12-27-06 - Thanks to Francisco for setting up our new home!
Click it, you must.
12-23-06 - The *entire* scourge staff is gearing up for the much anticipated 0.17 release. It will feature futuristic, ahead-of-its time technology, such as save-games. As a preview of good things to come, check out
a new screenshot.
11-15-06 - Since deadlines cannot be moved, a good rule when managing a software development team is to instead push the coders to the very edge of their sanity. I call this Cthulhu-style management. It is a direct competitor to
agile-development, and other inferior methodologies. In this spirit, the engineering team is proud to bring you the (somewhat deranged) fruits of their labor:
version 0.16.
09-15-06 - New
screenshots posted of the progress. The svn version now handles md3 (quake3) models as well as md2-s.
08-18-06 -
0.15 is out! Get it while supplies last. The dev team again managed to surpass the last release's size and version number! Yeah! This version also contains better party movement, an updated UI and a dynamic party where you can hire and dismiss your minions. Chapter 8 of story takes our intrepid party to... well, I won't give it away. Enjoy!
06-11-06 -
v0.14 is almost out... The data, source and windows files have been uploaded. Expect the mac version later today and the linux binary (autopackage) as soon as I can figure out how to download and install the data module... As always please play responsibly and do not quaff and drive. Any errors, omissions, bugs or unlawful npc activity can be reported thru the
usual channels. Finally a loud thanks to everyone who helped out with this release: artists, coders, forum maintainer, rpg experts, wife, children, etc. There are too many to name...
03-20-06 - In a blatant abuse of priveleges, it gives me (charlieg - not Gabor) great pleasure to announce that the
Scourge forum is now open for business. It does look far too pretty for the moment, but rest assured some constapated bile demons are being contracted to rectify this problem as soon as possible.
03-13-06 - v0.13 has been
released. This version contains random-generated caves, a plethora of turn-based combat improvements, a very cool minimap, new music (thanks Vincent!), 3d fog of war and more. The long list of bug fixes includes a patch for the infamous map-selection bug. (which has been there since v0.1). Also included is chapter 6 of the story. This takes the party to level 10, grants them an interview with Sabien where many a secret is revealed...
02-07-06 - The obligatory lava-flows mentioned below have arrived (well, at least in cvs.)
These two
screenshots also show you what the fog of war looks like in the caves. Enjoy!.
01-24-06 - We've been exploring the
caves. The work is exciting and progress is made quickly. Soon our new underground locations will sport the obligatory lava flows and stalagmites as well. What can I say? Drizzt would be proud.
01-01-06 - Happy new year, my fellow exterminators. I'm ecstatic to present the open source world with
S.c.o.u.r.g.e. v0.12. As always, it's more, bigger, better, (faster? not really..) Of course, as usual there wasn't time to implement everything I wanted... This at least in part can be blamed on the army of weresquirrels who put up some amount of... resistance... to being forced to code. Several of us here at HQ were bitten, but luckily squirrel lycanthropy can be warded off with alcohol.
11-06-05 - Check out the beginnings of the SOM (Scourge Object Model)
documentation! And if that doesn't top out your nerd-o-meter, consider that the squirrel bindings are self-documenting: scourgeGame.documentSOM() will produce the html files. :-)
10-16-05 - Upgraded to Ubuntu 5.10... always one of those moments that leaves you wondering what will not work after the transplant... At any rate, gcc 4.0.1 is now able to compile scourge, so for all of you with the "Constants::MIN_DISTANCE is not defined" error, you can try the cvs code; it should build. In other news there are new French
tutorials from Samuel. (Thanks as always!).
10-13-05 - We've been
overrun by rodents as it is evident from the screenshot. The
squirrels' attack exposes much of the game's structure for your devious scripting pleasure. Someday the SOM (Scourge Object Model) will be fully documented. In the meanwhile, if you have specific scripting use-cases in mind, please
mail them to me so I can add the methods/objects needed. In other news, I'm adding a new page to contain Samuel's tutorials. Thanks again Samuel!
10-11-05 - Samuel sends us three French tutorials he's made:
Thanks Samuel!!
(Editor's note: on US keyboards, pressing '7' in the main menu will start the map editor. Its use is however, best left to those wise in the ways of science and of a sturdy constitution. Prolonged exposure to the map editor is dangerous to your mental health. Please do not operate heavy machinery (incl. two-handed weapons, siege engines, and the iron maiden) while under the influence of the map editor.)
10-04-05 - 0.11 is finally
available. In the end the last buffer overflow bugs took longer than expected to fix... (those responsible have received their beatings.) Look forward to
squirrel integration in the next version!
08-25-05 - As a result of a major code-cleanup last week, the map rendering classes are now usable outside of the S.c.o.u.r.g.e. project. The plan is to develop a small "example" project to showcase this capability.
0.11 (in cvs) now has a pre-rendered, multi-level HQ map. The level 6 storyline mission will take players to land of "drunken, pick-axe fights and small, bearded women". And these are just some of the wonders waiting for you in
Thuzgol, city of the mountain dwarves! The storyline is coming along nicely. In its current form, it will take the party from its humble beginnings to an absolute nail-biter, action-packed finale of epic (for S.c.o.u.r.g.e.) player levels of 40 or so. I've enlisted the help of an old friend, wise in the ways of GM-ing. Many a late nights did our table-top parties end up in the very clutches of
Mormuth...
I'm off on vacation for a week, but never fear the laptop and a very small host of coder pixies is already packed for the trip.
07-31-05 - Development is proceeding on a map-editor. Non-random levels (including HQ) are fast-becoming reality (and thanks to
zlib they won't be huge either). They're not ready yet however. Take a look at the
S.c.o.u.r.g.e. map while you wait.
06-12-05 - The Open-Source gaming world can finally rest after months of fret:
S.c.o.u.r.g.e. 0.10 is now reality! This version brings a feast of imagery in the form of tiny well-made item icons (from RLTiles) and same-sized, indecipherable spell icons (by yours truly). There is also a main menu now with a cool effect, the pain of whose making across the platforms can be evidenced by the brave in a splendor of cvs entries... And as always, the bards of the Order of the Grizzled Pony appreciate your business.
06-06-05 - Finally! v0.10 (yes, 0.10) has entered its week of play-testing. The upcoming release will have a new UI, new spells, new items, npc, etc. The storyline will make an attempt at emerging and should be playable to about level 6. Look for downloadable source and binary goodness soon!
04-29-05 - Development is progressing a bit slower due to simultaniously having to deal with mutinous dwarves _and_ an internal investigation of our shop's practices by the board. Unfortunately the fellow handling the investigation met his untimely demise at the hands of the enraged dwarven crew... On the plus side, this seemed to calm them down and now they're back to coding again. Their latest bit was a bunch of new spells:
Ring of harm, Malice storm and the Unholy Decimator. Gray dwarves are an unpredictable lot but they do good work occasionally.
04-07-05 - The next version of S.C.O.U.R.G.E. for linux will also be available in binary form, thanks to the
Autopackage project. Not only will you not have to compile the source but the installer will even create a menu entry and icon for your click-and-run convenience! Many thanks to Autopackage for the excellent tool.
03-23-05 - Work continues at the usual lukewarm pace... We now have
screenshots of the new UI themes, a mostly functional character editor and the amazing inventory icons, created for free by
RLTiles. The character portraits were (in a fit of desperation) drawn by yours truly...
03-01-05 - In spite of everything
version 0.9 did manage to make it out the proverbial door. Yes, the elves did pack up and leave when the magic powder ran out. The latest crew (composed strangely of dwarven poets) worked hard to bring your this release. Amidst much fanfare (and loud recitals of rare dwarvish sonnets, dedicated mostly to alcohol) I give you
the binaries for windows and the mac. Expect the src package to follow tomorrow.
01-30-05 - Trenchfoot! Unions of dungeon sanitation and exterminator workers are outraged at this serious worsening of working conditions. Backed-up sewers of some environments caused the S.C.O.U.R.G.E. group to have to wade through ankle-deep, brown liquid... This is high adventure! (Check out the
screenshot.)
01-20-05 - In a further nod to the Ultima series, the freshly wrought dungeon-theme system displays striking simularities between HQ and the town of
Britain... Moreover, much thought is being given to smooth character movement. If I squint my eyes, it almost works. (Don't worry, by 0.9, it will.)
01-05-05 - Happy new year! Once you have recovered from nearly drinking yourself to death in order to celebrate surviving another year, head over to
sourceforge for S.C.O.U.R.G.E. version 0.8! The new release has a lengthy
feature list with sadly, some "known issues". As always,
let me know what you think.
12-29-2004 - Version 0.8 is nearly complete! (The elves (mentioned below) seem to snort some kind of a powder in lieu of nourishment...) I still have to make sure that battles and spells work at higher levels, compile for the various platforms, update some documentation, but after that: you can have at it. Coming in this release are locked doors, sophisticated lever mechanisms to open them, faster rendering, magic items, more creatures, objects, spells and more! (If I get excited just describing the new features, you _must_ be quite beside yourselves.)
12-22-2004 - The imps have been given a few days of rest. However, a new contract army of elves (who by the way are a lot cheaper and don't seem to need much sleep...) have been working on enchanting weapons and armor. Happy Holidays!
11-26-2004 - We have a new member! I'm very happy to introduce our new Chief of all things Aural:
Toofan Hosseinnezhad. His first piece of music is in cvs and will soon be used from code. Look for the sound assault in the 0.8 release! (
Legal: Toofan's music is his own property. As such it is subject to the usual legal restrictions, as set forth by the Towne Guard and in proclamations of his majesty's Royal Judges and is punishable to the full extent of every law applicable and even some that are arguably not related. A minimum of seven lunar cycles shall be spent by the suspect/offender in the Towne Jail where he shall be held quite against his own will and without counsel and subject to any or all whims of the Guard, the Keepers and Mormuth the Hairy whose brows doth wrinkle and beady eyes doth shine in anticipation.)
11-20-2004 -
0.7 is finally out after chasing a mystery bug on windows for a few days. I wish I could've put more features into this release but I didn't want to sit on it forever. Let me know what you think of the battle system!
11-17-2004 - The first version of the new turn-based battle system is basically ready. My minions are busy fixing the remaining problems that cropped up on Windows. (Which is not easy with open-source tools... no valgrind, etc.) The 0.7 version will be the first release of the new combat system and I expect, it will change a lot before it's generally accepted...
This version will also contain the beginnings of networked play. The code has been refactored such that running a server w/o graphics is now possible. The client/server code can be compiled optionally (if you have SDL_net) but so far you can only send chat messages between game nodes. The main focus of this release is the combat system. The network code has not gone through our diligent and systematic (ok: _usual_) testing yet.
11-10-2004 - A lengthy and revealing interview has been posted on
RPG Codex. If you've ever wondered about our plans and motivations, I suggest you head on over and read it.
11-08-2004 - The battle system is currently undergoing surgery. The aim is to produce a saner, turn-based and optionally real-time system that is acceptable to most. At this stage of the development it's hard to say which camp will be happier (that is to say if the result will be more like a micro-managed, turn-based system or pausable real-time). As soon as I have something even half-way interesting, I will post an interim build so you can take a look. Of course all this combat development has put the 'secret project' behind schedule...
10-29-2004 - A heated discussion over making the battle system turn-based degenerated into name-calling, much rattling of sabres and worse, here at the Headquarters. We need your help with this monumental decision! Please post your rants at
this forum entry.
10-16-2004 - Working towards version 0.7, whose main feature set is becoming increasingly more nebulous...
Take a look at an example of the new UI layouts. (Don't worry, full-screen mode is still available). It's a throwback to
rpg-s of yore and that doth bring a tear to the eye of this old-timer. Oh, and I also started to work on the "secret" project...
10-10-2004 - We've hit the
Washington Post! The title says it all...
10-07-2004 - That's right! Version 0.6 just hit the streets. Among the new features are magic, potions, gui updates, better battles and of course: etc.
Enjoy! (A special note for Mac users: I think I finally managed to figure out how to embed a framework in the app bundle. In other words, you should be able to run the game w/o having to install anything. Let me know if this is not the case.)
09-24-2004 - Go easy on the
User Guide, it's still in development. But do take a look! On the coding front, our imps are experimenting with scissors (and doing a bit of running around as well, I'm sad to say...) in order to craft the finest paper-doll inventory system, yet! It's a tall order and after some failed attempts they're getting quite close to something almost useable.
09-06-2004 - Several new features are cooking, here at the underground facilities of S.C.O.U.R.G.E. A spell system has been causing quite a lot of headache (literally) but it seems that the final wrinkles are being ironed out (and our test Imp population has stopped decreasing in numbers...) Wonderously, a user guide is also starting to come into existence, wrought with teh same hihg stannards as the cdoebase. Do stay tuned for more, soon!
08-14-2004 - There have been some great responses to the S.C.O.U.R.G.E. naming contest! Check out this
forum on the Gentoo site. (Thanks, Charlie!)
08-10-2004 - Been busy thinking about what S.C.O.U.R.G.E. stands for... Someone Carried Our Goblins Elsewhere?, Seven Curried Oysters U'Re Going to Eat? We need to have a contest about this...
Email in your thoughts. Also been working on potions, effects, a party dialog and other good things. Next up is spells and NPC-s.
07-23-2004 - version 0.5 has been released. New features include: projectiles, better combat, better movement, autotools support, object shading, windowing eyecandy, levelling up, visible character stats, working missions, and a guest appearance by "The purple treasure chest". Download it
now
06-23-2004 - Hard at work on projectile weapons. The battle system underwent (a mostly invisible) refactoring and it's now much easier on the eyes. The hope is that this way it will better handle all manner of rage and destruction as S.C.O.U.R.G.E. combat evolves. Other recent changes include UI enhancements and 3ds object shading.
06-11-2004 - We have mailing lists! Thanks go to Charlie for the suggestion. You can join via the link to
SourceForge.
06-01-2004 - Behold patient traveller as fruits of our labor do ripen! Recent changes include a budding
FAQ and some new
pictures by our Artista Maximus: Matt.
We're also busy working on fun new features for the upcoming 0.5 release. Coming soon: armor that really protects!
05-19-2004 - Back from vacation - feeling refreshed. I started moving large portions of game data (like shapes, items, etc.) out of the code and into text files. (largely inspired by source of
Angband) Also, due to a Happy Coincidence, I found some notes in my garage (dating back to *gasp* high school) from an older game attempt which contains a good list of items and creatures. In other words, development has been resumed with aforementioned fervor. Nunc est bibendum.
05-07-2004 - S.C.O.U.R.G.E. 0.4 is now available for
download. Please enjoy our latest offering responsively. Whewf! Now I can go on vacation.
05-03-2004 - The S.C.O.U.R.G.E. crew is taking a brief break from dungeon construction. The institute is putting me on 'vacation' for a week... However, we will try our best to release 0.4 before that time but no promises. After the break (and during) the game writing shall be renewed with increased fervor.
04-19-2004 - Construction is proceeding furiously on the S.C.O.U.R.G.E. head-quarter building. When I was leaving last night, workmen were beginning to erect what will soon be "the board". "The board" is where available missions are posted. (See the new
screenshot)
04-13-2004 - Daroth's been busy working on the calendar and events (like thirst, hunger, etc.). I've been coding the pre-generated map for the game's headquarters. This is where you will pick your missions.
03-24-2004 - Our very own Daroth-U has implemented md2 animation (currently in cvs). It looks amazing!
03-17-2004 - Yes! 0.3 *has* been released. (I'm sure there're just so many fans out there reading these news...) So, be merry, have a drink (it's St. Paddy's day), download
scourge-0.3. And when you're done, be sure to visit the
store to buy the companion references: "Scourge in 21 days", "Scourge unleashed", and "Michael Abrash's Black Book of Scourge". Oh, and check out the new
screenshots.
02-18-2004 - Busy working on 0.3. The new UI is almost finished. Once it's done, it's onto letting the hellspawn walk/crawl/hobble in broad torchlight under the earth. They're coming!
02-08-2004 - Version 0.2 has been completed. Many ...uh, "improvements" adorn this release. There is better video card handling, shadows, 3ds objects, etc (See
Gameplay for details...). Inflict it upon yourself from
sourceforge. OS X version is coming soon...
02-02-2004 - The mighty
Daroth-U joins the S.C.O.U.R.G.E. development team, effectively doubling its size! With his minimap gameplay is elevated to a new level of quasi-sophistication. Dark powers cringe and seek shelter from the light...
01-26-2004 - Makefiles are now generated by
CMAKE, the cross-platform build tool. It works very well on Linux machines, but I can't get it to find things on OS X and windows. I also started working on the rpg system.
01-16-2004 - Multi-textured lighting and projected shadows are added to the arsenal of the oppressor. A weary populace quietly succumbs to its might. Get it from
cvs.
01-05-2004 - Development release
scourge-0.1 is unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. The plague can be aquired in source for *nix or binary form for windows and OS X.
