Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? In the time since the last dev diary, we’ve gotten jobs, passed exams (and gotten into the third year of our course), gone to a few conferences and the like, and spent a lot of time, to be honest, not working on the Flax Engine. This is our apology.

We’ve spent some time in the last few weeks working on the engine. So much time, in fact, that we’re releasing a demo today, on the first anniversary of Flax.ie’s existence. Don’t get too excited – it’s still far from done. There’s no “game” in “Flax game engine” so far. What we’ve got is really a demo of our map editor, Weave. Naturally, we had to build the tools before we could build anything even resembling a game.

Before you start thinking “But I want a gaaaame,” don’t worry. We’re now on a three-week iteration release schedule, so before the end of this Summer, we’ll have a game. In fact, I promise that I won’t go back to college until we’ve shown off a game using the Flax Engine.

A personal note

One last thing, before you watch Ciarán’s screencast and then have your mind blown by the live demo of some tiles on a canvas (and a super-sweet minimap). If it wasn’t for Ciarán, for IT Carlow’s incredible game dev course, and for an incredibly lucky escape from the Irish second-level school system, my life would have been spent in a [McDonald’s/jail/basement/coffin]. Two years ago, I was waiting on my Leaving Certificate results, and not in a hundred thousand years would I have believed you if you’d told me I’d be working for Ericsson, making a HTML5 game engine, or be mentioned in a publication like Wired, not just within two years, but ever. I still can’t believe my luck. I got exactly the grades needed to get into this course. Any less (even just a single percent less) and I wouldn’t be here. And here’s what I’ve got to say to that: All you need is determination. This is something I’ve learned from Ciarán. If I’d failed my Leaving Cert armed with this knowledge, I’m sure I’d still find myself in a situation similar to this one. Never give up.

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Anyway, back out of emotion-land, here you go! The Flax Engine, version 0.1, Weave demo. Tell your friends. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and please, please tell us if you’ve found a bug or want to request a feature, or even if you like what we’ve done. Comments, tweets, emails and the like are what really keep us going. Far better than coffee. Thanks to everyone who made it this far, and especially those who’ve been reading since this time last year.

It should be noted that the default tilesheet is from Pokémon Gold or Silver, and that artwork is copyright Nintendo, Gamefreak, The Pokémon Company, and not ours. The image is used under fair use, unless someone tells me it’s unfair.

Live engine demo

Ciarán’s Screencast