The GameGuru Report
While there's not a lot of information floating out there from an official standpoint, it appears that TheGameCreators worked with the user 'Wizard of Id' to make a cold war pack that's prepping for release. Some preview elements were released and it's up to his usual stuff and then some.
You can find a full 24 minute (!!!) demo video of the product in it's pre-release form here:
I have to say I really appreciate the grungy look of the tiles on the wall.
What's Good in the Store
Looks like M2Design is getting busy with some new shacks. True story - one of my very first purchased models was one of his original shacks some four or five years ago. The guy makes good work and you should absolutely take a look at the newest offerings. You get 17 shacks for $6.50, a steal by any right.
MStockton also been working on updating his textures for his terrain sets and the newest updates look pretty impressive:
Honestly he's the only other terrain creator I trust from the store beyond myself, so if that's not high enough praise for his products I don't know what is. They were worth buying before - they are in the 'must buy' category for terrains now.
Free Stuff!!
Maiacombra rehashed a 'modified' flashlight that looks pretty decent: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220189
Amenmoses put up a new script for Bod's buttons: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220055#msg2607706
JPH put up some really beautiful advertising boards for free here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219734?page=1#msg2607741
You can see the picture below:
Third Party Tutorials and Tools
Nothing doing here. Maybe next week!
Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)
Bonesy continues his work on his sci-fi shooter. I admire the dedication to a single project and the constant improvement. So while I think it still needs a lot of polish, as a pre-alpha it's in a good state and could will easily be improved by his constant hard work:
PirateMyke put up a very interesting video of a level he's making for another game that I have to say has some really impressive architecture. The sheer scope of it is pretty awesome. I did tell him to work on the lighting but that's neither here nor there. Check out a video of it here:
The above is a screenshot of VincentHendrik's newest medieval castle work. I like the design and use of color for lighting. Seems like he's dialing it in pretty nicely.
And of particular interest it was revealed T-Bone(Aka Teabone) is working on a weapon wheel script that looks like a pretty nice piece of code!
I'd change the graphics but I'd reckon the actual code itself is pretty sweet! I'm super interested in diving into it myself when it goes up for sale.
In My Own Works
This week I got a metric ton of writing done. I mean it was substantial, probably 13-15k words written last week. You can thank the chapter on optimization which was both enlightening and totally consuming. It's such a big issue it almost deserves a book unto itself! That said I was super pleased to hit a major milestone: 100,000 words! This is officially 20k larger than anything else I've ever written before and I still have 20k more words to go. That said I'm on track and on time and that is just a great place to be!
I also had fun digging into the actual code on GitHub to answer some of my own questions with respect to GameGuru's more secretive functions so look for some really great answers to some long standing questions when I hit publication!
Michael Messina (AKA Bolt-Action Gaming) is a native of central Pennsylvania, currently residing near York. He is a Linux Systems Engineer, part-time author, part-time Indy game-dev and full-time father. He is currently working on authoring a start to finish guide for GameGuru via Taylor and Francis (via CRCPress).