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[Olorin]

Here's my first screenshot:

It's going to be an autoscrolling platformer where you jump and switch between 3 different 'characters' to use their skills to survive.
The main engine is pretty much finished (flash), so now I'll need to design some levels, obstacles, backgrounds and do the sound, intro screens, cutscenes and scoring. That's gonna take a while...

 

[Olorin]

Is anyone else still working on their games ?

I'm keeping things pretty simple, so I'm already getting close to the testing and tweaking phase. Just need to design some more levels first.
SFXR was really useful for the sound effects, so thanks for that!

Here's 2 more screens:

There's always a princess to save.

It's good to be fire-proof.

 

[Goron2000]

That look's really great

Im just booting up rpg maker so put me down as a maybe for finishing a project ( tried to make 20+ games and to this day have not finished a single project)

 

[ThatObviousUser]

That look's really great

Im just booting up rpg maker so put me down as a maybe for finishing a project ( tried to make 20+ games and to this day have not finished a single project)

*high five*

If I'm not at least 50% done with my game by September I'll start over on Game Maker or something. I want to finish it, and I don't want the unusual* architecture of Android to get in the way of that.

* Unusual is probably a bad term... Less streamlined (as compared to dedicated PC game making programs), would probably be better.

 

[Goron2000]

I just realised that RPG maker is great, but only if you want to create an RPG. :lol

I'm going to get my hands dirty and learn Game Maker, would anyone be willing to let me have a pre built platformer to play around with?

I wish everyone good luck and if you have any GM tips or resources you could post, i would be very grateful. Hopefully this competition will encourage me to finish with a game to be proud of.

oh and *high five*

 

[Enk]

Is anyone else still working on their games ?

Yep, definitely not stopping. Currently I've put aside the XNA tutorials and started doing a lot of reading on C#. I picked up the book Head First C# which I'm about halfway through and it's been really helpful. I recommend it to anyone who has difficulty learning the language.

I may end up starting a different project than the one I'm currently on, and release that this year then rework that engine to make my generic fantasy action platformer game.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

I just realised that RPG maker is great, but only if you want to create an RPG. :lol

I'm going to get my hands dirty and learn Game Maker, would anyone be willing to let me have a pre built platformer to play around with?

I wish everyone good luck and if you have any GM tips or resources you could post, i would be very grateful. Hopefully this competition will encourage me to finish with a game to be proud of.

oh and *high five*

Here's the old platformer tutorial. The final one's source code provides a good base and is my fallback if this Android engine just kick itself into shape.

 

[jepense]

Sure I'm working on mine, but real life tends to slow down these kinds of hobbies at times. For the last couple of weeks I've been drawing some new graphics whenever I've had some spare time. Here are a couple of examples:

Static

and animated

I chose to do simple line-art for cards, since I can churn it out fast and it looks ok. I have 100 done and plan for 120. (I draw these at a higher resolution with a pen and tablet and then scale down.) I'm not yet sure how much I'm willing to animate things, but I'll probably make some thing jiggle with a couple of frames. The coloring in the cat example above is not entirely consistent, but it'll do.

Naturally, I'm also constantly playtesting as I go.

 

[Enk]

Here's my update:

Now that I can understand the code a bit better I've decided to jump right in and started getting my hands dirty. Since I still can't build an engine from scratch I've been using the platformer starter kit as my base and have been building off of there. So far in the past few days I've added vertical and horizontal scrolling, replacement graphics, a melee attack, and a tile that causes instant death (Mega Man spikes are my placement graphics for that). The melee attack is a little funky right now since I can't seem to figure out how to get the sprite to stop attacking if the attack button is held.

Once I've gotten the engine working better I'll move onto the visual elements. I'm moving Generic Action Fantasy Platformer Game (GAFPG) to side project status and I'll work on that one fully once this new game is done. I'm hoping to aim for something a bit more NES in style with this new one (which was my original intent with GAFPG until I kept adding more color and details). I'll post some screens of the new project once things start to (hopefully) come together later this month.

 

[jepense]

Now that I can understand the code a bit better I've decided to jump right in and started getting my hands dirty. Since I still can't build an engine from scratch I've been using the platformer starter kit as my base and have been building off of there. So far in the past few days I've added vertical and horizontal scrolling, replacement graphics, a melee attack, and a tile that causes instant death (Mega Man spikes are my placement graphics for that). The melee attack is a little funky right now since I can't seem to figure out how to get the sprite to stop attacking if the attack button is held.

I'm sorry to hear that you've been having that much trouble. But, the rule of thumb with programming is that for one day of productive coding, you also need to budget one week of debugging, testing and hair-pulling... I'm sure you'll pull it through in the end.

Same goes for everyone else, keep up the good work!

 

[Ducarmel]

I'm in probably do it in flash since Im learning to use it, but i'm more experienced in game maker and python.

OP for the flash resource add "Flash Develop" its free open source alternative to Flash CS4
http://www.flashdevelop.org/wikidocs/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://flixel.org/ or http://flashpunk.net/

still not sure if I should pick flixel or flashpunk. flixel been around longer but flashpunk looks really good.

 

[Chris R]

The melee attack is a little funky right now since I can't seem to figure out how to get the sprite to stop attacking if the attack button is held.

I don't know if this is the best method, but you could use a very simple state machine to determine what the button is doing. You take the previous state (up or down) and combine it with the current state (up or down) to determine if the button isn't being pressed at all (up/up), being pressed down (up/down), being held down (down/down), or being released (down/up). Again, I have no clue if this is the preferred way of doing things, but it is one method I've used before to determine exactly when a button is pressed.

 

[Olorin]

jepense, very nice animation on that cat, and I like the lineart style of the cards. Simple, but it gives it a unique look. Although maybe the blue one would look better with a slightly lighter blue, as it doesn't stand out as much as the red and yellow.

I'm close to finishing my game now. If anyone wants to try it, send me a pm and I'll give you a link to playtest it

 

[sprsk]

I have most of my controls whipped up (oh hey I'm gonna try this out) I'm doing shit in gamemaker right now. Will post screens later next week.

 

[Oblivion]

I figured I'd ask this since there's a possibility that someone here may have thorough knowledge of Lunar Magic (Enk?).

I have version 1.51, which I think is the most recent one. Some of the tiles seem corrupted, most others look fine. Anyone encounter this?

 

[WillyFive]

I just got RPG Maker VX, and it's high time I started using it again!

 

[Tashi]

Oh damn! How did I not see this until now. I'm gonna start brainstorming tomorrow. I've been looking for a project to do for a while now.

edit: I don't know if I want to do it in Java which I'm most familiar with or in C# with XNA which I'm not so familiar with but feel like with some hard work I could get a good grasp of it. Working with XNA instead could help me get my feet wet as well in game dev as a whole. I was also starting to teach myself C++ but...I might just hold off on that now.

This is really exciting! lol

 

[Tashi]

Ok, so I think I want to try to make a Megaman clone. Any suggestions as to where I should start? Sometimes I get into these projects and because I start at the wrong part, I feel like I got in way over my head.

 

[BurritoBushido]

I'm surprised there aren't more participants. I figured GAF was full of game dev wannabes. Either way, I'm done being just a wannabe. This thread has inspired me to start working on a game of my own. I'm going to grad school for games at UCF in August, and no job at the moment, so there's no reason I shouldn't be able to do SOMETHING. Posting in this thread should keep me compelled to work. Sometimes its hard to work on something if you are the only one expecting anything. Alright, here we go!

 

[Tain]

I actually made a lot of progress engine-wise earlier in the year, but I stopped about a month ago when I decided that I wanted to rework how the game looked.

Since then, I haven't been able to decide if I want to just use existing sprites from other sources, or be classy and do all my own art (I'm really no artist). And if I DO decide to do all my own art, I would make it pre-rendered, which would mean that I might as well double the game's resolution.

So I either use existing sprites and be amateur league, I make models in 3ds max and continue to make a low resolution game, or I make models and rework everything that's already done for higher resolutions.

This is a dumb thing to get hung up on.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Take it from someone who's had it happen to them often, getting hung up on those types of things will kill your game, especially if they require a total refresh. Just keep working with what you have even if it's not 100% to your current liking. You'll likely come around to it eventually, and by then you'll probably have a mostly finished game to be proud of.

Granted I haven't actually gotten to that last step, but that's what I imagine it'll be like. :lol Basically, it's better to have something actually done and finished than to keep chasing your changing tastes.

 

[Tain]

Yeah, I agree.

I think the best route would to be to continue working with sprites ganked from wherever and then replace them later if I have the time/motivation.

 

[Olorin]

After some more playtesting and tweaking, my game is now finished

Retro Dibblez: http://www.dibblez.com/game18.php
Three heroes, one princess, five lives and an endless amount of levels. I hope you guys like it.

 

[Lijik]

Retro Dibblez: http://www.dibblez.com/game18.php
Three heroes, one princess, five lives and an endless amount of levels. I hope you guys like it.

I liked it, but the three characters seem a little excessive. Maybe theres bits where having the double jump is super necessary and I haven't seen them yet but for the most part I stuck with the fireproof dibble and switched to the antigrav one when a giant pit showed up.

But as an autorun game, it was very entertaining. Pretty difficult though, I only saved the princess once.

 

[Olorin]

Thanks!
You're right that you don't need the double jump in the first level, but it gets a lot harder later on and you'll need all of them. I haven't been able to get past level 5 myself yet.

 

[jepense]

After some more playtesting and tweaking, my game is now finished

Already, you still have almost ten months? Nice work. Addictive and pretty difficult at first. I always seem to swap to the wrong guy. :lol

 

[Olorin]

Already, you still have almost ten months?

I'll probably make about 5 more games in those remaining 10 months, unless I get to work on some larger projects again

Nice work. Addictive and pretty difficult at first. I always seem to swap to the wrong guy. :lol

Thanks!

 

[Enk]

Thread update:
Changed opening post to include Submissions and Works in Progress


Good to see more people jumping on board! Now pick up that mouse and get to pixelating!

After some more playtesting and tweaking, my game is now finished

Retro Dibblez: http://www.dibblez.com/game18.php
Three heroes, one princess, five lives and an endless amount of levels. I hope you guys like it.

That was quick! Played about a good hour of this yesterday. Interesting take on the runner/platformer genre. My highest score ended up being 2018 on stage 4. The randomization of the levels are a good touch, despite the patterns being familiar it keeps players from memorizing the layouts. Good thinking there. If I were to add anything it would to be able to switch characters mid jump. I don't think that would break the gameplay. Other than that it was pretty fun and that's what counts.


Did you want this to be your submission or do you think you're going to expand upon it? You still have about 9 months to do something else. I think a 16 bit styled sequel could be fun.

 

[Olorin]

That was quick! Played about a good hour of this yesterday. Interesting take on the runner/platformer genre. My highest score ended up being 2018 on stage 4. The randomization of the levels are a good touch, despite the patterns being familiar it keeps players from memorizing the layouts. Good thinking there.

Thanks! Nice score too

If I were to add anything it would to be able to switch characters mid jump. I don't think that would break the gameplay. Other than that it was pretty fun and that's what counts.

I thought about that too, but switching mid jump would enable floating by quickly switching between normal gravity and anti gravity. It might be interesting if I restricted it to one switch a jump, but I'm not sure if that would feel intuitive. It would also make the blue guy less usefull because you'd be able to use the anti gravity as a really big jump by switching on time.

Did you want this to be your submission or do you think you're going to expand upon it? You still have about 9 months to do something else. I think a 16 bit styled sequel could be fun.

I think I'll keep this as my submission, but if it's popular enough, I might make a sequel some day. 16 bit style graphics would be pretty sweet indeed

 

[sprsk]

;_;

I formatted my computer and stupid me thought I had my game backed up and now it's gone. spent a lot of time on these controls too!

All I have left is a controls test exe.

Mannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn BOOOOOOO!!!!

http://rapidshare.com/files/363199221/ControlsTest.zip.html

Here's a link to said controls test. Tell me what you think guys.

Left Right move
Up is jump (again for double jump)
Down for butt stomp (was still in progress)
Space is float.

 

[Why would you do that?]

Woah, I thought this thread died. Very happy to see it active!

A few things...

- Tashi0106, you asked about a Megaman clone a while back. I have an incomplete Megaman Engine in Game Maker that I can let you use if you want, but 1, it's incomplete (not by very much, though), and 2, it requires you know how to code in GML (the Game Maker language) so that you can code enemies and stuff.


- Olorin, I like your game. It's pretty addictive. Honestly speaking, though, at first, I felt like switching characters in the game was buggy, and I was getting quite annoyed, but then I realized that you can't switch in mid-air. I think that you should better convey to the player that they can't switch in mid-air... An idea would be an "error" sound effect when they try to do so.

I don't think it'd be a bad idea to let them switch once in mid-air, though, but that's just me.

Lastly, if you can, it would be nice to have some in-game music.


- sprsk, I like your demo. Are you new to coding? If so, I'm extra impressed by what you've done so far. It's unfortunate that you lost your source, but the good thing is, the second time you code something, you will usually code it better than the first time.

Actually, if you did it in Game Maker, I think there are ways to decompile the EXE and get the source back.


Stuff about my "progress"...
I haven't really made too much progress. I want to use the faster Game Maker 6, but I accidentally formatted my WinXP partition, and Game Maker 6 doesn't work on Win7, and re-installing XP from my rescue DVD means formatting my entire laptop drive... so I'm thinking about giving in and just using Game Maker 8.

Also, I've been trying somewhat unsuccessfully to make 8 bit music from scratch. I'm just not a musician, and all I can make are 5 or 10 second loops. I'll probably ask someone to do that for me in the future, or I'll make 8 bit versions of existing music.

 

[sprsk]

I'm kinda new, I studied c++ a little in High School but TBH it wasn't much more than a few math functions and cout and cin.

In the end, I had three main issues.

First, the butt stomp. Just couldn't get it to work like it does in Kirby, though I feel like I got kinda close.

Second is some sort of bug that had the character warp through walls if it hit at a weird angle.

Third (and this is the biggest one) is that if there was some sort of moving platform, I couldn't get him or the platform to move if they were touching. I looked up solutions on various forums, but none of them seemed to be compatible with the way I coded the controls.

Anyway, not sure what I'm going to do next. I could redo the controls (though tbh, I don't exactly know how I did it, lol) or I could just try something different. I just wish Game Maker was better. Really disappointed by GM8.

 

[Tain]

Yeah, I'm sticking with the low resolution ripped art route for now.

Some simple early shots, I haven't really touched things in almost a month and a half. :x

Just dug out the solution today and made a screenshot function, lol

The good thing is that I'm pretty happy with the engine, the controls, and the enemies I've made so far. I'm also really happy with the screen upscaling getup I made. Definitely don't like the player's attack at the moment, though. Gonna have to rework it.

 

[Enk]

Making some pretty good progress with my game. I'm starting to get a better hand of C# and should actually be piecing together the world pretty shortly. Right now I'm trying to iron out as much of the character controls as possible. I believe getting a fully functioning character should be one of the first things done and then build world around him. The more things I can add to him the more I can do with the world. I have a fairly good idea of where I'm going with this game now and hopefully I'll be posting some picks in the next week or two.

Tain - I don't mind if you're using ripped sprites as long as the game you're making is your own. That said I love SHMUPs and will be looking foward to playing yours. Is that a Bubble Bobble enemy I spot?

sprsk - Haven't had the chance to play your demo. I'll get around to it tomorrow since I'll have the day off. You should really look into C# if you already know C++. It's been much easier for me grasp and work with.

Spoiler

There were C++ classes in GHS? Wished I spent more time in those than the television department. :-/

Olorin - I don't think even with the constant switiching it would make the game too easy. You seem to supply enough walls and fire to prevent something like that from happening.

Oblivion Where abouts are the messed up graphics? Don't think I remember having those. Make sure youre Super Mario World file is clean.

 

[Tain]

Tain - I don't mind if you're using ripped sprites as long as the game you're making is your own. That said I love SHMUPs and will be looking foward to playing yours. Is that a Bubble Bobble enemy I spot?

Yup. Someone else wanted to make an enemy for my game for shits. It might show up like one of those pixie things from Raiden, can't tell yet!

 

[jepense]

Good to see things happening and posts being posted here. I haven't touched mine in two weeks or so, because I've been busy designing and illustrating a board game for our BG group. It's just about finished now, though, so I should be picking up this project again shortly.

 

[Meesh]

I am not sure whether or not to code it in Game Maker (GML) or Python. I'm much more familiar with the former, and it is much easier for making games, but in Python, it could run not just on Windows, but on Linux and OSX.

Is Game Maker ot Python relevant if down the road you want to pursue WiiWare possibillities??? Should a person bother with C++?? Sorry bout the n00b questions, but I've always wanted to make a retro kinda game, and I want to know where to go?

 

[ThatObviousUser]

I really need to get myself in gear. But for now I need to concentrate on my new website design. Maybe after May 1 then.

At that point I'll just stick with the current version of the engine. I hadn't imagined that version 2 would take this long.

 

[sprsk]

Making some pretty good progress with my game. I'm starting to get a better hand of C# and should actually be piecing together the world pretty shortly. Right now I'm trying to iron out as much of the character controls as possible. I believe getting a fully functioning character should be one of the first things done and then build world around him. The more things I can add to him the more I can do with the world. I have a fairly good idea of where I'm going with this game now and hopefully I'll be posting some picks in the next week or two.

Tain - I don't mind if you're using ripped sprites as long as the game you're making is your own. That said I love SHMUPs and will be looking foward to playing yours. Is that a Bubble Bobble enemy I spot?

sprsk - Haven't had the chance to play your demo. I'll get around to it tomorrow since I'll have the day off. You should really look into C# if you already know C++. It's been much easier for me grasp and work with.

Spoiler

There were C++ classes in GHS? Wished I spent more time in those than the television department. :-/

Olorin - I don't think even with the constant switiching it would make the game too easy. You seem to supply enough walls and fire to prevent something like that from happening.

Oblivion Where abouts are the messed up graphics? Don't think I remember having those. Make sure youre Super Mario World file is clean.

GHS AP Computer Science allowed me to play all sorts of Dreamcast games on the school's projector.

 

[Koren]

I spent my first sunday on the game... I managed to get the physics (dash/jump), collision and scrolling mostly working. But I spend more times on tuning the constants than on actual coding.


If some people want to give me feedback on the "feeling" for the jump mechanics, they will be welcome. I've booted half a dozen retro games to compare (I'm sure people will guess which ones pretty quickly), because it's quite difficult to get it right, and that can ruin a game...

You can download windows binaries here (I went with plain C/C++ and SDL, retro-like so I've also included the SDL DLL should you need it). I hope it works, any bug report will be also interesting to hear.

Don't expect anything graphics-related, though, as you can see below, it's the debug display, with 4 of the 5 scrolling planes disabled, engine-related sprites, no enemies, no danger, a bland level-design and so on. You're warned! You can only run (left/right arrows, dash is automatic) and jump (spacebar... and try wall-jump if you want). Again, I want to check that everything is OK before going further.

You can enable edit mode with i (and exit it with i) and try keys is you want... I won't explain what each key is doing, though...

Olorin > Your game is great, simple, addictive and challenging. You should gift it some distribution among websites indexing flash games.

 

[Holepunch]

I guess this is as good as any place to ask.

I've always wanted to make a simple 2D game. I've taken a few programming courses in C++ and Java so I know a bit of my around. Basically I'm at the point where the best game I could make would be ASCII Blackjack or a text adventure. Everytime I want to make something with graphics I have no idea where to start. Even the seemingly "introductions" to libraries and their functionality or making a simple game for windows results in wall of code that looks impossible to understand. I've considered using an engine but I have no idea the legality of doing that and feels like a cheap copout anyways.

So GAF, what would you recommend as good way to make the leap from text to 2D graphics?

 

[Koren]

I've considered using an engine but I have no idea the legality of doing that and feels like a cheap copout anyways.

There's many many GPL / free to use engines, but often, they come with a very very long list of commands and are usually less user-friendly than a simple library (even if they can do much more).

I still think that, if you want to add 2D-graphics to C or C++ code, SDL is a very simple way to do it, and it come with routines to check keyboard/joypad, to use soundcard, etc.

I think that the best way to learn to use such a tool is to look at very simple commented programs, understand how it works, try to modify them a bit, then look at a more complex program. And of course doing many many tries. You can also work with tutorials (same idea, but easier because the explanations are more complete).

There's plently of tutorials on SDL on their webpages http://www.libsdl.org/tutorials.php
http://sol.gfxile.net/gp/index.html

In fact, with libraries, the most difficult thing is to compile your code the first time... ^_^


Another solution is a bit different: go OpenGL. The problem with OpenGL is that you'll be able to draw a line pretty easily, but handling sprites require texturing, and is a bit more difficult to understand.


The third solution is using something like XNA... but I don't know it very well (that doesn't seem the easiest way to have graphics, but some will disagree... maybe I spend too much time when I was young doing VGA in assembly ^_^)

 

[Enk]

I think I've done enough to begin showing my game now. The past couple of weeks have been really good to me programming wise and have managed to incorprate a lot of things that I didn't even think I was going to get around to finishing this soon.

The new game is called Eg and it will be a side scrolling adventure game of sorts (a Metroidvania-lite). The style will be NES like but a bit above that system's capabilties in terms of the tiles and variety that can be displayed on screen. The game is right now made with the 1280 X 720 resolution in mind (first pic) but I just recently tested it at a 1080 resolution and felt it looked pretty good at that size too (2nd pic).

Here's two pics of the game running:

Eg at 720

Eg at 1080

The game is still very early and I'm still refining the look (like the hud and some tiles). I'll post more once I get deeper into making it.

Everything seems to work fine right now. Health depletes when hit (but the hit back is still slightly wonky), tiles like waters and grass animate (my latest addition!), enemies right now have a few basic patterns, screen scrolls horizontally and vertically, and the main character has a few basic moves like dashing, jumping, swimming, climbing (more to be added hopefully).

There's still a few things I'm still not sure how to handle. For example I don't have parallax scrolling, which could be really beneficial if I could ever figure out how to get that working. Also I don't have a start or pause screen working yet. It would be nice to have some type of basic pause menu for this game.



Koren- I'm kinda going through the same problem as you. When I play my game the jumping feels fine but at times I wonder if it's because I'm used to playing it so much. In a lot of older games you are given some control to move back if you jump forward and I'm feeling my character may have too much control over when he jumps (kinda similar to yours). The only thing I really noticed about your jumping is that once the jump is at its peak and the gravity takes effect. It feels just a tad sharp, but that could just be me.

Also I would love to know how you got your camera locked in the way you do. I've got the horizontal and vertical scrolling down but at times I wish I could keep it moving up and down.

Holepunch- From short time experience with it I would recommend C# since you already know C++. Only 3 months in and I'm already getting things off the ground. Also Koren's advice is good, the best way to learn how to program a game is to see other examples of how people tackle certain areas and figure out a way to modify and fit that into your own program.

 

[Why would you do that?]

Wow. I finally got my butt in gear and created what I feel is a good engine for my game.
If you wish, you can test it out and give feedback.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/kq7a46 <- GM6 (Win 98 - XP)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/mq92ed <- GM7 Lite (Win XP, Vista, 7)

The game is in NES resolution, but you can full screen the game. As a note, I'm creating it in GM6 because it's much faster, smaller, and I own it. I only have GM7 Lite (hence the Game Maker watermark), but when I release the game, it'll be on the Pro edition, no watermark.
Controls - Arrows: Move... X: Jump.
Controls common to all Game Maker games - F4: Full Screen... F1: Game Information... Esc: Quit


I probably won't show off anything else with my game for a while, since most of the work right now will be creating graphics and levels and programming enemies (oh god the enemies...) However, I'm very happy that I've gotten to this point, because now I can start creating all of the above.



- Koren, I would love to try your engine. I will do so now and edit this post with impressions.
Edit: I can't run your game because I don't have Cygwin1.dll. I tried to get a version from the Internet, but it's probably an old version because it's missing some calls (I forgot the proper terminology).

- Enk, your game looks really nice and far along. I hope you can get parallax scrolling to work. I like how you're catering to high widescreen resolutions.

Is Game Maker ot Python relevant if down the road you want to pursue WiiWare possibillities??? Should a person bother with C++?? Sorry bout the n00b questions, but I've always wanted to make a retro kinda game, and I want to know where to go?

Programming requires that you get the basic fundamentals down... Things in common with pretty much every programming language. C++, Game Maker, and Python will all teach you these fundamentals. Many people have jumped right in to C++, but Python (with Pygame) or Game Maker may likely end up being easier to get into. If I had to recommend one, I might go with Python, considering that there are many good learning resources, including textbooks and online, and also that graphics in Game Maker can be a pain to learn.

The point is, any programming experience is good experience. Once you learn to program in one language, learning another won't be very hard at all.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

I always come to think artists have it so easy making games. :/

Oh and great work guys, I'm downloading your game right now WWYDT.

 

[Why would you do that?]

I always come to think artists have it so easy making games. :/

Yeah, it always looks so easy. "Hey, all I have to do is draw a few tiles and repeat them a bunch of times!" Not very easy at all...

Oh and great work guys, I'm downloading your game right now WWYDT.

Thanks. I'm sorry if it is not easy on the eyes or something. I used placeholder graphics for the time being...

 

[ThatObviousUser]

That was actually very impressive. I was a little bleh at first but then I found out you could jump onto the ledges. Mind=blown

 

[Why would you do that?]

Hm, thanks! It actually took me a while to figure out a foolproof way to properly code the ledges, so I'm pretty happy that I'm finally past that and can move on.

 

[Koren]

I think I've done enough to begin showing my game now.

Damn, that looks great for a march version...

There's still a few things I'm still not sure how to handle. For example I don't have parallax scrolling, which could be really beneficial if I could ever figure out how to get that working.

What is your problem exactly with parallax? What do you use for display?

Usually, what I do is multiplying the scrolling coordinates by a given factor (<1 for farther planes, >1 for closer planes) and use those scrollings coordinates for the other planes. I've updated the .zip, there's a plane at 50% speed.

The only issue with this solution is that if you're going e.g. from inside to outside, you have either to change some tiles in the backgrouds, or use something in the front to hide the backgrounds changing near the door (at 50% speed, 25% of screen before and after the door will do the trick). Or you'll see paintings and walls in your grassy plain...

Koren- I'm kinda going through the same problem as you. When I play my game the jumping feels fine but at times I wonder if it's because I'm used to playing it so much. In a lot of older games you are given some control to move back if you jump forward and I'm feeling my character may have too much control over when he jumps (kinda similar to yours).

Yes, but on the other hand, limited control while jumping will give you the feeling of first GnG, and I discovered recently that was really unplayable...

The only thing I really noticed about your jumping is that once the jump is at its peak and the gravity takes effect. It feels just a tad sharp, but that could just be me.

Thanks, I'll see how I can soften it a bit. I must say I kinda feel the same (it used to be softer) but since I was uneasy with it, I tried some metroids (Super, Fusion and Zero) and DoS, and I noticed that there were kinda sharp, so I corrected mine a bit, because I had really no issue playing with those games.

Besides, the fps control was buggy (corrected yesterday evening), so it could also come from here.

Anyways, thanks for the comment, that's truly appreciated.

Also I would love to know how you got your camera locked in the way you do. I've got the horizontal and vertical scrolling down but at times I wish I could keep it moving up and down.

It's unfortunately far from perfect... The basic idea is that the world is divided in screens (20x14 tiles) and each screen has a status for each side: FREE, STICK and LOCK (I hope I'll be understandable, because that's a bit difficult to explain)

The scrolling take into account the sides of the section where the player is.

If the sides are FREE, there's no limitation on the position of the scrolling (I use the same approach as Metroid, the scrolling move mostly when the player is moving, so that the main character appears in a "preferred area" on screen, depending on the direction he is going.

If one side is LOCK, the border must NOT appear on screen ( MAX(,) style, if you see what I mean). I compute the position for scrolling normally, and if one of those borders is on screen, I enforce a quick scrolling (if both side of a frontier between two sections are LOCK, you get somethink like Metroid doors)

If one side is STICK, the scrolling got stuck on this side when it reach it, and don't go further as long as you don't approach it very close. Should you make the separation move by going close (and make the separation appear on screen), the scrolling will become free. Again, the best thing to compare is Metroid: if there's a secret passage, the scrolling won't reveal it until you enter it, but after that, the scrolling is normal.

It's still not perfect, and I have to refine a couple of things. The main issue is going from a vertical area to an horizontal one and ensure that the forced scrolling with LOCK separation is smooth enough, and areas outside of corridors don't appear.

Wow. I finally got my butt in gear and created what I feel is a good engine for my game.
If you wish, you can test it out and give feedback.

Really nice effect, I'm getting a ALttP feeling with the ledges. Congratulations. And the shade is a really nice touch.

I really should try Game Maker one day...

and programming enemies (oh god the enemies...)

Hmm... Gambare! I'm also a bit scared by that, I'm expecting a lot of work on those...

And graphics... it takes an insane time, that's the only reason I'm thinking I would not be able to finish his.

- Koren, I would love to try your engine. I will do so now and edit this post with impressions.
Edit: I can't run your game because I don't have Cygwin1.dll.

Oh, I'm sorry. Forgot about it. *I* may use an old version of the DLL (I've bad memories of cygwin updates that turn everything into a real mess, nothing compiling anymore, so I don't update very often).

That's corrected... Downloadable at the same address

For the price, you'll get a more steady fps, all planes (even if only three of them have tiles) and the differential scolling, and some basic/placeholder graphics (sorry if many tiles are still using solid colors)


I'm happy because, even If I'm still a very bad graphist, I'm getting better, at least at hiding the patterns from the tiling. I've already said it often, but I'd like to thanks Tsugumo and its tutorial So you want to be a pixel artist?
http://www.petesqbsite.com/sections/tutorials/tuts/tsugumo/

I discovered many tricks myself before this article, but a couple of things were new (use dark blue for shades, use black only for specific things, good contrast usage, etc.) and rally, really useful. A must read... I wish more designer nowadays use those rules to differenciate objects from background (it also works in 3D).

The point is, any programming experience is good experience. Once you learn to program in one language, learning another won't be very hard at all.

I try to learn at least one language each year, the more you know, the easier it becomes. And when the language is stupid (Whitespace, LT, Brainfuck, Shakespear, etc.), I find it really funny to learn (and to use, at least once... I wouldn't use them daily).

I always come to think artists have it so easy making games. :/

Art is, at least for me, a nightmare... I think I'm a decent programmer, and I can code anything I can imagine (with reason), but I'm never close to be able to draw 5% of what I'd like to draw.

 

[Why would you do that?]

posto'massive

Okay, I was finally able to play with your game engine. It's looking pretty solid so far. The "STICK" walls, when you pass through them, it's kinda odd, in a way. I like the camera and scrolling system overall, though. It's one of those things that always gave me trouble.

Also, when you fall down while holding the direction button into a wall, gravity is lowered, like, you fall slower. I don't know if it was intentional, but it would make a great wall slide.

Admittedly, there was something really fun about your game as it was. I was just wandering around, exploring everything I could, nothing holding me back. It reminds me of when I used to download maps (like bases, ships, and stuff) in Garry's Mod, just to explore them.

Pertaining to my engine, I wasn't really thinking about Link to the Past... More like games like TMNT and other beat-em-ups. It's interesting how you connected it to my favorite game series...

About enemies... Yeah, enemies aren't very fun to code. Well, at least not the easy ones. Bosses can be fun to code.

When it comes to graphics, I'm going to take sprites and backgrounds from pre-existing NES games and edit them to the point where you can't tell they're from the game, but they may have the same... bone structure or something. The tutorial you linked to is very helpful for pixel art (maybe it can be added to the OP?), but unfortunately, doing pixel art for an NES (which has very limited colors... 4 colors per 8x8 square, 32 total on screen, only 56 or so total to choose from) isn't as easy (which is why I probably won't do things 100% accurately).

The music is still my biggest worry. I have yet to decide what style I'll go with. If I do things more Konami-like, I'll have more drums, and if I do things more Capcom-like, I'll utilize the noise more... On top of that, I am a sucky composer...

Learning 1 language a year is actually a really good idea. It isn't something I really enjoy doing, because 1, I love familiarity, 2, I am somewhat afraid to touch object oriented programming, and 3, I feel like I'd need to find a good graphics library in order to get anything out of it... Right now, I'm learning Java in college, and while I'm doing really well with it, I feel frustrated that I don't know anything about programming with graphics, so I will need to learn some graphics library on my own, which shouldn't be too bad, I guess.

Game Maker is pretty interesting, though. Learning GML is pretty easy, but the most difficult things about it for me was learning about how to do collisions and how to do the graphics.