Back To Work

Merry Christmas to all!

Well, sorry that I am a bit late with it as I went out home for it and had no internet access for about a week. But now I am back to work.

I've been polishing 20 levels in the last couple months and have only 3 left to go. Once that is done, I will be on the "home-run" stretch of developing Silas. Yes, the light at the end of the tunnel.:)

Goodbye Fakebook!

I thought I'd post on how I just left Facebook after using it for about 4 years. At first it was pretty cool and a good way to keep track of people, know of parties, and meet others, especially for the single guy. But after a while it started to consume alot of my time, and I always too busy anyways. Besides, I was wondering why I had to hear it was snowing outside by someone else before I even looked. Plus the tons of other useless status updates on there. And on top of that, it always had a "fake" feel to it, out of the 260 freinds on there I only kept up with a few in real life. So I asked myself, what was the point? Why do I need to slave myself to reading pointless status updates, making my own, and all the other crap on there.

So the time-sink is gone, last night I deleted my Facebook. I am enjoying my extra half hour/hour a day of extra time, and my life has become that much more simple. :)

The Silas page is still up as I made a dummy profile. Other than that, everyone can contact me on here, or the forums, or email.

To anyone else considering the same thing, here is a site with tons of people who left it too, their reasons summarize my experience:

http://amplicate.com/hate/facebook

And now a picture in the spirit of Freedom!

Blast Yo Cannon In Silas

I always liked cannons. They look cool, are heavy, and will kick butt easily. Cannons used to be one of the most feared weapons on the battlefield. So I just had to put one in Silas.

I decided early on that I wanted there to be no aim assistance for the cannon. Instead, you have to rely on your wits and judgment to hit people. However, just one cannon ball can destroy a kart, so it is quite powerful in experienced hands. You can rotate the cannon head, and shoot either metal balls or slime balls. The metal is tough and will penetrate upon impact. Whereas the slime will stick to the ground and eventually fall apart.

You can see the cannon in action in the video below:



Also note in the above video a brand new level called "Barrel Cove". It is an ocean paradise. Each team claims it's own pirate ship as it's own. You must defend your flag within the ship and infiltrate the others. Classic CTF done water style.

Preorder Silas Today!

Silas is now available for preorder for only $9.99 at the official website!

I have always been fueled by passion. I guess you can say my biggest idols are Blizzard, Nintendo, ID, and Valve. This is because they didn't release games until they were polished and done. So here I am 7 years from starting the game, finally nearing completion. It's been a long journey, but Silas became a huge game with tons of great content. I am nearly done crafting the levels, characters, weapons, and experience for your gaming pleasure. That's why I am proud to announce that Silas is available for Preorder! I plan to release the game in March of 2011.

Reasons to Preorder:

- Only $9.99
- Gain access to the beta in the end of January!
- Instantly download the amazing 27 Song Original Soundtrack done by Loudcore
- Help support the little guy
- Be first in line to play the game upon release in March 2011.
- After the game releases I will support it fully with map packs and many updates
- The gods of Silas will smile upon thee.

www.kartsilas.com

Preorder Silas Today! Just click the link below and then click on the "Buy Now" button:

If you never heard of Silas before, and are wonder what the heck it's all about. I can sum it up in a few words. Flight, Combat, Racing. It's for the PC and will offer you many hours of fun. I've added a rundown of it's key features below. However, you can also visit the Official website for all the information.

Key Features:

- Online, LAN, and Offline gameplay
- No DRM
- 20 levels
- 18 weapons each with 2 different functions(feels like 30+ weapons)
- 27 song original soundtrack
- 13 characters
- 10+ different modes(Grand Prix, CTF, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Survival, Pipe Snatch, Online Racing, Mercenary, Time Trail, ect.)
- 24 Achievements
- Plus a bunch of other really cool stuff(Cheats, Museum mode, ect.)
- Roughly 10 hrs of fresh singleplayer gameplay, infinite hours of addictive Online gameplay

Early Gameplay Trailer:










Thanks for reading. Please feel free to let me know what you think. I aim to make Silas one of the best PC games around, so please help support it by tracking, spreading the word, and pre-ordering!

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Bought DKCR

Currently am playing my way through Donkey Kong Country Returns. And I must say that I am extremely satisfied. It has to be one of the hardest plat-formers I ever played, or possibly the hardest. Which is great since I always loved the difficulty of the original DKC games.

I'm starting world 5 now, and can say that the fourth world kicked my ass many times. I probably lost about 40 lives between the mine cart and barrel blast level alone.

I highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys plat-formers!

Lighting Drifters Plane

I thought I would show everybody how I light the levels in Silas. Before getting started, I model and test the levels to ensure they play really well. Once the models are finalized, the lighting process starts.

Step 1: I place these little yellow lights in 3ds Max. They are omni area lights.

As you may notice, they all have yellow rings around them. This shows me their lighting radius. Past the yellow ring, the light dissipates. You can also choose the color, set how bright they are, and change the shadowing properties. However, in step1 I mainly focus on placing ambient lights that do not produce shadows.

Step 2: Add the lights to the entire level. And set up the shadow lights. These are the lights which produce the shadows for indoor levels. In outdoor levels, I would barely use any lights at all but rather just one main sun.

Step 3: Render and ensure the brightness levels are appropriate. Usually I lower the environment ambiance as whole for a space level like this. I also put lots of small little ambiance lights instead of just one huge one.  In the pictures below, you can the see the 3ds Max renders:

Step 4: Once I am happy with the lighting it's time to export. First I must bake all the lightmaps using a function called "Render To Texture". I then store these lightmaps in a folder on my computer. After this, I re-export the models with thier second uv-coordinates and combine them in another modeling program for final game use.

Step 5: Play and make sure lighting is correct in the game engine:

I hope everyone enjoyed this small lighting tutorial. If you would like more details send me a message and I will try and help you.

Silas needs your vote!

Alot of work has been put into Silas over the years. And I hope that you can vote to help ensure a greater future for it!

I could really really use the help of getting into the Top50 in terms of a calling card for digital distribution. As I hope that many players can enjoy Silas, I would like to eventually get on some distribution services. In order to do that, I need your help and support. Silas is a great game with tons of cool content and weapons. And your one vote will really help!

Here is some simple steps to vote for Silas:

1. Register for an ModDB/IndieDB account

2. Sign in your profile

3. Click the "Vote For This Indie" button near the top of our profile, you can find the link below:





Please don't vote without an account or without signing in - Guest votes aren't as valuable in the competition.

Thanks so much for your time and support. :)

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