Ereon Member Posts: 1018 From: Ohio, United States Registered: 04-12-2005 |
Hey guys, since we're only doing the competition for 2 weeks I though it might be fun to write a developers journal so that I could view my own progress and see how much I was learning. Then I decided to take it one step further and share it would you guys. This is just a mini-chronicle of my coding and game design adventures, sort of a day by day walkthrough. Feel free to comment if you feel like it. ~Ereon Sept 3: I've devised a system of raycasting and arrays to help me utilize the objects in my game. Since it's primarily an adventure game I wanted to execute as versitile and simple system as possible to speed up production time. I think I've figured out a way that will be simple and efficent, and allow me to incorporate an inventory system as well that can itegrate into the GUI and execute the use of any type of object in one or two lines of code. I'm really excited about this and I've set about developing a proof of concept demo to head off any details or problems I might have missed before entering the bigger and more complex levels of the full game. So far I've got movement and a tentative mouse look system working and some nice lighting going on as well. By the end of the night I intend to have finished the mouselook system and gotten at least the unlocked door opening system working as well. If all goes well then I'll also try and add key unlockable doors and lightswitches as well before the night is out. This is shaping up to be a very interesting challenge, but I think it's one that I can complete, and the impending issues (not the least of which being my laptop ------------------ Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk. Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one. [This message has been edited by Ereon (edited September 03, 2006).] [This message has been edited by Ereon (edited September 04, 2006).] |
buddboy Member Posts: 2220 From: New Albany, Indiana, U.S. Registered: 10-08-2004 |
um, its not Sept. 30th yet. but cool idea! ------------------ [This message has been edited by buddboy (edited September 03, 2006).] |
CPUFreak91 Member Posts: 2337 From: Registered: 02-01-2005 |
www.cpufreak91.jqsoftware.com/techblog No game details yet. Sorry you can't act like M$ now... although I could sue you and get money in the millions... maybe I should! 'Cept you don't have millions, so it would be futile. ------------------ |
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buddboy Member Posts: 2220 From: New Albany, Indiana, U.S. Registered: 10-08-2004 |
LOL, that would last about, 5 minutes. ------------------ |
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Ereon Member Posts: 1018 From: Ohio, United States Registered: 04-12-2005 |
Lol, CPU, you might succeed in wringing my small library and lameo laptop from me, but there ain't really that much for me to bleed  . Add to that the probable lawyer fees and well.....you'd probably end up in the red by the time everything's said and done  .------------------ Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk. Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one. |
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CPUFreak91 Member Posts: 2337 From: Registered: 02-01-2005 |
quote: That's most probable. ------------------ |
TwoBrothersSoftware Member Posts: 141 From: Janesville, Wi USA` Registered: 08-05-2006 |
I'm finding lots of little learnging experiences - recently I decided to switch to SDL from Allegro so lots of new code there. strtok is a really funky function I've found a good use for goto command in C++ Making good ground have something bordering playable already |
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Ereon Member Posts: 1018 From: Ohio, United States Registered: 04-12-2005 |
Sept 4: Things went very well yesterday, all things considered. I was able to completely nail down export in Truespace 3.2 (the trick is in making all the textures .bmp and having them in the same file you're exporting to), and, more excitingly, I was able to finish my proof of concept demo for my game engine idea. Using nothing but arrays and functions I was able to assign "flags" to objects and properties to the flags, thereby allowing me to pickup things, open things, unlock things, ect, with nothing but the "e" button, a few universal IF THEM statements and some function calls. So, now that that's ironed out I'm starting on the actual game itself today, beginning with the airport level. I'm very happy with the way things are progressing, I've got mouselook working perfectly, movement is rocking right along, and the lighting is looking good as well, I can't wait to see how this all turns out. ~Ereon ------------------ Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk. Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one. [This message has been edited by Ereon (edited September 05, 2006).] |
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Ereon Member Posts: 1018 From: Ohio, United States Registered: 04-12-2005 |
Sept 5: Well, I got the small details of my proof of concept demo ironed out yesterday, got collision detection functioning and all that jazz. However, I made the mistake of taking a "break" while my laptop was charging and playing Runescape. Unfortunately I failed to break away from Runescape and actually get back to game design. I'll have to make up for lost time today. ------------------ Portia The Merchant of Venice |
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Ereon Member Posts: 1018 From: Ohio, United States Registered: 04-12-2005 |
Sept 6: Fairly good day today, found a good youth group to be a part of, but having to go tonight meant I could only work on my game for about 1.5 hours or so. However, during that time I managed to get a good bit done as far as the game went. I finished the skeleton of the start of the first section of the airport level, put in the floors and sidewalls and a nice looking railing, I also experimented with reflective glass with excellent results. I'm toying with some concepts for realtime reflections that I might do just for the fun of it, though they likely won't have much visible effect until I'm able to release the improved version of the game after the competition (I've decided not to put in a player model like I originally intended, I don't have the animation skills). As for the game itself I have all the movement covered in the code so far, and after I get the first part of the first level done I'll add the rest of the engine. I'm working hard on polishing and organizing the code so that it runs at optimum efficency, and also trying to make it simple enough so that others can benefit from the source code after it's realeased as open source. I'm looking forward to finishing school today and nailing down the rest of the terminal area by the end of the day. ------------------ Portia The Merchant of Venice |
Jari Member Posts: 1471 From: Helsinki, Finland Registered: 03-11-2005 |
It's cool that you are writing about the progress Ereon. I don't yet read it though, because I don't be influenced. If any one is interested my blog is in the contest FTP. ------------------ [VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3) |
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Ereon Member Posts: 1018 From: Ohio, United States Registered: 04-12-2005 |
Sept 7: Not a bad day today, I lost a bit of focus and ended up costing myself a third charge on my laptop, but I still got 2.5 hours or so of work in, I've started getting up an hour early so I can get an extra hour of work in. The half-way mark is fast approaching, and I'm starting to feel the pressure a bit. So far the airport terminal is coming along quite nicely, I've got all the glass and framing in, the ceiling, floors, and chair models in, and I've finsihed the carpet textures. The whole thing is beginning to look like it's coming together quite nicely, and the overall impression, though incomplete, is very rewarding. After I finish a few more textures I'll post some screens, hopefully by the end of the day. ------------------ Portia The Merchant of Venice |
) that plague my progress will only serve to make the challenge all the more enjoyable and elating in the long run.
