Saturday 13 October 2007

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

OK - I'vee failed to update this blog. Those few people who actually read this blog must for sure have forgotten all about it. Anyway here'sa small update.
University started again :(
My two classes were Linear Algebra and Network. The Exams for those two classes are in about two weeks, so right now I should be studying in stead if writing. ;)
I haven't programmed that much because of Uni, so not much to say about that.
Btw. It was my birthday in thursday (11th Oct.) I've recieved a Detroit Red Wings Jersey and a Henrik Zetterberg Figure :D
And the latest news is that I've preordered the new GP2X F200. It's an handheld console, but unlike PSP and NDS (Which I both own a copy off) it's opensource and runs a version of Linux. This means that everbody can make their own games and software for it legally. Well it's a new exciting toy for me ;)
You can read more about it here.

Until next time - Peter

Thursday 2 August 2007

Vacation Update

It's been a while since I last worked on my game. I don't really know why besides the fact that I've been busy watching sport. Beside the last week of the tour, I've watched all the sport I wanted to watch. I must admit, that I'm disappointed with Cycling right now and I've completely dropped the sport for a long time. It's sad but it's reality.
On the positive side the Danish SAS-liga has started again and my team, Randers, is number one after a fantastic 5-0 win over Aab.
Back to programming. Thoug I haven't worked much on my game I still have been active on the programming side. I've been busy reading up on some Java and PHP since I'm gonna make some kind of a survey for a forum I'm a member of (www.iqon.dk - Danish)
However the really interesting thing is that I've actually read up on my 3D skills. I feel a lot more confident on my 3D programming and have started writing a small library to put my knowledge into use. It's not gonna be any fancy, but it will allow me to load and display static and animated 3D models. I'm also working on a simple particle system, so I may be able to make some 3D game in the following 12 months.

I suppose that's all for now, so happy coding or whatever you're spending your time doing.

Tuesday 26 June 2007

Vacation

Just a small update.

I finished my last exam yesterday and you know what that means: Summer Vacation.
Vacation = Time,
Time = Chance to work on computer = Me making games :D
I'm planning on making a remake of an old game (already started) and I hope to finish this game during my vacation. Besides that, I also hope to get a chance to do a bit of reading about OpenGL so that I can improve my almost nonexisting 3D skills.

Ofcourse I'm not gonna sit in front of the comp all day. Summer also equals lot of sports (le tour, wimbeldon) so when I'm not working on my game I'm most likely watching sport.

Monday 11 June 2007

I'm Alive

Well I haven't been active for like a month or two and I have no excuse besides me being lazy ;(
The PGD compo is over and it didn't go well. Real Life killed my game. :(
The scores hasn't been published yet, but I'll be surprised if I don't end last or at least in way down in the bottom of the list. My game isn't playable. You can hardly call it a game at all, but it doesn't matter anymore. I'm going to start on a new game much more exciting. It's a remake of an old classic, but I'm not gonna tell which one at this time.
It may take af couple of weeks before I get started. I'll have to finish my exams in the next few weeks, but the I have a complete summer vacation to program in :)

It seems I don't have anymore to say. I just had to write something in this blog since I was beginning to feel guilty. ;)

Wednesday 14 March 2007

Am I dead?

No I'm not dead, but I'm not doing well either.
The game is progressing slow. Actually it isn't progressing at all. I haven't been able to work on the game since the last post due to the hard life of studying at the university.
However I haven't given up on my game. I'm hoping that I'll be able to work a lot on the game this weekend. I need to implement the Light Gun part of my game and hopefully that'll be done by this weekend (at least a playable implementation should be done).

Well, this was just a small update to tell you that I'm still gonna make the game and that this blog isn't dead :)

Sunday 4 March 2007

The first public download

So the deadline is gone and I have uploaded what I've made so far. It really isn't much of game at this point, but the foundation is there. Hopefully I'll be able to work on the game in the next couple of weeks. I also better find someone to do the graphics for me. It's not really pretty at this moment. Perhaps a talented artist can fix that :D

Well, if anyone is interested in seeing what I've made so far here's a link to the Download
Keep in mind that this is early WIP. Take a look at the readme before starting the game ;)

Peter

Thursday 1 March 2007

Life is cruel

So you may be wondering why I haven't posted anything for a week. The answer is simple. The world is mean. After being an extra in that movie I got sick. Really sick. To sick to sit in front of my computer and work on the game.
Then around Friday, I'm feeling OK (not quite 100 % yet) and I want to post my progress. Ah, No can do. My Internet has stopped working. I can't do anything. My life has stopped :P
OK, my life didn't exactly stop, but I where unable to post progress and check the other competitors progress (You should check www.delphigamer.com and watch some of the other games. They're really cool). However I have worked on my game and it's progressing in a nice pace. I've added a simple menu and made it possible to move your units and end your turn. The next real thing I have to do is implement my Light Gun game. However I may just do a bit of extra work on the strategy part. I have to make a stage goal in the competition and the deadline is on Saturday. I think I've done enough to complete the stage, but I better do some extra to be on the save side. Of course I may have to turn in my game tomorrow since I haven't got my Internet back yet (I'm in writing this @ DIKU), so I don't have that much time.
Well, hopefully I can post some screen shots soon (Though they aren't pretty).

Until next time, Peter

Og til de danske laeserer. Jeg vil bare lige goere opmaerksom paa at www.iqon.dk, et fremragende og levende forum, er gaaet i gang med en fornyelse. Hvis du ikke allerede er medlem af dette forum, saa meld dig til. Vi diskuterer alt, og der er store planer med siden. Og hvis du allerede er medlem af iqon.dk; saa kan du jo bekraefte at det er et fremragende fora.

Monday 19 February 2007

Update

I probably should've posted some screenshots of my game running, I haven't got the time to do it. Perhaps tomorrow if I'm lucky.

Right now my game status is the following:
The game now has a loading screen where it loads the gfx and map data. In then turns into a map info screen which I haven't implemented fully yet. (it only displays some text which isn't working correctly at this moment). After the info screen it starts the game. However right now it only display the map with units and buildings on it. You can scroll around the map, and if you hold the mouse over a unit, it's strength(health), attack and defence points are shown in a graphical matter. You'll understand it better when I post some screenies :P

Unfortunately I probably won't get much done on the game the next couple of days. Tomorrow I'm gonna star in a big Danish children movie called Karlas Kabale (or something like that):D
Ok, not really. In one scene of the movie, the settings take place in some market around Christmas Time where the Salvation Army Brass Band is playing in the background. I'm plaing in that band. We're problably not gonna be shown more than 5 seconds at most, and you will for sure not be able to see me in it. Well, at least I get to waste some of my time :P Besides that, the university is again taking much of my time. Perhaps I should just drop out of it :?

Anyway, take care :D

Wednesday 14 February 2007

Screenshots!!!

of my editor ;)

As promised I'm now posting two screenshots of my editor in action. It's not really a pretty editor but it gets the work done. However it turns out it takes quite some time to build a map. Not because the editor is slow, but because the way I designed the editor might not have been the brightest. Well nothing I can do about that (well actually there is. I could ofcourse just build a new editor with at better design, but I really don't wanna do that - it'll take to much time)

Enjoy the two fantastic screenshots of my editor :P


Don't worry if the tiles doesn't seem to 'connect' perfect. I'm using some free tiles temporary (though I may end up using them in the final product if I can't find someone to help making gfx for me), and I had to resize them and put them all in one single image. Somewhere under that progress the tiles got screewed up. Well, what can you do?

Monday 12 February 2007

Sorry

No screenshots, cause I have hardly started on implementing the game engine. Why? Because I had to read a lot more than I first imagined, meaning that I didn't get to start programming yesterday :(
I've just started working on the engine, but I'm not gonna be able to work on it tomorrow (have to make an assignment in c) and now I'm gonna watch Metropolis (just bought it) and see if it really is such a great movie.
Well, I hope that I by friday have a game engine that loads and display a map. It's basically just some copy/paste from my editor, but I'll have to build it up in a way that makes it fit for a full game.

However I may post a screenie or two from my editor just to show you that I've actually build something ;)

Sunday 11 February 2007

Small update

Ok just a short update about my progress so far.

I've just finished programming my map editor an hour ago. It's not a user friendly editor (it isn't meant to be public, but I may release it if I feel an interest in it), but a simple editor that enables me to build the maps needed for the game. The map file contains all the data needed for a level except a description (which is going to be a simple textfile).

With the editor done, I'm hoping to start implementing the game tomorrow. However I'll have to do some reading for the university first + solving some execises, so I don't know how much time I'll have to work on my gam :-(

But then again it shouldn't take me more than 20 minutes to make the game load and display a map, so perhaps I'll be able to post some screenies tomorrow or at least in a couple of days.

Well, I better go to sleep now. I'll have to get up at nine (yeah that's in the middle of the night) so I'll better get some sleep, or I'll never be able to do my reading, and wont start programming before I've read 4!!!!!!! chapters.

See Ya. <-- ugly slang

Tuesday 6 February 2007

2047 WW (Working Title)

Well, I'm borred so now I'm posting the first details about my new game for the PGD Multiplexity Contest. As you can see from the title the game is called: "2047 WW". You can also see from the title that it's only a working title. Comming up with titles/names is not always as easy as it sounds. Anyway here's a copy/paste from my Design Document explaining shortly what the game is about.

2047 WW (working title) is a game that combines the two genera: Turnbased Tactical Strategy and Light Gun (in this case mouse). In the year of 2047 the world is no longer divided into contries as we know it today. In stead there are 3 political directions that've divided the world in 3 unions. The 3 unions are: UDFW (United Democrats of the Free World), SPASA (Socialistic People of Asia and South America) and last MEAR (Middle East and Africa Republic) (NOTE: All names are working names).
The 3 unions have a cold relationship to each other and a new world war is about to start. You'll be a general in UDFW (possibility to play all 3 unions may be added) and your job is to ensure that UDFW will be victorious.
The game will at first look like a classic strategy game, but whenever 2 armies (looking for a better word) engage in combat the gameplay will change into a Light Gun game where you'll control a single unit. The outcome of this LG game will have an effect on the outcome of the combat between the 2 armies.

This is ofcourse just a short description of the game. The story for this game is actually from a cartoon serie I onced thought about writing. Unfortunately I can't find my papers from back then. They contained a lot of ideas that would be quite useful right now including some better name for the 3 unions.


In case you didn't quite get the game concept, I will now try and describe it in depth.

Each level will start, after a short briefing, showing a map seen from above(in a typically strategy manor)
. You'll control some few given units. Now unlike most strategy games, here you wont be able to build buildings and train new units. You only have the units you're starting with. With these few units it's the players job to complete the objective which will so far either be destroy-all-enimies or survive-for-x-turns. To complete the objective the player must use his units in a tactically way. Some units has advantages against other units. Some units move faster than other units (this is a turnbased game so moving speed will be determined with how many squares yo can move on one turn). There may be more than one way to beat the enemy, but just rushing into combat wint be it (at least not for most levels ;)
The interesting thing about this game is then when to units engage in combat. Now the gameplay will suddenly change into a Light Gun style game. The difficulty of this LG game will be based on the relative strength between the two fighting parts. A LG game wont last for more than 1-2 minutes. The outcome of this LG game will help calculate the outcome of the battle between the two units. This means, that just because you kicked everyones but doesn't mean your army will win (though the chances are high), but the again, just bacause your but was kicked, doesn't mean your armie lot the battle. The relative strength between the two armies will also be a part in the calculation. Just because you somehow destroyed 5 heavyweight tanks in a LG game (in the LG game you're supposed to represent one man in an entire army), doesn't mean that your comrades will as well destroy 5 tanks. This only seems fair in my eyes. Otherway you wouldn't have to be tactical. You would just have to be good at LG games. The las thing to say about a battle is that it wont be a lose/win outcome. The outcome of the battle will be showned as each armies losses. If an armie's strength is below a certains level after combat the armie will disolve. This means both armies can lose a battle, or both can still be capable of fighting afterwards.

Well, that was the first info about my game. Now I'm planning to continue development of my Level Editor (If I don't have any maps, I can't really build an game engine) Ideas are welcome for this game, and if you'll like to help out with graphics or music/sounds please do contact me.

Sunday 4 February 2007

Now in English

Ok, so I'm going to switch over to English because I might as well make good use of this blog, and the only thing I can think off that will make this blog usefull, is me writing about which projects I'm working on at this moment.

So 2 big things has my focus right now. The first is that tomorrow I will start on 2 new courses at the University. I've haven't looked much into it, but I believe I'm going to study OS and Algebra. I hate to think about my studies, so I'm just gonna meet at DIKU* about 11-12, buy some books (hope I have enough money) and the see what it is I'm supposed to study.
The other thing I'm thinking about, which is way more important, is the annual Pascal Game Development Contest at PGD. I've signed up for participation and is hopefully going to finish the game on time. This years theme is 'Multiplexity'. It basically just means that you have to make a game that combines at least 2 genre from a list. I'm going to combine Turnbased Tactical Strategy with Light Gun. At this moment I'm not going to write a lot about it, but I'm planning on using this blog to post progress on how my game is evolving. It's not going to be the next blockbuster game (keep in mind this is a one-man project so far, and I'm not a superman at programming anyways, yet), but hopefully it'll be playable and show that games can indeed be made in Pascal.

So what more can I say? Keep watching this blog. I'm planning on releasing the first info about my game on friday (Perhaps even before if I get borred with DIKU*)


*In case you don't know what DIKU is, it stands for Datalogisk Institut Københavns Universitet which means Copenhagens University's department for Computer Science or something like that.

Wednesday 31 January 2007

Verdenspremiere

Ja så skete det endelig. Alle andre har det, og jeg skal ikke stå tilbage for andre, så derfor har jeg nu fået mig selv en blog.
Er der egentlig en god grund til at jeg skal have en blog? Svaret må være nej. Jeg er ikke ligefrem den type der har alt for meget på hjertet, som jeg bare må sige. Nej jeg lader det sidde der, og tager en hel masse banebrydende tanker med mig i graven. Det vil altså sige, at sådan ville det være, hvis det ikke var fordi jeg havde oprettet denne blog.
Så hvad kan I, forhåbentlig mange læserer af denne blog, læse på denne blog. Jo, forudsat at det lykkes mig at opdatere denne blog jævnligt, vil I kunne læse om mine hverdagstanker/overvejelser. Det kan både være filosofiske, datalogiske eller bare ganske almindelige ligegyldige dumme tanker. Med tiden vil denne blog blive den største blog blandt alle blogs!!! (fik jeg forresten nævnt at jeg lider af storhedsvanvid ;P )

Jeg kan jo lige så godt starte med min første overvejelse. Hvorfor har jeg egentlig oprettet en blog? Det korte svar har jeg jo skrevet oppe i toppen af dette indlæg; Fordi alle andre har det. Så spørgsmålet burde nok lyde: Hvorfor har alle andre oprettet en blog? Og det må siges at være mig en gåde. Personligt gider jeg ikke selv at læse blogs, medmindre jeg keder mig selv rigtig meget. Hey, jeg forventer ikke at der er andre der gider at læse denne blog. Grunden til at jeg skriver denne blog er for min egen fornøjelses skyld. Ergo må det betyde at alle andre skriver blogs for deres egen skyld (Læg mærke til at jeg bruger den tvivlsomme bevisførelse: jeg-gør-det-altså-må-andre-også-gøre-det bevis. Det er ikke første gang i historien at denne slags bevisførelse bliver brugt (Læg mærke til at her kom med en påstand uden at argumentere/dokumenter for den :)).
Er du forvirret? Det er jeg i hvert fald hvilket nok skyldes at klokken snart er 2, og jeg kan slet ikke tænke klart. Så jeg tror jeg går i seng nu, og så må jeg færdiggøre denne tanke i morgen (og i det hele taget finde ud af hvad min pointe er:)