Developing Ramblings

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jayenkai
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by jayenkai »

I dreamt about coding, last night.
Not the usual "playing a game" sort of dream, but actual full-on coding.
I was trying to find a nice method of getting enemy AI moving along in a decent style, tweaking complicated movement functions and lookup methods, and all sorts of stuff.
Some fairly complex coding, going on!

.. Then I woke up.
I'm not entirely sure what game it was that I was trying to make, in my dream, but I liked my new AI style, so I've decided to re-attempt it in the real world, and see how well it does.
But.. what sort of game would require it!?
I've opted to make some sort of top-down enemy-spawning maze type thing.

No idea how this thing'll turn out, but it's worth a play...

Hopefully I've finished it by Tuesday!
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by jayenkai »

In the end, not so great.
The big AI-Dream-Code didn't turn out very well at all, and instead I opted for some good old fashioned random, aimless wandering for the enemy.
Gameplay wise, I guess it's ok, but it's certainly not my finest hour. I've done better than this, and I'm well aware of that.

DangerBots is available here, and is alright for a couple of quick plays, but not really up for much more than that.
.. oh, and it's alarmingly unoptimised, so watch out for slowdown!!
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by jayenkai »

Hmm.. Too many big ideas, lately..
My mind is thinking BIG, as I reach Game #300, and it's coming up with all manner of crazy wild ideas, none of which can be scaled down to AGameAWeek territory.
I now have THREE "Large" projects going on in the background.
They are..
1. RetroRaider : Dark Secrets
I'm coding this for the usual suspects, but also recreating it as Nintendo DS Homebrew, too. Tricky to try and keep all the elements replicatable on all devices, and as we all know, having Retro Controls on a Touchscreen is a frickin' nightmare!!
I've planned the release date for July 30th, and yet I can't seem to make a start on any sort of level editing..
It's not going very well!!

2. Hoppy Bobby 2
I wasn't planning to start this one so early, but I dreamt about it last night, and that's spurred me on.
Take the simplicity of Hoppy Bobby and transfer it into a larger, more adventurous world, with some sort of god-awful lame-arse storyline running through it.
I might even add one of those crappy "Tutorial!" modes into the mix.. (probably involving Hoppy Bobby leaping his way through a duck pond..)
.. Dreams beyond even my most ambitious art-skills!!

3. Extreme Pixel Chucking Championships
This one started out as a silly Twitter conversation, and turned into a vague game possibility.
With Game #300 on the horizon, I've been wanting to do some sort of "History of AGameAWeek" thing, and the idea of a Top Trumps card game seemed to be the obvious solution.
Unfortunately, that would require a huge number of screenshots, and that would bulk up the size of the download.. Plus it would be a really shit game!
Then, late last night, @Madgarden mentioned that he wanted to do a beat-em-up, to which I suggested that a JNK Beat-em-up would be meaningless, since all my characters have such tiny limbs..
.. and then the ideas started flowing.
... and then I drew this..
Image
.. and then I thought.. "Hmm.. Actually, that might work..!"
So, I'm now considering doing something with a whole bucketload of my old characters, and throwing them into some sort of giant battle game of some sort.
I'll need to figure out exactly what sort of game it'll be, but I do like the idea of it.

4. ... And AGameAWeek inbetween!!
Luckily, I've already done next week's game. I wrote the entire thing on Thursday morning, and it turned out pretty nicely.
*sigh*
So much to do!!
I'm a busy bee!
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by jayenkai »

A quickly cobbled together game, this week.
A simple little Arena Battler, where you have to kill oncoming swarms of Spiders using only Toothpicks.
You get 1 minute to kill as many Spiders as you can, but get time taken off if any spiders get too close to your .. um.. circle thing..

Grab a toothpick, drag it over to your circle thing, then slingshot it towards the Spiders..
Nice and easy!
You can Download Spiders vs Toothpicks here, or from GooglePlay here.

*sigh*

.. Now I have to come up with something for next week.. hmmm... *shrugs*
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by jayenkai »

I'm giving up with RetroRaider.

It was fun to experiment with new techniques, but in the end it came down to a lack of new ideas.
The game mostly works, the engine's quite nice, but .. then.. it's pretty much the same as before.
And, since it no longer includes a level editor of any kind, I figured it was too much of a loss.
I've scrapped it.

Another time, perhaps...
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by Pater Alf »

jayenkai wrote:A quickly cobbled together game, this week.
A simple little Arena Battler, where you have to kill oncoming swarms of Spiders using only Toothpicks.
You get 1 minute to kill as many Spiders as you can, but get time taken off if any spiders get too close to your .. um.. circle thing..

Grab a toothpick, drag it over to your circle thing, then slingshot it towards the Spiders..
Nice and easy!
You can Download Spiders vs Toothpicks here, or from GooglePlay here.
Spiders vs. Toothpicks is quite good. Would be even better if you could implement some kind of level system and the possibility to win the game (like three spiders in level 1, five in level 2, ten in level 3 etc.). Also I think you should get points depending on the fact how far away from your circle the spiders are. It's much harder to hit them when they are far away and so this should give more points.
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by Tormuse »

A few comments about the games: (Android versions)

Hoppy Bobby: I forgot to mention it before, but the "back" button doesn't exit the game. A minor thing, and maybe too late to change it, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

Neonplat: Nice little game. :) Once again, my small screen size makes the touchscreen controls awkward at times, but it's still quite functional and playable. I like the sound design too, although the high pitched "ping" could get annoying after a while; probably better to make it a low pitch or gravelly sound, since it's the sound you're going to hear most often in the game.

Dangerbots: I have a feeling this is bugged. :| When I start the game, I see a colourful, square playing field with a white dot at the centre and yellowish dots in the corners. I can guide the white circle around with the touchscreen and pick up the yellow dots, (with a boop sound) :) but then, there's nothing to do and nothing happens no matter how long I sit, staring at the screen. Were robots supposed to appear? Or was there something else I was supposed to do?

Spiders vs. Toothpicks: Very nicely put together game. (Although I feel sorry for the spiders, poor things!) :P My only complaint is the usual one that sometimes my hand gets in the way when I'm trying to aim; if I'm aiming at spiders above the circle, it's no problem, but for the ones below, I have to hold my hand at a weird angle to see what I'm doing and when I'm doing this, I sometimes accidentally tilt the screen and the game pauses for a second to reorient itself which is... 8) disorienting. :P Also, I have a question: Is there any consequence to having the spiders touch the circle at the centre? It turns red and makes a funny sound, but I can't tell if it's hurting me or anything like that.
Pater Alf wrote:Also I think you should get points depending on the fact how far away from your circle the spiders are. It's much harder to hit them when they are far away and so this should give more points.
I don't know about that; you already get extra points for getting multiple spiders with one toothpick, so adding some extra, extra points for something else could make the points system confusing, especially on hard mode where there are so many spiders that each shot is pretty much guaranteed to hit many spiders, including distant ones.

And just for the record, the three Android games from a Game a Week that I play most often are JNKAtoms, (can't get enough of that game!) :D Platdude Golf, and Arcade Slots. (The other day, I got a Yahtzee with five sixes! :o I got eighty points for it and I'm pretty sure it's the highest possible point scoring roll!)
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by jayenkai »

Platdude Golf!? Really?! I thought that was rubbish!!

Right.. Hoppy Bobby.. Ah, yeah.. I broke the Back button without noticing. I have gone back and fixed up a few games, but I guess I forgot to do that one! hmm.. Will have to have a nosey.
Be sure to grab the version from GooglePlay, since that's the most recent edition.

NeonPlat .. I really do need to get figuring out some proper joypad/dpad/other-method controls, don't I. I was supposed to be doing tests, but ... forgot!! sorry!!
I think, though, that NeonPlat is probably my best example of touch-retro control schemes. It seems to work well enough, and results in a fairly playable game.

DangerBots .. Double tap to drop one of those mines that you've picked up.
I tried aiming for other control methods, but.. it's tricky!
Same with Spiders vs Toothpicks. These two games sort of fit together.. I've actually been looking into "Top-Down Arena Control schemes", in the hopes that I can get a nice new version of Alien Deathmatch up and running.
I'd like to do that, with lots of nice arenas and loads of little aliens running around, but like you say, as soon as your finger's over the screen, you're pretty much doomed!

NeonPlat cheats a little, by sticking two impenetrable blocks over the two bottom corners, but Alien Deathmatch would require movement as well, and that makes things all the more tricky.
I'm not entirely sure what to do with it, but I feel that Dangerbot's "analogue slide" seems to work better than Spiders vs Toothpicks, in that you don't need to cover as much of the screen.
I'm still working on it. Something good will come, eventually!!


Also, Ooops!! I forgot to update this, last week, didn't I! My, I have been busying away..
Um, what game did I make last week!?
Oh yeah, Repeatybots, which is just a bog-standard "Simon" style repeating game. Nothing big.. A quicky!

Tomorrow's game will be Puzzobomb-Endless, which takes the concept of Puzzobomb/Vexed/Puzznic and transfers it from Level based, to a dropping-blocks style match-3 thing.
.. It's not as great as I expected it to be, if I'm honest, but it makes a nice addition to the library.
AGameAWeek tomorrow, or otherwise I slapped it onto GooglePlay early, 'cos.. um.. .. *shrugs* It was ready, so I might as well!!
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by Tormuse »

jayenkai wrote:Platdude Golf!? Really?! I thought that was rubbish!!
*Shrug* The physics engine works well and it's decently challenging. Sure, the control scheme is a bit questionable, but it's still quite functional. Honestly, I don't see what the problem is. Most of all, you can take as long as you want to line up your shots, which is nice if you're playing on your Android phone and might be interrupted at any minute. :)
jayenkai wrote:NeonPlat .. I really do need to get figuring out some proper joypad/dpad/other-method controls, don't I. I was supposed to be doing tests, but ... forgot!! sorry!!
I think, though, that NeonPlat is probably my best example of touch-retro control schemes. It seems to work well enough, and results in a fairly playable game.
Oh, I agree. It's fairly playable. It would be ideal if I could use the keyboard with my phone, but like we discussed before, I recognize that you don't really have any way to implement/test that, so the current control scheme is a decent compromise. :)
jayenkai wrote:DangerBots .. Double tap to drop one of those mines that you've picked up.
No, I tried that. I loaded it up and tried tapping and double tapping and triple tapping over and over again at varying speeds, intervals, and durations and I couldn't get it to do anything. :| What's the game supposed to be like?
jayenkai wrote:Tomorrow's game will be Puzzobomb-Endless, which takes the concept of Puzzobomb/Vexed/Puzznic and transfers it from Level based, to a dropping-blocks style match-3 thing...
Ooh, sounds interesting! I'll be sure to check it out! :)
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by jayenkai »

Dangerbots : Hmm... Will need to head back and look into that, then.. Basic idea is, you drop a mine, it blows up and blasts away the walls, leaving more mines, and occasionally DangerBots, who then run after you.. Dro more mines, blow up the bots, rinse and repeat until inevitably dead.
.. Will look into it.

This week, Puzzobomb Endless!!
Try to keep the field from overflowing, whilst battling to remove 3-or-more matches.
You can Download Puzzobomb Endless here for Win/Android/HTML5, or grab it from GooglePlay.

And, now on to next week, which will probably be that 1D game I started, yesterday..
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by Tormuse »

jayenkai wrote:Tomorrow's game will be Puzzobomb-Endless, which takes the concept of Puzzobomb/Vexed/Puzznic and transfers it from Level based, to a dropping-blocks style match-3 thing.
.. It's not as great as I expected it to be, if I'm honest, but it makes a nice addition to the library.
I'm not sure what you expected it to be, but it looks like a fine addition to me. :) The controls work smoothly and I like the 3D appearance of the blocks.

I'd like to make a suggestion, though: I notice that when the blocks reach the top, there's a rather long grace period before you actually lose and you can continue moving blocks around during that period. In fact, it seems that each time you move a block from the primary stack, it resets the grace period, even though there are still blocks touching the top! This means the game can go on pretty much endlessly and, in my opinion, it drags the game out too much. If it was up to me, I would prefer that the game just end when the blocks reach the top, or at least not have a repeatedly resetting grace period. (Perhaps the blocks could come down at a slower rate to rebalance that? Or maybe not all in the same column?)
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by jayenkai »

It's all getting a bit chaotic, here!
I've about 6 or 7 projects on the go, but all of them seem to have giant annoying blockades that are stopping them from being great.
It's a crazy time, with all these half-complete games, all bubbling about, all probably being ignored, and all eventually being abandoned...
Can't seem to focus, at all..

Anyhoo, this week I've made a nice and simple game with only one single dimension.
You may go left or right.
You should avoid the red things.
You've a shield on your back.

and.. that's pretty much the whole game!
You can Download OneDee here, or GooglePlay.

As for Puzzobomb.. Yeah, I do seem to have overdone the timer a bit. I'll need to head back in, and tweak it a bit, I think. Thing is, during my tests, I usually ended up with a big full almost unplayable playfield, so it wasn't so easy to empty the thing. But if you're only battling against one tower, it becomes curiously easier. hmm...
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by jayenkai »

Extended chaos! Two weeks to go.. This is number 298, and it was extremely rapidly cobbled together within the space of a day!
The reason, I've been focussing on a nice big #300 project. It started as a recent, but ended up a shooter!! Go figure!!
It's a fantastic little game, and I'm having a whale of a time with it.

.. Anyway, that's a couple of weeks off. This week is this.
It's a crappy maze/snake sort of thing.
Blockaid
...
The racer thing's better.. You'll just have to wait for it!!
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by jayenkai »

You know what's really frustrating?
When you've made an awesome game, you really want people to play it, but you need to bloody well wait for Apple getting it through review-phase. Grrr!

Extreme Youtube Footage
...it's still an entire week away!
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by jayenkai »

Meanwhile, here's this week's game.

Variasaurs plays like the classic board game Mastermind. You place your pegs, then the opponent places theirs. White for 100% correct, Green for right colour- wrong place, and Black for not right at all.
You need to decypher these clues to help guess the correct colour sequence.
.. and there's a dragon to keep you company along the way.
A simple idea, made silly.
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Re: Developing Ramblings

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jayenkai wrote:I dreamt about coding, last night.
Not the usual "playing a game" sort of dream, but actual full-on coding.
I dreamt about coding the other night too...but mine was more related to scripting a PowerBuilder deployment using this Powershell based deployment script that I have been working on for the past year. The on-going joke was that it was twice the Power deployment process. And at some point someone broke in and stole that code and I went on a world wide chase for this code...and there were ninjas and zombies, and a talking dog...

If you take anything away from my dream, please let it be the talking dog or ninjas. Can't imagine there is much fun in playing a game where you need to program in PowerBuilder.
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Re: Developing Ramblings

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"Demo" time..
As this game got bulked up to a month-long-project status, it was inevitably going to bring commercial issues.
Having given away Hoppy Bobby, then managed to do absolutely nothing with it that would warrant a "bigger, better, pay for edition" I've decided to switch to a "If a game is working, then bloody well charge for it!" mentality.
This goes against every fiber in my body, but since I'm currently jobless, and having to claim benefits since I can't get out of the smegging house, I think it's probably about time I attempt to make use of the one skill I have..
So.. Yeah.. That..

I won't make this a regular thing, though. It'll only happen to those games which feel "REALLY" good.. Like, those that might actually make a bit of cash!
There's still a playable demo, and if a game really takes off, then I'll expand the free version and make it as good as the others, but for now we'll call it what it is, and imagine that I've suddenly turned into an evil money-hungry tyrant!

Grrrr!!!

Anyway, this week's game's already getting rave reviews, and having video's made of it, so it does indeed seem to be gaining the attention required.
Perhaps a turning point?
Or maybe just a stroke of luck..

You can Download BlastTrax here.
Oh, and did I mention the fact that this is the 300th game I've added to my archive?!
Because it is!!!
300!
... I'm knackered!!
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by jayenkai »

An enjoyable week, this week, as BlastTrax seems to continue getting rave reviews..
.. Not exactly translating into actual sales, but the hype's certainly there! 100 sales in a week. It's not AWESOME, but it's not my worst iOS game so far.

AppAdvice, Cakeless Roses and 148Apps.com have all reviewed it, as have French and German sites FRAndroid and AppGefahren
Woot!

It's been quite a rush, watching all these reviews pop up.
.. if only I had the sales to go with it :\

Aw well, carry on!

I'm taking September off from AGameAWeek, and instead focusing on two things.
1. Bulking up BlastTrax until it's super-mega-awesome.
2. Playing GTAV once it's out!

Yup, that oughta be most of September taking care of!
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Re: Developing Ramblings

Post by jayenkai »

My Month-Off continues at a nice relaxing pace.
BlastTrax is continuing to sell at a moderate rate of about 30-or-so a day, which isn't exactly "WOOHOO!!" but is at least something, and I should be glad of that.

As I spend extra time bulking up BlastTrax, I'm finding myself wanting to start new projects. Seems AGameAWeek has taught me to leisurely throw projects away, and constantly keep starting on new things, instead. It's a nasty habit.
.. It's a great habit, but it's a nasty one!

So many silly ideas, but I've vowed to take the month off, so I'm not doing it!! NO!!
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Re: Developing Ramblings

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September's over, and it's time to head back to the regular AGameAWeek schedule.
... But first, a silly idea popped into my head, and I want to see how far I can get with it, before returning to the insanity of Every-Single-Week!

Image

It's quite a departure from my regular sort of art style.
For starters, it's HUGE sprites I'm using!
512x512 just for the sheep!
I'm not used to having to work with such large ingame assets, and it's proving tricky to try to fit as much gameplay into the screen as I am, but I'm kinda working my way around it, and it's coming along nicely.

Sheep Goes Right will be the sequel to the oddly unpopular game Sheep Goes Left, only he's heading in the opposite direction, and the whole game has a vastly different art-style!
I've opted to go for the "children making little stick-puppets out of cardboard" route, because that seems to fit my crap inability to draw anything :D
It works, I think, and looks great when it's all in motion.

Should be ready in a week or two. Not exactly my usual AGameAWeek schedule, but it's worth it for the loveliness.
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