Sewing on the Pockets

Been working on the player's inventory.  That's all I will say right now.

Check out my body!

I needed some basic animations, so I took some of Moss's early sketches and brought them to life.  They are NOT the final game sprites, just place holders.  I also coded in the ability to play with my Playstation 3 controller, which makes it feel so much more gamey.

Cheers,
- Trevor

LOS - First Attempt

First video from the rebuilt game engine!  Showing off the preliminary "Line of Sight" calculations.  It's not perfect, but it's good enough for the time being.

Note that this is line of sight, not lighting.

-T

Through the Grind, Slight Distractions

I've successfully added NPC's to the game, and how the server tells players about them when they are close enough in proximity.  I also did some tweaks to the way the game was drawing the walls (and things in general) to make a 80% improvement to draw speed.

A good friend of mine, Tim, sent me a text early this week telling me I should check out a game called Card Hunters.  It takes the idea of a tabletop DnD experience to the extreme, while working in the game mechanics of Magic the Gathering.  It is highly addicting, free to play, browser based, and is the cause for some game progress slowdown, but it is also a great tool for discussing with Moss map design and general feel for our game.  As my sister would say, I'm just "researching".

Storm the Goblin Lair!

I'm about to implement a little code into the game to calculate ping rates.  Then I'll call upon some unlucky few to help test connection speeds and figure out just how much I'll need to make up for latency issues.

Cheers,
- Trevor

Putting Shadows Aside

I've spent about the past two weeks, off and on, figuring out how to work with shaders (GLSL).  This feature which was just added to Game Maker recently will allow the game to draw dynamic shadows, proper directional light off of surfaces, and most importantly, create a field of view around the character that prevents the player from seeing through walls and solid objects.

GLSL is a whole other programming language that I have never used before.  I got my hands dirty with it a little bit, but I'm putting it aside for now, as it is going to take a lot longer to get shadows just right, and I feel that it is not needed at this point in development.  There are many other things that need to be worked on that can be done a lot quicker and are main gameplay elements, and while shadows may look cool, they can be added plenty later.

However, this time was not wasted.  I learned that in order to incorporate the type of shading I want in the game later, I had to change the way I draw the world and players now.

Anyway, time to start hashing out the following:

• A working inventory, screen and hotbar
• Worldly items one can pick up
• A moving "monster" object

Also, Moss now has access to writing to the blog.  So, I'm going to have to end off properly...

Over and out,

- Trevor

What? An update?!

This game is getting a revamp/overhaul/face lift/reboot/remake/do over.  Its no longer a side-scroller, it's a top down Rougelike.  Most of my ideas are staying the same, but I'm simplifying the game mechanics.  In fact, the game as you know it has been dropped.  This is a "new game".  I'm not taking it on alone anymore; I have nothing I want to prove.  I'm dragging my good friend and awesome artist, Sam "Moss" Mameli, down with me on this wonderful ride.  He's agreed to take on the art, leaving me to focus on the code, and we brainstorm and video chat weekly about the project and game mechanics.  Actually, it's been exactly one month since we have stated collaborating.

I'm going to revamp this blog to follow the "new game".  It's late, so I wont post much of what's been done (which isn't much yet).  Don't worry if you liked what the old game featured - the new game will still build random dungeons and still will focus on multiplayer game play and precious loot.  Also Game Maker Studio has had some major updates and now includes multiplayer support and shaders (I'm excitied!), so I can do everything I planned to do without having to wait for more features.

So far, I've gotten a working multiplayer server that allows multiple people to join the server, move around the world of basic walls, and collisions now work better than it ever did in the old game.

Moss can not play test the "game" yet.  I want and have the capability of releasing for PC and Mac, but of course, Apple wants a piece of the pie so to speak before I can even test for Mac, and with Moss on the fence about whether or not he will be upgrading to a new laptop, I'll wait before forking over the cash to one of my favorite money grabbing corporations.

That said, I need some folks soon to run the program with me, try to connect, and see what kind of issues may arise (I want to see what role latency will play).  I know some of you out there are interested.  If so, and you use a PC, get a free version of Game Maker Lite on Steam.  This will let you subscribe to our game (when I put it up for testing), download automatic updates, and play test without me trying to host an executable file somewhere.  If you do this, let me know, and we will arrange some testing!

Good night...

Month Gone By

Man, it's been a whole month since I posted last.  I do apologize.  I'll also apologize because I started another game project... then gave it up.

Basically, there's a board game on my shelf, Paintcheck, which is some sort of war game meets paintball sports.  It has all these complicated little rules and protractor/ruler devices for modifying dice rolls.  It's really cool in concept, and I actually wrote a modified version of the rules to make it playable (it doesn't help that the rules are badly translated from another European language.  I was hoping to make a game that mimicked the gameplay, and basically did all the calculating for you so that the player could enjoy the game rather than look up rules and modifiers.

Then, as I created the game (and learned some nifty things about path finding) I realised that I couldn't think of anyone who would want to play this with me, in the longterm.  Although it had the rules built already and had a definate direction and end point, I tossed it aside, as it was only a tool for procrastinating on my other project, my REAL project.

So, back to Decent.  I've got my little guy equipping bows like a pro.  He can also equip arrows, which he pulls out from his back and notches into his bow.  I've started on the code of firing arrows.  They curve and turn with gravity, which is nice, but I can go one of two directions, which maybe you can help me out.

OPTION A - Player aims with mouse and fires directly at mouse location. Easiest to code, and as the arrow is pulled by gravity, further objects may take some additional skill to hit successfully, as you have to shoot above your target to arc your arrows.

OPTION B - Player looks at mouse, but aims bow accordingly to arc arrows into the location of the mouse. As the target gets further away, the player in the game adjusts the bow angle upwards.  The game does all the guessing for you, removing the challenge.

On one hand, I feel like using the bow should take practice, and allow for players to prefer melee over the bow if they're no good with it.  Also, the benefit of hitting enemies at a distance may counter the difficulty of hitting something with the bow.  You can also show off to other players by sniping those monsters from afar.

On the other hand, if the bow is too tricky to use for too many people, they just won't use them at all, and wait up until they get firearms that shoot in a straight line.  They might prefer the bow aim itself, so that they can hit objects and enemies with ease.  I would have to reduce the damage that bows deliver to balance the benefit of range.

What do you think?

Bowstring Snap

The other day I completed working animation of the bow.  It looked great, but when I was done, I realized something.  When I equiped the bow to my right hand, it was indeed the hand the bow was being held in, which means the player uses their left hand to fire arrows.  This is opposite of how a right handed person would use a bow.  So now I have to switch all the animations.  Not only that, I have to program the drawing of the bow so that the hand holding the bow is opposite of the hand the bow is actually equipped to!

Then there's the question of different arrow types.  The player would have to equip them to their off hand, which would act as the quiver, instead of equipping them to the player's back.  This would allow the player a wearable item on the back (Wings/Jetpack/Scuba Tank), but still be able to fire a bow.

I also have to figure out how the game behaves when you try to equip a two handed item to a hand when the other hand has an item in it (or both hands have items).  Do the two items return to the inventory, unless there is no room in the inventory?  Darn. I think I just answered my own question.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Sorry I haven't updated over break like I said I would, but between travelling, visiting family and friends, and just relaxing, I have been getting some DDP work done.  And I am quite happy with the progress.

My old list of things to do:

• Title and Main Menu - Basic functionality almost complete
• Player Actions (punching) - Complete
• Player Actions (stabbing) - Complete
• Player Actions (throwing) - Complete, but no object is thrown yet
• Other players appearing on screen - Started. Finished Code Rewrite!
• Inventory screen and handling - Complete
• Additional Tiles and Textures - Few Complete
• Autotiling Feature - Complete
• Health, Magic, and Money - Complete
• Health and Hotbar HUD Display - Complete
• Wearable Items (No more nude player!) - On Hold
• Pickup-able Money System, Moz - Complete

Okay, so some of those items are repeats from last time.  But look at all those completed items!  I also introduce the Moz, a small square currency.  They even have a magnetic-like reaction to nearby players!  They come in different colors, by value, and I find it fun already just to be able to pickup something other than the knife.

For now, I am holding off on wearable items, at least for the player's body, as the sleeves of shirts will have to match all of the arm animation.  So I need to make more arm animation, which means more hand items!

Some exciting things are in the works for the near future:

• Thrown knives that are able to be picked up again.
• Target's that can be broken. (Basic Enemy)
• Bow and Arrows
• Guns - Pistols, Shotguns, Rifles
• Melee weapons with different arm animations
• In-Game Menu Basic Functions

I think I'll try to figure out how to make an "In-Progress" page or side item or somewhere on the site wear you can check these items out, and future things that I am planning.

And as a holiday gift, a few screenshots.