Yarrrr !

no screen to update just code code and code hehehehe, finished the desktop implementation, so now I can move to the game itself

• fix the keyboard input
• fix the mouse input
• make char movement, with animation
• add map and screen scrolling
• define map in a txt file
• draw tiles
• draw trees
• draw rocks
• draw coin
• draw 10 different vegetables
• draw 3 different quest givers
• draw 3 enemies
• add to the quest giver to code to show the quest
• all the char to gather stuff
• add random code to add vegetables to places in the map
• add coin counter
• add bomb key and bomb damage
• make enemies move and attack
• buy bombs
• add life control and die event
• create bomb machine
• create main menu

Somehow this reminds me of Fallout… Whatever, things are going mighty fine! I’ve got the map going and the engine mostly ready, now just to add rest of the engine. I guess I can spend tomorrow entirely on adding content.

I skipped the picture from phase 2 just to let you explore yourself what there will be Now I have a scout on a map, so I only need a gameplay, only …

This game may be text based, but it’s got it where it counts. It has a cool story, and awesomesauce NPCs. Not to mention loads of typos.

Spent a lot of the morning fixing my cobbled together code from last night. Things are looking ok from the tech-side though I’ve spent more time than I wanted.

Build 004 is available here: http://www.refrag.com/gamedev/ld-16/ It includes character movement with the arrow keys and sonar blasting by clicking any of the black area. My game concept will revolve around the player only being able to see through tiny sonar blasts. They need to navigate the terrain with very little visibility.

My goal today is to get the bulk of the game done so I have all of tomorrow for polish.

Time for my shower!!!

Here we are! What I’ve done so far:

- Thought about what I want to do (at hockey game last night)
- Created a design document (after I got home)
- Slept (too long but not long enough)
- Made love to flixel (today)
- Got a Screenshot!

Unlike previous competitions, this time I know exactly what I’m doing from the start; I’ve put together a design document which is something I haven’t done before. I’m excited to see how this turns out.

Yes, I'm making a sailing-ship adventure.

I wasn’t going to have characters in “Explorers”, but I just couldn’t resist this. Viking helm and monocle? Yus.

More information at Waddlefarm.

I was a little let down when unwanted powers didn’t sweep the votes. So I slept on the broad theme of exploration.

Exploration left it pretty wide open for me, concept wise. I’ve been drooling over stuff like Passage, The Marriage, and Braid again after seeing Chris Hecker’s talk at MIGS a couple of months ago. I figure this is as good a forum as any for making a game filled with allegorical subtext. Not that this is exactly the target demographic, but at least some of you will be tossing me feedback.

I’m thinking a more accessible less artsy Passage. The exploration of time, and decisions in life, couched in a gauntlet style game.

I’ll toss a rough concept document once I’ve got a rough proof of concept done.

Pretension a go go!

So, after spending a good 4 hours trying to make Game maker work (It has worked before, but all the exe’s it compiles…don’t run on Windows 7), I decided to quit.  But soon, I couldn’t stand doing nothing, so instead of doing a graphical game…mine is all text based.  It was very late by then, so I decided that some sleep would be good for me.  While laying in bed, I decided how the game would work.

First of all, every character (even yours) has a different personality that is randomly decided by the game.  (If I need to, I can manually add a personality), and every character in the game responds differently according to his major personality traits, and how well he knows you.  Yep…giant project right there.

Secondly, you have no control over what your character/party does besides how he levels up/what he does when.  For example, lets say you wake him up at 9, and then you pick one activity.  You could have him eat/get ready.  That takes us to 10.  At 10, you send him off to go exploring.  Now you can watch him explore, see what he finds (everything he finds adds exploration points), watch him fight (you can’t tell him how to fight), and at some point along the way, you can tell him to head back to camp.  Lets say he gets back at 5.   I tried to make the game…as strategical as possible while being minimalistic.  I decided to be minimalistic because: it is easier for me AND you don’t have to type “go east” over and over.

Now about leveling up.  Every character has a list of abilities, and he actually levels up those abilities by using them…not by you pressing the + button.  However, you can take items away (preventing him from using certain abilities), and at every level, teach him a new ability.  That’s it.

Now what I have done:  (I have 9ish more hours to code/debug)

Creation and development of my idea/flowchart

Character personalities/creation.  (A giant project)  I still need to do the NPC text/tests to see if they join/give missions

Coding of the reader (grabs names and stats of areas/locations/items/monsters)

Now what I have to do:

Name every area/location within that area/items within that location/monsters within that location, and each of them stats.  (all will be stored in text files)

Code the general engine for time/telling what the character to do (shouldn’t be too hard)

Code the engine for what the character/party decides to do.

Debug

Release it to the website

…Like I said.  I’m going to die

Coming along quickly. So far, you can learn a bit of backstory and find a key to a locked room. Oh, and get yelled at by the King, too.

i’m working and then…

this happened see left side of picture

Created boat sprite (I suck so much at art!), and added boat movement for the player, considering the wind strenghts and direction…

I decided to use 3ds Max to make the boat model and then render it to make a sprite… end result would probably have been better if I’d just drawn it by hand in Photoshop, but this way I get something I can use for title screens, etc…

Think that maybe the boat is too small, but I’ll see that when I had the code for collision detection and shooting and stuff like that…

Must not give in to panic. Not already! Argh!

Got something working. Would like to make more than one level of this game. It’s being made in Construct, as I can’t code for toffee (still). You play the little guy with no legs (being cheap on the animation.)

Think I’ve gotta start working on dialogue. The map is done for this level, although it needs prettying up. Once the dialogue is done, the questy parts can go in. Phew!

Got all screens (title, instructions and end) done.

Also got first person movement working with a temporary square (had to struggle with ActionScript for it to work right – blame all the outdated Flash tutorials out there). Not that bad since I’m learning Flash today but not as good as it could be, either.

So I’m just about seven hours into this thing, and it’s going reasonably well. Lighting works, which is cool — when you walk around the map things are revealed as you approach, then fade back into darkness as you move elsewhere. I’m probably going to duck out of here a little earlier than normal (got to catch a plane Monday at 4am, and I still haven’t packed!), so I don’t expect to get too much else into the game beyond some simple dungeon crawling mechanic.

Lighting!

ZAXBY’S + BLUE MOON + LUDUM DARE

Lunch is over. On to phase TWO.

Time to get serious.

I’m having cereal for lunch.

I eat alot of cereal...

Mm… Cocoa Krispies…

Breakfast food for lunch! You betcha!

I had turkey in a tomato sauce (Allegedly turkey parmesan, but it really isn’t…) for breakfast, too.

Looks nasty, but it tasted okay

Anywho, I’m gonna finish eating, then I’m gonna get back to work!

Next demo’s gonna have a world to explore!

ok… my first source release!!!    http://rene.f0o.com/~rene/stuff/exploratio-0.1.0.tar.gz

It needs python/pygame/numpy. Doesn’t do much… just shows off the particle system and the bridge graphics.

or for those with bazaar installed:

bzr clone lp:exploratio

My darling made coder’s classic: pizza and cola <3

I spent most of the day sleeping and thinking about a idea. My first idea would be to make a jungle spy exploration game, which kind of stuck

The rest of the day I spent writing an SVG importer, so I can design my levels in Inkscape