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.