Yeah, I'm obviously pretty bad at this. I'll probably say this every time I blog, but, I'll try and do more frequent posts in the future. I Swear!
So yes, work is still progressing on Artificial Intolerance. Slowly. Here's a list of what's new and what's changed:
- Map loading and level progression methods are complete.
- Saving/loading in game is supported. This is pretty cool, the save method creates a snapshot of the game field: objects, tiles, bullets, etc (pretty much everything except particles, which aren't exactly impossible to do, but unnecessary.) The data is then "stringified" and compressed using an LZW algorithm, and is ready for storage. When loading, the data is uncompresses and parsed then load method takes the data and reconstructs the level... just as you left it. It was actually easier to implement this then it sounds. It kinda makes me wish I was working on an RPG-like game that could really make use of this system.
- Levels are starting to flesh themselves out. I have 8 levels roughly mapped out so far, 4 of which are more or less complete and just waiting for better lighting placement and scenery.
- On that note, the level editor is still a nightmare to work with. :) thank god the public will never have to deal with it hey?
- Demo playback is fully functional, it's pretty fun watching replays and extremely helpful for debugging/beta testing. It's pretty simple how it works, when recording demos the Input class just spits out all player input (keys pressed, mouse position, etc) to what ends up being a MASSIVE array, playback simply takes that array and sends the input to the engine.
- STILL haven't started bosses. Looking forward to it, though :)
Friday, October 26, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
The Story So Far, First Post!
Hey. I guess I was wrong about no one ever reading my previous "test" post; Hi Hooligan! :D
So what's this all about then? A few years(!?) back I began work a flash game called Artificial Intolerance. It's about robots, because hey, robots are always cool right? What I invisioned is a side scrolling shooter in the vein of old school amiga games such as turrican but also incorporating elements of newer old games like Abuse and even newer still, Alien Hominid. Large Levels, dark atmosphere, utter carnage.
So things were going great until the artist I was working with decides to pull out of the project. Instead of shopping around for a new artist, I just shelved the project vowing to pick it up again.. One day. And surprisingly enough, unlike other games I've shelved in the past, I did actually come back to this one.
The first step was converting the basic core engine from as1 to as2 oop. Now, I'd always written my as1 code in a very organised fashion but not exactly OOP, and this being my very first venture into OOP I had some learning curve to over come. First thing I learned is that OOP isn't nearly as complicated as some articles will have you believe. In a way it kind of complemented my coding style, and to be honest I have no idea I ever did without it (funny, now that I think about it, I can remember many people saying just that same thing shortly after learning OOP.)
The next step was pretty simple, yet time consuming of course. Rewriting my tile engine in AS2, an entity engine (or, what some of you will know as supertiles), a particle engine, and finally the lighting engine. On top of that programming entity behaviours and a level editor.. all fun stuff. It's kinda hard to talk about that stuff now that it's all mostly done and complete, it's a pity I didn't start this blog way back at the beginning.. Oh well.
So right, I guess I haven't actually answered my question yet. What's this all about? I've recently talked to tomsamson of stimunation games about collaborating on the graphics side of things and I'm very happy to announce we'll be working together on this project. And since every other developer and his dog today has a blog and a "brand name" I decided I didn't want to be the kid with the hula hoop while everyone else has yo-yos.
I don't even know what's supposed to be writing here. It feels like I've written so many words so far yet very little substance has come out. But in the future I will be giving updates on Artificial Intolerance and other games that come up. I'm going to try and post a demo of AI real soon-like. Albeit minus the new graphical assets, so it'll be more an engine demo, but I think it's still fun, none the less.
PS> How was everyone's easter? I worked a 40 hour week between last Wednesday and yesterday (tuesday), somehow managed to drink for 36 hours straight between Thursday arv and Saturday morning (Friday was my day off), and came down with the flu on Monday. I love easter. :)
So what's this all about then? A few years(!?) back I began work a flash game called Artificial Intolerance. It's about robots, because hey, robots are always cool right? What I invisioned is a side scrolling shooter in the vein of old school amiga games such as turrican but also incorporating elements of newer old games like Abuse and even newer still, Alien Hominid. Large Levels, dark atmosphere, utter carnage.
So things were going great until the artist I was working with decides to pull out of the project. Instead of shopping around for a new artist, I just shelved the project vowing to pick it up again.. One day. And surprisingly enough, unlike other games I've shelved in the past, I did actually come back to this one.
The first step was converting the basic core engine from as1 to as2 oop. Now, I'd always written my as1 code in a very organised fashion but not exactly OOP, and this being my very first venture into OOP I had some learning curve to over come. First thing I learned is that OOP isn't nearly as complicated as some articles will have you believe. In a way it kind of complemented my coding style, and to be honest I have no idea I ever did without it (funny, now that I think about it, I can remember many people saying just that same thing shortly after learning OOP.)
The next step was pretty simple, yet time consuming of course. Rewriting my tile engine in AS2, an entity engine (or, what some of you will know as supertiles), a particle engine, and finally the lighting engine. On top of that programming entity behaviours and a level editor.. all fun stuff. It's kinda hard to talk about that stuff now that it's all mostly done and complete, it's a pity I didn't start this blog way back at the beginning.. Oh well.
So right, I guess I haven't actually answered my question yet. What's this all about? I've recently talked to tomsamson of stimunation games about collaborating on the graphics side of things and I'm very happy to announce we'll be working together on this project. And since every other developer and his dog today has a blog and a "brand name" I decided I didn't want to be the kid with the hula hoop while everyone else has yo-yos.
I don't even know what's supposed to be writing here. It feels like I've written so many words so far yet very little substance has come out. But in the future I will be giving updates on Artificial Intolerance and other games that come up. I'm going to try and post a demo of AI real soon-like. Albeit minus the new graphical assets, so it'll be more an engine demo, but I think it's still fun, none the less.
PS> How was everyone's easter? I worked a 40 hour week between last Wednesday and yesterday (tuesday), somehow managed to drink for 36 hours straight between Thursday arv and Saturday morning (Friday was my day off), and came down with the flu on Monday. I love easter. :)
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