GSSB race done!

The artist just finished another race, bringing up the total races to 12.  The 13th and last race is currently being worked on.  Here's a look at the new race, called "GSSB".  It parodies the fact that if aliens are female, they must be attractive, thereby humanoid with distinct human features, with one or two minor differences such as color of skin or some other such cosmetic feature.  Note, this is not intended to be derogatory toward women, but rather, how female aliens are portrayed in older sci-fi games and shows.

I nearly called them Orions in a nod to both Star Trek's Orions and the name of Master of Orion, but realized that there's already another race called Morions, and it would be only a difference of one letter.  So I'm going with GSSB which stands for Green Skinned Space Babes.  However, I'm open to suggestions for other names.

This race is equivalent to Master of Orion 2's Elerians.

Pudelhunds, Linux, and C++, oh my!

Good news, everyone!

Laszlo (the Linux programmer) and I investigated different approaches to C# and C++ that would be cross-platform.  C# was a major pain in the butt porting over to Linux (I couldn't even set up the Windows version of the test program that Laszlo threw together for Linux).  So we felt that even if we manage to get it working, it'd detract many potential contributers away with over-complicated setup requirements.  So we decided to look at C++ alternatives.  Laszlo found a very good alternative, SFML, that is almost identical to the Gorgon engine that I was using in terms of framework and way it handles things.  The only thing missing is word-wrap functionality.  We're currently looking at a third-party GUI library, but if it don't work out, we'll add the functionality ourselves.

I've created a test SFML branch to test various features that will be required for Beyond Beyaan to work (shaders, image manipulations, text drawing, etc).  Both Laszlo and I was able to run the same code on both Linux and Windows.  So once we've finished investigating the GUI library, we'll start converting Beyond Beyaan into C++, and also test on Mac.

Ivan Kravarscan has also offered to join in the development efforts, so please welcome him!  Also, I'm giving Arpad access to post posts on the blog, so expect to hear from him from time to time.

Last bit of news, the artist finished the Pudelhunds race artwork (They're the Gnolams equivalent).  Here's a preview!  They're mafia-esque, with ships inspired by old popular mafia cars used in Chicago.  Yes, the pudelhund in portrait is holding a tommy gun :)