SOPA

Attr-X: Sound in Pictures

Attr-X in pictures!

Images from Attr-X. A free sound based MMO.
In a world of Sandbox games, Attr-X is distinctly not Minecraft, while, at the same time, almost identical.

You want to play this game.

How To: Make Ballivators

Cost: 7 Scraps (1 ball, 1 small block).
Time: about 2 minutes

I was fooling around in Attr-X earlier today and discovered a very fun trick. Here is how you can make an elevator to reach otherwise inaccessible parts of the map.

First you are going to have to decide on which ball you want to use as your elevator. I suggest a cheap one, but really it all comes down to color and sound (bad elevator music = bad elevator).

Now, find a vertical surface you want to scale. Big blocks, steep slopes, Billboards. They all work.

Next you will need to figure out where you want your elevator to be. This only works if the player will not collide with anything on his accent so be careful!

Now that you have your location place your ball directly below where you want the player to get off. Since the motion of the ball does not transfer to the player a ball that has significant movement on anything but its vertical axis will be hard to stay on.

Now that your ball is placed, select it. Locate the point you want the player to get off at and place your waypoint there.

Now that everything is set up, set your ball to either loop or pingpong between the points (since there are only two it doesn't matter which). Then set the speed. This should be very slow, but you do have some freedom with this. To fast and boarding will be a problem, to slow and noone will want to use it.

Now that you have a ball moving vertically move away from the point. Using a small marble block place it over the bottom point of your elevator. This gives the player a place to stand while they wait for the elevator and makes getting on a lot easier.

TADA! Your done.
NOTE: You may need to walk forward during the ride (into a wall) to keep from sliding off the ball.

This tutorial was written for Attr-X a music based MMO designed with the Esenthel game Engine.

Cool Story

So I went to XKCD today and hit the random button. Then I hit the random button instead of refresh (hoping for a new comic). This one (above) came up. Coincidence? I think not.

Perhaps a ghost did this?

Happy Halloween!

ZNA HD

If you are interested in creating an Application for the Zune HD you might want to try using my newest project.

ZNA HD is an engine designed to specifically for the Zune HD, designed in C# XNA 3.1.

It is still very much under development but is designed to include all the needed components you will need for a simple game/app.

You can find out more here: http://code.google.com/p/zna-hd/.