Yup, the Shining Online website has been updated! Not much has been added, but you might want to check out the character and gallery sections (and maybe even the development diary)

Now, while you’re all busy looking at the new stuff, I shall now tell you the bad news…

As you know, Demo 4 is scheduled for release on July 1st, to coincide with the release of the new Shiny Sword demo and the re-release of Shining Force World. However, we’re quite far behind development wise, and (to be quite honest), it looks unlikely that we will make the deadline.

This is as disappointing for us as it is for you, but we want this demo to be the best. Demo 3 was not particularly stunning, and it was rushed to make the deadline. As such, it contained bugs and was too small. We won’t make the same mistake again. Demo 4 will not be released until it is perfect (or as close as we can get it). Hopefully you’ll appreciate the extra effort that is going into this demo.

Well, enough jabbering, I have some programming to do!

I suppose I should make it look like I’m hard at work :)

Demo 4 is coming along quite nicely, and a lot more effort is going into this one. It should be as “Shining Style” as we can manage, though there’s still much to be done.

So far the maps are ready, and the enemies are being drawn. This demo will feature so much more than the last one, and should actually showcase what we’ve achieved. Aside from that, it should also fix most of the bugs from the last demo.

Online wise, I haven’t really coded much, as I really want to get the offline engine working perfectly before I start the more complicated (but more fun) side of the coding.

Also, I’d like to say a very, VERY big Thank-you to all of the people who have supported Shining Online all this time. We’ve now had nearly 1200 downloads (740 being for demo 3 alone!), and interest seems to be growing every month. Thanks for your support! (especially everyone at TSS ;) )

Well, enough rambling from me. You can expect some more updates now I’ve started work again. Yes, I shall be working on through the World Cup AND the hot sunny British weather :P

Ok, so updates have been pretty thin on the ground recently – sorry! There’s been plenty of work for me to do, as I’m a little snowed under with university work. Hopefully I should be able to get some work done on Shining Online, though I’m beginning to have doubts.

The Smash Software page is still down, as I’m too lazy to fix it. Maybe one day next week, though no promises.

That’s about all the news I can think of for now (yes, there’s been no progress =P) Just wanted to let you know that the project is still alive, even if it is barely breathing =P

Due to the fact that f2s.com have discontinued their free hosting service, the Smash Software site is temporarily down. It should be back up by the 3rd or March, though I think I lost most of the data.

In happier news, I’ve started coding Shining Online again, after a lull of about a month. So far I’ve managed to find plenty of bugs to fix, though nothing too serious. I’m also starting to code the first online features. Hopefully I’ll have some screenshots in the not-too-distant future.

Bye!

Update – Our new logo – 12/02/2002 This is our new logo for the project, I hope you like it! Any comments to Newts