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Traveler
25-06-2011, 03:19 PM
Here's the start of my entry. I has no name as of yet, but that is not important right now. As you can see in the screenshot below, I have strayed from the usual 2D world and started a 3D game. It's all quite unfamiliar, but thanks to the tutorial translation I did two weeks ago and Dan's help with the UV problem earlier this week, I'm now beginning to feel reasonably comfortable with OpenGL.

I'm not going to tell what type of game I'm working on. I trust it's more fun to keep you in the dark and make you guess from the screenshots instead.


http://www.gameprogrammer.net/pics/outside/PGDmC01/renderv01.jpg
Btw, the fighter model you see in the center does not belong, it was meant as a test.

WILL
25-06-2011, 05:26 PM
OMG he's re-making XCOM! :o

:D

code_glitch
26-06-2011, 07:47 AM
OMG he's re-making XCOM! Agreed.

When I thought that I thought: OMFG: Its a STAR FOX DUEL! OMGOMGOMGOMG! That would be such a good game to ake for PGDmC...

Reminds me, I still need to get to the local library to pick up that OpenGl reference book I was looking for... Some other time maybe.

Traveler
26-06-2011, 09:20 AM
Nope, its no XCom and no Star Fox. :)
You have to view this area more as an arena. I'll post more later today.

code_glitch
26-06-2011, 01:40 PM
Looking forward to it.

Traveler
26-06-2011, 02:15 PM
I've decided to do regular updates. It certainly motivates me, and I hope it will also motivate others. :)


http://www.gameprogrammer.net/pics/outside/PGDmC01/renderv02.jpg


Change list:

I've looked into alternatives for loading the border of the arena. At the moment it is a single object. I don't like how I can use only one texture for a single wall section on the entire wall though. The wall section in the center are single cubes placed next to each other. I did expect to see a seam between each cube but that does not appear to be the case.
Ortho mode as been added, to allow for text and gui elements.
Two Lights have been. Not sure if I like it though. Normal information isn't included in the models and these lights make that quite clear.
It's probably useless for the game since we aren't allowed to use a mouse, but there's now a camera system to navigate through the world.
The first combatant has made it's way to the arena. Not sure yet if it's playable or cpu controlled.

That's it for now. More news tomorrow.

Edit: For those who like to know. I use Delphi7 for the game, Lightwave and 3DCoat for the models, PhotoShop for the textures.

chronozphere
26-06-2011, 03:44 PM
Seems you are learning OpenGL quickly. Very nice :)

You should be able to generate pretty good normals for your model. This can probably be done with existing tools but you could also do it on the fly in your own code.

If you need paticular textures, I could try to generate them for you using Genetica. I still need to get the hang of using that program. Only when I have enough time ofcourse. :)

WILL
26-06-2011, 07:22 PM
Oh neat robots. :) I think I had one that looked like that when I was a kid. So this'll be like robot wars or something?

Ñuño Martínez
27-06-2011, 08:26 AM
(...) As you can see in the screenshot below, I have strayed from the usual 2D world and started a 3D game. Initially I planned to do the same (2D game rendered as 3D) but finally I decide to use simple 2D.


I'm not going to tell what type of game I'm working on. I trust it's more fun to keep you in the dark and make you guess from the screenshots instead. Looking at your second screen-shot I remember Qix-style games (you know, "Gals Panic" and all that). Actually I'm not sure why, but it looks nice. :)

Traveler
27-06-2011, 03:43 PM
@chronozphere: Thanks for the texture offer. I'm good for now though. I have a pretty extensive library myself. Plus, there's a lot that can be found just by using google.

@WILL: 'Wars' is probably too big a word here ;)

@?ëu?±o Mart??nez: I'm not familiar with Qix. But after searching for it I understand what you mean. A long time ago I played Volfied. It looks similar.

But,.. here's yet another update:

http://www.gameprogrammer.net/pics/outside/PGDmC01/renderv03.jpg

Changelist:
Normal information has been included in the models. It looks so much better now :)
Basic level loading procedures have been added. Nothing too fancy, just a text file with numbers so I know where to place objects.
The robot now moves horizontally, changing direction upon hitting a wall.


That's it for today. More again tomorrow.

Traveler
29-06-2011, 10:17 PM
I actually meant to post something yesterday, but I wanted too much and ended up getting nothing.
What I wanted was a little video, but I couldn't get CamStudio to work properly. Something silly about a codec that failed to initialize. After the tenth error or so I had enough and went to bed. Without the video there wasn't much new to write about anyway.

I suppose today was even worse. Not because I still have no video. No, today I learned I have a week less to work on this entry. Not sure why but in my mind the competition ended on the 17th and not the 10th of July. Pretty stupid huh ???
Well, at least it set my mind straight about the rule I set for this competition: Keep it simple! And don't add fancy stuff until you have something playable.

So on with the game. Here is the latest screenshot. I suppose it leaves little to guess about what kind of game I'm making, right?


http://www.gameprogrammer.net/pics/outside/PGDmC01/renderv04.jpg

Changelist:

A basic AI routine has been added. Robots now choose any available direction. It still needs quite a bit of work as, among other problems, they often tend to return into the direction they came from.
Robots first rotate into the direction they want to go, before they actually go in that direction.
The load level procedure has been altered so that it now also loads items than can be picked up.


That's it for now. Let me know what you think and in case you're participating in the compo, be sure to write something yourself.

paul_nicholls
29-06-2011, 10:57 PM
Looking just awesome mate! Keep it coming :)

cheers,
Paul

pstudio
30-06-2011, 01:19 AM
I suppose today was even worse. Not because I still have no video. No, today I learned I have a week less to work on this entry. Not sure why but in my mind the competition ended on the 17th and not the 10th of July. Pretty stupid huh ???


For some reason I had the same date in my head. Guess we'll both have to hurry up but you at least have something to show. Nice screen. Are you making a Pacman clone?

WILL
30-06-2011, 06:41 AM
Well the game does look interesting. Pac-Man comes to mind obviously. You've got to spill the beans about the game play mechanics eventually though. :P

Ñuño Martínez
30-06-2011, 08:18 AM
So you have the game almost finished, don't you?



Not sure why but in my mind the competition ended on the 17th and not the 10th of July. Pretty stupid huh ???

For some reason I had the same date in my head. Guess we'll both have to hurry up but you at least have something to show. "Just like me", or "me too", or ... ::)

Traveler
30-06-2011, 09:45 AM
Before yesterday I wanted to do a bit more than a PacMan clone, but with only 10 days left, I'm not sure if that is an option anymore. My roadmap looks something like this:


before end of the weekend: finish gameplay, meaning a player, score, kill enemies/player and end/next level mechanism.
mid week: add menu, start- and end screen, optionscreen and some basic optimization.
next weekend. Polish, polish, polish. Add sounds, 'engine' optimization, level building, different textures. Etc, etc.

Ingemar
01-07-2011, 03:40 AM
Now it looks like a 3D Pac-Man! But it can still be anything. An AABB world is soo convenient!

Traveler
04-07-2011, 09:50 PM
Last weekend wasn't as productive as I wanted it to be. I was away mostly the entire time, leaving only Friday and Sunday evening to work on the game. The roadmap I posted previously has been mixed up a bit. I worked a little on gameplay and made sure the player can navigate the map properly. The enemies however are still as stupid as ever, and still pass through the player leaving both unharmed.
That said, I got so annoyed by the unreadable text files that I took an hour to write a very basic leveleditor instead. Having a bunch of 1's and zero's in a grid in Notepad is definitely not a great way to build levels.


http://www.gameprogrammer.net/pics/outside/PGDmC01/renderv06.jpg

What you see here is a TPaintbox together with some TImage components. Select a tile in the upper right panel, click somewhere on the paintbox and together with a save/load option it's pretty much all it can (needs to) do.

paul_nicholls
04-07-2011, 10:36 PM
Last weekend wasn't as productive as I wanted it to be. I was away mostly the entire time, leaving only Friday and Sunday evening to work on the game. The roadmap I posted previously has been mixed up a bit. I worked a little on gameplay and made sure the player can navigate the map properly. The enemies however are still as stupid as ever, and still pass through the player leaving both unharmed.
That said, I got so annoyed by the unreadable text files that I took an hour to write a very basic leveleditor instead. Having a bunch of 1's and zero's in a grid in Notepad is definitely not a great way to build levels.


http://www.gameprogrammer.net/pics/outside/PGDmC01/renderv06.jpg

What you see here is a TPaintbox together with some TImage components. Select a tile in the upper right panel, click somewhere on the paintbox and together with a save/load option it's pretty much all it can (needs to) do.

Looking good bro! Simple is the key when it works :)

cheers,
Paul

Traveler
13-07-2011, 12:21 PM
Ugh, too much time has gone passed since my previous update.
Things have progressed slowly. Among other things, I spent a lot of time redoing the robots movements as they previously were very sloppy. They would turn prematurely or turn incorrectly, driving backwards for example. In hindsight I should have opted for a whole different solution altogether. Oh well...

Something else I -again- discovered is that learning an engine or in this case an API and writing a game (with a deadline) at the same time is far from ideal. I came to a similar conclusion during a previous Ludum Dare, but the code mess you write in 72 hours is far from the mess you can create in four weeks. And so, as the game grows I find myself refactoring quite a lot. That's not necessarily a bad thing as it improves the code a lot, it's just that time could also be spent on new features.

Another interesting issue came up after creating a new level layout (the one you see below). Because the play area is larger than what you can see at any time, it is possible to move into an enemy without being able to escape in time. To counter that problem, I added a radar so players can better decide their route. What's interesting though is that it not only solved the problem, I suddenly found navigating the maze to be more fun as well.


http://www.gameprogrammer.net/pics/outside/PGDmC01/renderv07.jpg

Change list:

overall code cleanup/refacturing
changed movement for robots to better navigate through the maze
created a new level
added portals from which enemies can spawn
added a start menu & loading-, win-, lose screens
dots can now be picked up, plus you receive a score
added a (bounding sphere) collision detection procedure
added a radar so you can better see yourself as well as your enemies
added several small updates in the editor such as a Portal cell including the option to save a small image from the map to be used as the radar background.


That's it. Only four days left now. I suppose its a good thing the weather forecast is set on rain for the coming days :)

Good luck with your own entries guys!

dazappa
13-07-2011, 02:42 PM
Hehe, yeah I try to avoid refactoring at all costs... I have done only two small refactors (< 200 lines) when I needed to change an area of the code for new gameplay anyway.

Daikrys
13-07-2011, 09:26 PM
hey looks great, cant wait to play all games after 17. :)

paul_nicholls
13-07-2011, 10:41 PM
Looking good! :D

cheers,
Paul

Traveler
17-07-2011, 11:50 AM
Thanks guys :)

While I'm not completely done just yet, things are shaping up quite well. Apart from one bug I cant seem to resolve the game works pretty well. Here's a last screenshot before the final goes up which hopefully will be in a couple hours time.


http://www.gameprogrammer.net/pics/outside/PGDmC01/renderv08.jpg

Traveler
17-07-2011, 10:52 PM
Well, that's it for me. I've uploaded the final version of Golden Labyrinth. (That is to say the final version for this competition). Apart from the ftp (which will probably close soon) you can also download it from [here (http://www.gameprogrammer.net/zip/Golden_Labyrinth_final.zip)]

Enjoy.

czar
17-07-2011, 11:40 PM
HI

I am having difficulty running your program. I am getting between 1-3 FPS according to your caption header. This is on a Windows 7 quad core with NVIDIA 9600 GT with DX10 support. I can just get past start screen but nothing really works beyond then.

Jimmy Valavanis
18-07-2011, 04:10 AM
Looks great!

Traveler
18-07-2011, 08:22 AM
Thanks Jimmy!

@czar : Only 1-3 fps? I'm really not sure why that is. Your hardware seems capable enough. I have tested on a radeon 2400 which is a very low end gfxcard and get ~350 fps. Perhaps it's a Nvidia thing.

Wizard
18-07-2011, 09:25 AM
Looking good!

I'm getting 60 fps on my nVIDIA GEFORCE GO 7400 Vaio laptop. Win 7 ultimate

Jimmy Valavanis
18-07-2011, 10:05 AM
I'm getting 35-70 fps in NVidia 4000MX, an error shown up in the beggining (could't compile shader due to the old and low-end GPU) but the game started normal, nice coloring theme, nice destruction animation!! Cool!!

Traveler
18-07-2011, 11:03 AM
Thanks guys, I'm glad you like it. :)

I must admit, it was a strange feeling when I turned in the final built last night. The game has changed so much in the last few days. Other graphics, new sounds, new pickups, two new levels, etc, etc. Unfortunately those changes also came with bugs. Bugs that remained until the very last moment. (And some probably still are present)

It's also funny how you come up with new features to add. It's sort of a snowball effect. First there is this basic idea, but when you move on, and play the game new ideas randomly come up. Some things don't work and are replaced, but others work instantly and sort of automatically seem to click right in, like a piece of a puzzle.

Ingemar
18-07-2011, 12:53 PM
Thanks guys, I'm glad you like it. :)

I must admit, it was a strange feeling when I turned in the final built last night. The game has changed so much in the last few days. Other graphics, new sounds, new pickups, two new levels, etc, etc. Unfortunately those changes also came with bugs. Bugs that remained until the very last moment. (And some probably still are present)

It's also funny how you come up with new features to add. It's sort of a snowball effect. First there is this basic idea, but when you move on, and play the game new ideas randomly come up. Some things don't work and are replaced, but others work instantly and sort of automatically seem to click right in, like a piece of a puzzle.
I think that is a very enjoyable effect that isn't very easy to create. A competition like this helps, a lot. You have a deadline, you can't spend time organizing the code, you have to think gameplay, make it fun, make it work. And the result is positive, at least it was for me.

Daikrys
18-07-2011, 07:52 PM
really nice game and the PDG lettering in the Level is really cool :)

have you created all maps by hand or have you done an editor?


Bugs that remained until the very last moment. (And some probably still are present)

i only found one bug, when i use the reverse powerup then some enemys stuck at a junction but it isnt a bad bug anyway :)

Traveler
18-07-2011, 08:28 PM
Thank you :)

Yes, the maps were created with an editor. (see this post (http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/showthread.php?9186-PGDmC-Golden-Labyrinth&p=58927&viewfull=1#post58927)) They are basically a 2d grid composed of numbers. I used notepad at first, but I quickly realized that it would be a pain to test the levels and then change something. This editor allowed me to sort of 'paint' the maps. It really works very quickly. The 'PGD' was sort of a joke, which I thought would be appreciated :)

I was wondering. I'm considering doing a post mortem. Would there be an interest for that?

Daikrys
18-07-2011, 08:41 PM
i looked at the map files and start playing around a bit with them thats why i ask :)
a 2d editor is really clever and it look so easy to use


I was wondering. I'm considering doing a post mortem. Would there be an interest for that?

sure :>
its always good to read about the experience someone have at building a game

jxs
19-07-2011, 03:27 PM
Would you mind making your final version available for download here? I didn't download it from the competition server it seems ... :(

Traveler
19-07-2011, 04:07 PM
Of course. You can download it from here http://www.gameprogrammer.net/zip/Golden_Labyrinth_final.zip