2-Channel Mixer, plus LeafRPG

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Today marks a great day in the history of audio electronics. Last night I crafted from spare parts a 2-channel audio mixer, with switch-toggled preamplifier, seen in the two pictures below. This baby can take two mics, to instruments, or one of each, with it's dual 1/4" monaural audio jacks, and outputs everyone's favorite red and white audio cables, RCA Digital Stereo! Take a look.

This new mixer solves a problem I had had with my band, where the 8-channel we had was about two shy of enough. Problem solved.

LeafAPI and LeafRPG

Another project I have begun is a sort of RPG game. As of yet, I'm just working on generic classes for the GUI, known as the LeafAPI, which will be available once complete. It is very pretty, and the idea is that the LeafAPI will allow developers in DarkGDK to get their RPGs cranked out a little faster, having not to worry about coding their own interface, or dealing with the complexities of creating a good generic function. More on the acutal game and screenshots soon.

Level Editor is Complete

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Today was the final push for level editor development. Previously, the level editor could export C++ to use in VC++, which could be compiled and edited from there. Now, the editor saves an additional file, a ".2dMap" file, that contains all the array data used in the editor, so that maps can be loaded in the editor, reworked, and reexported. No screenshots, you can see what it looks like by checking out the last post. In other news, the door system is in the process of being reworked. I don't know how yet, because it's damn tough to make a good door.

Not much else to report, work on the engine is slow, but no major road blocks have yet been hit. If all goes well, the bulk of the engine should be done around the end of the month. Next up is combat, then AI. Two difficult sectors. In the way of combat controls, mouse pointing has been abandoned in favor of the more well-established keyboard control. The game's feel ought to be a lot like that of Wolfenstein:3D when played without a mouse.

Doors and Local Grid System/Level Editor

Monday, June 2, 2008

A basic door system has been implemented. It works by having doors marked as "2" on the lowLayer of the level array map. When the player wants to open the door, the value is changed to "0", also known as walkable, open floor space, and the level is redrawn. (All object deleted, re-read from array, and drawn.)

The development of the 'local grid' system lets me read the player position in terms of the map, rather than the camera position, allowing interaction with map elements without knowing object numbers/indentifiers. Critical to forward movement.

Biggest news is the level editor. (Seen above) A bit of a misnomer, as it only creates and exports C++ that can be compiled as a function and called to configure the lowLayer array for the custom map. It's very crude, but more work should bring it to a level of workability. Because it exports raw C++ to a text file, I got away with coding the editor in basic. As production moves on, I hope to make a method of loading maps that aren't hard coded, but we'll see how that goes.

Collision and Pointing

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Simple semi-slide collision is now in place. That is to say, if you collide with a wall or other object, you'll be stopped within a tolerance of a certain angle, and will slide against the wall beyond that tolerance. Pointing for weapons is done with the mouse in the build. The mouse does not point the camera, just a red square.

An example of the level geometry.


An idea for the health bar. Functions fast and well.

Again, more information will be available soon as development continues.

"3D" FPS Engine

Monday, May 26, 2008

A few posts back, I brushed over the tile game engine I was working on. This project has evolved into an FPS engine not unlike the one used in Wolfenstein:3D. The idea is a 2D map interpreted as a 3D world. With today's technology, 3D models can be used in this 2D world to create a simple sort of shooter. More information will be available as progress is made.

In other news, i.o will be fully online soon. This site depends wholly on the input of its users to continue to operate.

Some great ideas...

Friday, March 14, 2008

I've been quite busy as of late with a musical. I'm no actor, mind you, but I play bass in the orchestra. I came up with an idea for a few games based on the menial tasks you might have to do daily, and on jobs that people wouldn't normally care at all about. It seems like a marketable idea, or at the very least one that's bound to entertain someone for a couple minutes.

I've been playing my DS again, much more than I had been, and it's killing my development time. The culprits? A combination of Age of Empires and Star Fox Command. Two mediocre games that I can't seem to shake my attention from. Whenever I beat them, development will most certainly resume.

Finally, and this is really the most important thing, Half-Life: Full Life Consequences!

Still Alive!

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Happy New Year everyone! (that's not at all belated, what ever are you talking about?) Focus has been shifted from developing software to music for the time being. As of now, I'm in two jazz bands playing bass and alto sax, and playing double bass in the 'orchestra' for a musical. With practices nearly everyday, and music that has to mastered, along with bass and sax solos, and a gig Saturday, I don't have much time to work on software or engines. But as comic relief, I'll soon be uploading a compilation of Praos songs. As a little background, Praos was my band in the summer of 2007, and we recorded a wealth of covers, originals, jam sessions, and joke songs. A 'definitive collection' is most certainly in order!

Anyone looking for updates on my tile-game engine will be sorely disappointed, as of now it's halted progress. Usable source code available on the download page.

Tile Game Engine

Sunday, December 16, 2007

I threw grav-pong on the back burner for now, in favor of working on a tile-based game. Dungeon Master is the working title, and it's yet another classically inspired game. The idea behind this one is to solidify my C++ array skills, and perhaps work with CSV maps. I'll keep you posted with updates as stuff happens. As of right now, I have the basic engine down, with the maps set up in arrays, 40x40 tiles, player control and some simple entity stuff. Next up is objectives, enemies, and sound. I'm not sure what sort of sounds I want to have for the game, but it will most likely be basic midi-based noises. I love that DOS style stuff.

Please excuse my coder 'art.' Green box is the player, grey boxes are solid walls, black is walkable space, the circle is a sample entity, dubbed the 'pill.' The counter, currently placed in the window's caption, increments upon collection of the pill, and the pill is removed from the level. Further special actions could be performed based on the quantity of pills the player possesses, but this is an extremely early test of the engine.

You can check out the Game Creators thread here.

Work on a new game

Friday, December 14, 2007

I've been toying around with an idea for a new game. It would be a game similar to ping-pong in regards to paddles hitting a ball, but would use physics and gravity to force the ball to orbit the circular playing field, then having it's repulsion from the center of the playing field (some circular mass representing a gravitational core) modulated based on the settings of the paddle. The idea is not only to get the ball into the score zone of you're opponent, but also to keep it from crashing into the gravitational core or escaping the pull of the core. I'm not sure if it's been done before, but I thought it sounded pretty cool.

Also, I added a "Projects" page, so that I can make a running directory of everything I make, so you don't have to dig through these terribly written news posts, which are bound to pile up.

Pong Clone, DarkGDK

Thursday, December 13, 2007

My first working app with DarkGDK. I've been using C++ for a while, but only in DOS and command-prompt sort of applications. Now that DarkGDK is free, I'm having the best time with DirectX. The game is pretty self-explanatory. Use the arrow keys to move your 'paddle' up and down, deflect the 'ball' back at your enemy. I warn you, it's rather old-school. Graphically, and audibly. Escape to pause during a game. At the end of the game, it just exits on it's own. You have to run it again to play again. (Rather annoying, I'm working on a better function system, to avoid having to do it like that. We'll see if I can't do better next time!)

All archives are ".zip," because my web host doesn't allow RARchives. Seriously, be sure to check out the game, it's wicked fun. I recently adjusted the AI, however, and it's rather tough to beat. If you're interested in DarkGDK, or DBPro for that matter, check out the Game Creators website.

Welcome to the new FF Studios website!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

It's nothing special, as I've only just made it in a hurry. This site's primary function is simply to house all of the software I write. This includes various projects over multiple systems, mostly for PC but a couple things for the Nintendo DS.

The latest post has a dashed border around it.

No, this isn't a blog, it's a real website! I prefer the hard work of updating an actual HTML site to the simplicity of just 'posting' new updates. Muahaha. Well, I do it in Dreamweaver, so it's not exactly difficult.