Switching Back.

When I initially started making this game (way back at the beginning of this year), I had learned how to make a rather code heavy (at least for someone barely learning actionscript) game engine, which I will refer to as the "Alpha Engine". The Alpha Engine did not provide platforms or side scrolling, as well as several other elements I desired for my game. So after I had reached the point where my scripting knowledge was maxed out, I moved on.

I learned how to make a side scrolling, platform hopping world for Daisuke to run around in. This newer engine, which I will refer to as the "Beta Engine" was VERY easy to make, VERY user friendly, and versatile enough for me to throw in some cool stuff. This is the engine you see in the 1st Daisuke teaser trailer.

I eventually hit a coding brick wall, and realized that I didn't like how several elements of the Beta Engine worked, so I stopped working on the game for a while.

I then took a look back at the Alpha Engine I started the game with, and realized that I have gained a significant amount of knowledge about actionscript in my time working with not just the Beta Engine, but a few others as well. My understanding of in game graphics has improved as well.

So today, I have reopened the initial Daisuke Alpha game engine, but this time with significantly more tools on my belt. Although it will take A LOT of time and energy to get the Alpha Engine to the point where I would want it to be, I think I have a better chance at this task, than I would if I just kept trying to work at the Beta Engine. I think that the Beta Engine just has way too many issues for me to try to work around, even though I had a lot of fun customizing and working on it. The basic mechanics of the Beta Engine were just not what I was looking for. Also, it had become a huge mess of code, and had become a pain to work with.

In just today, I have been able to get the Alpha Engine LOOKING much better than either had before. I have been able to fix the choppyness that was an issue in the Alpha Engine before, but I have done so without the floatyness of the Beta Engine, which means I have reached a pretty happy medium for the time being. I have also been able to successfully shrink down the characters to 75%, which is something that would not be easy to do in the Beta Engine. Combined with the 700 x 500 size I switched to before, there is plenty of space on the screen for all kinds of cool stuff.



It will take a while before I get this game working the way I want it to, but at least now I think I am more prepared to handle it. Hopefully this doesn't just turn out to be a big setback.