Homebrew competition!!

[Anihil8ion2199]

Looking good sswam! I'd keep the nude characters though. Kind of juvenile, but it never gets old... B)

 

[mjohansson]

Well yetserday was a bit of a crunch for sure, but only ended up with some minor work done, I still dont have a tile system, my first level is a straight corridor, only about 2 and a half pandora screens long, thats 2160 x 800 pixel image for a backrgound with "physics" being stay above a single value... What I struggled with yesterday was trying to get enemys to fly around and do stuff, I havent made any games before so Im having to figure all this out for the first time, so I manage to find enough hints on the web to make a class, but could never get any distinct ai out of it still... Im gonna have to resort to brute force code every single enemy... When I release to source code for public laughter any people looking to get into programming should probably stay far away, Im doing everything the wrong way! More then ever before it feels like I just wasnt made to code... But I still wont give up my dreams, I dont have anything else anyway.

 

[pokitfoxx]

Well yetserday was a bit of a crunch for sure, but only ended up with some minor work done, I still dont have a tile system, my first level is a straight corridor, only about 2 and a half pandora screens long, thats 2160 x 800 pixel image for a backrgound with "physics" being stay above a single value... What I struggled with yesterday was trying to get enemys to fly around and do stuff, I havent made any games before so Im having to figure all this out for the first time, so I manage to find enough hints on the web to make a class, but could never get any distinct ai out of it still... Im gonna have to resort to brute force code every single enemy... When I release to source code for public laughter any people looking to get into programming should probably stay far away, Im doing everything the wrong way! More then ever before it feels like I just wasnt made to code... But I still wont give up my dreams, I dont have anything else anyway.

DONT GIVE UP! YOU ARE MY INSPIRATION! well... you and my pandora!


once i get it, i essentially have to learn linux, from there im planning on learning some other coding languages, and taking a course in college next year, so I need to know if you can do it, and make a fairly decent game, Im going to as well 1 day!

 

[bzar]

B-ZaR would you be willing to release the source code now so that others who wish to join the competition could have a place to start?

The source is a hard-coded mess due to being done in a hurry. It would be quite tricky to adapt it to create a game that wasn't just the same game with different graphics and/or levels without knowing the source inside out. What I can say is that Qt makes it fairly easy to create games like this by abstracting away the whole rendering and timing process. Basically you only need to code your application logic, which you'd need to do anyway.


The most tricky part for most people is implementing collision checking with the level. My implementation uses fixed "checkpoints" for vertical and horizontal collisions, which are processed separately. For example, the player character only has one downward level collision checkpoint, which is only checked if the player is moving down. If that point is inside a block, the player is moved up so that the point is no longer inside it. Vertical and horizontal movement are applied in separate phases to avoid any ambiguity on the direction of the collision. My character collisions are modeled as ellipses.


I'd be happy to discuss and explain any game mechanic part of my game, but I'm afraid I won't release the source until after the competition. I hope you understand.

 

[SiegfriedCroes]

Haven't been working on my game since I posted that video, I won't be submitting for the compo... I'm not really into making games at the moment... I don't think I will make anything before I have my Pandora...

 

[richiz]

Haven't been working on my game since I posted that video, I won't be submitting for the compo... I'm not really into making games at the moment... I don't think I will make anything before I have my Pandora...

 

[mjohansson]

DONT GIVE UP! YOU ARE MY INSPIRATION! well... you and my pandora!


once i get it, i essentially have to learn linux, from there im planning on learning some other coding languages, and taking a course in college next year, so I need to know if you can do it, and make a fairly decent game, Im going to as well 1 day!

Dont worry, like I said Ill never give up!


I think I figured out a other way of doing enemys with simple arrays.


Enemytype[number][data]


while (c<enemys) enemytype[c][ai]


were ai is all commands you do withd different data elements, like move it, attack, count for animation and everything.


So to add an enemy of a specific type adda number to the track variable wich is above enemys. Hmm no you need to destroy someone in the middle, well have an data element that describes if its living or dead, if its dead ai routines just skip to next enemy. This is my concept that remains to be tested, I try to program something like this later. I dont think this works for random enemys, mayby, Ill see later.

 

[sswam]

I'm happy to show some code, if it can be of any help to read it (but not as a direct foundation). I'll free it after the competition. Anyway, I doubt it will be much use to anyone! You'd be better off looking at some other SDL open-source game rather than my messy, strange and complicated code.


my 'rescue' game code WIP, without images, map, etc.


I suggest try looking at the source for a small game that's using plain SDL, maybe gnujump, moon-lander, sdl-ball, etc*. If you're having trouble don't try to do scrolling, just draw one screen at a time, page by page. There are some great games that do this, e.g. check out this one, it's simple, but good and fun:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/YpnGL3ggGFk?feature=oembed

* I haven't actually looked at the code for any of these so don't know which are simpler or best written!

 

[mjohansson]

Oh god sswarm, make my code seem like a joke! I should never had looked


My arrays do seem to work though, I finally got some enemy to appear in right position and do something I can control.


My Pandora is still in the repair shop, time is running out, if it dosnt return within this month I have no idea wether my code will run on it or not, I can try to compile for it but I have no testing possibility and dont know if things work or not, also does it say somewere what buttons in SDL the ABXY and LR buttons are? The keypad is normal arrow up,down left,right isnt it?

 

[Scntrblob]

Just a few thoughts about rating lateron:


In my opinion it would be worth a thought to only give donators access to rate. This would mean that there could be bigger intresst in donating those 5€/$ and it could influence the time someone spends on testing a game before rating it positivly. Additionally it would reduce the effectivity of "ghost-accounts" only made to rate.


For the rating, I think it should be done in rankings like so that it is not possible to bash a game by giving it 0 points or everyone gets, lets say 50, points he can spread in any amount to his favourite game(s).


Just my 2 cents as said...


BTW: Nice sneak peaks, guys. Keep it coming. B)

 

[bzar]

In my opinion it would be worth a thought to only give donators access to rate. This would mean that there could be bigger intresst in donating those 5€/$ and it could influence the time someone spends on testing a game before rating it positivly. Additionally it would reduce the effectivity of "ghost-accounts" only made to rate.


For the rating, I think it should be done in rankings like so that it is not possible to bash a game by giving it 0 points or everyone gets, lets say 50, points he can spread in any amount to his favourite game(s).

I think everyone should be allowed to vote. This will make it a community happening instead of a "people with extra money only" event. The community aspect IMO is important. I don't have a good idea about the ghost accounts though.


For the rating part, I think a ranking system would be best. It's a bit more work than just voting for one, but I think it's the fairest system.

 

[Prometheus]

I don't have a good idea about the ghost accounts though.

I would hope that folks here know better than that! Anyway, if it works the same as it does on the other forum, I'm guessing that the moderators here would be able to spot them.

 

[Ziz]

The Mods said before they will have a look at the votes.


They will check, whether multiple votes are from one IP or 1-Post-Accounts.


So, I think, it would be the best, if everybody is allowed to vote. ;-)


Just my 2 pence,


Nice work 'til now.


greetings, Ziz

 

[foxblock]

Oh god sswarm, make my code seem like a joke! I should never had looked


My arrays do seem to work though, I finally got some enemy to appear in right position and do something I can control.


My Pandora is still in the repair shop, time is running out, if it dosnt return within this month I have no idea wether my code will run on it or not, I can try to compile for it but I have no testing possibility and dont know if things work or not, also does it say somewere what buttons in SDL the ABXY and LR buttons are? The keypad is normal arrow up,down left,right isnt it?

This is how you have to map the buttons:

 START = LALT, SELECT = LCTRL, L = RSHIFT, R = RCTRL

Top Button (Y) = Page Up, Lower Button (X) = Page Down, Left Button (A) = Prior, Right Button ( = Next

[/CODE]

D-Pad can be indeed used as the arrow keys.


I have talked to RichiZ and to vote you will have to name your top 3 favourite entries - the first one will then recieve 3 points, second 2, third 1. The entry with the most points (summed) will obviously win.


Also as the rules state, everyone will be allowed to vote (you don't even have to own a Pandora).


foxblock out

 

[Ziz]

Hm, there I hav a question:


The game I develop, will be run on different systems, not just the pandora.


Is it unfair, if people without pandora, but with a handheld like the GP2X, Dingoo, Caanoo or WIZ, are able the test my game, but not the other pandora-only ones? Should I release the other versions of my game after the contest?


greetings, Ziz


PS: Just for the fairness, I dont think, that I will be under the Top 3. :-\

 

[bzar]

^ I don't think anyone has anything against multi-platform games. I develop in Qt so my game runs on a host of platforms. Just as long your game also runs on pandora


On another note: two and a half weeks to go! How are the games coming along? I have a couple of tilesets and about 5½ levels left to do. Also a few other minor/optional things. I set up an identi.ca account (@bzar) to which I try to post every time I do something .

 

[mjohansson]

Its hard to estimate, i think mayby 15% content done and 50% programming. My Pandora should arrive soon, I got shipping tracking now.

 

[cobrajs]

Argh, mine's nowhere close. Not much free time, lately, so progress has been slow. That, plus I actually got my Pandora finally, so I've spent a lot of time with it instead of programming for it

 

[bzar]

I want my pandora too . Can't really test different caching/rendering/updating modes without having one myself <_< , so I can't guarantee full speed action in every case. The part shown in the previous video where the cave background fills the screen slows the game down on an N900.

 

[richiz]

I'm happy to test any games that pandora owners dont have