Minousoft Software » media player

Rating system broken, new game screenshot, and three new songs

oakwhiz — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:18:54 +0000

After trying to upgrade the rating system, I noticed that it broke the layout of the site and does not record some ratings correctly. The rating system has been taken offline until further notice. Sorry folks, but it looks like you have to comment on the articles if you want to tell us what you think of them.

I have been developing a new game, mostly to test some interesting game design ideas. The game revolves around the player being as stealthy as possible – one of the key elements is to leave no evidence that you were sneaking around corridors. (Screenshot after the jump!) Another element is the fact that you are unable to see what lies ahead if it is too far away to hear or see. If you do not have line-of-sight to an object, it becomes much less visible on the screen. This has the interesting side effect of enabling the game to completely ignore unneeded objects that are far away from the player. I’m currently trying to add a dynamic artificial intelligence system to the game – because of the complex network of rooms, doors, and hallways, it is difficult to get an AI to properly navigate the game. I’ve decided to go with a node-based approach rather than an A* algorithm approach, as nodes allow the AI to act more intelligent. Nodes are placed at every possible place the AI can walk, and the AI can only move to a node that it has direct line-of-sight to. This allows diagonal movement. The AI decides what its long-term movement goal is based on what it is doing, i.e. if the AI is supposed to be patrolling an area, it will select the nodes of the rooms it wants to go to, and use the nodes in between to go there. If the AI encounters evidence that the player is nearby, it will deviate from its instructions and try to go to the node closest to where it thinks the player is.

Lastly, three new remixes have been added to the Media Player by request:

Geisha Dreams (Ringtone)
Moonlight Sonata
Fullmetal Alchemist – Melissa

Enjoy, and make sure to follow us on Twitter!

Quick Polaris Update

oakwhiz — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:01:51 +0000

Just some quick Polaris updates to keep you posted:

The user interface is being enhanced, and most of the selection system has been worked out.
Modules and ships now have ‘properties’ panels which give information about selected objects.
New module types have been added and old ones have been tweaked; notably the Mass Driver, Science Module, Armored Module, and Cargo Capsule.
Improvements have been made to the Ship Builder, but it isn’t finished yet.
Some previously unknown bugs from 0.23a have been squashed, finally.
Parts of the game have been redesigned to improve efficiency.

New content has finally been added to the Media Player:

Caramelldansen (Remix)
Sonic – Flying Battery Zone (Remix)
Final Fantasy X – To Zanarkand (Remix)
Final Fantasy 8 – Force Your Way (Remix)
Azumanga Daioh – Soramimi no Cake (Remix)

A couple of small bugs in the site itself have been corrected, but an accident while editing the shoutbox has erased all of the shoutbox comments and the CSS template for the shoutbox itself.

Polaris Demo Video

oakwhiz — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:23:32 +0000

I’ve uploaded a demo video of Polaris. Progress so far is good. Check out the nice physics!

Polaris article link: http://www.minousoft.com/2009/04/polaris-new-game-in-development/
Video link: http://www.minousoft.com/media-player/

Feel free to comment on what you think.

Rovernet Video and Minousoft File Hosting

oakwhiz — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 04:05:31 +0000

This Easter weekend, I have uploaded four new items to the Media Player, including a video of a new game called Rovernet. Now, I don’t want to release too many details about Rovernet at this point, since the project is still under development and is just the ‘shell’ of a game, but I will tell you the basics. Rovernet will be a 2D platformer centered around a small robot, which has been sent to another planet. This robot’s goal is to explore the surrounding area, gather information, and collect samples from the environment. The game has a very solid physics system for the robot itself, as the robot is capable of both flying, using rocket boosters, and driving on terrain, using tank treads. The robot’s physics system is easy to grasp, and flying is accomplished with only three keys. When the robot is set on a flat surface, any lateral movements are accomplished with the treads instead of the rocket boosters. See the video in the Media Player for an illustration of how this works.

Also check out the three new remixes in the Media Player:

Tetris Theme Remix
Final Fantasy 7 Battle Remix
Final Fantasy 7 Prelude Remix

I would also like to inform everyone about our new experimental file hosting service called Minousoft File Upload. It is currently in beta.

Minor updates…

oakwhiz — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 02:54:52 +0000

There hasn’t been a real update for a little while, so I’m posting up what little developments there have been recently.

Two new songs in the Media Player, in case you haven’t noticed.
- The first one is a Never Gonna Give You Up remix, in the theme of last Wednesday’s April Fools. I found it challenging to get this one exactly right, but here it is.
- The second one is a remix of What Is Love by Haddaway – you may have heard it in the famous Night at The Roxbury clip circulating the internet. I think this is the best remix so far.
I would like to thank Jonathan (aka spiffyx300) for his generous donation of $10. Jonathan runs the Emerging RO game server at http://www.emergingro.com/ and is one of our pre-release beta testers.
Some of our users have noticed a 404 error page problem that we’re trying to track down. If you reach pages on the main site that are either mistyped or are not redirecting correctly, instead of a 404 error page, you will be redirected to http://www.minousoft.com/. If you notice any of this behavior please send us the URL so that we can fix the problem. For now, make sure to include both the WWW prefix and the trailing backslash – this seems to work every time.
You have to be logged in to use the shoutbox now. It’s been racking up huge amounts of spam. I might add a simple CAPTCHA to keep the spambots out.
I will not have much extra time for the next two months; it has been allotted to software development. Consequently, I will probably be slow in answering messages and posting updates. Don’t worry, I’ll still get around to it. I may try to find someone else to fill in for me. In the meantime… stay tuned.

And that’s all for now.

Media Player Updated

oakwhiz — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:02:07 +0000

If you were around last year, you may have noticed a little-used video player box on the site. I’ve updated it, fixed it, and added some content. The Media Player is now available here. So far, I’ve added two songs to the player.

The first is a remix of Still Alive from the game Portal in an 8-bit style with stereo effects. The lead is a sawtooth and the bass is a square wave.

The second song is a request. I thought it was unusual, but it was interesting so I decided to do it anyway. It’s Fukai Mori by Do As Infinity in the same 8-bit style as my Still Alive remix. It was challenging to get the instruments to balance properly, as many bass tracks were playing at once, which was causing the digital filters to go into awful clipping bouts. I decided to mute some parts to keep the simultaneous note count down, which ended up working great.

To listen, simply open the Media Player. You can also send us a MIDI file and I’ll try to remix it. No guarantees, though, as music isn’t really my forté.

If you like our remixes, please consider donating. Every dollar counts. (Hosting isn’t free!)