I have to say, the one thing I love about coding is that there is never, ever, a time when I will run out of things to learn. I can start most coding sessions wondering how in the hell I'm going to manage to pull off this new feature. Though, there's nothing like hours of research, forum hopping, reference reading and debugging to make a final product feel worth it.
At the same time, it's nice to have some code under my belt. It's great to start a new project, lay out my implementation design and think, "Well, I've done that before and can copy this from that project with little modification and that from this project with no modification..." etc.
Onward!
I'm finally getting a grasp on networking now. I've got my XBox and PC talking to eachother, sharing fantastic things like pickup positions, player positions and board layout. Awesome.
I can't wait to start getting some videos on here. Not yet though, we need real art.
This has definately been an interesting experience though. Sharing one monitor between two systems is interesting; especially while debugging. Tomorrow, however; I get that fancy 15-inch. Oh how life will be easier.
One day, my dream setup will be complete with Laptop, XBox, dual monitors and a PC to run the heavy stuff.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Networking!
Never before have I used any kind of networking in a game, so I'm taking this as no small victory!
However, it is kinda small. After an hour or so of mucking around through resource docs and lots of trial and error I've finally got my computer talking to my xbox over a networked gaming session.
It's nothing more than "Hello, what's your name?" but it's a step in the right direction. I think my biggest setback for now is that I have to unplug my computer from my monitor to plug in the vga from the xbox. It's definately an interesting setup but a new monitor is on the way! Lucky a friend of a friend has a 15 inch that was given to him and he's going to give to me!
Oh, living as a starving artist (can you call a programmer an artist?... I think so.).
That's all for now. It's time to get this game talking to itself.
However, it is kinda small. After an hour or so of mucking around through resource docs and lots of trial and error I've finally got my computer talking to my xbox over a networked gaming session.
It's nothing more than "Hello, what's your name?" but it's a step in the right direction. I think my biggest setback for now is that I have to unplug my computer from my monitor to plug in the vga from the xbox. It's definately an interesting setup but a new monitor is on the way! Lucky a friend of a friend has a 15 inch that was given to him and he's going to give to me!
Oh, living as a starving artist (can you call a programmer an artist?... I think so.).
That's all for now. It's time to get this game talking to itself.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Writing is hard!
Man!
Having never written a blog before, this is tough to find things to talk about without discussing code. Afterall that is my speciality.
Anyways, the creation of games has struck me as funny. Looking back at some of my previous games, at the progress from day 1 with my MS Paint placeholder art to the most recent releases with proper art and some real functionality blows me away. It also makes me wonder where this game will lead me.
I've already learned some new ideas and I'm only on day two. AI is my newest hurdle I've hit with my games. Pathfinding is where I stand now. I have a decent a* build from Arabian Knights. I thought it would be easy to port to this game but BEHOLD! It turns out grid based movement with "walls" has to be thought of backwards.
Check this screenshot (I love MS Paint.. or rather Paint.net):
The grid base I made doesn't actually have walls. (You can see the cell sizes from some wierd tile bleeding, still working on it.)
Every tile has a wall on one side, and the tile beside it has to match that wall with it's own wall.
So, I've got corners, hallways, ends (walls on 3 sides) and just straight walls. With these tiles, I've built this.
As far as pathfinding goes, instead of looking to the next tile and checking whether it is walkable or not, it has to look at the first tile, check which direction it's going and then decide (based off of which tile it is) whether it can go in that direction.
Took me two or three hours or so to re-vamp my basic a* but she's up and running.
I was tempted to scrap the whole thing today. I just about made the cells half the size and paint in walls in to full cells, thus being able to use my regular a* but I figured since I was almost done, there's nothing like adding more styles in to your code base.
Well that's a wrap.
Having never written a blog before, this is tough to find things to talk about without discussing code. Afterall that is my speciality.
Anyways, the creation of games has struck me as funny. Looking back at some of my previous games, at the progress from day 1 with my MS Paint placeholder art to the most recent releases with proper art and some real functionality blows me away. It also makes me wonder where this game will lead me.
I've already learned some new ideas and I'm only on day two. AI is my newest hurdle I've hit with my games. Pathfinding is where I stand now. I have a decent a* build from Arabian Knights. I thought it would be easy to port to this game but BEHOLD! It turns out grid based movement with "walls" has to be thought of backwards.
Check this screenshot (I love MS Paint.. or rather Paint.net):
The grid base I made doesn't actually have walls. (You can see the cell sizes from some wierd tile bleeding, still working on it.)
Every tile has a wall on one side, and the tile beside it has to match that wall with it's own wall.
So, I've got corners, hallways, ends (walls on 3 sides) and just straight walls. With these tiles, I've built this.
As far as pathfinding goes, instead of looking to the next tile and checking whether it is walkable or not, it has to look at the first tile, check which direction it's going and then decide (based off of which tile it is) whether it can go in that direction.
Took me two or three hours or so to re-vamp my basic a* but she's up and running.
I was tempted to scrap the whole thing today. I just about made the cells half the size and paint in walls in to full cells, thus being able to use my regular a* but I figured since I was almost done, there's nothing like adding more styles in to your code base.
Well that's a wrap.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Day 1...ish.
Tyler here. I'm the sole programmer and will be doing most of the posting here.
This will be the first time I've put any work in to the game. I figured I'd try getting this ball rolling first.
We started hashing this game out a long time ago, we had ideas and features and all that jazz. But alas, things went stale with a lack of programmer (myself being busy at the time). Now though, I've got some time!
We've now gone back to the idea's roots and begun anew. The old ideas have been scrapped (or put on hold, only time will tell) and now we're back at square one. Well, at least square two since I know which direction we're going in so I can actually get started.
Cosmic Harvest will be releasing on XBox Live Indie Games. Hopefully before the end of the year.
We're looking at keeping things classic at Cosmic Logic. Back to old styles, where games were actually fun and not just hacking off heads with lots of blood flying around. We're doing our best to put gameplay first. There's nothing like a little flash thrown in at the end however.
If you like competitive arcade-style games, powerups, distractions running around and punching your friends in the face while you run for the goal, keep tuned in to this blog.
Time to get to work I suppose.
This will be the first time I've put any work in to the game. I figured I'd try getting this ball rolling first.
We started hashing this game out a long time ago, we had ideas and features and all that jazz. But alas, things went stale with a lack of programmer (myself being busy at the time). Now though, I've got some time!
We've now gone back to the idea's roots and begun anew. The old ideas have been scrapped (or put on hold, only time will tell) and now we're back at square one. Well, at least square two since I know which direction we're going in so I can actually get started.
Cosmic Harvest will be releasing on XBox Live Indie Games. Hopefully before the end of the year.
We're looking at keeping things classic at Cosmic Logic. Back to old styles, where games were actually fun and not just hacking off heads with lots of blood flying around. We're doing our best to put gameplay first. There's nothing like a little flash thrown in at the end however.
If you like competitive arcade-style games, powerups, distractions running around and punching your friends in the face while you run for the goal, keep tuned in to this blog.
Time to get to work I suppose.
Well, here we go!
Welcome to the first post of this blog.
Honestly, I've never written a blog before, let alone a dev blog. Here's to new beginnings and hopes of improvement.
Check back here for news and updates to Cosmic Harvest.... Name in progress.
Honestly, I've never written a blog before, let alone a dev blog. Here's to new beginnings and hopes of improvement.
Check back here for news and updates to Cosmic Harvest.... Name in progress.
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