Challenge: Video Game Makers in the Playground

[super dark33]

And if you post your entry, try not to make it downloadable.
i have somthing aginst downloads you see, it killed my computer (not this one).

[Domochevsky]

And if you post your entry, try not to make it downloadable.
i have somthing aginst downloads you see, it killed my computer (not this one).

Eh, i suggest ignoring this statement. Having it be downloadable only would decrease the possible tools you can use to basically flash, silverlight and unity and by extension decrease the amount of people willing/able to participate in this.

We want this to be as accessible as possible.

[lesser_minion]

Well, Real Life (coupled with a stupid forum discussion where I managed to act like an idiot) happened again, so I haven't made any more progress with either of my projects.

And while it's fun seeing things come together and figuring out how to make them work, I can't really say I'm a fan of arcadey space games, which might also have made a difference. I'm pretty sure I've put more thought into the game I'm planning to make for the end of September than into this one.

As far as making everything web-playable... yeah, I'm sorry, but I don't think I can really manage that, certainly not for the August project.

[Tyndmyr]

Eh, i suggest ignoring this statement. Having it be downloadable only would decrease the possible tools you can use to basically flash, silverlight and unity and by extension decrease the amount of people willing/able to participate in this.

We want this to be as accessible as possible.

Right. I don't want to place many restrictions on technology. I mean, web-tech only really limits a lot of game types.

Ima give an extra day for uploading, so things posted on Wednesday count too. With month long projects, it can take a minute to get the install working and online if your hosting/buddy's hosting hates you or something.

[Ashtar]

I'm going to try and finish it for Wednesday, but Real-Life is interfering quite a lot. Helping my gf find a new apartment in Paris before the end of this week is a challenge.

I've got the game basics, but need to add collision counts (damage), levels, sound and better graphics. I will finish the game, hopefully before Wednesday. I'll also post the full source code in Flash for anyone to use / hack and learn from when I'm done.

Tile-based sounds like a good September one. Anyone else doing some flash?

[Trazoi]

I've been hacking around in Flash/AS3, but I'm mostly a newb at ActionScript and have been spinning my wheels a bit. I've been trying to work from basics but in retrospect it hasn't been the best strategy and I've let time slip away from me. I'll see what I can hack together in flixel quickly and see if I can a game together by the end of the week (admittedly a few days late. Hopefully I can get a skeleton done within the time limit).

[lesser_minion]

I'll try to get something together for Wednesday, although it will not be a masterpiece. And it will probably involve copious amounts of tea.

And yeah, I've been working from basics as well, although in Ruby/Gosu.

It hasn't been too hard, although I suspect that when I start on the next stage (enemies), I'll run into some kind of nightmare. Handling spawning has already provided at least eight different kinds of entertainment over the last week or so.

[Tyndmyr]

Yeah, I didn't actually get beyond the "sketch things out" point until this past weekend. Im gonna have a busy day or so.

Coding lesson #1: The definition of "crunch time".


There's actually a competition elsewhere called "game in a day". It's basically a 24 coding marathon. Definitely possible, though a bit on the rough side.

And extra day for uploading means things posted THURSDAY count as well. Dunno why I was a day off on month's end.

[Helanna]

There's actually a competition elsewhere called "game in a day". It's basically a 24 coding marathon. Definitely possible, though a bit on the rough side.

I think my school participates in something like that. You can get a small team together and you basically can't leave the room until you have a game.

As for my game - well, because I really needed a simple way to get back into practice, I just made a simple clone game. There's a ship, you move it around the screen, and asteroids fall from the sky. Now I've got the ship moving, and the asteroids fall randomly like I wanted, and the ship shoots bullets alright, and I've borrowed one of Domochevsky's shield images (thanks for those!). I even learned to make a bar in the corner that will run down if you use the shield, collapses the shield if it reaches 0, and starts regenerating properly after you let it go.

Now, it might be playable if I could get the collision detection to work properly . . .

[lesser_minion]

So, remember that nightmare I predicted?

Just implemented a turret enemy. It does nothing but fire unled shots at you until you or it dies.

Unfortunately, collision detection is monumentally broken, and currently it seems like you can completely own the game just by flying in circles and shooting. If you stop shooting, you die in short order. Bullets are too small and too fast to see, and I'm not sure the enemy bullets are being drawn at all.

So... definitely needs improvement. And more refactoring. If nothing else, I'm pretty sure I know what I should be doing differently, and why. So this exercise won't be a total loss either way.

[Ashtar]

I was searching for some background music and found a guy who allows his songs to be used if you credit his website: http://danosongs.com/ .

I'll be using Matiere Noire Vibrante [direct MP3 link] as a background music.

Any programming you do is never a loss as long as you do a postmortem after a project and reflect on what went wrong and what went right. And also take the time to copy-paste the best pieces into a code repository (sorted by language / subject) so that you can keep them as reference for a next project. Thus building up your portfolio of snippets.

Also Here's a quick guide to adding sound in flash:

Spoiler

Show

Sound handling in Flash
//Note: This assumes you place the MP3s in the folder next to the flash flv. I'm not embedding them in the file so they could be exchanged.

//Imports (at top)
import flash.media.Sound;
import flash.media.SoundChannel;

//VARIABLES - GLOBALS
private var sndChannel:SoundChannel;
//Background music
private var music:Sound;
private var musicPos:Number;
//Sound Effects
private var SndEffect1:Sound;


//LoadSound Function
public function LoadSound():void
{
music = new Sound();
music.load(new URLRequest("danosongs.com-matiere-noire-vibrante.mp3"));
music.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, SoundLoaded);

SndEffect1 = new Sound();
SndEffect1.load(new URLRequest("schlup.mp3"));
}

//Start playing in a loop the main BMG as soon as it is loaded for 100x
public function SoundLoaded(e:Event):void
{
sndChannel = new SoundChannel();
sndChannel = music.play(0,100);
}

// Code Snippet to Pause BMG music and Resume it after a pause at the same place
if (paused == true)
{
paused = false;
sndChannel = music.play(musicPos, 100); //start playing at position
}
else
{
paused = true;
musicPos = sndChannel.position; //Record sound position
sndChannel.stop(); //Stop all sounds in channels - clears ongoing sfx
}

//Code Snippet to Play the sound effect immediatly
SndEffect1.play();

[lesser_minion]

Eh... In my case, I'm tempted to leave the space game project where it is. It's not fit for public viewing, mainly thanks to a couple of stupid bugs (including at least one where I definitely should have known better), but it is (theoretically) a game, and I'd like to get a head start on the next project.

[spectralphoenix]

Reuploaded the Missiles game, along with my source code. I didn't really get around to making the code nicer, but I commented it, so it's there if anyone wants to have a look. To run the game, just open "MissilesPage.html"

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LJ63MNUU

[super dark33]

Reuploaded the Missiles game, along with my source code. I didn't really get around to making the code nicer, but I commented it, so it's there if anyone wants to have a look. To run the game, just open "MissilesPage.html"

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LJ63MNUU

Ahhhhh... reminds me of an old disk i once had....
it had many games, adn one like this one.
memories...

Its not a 'Shoot it untill it dies'', its anticipateing the missals and that i like.

7/10 overall for me.

[Ashtar]

Reuploaded the Missiles game, along with my source code.

Thanks for the full source, I was curious about the code. Pretty compact. I hadn't seen any silverlight game code yet.

On Perseids, there's been no progress. I'll do a last push tomorrow night to get something out for the challenge and I'll take a little week-end time (long train ride ahead) to polish it.

[Trazoi]

I was planning to see what I do in a single intenstive development session, but computer problems nixed that. Once I get it fixed I'll spend a weekend slamming out a space game in Flash, but it'll be too late for this month. I'll also be able to look at your Win games when I'm not on the Mac.

[Helanna]

Ehh, I have a working game now but I probably won't bother uploading it, since it's just a clone game, and thus disqualified in any case. It worked wonders for getting me back into practice, though, so I can go back to school next week and not feel like a moron.

So . . . tiles this month, eh? Hmm, gotta think of an original idea this time . . .

[lesser_minion]

I've started trying to get a design down on paper for this month's project. I'm using Ruby again, since it's still the language I feel most comfortable with. Not totally sure how to do output this time, however.

[Tyndmyr]

No joy on finishing for me...curse you procrastination!

Month 2: September!
Theme: Fun with tiles!

August Completions:
Spectral Phoenix - Missiles
DragonSamurai77 - Space Invaders

Congrats to both!

[Domochevsky]

Oh yeah, as theme for the month after this one (tiles) i suggest Tower Defense.

[Emmerask]

Hm I don´t really see why a tower defense game could not also be done for the tiles month, seeing that most of these games (I have played) actually are tile based ^^

/edit but maybe I have a wrong expectation of what tiles mean

[Ashtar]

I know it's late to submit for this month, but I will still submit Perseids, with the full source code, too.

It's a flash game, but I've got no space to host it yet, so open up the zip on your hdd and play the flash file Perseids.

The source code is in AS3 for FlashDevelop, I used part of the tutorial from Chris Moeller and some parts from around the web.

Zipped game http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RHKRJEYV
Source code http://www.megaupload.com/?d=21ZBBU2K

There's two intro voices (one male and one female) that read the intro text after a few seconds. The game starts after any keypress. You have to avoid the asteroids for as long as you can. No real endgame beyond surviving.

[Eledragon]

I know it's late to submit for this month, but I will still submit Perseids, with the full source code, too.

It's a flash game, but I've got no space to host it yet, so open up the zip on your hdd and play the flash file Perseids.

The source code is in AS3 for FlashDevelop, I used part of the tutorial from Chris Moeller and some parts from around the web.

Zipped game http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RHKRJEYV
Source code http://www.megaupload.com/?d=21ZBBU2K

There's two intro voices (one male and one female) that read the intro text after a few seconds. The game starts after any keypress. You have to avoid the asteroids for as long as you can. No real endgame beyond surviving.

I tryed it. It was fun, and I got into space before I decided to see if I could fly offscreen.

...A brave ship was lost that day.

[lesser_minion]

Welp... I'd love to put a progress report in this post, but I haven't made any progress worth reporting. I'll see if I have any more to add when I'm less sleep-deprived.

[Ashtar]

For my September game (which I know I'll deliver mid-October since I always slip by deadlines), I've started the following design document:

Tower of Ruin - Tactics - Design document

Spoiler

Show

Using the system: Warrior, Rogue & Mage

Background
You are an unnamed protagonist delving into the tower of Ruin, where the terrible sorcerer Ranalth lives. He threatens to destroy the world, you have to defeat him before he can put his plan to execution.

Gameplay:
Using the freely available (and slightly simplified / adapted) rules of WR&M, you navigate your way through a top down tactics game, room by room. Each room can have multiple exits and you need to visit them until you find the stairs to lead you up. At the end of the dungeon you will fight Ranalth. Combat is on a turn by turn basis, where you have a certain number of action points, moving costs 1 point, attacking and magic end your turn. A basic inventory is available.

When not in combat, the player can move freely on the grid.

Screen has: A game map area, a combat turn indicator on the side, a player recap with player stats and health at the bottom of the screen. Actions are selected from a menu on the vertical sidebar.

Graphic assets needed:
Land graphic times for the dungeon floor
Character assets
Item assets on the ground

Sounds needed:
Dungeon music
Magic sound effects

Extras:
NPCs with dialog
Helpers you can recruit in dungeon

Iteration steps:

• Basic state machine design for the game
• 1 room, with character moving
• 2 linked rooms, map scrolling
• Combat system, turn by turn, turn list on side of screen
• combat system implementation (attack)
• combat system menu
• Character creation
• Handling level ups
• Magic system implementation
• Inventory system
• World definition from files
• Enemies defined from files
• Saving progress
• New game screen
• Music, sound effects and polish

It is quite ambitious, I probably won't be able to deliver a full game like Perseids for this one. But hey, aim for the moon, you might hit the sky.

I've also got an idea for an other game, but I'm keeping it under wraps for a new competition which would fit. The name would be "You are the boss"... guess the game

[spectralphoenix]

For my (as yet untitled) game, so far I've built a fairly simple random dungeon generator that creates a dungeon level of 7-10 rooms and strings them together with corridors. My next step is to add in a protagonist who can move about the level.

[Tyndmyr]

Hm I don´t really see why a tower defense game could not also be done for the tiles month, seeing that most of these games (I have played) actually are tile based ^^

/edit but maybe I have a wrong expectation of what tiles mean

Really, can be anything you want. Hell, it could be a game about installing ceiling tiles, if you wished.

Remember, the theme is optional. So, if a game doesn't get finished in one month, you still get credit for the following month if you submit it later. Finished games are finished games!

[Ashtar]

Managed to do a little progress on Tower of Ruin. I prepared a generic State engine in Flash so that I can now control execution flow in an easier way. As a test, I have now a logo screen that gets shown before the transition to a main menu.

Next part is to prepare the overview map and start the movement of a player and scrolling. Also, I need to verify my way of passing Key and Mouse events to the state machine is done in a way to support me without issues. In effect, I'm sending a lot of time on a framework that I expect to be re-using for later games.

Update: 8 Sept 04:53
I'm making progress in leaps and bounds, now have a complete mouse and keyboard support all through the state engine. I have also started on the map rendering, supporting Square, Skewed and Isometric projection on the same simple codebase. (I'll also add Hex rendering as an exercise, even if I have to tweak another ruleset for that.)

The "Hero" can move around the map, checking for inaccessible squares before movement. There is a mouse overlay to indicate which floor tile is under the mouse (not shown in screenshots).

Please ignore the horrible programmer art in there (Mostly the Tower of Ruin menu screen). The logo squirrel was made for me by my talented girlfriend and the character art comes from http://www.squidi.net/three/entry.php?id=121 where I took the idea for a skewed world representation. I'm not yet settled on which one I'll use (or if I'll allow players to switch in battle?). Each of the scrolls on the main page goes to a different representation (square, skewed, iso) of the world.

Progress image spoilered for size

Spoiler

Show

Next part is multi-room support and map scrolling, plus other user interfaces like the status bar and the combat tracker. Mouse click support to come.

[Tyndmyr]

So, what kinda isometric view do ya'll think is sexier for a tile based game in which you control a character?

Edge on or 45% angle(the corner shot)?

Getting some feedback via chat atm, but more is always good.

[spectralphoenix]

With 2D art (or 3D with an orthographic lens) definitely go 45. 3D with a perspective lens can go either way.