite a lot of work to update to modern standards, and largely pointless work - why update a poor game? It would be like taking a bad film and working on an expensive 'digital remaster' of it. Unlike films, however, I could improve the game itself as I worked.
Still, this, if I ever update it at all, will be at the bottom of the list to re-work. Breakout Velocity and Fallout will probably never be updated because a new game that mixes bits of both would be easier and better in every respect.
The current (ancient) version of the game does run on my 2024 Windows 11 PC, so I may as well put that on itch.
