Theme :
Any game style using a retro virtual resolution of 320x200 and up to a 16 colour palette of your choice.
Rules :
1.. Must be all your own ( or teams ) work. I.E. no copyright media or available modified pre-built game templates.
2.. Game frameworks are allowed as are free / purchased media.
3.. Provide a Zip download with at least a Windows exe ( or link if an browser based game ). You can include other OS's too if you want.
4.. Syntaxbomb has zero rights to any work posted here. You / your team hold total control.
5.. Choice of language is totally up to you.
6.. * UPDATED * All entries must be in by 23:59:59 on the 20th of January 2018 GMT.
7.. Your retro style game does not have to fall within the capabilities of retro hardware. If you want to do a full on 3D game in a 320x200 res with 16 colours, then good luck.
8.. Prize to the winners payable via PayPal only.
UPDATE : Clarification on 320x200 virtual resolution
1.. 320x200 virtual resolution with up to 16 colours maximum for your entire game.
2.. Borders are allowed for retro / authentic reasons but gameplay must be within the 320x200 virtual resolution.
3.. Scaling up is allowed, for example 2x ( 640x400 ) 3x ( 960x600 ) etc.
4.. Scaled up images, movement and rotations MUST still act as if in a native 320x200 resolution. For example at 640x400 resolution each pixel is 2x2 and movement would also be x 2.
5.. Take extra care if applying rotations to avoid both bilinear filtering or native resolution rotations.
The minimum prize find is £500 split over the top three winners ( 50% for the winner, 30% for 2nd place and 20% for 3rd place ). If any members wish to contribute to the prize fund then please send donations via PayPal to qube@syntaxbomb.com. I will update this thread with donations and the totalling prize fund. Members are under no obligation to add to the prize fund.
Side note : I will be entering the competition but will not be part of the winners prize fund. If my entry does get votes then they will just be proxy votes and classed as an honourable mention. This way I can play along and have zero effect on any entries or winners placements.
I can't wait to see what you come up with. Just don't do a perfect clone of Blitz from the Vic-20 or Parsec from the TI-99/4A or I'll have trouble with grit in my eyes.
Righteo... Over to you mad lot. Code, code code and lets create some great retro style games.
Prize fund donations :
David Williams donated £50 ( 2017-11-15 ) - Special bonus thanks for being the first :D
Flanker donated £25 ( 2017-11-16 ) - Thanks :)
Dabz donated £30 ( 2017-11-22 ) - Top bloke ;D
ThickO donated £18.26 ( 2017-11-28 ) - Super, thanks :)
RemiD donated £20.33 (2018-01-21 ) - Cheers bud :)
My forklift truck is not valid to participate? :-X
"Popular retro games include those produced in the 1980s, including games for Atari 2600, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX81, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and the Nintendo Entertainment System." -Wikipedia
Okay, I know it's a retro game.
Quote from: Yue on November 15, 2017, 04:52:51
My forklift truck is not valid to participate? :-X
If you can fit it into a 320 x 200 resolution / 16 colour palette and make it into a game then super duper.
here's my first in-game dev shot:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/screen-shot-2017-11-15-at-14-19-39.png)
What you're seeing is the first test of the base collision and base map display. Movement will come next.
And for those that are interested here is the 16 colors I am using:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/screen-shot-2017-11-15-at-14-22-43.png)
My aim is to work on getting everything fluid and fun...
Quotehere's my first in-game dev shot:
You have dev shots already? :o
in the words of Scooby Doo... hehehehehhehehe
I've also got a chip synth I've been itching to seriously play with. so I'll be giving that a whirl too...
In the words of Shaggy - Zikes! :o lol
Quick question. Is it legal if I set a resolution that has the same proportions as the screen and then draw the game on a 320*200 view port?
Quote from: Rooster on November 15, 2017, 16:27:07
Quick question. Is it legal if I set a resolution that has the same proportions as the screen and then draw the game on a 320*200 view port?
QuoteAny game style using a retro virtual resolution of 320x200 and up to a 16 colour palette of your choice.
As long as the the play area is the equivalent of 320 x 200 then all is good. I think most will be scaling up.
Yes, if we ran 320 x 200 on say, 1920 x 1080, the game would need a magnifying glass to play ;)
Quote
here's my first in-game dev shot:
Cool. I'm still deciding on a game.
Quote from: Qube on November 15, 2017, 16:41:01
As long as the the play area is the equivalent of 320 x 200 then all is good. I think most will be scaling up.
Quote from: Steve Elliott on November 15, 2017, 17:01:11
Yes, if we ran 320 x 200 on say, 1920 x 1080, the game would need a magnifying glass to play ;)
I am going to scale it up. I just wanted to add some padding to prevent stretching issues. ;)
There are no stretching issues - the pixels will simply look bigger. You work on small graphics and use your graphics program to work in a magnified view.
There might be filtering issues if you have that turned on when you run your game - ie blurring.
ok I have a game.
Yay! \o/ got fat chunky pixel rotation working.... Just for authenticity reasons of course ;D
Quote from: Steve Elliott on November 15, 2017, 17:43:20
There might be filtering issues if you have that turned on when you run your game - ie blurring.
That may be causing the beveling I'm seeing. Would that be a disqualifier? Sorry for all the questions, I've never used virtual resolution before. :-[
QuoteThat may be causing the beveling I'm seeing. Would that be a disqualifier? Sorry for all the questions, I've never used virtual resolution before. :-[
No, you will not be disqualified. Are there no commands / parameters to disable bilinear filtering? What language are you coding in?
Good to know. :)
I'm using BlitzMax, and I haven't been able to find anything under Graphics that would change the filter.
This is the setup I'm using for my tests.
Graphics DesktopWidth(),DesktopHeight(),1
SetVirtualResolution 320,200
@Rooster if I remember correct you set filtering when you load the image?
well. I've now got movement and self correcting movement up/down ladders. so it looks like the game is a platformer!
Does anyone know how to turn off filtering in SDL2? I am doing SetLogicalSize to 320x200 but looks blurry...
Damn, can't believe how smart I am!
SDL_SetHint(SDL_HINT_RENDER_SCALE_QUALITY, "0");
Thanks iWasAdam! :D
Made a start on the graphics and palette.
I won't be posting progress shots though, I'll leave my entry as a surprise ;D
QuoteI won't be posting progress shots though, I'll leave my entry as a surprise ;D
Me too. No spoilers ;D
One should refresh the announcements on the front page - means: remove the august-october-compo and add the nov-xxx compo :-)
bye
Ron
Used 4 of my 16 colours so far lol...Interesting competition.
For tic-tac-toe you just need a front and a background color. Chess already needs three - or a pattern on the pawns.
So with already 4 colours your game must be way more advanced than chess :-)
@ all you developers
I am sure nobody wants to decline your compo submission if you do a multiplayer game with hotseat functionality: so you draw two games side-by-side in one application (each controlled by two mice or multiple gamepads). Sounds intruiging...hmm ;-)
bye
Ron
QuoteOne should refresh the announcements on the front page - means: remove the august-october-compo and add the nov-xxx compo :-)
Done done :)
Quote
For tic-tac-toe you just need a front and a background color. Chess already needs three - or a pattern on the pawns.
So with already 4 colours your game must be way more advanced than chess :-)
Haha..5 colours now - I'm being frugal. It's an interesting discipline having only 16 colours, so I'm only adding another colour if I really need it.
[Edit]
The low resolution is more a challenge, than the lack of colours - because to be playable without a magnifying glass, scaling up is vital on today's systems (and so reducing graphics quality). Still having fun though :)
I've updated the first post with the donations we've received so far towards this competition.
David Williams donated £50 ( 2017-11-15 ) - Special bonus thanks for being the first :D
Flanker donated £25 ( 2017-11-16 ) - Thanks :)
Many thanks indeed ;D
Mine is a city simulation game. Always wanted to write one and now seems like a good time.
SDL2 and Cevelop and C++11 is a beautiful combination!
I havent decided on the name nor gameplay yet, but I've set up the project. Decided on a cool palette and created a WIP title screen :)
Quote
Mine is a city simulation game. Always wanted to write one and now seems like a good time.
That screenshot is not 320 x 200 - it's around twice that.
Quote
Decided on a cool palette and created a WIP title screen :)
Well it's a start therevills - looks good.
Quote from: Steve Elliott on November 19, 2017, 16:16:53
Quote
Mine is a city simulation game. Always wanted to write one and now seems like a good time.
That screenshot is not 320 x 200 - it's around twice that.
And each "pixel" is actually 2x2 pixels, so a wild guess is a virtual resolution in an application with a resolution twice the desired one ;-)
bye
Ron
So in effect magnified x2 then?
It's just I need to magnify around X4 to have a good sized game window when up-scaling a 320 X 200 game lol (bigger pixels). But it depends on your needs of course.
When not playing fullscreen a "magnified" window is something useful - especially on Full-HD or 4K screens (or do you like playing a game in the "calendar" popup of your OS)?
As long as "native resolution" is offered I do not have concerns with it.
bye
Ron
Quote
When not playing fullscreen a "magnified" window is something useful
That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the size of the pixels looking smaller through using a higher resolution in that pic - which is against the rules of the competition.
I think I do not really understand. So please fill in the missing details for me.
- he uses a virtual resolution of 320x200
- renders them at 640x400
-> each "designed" pixel is 2x2 pixels on the screen
Isnt that allowed? What am I missing?
bye
Ron
lol I don't know mate, I'm confused now haha :D
The image in question ( excluding the windows border ) is 300x200 scaled up to double it's size so each pixel is 2x2 in size. I checked in photoshop :P - Oh, and it's 16 colours too ;D
So *strictly* speaking it's not 320x200 as per the rules but 20 pixels short width ways. Although you can't bar an entry if they go even lower res. Greater, yes.
Cool 8)
So 320x200 is definitively allowed? No double-width 160x200 to 320x200 required... ok ;-) will allow more details.
Basic framework is done, auto-paletting (including auto-palette-correction) too. Are we allowed to use normal WAV/OGG files as long as the "sound" is retro? I just do not know how compatible a potential tracker-modules is regarding cross-platform. Ogg would save a lot of hassle.
bye
Ron
Monkey2 has a really nice layout feature that fixes the output resolution and scales the output window to match:
Method New() 'when subclassing a window
Super.New( "My Window", 320, 200, WindowFlags.Resizable )
Layout = "letterbox"
this means you get a window that can be resized to any size you want even full screen and the contents will perfectly scale keeping the
resolution intact. so 320x200 is always 320x200
Quote from: Derron on November 20, 2017, 06:17:13
So 320x200 is definitively allowed? No double-width 160x200 to 320x200 required... ok ;-) will allow more details.
That's part of the challenge :) 320x200 with 16 colours!
QuoteOgg would save a lot of hassle.
I'll be using Oggs!
bye
Ron
[/quote]
QuoteSo 320x200 is definitively allowed? No double-width 160x200 to 320x200 required... ok ;-) will allow more details.
The rules are : "Any game style using a retro virtual resolution of 320x200 and up to a 16 colour palette of your choice."
You can do double width 160x200 if you want ( for authentic C64 ) but the requirements are only as per above. Personally I'm using the C64 colour palette but not doing 160x200 double width.
I think there is a little confusion over the whole 320 x 200 resolution so I hope this covers everything :
Your game must use a maximum virtual resolution of 320 x 200 and up to 16 colours. Use less if you want but absolutely no more. For authentic reasons borders around your 320x200 game area are allowed ( for framing or authenticity as a lot of old 8-bit machines had borders ) but your game play area MUST be no more than 320 x 200. You can of course scale up your game by X amount but in it's native resolution the game play area would be a maximum of 320 x 200.
To clarify even more... The below image is 384 x 272 but your game area ( highlighted in red ) is 320 x 200. This is the only place your game can take place.
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/images/C64.png)
You can of course scale up your game but it's play area is still a virtual resolution of 320 x 200.
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/images/C64x2.png)
Hope that clears things up ;D
QuoteAre we allowed to use normal WAV/OGG files as long as the "sound" is retro? I just do not know how compatible a potential tracker-modules is regarding cross-platform. Ogg would save a lot of hassle.
There are no rules set for the sound / music so go nuts if you want :)
>> 1.. Must be all your own ( or teams ) work. I.E. no copyright media or available modified pre-built game templates.
I just realized I can't use some fonts as the copyright is not mine?
https://github.com/rewtnull/amigafonts/tree/master/ttf
https://www.dafont.com/amiga-forever.font
That's a bit of a grey one as generally, noone is likely to create "a font" from scratch, usually, you bitmap one up from an existing one... Or take the system font/default game dev font and jazz it up a little.
May I suggest the use of public domain fonts instead?
Dabz
Thanks Dabz, but the copyright is still not mine isn't it?
Quote
borders around your 320x200 game area are allowed
but your game play area MUST be no more than 320 x 200
That's cool because I have some space around the sides spare (but not enough to add a border top and bottom too). I'll add a border now :D
No, the copyright isn't yours if it's public domain, but the important bit is it's no one else's either... so if you take a PD font, then jazz it up to a bitmap font, then, I see no reason why that should be an issue... you've built on top of it, the bitmap font is your work, which as I understand, work derived from PD media can be copyrighted.
Dabz
first in game shot: Luvely chunky pixels. mmmmmmm....
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/screen-shot-2017-11-20-at-10-33-37.png)
Oh wow, this is really nice!
Thanks Murba ???
Working hard on getting bombs to detonate, fruit to fly and other stuff now...
Need to be careful with virtual resolution. Using SetVirtualResolution does not actually change the render resolution, it just scales the coordinate system accordingly. For example
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3658.0;attach=442;image)
The left pic is a rendering of a square at an actual 320x200, then scaled up to 960x600. The one on the right is the same square rendered using SetVirtualResolution 320,200. Notice that the left one has the aliasing that is common with low resolution. The right one actually has fractional virtual pixels mapping to actual pixels giving a smoother look, not at all consistent with a low resolution display.
Yes but it does only with max2D commands (drawrect, drawcircle, plot etc...), with images (without filtering) it works perfectly.
Quote from: TomToad on November 20, 2017, 17:53:09
Need to be careful with virtual resolution. Using SetVirtualResolution does not actually change the render resolution, it just scales the coordinate system accordingly.
I found the exact same issue with rotations on images using the render resolution instead of the virtual resolution. So was happy when I did make it work properly http://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3658.msg9003.html#msg9003
Good stuff Adam.
Quote
I found the exact same issue with rotations on images using the render resolution instead of the virtual resolution. So was happy when I did make it work properly.
I'll probably use AGK on this project, care to elaborate Qube? I'm working on graphics before code.
Quote from: Flanker on November 20, 2017, 18:20:51
Yes but it does only with max2D commands (drawrect, drawcircle, plot etc...), with images (without filtering) it works perfectly.
The above example is using images. Here is the same thing but with an image containing 4 lines.
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3658.0;attach=444;image)
The problem is the way SetVirtualResolution renders fractional pixels. for example, here is a line scaled twice the size
{X}{X}|{X}{X}
{X}{X}|{X}{X}
-------------
{ }{ }|{ }{ }
{ }{ }|{ }{ }Each bracket represents one actual pixel, while a 2x2 group represents one virtual pixel. Now if I were to draw the line at y of 0.5 instead of 0.0, then either the line will be drawn at the next full pixel or stay where it is depending on how the values get rounded.
{ }{ }|{ }{ }
{ }{ }|{ }{ }
-------------
{X}{X}|{X}{X}
{X}{X}|{X}{X}But when you use virtual resolution, it will render on the "Half pixel" or a full normal pixel like so
{ }{ }|{ }{ }
{X}{X}|{X}{X}
-------------
{X}{X}|{X}{X}
{ }{ }|{ }{ }Which kills the 320x200 look. At least, that is the way it behaves in Max2D, might be different with other engines.
Quote from: Steve Elliott on November 20, 2017, 18:56:46
Quote
I found the exact same issue with rotations on images using the render resolution instead of the virtual resolution. So was happy when I did make it work properly.
I'll probably use AGK on this project, care to elaborate Qube? I'm working on graphics before code.
In AGK to make sure rotations don't use the render resolution and break the 320x200 look or be blurry when scaled up ( rough code outline ) :
SetDisplayAspect( 320 / 200 )
SetVirtualResolution ( 320, 200 )
SetDefaultMinFilter( 0 )
SetDefaultMagFilter( 0 )
gameImage = CreateRenderImage ( 320, 200, 0, 0 )
gameSprite = CreateSprite( gameImage )
Do
SetRenderToImage( gameImage, 0 )
ClearScreen()
// do all you fancy drawing stuff here
SetRenderToScreen()
DrawSprite( gameSprite )
Swap()
Loop
Oh, ok - thanks.
Perhaps I need something different as I intend to scale up my game screen 320 X 200 (plus border) 4 times to fit a 1920 X 1080 screen. So just load and scale all my graphics I guess (without filtering).
Quote from: Steve Elliott on November 20, 2017, 19:32:09
Oh, ok - thanks.
Perhaps I need something different as I intend to scale up my game screen 320 X 200 (plus border) 4 times to fit a 1920 X 1080 screen. So just load and scale all my graphics I guess (without filtering).
The above code is for scaling for any resolution. You can set your window size to 1920x1080 and the exact same code applies.
Quote
You can set your window size to 1920x1080 and the exact same code applies.
Ah, the devil is in the detail. Good stuff, thanks. :)
Quote from: TomToad on November 20, 2017, 19:03:09
Quote from: Flanker on November 20, 2017, 18:20:51
Yes but it does only with max2D commands (drawrect, drawcircle, plot etc...), with images (without filtering) it works perfectly.
The above example is using images. Here is the same thing but with an image containing 4 lines.
Oh yes you're right, I don't know why I didn't noticed it with images and thought it was ok...
You can still use this eventually :
SuperStrict
SeedRnd MilliSecs()
SetGraphicsDriver GLMax2DDriver()
Graphics 1280,720,0,60
SetClsColor 100,100,100
Local widthScale:Int = Floor(GraphicsWidth()/320.0)
Local heightScale:Int = Floor(GraphicsHeight()/200.0)
Local gfxScale:Int = Min(widthScale,heightScale)
Local bufferImage:TImage = CreateImage(320,200,1,DYNAMICIMAGE)
Local bufferX:Int = (GraphicsWidth()-320*gfxScale)/2
Local bufferY:Int = (GraphicsHeight()-200*gfxScale)/2
Local rotation:Float
While Not KeyHit(KEY_ESCAPE) And Not AppTerminate()
Cls
' ////////// YOUR GAME HERE
SetScale 1,1
rotation = rotation + 1
SetRotation rotation
DrawRect 160,100,50,50
' ////////// GRAB THE BUFFER IMAGE FROM 0,0 TO 320,200
GrabImage bufferImage,0,0
Cls
SetColor 0,0,0
SetRotation 0
DrawRect 0,0,GraphicsWidth(),GraphicsHeight()
SetScale gfxScale,gfxScale
SetColor 255,255,255
DrawImage bufferImage,bufferX,bufferY
Flip
Wend
EndIt will grab an image from 0,0 to 320,200 and scale it automatically to the best size.
Currently have a freaky fun time creating synth music :P - Never done synth music with modern day tools but woot woot it's great fun. No doubt you lot will think my creations are just nuts and sound like a jingly old mess but at least I'm giving it a go... Gotta push yourself.
I think after this I'll treat myself to a tip top synth VST as I'm just having too much fun not to invest... But for now, the free synth VST's are really really good.
Are you using re-noise?
Quote from: muruba on November 21, 2017, 03:07:32
Are you using re-noise?
Yup. Been using Renoise for years. It's the best tracker I've come across and I was soooo glad to find it after all those years in Amiga land using NoiseTracker / ProTracker / OctaMED. An amazing plus point is it has VST support \o/ - Long live Renoise!!!
Quote from: Qube on November 21, 2017, 02:49:27
Currently have a freaky fun time creating synth music :P - Never done synth music with modern day tools but woot woot it's great fun. No doubt you lot will think my creations are just nuts and sound like a jingly old mess but at least I'm giving it a go... Gotta push yourself.
I think after this I'll treat myself to a tip top synth VST as I'm just having too much fun not to invest... But for now, the free synth VST's are really really good.
The free VST synth by Daichi "Synth1" is really quite amazing. Sounds great. Tons of presets available on the 'net, too :)
BasicBoy.
--
Here's a bit of my chip synth in action:
https://soundcloud.com/mavryck-james/8bit-chiptune-test (https://soundcloud.com/mavryck-james/8bit-chiptune-test)
QuoteThe free VST synth by Daichi "Synth1" is really quite amazing. Sounds great. Tons of presets available on the 'net, too
Have that one downloaded and will have a play, thanks.
QuoteHere's a bit of my chip synth in action:
https://soundcloud.com/mavryck-james/8bit-chiptune-test
Cool, will have a listen later when I get home :)
Here's mine so far (attached)
Working on tilemap collisions regarding slopes... Its been donkeys since I wrote a platformer with slopes (Well, donkeys since I've wrote anything really, lol), I forgot about the usual pitfalls, but, it came back in the end! :D
With this, I can check the tile the character is on, and work out the angle of the slope to make the character 90' from the slope if needed, a bit like Sonic, I wont need it for this, but, its future proofing it if I ever decide to do something "proper"! :D
Yes, the resolution isnt set yet, but, I can tweak it by changing a few constants, and it should be tickety boo.
Right, so, with that, I can happily move on to cobbling a game out of it! :D
Dabz
Very nice. So it looks like we're all doing platform games? Me included.
The thing is... I'm pleased its retro, because I dont have to really rely on graphics, as that's my usual downfall... Like, I can do them, but, it's a chore and I get bored, very very quickl ! :)
And I havent got a consistent style either... I'll work on something for ages, plonk it in the game, and it just looks wrong, so I'll scrap it, restart... Nah... Takes me forever to get stuff right!
So for me, this competition has been inviting for me, because I've suffered coders block for ages, and I'm talking ages mind, and it's always the graphical part that puts me off... When I did iOS games, they were small, graphics didnt need as much work, I got by and finished them. Scaling up from that, well, I'd rather be hanging off the arse end of a hand grinder grinding piss ridden concrete... With no face mask! :D
Right, X-Factor styleee sad tiny violin playing "I'm on a journey" craic out of the way, time to start crunching the res down and getting some proper shite retro graphics in there! :D hehehe
Dabz
Retro is cool 8)
But yes, I agree. Pixel graphics with a set palette makes producing graphics a whole lot easier, and game coding a whole lot more enjoyable.
It's alive!, it's alive! - CRT shader a go go :P
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/images/C64CRT.png)
Ooo.
Quote from: Dabz on November 21, 2017, 18:04:26
Here's mine so far (attached)
Looking good Dabz! What are you coding in? A Dizzy type game did occur to me too!
Quote from: Qube on November 21, 2017, 19:43:32
It's alive!, it's alive! - CRT shader a go go :P
Cool! I'm trying to get one working in Monkey2 too!
Quote from: Qube on November 21, 2017, 19:43:32
It's alive!, it's alive! - CRT shader a go go :P
Cool effect! I've done something vaguely similar - a chunky CRT rastering effect (not sure what else to call it), far less subtle than yours, inspired by my memories of visiting games arcades where on some screens you had noticeable thin black lines between chunky rows of pixels. I've tried to emulate that effect, but without the simulated, cool-looking (barrel ?) distortion that your screen shot is demonstrating. Anyway, I'm going to make my "Fake CRT Rasters" effect optional because some might find it a bit irritating to their eyes.
Admittedly I'm slightly worried that I haven't made as much progress with my game as I had hoped! Better pull the old finger out...
BasicBoy.
--
QuoteI'm going to make my "Fake CRT Rasters" effect optional because some might find it a bit irritating to their eyes.
That's what I've done. Just hit "S" to toggle the shader on / off :)
Stuck at GUI. It takes much more time than expected :)
Well seeing as everybody is showing their hands, I'll post a screen shot.
One of my fave 80's arcade games was Burger Time. It has more game play than first meets the eye. From throwing pepper at the right time, to bouncing ingredients lower, to waiting for an ingredient or two to step near you - and then dropping them (and in the process squashing another ingredient or two on lower levels). I love these chain reactions you can get. Timing is everything in this game.
Seriously, them burgers look good enough to eat! :P
Pixel art ain't dead, that's for sure.
Haha thanks. I feel hungry every time I work on the game ;)
My first bit of pixel art, it's a learning curve, but I'm enjoying this challenge.
QuoteDizzy?
lol, I assume that he's just using place holder images at the moment. I have a sneaking suspicion that Dizzy would fall under copyrighted material :P
@muruba - Photoshop counts 31 colours
@Steve Elliott - Photoshop counts 29 colours
Unless it's just some odd PNG encoding wizardry making things up :-\
Burger Time!!! I loved Burger Time. I had a handheld version when I was a kid ( made by Tandy ) and spent many many hours playing that. Look forward to seeing it in action.
Quote
@Steve Elliott - Photoshop counts 29 colours
Nope, I guess my pixel art must be good then lol (palette attached).
Quote
Burger Time!!! I loved Burger Time. I had a handheld version when I was a kid ( made by Tandy ) and spent many many hours playing that. Look forward to seeing it in action.
It's an under rated classic isn't it?
QuoteNope, I guess my pixel art must be good then lol (palette attached).
Does look pwetty ;D
Must be a Photoshop and / or PNG oddity...
QuoteIt's an under rated classic isn't it?
It sure is. Still keep an eye out on eBay for the original Tandy handheld version. There have been a couple but they ask silly money.
Cheers - appreciated. Well the pixels are big enough to take a screen shot and count them for yourself lol. But that is the palette I'm using :)
I'd love a full arcade cabinet myself :D. But not cheap either I'm sure!
One can use imagemagick's identify:
So for my screenshots (borders removed):
Huh!, bloody cheap piece of crap Photoshop :P
Here is my work so far, it will be a small RPG about pirates in the Caribbean. I admit I have fun with graphics, even if I didn't like the competition idea at first.
I like the gfx style, very smooth...
Here's a thought: the 'fake rasters' effect does technically increase the number of colours on the screen! Or at least mine does.
Nice pixel art Flanker.
Thank you, the palette is DB16, wich is known to give a pleasant result.
I like the look of muraba's screenshot, very retro (dithering ?) and the burger game from Steve Elliott, nice art too.
I wonder if there has been a spike in people googling about pixel art? :P
QuoteHere's a thought: the 'fake rasters' effect does technically increase the number of colours on the screen! Or at least mine does.
I did think about that but the game itself is still designed in 320x200 with 16 colours. I'll be leaving the CRT shader effect off by default and players can toggle on / off if they want for a little more authenticity.
There's some nice screenies popping up tonight ;D
Quote from: Qube on November 22, 2017, 00:03:30
There's some nice screenies popping up tonight ;D
Agreed, it's nice seeing creativity flowing. I guess it's only right that I follow suit, although it'll be another day or so before I have anything to show! Progress is somewhat slow at this end...
BasicBoy.
--
Quote
I did think about that but the game itself is still designed in 320x200 with 16 colours. I'll be leaving the CRT shader effect off by default and players can toggle on / off if they want for a little more authenticity.
That seems fair. Maybe judge on the off effect for the comp, and enjoy the extra shader goodness there after?
Here is a WIP from my entry... title very much WIP :P
Clouds and ground are just place holders. I'm using DB16 palette too :)
Quote from: therevills on November 22, 2017, 03:47:52
Here is a WIP from my entry... title very much WIP :P
Clouds and ground are just place holders. I'm using DB16 palette too :)
Love the animation on that chopper!
Awesome!
Quote from: therevills on November 22, 2017, 03:47:52
Here is a WIP from my entry... title very much WIP :P
Clouds and ground are just place holders. I'm using DB16 palette too :)
Sorry, but no... We can't have any entries that start me off humming the theme tune to Airwolf. That is just taking things too far :P
QuoteThat seems fair. Maybe judge on the off effect for the comp, and enjoy the extra shader goodness there after?
I came to the same conclusion while looking at it and totally agree. The shader does add extra colours and even resolution ( to give the fish eye effect ). So the CRT shader is off by default but players can turn it on if they want to have a slightly more authentic retro effect but not take it into account for judging. I'll probably just submit a non shader version for the comp and then add the shader version after the results.
Nice animation therevills ;D
Quote
@Steve Elliott - Photoshop counts 29 colours
I just checked using Photoshop CC and it gives 16 colours. muruba's shows 16 colours too (but you have to remove the windows title bar).
Not much to see but here's the current WIP of my compo entry. All graphics (including snow trail!) are placeholders for test purposes. I've totally messed up the video encoding - not sure what codec I've used for this, but jerky motion and compression artifacts are present in the video:
Scrolling in the actual game is of course smooth, and no compression artifacts! :)
BasicBoy.
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Here's my work in progress:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/syntax.gif)
Looks like we're gonna be collecting fruit? Or maybe not??
I'm not sure what to make of that right now, BasicBoy :). But plough on ;) Coming along nicely Adam.
Quote
I'll probably just submit a non shader version for the comp and then add the shader version after the results.
Based on what people have said regards the side effect of increasing colours and resolution, I say we don't allow them. On the basis they break the rules of the competition.
After the comp we can upload a 'shader upgrade' version. That's what I'm planning on doing.
QuoteBased on what people have said regards the side effect of increasing colours and resolution, I say we don't allow them. On the basis they break the rules of the competition.
After the comp we can upload a 'shader upgrade' version. That's what I'm planning on doing.
I agree :) - I will leave the shader out but upload a shader version after the comp closes and the votes are all done.
Donation update :
Dabz donated £30 today to the prize fund, cheers buddy ( 1st post updated ).. See I told you he was a cool dude 8)
I'm classing it as an entry fee that I'll probably never see again! ;) hehehe
Dabz
Thanks for the feedback, I was pretty happy with the results of the choppa animation myself.... but it only looks good at low resolutions due to the rotation algorithm being used. If I have time I might look into RotSprite algorithm:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_scaling#RotSprite
Or bite the bullet and draw the chopper at different angles... :o
Edit: Actually its not that bad, I was messing with a CRT shader and it made it look worse than it was, so my shader needs more work (I have no idea what I am doing with shaders :P)
The other entries are looking great too! Keep it up guys!
Quote
The other entries are looking great too! Keep it up guys!
I agree. The retards are doing well ;)
What are you guys using to record the videos of your games?
Quote from: therevills on November 22, 2017, 22:10:29
What are you guys using to record the videos of your games?
A recently-registered version of Bandicam. I liked the free (time-limited) version, so I bought the full version. However, the brief video I made which I linked to earlier in this thread must have been encoded with a lossy codec (I currently don't know which one), but next time I'll be sure to use lossless encoding.
I'm pressing Win+G in Windows 10...
Dabz
Lots of good looking stuff going on here you guys. ;)
I finally got around to doing some work on my game today beyond tests.
And since everyone else seems to be doing it, I'll post my palette too. ;D
QuoteI'm pressing Win+G in Windows 10...
Is the "G" for create Game? :P
I've two more pieces of music to create and then I'll start on my game... I know, I work backwards and arse about face but doing the music first lets me dream up the game.
Music first :P
I just loaded up my chip synth and got no sound, so had to start digging into code to see what I've buggered up!! :'(
Quote from: Qube on November 23, 2017, 06:21:07
Is the "G" for create Game? :P
Are you kidding? The "G" stands for "
generate game". Seems only noobs lurk around here... tzetze ;-)
I first wanted to show some pix' too but afte your advanced ones I am back at the sketch table and will try to make it less "early 80s". C64 palette just was a bit dull for what I planned to do. Also DB16 is a bit dull but a bit better. Theme will be "Santa versus Magma Dwarves". I am trying "Grafx2" this time but it is... really hard to use once you are used to Photoshop or other more modern "gui'd" toolsets. Only good thing is the "sieve" filter and the indexed-palette-approach (which is a curse too...) - also its old GUI is really inconvenient for working directories with a multitude of "depth" (click click click). Layer management is uhm... improveable, copy/paste you have to get used to (copy as brush, paint, set old brush again).
Original sprite was painted using my drawing board in PS CS1 but then recolored in Grafx2.
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F8VFKLm8.png&hash=49977004f2d2b4e304aaf74dbf181304c92d3afe)
I just had a look how "todays retro pixel games" look and they exagerate the head, have 3px for each feet and floating hands. Yes, this eases animation and I will try if I create such a thing instead. Still fiddling around how to create stoney-magmaish sprites with that color palette. It gets even harder if you know that people play this at 4*res, unfiltered and "unsmoothed"/"unblurried" - because then your faux-color-effects wont work anymore.
GFX creation is way harder here for me than just 3d modelling santa, rendering it out on a sleigh and create some glowing stone-magma-thing. Restriction is not always making things easier - at least for me. In 3D I can adjust a proportion easily, here I have to repaint everything. Huge time killer.
I think I'm making this a bit too tough. Trying to make a game similar to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b7x30_E0Ko (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b7x30_E0Ko)
But so far, all I have is this test room from inside a house, and it is about as ugly as you can get.
@Rooster
The palette you supplied might be enhanced a bit giving you more colors to play with.
E.G.
- the reds are virtually the same. a suggestion here would be to make one of them more orange
- you fade the white and black giving one grey and 2 blacks, suggest a slight change to give you 2 greys.
- tweaked the dark green slightly to give you more tonal version that should be great ;)
Here's the modified palette for you to look at:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/palette.gif)
There is color fringing at the edges of the colors, so use the base...
Here's todays pic. I call it slimy!
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/screen-shot-2017-11-24-at-11-22-06.png)
Damn I hate GUI!!!! On the verge of giving up...
DONT give up!!!!!!!
@iWasAdam
My color palette was mostly thrown together, although somethings were intentional (the navy blue).
I also have started doing art with it, so it would be a bit of a pain to change it now. :P
Although I am liking that green, and I don't think I've used dark green in anything yet.
Houston we have a problem...
Over the last couple of days I started doing the graphics for my game and.... I can't do pixel art :o - The last time I did pixel art stuff was 20+ years ago and that was just very basic animations in the vein of Space Invaders / PacMan type stuff. Everything I try just looks complete shite :'(
I think over the weekend I'll have to gorge on tutorials, try crap loads of stuff and hopefully come out the other end with a tad more pixel art ability ::)
todays pic is called bubbly!!!
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/screen-shot-2017-11-25-at-08-54-51.png)
Pity you can't interact with it...
@ qube
There isn't much space for details, so just simulate them. Instead of a button you end up using a bright-color-pixel. Instead of having fingers you have 3 pixels of skin tone and one pixel of brown and the likes. Just look at how others do pixel-art-sprites. Create similar things and you will see what they use to simulate certain effects.
Of course it helps to run these things on a blurry CRT instead of pixel-crisp LCD/LED displays.
@ Adam
looks good so far. Make sure the bubble looks ok on _other_ backgrounds. In my game I already thought about that part and am creating different sprites so I can mix according to the used background.
Did you play with emphasizing the border of the "brownish wall" ? So that the darker side of the tile becomes another bit darker (perceived).
Wasn't able to do much the last days (real work to do ;-)):
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fonaw9dZ.png&hash=baf088d58435c88398c53ffe1a17aa5512fa3d80)
bye
Ron
ooh. I like the concept muruba. It says 4 people. how about a graphic for each one to show them moving around?
When scaling up images in AGK they get smoothed, which replicates the CRT blurring of the original retro games.
But you know what? I prefer the pixelated look, to the more authentic soft look.
Quote from: iWasAdam on November 25, 2017, 11:40:15
ooh. I like the concept muruba. It says 4 people. how about a graphic for each one to show them moving around?
Thanks mate, yeah thought doing it for the wild animals (like sheep in warcraft 2) but people... especially when no roads/infrastructure is available sounds good :)
Interesting concept muruba.
4MB PNGs... better upload them as BMP :p
bye
Ron
Quote from: Steve Elliott on November 25, 2017, 11:46:42
Interesting concept muruba.
Mr Wright did it with 48kb and it is f@cking crazy :) Never felt more dumb...
Quote4MB PNGs... better upload them as BMP :p
Bad Derron, no Santa hat for you.
I'm currently at a whopping '111k' for all resources probably add 100k-200k for the maps when done
Sound won't use any disk resources as it is all synth based, so created on-the-fly when needed
I as talking about the forum attachments by steve ;-)
my assets currently need 12kb (including some unused stuff).
bye
Ron
Quote
I as talking about the forum attachments by steve ;-)
lol my actual game screen image is only 20.7 Kb. Remember I'm scaling up (in-game) by 4 to fill a 1920 X 1080 sized window. I took a screen grab and saved uncompressed just to give a clear and full size image for you to see.
I could reduce that further if I used tiles.
Do not feel attacked Steve. You can compress PNG without loss - it is a losless compression (at least if you do not reduce color count - which is non "standard" so it should not happen by default).
Even if I have a 250mbs connetion a 4MB picture is something I would avoid. Your original resources are of course smaller, no doubt there.
bye
Ron
Changed images because people were whining ;D
Well, I really liked the pixel version. nice color palette and great feel :)
I like my whine mulled...
Cheers Adam :)
Well it's the right time for mulled lol.
I wouldn't use any kind of smoothing in your games as it increases the colour count tremendously in the final output image ;-)
Theses screenie look really cool and so remind me of my youth.
I even remember the Burger Time game from when I was a kid 8)
Weapons and explosions update! ;D
Quote from: therevills on November 26, 2017, 05:13:29
Weapons and explosions update! ;D
Looking real nice ;D
Not to be a stickler for the rules but...
1.. When the chopper changes angle it uses the native res and breaks the virtual 320x200 resolution so you end up getting super smooth angle rotation
2.. Same applies to the missiles
3.. Your clouds are also not falling into the 320x200 resolution
4.. The missile trail also falls outside the 320x200 resolution ( some pixels are half way between for example )
5.. Your little dude is also out of spec
6.. Bullet fire the same too
Sorry to point all this out, such a pain in the butt I know :P
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/images/therevillsChopperGame.png)
yep. I noticed this too. it's 320x200, no hardware rotation, or scaling or more that 16 colors used in the whole game
Quote from: iWasAdam on November 26, 2017, 07:07:07
yep. I noticed this too. it's 320x200, no hardware rotation, or scaling or more that 16 colors used in the whole game
Comp Rules: retro
virtual resolution of 320x200 and up to a 16 colour palette of your choice..... nothing about hardware rotation.
Quote from: Qube on November 26, 2017, 05:55:49
1.. When the chopper changes angle it uses the native res and breaks the virtual 320x200 resolution so you end up getting super smooth angle rotation
2.. Same applies to the missiles
We did say virtual resolutions were allowed... I'm just using the built in virtual resolution stuff in Monkey2, not sure how to disable it... I'll submit the game running a native 320x200 resolution and you guys can use a magnifying glass to view it :P
Quote
3.. Your clouds are also not falling into the 320x200 resolution
Clouds are place holders at the moment.
Couldn't you render to a texture and then render the texture scaled up (*2 or *3 ... so not *1.5 or *1.2) ? Think 320x200 is even small enough for software rendering (grabPixmap in BlitzMax).
bye
Ron
Todays pic is called steam and bubble trouble!
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/syntax2.gif)
Fast paced animation ;-)
@ bubbles
Maybe add another frame which is "asymmetric" on the vertical axis (or is it there already?).
@ eyes
when looking to the left he has 1x2px eyes, in the front view it is 2x1px. Squeezing his eyes? Bubbles full of acid dust?
Metal bar looks pretty nifty!
@ Compression
Do you use any scaling/compression in the screen?
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FF0ETHkl.png&hash=e25050c5dfbf79e06d1e336241c3c82088775935)
"big" Pixels have a different width. The smaller ones seem to be based on the gif-comperession. I assume you scaled the screen a bit - resulting in that odd "narrow pixel" look.
You could also check if you can add a bit of gray to the ladder - for the metal-effect (green and gray should mix properly).
bye
Ron
yep, there is compression and scaling at work because of the capture. it is pure 16 colors 320x200 pix in operation ;)
QuoteComp Rules: retro virtual resolution of 320x200 and up to a 16 colour palette of your choice..... nothing about hardware rotation.
Lol, you wanna bend da rules do ya... No >:(
QuoteWe did say virtual resolutions were allowed... I'm just using the built in virtual resolution stuff in Monkey2, not sure how to disable it... I'll submit the game running a native 320x200 resolution and you guys can use a magnifying glass to view it :P
Yup, virtual resolution of 320x200. As in you can scale up that virtual resolution by 2, 3 4 times etc. If you scale up yet your rotations don't match then you are not in that virtual resolution anymore. You know the rules and I know you are more than capable of technically understanding them :)
Sorry to come across as a rule warrior but that's the rules. Please don't get disheartened as I really want to see your completed game. Just stick to the God damn rules :P
The way I've found to avoid the native resolution rotation issue was to render to an image of 320x200 and then use that to scale up. I had the same issue as you with AGK and although it was nice visually, it broke the rules, hence I had to find the aforementioned way to avoid that.
QuoteClouds are place holders at the moment.
Yay \o/
As Yoda would say right now.. "Easy it is not. Stick to rules you must."
Quote
I wouldn't use any kind of smoothing in your games as it increases the colour count tremendously in the final output image ;-)
Theses screenie look really cool and so remind me of my youth.
Yes I know. I won't be using smoothing for the competition. It's just I actually prefer the non smoothed look anyway, and people seem to agree.
Thanks, it's a fun game - but tricky to play.
Quote from: QubeAs Yoda would say right now.. "Easy it is not. Stick to rules you must."
Not just Yoda... my 2y1m old son is talking the same way (of course in German ;-)).
@ rendering the whole canvas into a texture
You might also consider to precalculate the sprites: so render them in a texture (nonsmoothed), process the thing, store in an sprite array and use the precalculated images. That way you could draw it in realtime without the need of hardware r2t or similar things.
Rectangle/Circles could be drawn using bresenham's algorithms - taking into consideration virtual resolution automatically then. Fonts just need the "SMOOTHFONT" skipped (just found that in my TBitmapFont-class to be missing - improving my framework thanks to the compo).
bye
Ron
QuoteAs in you can scale up that virtual resolution by 2, 3 4 times etc. If you scale up yet your rotations don't match then you are not in that virtual resolution anymore
mmm, true but 'minor' screen scaling issues are not the issue if the pixels are obviously 'almost' mimicking 320x200. E.G.
if using off 2,4,8,16 resolutions, you will get the odd line of pixels that may be smaller or larger by one, but the whole thing is still 320x200 res - nothing scaled or rotated?
I think where TheRevills has gone wrong is in using Matrix transforms to get rotation and scaling and not using sprites?
Just to clarify the rule on resolution...can we use a resolution less than 320x200?
I'm thinking of doing something Atari 800 style. Graphics 8 was the highest on there and it was 320x192. I liked Graphics 7 (+16?) the most on there and that was just 160x96 but it had 4(!) colors.
Quote from: Qube on November 26, 2017, 10:34:15
QuoteComp Rules: retro virtual resolution of 320x200 and up to a 16 colour palette of your choice..... nothing about hardware rotation.
Lol, you wanna bend da rules do ya... No >:(
LOL! :) I was sticking to the exact wording of the rules ;)
As long as everyone has to stick to the same set of rules I'll be happy.
Quote
The way I've found to avoid the native resolution rotation issue was to render to an image of 320x200 and then use that to scale up
Hmmm, I'll see if Monkey2 has something similar havent touched that area in MX2...
Quote from: iWasAdam on November 26, 2017, 11:10:09
I think where TheRevills has gone wrong is in using Matrix transforms to get rotation and scaling and not using sprites?
I was going wrong with using the inbuilt commands commands. What are you using for the compo and dealing with (Qube's :P) strict rules?
The rules aren't strict. They're just the rules we all have to follow. Just use 320 x 200 and 16 colours. And no switching between resolutions just because it suits you, or using smoothing to add extra colours either.
Seems pretty clear too me. ;D
Quote from: Steve Elliott on November 26, 2017, 21:04:36
Just use 320 x 200 and 16 colours. And no switching between resolutions just because it suits you
I'm not switching resolutions, all I've done is set Monkey2 to use a window resolution of 1280x800 and a virtual resolution of 320x200, then using the in built commands with the images:
canvas.DrawImage(image, position, rotation, scale)
Like Qube said, it's up to you to stick within the rules, no matter what language you use - and to work around it. That's the challenge on this one :)
It's a tricky one, as we've seen. Plus some struggle with pixel art and so on. A learning curve for me and others.
Had a quick play with render to texture stuff in Monkey2 and I'm now casting to Ints for positions when displaying the sprites.
When I get home I'll create a new video so I can get the tick of approval from Qube :)
Looks better ;D
QuoteWhen I get home I'll create a new video so I can get the tick of approval from Qube :)
lol, I have my magnifying glass ready :P
Quote from: IanMartin on November 26, 2017, 20:14:09
Just to clarify the rule on resolution...can we use a resolution less than 320x200?
I'm thinking of doing something Atari 800 style. Graphics 8 was the highest on there and it was 320x192. I liked Graphics 7 (+16?) the most on there and that was just 160x96 but it had 4(!) colors.
If you want to go lower than 320x200 I can't see an issue with that. Or you could just double the 160x96 up and have a 4 pixel border top and bottom to make it 320x200.
Others may disagree but for me if someone wants to go even lower res then better you than me :P
@therevills
Here's a base monkey2 320x200 with full window sizing support.
NOTE: Use drawimage, but watch you deport use scaling. use images at 1:1 so pixel perfect. lines will be draw at the window position, but SCREEN resolution!!!
Namespace myLetterboxApp
#Import "<std>"
#Import "<mojo>"
Using std..
Using mojo..
Const Size := New Vec2i( 320, 200 )
Function Main()
New AppInstance
New MyWindow
App.Run()
End
Class MyWindow Extends Window
Method New()
Super.New( "My Window", Size.X, Size.Y, WindowFlags.Resizable )
'if you want a constant canvas size use this
Layout = "letterbox"
'or If you want the canvas to always fill the window use this
' Layout = "fill"
ClearColor = Color.Black
End
Method OnRender( canvas:Canvas ) Override
App.RequestRender()
'fill the screen canvas with a color
canvas.Color = Color.Blue
canvas.DrawRect( 0, 0, Width, Height )
'draw some text at the center of the window
canvas.Color = Color.White
canvas.DrawText( "Hello World", 0, 0 )
End
Method OnMeasure:Vec2i() Override
Return Size
End
End
Quote from: iWasAdam on November 27, 2017, 06:29:57
Here's a base monkey2 320x200 with full window sizing support.
Very similar to what I was doing, but I had my resolution at 1280x800:
Class MyWindow Extends Window
Field _virtualResolution := New Vec2i(320, 200)
Method New()
Super.New("title", 1280, 800, WindowFlags.Resizable)
Layout = "letterbox"
End
Method OnMeasure:Vec2i() Override
Return _virtualResolution
EndI have found out that Monkey2 has another letterbox layout called "letterbox-int".
| "letterbox-int" | View is uniformly stretched on both axii and centered within its layout frame. Scale factors are integrized.This is my current way:
Namespace myapp
#Import "<std>"
#Import "<mojo>"
Using std..
Using mojo..
Const VIRTUAL_RES := New Vec2i(320, 200)
Class MyWindow Extends Window
Field gameImage:Image
Field gameCanvas:Canvas
Method New()
Super.New("My Window", 1280, 800, WindowFlags.Resizable)
Layout = "letterbox-int"
' create game image based off the virtual resolution and have it as dynamic
gameImage = New Image(VIRTUAL_RES.x, VIRTUAL_RES.y, PixelFormat.RGBA8, TextureFlags.Dynamic)
' create canvas for the game image
gameCanvas = New Canvas(gameImage)
End
Method OnRender(canvas:Canvas) Override
App.RequestRender()
' turn off filtering
gameCanvas.TextureFilteringEnabled = False
' perform all game rendering to the game canvas
gameCanvas.Clear(Color.Black)
gameCanvas.DrawText("Hello World", Width / 2, Height / 2, .5, .5)
gameCanvas.Flush()
' render the game image to the actual screen
canvas.DrawImage(gameImage, 0, 0)
End
Method OnMeasure:Vec2i() Override
Return VIRTUAL_RES
End
End
Function Main()
New AppInstance
New MyWindow
App.Run()
End
oooh Letterbox-int that's a good one ;)
I'm having a bit o that!
Low res video...
Looking good!
Sorry, I am wondering if it is 16 colors per whole game or per screen?
whole game!
Quote
Or you could just double the 160x96 up
I would do that, it would be 320x200, only the 'dots' would be 4 pixels each :P
Quote
have a 4 pixel border top and bottom
I remember the Atari usually had another color around the border of the screen that went all the way to the edges of the CRT...so that's a way for me to fill the screen to the edge so it goes to 200 :)
Now I just have to figure out what to make, heheheh
So Today's pic is something completely different:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/screen-shot-2017-11-27-at-14-45-31.png)
This is part of my new chipsynth: It's the tracker!
You get 32 'sounds' to play with and 8 'tracks'. With full control over what note, portamento (slide), pan and volume.
8 tracks makes a pattern. and a sequence is series of patterns. But... Each pattern in a sequence can have individual tracks muted and different volumes set.
So in the above pic you can see just 2 patterns (1 and 2) are being used, but individual tracks are being muted as they are being played, so you get a very varied 'song' with very little effort - well you do have to have a feel for how it will sound in the first place. But it is now operational and loads and saves!!!! YAY!
Quote from: muruba on November 27, 2017, 11:20:05
Sorry, I am wondering if it is 16 colors per whole game or per screen?
I asked that already... and it seems to be a "global palette" (16 colors per game, not screen). Else it would become very easy to have "themes" (or something like "snow, summer, autumn, spring".
@ Adam
Please stop reminding me that sound/music is not just on my "todo" list but also on my "to learn" list ;-)
bye
Ron
@therevills - low res vid looks good ;D damn it :P
Quote from: iWasAdam on November 27, 2017, 14:54:25
This is part of my new chipsynth: It's the tracker!
You get 32 'sounds' to play with and 8 'tracks'. With full control over what note, portamento (slide), pan and volume.
8 tracks makes a pattern. and a sequence is series of patterns. But... Each pattern in a sequence can have individual tracks muted and different volumes set.
So in the above pic you can see just 2 patterns (1 and 2) are being used, but individual tracks are being muted as they are being played, so you get a very varied 'song' with very little effort - well you do have to have a feel for how it will sound in the first place. But it is now operational and loads and saves!!!! YAY!
Looks interesting 8) - Any demo's?
Quote from: Derron on November 27, 2017, 15:19:19
@ Adam
Please stop reminding me that sound/music is not just on my "todo" list but also on my "to learn" list ;-)
Based on your last game, I think you will be fine. ;)
Continuing in the sound process.
Here's a pic of the chipsynth:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/screen-shot-2017-11-28-at-07-51-24.png)
You get 50 (not 32) available sounds to create in a bank (on the left), these are coloured and show a mini view of base oscillator.
So... How is a sound created?
You start with the oscillator and a base waveform. the size is the base octave. With the offset/value allowing for PWM modification and finally smooth and roughness to add more 'flavour'. You can also load samples in here instead - but it's not working right now.
The next would be the ADSR envelope section on the right. this is exactly as you would have thought and controls the basic volume parameters.
Pitch Pan and Volume are all using a new concept - that of direct manipulation by drawing. sp for pitch you could draw a wobbly line and get vibrato. the time and scale allowing you control over how much is applied. a little gives vibrato, a lot would give you a real wawa siren, etc.
The last section is the chipFX. These affect the pitch and give controls over the sort of things that the sid chip, and atari arcade machines did, so start with a rough sound, and add a down pitch - instant laser sound. or wobble down and get pacman death sound. it's all very much a visual playground. just fiddle till you get something that sounds great.
But don't forget you have a whole piano range. so the same sound played high will be completely different from one played low. And as this is synthesised, the timing won't change!
Quote from: Rooster on November 28, 2017, 05:04:12
Based on your last game, I think you will be fine. ;)
This music was from playonloop.com (as credited in the sources.txt). I only put them in "the mix" and edited some of the SFX so they fit to the game.
Music is always a minefield full of copyright infringements. 3-4 chords and you can claim rights on them. So if you once listened to some music in your childhood and create a song with a bit of theses tunes (without "knowing" it) you are already in "jail" with one leg.
Art (pictures and the likes) are copyable, so you can recreate a given picture without trouble (except if you 1:1 clone it and tell others it was the original one). Think it lies in the fact that a "tune" can get recreated based on defined rules (like a mathematical formula). For pictures you can only describe the "sound" but no exact formula (ignoring "perfect face shape"-algorithms for now).
So: music is something I always liked to do but always avoided to do ;-)
@ Adam
Technically impressive - but more important: come up with a good tune. This is what I cannot await to listen to.
bye
Ron
lol no problem. working on that.
Here's my soundcloud so you can gauge my tune ability:
https://soundcloud.com/mavryck-james (https://soundcloud.com/mavryck-james)
I already knew about that page: to be honest they are not what I expect in a game. I prefer that "funky, thriving sound". Sounds encouraging you to whistle at it, to do another jump or accelerate your racing car.
Your music is not as "light" as a arcade game music should be - and this is what your game looks like: a arcadey-jumpnrun-thingy. Make it fresh, "childish", easy-themed.
And exactly this is what I am afraid of not being able to come up with too ;-)
bye
Ron
Donation update :
ThickO donated £18.26 ( 2017-11-28 ) - Super, thanks :)
First page updated.
@Derron
I've been lied to! :P I really thought you made it.
That copyright stuff makes me want to rethink attempting to make my own music. Scary stuff. :(
I wish I was capable of doing such nice pieces of music. One just cannot do everything alone. time = programming + art + gfx + testing + x. So with time being limited we will have to skip certain stuff - or keep it on a basic level.
bye
Ron
Trying to get the player size just right, not too big not too small compared to the chopper and still playable/visible!
well. I like them all, but no3 is not too big and not too small.
heres a thought. take off the red band of no3 and use as normal 'soldier' use no1 with red band as rpg soldier?
Here's my update - I LOVE THE XMAS LIGHTS and snow on the syntax bomb!!!!!
ok, real update is nothing much happened on my game, all work transferred into sorting out the chiptracker. Good new it is now fully operational.
Works has also been going on getting the tracker working stand alone with minimal code for adding to games etc. it look like this is now done too!!!
And Here's todays pic of the result:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-01-at-15-12-45.png)
The top right window shows part of the tracker showing the sequences and their pattern numbers.
The output windows below is a stand alone tracker loader using the same file. it was playing the sequence patterns 41,42,43,44. with the core notes also being marked. each pattern was a different length 4:4, 3:4, 3:4, 3:3 which is why the note number are different.
What you are seeing is the correct input and output of the tracker in full operation... YAYA!!!!
I love the idea of severely limiting myself with the res and colours. This is my first time in a long time doing 2d but I thought I'd give this comp a go. Although it looks similar to Micro Sprint, everything has been redone from scratch and it's going to play more like Super Sprint with spanners and maybe road hazzards etc.. There'll be more scope for variety in the tracks as you can see.
Implementing all the shadows took fecking ages, it needs a bit of work but a fair start I think. At the moment I'm using 15 colours.
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FSG_01Dec2017_205123.png&hash=a6157a286ad909afa1ef66917c0cd5eded343683)
Stevie G! Welcome to Syntaxbomb.
Oi! Who says Stevie G can enter! :P No fair! He is the master of low bit graphics ;)
(We are getting quite a few Steves on this forum!)
Tried a couple of Cannon Fodder inspired sprites. And slightly updated #3 and animated.
@Adam - I havent even thought of the bad guys yet! :o
It's WAR out there! :o
Bloody brilliant!
@ Steve, hello - I've been lurking here since the start. Did you ever manage to complete all the challenges in Polymaniacs?
@ therevills - looks excellent - I prefer the smallest sprite myself ;D
Quick update, a few track sections added, water, some start lights and a few signs etc... That's me at 16 colours - thought I was going to have to do some dithering but managed to get away with it. Also, fiddling with the car sprites. I really want them to darken when in shadow while moving - we'll see how much time I have.
Once I get it moving I'll post a wee vid.
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FSG_02Dec2017_173923.png&hash=3d6b2f393c7a4cffba164a7bf84a568d2800c6da)
Not yet mate. Polymaniacs, I really need to get back to that game. And I suggest others pick up a copy. It's great fun and total chaos!
Quote from: Steve Elliott on December 02, 2017, 17:54:39
Not yet mate. Polymaniacs, I really need to get back to that game. And I suggest others pick up a copy. It's great fun and total chaos!
I played it again last week and got hooked going through all the challenges - some are pretty tough. I love the chasing and avoiding games - must make a more focused game out of those elements some day.
Palette is still something to work on (somehow I sometimes get 18 instead of 16 colors...investigation ongoing ;-).
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FmzztArl.png&hash=695a0000ade63173420912c0ca91159dcecdb4cc)
Still plenty of stuff missing (ladders/climbers, presents, enemys, shadows for units, animations...). But hey, rotation of the evil magma dwarves-tower is already working (no real 3D - of course).
bye
Ron
Looks good, Ron :) - Is this like a Nebulus type game?
Yepp, Toppler/Nebulus-like (which I actually never played - only had access to an KC85 in my youth and after GDR and BRD formed nowerdays Germany again I got access to fathers first (80)286 right in the same year. Means, no C64, no amiga, no amstrad,...).
Just think people here would like a more arcadey-approach (kick/shoot/... magma dwarves from the platforms...). Still fiddling to bring all together in an "OOP" way (units need to know about tiles, tiles need to know about units, all need to know about the tower and the screen2tower-coordinate calculation, tower needs to know about tiles ...).
Will have to create some proper "base classes" to keep it tidy. Source code will be promoted when it is worth to get read :-). So for now game will be FOSS as much as possible (so music is still on my TODO).
BTW interesting side fact: If you are member of the "GEMA" (company in Germany "representing" many musicians) you can no longer "public domain/cc0ing" your music without hassle. Everything is then "protected" by the GEMA. So pay attention if you hire a GEMA-listed artist for music when you want to FOSS everything of your project. Some require you to be member of the GEMA - so things aren't that easy.
bye
Ron
Todays update relates to gameplay and sound.
OK, so the sound and tracker routines are now being incorporated and so far so good.
What is nice is having the chipsynth open, tweaking a sound, saving and being able to test play it immediately with the synth still open.
Lives have now been added:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-05-at-08-50-00.png)
so if you hit anything nasty - you loose a life, but you also get pushed back hopefully saving you from certain death again.
Lots of little animations being added here with angel wings and other stuff to make it 'great fun' to get hurt
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-05-at-08-52-49.png)
Gameplay itself still not quite worked out. but something along the lines of:
"kill the monsters, finish the level... Next !"
Now where did I leave that bomb?
Quote"kill the monsters, finish the level... Next !"
That sucks, I planned to do something similar. Seems gamplay is back on the table for reconsideration then. Thanks, many thanks for copying my idea!
@ wings
animated wings? You know, we want sugar on all these nifty little decorating game elements.
bye
Ron
Static wings... NOOOOOO, everything is fully animated!
For todays pic it's 3 sprites:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-06-at-12-05-23.png)
top 2 are part of an animation cycle
bottom one is a 2x1 sprite, but I'm not saying where this is going to go... Yet!
Been adding timing stuff to the tracker so it can report back and also interrogate it. This way I can just set everything up with the tracker and music and it will all be perfectly timed.
One thought here, is to possibly add a new track to the tracker at some stage which could act as a trigger track. How you use it would of course be up to the end user...
Ohhh acid cave rain !!
Hope that umbrella also allows "slow falling" to avoid penalty when falling 2-3 floors more ;-)
@ tracker adjustments
If you want you could try to adjust game music to the pace of the game. So when time is running out, music plays faster and faster, if you come across a dangerous zone you can react to that too - etc.
bye
Ron
yep. tracker is fully programmable while playing
So for todays update:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/syntax3.gif)
It's the first look at an enemy. In this case one that is timed with the tracker to fire fireballs at you...
This is the dev level so its kinda busy. but you can see the bubbles being spawned plus some very nasty steam - DONT walk into it!!!
So how is it done and what is the logic?
- Using the tracker I interrogate the current playhead (which goes from 0 to 31).
- when the playhead is > 26 change the master type to the one that waits and flashes
- when the playhead is 0, fire a fireball and change the monster type to one that is moving
Isn't this similar to add a "event" to certain tracker numbers - and then emit the event when the tracker number is played?
You even could do this with normal "time based"-timers but you of course loose ability in dynamic music then (eg. the music lets the enemy fire multiple shots in a row)
"tack tack tack tack..."
@ steam
Similar to the bubbles I would suggest a slight slowdown... it just looks a bit too fast (animation wise) _imho_
@ steam 2
You might consider that a "arrow down" turns the wheel to stop the steam (dunno if that was useful in the game then).
Hope you have a nice "ouch I burned my feet" animation when hitting the steam :-)
@ ladder
the latter hides the pipe - doesn't it?
Hope it compiles for linux/windows this time.
bye
Ron
windows no problem. all files are completely synchronised.
I've installed ubuntu (linux), but haven't yet had time to get monkey2 working on it...
Tanks are in!
oooh purdy color skys...
Some nice art progress here guys :D
looking forward to seeing all of these finished :)
Pic of the day:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-09-at-14-26-08.png)
They have evolved and the pinkys' have gone up and down the ladders and found me!!!!
They look cute ... maybe let their "antennas/ears" stand up when they get excited (aka spotting you ;-)).
bye
Ron
One Burger down...
I see my game is coming along nicely, Steve ;D
Haha, I think you might be better at the game than me...Yes a bit behind schedule, but picking up the slack now.
QuoteYes a bit behind schedule, but picking up the slack now.
You don't want to know how far I'm behind with my game :(
Quote from: iWasAdam on December 09, 2017, 12:40:52
oooh purdy color skys...
Took me ages to get the gradient looking right, in the end I found a nice example on how to do it. My first couple of attempts where just a mess :)
It's great seeing everyone's progress!
Quote from: Qube on December 09, 2017, 22:07:30
QuoteYes a bit behind schedule, but picking up the slack now.
You don't want to know how far I'm behind with my game :(
Development of my game has proceeded at such a glacial pace that I'll either be submitting an unfinished game, or nothing at all.
And the clock is seriously ticking... :o
BasicBoy.
--
Still working on the basic game mechanics. Attaching entities to path tiles for proper rendering when entities overlap. I want to avoid "z-indexes" as it is no 3D game but just something with rotation in a 2D world. It's a thing I imposed on myself.
Currently working on tile collision and jumping/falling/acceleration/deacceleration. Having only a few time spots a day for "everything computer" does not help much. Still cannot await to paint some pixels on the canvas for nifty animations. I know I cannot come up with something so decent like Adam but it will surely be better than nothing.
Meanwhile on work I have had access to a Dell T5500 and they have an inbuilt Intel IGP. There I had "Sub-Textures" (BlitzMax' DrawSubImageRect()) which were 1 pixel shorter when using a VirtualResolution doubling the whole thing (640x400 instead of 320x200). Also scaling of a texture looks really different there (as if other scaling algorithms were used). I am pretty sure that it has all to do with floats and a different rounding setup - should check if I use an implicit float-int-conversion (acting like int(float) - which is like floor(float)). When passing 2 as float you might up ending with 1.9999997 on that Intel-machine. int(1.99999997) becomes 1, while int(2.000001) becomes 2. Means I will have to add "0.5" there to make it properly working. A pity I cannot reproduce it there.
Gladly all the issues I had experienced up to now with Col's Render2Texture were fixed by him already just a breathe after I mentioned the issues.
bye
Ron
Good thing cheat mode is enabled! :P I gave the enemy soldiers the wrong weapons! :o
Quote from: therevills on December 11, 2017, 09:01:14
Good thing cheat mode is enabled! :P I gave the enemy soldiers the wrong weapons! :o
Fantastic!! Looks like total mayhem - my kind of game!
lol Choplifter - except even the people are against you!
Lots of shootys!!! Kill Em All!
OK, now for todays bloodthirsty clip. It's Ginger meets Mr Snaps! My Those vines look enticing...
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/syntax4.gif)
Quote from: iWasAdam on December 11, 2017, 15:03:24
Lots of shootys!!! Kill Em All!
OK, now for todays bloodthirsty clip. It's Ginger meets Mr Snaps! My Those vines look enticing...
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/syntax4.gif)
Love the animation on that!
For some reason, when I size up these images, the dithering gets screwed but at the moment I now have the AI working so can race it. I'm really enjoying working in such low res - so easy to add in new bits and bobs and effects. Added in the cars darkening when in shadow which looks pretty good :)
Pickups & Hazzards which I might use if I get time ..
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FObjects.png&hash=96543535f69654eff1b681b74c83b73cc0498a63)
A couple of new tracks ...
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FSG_11Dec2017_152909.png&hash=1e30130864966c47bed9772af4d5e715191f8f55)
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FSG_11Dec2017_152736.png&hash=5c21e3a89fe3b097171b199599d7b7f6a2e09b86)
You know that both of your screens are not really encouraging to continue ones own project?
In less pouting words: both look good. Adams game looks really "lively". I like games which have little bells and whistley hidden everywhere. It's like when people recognize the first time in TVTower (my FOSS game) that in the background aliens abduct persons from the skyscrapers or planes fly around with a transparent mention with whom I am in love with ;-).
Think such little gems show that you have _fun_ doing the game.
For adams game I think there might be small holes here and there - and every 30 seconds or so you see two yellow pixels ("eyes") in them. Or there might be spiders (1px size is enough ;-)) on barely visible webs.
In the race game cars could loose parts when having accidents, little ducks could land on the water surfaces, when multiple cars drive next to a bigger tree then birds might start flying away...
@ Stevie
In your second screen the yellow car's shadow is overlapping the boundary. Desired effect or not-yet-cared-of-clipping issues?
Still fiddling with tile collision detection (entities are higher than path tiles). Hmm maybe best is to have a entity-vs-all-tiles-collision-check ;-)
Also found some issues with BlitzMax' virtual resolution (drawline(x,y,x+10,y) vs drawRect(x,y,10,1)). Its never nice if you have to fight your toolset before doing actual stuff.
Hope I have some moments of "screen of today" too. but basics to do first...grmpf
bye
Ron
I seem to be a bit late to the party but I've spent today dreaming up a game and I think I have something.
Now I need to figure out if I will have time to finish it (if I start it).
A few seem to be enjoying this competition...I've yet to tackle animation though :o
I haven't done any pixel art since I wrote a 2d Galaxian/Galaga type game a long time ago - with very basic animation.
Now I'm doing this in an extremely low resolution, with only 16 colours - and now tackling more advanced animation on top! Absolutely loving the challenge, even though it's soo frustrating at times!
Using a 3d package is how I would tackle graphics these days, but this competition has really made me push some art skills. And when you're dealing with a miniscule 16 x 16 sprite, it's not easy! But it is fun. :D
You could use Blender and freestyle (for "outlines"). then use some simple materials - render it and reduce colors to the 16 of your palette.
It might need some refinements but overall it _should_ work. If you get it to work without much hassle then "animation" will be a lot easier than handpainting dozens of sprites. Of course this only counts for bigger enemies (you talked about galaga...).
bye
Ron
Well yes, for larger sprites a 3D package is definitely an option - not with these small sprites though. You just have to work manually, which is not a bad thing. :)
With larger I was talking about 20x20 or bigger.
Seems others are doing it similar to how I suggested:
bye
Ron
I know, just 16 pixels on this one though - but that looks cool. Something to try for another day, but with the deadline looming no time for experimentation. Although I'm having an 80's pixel blast lol. Hopefully I'll make the deadline!
Realtime 3D 16 colour could be done using either cartoon style rendering or using a cross hatch style shading for something quite artistic.
I think this art style would lend itself to some kind of adventure game. With the festivities coming up fast I won't have time to create anything before the deadline, sadly.
I did have a mess around with palette shaders and low res 3D rendered graphics but nothing was even close to hand crafted pixel art.
I totally suck at old style pixel art but I'm fighting through the frustration of creating and animating to create things that are acceptable. It's hair pulling but fun at the same time. I have a small bunch of tiles complete and my main character is 3/4 finished. Next is to whip up a custom crude but functional tile map editor. So much to do, so little time...
@Qube have you looked at my maptile editor? it might be just what you are looking for?
Nothing to report today apart from fighting with the tracker when it goes AOT :/
but have started on supplemental screens, next up is hgscore tables whoppee!
And it's done...
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-13-at-11-07-03.png)
Rewriting the whole platformer engine.... only had bluescreens in my brain when doing:
- rotate tower coordinates by 180° to allow "add new rows/floors to the tower easily"
- have platforms with their top at the bottom (so also rotation 180°)
- doing optimized collision checks (only what is needed - vs - all tiles colliding with a bounding box)
While it worked it allowed for slipping through corners "_|" especially with floating point thingies. It was a real brain fart when remembering "have I now to add ROW_HEIGHT or to substract?" aka "is it a rotated coord now or not".
Redoing it so everything is "from top to bottom" (so ground floor = floorsCount instead of 0). It really shortens the amount of calculations to do ("y = level.y - camera.y" instead of "y = APP_HEIGHT - GROUND_HEIGHT + camera.y + ....).
Hope it pays out and does not end in another "have to reconsider"-moment. I really start to get frustrated: day after day is gone without having something to "play" with (like Adam's adding-something-here-and-there-posts). Doing the basics is just... */rant.end*.
I have plenty of things in my mind I want to add but time is running out and fans of my other game expect a big version update too. But nope, I do not want to let one of you win the competition ;D , I must finish...at least something.
@ Adam
Thank you for keeping me (and the others) up to date with your project - like said I like these kind of progress logs (you might even post some more details here and there... of throughts paying out, thoughts aborted...)
bye
Ron
Well, I have been doing absolutely nothing on my submission. Been working a lot the past few weeks, and when I finally get some time off, I get the flu and am too sick to work on it :(
Now it is time for another busy weekend, after which I need to get errands done before I leave to visit family for Christmas. Maybe, if I get some extra time, I might submit a single level as a demo/proof of concept, but will definitely not put in as much as I had planned.
mmm, things that got dropped?
OK... let me think
- doors. originally you had a locked door on screen. kill the monsters, the door opens and you got through to the next level
it went cause I just hadn't got as far with the monsters, so the door mechanic was never done.
- jumping. I thought that would have been good to add. but my quest for minimal controls meant it was either jump of fire/drop.
Yep, I know I could have had both, but the limits of no jumping just meant some simpler code <grin>
- animation. I know there seems to be a lot of frames done with my stuff, but I paired down animation to the minimum.
basically most things only have 4 frames and are flipped when going left/right. a few have more frames because they need it though.
things learnt (or finished) on this task
- the tracker. it's still a pain in the butt and is not perfect. but have found it amazing for doing timing stuff. basically I don't need to add lots of pages with timing data. I just set up the tracker (even with no sound!) and use it's hooks and variables to get timing information to be used for animation, page flipping (use multiple pages for help info, etc)
- the sprite editor has been amazing. especially being able to test animations directly without trying to code things. even better when you can view animations and edit them at the same time.
- further with the sprite editor, copying, manipulating, adding d=single pixel halos all bench really simple as does working with limited palettes
- the map editor is invaluable and pretty amazing now it supports dual fonts. this makes storing other stuff like UI bits very simple in the same map.
E.G. here is the exact same map, but using the two fonts (16x16 and 8x8) for UI stuff:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-13-at-14-03-16.png)
The main thing I learnt is you 'learn' all the time. everything you do, is built on everything you have done previously.
Code is reused, ideas improved, etc.
In the spirit of Xmas and being helpful, heres is the code I just wrote for dealing with the hiscores. It's just the base code, no loading saving. but does the job. This is monkey2 code, but is simple and readable to be converted back to BlitzMax, etc ;)
class Score
field score:int[] = New int[10]
field level:int[] = New int[10]
field name:string[] = New string[10]
method New()
Clear()
Add( 5000, 5, "JAN" )
Add( 2000, 2, "BAN" )
Add( 6000, 6, "MCK" )
Add( 7000, 7, "ANG" )
Add( 8000, 8, "JLA" )
Add( 1000, 1, "BIN" )
Add( 10000, 10, "GNG" )
Add( 3000, 3, "BON" )
Add( 4000, 4, "MIK" )
Add( 9000, 9, "ROT" )
Local k:int
For k = 0 To 9
Print score[k]+" "+level[k]+" "+name[k]
next
End method
method Clear()
Local k:int
For k = 0 To 9
score[k] = 0
level[k] = 0
name[k] = ""
next
End method
method Add( sc:int, lv:int, nam:string )
If sc < 0 Then Return
nam = nam.ToUpper()
If lv < 0 Then lv = 1
Local pos:int = 0
Local ok:bool = False
While not ok and pos < 10
If sc > score[pos] Then
ok = True
Else
pos += 1
End if
Wend
If ok Then
Local k:int
For k = 9 To pos+1 Step -1
score[k] = score[k-1]
level[k] = level[k-1]
name[k] = name[k-1]
Next
score[pos] = sc
level[pos] = lv
name[pos] = nam
End If
End method
End Class
You know what? One last thought for you all.
Don't give up.
If you see something you like or think is better than what you can currently do - try to copy it (the technique that is).
Find out more info on stuff that makes you happy (attempt to learn photoshop or OpenGL).
The only way to get good at anything is by aiming for something better than what you can do.
Think visually! if an image is a single stream of data. and... sound is also a single stream of data. Could you use the same systems and concepts on sound as you would an image (blurs, sharpening, etc)
How about RGBA. what would it mean if a depth parameter was also included? RGBAD, or maybe use the Alpha as a depth, so it is RGBD. ooh thats a good idea.... hint <grins>
Thanks for the insight.
This is what I used as highscore class in "Ape's Banana Conquest" (2nd in the Monkey-X competition 2 years ago):
Class THighscore
Field entries:HighscoreEntryList = New HighscoreEntryList
Field entriesMax:Int = 5
Method AddEntry:Void(entry:THighscoreEntry)
entries.AddLast(entry)
entries.Sort()
'only keep X entries
While entries.Count() > entriesMax
entries.RemoveLast()
Wend
End
Method Clear:Void()
entries.Clear()
End Method
Method GetBestEntry:THighscoreEntry()
Return entries.First()
End Method
Method GetLowestEntry:THighscoreEntry()
Return entries.Last()
End Method
Method GetBestScore:Int()
If entries.Count() = 0 Then Return 0
Return THighscoreEntry(entries.First()).GetScore()
End Method
Method GetLowestScore:Int()
If entries.Count() = 0 Then Return 0
Return THighscoreEntry(entries.Last()).GetScore()
End Method
End
Class THighscoreEntry
Field name:String
Field score:Int
Method New(name:String, score:Int)
Self.name = name
Self.score = score
End
Method GetName:String(maxLength:Int = -1)
If maxLength > 0 And name.Length() > maxLength
Return name[.. maxLength]
Endif
Return name
End Method
Method GetScore:Int()
Return score
End Method
Method CopyFrom:THighscoreEntry(entry:THighscoreEntry)
Self.name = entry.name
Self.score = entry.score
Return self
End
Method IsSame:Bool(other:THighscoreEntry)
If Not other Then Return False
Return name = other.name And score = other.score
End Method
End
Class HighscoreEntryList Extends List<THighscoreEntry>
Method Compare:Int(a:THighscoreEntry, b:THighscoreEntry)
If a.GetScore() < b.GetScore() Return 1
If a.GetScore() = b.GetScore() Return 0
Return -1
End
End
(Hmm, should consider uploading the sources to github somewhen... had 0 support-the-dev-sales on amazon since 2 years now)
@ giving up
I try to give my best, wife already blamed for the evenings I spent with that project. And I even did not tackle the advanced tricks I planned to do *sniff*. But the basics for the tricks are already implemented, so I just need to survive the "game mechanics"-part and then I can do the "visual tinkering/effects" (which I prefer in my current situation).
Finally got all the pickups / hazzards working quite well. This is a wee test video of an AI race running at 640x480 but double pixels sizes and band across top/bottom. Movement is per pixel to make it look smoother.
I'll have the option to play at any 2D resolution but presumably I must limit on screen drawing to a virtual res of 320x200 ... to maintain that jerky movement?
If I get the chance I might try to do a mask to hide the cars behind the barriers. Working on depth in 2d is a bit of a bugger - took me ages to get the sort order correct.
Now it's on to menu's etc... :o.
Z-order:
Just use the "bottom"-coordinate ("Y2") of a sprite to determine its z-index. So the border of the racing track might begin earlier than a car (eg. it contains a |xxxxxx| fence) but the bottom is surely covering what's behind.
Another approach is to assign elements to a grid - and use the tile which contains an element as the z-index-indicator (higher elements still start on a tile but cover upper ones too).
@ Sound
Is this a "retro sound"? Dunno how much "chiptune" is needed as yours already sound like from the 16bit consoles. I would like to use similar "quality" too (literally: bells and whistles)
bye
Ron
Looking good Stevie, although the cars seem to be running off the track and up the barriers.
Looks really good Stevie, and I like your use of the limited colour palette.
BasicBoy.
--
Quote@Qube have you looked at my maptile editor? it might be just what you are looking for?
Unfortunately I need a custom job which works out as a tile map / level builder / animations etc. Should be able to whip up a crude enough system to do the task in a couple of days.
QuoteI'll have the option to play at any 2D resolution but presumably I must limit on screen drawing to a virtual res of 320x200 ... to maintain that jerky movement?
Looking pretty nifty that, Stevie :) - Yes, virtual resolution must be 320x200 with 16 colour palette but you can scale to any screen size you want so long as the virtual resolution remains ( blocky pixels and all those neat things ).
QuoteI try to give my best, wife already blamed for the evenings I spent with that project.
Was it a "Get away from the computer and sit with me and watch stupid TV programmes" :P - Just tell her "Look, honey darling sweetykins... This is my hobby. Now I can either do this or go to the pub and get rat arsed. Your choice!".. Then run! ;D
Quote from: Derron on December 13, 2017, 19:01:37
Z-order:
Just use the "bottom"-coordinate ("Y2") of a sprite to determine its z-index. So the border of the racing track might begin earlier than a car (eg. it contains a |xxxxxx| fence) but the bottom is surely covering what's behind.
Another approach is to assign elements to a grid - and use the tile which contains an element as the z-index-indicator (higher elements still start on a tile but cover upper ones too).
I don't think the first suggestion will work. I'm knew to 2d so bear with me ...
I build 3 layers of track elements - the bottom everyone can drive on top of, the second, only cars above a certain height can drive on and the final layer goes over everything. The car height determines the layer it's drawn. So I sort all the cars objects and draw those on layer 1 first and those on layer 2 second (after the track elements are drawn).
The issue I had was if Car1 was going down a slope (say towards the bottom of the screen) and it's to be drawn above layer1 but Car2 is close behind and higher so it is due to be drawn above layer 2. Car2 is drawn last so appear in front so I have to check for this and correct it.
Quote
@ Sound
Is this a "retro sound"? Dunno how much "chiptune" is needed as yours already sound like from the 16bit consoles. I would like to use similar "quality" too (literally: bells and whistles)
I didn't realise we were limited to 'chiptune' and 8 bit sounds?
Quote from: Steve Elliott on December 13, 2017, 19:09:55
Looking good Stevie, although the cars seem to be running off the track and up the barriers.
Yes, well - see above - it annoys me too but I'll see if I can come up with a solution - probably need to build masks out of the existing track pieces using just the lowest drawn barriers?
Quote
I didn't realise we were limited to 'chiptune' and 8 bit sounds?
We're not, as far as I'm concerned. I just chose a suitable free online track. I can't do music, it's not my thing.
QuoteI didn't realise we were limited to 'chiptune' and 8 bit sounds?
No limits on the sound / music :) - I'm going for retro-ish type synth music but it's not 8-bit chip tune stuff.
Cool. Mine's a remix of a popular 8-bit tune. ;)
Quote from: Qube on December 13, 2017, 19:43:16
QuoteI didn't realise we were limited to 'chiptune' and 8 bit sounds?
No limits on the sound / music :) - I'm going for retro-ish type synth music but it's not 8-bit chip tune stuff.
Phew .. ;D
Ok, Qube beat me with his reply ...so no further comment (haha I still comment anyways...) about no _written_ restrictions for sound: but I bet the more retro, the better it suits to your graphics.
@ z index
I do not understand why it cannot work as I tried to describe.
OK... while I tried to proof that it works then I already found a situation in which it does not work - excuse my "artwork" now ;-)
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST
01
02 _ ____
03 ( ) |____|
04 | ° °
05 =|======.
06 x _ \
07 ( ) \ __
08 | \ °\_\
09 | \ \ \
10 x \ °--'
11 \
My approach would say: the first tree starts at "B6", the horizontal road-track-tile start at "A5", so tree is drawn after the road (6>5).
It only seems to fail if an element _bends_ around something. So if your track was not split into horizontal, corner, vertical, then you might eg. end up with saying it starts at "O11" and has to be drawn after the trees. To correct this you need to split the curve as said into the horizontal parts (not changing "Y"), the curve (changing both, x and y) and so on.
This is then a tile-grid-similar approach I would say.
What am I missing in my thought, what makes it "not working" as sketched out?
bye
Ron
Quote from: Derron on December 13, 2017, 19:59:06
Ok, Qube beat me with his reply ...so no further comment (haha I still comment anyways...) about no _written_ restrictions for sound: but I bet the more retro, the better it suits to your graphics.
@ z index
I do not understand why it cannot work as I tried to describe.
OK... while I tried to proof that it works then I already found a situation in which it does not work - excuse my "artwork" now ;-)
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST
01
02 _ ____
03 ( ) |____|
04 | ° °
05 =|======.
06 x _ \
07 ( ) \ __
08 | \ °\_\
09 | \ \ \
10 x \ °--'
11 \
My approach would say: the first tree starts at "B6", the horizontal road-track-tile start at "A5", so tree is drawn after the road (6>5).
It only seems to fail if an element _bends_ around something. So if your track was not split into horizontal, corner, vertical, then you might eg. end up with saying it starts at "O11" and has to be drawn after the trees. To correct this you need to split the curve as said into the horizontal parts (not changing "Y"), the curve (changing both, x and y) and so on.
This is then a tile-grid-similar approach I would say.
What am I missing in my thought, what makes it "not working" as sketched out?
bye
Ron
The track tiles aren't split up into parts like so ..
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FTrack_Tiles_Snip.png&hash=e49cceebe33fe0344f7f432e67b0849c5b9a288d)
This was the scenario I was talking about - the red car is higher but the blue car should be in front. While taking a screenshot - I see that my bodge doesn't fix the problem - it does now though ;)
I think I'll need to create extra versions of then track tiles which are just the lowest barrier and draw them once the cars are drawn - similar to the bridge. Should work in theory.
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FSG_13Dec2017_201734.png&hash=7f7ea2eb15bc266d32eefde6a1495576d442ec45)
Ah... ok I thought you split up "road" and "barriers" (as this allows for dynamic things like "muddy puddles" during rain etc).
If you do it as the screen exposes it, then yes, a mask - or "barrier only"-sprite will help.
In this case it comes handy that we have limited colors to play with (and up to no dithering for now in your sprites). means you can easily extract them.
BTW: do not forget to add these gas-exhausts and some "fumes". And as I was talking about "muddy puddles": oil puddles will help too (to anger your opponents).
I really hope your projects work under windows - or even linux, cannot await to try these out. Then this will expose all these little culprits a developer misses when solo-developing something (you know what to press, how the game expects your input ... but how does it handle a "new player").
bye
Ron
I've now got hostages which jump on-board the chopper... now should you be able to kill them? Hmm game-play designs decisions, maybe a hard mode!
It's funny that this has turned into a chop lifter clone (ish) as that game never entered my mind, I started this game due to seeing a screen shot of Desert Strike
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg2.game-oldies.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Ftitles%2Fsega-genesis%2Fdesert-strike-return-to-the-gulf-usa-europe.png&hash=88c3158ae1a1c53ede0c7677bafef2c9f86952a0)
and Gfk's new helicopter WIP game Rotorhead inspired me:
(https://socoder.com/uploads/1020/boom.png)
You guys are almost finished! I started only 3 days ago and all I have so far are the gamestates (lobby, play, pause, quit etc), a minimal sprite engine and an object that manages the screen (resolution, palette and images).
No external libraries or game engines, just pure BlitzMax.
Unlikely I will finish it in time, but I'm going to be careful adding things I would "like" over things that I need so hopefully I'll have something playable to submit as my entry.
Still tits up with the sound tracker. chip stuff is fully functional, its the wave engine which is giving issues - An I just got out the vocoder as well :/
OK, so here's a (slowed down - thanks soundcloud!) quick test of the chi-tune in operation with some in game music:
https://soundcloud.com/mavryck-james/chiptune-loop (https://soundcloud.com/mavryck-james/chiptune-loop)
The "melody" (dunno if "tune" or "melody" is the right word, so excuse) sounds fine and interesting but the "instrument" sounds _imho_ a bit too hmm "industrial", too "raw". Hard to describe, but it represents a dark scenery well and also a level containing many "metal" but it is too dark for a "game for all ages" (a platformer with cute enemies).
In the background there are some blob/blip sounds here and there... is this what you mean with "chi tune in operation with some in game music"? They seem to be of another style (they sound "clean" and more "non-industrial").
Again I see how writing posts in another language limits what you want to express - so excuse if I sound too harsh.
bye
Ron
Quote
Your retro style game does not have to fall within the capabilities of retro hardware. If you want to do a full on 3D game in a 320x200 res with 16 colours
so if i create a 3d game which is playable in a 320x200 resolution, with only 16 colours in the game, all good ?
I will probably not have the time to finish anything worth it, but just taking the challenge, by curiosity !
and for the scaling in a higher resolution, if i copy the 320x200 rendered image on a texture, and stretch this texture on a quad so that it fills a 640x400 screen, (without bilinear filtering), would this be ok ?
Yes this would be OK ...
But pay attention that "scaling" a texture might look different to scaling individual textures. So having some individually scaled quads on the screen might look different to scaling a "rendered to texture".
Just experienced this myself. With r2t my tower looks not so nice when rotating ;-)
bye
Ron
Quoteso if i create a 3d game which is playable in a 320x200 resolution, with only 16 colours in the game, all good ?
Yup.
Quoteand for the scaling in a higher resolution, if i copy the 320x200 rendered image on a texture, and stretch this texture on a quad so that it fills a 640x400 screen, (without bilinear filtering), would this be ok ?
That is fine so long as your movement and rotation stick to the virtual 320x200 resolution. So you can't move your double sized pixels using 640x400 coordinates for smoother movement but would have to move 2 pixels a time to keep the virtual 320x200. Also the same applies to rotations ( see earlier posts how users keep the proper 320x200 res on rotations ).
Quote
So you can't move your double sized pixels using 640x400 coordinates for smoother movement but would have to move 2 pixels a time to keep the virtual 320x200
Ooo so my 4 x magnification means everything has to move by 4 pixels?...I hadn't realized that.
With non game-play border my screen is 480, 270 multiplied by 4 to fit a 1920 x 1080 screen resolution.
QuoteOoo so my 4 x magnification means everything has to move by 4 pixels?...I hadn't realized that.
Yes, everything has to match the virtual resolution :)
If your movement is pixel by pixel in a 1920x1080 resolution then that is no longer a virtual resolution of 320x200. It's 1920x1080 with fat chunky graphics :P
Remember folks to check for the small things... virtual resolution of 320x200 means everything has to fall within that. Make sure you are not doing native resolution movement / scrolling / rotations.
Quote
If your movement is pixel by pixel in a 1920x1080 resolution then that is no longer a virtual resolution of 320x200. It's 1920x1080 with fat chunky graphics :P
Fat chunky graphics lol. They are that.
Quote
Remember folks to check for the small things... virtual resolution of 320x200 means everything has to fall within that. Make sure you are not doing native resolution movement / scrolling / rotations.
That's us told ;)
Quote
Make sure you are not doing native resolution movement / scrolling / rotations
what if the scaling/rotations/movements are done in the 3d engine itself ? As long as the scene is rendered as a 320x200 image, would this be ok ?
@RemiD
Yes. Also, it has to be the same 'static' 16 colour palette.
by "static" you mean no dynamic lighting/shading i suppose ? i only use "diffuse" colors at the moment, no lighting/shading
I guess you could use shading as long youre clever with it and only choose colours from your chosen 16 colour palette. For eg the pics i posted use shading but they are from the same 16 colour greyscale palette.
Basically you decide upon a palette of 16 colours, and your game colours never deviate from those exact 16 colours.
Yes, that's what i have understood and do at the moment... Thanks for the clarification.
I've got a lot done this evening.
* Manually created an 8x6 pixel character set loosely based on MSX characters.
* Created a text sprite that displays a string drawn in the custom character set (Resolution corrected).
* Implemented a basic 16 colour palette and fgcolor() function to use instead of setcolor()
* Created graphics for the player "ship" and added as a sprite
* Created Lobby graphic for game title
* Created player object with UP/DOWN and Fire controls
* Added laser sprite.
* Fixed sprite image scaling and tested to make sure that it is Resolution corrected.
* Created some sound effects with SXFR (Not implemented)
* Bug-fixes.
nothing to show. ah ok, how about the ghoul:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-15-at-08-27-45.png)
He lives in a cage and is omnipresent. So clear the level before the cage is raised and ghoul gets free...
Sorta working on extra lives now. not quite sure how then will operate yet?
decided that one random monster per level might be one of the extra monsters!
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-15-at-10-20-54.png)
collect enough to spell EXTRA and you get an extra life - yay!!!!!
@iWasAdam
It's good to see your game progress day by day, your all screenshots look very good.
still lots to do, more polish, bug catching, and everything else. lol
Here is a code to "clean" your image, because when you draw/paint/select/copy/cut/paste some parts of an image, some image editors add some "progressive outline" around the shape, but since we want to have only a limited number of colors in the image, we have to identify the pixels of a similar color and to replace them by the wanted color.
I know, i probably should use a better image editor, but i don't want to waste time relearning the basics...
how to use this bb code : (that you can convert in bmx, of course)
define the "wanted colors" ->these are the main colors that you have used when drawing/painting, but then the "progressive outline" functionality messed everything !
define the "tolerance" -> this is to consider pixels which have a similar color than a wanted color as if they are of the wanted color.
define the "unknown color" -> this is to color the pixels which are too different from a wanted color, to the color you want (for example black)
then it outputs the "clean" image.
this seems to work correctly (oh yeah ! 8) )
Global PixAlpha% = 0
Global PixRed% = 0
Global PixGreen% = 0
Global PixBlue% = 0
Function WritePix(PX%,PY%,R%,G%,B%,A%=255)
HexARGB = RGBAToHexARGB(R,G,B,A)
WritePixel(PX,PY,HexARGB)
End Function
Function ReadPix(PX%,PY%)
HexARGB% = ReadPixel(PX,PY)
HexARGBToRGBA(HexARGB%)
End Function
Function WritePixFast(PX%,PY%,R%,G%,B%,A%=255)
HexARGB = RGBAToHexARGB(R,G,B,A)
WritePixelFast(PX,PY,HexARGB)
End Function
Function ReadPixFast(PX%,PY%)
HexARGB% = ReadPixelFast(PX,PY)
HexARGBToRGBA(HexARGB%)
End Function
Function RGBAToHexARGB%(R%,G%,B%,A%)
HexARGB% = A Shl(24) + R Shl(16) + G Shl(8) + B Shl(0)
Return HexARGB
End Function
Function HexARGBToRGBA(HexARGB%)
PixAlpha = HexARGB Shr(24) And 255
PixRed = HexARGB Shr(16) And 255
PixGreen = HexARGB Shr(8) And 255
PixBlue = HexARGB Shl(0) And 255
End Function
;image colors cleaner
Graphics(500,312,32,2)
SeedRnd(MilliSecs())
;load InImage
InFileName$ = "x.png"
InImage = LoadImage(InFileName)
InPWidth% = ImageWidth(InImage) : InPHeight% = ImageHeight(InImage)
;wanted colors to identify and keep
Global WantedsCount%
Dim WantedR%(16)
Dim WantedG%(16)
Dim WantedB%(16)
WantedsCount = WantedsCount + 1 : I% = WantedsCount
WantedR(I) = 000 : WantedG(I) = 000 : WantedB(I) = 000 ;a color that you want to keep
WantedsCount = WantedsCount + 1 : I% = WantedsCount
WantedR(I) = 255 : WantedG(I) = 255 : WantedB(I) = 255 ;a color that you want to keep
WantedsCount = WantedsCount + 1 : I% = WantedsCount
WantedR(I) = 090 : WantedG(I) = 060 : WantedB(I) = 030 ;a color that you want to keep
;tolerance
Global Tolerance% = 20 ;to consider pixels which have a similar (less or more) color (R,G,B values)
;unknown color
Global UnknownR = 000
Global UnknownG = 000
Global UnknownB = 000
Dim PixelWantedI%(1024,1024) ;link to wanted color
;analyze InImage
SetBuffer(ImageBuffer(InImage))
LockBuffer(ImageBuffer(InImage))
For PX% = 0 To InPWidth-1 Step 1
For PY% = 0 To InPHeight-1 Step 1
ReadPixFast(PX,PY)
For I% = 1 To WantedsCount Step 1
;if color of pixel is similar to a Wanted color
If( PixRed > WantedR(I)-Tolerance And PixRed < WantedR(I)+Tolerance And PixGreen > WantedG(I)-Tolerance And PixGreen < WantedG(I)+Tolerance And PixBlue > WantedB(I)-Tolerance And PixBlue < WantedB(I)+Tolerance )
;keep it
PixelWantedI(PX,PY) = I
EndIf
Next
Next
Next
UnlockBuffer(ImageBuffer(InImage))
;create OutImage
OutImage = CreateImage(InPWidth,InPHeight)
SetBuffer(ImageBuffer(OutImage))
LockBuffer(ImageBuffer(OutImage))
For PX% = 0 To InPWidth-1 Step 1
For PY% = 0 To InPHeight-1 Step 1
I% = PixelWantedI(PX,PY)
;if pixel not similar to a wanted color
If( I = 0 )
;color it with the unknown color
R% = UnknownR : G% = UnknownG : B% = UnknownB
;if pixel similar to a wanted color
Else If( I > 0 )
;color it with the wanted color
R% = WantedR(I) : G% = WantedG(I) : B% = WantedB(I)
EndIf
WritePix(PX,PY,R,G,B)
Next
Next
UnlockBuffer(ImageBuffer(OutImage))
;save OutImage
OutFileName$ = Left(InFileName,Len(InFileName)-4)+"-cleaned"+".bmp"
SaveImage(OutImage,OutFileName)
End()
if you find any error/bug, please let me know...
I have also functions to find "nearest color" - so you define your palette and then iterate through your image's pixels and it switches the existing one with the ones being nearest according to the defined scheme (L*AB color or simple RGB if you want).
It is nothing one should do realtime but it allows for a nice image-cleanup during "loading assets" phase.
If there is interest in it (BlitzMax code) then I will post it - or link to the github files containing it (and my santa game) ;-)
bye
Ron
the code i posted is to "clean" each image when making your assets (images), no need to use this during loading, this is not necessary...
Of course you could use my code for "cleaning" too. I use this to be able to switch to a slightly better suiting palette at the end without redoing the sprites (which might lay in different files).
bye
Ron
I have just thought about a second method to determine the "best" wanted color of the remaining "unknown" pixels. (basically, analyze the pixels at left, right, up, down, upleft, upright, downleft, downright, of each remaining "unknown" pixel, and depending on the colors found, choose the final color...)
Quote from: iWasAdam on December 15, 2017, 08:31:19
nothing to show. ah ok, how about the ghoul:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-15-at-08-27-45.png)
He lives in a cage and is omnipresent. So clear the level before the cage is raised and ghoul gets free...
Sorta working on extra lives now. not quite sure how then will operate yet?
decided that one random monster per level might be one of the extra monsters!
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-15-at-10-20-54.png)
collect enough to spell EXTRA and you get an extra life - yay!!!!!
A bit of the old Chucky Egg I see ;D Loves that game for the Beeb.
Quick update ...
I managed to get barrier masks working and sort collisions to prevent any penetration. Decided to make the track a little wider too which gives you a bit more room for overtaking.
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FSG_15Dec2017_2050.png&hash=091f22ae27a0f18ee244f7301cc47510665d1474)
The game is going to be simple. You (or player 2) must win the race to progress to the next, otherwise it's game over and hi-score time. The AI will start off shite and get slowly better after each race and slowly more hazards will be introduced. Points are awarded for laps complete, best laps and your position in the race. Bonus points can be picked up during the race. You can upgrade your car's acceleration / top speed and traction once you've got 3 wrenches (up to a maximum of 5 times for each). I plan on having 8 tracks which can also be raced in reverse so 16 in total.
Sound familiar? ;)
I'm going to start working on a better particle system for crashes and tire smoke and then on to the menu's etc...
Not long to go but hopefully get it all done.
Quote
A bit of the old Chucky Egg I see ;D Loved that game.
Me too.
Quote from: Steve Elliott on December 15, 2017, 21:16:14
Quote
A bit of the old Chucky Egg I see ;D Loved that game.
Me too.
Chucky Egg 2 FTW!
First Screenshot (With embedded Palette) and lots to do but I'm pretty pleased with what I've done so far in just 5 evenings.
Currently I can go up, down and fire (at nothing).
Next up will be getting the surface and other things scrolling to the left/right depending on the direction of travel and of course, add some enemies and some of the background graphics.
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fitspeedway.net%2Fuploads%2FFungicide%2F2017-12-16-fungicide.serendipityThumb.png&hash=33af6031d99177af0803461a059d580a358853b8)
2 quick rules clarification please:
1. Is black a colour and does it count to one of the 16?
2. I like fading to black between sections (eg title screen to game screen), so I draw a black rectangle and tween its alpha until fully opaque - is this allowed as it may look like more colours are used?
Quote from: therevills on December 16, 2017, 04:27:37
2 quick rules clarification please:
1. Is black a colour and does it count to one of the 16?
2. I like fading to black between sections (eg title screen to game screen), so I draw a black rectangle and tween its alpha until fully opaque - is this allowed as it may look like more colours are used?
Black would be counted as one of your 16 colour palette. If you alpha fade to black then your palette becomes 100's of colours and thus breaks the 16 colour rule.
Thought so, thanks for clarifying. :)
I've got my simple tile map loader working :
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRJcWDxUEAAA5Po.jpg)
It reads in the JSON from Pyxel Edit tile map exports :)
Now collision detection!
looks good...and as said I am more and more of the opinion to not continue competition game development. No chance to win and already loosing interest in the original game idea - especially with the fans of my other game begging for a "big update to christmas" :-p
Stop doing so good looking things!
bye
Ron
:o :o :o Nooooooooooo
reminder : if you use a 3d engine for your game, remember that the diffuse/ambient colors of a material can alter the colors of the pixels of the texture associated with it. (recently i wondered why a "rock" was grey and another "rock" was redish, even if the pixels of the texture were grey... Now you know why !)
Quote from: Derron on December 16, 2017, 08:01:44
looks good...and as said I am more and more of the opinion to not continue competition game development. No chance to win and already loosing interest in the original game idea - especially with the fans of my other game begging for a "big update to christmas" :-p
Stop doing so good looking things!
**SLAP!!** Get back to it and finish it off :P ( me great at motivational speeches )
Seriously though, don't fall into that defeatist trap. Besides you've not seen my laughable graphics yet and I've been struggling a whole heap to get something to look passable.
After realising I have to move 4 pixels per frame (because I'm up-scaling the native resolution by 4) this destroyed my smooth movement.
If I don't come up with a solution quick I'll be out too. Currently the movement has gone from smooth to far too jerky and slow, or blurring and fast.
QuoteCurrently the movement has gone from smooth to far too jerky and slow, or blurry and fast.
If you are moving 4 pixels every frame of even every other frame then it should still look smooth enough. Can you do a screen recording of the problem?
Would this kind of render be ok ? (first person view, 320x200 resolution, 16colors max)
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frd-stuff.fr%2Ffind-the-hidden-things-20171216.png&hash=af6cb3cb338a9718a609cec16d09b903c71775d9)
i am trying to create a graphics style similar to "Daggerfall" (simplified, with less colors, without lighting/shading)
Looks fine to me, RemiD :)
Some of the games you guys are working on look great!
Now I kinda want to join the fun. Nothing done for it yet ofcourse. :'(
Quote from: Qube on November 15, 2017, 04:44:30
If you want to do a full on 3D game in a 320x200 res with 16 colours, then good luck.
That sounds like you issued an added challenge right there... hmm. :D
QuoteThat sounds like you issued an added challenge right there... hmm. :D
Absolutely :P - If I knew shaders I would of been tempted to go for an index palette shader with full on 3D. But alas, I do not and thus it's been a mega cobweb blowing session off my ancient 2D pixel drawing of decades ago. The last time I did any mass pixel stuff for games it was all done on graph paper first and translated into hex for the TI-99/4A.
Collision detection is in for the player and the tile set. Using masking to work out the slopes, when loading in the tile set I creating a simple 2D array of the images and then work out the height on the player for the slope - PITA really! The slight delay you see when moving from the title screen to the game screen is the process of creating the masks... need to find a way to speed it up.
In the video, the orange rectangle is the 2D mask rendered and the tiles turn red when the player touches them - debugging as its best!
Also changed the screen fading to pixel filling :P
@Derron - please dont give up - I like the look of your Christmas game :)
@ 4 Pixels
It is like moving 1 pixel in the native 320x200 resolution.
So when "magnifying" you still pass the very same background blocks (which are then 4x4px instead of 1x1px).
@ do not stop
Only were able to invest 5 minutes in another animation sprite until I got the new phone for mother-in-law which needs upgrades, rooting, installation of all needed apps, cleaning of bloat ... and then the son always wants to sing songs - and a blink later its time for bed again :-). Not forgetting about real-life-work.
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FGjS7yAm.png&hash=b774a150fa7b9bba7ecf9e1c7e9b9b14c35faf8b)
Seems I missed to place his "hat-bell" at the right spot. Glad I spotted it before you guys do.
I also planned to have some bullets (sugar candy canes ;-)) but shooting in a rotating tower... means only be able to hit for 1-2 bricks. until rotation makes it "go off". I think I should do it similar to a hammer-projectile in Super Mario (so it has a low impact/velocity for a high gravity impact - and goes down pretty fast).
Biggest trouble for now was the "float to int"-thing. Dunno if it was better to have everything "int" and just store the small fractional part of the movement in another field (so what not fits inti "int" becomes a "remainer:float"-value). Else I always end up with problems (camera position is limited to player and defines how everything renders - and calculates rotation). Limiting some parts to "int(value +0.5)" everytime leads to jerky movement/jittering - or incorrect collisions. One sees that I have no experience with developing platformers (rather playing Super Mario (et. al) in my youth :-p).
At least a simple key press allows to switch from "rotating tower" to a simple "repeating 2d level"-type - now, after fiddling around with collision-detection on the "wrap around" coordinate (hint: split your collision-boxes into two - so it splits at the wrapping coordinate - and then check both for collisions) - and now it seems to work a bit better.
There is plenty to do and no actual gameplay in sight. I should really stop thinking "big" and doing little baby steps game-idea-wise as it else ends in a too hughe task to swallow.
bye
Ron
Quote
If you are moving 4 pixels every frame of even every other frame then it should still look smooth enough.
Maybe if you're not animating. But I'm getting ghosting on fast updates, and jerky movement on slow ones.
I usually use time based movement - not pixel movement.
// AGK time based movement example
x# = 0.0
speed# = 40.0
lastFrame# = Timer()
do
thisFrame# = Timer()
frameSpeed# = thisFrame# - lastFrame#
lastFrame# = thisFrame#
KeyEsc = GetRawKeyState(27)
If KeyEsc Then End
x# = x# + speed# * frameSpeed#
SetSpriteX(1, x#)
Sync ( )
loop
@Derron. Have you thought about reducing the colors in your main figure and reworking to make him easier to see and animate (for you)?
Here's a quick rework, reducing the colors and making him a bit more interesting. this way he should stand out more on 'busy' backgrounds
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-17-at-12-55-32.png)
@Steve Elliott
Set up a timer for 60 fps. and use this to call your draw routine, then your movement, then your key scanning.
The computer should be fast enough to handle 2d at 60fps with no problem.
Now you have everything running at 60 fps. increase an int (_gameFrame) each time
Here's my code:
_font16.DrawChar( canvas, 124 + (_gameFrame*0.25) Mod 4, _mx+8+_manDX, _my+_manDY, 16 )
the key is 124 <- this is the animation frame I am drawing. There are 4 frames 124,125,126,127
So we can use the _frameTime to automatically animate them:
124 + (_gameFrame*0.25) Mod 4
notice the _gameFrame is being divided by 4 (*.25), so the animation is changing every four frames
It is then irrelevant where you are drawing, the frames will always be in sync.
If you are having issues with the scaling, then set you default res to 320x200 and draw it as a stretched canvas.
Or just use a scaling factor (mx*scale)
Thanks for the reply Adam, I'll take a look at the code example.
Currently I'm using that time based movement code, which is independent of monitor refresh (so using the optimal smoothest setting for the user's monitor). My monitor refreshes at 75hz (not 60) so syncing at 60FPS is not as smooth on my system. But it will be smooth if you use a time based system on a user's monitor with a 60hz refresh or 75hz, any other setting.
As for animation, I'm using AGK's built-in Sprite Animation Functions (which are again time-based).
So you are hardcoding everything to work with 60-constant-fps. Shouldn't you update according to the passed "real time". Means similar to handling updates and delta time you handle tween time or also rely on delta time alone.
So a simplified code would just say:
DrawImage(img, int(x + 0.5), int(y + 0.5))
x and y could be floats, doubles or already ints. The +0.5 is there for "mathematical rounding" and incorporating floating point inaccuracies.
float(1.0) could be "0.999997" or "1.00001". Just doing an "int(floatVariable)" might then lead to 0 or 1 as "int()" just truncates the fractional value (0.999997 becomes 0 then).
Your sprites should then update their movement during update loops ("physics"): "x :+ deltaTime * velocityX"
During Render you could "tween" values: "renderX = x + tweenFactor*velocity".
"tweenFactor" describes the percentage between "now" to "time of next frame". So 0.0 means the last logic frame was just updated, 0.999 means the next one is just lurking around. This allows for smoother movement compared to the amount of "logic heavy" updates.
Assume you only update 60 times a second but your GPU renders 660 images in that time. Your entity moves by 10 pixels each update (high velocity!). Using tweening you render:
update1: x = x + deltaTime * velocityX
update1 - render1: renderX = x + 0.0 * velocityX
update1 - render2: renderX = x + 0.1 * velocityX
...
update1 - render9: renderX = x + 0.9 * velocityX
update1 - render10: renderX = x + 1.0 * velocityX
update2: x = x + deltaTime * velocityX
update2 - render11: renderX = x + 0.0 * velocityX...
Of course this also allows for less renders than updates per second.
In "TVTower" I use delta timing for both, updates and renders. So I can define an amount of updates per second (to keep CPU usage low) and also limit FPS to eg. 30 (if your GPU needs some power left, to avoid overheating or to reduce CPU even more - or just to save battery on notebooks).
In this very special situation ("low resolution") Tweening might not help that much/might not be needed as movement will be happening at a lower velocity (px/s - not "screen space per second").
@ all of you
I do not know your coding skills, your coding habbits or "flavors" but it seems as if "procedural programming" is still used here and there? I recognized I "overcomplicate" things often by creating types/classes after types. Just to be able to "once" extend from it (I might reaaallly use it somewhere else and theeeen I might be glad to have foreseen this already). Do you "rapid prototype" things for competition entries or do you try to write "clean, reuseable code"?
bye
Ron
@Derron>>coding in a procedural/imperative style does not mean that there is no reusable code... When i reuse a portion of code many times in the program (if it does not need to be "personalized" to a part of the code), i just put it in a function (or functions).
Personally i have created many code examples to achieve different things over the years, and when i create a new tool/game, i start from nothing, but i use these code examples (and existing functions) to make the tool/game...
But i don't try to make everything reusable, this is useless and a waste of time...
Oh, I pretty missed Adams post:
Thanks for playing with my sprite. But I try to create a "looks more than 16 colors" look, so disturbances/patterns everythere.
Mans if I used your santa then the background is "noisy" with the sprite being very clean.
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F0KEFgPf.png&hash=c9d3ab6a93756863b47028817ca5de8e627e339e)
(comparison of yours and mine against the tower walls, mine already contains some basic shadows - which I plan to automatically fill with "palette grays" to make them semi-transparent-like )
I fully understand that it might "pop out" more then and I already recognized that the current palette (db16 as base) is a bit "dull" and less "vibrant". Recoloring is no problem, functionality is already there (so during loading assets could get their pixels recolored).
My game sprite classes are also prepared to allow for some C64 tricks - which should be allowed then as they do not break the rules (they just cheat your eyes, ears, ....).
Another thing regarding your reworked sprites: you change the side look to be "flat", dunno if that suits better or worse to a "rotating tower". Of course it eases the animation pain as you have 1-2 more pixels in the width while mine always needs to make sure there is the "other arm" or the "other foot" visible at least a bit.
Think I have to redo some parts to increase contrast (outline of the hands) but this is something which is then done pretty fast - once I find the time to concentrate on the pixels (maybe this evening). Doing some "adb install file.apk" here and there disrupts too much to do proper "pixel wonders" (I call them that way as it looks pretty ugly when I draw the first outlines and then incarnation after incarnations the semi-final shape comes out pretty "decent" or "recognizeable at least").
@ Screens
Do some of you plan to have "fullscreen" artwork for the title screen? (I know, I want to place a big text-portion there too, to avoid the hassle of doing much real "art" ;-)).
@ RemiD
I understand that one could reuse functions. I am talking about creating "Type TEntity"-base classes (with position, velocity, update, render, ...). In this competition entry I again created extendands of the entity for different types (TowerWall, TowerPath, TowerPathEntitys (figures, items)). And of course I have put a lot of stuff in my framework for reusing them here and there (bitmap font classes, sprite classes). And I extend them if needed so other projects can benefit from it and this while having a central "code repository" (instead of copying functions to projectA, projectB ...).
Maybe it also depends on what you do in which language and how "special" this code is (limited to a very specific task).
Thanks for explaining your "way of doing it".
bye
Ron
not for me. I'm using title screen text stuff with some animation. basically just a few bitmaps for the title.
Quote
@ all of you
I do not know your coding skills, your coding habbits or "flavors" but it seems as if "procedural programming" is still used here and there? I recognized I "overcomplicate" things often by creating types/classes after types. Just to be able to "once" extend from it (I might reaaallly use it somewhere else and theeeen I might be glad to have foreseen this already). Do you "rapid prototype" things for competition entries or do you try to write "clean, reuseable code"?
Well for this competition I'm using AGK, which is a procedural language, but my main programming has been using C++.
I do find procedural coding good for rapid prototyping (especially if I'm unfamiliar with an algorithm). If you're not very careful you can 'box yourself into a corner' regards program design using OOP - then spend some time re-writing.
I find C++ a double edged sword in this regard, but if you get it right OOP code can quickly produce results - you do have to get the design correct before you start coding though.
i've been OOP since the naughties, and messaging architectures from before that (that's what you get for being a systems programmer).
I still find it really odd to find people still use procedural stuff when there are top alternatives, but... You do have to know what you are doing and this can be a real no-no if your are well old-skool
I think I'm out of this competition - too many restrictions.
I can cope with a restricted resolution - and with required up-scaling for a reasonable picture size, and so extra blocky pixels. And also a restricted palette.
But not restrictions on movement pixels too! Time based movement (not pixel movement) is the only way to overcome the many monitor refresh speeds and general system speeds to give consistent and smooth movement and animation.
You can still have silky smooth movement. My game is time based movement for 60FPS and if I turn off VSync I get 600FPS+ but still runs smooth at the target of 60FPS. It's not jerky.
If it'll help I'll happily whip source / media for you to see how I'm doing it in AGK?
That would be helpful - thanks. But remember I'm a 75hz monitor guy (not 60) lol ;)
Qube, I'd love to see some of your AGK animation/timing code, timing has always baffled me
I'm going through other peoples examples to see how it's done
QuoteThat would be helpful - thanks. But remember I'm a 75hz monitor guy (not 60) lol ;)
I remember ;D - My code runs at any refresh rate at a fixed 60FPS. I'll whip up a small example with virtual res / render to image / moving sprites / frame limited etc. Something you can load straight into AGK and see it working. I'll try and post it here tonight but if not then it'll be tomorrow lunchtime-ish.
QuoteQube, I'd love to see some of your AGK animation/timing code, timing has always baffled me
Mine isn't advanced :P - It's just delta time with a 10 frame averaging. It does the job just fine but there are far many better examples out there.
QuoteMine isn't advanced :P - It's just delta time with a 10 frame averaging. It does the job just fine but there are far many better examples out there.
It all helps, thanks ;D
For Steve :
Attached is a complete AGK project which you can unzip, load & run into AGK.
What does it do? :
1.. Creates a virtual resolution ( with border as this was ripped from my game )
2.. Renders graphics to an image before drawing on screen
3.. Scales up without any filtering issues
4.. Has an exciting animated ball moving at variable speeds
5.. Works at the same target 60FPS regardless if your monitor is 30hz or 1000hz
It runs silky smooth for me so if it doesn't for you then I'm packing up and going home :P
The delta timing is as basic as it gets with averaging over every 15 frames. Personally I don't see a need to go super advanced over timing code and thus I just keep things simple. I know some will go all red faced and get very angry at my method but hey ho, it works. Sure, if I was doing a game that had unavoidable major slow downs I'd go the more advanced methods, but I don't, so blah blah blah.
I do recommend that you leave VSync on as no matter how good anyones code is, VSync Off leads to jaggies. I just have the option of setting it off for testing purposes.
@Steve>>just do what you can, but try to finish your prototype/game, don't get discouraged at the first obstacle... it is always a good experience to finish something (or to almost finish ;D)
About time based turns/movements/animations, i really don't understand the problem... you only need to multiply your "base speeds" of turns/movements/animations by a speed factor which varies depending on the frames per second.
My approach here : https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3508.0.html (reply 11)
This has nothing to do with scaling up/down the resolution...
agreed. use the time for the animation ;)
what I meant about FPS and time is to do with presenting the same timebase on all systems (ignoring refresh)
Todays news is. still arguing with the tracker. I think I need to take me shoe off to it after the combo and tell it who's boss around here. But it's bigger than me!
Got the tracker to store and restore (I gave it a bowl of milk!), so I can stop, play something else, and the restart. I'm going to use it for level clear. Which means I now have to think about changing to a new level...
As described above (tweening): use the time based stuff for updating the position. Use everything "rendered more often than the update rate" to smooth even more. So on a 60hz display with a 60hz update rate each position "rendered" corresponds to "position calculated". But on a 75hz display you will render "position + (current time between two renders)/timeBetweenRenders * speed").
If you lock your update rates to the display refresh rate you might not be able to respond as fast to user input as desired (60hz = 16ms for each input-handling-round) and also collisions need to make sure to process als "travelled through"-pixels/coords from "last frame" to "current frame" (else you run in the "bullet through thin paper"-issue).
bye
Ron
Thanks guys, especially Qube for knocking up that AGK Project. AGK has some interesting commands I was not aware of - and yes it runs smoothly. Especially if you change targetFrameRate to 50.0 (rather than 60.0). Because it divides without a remainder into 1 second (1000 ms). It's not a good idea to try and sync with a particular refresh rate anyway.
Quote
i really don't understand the problem
Yes I can see a few people are puzzled. I DO understand delta timing/time based movement, and I posted some basic code BUT for the competition Qube was saying if I scale-up my graphics by 4 I need to move 4 pixels at a time - and this ruined the movement.
Had a quick look at Qube's code, and he seems to be letting the virtual resolution and scaling take care of that potential disqualification regards moving on a simulated 320 x 200 screen.
Quote from: Derron on December 17, 2017, 13:39:40
The +0.5 is there for "mathematical rounding" and incorporating floating point inaccuracies.
float(1.0) could be "0.999997" or "1.00001". Just doing an "int(floatVariable)" might then lead to 0 or 1 as "int()" just truncates the fractional value (0.999997 becomes 0 then).
I had missed this in my draw routine and was getting 'random' flickering. Much appreciated. :)
@ Steve Elliot
Just to make sure that you understood Qube the way he meant it:
if you scale up your individual graphics then you need to scale up your "logic" too. But if you render to an image and then scale it up accordingly (*4) then you do not need to scale up the logic.
Just assume that instead of "pixels" we talk about "units". In your 320x200 screen each pixel corresponds to 1 unit (1px = 1unit).
An potential entity might be 10 units * 10 units. This equals to ...10*10px.
The entity moves with 5 units per seconds. This equals to ... 5 pixels per second.
Now you scale up the resolution - but not your "units". So if you now have a 1280*800 screen resolution, 4 pixels correspond to 1 unit (4px = 1unit).
The potential entity is still 10*10 units, but this now equals to 40*40px.
The entity still moves with 5 units per second. This now equals to ... 20 pixels per second.
OK, this is why Qube came up with the "multiply with 4" for movement too.
---
Now to "render to texture". This is nothing else than saying "our world stays at 320x200" (1 pixel = 1 unit) but we magnify the view to the world (render 1 pixel 4 times in each direction).
So without r2t you do not "magnify" but increase size .... each entity becomes larger (or more "detailed"). Instead of 1px=1unit you increase to 4px=1unit. With "render to texture" it always stays at "1px=1unit" it is just the final representation which is scaled up.
@ Scaremonger
Hey, so at least it helped someone. Cool.
bye
Ron
Quote
if you scale up your individual graphics then you need to scale up your "logic" too. But if you render to an image and then scale it up accordingly (*4) then you do not need to scale up the logic.
Just assume that instead of "pixels" we talk about "units". In your 320x200 screen each pixel corresponds to 1 unit (1px = 1unit).
Thanks for the explanation Derron, scaling up the logic threw things completely and I'm running out of time.
Rendering to an image (and then scaling up) solves all the headaches :D
Regarding scaling up the logic:
This is no issue if you "simulate" having an unscaled world and just do the presentation with scaled values (scale images and their coordinates on the screen).
Imagine you have a class "TWorld". This class then has a method "GetScreenX:int(worldX:Float)". It then takes care of multiplying the given "worldX" accordingly (eg. *4). So your "world" is still thinking of being a 320x200 sized world, but the coordinates are transferred into "screen space" to be whatever you want.
Before doing a "DrawImage(world.GetScreenX(myWorldXPosition), world.GetScreenX(myWorldXPosition))" you have to make sure to scale your image by *4 then. That "GetScreenX()" is then extended to only return multiplications of 4. So a worldX of "2.5" is not returning "4*2.5 = 10" but either "8" or "12". Means you return "int(4*worldX)/4". I did not test it now but with some maybe-missing additions it should work.
bye
Ron
Quote
Rendering to an image (and then scaling up) solves all the headaches
to do that very fast : copy the rendered image in a texture which is applied on a "quad" which fills the screen with pixel precision. (you need to disable filtering of textures)
I will try and post a code example (blitz3d) soon...
Quote from: RemiD on December 18, 2017, 11:37:23
to do that very fast : copy the rendered image in a texture which is applied on a "quad" which fills the screen with pixel precision. (you need to disable filtering of textures)
Yep, that's what I am doing too, works like a charm in my first tests. The 320x200 get scaled to any resolution perfectly while remaining unfiltered. I use NB for this one, so I just plop a post shader on the cam to have an automagical screen quad without code hassle. :p
Quotethe rendered image in a texture which is applied on a "quad" which fills the screen with pixel precision
It's that simple and I would have thought that was the only way to do it so that you don't end with a butt load of brain hurt.
Create and build the whole game as 320 x 200 and render to a texture of 320 x 200, with no filtering, period. Render that texture via a quad, unfiltered, of a correct 'letterbox' size as required for the monitors display resolution. Build game. That's it... done :D
Quoteautomagical
I love that word :)
what it really means is 'I know how to get the computer to compute for me as opposed to doing the hard work of working it out myself' ;D or
what it really means is 'You don't have a dog and bark yourself' :P
The difficult parts (not really difficult if you know what you are doing), is to create a quad with the correct shape (have its vertices on the 4 corners of the window), and also to set the U,V of each vertex appropriately, because the texture must have a width, height, power of 2, and the rendered image must fit in the texture (but fill only an area (320x200) of the texture) (in this case, with a rendered image of 320x200, the "best" width, height of the texture is 512x256), and of course the quad must show only the area of the texture corresponding to the 320x200 image !
Anyway, i will post a code example once it works correctly...
Here :
;the scaling of the rendered image that you want
ScalingFactor# = 2.0 ;1.0 or 2.0 or 3.0 or more
;the size of the view of scene which will be rendered (320x200)
ViewPWidth% = 320
ViewPHeight% = 200
;the size of the window
WindowPWidth% = 320*ScalingFactor
WindowPHeight% = 200*ScalingFactor
Graphics3D(WindowPWidth,WindowPHeight,32,2)
;to disable bilinear filtering of textures
InitDX7Hack()
DisableTextureFilters()
Camera = CreateCamera()
CameraViewport(Camera,0,0,320,200)
CameraRange(Camera,0.1,100)
CameraClsColor(Camera,000,000,000)
Arial15Font = LoadFont("Arial",15,False,False,False)
;an image which corresponds to the rendered scene (320x200)
RenderImage = CreateImage(320,200)
SetBuffer(ImageBuffer(RenderImage))
For PX% = 0 To 320-1 Step 1
For PY% = 0 To 200-1 Step 1
Color(Rand(000,255),Rand(000,255),Rand(000,255)) : Plot(PX,PY)
Next
Next
Color(128,128,128) : Line(0,0,320-1,0)
Color(128,128,128) : Line(0,200-1,320-1,200-1)
Color(128,128,128) : Line(0,0,0,200-1)
Color(128,128,128) : Line(320-1,0,320-1,200-1)
Arial30Font = LoadFont("Arial",30,False,False,False)
LineStr$ = "320x200"
SetFont(Arial30Font) : Color(255,255,255) : CText(LineStr,320/2-StringWidth(LineStr)/2,200/2-StringHeight(LineStr)/2)
FreeFont(Arial30Font)
;the quad which fills all the window, scaled 1x 2x 3x or more
WindowMesh = CreateMesh()
Surface = CreateSurface(WindowMesh)
AddVertex(Surface,-Float(WindowPWidth)/WindowPWidth,Float(WindowPHeight)/WindowPWidth,0.0) : VertexTexCoords(Surface,0,Float(0)/(512),Float(0)/(256))
AddVertex(Surface,Float(WindowPWidth)/WindowPWidth,Float(WindowPHeight)/WindowPWidth,0.0) : VertexTexCoords(Surface,1,Float(320)/(512),Float(0)/(256))
AddVertex(Surface,-Float(WindowPWidth)/WindowPWidth,-Float(WindowPHeight)/WindowPWidth,0.0) : VertexTexCoords(Surface,2,Float(0)/(512),Float(200)/(256))
AddVertex(Surface,Float(WindowPWidth)/WindowPWidth,-Float(WindowPHeight)/WindowPWidth,0.0) : VertexTexCoords(Surface,3,Float(320)/(512),Float(200)/(256))
AddTriangle(Surface,0,1,2)
AddTriangle(Surface,2,1,3)
UpdateNormals(WindowMesh)
EntityColor(WindowMesh,255,255,255)
EntityFX(WindowMesh,1)
;the texture applied on the quad
;the Width, Height of a texture must be a power of 2 (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, etc...)
WindowTexture = CreateTexture(512,256,1+16+32+256) ;320 fits in 512, 200 fits in 256
SetBuffer(TextureBuffer(WindowTexture))
ClsColor(255,255,255)
Cls()
Color(255,000,000) : Plot(0,0)
Color(000,255,000) : Plot(320-1,0)
Color(000,000,255) : Plot(0,200-1)
Color(255,255,000) : Plot(320-1,200-1)
TextureBlend(WindowTexture,1)
EntityTexture(WindowMesh,WindowTexture)
PositionEntity(Camera,0,1.65,0,True)
Global MainLoopTimer = CreateTimer(30)
Repeat
MainLoopMilliStart% = MilliSecs()
;position the WindowMesh in front of the camera, at the appropriate distance, so that it fills the whole window
PositionRotateEntityLikeOtherEntity(WindowMesh,Camera)
MoveEntity(WindowMesh,0,0,1.0)
WireFrame(False)
If( KeyDown(2)=1 )
WireFrame(True)
EndIf
;hide the WindowMesh
HideEntity(WindowMesh)
;render the scene (2D or 3D) (here you render your 2D scene using images, or you render your 3D scene using meshes+materials+textures then renderworld)
CameraViewport(Camera,0,0,ViewPWidth,ViewPHeight)
SetBuffer(BackBuffer())
DrawImage(RenderImage,0,0) ;we assume that this is the result of the rendered scene
;copy the rendered Image in the appropriate area of the WindowTexture
CopyRect(0,0,ViewPWidth,ViewPHeight,0,0,BackBuffer(),TextureBuffer(WindowTexture))
;show the WindowMesh
ShowEntity(WindowMesh)
;render the scene (3D)
CameraViewport(Camera,0,0,WindowPWidth,WindowPHeight)
SetBuffer(BackBuffer())
RenderWorld()
If( KeyDown(3)=1 )
SetFont(Arial15Font) : Color(255,255,255)
CText("Tris = "+TrisRendered(),0,0)
CText("FPS = "+FPS,0,15)
EndIf
;show the result on the screen (FrontBuffer)
WaitTimer(MainLoopTimer)
VWait():Flip(False)
MainLoopMilliTime = MilliSecs() - MainLoopMilliStart
If( MainLoopMilliTime < 1 )
MainLoopMilliTime = 1
EndIf
FPS% = 1000.0/MainLoopMilliTime
Until( KeyDown(1)=1 )
End()
Const D3DTSS_MAGFILTER = 16
Const D3DTSS_MINFILTER = 17
Const D3DTSS_MIPFILTER = 18
Const D3DTSS_MIPMAPLODBIAS = 19
Const D3DTSS_MAXMIPLEVEL = 20
Const D3DTFG_POINT = 1
Const D3DTFG_LINEAR = 2
Const D3DTFP_NONE = 1
Const D3DTFN_POINT = 1
Const D3DTFN_LINEAR = 2
Function InitDX7Hack()
DX7DBF_SetSystemProperties( SystemProperty("Direct3D7"), SystemProperty("Direct3DDevice7"), SystemProperty("DirectDraw7"), SystemProperty("AppHWND"), SystemProperty("AppHINSTANCE") )
End Function
Function DisableTextureFilters()
;DX7DBF_SetMipmapLODBias( -10.0, 0 )
For Level = 0 To 7
DX7DBF_SetTextureStageState( Level, D3DTSS_MAGFILTER, D3DTFG_POINT )
DX7DBF_SetTextureStageState( Level, D3DTSS_MINFILTER, D3DTFN_POINT )
DX7DBF_SetTextureStageState( Level, D3DTSS_MIPFILTER, D3DTFP_NONE )
Next
End Function
Function CText(TextStr$,PX%,PY%)
Text(PX,PY,TextStr,False,False)
End Function
Function PositionEntityLikeOtherEntity(Entity,OEntity)
PositionEntity(Entity,EntityX(OEntity,True),EntityY(OEntity,True),EntityZ(OEntity,True),True)
End Function
Function RotateEntityLikeOtherEntity(Entity,OEntity)
RotateEntity(Entity,EntityPitch(OEntity,True),EntityYaw(OEntity,True),EntityRoll(OEntity,True),True)
End Function
Function PositionRotateEntityLikeOtherEntity(Entity,OEntity)
PositionEntity(Entity,EntityX(OEntity,True),EntityY(OEntity,True),EntityZ(OEntity,True),True)
RotateEntity(Entity,EntityPitch(OEntity,True),EntityYaw(OEntity,True),EntityRoll(OEntity,True),True)
End Function
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frd-stuff.fr%2F320x200-scaled-2x-201712181939.png&hash=2f0c2f6cf1cbac1dec54d1390874613dd6ed900c)
When using render2texture the image looks different to when using "SetVirtualResolution". Within Col's render2texture images seem to "sometimes" be at a different position of the texture than it would happen when using just BlitzMax+VirtualResolution.
top part is r2t, bottom is normal VirtualResolution:
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FtPRgjQt.png&hash=a35fc0b205897c045604319317b0a5d06ac6bf66)
(excuse the black shadow of the figure...auto shadow generation in progress and this one is a setcolor 0,0,0 before drawing-variant, which is of course adding 1 color to the palette until I fixed this)
Compare the vertical black bars between the bricks/stones. So far no problem but it looks odd when "in motion":
(https://abload.de/img/santazqsoa.gif)
See the black bars "shifting"? Mathematics behind the scenes are the same - so they are rendered at the very same "coordinates". Might be some texture filtering / resizing / mipmapping things which differ from r2t to non-r2t?
bye
Ron
Here is a crazy but workable additional idea for the screen aligned quad. Simply do it in the vertex shader.
It's one line of code and doesn't need complex math because we are writing to clipspace which is already aligned to the camera's view perspective. Might as well exploit this fact.
Even the coordinates are easy, the visible area ranges from -1 to 1 for both x and y. (the screen edges are at -1 and 1)
I use this trick to render out uvmap layouted stuff (lightmaps, positionmaps/normaldirections to calc lightmaps, binormal-maps to port to engines that are silly and don't provide them, etc.)
Basically, instead of projecting the vertex position to clipspace like usual, just directly write out positions based on the UV of the vertex. Assuming you put the shader on a quad with correct UVs (0,0 to 1,1), it should work.
In HLSL:
Out.position = float4(-1+In.UV.x*2.0, 1-In.UV.y*2.0, 0, 1);
Example: The binormals of an unwrapped sphere, drawn to a rendertexture by moving the 2Kish vertices all into place based on their UV position. This is the actual sphere-geometry being rendered, with the vertices in the UV-layout positions.
(https://i.imgur.com/zOOq74Km.jpg)
Secret bonus level:
You can instantly capture diffuse lighting from realtime lights and lighting probes to a lightmap this way. Just render the object with the UV layout to a rendertex while still sending the correct vertex position/normals to the pixel shader where you calculate diffuse lighting (but don't mix it with the surface color in this case). BAM, lightmap.
Hope you do not mind providing a cross-platform BlitzMax (vanilla or NG) compatible way of doing this. I mean for OGL/DX at least :-)
Else your suggestion is like saying "juse use MagicalFunction() provided by the language/toolset XYZ" - at least for me. So seriously: if you can come up with some cross-platform/BlitzMax solution (not just GL) then I would really appreciate that (maybe others too).
@ your screen
Is it just me or does it remind me on the C64-palette a bit (these "dull/less vibrant" colors).
bye
Ron
Quote from: Derron on December 18, 2017, 18:05:04
When using render2texture the image looks different to when using "SetVirtualResolution". Within Col's render2texture images seem to "sometimes" be at a different position of the texture than it would happen when using just BlitzMax+VirtualResolution.
top part is r2t, bottom is normal VirtualResolution:
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FtPRgjQt.png&hash=a35fc0b205897c045604319317b0a5d06ac6bf66)
(excuse the black shadow of the figure...auto shadow generation in progress and this one is a setcolor 0,0,0 before drawing-variant, which is of course adding 1 color to the palette until I fixed this)
Compare the vertical black bars between the bricks/stones. So far no problem but it looks odd when "in motion":
(https://abload.de/img/santazqsoa.gif)
See the black bars "shifting"? Mathematics behind the scenes are the same - so they are rendered at the very same "coordinates". Might be some texture filtering / resizing / mipmapping things which differ from r2t to non-r2t?
bye
Ron
Love that rotating effect - very impressive. I'm working on menu's - painful stuff but getting there ...
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FMenu.png&hash=4f531c6ea6687ac0f9a60880982bbf02deab8034)
Yes that rotating effect is cool.
Vantourismo lol ;)
@ Stevie
You might consider replacing the colors a bit at the end - to make it more "vibrant" for the foreground elements.
Regardless of it: it looks like nice pixel witchcraft! and Yes, Van Tourismo is a funny name too. congrats.
@ rotation
Ahh do not cheer me but sin() and it's fellows. The honor belongs to them. The effect is a bit bigger when you see the path showing and hiding on the sides - but I do not want to expose that yet ;-)
bye
Ron
Well the standard of entries has risen for this competition! Due to old blitzers joining this great new site set up by Qube.
I hope we all complete our entries on time! 19 days, people :D
Quote from: Derron on December 18, 2017, 19:15:56
@ Stevie
You might consider replacing the colors a bit at the end - to make it more "vibrant" for the foreground elements.
Regardless of it: it looks like nice pixel witchcraft! and Yes, Van Tourismo is a funny name too. congrats.
@ rotation
Ahh do not cheer me but sin() and it's fellows. The honor belongs to them. The effect is a bit bigger when you see the path showing and hiding on the sides - but I do not want to expose that yet ;-)
bye
Ron
Is this better?
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FMenu3.png&hash=42ead8c11a47e91028f11265ff07b37528832454)
It depends if you have used those colours throughout the game or just for menu's ;)
Yes it looks better, so Qube and the rule police will be after you if game colour's differ lol. Man this competition is a minefield.
Quote from: Steve Elliott on December 18, 2017, 20:08:50
It depends if you have used those colours throughout the game or just for menu's ;)
Aye, good one. I've used the darker versions of the colours on 'info' menu writing as well as the dither to darken. Apart from this main menu, the rest don't have so much going on so I think it's fine.
That seems like a broken rule. You can't use different palettes for different game sections. One palette to rule them all ;)
Quote from: Derron on December 18, 2017, 18:34:48
Hope you do not mind providing a cross-platform BlitzMax (vanilla or NG) compatible way of doing this. I mean for OGL/DX at least :-)
I have no clue about crossplatform stuff in BMAX, but here is an OpenGL implementation with BMAX and OpenB3D.
The only difference to the HLSL version from above is that the y coordinate is mirrored in GL. So from 1 to -1 instead of -1 to 1 vertically.
Otherwise, same thing, just convert the 0-1 UV positions to the -1 to 1 range and write them out as clipspace x and y positions of the vertex.
Little tidbit: The engine will still think the object's vertices are in their original positions and cull if they all go off screen, so culling has to be disabled for the screen-object. Which is easy with MeshCullRadius. Or you can parent the object to the cam ofcourse.
Demo-zip has no exe, just the bmx, it's safe.
For a HLSL version, you just go to the vertex shader of a simple shader and change the usual transformation, which should be something like this: "Out.position = mul(In.position, WorldViewProjection);" to the line I posted: "Out.position = float4(-1+In.UV.x*2.0,1-In.UV.y*2.0,0,1);" and you have a screen quad / mesh.
Ofcourse the In.UV could be IN.UV or IN.uv or whatever else is defined in the constructor and the input variables above the vertex shader. Same for the Out and the In.position. You can name most of them freely in HLSL, so I can't know what weirdness you will encounter in random shaders. :D
Screen of the basic scene:
(https://i.imgur.com/48Vzhx1m.jpg)
And with the monkey UV-pancaked to the screen:
(https://i.imgur.com/Ziep1APm.jpg)
Move cam with arrow keys, Q for screen-quad, E for screen-pancake-monkey.
Quote from: Steve Elliott on December 18, 2017, 20:08:50
Man this competition is a minefield.
Ain't that the truth.
I spent a day just finding a palette that will fit to the style I want. :)
I had to darken a grey to make the background I added work. One of my precious 16 colours lol...Maybe 10th of Jan as a finish date? A more even number :)
2018/1/6
Think you saw the 16...colors in the date ? ;-)
@ GaborD
Thanks for the sample but I am not using OpenB3D (yet). hoped for a "max2D"-compatible and DX/OGL-fitting solution ;-)
bye
Ron
QuoteYes it looks better, so Qube and the rule police will be after you if game colour's differ lol.
Rule police :P
But while I'm here ;D - 16 colours max as per the "rules" so no sneaky sneak sneak palette changes from menu to in-game to high score table etc, etc.
QuoteMaybe 10th of Jan as a finish date? A more even number :)
Lol, are people wanting an extra week on the comp?
Finished the basic tech for the entry. Now I juuust have to make a full game. :o
This is so ridiculously silly that it must be a first.. 3D with 2x super sampling and full PBR shading at 320x200 in 16 colors ;D
(https://i.imgur.com/GK0tM2M.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/mcCptHj.png)
Quote
Lol, are people wanting an extra week on the comp?
Don't mind if I do lol. Tech problems.
If most are struggling with the 6th of Jan deadline because of Christmas madness etc, then if everyone / most are happy extending it to say Saturday, 20th of January at 23:59:59 GMT then vote up / down..... Now!!
Me, I'm voting for an extension to Saturday, 20th of January at 23:59:59 GMT.
Thoughts?, complaints?
Awesome idea! My game will definitely be ready by then.
considering that i started only a few days ago, i won't complain :)
I think we should stick with the original date, its a bit late in the competition to extend it now...
But it is Christmas therevills, and some are trying to learn a new language from scratch. Rather than being a professional developer entering a competition. ;)
Quote from: Steve Elliott on December 18, 2017, 22:59:03
But it is Christmas therevills, and some are trying to learn a new language from scratch.
Bah! Humbug! :P
We decided in the other thread to extend it past Christmas and everyone knew the deadline...
If we extend it to the 20th, 2 days before people may want another extension... rinse and repeat!
Humbug I tell ya! HUMBUG!
lol You yourself said ooo Christmas is a busy time of year and wanted to delay! It's just a small date extention. It's obvious the rules have thrown a spanner in the works.
QuoteIf we extend it to the 20th, 2 days before people may want another extension... rinse and repeat!
Nah, this would be a one off as the couple of weeks over Christmas can be hectic for various reasons and valuable coding time will be lost.
But, I'll go with the flow.. So far, 3 yay's and 1 neigh.
Besides, if the extension is granted then there will be no excuses for breaking da comp rulez :P
I don't see a problem with extending... if you cut it short then it would be an issue for people, but extending... you've got more time, it works in everyone's favor, so what's the big deal?
Quote from: col on December 18, 2017, 23:11:42
so what's the big deal?
Just that we already decided on the date... seems we are "breaking" the rules of the competition to me since we are being very strict with the rest of the rules. The challenge was to create a game by the date with 320x200 and 16 colours...
Might as well increase the palette size to 32 then too ;)
My entry will definitely be ready by this new date, and I'm sure the other impressive entries will too - and the tech problems sorted. This is a more a technical problem than other competitions.
No issues here - either way. :)
QuoteJust that we already decided on the date... seems we are "breaking" the rules of the competition to me since we are being very strict with the rest of the rules.
There are only 2 strict parameters. Resolution and number of colours - they are the core of the challenge.
Networking, sound, frameworks, theme, programming language... are all free to choose.
Just saying.
No, and writing to a quads, turning off smoothing, running in various resolutions. And if you've never used a particular language before? And sprite scaling and animation. The pros with their pre-made game systems wouldn't find this a problem over the busy Christmas time. Where as some have to start from scratch and don't do this for a living. Just saying.
This comp is littered with gotchas, everybody but those who haven't entered would understand.
Quote from: col on December 18, 2017, 23:21:52
There are only 2 strict parameters. Resolution and number of colours - they are the core of the challenge.
Networking, sound, frameworks, theme, programming language... are all free to choose and deadline date!
FIFY :P
I really would have thought that the end date of a competition is a strict parameter too - just saying.
I have a ton of beers in my fridge if anyone wants some to chill out, ;D
Everyones welcome
Sounds like a plan lol.
QuoteI really would have thought that the end date of a competition is a strict parameter too - just saying.
It is, you are right. In this case though there are a couple of issues :
1.. A lot of us are going to have little time over the Christmas period to do any quality coding. Granted at the beginning we set the 6th as a deadline but...
2.. The rules ( blame me, it's easier ) were not super explicit about the full scope of virtual resolution ( movement / rotation and up to 16 colours max for your entire game ). In my head they were but for others not quite so. Thus some reworking and recoding had to be done. It seems everyone is on the right page now though.
3.. We had couple of new members who were late joining the forum and comp but more importantly putting in real effort to participate.
4.. It's Christmas and a time for giving so on this special occasion it would be worth increasing the deadline by two weeks.
So.. Deadline is now 20th of January 2018 at 23:59:59 GMT. No further extensions will be granted, no deadlines in future will be changed and most of all, I get to be even more strict about the rules as you've all had extra time :P
Fair enough :)
I knew I was going to be in the minority about the extension, but it was my 2 cents ;)
Now where is Col's beer! :P
QuoteNow where is Col's beer! :P
I've been wondering the same... 3 fecking hours I've been waiting for these beers :P. Might as well get of me butt and get one from my own fridge.
*edit*
QuoteI knew I was going to be in the minority about the extension, but it was my 2 cents ;)
We like free speech around here.. Just so long as everyone agrees with me in the end ;D
I am with therevills. I would have enjoyed to even stay in the former christmas time (I would not have finished it but especially the last days would have brought me forward the most then).
Now its just another delay, allowing the ones who did not much the first days and would now struggle to finish in time. It is like extending time frame for school projects. I fully understand that it allows to solve problems for those who have some (I think all of us have some here and there with the compo).
Regarding "but new ones came late and wanted to enter". So If one joins in January and comes up with some decent looking screenshots but then asking for "please, add one more week to allow me finish it...".
Regarding "the ones who are in for a living": I am not earning money with the "gaming capability" of BlitzMax. The only things of my framework I used yet are Asset loading (sprite atlas instead of TImage), Vectors (vec.add(otherVec) vs x=other.x;y=other.y, DeltaTiming). If I tried another language then of course I would use the provided libs there too and surely would find even more advanced things - so workload might even have decreased there. I think blaming this non-issue is not fair. Next one comes to say that assets (gfx, sfx) should not be taken into consideration on votes as not all are "in for a living" in asset creation. Of course competition entries will differ in code quality, assets - and gameplay fun. But this is a _competition_ and no "grandmothers cookie recipe exchange" (even that is growing into competitions since years). If one is not able to come up with the perfect code they might be able to come up with a cool gameplay idea. If one is not able to come up with an exclusive game idea they might hide that in superb graphics and sound effects. That is "life". And the voters will be rating the games on different weighted aspects too. Some ignore graphics and just rate gameplay and a "minimum graphic level", others like good graphics and a known gameplay ...
Personally I have to admit that I think the extension is taking out the fun out of a "competition" and its more a "submit once you finished and we will vote for it once all interested submitted their entry" type now. Also 2 weeks more since christmas is totally borking up the atmosphere for my "santa" game. I mean, mid january is nearly summer, isn't it?
To find some positive aspect: This allows me to finish the "big update" for my other game first and then concentrate on the compo afterwards.
PS: I understand that 320x200 should be cared of in windowed mode - so people could look at it in an unaltered way but with "fullscreen" I would allow a "not perfect scale up" to avoid hassle. Each TV had a different kind of overscan. So some pixels might have been lost here and there. Each classic cathode-ray television (the ones before LCD/LED) have had some kind of "grid" for the colors (or better, the "ray"). Adjusting the overscan (the limits for the ray or its "redirection") might result in a very subtle change of grid-hit or next-grid-cell-hit. So this resulted in a screenshot on TV1 not looking exactly the same as on TV2. But in this compo we want to have it looking the same in all scenarios and on all computers. If one has a 1280x800 display then no problem (*4) but with 1280x720p you end up having 4 letterboxes - or you do a "non integer scale" (*3.6 - so 1152*720p). Problem is that pixels are then not "3.6 * 3.6px" but some of them are 3x3 and some 4x4.
This is what I would allow - even if this results in slightly jittery/sluggy movement (you move by "1 px" which results in either 3 or 4 rendered pixels). This might even ease the pain for the ones struggling with VirtualResolution.
BTW: 720x576 was the PAL resolution ... also not a multiple of 320x200.
bye
Ron
Some of you guys are taking this competition way too seriously :P (i see it as a challenge between "coder friends", and since i am more a "techie" than an "inspired", as a reason to (try to) finish something)
I'm with derron and the revils.
here's the compo here's rules here's the finish.
oh can't make the finish, then have an extra week.
its your birthday. use some extra colours.
your framework has crashed the computer. heres a new wife and some kids to go with it. and why not have this lovely car and some new furniture.
ITS A COMPETITION > DEAL WITH IT!!!!
@Qube>>if too many participants complain about your rules, please go create a post about this competition on the AGK forum (and don't forget to mention that there is a money prize to win), so that there will be more challenge to the old blitzmax coders who grumble :-*
QuoteSo If one joins in January and comes up with some decent looking screenshots but then asking for "please, add one more week to allow me finish it...".
Quoteoh can't make the finish, then have an extra week.
No, I was just seeing that this comp was more popular than expected and we've had new attractions and rule issues + the upcoming Christmas madness that I thought a small extension would be appreciated by the majority. Guess I was wrong.
in the words of Scooby Doo "HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE Shaggy!"
OK. For todays indev screenshot of the day "It' all about the data"
Lets assume you have a few levels to pick from. And they come from different data files and possible different data positions. how do you visually decide what is the first level, the second etc?
Lets assume that you have a visual map editor. then you have the tools in front of you:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-19-at-07-44-29.png)
Use one of the levels, to contain number data. in this case there is a block of 5 with the first number being the file and the second (2 digits) being the map in that file.
Simples.....?
Here's another:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-19-at-07-50-47.png)
as the top 2 lines of any map (in this case) are not being used?
Why not use then to give extra information...
the second line is the options (so I can remember stuff), the top line is the map choice.
So reading across we have: nasty green slime, background type, background color, background torch
and the final background is: no slime, small bricks in dark grey with no torch
and for todays game pic: it's a classic ham and cheese spectacular for that retro flavour...
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-19-at-08-30-02.png)
Being one of the members who arrived late at the party, I accepted the deadline as it was, which added to the challenge.
I'm not a professional programmer and have not written a game in nearly 20 years. It was unlikely my game would have been polished by the 6th, but isn't that part of the fun?
On a game related note:
My collision detection is in, the skyline is ( sort of ) working and I have an enemy that currently is far too difficult to beat in level 1. I have to dull that down a bit.
I spent hours getting an explosion looking correct yesterday. Next up is another enemy type, sound effects and some bugs to fix.
I'll upload some screen shots later.
Brilliant - keep at it ;) Looking forward to see it
@ Qube
Do not get me (and I assume the others too) wrong, we accept the new deadline as you as the main sponsor of the funding have some more weight in your voice ;-)
But it is like having a match of 2 teams, one team has members consisting of "not sober for 3 days", "not experienced in coding", "coming too late to the game because something else to do", and the other team: also consisting of "not sober for 3 days", "not experienced in coding", "coming..." think you got it. Ok, not the first team seems to loose the game, results are 4 : 72 and only 5 minutes to play. Thankfully you give them another 30 minutes to play so all have a chance to win - again.
At least accept, that it is unfair for those who grimed to finish within time (I talk especially for Cellar-Adam and Rambo/Mr.Helicopter - not Santa Ron). If you have a deadline you split your project into pieces: idea finding, idea outlining, prototyping, testing, polishing,....
Now after a handful of weeks you extend the deadline. The ones who started and planned to finish in time already finished their potentially "raw" game ideas and cannot extend that easily now - as it would need repeated outlining, prototyping, ...
I do not want to read above as excuse or "reason" - it is just one aspect you should not ignore/miss/oversee.
Even more important _imho_ is, that voters might vote different now: the ones who wanted to finish according to the current deadline (the known ones who posted here, or the ones who are not online now or kept silent) might vote differently for their "deadline-extension"-opponents - or vice-versa. So best thing is always to keep the rules as they were on the beginning.
BUT ... like said it is "your" competition and it is just the second one - so we want to keep room for improvement. So hey, let's accept an extended deadline and keep a bit of peace here - at least during festive days.
@ telling others about the competition
Of course! I would have expected that you spread the word about the competition in your other communities. Only "opponents" allow for improvements. If only one contestant would take part, then a simple pong would win. Competition helps improving!
I would of course make it a requirement to post your entry here in this forum and not _just_ on other community pages.
@ GaborD
While it surely looks good I have a feeling that the voters here prefer that "retro looking style" _and_ the "retro gameplay style". They do not like the too advanced stuff :p But maybe I am wrong ... let's see and do some 3D-16colors-320x200 stuff (or 160x200 with wide pixels).
bye
Ron
Here is my attempt at drawing a kind of statue/sculpture with a depth effect using 1 color for the material (rock), 1 color for the lighted areas, 1 color for the shaded areas, and snow on the areas which can be reached.
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frd-stuff.fr%2Fwip-statue-BLITZ3D-snow-201712191203NC.png&hash=11fa9d38795383f2975a4884301a80480fe2171b)
(the image is not cleaned, so there are more than 4 colors due to the "progressive contour" when drawing/painting, but once cleaned, there will be only 4 colors)
I plan to add several similar statues/sculptures in my game...
Far for being perfect, but a good start (newbie at drawing/painting)
(in case this is not clear, i vote for the end of the competition the 20th of January 2018 GMT, but in any case, i won't cry like a baby, i promise)
Quote from: Derron on December 19, 2017, 10:50:47
@ GaborD
While it surely looks good I have a feeling that the voters here prefer that "retro looking style" _and_ the "retro gameplay style". They do not like the too advanced stuff :p But maybe I am wrong ... let's see and do some 3D-16colors-320x200 stuff (or 160x200 with wide pixels)
Yep, I agree people will most likely vote for retro looking, even though the pitch says "any game style" and only limits the size and palette to "retro".
To be honest, I probably would vote retro looking too. I do love good pixel art for instance. A retro-ish style also fits the technical limitation well and thus is a good game design choice, which should be rewarded.
That said, I am doing this for the technical challenge. I know game design and "effort vs result" wise my choice is silly. But.. the silly stuff is often the fun stuff. ;D
As to the deadline, I am fine with either. I actually like the challenge of the original deadline, even though I joined late and have nothing to show yet.
QuoteThis is so ridiculously silly that it must be a first.. 3D with 2x super sampling and full PBR shading at 320x200 in 16 colors ;D
Does look pretty impressive for only 16 colours :o
How/where do I enter this competition?
Where do I submit my entry?
I just started on this contest entry today, so I have a few questions.
Can I let the user select the 16 color palette, or should I just use defaults of my choice?
Wasn't sure if my sliders will violate the rule, but once selected, those 16 colors are all that will be used.
QuoteNow where is Col's beer!
Hehe, I mean real beers, not virtual ones ;)
It would be awesome to meet up with a lot of you of folk from here and the BB days.
Could make the meet game related?... Maybe at a game show? or something else?
I already have my tickets for Londons EGX Rezzed next year, in April, if anyone else can make it then it would be awesome to have some beers there, first couple are on me :D
Also I don't mind travelling to meet up if the consensus decided for somewhere else.
@Derron,
That rotating effect looks awesome!
@RemiD
If you have access to a pixel shader then you can guarantee your color palette to be rock solid with consistent colours.
@GaborD
Your screenies look great!
QuoteHow/where do I enter this competition?
Where do I submit my entry?
When you've completed your entry then either post about it + link in here ( see first post in this thread ) or you can create a separate topic in Showcase dedicated to your entry.
QuoteCan I let the user select the 16 color palette, or should I just use defaults of my choice?
You can only have one 16 colour palette for your entire game, so pick your best 16 colours :)
Quote from: Derron
@ Qube
Do not get me (and I assume the others too) wrong, we accept the new deadline as you as the main sponsor of the funding have some more weight in your voice ;-)
No more than anyone else :)
Quote from: Derron
At least accept, that it is unfair for those who grimed to finish within time
That's me too. I've been working my butt off to get it done in time but this game comp is not a "Who can code the quickest". If granting a two week extension allows someone to do a better game than mine then great, good on ya, see ya in the next round.
I will happily deeply apologise to those who think it is unfair to extend the deadline but I stand by the reasons as to why I have done it. I think we'll end up with a great set of entries and most of all there will be no "If it wasn't so busy at Christmas I would of.." or "I didn't fully understand the rules properly" or "The cat stood on my keyboard and erased a week worth of code".
Talking of rules... It was my mistake for not being as explicit as possible as to the entire scope, so that was also one of the reasons for the extension. Some of us got it, some didn't. No ones fault but mine for lacking in technical detail.
Quote from: Derron
Even more important _imho_ is, that voters might vote different now: the ones who wanted to finish according to the current deadline (the known ones who posted here, or the ones who are not online now or kept silent) might vote differently for their "deadline-extension"-opponents - or vice-versa. So best thing is always to keep the rules as they were on the beginning.
Those who have a nearly finished game now have 2 weeks longer to really polish and make it shine. They can use the time to make their game really stand out. But yes, and as already mentioned, this is a one off for the reasons mentioned in my previous post.
Quote from: Derron
BUT ... like said it is "your" competition and it is just the second one - so we want to keep room for improvement. So hey, let's accept an extended deadline and keep a bit of peace here - at least during festive days.
We learn as we go along :) - Sorry if my decision offended / upset anyone but my stated reasons for doing so seemed valid and the right thing to do ( in my head anyway ).
Quote from: Derron
I would of course make it a requirement to post your entry here in this forum and not _just_ on other community pages.
That is paramount. Post your entry this thread even if you duplicate the post in our showcase forum.
@Qube>>can you please explain who will be able to vote and how ? (i am just curious how you decide if a vote is valid or not, considering anybody can create a member account here)
If it was my decision (but it is not), i would only allow the participants to vote 1 or 2 times for others games (not their game)... (this was how the vote was organized during competitions on the blitzbasic fr forum, and it worked well...)
(i am just curious how you will prevent any cheating)
@col>> i use Blitz3d... but i have coded a routine to color the near colors to a wanted color and to color the unknown colors to black, this works well so far...
Quote@Qube>>can you please explain who will be able to vote and how ?
1.. One vote per person
2.. Votes are done by the member physically posting "I vote for xxxxx". No anonymous polls.
3.. Members signing up to vote are not allowed
4.. Participants can vote for their own or another entry if they want
5.. Votes by members who are not active or rarely active on the forum will be looked at closely
@Qube>>ok!
so when is it now finishing?
Quoteso when is it now finishing?
First post updated yesterday :
6.. * UPDATED * All entries must be in by 23:59:59 on the 20th of January 2018 GMT.
This is THE deadline. I've done my best to accommodate everyone so the above is the final absolute deadline.
Quote from: Qube on December 19, 2017, 23:08:18
QuoteCan I let the user select the 16 color palette, or should I just use defaults of my choice?
You can only have one 16 colour palette for your entire game, so pick your best 16 colours :)
If you strictly follow the rules I would allow this:
- have an optional launcher (separate application) which allows to setup the colors
- have an application using the set colors, but only them
So the application only uses these 16 colors on all its screens (which is one of the rules). I understand that the "launcher" is not following the rules then as it shows more than 16 colors (as changes of colors are possible there). So instead of a "launcher" this might be a "cheatbox.exe" or so.
I wonder why the user color selection is desired - maybe it is a gameplay wise important requirement? Maybe he just wants to make sure that red-green-blind people could adjust to their needs...
bye
Ron
@ new finish date - No probs ;)
For todays in-screen dev shot. It's all about the levels:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-20-at-07-38-51.png)
Here is a code to count the number of colors in an image : (blitz3d)
;count the colors in an image
Graphics(320,240,32,2)
SeedRnd(MilliSecs())
Global PixAlpha% = 0
Global PixRed% = 0
Global PixGreen% = 0
Global PixBlue% = 0
Global InImage = LoadImage("wip-render-320w200h-scaled2x-201712192217.png")
Global ColorsCount%
Dim Color_R%(16)
Dim Color_G%(16)
Dim Color_B%(16)
;count how many colors there are in the image
SetBuffer(ImageBuffer(InImage))
LockBuffer(ImageBuffer(InImage))
For PX% = 0 To ImageWidth(InImage)-1 Step 1
For PY% = 0 To ImageHeight(InImage)-1 Step 1
ReadPixFast(PX,PY)
ColorAlreadyExists% = False
For OI% = 1 To ColorsCount Step 1
If( PixRed = Color_R(OI) And PixGreen = Color_G(OI) And PixBlue = Color_B(OI) )
ColorAlreadyExists = True
Goto LineEndCheckIfColorAlreadyExists
EndIf
Next
.LineEndCheckIfColorAlreadyExists
If( ColorAlreadyExists = False )
;create a new color
ColorsCount = ColorsCount + 1
I% = ColorsCount
Color_R(I) = PixRed : Color_G(I) = PixGreen : Color_B(I) = PixBlue
EndIf
Next
Next
UnlockBuffer(ImageBuffer(InImage))
SetBuffer(BackBuffer()) : Cls()
Locate(0,0) : Color(255,255,255)
Print("ColorsCount = "+ColorsCount)
For I% = 1 To ColorsCount Step 1
Print(Color_R(I)+","+Color_G(I)+","+Color_B(I))
Next
Flip(True)
WaitKey()
End()
Function WritePix(PX%,PY%,R%,G%,B%,A%=255)
HexARGB = RGBAToHexARGB(R,G,B,A)
WritePixel(PX,PY,HexARGB)
End Function
Function ReadPix(PX%,PY%)
HexARGB% = ReadPixel(PX,PY)
HexARGBToRGBA(HexARGB%)
End Function
Function WritePixFast(PX%,PY%,R%,G%,B%,A%=255)
HexARGB = RGBAToHexARGB(R,G,B,A)
WritePixelFast(PX,PY,HexARGB)
End Function
Function ReadPixFast(PX%,PY%)
HexARGB% = ReadPixelFast(PX,PY)
HexARGBToRGBA(HexARGB%)
End Function
Function RGBAToHexARGB%(R%,G%,B%,A%)
HexARGB% = A Shl(24) + R Shl(16) + G Shl(8) + B Shl(0)
Return HexARGB
End Function
Function HexARGBToRGBA(HexARGB%)
PixAlpha = HexARGB Shr(24) And 255
PixRed = HexARGB Shr(16) And 255
PixGreen = HexARGB Shr(8) And 255
PixBlue = HexARGB Shl(0) And 255
End Function
apparently if the (bilinear) filtering of textures is desactivated, the scaling of the 320x200 rendered image, copied to a texture stretched on a quad which fills a bigger window (640x400 or 960x600) does not add others colors than those of the initial render. So this works well here. (i have posted a code example in reply #327 for those of you who are curious on how to achieve that)
@RemiD
Following post #327 you seem concerned about the values of the UVs?
The UVs are texture coordinates only, and range from 0 to 1 in the x,y axis of the texture. For eg U value of 0.0 is the left edge of the texture and 1.0 will be the right edge of the texture regardless of where the vertex is in the 2d/3d world. This means you can easily stretch and squash a texture just by moving the vertices to different positions as the texture will move with the vertices.
For eg if youre setting up the top left vertex of a quad then for d3d/blitz3d you use uv of 0.0, 0.0, the top right will be 1.0, 0.0, borrom left will be 0.0, 1.0 and bottom right will be 1.0, 1.0. As those values are in texture space ( texture coords ) the same values are used no matter where the vertices are actually positioned - the texture will stretch accordingly.
Foe opengl/vulkan the texture is flipped vertically so you just invert the V values.
If you have access to shaders through a blitz3d d3d9 lib(?) you can use a vertex shader to position vertices easily using what are called 'normalized device coordinates'. GaborD showed using a different method to get these values using the 0.0 to 1.0 range of the UVs ( NDCs rang -1 to +1 from the edges of the output window ). Shaders may seem difficult at first but they are so so worth the effort of learning. To learn properly you should really at least have a firm underatanding of the gpu pipeline. Its honestly not difficult but does require some good old fashioned studying.
I appreciate the deadline extension (thanks Qube), although I do sympathize with the views of those who prefer that the original be stuck to.
I'm only just now getting into my stride with my entry! (I just wish I had devised a better game concept to begin with, but I'm kind of stuck with it now...)
BasicBoy.
--
Quote
The UVs are texture coordinates only, and range from 0 to 1 in the x,y axis of the texture. For eg U value of 0.0 is the left edge of the texture and 1.0 will be the right edge of the texture regardless of where the vertex is in the 2d/3d world. This means you can easily stretch and squash a texture just by moving the vertices to different positions as the texture will move with the vertices.
@col>>you are talking to me ? you are sure ? read my code example in post #327 and see how this explanation is not calibrated at all ;)
(and again i use Blitz3d, so no custom shaders !)
I have coded a system where the user chooses the scale 1x, 2x, 3x, of the window and then the scene can be rendered either in 320x200 and then scaled 2x or 3x, using a texture stretched on a quad mesh which fills the whole window, or to directly render the chosen resolution (not allowed in the competition, but this was just by curiosity to see the difference)
And indeed, even only scaled 2x, a "normal" render looks much better (which is to be expected)
see :
320x200 scaled 2x (the window is 640x400)
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frd-stuff.fr%2Fwip-render-320w200h-scaled2x-201712192217.png&hash=f42d11e098c756323a672f8a901b2b3ef41bfdf1)
640x400 normal (the window is 640x400)
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frd-stuff.fr%2Fwip-render-640w400h-normal-201712192217.png&hash=e2a97634fd89019da9aaf9a3f102b0be9183def4)
Not sure if all kinds of scenes can look good in a scaled render...
Anyway !
Quote from: col on December 20, 2017, 18:26:27
Shaders may seem difficult at first but they are so so worth the effort of learning.
Totally agree to that. They open up so many possibilities.
I would even say shaders may look hard at first, but they are actually quite simple if you stick to basic shader setups (which are quite honestly all you need until you start doing really crazy things) and think of it in digestable chunks.
Quote from: RemiD on December 20, 2017, 21:20:41
Not sure if all kinds of scenes can look good in a scaled render...
Took me a long time to decide on a style and a palette for this reason.
Then again, you could embrace the blockiness as a part of the style. :D
Or you could supersample and then convert to the palette afterwards for some anti-aliasing that sticks to the 16 colors. Depends on the palette if it makes sense to do it though.
(https://i.imgur.com/tLkUKqb.png)
@RemiD
Ooops, sorry... I'm so used to getting textures at the actual size that I specify that I forgot about that power of 2 stuff :)
@ RemiD
Pic 1 320x200. scaled to 640x400 - legal, no problem
pic 2 640x400. NOT LEGAL> if this is what you are using your game WILL fail
@ Adam
Quote from: RemiD[..] or to directly render the chosen resolution (not allowed in the competition, but this was just by curiosity to see the difference)
Think Remi is aware of this.
bye
Ron
thanks derron ;D
Todays develop is all about debugging. So I will be extensively play testing and trying to work out WTF went wrong!
yes yes i am aware that the resolution of the game must be 320x200, this was just to demonstrate how ugly a scaled render is compared to a normal render (for the same window resolution)
oh lordy... 5 retro inspired levels completed! 8)
All made manually ?
Personally this is the problem i have when making a game : if there is some randomness in it, so that there is something to explore/discover and some ways to be surprised (even for the creator of the game), i am motivated to do it, but if i have to build maps manually and i already know what's in them, what will happen, i have no motivation to do it !
yep. all manually created and tweaked
here's level 1 retro:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-21-at-14-13-48.png)
and level 2 retro:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-21-at-14-15-12.png)
I'de swear in level 2 it looks like you can run right across the bottom and keep going...
That looks very fun. Really like it. Reminds me of playing good old Jumpman on the C64.
Finished for the christmassy break today, had a little time to do some coding for the compo (not much.... granted)... before my first screen grab - some thoughts about some of the amazing submissions for the compo so far ;D
@muruba: city1.png - Kool and the gang, I can see I might have to up my game...
@therevills - retro_mx.PNG - nice intro screen ;)
Quote
So *strictly* speaking it's not 320x200 as per the rules but 20 pixels short width ways. Although you can't bar an entry if they go even lower res. Greater, yes.
Qube - awesome moderation ;)
@iWasAdam - LUVELY chunky pixels.
@Steve "So it looks like we're all doing platform games? Me included." - Hmmm, I'm tempted....
@Dabz, yeah, retro gfx is so appealing - gets the 'gameplay' imaginative juices flowing.
@Flanker - oh my - looking Kool and the gang.
@BasicBoy - oh my, thats awesome.
@iWasAdam, looking also awesome.
@RemiD - nice to see your B3D snow scene, lovely work.
QuoteI wonder why the user color selection is desired - maybe it is a gameplay wise important requirement? Maybe he just wants to make sure that red-green-blind people could adjust to their needs...
Well, the thought was with just 16 colors that some people might say... "those colors suck".
By letting them choose the colors, then they couldn't say that, but your color blind aspect would apply well too.
I will just by pass that option then, and use my choice of 16 colors. (the game would have only used those 16)
I am not using any textures or images for sprites though, so you guys may want to examine the pixels in my screenshots. (I can provide code for the admin)
Since this is retro arcade themed, I do not plan to include any media other than the code.
All images, sounds, and animations will be created in the code.
Probably won't be anything special, but definitely 'old school' retro arcade style.
@iWasAdam
Your screen shots look much larger than 320 x 200, but it is looking really good.
Now, I wish I could have gotten started on this sooner, but I just found out about the contest the other day.
EDITI'll be using these RGB values then ...
// create an array to hold the custom color values
DIM ce_rgb[16,3]
ce_rgb[1,1] = 255 : ce_rgb[1,2] = 255 : ce_rgb[1,3] = 255 // white
ce_rgb[2,1] = 180 : ce_rgb[2,2] = 180 : ce_rgb[2,3] = 180 // light gray
ce_rgb[3,1] = 255 : ce_rgb[3,2] = 150 : ce_rgb[3,3] = 150 // pink
ce_rgb[4,1] = 255 : ce_rgb[4,2] = 255 : ce_rgb[4,3] = 0 // yellow
ce_rgb[5,1] = 0 : ce_rgb[5,2] = 255 : ce_rgb[5,3] = 0 // green
ce_rgb[6,1] = 255 : ce_rgb[6,2] = 200 : ce_rgb[6,3] = 100 // tan
ce_rgb[7,1] = 0 : ce_rgb[7,2] = 255 : ce_rgb[7,3] = 255 // baby blue
ce_rgb[8,1] = 255 : ce_rgb[8,2] = 0 : ce_rgb[8,3] = 255 // purple
ce_rgb[9,1] = 0 : ce_rgb[9,2] = 0 : ce_rgb[9,3] = 0 // black
ce_rgb[10,1] = 100 : ce_rgb[10,2] = 100 : ce_rgb[10,3] = 100 // gray
ce_rgb[11,1] = 255 : ce_rgb[11,2] = 0 : ce_rgb[11,3] = 0 // red
ce_rgb[12,1] = 255 : ce_rgb[12,2] = 125 : ce_rgb[12,3] = 0 // orange
ce_rgb[13,1] = 0 : ce_rgb[13,2] = 155 : ce_rgb[13,3] = 0 // dark green
ce_rgb[14,1] = 125 : ce_rgb[14,2] = 50 : ce_rgb[14,3] = 0 // brown
ce_rgb[15,1] = 0 : ce_rgb[15,2] = 0 : ce_rgb[15,3] = 255 // blue
ce_rgb[16,1] = 200 : ce_rgb[16,2] = 0 : ce_rgb[16,3] = 75 // maroon
Adams screenshots are x2 or biger (wich is why you can distinct the pixels).
@ colors counting
Even with assets provided a simple "tint" could increase color count. If color count is in doubt: screenshot and then a simple "$ identify -format %k screenshot.png" will count the colors for you.
bye
Ron
rule clarification please :
Quote
2.. Game frameworks are allowed as are free / purchased media.
does this mean that i can use a common (free ?) font like "Arial" ? or do i have to make my own bitmap font ?
Thanks,
Quote
@Steve "So it looks like we're all doing platform games? Me included."
Yep, I posted a WIP shot in the Gallery, but will probably leave it at that until my entry is released.
Arial is no "free / purchased media". Dunno if the licences of Arial allow a redistribution as bitmap font - if so I think it is against the rules but something I would "allow" - similar to textures you created with commercial brushes (thinking of "substance painter" and the likes) - or similar to music you did by using commercial (but bought) instrument samples.
To make sure just have a look at the real FOSS fonts - De ja Vu, Droid Sans, Noto, Liberation ...
You will even find special pixel fonts (5px, 8px) - which are not made for all font sizes but specific ones.
bye
Ron
So what do you guys use to write text in your games ? a homemade bitmap font ?
I need to display text when the player reads a note/clue, and also to display text in the HUD...
For now, i just load the Arial font (available in all Windows OS ?) (so i don't "distribute" it, i just assume it is installed on a computer with a Windows OS)
I use a PD/FOSS font (licence added to asset directory then).
bye
Ron
Quote from: RemiD on December 21, 2017, 22:20:26
So what do you guys use to write text in your games ? a homemade bitmap font ?
I created a .png file containing a bitmapped font 8x6. I based it on some sample 8 bit fonts I found online but drew it free hand. It is fairly close to the fonts used on an MSX and C64 back in the day.
I load it with LoadAnimImage from an incbin, and parse a string whilst drawing the image frames to the screen.
QuoteSo what do you guys use to write text in your games ? a homemade bitmap font ?
Great question :-X
Quote
So what do you guys use to write text in your games ? a homemade bitmap font ?
Yep, a homemade bitmap font - so basically select the appropriate letter/number sprite from an individual character 'block'.
I also usually use a custom bitmap Font. It's the easiest thing to do, especially for such a low rez.
On the game front, I made some tech progress and finished up the auto-16-color-conversion.
Also upped the initial render to 4x supersampling, to make sure enemies far away will still read OK.
Random test shot with a PBR model from a scene I am making for testing AGK/OpenB3D. (game will look different.. there is just no game yet :p)
(https://i.imgur.com/ROhzoj6.png)
Got it quite close to the Photoshop conversion with diffusion (which is my target), I guess it will be good enough for now.
Should maybe get started on making the actual game soon. Cutting it close. :)
Already have the basic concept in my mind, gameplay will be nicely oldschool run&gun.
Also have about 10 enemy concepts worked out, should also be enough for now.
I used FontSprite as the basic font it comes preloaded with lots of example fonts at different sizes and styles:
https://adamstrange.itch.io/fontsprite (https://adamstrange.itch.io/fontsprite)
(https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTAyNTM0LzUzMzE1Ni5wbmc=/original/48wweA.png)
title Screen sorted, just gotta get the creative juices flowing now....
Fixed my first memory leak - yeah I know - how can it already have had a memory leak. Rome wasn't built in a day :o
out of interest. What was the memory leak? How did you track it down?
Thankfully, I just trampled all over a nasty bug here too.
When you were playing, the level would restart for no apparent reason. I've been at it for 3 days trying to track it down.
Print screens of debug info and watching where data was going and still couldn't catch it. It only happened during play and not for the first few screens, so you needed to be reasonably good to get it. but at least I am play testing the levels and modifying to get the balance right now...
Phew. I think it's time for some xmas cheer....!!!!!!
Haha well done. Those sorts of bugs are so frustrating to debug.
QuoteSo what do you guys use to write text in your games ? a homemade bitmap font ?
:-X --> :-\ --> ??? --> I guess I will draw mine in code, so I don't have to add a font to the media file, or use a system font.
Quotetitle Screen sorted, just gotta get the creative juices flowing now....
Looking good so far.
I need to get my text going today for a nice display at top like yours. (definitely retro looking)
Been trying to flow some juices too while I am coding the tedious stuff. (a lot to do in a short while)
My mock up for an idle screen had a system font, so now I have to get busy drawing.
map editing:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-22-at-15-20-48.png)
@iWasAdam
Your screenshots look really great.
Did you use one fourth of your palette for gray tones?
one more question about fonts, please ;D :
I plan to use a "common" Windows os font because i don't want to waste time with that...
But let's say that Qube says it is forbidden and i have to use a homemade bitmap font, then do i have to make one font (all letters/numbers/symbols) for each size that i need ?
This also makes me realize that if i use a "common" Windows os font, there will be some filtering/antialiasing around each character, and there will be too many colors used ! isn'it ? (i will check in the evening)
If you use Windows Fonts (which are anti-aliased) then yes, you will quickly use up your colours - and the font won't look retro.
At this resolution it's not that hard to produce a retro bitmapped font, but you could save time by omitting symbols you do not require in your game. Also, down sizing from your largest font to smallest with a little pixel adjustment shouldn't be that difficult.
lol I have to say, that this competition (despite it's frustrations) is the most fun I've had (trying) to produce a game in ages! :D
@iWasAdam>> I am quite good at debugging, either using debuglog/print or using pixels/texels/meshes and colors, but it happened 2 times that i spent a lot of time trying to track an error, when the bug was in the engine/system itself (in Blitz3d) ! That's frustrating because of the time/energy wasted, but also because you can't change it ! :'(
@Steve>>Thanks for the info, i am checking about the antialiasing of a common font in Windows OS... right now !
Quote
That looks very fun. Really like it. Reminds me of playing good old Jumpman on the C64.
Reminds me of Space Panic on the BBC Micro!
Some great looking screenies ;D
QuoteSo what do you guys use to write text in your games ? a homemade bitmap font ?
I've used a font off the web, made into a bitmap font via bmGlyph with no anti-aliasing to keep the retro look.
Quote from: RemiD on December 22, 2017, 16:19:35
one more question about fonts, please ;D :
I plan to use a "common" Windows os font because i don't want to waste time with that...
But let's say that Qube says it is forbidden and i have to use a homemade bitmap font, then do i have to make one font (all letters/numbers/symbols) for each size that i need ?
This also makes me realize that if i use a "common" Windows os font, there will be some filtering/anti-aliasing around each character, and there will be too many colors used ! isn'it ? (i will check in the evening)
As Steve points out, if you use a common windows font and don't turn off anti-aliasing then all the colours used to render that text go towards your 16 colour palette limit. Luckily there are zillions of free to use bitmap fonts knocking around you can use. Just do a search for 8x8 and / or 3x5 bitmap fonts.
I have named my game "Fungicide" and created a Lobby page...
The game is sort of playable now; I now need to spend a little time on bugs, cosmetics and game-play.
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fitspeedway.net%2Fuploads%2F22_Dec_2017_8278293&hash=48f7fcf0f574a7ae8c991d14f8e976197c8a9bc2)
The screenshots show a typical landscape and the Tube Fungus plus some air-born spores. There are currently two fungus types implemented. Got a few more to go...
Quote
As Steve points out, if you use a common windows font and don't turn off anti-aliasing then all the colours used to render that text go towards your 16 colour palette limit.
after a quick test, it seems that if i use the "Arial" or "System" font (common font with Windows os), there is no antialiasing... (only one color)
So my question is : is it allowed if i use a common font of Windows os ? (that all Windows os have installed by default) (for example "Arial" or "System")
I will probably end up creating my own bitmap font, but i don't want to spend time on that, i have plenty of others things to create...
@Scaremonger>>kill these fungus before they hurt you ! ;) (i don't like fungus)
nice moon btw...
QuoteSo my question is : is it allowed if i use a common font of Windows os ? (that all Windows os have installed by default) (for example "Arial" or "System")
Strictly speaking Arial is copyrighted.
You could just grab one from https://fonts.google.com which are free and open source. I seriously doubt having one of those in your game is going to lead to any legal issues. Or, as mentioned before Google for commercial free font ( ttf or bitmap ).
@ Scaremonger
That looks nice.
It kinda reminds me of 'Defender'. (I had something similar in mind, but still undecided)
I see you have some placement issues on your text for the Lives.
I need to adjust my text some more too, because I think what I have so far is off center.
I know I do not stand a chance at this being new to these forums and getting started late, but it is fun.
My simple little drawn font will see use after this in other projects if I build it right.
I am new to generating the sounds in code in AGK , so I doubt if I will be able to make any background music.
@iWasAdam - found my leak by loading up Task Manager and seeing that the memory allocation wasclimbing steadily whilst next to nothing was going on. transpired I kept on loading the title screen within an infinite loop until memopry violation popped up.
Some really good looking demo screens coming along, good work guys and gals. Now to suss where Captain Cavern is going... underground is my guess.
@conjured Entertainment Here's the palette I am using:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/screen-shot-2017-11-15-at-14-22-43.png)
So it's the first 5 colors I am using for grey going from black to (almost) white.
@3DzForMe Here's a thought if you are using one of Marks languages (Blitz, especially Monkey1&2). He uses a custom internal garbage collector that reports memory leaking for minutes and then stabilises. So beware!
SpacePanic is Monsters on the BBC Micro. I have a retro mode with 5 levels if you like that sort of thing:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-19-at-08-30-02.png)
With retro mode you get 5 bombs to play with. enough for some total mayhem
Heres the first GamePlay look - it gives you everything you need to know ;)
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/syntax5.gif)
My main aim is the following "Simple to play, difficult to master. Let the mayhem begin"
@iWasAdam, thanks for the suggestion, yep, I'm using B3D - without too much 3D - maybe until the final level. 3D in 320 x200 - is it worth it? Hell yes.
Your graphics are looking mighily impressive.
I've just debugged a Select - Case issue whereby Case level=2 refused to enter the Case level=2 logic - or it did but refused to show the next level (that'd be level 1 after the title screen) graphics.
[EDIT] Rule 7 clearly states 16 colours.... guess thats my answer to the following request....
I have an appeal about the colours that can be used - I'd like to use the default colours presented in Microsoft Paint, counting the coloured squares that'd take my palette count to 20 colours - yep its four more than 16 - but I'll be going some just to finish my game without headaching over keeping it to 16 colours.
If I save stuff in png format, concerned that the 'blurring' effect of colours in MPaint might introduce more colours to my levles pallaetes. I know, I may have to use some colour assessor on my gfx if the rules are to stick to 16. Then revise what I've done to date.
@Qube>>ok ! thanks for the clarification.
@3dzforme>>for info, i use "Photofiltre" (free image editor), it is easy to learn/use, you can draw/paint with pixel precision without "progressive contour", and you can save in bmp or png and the export is clean... (the only thing i don't like about this tool is that the fill function add "progressive contour" (but you can remove it with the eraser after...))
It would be interesting, that when all the participants have finished/submitted their games, that they list the tools used to create their games, so that it may help others to discover others useful tools...
@RemiD - thx for this - I've noticed rule 7 clearly states 16 colours.
@iWasAdam: That looks awesome and I love the manic gameplay.
Quote from: Conjured Entertainment on December 23, 2017, 02:23:14
That looks nice.
It kinda reminds me of 'Defender'. (I had something similar in mind, but still undecided)
I see you have some placement issues on your text for the Lives.
Thanks. Its getting there. I always loved Defender, Scramble and Vangard, so Im using the basic style but with a new enemy: Fungus. Lol
The "Lives" text was covered with debug info. I added a keypress to hide it so I could take some screenshots and the bug revealed itself. Fixed now.
Quote from: RemiD on December 22, 2017, 23:37:17
kill these fungus before they hurt you ! ;) (i don't like fungus)
nice moon btw...
Cheers @RemiD; the fungus release spores which grow into more fungus, so it becomes completely over-run if you dont kill them quick.
Quote from: RemiD on December 22, 2017, 23:37:17
I will probably end up creating my own bitmap font, but i don't want to spend time on that, i have plenty of others things to create...
I'm happy to share my font if you want it. Its a .PNG containing 96 characters each 8x6 pixels. I have a small font too (3x5) but currently it only contains numbers (that was all i needed it for).
Quote
I always loved Defender, Scramble and Vangard
Gaming classics!
@ Adam
The big part of the bomb explosion is a scaled sprite? Any reason for this (saving sprite creation time ? ;-)).
Looks pretty clean and awsome. Hope you find the time to make gameplay a bit more "tough" in the later stages (not just by adding enemies or increasing "climbing activities"). So do not expose all enemies (and their abilities) in the very early stages.
bye
Ron
I love scramble (I could finish all stages in the arcades!) and defender (even though I'm not that good at it) :P
@Derron. yep. they are 16x16 sprites scaled to 32x32. I'm not too bothered by the scaling as I think they fit the style very well ;)
I agree the scaling fits the style perfectly.
Looks like the game could get nicely chaotic and fun in harder levels with more enemies, good stuff.
QuoteI have an appeal about the colours that can be used - I'd like to use the default colours presented in Microsoft Paint, counting the coloured squares that'd take my palette count to 20 colours - yep its four more than 16 - but I'll be going some just to finish my game without headaching over keeping it to 16 colours.
It is up to 16 colours maximum :)
Sweet 16 it is then, thanks for the confirmation.
QuoteThe "Lives" text was covered with debug info. I added a keypress to hide it so I could take some screenshots and the bug revealed itself. Fixed now.
I should have known 00 was not the Level :P
Have my credits doing more than one digit now, and all my other numbers rolling.
A few tweaks on my text placement, and then I can finally get to start on the game mechanics.
I don't even have a counter for the levels, because with my late start, I doubt if I get enough levels finished that the player can't keep track in their head.
Quotenice moon btw...
Ditto
I meant to mention that earlier
Merry Christmas!
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas.
No coding here for a few days, I can't concentrate when there is this much blood in my alcohol stream!
Now where did I put my glass...
:)
QuoteNo coding here for a few days
I'm glad I did go back and take a look at my code on x-mas.
I found an error in my starfield that caused a color assignment outside of the palette restriction.
That would have been devastating at the end if I hadn't caught it in time.
@ConjuredE>>a good way to be sure that your scene contains only 16colors, is to use a routine to analyze the pixels of each image/texture that you use to make sure that there are only wanted colors (i posted a code example in reply#390), and also maybe sometimes do a screen capture of your scene and analyze the pixels to make sure there are 16colors max...
Or if you've got Photoshop, load each image, then click Image, Mode, Indexed Color. Palette should be set to exact, forced to none. This will count the colours for you.
Turn off any kind of filtering, and if you're doing some kind of processing that might increase colours, do a screen grab at each frame (run it at 1 frame per second).
One thing is sure : don't rely on your eyes only ! Using the routine in post#390, i found 4 "invisible" pixels which were almost black (on a black background :-p) but depending on your screen you won't see them ! So then i used another routine to color the unknown pixels in a flashy color (magenta) to see where they were !
(this may happen if you use an image editor where the drawing/painting/filling tool adds a "progressive outline" around the shape)
ok back on track. I'm learning soo many new skills lol. From pixel art (with animation) to Tile Mapped Games (in a restricted resolution and colour). I've not done that before. But I really could do with a Tile Map Editor.
That will definitely be my next project. Yes I do know there is software out there, but I always like to roll my own. :D
QuoteOr if you've got Photoshop, load each image, then click Image, Mode, Indexed Color. Palette should be set to exact, forced to none. This will count the colours for you.
I am not loading any images.
Everything is being drawn in game, with code.
Sounds are code generated too, so no media included except the bytecode!
Only my flying saucer has been drawn before in one other title, so everything else in game is all original for this contest.
I only have 12 generated sound effects so far, but they too are original for this contest.
I am not great at graphics, so nothing fancy, but a retro effort for the retro contest. :D
Quote@ConjuredE>>a good way to be sure that your scene contains only 16colors, is to use a routine to analyze the pixels of each image/texture that you use to make sure that there are only wanted colors (i posted a code example in reply#390), and also maybe sometimes do a screen capture of your scene and analyze the pixels to make sure there are 16colors max...
Oh, I have an array to hold the RGB values, so I know that everything is only using those 16 colors.
My error was using a random number to pick a color to draw a line, and I did not assign a variable first, but instead called the random number directly in the command.
The problem is that the drawn line takes 2 color attributes for a gradient effect, so I was using two of the colors for the command instead of one.
I wanted a single color for the line but got the gradient because I was making a random number for each attribute rather than using a variable so that both would be the same random number.
A basic brain fart, but its all sorted out now, so I am busy with drawing my animations for each frame for the objects.
Once I get some of those done I will finally be able to start making things happen (interactions and exploding missiles, etc.)
I am now starting to wonder if the no media approach was the right thing to do, because the clock is ticking whilst I chip away at drawing all these objects in code.
If I had just used pre-made images for my sprites like a sane person, then I would be well into making my game now instead of still setting things up.
Oh well, I just hope I get things under control soon and get a playable game in time so I can work on generating at least one decent little jingle for some background music.
I may build an APK too, just so I can have your Android talking to you. (if I beat the clock for the Windows version)
double posted trying to modify....sorry
[deleted]
QuoteSounds are code generated too, so no media included except the bytecode!
Ohhh, Interesting stuff. I'm using generative sound too, but I wrote a little editor so I could handle all types of sounds.
Really interested in how you are approaching this ? :)
Quote
I am not loading any images.
Everything is being drawn in game, with code.
Oh ! Ah ! Hum... ???
Quote
If I had just used pre-made images for my sprites like a sane person, then I would be well into making my game now instead of still setting things up.
;D
(don't worry, personally i am still creating the gameplay at the moment, i only have made some test images/textures/meshes. But a lot remains to make ! (but we have 25days left, so doable))
I thought for todays dev shot of the day we would look at some music:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-27-at-08-05-01.png)
This accompanies the hiscores. the thin horizontal green lines are the volume, and the thin white vertical lines are the pan, so if you look closely you can see the latter notes have different pan and volume applied per note. this was done live in that the notes were added and then the volumes and pan information updated as it was playing (recorded over)
Found some more bugs in the tracker code which played the wrong note and caused some nasty buzzing. but all quashed now ;) !
In the above you can see it's rather cramped with notes. Originally it was over 2 bars, but I wrote an expand and compress FX to the tracker to make 2 bars become one bar - so it fits 1 bar at half the playing speed!
QuoteOhhh, Interesting stuff. I'm using generative sound too, but I wrote a little editor so I could handle all types of sounds.
Really interested in how you are approaching this ?
That editor looks really nice, and I can only hope that I can make one similar to that down the road. (after the contest)
My approach is no where that elaborate.
I am simply building WAV files from scratch (in memory not saved file) several bytes at a time. :'(
This method is something quite new to me, so I am just scratching the surface.
Since I am not a musician, and I do not know one note from the other, it is all trial and error for me.
I am not really making a long bit of music, just a 3 second jingle with about 12 notes, so far.
Maybe I will go longer for a more typical song, but only if I have time left after coding the game play.
Still working on graphics at the moment...
(attached a bad picture quality video for a sound example)
I've been having issues with my collision detection, trying to get it perfect but think I'll have to call it good enough or the rest of the game will not get finished! :o
* You can now "pickup" hostages and drop them off at the HQ
* Improved clouds
* Added Sun / Moon
* Improved collision detection:
- Bullets / missiles now hit the landscape
so for todays weird and wonderful dev pics is all about the UI - options in particular
Here's a bit of a bitmap font (which will be assembled in the map editor)
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-28-at-07-26-32.png)
Can you tell what it is yet?
Everyone else stuff looks mighty fine
QuoteI've been having issues with my collision detection, trying to get it perfect but think I'll have to call it good enough or the rest of the game will not get finished! :o
Lol, yup, been having that fight too. Because my main character is bigger than my tiles I've been deciding a happy medium between what I allow as an overlap and what I don't.
p.s. nice work on the sky dithering shading.
Quoteok back on track.
Good good. Just make sure the pepper spray collision is enough to engulf the rage of "I HIT HIM!!! I HIT HIM!!!" :P
QuoteCan you tell what it is yet?
A retro console? - I have no idea with these puzzle things :P
QuoteEveryone else stuff looks mighty fine
There is some mighty fine looking stuff, can't wait to have a play. I've avoided posting any "spoilers" but I'm quite tempted to join the trend and may post a teaser video next week.
Here's the sound and keyboard binding screen with debug grid layout shown:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-28-at-12-41-22.png)
Quote
Good good. Just make sure the pepper spray collision is enough to engulf the rage of "I HIT HIM!!! I HIT HIM!!!" :P
I always thought more along the lines of I WAS ON THAT LADDER!! MOVE DOWN DAMN YOU!! ;D
Quote
There is some mighty fine looking stuff, can't wait to have a play. I've avoided posting any "spoilers"
Yep, sure is. Yeah, I've only posted an early WIP, and no more.
At the moment the bats (Captain Caverns arch enemy) needs hitting square in the teeth to blow up. Need to work on some explosion gfx though....
Quote* You can now "pickup" hostages and drop them off at the HQ
Choplifter ... love it! (looks awesome)
QuoteI always thought more along the lines of I WAS ON THAT LADDER!! MOVE DOWN DAMN YOU!!
Donkey Kong! lol (or Rodland! )
QuoteNeed to work on some explosion gfx though....
Me too
I have not even started on collisions and my missile(s) or explosion(s)
Still working on drawing my cheesy background graphics, and man oh man are they looking bad. (my cars will definitely get a laugh) ;)
Currently working on mouse controls for menus, plus keyboard support. NASTY!
More time spent with UI stuff than the actual game, Design, placement, interaction and more :'(
speaking about controls :
an important thing which has not been mentioned, is that, when you play some games, the controls are setup for a qwerty keyboard and therefore it is difficult to move forward/backward/left/right or up/down/left/right, if the keys are not positioned as they are supposed to (for example with a azerty keyboard)
So guys, please include at least a config text file, that we can edit to change the keys to be able to play without difficulties. Thanks !
Quotespeaking about controls :
an important thing which has not been mentioned, is that, when you play some games, the controls are setup for a qwerty keyboard and therefore it is difficult to move forward/backward/left/right or up/down/left/right, if the keys are not positioned as they are supposed to (for example with a azerty keyboard)
So guys, please include at least a config text file, that we can edit to change the keys to be able to play without difficulties. Thanks !
I was planning on use W-A-S-D for the movement, and it appears that the QWERTZ and QWERTY will have no problem being compatible with those.
The AZERTY will need a minor adjustment, having the Z replacing the W, and the Q replacing the A, so I will just try to make W or Z for up, and Q or A for left, with the S and D remaining the same.
That way the French should be able to play without needing a config file for input.
I guess letting them choose their own keys for key mapping would be best though, but I would rather code it for them to choose with the UI rather than have them manually changing a config file.
Quote from: iWasAdam on December 29, 2017, 11:30:47
Currently working on mouse controls for menus, plus keyboard support. NASTY!
More time spent with UI stuff than the actual game, Design, placement, interaction and more :'(
Can't agree more - it's a real chore. Fortunately I'm almost finished the UI - just need to make mini versions of the tracks for the track select menu and I can move on to a bit of polishing and bug fixing :)
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FVan%2520Tourisimo%2FVT_MAIN.png&hash=cdc16d766c66d532ba138cdfac267fe2ec7d1640) (https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FVan%2520Tourisimo%2FVT_OPTIONS.png&hash=ce82c8f9b928a805aa96d84147729b5125fd9574)
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FVan%2520Tourisimo%2FVT_PLAYERS.png&hash=387c0b0a859fc50a72897795a4f6c63ced880a54) (https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FVan%2520Tourisimo%2FVT_RACE.png&hash=99515522fbf05ea347117de409bf5cbcbd1b7c76)
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FVan%2520Tourisimo%2FVT_RESULT.png&hash=f636865b38c8b954fbb3b0978c9347db393c4880) (https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FVan%2520Tourisimo%2FVT_UPGRADE.png&hash=830387af7110478d33777208a9006701053934f5)
I see your Options allow for a 640 x 480 screen resolution.
Isn't that a rule violation of the 320x200 requirement?
And on a side note:
I guess I think of Arcade Machines when I think of retro games, so fancy menus for player options were not in my original plan.
Quote from: Conjured Entertainment on December 29, 2017, 17:45:32
I see your Options allow for a 640 x 480 screen resolution.
Isn't that a rule violation of the 320x200 requirement?
And on a side note:
I guess I think of Arcade Machines when I think of retro games, so fancy menus for player options were not in my original plan.
The screenshots are 640 x 480 with letter-boxing of 40 pixels above and below. The pixels are 2 x 2 and the movement is 2 x 2 so this is perfectly fine according to Qube. I allow for a max of 1280 x 1024 which gives me 4 x 4 pixels and movement and a letterbox of 112 pixels above and below.
They're hardly fancy. I tried to copy the 'Upgrade' one from the Arcade Super Sprint .. which is pretty retro imho.
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-MuIVJnz6f-M%2FUQjjz2Ch0WI%2FAAAAAAAAA-I%2FbTQsr4B9VS8%2Fs1600%2FSuper%2BSprint2.jpg&hash=135fd3e488b133a7697a4ca005ad6532a29fe8e5)
QuoteThe screenshots are 640 x 480 with letter-boxing of 40 pixels above and below. The pixels are 2 x 2 and the movement is 2 x 2 so this is perfectly fine according to Qube. I allow for a max of 1280 x 1024 which gives me 4 x 4 pixels and movement and a letterbox of 112 pixels above and below.
So, 320x200 virtual resolution does not refer to the size of the screen during game play?
So, we can use a 1280 x 800 resolution or other size, as long as it is a scale of 320x200?
I took the 320 x 200 as being the resolution for the game to be played in. ??? that changes everything
QuoteThey're hardly fancy. I tried to copy the 'Upgrade' one from the Arcade Super Sprint .. which is pretty retro imho.
Yeah, that's pretty retro (1986) even though it was released after the release of the third generation consoles like the NES in 1985.
It is also well after the arcade crash of 1983, so definitely not golden age arcade retro, but is it still very retro none the less being from the mid 1980's.
lol Any menu for player options is fancy to me when thinking retro. ;)
I think of games like Asteroids, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, etc, where you insert your coin(s) and choose 1 player or 2 player start button then it starts the action. (even the 2 player was turn based)
Not saying that the menus are not found in retro and semi-retro games, just that it didn't come to mind when I thought retro.
Quote from: Conjured Entertainment on December 29, 2017, 17:59:54
QuoteThe screenshots are 640 x 480 with letter-boxing of 40 pixels above and below. The pixels are 2 x 2 and the movement is 2 x 2 so this is perfectly fine according to Qube. I allow for a max of 1280 x 1024 which gives me 4 x 4 pixels and movement and a letterbox of 112 pixels above and below.
So, 320x200 virtual resolution does not refer to the size of the screen during game play?
So, we can use a 1280 x 800 resolution or other size, as long as it is a scale of 320x200?
I took the 320 x 200 as being the resolution for the game to be played in. ??? that changes everything
Yes. I plan to default to 1280x800/ full screen if the users machine allows. You must ensure that there are only 320x200 pixels visible, however they are scaled, and movement must be scaled based on the 320x200 virtual resolution. I added an option for per pixel movement which is turned off by default as against the rules as too smooth :)
QuoteYes. I plan to default to 1280x800/ full screen if the users machine allows. You must ensure that there are only 320x200 pixels visible, however they are scaled, and movement must be scaled based on the 320x200 virtual resolution. I added an option for per pixel movement which is turned off by default as against the rules as too smooth
Had I know this before, then I would have structured my drawing a bit differently, or even opted for image based sprites instead.
If I change my screen size now trying to scale it, then I end up with missing lines in my images.
All of my lines drawn are 1 pixel since I was working with the small size of 320x200, so when scaling up they are still 1 pixel which is half of what they should be.
I would have to go back and rework all of my code, so like I said, had I known this before, then... (but I am stuck with 320x200 now)
Quote from: Conjured Entertainment on December 29, 2017, 18:22:47
QuoteYes. I plan to default to 1280x800/ full screen if the users machine allows. You must ensure that there are only 320x200 pixels visible, however they are scaled, and movement must be scaled based on the 320x200 virtual resolution. I added an option for per pixel movement which is turned off by default as against the rules as too smooth
Had I know this before, then I would have structured my drawing a bit differently, or even opted for image based sprites instead.
If I change my screen size now trying to scale it, then I end up with missing lines in my images.
All of my lines drawn are 1 pixel since I was working with the small size of 320x200, so whn scaling up they are still 1 pixel which is half of what they should be.
I would have to go back and rework all of my code, so like I said, had I know this before, then... (but I am stuck with 320x200 now)
You could always write a simple line function which makes it thicker depending on resolution?
I wouldn't worry about it too much though. Windowed 320x200 was my original default - just remind users to hit Windows Key + Up Arrow to make the window fill the desktop.
Bitmap Font Day, and general tidying-up code...
QuoteHad I know this before, then I would have structured my drawing a bit differently, or even opted for image based sprites instead.
It's been brought up and clarified a few times in this thread :)
To clarify :
1.. 320x200 virtual resolution with up to 16 colours maximum for your entire game.
2.. Borders are allowed for retro / authentic reasons but gameplay must be within the 320x200 virtual resolution.
3.. Scaling up is allowed, for example 2x ( 640x400 ) 3x ( 960x600 ) etc.
4.. Scaled up images, movement and rotations MUST still act as if in a native 320x200 resolution. For example at 640x400 resolution each pixel is 2x2 and movement would also be x 2.
5.. Take extra care if applying rotations to avoid both bilinear filtering or native resolution rotations.
QuoteIt's been brought up and clarified a few times in this thread
Yeah, but I was going by the first post for the theme and rules thinking that any clarification/exceptions/changes to the rules would be included there.
I guess I should have known to read all 26 pages (at that time) of the thread for all the rules.
The theme and # 7 seemed to imply 320x200 only.
QuoteTheme :
Any game style using a retro virtual resolution of 320x200 and up to a 16 colour palette of your choice.
Rules :
1.. Must be all your own ( or teams ) work. I.E. no copyright media or available modified pre-built game templates.
2.. Game frameworks are allowed as are free / purchased media.
3.. Provide a Zip download with at least a Windows exe ( or link if an browser based game ). You can include other OS's too if you want.
4.. Syntaxbomb has zero rights to any work posted here. You / your team hold total control.
5.. Choice of language is totally up to you.
6.. * UPDATED * All entries must be in by 23:59:59 on the 20th of January 2018 GMT.
7.. Your retro style game does not have to fall within the capabilities of retro hardware. If you want to do a full on 3D game in a 320x200 res with 16 colours, then good luck.
8.. Prize to the winners payable via PayPal only.
Sorry that I misunderstood the rules because I did not read the entire thread, but instead went by the "rules" section of the first post..
I'll be sure to read the entire thread the next time.
Thanks for your explanation.
QuoteSorry that I misunderstood the rules because I did not read the entire thread, but instead went by the "rules" section of the first post..
Don't worry, you were not alone. In my head it was perfectly clear what a virtual resolution of 320x200 entailed in regards to scaling up and movement etc but I was wrong. Hence the two week extension on the comps deadline to the 20th of Jan.
When the next comp has been decided I'll make sure I don't make the mistake of assumption again :P
* first post updated too just in case we get any late comers *
No biggie
Like I said, I don't expect to win anything here anyway (especially with a buddy voting system), so it was just for fun.
It's just that in the other coding competitions I have participated in, when a resolution was specified it was actually the requirement for the resolution, and not a virtual guideline for scaling into other resolutions.
Not knocking it, just a first for me, so excuse my ignorance of your method of madness. :o (now I know)
Quote from: Conjured Entertainment on December 29, 2017, 23:20:32
Like I said, I don't expect to win anything here anyway (especially with a buddy voting system), so it was just for fun.
Come voting time it does not seem that way, see past Halloween comp. So keep it up and yes have fun or just for fun. (https://www.syntaxbomb.com/Themes/OrangeLine/images/post/thumbup.gif)
Adding to that and as a suggestion, a buddy voting system can be avoided if there's a set of criteria for voting..
1) Concept
How well does it match the theme?
2) Playability
Is it fun and challenging enough to play?
3) Visual impression
Does the art style suit the game?
4) Narrative
Does the game's story work and flow?
5) Replayability
Is it compelling and does it have high replay value?
6) Soundtrack
Does the audio fit the game?
7) Creativity
How creative and unique is the game?
8. Accessibility
How accessible is it to gamers with hearing, vision, cognitive or motor impairments?
...
9) Completion
Source (http://ukie.org.uk/content/ukie-student-game-jam-judging-criteria)
looks detailed so even just a few simple categories to choose from there and can be tailored based on the competition
Quote
Like I said, I don't expect to win anything here anyway (especially with a buddy voting system)
Come voting time it does not seem that way, see past Halloween comp.
Yes, the winner of the last competition was not well known here, but won anyway.
Personally I vote on playability first (how fun the game is to play) as a first requirement, and then the whole 'look and feel' of the game.
I'm going to use the arrow keys+space, and wasd+space as defaults and then allow for rebinding
the joystick is more involved as there can be up to 4 joysticks connected and they can move!!
Quote
I'm going to use the arrow keys+space
It seems the most sensible keyboard arrangement for this type of game IMO - I'm doing that as well. Plus a joypad option.
phew....!!!!!!
Had to track keyboard input, rewrite the keyboard text labels and dig about for enum codes.
But... Got the full user control keyboard rebinding working ;)
oh no!!! :( i have just realized that it will not be possible to add some gameplay elements in my game, due to the 16colors restriction... i am going to take a nap, ideas will come !
Hello,
rule clarification please :
Quote
Any game style using a retro virtual resolution of 320x200 and up to a 16 colour palette of your choice.
Quote
Your retro style game does not have to fall within the capabilities of retro hardware. If you want to do a full on 3D game in a 320x200 res with 16 colours, then good luck.
Quote
320x200 virtual resolution with up to 16 colours maximum for your entire game.
Can i use others colours to store datas, for example for a heightmap, or for a mask colour ? As long as they are not displayed in the game, and therefore not part of the 16 colours palette.
Please tell me, because i plan to load a heightmap (with many different greys...) in my game... but i can store it in a custom file if necessary...
Thanks,
Quote from: RemiD on December 30, 2017, 19:33:38
Hello,
rule clarification please :
Quote
Any game style using a retro virtual resolution of 320x200 and up to a 16 colour palette of your choice.
Quote
Your retro style game does not have to fall within the capabilities of retro hardware. If you want to do a full on 3D game in a 320x200 res with 16 colours, then good luck.
Quote
320x200 virtual resolution with up to 16 colours maximum for your entire game.
Can i use others colours to store datas, for example for a heightmap, or for a mask colour ? As long as they are not displayed in the game, and therefore not part of the 16 colours palette.
@RemiD: The limitation is only on displayed colors, everything else you mentioned is just data stored in memory.
Well, I guess it's time to lock and load my tank, because these freaking UFO's are starting to abduct people...
Quote from: RemiD on December 30, 2017, 19:33:38
Hello,
rule clarification please :
Quote
Any game style using a retro virtual resolution of 320x200 and up to a 16 colour palette of your choice.
Quote
Your retro style game does not have to fall within the capabilities of retro hardware. If you want to do a full on 3D game in a 320x200 res with 16 colours, then good luck.
Quote
320x200 virtual resolution with up to 16 colours maximum for your entire game.
Can i use others colours to store datas, for example for a heightmap, or for a mask colour ? As long as they are not displayed in the game, and therefore not part of the 16 colours palette.
Please tell me, because i plan to load a heightmap (with many different greys...) in my game... but i can store it in a custom file if necessary...
Thanks,
I hope so, 'cos I'm using 255,0,255 as a mask but never in game!?
Quote from: Conjured Entertainment on December 30, 2017, 20:27:09
Well, I guess it's time to lock and load my tank, because these freaking UFO's are starting to abduct people...
Excellent :)
:D
QuoteCan i use others colours to store datas, for example for a heightmap, or for a mask colour ? As long as they are not displayed in the game, and therefore not part of the 16 colours palette.
Please tell me, because i plan to load a heightmap (with many different greys...) in my game... but i can store it in a custom file if necessary...
On screen :)
Ok, good ! :)
Crap, this is hard!
So there 'could' be up to 4 joysticks, which may connect and disconnect at any time. and they could possibly change positions as well...
And there are buttons and hats and axes... OH MY!!!!
And... You need to be able to let the user set all of it up!
CRAP, CRAP, CRAPITY CRAP!!!!!
@iwasadam>>my approach : no keys configuration screen, a .ini (text) file, that the user can edit in case he does not like the default controls, easy, efficient, fast ;D
New car, caviar, four star day dream, think I'll buy me a football team!
Well, another day, another couple hundred lines of code. ;D
Well, while you guys were getting drunk last night, I was burning the midnight oil. :P (getting sick of drawing though)
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
QuoteYes, if we ran 320 x 200 on say, 1920 x 1080, the game would need a magnifying glass to play
You best be polishing your spectacles then laddie, because 320 x 200 is what you'll be getting since that's what they asked for. :-*
@Conjured>>maybe it is fast enough to create a 640x400 image by drawing 2x2 rects which correspond to the colors of the 320x200 render ? (not tested)
Scaling the image using a texture applied on a quad which fills the whole window, produces some "shaking" of the final render here, not sure why (the texture is power of 2 and corresponds to the image, with pixel precision, the quad mesh fills the whole window, precisely...)
It behaves as if the render of the textured quad does not capture the stretched texture the same way, and since there is a slight offset between one render and another, it produces this "shaking" effect... weird...
Oups, found the problem, fixed ! 8)
@Conjured Entertainment
Looks great, kind of an old MS-DOS game - I'm tempted to add a UFO now to my game!
Can I take the little UFO home? Please... I'll look after it, and feed it, and clean up after it? Pleeeeese...
Todays progress report is:
Grey a nasty dark skies here, rain pelting down :[
ini load and save of user defied keys and joystick handling now finished.
Need to add more mouse tracking of menus and joystick tracking to menus as well. but all else fully functional :)
@Conjured Entertainment: Looking good. How do you make those movie clips?
QuoteLooks great, kind of an old MS-DOS game - I'm tempted to add a UFOs now to my game!
Thanks
I am finally getting a chance to create some game play logic, so hopefully I can start working on other levels soon, so I can mix styles.
That is of course dependent on my finishing up in time, so the levels will probably be very basic in order to have more than one level for a variety of game play styles. (i had better stop having so much fun so time will stop flying though) ;)
Your UFO is sooo much better than mine.
Your looks a lot like one of the designs of Nikola Tesla's flying machines (http://cdn.theeventchronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/tesla-ufo.jpg)
I would do some of that fancy shading if I were creating mine in a paint program rather than code, but the deadline and my late start forces me to stick to basics.
Quote@Conjured Entertainment: Looking good. How do you make those movie clips?
Nothing special, just using FRAPS (http://www.fraps.com/) and Window's Movie Maker. (WMM is included with your Windows OS)
I usually use a different program for movie editing, but it does not like the FRAPS videos so I use WMM for FRAPS stuff.
FRAPS could not keep up with the sync() rate of the AGK drawing commands though (and I tried bunches of different sync rates), and it kept causing a bunch of unwanted noise in the videos, so I had to set the capture at Half-Size, and then it got rid of the noise.
However, at half-size capture it gets fuzzy when viewing it at full screen, but it still gives the general idea.
Quote from: therevills on January 02, 2018, 08:01:37
@Conjured Entertainment
Looks great, kind of an old MS-DOS game - I'm tempted to add a UFOs now to my game!
You're a bit of a dab hand with the old pixel art Therevills - excellent stuff :P
@ Conjured Entertainment,
To draw all that in-code and produce sounds in code is very impressive. When we're done I'd be interested to see how you got the sounds working. I'm not sure why but I've never taken to modellers or 2d art programs so always like to do things in code myself for more control. I do save them out for later use though.
Very impressive!
@Qube>>what happens if several participants have the same number of votes ?
On the old blitzbasic french forum, when this happened, there was a new vote for the participants having the same number of votes, but this can quickly becomes complicated when members which have voted, then disappear...
Well, nothing is perfect i suppose
Quote from: Conjured Entertainment on January 02, 2018, 13:57:05
I would do some of that fancy shading if I were creating mine in a paint program rather than code, but the deadline and my late start forces me to stick to basics.
I really like the style your in-code art looks, I remember doing that back in the day on the Amstrad and I also did that at college using Turbo Pascal.
It takes me ages to get the images looking right and animated, that little UFO took me over an hour to draw and animate! I couldnt get the rotating lights looking correct and I'm a bit OCD on those kind of things! :o
Nice UFO ;D
Quote@Qube>>what happens if several participants have the same number of votes ?
If it comes to that then we could :
1.. Share the prize fund ( has the down side that the winner gets less than 2nd place )
2.. Based off date of submission ( could be controversial )
3.. Redo voting ( but as you said, it could get messy )
Thanks for the compliments guys.
AGK makes it easy. ;)
QuoteI'm a bit OCD on those kind of things!
Yeah, I have OCD, and ADD.
So, everything has to be perfect, just not for long. :P
Quote@Qube>>what happens if several participants have the same number of votes ?
If it comes to that then we could :
1.. Share the prize fund ( has the down side that the winner gets less than 2nd place )
2.. Based off date of submission ( could be controversial )
3.. Redo voting ( but as you said, it could get messy )
Not that my opinion matters, but I would opt for #1 out of those options.
Seems the fairest, and the least controversial, not to mention the odds of it happening are slim anyway.
To avoid the problem of them getting less, you could combine 1st and 2nd, or 2nd and 3rd depending on tie for 1st or tie for second, then split.
Since there are two of them in first, that seems to be for the top two slots anyway being two people.
Second place being 3rd from the top in votes would be bumped to 3rd place, and 3rd would be bumped to 4th since they had the fourth highest number of votes.
Just my two cents, if it makes any sense. :D
So,
1) 250
2) 150
3) 100
4) 0
would become
1)200
1)200
3)100
4) 0
if tie for first
or
1)250
2)125
2)125
4) 0
if tie for second
or if tie for third then
1) 250
2) 150
3) 50
3) 50
Still the top 3 number of votes would be getting the prizes, with a additional winner if 3rd has to split.
Ties get equal amounts without getting less than the guy with less votes below them.
QuoteNot that my opinion matters
Of course it does :)
I'm sure we'll sort something out if we end up getting multiple entries tying for a place ;D - Worst case scenario I'll chuck some more money in :P
if our opinion matters, i suggest to not allow a participant to vote for himself... This would better distribute the votes...
Quote from: RemiD on January 03, 2018, 07:11:06
if our opinion matters, i suggest to not allow a participant to vote for himself... This would better distribute the votes...
Sounds good to me :)
testing, debugging, testing, fixing, debugging, playing, debugging, playing, testing, testing, testing.....
oh and youtube, pandas... testing
Quote from: iWasAdam on January 04, 2018, 08:07:19
testing, debugging, testing, fixing, debugging, playing, debugging, playing, testing, testing, testing.....
That is one fantastic example of a hobby game coders experience - Except a few expletives and the obligatory mouse and keyboard violence should be thrown in for authenticity :P
Quoteoh and youtube, pandas... testing
Yup, I've done the "I'm talking a break and going on a Youtube ride"
On my side, i have managed to add the gameplay elements that i wanted, however since one of the gameplay element relies on positionning items (buried in the ground) using a "number of walking steps" * a "walking step distance" (distance traveled during an animation of a walking step), it will work only if the FPS is high enough (around 30fps), so i take the bet that it will work on most computers which are recent enough, since the graphics are basic. (but i am not sure ^_^)
Not idea how i can do it another way...
The method i currently use is that i have a premade animation of walking steps (left/right), and in order to have the movement and animation speed appear constant, i multiply these speeds (movement and animation) by a "speedcoeff" which is calculated depending on the time it takes to go through a mainloop ( SpeedCoeff = Float(30) / 1000 * MainLoopMilliTime ) . So the movements/animations are done depending on the time, which is good and works well.
However, since the speedcoeff is variable, the distance traveled during a walking step is also variable, and since i use an average distance traveled during a walking step (at around 30fps) to position the items (buried in the ground), the positions will be messed up if the fps is too low (not around 30fps), but it should work on most computers which are recent enough
The idea is that player must reach a specific area on the terrain with a given orientation (using a compass), given walking steps, far away marks to find (using a spyglass), then look for a shining effect and digg at this position... (and find the hidden item buried in the ground!)
Make sure it doesn't become a chore to complete if you can't figure out the 'right' way....
My recent addition is all about slippy bananas... NOT WORKING!!!!!
If you require FPS then you do something wrong.
Physics/Logic <> Rendering
Just split things apart and it will work however you want it - and if it is Singleplayer it should even work with "hickups" or 1 FPS and only 1 Physics Update per second - as you do not have to rely on the passed time but only on the processed time - which in the best case equals to the realtime (but also might run more often to catch up after a hickup).
For now I stopped dev of my compo game: the bigger project consumes way too much time and keeps me more motivated than doing a christmas game for 20th of january... I doubt that I continue doing so.
Saying this I want to give you some hints to use more colors: As some of you know C64 you might know games having 1-2 more colors. How do they do that? They just _flash_ with two colors. So odd frames get color 1 used, and even frames get color 2 used.
On a 60Hz display you will have some colors "flickering" more than others. On a 144Hz (and a 144fps rate) you wont have flickering at all.
So in my game I prepared my framework to split images into "palettes of 2". Each image was stored two times: one with the palette A and one time with palette B. All colors existing in my 16-color palette stood the same in both images. But if a color was not existing in the 16-colors-palette then the idea was to use the two allowed colors which created together ("overlayed"/mixed) the most similar color. The calculation was done using an algorithm far superior to simple RGB-distance calculation - it uses perceived color difference distance.
The computation is done during loading and could be processed easily as 16 colors * 16 colors isn't much to check for such pixels - and if you cache results you are even faster.
Next step was to extend my sprite class to automatically handle this issue: so a 16+color sprite was automatically "flashing" the alternating versions to _simulate_ more colors. If you took a screenshot of the game then you only have 16 colors - take it one frame later and the game uses other colors (still within the limited _static_ 16 color palette). Only during live view / video you would see the correct colors.
I intended to use that thing for special effects which are not on screen everytime - like fire particles, snow, ... Also "glitter" of snow on tiles could have used that as a "flickering" would be still OK (snow glitters when walking by).
The source code of the game is available there:
Licence is libpng/zlib
https://github.com/GWRon/SantaGame (https://github.com/GWRon/SantaGame)
checkout "tests/tower_algorithm_ron.bmx" if you want to check the "tower" itself (sorry, this is prototype code there, so not everything is clean OOP or structured well).
https://github.com/GWRon/SantaGame/blob/master/source/game.gamecolors.bmx (https://github.com/GWRon/SantaGame/blob/master/source/game.gamecolors.bmx)
https://github.com/GWRon/Dig/blob/master/base.util.color.bmx
contains the color-stuff I was talking about. Maybe this is of use for someone (C*IELab color distance).
I also prepared some Santa-animations but never finished nor uploaded them to github - sorry dudes.
A real pity you extended time frame so much: it pretty much destroyed every motivation to keep coding on it. At least I found some bugs in my framework by doing this prototype. Aside of that I think there are so much good looking projects presented there, I would not have had a chance to win more than a greeting card ;-)
bye
Ron
Quote
If you require FPS then you do something wrong.
Physics/Logic <> Rendering
Just split things apart and it will work however you want it
I have already read/heard about that, but never tried, can you give me more details, please ?
However even if i separate the logic/physics and the rendering, if the physics/logic takes too much time to calculate (which is not the case in my game), i suppose that the same problem will occur : the lowest the UPS (updates per second), the lowest the precision of movements/turns/animations, isn't it ?
Instead of
x :+ dx * millisecondsPassed
y :+ dy * millisecondsPassed
render(x,y) 'might take long
you do the movement in Update() and the rendering in Render().
Then your engine must make sure to call "updates()" as often as desired within a second - and _if_ there is time left between the updates, you render as often as possible (or better: as desired, so it allows a FPS limit to lower power consumption).
For this you should read about "delta timer" - there are a lot of things posted in this forum, on other forums - and for BlitzMax mine (github.com/GWRon/Dig) and others wrote code already - surely adoptable for the language you are using.
@ what happens if logic cannot get processed fast enough
For multiplayer network games you cannot just slow down the game without affecting others: so you often "skip" renders then, ignore "input" of the user for a while - or lag the player out if he never can catch up properly.
BUT -- we are talking about a single player game. You can just "slow down" everything. So instead of relying on "Millisecs()" (time passed since computer start) you have your own "stop watch". So you could "fast forward" without trouble, or "slow down" if desired.
Means your physics would need to use _your_ time for its calculations. If you passed the physics the same time every time, then nothing should "happen". During your update loop you then adjust "your time" accordingly. Normally you add what passed "realtime" since last update()-call. But if something is running very slow for a moment (cpu hogging or so) then you could run update() multiple times with a fixed "step up" - or "update()" could call the inner code multiple times.
So instead of having
update(5000ms since start)
'hogging cpu for 2500ms
update(7500ms since start)
you have to do this (assuming a fixed rate of 100 updates per second):
update(5000ms processed yet)
'hogging cpu for 2500ms
update(5000ms + 100 ms)
update(5100ms + 100ms)
...
update(7500ms processed yet)
Your logic needs to catchup.
To make this work you need to use the above explained detaltime: You define a speed "per second" and according to the "portion of a second passed" you move in "baby steps" (speed * fractionOfSecond). Sa 100 pixel per second at 100 updates per second means moving by 1px per update call.
bye
Ron
all good info :]
For todays in dev pic we have those ever-present dangers: Bananas
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/slip.gif)
Don't worry about missed animation frames, I am just using default capture settings.
Looks like there is an X wandering around. maybe try and catch it?
plus there is a nasty platted/dropped banana, don't get too close or someone might slip! And once you start to slide, who knows where you will stop?
QuoteFor todays in dev pic we have those ever-present dangers: Bananas
...
Looks like there is an X wandering around. maybe try and catch it?
plus there is a nasty platted/dropped banana, don't get too close or someone might slip! And once you start to slide, who knows where you will stop?
sweet
i don't understand the advantage to have more updates of logic/physics than renders ?
The benefit is, that the object still moves correctly, collides with elements, ... without the need of rendering fast enough.
Imagine you move a bullet by 1000 pixels a second ... how to recognize each collision correctly? Instead of requiring 1000fps to be able to collide with 1px thick items you need to update physics 1000 times a second.
Above is a exaggeration, for the thin-paper-issue are other solutions available.
Just think of this: a render is a snapshot of the current world. An Update is the simulation of the world.
If you close your eyes, the world still continues moving - but you wont see it happening, the more often you "blink" with your eyes (or the longer you keep them open...) the more fluent the world changes will be recognizeable for you.
A ship is flying from left to right? With eyes open 3 short times for 10 minutes you see it "left, middle, right". But if you open it 5 short times, you see it "left, left-middle, middle, middle-right, right" and so on.
bye
Ron
Quote from: RemiD on January 04, 2018, 21:05:21
i don't understand the advantage to have more updates of logic/physics than renders ?
Have a look here: http://www.koonsolo.com/news/dewitters-gameloop/
Dewitter goes thru a lot of the pros/cons of a few different ways of separating the logic and render.
Quote from: Derron on January 04, 2018, 12:00:08
For now I stopped dev of my compo game: the bigger project consumes way too much time and keeps me more motivated than doing a christmas game for 20th of january... I doubt that I continue doing so.
Sorry to hear that Derron :( Totally understandable - maybe continue/finish for next Christmas :)
Thanks for the explanations guys, i will do some tests later (not motivated to rewrite all the code now...)
@Derron - Aww no!! I was really looking forward to playing your game. Is there no chance you could finish in time? :(
Quote
maybe it is fast enough to create a 640x400 image by drawing 2x2 rects which correspond to the colors of the 320x200 render ? (not tested)
answer : no ! it is too slow to do that, on my computer it takes around 52ms to read the colors of the 320w200h image and around 26ms to write the colors (4pixels for each 1pixel) on the 640w400h image ! (using readpixelfast and writepixelfast)
Whereas, with a texture stretched on a quad, without bilinear filtering, it takes less than 1ms to render the textured quad and create 640w400h image ! (and the result seems accurate, i have checked in an image editor)
Agreed about Derrons game. Maybe drop the santa and just make normal character?
For todays update. Got the monsters to drop bananas when they die - sometimes
testing, testing, demo enable, testing, map edit, testing!
Just done an initial Windows compile test (Mac OS is the dev platform)
First debug run everything compiled and ran top rate with no issues. even the chipsynth was fully operational with a slightly snappier sound.
So looks like an identical Mac OS and Windows release :P
I cannot replace Santa - as the whole game was intended to be a joke of a fictional (but cult) b-movie we have in TVTower: "Santa against the Magma Dwarfs".
As I provided the source code you can still compile it on your own (except Adam, who has trouble with BlitzMax on his Mac ...) to see the rotating effect in action (which looks pretty decent I think). I could compile some binaries (windows, linux, mac) too if one cannot do this on their own.
Maybe I somewhen get bored enough to continue - but I have other prototypes with a bit more advanced assets and code still waiting to get "completed" (and Trick Or Sweets is something I wanted to evolve too).
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FXqcDNbL.png&hash=3275031af5d651bf970cc7d37cccbafeb5744ff2)
Hmm, seems I am already paying for a rocknmole.de domain ... another reason to finish that too somewhen. Excuse the derailing - and that psychopatic looking mole ;-)
bye
Ron
@Derron>>i would have been curious to see what you can achieve "from scratch", maybe try to do the best you can with the time you have.. You may surprise yourself on what you manage to create (i have already surprised myself about what i have managed to create, even if it's rather basic, it is more than nothing ! (i had no motivation to code a few weeks ago...)
Quote
I haven't coded anything in months (and i don't plan to...)
Nah, the problem is: some dozens of users await a new version of the other game, and they now already waited for a long time (since competition start). I just need to avoid split my spare time - especially with so much good looking stuff competing with lil' santa :-)
Think I would prefer some kind of "shorter time frame" for competitions. As it enforces _me_ to include less stuff in a game. Preparation of stuff for the santa game was already taking "weeks" of sparetime-evenings. I would have saved time if the 16col retro limitation was not existing. Seems I underestimated work needed for make such stuff work "within the rules".
The whole pixel-painting stuff (I wanted to do way more than a bit of tiles or some basic figures) was yet to come ...and I think this would be the more fun stuff than coding debugging coding debugging. I remembered why I sometimes preferred to model things in Blender rather than do the "boring coding stuff" (not the prototyping-it-works-stuff but the frameworks, basics, ... stuff).
Benefit is: I could vote for other games without bias (I avoided giving a vote in the last competition because of this). So give your best so you can receive Derron's vote :-).
PS: I wonder how many entries of the "silent users" will come. I expect some will show interesting and surprising stuff.
bye
Ron
Quote
I wonder how many entries of the "silent users" will come. I expect some will show interesting and surprising stuff.
I hope so ! I am curious too...
wip screenshot of the day :
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frd-stuff.fr%2Fwip-joints-put-on-the-position-of-specific-texels-201801031245.png&hash=a760014a263b99c2a9552c25b4b5249e695a2af4)
This shows "joints" which are positionned at specific texels positions (in Fragmotion with a linepick-like functionality), so that i can then easily retrieve the 3d position of these texels, in the 3d game world.
There are others ways to do it, but this way is simple and quick, so i did that...
Basically, i named each joint with a name similar to the texels (words) that are associated with it, and then i use the name of the texels (words) to retrieve the wanted joints, and then be able to get the 3d position.
QuotePS: I wonder how many entries of the "silent users" will come. I expect some will show interesting and surprising stuff.
I'm a silent user submitting an entry ;D
It is a shame you can't finish your game off though. It wouldn't bother me if it was Christmas based in anyway at all. If you can't finish it off then is there a chance you could polish it off and release it in Dec 2018 as a community gift or something? - Would be a great shame to not have it as a complete game to enjoy.
for todays stuff: it's all about the levels:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/screen-shot-2018-01-07-at-08-48-59.png)
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/screen-shot-2018-01-07-at-08-49-14.png)
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/screen-shot-2018-01-07-at-08-49-41.png)
Each one hand crafted and tested and tested until everything works smoothly...
3 difficulty levels from hard to really hard
That looks really nice... I don't like it :P - looks fun and I look forward to having a play. Really, really nice work judging from the screenies ;D
Thanks Qube, the extra time has allowed me to really polish and get things meshed very well. I can spend lots of time tweaking and pushing things around to make them work.
I think one thing that has happened is all the separate bits from different projects all coming and fitting together on this: Graphics editors, sound, sequencer, map tools, etc. Everything coming together properly :)
If you have a vision, don't think it "Can't" be done. Believe in yourself and ignore the doubters.
@iWasAdam>>this looks almost ready for the steam store ? 8)
@All>>i don't plan to add a menu, because the goal is to make a game isn't ? not a configuration screen... So there will be an .ini file to change some options like the scale of the graphics window, the volume of sounds, the keys, but that's all...
For a very simple program, can you please tell me if this is the right approach to create/update/delete each section of the program ? (initialization, title, introduction, game, score, credits/thanks, end)
;the initialization (creation of globals/lists and loading of fonts/images/meshes/textures/joints/animations/sounds) is done at the start, before the mainloop
;in the mainloop, the "ProgramState" manages which section is made/updated, "SubState" manages which step of a section is made/updated
;at the end, all is destroyed/freed
Function UpdateProgram()
If( ProgramState = CTitle )
If( SubState = CCreate )
;create title screen
Else If( SubState = CUpdate )
;update title screen
Else If( SubState = CDelete )
;delete title screen
EndIf
Else If( ProgramState = CIntroduction )
If( SubState = CCreate )
;create introduction
Else If( SubState = CUpdate )
;update introduction
Else If( SubState = CDelete )
;delete introduction
EndIf
Else If( ProgramState = CGame )
If( SubState = CCreate )
;create game world
Else If( SubState = CUpdate )
;update game world
Else If( SubState = CDelete )
;delete game world
EndIf
Else If( ProgramState = CScore )
If( SubState = CCreate )
;create score screen
Else If( SubState = CUpdate )
;update score screen
Else If( SubState = CDelete )
;delete score screen
EndIf
Else If( ProgramState = CCredits )
If( SubState = CCreate )
;create credits screen
Else If( SubState = CUpdate )
;update credits screen
Else If( SubState = CDelete )
;delete credits screen
EndIf
EndIf
End Function
Thanks !
Yes, that looks very nice Adam. I hope it plays well.
nice simple controls:
left/right/up/down + drop bomb
Lots of time spent at beginning getting movement right with ladder tracking, so you can move left right when you drop, auto ladder locking so you just have to be near a ladder not 'exactly' on the ladder to go up/down.
Went online to see what the general idea of platforms was in regard to this. And the main gripe was Not being able to use ladders, etc unless in very specific place.
My Mantra (which is always on my mind) is 'easy to play, difficult to master'. And yes a lot of maps have sweet spots.
Difficulty settings affect a whole lot of different things, some monsters and things only appear in higher settings. Plus, on Maniac the maps have a very different look:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/screen-shot-2018-01-07-at-11-17-32.png)
Just Don't stand still!!!
@ RemiD. You are using blitzMax?
Here's my complete ini code which work on win and macOS:
'**********************************************
'****** Minifile.bmx
'**********************************************
SuperStrict
Import brl.map
Import brl.stream
Import brl.retro
Import "AppFuncs.bmx"
?win32
Global App_SupportDir:String = ExtractDir(AppFile)+"/Resources/"
?MacOs
Global App_SupportDir:String = GetAppSupportDir()
?
Global App_IniFile:String = ""
Type TIni
Field map:TMap=New TMap
Method Init()
End Method
Method SetKey(section:String, key:String, value:String)
Local submap:TMap
' Print "value="+value
submap:TMap=TMap(map.valueforkey(section))
If Not submap
submap=New TMap
' Print "section inserted "+section
map.insert section,submap
EndIf
' Print "key inserted "+key
submap.insert key,value
EndMethod
Method GetKey:String(section:String, key:String, defaultvalue:String)
Local submap:TMap
' submap:TMap = TMap(map.valueforkey(section))
submap = TMap(map.valueforkey(section))
' If submap Then Print "submap ok"
' Print "Searching for ["+section+"] "+key
If Not submap Then
' Print "Bad []"
Return defaultvalue
End If
' Print "submap:ok"
If Not submap.contains(key) Return defaultvalue
' Print "submap key:ok"
Return String(submap.valueforkey(key))
EndMethod
Method ContainsKey:Int(key:String, section:String)
Local submap:TMap
submap:TMap=TMap(map.valueforkey(section))
If Not submap Return False
If Not submap.contains(key) Return False
Return True
EndMethod
Method Save:Int(url:String, useAppDir:Int)
' Print url
If useAppDir Then
' Print "URL="+url
' Print "AppFile="+AppFile
' url = ExtractDir(AppFile) + "/../Resources/" + url
url = AppFile + "/../Resources/" + url
Else ' create an app support dir if needed
Local dir:String = ExtractDir(url)
' Print "createdir="+CreateDir(dir)
End If
If Not(useAppDir) Then
' Print "Creating dir " + ExtractDir(url)
CreateDir(ExtractDir(url) )
End If
' Print "saving ini file: "+url
Local stream:TStream
Local section:String
Local submap:TMap
Local key:String
Local started:Int=False
' Print "write ini url=" + url
stream=WriteStream(url)
If Not stream Return False
' Print "write ini:ok"
For section=EachIn map.keys()
submap=TMap(map.valueforkey(section))
If Not submap.isempty()
If started stream.WriteLine("")
stream.WriteLine("["+section+"]")
For key=EachIn submap.keys()
stream.WriteLine key+"=~q"+String(submap.valueforkey(key))+"~q"
Next
started=True
EndIf
Next
stream.close()
' Print " ok"
Return True
EndMethod
Function Load:TIni(url:String, useAppDir:Int)
If useAppDir Then
url = ExtractDir(AppFile) + "/../Resources/" + url
Else ' create an app support dir if needed
Local dir:String = ExtractDir(url)
' Print "createdir="+CreateDir(dir)
End If
Local ini:TIni
Local stream:TStream
Local s:String
Local section:String
Local sarr:String[]
Local key:String
Local value:String
Print "loading ini file: "+url
' Print "read ini"
stream=ReadStream(url)
If Not stream Then
ini = New Tini
ini.Save(url, False)
' Print "read ini:bad"
ini=New TIni
Return ini
End If
' Print "read ini:ok"
ini=New TIni
While Not stream.Eof()
s=stream.ReadLine().Trim()
If s
If s[0]=Asc(";") Continue
If s[0]=Asc("[") And s[s.length-1]=Asc("]")
section=Mid(s,2,s.length-2)
Else
sarr=s.split("=")
If sarr.length=2
key=sarr[0].Trim()
value=sarr[1].Trim()
If value<>"" And key<>""
If value[0]=34 And value[value.length-1]=34
value=Mid(value,2,value.length-2)
EndIf
' Print "load "+section+" "+key+" "+value
ini.setkey(section, key, value)
EndIf
EndIf
EndIf
EndIf
Wend
stream.close()
Return ini
EndFunction
EndType
it might help you. or at least give you somewhere to begin.
The ini file itself is exactly the way windows operated:
header
key
value
Looking good Adam.
@Qube, I'm curious to know what will the process be for uploading the games?
Quote@Qube, I'm curious to know what will the process be for uploading the games?
When your game is ready then you create a post in this thread about the game ( outline of your game and instructions of how to play ) and provide a link to download ( or attachment if it'll fit ). If you have nowhere to upload your game then let me know and I'll provide FTP details to host it here. You could also create a post in the showcase forum all about your game and then link to it in this thread as your game entry.
Your game upload / link should contain at least a Windows exe or a web link if it's just a browser game. You may also include links / uploads for other OS's. Source code does not have to be included. If 3rd party libraries are needed to run your game then provide clear instructions of where to download / install any 3rd party libraries like OpenAL.
Quote from: Qube on January 07, 2018, 14:47:21
Quote@Qube, I'm curious to know what will the process be for uploading the games?
When your game is ready then you create a post in this thread about the game ( outline of your game and instructions of how to play ) and provide a link to download ( or attachment if it'll fit ). If you have nowhere to upload your game then let me know and I'll provide FTP details to host it here. You could also create a post in the showcase forum all about your game and then link to it in this thread as your game entry.
Your game upload / link should contain at least a Windows exe or a web link if it's just a browser game. You may also include links / uploads for other OS's. Source code does not have to be included. If 3rd party libraries are needed to run your game then provide clear instructions of where to download / install any 3rd party libraries like OpenAL.
Cool - thanks. I have a pretty strict download limit on my webspace (200mb per day) so if I can upload that would be grand.
QuoteCool - thanks. I have a pretty strict download limit on my webspace (200mb per day) so if I can upload that would be grand.
No problems, just PM me a couple of days before you want to upload your game and I'll send you FTP details :)
Quotefor todays stuff: it's all about the levels:
Looking great!
I am finally finished a basic level 1, and now I am onto level 2, which is "out of this world"!
Today's task... Making a sound effect for the level transition, and then onto the Bonus Stage.
Keep it up guys ;)
About ini files for configuration :
Do you expect that the parameters/values written in the ini file (in text), respect a specific formating, and if not, what do you tell your program to do ? Show an error message ? write a new ini file with correct formating (with default parameters/values) ? use default values ?
for example if the content of my ini file is like that :
;make sure to respect the formating [parameter]=value ;comment
[graphicsscale]=1 ;1 or 2 or 3
[soundsvolume]=1.0 ;between 0.0 and 1.0
[keymoveforward]=z
[keymovebackward]=s
[keymoveleft]=q
[keymoveright]=d
[keyresetstepscounter]=w
[keyusespyglass]=x
[keyturn180]=c
should i expect the formating to always be correct ? (because the user can modify it, and make errors), and if the formating is not correct and the program can't find the expected parameters/values at specific lines, maybe show an error message, and write a new ini file with default parameters/values, and use default values for the current game ?
Thanks,
how to set "left control" as key? Do not think that people _know_ the abbreviation you are using: so place such special chars in the comments.
Do never assume an error free config file: either throw an error message or print an error and use the default value.
Aside of an .ini you could use a simple .xml too.
@ programme states
I do not like that twisted if...then.if...elseif...elseif.else.endif.endif.endif ... chains.
There is a mechanism called "Finite State Machine". The idea is, that each individual state results in one specific action. So in our case "state = MAINMENU" is always handling mainmenu (update, render), "state = GAME" will handle a game and so on.
This means you will never have a
- if a ....
-- if b
-- elseif c
-- endif
--elseif d
--endif
but only a switch/select statement and some cases.
IF you used that, you could even store the functionality in an array with the array indices being state-IDs/numbers. This would abstract your whole "if then else"-logic into a "function = functions[state]"-thingy.
the "which function to use"-logic would no longer need to know about what states the system might have, it just does, whatever is defined to get done.
Maybe I cannot express well enough now but you surely have read about "scene management". Imagine there could only be ONE scene at the very same moment. Best thing is to call it "activeScene". A "Scene Manager" class could take care of transitions (fading out, in,...) and running special "DoStart", "DoEnd", "DoPrepare" functions when a scene is set to be the next one and so on). Now think your "states" are "scenes". Et voila... there you go.
Instead of this mess of "if then else" you define somewhere, that you want to move to "Menu Screen" (or state...), it does not matter if you are now in "game over screen", "game screen" or "network lobby" screen. No need to "if ... then else".
So you tell the "Scene Manager" (or Screen Manager ... or however you name that) that you want to have the "Menu Screen"-object as next one. Manager is then taking care of transitions (calling "Fade Out" on the current one, "Face In" on the next one, updating both, rendering both). Is the transition (or a timer or however you want it to handle that) completed, the "activeScene" gets set to the next one and the "nextScene" to null.
When it comes to updating/rendering the Manager just updates and renders "activeScene" and "nextScene". No need to have Ifs and Elses or Switch/Selects.
Here comes a cool sideeffect: If you pass the information/object "activeScene" to "nextScene" during transition (FadeIn), and "nextScene" to "activeScene" (FadeOut) they could handle on their own if they need a special fade effect - eg. fading from "Game to Game-Options" might need to only fade a "game screen" ignoring an Game interface/Hud - while fading to the Main Menu would fade the whole screen.
Using this abstractive method of a Scene Manager and "active/next scene" (or screen ... you got it) allows to keep things basic and to extend right at the individual object/scene/screen instead of doing the whole thing within these "if then else"-chain.
bye
Ron
@ RemiD
if I recall the base ini format is:
[SECTION]
KEY1 = STRING
KEY2 = STRING
etc
If you are using the /ini.bmx I posted, then you just need to update the section/key/string when you want. it can be read and set any time.
It only need to be loaded and saved when you need it to be (usually at the start and end of the app - it will handle all of the writing/reading for you)
@Derron>>yes i have seen that some use many different states, but in the end, if it works, it is the same thing...
My question was more, how do you do it in your games.
Thanks for your advices.
Quote
if I recall the base ini format is:
[SECTION]
KEY1 = STRING
@IWasAdam>>Oh ! it seems that i confused a section and a parameter.
I have read your code, but your coding style is a little confusing to me, so i coded my own procedures to write/read an (my) INI file...
My question was more about checking the formating of the INI file (since it can be modified by the user, with missing lines or errors), and filtering input values, and what to do if some parameter/value is missing or if a value is not what is expected...
I learned about the necessity to filter input values (from users) when coding in php, because some hacking/cheating can be done this way... (or simply provoking errors/bugs)
Today's mission was adding a Bonus Stage. ::)
Bonus Stage = Memory challenge of things yet to come ???
Sounded just like the type of madness that my game needed. :D
Just when it was working great and I thought "that was easy enough", it dawned on me that I used the mouse pointer for input.
That is definitely not retro, so I have to re-work the inputs tomorrow to simulate joystick controls. grrrrrr
QuoteIF you used that, you could even store the functionality in an array with the array indices being state-IDs/numbers. This would abstract your whole "if then else"-logic into a "function = functions[state]"-thingy.
the "which function to use"-logic would no longer need to know about what states the system might have, it just does, whatever is defined to get done.
That is what I like to do... use arrays for flags and all other kinds of data
Usually multidimensional to cover all the variables that an object (set of objects) would need.
I still end up with nested if statements though. ( I usually make spaghetti code, but I got some sauce to make it tastey )
QuoteI learned about the necessity to filter input values (from users) when coding in php, because some hacking/cheating can be done this way... (or simply provoking errors/bugs)
That is why I prefer to have the user options controlled in code, for controlled input, rather than in a separate file to be manipulated.
I'll be creating a file to save the high score for this one, but I probably won't encrypt it.
So, they can make the high score any number they want, but since I convert the string to an integer, if they try to enter something other than a number then it will fail to provide anything other than a null value.
QuoteJust when it was working great and I thought "that was easy enough", it dawned on me that I used the mouse pointer for input.
That is definitely not retro, so I have to re-work the inputs tomorrow to simulate joystick controls. grrrrrr
What's wrong with that? :) - Most ( if not all ) 8-bit computers had a 3rd party mouse option.
Yep. I'm using the mouse to set the key/joystick mapping as this is the quickest and easiest way to do it...
No visual updates today... But lets just say I've got something up my sleeve that needed some very sneaky Cos and Sin and a different rendering system...!!!
Hmm, I needed sinus cosinus and their friends too ... might you need my Santa then?
Make sure that when "scaling" textures on a virtual resolution canvas the scaled-down-pixels might be less than "virtualPixelRatio * virtualPixelRatio" (means "smaller" than allowed).
bye
Ron
canvas is 320x200 pure pixels (no sub pixels, etc) so the rendering is always correct.
I recently changed the core rendering to make sure the canvas was 'exact' and not interpolated
OK Derron, you got me - guilty as charged... Here's the proof:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/tower.gif)
QuoteWhat's wrong with that? :) - Most ( if not all ) 8-bit computers had a 3rd party mouse option.
A: I am not going for retro PC but for retro arcade, and the arcade machines I remember did not have them for the users.
Of course, since this is ported to PC I have to make a few exceptions like the coin drop, since our PCs don't have a coin mechanism, and I am currently using 4 buttons to simulate the joystick.
I may include joystick inputs for PC version so a real joystick can be used if one is connected, and definitely a virtual joystick if I have time to port this to Android devices, but I am trying to stick to the basics yet give the feel of playing on an arcade machine.
So, instead of just point and click with the mouse, you should have to navigate a selector overlay using the keys that are used to simulate the joystick (or navigate using a real joystick).
I may wait until later to change this though, since I am pressed for time, and I still have at least 2 more levels to do.
My game is lame enough for the game play since the graphics are consuming all of my time, so trying to make it as retro as possible may be my only chance at getting a vote.
That looks pretty nifty Adam 8)
Guess I can reveal my up and coming game now with a single screen shot :P
Introducing... The Last Ginger Ninja ( title may change yet )
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/images/TLGNSS01.png)
Ginger Ninja - Love it!!!
Heres a tip for the text. use a black border all round the text to make it \pop\
QuoteHeres a tip for the text. use a black border all round the text to make it \pop\
That's just thrown in at the moment so it functions. Might be using a different font for it yet, depends on time. Lots to tweak and do yet :)
Quote from: Qube on January 09, 2018, 14:50:31
That looks pretty nifty Adam 8)
Guess I can reveal my up and coming game now with a single screen shot :P
Introducing... The Last Ginger Ninja ( title may change yet )
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/images/TLGNSS01.png)
Excellent. Don't change the name!! ;D
Lol good stuff. And yes don't change the name.
Lol, OK I'll keep the name :) - With hindsight though I should of gone for static levels as building long scrolling ones is a time sucking experience :P
@ Ginger
Color palette looks nice - think water could improve "texture" wise. also the ground-texture has some kind of "pattern" which should be easily broken apart by some randomness. Think you are already aware of this.
I like the bloody trap and the green tile-part (because I like that lime-green color).
@ Adam and the rotation
In my santa prototype I made two "radiuses". The background has radius "r" (for your sinus calculation) while all "level tiles" had a tower-radius of "r + x" (so eg. 1.0 and 1.1). This results in an "offset" making it look a bit more "3D".
Also I had "side" sprites for the tiles - so eg. your ladder would have a "side barren"-sprite which gets more and more visible the more it lands on 90° from the POV. That way you can even add details which would be hidden when not rotating.
Do not see above as "Must have" but more as a "suggestion" or "brainstorming idea" of with what I had come up.
The cool thing of that sin/cos-approach and even the various radiuses is: if you want to have a "flat view" you just disable that whole shebang and voila... classical "wrap-around"-planar-view-sidescrolling-jumpnrun.
BTW: I was able to code the rotation rather quick - what took time was to correct offsets of the tiles (so FLOAT-INT did not result in "offset-jumps") Needed to take care that the visible black borders stood similar "wide". And what took the longest was a "so la la" working collision-detection and handling (jumping on things, autojumping when reaching steps, ...). I really recognized that I have no clue about jumpnrun-engines.
But arghh ... glad I skip this competition now - too much nifty stuff to compete with.
bye
Ron
Quotethink water could improve "texture" wise. also the ground-texture has some kind of "pattern" which should be easily broken apart by some randomness. Think you are already aware of this.
Very aware :P - The tile set in the image does need work and I will be redoing the water animation tiles and fixing the pattern underneath the grass. Although when it's all scrolling along it doesn't look as noticeable.
I don't like the clouds either but right now I just need to get the game done and then use left over time to tweak bits and pieces.
The game is not all based on the outside tile set you see in the image. Currently I have three tile sets for the levels but hope to squeeze in one or two more.
QuoteI like the bloody trap and the green tile-part (because I like that lime-green color).
Thanks, they are animated too. Nothing spectacular but look better when moving.
QuoteGuess I can reveal my up and coming game now with a single screen shot :P
Introducing... The Last Ginger Ninja ( title may change yet )
OMG! How offensive! :o
Quotethink water could improve "texture" wise
Are you crazy? His water looks great!
QuoteThe cool thing of that sin/cos-approach and even the various radiuses is:
Yes, what Cosby did was a Sin, but I fail to see what that has to do with radiuses.
Just kidding :-*
QuoteOMG! How offensive! :o
I'm ginger, so it's OK :P
Quote from: Qube on January 10, 2018, 02:00:35
QuoteOMG! How offensive! :o
I'm ginger, so it's OK :P
So the little guy in your screenshot is you? ;D And your game is a true story... :P
QuoteSo the little guy in your screenshot is you? ;D And your game is a true story... :P
LMAO, brilliant!! - Yes, that is exactly it :P
Bonus Levels now operational. Just need to get everything together now...
All the bits and pieces, levels, systems, and sections all working in one harmonious lump!
Hello,
Today i have finished to code my config.ini file loader/checker to be able to get custom values from the user (to configure some things for the program like the graphics scale, the sounds volume, the kind of keyboard used (qwerty or azerty), the keys wanted for controls...), and i have added checks to make sure that the ini file exists, can be opened/read, that all lines are here, that all parameters are here, that all values are correct/allowed.
if yes,
use the custom values for the program
if no,
display a message with errors
write a new ini file with default lines/parameters/values
use the default values for the program
If you are curious, i challenge you to make it crash in some way : rd-stuff.fr/config.ini-loader-checker-201801101843.7z
(i may not have thought of every weird modification that a user can make...)
Surprise me ! ;)
For me, today was all about thrust.
Tomorrow will be about lasers or missiles, etc..
@ RemiD
Not crashing (why should it) but resulting maybe in some trouble:
make sure to respect the formating : parameter=value ;comment
RenderMode=2 ;1 is for normal render, 2 is for scaled render (use 2 for this competition)
ScalingFactor=1 ;scaling of the 320x200 view, 1 or 2 or 3
SoundsVolume=-0.0005 ;volume of the sounds, 0.0->1.0
KeyboardKind=qwerty ;azerty or qwerty
KeyMoveForward=w ;a key between a->z
KeyMoveBackward=s ;a key between a->z
KeyMoveLeft=a ;a key between a->z
KeyMoveRight=a ;a key between a->z
KeyResetStepsCounter=a ;a key between a->z
KeyUseSpyglass=a ;a key between a->z
KeySelectVisualizedMaterial=c ;a key between a->z
KeyShowHideListOfFoundItems=l ;a key between a->z
- multiple movements use the same key
- -0.0001 for sound (if you use that in calculations it might result in trouble)
When using "é" (with accent) as one of the keys, the game reports all keys as incorrect.
bye
Ron
@RemiD Quick question about the key mapping. in Derrons code there is
Quote;a key between a->z
for using keys. What if you wanted to use shift or numbers or the keypad or space or alt, etc?
Quote from: Derron on January 11, 2018, 07:07:19
@ RemiD
Not crashing (why should it) but resulting maybe in some trouble:
make sure to respect the formating : parameter=value ;comment
RenderMode=2 ;1 is for normal render, 2 is for scaled render (use 2 for this competition)
ScalingFactor=1 ;scaling of the 320x200 view, 1 or 2 or 3
SoundsVolume=-0.0005 ;volume of the sounds, 0.0->1.0
KeyboardKind=qwerty ;azerty or qwerty
KeyMoveForward=w ;a key between a->z
KeyMoveBackward=s ;a key between a->z
KeyMoveLeft=a ;a key between a->z
KeyMoveRight=a ;a key between a->z
KeyResetStepsCounter=a ;a key between a->z
KeyUseSpyglass=a ;a key between a->z
KeySelectVisualizedMaterial=c ;a key between a->z
KeyShowHideListOfFoundItems=l ;a key between a->z
- multiple movements use the same key
- -0.0001 for sound (if you use that in calculations it might result in trouble)
When using "é" (with accent) as one of the keys, the game reports all keys as incorrect.
bye
Ron
Personally, I think if someone is stupid enough to use the same key for multiple movements they deserve what they get!! I wouldn't be checking for this - it's not a commercial game after all.
@ Adam
I asked this already...some posts above, talking about "left control" and the likes.
@ Stevie G
It does not matter how stupid people are - I did not ask for "you might not reach all necessary keys with just two hands" when doing an "left ctrl" + "F5" + "Num-Enter" thingy. I just asked for a duplicate check.
It is rather easy to do ... just check all keys versus each other.
And yes, especially with special keys it happens faster than you think that you add two times a "space" or "ctrl".
BTW make sure that "alt" (especially ALT not "ALT GR") might trigger OS specific things (like a window context menu or so).
bye
Ron
Quote
- multiple movements use the same key
i have not checked for this possible error, and this is indeed something important to filter, so i will add that (thanks!)
Quote
- -0.0001 for sound (if you use that in calculations it might result in trouble)
the sounds volume must be between 0.0 and 1.0 (increment 0.1), so your value would report an incorrect value or use 0.0
Quote
What if you wanted to use shift or numbers or the keypad or space or alt, etc?
you won't be able for this demo/game, nothing dramatic...
The goal is that users with a qwerty and azerty keyboards can play.
But i have just found an old code that i made in the past which uses a better approach (which can work with all kinds of keyboards), it asks the user to press a key that he wants for each action.... (so it takes the keycode, not the letter/number/symbol of the key)
I will probably use that to configure keys... otherwise, people with others keyboards won't be able to play! (not sure if there are such members here, but this is a better approach anyway!)
Quote
BTW make sure that "alt" (especially ALT not "ALT GR") might trigger OS specific things (like a window context menu or so).
and same thing for the "Windows" key, the "tab" key, the "F1->F12" keys
Nope ... F-Keys are application specific. Tab-Key is application specific too.
You only need to take care of: Windows Key, "Task menu"-Key (the one left of the r-ctrl), "FN"-Keys on notebook keyboards (if you even could read them in BBasic). Maybe "Num-Lock" is something else to consider.
L/R-Control,
L/R-Shift
TAB
Capslock
they could be used by you.
Exception are user based custom hotkeys (in my Linux box I could add custom shortcuts for certain thingies...)
bye
Ron
Well, on a recent computer that i have tested my programs, there is a default configuration which inverts the necessity to hold the "Fn" key to access special functionalities on the F1->F12 keys, so you can still use them, but it will be confusing to use them if Windows os is triggering others functionalities (increase/decrease volume, increase/decrease luminosity, activate/disactivate wifi, etc...) if you don't hold the Fn key, especialy in windowed mode...
I ignore the 'window' key crap entirely as Windows keeps jumping in at the OS level, so you can't do much about it >:(
Here's the setup screen I use for the keyboard assignation:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/screen-shot-2018-01-11-at-10-50-59.png)
I provide defaults for arrow keys and wasd. You just click a key (or definition) and press the keyboard. I am not tracking duplicate keys, so if you do that, you will need to go back and redo it...
Add an "assistant" button - for mouse-less configuration.
Assistant ask for all keys ...each after another. Similar to Atomic Bomberman did.
bye
Ron
QuoteI provide defaults for arrow keys and wasd. You just click a key (or definition) and press the keyboard. I am not tracking duplicate keys, so if you do that, you will need to go back and redo it
Your options menu looks great to me.
I would not waste any more time on it at this point. ::)
After all, the is a 'code a game' contest, not a 'code a GUI' contest.
How many more levels could you have built for you game had you not even fooled around with this??
Nice feature, looks/functions great, get back to the game already! ;)
Same advice for the ini file.
took about 3 days to complete the UI along with getting the joystick internal stuff to operate correctly and pass the correct stuff into the game. I'm actually parsing it and then converting to virtual keys and using the keyboard routines...
Here's the joystick part:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/screen-shot-2018-01-11-at-15-04-11.png)
This was a bit more involved as it had to signal back when a joystick was removed and pick the correct one, etc. It's not perfect, but good enough ;)
How many levels??
In all there are 40 levels although 10 are reused as tower levels and 4 reused as bonus levels. The bonus levels and tower levels are very different in use though.
levels are split into 8 zones of 5. The last zone is the retro version and is unlocked as is the first zone, then other zones are unlocked as you play.
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/screen-shot-2017-12-20-at-07-38-51.png)
showing locked levels
and
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/screen-shot-2018-01-11-at-15-12-22.png)
this is the zone screen with all unlocked
there are 3 difficulty levels, with the levels increasing as you play with varying affects. So even the retro levels can become tower levels at higher difficulty levels...
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/screen-shot-2018-01-11-at-15-14-56.png)
Circles aside of difficultyselection is 1 pixel taller than the text. I would suggest lowering (and narrowing) it by 1 pixel - or increase it by one, so it centers properly.
I know it is just a minor, but I am a nitpicker :p
PS: if there is time, add "animated fonts" - While it does not work for single letters (because of low resolution) you could animate "words" eg. with liquids, waves ... in it.
This is not just for Adam but all of your game coders. "Animation" allows to add "movement" to the low resolution - which allows for details which are not possible in static images.
bye
Ron
There are no "level" in my game, it is more "free roaming" in one big map, with hidden items, and several gameplay mechanics/tools in order to find the areas where there are...
QuoteIn all there are 40 levels although 10 are reused as tower levels and 4 reused as bonus levels.
Okay ignore what I said because you have more than enough already.
Quote"Animation" allows to add "movement" to the low resolution - which allows for details which are not possible in static images.
Absolutely!
Even just 4 frames is better than static.
QuoteThere are no "level" in my game, it is more "free roaming" in one big map, with hidden items, and several gameplay mechanics/tools in order to find the areas where there are...
Nice
Zelda was my first encounter with hidden rooms and stuff, and man did we used to love playing that game.
I only have a couple levels and they are very basic.
I wish I had just used images for sprites instead of drawing everything because drawing is sooo time consuming, but oh well, it is too late to turn back now, so i must trudge on with the tedious chore.
However, I will be using regular images for my sprites in the next competition, so hopefully I can get up to the graphic standards that you guys are setting here.
I have always been "graphically challenged', so it probably won't be much better than what I can draw in code, but every little bit helps I guess. :-[
Quote
I have always been "graphically challenged', so it probably won't be much better than what I can draw in code
i have made a 3d (mini) game with 3d colored shapes made only with code, so i understand the trial/error to get the results that you want. But with a good modeling tool (like Fragmotion) or a good image/texture editor tool (like photofiltre/photoshop) it is easier, quicker, more precise.
If you are mostly interested in making 2d games (and therefore you only need images/textures), i suggest that you buy an android/ios tablet with a dedicated pen.
I have drawn/painted the mountains/statues/rocks/plants in my game using "photoshop touch" on an android tablet with a dedicated pen. It is easy and quite precise to draw this way.
Then you have to do some "clean up" using another image editor to remove some unwanted pixels and make sure only wanted colors are used (for this competition only), and also position the image appropriately in a power of 2 texture area (if you need textures... for sprites/quads)
And since you use a tablet, you can be anywhere, you don't need to stay near your desktop computer...
Tried a tablet too but delay was too visible.
Switched to an HP EliteBook then - with Digitizer, already way way smoother (using "Sketchbook Pro" there - but of course you could draw in Inkscape/Illustrator too, getting vectors saves the hassle of anti-aliased outlines).
My Santa-Pixel-Sprites were drawn using a very cheap 9" drawing board the UGEE M708 (~30 Euro). It is a classic drawing board, so you do not draw on the display. While it is certainly not for my little son (who prefers to see where he draws) I seem to be able to "learn" to come along with it. The delay is nearly not visible and drawing feels "smoother".
Pen of the HP was drawing "more silent" or hmm felt "softer". Seems the tips differ much between the "wacom digitizer pen" of the HP and the "chinese brand". But I did not want to pay 100 bucks for trying out the smaller wacom boards.
Sorry for going offtopic.
bye
Ron
I'm a wacom dude here. been using them for years and there is nothing (and I mean NOTHING) better.
Check them out here (intros pro medium for me):
http://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/pen-tablets/wacom-intuos-pro (http://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/pen-tablets/wacom-intuos-pro)
Qube apologies for the plug and link
Quote from: iWasAdam on January 12, 2018, 07:33:18
I'm a wacom dude here. been using them for years and there is nothing (and I mean NOTHING) better.
Check them out here (intros pro medium for me):
http://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/pen-tablets/wacom-intuos-pro (http://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/pen-tablets/wacom-intuos-pro)
Qube apologies for the plug and link
Wacom here too, Intuos 4 medium. With Clipstudio Paint. But I made the mistake to test Clipstudio Paint on the Ipad Pro. Damn, I need one.
Nothing feels better and is more mobile than this!
Quote
Tried a tablet too but delay was too visible.
to decrease the delay :
->reduce the width/height of the image (i usually draw on a 1000x1000 area or 1500x1500 area, so now major delay)
->increase the zoom
I don't like wacom tablet because you don't see what you are drawing/painting directly...
Amazing results can be achieved using a touch tablet with a dedicated pen (i have a samsung galaxy note 10 + S pen)
But it is a matter of training/skill, see :
youtube.com/watch?v=xCqoDmZs-4I&t=05m20s
youtube.com/watch?v=QaU-L1aBglI
(personally i prefer photoshop touch than sketchbook, but each his own preferences...)
QuoteQube apologies for the plug and link
Is you takin da piss :P
You talking to me? I'm feeling seriously focussed right now... Lavate Las Manos...
Animated text - check...
QuoteIf you are mostly interested in making 2d games (and therefore you only need images/textures), i suggest that you buy an android/ios tablet with a dedicated pen.
I have drawn/painted the mountains/statues/rocks/plants in my game using "photoshop touch" on an android tablet with a dedicated pen. It is easy and quite precise to draw this way.
Then you have to do some "clean up" using another image editor to remove some unwanted pixels and make sure only wanted colors are used (for this competition only), and also position the image appropriately in a power of 2 texture area (if you need textures... for sprites/quads)
And since you use a tablet, you can be anywhere, you don't need to stay near your desktop computer...
I mix 2d and 3d, and I already have the tools like fragMOTION and Paint.NET
It is a matter of being born with artistic talent vs. working hard to develop skills. (I lack the natural talent and am very slow at developing the skills)
I don't usually do my graphics by drawing in code, it is just something I am doing for the contest, since a lot of the retro stuff back in the day was done that way. (but a lot better than mine of course)
start with something you feel comfortable with and work from there.
I find the best way to start is with an idea and cubes! then do a mini test and work from there. cubes is a great place to begin with collision, etc. use them as a placeholder and drop graphics (lamination can come later, etc) in when you feel the need...
Don't be afraid to ask for help as well - even if you don't get it, you might get ideas and support
:)
Quote
It is a matter of being born with artistic talent vs. working hard to develop skills
for 2d (drawings/paintings), you can use an innate talent to make something nice, but for 3d it is much more difficult to make something nice if you don't have enough understanding/skills of modeling/uvmapping/rigging/skinning...
However keep in mind that there are several methods to achieve a result, and that if you are not interested in making high details realistic graphics, i know a method to quickly modelize/uvmap/texture a 3d shape by modeling it depending on the drawing. (weird isn't it ? i have seen this method on the Anim8or forum)
Anyway !
Another day, another couple hundred lines of code.
Lasers, and missiles, and collisions, oh my!
Almost done with this level, just need to count the damage to take a life when the need arises.
Right now it's all about points, and you can see that a bump into a UFO can cause a nice metal scrape in point damage.
it's a pity you aren't using a more open codec. WMV can only be viewed on windows
Quote from: iWasAdam on January 13, 2018, 07:04:36
it's a pity you aren't using a more open codec. WMV can only be viewed on windows
VLC Media Player \o/ - Plays WMV files pretty good. I do find that 1080p+ / high bitrate WMV files only play in Windows perfectly though. Same with MOV files on OS X. VLC will play them but as soon as you go full on HD / 4K then only QuickTime Player will do the trick. Not a huge fan of WMV or MOV formats and prefer MP4 / MKV.
Todays update is...
Testing is now finished (I think)!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Compiled for windows and macOS and everything went flawlessly with the same files!
MMMM Need to get an icon now...
QuoteTesting is now finished (I think)!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cor, good on ya if you are at the final testing stage 8)
Just before Christmas I had a shed load of work pile in which ground my game to a compete stop :'( - Here we are, 7 days left to finish it off and I honestly do not know if it's going to be possible. I'm cutting every corner possible and outputting some really dodgy code / work arounds.
7 days left, two appointments next week which suck up most of the day + what ever comes through from clients as "critical, must be done now etc etc". I could do with a month left, not a week :P. Ah well, lets see what happens. Minimal sleep and go for it :P
Quote from: Conjured Entertainment on January 12, 2018, 22:21:22
Another day, another couple hundred lines of code.
Lasers, and missiles, and collisions, oh my!
Almost done with this level, just need to count the damage to take a life when the need arises.
Right now it's all about points, and you can see that a bump into a UFO can cause a nice metal scrape in point damage.
would be nice to see the UFO's explode though :)
Can I get explosions in AND a UFO.....? anythings possible... 5 days to go
Quote from: 3DzForMe on January 13, 2018, 09:37:44
Can I get explosions in AND a UFO.....? anythings possible... 5 days to go
5 days? i thought it was a week left?
8 days left (a little less, starting from today)
I am working on the boring stuff : managing the different states (sections) of the program, merging all my codes together, testing / debugging / fixing / improving...
Then i will have to create a few more drawings, then tweak the images to have textures, then tweak the gain / volume of sounds, then check that there are only 16colors total in the renders, then it should be finished. (even if i have decided to not add all the things / gameplay mechanics that i wanted, but hey, it's better to have something simplified and functional than nothing...)
Did all the boring crap (menu's /sounds / music and game flow) a few weeks back and have been adding and tweaking since. Now have 12 tracks (last one below). Had a good 2 player test last week and have organised another later today. Hopefully just a few minor tweaks / balancing and I'm good to go :D
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FVan%2520Tourisimo%2FVT_TRACK12.png&hash=936ea3046e8ca97527c862a2cad433c79b4fea95)
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FVan%2520Tourisimo%2FVT_TRACK_SELECT_2.png&hash=64bc8955346104c6b32c4a9b9811eeface0229a2)
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FVan%2520Tourisimo%2FVT_RESULTS_2.png&hash=efa746462170cf8a5f2c8db51a2eead03df441e5)
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steviegoodwin.plus.com%2Fimages%2FVan%2520Tourisimo%2FVT_UPGRADE_2.png&hash=81999ddc104765ebe1f561f7d22bb5a80be12060)
Stevie G raises the bar, :)
Quotewould be nice to see the UFO's explode though
Are you trying to tell me that you don't already know that with their advanced technology they have a force field that prevents substantial damage? :P (hence the deflection of energy from the impact of my missiles)
QuoteStevie G raises the bar
Yes, very nice and very retro.
Quote from: Conjured Entertainment on January 13, 2018, 18:58:48
Are you trying to tell me that you don't already know that with their advanced technology they have a force field that prevents substantial damage? :P (hence the deflection of energy from the impact of my missiles)
i had no idea, my bad!
Sorry Stevie G, your entry is invalid. I forgot to mention in the rules that racing games are banned... *shifty look* did he fall for it? :P
okay doky. First i've turned off autocorrect < cause is creeps chinging whot ove ritton...
Got an Icon and changed things:
(https://vjointeractive.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/icon.png)
@ Stevie G I Love that track selection screen - Sweet!!!
Quote from: Qube on January 14, 2018, 01:38:57
Sorry Stevie G, your entry is invalid. I forgot to mention in the rules that racing games are banned... *shifty look* did he fall for it? :P
Wait until you play it first - it can be quite tricky for beginners but it is easier to play than the original Super Sprint on the Atari ST.
Actually, I've just checked the colours on all my graphics and it flagged that all my tree stumps are 90,70,45 but should be 95,70,45 so it nearly was invalid :o
Screenshot your app and run "$ identify -format %k screenshotname.png "
It will print the amount of colors used - helps quickly identifying some trouble.
Of course you always could do a static palette in your game and check all loaded assets if they comply.
bye
Ron
Disaster strikes...
Looks like I won't get a chance to finish my game in time :( - Since after Christmas work has piled in from clients resulting in very little time spent on my game. With only 5 days left I'd be really struggling to finish it even if I had those 5 days free. I'm pretty peeved to say the least but you have to pay the bills first I guess.
I will finish my game and post it here but it's 99% looking like it's not going to be part of the comp :'( #bollocks
Quote from: Qube on January 15, 2018, 05:09:17
I will finish my game and post it here but it's 99% looking like it's not going to be part of the comp :'( #bollocks
Same here :(
Mine's far from completed.
The WIP screenshot of your game '
The Last Ginger Ninja' looks
really good; you've already put a lot of work into it. But, as you said, sometimes other demands on one's time can and must take precedence.
In a few days I'll upload a video of what I've done so far. For me, it's not for lack of time - I've had
plenty of that. It's just I've been low on energy and enthusiasm this time around. No other excuses!
BasicBoy.
--
OK. I think I've got an issue as well! Possible 17 colors in the sprite sheet. I'm doing some analysis and will report. Also writing a quick color count and replace system for the sprite editor.....
@ Adam
If you are able to read BlitzMax-Code - and I assume so, then just check out my color-algorithms in the SantaGame-github-repository. This allows to programmatically fit colors to the given 16 color palette using CIE L*a*b color difference (perceived color difference rather mathematical RGB-distance). Should be easy to translate into Monkey2-code.
A pity it seems nobody was interested in adding fake-colors as I described some thread-pages ago (alternating 2 colors results in a "maybe flickering"-color mix - the more "perceived color"-similarity they have, the less it flickers)
bye
Ron
It's a palette issue with the sprite editor. I'm working on a fix, just got the color counting operational. now doing the palette lookup.
Just been checking the palette code and I've already written a FindNearestColor YAY!!!!
Final report. Color counts are now correct, with added routines to sprite editor :)
Still plugging away regardless on me little game. Thought I'd share a video of world 1 level 1 :
For some reason it recorded the colours a little washed out... typical.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5I6isxhdRQ
Looks cool Qube, lol@GN climbing the ladders! Love the little animations! ;D
I'm still plugging away, but having to cut features etc. Added my HUD last night.
I've got issues with my scrolling and ints, for some reason they are now jumping a bit but I dont have time to fix it :o
Qube that looks very stylish - more like an Amiga game! How many map cell width and height do you use for each level?
Definitely looking forward to all these new toys to play with :)
@ Qube
I would increase collisionbox for "collecting" (compared to "getting hit"). Collecting stars should be easier than getting hit. In your video you nearly jump "through" stars.
Also movement seems a bit "sharp" (less "smooth" than seen in Super Mario or other classics). Maybe decrease "gravity" a bit (or add "friction"). Hmm Looking at the video again: movement seems to be "linear" instead of "initial jumpEnergy fighting against gravity".
Water animates a slight bit too fast imho.
"Bloody spikes" seem to skip animation frames (might be the video recording). It looks as if they move 2px up, nothing, 2px up, nothing ...
The ladders could benefit from having a "dip" on the top. Light is falling in "holes" so the top center should not be "black" - or maybe "normally lit" (exposing the background used in the surroundings).
If there is time (might be after the compo) you could add some variations to the bushes: just replace the fruits color with something else.
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FvcADwXH.png&hash=32eb035623d99a53fd48ce6d885a2182561f544a)
Nahh, boy! use the toilet! :-)
Ok, enough of blaming, flaming and nitpicking: it looks really colorful/vibrant. Above "negative remarks" are just there to make it even better.
bye
Ron
Looks very nice Qube.
So...
1.. Collision with tiles wrong
2.. Movement wrong
3.. Jumping wrong
4.. Water wrong
5.. Spikes wrong
6.. Ladder graphics wrong
7.. More variation of graphics needed
Did you like anything at all? :P
I won't be able to finish the game in time for the comp deadline, let alone time to tweak things :( - I will finish the game though as I spent a long time on getting it going before Christmas ( until I got shat on with loads of work ).
QuoteHow many map cell width and height do you use for each level?
Each tile is 20x20. Mainly so it fits in 320x200 as to begin with it wasn't going to be a scrolling platform game ;D
EDIT - Forget to add, the widest level is over 500 tiles in width. It's only a left / right platform scroller, no up / down.
QuoteScreenshot your app and run "$ identify -format %k screenshotname.png "
It will print the amount of colors used - helps quickly identifying some trouble.
My only color problem was that one time I had a user error in the code with a simple typo.
That has been corrected and all the use of colors are now restricted to the 16 colors because I made variables for the rgb values so no typos could happen again.
I take a screenshot with the PrntScr key on the keyboard and then paste that from the clipboard into Paint.NET.
Then, with the Color Picker on the tool bar I can examine the RGB values of any single pixel.
Everything checks, so I will have to dispute any method of checking that says my game is using more than 16 colors.
Quote
OK. I think I've got an issue as well! Possible 17 colors in the sprite sheet. I'm doing some analysis and will report. Also writing a quick color count and replace system for the sprite editor.....
Technically, true black (0,0,0) is not a color, because black is the absence of color.
I still count my true black as one of the 16 colors used, just saying.
don't get smart with me.... :P
black (0,0,0) is a color (in rgb terms)
If black was no color, then white too - as it is the state of "all colors together". And if the world has had only 16 colors, then 0 of these 16 would be black and 16 of 16 would become white :-).
Of course only when using additive color mixing.
Ok, so white and black would be no color. Gray is a mixture of black and white. Each mixture of "not a color" and "not a color" results in "not a color". Greeeat, we could use at least 255 tones of black-to-white plus 16 colors. :P
@ Qube
I only judged the video, so excuse that I was not able to find something bad on the gameplay :-)
Also my "hints" were not made to expose any show stoppers, they were just annotations for the "sugar on top". And this is either doable after the compo (if work is continued on it) or if there is some spare time left.
Is the jumping a linear movement or did my eyes cheat me? If so your upwards movement could be done by using a simple initial velocity ("jump energy") which fights the always existing gravity. If you are on a ground tile your downwardsmovement is "blocked" (but it would still "exist").
bye
Ron
QuoteIs the jumping a linear movement or did my eyes cheat me? If so your upwards movement could be done by using a simple initial velocity ("jump energy") which fights the always existing gravity. If you are on a ground tile your downwardsmovement is "blocked" (but it would still "exist").
The jumping and falling are none linear and do have an effect of gravity. I think it doesn't show too well in the video and also in game the acceleration / deceleration needs slowing down a little. It's in there, just not set right yet.
QuoteAlso my "hints" were not made to expose any show stoppers, they were just annotations for the "sugar on top". And this is either doable after the compo (if work is continued on it) or if there is some spare time left.
I know :) - The video is the game in it's raw format and tweaks / polish have been done to nothing.
Well, I'm at a point where Its working and there is a whole bunch of things I wanted to add, but just won't get time for them.
Under Linux it seems to be working well, but seems to stutter a bit under Windows (But that might just be my old laptop). I also had a weird rendering issue on Windows where 640x400 resolution was corrupted... Never seen that before so I've removed the graphic mode from being selected for the time being.
This is NOT the final version, but if you want to give it a go. Here it is (Version1.0 beta) (http://itspeedway.net/uploads/Fungicide/fungicide.exe).
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fitspeedway.net%2Fuploads%2FFungicide%2F16_Jan_2018_1092533130.png&hash=ca743d522f5bbe22f0dae8980438f6e83dee8dee)
Quote
don't get smart with me.... :P
black (0,0,0) is a color (in rgb terms)
Seriously, 0 is nothing and if it has no R no G and no B, then even in RGB terms it is not a color because it has no color, and is therefore the absence of color even in RGB.
Quote
If black was no color, then white too - as it is the state of "all colors together".
No, white is the combination of all colors in the light spectrum.
In RGB terms 255,255,255
So, true white is a color because it contains the maximum values of R, G, and B, so it has the most color possible in an RGB combination.
I know true black counts as a color used in the contest, but technically true black is not a color, even in an RGB combination.
QuoteWell, I'm at a point where Its working and there is a whole bunch of things I wanted to add, but just won't get time for them.
lol
Me too man, and I am scrambling to get at least 1 boss thrown in at the end.
If I run out of time, then I guess I will have to make the last level unbeatable, and convince people they need to try harder to get to the boss. ;D
I really like that silhouette of the city in the background.
They can really save time, yet still have a great effect.
I really like your gradient effect for the sky too. (very clever method used to comply with the color restriction)
Here's a short YouTube video of 'Xmas Courier' - very unfinished. I won't be submitting it into the compo, but perhaps I'll get it finished in time for Christmas :D ;D
Good luck to all those who
do submit a game! I will be voting, of course.
BasicBoy.
--
Quote from: Conjured Entertainment on January 16, 2018, 21:46:58
Seriously, 0 is nothing
In Java 0 is not null... null is null.
Quote from: BasicBoy on January 16, 2018, 22:16:14
Here's a short YouTube video of 'Xmas Courier' - very unfinished.
Looks good... although the screen rotation actually gave me a bit of motion sickness! :o
I suspect I may not be in the running for a win... but I hope to submit my entre' sometime today ;)
Quote from: 3DzForMe on January 17, 2018, 00:46:17
I hope to submit my entre' sometime today ;)
You still have a few days to refine your entry :)
Hi,
The deadline of this competition is approaching.
:)
I think that there should be many good entries in this competition!!
;)
I suggest that participant can also make a thread about his entry in the showcase sub-forum! For example:
https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3606.0.html
If participant do that, more members can know the details of his entry easily. In addition, more members will download and enjoy his game!
Thank you very much!!!!!!! Good Luck!
:D
@Qube>>simple but funny animations :)
@BasicBoy>>intriguing gameplay, i am curious
I hope to finish my game in time, but i still have a lot to do... tic tac tic tac tic tac
youtube.com/watch?v=f5qICl3Fr3w&t=01m38s
Quote from: Conjured Entertainment on January 16, 2018, 21:46:58
If I run out of time, then I guess I will have to make the last level unbeatable, and convince people they need to try harder to get to the boss. ;D
I multiplied the level by a random number and generated that many enemies in my initial code with the intent of crafting the levels later. I'm not going to get time to do that crafting, but the current way makes the game stupidly difficult after about level 6! ;)
Quote from: Conjured Entertainment on January 16, 2018, 21:46:58
I really like that silhouette of the city in the background.
They can really save time, yet still have a great effect.
I really like your gradient effect for the sky too. (very clever method used to comply with the color restriction)
:) Thanks. That gradient was drawn by hand because I couldn't find an algorithm to draw one I was happy with.
Quote from: 3DzForMe on January 17, 2018, 00:46:17
I suspect I may not be in the running for a win... but I hope to submit my entre' sometime today ;)
I joined in for the fun and not the prize (which looking at the other entries it's just as well), but I'm looking forward to playing all the entries this weekend.
Quote from: RemiD on January 17, 2018, 07:29:31
I hope to finish my game in time, but i still have a lot to do... tic tac tic tac tic tac
I've disabled several parts of my code because I simply don't have time to get them working the way I wanted. I've implemented replaceable weapons via powerups for example, but it's buggy. Unlikely it will be seen along with two other enemies and an online High Score system. Maybe I'll finish it at some later date.
I won't make the competition deadline because I've been far too ill (and still am ill even now).
When I'm up to it I'll complete the game though.
Even for a "mini" game, the amount of time/energy it takes to make it is incredible ! ???
"ideas are easy, implementation can be difficult"
Quote
I've disabled several parts of my code because I simply don't have time to get them working the way I wanted.
well, the problem i have at the moment is that my whole game is disabled ;D, and it takes a lot of time to merge all my codes in one functional coherent program !
Quote from: RemiD on January 17, 2018, 15:34:47
Even for a "mini" game, the amount of time/energy it takes to make it is incredible ! ???
"ideas are easy, implementation can be difficult"
Quote
I've disabled several parts of my code because I simply don't have time to get them working the way I wanted.
well, the problem i have at the moment is that my whole game is disabled ;D, and it takes a lot of time to merge all my codes in one functional coherent program !
Can't agree more. I'm at the point that I've done everything I can. Doing the graphics and general gameplay was fun but the rest was a bit of a chore. Some parts I'm not happy with, some are hacky and some features weren't added due to time. I think anyone who has a working game deserves a lot of credit.
Looking forward to playing all the entries over the weekend :P
Spent an hour getting a retro loader screen done tonight. Including the first tune I knocked up using free synth VST's of the web. Must say it's great fun doing synth music. Sure I could of grabbed better free tunes off the web but where's the fun in that :P
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6sc14on8do
Quote from: Qube on January 18, 2018, 00:07:36
Spent an hour getting a retro loader screen done tonight.
Haha! Great job! :)
Wish you havent shown it though as I might have to add one too! :P
Can you skip it or does your game take that long to load? ;D
QuoteWish you havent shown it though as I might have to add one too! :P
You should ;D
QuoteCan you skip it or does your game take that long to load? ;D
LOL, just press ESC to bypass straight to the game. There's no way I'd force a loader each time the game was run. It's just you gotta have a retro intro for retro games :P
QuoteIncluding the first tune I knocked up using free synth VST's of the web. Must say it's great fun doing synth music.
Whaaaat! You mean you used hi-res synth-style audio compiled down to a playable audio file... How quaint! :-*
I had to write a retro chip-synth emulator for the sound and a sequencer and realtime chip-synth tracker to get mine.... Bugger!
That's it. I'm done!
I present to you:
https://adamstrange.itch.io/syntaxbomb (https://adamstrange.itch.io/syntaxbomb)
(https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMjE0ODI2LzEwMTI5NTEucG5n/original/kW%2FgB1.png)
Full on Retro action in 320x200 16 colors with chip-synth emulation for Windows and Mac OS.
(https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMjE0ODI2LzEwMTI5MzkuZ2lm/original/KbbhaR.gif)
Guide little Syntax round each level but DO NOT hit that BOMB!
I am not a religious person, but when a program that i make reaches a certain level of complexity, i start to pray the diety of programminglanguage/compiler (of Blitz3d in my case) that everything works well when i run it ;D
@ Adam
Tried your game with WINE (Linux) and it works. Was not sure if sound worked properly as on startup I only had some single "blips" and "blops". But during game it works - I assume flawlessly.
I only had some really short break to try it out - so for now I would do the nitpicking (as you still got a bit of time to even improve).
- score points (the one moving up after collecting) seem to move "non smooth" - they have a "move, nothing, move, move, move, nothing, move,..." style of movement pattern. Do you use floats for positions? If so, consider doing the "int(floatvalue + 0.5)" rounding rather than a simple "int(floatvalue)" (which is a floor(v)-like-approach).
Maybe it happened because of the resized window
(https://abload.de/img/syntaxbomb3po2s.gif)
(PS: I show it in the first level to not expose other level themes)
- strawberry seems to have some gray pixels too much (have a look at the bottom right - it looks like it misses transparency or so). Is this intented (as it looks ok on the blueish ground - but not on the ladder)
- I am able to place bombs when on the ladder, so far ok, sometimes it places it about "1.5 times the player" far away on the ground. Is this a glitch or intented?
- parallax background is a nice idea but in my opinion it moves "too fast" (if it was pretty near to the front tiles it should move less often - but may be it looked way less smooth then...)
- bubbles in second level seem to be drawn 2 times (one wide and one tall on the same position) but might also have been bad timing with 2 bubbles being spit out at the same time)
Aside of that: it looks pretty impressive and plays very snappy. Very good job. Maybe you are able to add a little online highscore (nothing fancy, just pushing your score online, fetching it from there too).
Edit: LOL... I tried to record a video here (see above) while you already have uploaded an animated screen pretty exposing the same "flaw". Dunno why mine is so blurred while the game itself of course isn't.
PS: Maybe one should consider using "dissolve" as fading-out effect for the scores or other "soon gone" items. Of course I do not know how to do that in realtime without much efforts - so it would have to be done on startup (just iterate 10 times: copy previous iteration image, set random pixels transparent - aka "unset them". And then use the generated image as animation frames on "death"). Hmm, sounds like a doable thing.
bye
Ron
So, do we have until the witching hour GMT, or are we accommodating the Americans which don't reach the 19th until noon on the 19th.?not that it'll make much difference to my submission ;) if I can get an installation script done.
QuoteWhaaaat! You mean you used hi-res synth-style audio compiled down to a playable audio file... How quaint! :-*
I think you'll find most sensible people do it that way ;D
QuoteI had to write a retro chip-synth emulator for the sound and a sequencer and realtime chip-synth tracker to get mine.... Bugger!
You "HAD" too did you? did you really? :P
QuoteThat's it. I'm done!
I present to you:
https://adamstrange.itch.io/syntaxbomb
Yay, a Mac version.. Will have a play this evening :)
Quoteso for now I would do the nitpicking (as you still got a bit of time to even improve).
Captain nit-pick strikes again :P - I would nit-pick yours but.... there isn't one ;D
You can always nit-pick at TVTower (there is plenty to improve). Developers tend to see other things than "normal" players (which can be good and bad at the same time).
Like said I am really glad to have stopped compo-development as entries are looking far superior to mine.
PS: I would have used an ogg audio file too - it's like I prefer to use Max2D rather than writing my own OpenGL stuff. Convenience and time saver.
I am pretty much looking forward to Qube's game (really vibrant), therevills' game (army arcade ... darker themed colors) and maybe even the game of our "last compo hero" basicboy - as it really reminded me on some kind of micro machines in the sense of "micro santa sleigh-machines". And I really hope there are some users hiding their projects until 20th of january. City simulator ?
...hmm simulator. Maybe next game compo could have a "main genre" as limit. I would like to do a very small simulation game (oil imperium, dynatech, some text-based games like "Der Winzer", Sim City (classic), A-Train (one of my fav's in the early ninetees, next to Civ - and pretty expensive, 129 DM at that time) ...). I know many of you are preferring arcade games, but I am more interested in the strategy, simulation stuff.
bye
Ron
My entry and my first 2d game in Blitz3D ...... please go easy on it ;D
https://stevieg.itch.io/van-tourisimo
It's a de-make of the old arcade favourite Super Sprint. I'm far from happy with certain aspects and there were a few features I couldn't get done in time (gates etc..) but it's the best I could do.
It's for PC only. Let me know if anyone has an issue.
Cheers
Stevie G
@ Stevie
(Works fine with Wine on Linux)
First look: it's awesome. Plays snappy and I like the sound. But the sound is more "SNES/Megadrive"-generation like (so like with Top Gear/Top Gear 2000). It's not a bugger as I really like it - even the "cheering audience" (which is obviously no chiptune-thing). So here comes the nitpicking:
I played the first 7 races (then I tried if it auto-saves progress).
- no saving of progress, maybe do the "enter code to continue"-thing like it was done in the Famigo/SNES/MegaDrive-console days
- I "escape"-exited the game but seem to have not reached a highscore - nor got I an information about the fact of missing the highscore. A pity.
- during the first 7 races I always had ~half a round minimum until next car - I literally did 180°-turns to collect items and still stood #1 (nonetheless I must remark that the distance got lower and lower each track - so from overtaking the last cars to ~half a round till the last car.
- in race 4 or so there is an "open circle" but you are not allowed to cut a corner (of course ;-)) - maybe add an "arrow" there to indicate that you are not allowed to move in another direction (and hide the arrow - if you want - after passing that part of the track). When I tried if I was able to cut a corner, I bumbed against an invisible wall. It is really really a minor thing.
So I would like to have some kind of "harder difficulty" (so I at least have the feeling of "I might loose" in the first tracks). I assume it gets harder each track but for me it was too easy the first tracks. Maybe you should check the distance between you and the other players and increase difficulty "a bit" according to the distance. So the better one is in the first levels, the harder it becomes. Of course it should not become "impossible" after level 2 - it just should increase a bit to emphasize the "tightening". Means you should cap that "dynamically added difficulty increasement".
Another suggestion is: In some racing games you started in the last spot if you won the race before. Might add a bit of difficulty too. When accelerating too long during "starting phase" (3.2.1 go) some games make your wheels do wheelspinning - e.g Mario Kart. Maybe adding this might be something cool too - you already have this "dust" coming out of the exhaust.
Aside of that: it seems to be a very hard competition. I will need to split things into sound, gfx, gameplay ... to have a fairly done vote. Congrats to both of you (Adam and Stevie). They are very great entries.
PS: There is still time to come up with new revisions until deadline.
And...there is more to come!
bye
Ron
Quote from: Derron on January 18, 2018, 18:58:52
@ Stevie
(Works fine with Wine on Linux)
First look: it's awesome. Plays snappy and I like the sound. But the sound is more "SNES/Megadrive"-generation like (so like with Top Gear/Top Gear 2000). It's not a bugger as I really like it - even the "cheering audience" (which is obviously no chiptune-thing). So here comes the nitpicking:
I played the first 7 races (then I tried if it auto-saves progress).
- no saving of progress, maybe do the "enter code to continue"-thing like it was done in the Famigo/SNES/MegaDrive-console days
- I "escape"-exited the game but seem to have not reached a highscore - nor got I an information about the fact of missing the highscore. A pity.
- during the first 7 races I always had ~half a round minimum until next car - I literally did 180°-turns to collect items and still stood #1 (nonetheless I must remark that the distance got lower and lower each track - so from overtaking the last cars to ~half a round till the last car.
- in race 4 or so there is an "open circle" but you are not allowed to cut a corner (of course ;-)) - maybe add an "arrow" there to indicate that you are not allowed to move in another direction (and hide the arrow - if you want - after passing that part of the track). When I tried if I was able to cut a corner, I bumbed against an invisible wall. It is really really a minor thing.
So I would like to have some kind of "harder difficulty" (so I at least have the feeling of "I might loose" in the first tracks). I assume it gets harder each track but for me it was too easy the first tracks. Maybe you should check the distance between you and the other players and increase difficulty "a bit" according to the distance. So the better one is in the first levels, the harder it becomes. Of course it should not become "impossible" after level 2 - it just should increase a bit to emphasize the "tightening". Means you should cap that "dynamically added difficulty increasement".
Another suggestion is: In some racing games you started in the last spot if you won the race before. Might add a bit of difficulty too. When accelerating too long during "starting phase" (3.2.1 go) some games make your wheels do wheelspinning - e.g Mario Kart. Maybe adding this might be something cool too - you already have this "dust" coming out of the exhaust.
Aside of that: it seems to be a very hard competition. I will need to split things into sound, gfx, gameplay ... to have a fairly done vote. Congrats to both of you (Adam and Stevie). They are very great entries.
PS: There is still time to come up with new revisions until deadline.
And...there is more to come!
bye
Ron
Thanks for playing Derron and for the nitpicking which is much appreciated. I'd tested the difficulty on a pal who was a bit sh*te at these games. I agree that the difficulty needs to be a bit more dynamic. When you start on the harder tracks you get bonus wrenches so I could probably change the difficulty based on what track you start on - like Super Sprint itself.
The exit and no save score was on my to-do list - should be able to at least put it on the high score for you to see on the main menu.
I could probably add the arrow you suggested for cross roads - will need to think about how I do it.
It would also be easy for you to start the next race in the reverse position of the last.
I should get a chance to work on some of those things before deadline - is that 12 midnight on Friday 19th Qube?
Thanks again!!
Yay, another one to play tonight ;D ( that's two entries to play from today )
Quote
All entries must be in by 23:59:59 on the 20th of January 2018 GMT.
So, Saturday 20th before 23:59:59 GMT :)
Sweet, got some time to possibly work in a UFO.
I have entered early so if there are any errors on my part that are rule violations (I don't think there is) then please tell me so I can fix it before the deadline.
ALIEN KING (https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3973.0.html) is in the showcase. (made with AGK)
The ZIP file, with the EXE and media folder (you will need that media folder for the EXE to run), is attached in the showcase thread.
Thanks in advance for anyone who gives me any feedback, or even a vote!
Looking forward to playing all of these :)
Quote
Looking forward to playing all of these :)
Yep, me too. Congrats to all for producing software.
@ iWasAdam
I got an error when trying to unZIP your game.
I left a post in your thread in the showcase forum, but I thought I would post a message here too in case you overlooked that one.
Has anyone else got an error when unZIPping his game, or is it just me and my system?
@Conjured Entertainment - Please try and re-download.
I have downloaded, unzipped, checked. transferred and successfully run the windows and MacOS versions here.
@iWasAdam
Downloaded your game, successfully unzipped the game, on double clicking the game nothing happens...
Hello,
To all participants,
I suggest that there should be a full-screen mode in your game. Full-screen mode can give a good impression to voters. Thanks a lot! :D
Congrats Adam. My first impressions were it's a good game, but it runs too fast/manic.
Picking a winner is going to be tough.
On my side, the game is not finished yet, but not far from what i would consider functional enough, complete enough, (with essential graphics/sounds/gameplay/possibilities)... I hope that i will not mess my code at this point ! :P
Managed to get a game done. Had a lot of stuff happening the last few months, so I thought I would not be getting anything done. But after watching the Futurama episode "The Prisoner of Benda," I got an idea for a puzzle. Figured I could whip one up in a few days and realized I could make it retro and get it done in time for the contest. So without further adieu,
https://tomtoad.itch.io/mind-swap
(https://tomtoad.itch.io/mind-swap)
SyntaxBomb Showcase page
https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3983.0.html (https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3983.0.html)
FUNGICIDE
This is my first game release in 20 years and is about as finished as I'm going to get it in the time available.
I started a month after the competition began, so I'm pretty pleased with what I have achieved. It is pure BlitzMax with no external Libraries.
My competition entry can be found on the Showcase (https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3984.0.html) and it's also available on my blog site (http://itspeedway.net/index.php?/categories/2-Fungicide).
I look forward to getting some free time now to play the other game entries.
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fitspeedway.net%2Fuploads%2FFungicide%2F18_Jan_2018_7539498.png&hash=bfd69f454cb4e6b7b6166f009c82ac96f03b3a5c)
Damn guys! I'm still busy hitting keys trying to finish my game! :o
Congrats to those which have finished already :)
ooh. more games.... today and tomorrow I am going to downloading and playing :) :) :)
"15 hours left" (à la quake 3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1vVjIgUzk
(and i have not finished yet !) ???
@Qube>>according to the previous competition, after the end date/time of the competition, then you let around 7days for people to vote ? (this is a good approach imo, since some members do not come to this forum everyday, i suppose, because of real life constraints...)
New to the forum and couldn't resist entering the competition, especially as the retro conditions and mention of 3D struck a chord (I seem to be stuck in the 1980's)...
Alien Drop Pods is a 3D game that uses basic principles to draw objects using triangles facing the player. The drawing routine also determines if the cross-hairs (graphics origin) is within any triangle drawn.
The old BBC Micro character set is reproduced through internally data-defined/created bitmaps (i.e. not loaded from a file).
It was written in BB4W, so for Windows only.
The graphics are drawn to the main window, and stretched (copied while doubling the scale) to a second window above. You can toggle the second window on/off using F3 to see the original scale.
The aim is to score as many points as possible by shooting saucers, drop pods and aliens while avoiding the destruction of the few trees surrounding the laser turret. The turret can be turned a full 360 degrees, as well as tilting up and down. Last minute addition of limited shields.
Here's the link (game is under 100k in size):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wzYh8IGxd9TubSs8vDttjEGdazCSH7qA/view?usp=sharing
Image from earlier version.
"Finished"... :o
SyntaxBomb Showcase Link:
https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3988.0.html (https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3988.0.html)
Itch Game:
https://therevillsgames.itch.io/get-to-da-choppa (https://therevillsgames.itch.io/get-to-da-choppa)
Really enjoyed the compo! Good luck to all!
(https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMjE1NjI2LzEwMTY4NTAucG5n/original/4s2R8C.png)
@therevills: That's a good-looking game. Very cool. I'll give it a play later.
Quote@Qube>>according to the previous competition, after the end date/time of the competition, then you let around 7days for people to vote ? (this is a good approach imo, since some members do not come to this forum everyday, i suppose, because of real life constraints...)
Yeah thats pretty much it, tomorrow I'll create a voting thread with all the entries and voting criteria etc.
OK, I'm going for it :P... under 10 hours left to mould what I have into some form of game ( hopefully ) :o - Wish me luck ;D..
Qube going silent and super keyboard bashing mad for 9 hours solid
Well, i am still working on it... :'( (not crying, rather dry eyes ;D) (9hours left for me, if i understand the GMT/UTC thing correctly ???)
Well, my submission is as finished as she's going to be - I fought the good fight, couldn't compile on my main rig anymore due to letting my son 'borrow' my 3D card from my main (slightly creaky old, rig). Installed an old GForce 9800 GT - W7 failed to recognise it. Searched the house for a CD driver, found it - extracted the drivers, nope Blitz3D still didn't find what it wanted.
So, I'd to resort to my 560 pence W7 laptop (bought from an auction - but hey, it boots about 10 mins quicker than my main rig) with cracked screen to revert the code so the bats hadn't invaded instantly.
Wanted to incorporate sounds.... ran outa time.
Heres the link to the massive sub 1MByte file - thats almost retro in Size, well maybe a bit more than the 48Kbyte Speccy I used to have.
EDIT - got to the bottom of the issue, needed to install directlplay before it would work on Windows 10, thats the beauty of blitz3D. Theres an executable called BATSAWAY.exe, baggsy the wooden spoon?
@RemiD, good luck with your entry mate.
:P
Heres the intro screen:
Impressed with Fungicides graphics and explosions, cool gameplay: 8)
Quote from: freeman69 on January 20, 2018, 11:40:17
New to the forum and couldn't resist entering the competition, especially as the retro conditions and mention of 3D struck a chord (I seem to be stuck in the 1980's)...
Alien Drop Pods is a 3D game that uses basic principles to draw objects using triangles facing the player. The drawing routine also determines if the cross-hairs (graphics origin) is within any triangle drawn.
The old BBC Micro character set is reproduced through internally data-defined/created bitmaps (i.e. not loaded from a file).
It was written in BB4W, so for Windows only.
The graphics are drawn to the main window, and stretched (copied while doubling the scale) to a second window above. You can toggle the second window on/off using F3 to see the original scale.
The aim is to score as many points as possible by shooting saucers, drop pods and aliens while avoiding the destruction of the few trees surrounding the laser turret. The turret can be turned a full 360 degrees, as well as tilting up and down. Last minute addition of limited shields.
Here's the link (game is under 100k in size):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wzYh8IGxd9TubSs8vDttjEGdazCSH7qA/view?usp=sharing
Image from earlier version.
Great fun - best score is 3070 so far. Love the fact that the turret turning has momentum - makes it tricky to aim but satisfying to play. Is that what the Thargoids look like .. who knew!! ;D
Quote from: freeman69 on January 20, 2018, 11:40:17
Alien Drop Pods is a 3D game that uses basic principles to draw objects using triangles facing the player. The drawing routine also determines if the cross-hairs (graphics origin) is within any triangle drawn.
The old BBC Micro character set is reproduced through internally data-defined/created bitmaps (i.e. not loaded from a file).
Couldn't get this to work. No window opens, no error, just simply nothing.
Quote from: 3DzForMe on January 20, 2018, 15:21:16
Well, my submission is as finished as she's going to be - I fought the good fight, couldn't compile on my main rig anymore due to letting my son 'borrow' my 3D card from my main (slightly creaky old, rig). Installed an old GForce 9800 GT - W7 failed to recognise it. Searched the house for a CD driver, found it - extracted the drivers, nope Blitz3D still didn't find what it wanted.
So, I'd to resort to my 560 pence W7 laptop (bought from an auction - but hey, it boots about 10 mins quicker than my main rig) with cracked screen to revert the code so the bats hadn't invaded instantly.
Wanted to incorporate sounds.... ran outa time.
Heres the link to the massive sub 1MByte file - thats almost retro in Size, well maybe a bit more than the 48Kbyte Speccy I used to have.
EDIT - got to the bottom of the issue, needed to install directlplay before it would work on Windows 10, thats the beauty of blitz3D. Theres an executable called BATSAWAY.exe, baggsy the wooden spoon?
@RemiD, good luck with your entry mate.
:P
Heres the intro screen:
I don't think the mask or transparency on the bat texture are working? You can see the white textured cubes here.
@StevieG, yep, I'm pleased the cubes / bats rendered, I'd so many ideas I wanted to incorporate from over the decade in Blitz3D, smoke effects, JV-ODE physics allowing for '3D' esque explosions. Also, I fancied invoking different types of game.... Fact is, the bats don't even descend as well as they 'did' each level making it less of a challenge than it was. Don't think I'm selling it to well. But at least the bats haven't 'invaded' as soon as the game starts.
For some curious reason the collisions stopped working, so the bats die as a result of brute force location comparison ???
Trouble is, having an 18 and a 16 year old at home requires a bit more time than I had a while back... Still Captain Cavern (or BATSAWAY) has seen the light of day, just.
:-\
I didn't even get my stalactites in Captain's first Cavern. Still thankful to Qube for getting me coding still.... and still in 3D despite the 320 x 200 limitations.
Relishing trying your entry, looks amazing. Looking forward to therevills as well, I quite like my Captain Cavern traversing the hills on the intro screen.
Gah! is that the time :o :o :o - Just under 1.5hrs remaining and I've still much to do to present at least something resembling a playable game. Never worked this hard in my life :P... Back to it, fight til the very end in the hope it magically comes together.
wow i am late too ! ;D I will create the showcase post now, and i hope that it will work on your computers...
As long as your just facing software gremlins, they're big enough on their own without hardware sharks
COME ON GUYS! YOU CAN DO IT!!! :)
I did a massive 12 hours on "Get to Da Choppa" yesterday, my wife wasnt too pleased ;D but its "finished"!
Everyone sing a long with the music:
"Get to"
"Get to the da choppa"
"Get to"
"Get to the da choppa"
"Get to"
"Get to the da choppa"
"Get to"
"Get to the da choppa"
"Get to"
"Get to the da choppa"
"Get to"
"Get to the da choppa"
"Get to"
"Get to the da choppa"
;)
Quote from: freeman69 on January 20, 2018, 11:40:17
New to the forum and couldn't resist entering the competition, especially as the retro conditions and mention of 3D struck a chord (I seem to be stuck in the 1980's)...
Alien Drop Pods is a 3D game that uses basic principles to draw objects using triangles facing the player. The drawing routine also determines if the cross-hairs (graphics origin) is within any triangle drawn.
The old BBC Micro character set is reproduced through internally data-defined/created bitmaps (i.e. not loaded from a file).
It was written in BB4W, so for Windows only.
The graphics are drawn to the main window, and stretched (copied while doubling the scale) to a second window above. You can toggle the second window on/off using F3 to see the original scale.
The aim is to score as many points as possible by shooting saucers, drop pods and aliens while avoiding the destruction of the few trees surrounding the laser turret. The turret can be turned a full 360 degrees, as well as tilting up and down. Last minute addition of limited shields.
Here's the link (game is under 100k in size):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wzYh8IGxd9TubSs8vDttjEGdazCSH7qA/view?usp=sharing
Image from earlier version.
Hi, my computer can run the game.
My comments on the game:
If arrow keys are used to control the direction of the turret and spacebar is used for shooting, playing will be more convenient.
Here is a link to my entry :
HIDDEN ITEMS SEARCHER FINDER
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frd-stuff.fr%2Fhidden-items-searcher-finder-20180120.png&hash=3a7b9c7da7ed3b5a6ef6f1e6b0c472f97798a3da)
https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3991.msg11597.html#msg11597
Good luck to all of the participants ( so that your game will work well on others computers :P )
Ha, ........there are many games submitted in this competition!!
:D
Quote from: round157 on January 20, 2018, 23:11:22
Ha, ........there are many games submitted in this competition!!
:D
Yeah, I'm going to wait till end of the comp and then download all the submitted games to give them a good going over!
Qube is playing with fire ? less than 10 minutes remaining.
Also where are the entries of Gabor ? of Flanker ? of Basicboy ?
The Last Ginger Ninja
Windows download : https://www.syntaxbomb.com/files/TLGN-Win.zip
Max download : https://www.syntaxbomb.com/files/TLGN-Mac.zip
Just entering at the very last minute to supply links... Will create showcase soon and add more info
FIVE MINUTES TO GO!!! :o
In the past I managed a Knight Rider Clone in 3d with switchable controls between artic and car once you'd driven into the trailer. These days... I CAN JUST about push out a bat
Few - With 4 mins to go I managed to scrape together a working game. It's a highly cut down version of what I had planned but hey ho, that's how the cookie crumbles.
It should work fine but I have zero time to any real testing. I think the Windows version requires OpenAL installed.
Hopefully there are no show stopper bugs because time is up :o
*** NO MORE SUBMISSIONS, COMP CLOSED ***
;D
Congrats to all that submitted a game and those who tried! It is bloody hard work getting a "full playable" game out there!
I think/feel that it is more satisfying to finish a simple but functional fun mini game than to work on never ending projects...
Congrats to all those who finished a (mini) game!
Aye! Grats to those who finished! I was working on an old Zelda style game but I didn't start until after the deadline got extended and was too busy and worn out to push myself to get it finished in time.. I'm gonna try to stop being so last minute with this stuff! >.>;;
I've played quite a few today:
* Alien King https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3973.0.html
* BATSAWAY https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3658.msg11558.html#msg11558
* Hidden Items Searcher Finder https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3991.msg11597.html#msg11597
* Mind Swap https://tomtoad.itch.io/mind-swap
* Syntax Bomb https://adamstrange.itch.io/syntaxbomb
* The Last Ginger Ninja https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3658.msg11604.html#msg11604
* Van Tourisimo https://stevieg.itch.io/van-tourisimo
* Alien Drop Pods https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3658.msg11540.html#msg11540
* Fungicide https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3984.0.html
And of course my entry Get to Da Choppa https://therevillsgames.itch.io/get-to-da-choppa.
Going to be pretty hard giving my vote to just one! :)
Is there any I missed?
it's gonna be a busy day for me then :)
Congrats to all who have finished anything - in whatever state. You are all my heroes...
@Qube - how is the voting going to happen? best in show, best graphics, best soup dragon, etc?
Added a showcase entry for my game - https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3994.0.html
@therevills - Thanks for that handy post. Oo er, I didn't think there was that many entries :o - Great stuff. I know what I'll be playing today ;D
Quote@Qube - how is the voting going to happen? best in show, best graphics, best soup dragon, etc?
A voting thread will be created either today or tomorrow ( I'm zonked at the moment ).
I'm open to choices on a voting criteria. Would members prefer :
1.. Just vote for your favourite game
2.. Score each game on graphics / sound / music / playability
I will be limiting voting to members who have over 10 posts ( unless they've recently joined up to submit a game ) and also they can't vote for their own entries.
The members of the forum have been voting very well and decently with the comps. I've not seen any clique / block voting going on so I'm happy to go for a simple set of voting rules.
Always open to suggestions though, so if anyone has a super duper system in mind then it would be helpful to build of a set of rules for future comps.
Personal thanks to all who've taken the time to enter the competition. Even if you completed your game or not, I hope you had fun :)
@Steve - I still want my Burger Time pleeeeaaassseeee ;D ( if ya feeling better now then get them keys a tappin )
I don't know whether there will be the 4th competition organized in this forum. However, among the first three competitions, the 3rd competition(retro style game) is the most successful competition. Yes, very successful! There are 48 pages of discussions in this main thread. This is a world record!
:) ;)
Quote from: TomToad on January 20, 2018, 19:40:57
Quote from: freeman69 on January 20, 2018, 11:40:17
Alien Drop Pods is a 3D game that uses basic principles to draw objects using triangles facing the player. The drawing routine also determines if the cross-hairs (graphics origin) is within any triangle drawn.
The old BBC Micro character set is reproduced through internally data-defined/created bitmaps (i.e. not loaded from a file).
Couldn't get this to work. No window opens, no error, just simply nothing.
Hi Tom. Frustrating when there are unknown compatibility issues! I know it works on Windows 7, even '98 (just about), and on the desktop-within-a-desktop at work. Are you using Wine (although I would expect it to work under that too)?
Rob
P.S. about the cursor keys - I find I need separate hands for controlling movement in 2 directions, especially for fine control and speed. I'll look at allowing the keys to be redefined next time though.
Quote
@Steve - I still want my Burger Time pleeeeaaassseeee ;D ( if ya feeling better now then get them keys a tappin )
lol yes Burger Time will be completed ;D
Some really cool entries!
I know what I'll be doing for the next days ;)
Those that entered should be very proud of themselves indeed - we all know the true level of commitment in finishing the development of a game.
@Qube>>since i submitted an entry for the competition, i want to contribute (a little) to the prize fund, is it still possible ?
If yes, how can i do that (with Paypal)
Is it : Tools>>Send Money>>Send Money to friends and family ?
I typed your email address ( qube@syntaxbomb.com ), specified the amount and clicked the send button. No i will pray that it works ;D
If you send it to a "non-paypal-email" then the receiving email gets a notice about "incoming money". You then click on the link in there - and on login to paypal you are able to "connect" this email to your real paypal-email. So as long as Qube receives the mail he should be able to receive the money ;-)
As the competition is now finished I would say we plan the next - huhumm? As suggested by so many (read: me) I would enjoy a (economical) simulation or strategy thing. Even a kind of "digital board game" might be of interest (but AI gets harder there - as it has to exist - if it is no single-player-game).
@ Qube
Hope this time you find some free minutes to write "hall of competition fame"-page listing competitors, winners, ... means an additional spot for information about the games (hi google!).
bye
Ron
The turn out for this was impressive and is obvious that you guys have put in huge amounts of your time, but now we've all got the hardest part to work on!
How to choose who to vote for?
QuoteHow to choose who to vote for?
Qube will create a proper, separate and organised 'voting thread' either today or the next day or 2.
Quote from: col on January 21, 2018, 12:35:34
Qube will create a proper, separate and organised 'voting thread' either today or the next day or 2.
Still going to be difficult to decide who gets my vote though. The games are all so good!
Some suggestions to better spread the votes :
->a participant can only vote for another participant (and can not vote for himself)
->maybe allow 2 votes per member (instead of 1), so that there is less "friendship" involved and more "i like what you have made" ( not necessarily but maybe :-\ )
Or each user could vote for their own 1st, 2nd and 3rd?
While I prefer option 2, it would need to be weighted as Playability is more important than Graphics and Sound more important than Music IMO. It's likely different for everyone.
Probably simpler to just go with option 1.
I really enjoyed this Comp Qube, made me think of some other games I'd like to make with the low-res look - definately makes creating the assets alot quicker.
Quote from: col on January 21, 2018, 13:13:48
Or each user could vote for their own 1st, 2nd and 3rd?
^^^ What he said ;D
Quote
Still going to be difficult to decide who gets my vote though. The games are all so good!
Very true, some very good entries this time.
Quote
Or each user could vote for their own 1st, 2nd and 3rd?
That's a good idea.
low-res look is limiting myself too much. Asset creation in a 3D program is far easier today than it was years before - so I spend more time when doing pixel stuff than when doing some 3D (render) stuff.
Also adjustments are done quicker in 3D (adjust + re-render)
I understand that for a few years now all these "indie games" have the low-poly look or "retro style" but is not "tres chic" it is just trying to sell your own limitations (finance -> no graphic artists) as something "cool". I accept low-res if it is a remake, clone ... of an existing game - or if it is a compo entry / something "puristic". But normal games should have something pleasing for the eyes too. Think you all prefer watching an HD/4K-movie rather than some VHS-era recordings (except for family videos...).
@ voting
I prefer the 1st, 2nd, 3rd option too as it allows for an indivdual weighting of what is relevant or not.
Another option is to have 3 votes to give - and for all you are able to give each up to 100 points. This would allow to have "close winners" (100, 95, 93) but also you are able to say you had only one good game and all others were not of your choice ("90, 55, 30").
At the end you have to sum up all the "up to 100 points" for each entry. Means a game which got 10 votes as "second place" with 90 points average (and no 1st place at all) can still win against a game which got 5 votes as 1st place with 95 points but 3 votes with 85 as 3rd place.
You could even calculate an "average score" if you want to lower the influence of "many votes" for a game - but I think that lowers chances to win for a game which gets mentioned often (eg. voted to 3rd place by nearly all voters). A "one time 100 point"-vote would result in an avg of 100 - oops, we found a winner ;-)
In short: "total score" would allow to include the amount of "voted for 1st to 3rd place" - which is already good. "average score" allows to remove spikes but ignores the fact that we already had to limit our votes to 1st-3rd place.
If you want to complicate things even a bit more:
- calculate average score
- calculate total score
- weight them (0.x*AvgScore + 0.y*TotalScore) - 0.x should be fairly low as "avg" is really hefty affected by vote count.
- give little bonuses for times placed on spot 1 (eg. +0.5)
- give little bonuses for each mention (1st - 3rd place) (+0.1 or so)
This would allow to give each "possibilty" a slight influence on the total ranking - and it is a nice chance to need a tool calculating the whole stuff :p
You could even give each voter a "honorable mention"-vote for a (potential) 4th game which did something remarkable but failed in too many other things so it misses 1-3rd place. So if one did a VR-experience in 320x200*16 but has up to no gameplay/sound/borked input ... it might still get this "honorable mention"-vote. This little vote can give a slight score bonus too.
But... as I did not take part in the competition this time, I am also ready to just do a 1st,2nd,3rd thing :p
PS: Votes should be somehow made "hidden" - eg. in a topic in which we normal users cannot read replies or so. Why? It might influence you when reading who voted for what and who was leader yet. After the vote end, Qube could just modify the threads ACL/move to a forum allowing reading for normal users - so all could read replies there.
bye
Ron
Quote from: Derron on January 21, 2018, 13:36:53
low-res look is limiting myself too much. Asset creation in a 3D program is far easier today than it was years before - so I spend more time when doing pixel stuff than when doing some 3D (render) stuff.
Also adjustments are done quicker in 3D (adjust + re-render)
I understand that for a few years now all these "indie games" have the low-poly look or "retro style" but is not "tres chic" it is just trying to sell your own limitations (finance -> no graphic artists) as something "cool". I accept low-res if it is a remake, clone ... of an existing game - or if it is a compo entry / something "puristic". But normal games should have something pleasing for the eyes too. Think you all prefer watching an HD/4K-movie rather than some VHS-era recordings (except for family videos...).
@ voting
I prefer the 1st, 2nd, 3rd option too as it allows for an indivdual weighting of what is relevant or not.
Another option is to have 3 votes to give - and for all you are able to give each up to 100 points. This would allow to have "close winners" (100, 95, 93) but also you are able to say you had only one good game and all others were not of your choice ("90, 55, 30").
At the end you have to sum up all the "up to 100 points" for each entry. Means a game which got 10 votes as "second place" with 90 points average (and no 1st place at all) can still win against a game which got 5 votes as 1st place with 95 points but 3 votes with 85 as 3rd place.
You could even calculate an "average score" if you want to lower the influence of "many votes" for a game - but I think that lowers chances to win for a game which gets mentioned often (eg. voted to 3rd place by nearly all voters). A "one time 100 point"-vote would result in an avg of 100 - oops, we found a winner ;-)
In short: "total score" would allow to include the amount of "voted for 1st to 3rd place" - which is already good. "average score" allows to remove spikes but ignores the fact that we already had to limit our votes to 1st-3rd place.
If you want to complicate things even a bit more:
- calculate average score
- calculate total score
- weight them (0.x*AvgScore + 0.y*TotalScore) - 0.x should be fairly low as "avg" is really hefty affected by vote count.
- give little bonuses for times placed on spot 1 (eg. +0.5)
- give little bonuses for each mention (1st - 3rd place) (+0.1 or so)
This would allow to give each "possibilty" a slight influence on the total ranking - and it is a nice chance to need a tool calculating the whole stuff :p
You could even give each voter a "honorable mention"-vote for a (potential) 4th game which did something remarkable but failed in too many other things so it misses 1-3rd place. So if one did a VR-experience in 320x200*16 but has up to no gameplay/sound/borked input ... it might still get this "honorable mention"-vote. This little vote can give a slight score bonus too.
But... as I did not take part in the competition this time, I am also ready to just do a 1st,2nd,3rd thing :p
PS: Votes should be somehow made "hidden" - eg. in a topic in which we normal users cannot read replies or so. Why? It might influence you when reading who voted for what and who was leader yet. After the vote end, Qube could just modify the threads ACL/move to a forum allowing reading for normal users - so all could read replies there.
bye
Ron
:o
1st, 2nd & 3rd is best. The most 1st places wins, if it's a tie for 1st, the most 2nd places for those games win etc... Worst case is joint 1st, sharing (1st and 2nd prize). Simple.
Imo what is better is 1 or 2 or 3 votes per member, and the participants with the most votes have the 1st 2nd 3rd places...
Quote
low-res look is limiting myself too much. Asset creation in a 3D program is far easier today than it was years before - so I spend more time when doing pixel stuff than when doing some 3D (render) stuff.
@Derron>>
No need to do per pixel/texel tweaks, just draw your shapes with several wanted colors, and then use a procedure to convert/remove unwanted colors from an image. Easy, quick...
Also "flat" shapes (meshes) are easier to UVmap than 3d shapes (meshes)
I posted a code example to do that. It seems to work well... However, you have to choose colors which are different enough (i used colors separated by at least a 030 value (example : 125,125,125 for mediumgrey, 095,095,095 for darkgrey)
I was not talking about the problems showing some 3D stuff in the 16-colors-low-res-stuff. But the limitation of what to show. It is like someone is saying: draw a beautiful mountain-landscape - but you only got the black pen (not a pencil!) and this stamp-sized sheet of paper. To make the mountain recognizeable you will only draw the outline, maybe some lines for the "shape" and at the bottom some stylized fir-trees.
Without that limitations you will add shades, a bit of snow covered tops, different trees, maybe a river flowing through (Hey Bob Ross fans ;-)).
So with 3D I can add details how I like - and if I render them low res, then they might hide. I could do that in 2D too - but as said 3D allows for easier rotation, re-alignment/structuring of things.
In short: resolution/color limitations limit my options in a way I do not really like it. Even in TVTower I fixed resolution to 800x600 more than a decade ago (and people wanted me to stop doing render stuff in high res...). Now I always have trouble to put all the needed information (text + numbers) on the screen the same time. I already replaced texts with icons (20x20 vs 80x20 px), added tooltips and so on. Now on 320x200 these icons would be even smaller - imagine explaining "market share" in 8x8 pixels, or "audience". Some things just do not work in low res - and this limits potential gameplay.
You can create a pac man in 4K - so Pac-Man receives pores, acne, pimples, ghosts might look like pudding / semi-transparent, ...
you can create Pong in 4K (not talking about binary size ;-)) ...
But can you create a good looking economical simulation in 320x160 - and I am not talking about "20 subscreens" to allow selecting all the stuff. Convenience is what you loose there.
How to simulat "far" and "more fare" in low-res? If 1km distance or 500m distance results in 1*1px objects, you might not be able to distinguish if it is 500 or 1km. You need to work around that limitations - you need to limit what you planned in your mind. This is not what I really like to do the whole day.
I want to enjoy coding - want to bring to life what I think of. And not "how could I display that" (I know, this happens in normal game development too - but I assume you get what I want to express).
@ 1-2-3 votes
That would be OK too. So my first place receives 3 points, the 2nd 2 points and 3rd receives 1 point. That is very similar to my "total point" approach. It is less fine-grained. Might be good - or bad. Just think of whether the second place you voted is really twice as good as 3rd - if both are nearly equal in your opinion, you are not able to express that. Which is why I proposed "0 to 100 points". Ranking is then a matter of ordering numbers ;-)
bye
Ron
@Derron>>i agree with some of your points, too low resolution is not good for a 3d game and to have enough space to draw infos/hud on the screen...
If you modify the config.ini file in my game, to scale it 2x (320x200 -> 640x400) it is playable but ugly, but if you scale it 3x (320x200 -> 960x600), it is playable but really ugly and it is flickering everywhere...
However, on the positive side, graphics limitations allow us to actually finish a game... because if you want to create realistic high details meshes, materials, textures, animations, good luck and see you in a few years lol
Quote from: col on January 21, 2018, 13:13:48
Or each user could vote for their own 1st, 2nd and 3rd?
That is what I was thinking would be better than 1 vote, but weighting is the issue.
1) 50 points
2) 30 points
3) 20 points
Would be the same as the base idea for the prize split, so the same principle should work for this too.
100 total points per voter, to be distributed to their picks as shown above.
Quote from: Conjured Entertainment on January 21, 2018, 16:00:16
Quote from: col on January 21, 2018, 13:13:48
Or each user could vote for their own 1st, 2nd and 3rd?
That is what I was thinking would be better than 1 vote, but weighting is the issue.
1) 50 points
2) 30 points
3) 20 points
Would be the same as the base idea for the prize split, so the same principle should work for this too.
100 total points per voter, to be distributed to their picks as shown above.
Good plan!
@Derron: Retro is just a style. It isn't done to hide artistic abilities, as a matter of fact, it is very difficult do do right. As for your Mountain example, there are mosaics in which art is created with tiny colored objects. Here is a bunch of art made from Jelly Bellies. https://www.jellybelly.com/ArtGallery (https://www.jellybelly.com/ArtGallery)
As for size, here is someone that actually does postage stamp sized paintings https://www.boredpanda.com/tiny-paintings-karen-libecap/
(https://www.boredpanda.com/tiny-paintings-karen-libecap/)
As far as using limited colors, well: http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/17-Nov-2004/38155-santa_caterina.jpg (http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/17-Nov-2004/38155-santa_caterina.jpg)
And then there are these guys http://www.cracked.com/article_19681_8-amazing-works-art-you-need-microscope-to-appreciate.html
(http://www.cracked.com/article_19681_8-amazing-works-art-you-need-microscope-to-appreciate.html)
Some people like the challenge of creating things with limitations.
Quote from: freeman69 on January 20, 2018, 11:40:17
New to the forum and couldn't resist entering the competition, especially as the retro conditions and mention of 3D struck a chord (I seem to be stuck in the 1980's)...
Alien Drop Pods is a 3D game that...
QuoteWell, my submission is as finished as she's going to be -
Will you be creating a thread in the showcase, so we can comment about it?
@TomToad>>the guy who manages to draw/paint such detailed things with a so tiny size is very good ! :o
There others aspects of graphics limitations, like making/using only low polys shapes (meshes), or using only fullbright colors with baked lighting/shading (like i did in my game), or using a specific uniform texel size which is big enough to be noticed as a texel (like you can see in old school games)
I don't think that these limitations are necessarily mediocre, they can be considered as a graphics style. And can look good, even nowadays, depending on your tastes... (i have seen several games with such caracteristics on the steam store...)
One of my favorite graphics style, "Vagrant Story" a ps1 game :
(https://r.mprd.se/media/images/37760-Vagrant_Story_%5BU%5D-11.png)
The shapes are low polys (and i mean very low tris less than 1000k for a character), and the texel size is big enough to be noticed, but the result is beautiful and coherent imo.
@RemiD - Thanks for the PayPal donation, cool beans 8)
@Qube>>Thanks for this competition, this revived my "coding flame" :)
Quote from: RemiD on January 21, 2018, 17:37:55
@Qube>>Thanks for this competition, this revived my "coding flame" :)
It was a highly fun comp ;D - It's kinda sad that it's over :P
Quote from: TomToad on January 21, 2018, 16:33:52
@Derron: Retro is just a style. It isn't done to hide artistic abilities, as a matter of fact, it is very difficult do do right. As for your Mountain example, there are mosaics in which art is created with tiny colored objects. Here is a bunch of art made from Jelly Bellies. https://www.jellybelly.com/ArtGallery (https://www.jellybelly.com/ArtGallery)
As for size, here is someone that actually does postage stamp sized paintings https://www.boredpanda.com/tiny-paintings-karen-libecap/
(https://www.boredpanda.com/tiny-paintings-karen-libecap/)
Do not get me wrong. Of course it is cool to paint "postage stamp sized". But as said: imagine you paint with your default PEN ... not a micro-sized "consisting of 2 horse hairs"-brush. In other words: take your squared/quad paper. And then place 3 others so you have a big rectangle. Now you are allowed to color quad or not ... now draw a mountain.
"size" is not equal to "pixel resolution". You can view your game on a 13 inch b/w screen or on a 85 4k-LCD. This is "dimension". But we are talking about resolution. Density of pixels/information.
@ RemiD
Of course there are wizards creating wonderful things - but we are noobs in that regard. And resizing you game to 320x160 will get rid of most of the information. It will look "dull". No possiblity to show what helmet is worn, what blanket is teared. Except for exaggerated cloths ("blue helmet") you wont recognize things.
byeRon
Quote
"size" is not equal to "pixel resolution"
i suppose that you mean pixel/texel size (how it appear in the 2d/3d world), does not equal to game view resolution (width/height) (the view that the player can see) ?
QuotePS: Votes should be somehow made "hidden" - eg. in a topic in which we normal users cannot read replies or so. Why? It might influence you when reading who voted for what and who was leader yet. After the vote end, Qube could just modify the threads ACL/move to a forum allowing reading for normal users - so all could read replies there.
I have been thinking about the voting and some votes being influenced by the trend etc. But for now I'm happy to go with members being fair and in the spirit of the game.
@Qube - slightly off topic. would you like me to link back to the syntaxbomb website from my itch.io page? It only seems fair :)
Quote from: RemiD on January 21, 2018, 21:06:40
i suppose that you mean pixel/texel size (how it appear in the 2d/3d world), does not equal to game view resolution (width/height) (the view that the player can see) ?
Nope - I am talking about real world size and the "grid" we use. the cell-size (means "size of one pixel in centimeters") is not important (as you could go further away to remove the grid-distinguishability).
Similar to a quad paper you have a limitation in both directions: x and y - so eg. 30 cells wide and 60 heigh. You cannot just draw on half a cell - either full or not. As said it is not important how big the cell is in the real world - it just matters how many grid cells we have at all.
bye
Ron
QuoteQube - slightly off topic. would you like me to link back to the syntaxbomb website from my itch.io page? It only seems fair :)
I think that's a great idea ;D - This site is not advertised in any fashion so popping the word around can only be a good thing.
No Problem. Link now installed and operational - be interesting to see if this leads to more people coming this way...
On the subject of 320x200 being too low rez - I would have to admit that my own artistic abilities are zero, and it is an excuse for me not to have pretty graphics.
But as also mentioned, it's about programming and playability, which is why I'm here. (Still more geek than cool, apparently.)
I also remember what programmers from the 80's managed to do with very limited speed and resources, and some of those games are still fun to play.
Like Stevie G said, this competition made me think of other things I would like to do, so hopefully everyone has gained from ideas being shared. Btw I haven't looked at all of the entries, but Van Tourisimo - excellent!
Quote
what programmers from the 80's managed to do with very limited speed and resources, and some of those games are still fun to play.
i totally agree, and i find surprising how some developpers manage to create buggy/slow video games considering all the ressources and tools we have nowadays. (even if some bugs/artifacts/slowdowns are not caused by the developper/code/assets but by the computer/OS)
@participants>>not tested anything yet, i will test your games in the evening...
Many good entries this contest. Difficult to decide which entries are best.
I think one of the reasons why 8 bit and 16 bit games were so much more enjoyable than games today is that, with the limited graphics, you had to really focus on game play. I entered a game jam on itch.io a few months back in which you were limited to 64x64 resolution. Some of the games came out quite good. https://itch.io/jam/lowrezjam2017/results (https://itch.io/jam/lowrezjam2017/results).
Quote from: TomToad on January 22, 2018, 10:07:27
Many good entries this contest. Difficult to decide which entries are best.
I think one of the reasons why 8 bit and 16 bit games were so much more enjoyable than games today is that, with the limited graphics, you had to really focus on game play. I entered a game jam on itch.io a few months back in which you were limited to 64x64 resolution. Some of the games came out quite good. https://itch.io/jam/lowrezjam2017/results (https://itch.io/jam/lowrezjam2017/results).
I was close to entering that one. Some of the entries are fantastic.
What i realize now, is that for a game making competition, what is important is to make the gameplay easy to understand and to play and fun, and some of you totally did that, so i bet that you will get more votes because of this.
On my side, the gameplay is not easy to understand unless you watch my presentation video. But at least it is functional ;D . But next time, i make a racing game or a shooter :P
Quote from: RemiD on January 22, 2018, 22:31:15
But next time, i make a racing game or a shooter :P
I've had two game designs rolling around in my head for years and this competition finally extracted one of them and brought it to life. It's not quite finished but I might do something about that after the votes are complete.
As for the next competition.. I can't wait, but the wife isn't too impressed. ;)
Quote from: RemiD on January 22, 2018, 22:31:15
What i realize now, is that for a game making competition, what is important is to make the gameplay easy to understand and to play and fun, and some of you totally did that, so i bet that you will get more votes because of this.
On my side, the gameplay is not easy to understand unless you watch my presentation video. But at least it is functional ;D . But next time, i make a racing game or a shooter :P
A really unusual and interesting idea. I didn't look at the video, but found 3 statues (not sure how), and three items using the directions and spyglass.
That's the trouble with competitions - you need separate prizes for artistic content, innovation, etc. And games that require work to design different levels may lose out if the players/judges don't see them. (My excuse was limited time, but given the chance I'd put more effort into making something more original than point-and-shoot, having seen the quality of other entries.)
Quote
A really unusual and interesting idea. I didn't look at the video, but found 3 statues (not sure how), and three items using the directions and spyglass.
@freeman69>>Thanks for the test, i am glad that at least one person appreciate this game, it was not easy to make all the gameplay mechanics work in a coherent way.
( i have found 1 bug when digging too deep in the gound (fixable), and some graphics artifacts caused by the ROAM algorithm, using 2 terrains (one for the snow layer, one for the dirt layer) (fixable) )
I have tested your game and it works well on my computer/OS (Windows 7 64bits), and i think that the graphics are nice and it is a good start, but i would add a way to control the aim with the mouse, it would have been easier to play, (even with physics)
Quote from: 3DzForMe on January 20, 2018, 15:21:16
Well, my submission is as finished as she's going to be - I fought the good fight, couldn't compile on my main rig anymore due to letting my son 'borrow' my 3D card from my main (slightly creaky old, rig). Installed an old GForce 9800 GT - W7 failed to recognise it. Searched the house for a CD driver, found it - extracted the drivers, nope Blitz3D still didn't find what it wanted.
So, I'd to resort to my 560 pence W7 laptop (bought from an auction - but hey, it boots about 10 mins quicker than my main rig) with cracked screen to revert the code so the bats hadn't invaded instantly.
Wanted to incorporate sounds.... ran outa time.
Heres the link to the massive sub 1MByte file - thats almost retro in Size, well maybe a bit more than the 48Kbyte Speccy I used to have.
EDIT - got to the bottom of the issue, needed to install directlplay before it would work on Windows 10, thats the beauty of blitz3D. Theres an executable called BATSAWAY.exe, baggsy the wooden spoon?
@RemiD, good luck with your entry mate.
:P
Heres the intro screen:
hi 3DzForMe,
your game may be a pretty basic space invader game, but i found it strangely cathartic to blast the bats and change the trajectory of the shots in mid flight. ok, no sounds, no music, no levels, no animation, blocky bats in white cubes, but hey, i got through the game easily enough and was rewarded with a nice message! maybe a wooden spoon in this competition, but at least you managed to complete the game and submit it! and if you do decide to develop it further, it could be an interesting project. cheers.
@3DzForMe>>i have also tested your game, but i did not understand how to play, so i gave up. Next time, maybe include at least a text file with instructions on how to play and the controls.
@ahuang:
Quoteyour game may be a pretty basic space invader game, but i found it strangely cathartic to blast the bats and change the trajectory of the shots in mid flight. ok, no sounds, no music, no levels, no animation, blocky bats in white cubes, but hey, i got through the game easily enough and was rewarded with a nice message! maybe a wooden spoon in this competition, but at least you managed to complete the game and submit it! and if you do decide to develop it further, it could be an interesting project. cheers.
Thank you for the feedback - even producing the game to its current standard was no cakewalk - trying to improve the difficulty so it was a little more exponential broke it until the 12th hour ;)
QuoteIf you want to do a full on 3D game in a 320x200 res with 16 colours, then good luck.
Well, it is 3D - although next time I'd like to have modelled the bats in Blender a little, exported to B3D format and wrapped the 'bat' image using Ultimate Unwrap 3D for a more 'polished' approach. I know all thats plausible - its a bit hard to do that though when you're attempting to train for a Sprint Tri with your 18 year old son ;)
@RemiD - I think I put the controls on the 'intro screen.... just checking now....
Yep, opened up paint to hi-light the controls for you pal ;)
Oups i may have clicked too fast :D , i will test again.
Its alright RemiD, you were probably distracted from the text on the intro screen by Captain Cavern traversing the hills in the distance.
I do like how my intro screen is a bit reminiscent of the Hobbit graphics on the ZX Spectrum, if anyone recalls that game - its a while since I played that.
[EDIT] This was my inspiration for my loading (intro screen these days...) - Jeez, it says those hills look dreary, they're positively mountainous compared to the Lincolnshire Wolds.
Anyway, had fun doing my BATSAWAY game, which did start out as Captain Cavern with four differing gaming modes intended - but other life stuff precluded my invoking everything that was in my swede.
Still over two hours of voting left folks :)
No it's because i pressed S to start and did not notice the others instructions.
However, you have not been very applied to the task... After a quick play, i see several things that you can improve : the bats are piled on top of each other (maybe add a distance check before positionning each), the texture of the bat is not "masked" (use black pixels, then use flag4 when loading the texture), the bullet moves with the "barrel" (once it has been shooted, separate if from its parent influence -> entityparent(bullet,0) )...
I have taken a screenshot of your scene, the rule was no more than 16colors, and your scene has more than 3000 ! (to avoid this you need to disable bilinear filtering, see : https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,3892.0.html )
Well at least you have made a record in this competition ;)
If only I'd stayed within the colours I might'e clinched third place, c'est la vie. I just went and counted the colours myself lf and am sure I couldn't see more than 20 odd different colours. And, as for the bat's