Community Spotlight: Igor Paliychuk
Igor has done a lot of work with the Configuration menu in Flare. Beyond that, he’s added a really interesting feature that we plan to showcase more in future versions: the hero can transform into any enemy and gain use of their powers. Imagine transforming into a Fire Antlion to gain massive fire resist, or a Wyvern to be able to fly over water and pits. Here’s more about Igor!
1. Where are you from and what do you do?
My name is Igor Paliychuk, I’m from Ivano-Frankivs’k, Ukraine. I’m working as system administrator, my hobby is Software localization (into Ukrainian/Russian) and a little user mode coding.
2. What’s your favorite game or genre of games?
I like 3D actionRPG games with good scenario line. For me classics of the genre are games from Gothic series, Two Worlds, Fable: The lost Chapters. Games like these can fully move you to another reality, and graphics here doesn’t stand at first place.(Even now IMHO Gothic I/II are good games.)
3. What drives you to contribute to Flare?
Well, I’m for free software, and I’m for free 3D actionRPG games, though developing such games is very time-consuming. But 3D isometric game as Flare can became also as impressive as fully 3D, as i said graphics quality doesn’t stand here on first place. Even now we have some closed source fully 3D games, that look like isometric(Diablo3, Torchlight). I don’t get why developers write 3D models and don’t use them fully, showing only part of them. So that’s why I’m contributing into Flare: we can make awesome game, that can stand near current closed source actionRPG games.
4. Any advice for people who are interested in making games?
Just do something you like. That’s the main idea! And share it with people.
5. Are you involved in any other interesting projects?
Mainly in localization. E.g. Battle for Wesnoth, Hedgewars, Summoning Wars, VDrift, HolySpirit, ReactOS, Lazarus IDE, KVirc and other usefull software. You can check full list here.
Flare’s new site layout
I tweaked the site layout a bit. It coincides with our shifting focus in Flare’s development — moving from a mere dev blog to a site all about Flare The Game. Hope you like!
The main feature of this new design is to prominently display a Flare “trailer” and download links from the front page. Right now I’m embedding GameBoom‘s v0.16 video. But I’d really like a short (maybe 1 minute?) trailer type video for that space instead. It doesn’t have to be very flashy (especially not yet, before much of the game’s plot is nailed down). It’s something I might create later when I have time, but if someone does a great fan trailer I’d post that instead.
Finally you’ll notice the new set set of links (pictured above) under the main download buttons. These are Flare builds/repos maintained by third parties. If you maintain Flare on another OS/platform/device and want it listed here, please email me with the info!
Quiet week coming — vacation
I’ll be out of town from July 14-22. This blog may go quiet during that time. The first real break after a release is so nice — I get to refocus and brainstorm about game ideas for the future.
GitHub activity might slow down too. But, if you’re interested in helping Flare grow as an engine during this time, I highly recommend you check out polymorphable, an LPC entry by pennomi (Thane Brimhall). Every new game made with Flare makes the engine that much more flexible, robust, and proven!