Release Reign Of Brains Demo - Update!

[emil10001]

I have ported my zombie game demo, Reign of Brains, to the Pandora. (Download)


The right nub should be set as the mouse, and you should overclock to as much as your cpu can handle. You need WizardStan's java (THANK YOU WIZARDSTAN!!!!). Then to run, just click on it (as it is now a pnd). B)


If there is some interest in this, I will look into optimizing it to make it run better. If there is an artist out there who wants to help out, I would really like to add some more levels. Without an artist, I'm not really sure how much I could do on my own. There was originally someone who did most of the backgrounds for me, I did all the character art, and item art. I am not very good at the graphics work though. I don't have a ton of time, but I will make some if there is enough interest.


Video:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/_xICmoYK_0M?feature=oembed

Update: I have updated the game, and it now runs at full-speed with the pandora at 500MHz. It takes forever to load, but once it does, it runs just fine. I have some ideas for increasing the load times, and I'm pretty sure that full-screen should not be an issue. But, I have to find time for that. For those interested, I didn't actually need to do much to speed this up. I had a constant called 'MOVE_SIZE' that determined how many pixels to move stuff after each update. I changed that one variable and it now runs just fine on the pandora.


I still plan on tackling other issues in the coming weeks. If there are any artists out there who want to pitch in, I have some story ideas and lots of level ideas that I would love to do. But, I hate doing the art stuff myself, and if left to my own devices, I would probably end up just rewriting what I have currently, to make the code more pretty. Adding levels is very easy, all it takes is some new graphics.


Sound is another issue, but I'm not sure how much of a priority it should be. I might be able to get my brother to produce some original music, if there is enough interest in getting that added. If not, the current sound code is non-functional, and when it does work, causes huge memory leaks.


Update 2: I have been able to cut down the initial load time to about 30 seconds. I think that's pretty good. Also, this is now a pnd!

 

[ibisum]

This is interesting to me from the perspective of understanding what it would take to optimize it to play better .. right now, its pretty darn slow. I'm wondering if you've attacked the code with some standard Java optimization techniques yet, or is that something to be done next? From that perspective, its a very interesting project since it proves that a real, great looking game, can be done in Java ..


Right now though, its pretty darn slow.

 

[emil10001]

This is interesting to me from the perspective of understanding what it would take to optimize it to play better .. right now, its pretty darn slow. I'm wondering if you've attacked the code with some standard Java optimization techniques yet, or is that something to be done next? From that perspective, its a very interesting project since it proves that a real, great looking game, can be done in Java ..


Right now though, its pretty darn slow.

Hah, yes, it is *very* slow right now on the Pandora. I originally wrote this to play on my macbook, which has plenty of resources, and it won't slow down much until you add over 100 zombies to the level. There are some things right off the bat that I did, after I shot the video and uploaded to try to get it to run a bit faster. Those things did work a bit. I have the new version on my site, at the same link as provided above. Though, the archive wouldn't let me update the file for some reason.


After that, I do have some more ideas for cutting down processing power, and making it run faster. One thing that I noticed was that a lot of the slowness was just moving the view. I'm not sure at this point what is slowing that down, if it's the fact that it has to redraw the whole thing, or the constants that I used to move the map. It's entirely possible that if I modify those constants (and re-test to make sure that everybody is moving together), that the game will appear to speed up.


Load times right now are pretty bad, and I'm not quite sure why, but I have some ideas about that too. I might try to start loading everything as soon as the start screen comes up, and just not draw the game until the start screen is finished. I have absolutely no idea why the sound is broken, but that's a linux thing, and not pandora-specific. Sound is not very high-priority though.


Really, the only impediment for me is time. I have a full-time job, and other side-projects that are paid. So, this is low on the totem-pole. If there are some more comments here and on the other board asking about the game, I will make some time for it. Otherwise, I will get to it eventually, but only when I'm not doing 10 other things. I also have frameworks built-in to easily add levels, but I need a graphics person for that.


As far as the standard java optimizations stuff, no, I haven't tried. What would you suggest? If you point me to some articles or some sites, I can dig in once I get a chance.


Thanks for the input!

 

[emil10001]

Added source to github: http://github.com/emil10001/ReignOfBrains_Pandora

 

[emil10001]

Updated. See top post for PND.

 

[hakmanplayer]

i cannot download the pnd!!

 

[Nintendo]

^ Mii 2.

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