Putting Shadows Aside

I've spent about the past two weeks, off and on, figuring out how to work with shaders (GLSL).  This feature which was just added to Game Maker recently will allow the game to draw dynamic shadows, proper directional light off of surfaces, and most importantly, create a field of view around the character that prevents the player from seeing through walls and solid objects.

GLSL is a whole other programming language that I have never used before.  I got my hands dirty with it a little bit, but I'm putting it aside for now, as it is going to take a lot longer to get shadows just right, and I feel that it is not needed at this point in development.  There are many other things that need to be worked on that can be done a lot quicker and are main gameplay elements, and while shadows may look cool, they can be added plenty later.

However, this time was not wasted.  I learned that in order to incorporate the type of shading I want in the game later, I had to change the way I draw the world and players now.

Anyway, time to start hashing out the following:

• A working inventory, screen and hotbar
• Worldly items one can pick up
• A moving "monster" object

Also, Moss now has access to writing to the blog.  So, I'm going to have to end off properly...

Over and out,

- Trevor