A couple of days back I returned from Holidays in Christchurch (Via Wellington and Hanmer) I went there with Kirsty to attend the World Bookcrossing convention (not sure how NZ got it!). I actually really enjoyed it. I met lots of interesting people and spent a lot of time with some old friends. As well as spending more money! I now have dolls of Kaname and Tessa from Full Metal Panic to add to my collection..

Anyway, the two weeks I was away were very hectic. There was almost literally no time where I could just sit down and work on any of my projects. On top of that I have just returned to work, and have been working long hours as we've got a major project on at the moment. And, I'm also obliged to finish the Drupal site for my Brother's youth group.

It seems this thing called 'real life' is conspiring against my game designing ambitions.

Despite that I have decided to commit to some release dates for new versions of Derelict. The public beta for Derelict 1.2 will be on Thursday the 30th of April, with the release version on Tuesday the 5th of May. The reason for having a beta version at all is that there are fairly significant changes requiring testing, and the reason for the 5th May release date is that on the 6th I'll be demonstrating Derelict at the Auckland Game Works meeting, gauging interest to see if anyone there would be willing to join the Derelict 1.5 team.

My rough change list for Derelict 1.2 is:

1. The game is a lot slicker. The option for 'target frame rate' has been removed, so the game simply runs as fast as it can all of the time. I'd be interested to see how well it works on a EEE Sam ;)
2. The map rotates with the orientation of the player, except when the map is in fullscreen mode
3. New weapon: The Shotgun. This still requires a lot of tweaking so that it isn't either too powerful or too weak.
4. Minor AI improvements. While they still won't be as smart as Space Hulk's Genestealers, they should make things just a tad more interesting
5. Re-jigging of the GUI, hopefully it's easier to follow and less intrusive now
6. The multiview (showing the displays of all marines at once) is also less intrusive
7. Brand new song by Krystian Krewniak of Poland
8. Audio's a bit better, since the game engine dynamically lowers the background volume when someone is speaking
9. The slightly bland looking LCD screens in the game have been replaced with a transparent glass screen.
10. Each of the Marines has a flag of their nationality on their uniform
11. The Marines also walk a bit faster, their slowness is a common complaint!
12. Walking acceleration, which should add a touch more immersion to the game
13. ALT-F4 works for quitting
14. Loading screen

And, that's about it!