how to get your feature requests noticed

Now listen up class, if you want to get your feature requests noticed, this is how to go about it (thanks to the amazing Dr Overman)

(web link)

The next (~2 weeks) code update included the request:


Seriously, this level of enthusiasm, together with ShortFuze's agile development cycle is an awesome ride to be on (even if it feels like living in a tumble drier). I'm a little afraid the release cycle will slow down as we aim for stability in a larger company, but I always hope to have a free-and-fast pioneers version.

context palettes

Moviestorm is a complex bit of software - we (I'm) constantly fighting requests to add more to the interface, to keep it as simple as possible for the n00b. One of the techniques for this is only showing users options when they are applicable.

So for example we hope to only show the "add doors" or "paint walls" options once users click on a wall that they've already created. The latest move in this direction is an experimental widget for moving marks around the set.



Most apps show this widget in 3D, but this has the disadvantage that the widget isn't under the mouse when the drag is finished, so continuing the drag isn't fluent. Putting it in 2D and making it appear on demand should be a cleaner solution, but as with most of UI design, we won't know if it's the right way until we see people using it.

we're back

This is a fully operational battlestation moviestorm development blog.

Windows to Mac in no time flat

Yep Moviestorm now runs on a Mac. It doesn't render out to a movie yet until I get Quicktime working (but we're most of the way there). No lipsync yet either as that comes from a third party library but we 're hoping that will be along soon. Right now only on Intel (next job is to learn how to build Universal binaries).

The best bit is that it really didn't take much effort to get this far (about 4 fairly lazy evenings all told). Java & OpenGL makes porting from Windows to Mac pretty trivial. A few native libraries to rebuild (and the main time with that was learning about the non-standard gcc options on the Mac) and some Microsoft-isms to eliminate (replace \ path separators with / and similar). There were a few deeper bugs that had me scratching my head for a while but nothing too nasty.

So when we've got the rendering and lipsync issues sorted out, we'll have a beta of Moviestorm for all you Mac fans out there - early October with a bit of luck.

[edit: twak] you can download moviestorm for the mac here

My coding is so hawt...

Moviestorm has caught fire!