UnderwareDESIGN

Okay, okay, no WIP yet - just an empty project and a working title  ;)

I will use this thread to ask questions, mention progress and so on as I am definitely joining this compo  8)

Right now I'm thinking about level design in general:

• What level editor should I use? One of the PB mappers? Mappy? A inbuilt game level editor?
• What map format? Tiles or Shapes? What's the easiest for collision checking, gravity handling, drawing?
• Edit the levels with a tool or give it a try and procedurally generate levels for a platformer?

What are your suggestions, guys and girls? Do you have recommendations? What works best with PB?

BTW: What tool was used to create the level for the 2D platformer in the Projects\Games directory of PB (the one with the ice tiles)?

Cheers,
Tommy

hm i dont know 8-(

You can include the editor into the game. Didn't tried something with PB, but it should not be too hard to add I think ;)

Yes, an ingame editor is always pretty good - increases the replay value  ;)
And I had a quick browse through the "Platform_Game_Example_Update" game - the level is created by the game itself, based on two text files where the level is defined. It can be so simple  ::)

I'm currently coding a little tool using FlexiGUI to extract and play back some animations from BlinkOk's graphics files (I'll email it to you Blink, as soon as it's done). It shall help me to generate config files that describe the animation frames which I will then load and use in the game.

I have some simple FlexiGUI questions that hopefully someone here can answer:

• How do I set the background color of a window?
• Currently my dialog window is not refreshed on application start, only when I click inside it. How can I set some simple automatic refresh?
• It seems there are only labels, input fields, buttons, check boxes and sliders available. What about radio buttons, list boxes and a file selector?
• Is there some documentation for FlexiGUI available? I just found one sample project which shows several tricks like double buffering, own refresh routines and such stuff but no simple "How to get started?"...

I think FlexiGUI is nice to implement some tools - I'd just need more docs  ::)

Thanks in advance,
Tommy

 Flexi is WIP... There's no doc's

Wip Thread (http://www.underwaredesign.com/forums/index.php?topic=507.0) has some tidbits.

Aah, thanks. Will read a bit  ;)

Just to show you a screenshot of my Flexi helper tool.
It's some PB animation mapper where you can specify rectangles on your base image and make animation frames from them.
Frame sequences can be given comma separated or in ranges with a minus sign.
So a frame sequence "1,3,4-7,9" would contain the frames 1,3,4,5,6,7,9.

It's nearly done and I only need to save the animation infos to some file that can be loaded back in later in the game.

Should help BlinkOk to verify his images and me to load them for the real game  ;)

wow! that looks awesome tommy. very handy for me

glad you're making some progress. looks good! this way it feels far more like a compo. :) gives me some extra motivation...

@BlinkOk: Will send it to you end of the week I guess. Lots of private life ahead...

@Green7: I am sure there are some lurkers working in closed cabinets on their secret project...be prepared for more competition  ;)

Cheers,
Tommy

The PB AnimMapper is in some usable beta state. Have a look or a download here (http://www.haaks.net/gamedevcode/page6.html).

Hope it helps some people.

I'll provide some PB loader source code to get a useful image array from the generated UFF files in the next days as soon as time permits  on the tool's page ::)

I just have to mention: the FlexiGUI and the PBDialogs stuff was really helpful and pretty easy and straightforward to use. Thanks, Kevin! I really do appreciate all your efforts more and more  8)

Cheers,
Tommy

The UFF file loading for levels is basically finished. Just need to copy parts now for new level elements and add the appropriate ingame creation function.

Now for the player and the monsters and some behavior and game play  :P

And only four weeks left - sigh.

For the fun of it: the UFF file for the shown level screenshot:

<map>
<background>
image=gfx\docks\bg.png
</background>
<platform>
image=gfx\mountain\platform.png
</platform>
<images>
nr=3
<image1>
idchar=L
x=238
y=60
w=40
h=20
fx=false
afx=false
</image1>
<image2>
idchar=M
x=278
y=60
w=40
h=20
fx=false
afx=false
</image2>
<image3>
idchar=R
x=318
y=60
w=40
h=20
fx=false
afx=false
</image3>
</images>
<mapdata1>
type=platform
imagesequence=LMMMMR  LMR
x=10
y=450
depth=50
</mapdata1>
<mapdata2>
type=platform
imagesequence=L M R
x=100
y=250
depth=50
</mapdata2>
</map>


Cheers,
Tommy

looks good tommy. :)

Quote from: BlinkOk on September 01, 2008, 08:57:40 PM
looks good tommy. :)

Of course it does - it's your graphics :)

The overall progress of the game itself is too slow for me. But real life always strikes first ;)

haha. i was talkin bout the xml. lol :)

Just a quick update:
I got the player movement working last night. So my player can walk left and right and jump. Collisions with platforms are working so he can even fall down.
Best of all: the routines should be usable by the enemies without any changes.
Very pleasing and motivating for me  ;)

Cheers,
Tommy

good to hear that!  ;)

Some more progress.
Now I can load the animations created with my PBAnimMapper. Improved my UFF file format to store all animations in one data file and load them on startup.
All pretty pleasing.

Monsters are next (tomorrow night I hope).

Screenshot attached.

Still so much to do  ::)

And some more progress:
Enemies can be defined in the map, they are loaded, animated and updated.

Started with sponsor screen.

Next will be title screen with main menu and collisions between player and enemies.

Menu sounds are created, ingame sounds are also coming soon.

I'm still missing some music.

Must hurry...

Looking cool ;D.

QuoteI'm still missing some music.

I dude on the TGC forums has some great music and if you email him with some shots of your game I'm sure he will let you use some of his music. I actually did email him today and I'm able to use his music in my entry. A link to one of his threads - [plink]http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=135459&b=34 (http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=135459&b=34)[/plink] and this is his soundclick page where he has all his music at - http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=396117 (http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=396117).

Good Luck :)

Thanks for the nice hint, slayer93. Will listen to the sounds tonight. Maybe I'll find something that fits the mood of the game.

Good luck to all of us - I get the curious feeling that Calypson is joining the competition fun. He won the 2006 competition and made second place last year...
This guy is pretty quiet on the forums but the last few days he started to post  ;)

Calypson, what about a WIP thread to depress us?  ;D

Still a week left! Go go gadget coder brain!

Quote...I get the curious feeling that Calypson is joining the competition fun...

got the same feeling here... ok, i moaned about lack of competitors, so i think i deserve it. ;)

ermm.. did I mention that i'm also entering ?  :)

Quoteermm.. did I mention that i'm also entering ?

what the...? ;) serious? is that allowed?

Quotewhat the...? Wink serious? is that allowed?

erm... nope.   Was just going to use the compo to knock up  a new game demo though, but time has got away from me

QuoteThanks for the nice hint, slayer93. Will listen to the sounds tonight. Maybe I'll find something that fits the mood of the game.

Glad I could help. :)

Would also be interesting if you entered Kevin :D

Wouldn't want to embarrass anybody :)..  I did mean to knock together a tech demo, but 1.64 took way too long and VM2 is firmly in the way.

Again some update:
Collisions between player and enemies and player and "bombs" are in. Even added some of the collision results to the game behavior.
Bombs like enemies can also be defined in the level file (all represented in UFF file format).
So you can create your levels with any text editor!

That's it for tonight. Time to get some sleep. Off to a bar with some big boss and some mates from my company tomorrow night - let's see if I can do some drunk coding afterwards  :P

Cheers,
Tommy

Pixel perfect collision is working with 1.64b Beta. Let's see if I can get an executable later on.
Basic HUD is started. Added scoring, timing mechanism, health bar and some more game logic (decrease health on collisions, increment score for collecting items and so on).

Right now I see some screen garble when the next level is loaded - must be related to my deleting images and sprites before the next level is loaded...

I also chose a game music - just need to get the approval from the composer. Should work.

Must go to bed now.

Later,
Tommy

Some progress over the weekend:
Fixed the graphics bug (removed and reloaded images, but sprites where still storing the old image index), added game state transitions (life lost, game over), added game message which pauses the game for a while (enter level, life lost) to allow player to "refocus", added highscore table (no score entering yet) and some sounds. Also added a credits scroller on the title screen.

What's left to do?

• entering highscore,
• about screen,
• options screen with volume control,
• instructions screen,
• at least 4 more levels,
• game won screen,
• more level detail graphics,
• more sounds,
• more animations.

I doubt that I'll manage all of this in the last two nights left. So I need to drop some stuff and add it to the "final version"...

Good night,
Tommy

Progress tonight:

• Highscores done,
• About screen done,
• Instructions screen done,
• Game won screen done,
• ingame logic improved (life lost circumstances),
• some sounds added,
• improved fonts.

Skipped for the competition entry (but not for the final release after the competition ended!):

• Options screen with volume control,
• more animations.

Left for tomorrow night (my last coding night):

• at least 4 more levels,
• more level detail graphics,
• a few more enemies with basic animations,
• zip it all up and send it to Kevin!

So, one o' clock in the morning again, out of bed at 6:30 - good night, fellas!

Cheers,
Tommy

I'm done. I got all my todo's for tonight done and declare the game ready for the judges  ::)

So I just sent the email to Kevin containing the zip of "Who stole Waldo?".
Again it's way past midnight but who cares  ;)

Some screen shots to wet your appetite!

May the best entry win - wish me luck  ;D

Cheers,
Tommy

Ha, looks awesome, nice job ;)