Deutsche VersionNew Release this Weekend
This weekend, there is a LAN over at Eidi’s place. If you don’t know who Eidi is, then never mind, as you won’t be invited anyway. Said LAN has caused me to change all my plans for the future roadmap. I plan to release 2.1 this weekend, at this LAN.
Now this isn’t particularly optimistic. I already have a version with sound working both on Mac and PC, and if all else fails, then this will be released as 2.1.
Since time is very short, I will have trouble adding anything but sound. After all, I’ll have to spend some time (my current schedule says tomorrow evening) editing sound files. If I can manage, then I’ll add particle effects. I also have some possibly-cheap additions to gameplay, but don’t count on me implementing them in time. Of course, my previous plan about 2.1 being fully compatible to 2.0 remains in place.
I’m not yet certain whether 2.1 will be exclusive again, or private only. The important factor is installer. The Mac user experience generally advises against Installeres, and prefers a simple unpack-and-you-have-it experience. Windows, however, just loves installers, and some third-party-software (well, actually just OpenAL) absolutely requires one. While you can install OpenAL manually and then just unpack Hubschrauber, this solution sucks, so I’ll have to create an installer. Not for the LAN yet, because I can just yell at people if they don’t manage, but for genereal release.
My problem is that I can’t find a decent installer software. I don’t need much, just having two languages available, the uninstaller removing registry keys, and the abilty to run third-party-installers while installing (i.e. the OpenAL installer). What looks like the best solution is WiX, but that also looks very complicated. So if I manage to create an installer some time soon after the LAN, then 2.1 will be public, otherwise, well, not.
Written on April 18th, 2007 at 07:01 pm
