48 Hour Game Jam
Posted by Joshua Smyth (Admin) in Game Programming on January 31, 2009
The 48 hour game jam is winding down to a close (at least in my timezone)
I’m tired, dispite having slept 8 hours each night – I guess the floor wasn’t that comfortable after all?
The restrictions for the game where pretty hard to fit into the design, they were:
- Game session has to last 5 minutes
- “As long as we have each other, we’ll never run out of problems”
- Choose one: Blank, Cold, Modern
I’ve finished my entry (A maze based retro shooter) and uploaded it to the global game jam website
You can download my game and all the other entries from that site. I’ll put it up for download on this blog sometime over the next few days. My entry requires .net 3.5 and XNA 3.0 – So I’ll include some more specific details to download those frameworks considering most people probably don’t have them installed.
But for now, here is a screenshot
Good Software Usability is Hard
Posted by Joshua Smyth (Admin) in rQuest on January 21, 2009
Now that we are full tilt into 2009 I’ve managed to find some spare time to work on the still badly named rQuest project.
I’m developing the map editor, which will over time evolve into the game’s complete authoring kit – With tools for dialog trees, weapon/monster database editing, import/export tools, all that fancy stuff.
I’ve started writing the application in C# with .net 3.5 and the GDI – If anyone has experience with the GDI you will know that it’s dog slow. I coded my own blit routine using unsafe pointers, and its about 10x faster than the .drawImage() routine, but its still pretty slow. Thankfully I’m only making the editor not the game with the GDI.
But its funny just how long a process it takes to get the software to ‘feel’ right. Simply creating software that works is easy by comparison – when I was testing out the map editor, it quickly occured to me that I really needed an undo. Which is a pretty non-trivial feature to add (especially for unlimited undo) Other things that we’ve come to expect in modern software also need to be implemented such as copy and paste. (Both in and out of the application.)
Another change I’m going to add is that instead of thinking in layers, which in some other RPG map editing programs cause me to get confused as to which layer I’m currently trying to edit. Each tile is going to be a stack – Left click adds a tile to the stack and Right click removes the tile from the top of the stack. Where the stack is capped at some height n. This should give appropriate visual feedback to the user as to what part of the map they can edit at any given time.
So work on rQuest continues, but at a slow and steady pace.
Game Jam Time
Posted by Joshua Smyth (Admin) in Uncategorized on January 19, 2009
So in about two weeks time is a 48hour game programming event held at Waikato University. Which is about 2 hours drive south of my current residence. I’ll be attending along with a couple others I know from AGW.
It looks like the two primary tools being used are Game Maker and XNA – I might just have to have a play around with XNA before I go, just so I don’t spend the first 4 hours working out how to go into full screen mode and get a sprite moving on the screen.
48 hours is a ridiculously short time frame to make a game. Usually I take 48 hours just to decide what resolution to use, but now I’m going to have to do all that and thensome along with sleeping, eating and showering – I have a feeling its going to be a very, very unhygenic event as one or two social decencies may fall by the wayside as the deadline looms.
Should I Learn Flash?
Posted by Joshua Smyth (Admin) in flash, Game Programming on January 9, 2009
Ever since I made Attack of the Meeplings and Caverns of Underkeep – I’ve been wondering if it would make€ sense to invest my time in learning Flash to develop browser-based games.
Java applets have almost completely disappeared where as Flash has become so synonymous with in-browser games that a few people who have tagged my games on StumbleUpon as a ‘Cool Flash Game’
At first I chose java because – Well, I already knew it and I wasn’t that concerned with making money by putting my games on the various Flash aggregate portals, I just wanted to draw some traffic to my own site with some fun free games.
The unfortunate thing is that it is very, very hard to draw traffic to your site, just by having a couple of free games to play.
And for a while I didn’t actually mind that I didn’t make much money through google adsense, because I made some pretty cool games that I was proud of and I thought where quite fun.
But now I’m thinking about a couple of small game ideas that I wouldn’t mind persuing and I think the best platform for delivering small freeware games is in the browser on the web. Leave the downloadable delivery mechanism for more ambitious titles.
So here I am wondering if I should learn Flash?
A couple of years ago I didn’t like Flash one bit – But that was when I had a p4 with 256mb of ram and a geforce2. On a modern PC it actually has good performance and over the last year or two there have been a number of flash games that have actually impressed me.
Also I have heard that Actionscript 3.0 is a much improved programming language with all the OO features you can shake a stick at. And many of the Flash tools are now more focused at developers, rather than only at our right-brained brethren.
So, maybe I should learn Flash? Stay tuned for updates.
Stop With the Grind Already
Posted by Joshua Smyth (Admin) in Game Design on January 3, 2009
Over the holiday period I’ve managed to sink many many hours into the cult Japanese RPG Persona 3 which has simultaneously delighted me because it’s so different and also reminded me of why I don’t really play jRPGs.
I was really enjoying myself until about 30 hours in where I encountered one of the monthly boss battles and found myself way, way underskilled to win the battle. One walkthrough that I looked at recommended that I have a character at level 45 – A full 8 levels higher than I was, which means about 4 hours of just pure grinding, running around and getting into fights.
I usually play through games quite quickly and don’t bother to grind my character, because I like to see new things and progress the story – and besides, I’ve got a whole lot of other games sitting on my shelf unopened. But now I have to grind if I want to get on with the game.
Theres just a little too much grinding going on for an otherwise excellent game. Many have reported that it takes around 80 hours to finish. Which is a pretty large time investment – Heck, I think I wrote Attack of the Meeplings in round 80 hours.
I think for the RPG I’m developing I’m going to target around 20 hours of gameplay, which is about how long Eschalon Book 1 lasted for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed that. I’d rather have a shorter experience, but one that isn’t feel a bit drawn out.
But if you do have a spare 80 hours, Persona 3 is a really excellent game.
I would like to pick up Persona 4 which was recently released, but I might have to wait until retirement before I playing it.
Not much to report
Posted by Joshua Smyth (Admin) in Uncategorized on December 13, 2008
I haven’t been blogging about the progress of rQuest lately because well, there hasn’t actually been much progress done. I have a break from work at the end of next week so that gives me some time to steam ahead and get some features coded.
I’m moving the code to use SDL rather than SFML. The main reasons behind this transition are:
- SDL already supports Mac. Its coming in SFML but I’d rather that it was already implemented. The Mac market is a particularly important one for my game, so having a cross-platform graphics library from the get go is pretty handy.
- I don’t actually need any fancy 3D effects. I’m not planning on using hardware accelerated rotation, scaling, lighting or alpha blending so all those features of SFML are not really required.
- I perfer SDLs blit based model of placing graphics on the screen.
- Hundreds of games already use SDL and it seems pretty solid.
SFML has some really good ideas behind its framework, but for this type of game. I think SDL suits my needs a little better. If I do ever get around to creating another 2D shooter, then I think SFML would fit the bill a little nicer.
In other news I finished playing Psychonauts, and it is the best game ever. I’m a huge Tim Schafer fan and if you haven’t played it yet and want to experience one of the most original action adventure games ever you owe it to yourself to check it out.
Also, over the last couple months I’ve helped out with an entry in the retro-remakes contest. If you ever remember a platformer from back in the day called the New Zealand Story, be sure to check out the AGW entry into this years retro-remakes competition available here.
I’ve also started to play Persona3 and its one of the most interesting jRPGs I’ve played. As a general rule I perfer western RPGs, but thats probably because so much of what we get over here are simply Final Fantasy clones. I’m only 10 hours into the game (apparently its a 70-80 hour game) but I’m already inspired to check out other games in the Shin Megami Tensei series.
rQuest Update #1 – The Basic Tileset
Posted by Joshua Smyth (Admin) in programmer art, rQuest on November 27, 2008
I’ve been spending my evenings trying to get The Basic Tileset up and running.
The aim of making these tiles myself is so I can have enough artwork to start creating basic maps in my not-yet-made map editor. With the idea that at a later stage I’ll hire an artist or two to go over the tiles and pretty them up.
I’ve been using a freeware program called mappy which is pretty decent but there will be some custom features that I require so I’ll have to roll my own.
The basic tile set includes:
- Grass
- Dirt
- Water
- Sand
- Cliffs
- Trees
- Some Houses
I’ve been looking at alot of old school RPGs and I’m firmly convinced that what really makes a game look good is the subtle changes and variations within a tileset – Something I think only a much more talented pixel artist than myself can bring to the project…
After I get these basic tiles layed out I can return to programing the engine, which will actually allow you to play the game, rather than just stare at my static mockup screens. Exciting!
Next week I might just be linking to a beta version of another project I’ve been helping out with.
I’ll probably also talk some programming geek talk.
More attempts at pixel art
Posted by Joshua Smyth (Admin) in rQuest on October 31, 2008
This stuff takes forever, I don’t know how real artists manage to get anything done in any kind of reasonable timeframe.
I’ve also started on some interior dungeon tiles (Below is a work-in-progress shot) which has only confirmed my fears that there needs to be alot more graphical content than I had originally anticipated.
Dungeons without stuff in them are just a bit boring.
Tomorrow I’m going to get back to doing some framework programming. I’m going to try get modal dialogs implemented and then I’ll be one step closer to getting that level editor done.
Some New Sprites
Posted by Joshua Smyth (Admin) in rQuest on October 1, 2008
I haven’t got much coding done lately but I have managed to rework some old Caverns of Underkeep sprites and create a couple of new ones for rQuest. (Which needs a new project name now that its going to be more of an old school RPG than a roguelike.) I’ve also got some new tiles in the works, but I should really be moving on to making the map editor.
32×32 Sprites
x2 Zoom
I’m going to try doing fortnightly project updates starting soon. (Weekly is probably too frequent to report on considering how little I’ve been able to get done lately.)
Five games that need a comeback!
Posted by Joshua Smyth (Admin) in nostalgia on September 20, 2008
Twinsens Odyssey (Little Big Adventure 2)
I have this thing for quirky odd games, and Twinsens Oddessy is certainly quirky. It’s kind of an action adventure game about a boy and his ball, on a quest to save his girlfriend.
The art style is a mash-up of isometric interiors and 3rd person perspective outside areas. Many of the characters you meet are humaniod-animal creatures and to be honest I can’t decide if it takes place in a fantasy world or a science fiction one.
Want Little Big Adventure 3 please!
Phantasy Star
A couple weeks back I purchased the Sega Megadrive collection for my PS2 and its got Phantasy Star II, III and IV on the disc.
These games were freaking expensive when they first came out, as they took up more than 2x the amount of memory on the cartridge compared to other titles at the time.
The games are best described as Sega’s answer to the Final Fantasy games. Phantasy Star is an RPG series that spans many millenia of the Algol solar system. Its a J-RPG at its finest, before the genre decided they wanted to make 40 hour movies instead of games.
We need another Phantasy Star game, and I’m not talking about this Phantasy Star Online business. Incidentally Phantasy Star I and II have been remade for the PS2, and they look amazing. Unfortunately the games are only avalible in Japanese.
Gateway
Gateway and Gateway II homeworld are text adventure games with pictures based on Science-Fiction author Frederick Phol’s series of novels of the same name.
Gateway II was probably the first text adventure game I played seriously, probably back in ’95 or so. The story and the puzzles are first class and unlike alot of adventure games, things actually make sense. You don’t have to keep guessing what the designer was thinking of when they designed some of the puzzles.
I’ve been meaning to pick up the Gateway novels for a while now.
Streets of Rage
Ah, beat ‘em ups. What more can I say, lots of enemies and cool moves to kick their collective asses. Give me another Streets of Rage. If I had a 360 I could probably get Castle Crashers for my beat ‘em up fix. But for now, I’ll just pine for another Streets of Rage.
Moonstone
Moonstone is one of the most bloody and violent games I have ever played – The pixel art is fantastic and the game can only be described as a blood fest. You play one of four knights on a quest to do… something – I honestly can’t remember, but I think it involved a dragon? Anyway, it kicked ass.