Well it's the last lesson before 2 weeks of holidays, so that means I will probably be posting less. I'm trying to organize ADSL at home, so posts in the next couple of weeks will depend on that getting done.
There's not a lot to talk about at the moment, I'm still coding the inventory, once that gets done I hope to start churning out more levels. So if all goes to plan there will be plenty to talk about by the end of the holidays.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Update
I've done my proposal, and I'm now working on that demo I released earlier. I've added a nice menu, a few decorations and some extra items to pick up. Right now I'm working on the inventory system which is pretty code-intensive, I enjoy the heavier coding but unfortunately it leaves me with little to talk about. So here's a little something I've been working on, I'm definitely wanting to put this character into the game at some point,
Monday, August 11, 2008
Demo release
http://www.4shared.com/file/58702524/ae695e35/THEdemo.html
There it is, should work. All the info is in the read me, just extract and play. I'm finally settling into python code so the doors are opening. But I don't have long and there's a load of work to do (typical of this course)
I'm gonna work on improving this demo for a bit, the room's a little sparse and the code is messy. But for now I'm working on my project submission.
There's also a video here of the demo thanks to roger. But if you have time, downloading it and giving feedback on performance and bugs would be extremely helpful.
There it is, should work. All the info is in the read me, just extract and play. I'm finally settling into python code so the doors are opening. But I don't have long and there's a load of work to do (typical of this course)
I'm gonna work on improving this demo for a bit, the room's a little sparse and the code is messy. But for now I'm working on my project submission.
There's also a video here of the demo thanks to roger. But if you have time, downloading it and giving feedback on performance and bugs would be extremely helpful.
Monday, August 4, 2008
I'm not hungry
Well it seems I'm obliged to eat my own foot, the demo's not finished. The coding is even harder than I first expected, but I'm making progress, and I'm hoping to have it ready by this time next week. One of the course criteria is about setting goals and deadlines, hopefully the focus isn't on meeting them.
Meanwhile I wanted to talk about free-ware and open-source, see over the exam period I tinkered with a program advertised on the class blog called endorphin http://www.naturalmotion.com/index.htm (natural motion software, character physics simulation, basically rag-doll on steroids), it's not free-ware 'gah' but I got the trial edition. Even with this free version it was clear to see that it didn't follow an open source philosophy. The program itself is entertaining, easy to use and relatively glitch free, but the endorphin user community is one of the most irritating and frustrating groups around.
You install the program, and instead of getting straight into it you are re-directed to the endorphin website where you are made to enter your name, email address, age, nationality and a whole bunch of other stuff. After this is done they tell you to check your email, five minutes later you receive the email telling you to go back to the endorphin website and activate your account. Only once you have registered as an forum user can you get the little bit of code which allows you to use the program. What's more is every time you open the program it will try to log you on to the endorphin website and encourage you to buy the full version.
Now imagine the whole process on dial-up, and that's pretty much why open-source is the best thing ever. Think that's a weak argument? I don't care.
Meanwhile I wanted to talk about free-ware and open-source, see over the exam period I tinkered with a program advertised on the class blog called endorphin http://www.naturalmotion.com/index.htm (natural motion software, character physics simulation, basically rag-doll on steroids), it's not free-ware 'gah' but I got the trial edition. Even with this free version it was clear to see that it didn't follow an open source philosophy. The program itself is entertaining, easy to use and relatively glitch free, but the endorphin user community is one of the most irritating and frustrating groups around.
You install the program, and instead of getting straight into it you are re-directed to the endorphin website where you are made to enter your name, email address, age, nationality and a whole bunch of other stuff. After this is done they tell you to check your email, five minutes later you receive the email telling you to go back to the endorphin website and activate your account. Only once you have registered as an forum user can you get the little bit of code which allows you to use the program. What's more is every time you open the program it will try to log you on to the endorphin website and encourage you to buy the full version.
Now imagine the whole process on dial-up, and that's pretty much why open-source is the best thing ever. Think that's a weak argument? I don't care.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Gold mine
Hidden away in the archives of the old game blender community, I've been led to the old un-finished game 'Caffuffle', which operates in almost the exact way I'm planning for T.H.E. I don't plan on stealing the whole engine, but it's definitely a valuable resource to reference from, especially seeing as learning python is proving difficult.
All this has put me in the mood for technical tinkering, so I'm officially planning a technical demo to be released around August 4, end of MYAP. The demo will be a room with the character inside and a few objects to be picked up and used in certain places. This not only motivates me to get the scripting polished, but it will also demonstrate the game genre to anyone who's still confused, it's also solid evidence of work and my first 'checkpoint' to fall back on in the event that no more gets done.
So remember the date August 4th, and if it's not done I'll eat my own foot
All this has put me in the mood for technical tinkering, so I'm officially planning a technical demo to be released around August 4, end of MYAP. The demo will be a room with the character inside and a few objects to be picked up and used in certain places. This not only motivates me to get the scripting polished, but it will also demonstrate the game genre to anyone who's still confused, it's also solid evidence of work and my first 'checkpoint' to fall back on in the event that no more gets done.
So remember the date August 4th, and if it's not done I'll eat my own foot
Monday, July 7, 2008
Trying to keep up
You might have noticed that this is my first blog for a while. Partly because I'm lazy and partly because everything's been running smoothly. But mostly because I've been knuckling down with level and character design. You see, all of the sudden we're more than halfway through the year and I still have a ridiculous amount of work to do. Right now I'm power building about 20 backdrops, the scenes are disgustingly unpolished but they will serve as good testing grounds while I nut out the finer points of my game-play mechanics (Inventory/menu systems/Quest tracking?/Interaction) That's the important stuff, once that's done I'll make it look all purdy.
I've promised to post a plot summary, which I've been reluctant about because I'm not sure I can make it sound as cool as it seems in my head (always a dilemma)
The game is set on post apocalyptic Earth, (Global Warming maybe? a bit cheesy) where only the rich and intelligent have survived in WW2 style bunkers, with no outside communication. You will play a prototype robot made by the richest and the most intelligent, capable of learning and making informed decisions. To begin with there is no denying your objectives, but as systems sustain more and more damage and dodgy repairs (NPC and friend Jeffery is a fan of the masking tape and fence wire method) Independent thinking becomes a possibility, and one can begin to doubt their creators motives.
If you decide this is social commentary (Humans being damaged perversions of machines) that's up to you. If reading into it makes it more involving that's great. But I want to make it clear that that's not my intention. Don't assume for a minute that I'm shooting for points in the deep and meaningful department, it's just a bit of fun.
Robot with a soul? It's wouldn't be the first time. But there's plenty of my own original ideas in the characters and game-play, so don't fear for that.
Roger has been cracking down on establishing wide and efficient networks, which is a thorn in the backside because this is the exact time when I need to be putting time into game creation.
On a lighter note my network is in fact spreading, site-meter has recorded hits on this blog not only from the mainland but also Switzerland and South Africa, so a big 'hello' to everyone out there, so excited to have you following the project!
I've promised to post a plot summary, which I've been reluctant about because I'm not sure I can make it sound as cool as it seems in my head (always a dilemma)
The game is set on post apocalyptic Earth, (Global Warming maybe? a bit cheesy) where only the rich and intelligent have survived in WW2 style bunkers, with no outside communication. You will play a prototype robot made by the richest and the most intelligent, capable of learning and making informed decisions. To begin with there is no denying your objectives, but as systems sustain more and more damage and dodgy repairs (NPC and friend Jeffery is a fan of the masking tape and fence wire method) Independent thinking becomes a possibility, and one can begin to doubt their creators motives.
If you decide this is social commentary (Humans being damaged perversions of machines) that's up to you. If reading into it makes it more involving that's great. But I want to make it clear that that's not my intention. Don't assume for a minute that I'm shooting for points in the deep and meaningful department, it's just a bit of fun.
Robot with a soul? It's wouldn't be the first time. But there's plenty of my own original ideas in the characters and game-play, so don't fear for that.
Roger has been cracking down on establishing wide and efficient networks, which is a thorn in the backside because this is the exact time when I need to be putting time into game creation.
On a lighter note my network is in fact spreading, site-meter has recorded hits on this blog not only from the mainland but also Switzerland and South Africa, so a big 'hello' to everyone out there, so excited to have you following the project!
Monday, June 16, 2008
I'm back
Ok, so I look like a bit of a twat after presentations, but I'm not going to worry, because I know I'll get another shot later in the year. But for now there's a whole load of work to be done so I'd better get on with it.
I imagine there's still some confusion about the game type, I have said before that it is in the puzzle adventure style. If you don't know what that is think King's Quest/Myst/Gateway, if you don't know what they are then think Darkseed/Monkey Island/Day of the Tentacle. If you're still confused then chances are you don't play enough old games and you should check out this site: http://www.abandonia.com/ contains games that have either been released into public domain, or belong to companies that no longer exist, so it's free and legal. Games in a similar style to my project will be under adventure.
There's still some nuts and bolts to be added to the plot before I can post it, but it shouldn't be too far away.
Most games are either third person, with the camera following behind the character, or first person, where the gamer sees things from the characters perspective. Mine is slightly different, it will be fixed camera, so the camera will always view the same scene and the character will move around in the scene in a similar fashion to the final fantasy games. This is handy in a couple of ways, because the background is fixed I can use a 2D backdrop giving me a whole lot of room to breathe in the performance department. The backdrops will be made first in 3D, rendered, edited in GIMP then exported back to blender in 2D form. This way the computer only has to worry about the player, moving objects and anything the player can interact with, because of the extra breathing room I can afford to make those to a high standard.
Hopefully that has cleared everything up, I've got the character movement working perfectly, all I have to do now is sort the inventory system and make... everything.
I imagine there's still some confusion about the game type, I have said before that it is in the puzzle adventure style. If you don't know what that is think King's Quest/Myst/Gateway, if you don't know what they are then think Darkseed/Monkey Island/Day of the Tentacle. If you're still confused then chances are you don't play enough old games and you should check out this site: http://www.abandonia.com/ contains games that have either been released into public domain, or belong to companies that no longer exist, so it's free and legal. Games in a similar style to my project will be under adventure.
There's still some nuts and bolts to be added to the plot before I can post it, but it shouldn't be too far away.
Most games are either third person, with the camera following behind the character, or first person, where the gamer sees things from the characters perspective. Mine is slightly different, it will be fixed camera, so the camera will always view the same scene and the character will move around in the scene in a similar fashion to the final fantasy games. This is handy in a couple of ways, because the background is fixed I can use a 2D backdrop giving me a whole lot of room to breathe in the performance department. The backdrops will be made first in 3D, rendered, edited in GIMP then exported back to blender in 2D form. This way the computer only has to worry about the player, moving objects and anything the player can interact with, because of the extra breathing room I can afford to make those to a high standard.
Hopefully that has cleared everything up, I've got the character movement working perfectly, all I have to do now is sort the inventory system and make... everything.
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