After my last hotspot post, a lot of people recommended various ways we could make our hotspot and scripting interface more user-friendly. Accessibility is a big priority for us, so we are definitely working on this. As a first step, I've added a hotspot browser. This browser lets users select convenient, prepackaged hotspots and place them in the map. Thus, modders will be able to use any standard hotspot without needing to touch scripting code at all. (A UI to tweak the parameters of each hotspot is forthcoming :) ). Scripting will, of course, still be available for users who want to make entirely new hotspot functionality.

I'm pretty excited about hotspots and scripting because they will allow us to quickly prototype diverse gameplay. I thought a platforming, race game might be fun at this point, so I packaged up the necessary hotspots (race start, checkpoint, and race end) and threw down a krumpty course. The following video showcases the entire course building process. I tried to use a bunch of different map editor tools so that the video gives an up to date overview of basic level building. The video also features the Whaleman, Rabbot, and the vocal stylings of our very own John "the War Dwarf" Graham.

Click here to watch it in HD!

What do you guys think of the hotspot browser? Anyone think you can make a better race level? ;) I hear GDer's offering up some competition... anyone else?

(Note: In this coming week's alpha, ctrl-3 switches to hotspots editor mode and ctrl-1 goes back to the objects editor.)

Often, when I wear my Wolfire T-shirt people compliment me on my nice FireFox shirt, exclaiming their love for the browser. I thought I would confuse people even further by making Wolfire's very own web browser! I teamed up with AJS, the creator of Awesomium, to bring you guys Wolfire WebKitten:

Wolfire WebKitten

What is WebKitten?
WebKitten is a nice, lean web browser complete with tabbed browsing capabilities and other modern browser niceties. It uses WebKit as the rendering engine (the same engine that powers Safari and Chrome). The twist is that it does not just use WebKit as a rendering engine -- it is built inside of WebKit. That is, it's written in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, designed to run inside of Awesomium (a library for embedding WebKit). That's right, it's a web browser built inside of a web browser.

The intention of WebKitten is to let people access certain webpages inside of Overgrowth. Without further ado, here is a screenshot of me writing this post from within the game:

I'm writing this post from WebKitten

WebKitten is useful for a few reasons. Right now, our number one use case is to embed the Overgrowth Alpha FAQ (which is simply a forum post) inside of the game. However, there are a lot of possibilities. Here's a few off the top of my head.

- Let people view and edit an Overgrowth wiki from within the game (it could even update itself based on your location in the game).
- Live customer service without leaving OG.
- Chat in our IRC channel from within the game.
- Let people purchase the game from within the demo.
- Easy access to our forums, etc.

That's about all I can think of for now. What uses for WebKitten can you guys think of?

In the Overgrowth editor, groups usually behave as encapsulated units. However, it's often useful to select and tweak the individual elements of a group. For example, you might want to copy an individual object in a group. The group browser provides one way to do this. But it can be disruptive to rely on an abstracted browser window for something as simple as selection. So, I've also added another way to handle subgroup selection.

With this alternate method, you use the mouse wheel to navigate selections in a group hierarchy. For each group that is selected, scrolling the mouse wheel in selects the subgroup over which the mouse is hovering. If the mouse is not hovering over any subgroup, all subgroups one level down in the hierarchy are selected. Scrolling out has the opposite effect: the selected subgroup's parent is selected.

Here's a video of this in action. As usual, HD is available!

What do you guys think of this selection scheme?

In a previous post, we gave you a look at our sexy game development computers that preorders have helped us buy. Today I thought it was time for me to reveal my high-end rig as well.

This is a picture of my desk situated in the kitchen of the room Jeff and I are in. The centerpiece is my Dell XPS laptop with a Pentium 4 3.4 GHz Processor, 1 Gig of ram, and an ATI Mobility Radeon 9800 with 256 Megs of VRAM that allows me to run my main screen at a resolution of 1920 by 1200. She weighs in at about 15 pounds and is 3 inches thick so I've always referred to her as my portable desktop. Five years ago this baby was the biggest baddest gaming laptop in existence.

John's Faithful Computer

Time has taken its toll though. Moore's law has turned my laptop into a hulking neanderthal. Her battery life has fallen from an out of the box peak of fifty minutes to zero. Whenever she gets unplugged, she can't even run her internal clock and has to be told the time and date on the next start up. I have Silverfish's Overgrowth Logo selected as my desktop pattern but my computer tends to display a plain blue background instead. You can see that her "delete" and "enter" keys have fallen off so I've switched over to using an external keyboard.

She doesn't complain much though (as long as I clean the dust out of her fan ports once in a while). I'll usually have five or six chat programs running with dual monitors and I can still use Photoshop, edit videos and play the Alphas without any trouble. Because my role has me focusing on PR, business development and customer service instead of direct coding or asset creation for Overgrowth, this is all I really need.

What do you guys think of my setup? Does anybody have a computer older than mine that is still alive and kicking?

The term "set pieces" in video games refers to unique areas of levels that are especially interesting. Often set pieces have unique art assets that help establish the theme. Quality set pieces can also be an important part of the AAA look. For Overgrowth we are working hard to have as many cool set pieces as possible. Here is a concept for one!

An idea for a level set piece

The idea for this piece came after I was looking at a book about gardens in Sri Lanka. I was also thinking of massive sculptures, like the reclining Buddha (as immortalized in Street Fighter 2). This stone head was carved by an ancient dog culture that has since been wiped out.

Do you guys have any ideas for cool set pieces in levels (feel free to include links to cool pictures)?