Blog move

Just a quick word; the blog has moved to DefeatThePurpose.net

Sultwodev and IRC

I’m not an irc junkie, but I do like it. I figured i’d create a channel to hang out at when I’m dev’ing.

You can come have a chat at #Sultwodev on irc.freenode.net

As long as my computer is up and running, I should be online, and hanging out in that channel. For now though:

I’m having a good day, I feel healthy, and awake, so I’m going to spend as much of today as practicably possible tuning up / reprogramming / pushing new features to Sultwodee.

Projects page is up

Projects page is up. I’ve had a total of four votes on the poll, I was going to wait for twenty yes votes before I did anything about it, but maybe I’ll settle for four, considering its a consensus.

I’m off to do some Sultwodev

Please vote on the poll below.

Bear with me

Just a post to say that I’m going to vamp up the blog with a project section (if anyone knows how I can implement a read only wiki into wordpress, let me know please) that conveys all the relevant information about my current projects. For now I’ll only stick with The Sultet Odyssey, with a focus on the conceptual spinoff; Sultwodee.

If I can find out how (I know how to research these things), then I’ll implement a forum as well. Maybe even a dedication domain name. Idealistically, I want a structure like this: forum.example.com, wiki.example.com, blog.example.com (which would be default when accessed from example.com). I want the wordpress blog to be the heart of the site, but I want a wiki and forum tacked onto it. Who thinks I’ve got a chance?

HUGE New Sultwodee build update.

As much as this is my game/project, I want it to be largely based on community opinion/input. I’m now enlisting!

Here’s what I’m proposing; I’ll complete the map switching unit, add some more tools and some basic info spriteFonts (primitive GUI, displays tool selected and controls implemented), I’ll implement a couple more maps for testing purposes, and I’ll release an (windows) installer for each build up until alpha.

I would like you to vote in the above poll (polls will be regular now that I have 20+ hits a day). Tell me what you think via comments, twitter, or email. There will be bugs, I can find most of them with my own “Search and Destroy” techniques, but I’d love to hear what you have to say. If you think tiles should be smaller, or the player should be faster, or you have an idea of how something should work that I haven’t implemented, let me know.

Artists and Programmers

You may have noticed (for those of you who know me personally) that I’m actually serious about finishing this project. The final goal is to have a release on the XBLCGA (released on the Xbox, basically). That being said, It’s going to take me a fair while to complete, plus I have no artistic talent whatsoever. If you’re an artist, or a programmer, with an interest in making friends and *trying* to bust into the bottom of the games industry; I’m willing to pay on an IF basis. As in, IF the project gets finished, and released, I will divide up any profits proportionately to the amount of work people provide. Bear in mind, we may be talking in cents, or less (or more). So if you’re an artist with an interest, get in touch with me. Same for programmers.

Current build: 0.0.12 - new details in Italics

Completed Features So Far:

• Player and map draws
• Player and map movement
• Map draws from string
• Object overlay draws
• ‘C’ Key changes tools, space uses
• Player/Map positions solid
  
• Walking collisions with ground layer
• Walking collisions with object layer
• Player can now run
• Primitive map-switching (needs simplifying, has bugs)
  
• Current tools: None, Watering Can, Hoe
• Teleport Objects
  

Currently working on:

• Teleports and map switching! About 75% done
• GUI HUD! (Concepts below)
  

Next on the plate:

• Adding randomized field objects; weeds, rocks, logs.
• New tools; axe, hammer, scythe.

Coming later:

• NPCs
• Money/Economy

Notes:

Yesterday I majorly restructured a lot of my code. Sultwodee is almost ready to be build 0.1.0! I worked through the player-sticking issues and perfected my collision. When the user stops moving (or changes direction) within 3px of the next tile border, the player will “snap-in” to the tile linings. I modified the tile loading sequence to read from an int[tilesWide,tilesHigh] instead of a comma delimited String, this makes my maps MUCH more readable and MUCH more modifyable.

GUI Concepts:

Seeing as the GUI is just around the corner, I thought I’d whip up some basic designs as to how I imagined it. Functionality would be simple, the icons on the left (letters currently stand for nothing, most likely to be replaced by icons) when clicked would slide out menus, things like inventory, stats, to-do list. The top left would have a multi-faceted clock. Displaying weather, in-game date and time. The top bar would display important info, such as currently selected tool, money help, current map name, etc. The minus at the top of the left bar, would “minimise” the bar. This is the basic concept:

(excuse the underlying game graphics, thats what it actually looks like at the moment)

Map building:

Who wants to build maps with provided graphics for inclusion into a game? I’m thinking of releasing my tile map pdf, it literally contains a huge table; there is a cell for each individual tile i’ve made/conceived a use for with a  number that references the tile. I also have a “mapping” document. The activity you would partake in, is fill out the mapping table, with the numbers of the tiles you want to go there, essentially building a map. I’ll explain better and more simple in one of my next posts. It’ll be a poll.

New Sultwodee build – implemented walking collisions

Current build: 0.0.10 - new details in Italics

Completed Features So Far:

• Player and map draws
• Player and map movement
• Map draws from string
• Object overlay draws
• ‘C’ Key changes tools, space uses
• Player/Map positions now operate appropriately (note below)
• Walking collisions with ground layer – can’t walk on water (duh)
• Walking collisions with object layer (minor tweak needed)
• Current tools: None, Watering Can, Hoe
• Teleport Objects
  

Currently working on:

• Resolving issues with player sticking when directional axis is changed after collision.

Next on the plate:

• Adding randomized field objects; weeds, rocks, logs.
• New tools; axe, hammer, scythe.

Coming later:

• GUI
• Map Teleporting
• NPCs
• Money/Economy

Notes:

Player/map system: It took quite a bit of programming/puzzle solving to get this to work right. The system proposed was that the player would remain in the centre of the screen, unless their positionOnMap reached half a screenWidth from the edge of the map, this way, the map would scroll while the player remained stationary in the centre of the screen. That is, when the edge of the map reached the edge of the screen, instead of continually scrolling, revealing the coloured area beneath the map, the map would stop, and the player sprite would be free to move to the edge of the screen/map.

Walking collisions problem: After implementing the walking collisions today, with both the ground layer, and the object layer, I’ve noticed a small problem; Say I had the player walk right, until he hit a fence object. Of course, the player would simply stop. I can walk left again, no issues. But if I attempt to walk upwards (or downwards) along the fence, he stays stuck.

Programming 2 assignment

I just felt compelled to share with you, a taste of what I do at school. I’m tasked with developing an interfacing application for this system (depicted here as a UML class diagram):

With java, it’s actually a pretty simple task, but it will still take some hours. Does anyone else find this exciting? I’m posting this, purely so that when I proclaim milestone achievements on twitter, those (one or two people) interested will be able to use this for reference.

Where I left off…

First off, apologies to you all. I left with a notion of “I’ll be back shortly with my new tiles!”. It’s been about three weeks, and I never posted back. Well, for starters, here is my grass tile~ the one I actually use, I still feel that its quite perfect, for my uses at the very least;

This tile is perfectly tileable, and uses a dull range of colours that both don’t appear flat, while also not repeating visible patterns.

Other Stuff

In other news, I’ve been out of the Sultwodee loop for a number of reasons, assignments being the main one. Also, the place that i’m at with Sultwodee, is calling strongly for a complete re-write, or many hours implementing a single feature. The time spent to do a rewrite will take longer than implementing my feature, but not re-writing it, may also lead to many many future lengthy-feature-add-sessions.

Random

Check this out – this royally messed with my eyes when I first saw it, some of the effect is lost with the scan, but it’s still there.

Just Showing off my New Tiles

Hey everyone, I just made some cool (well, i think) textures with the Gimp, I’m upping them here for all to see – If you have an opinion, feel free to share, either here, or in XNA forums. I frequent both. :-p

Versions

Hey guys, I just thought I’d share a quick overview of my Version/Build numbering system for anyone who’s interested.

My build numbers look like this: 0.0.0

From right to left:

The rightmost Zero represents the amount of basic functions completed in the module. I call it ‘Functions‘

The middle Zero represents the amount of complete modules (ie, the time system, or the movement, or the interactions, or drawing maps). I call it ‘Modules‘

The leftmost Zero represents the state of the game. While <1, the game is still in heavy development, when it hits 1, all  the basic modules are completed and the game enters alpha. 2 would be beta testing, 3 would be released. I call it ‘Releases‘

I felt compelled to post that purely because someone asked me today how i increment my build numbers.