Hmm, haven’t done one of these in quite a while. I’m going to give it a go.

I’m going to try to do an rpg I think, a minimal kind of rpg maybe. Still thinking about it.

I’m going to use Visual Studio 2008, .Net Framework 3.5 and the Blitz3d sdk. I’ve never used the sdk before so this might be tricky. Will spend probably 10 hours or so on it only.

Well wish me luck!

Ok, so I’ve gotten as far as I’m going to get tonight, and I’m pretty happy with my progress so far.

I’ve got a design and a plan done. I think I’ve actually come up with an rpg idea that is small and simple enough to complete in the time allotted.

I’ve completed the map and I’ve got all the metadata including monsters, items and terrain stored in an xml file.

 And I’ve coded the top level of the app including the loading of the map and metadata into objects. I’ve done an outline in comments showing the code I need to write, at least at the highest level.

 My goal was to complete the design, metadata, and outline of the game tonight (CHECK).

Tomorrow, I hope to code all the logic of the game. It should work completely by the end of day tomorrow.

On sunday, I hope to create the graphics, sounds, music and voice-overs I need and put in any finishing touchs I have time for (probably not many – lakers are playing on Sunday).

 Let’s see how it goes. I’m excited so far, but getting a little tired right now.

I forgot to mention I have a name for my RPG too. It’s called Simple Dungeon. It should be extremely minimalist (compared to Final Fantasy anyway).

 And I can’t figure out how to upload my code. It doesn’t seem to like zips or rars. So I’m just going to upload a screenshot of my code since I don’t have any game to show yet.

Well, I’m definitely going to have trouble finishing this thing in time. I have already thrown out the idea of any graphics or sounds. The fact is though I think the game now fits the theme really well. It looks like that old game hack or rogue you may have played years ago. I’m using characters for graphics. My game is much much simpler and smaller though.

 Getting a rpg done in this amount of time is all about finding shortcuts and simplying things as much as possible. So far I like the direction it’s going. I think it might be a fun game. Whether I have time to finish it or even balance it at all is a another matter.

In any case, I’ll have something for people to try at least.

Been fun and got it done! My final version of Simple Dungeon.

Source is here: http://rapidshare.com/files/109092549/SimpleDungeon_Source.rar.html

Game is here: http://rapidshare.com/files/109092285/SimpleDungeon.rar.html

 I spent probably 12 hours or so on this game. It was a ton of fun. Hope to do it again. Love this contest. Can’t wait to check out other entries.

Use arrows keys to move, attack, pick up items, etc. It is really easy to figure out. Objective is to save the princess in the dungeon. If you die, game will exit, haha. Hope you enjoy!

 You need at least .NET Framework 2.0 to run. If you have problems, try the latest framework 3.5. I haven’t tested this on other machines but should work on all windows machines.

Now got to watch my lakers! bye.

 Note – one last revision -2:19 pst.

Tags: .net, final, RPG, simple dungeon

I was surprised I was able to finish this game. The level is actually pretty darn big with 10+ rooms to explore and an entire forest as well.  In terms of size, the dungeon is nearly a 100 screens large. There are about 8 or so different monsters. Each one you encounter is a little more difficult than the last.

You have two kinds of points. Offensive points and defensive points. Every time you hit a monster you lose some offensive points. Battles can take a long time if you don’t maximize your offensive points because your hit damange is a percentage of your total offensive points. So heal before battles (every step will heal one point) and search around for special items that may increase your offense points. This is the key to quick effective battles.

 Every time a monster hits you, you lose the corresponding  amount of defensive points. If your defensive points drops to 0 then you die. You heal one point for each move. Potions will heal your defensive points and look for other ways to heal your points as well. Always go into battle well rested with lots of points.

 The game also is completely data driven and you could build your own dungeon with your own set of monsters simply by editing the two files, objects.xml and map.txt. Have fun with it and let me know if you come up with a great dungeon of your own.

 Have fun! If you make it to the princess I will be really impressed!

I decided to have a little fun today.

 I took the game engine I created for Simple Dungeon and created a new adventure out of it. This one is based on the TV series LOST. I don’t know if any of you are fans of the show, but I’m a big fan. 

 Anyway, the adventure is set on Lost island. You are Locke and the objective is to kill Ben. You’ll run into many of your favorite Losties here. Maybe even the smoke monster. You’ll finally get to see how that Locke vs. Jack battle turns out.

 Code is 99.7% the same. Mostly what I changed were the two data files. Fixed a couple bugs though while I was at it. It took a couple hours to design the new world and objects and monsters.

Have fun and let me know if you enjoy your adventures on Lost island.

 Game is here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/109829863/KillBen.rar.html

 –Note, updated rar. Forgot one of the files needed to run the game.

Tags: .net, lost, RPG, scenario, simple dungeon, tv show, Windows

I think I’m in this year. No Flash this year, and no C#. I want to get out of my comfort zone.

I was debating whether to try using Unity this year, along with 3D Studio Max and PhotoShop CS4, but I have decided to try something else, hopefully more fun this time.

I’m going to use the Processing language (processing.org) which is a simple language based on java designed for generating visualizations from data. My goal is create a game that only uses dynamically generated resources. All art and sounds have to be created within the program.

It’s going to be a small, simple game, without a lot of complexity, to ensure I can focus the majority of the time on the gameplay and effects.

I want this game simple to interact with, so i will restrict all input to mouse movement and the left mouse button.

With Processing, I can generate applications that will run on Windows, Mac and Linux. Java will be required on whatever system it runs on. I’m not sure if I will release an applet on the web, or a set of applications. I’m thinking I’ll pick up a domain name and deploy the applet to the domain, which will be a very easy way for everyone to play (as it is with Flash).

Well, let’s see how it goes. I’m doing a fast study on processing right now!

Luckily I have a case of Red Bull for me, and many treats for my JRT, Dig Dug.

It is the year 2218, and you are a zoologist, the first to travel to Europa, a moon of Jupiter. You find there an ice world teeming with life. Small, precious life that’s nothing like what exists on Earth. What you discover is an eco-system completely out of balance. The Grags, small fierce beasts with the temperament of piranhas, are wiping out all other creatures on Europa.

You contact your superiors on Earth to ask what do to, and they give you their answer. Whatever you do, don’t tamper with the existing eco-system! You agree to this, until you discover Brinie, the rarest of God’s gifts to the Universe, the most precious and beautiful being you have ever seen. Imagine the beauty of a baby harbor seal, the blob, a humpback whale, and the Sun all combined into one. You know instantly that you must do whatever you can to preserve what is perhaps the last of this species.

So using the tools provided to you, you must guide Brinie through the icy labyrinth, and past dangerous Grags to your safety net.

Do you have what it takes to save Brinie from extinction?

Here are a couple screenshots… so much to do tomorrow… can’t think any longer.

Here’s the intro:

first level, no caverns generated yet (don’t those Grags look nasty!)

Oh man, took way too long!

So much went wrong… LOL, the caverns part had to be cut out to finish the game because it was taking too long to do the collision dectection and path ai.

Wrote some scrolling text routines that completely disappeared for some reason.

Overall though loved the experience. I think this is my most interesting entry ever.

Processing worked great. I really love how sturdy and well built the language and environment is. Reminded me of the quality of C# and visual studio.

Couldn’t get any decent sounds so left it out. Also, borrowed some code from a demo for flocking. It would have too me the whole 48 hours just to do that one part. Don’t feel too bad. Basically I started with nothing but the language otherwise.

Will add a domain with the game applet online later. I uploaded three version, one for each windows, mac and linux, all together in one compressed file. Java is required of course. Let me know how they work for you. Oh well, going in the pool now! Too much stress!!

Here is the final download file (in RAR format):

http://www.divshare.com/download/8333124-2e7

Here’s a final screenshot:

It’s amazing, after a relaxing swim and glass of wine, I came back to the computer and quickly fixed a few bugs that were really annoying me about the last version.

Here’s the change list:

– Net now kills any Grags on it, when set to capture mode.

– Pouper now grows out from its center, not oddly to its right.

– Now you have to get pretty much all of Brinie in the net to capture her. Winning when just getting her partway in the net makes it a little too easy I think.

Here is the new version for windows, mac and linux:

http://www.divshare.com/download/8334544-ac5

By the way, this is one program that will chew up as much cpu as you got. an overclocked i7 would be great if you want to see 1000s of Grags moving around at 30 frames per second. Will only use one core though. My dual core machine can get maxed to 50% with one core in full use while playing.

Have fun, or at least, enjoy the sand box of dead.

Brinie is now a java applet available on the web.

The url is: http://www.brinie.org

It looks like it works in firefox and chrome, but came up kinda weird on IE8 with Windows 7 RC.

Anyway, enjoy!

I noticed a number of people were a little confused with how to play my entry Brinie, so I thought I would offer a quick guide to the game. It’s funny, I just assumed everyone would pick it up through playing it a little bit.

Ok, when the game starts, you should see Brinie, a net, and a bunch of things that look like fleas. These are the Grags. They live to eat, pretty much anything and everything. As Brinie is the only thing out there, you will see them start to chase her around. When they touch her, they begin feeding off of her. When they eat all they can, they will go off and cruise, but not before having a baby.  In this way, very quickly 10 Grags can become 100 Grags and 100 Grags can become 1000 Grags. If enough Grags get to Brinie, they will very quickly kill her off.

You have three options to try to save Brinie.

1) Drop a Gauloop somewhere on the playfield – it is a hive of small noisy creatures. These are like bait. They have a strong smell and may attract Grags away from Brinie. In the same way, Brinie doesn’t like the smell of the Gauloop so it may repel her a bit. You can use these to try to get her to go where you want, or if not that, at least keep her away from certain places. The problem with Gauloops is that Grags feed off them and will quickly devour them and cause the ranks of Grags to grow greatly.

2) Drop a Pauper somewhere on the playfield. A pauper is like a Gauloop, and it has a much stronger smell, but it doesn’t feed them nearly as well. What it does do is after a few seconds, it explodes, killing all Grags in the area. If positioned properly, this can be used to wipe out a huge population of Grags. The drawback is that Grags love to eat dead Grags, and a few living Grags will find the carnage a great feasting area and may quickly multiple their ranks back up.

3) Use your Net to capture Brinie. When Brinie is completely on the net, simply press the capture button and you win the game. The net also has the effect of killing any Grags on it at the time it is pressed. This fact can be used in combination with 1) and 2) to really wipe out the Grags. It is a great and difficult (and not necessary) accomplishment to completely wipe out the Grags, but it is possible and quite a fun challenge.

Now you are limited to 9 Gauloops, 6 Paupers and three Net captures, so use them wisely. Also, you can only have up to 3 gauloops and 1 pauper on the playfield at one time, so that is a consideration as well.

That’s about it. Hope that helps clarify some things. Here’s the game online in case you are interested in giving it a try now:

http://www.brinie.org

Well, last contest I think I bit off more than I could chew.

I tried to use a new language Processing, which I wasn’t that familiar with. That’s extremely hard to do, even though the language is actually really easy to learn. It’s a simple language designed for creating graphics.

My goal in the last contest was to create a game that only used dynamically created graphics. I think the fact that I was unfamiliar with Processing hurt me in trying to do this. Also, dynamically created graphics requires algorithms that take a lot of trial and error. I ran out of time before I really got going.

I have been playing with the UDK and I’ve been considering using that to create something,  but I really am still lost because there is so much there. I think it just feels a little too much like work to mess around with for a fun contest. Playing with UDK has made me realize something: that it is all about content these days, and not so much about programming any more.

So with that I’ve decided I want to focus on “Eye-Candy” this year. Even though I’m not an artist, I think I’ve come up with a way to create great art of the year’s entry. For Christmas this year, I’m getting about a 3K digital camera setup which includes a Canon 7D, an amazing Tamron 60MM f2 Macro lens, a Canon Speedlite 580EX II flash and a ridiculously fast high-capacity CF card.

So Saturday morning, after I already have a game design, I’m going to spend half the day taking pictures for my game. All backgrounds and game objects will be real life objects. The macro lens will let me do close ups of things such as toy cars or tops as objects and water and sand and such for interesting effects and backgrounds. I might even dabble in trying to use the video since the 7d has an amazing 1920x1080x30 video mode.

The RAW pictures I’ll be taking will be a resolution of 5184 x 3456 and they will be extremely high resolution, sharp pictures, so I’m expecting to come up with some amazing graphics. I’ll use photoshop CS4 to process them and the Ez Mask plugin to extract any backgrounds from foreground objects I want in my game. Ultimately, I’ll probably downscale the graphics quite a bit and create JPGs out of the backgrounds and PNGs out of the objects. I still want the game to be hi-res, so I think I might aim at 1920×1080 resolution for the game. This will be interesting and fun, and I look forward to getting my camera next week to try out my ideas.

I want to spend more time on the content and less on the actual programming, so I’ve decided to use something simple, an easy 2d framework preferably. Yet I want high performance because this is going to be a high-resolution game with a ton of huge images. So I’ve decided to use the Community Framework of BlitzMax. I’ve got several game examples and it looks like this should be super easy to code, so I can focus more on the graphics and gameplay. Small amounts of code goes a long way in blitz.

I don’t know what the gameplay is going to be because I don’t know what the theme is, but all I know is I am going for super simple gameplay. Again I want to spend as much time as I can putting “eye-candy” in the game and not writing complex algorithms.

Well, let’s see how it goes this year. I’m sure there will be plenty of challenges as there always is, and things don’t end up as I plan. But it is always fun to try!

Well, it’s raining all weekend, so they kinda blew my idea of going outside and taking some pictures for the game.

But instead, I came up with a great idea for this theme, a fun one, that uses all of the christmas stuff my wife collects around the house.

The name of the game is Massacre at Misfit Toy Island. You are Santa and your objective is to explore Misfit Toy Island, finding all the Misfit Toys and exterminating them (don’t worry, misfit toys will be able to defend themselves). I am kinda aiming it sort of after the classic PS2 game, Shadow of the Colossus. You sort of explore around misfit island, until you find a toy and destroy it. You have to destroy all 12 toys (12 is a good biblical number).  You should feel sort of sad after killing a misfit toy.

I have finished taking all the pictures for my graphics. Almost 7 Gigabytes of raw shots on my new Canon 7D (amazing camera btw).

Now I have a TON of processing to do to remove the backgrounds of the objects and to assemble the graphics for the backgrounds.

Let’s see how that goes. Remember, the actual game will be super simple. I’m just focusing on “Eye-Candy” for this game!

Some yummy eye-candy for ya… This is the menu screen.

Oh, so much work to do, but I’ve learned so much (about masking images, hehe). I’m tired but I’ve got so much to do if I want a playable game. Well, maybe I’ll take a little break.

Anyway, here is the first screenshot of the game in progress. Santa is in the process of being devoured by a very anger Misfit Teddy.

Finished game just in time. Probably has a ton of bugs I had no time to test. But I think focusing on graphics was fun and actually a little inspiring. Next time maybe I can balance the graphics and gameplay a little better. I spent way too long in Photoshop cleaning up graphics this time. Oh well, it was quite fun!  At least because I used BlitzMax, there are PC and Mac versions of the game.

download here: http://www.bitjets.com/massacre.zip