Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Merry Crashmus!

Posted - 12/25/2005 10:04:14 PM

Ugh.

What an ironic twist of fate. I plug in my new flatscreen LCD monitor I got for Christmas, and within 20 minutes it crashes and my computer refuses to startup now. From the sounds and indications my HD is making, I think my harddrive may have been fried in the ordeal. The monitor itself is definitely going back to the store.

According to the latest backup I have on my USB key, and if I cannot recover the lost data, I'm back at v0.02 of Star of Shadows RPG. That means option windows, shops, map transitions, and a ton of other fixes/additions have been lost. A month of solid work tossed away. That doesn't include all of the other work and information I had stored. Heaps of work. Funny how the folly of not backing data up more often once again smites me abroad? :P

Going to be getting a new harddrive at one point this week, hopefully, and see if it can be saved. Until then, please cross your fingers for my sake and sanity. :)

Merry Christmas.

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Merry Codemas! Err..

Posted - 12/24/2005 9:22:32 PM

Merry Christmas!

I get to use a green font once a year. That's all I ask. :P

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, and some very great holidays even if you aren't into that whole tree-ornament thing. ;)

Don't drink too much. Don't drive too much. Be safe. Be warm. Be with your family. Drink lots of eggnog. Be grateful and happy for what you have. And remember that's it's about giving, not receiving. :)

Mystery Project

I'm really excited about getting going with development on this. I want to wait until I'm done with Star of Shadows v0.03 and have it released before I really get into it, but a proper design document and some notable planning will definitely be needed.

So far all of the games that I've done have been with my other teammate, Draffurd. I did the coding and he did the art/sound. This may be the start of building up an actual team. GD.NET is a pretty good place to find talent folks, from what I've seen, so I may be doing some soul-hunting at one point. :)

Star of Shadows RPG

Geez, my roadmap for v0.03 is going to probably end up being 50% bigger than the v0.02 one, making this release an even bigger jump than v0.01 (which was pretty much just an actor walking around :P) to v0.02.

Quelled a few bugs today (and the last couple days -- this is a general update :P), and finalized the framerate-independant stuff for actor movement and animations, so things should run smoothly (hah, pun) on everyone's computer. Also added the new actor datafiles from the sprites that Seether drew, which gives us a whopping seven new sprites from v0.02. It'll be fun to toss them into Test Town and make up some non-sensical quests involving them. ;)

Have yourself a great holiday!

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Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Hurrah for shops!

Posted - 12/21/2005 4:04:20 PM

Shops are finally done! This discludes selling, since there's no player inventory yet. :P I feel really good about this, since this goal had been looming over me for quite a while. Now just a few more bugfixes/minor additions, and then content! (And then the release, of course!)

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Sunday, December 18, 2005

Fatigue--

Posted - 12/18/2005 10:54:24 PM

Had to work 14 hours this weekend, so that wasn't fun. I blame the customers who want to buy more stuff as at a greater rate then normal. Christmas indeed! :P

On a more interesting note (let's face it, nobody wants to hear me whine about work; I'm sure you hear enough of it already :)) I set up a little header on this journal -- yes, I'm sure you've noticed it already -- just look up. A little bit more. No! No! Not that far! Down a little. Ah, yes. There we go. Now you can see in a bit more of a tangible way what I'm up to. Maybe even visit the Star of Shadows forum and offer some improvements. Or download v0.02 if you haven't already and provide me with invaluable feedback. The possibilities are endless!

Spiffied up the menus a bit more. Now images can be associated with a menu-option and will display properly. Each menu now has a 'genre' which calls a certain function when the user selects an option. Currently there are OW_NONE, OW_SHOP, and OW_INN. None do anything but lead to an empty function, but it's the thought that counts. :) A few small bugs were also squashed along the way.

Now that the underlying GUI framework is pretty much complete, I can get going on the shop system, which will be a key addition to v0.03. No screenshot today, however. I'll bottle it up and wait until the shop system is in before gloating. ;)

Thanks for reading.

(Oh, and does anyone know why we can't use the + character in journal titles? I'm dieing for Boots of Coding (+2) for Christmas :P)

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Menu options!

Posted - 12/17/2005 11:24:06 PM

Yeah. It was scary and daunting, but I finally took on OptionMenus. :)

-> TOptionWindow class, which derives from the TWindow class. It has a dynamic list of TOption classes, each of which store information about each option in a menu (text, image, action, etc). This was the first step, and just involved getting a static window to show a list of options I added.

-> Menu scrolling. Sounds trivial, but scrolling can be pretty demonic stuff -- ask any game developer. ;) Now not only can you scroll through the menu items that are longer than the window's height, but little flashing vertical arrows pop up when there's more options above or below your scrolling position. A screenshot should help:

Not too major, but I didn't have too much time today for coding. Had to work a long shift (which will reiterate tomorrow :P) and hung out with Draffurd and played some Sega Genesis, and general reminiscing. ;)

After these two fairly simple steps, I'm almost done menu windows. Then I'll be able to get working on the main reason menu windows exist: shops! v0.03 of Star of Shadows will include a shopkeeper (or two? :P) that you'll be able to do a shopping spree or two with. Shops is the next item after this, and I'll probably need to work out some more external data files to store each shop's wares, markup/down values, amongst other values. Can't wait to start watching NPCs distributin' swords! :)

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Friday, December 16, 2005

Mr. Webb

Posted - 12/16/2005 11:54:22 PM

This entry goes out to Adam Webb's DevBlog, who was nice enough to donate a link to my blog from his. So take a moment and visit his development blog and see what interesting works he's up to. :)

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Progress! (and the future!)

Posted - 12/15/2005 11:40:06 PM

Star of Shadows RPG

More progress today! :)

-> Tileset per map. Sounds simple, but it was far from it. This was a new attribute to be added to both the Map type in the game, but also had to be configured into the map editor as well. Since Delphi (what the map editor is written in) and BlitzMax use different internal string formats, this caused quite a headache. 2 hours worth, to be approximate. ;) But now I have two maps transitioning seamlessly, each with their own unique tileset. Can't express how glad I am that that's out of the way!

Debugging the tileset issue ended up giving me fun playing fields like this:

-> Map caching. Now when you leave a map and enter another, the current map -- which includes its floor/object/overlay/ID/collision data, as well as its scripts and switches -- is cached into memory for future use. Now data won't need to be reloaded into disk each time. This also voids the use of the 'SaveSwitch' function I made before, since scripts and their accompanying switches (switches are boolean variables used in the scripting, BTW) are frozen in their last state before the map changed and stored. Right now it's only to memory, but it should be fairly trivial to save it to disk in the future.

-> Script system fixes/additions. Thanks to a gentle nudge by Ragzouken, I broke down and finally added support (tolerance? :P) for indentation in the script files. As you'll see in v0.03, if you read the scripts that is, the code is much easier to read. Also added was the ChangeTile(LAYER,X,Y,VALUE) function to the scripting system, which lets you change the map dynamically during execution. I'll try to include a usage of this in the next iteration of Test Town; it can be used for things like having a switch turn a line of water tiles into a solid bridge, for example. Additionally a bug was quelled where the player was able to step off a tile before the onEnter event of a script was called, previously causing a lot of foul crashes involving map transitions.

-> New IDE! Not really a code addition, but I've just migrated the project over to a new BlitzMax IDE, BLIde. It feels a lot like Code::Blocks or Visual Studio .NET, and I'm loving it way more than the MaxIDE that comes with BlitzMax. For fun, have a look at Star of Shadows' code in its new splendorific glory:

And for anyone interested in the nitty-gritty details, you can look at the v0.03 Roadmap to see how close I am to completion of this version. We're getting there! :)

Future in Computer Science

Finally went through the booklet on Universities in Ontario, and narrowed it down to the 4 that I'm most interested in: Brock, Waterloo, Windsor, and University of Toronto. I'm (unsurprisingly) planning on taking Computer Science (with Co-Op ideally) for a Bachelor of Science degree. Also checked out each of their respective websites -- each seems to offer some really interesting stuff. Too bad my application only lets me choose 3. ;) January 11th is the deadline, so I'd better get cracking!

Advice from those professionally in the field of CS is especially welcomed. *prod*

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Some progress..

Posted - 12/14/2005 1:03:00 PM

Star of Shadows RPG

-> Finally got off my bum and fixed the GUI window process, so that flickering does not occur (or a rare case where the screen goes black), and multiple GUI windows will work now effortlessly. ;)
-> The biggest complaint since the start: framerate-independant movement! Now SoS will run at the same speed on all computers. ;) (Y'know, ideally..)
-> Map transitions. Now the player can move from map to map; the game caching data and saving switches/events with some new scripting functions. Added a new script event as well, onDestroy, which scripters can use to save switches and clean up anything they need to.
-> Screen fader! Now when you move from Map A to Map B the screen will fade to black, and then fade back in. This fader is pretty general-purpose, in that it can be used for coloured flashes during battle sequences, or used to give that nighttime scene a dark blue-ish hue to enhance atmosphere. Lots of fun. :P

Mystery Project

No work on this today/yesterday. Work will pick up when I get v0.03 of Star of Shadows completed. :)

Monday, December 12, 2005

Construction!

Posted - 12/12/2005 11:55:06 PM

I've got initialization code done and a good understanding of how my library of choice works, for the most part. Still lots of learning to be done. It should be perfect for this project. :)

Non-vague information? No way, josè! I'm going to keep the details closed-mouthed until I've got something solid going so I don't lose that precious motivation!

Tuesday, December 6, 2005

*sigh*

Posted - 12/6/2005 12:13:27 PM

Yet another change of projects. From now on I'll only post about what I am doing, rather than what I plan to do. It seems that if I talk about what hasn't been done yet (eg. future plans) then I lose the conviction to actually do it. I'll just keep my yap shut until I have something to factually talk about and/or show. ;)

Currently working on a project. That's all I'm going to say. Ha. Take that. :P

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Sunday, December 4, 2005

Modularity++

Posted - 12/4/2005 10:29:09 PM

Why re-invent the wheel every single time? If I can get away initializing Direct3D once, why not grasp desperately at that straw? ;)

The idea I'm going towards is that I can save myself a lot of time in both this current project I'm going for and future projects if I take the time to write a game engine the first time, that's modular and can be reused. I've lost count of the number of tile engines I've written in Delphi. *shiver*

Since I love Greek letters so much, it will be hereafter be dubbed, the "Beta2D Game Engine", or just "Beta2D". Rolls off the tongue, right? Right?

This 2D engine will be comprised of several components, which will essentially be plug-and-play, and should function mostly without the need of the others. Most of the components, like video/input/sound will be built upon the existing DirectX libraries (Direct3D, DirectInput, DirectSound, etc), but at a higher level, and with more functionality. This includes stuff like fading effects, or easier sound loading/playing. It also means that I'll be able to start pumping out a much higher number of games after its written, which is a wonderful thing. :)

So here's the general listing of what components Beta2D will consist of:

-> BetaScreen (resolution, bitdepth, screen clearing, bg colour, fading, etc)
-> BetaCache (cache of 'Image's, with functions for adding/removing)
-> BetaSpriteEngine (list of 'Sprite's, calls each's Update/Draw/Collide methods, maybe some culling)
-> BetaFont (bitmap font engine; loading, drawing, colours, size, etc)
-> BetaSound (loads and plays sounds)
-> BetaTimer (calculates FPS, delta value, and calls timer function)
-> BetaInput (holds data of keyboard and mouse input)
-> BetaTileMap (camera and array for drawing tile maps)
-> BetaParticleEngine (hm.. perhaps a particle engine? :P)
-> BetaPrimitives (drawing primitives, like: rects, ellipses, polygons, etc)

I had originally planned on doing this with another library like Allegro or OpenGL/SDL, but DirectX is the path I'd like to try to follow. Should be interesting. :)

Tonight's goal is to get the basics of BetaScreen working, which will include creating a Win32 window and initializing Direct3D. As well as encapsulating the begin/end commands for the scene.

If there's any interest in a high-level library like this by the time it's done, I'll probably release it on my GD.NET webspace or somesuch -- maybe some actual documentation :P -- or go opensource and toss it on SourceForge. We'll see how it goes. :)

Saturday, December 3, 2005

It has begun!

Posted - 12/3/2005 12:58:32 AM

So, a large fraction of today was spent downloading. What did I download? Well:

-> Visual C++ Express 2005
-> Windows Platform SDK
-> DirectX 9.0 SDK (October 2005)

Doesn't sound like much, but between dealing with installation issues and getting the cumbersome 'Windows Genuine Authentication' to cooperate, it look a portion of the day. But now everything is installed, and ready to go. Too bad I'm too tired tonight to actually start coding. I've been off on a codeless-spree for the last couple of weeks, and after installing this shiny new software I'm excited to dig back into some code again. :)

First, a bit of background info. Normally if I were to tackle a 3D project -- which I seldom do, anyways -- I'd use Delphi and OpenGL, because that's the combination I'm most comfortable with. I'm pretty knowledgable with C++, but I've never gone outside my comfort zone and written a game with it before. So here's my Sinister Plan(tm):

Bombard myself with new stuff. I'm going to start on this new game project, and will in doing so improve my C++ skills, and make it my first game written with the language. A good step towards the commercial industry. Additionally, I'll be learning DirectX along the way, learning lower-level hardware graphics than OpenGL exposed me to. The GD.NET forums are going to be indispensable during this; I'm definitely going to need several helping hands along the way. ;) The general idea is to write a game and learn a whole heap of material along the way. The tricky part is remaining dedicated and seeing it through to completion; a stage I often waver at. I'll have to make it work out this time around!

I don't expect anything out of you, dear readers, at this stage. All you guys can see is me bubbling off nonsense about "what if" realities. So I'll get coding, use my time, and start showing what I'm able to create. When the screenshots and demos start rolling in, then I'll need the feedback. :) Good night!

Thursday, December 1, 2005

Alive!

Posted - 12/1/2005 3:30:35 PM

Hey everyone -- I'm back.. again. :)

Lately I've been a bit off the gamedev track for some reason. Probably burnout, because I've been going straight for ages now without much success (read: since Magma Duel). Hopefully I'll settle down soon with a new project, and development will get back on track.

Today during my Computer Engineering class a fellow who I've been on quasi-friend terms with expressed his interest in learning how to write games. He saw me showing off a few of my recent works and I guess it drew his interest. ;) He seems like a nice guy, so I'll take him on as my "gamedev padawan" and see what I can teach him. Maybe even start up that elusive 'game programming club' at my school if there's enough interest. Who knows?

Also worth note, my birthday was back on the 26th. Hurrah for 19! This marks 9 years of programming for me. :P

Good to be back, everyone!

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