Game Maker's Garage Forum
Game Maker's Garage => Announcements => Topic started by: alias on July 16, 2008, 01:47:42 AM
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Some of you may have noticed "The Quartet" under the Future releases section. It is a game im writing in TNT basic because GM couldnt quite handle it due to sprite limitations and code limitations (Al what are you raising them to in GM4?) Dont expect anything soon as i am working out TNTs syntax as i go along, and it took a whole day just to work out how to write a "Save" Function. But im really looking forward to doing this cause i think i have some great ideas to implement in this game like..
- Massive free roaming world (by massive i mean in comparison to games ive made so far)
- Wandering AI who you might meet on quests/dungeon romps
- Real time combat
- phat lewt
SIMPLE DEMO
http://focusdesigns.gamemakersgarage.com/Archive.zip
Controlls
movement - "wasd"
attack - "space bar"
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Sounds incredible! I definitely wanna see this game finished! :D
I'm gonna try to have roaming NPCs to an extent in my next game, though I doubt I'll be able to have them wondering around dungeons. I originally thought I'd use a World Handler app that would handle all the background things in the game, optimizing code space in the player app. Allot of the game's data would be stored in text files, including the coordinates for each NPC individually, which would allow them to wonder off cards and such. (free roaming)
Now though I'm not so sure if I'll go with the World Handler idea.
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I tried that and it works very well. Most professional games do i that way. With the "engine" and then the part that puts the visible bits on the screen.
The only problem lies in the fact that GM can only handle 20 sprites. And if all free roaming NPCs are on a card.... You get the idea. And thus TNT. I even tried making the engine in GM then writing files and reading them in a TNT program that reads it and does the graphics. Then i hit the code limit on GM. Its just more efficient on TNT atm. But i have in no way stopped using GM and am looking forwards to V4 which will hopefully be more powerful/elegant that TNT (in some ways at least).
EDIT: omg writing pathfinding AI is hard
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EDIT: omg writing pathfinding AI is hard
Yup! ;D
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Im debating wether the AI should try random directions or have a pre-scripted path to follow given certain events. (ie a player their LOS)
maybe both. At least collision mapping isnt so hard in TNT.
EDIT i take that back, its much harder. Damn you hardware graphics mode!
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My god this is confusing. But i think i can code rudimentary pathfinding and do real time combat. The whole real time sandbox world is.. very hard, theres so much room for error. I think i might do a grid based world...
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you should make a good foundation for a game before working on these additional features. whats the point of npc haveing inventories? that sounds like it would be worth the time to develop. but i like the real time gamplay idea
npc random movement is easy, actually all npc movement should be easy. dont you just have the code for movememnt then run the boundry code after it
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If you need any help, I am getting pretty good at tnt.
Also,
EDIT i take that back, its much harder. d**n you hardware graphics mode!
Couldn't you use "window hardware mode"? Or if you didn't want to use opengl, "window mode".
-Gandolf
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I mean in hardware mode you cant used masked sprite collisions only rectangular thus rendering the way i handled all collisions with one sprite useless. I guess ill just stick with software rendering lol
Luckily i HAVE finished doing pathfinding AI i shall post with a download link to a demo of it. Also ive rethought the whole game idea, and the engine i have atm might be able to handle the AI i wanted to incorperate... Sort of.. They'll be 'almost' free roaming.
The only problem i have come across is graphics, how did people here learn to make such pretty graphics (silverwind!!)?
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You finished pathfinding? That must of been tough. I mean REALLY TOUGH!
EDIT: Silverwind makes good graphics because he has that gift. I unfortunately lack this gift.
EDIT: For a link to some good 32*32 and 48*48 graphics click here (http://www.molotov.nu/?page=graphics)
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Silverwind makes good graphics because he has that gift.here (http://www.molotov.nu/?page=graphics)
Silverwind makes good graphics because he works his rear off. I never give "talent" the credit for the hours of hard work I give to my projects.
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I think i might try making my own graphics.
i give up, im having some serious trouble with sprite collisions, ill post the project file so you can see.
http://focusdesigns.gamemakersgarage.com/Untitled copy.tbproj.zip
(copy and paste that link)
It may seem confusing but if any1 knows TNT try finding bugs in the minionAI() procedure.
Run the App and you'll see the problem, i think it has to do with the way in which sprites are rendered that utterly messes up the code i have atm. Have a look
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First of all bad link second of all what do I run the app with.
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Sounds like an epic endeavor. I want to see this complete. ;)
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The only problem i have come across is graphics, how did people here learn to make such pretty graphics (silverwind!!)?
Well, I've been drawing cartoons for years so I know a bit about anatomy and structure. At the end of the day though the only thing you can do to get better at drawing is practice, practice, practice! I teach cartoons every friday (though not in the summer) and the thing I stress most of all to my students is that everything is drawn with basic shapes. Practice drawing triangles, squares, cubes, cylinders and circles. (particularly circles)
Of course, pixel art is quite different to other art styles due to the small workspace, and I've only been doing it a year or so. For me it's a trail and error process. I make a rough outline of whatever I'm trying to draw and work on it for hours (often a day or two for entities) until I'm finally happy with it and can start adding details. Then, after what seems like an eternity, when I've finally finished the Goblin, Dragon, Lizard Man or whatever it is, I usually become unhappy with it and start from scratch again! ;D Eventually I get it right though. Well... most times I do.
One thing that's very important though is to never delete something you're unhappy with if you're gonna start from scratch on it again. Keep it as a reference. I've still got the original roughs of my human sprites for example.
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This could use a few fixes.
(1) Are you trying to make the guy move when you press an arrow? If so, don't use Raw Key Support. All you have to do is "If left then (command)". That makes it that when you hit the left key, it knows what to do.
(2) What are the white objects for?
-Gandolf
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Im using "wasd" for navigation, and there to test sprite collisions and pathfinding.
Try copying and pasting the link, its not broken i tested it.
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Ok i've given up on Pathfinding, but on the upside the movements and collisions work right, and fast too. Also the AI now works the way i want minus pathfinding obviously. I have also tried making graphics too, i shall work hard to get a demo out in the next week, with real time combat. I can do it (i did it already in GM). And also to show off the engine itself.
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Looking forward to the demo. :) Any graphics finished so far?
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Heres a demo showing some of the graphics, but mainly it shows real time combat functionality. Atm your character cant die, mainly for testing purposes, also i will soon add health bars and allied NPCs. The way i have coded the engine makes it very easy to add any number of NPCs that can either attack you and your "friends" or friends that attack enemies.
There is one bug that i know of that i cannot fix due to the way sprites are calculated in TNT, its very minor though, sometimes NPCs become immobile on the x or y axis when near an obsticle, they can still move back away when you do and can also attack from all directions, so its not a big deal.
EDIT: I fixed the but by playing around with the INVAL RECT function and changing around a canvas. Ill post the updated version with my next update which will show other types of AI as well as some more graphics the beginning of the main story.
http://focusdesigns.gamemakersgarage.com/demo.zip
Controlls
movement - "wasd"
attack - "space bar"
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Wow! Large windowed games are gonna be awesome when 4.0 comes out! :D
Very nice sample indeed Alias, the speed will make the game quite challenging. I like the terrain graphics, and I very much like the player. :)
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Nice start Alias! It's definitely promising.
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By the way, to attack you press space. This game is just to tide me over till GM 4 comes out. Now that the engines all made i can start adding content =D.
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Ill have a new demo out soon, this time you CAN die. atm im trying to add..
-More than 1 area
-A small town
-NPC guards for town and abillity to buy/sell items at town
-inventory
-You can now die
And thats enough for today, progress is moveing along quite well, the project is almost 1000 lines now, and it will probably double by the time the next demos out.
Also, just out of curiosity, who would be interested in seeing the source code?
UPDATE: I have decided to go open source. And that doesnt mean ive stopped making this game, im just giving the source away to help others. it is still very much under development.
http://focusdesigns.gamemakersgarage.com/Archive.zip
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How's progress on this going?
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How's progress on this going?
Any new development at all?