Month: December 2011

Another day!

Again guys if you are new this is VERY early and unfinished. I like to share as I go hoping for ideas and input =).

Yea! =)..

Turrets in and working. With effects!…
They use the same AI systems as everything else so here is what they do.
1. Serialize from the loaded database.
2. Save and load to a level file with the same code.
3. Hunt in the general area for targets. Via open pathways. Walls and doors obstruct search
4. Test to see if they can see them.
5. If found then start the combat update chain.
6. Charge (start spinning)
7. Attack. (perform combat math. Apply to both targets. Add effects for hit from turret.)
8. If target dies erase from graph. Then add explosion effect.
9. Resume search for enemies.

Now finally I am going to go back to the design doc and do some refactoring after watching hours of Dungeon keeper while I worked. Tomorrow I hope to get into making and remaking the 3 human types. (Medic/Researcher,Engineer/Maker,Soldier).

The engine is really progressing every asset is taking a good percentage less time to get in game with the new tools and methods I am gaining along the way!

For now off to the gym and time to enjoy a half day off!… A few tots and some Skyrim sounds good after the gym.. Then a bar tonight with wife and friends!.. A good day I must say!

Update:
I am about half way done reworking the classes =).. Much simpler and this will allow me to concentrate on making them all awesome and not just a bunch of them.
http://ryanmitchellgames.wikispaces.com/SpeciePage

A decent work day on Cursed Realms.

I was actually able to work during the daytime on C.R. =). I have a few days off so I can work at my leisure a little. I fixed a bug where Axis Aligned Bounding volumes were returning a hit time based off a non normalized vector and the triangle collision was. That let me find a few other issues. Now I have two oppsoing turrets that hate each other. If the user then digs a piece out exposing the new turret then it will find out if it can see it and attack. The unit then explodes in a gratifying explosion. It may not sound like much. But with that and a few tweaks here and there with different models and combat settings I have the basis of all traps and AI in the game =).. All of which serializes off a main database file very nicely. I will try to post some pics when I get something interesting like a soldier walking in front of a mini-gun =). Soon I want to concentrate on getting the first person side running so you can play in First person or just tour your dungeon =).

Have a great night all I am taking this night off with the family =)..

I am still floating in the clouds with the Touchgen R.P.G. Game of the year win =) FREAKING AWESOME!

Thank you touchgen!

Editors Choice! TOP RPG GAME OF 2011
http://touchgen.com/

http://www.touchgen.net/mission-europa-review

First place in RPG on the iOS….. Wow want to cry a little really…. Wow. Cannot really type right now…. More later after some champagne 😉

After a year+ of hard work on Mission Europa this is such a reward….It means so very much to me that such a great site would recognize little old me. It only inspires me to go harder and farther on the next go at it. Starting with a blank page almost two years ago I never would have thought so many would have so much fun in my little world. I really want to thank you guys that bought and played Mission Europa, and especially those that hang here on this blog. You guys are really what keep me going. Thank you guys!… and I cannot WAIT until we get to alpha on Cursed Realms!……The future just got A LOT brighter!

Update (Cursed Realms):
Things are moving nicely. I will be back in full production mode (After the day job) tomorrow. The family time is almost over and time to get back at it. I am currently trying to get the AI fully functional in the game. They can find you, chase you down, and find out if they can see you to shoot. The last one has an issue I need to resolve. It seems your AI can see through walls the bad AI cannot (Very strange). Every step of the way I am thinking to myself should I spend a little time here making a tool, or a new dev menu. Also will a new tool decrease future production time more then a few percent. If a new tool will I stop and create it. That has been what has been really eating my time. However, this should pay off in spades in the final run. I should be able to crank material out like a small team if the tools are strong enough and the engine robust enough. We shall see!… for now I have to go clean a garage out….argh… =P.. Have a great day!

Everyone ready for the flood of Christmas games and apps =)

It really is amazing the huge percentage of games that all vie for that Christmas sale. I will not be one as I will not ship until this baby is done and done right =)..

Last night I got hung up making effects and adding in features to Scene graph nodes to do some fun things. I think I am going to model my explosions and some effects off what I see in the new Diablo game. I love the aesthetics of it. I would prefer more realism but the art really brings me in. After I am happy with the first explosion effect I will place it in when a turret dies and Whammo I have gameplay =)…

Small Explosion Effect =O

I like it =)
O so easy to add in stuff now.. here is another one (A variation)=) with more impact =)

Feels like I am not getting very far

But today I should get the first combat complete.
The goal is to have two mini gun turrents fight and one win /destroy the other with a pretty explosion effect drawn up from settings in the database. After that off to rework the chars. Slowly getting there I have had quite a few distractions lately but I do not see to many more for the next few days 😉

Ok finally getting to some meat…

Update:
I finally have two turrents with different factions (Teams) that look different with a setting. They will search the visible area for enemies and attack by pointing at them and letting loose a chin of bullets =)..

Tonight I finally start combat!

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Saving and loading is always fun when you have to save an entire level exactly how when and where it is including what the AI is thinking at the moment =)..

Today my goal is to be able to place in turrets one enemy and one friendly and let them kill each other. Then I will extend that to other AI. I need to revamp a little bit on the types of characters as I stated earlier.. I think the day job is abating a bit now so I should be able to get back to my fast roll =)

More when I have it =)

Mistakes suck!

Well I got ahead of my design again. Every now and then I start coding outside of my design paradigm. I then realize it and have to go and refactor the code! That is where I find myself right now. I need to be able to hand a scene graph node the database and let it serialize itself out of the data. I fell away and started making factories per AI unit. (BAD IDEA). So back we go. I now have to refactor the AI code and database a little bit to get it back on track. A few hours work tonight =)

O and I am going to simplify the units… IE engineer, medic, soldier. Each has a specialty and can do anything But some are better….

Adding in new AI for traps and BOTS..

Finally moving forward quickly again when I get time… The day job is still really busy right now.. But vacation soon and I plan on tearing it up then. I am considering splitting cursed realms into 2 games. 1 would have users and abaddon. 2 would have atlantians and Demons. That way I get to focus more on tighter projects AND that is 20 levels each. That is a HUGE amount of playtime. Dungeon keeper had around 20 levels and each level took sometimes over an hour! So for the price this would be a way better deal =)… Ok work time.. more later hopefully!..

TOOLS AND BRAINS!

Yeap level 1 is still a bit off.. I keep thinking of ways to accelerate level production. Currently I am still creating brains for the AI. With intermitten tool developement. I am a HUGE fan of people creating a game WITH the engine as much as possible. Otherwise you are constructing a game sight unseen. I would much rather have the creator standing in the game creating as they go with all the systems running together =).

Update: Level serializes now..Serialization success.. =).

Aggrivating

Progress has been slow because of the day job beating me over the head. Having late hours makes it hard to get the second job cursed realms moving but hopefully the day job project will be done today ;). I am still on serialization, however I feel the end is near for the serialization and I will be back to making a fun and active level. Those videos of dk I posted really helped me remember the structure of the levels and the need for some other traps 😉

Hopefully more later if the day job allows 🙂

Day-Dreaming of next big project while pushing forward on this one =)

Update took some time off tonight I needed it. Watched Dylan dog a sleeper movie and loved it 😉 it was a Shaun of the dead type movie but was a good time 😉

I plan on a few smaller games after Cursed Realms (hopefully expansions on Cursed Realms). However, after that I really want to start my dream project =). I want to create a system where the user has a very large plot of land on a persistant server. There they get a set number of textures, types of AI units, and models verticies. Then they can use Blender and GIMP, which are both free, to create and upload content to a content server. Then in game they can place their castle pieces they make and AI. It would take quite a bit of tutorial videos but I think it is possible. Then players could travel to each others castles trying to take them down =-).. There is a whole heck of a lot more but that is after cursed realms of course =)…

Rocking on….

I am really killing it speed wise. I am spending time on tools and small code chunks to make level making better every moment. I am also going through all my scene graph nodes and making sure they serialize right =).. REALLY REALLY happy with this almost entirely data driven design.. When I get something to show I will post it. I am really DROOLING to get back to the look and lighting. I want it to look more like diablo. I plan on the light being yellowish and the ambient being blueish…. good stuff! =)

OK level serialization time!

Finally time to start saving and loading levels. I already had this functional in a binary format. I now want to toss that. I like the simplicity of the text files and the strengths. This means slightly longer load times, however the strengths gained in debugging, versatility, and robust data structures is well wort it. Everything already is wired for this I just need to go through and make sure all my objects are serializing properly.
I can revert to binary easily if I want to as everything runs of a data tree structure. This can serialize however it wants. Basically it is just a bunch of types like floats, ints, strings, and arrays of those items all placed in a tree structure. This allows the most robust loading I can think of by each scene graph object loading its properties off a data tree.

Back to day job! Tonight good stuff! =)

Ok last wasted day on the tile shower remodel!…

Video!

Getting there a long way to go but you can now see it all coming together into an all-ingame tool set to create levels to play =).. getting pretty awesome =)..

Not sure anyone cares but here is what ate 4 days of my life =)… Almost done. I just need to seal it. Can you believe it is 100 bucks for a large container of sealer now.. wow..fiat currency is awesome!

Anyway I am back on the game tonight and all day tomorrow. I am adding in some seriously strong tools to allow players and me to make some awesome levels.. I am really happy with this engine. I finally have an engine that will carry me though many games. I cannot wait to finish this one though. =)…

Adding a data tree editor in game…

The most powerful tool I can add do this engine is a data tree editor. Just a simple text one for now. I plan on using this idea here:
http://www.touch-code-magazine.com/showing-a-popup-window-in-ios-class-for-download/

Top show editable text (if possible) that the user can directly edit scripts or any object in the game. Everything works off of this small building block so being able to edit it will give a huge amount of power to the user =)…

This will put off level 1 a little but will save weeks of time and let the level creators out there get the full power of the game going!.. more later hopefully =)

Working on AI and interfaces to create levels faster and better =)

After viewing lots of Diablo 3 pornography… (DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL)…I have settled on how the lights will work. The user will actually install lighting in the level at a cost. The main light will follow the user around in overview mode giving good lighting while constructing, however when you posses a minion this light will dim and you will depend on the lights and effects in game to be able to see (this might change on what type of minion you possess also =-) ). I think this will ad a HUGE twist as per-pixel lighting was a dream when DK 2 came out. Along those lines hardware acceleration was in its infancy if I remember right. Maybe a voodoo card or Riva TNT..

Back to work!

Here is an example.. notice the light fades away from the character until it hits a secondary light where that light takes over although ALWAYS less powerful then the main light it seems.

You will notice all items light from the character out (look at the barrels). This really does an AWESOME job of popping out local gemoetry and detail close to the character. Notice how the fence tops really look 3D and closer while the background geometry looks way back there. Also geometry in between the camera and the character will be darkside to the camera again giving depth..I like it a lot… add in the light fall off and you really get a great effect while not doing anything special or difficult!

A better example without the torches:

Here is the pathing stuff done.. I wish I was back on lighting right now I want to pretty this up a little more, but that comes later =).. Now that I have waypoints in I am just about ready to make a level!.. I need to finish the items listed here:
http://ryanmitchellgames.wikispaces.com/Missions
for level 1. (Mission 1: Awake)

Really moving… graphics and polish later =)..