GlitterComm In The New Year

Hello gamers!

There are several announcements I'd like to make:

• 1. I have decided to make GlitterComm free for everyone! I am a coder and that's what I want to do: Code, compile, and upload. I don't want to deal with it as a business; I simply do not have the time. I'm a one man orchestra and if I'm "businessing" then I'm not coding.

• 2. GlitterComm's camera is finally moving. Now you'll be able to enjoy your game in 3D view. Many things to come from this: user models, special effects, etc. Combined with sound this will be a neat tool to play with, without the tool taking control of the game (The philosophy still stands).

  

• 3. File organization is changing once more. I've decided to make folders modular.

  Basically right now you have a single folder for all your "Maps", another one for all your "Minis", etc. And you can have subfolders inside those folders. But while preparing my games I have found it cumbersome to navigate up the tree of folders and down again several levels to organize my assets for a given adventure.

  The change is better explained with a diagram:

  

  This change provides many benefits, for example:

  Your assets are in a single folder which makes for easier backup and restore of a particular module. Also, if you delete a module folder all caches and data associated with maps get deleted with it (as they are contained in the same folder as your maps); you don't have to hunt them down in a sea of files anymore.

  But, it will be your responsibility to create the appropriate folders inside your module folder when preparing a game. There is no harm in not having some or all the folders though. You can have a module with Pics and Minis, but no Maps. No problem as you can always use any map from any module at any time. Maybe you downloaded a pack of Minis from around the net, and it contains nothing more than Minis, that's cool too. And of course you can still have subfolders inside those.

• 4. The preceding changes mean it will take a little longer to release the next version. I prefer to release a solid next version than weekly versions that will mess with your session all the time (e.g., cloak, minis placement, etc.)

• 5. Finally, I am going to drop the Beta denomination. I've found some people are put off by it, thinking it is going to mess up their computers or something, when of course it won't do anything of the sort. I'll keep the date versioning scheme with a prefixed v0 until all planned features are complete. Then it will have a v1 prefix, but you'll always be able to guide yourself by the date (e.g., v0.07.1126 means v0/Year2007/Nov26).

All the best for the New Year!

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