Archive for January, 2008
Underkeep Alpha 2.0 Released!
Posted by Joshua Smyth (Admin) in UnderKeep on January 14, 2008
So theres a new public preview of my roguelike Caverns of Underkeep.
You can play it in your browser.
This version will be updated and changed as bug fixes come in. I’ll start working on the beta version once I’m ready to start building new stuff 
Have fun!
Caverns of Underkeep : The Road to Alpha 2 Entry #5
Posted by Joshua Smyth (Admin) in UnderKeep on January 9, 2008
The last feature that needs to be implemented (apart from some very minor stuff) before I declare Caverns of Underkeep Alpha 2.0 is some new spells.
The new spells in alpha 2.0 will be:
- Meteor Shower - Deal damage to everything in a 3×3 area. (Yes, including the player if they’re not careful.)
- Enquire – Find out how many hitpoints a selected enemy has left.
- Freeze Time – Time stands still for 5 rounds, allowing you to move about freely. Spell is broken if you attack anything.
- Telekinesis – Pick up items from a distance, and open/close doors from a distance too.
After this Alpha 2.0 release will be the first Beta version
Global highscore tables will not feature in Alpha 2.0, as there still exist some issues that I haven’t resolved to my complete satisfaction yet.
Edit: Looks like there will be another spell added to the next alpha – Bonus!
Programming Personality Test
Posted by Joshua Smyth (Admin) in Programming on January 9, 2008
I usually hate these silly little tests that are all over the web. But I found this one pretty interesting.
The Programmer’s Personality Test
It’s sorta losely based on the Meyer’s-Briggs personality test – It has been a while since I took the Meyer’s-Briggs, but I think I was an INTJ? Or something like that, which is apparently quite a common type for people who like to program computers.
Anyway, here were my results…
Your programmer personality type is:
DHSB
You’re a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.
You like coding at a High level.
The world is made up of objects and components, you should create your programs in the same way.
You work best in a Solo situation.
The best way to program is by yourself. There’s no communication problems, you know every part of the code allowing you to write the best programs possible.
You are a liBeral programmer.
Programming is a complex task and you should use white space and comments as freely as possible to help simplify the task. We’re not writing on paper anymore so we can take up as much room as we need.
Browser Based Games
Posted by Joshua Smyth (Admin) in Game Programming on January 7, 2008
My roguelike game Caverns of Underkeep is coming along rather swimmingly and I’m confident I’ll get the game to version 1.0 before March 2008 – Which is when I’m due back at University.
I’ve been taking a bit of time to think about the next game I want to make. A week ago I made a list of 5 or so game designs and then ranked them according to difficulty, which ran along the lines of how much content, ie how many art assets would be needed. And how complicated it would be to program, ie was there anything that I didn’t know how to do or hadn’t implemented in the past?
At that time I was planning on doing a shareware style downloadable game. But now I’ve decided my next title is going to be another browser based game. And like Caverns of Underkeep, the next game will be also be free*
The reason for doing another free browser based game was two-fold.
- I think people expect less from a browser game (or any free game for that matter) the corollary to this is that if you can make a really good browser game, people will notice. It also means I can focus on a smaller scoped title. And theres none of that having to get people to download and install the game stuff, just click on the link and the game automatically loads.
- Having unique online content drives webtraffic, and in a web 2.0 world, there are many vendors competing for attention. Creating games that people care about will help enormously in the long term. And when I do get around to making downloadable games, hopefully there will already be a sense of community around the free games I have made.
I still think that Java as a technology could be improved for creating browser based games. When I first started on Caverns of Underkeep, I was cursing Sun Microsystems at least once a day. Now however, I’ve kinda worked around what I perceive as the kinks in Java Applet programming.
Unfortunately the alternatives to Java are not that clear. Flash looks kinda bulky to work with, and whats up with not being able to right click? I haven’t used flash first hand so I don’t want to speculate too much as to what it can/and can’t do, but most flash games I’ve played seem to run like a dog, which is unfortunate because vector graphics are just so cool.
Microsoft’s Silverlight looks rather interesting, But I’m just not sure if the technology is going to be mature enough – Thats always the risk with new technologies. But having the .net framework and an awesome programming language like C# in the browser is pretty exciting.
If Sun Microsystems would just allow me to poll the keyboard and mouse I would be a much happier man!
Edit : It just occured to me that I forgot about php, mySQL and DHTML to make browser based games. These types of games tend to me more stats and text based than arcade-like, so that’s probably why I forgot about them.
* I reserve the right to change my mind at any time
Caverns of Underkeep : The Road to Alpha 2 Entry #4
Posted by Joshua Smyth (Admin) in UnderKeep on January 6, 2008
First post for the new year
I haven’t been working as hard as I should be on Caverns of Underkeep. Partially because the weather is really hot and partially because it’s hard to pick up work after the holiday season and mostly because I’ve been playing computer games 
The alpha 2.0 build of Caverns of Underkeep is right on track for it’s release on the fifteenth of this month. I’ve moved a couple of features into the beta schedule and brought a few features forward – Either way it will be a far more complete representation of the final game than alpha 1.0 was.
I’ve added the last two levels to the dungeon (for a grand total of seven.) These last two levels are shorter than previous ones, with around half the number of monsters and about half of the explorable area, so really it’s more like adding one new level. I split it into two because I wanted to add two new geographies, a lava based level, and a er.. secret geography. You will just have to play the game to find out.
Content in the dungeons is basically done. There are over 40 different monsters for you to duke it out with. I’ll probably be adding more items and monsters and things as time goes by, but they are no longer a priority.
I have two months worth of summer holidays left, and the game has to be done before that time is up. So far so good