Release [Rebirth Competition] Dino Defense

[iprice]

Here's a still very Work In Progress video of my competition entry (to be), Dino Defense.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/-V-Vm2owRnI?feature=oembed

The game is unlikely to be completed by the time I upload it, but it is playable, even in it's current form.

 

[mattman]

ahh wow thats awesome.

 

[foxblock]

Seems very promising.


It looks like you took some inspiration from Plants vs. Zombies, which can only turn out good


I like the scenario, the stone age is rather unexplored and underused in games (compared to the middle ages and WW2 at least).


Keep it up, I am looking forward to this.

 

[iprice]

Cheers


Yeah, I'm a pretty big fan of PvZ, so something has rubbed off a bit. Yeah, doing some research there really are very few games set in the stone age/prehistoric era. I know that humanoids didn't co-exist with the dinos, but hey-ho.

 

[Holliefant]

The creationists might beg to differ But hi iprice nice to see you again and very promising game there

 

[Zip]

it's courious, the first tower defence i've seen with side visual,


classiacal have visual from top


good game iprice i like it!

 

[Linux-SWAT]

The league for defense of dinosaurs rights will be upset :/


^^.


Seems fun, reminds me Lemmings in some way.

 

[iprice]

It's the icons at the bottom I think. Somebody on another forum said the same. It's nothing like lemmings though.


BTW I got special permission from the LODD to make this game to draw attention to the dinosaurs needless suffering at the hands of man

 

[iprice]

Here's a version for Windows - http://www.iprice.remakes.org/my_stuff/DinoDefense_pc.zip

 

[gruso]

A tip for people to get this going on the Pandora. The PNDs in this download are both invalid and will not show up on the Pandora - but the app is in there and works fine.


Just extract PDD.zip and put the folder on your SD card. Then go into \PDD\Pandora\DinoDefense\ via Thunar and double click pandora-exe.pnd. Yes it has a .pnd extension, but no it's not a PND file, just an executable. It won't run unless the /Media folder is in there with it.

 

[Don Miguel]

Nice entry!! You could add some scrolling clouds or so

 

[iprice]

Without owning a Pandora, I can't say what files are necessary and which aren't - I had to include everything that my code spat out in GLBasic. My tester stated that it worked fine if you ran the .EXE.PND within the app folder and I just relayed what he said in the .TXT file with the entry.


As for scrolling clouds - again, as I've not got a Pandora (or even access to one), I had to limit what i put into the game, to ensure a reliable and consistent frame rate. I so want to add particles and wind, water, clouds, leaves blowing about and such like (the volcano in the background was animated with smoke billowing, but I had to remove it for the above reasons). Unless I get a Pandora I can't add or check any of these things. I've still not seen the game running on an actual machine.


I developed the game in just over a month and I'm pleased with the end-result. It's not complete and I've still got things to implement (some are in there just not connected up) and other things I want to add and finish (like the graphics), but it's all I could do in a month without a Pandora. And remember it is an original game and not a port or mod. And it's just me doing all of it.

 

[mcobit]

I really like the game. It is really nicely done. I can offer to package it into a proper pnd tomorrow if you like.

 

[iprice]

I can offer to package it into a proper pnd tomorrow if you like.

That would be fantastic. Cheers

 

[gruso]

Without owning a Pandora, I can't say what files are necessary and which aren't - I had to include everything that my code spat out in GLBasic.

Ah. Looks like GLBasic's PND creation needs some work, because it's all over the place! I realise that's out of your hands. If you want to look into some existing PNDs to see how they tick, grab the latest 7zip beta which has squashfs archive support, so you can open/extract PNDs. Also PNDTools, which is a great GUI based app for creating (or just opening) PNDs in Windows.


I threw a PND together last night with PNDTools. It was valid, and launched ok, but crashed on profile creation. That's about the limit of my talents. Here is the output, might be useful for you and mcobit:

Spoiler

=======================================================================================


PND : /media/mmcblk0p1/pandora/desktop/DinoDefense.pnd


PND_FSTYPE : Squashfs


APPDATADIR : /media/mmcblk0p1/pandora/appdata/ianprice.dinodefense


APPDD_FSTYPE : vfat


PND_CPUSPEED : <unset>


EXENAME : ./pandora-exe.pnd


ARGUMENTS : <unset>


=======================================================================================


[ START ]--- Mount the PND ----------


Mounting : mount -t squashfs -o ro "/dev/loop0" "/mnt/utmp/ianprice.dinodefense"


Mounting the Union FS : mount -t aufs -o exec,noplink,dirs="/media/mmcblk0p1/pandora/appdata/ianprice.dinodefense=rw+nolwh":"/mnt/pnd/ianprice.dinodefense=rr" none "/mnt/utmp/ianprice.dinodefense"


[sUCCESS]--- Mount the PND ----------


[ START ]--- Starting the application (./pandora-exe.pnd ) ----------


timer


rbow


rbow init


sdl init video PANDORA


SDL_GetVideoInfo = 800x480 @ 16 bpp


800x480 sdl


get accurate timer - 1st call


flip - 1st call


BGRA ext supported


Texture size limit: 2048


init fbo


2D VP


OGRB init [OK]


Cptn


Network


Input


Window mode


Create DXin


sdl_grab


reptr


getexe


cd


set cdir to: /mnt/utmp/ianprice.dinodefense


exepath=curdir= /mnt/utmp/ianprice.dinodefense


Init Finalized


set cdir to: Media


request: fopen("data/dino1.dat", "rb") failed


request: fopen("data/dino2.dat", "rb") failed


request: fopen("data/dino3.dat", "rb") failed


wrt-request: fopen("data/dino2.dat", "wb") failed


can't write to file: (null)


GLB Error: 3


Shut down GLB


glb is shut down


exit


[sUCCESS]--- Starting the application (./pandora-exe.pnd ) ----------


[ START ]--- Restoring the frame buffer status ----------


[sUCCESS]--- Restoring the frame buffer status ----------


[ START ]--- uMount the PND ----------


[ START ]--- Waiting the Union to be available ----------


[sUCCESS]--- Waiting the Union to be available ----------


rmdir: failed to remove `/mnt/utmp/ianprice.dinodefense': Device or resource busy


[ START ]--- Waiting the PND mount dir to be free ----------


[sUCCESS]--- Waiting the PND mount dir to be free ----------


cleanup done


[sUCCESS]--- uMount the PND ----------


=======================================================================================


Return code is : 6

Coming soon: Actual feedback on the game!

 

[DaMummy]

i can launch the game from the menu/games just fine, without going into the thunar folder itself and double click on exe.pnd? rar extracted into pandora/menu/rebirth

 

[gruso]

Hmm ok. Extracting all that into /pandora/menu is something I did not try! (And would not... PND files only in there thx!)

 

[LineOf7s]

I've still not seen the game running on an actual machine.

Someone with the capability wanna make a video for the nice man?

 

[mcobit]

I have a working pnd. The only thing missing is license information. What license do you want to release it as?


Also the problem is, that you store profile information in the Media folder. This can't work, as in a pnd you can't write to already existing folders.


I workedaround this by renaming the Media folder to Media_def and copy it to the Media folder in appdata on startup.


If you want this to be solved cleanly, maybe consider writing profileinfo and saves etc. into . or into ./profiles or something. You just need to create the folder in code or with the startupscript. If you have further questions, let me know.


If you provide the license, I can pack it up and you can upload it to the repo then.

 

[iprice]

This is the trouble of not having a machine and developing for it. I said I'd never do that again after devving for the GP2X originally. I should have stuck to that I think.


I don't know what should go where. I'm used to dealing with pc, GP2X, Wiz, iOS and WebOS. None of these need this odd .PND packaging and it really means absolutely nothing to me (at the moment). I don't generally write my save games to the media folder as I've been developing for webOS and iOS for a long while now and they don't allow that, but as this was going to be stored on an SD card (and not internal memory) I didn't know where it should be saved - keeping all the data in one place seemed like a good idea at the time. Obviously it wasn't.


As for license,I don't have any intimate knowledge of any license agreements, as I've always released stuff for free (but not OpenSource) without condition.


The game is not OpenSource. Users may not alter the game or its contents or make the game available commercially; the game must remain freeware and can be distributed freely, however I reserve the sole right to explore commercial avenues at a later date. Ports or conversions of the game for any system require my direct approval. All media and data, were created by and are copyright 2012 Ian Price, unless stated elsewhere, either within the game or in any accompanying .TXT files. These .TXT files must be included with the game in a readable form.


Will that be OK?