0 A.D. Alpha Set for July

[Jeru]

Sorry for the long lull in news, everyone. To compensate, you can mark your calendars: July is the month we plan to release the very first alpha version of 0 A.D.!

We can't commit to a particular date yet (though we have one in mind), but what we mean by "Alpha" is that by then we should have a version that has all the bare-bones components of a playable game. These are detailed in our Alpha Release Roadmap, which is itself a work in progress, and include a new in-game GUI design, basic victory conditions, basic enemy AI, floating ships and some bugfixes. More music, sounds and art will probably be thrown in the mix as well, but the details are still being worked out.

In other news:

• We forgot to inform you guys that we uploaded a screenshot of a fortified Persian city a while back. We've been getting some pretty great feedback, so thanks, omicron1, eggman, Kormiac Rue and MrBlack103!
  
• Also, while you are waiting for the 0 A.D. alpha, you may be interested in the Humble Indie Bundle - a pay-what-you-want, DRM-free bundle of 5 great indie games worth US$80. Not only do you set the price, you can set how much of it to set aside to developers and how much to give to two charities - the EFF, which makes Free Software like 0 A.D. possible, and Child's Play, which donates toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children’s hospitals worldwide. There's less than a week left, so if you're interested, buy it while it lasts!
  

[SMST]

Well, all i can say: CAN'T WAIT!

Will basic editor functions be implemented? (such as some triggers etc.) Two words are clinging in my head. "playable" and "scenario"

[feneur]

Well, "basic" editor functions are already implemented That is, place objects, paint textures, deform ground. That kind of things are already implemented, and I think I remember Philip saying something about basic scripting capabilities for scenarios being included already (very basic, manual writing of JavaScript scripts, no triggers, risk that things will change making old scripts unable to run/not run exactly the same, but still ).

In other words, it depends on how much work you're prepared to put in Our goal is to be able to release new updates fairly regularly in the future though, so hopefully some basic triggers shouldn't be too far of (you might always try to find some good coder and convince him/her to join the team and work on it if you want to see it sooner ).

[Ykkrosh]

The current basic scripting capabilities are just for technical tests, not for real playable scenarios. It will probably evolve to be a bit more powerful, and could theoretically be used by scenario designers, but most would probably want a more carefully designed and easy-to-use system which is likely to be difficult (in design rather than coding) and isn't currently a priority.

[SMST]

Okay, i understand that a trigger system is not a priority right now. It would be great, though.

I never grasped JavaScript ... so that is no option for me, sadly.

[Brightgalrs]

The Humble Indie Bundle indeed! I paid 8.19 for it. One penny over the average.

[feneur]

Got an email a couple of hours ago and another game has been added to the bundle, i.e. more reason to check it out if you haven't already, and something to not forget if you've already bought it Two days left before the deal is over, and to me it looks like it's a success already.

[Ykkrosh]

"The Humble Indie Bundle experiment has been a massive success beyond our craziest expectations. ... Now it's our turn to give back. As of 5/11/10, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD, and Penumbra Overture pledge to go open source."

[xbody]

Very great news.

[adamjwal]

please make the screen size adjustable because the buttons for buildings and other things are off the bottom of my screen and i cant use them

[Ykkrosh]

The latest release (released today) lets you simply resize the window by dragging the edges like any other program, or press alt+enter to switch to fullscreen. Does that help with your problem?