Not that you guys would notice ;-) Since the BETA hasn't started...but I spent a few minutes changing around the game's main menu....

Before everything was handled by the in-game GUI, and the camera circled an area of the city where a battle was going on. It was a bad idea because people w/low end computers don't get the same effect as I do with everything enabled.

ENTER - FULLY 2D menu system.

By removing the background elements of the game, I havn't changed anything, but I did boost my FPS to 2000+ and it'll allow me to make things 'cleaner' for when the user first sees the game. First impressions are a "big deal" apparently.

Anyways here is my little mock-up...click for larger image...



So yea the clouds in the background will be animated/scrolling. The layered scrolling clouds will either make or break the screen & effect. I'll probably add a "thunderstorm" effect in the background too. I'm sure it'll look cool in an hour or so.

I'll have a slideshow of the game's best screens going in the bottom right...and of course some badass mouse-over effects for the main buttons.

Also you can see an example of the in-game GUI, the options menu...in that screenshot.

Since I'm going to be adding a lot more gang managment / online / community features to the game I'm going to re-do the in-game lobby to allow for 18 players per-server...and also a "community" lobby. This will be increadibly cool if I can pull it off.

Yea...now I just need some perfect music to set the spooky yet epic mood...

Well I'll get a small video of this together sometime soon. I'm still focusing my efforts on the web/database side development with an in-game "side project" here and there. BTW I'm working on a dynamic grass system and it's looking really nice...

I was also a little off with my time estimage of "TOTAL WORK HOURS" left until the game's done...it's actually 693.5...yeaaaa, so re-adjust your calanders.

Ok back to work...

- Danny