After a lot of hard work, I’ve launched the new Citrus Engine website. If you subscribe to this blog for Citrus Engine updates, make sure and subscribe to the new blog as that’s where I’ll be posting all future updates about the Citrus Engine.

This new website is awesome. It’s got tons of pages that talk about the Citrus Engine in detail, and you can finally see pricing right on the pricing page (I’ve also got an offical new “educational” package)! So if you’ve been thinking about making the plunge, check out the new site, check out the gorgeous new demo, and hopefully we can meet your needs.

Since ‘Blueflame’ and ‘Citrus Engine’ are pretty much synonymous, this blog will probably be geared to more general things from now on. I’m not sure how it will evolve at this point, but it won’t die, so stay tuned.

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The CoolConsole is something that I have wanted to make for a while, and I finally decided to do it last night. The CoolConsole is a command line console that you can implement into your ActionScript projects to make calling commands, methods, and debugging faster.

Working on PS3 games has shown me how useful that this baby can be when used on larger projects. These consoles are very common in commercial game projects. Every member of our project uses it daily. We wouldn’t be able to get along without it.

Feel free to use this in your own project (Download the code here). Take a look at the second half of the video above to learn how easy it is to use. The CoolConsole ActionScript is just one small file that you add to your project, then you can begin writing your own console commands.

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Here’s a sidekick character that I am playing around with. He would be some sort of character that follows you around. You can then toggle control over to him and position him strategically so that you can jump on him.

Check out the youtube video for some initial ideas about how the sidekick might be useful in-game. He’s very fun to control, and the swapping between the hero and sidekick quickly becomes very natural and fun.

Let me know if you have seen other implementation of something similar in other games.

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My favorite game of all time is Worms:Armageddon. The best of the 63 weapons in that game is the ninja rope. There has always been a special place in my heart for the ninja rope, so I decided to bring it into the Citrus Engine for some R&D for an upcoming project.

I was able to build this game feature in only a few hours using the Citrus Engine with Box2D. It was surprisingly easy! It’s a blast to play with, and I can’t wait to expriment with it as a gameplay element in a more traditional platformer, rather than caged into the turn-based Worms games.

In case you’re wondering, the ninja rope is built with distance joints and ray casting…both of these features are available in Box2D and the Citrus Engine.

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If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

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Ever wonder what happens to your toys while you’re asleep? Well in Travis’ Terror, developed by the Vancouver Film School on the Citrus Engine, Travis’ toys turn into his worst nightmare. As Travis makes his way through the levels during the day, all is well. He collects candy, soccer balls, video game controllers, all the things that hold back the the dreaded night. Once it comes, Travis’ toy T-Rex turns into a real blood-thirsty dinosaur. His toy robot comes to life and attacks him, while his pet bird tries to slip him up by dropping eggs in his path.

Travis’ Terror has great game play, easy to use controls and great graphics. There are several fun features, including a cape you can collect which will help you jump extra high, and a flashlight to guide you through the night. Thanks Vancouver Film School, for another great game built on the Citrus Engine!

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This is the first multi-level demo that I’ve shown with the Citrus Engine. I’m very excited for you guys to see how easy that it is to load and switch between levels.

Since this is a multi-level demo, I’ve combined experiments three and four into it. Experiment three plays around with the idea of a “crank” object manipulating multiple world objects. By twisting the crank, the hero can expell Juulberries (coins) and Beduls (Goombas). The crank also opens the door to the right. Notice how the crank slowly spins backwards when the hero isn’t spinning it, thus slowly closing the door. This is done to create a sense of tention between the player’s decision to continue turning the crank, or to kill the Bedul and pick up the Juulberries. As always, let me know what you think of the level of difficulty. What did you like about it? What can be improved?

The fourth experiment I’ve called “Rising Totems”. I implemented the same rising platform that I presented in the Jumping Experiment, but now they are used strategically to create a puzzle situation. I’ve had some testers figure this level out very quickly, while some never figured it out. How did you do? Was it easy to figure out, or too difficult?

With the Citrus Engine being released in just a few weeks, I am hard at work getting everything ready. There is tons to be done, such as documentation, tutorials, API tweaking, marketing, and demos. It’s all coming along very smoothly, and I am very excited about the Citrus Engine’s potential. If you’d like to use the Citrus Engine in your own game, check out the new download page for pricing and feature comparison.

I hope you liked these experiments. Just so you know, Twitter followers saw it first.

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As I post side-scrolling experiments now and then, I’ll be putting up some strange things that hopefully you haven’t seen before. Some of them may work well (hopefully) and some of them may not. Feel free to tell me what you think of them and how they can be improved! I might just make your recommended adjustment since these are…experiments!

This experiment, which I am calling “Trusty Platform”, is part of an overall idea I had where platforms would respond to the hero’s actions. The Trusty Platform moves itself below you at the last second to catch you. If you run off of it though, it won’t be able to catch you in time. Check it out, see if you can cross the chasm, then let me know what you think.

If you have an idea, let me know and maybe I’ll do it! Or, sign up to get the Citrus Engine when it comes out on September 28th, and see what you can come up with!

Edit: Based on some user feedback, I moved the platform closer to the hero to begin with. You can view the old version for comparison here.

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Take trip back to the ice age in Prehistotubes, a new game by Thibaut Duverneix built on the Citrus Engine. Your fellow cavemen have been frozen in the ice. Luckily, you have fire! Your mission is to melt the ice and free as many of your comrades as you can in a minute. You’ll have to dodge Caribou as they try to foil your mission with their antlers.

Take a minute, literally, and try your skill at Prehistotubes, then do it again, beat your time, and pass it on to a friend!

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The Jacobee Code is a visually stunning children’s game built on top of the Citrus Engine by Studiocom. It has fantastically rendered backgrounds, a great educational plot line and and easy to use community features that connect users with other kids playing the game.

Once you create your custom avatar, you begin an epic journey through the Jacobee’s mansion to solve puzzles, collect glyphs and learn a little history while you’re at it. You are joined by three friends, Dooley, Abbey, and a fun-to-fly-with eagle named Baldy. My favorite part (besides the graphics) is looking for the hidden glyphs in each quest. The farther you get into the game and the more glyphs you collect the more connected you become to the community of users

Fun, educational for kids, and easy to use, the Jacobee Code is a fantastic addition to Citrus Engine’s Repertoire.

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