Well, we've been putting our time to good use while we wait for the green light to return to release testing - we got some feedback that a 3rd person camera would be a very good thing to have (some gamers are uncomfortable with 1st person cameras all the time, and in some cases get quite bad headaches).  I figured it would be a moderately easy win so tried it out.  Since we already had an array of camera offsets, all I had to do was extend the array for an external view, add an options screen and options settings file handler, and fiddle the camera positions for combat.  We're just putting the finishing touches to the code and testing it.  5 hours work for that kind of win is cheap in my book and it's actually pretty cool to see your own ship getting hammered by lasers, collecting crates and so on.  I still prefer 1st person view myself but I'm not the only one who plays the game!

We've also made some of the in-game messages more dynamic and added music and SFX volume level options.  Once the testing for the new additions is done, I'll be adding some more music to the game.  We could go to peer review this very evening, but I'm going to do about 6 hours of testing before we go there...Maybe some of our XNA member friends will be excitied enough about the game to review quickly, but hey everyone has to go through the process in a fair and proper manner so I wouldn't expect rapid movement through the system.  You will of course be the 1+nth person to know ;0)

Screenshots of 3rd Person mode to follow, and I suppose I'll have to add some footage to the release trailer we've been failing to work on for the last 4 weeks...

Merry Christmas Eve Eve,
DrM