  THE SOUND OF SILENCE | 
Posted - 5/30/2007 8:47:45 PM | Currently, there is no music for my game. I know some really great instrumental musicians. I mean really fucking sweet musicians. I don't normally believe in the trend that is myspace, but god bless ignorance is fucking awesome. Then, there of course is the equally awesome band Ephraim Zenh which is where I met the former. Both great local bands. The bassist from Ephraim Zenh has a recording studio and I get to hang out there from time to time. Anyways, where I'm going with this is that I'm heading there now to try and negotiate some music for wrath of the scarecrow. Wish me luck.
I'm still working on implementing picking into an object oriented way for reuse, I'm aiming to get that done by the end of the weekend as the rest of the week is pretty full with work and my son, but maybe I'll get it done tomorrow night. I'll at least get pretty damn close. I did research mostly today. Anyways, negotiation time.
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| Zumba | |
Posted - 5/29/2007 11:54:45 PM | Tuesdays and Thursdays are training days at work, so it's a mandatory twelve hour day with ten hours of pay. It's only for four more months though. The point being I don't have a lot of time to work on game stuff those days. I did get some more design work done though. Tomorrow, it's back to getting picking implemented and doing some more art stuff.
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| Some Progress | |
Posted - 5/28/2007 11:51:34 PM | Well, I did not work on things as much as I wanted to this past weekend. I simply got distracted and went out with friends every night. The plus side being I did spend about five hours each day working on things, which is better then nothing, but not the full time work on the game I was hoping for.
What I did get accomplished was starting to develop a general graphical style for the game. I changed my avatar with a sample, but the size restriction forced me to cut a lot of it off. At any rate, here is the full size pic.
I'll be working on creating a full set of animations for three characters over the next month. I'm a little worried about my art skills staying persistent and being able to continue with the same style, but so far so good.
I finished up general mouse input functionality today as well. Screen coordinates are properly translated to world coordinates, ect... I started working on implementing picking in OpenGL and want to finish that implementation before moving on to python implementation, and then working on specific code for Wrath of the Scarecrow. I didn't really work on any more design this weekend, which is something that I will do when I'm finished with this entry. I suppose I'll move on to doing that. Oh, I also didn't work on the website stuff that I wanted to get done. That's what I get for wasting time though. More tomorrow.
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| More Mouse Shizzle | |
Posted - 5/28/2007 12:47:14 AM | Ok, well, I've been working on the game for the majority of the day. I got some concept art done and I pretty much decided on a graphical style that I can do myself, but I was quick to discover that vector art is a little hard if you've never done it before.
I've been working on mouse input for a while too and whilst the initial concept of working with a mouse is pretty simple I'm quickly realizing that there is a little more too writing your own handling routines then I initially planned for. In short I think the task list I wrote for this weekend is going to turn into one for the month. Which is fine. It's good to be coding again though and working on things. I'm about at the point to call it a day as far as working on the game goes. More tomorrow.
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| Mouse shizzle | |
Posted - 5/26/2007 5:50:37 PM | I got a lot done for the mouse input today. It made me realize how little I've been working on my engine lately. What me made realize this was the need to follow my documentation and look up specific calls and such. Which is why it's good to have good documentation. I also started working on building animations for mouse overs and clickable events for menus, I'm almost finished with both of these additions now. I have a friend who came to town today though, so I'm going to go hang out with them tonight, so I'll have to finish this stuff up tomorrow. Then it'll be time for the scripting implementation. I also managed to draw a little today, but nothing great really came out of it. More tomorrow.
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| Weekend Check List | 
Posted - 5/24/2007 10:44:14 PM | It's been a very long day. I woke up and went to work at 7am this morning. I just got home about half an hour ago. I did a lot of physical labor today too, but I'm not just saying this to complain. In fact, I'm not even really complaining. I did however feel a lack of energy to work on game design initially though, but as I'm sitting down and writing this, I'm getting some inspiration from within me somewhere.
This weekend is going to be very productive. In addition to getting a prototype up and going for some elements of WOTS, I'm also going to be doing a lot of other maintenance things that I've been meaning to do in regards to my website and other public logs. I kind of wanted to go a head and finish building the server this weekend too, but I'm going to hold off on that until sometime next month. Things are still a little vague at this point. But this weekend will allow me to get more specific. The main things I'm going to concentrate on this weekend are :
1. Adding python interfaces to my game engine - The character narratives of the game are going to be highly dynamic, as well as their actions. Scripting is going to be necessary if I don't want to have to constantly recompile every time to check shit, which is essentially what I've been doing up to this point. It's been something that I've done a lot of research on the last couple of years, I've even done some small test apps, but I haven't added it to the engine yet. This is very high priority.
2. Add the damned mouse handling routines - This is fairly simple and is something that shouldn't take a lot of time. I just never got around to adding it to the engine as it wasn't something that was planned for barricade and there was stuff that I considered more high priority at the time.
3. Develop specific classes for the game - I need to start writing the classes for the games character and object types. At the very least get some generic classes started, derived from the engines sprites class of course, so that I can have something to get on the screen by the end of the three day weekend.
4. Finish the GUI - I started designing a GUI system for my engine months ago, I never implemented it though, beyond a command console. I need to finish this up as well.
5. Decide on a graphical style for the game.
6. Finish the main back ground and plot concepts up through part one.
7. Develop the basic frame works for six of the management systems that will control different game play elements and character control and interaction.
8. Develop or acquire some decent graphics to get up on the screen.
9. Complete the front end of the games introduction/splash screen. (Just to get something on screen to keep me motivated and test out the gui.)
10. Complete five to fifteen minutes of test gameplay to demonstrate everything that was accomplished over the weekend.
This seems a little ambitious, but three days is a long time. Three complete days, especially if you work on something full time, are full of caffeine, and are really excited. The main thing that worries me is getting to involved in one area and not moving on, for example the python interfaces. There is so much that I can do and want to do for the engine with it in general, but I just want to concentrate on working on the game more then the engine right now, so I have to keep an eye on things like that and keep myself moving forward to complete this check list. Anyways, wish me luck, I'll keep things updated.
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| More prolonged design. | |
Posted - 5/23/2007 11:09:06 PM | I made a little bit of progress in the two hours I've been working on design tonight, but overall, I've been getting side tracked with research into Japanese culture and finding various resources for learning Spanish and doing accurate translations of both languages. It's going to take me a while to get going on those aspects. The good news is there's a tone of other stuff to do in the mean time. I'm going to work on drawing again for a while now. If I actually come up with something decent I'll post it tomorrow. Otherwise, you'll have to bear with the anticipation to see something of value.
Three day weekend will be spent working on design and getting a prototype for the prologue going. I'll be stocking up on caffeinated beverages and hopefully be very inspired from sleep deprivation. I can't wait.
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| Um..Yeah | |
Posted - 5/22/2007 10:10:27 PM | Not much to say. I didn't really get any design done today because of work and then beer. So it's siesta time. Update tomorrow on deities.
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| Design Part 3 | |
Posted - 5/21/2007 11:09:06 PM | Well, I ended up missing my journal entry for yesterday, but not to worry. I'm back on track this evening. I got a pretty good bit done the last few hours on solidifying a back story for the world. It doesn't seem like a whole lot, but I have a more solid idea of how I'm going to approach the main story elements now.
Without giving too much a way. Here is some info from my design.
I decided to call the world Morea basing it on an acronym. It turns out it was a real place too and translates to the Land of the Rebels in Greek or some such thing, which I thought was cool.
Morea Origins :
Morea exists in what is called Realm Del Ensayo (or the realm of trial). It is but one of many realms that cosmic beings of all levels exist in. The realm was created by high ranking Creator Beings for the sole purpose to provide a realm for deities and other beings to be challenged to learn and grow as cosmic entities.
Since the inception of time in this realm, there has been present, seven deities each representing and controlling a element of power. The elements are Earth,Water,Fire,Void,Knowledge,and Time. The deities were placed in this realm for various reasons but ultimately there presence has preserved balance for the lesser beings of the realm. The deities are tasked to remain in Ensayo until the time when they have reached a certain level of enlightenment, at which time they can transcend to another level of existence.
The deities are recognized throughout the cultures of Morea and are respected and even paid homage too. For the most part however the deities are not actively involved in shaping the world, but rather act as conduits for the various energies that they represent. Occasionally a deity may make contact directly with lesser beings .
Examples of the deities are
Gernikako Arbola (The Giant Oak) - The Deity of Time
Kakashi(The Scarecrow) - The Deity of Knowledge
*****************************************************************************
This is just some general background information. I still need to finish defining the remaining deities and really define them as characters.
Essentially, they will exist in the game as normal NPCs but with special attributes and powers. However, I'm going to continue a model of emergent actions for the deities themselves which should allow for the main story line to end up being as dynamic as possible. I'm being pretty vague I know, but I don't want to give it away ;)
Mushu Wrote
Quote:Original post by Mushu
I think I kind of know what you're getting at; possibly a kind of intended emergent behavior. You could write the system with a rule "paper burns". Thus, when you bring a book which is made out of paper towards a flame, it ignites. A set of seemingly simple rules produce a much more complicated simulation, etc. I probably completely misinterpreted your post, lulz. |
That's essentially what I'm aiming for yes. But I want it too be broad enough so that if a book catches on fire and the book is dropped inside a house with flammable objects, that the house would burn down. Then the property would have to be rebuilt, and the resources would have to be shipped there to rebuild it, and it may take sometime to rebuild. And all of it would be automated by the games ai, unless the player owned the property. Once again this is ideal though, so such a system may be beyond the scope of this project, but as stated previously I'm going to shoot for something that at least closely resembles this ideal.
Well, I've got a little bit of time before bed, so I'm off to work on trying to get an art style going again.
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| Design Part 2 : Genesis | |
Posted - 5/19/2007 11:40:23 PM | The more design I'm doing, the more I'm realizing what an epic system I'm creating. I've had a vision of the ideal systems that I would like to see a game for a while. I've seen a lot of attempts at these systems, and some games have done them well (in regards to ai and object interactivity), Oblivion for one did a great job at this with the Radiant AI system and the Elder Scrolls series in general is a good example of object interactivity, but there is always some limits to this. Meaning, you can pick up any object in those games, almost but then your interaction with those objects is very limited. I really want it to be open enough to the player to be able to do as minute or intricate a task as possible, as long as it falls within the broad rule set of the game. Such a system is IDEAL, so it may never see true fruitation especially from a single developer/programmer/designer/sound engineer/artist who doesn't have a whole lot of time currently. But hopefully some day that dream will be able to see light. And I'm going to do my best to concentrate on developing such a system for this game, as time will allow.
So, the game worlds genesis is still coming a long pretty slowly. I just set down about an hour ago to work on it for the night. I initially started writing the background for the game about sixty years before the current time frame. But as I've been doing research and thinking more, I'm realizing that for the enormous concentration on lore and cultures in this game, I'm really going to have to go back and work on designing a complete history for this world. Tolkien style. Probably not that in depth, but enough to give the world a good footing.
I've also decided to have a concentration on languages in the world and use a combination of derivatives of Japanese Hiragana and Katakana, English, and Spanish. A blend of these three languages will be the worlds main language, although the origins of the languages will be more prevalent in certain areas as the use of say Spanish will be more noticeable in the north eastern part of the world. Also, it's a rather simple ploy to get the players interested more in the cultures of our own worlds and do a little bit of edutainment. Also, it forces me to learn more about those cultures as well. And this is where a lot of the ideas of the games lore will be coming from, and has inspired the main ideas of the game so far, as far as story goes.
Some other things about the world so far, I still haven't decided on a name for the actual world yet. I have created the land masses although I haven't done any regional development. I haven't started working on creatures or defining races, although I'm thinking that I will simply have something similar to our races, where it is simply physical appearance based on regional differentials that define us. I think I will go away from a using an exact replica of a human however, as I do want to incorporate some heavy mythology and come up with an art style that will stand out among other games.
Over all, things are pretty much in a state of chaos at this point, but I forgot how much I love designing games as well as programming. It's good to get back to the designing though, I really missed it. More tomorrow.
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| Step in Time, Step in Time. | |
Posted - 5/19/2007 1:28:57 AM | Well, I'm going to set a new goal to journal everyday about the development of my on going project. I'm currently still working on the genesis of the game world, and fleshing out a graphical style. I do want to go with vector graphics though I decided, crisp and clean, and then detail them in photoshop. I decided that I'm going to try and do most of the graphics myself, which should increase the time frame for completion, but it should also allow me to concentrate on gameplay , increase my skizzills, and maybe even motivate me to work on stuff for the game even when I'm not motivated.
In accordance with the progress, I'm also currently working on designing what I'm calling The Big Stinking Tech Demo, which is basically designing all the game specific frame work shit, and then doing a prologue to part one of the game. I want to have it finished by the end of the summer and then have part one done by the end of the year as after the Prologue is finished, (with the exception of implementing shaders) I should just be able to concentrate on game content. Then after part one is finished I'll be going back to work on the engine for a while.
Works going good, I'm really busy all the time though. Which isn't a bad thing, it's just hard to stay motivated to do all the things I want to do every day. Like work out, eat right, work tent to twelve hours a day, work on the game stuff at least two hours a day, hang out with my son. Games and working out are the two things that suffer the most, which too me is good. Unfortunately because of training right now with the job, I don't get to spend as much time with my son as I would like too, but the time that I do get to spend with him, I make it count.
Trapper Zoids contest is coming up. I saw quiet a few interesting contestants on there. It should be a good contest. I envy anyone who is able to work on their game full time that week. I'm going to try my best though damnit.
Hopefully by the end of this weekend I'll have some pics of some concept art(I'm working on it, just haven't found that look yet) and I will write some design notes as well. Following suite of the current survey on this site, who else uses a note book for developing?? It makes transition to digital format a little more tedious but I started as a writer on paper, so it's always seemed more natural then typing, although that's become pretty natural over the years as well.
Tomorrow, Game Genesis.
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| My Summer Vacation | |
Posted - 5/11/2007 8:14:39 PM | My summer vacation starts and ends this weekend. I'm going to Iowa City for a huge party because one of my best friends is graduating college. I'm going to try and get some design work done on Wrath, but it's not very likely I'll get a whole lot done. This will conclude my summer vacation as I have to work all summer and won't be taking any more trips. Iowa City is only a few hours a way too, but man, it should be nice, college town so lots of young semi-intelligent women running around, semi-clothed. Can't beat that, well without being in poor taste, say a strip club.
I have managed to get some work done on the design of Wrath of the Scarecrow this past week, and I spent most of yesterday watching Japanese episodes of Naruto and replacing the starter on my car. Anyways, I want to have the genesis of the game world and the main plot finished by the end of next week, as well as some test graphics. Update on Sunday, at eleven.
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| Design Part 1 | |
Posted - 5/6/2007 12:24:18 AM | I don't really have a lot of time to work on things these days, but I am making the most of the time I do have. At any rate, I've started to put a dent into the design for Wrath of the Scarecrow. A couple of hours and a few cups of coffee into it and I have some pretty good concepts and ideas to go off of.
I'm taking a lot of the initial ideas that I had for the systems and game mechanics of the design that I did for Conquest For Love ( although I was too inexperienced at the time to actually implement them) and moving them over to this game. Which is mainly an emergent narrative and gameplay, independently motivated npcs, and full object interaction. On top of that I'm actually developing a pretty decent main plot I think for the game to be shaped around, and a lot of additional game mechanics that are very cool. For example a health and stamina system that causes the player to choose how much time they spend keeping themselves healthy and in good standing. If they spend too much time doing so then they may miss an important event that happens at a specific location, but if they don't maintain their character well enough, then their character may become too fatigued to properly interpret information received from npcs, may not be able to perform functions like running if a situation calls for it, without falling, or if complete exhaustion occurs and they pass out, in an uninhabited place, and no ones around, they may die. They system includes a caloric intake system, similar to real life, accompanied with resting and such. It's designed to give the player a sense of urgency and stress.
The game itself is geared towards action adventure. It will retain an attempt to communicate with npcs through a text interface, including typing on the players end (I may end up ditching this, but I'd really like to keep it) and movement will be keyboard based and interaction with objects will be via a radial menu. (This is all stuff that I planned for the graphical version of C.F.L. but as time has progressed, I wanted to get away from such a trite bit of subject matter and came up with the plot idea for this game last summer.)
Also, the game will have some rpg elements, a battle system for example, but the main game play is going to be focused around the player acquiring knowledge of game lore as well as solving puzzles. There will be an economy system as well, but I'm going to shoot for not having a ton of micro management in that area.
Anyways, hopefully I'll have some more stuff soon to post including plot outlines and some sample programmer art.
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| Looky Here. | 
Posted - 5/5/2007 1:36:28 AM | I've been going through some old stuff on my hard drive as I'm looking into starting back on a project called Wrath of the Scarecrow. I came across a story I wrote almost a couple of years ago now. It's written like a newspaper article and I thought I'd share it. It's a little lude though so if you're easily offended, by some what retarded and explicit stuff, please avoid your eyes. It does a good job of using irony to convey a message though. And is a funny read I think, if you have a dry sense of humor. Anyways, it follows.
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WARNING POSSIBLY OFFENSIVE STUFF WRITTEN BELOW - IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE OFFENDED PLEASE DO NOT READ.
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- Peadmont Illinois December 9th 2005 -
For over a decade now, scientist have known about a little problem called global warming. Brought on by the rise of the industrial revolution, fast cars, and silicone implants, this problem, first thought by most to be a hoax, started small but seems to be spreading faster with each year. As green house gases build up the "core" temperature of the planet rises and those caps of ice at the polar opposites of our planet slowly begin to melt. At first glance this might not seem like such a bad thing as speacilist predict that with this California will slowly be swallowed by the ocean, and those scurvy land lovers whom never have even seen the ocean, will someday be singing a nodical tune. Sounds good doesn't it? But, at what cost?
There's a saying in the Antartic, and that saying is, damn it's cold. It's ironic that the same can be said about the hearts of our fellow human beings. Many, having been armed with the promises of beach front properties and the destruction of the unholy Cali have begun selfishly squandering resources in order to speed up the green house effect. Obviously, they aren't considering the consequences. Here in Peadmont it was like that for a local business owner, who admits to heating his house by burning styrafoam for the last seven years. It wasn't until this past summer, when the Peadmont Zoo took in a herd of penguins that the man, who refused to share his name, started to think,"Maybe this isn't such a good idea".
The 2000 penguin herd had been rescued from a glacier that had broken off from the antartic circle. The glacier, aparently adrift for weeks, was discovered first by a boat of potchers who began harvesting the penguins for their beaks, feathers, and sex organs to be sold at auction, on the black market. Luckily a group of Green Peace workers had been tracking the potchers with a GPS locator and managed to subdue the potching vessel, putting it to rest at the buttom of the sea. The potchers themselves were then given the same fate as the 500 penguins that the Green Peace workers were unable to save, then they were used to keep the penguins a live for the two week ship voyage into the nearest American port. When the penguins first arrived, they seemed happy enough. There were no complaints, until the bills began to role in.
Gerald, a 10 year old male ,from the herd, realized his life was never going to be the same the day he had to start paying for fish. Apparently the Zoo keepers didn't have the resources to house the penguins, but failed to have the foresight to see any problems that might have arisen. So, many of the penguins were forced to get jobs and having to make a life for themselves. For Gerald, who was already middle aged, it was hard enough just wrapping his head around the idea of money, and he had no job skills or training, except for fishing, but commercial fishing could outdue his skills without question. For three months, Gerald and others like him looked and searched, begged and pleaded, but could find no work. Met with hard looks and turned up noses at most interviews, Gerald decided to take a route that many did, and turned to a life of crime.
For the next year Gerald the Penguin lived the best he could attempting to adjust to his new surroundings. Stealing, selling crack, and even prostitution became an every day thing. The zoo officials were quick to notice the changes in Gerald, and attempted to get him into some help programs, all to which they said he never even seemed to respond. So, when Gerald was arrested for going down on a 63 year old trucker outside the Zoo, the Zoo workers could do nothing to help him out of the situation. Gerald spent three months in a county prison and was released on parol under the supervision of the Zoo once again.
Within two days of his release, Gerald was at it again. He was spotted by the police selling drugs outside of a bar, while giving a crack head a hand job, while shooting up heroine, while selling boot leg copies of a Bugs Life, which were all parol violations. Only this time, during his apprehention things took a turn for the worse. When the police moved in to cuff Gerald, the crack head climaxed, unloading into the eyes of the advancing officer. Blinded, and disgusted, the officer began screaming while holding his face and violently vomitting. Gerald used this opportunity to seize the officers gun, and he began letting the bullets fly.
Inside the bar, Gerald began to take hostages. When the swatt team arrived he had already killed two officers, and three civilians. When asked what his demands were, Gerald simply replied, "qwan qwank qwan qwank chu", which in Penguin means, "I want to go home." For hours the police attempted to negotiate with him as well as the Zoo workers. Ultimately however, Gerald turned the gun on himself, ending his own life. Gerald was dead at 11 years old.
Since then our local business owner said he heated his house with wood and gases, which still produce green house gases, but at a much safer level. Unfortunately for him the years of being exposed to burning styrafoam caused him to develop lymphoma and he died shortly before this article was written.
So, you have to ask yourself, is trading away our quality of life really worth more beach front property? Should we just accept the way that our world is, and try to keep it that way, or is it already to late to do anything? Do we want our streets running rampant with violent penguins, and what about the penguins? How many more have to die, before we realize that driving to the beach isn't that bad, and even though California is the sleazest place on earth, they still make porn there, so it can't all be bad.
In memory of Gerald the Penguin.
G.P. For Life Bitches ~
Written By : Will Canada
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