After taking a couple of months out to play Pioneer, to work out what to do next - then a couple of months to figure out how to do it... I've finally moved back into development. As usual Life Got In The Way, which it has a habit of doing and overall I've taken close to a years break between sprints.
I've taken a little time out to rework the renderer a bit, I've gone for soft shadows which really helps ground the scene and make it look a lot more solid. The look and feel here is key, and while I'm a long way off I think shadows were a nice distraction to have worked on. There are a few other graphics and rendering tasks on the list, but they might be backshelved for a while if I move into serious development.
Viewing the work of LEGO artists and communities on-line has really helped define the first goal of Pioneer Development - Sharing models and scenes. While there are a number of pre-rendered LEGO images that artists have made, I've not seen much real-time LEGO building, and I think the Pioneer environment would be great to help people share their MOCs if they don't have access to CG rendering or CAD.
Pioneer should be about sharing images, models, scenes or worlds. Its about Playing Well, and Playing Together. I want to be able to share what I've built and see what other people are building. This is about social building, and brickmanship.
I also want to be able to view historical sets, particularly the out of production iconic sets like Classic Space that helped build the LEGO brand over all these years. This is a celebration of everything they have done, and my homage to them. I'm not sure how this is going to play out, it might be I make a gallery of images, or of models to view. I'm avoiding all modern sets, all recent copyrights, brands and licencee material and anything that overlaps the LEGO company, their business model, their on-line presence and their console games.
Lastly, I've got my eye on building a world that Minifigs can explore. A dynamic, changing world made of colourful bricks. This is a log term concept for the project, and goes above and beyond anything I've got planned. But I'm aware that building a castle, town or lunar-base for minifigs to inhabit - or for you to walk around among them - would be a lot of fun. I pioneered networked multi-player during early development and think there is some strength to the idea of collaborative play.
So, that's where I am, and what I've been thinking about. If you were part of the Pioneer Alpha program, thanks for playing. There will be a beta soon - I'm putting together an improved building UI based on feedback and incorporating a couple of other features that were requested.
Keep it square, and think inside the box!
