Cytomight
I've been complaining about my procrastination a lot. And procrastinating about complaining about it...
So I got in a little forum conversation about what to do with my games, namely Cytomight. So another poster and I decided to do a little contest. We both work on our games and post the result.
This should be the motivation I need to get this project running smoothly.
I've perfected the colour matching and enemy generation formulas. It's all down to the graphics, sound and level design now.
Other Projects
My monsters game is going ok too. I'm using the Lufia 2 tilesets as placeholders (since there's lots and lots of perfect 4-direction animated sprites). It just needs a token story and real graphics. I also haven't figured out how to get unit targeting to work faster... it works, but it greatly slows down the game when there's lots of units. This needs to be optimized.
I've also been thinking of making a racing game. I've noticed there are no racing RPG's, as silly as that is, so I thought I'd try to make one.
Playing Games
I recently did an LP of Secret of Mana and am currently doing a blog on Dwarf Fortress. I'm also currently hooked on Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. I think I've played as much Desktop Dungeons as I can handle for now. I'm also eagerly awaiting the Wii release of La-Mulana and 1943 (and Descent, and Night Sky). I hate waiting. My next most anticipated game would be From Dust.
Anyways, I better get to work. Lok.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Cytomight is going well
Someone linked me a gameplay video of another game, Osmos. Well,damn... that's basically the same gameplay I was going for. I hate when I come up with an idea and someone else already did it.
There are some core differences though, I planned to use a strange colour blending system and have lots of powerups and cool micro-biology effects like Red Blood Cells and ENDOPLAMSIC RETICULUMS!!! And so on. I also wanted cell division to create a multi-ball sort of effect. So I won't cancel this project this yet.
I got all the colour matching (IE: Eating) done correctly save for a minor bug with the math (When looping over 255 you lose 1 pigment, but this shouldn't be an issue).
I have no idea what to do with the soundtrack though. Maybe some organic techno with lots of sploosh and splork effects or something, IDK.
Well; back to work, Lok.
There are some core differences though, I planned to use a strange colour blending system and have lots of powerups and cool micro-biology effects like Red Blood Cells and ENDOPLAMSIC RETICULUMS!!! And so on. I also wanted cell division to create a multi-ball sort of effect. So I won't cancel this project this yet.
I got all the colour matching (IE: Eating) done correctly save for a minor bug with the math (When looping over 255 you lose 1 pigment, but this shouldn't be an issue).
I have no idea what to do with the soundtrack though. Maybe some organic techno with lots of sploosh and splork effects or something, IDK.
Well; back to work, Lok.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
New Project: Cytomight
My strategy game is coming along ok programming wise, but once again I'm getting intolerant of the placeholder graphics and sound. I need a break. That means a new project.
This game you play as a small single pixel cell (zoomed in for convenience). The game keeps track of your hue value. You can eat other cells that are closer one hue direction than the other (which eat you). After eating a cell you change colour to the average of the two cells. Cells that are very similar in colour will simply block each other.
After consuming enough cells, the character begins to grow and then the game zooms out... The "terrain" you've been fighting around is actually just bigger creatures. You can now instantly consume all smaller cells and have to match against the newer, larger enemies. Once you grow large enough you transform into an organism and escape the petri dish, the world boundary.
AI coding would be simple. Small cells would instinctively attack nearest cells. Larger cells will attack only cells they can eat and the largest cells would know to avoid cells that will eat them. Powerups could include ways to attract/repel all/some cells, the ability to split/mutate or even absorb a super cell as a new organ.
Well, let's see how it goes.
This game you play as a small single pixel cell (zoomed in for convenience). The game keeps track of your hue value. You can eat other cells that are closer one hue direction than the other (which eat you). After eating a cell you change colour to the average of the two cells. Cells that are very similar in colour will simply block each other.
After consuming enough cells, the character begins to grow and then the game zooms out... The "terrain" you've been fighting around is actually just bigger creatures. You can now instantly consume all smaller cells and have to match against the newer, larger enemies. Once you grow large enough you transform into an organism and escape the petri dish, the world boundary.
AI coding would be simple. Small cells would instinctively attack nearest cells. Larger cells will attack only cells they can eat and the largest cells would know to avoid cells that will eat them. Powerups could include ways to attract/repel all/some cells, the ability to split/mutate or even absorb a super cell as a new organ.
Well, let's see how it goes.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
New Project: Strategy game
I've been working on a strategy RPG for a while now. I wanted to keep all the damage values in the very small range. Like 2HP enemies, 1 Damage spells and so on. I couldn't come up with a format for this game though. Then last night I got insight. Why not make it in the form of a TCG game? Construct a deck of spells and summons and have them duke it out. Magic: The Gathering even uses small scale critters... But I didn't want to design a whole TCG. I just needed about a dozen or so "cards."
How about turret defense? Those games are popular and most people make at least one. But building turrets to defend against waves wouldn't be what I'm going for. So what about turret attack? Summon waves of creeps to attack the enemy. They aren't completely unheard of. Nah, it doesn't quite work either. There could be turret attack levels, but it shouldn't be the whole game.
I finally decided on a format. AI combat. Each spell has certain rules (printed on its card). A fireball's rules might be "FIRE: 1 Damage. Movement: Forward 2". Once you play the spell the fireball is created and would follow its AI pattern precisely until it hits an enemy or the outer boundary. Of course, with a movement pattern of just Forward would mean anyone could just step out of the way. So let's make the hero's immobile! That wouldn't be fun by itself... so let's add movement cards! Moving one space to the side would mean you can no longer [be] hit by fireballs anymore. So, play the movement card ON the fireball. Once it's beside your enemy just use a movement card to turn it towards the enemy, you now have a sideways moving fireball. On the other hand... the enemy could move himself one space to the side and one space forward in two turns. The fireball would never be able to reach him since with "Forward 2" movement the fireball would always be one tile early/late no matter how you turn it.
Spells would have very simple AI representative of ballistics. But critter summons would be different. A Goblin could have the card "POWER: 1 Damage. 1 Health. Movement: One towards boss (Tie Horizontal)". This would summon the Goblin. He'd move one towards the enemy leader taking the shortest possible path. In the event of a movement tie, the same number of tiles to the destination, the Goblin would prefer the horizontal option. With this in mind, a summoner could use terrain or create walls to prevent the enemy Goblins from reach him (which in turn would limit the enemy in what they can do for attacks).
A lot of Goblins could be trouble. They'd absorb all your fireballs. So why not a Hunter? A critter who's AI pattern is nearest any enemy. They'd seek out and attack Goblins. Back to movement cards; use a movement card to get the Goblin out of harms way while getting it closer to your enemy. Suddenly I got a strategy game going!
All sorts of classic RPG staples like Healing, poison, monsters, bosses and treasures could be summoned to the field in your attempt to defeat the enemy. Slimes that rarely move, traps that deny passages, creatures immune to magic, creatures with amazing speed... Well, looks like I have a lot of work to do. What I like about this project is movement and reactive AI doesn't even need to be in the game, every enemy moves exactly how its card says it will. If the critters are acting stupidly, that's intentional!
I don't work properly, Lok.
How about turret defense? Those games are popular and most people make at least one. But building turrets to defend against waves wouldn't be what I'm going for. So what about turret attack? Summon waves of creeps to attack the enemy. They aren't completely unheard of. Nah, it doesn't quite work either. There could be turret attack levels, but it shouldn't be the whole game.
I finally decided on a format. AI combat. Each spell has certain rules (printed on its card). A fireball's rules might be "FIRE: 1 Damage. Movement: Forward 2". Once you play the spell the fireball is created and would follow its AI pattern precisely until it hits an enemy or the outer boundary. Of course, with a movement pattern of just Forward would mean anyone could just step out of the way. So let's make the hero's immobile! That wouldn't be fun by itself... so let's add movement cards! Moving one space to the side would mean you can no longer [be] hit by fireballs anymore. So, play the movement card ON the fireball. Once it's beside your enemy just use a movement card to turn it towards the enemy, you now have a sideways moving fireball. On the other hand... the enemy could move himself one space to the side and one space forward in two turns. The fireball would never be able to reach him since with "Forward 2" movement the fireball would always be one tile early/late no matter how you turn it.
Spells would have very simple AI representative of ballistics. But critter summons would be different. A Goblin could have the card "POWER: 1 Damage. 1 Health. Movement: One towards boss (Tie Horizontal)". This would summon the Goblin. He'd move one towards the enemy leader taking the shortest possible path. In the event of a movement tie, the same number of tiles to the destination, the Goblin would prefer the horizontal option. With this in mind, a summoner could use terrain or create walls to prevent the enemy Goblins from reach him (which in turn would limit the enemy in what they can do for attacks).
A lot of Goblins could be trouble. They'd absorb all your fireballs. So why not a Hunter? A critter who's AI pattern is nearest any enemy. They'd seek out and attack Goblins. Back to movement cards; use a movement card to get the Goblin out of harms way while getting it closer to your enemy. Suddenly I got a strategy game going!
All sorts of classic RPG staples like Healing, poison, monsters, bosses and treasures could be summoned to the field in your attempt to defeat the enemy. Slimes that rarely move, traps that deny passages, creatures immune to magic, creatures with amazing speed... Well, looks like I have a lot of work to do. What I like about this project is movement and reactive AI doesn't even need to be in the game, every enemy moves exactly how its card says it will. If the critters are acting stupidly, that's intentional!
I don't work properly, Lok.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
The Process: Resources
heroofdark asked;
What do you do to get sprites, music, sounds and other resources? Do you create them or get them from the internet? And if you create them, what program do you use, or what website do you go to? I'm getting into GameMaker (still on tutorials until the semester ends), and I'm wondering where to get other resources than what's prepackaged.
Sprites
I first start with place holder sprites. I make these in Gamemaker's in-program graphics editor (basically MS Paint+1). My placeholder graphics are usually solid squares, circles and so on representing the hitbox.
Next, when I'm ready for animation, I download some sample sheets from the internet. Google Image Search usually. If I'm making a platformer I use Mario for example.
Once all the animations are working correctly I replace them with actual graphics. I make these in an old program called Grafx2. It's a 256 colour editor with quick functions for shapes and shading. I use it since it's very fast, not because it has a lot of features.
Backgrounds
Depending on what I'm trying to accomplish I use a combination of Grafx2 and GIMP. Grafx2 has a very nice circles/spheres tool. Here's a sample I made:
It takes roughly 30 seconds to make one of these in Grafx2. After that I open up the image in GIMP and add a lot of filters. Take a look at these two pictures. Notice the arrangement of the circles. I used the same spheres template for both of them.
Making graphics like this is my favourite part. Unfortunately it's very hard to stay thematic when designing like this. Suppose I need a forest and an ocean; If I'm quick designing like above there might be nothing even remotely resembling trees or water. Other than that the combination of Grafx2 and GIMP is great for me. In the past I used a program called sTile or something like that for making tessellations, but I've never been able to find it again since my Windows 3.1 days.
Music and Sound
Typically I use the FL Studio demo. I'm not attached to it, but I'm not very good with sound anyway. The only downside to the demo is you can't save works in progress. However, you can still export files. This means if you "one-shot" it you still get most of the functionality. This is not good for making music, but great for making sound effects. A couple "3x osc"'s and reverb effects and you have a sword strike or fireball... easy. I don't really have a program for making music. In the past I used Noteworthy Composer to edit MIDI files, but that's not really good for music in modern games (even indy ones).
---
Feel free to leave a comment if you have any more questions.
[][][][][][][], Lok
What do you do to get sprites, music, sounds and other resources? Do you create them or get them from the internet? And if you create them, what program do you use, or what website do you go to? I'm getting into GameMaker (still on tutorials until the semester ends), and I'm wondering where to get other resources than what's prepackaged.
Sprites
I first start with place holder sprites. I make these in Gamemaker's in-program graphics editor (basically MS Paint+1). My placeholder graphics are usually solid squares, circles and so on representing the hitbox.
Next, when I'm ready for animation, I download some sample sheets from the internet. Google Image Search usually. If I'm making a platformer I use Mario for example.
Once all the animations are working correctly I replace them with actual graphics. I make these in an old program called Grafx2. It's a 256 colour editor with quick functions for shapes and shading. I use it since it's very fast, not because it has a lot of features.
Backgrounds
Depending on what I'm trying to accomplish I use a combination of Grafx2 and GIMP. Grafx2 has a very nice circles/spheres tool. Here's a sample I made:
 |
| This is a quick sphere template |
It takes roughly 30 seconds to make one of these in Grafx2. After that I open up the image in GIMP and add a lot of filters. Take a look at these two pictures. Notice the arrangement of the circles. I used the same spheres template for both of them.
 |
| Added mosaic and reflections |
 | ||
| Lines for webs, spray tool for spider. |
Making graphics like this is my favourite part. Unfortunately it's very hard to stay thematic when designing like this. Suppose I need a forest and an ocean; If I'm quick designing like above there might be nothing even remotely resembling trees or water. Other than that the combination of Grafx2 and GIMP is great for me. In the past I used a program called sTile or something like that for making tessellations, but I've never been able to find it again since my Windows 3.1 days.
Music and Sound
Typically I use the FL Studio demo. I'm not attached to it, but I'm not very good with sound anyway. The only downside to the demo is you can't save works in progress. However, you can still export files. This means if you "one-shot" it you still get most of the functionality. This is not good for making music, but great for making sound effects. A couple "3x osc"'s and reverb effects and you have a sword strike or fireball... easy. I don't really have a program for making music. In the past I used Noteworthy Composer to edit MIDI files, but that's not really good for music in modern games (even indy ones).
---
Feel free to leave a comment if you have any more questions.
[][][][][][][], Lok
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
It's Working.
Got the main physics engine completed. A simple platformer with working platforms. Now I just need graphics, sound, rooms, other graphics, fonts, timelines and a story.
Procrastinating about League of Legends is keeping me on track with development.
Procrastinating about League of Legends is keeping me on track with development.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Sidetracked by gaming
Discovered League of Legends. Also played a lot of Defense Grid: The Awakening. Also started a Dwarf Fortress LP blog.
Back to business. I tend to get sidetracked by designing gimmicks. Most likely because I'm good at designing gimmicks. So for now I want to make a zero gimmick zero frills platformer, absolutely nothing special at all. No wall kicks, no climbing, no drop down platforms, no nothing. It might sound boring, but I really need to produce ANYTHING. I can always add "features" later.
So I went back to my NES library and played all my platformers. I think the game I'd like to model most after would be The Adventures of Rad Gravity. It's pretty lame, but it's unusually stable and quite interesting. One of the more... interesting games I've played. No tricks whatsoever at the start. Maybe I'll even give the game a non-distinct name like The Misadventures of Chad Tragedy or something dumb like that.
Either way, procrastination remains my greatest enemy... however, since starting League of Legends my procrastination of playing ranked games with bads has me back in the programming saddle.
Till next time, Lok.
Back to business. I tend to get sidetracked by designing gimmicks. Most likely because I'm good at designing gimmicks. So for now I want to make a zero gimmick zero frills platformer, absolutely nothing special at all. No wall kicks, no climbing, no drop down platforms, no nothing. It might sound boring, but I really need to produce ANYTHING. I can always add "features" later.
So I went back to my NES library and played all my platformers. I think the game I'd like to model most after would be The Adventures of Rad Gravity. It's pretty lame, but it's unusually stable and quite interesting. One of the more... interesting games I've played. No tricks whatsoever at the start. Maybe I'll even give the game a non-distinct name like The Misadventures of Chad Tragedy or something dumb like that.
Either way, procrastination remains my greatest enemy... however, since starting League of Legends my procrastination of playing ranked games with bads has me back in the programming saddle.
Till next time, Lok.
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