For Those Few Interested

Due to the lack of updates from the lack of coding and non-lack of moving, I feel I owe you something to keep you checking back here every so often.

My sister recently sent me this link, which cites different ways of going about movement, collision detection, and just lists different ways 2D platformers are made.  It's an interesting read (though I've only gotten halfway through).  If you're into games (I assume you are if you check here often) then take a look at this article.

I will say this though - my method of collision detection is not the same as what this article lists. There are many different ways, and I feel mine is quite simple, while flexible. For another post I suppose (if anyone cares).

More Work Means Less Work

Since my Mother's Day post, I haven't had time to even look at my code.  I've hardly had time to think about my code. And the same may happen next week too.

Have I given up hope? Hell no!

The entire apartment is a horrible mess as my fiance and I have been packing to move to a new apartment next week. Packing is about, I'd say, 70% done, but then everything needs to be cleaned. And my fiance is going to Colorado for 4-5 months... tomorrow morning.  I will manage fine, packing, cleaning, trucking, and unpacking by myself (and local friends help), but don't expect much on new updates until I'm in my new apartment and at least unpacked to a livable state.  However, if I'm packed and cleaned early... maybe?

I'm hoping to solidify the code to allow for online testing from my new apartment. That's my next step.

I Gave You Eyes Through Which To See

Punching butterflies for sport.

Actually, no, I will not ever be adding eyes to the player (or any other facial features, though masks are a possibility), but the player is now much more than a running bean man.

The player now has a head. It does it's best to follow the cursor (he doesn't turn his head to look straight up or straight down, as his neck doesn't work that way).  Also, the player remains facing the cursor and can run backwards.

The player now has arms.  They swing about while running and jumping to keep balance (or maintain circulation to his hands)..

The player now has a bad attitude.  Click to punch. Hold and release to uppercut.  Only bad asses uppercut.

Yes, left and right click control right and left attack, respectively. It's awesome.

What? Isn't that backwards? Yes, and will be a lot easier this way.


Happy Mothers Day! Love you Mum!

Spread the Word!

I have a friend and fellow gamer who hosts a web comic with his brother.  It is quite entertaining, and features better art than you will ever see here (by myself anyway).  It is one of the great things I can still check out during my lunch breaks at work, and the comic is updated twice a week, which is also more exciting than this blog has been (coding has been slow with all the apartment moving).

His most recent post made me feel like a giddy little school boy as he created a post that featured DESCEND!  You can go see for yourself, but I recommend you check out the rest of their comics. They're a fun and interesting read, plus will give you something to check out in between my updates. I'll be including a link to his website on the side of my blog soon, so don't worry if you forget.

Also, check out my most recent work in the below video.  Sorry if it's fuzzy. And in case you were wondering, this is at 1.5x speed.

Emerging From The Other Side

Success.  I was able to successfully load a small level from the server into the client, and can run the game just as I had before with my little bean man running around.  Once the game has started, there is no passing information to and from the server... I'll work on that later.  Now that I have caught up to what I was working on before, I'll go back an solidify some things for testing over the internet.

I would also like to create an easier way to build test maps: something that will change a text file into a game level, so that I can create simple standard rooms to test things like walls, room sizes, ladders, etc.  I may do this before testing with people so that I can create some sort of interesting "level" to navigate once they load into the game.