froggie complete

[micky4fun]

hi all

ok heres my first propper program froggie its now complete , well far as i want to go with it
its 99% bug free i think , i did get lost in the code a bit , as i didnt do a program flowchart , i just did everything on screen
so one thing i have learnt is to pre plan first with some kinda program order , the code itself is messy and the game i think i quite good for my first real effort , (apart from simple boatracing game i did) , not pixel perfect but ok
next time i will plan a head with all aspects of the game before starting to write it.

but by doing this game as suggested by Kevin , i have learned a lot and know i have lots and lots to learn
it has shown me how powerfull PlayBasic is even tough i have only scratched the serface of this great program
i only had a few hours some nights to do this , but it has took me time , but what fun !!!

ok the rules of the game , well pick up a baby frog from right hand bottem of screen and get him to a safe place in the sand
at the top of the screen , if you get killed on the way , you will lose a life and the baby frogs life to , so you will need to pick up another baby frog , if you rescue the baby frog then come back from top of screen and get another frog , theres a time bonus for the quicker you can do it , only 1 baby frog allowed in each sand bay . when you have rescued the baby frogs left then a next level up ... goog luck..

ok i have split this into 8 parts as i can see only 2500k allowed in 1 post and game is 11meg
sorry i know how to do a screen grab , but alas dont know how to put this pic in this post ..

i will now take a week or so going through forum again and testing out some code and practice before starting me new game postie..

thanks for any feedback mick

NEW Download
http://www.underwaredesign.com/files/Micky4Fun/froggie.zip (login required)

[micky4fun]

part 8 , last part , i hope i aint broken any rules or upset anyone with this post , so ile say sorry in advance as im not her to break rules or upset anyone , just to have a great time

thanks
mick :)

[kevin]

  Haven't looked at this yet, but my advice is get some web space or use a file sharing site to host game files.  ie. http://www.zshare.net/  http://www.easy-share.com/ etc

[micky4fun]

ok Kevin
thanks for the link , i will sort that out later today

micl

[micky4fun]

Thanks for links Kevin

link to game is
http://www.zshare.net/download/51154239e772c462/
game is 11meg

thanks
mick

[kevin]

  The game looks like to come together pretty well.  I was wondering why the final was actually 11 meg, and those sounds are massive.   Time to looking to some compression !

  Also, sounds are for sound effects, not music.  Use the Music Commands for that. 

[micky4fun]

hi Kevin

yes sound files take up all the space , title and end screen sound takes up most , i did'nt have a sound file cropper to crop music to size needed , but i have got one now so i could crop them both ,
also how would i compress the sounds? , does playbasic de-compress them ?

yep forgot about the music command , will use that next time ,

i have gone as far as i wanted maybe with this game now , i could tidy it up , but im itching to start experimenting with other newer ideas , but doing this did help me alot and im pleased with my progress
i just wish i was graphic minded , being how to do me own background and images , but im useless , as this would make the games look much better , i still know its down to the programming as well ,
i hope to progress a little further with my programming but i think that i have nearly reached my kinda level
but one thing i can say is that you program PlayBasic is very fast , with lots of calculations and instuctions going on it runs really smooth ,

thanks for all your help

i love this forum such good stuff on here

mick :)

[kevin]

Mick,

es sound files take up all the space , title and end screen sound takes up most , i did'nt have a sound file cropper to crop music to size needed , but i have got one now so i could crop them both , also how would i compress the sounds? , does playbasic de-compress them ?

   The Sound & Music Engine (which are 3rd party) handles various sound formats including WAV, MP3 and OGG.    I'd recommend OGG for two reasons,  namely because we'll be changing the Sound/Music engine pretty soon (the current one is too expensive, and it's possible it's replacement might not support mp3) and secondly OGG is free of licensing issues.    

  Well technically, PlayBasic doesn't play them, the music engine does.  When playing sounds/music the music engine takes care of the decompression/playback of the sound/music.  

yep forgot about the music command , will use that next time ,

    You can play everything as sounds..  It's not the end of the world,  but the program will fail on older computers where the sound device has limited internal sound memory.   Sounds effects normally sit in sound cards pool of the memory.  So it's best to only load sound effects you need into this pool, then spool bigger stuff (aka music tracks) using the Music commands.  These are played off disc.  So the full file is newer sitting in memory.   So the music can be as big as you like.  

   http://tilemusic.com/ has lots of ogg & mp3's to mess around with.

i have gone as far as i wanted maybe with this game now , i could tidy it up , but im itching to start experimenting with other newer ideas , but doing this did help me alot and im pleased with my progress
i just wish i was graphic minded , being how to do me own background and images , but im useless , as this would make the games look much better , i still know its down to the programming as well ,
i hope to progress a little further with my programming but i think that i have nearly reached my kinda level

    For a second game,  Its turned out pretty well so the objective has been met I would think.  Goal was to made a game of frogger game and it does that.  Could always be tweaked up more later, or perhaps others could continue it/expand it for you.

   Art is always difficult,  it's certainly a one of the big limiting factors for most people.    So if you can't draw (i sure can't!) or don't have access to somebody who is willing to knock up some stuff for you, then this will undoubtedly limited your creative possibilities.  Sucks, I know!

   In terms of coding limits, there's really no such thing.  You'll find that each different type of project you tackle will contains it's own set of little->big hurdles.  The more of these you jump over, the greater your ability to solve more complex problems in the future.  Meaning it gets easier and easier as you go on.
   

but one thing i can say is that you program PlayBasic is very fast , with lots of calculations and instuctions going on it runs really smooth ,

   Like most languages, it's good at some things, not at others.  Often the choice of how you solve a problem (in your game) is the most critical thing though.   So when you hit a snag, remember there's always more than one way to skin a cat.

[micky4fun]

Hi  Kevin

Thanks for your coments and suggestions, i will use the OGG file format from now on as it maybe the only format supported soon , so best to get in that routeen , i can see what you are saying about the way the sounds and music functions work .
now im tinkering around with demo's and examples for my future game , but thinking about it ile try to tidy up a few bits on this frogger game , ie when you get killed there needs to be a slight pause before letting you start again , i will trim music files as well and one or 2 other things

(any other member feel free to carry on game)


the next game i will use window mode at 800x600 i think , given a more of a desktop feel to the game , as zylom games seem to use this and they play very well in this mode ,

yes the animation does make the game look nice but as for me drawing that , well very hard..
but with digital cameras now , i could set up a rig and get a puppet or plastersine model and photo them in a frame movement and touch it up with paint ,

i do love trying to solve the problems that arrise in the coding , gets the brain going , though sometimes it takes someone else to see how to solve the problem as you just cant see it.

thanks again Kevin

mick

[kevin]

 Mick,

now im tinkering around with demo's and examples for my future game , but thinking about it ile try to tidy up a few bits on this frogger game , ie when you get killed there needs to be a slight pause before letting you start again , i will trim music files as well and one or 2 other things
(any other member feel free to carry on game)

   Personally, I think that'd be really useful.  The more content we have submitted from users, the more perspectives and the easier it is for other new users to find their way.   

   What's your new idea all about ?  - I've hit upon a few old school ones myself that I wouldn't mind having a crack at for the change of scenery. 

yes the animation does make the game look nice but as for me drawing that , well very hard..
but with digital cameras now , i could set up a rig and get a puppet or plastersine model and photo them in a frame movement and touch it up with paint ,

  That's an interesting idea.  There's a paint program called Paint.NET that you might find useful also.   

i do love trying to solve the problems that arrise in the coding , gets the brain going , though sometimes it takes someone else to see how to solve the problem as you just cant see it.

    Programming can be great fun, but it can also be very frustrating...   Being a programmer  is just knowing how to solve certain problems that lie in front of you.  The same one's pop up time and time again, so it doesn't take too long before it's a automated response.
     

[micky4fun]

Hi Kevin

Thanks for reply ,
ive been busy over the last few days getting this new idea up and running , well was going to be a postal game , ie letter and parcel sorting , but thought as its xmas soon ile have the same idea but with santa , so its santa sorta , santa need to sorts prezzies out and deliver them to the right houses , its a 3 level game , level 1 collecting the parcels , level 2 sorting them , level 3 delivering them , now wether my programming and brain is upto this is another matter , but i have started with level 2 first and after 4 or 5 days not doing to bad , pretty please so far .
i want to get it out for well xmas , lol

as soon as i finish this i will promise to go back to froggie and tidy it up.

Thanks for letting me know abou Paint.Net , ive installed it now , it looks a lot more involved than paint , will take me a while to suss it out i think .
will try to sort some rig out for camera soon as possible.

Programming can be great fun, but it can also be very frustrating , lol yep just took me a hour to find i typed 1 letter in wrong with this latest game

I will take my atari 800 to work this week and go through the games , see if i can find some old good titles that you may want to do a revamp to ,
with the speed that you did my frooger game demo in 4 hours , its a wonder you do make a new game every few days
i know you need some ideas , but some old school games would be good i think , i know that PlayBasic is up to much much more than just old school games , but its where most novice programmers would start i think , and small demos.

ok a picture of level 2 of santa sorta

thanks mick  :)

[kevin]

 Mick,

ive been busy over the last few days getting this new idea up and running , well was going to be a postal game , ie letter and parcel sorting , but thought as its xmas soon ile have the same idea but with santa , so its santa sorta , santa need to sorts prezzies out and deliver them to the right houses , its a 3 level game , level 1 collecting the parcels , level 2 sorting them , level 3 delivering them , now wether my programming and brain is upto this is another matter , but i have started with level 2 first and after 4 or 5 days not doing to bad , pretty please so far .
i want to get it out for well xmas , lol

     Not only does it sound like  a good idea, and looks good to boot!

Thanks for letting me know abou Paint.Net , ive installed it now , it looks a lot more involved than paint , will take me a while to suss it out i think .
will try to sort some rig out for camera soon as possible.

   Yeah, don't do too much with it myself,  they seem a bit over the top these days.

Programming can be great fun, but it can also be very frustrating , lol yep just took me a hour to find i typed 1 letter in wrong with this latest game

   Ahh, that old chestnut :)  - There is mode in PB that will help you find these easier, but it's not as free flowing.  See Explicit in the help.   Turning this on will make PB complain when it sees something that hasn't previously been defined. 

I will take my atari 800 to work this week and go through the games , see if i can find some old good titles that you may want to do a revamp to ,
with the speed that you did my frooger game demo in 4 hours , its a wonder you do make a new game every few days

   While I can code a bit,  I sure can't draw ..:)
 

i know you need some ideas , but some old school games would be good i think , i know that PlayBasic is up to much much more than just old school games , but its where most novice programmers would start i think , and small demos.

    Had this idea of knocking up a version of Sabotage recently.  A game I remember enjoying back in the good old AppleII days.    Another would be a real version of Shamus (aka some like the VIC 20 version :) )   - Which appeal, since they're minimal art and minimal programming, and a bit of old school fun. 

[micky4fun]

Hi Kevin

ive downloaded sabotage , but have'nt got PB 1.64c installed yet , will do that as soon as possible
been busy playing with my atari , but not all game discs work now , but still been playing some old favourites
crossfire ( think this must have been a apple II games as well ) , chicken , montazooma's revenge , jumpman , oil well to name a few , great games

now must get back to my game , level 2 95% complete , so onto level 1 now heres a screen shot

mick  :)

[kevin]

Mick,

    Looks good, probably best to made a new WIP thread about it though, to make others more  aware.

[micky4fun]

Ok ive put right a few bugs and sorted out music and sound files as requested
so now only 5 meg
link here..

http://www.zshare.net/download/52500825d3356841/

mick :)