The Shining Source

Many dreams have long drowned,
in the waters of everyday life.

Many ideals have long faded,
in the dim light of realism.

Many worlds have long fallen,
into the depths of my trash can.

Many heroes have long ceased to exist…
…but Seolean outlasts them all.

It’s been a while…

..but the Shiny Sword Cloudslayer site has been reopened!

In the next couple of weeks I’ll gradually add some fresh pages and resources to this section. My updating behaviour has been so utterly unpredictable these days that there is really no point in planning or promising anything, but eventually stuff is bound to appear here . My main gripe about the old site (not the temporary page, mind you!) was that it lacked the cosiness the former Shiny Sword designs used to have. With this design I’m trying to restore that feel a bit again .

In due time this introductionary section will disappear and you’ll be able to read all the recent SSC news & events up here. The final site won’t be ultra-fancy, but I do strive to make it a lot more interesting and enjoyable than the last one . If you have any suggestions on what you like to have on the site, feel free to post in this forum!

Screenshot Gallery

Hi all, even though the worklog is empty BABS 3 development is progressing at full speed. Just head over to the Shiny Sword/BABS forum to find out about the latest advancements. These include vast improvements to the tile editor and the introduction of arbitrary tile sizes, among many many other things

I already spread some stuff on the forums, but now I feel I’ve been working on this sufficiently seriously to put this officially on the map.

BABS 3 is officially in development. It will be a heavily re-engineered and refactored version of the BABS 2.5 engine, which should allow people to make much more interesting games without a lot of additional effort.

Things BABS 3 will support for sure include:

- A vastly improved SMEE editor, with a more intuitive interface (I might throw in a resolution increase too).

- Support for arbitrary tile sizes and resolutions (so finally you can use those neat 42×42 tiles for your Hitchhiker’s Guide fangame ).

- Improved performance and responsiveness of the overall toolkit.

- Severe enhancements in the roleplaying department. This will evolve as I work on it, but for sure I’m going to add interactive dialogues and a personality engine. The latter will ensure that the responses of NPCs  will match the way you roleplay (so no more mr. NPC Nice Guys when you start behaving like a murderous idiot ).

What it will for sure NOT include:

- Kickass graphics (there are other games for that).

However, I might write out a graphics contest or two to improve the visuals of BABS 3 and its corresponding game. These contests will include some kickass prizes and I’ll let you know more about it in due time.

BABS 3 will also get its own game, which actually is the main reason why I’m working on BABS 3. Also, it will remain open source and supported by the lads here at the Source (yes, that includes me too, despite my near-decadal hiatus ).

If there are any things you’d like to see, or you’d like to help in the graphics department, feel free to let me know by posting on one of the forums!

Good news, everyone!

The Java source code from the latest version of B.A.B.S. has just been released. You can find more information on this version of B.A.B.S.  here. It’s the most complete version to date, and features plenty of campaign levels and battles for you to play with.

If you’d to contribute anything (source, images, music or ideas), feel free to drop by the forum and say hello

Anyway, here’s the good stuff: Download the source code here.

How can this be?

I’ll tell you how: Grimmm determination.

Devlyn gave me a heap of support 3 years ago to release this, but I didn’t step up and add the bits I wanted added when he became the busy man he is.  Anyway I finally got the motivation together to do it, mainly thanks to the posts of the boys giving me a reason to smile.

Download under 2mb, unzip and play straight away!  Discover the village of Lycadell and 3 battles with your team of 7 against 8 unique monsters.  Listen to the groovy 16bit sounds we’ve developed over the years.  Laugh at how when you heal yourself you appear twice on the screen.  Laugh at lots of things, really… like how earning over 100 experience points at once doesn’t level you up.  But nevermind about that, it does work to the necessary degree!

You’ll need Java 1.5 or later I believe, you can get it here:
http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp

Please leave me comments in this forum thread: BABS 2.5, Lycadell Campaign. Bugs, Comments, Updates : )

Any feedback is welcome.

Download it by clicking here!

The small release project we are working on now has maps created and an idea behind it.