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View Full Version : 17: Totally Terrorising Tribbles (TTT)



Kensei
05-02-2008, 11:02 PM
Right, after my brief chat with Gazza_N [Yes, Gaz, you have the amazing ability to drop subtle hints]

http://www.fotothing.com/photos/b94/b940d26aa34acca4dabca1649cb5d335.jpghttp://www.fotothing.com/photos/b94/b940d26aa34acca4dabca1649cb5d335.jpghttp://www.fotothing.com/photos/b94/b940d26aa34acca4dabca1649cb5d335.jpg

I have decided the brief premise of my game:

The idea is basically to terrorise as many tribbles as possible, within the time limit.
Since there is a 10 minute time limit, I aim to have about 6 levels - each of 1 and half minutes in length
Each level spawns an endless amount of tribbles which have to be destroyed by any means necessary (different weapons to be created if I have time)
Every level the tribbles get harder to kill - either with more hit points or more erratic behaviour

Because I hate losing in games, the initial game design involves no losing condition - making it a mindless game with the sole goal of getting the highest score possible.

Let's hope I can remember my leet Game Maker skills

Aaaannndddd, let's hear your great suggestions:

Latest release (http://www.gamedev.za.net/filecloset/download.php?id=374)

FuzzYspo0N
05-02-2008, 11:20 PM
SUGESTIONSAREHERE;

Sounds interesting, it does. the lose conditions, its weird not having them...
illthink about some unique ones. glad to see you trying! ftw

01DT!m3r
06-02-2008, 06:30 AM
Sounds fun . . I did a similar thing with a game i made ages ago but it was a zombie game . . . Good luck ! hope to see it on the dvd:)

Gazza_N
06-02-2008, 08:09 AM
Right, after my brief chat with Gazza_N [Yes, Gaz, you have the amazing ability to drop subtle hints]


And it works! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Cyberninja
06-02-2008, 05:16 PM
Go Go Kensei-sama! :D

I like the design of the Tribbles btw. Suits the name perfectly imo.

Kensei
07-02-2008, 09:18 AM
Update:

Right, after my 'dedicated' hour last night, I have one room with a few tribbles scurrying around.

Ideas to implement:
- 'random' motions by the tribbles, so they don't follow a set path on the screen
- kickass soundtrack... time to go hunting for free sounds :P
- Tribbles make trouble -> especially when the decide to mutliply :D

Now, questions to all,
Given the fact that these tribbles scurry around the screen.

Would a click based weapon be appropriate, i.e sledgehammer or an area based weapon, ie a laser beam, work better?

Since I am a GM newbie, I will ask this here (might seem obvious to all :P ) -> If I want to make a Sprite animation, how do I go about doing that?
[I know how to do it in the Java framework for mobile games...but not GM :( ]

cairnswm
07-02-2008, 10:10 AM
You need to decide how your weapons are different from each other. Why use a weapon that can only kill 1 tribble when for the same effort I can use an area weapon.

When I made a similar game (Flies) I had two weapons - a fly swatter, and an aerosol incectiside can. Part of the goal was to see how many flies you could kill with the Fly Swatter, so there was encouragement for the player in that way. Also, when using the aerosol, you killed a lot of flies, but time went double speed. The score of the game was how many flies killed in a certain amount of time.

Lots of weapons is cool, but how do you ensure that they are unique enough to make the player want to switch between them.

Kensei
08-02-2008, 08:39 PM
Update:

Without further ado, I present my latest Tech Demo (http://www.gamedev.za.net/filecloset/download.php?id=333) for my game.

This is, as I said to Gazza_N, the Crysis of 1984 with state of the art graphics and animations!
In seriousness, this is just to demonstrate that I am making progress and have cute little tribbles running around my screen.

For interest, and lulz, you can also download and look at the tribbles going Crazy (http://www.gamedev.za.net/filecloset/download.php?id=334)
Basically, instead of only acting on a collision with the walls, I created an event for when it collided with the other tribbles... and made the speed increase by 3 (relative) everytime this happened.

You are welcome to comment, but there is not much to comment on I guess :P

Cyberninja
10-02-2008, 12:16 AM
When will you be adding some functionality Kensei? :)

My little brother was, I quote " Ooo coool. Let me play." He then sat on my lap while fumbling with the keyboard and said " There are so many buttons (the red crosses) but none of them work!" It was priceless. :D

Kensei
10-02-2008, 12:39 AM
:D

That must have been quite a sight.

Yes, my ninja friend, there will be more functionality - this was a tech demo, i.e. demonstrating the Tribble 'behaviour' I am working on a suitable weapon for squishing the tribbles - already have the death sequence ^_^

Kensei
21-02-2008, 09:55 PM
Sorry, guys, been a busy few weeks.

Here, with the patience of Gazza_N, I have a basic demo TTT Alpha demo (http://www.gamedev.za.net/filecloset/download.php?id=339)

Instructions are simple:
Click with your mouse to fire your fayz-A and shoot the tribbles

There is HEAPS of things to fix in this:

1. Draw the lazer above the tribble
2. redo the spawning points for the tribbles
3. make a timer
4. spawn moar tribbles when you shoot the initial ones


I will accept all the criticism with grace and poise :D

FuzzYspo0N
21-02-2008, 10:34 PM
its looking great, i like the death sequence...

above what you have the todo list there is not much else, its coming along..

Cyberninja
22-02-2008, 01:12 PM
Sometimes the Tribbles get stuck in the walls, Kensei. Maybe you should use a mask for your sprites?
Otherwise, it's coming along nicely. =]

Kensei
22-02-2008, 09:44 PM
Added sounds and more spawning of tribbles

Still no win conditions.


Note the naughty bright green tribble ;)

Second coming (http://www.gamedev.za.net/filecloset/download.php?id=341)

|-|1Pp13
22-02-2008, 11:54 PM
Good progress, although they still get stuck in walls

Kensei
23-02-2008, 12:07 AM
Good progress, although they still get stuck in walls

Yup, I am working on getting the art of using a mask to perfection ;)

Thanks

Cyberninja
23-02-2008, 10:26 AM
Epic. There be alot of Tribbles in them hills. O_o Nicely done.

Kensei
25-02-2008, 11:35 PM
Right, been fiddling a bit.

Latest version (latest demo of TTT - http://www.gamedev.za.net/filecloset/download.php?id=344)

The game now has two types of tribbles (the green ones, ultimately will need 2 shots to kill)
It also contains a 'boss' tribble who cannot be killed (instead gives a sarcastic remark of 'Sock it to me')

Spawning point will need some rework - perhaps making two spawn points instead of one.
The side bar will be used for score and other things (as soon as I find an easy way to draw the score - seems having a background draws over the score)

Finally, some features to test,
Currently:
- left click shoots your laser
- right click will display my test of the '50 Kills' display (can you say feature creep)

Gazza_N: You know what the final button is, try it to see what you get (make sure you have sound)

Comments? Questions?

Thaumaturge
26-02-2008, 02:05 AM
This is kinda cool, Kensei - and I'm glad to see a game coming from you. ^_^

I rather like the tribble squish effect - it works nicely, I think. ^_^

What do you plan on doing with the red tribble? Will he be killable at some point, or perhaps spawn tribbles, or in some other way hinder the player?

I do have two criticisms:

1) For some reason the red tribble's "Sock it to me!" line layers with itself when it is clicked on repeatedly, producing an unpleasant (to me, at least) effect.

2) It seems that on occasion the red tribble somehow manages to "escape" the tribble box - I'm guessing that he either gets up enough speed to "jump" the wall, or selects a random direction near a wall, from a distance that allows him to move through it.

Kensei
27-02-2008, 11:27 PM
Latest version (http://www.gamedev.za.net/filecloset/download.php?id=346)

- Fixed the sound issue
- boss Tribble now spawns tribbles

Basic score system should be working
1 point for brownies
2 points for maniacs
10 points for bossMan

See if you can get 50 points, 100 points and even 200 points

Battling for it to display the score.
It is capable of drawing the string (press the DOWN arrow to display the current score) - but it won't draw it on the screen

- Tried using a Draw text drag and drop
- Tried using a global user defined variable
- Tried using the 'Draw Score' drag and drop
- Changed the coordinates of where it is drawn

Help would be appreciated...


Things to work on:
- Different kinds of tribbles
- Bonuses for 50, 100 and 200 points
- The timer :D
- The escaping bossTribble (needs some boundary checking before drawing)
- Main menu
- more rooms?
- high score table!!!

Fengol
27-02-2008, 11:42 PM
Could you possibly include the GM files in your build so that we can look at the code? Maybe make a zip/rar with the executable and the GM file together

Thaumaturge
28-02-2008, 01:18 AM
I like the improvements, Kensei. ^_^

It looks to me as though at least some tribbles are still spawning from a point on the playfield itself - I would suggest moving that point around at random (teleporting it for preference); at the moment it's a little too easy to just camp out around the spawn point and rack up kills, I think.

As a suggestion, what about regions under which tribbles can hide from the player, and perhaps even run to when the mouse cursor draws near?

As to your score drawing trouble, I'm afraid that I don't use GameMaker, so I'm not likely to be of much help there - sorry. ^^;

By the way, at the time that I wrote this I had, according to your score counter, racked up 527 points. I don't know how many kills that came from, however. :P

Kensei
28-02-2008, 09:05 AM
Could you possibly include the GM files in your build so that we can look at the code? Maybe make a zip/rar with the executable and the GM file together

I'll do so, when I get back home tonight - remind me, OK?

@Thaumaturge:
Thanks for the feedback.

As for the tribble types, yes, to make a tribble that runs away from the cursor is fairly simple to do.
Random spawning point is also easily done (CliffyB bless GameMaker's ease of use!)

Anilihst
28-02-2008, 10:07 AM
Did you check that the depth of the object drawing the score is above the objects that it is drawing on or if it is the same object put it lower in the command loop. In other words make sure that there in nothing else drawn over the score.

Kensei
28-02-2008, 12:12 PM
@Anilihst, at the moment, I think that the background is drawn over the score.
I can't remove the background as it would mean that the old position of the sprites would not be drawn over

dislekcia
28-02-2008, 02:35 PM
@Anilihst, at the moment, I think that the background is drawn over the score.
I can't remove the background as it would mean that the old position of the sprites would not be drawn over

Are you using GM's background capability or doing it manually?

If you're using GM's bg stuff, then I'd hazard that there's something else stopping your score showing up. How and when are you drawing the score? If it's outside a draw event you're not going to see it as the screen will get cleared once the draw event starts...

-D

Kensei
28-02-2008, 04:01 PM
Are you using GM's background capability or doing it manually?

If you're using GM's bg stuff, then I'd hazard that there's something else stopping your score showing up. How and when are you drawing the score? If it's outside a draw event you're not going to see it as the screen will get cleared once the draw event starts...

-D

I am using GM's background capablity (i.e. setting the colour and to display the background in the Room properties window)

I can't remember if its in a draw event or not.
At the moment, I think, its a method in my invisible GameController object. I will check when I get home tonight.

Anilihst
28-02-2008, 06:53 PM
I can't remember if its in a draw event or not.
At the moment, I think, its a method in my invisible GameController object. I will check when I get home tonight.

If the object is invisible its draw event does not run so if the object has no sprite don't make it invisible just leave it as is it won't trouble you.

Kensei
28-02-2008, 09:19 PM
Zip file Here (http://www.gamedev.za.net/filecloset/download.php?id=351)

Anilihst
28-02-2008, 10:25 PM
I downloaded you file and the problem is that the drawing code is not in the draw event

So to fix your score problem just add a 'draw' event and copy the 'draw variable' command from the 'glob right released' event.

While I had the code I also checked the rest of you code and the random spawning part can be improved if you want it to be all over the room :

for(i:=0; i<10;i+=1)
{
objX = random(room_width;
objY = room_height;
instance_create(objX,objY,tribble1);
}

The same for the other 1. The reason I say you should change it is that at the moment if you just continue clicking on the same area you will get most of the tribbles with no skill.

btw what is the up key ment to do? Because it is not doing it.

Kensei
28-02-2008, 10:35 PM
I downloaded you file and the problem is that the drawing code is not in the draw event

So to fix your score problem just add a 'draw' event and copy the 'draw variable' command from the 'glob right released' event.

While I had the code I also checked the rest of you code and the random spawning part can be improved if you want it to be all over the room :

for(i:=0; i<10;i+=1)
{
objX = random(room_width;
objY = room_height;
instance_create(objX,objY,tribble1);
}

The same for the other 1. The reason I say you should change it is that at the moment if you just continue clicking on the same area you will get most of the tribbles with no skill.

Yup, fixed the drawing funtion. (thanks to you and Fengol :D )

as for the improvement on the spawning point, yes, it is but I won't use it as is for a few reasons
Using the standard room bounds will mean that they might spawn in the info area on the upper right or in the logo area on the lower right (note the cute little tribblet :D)
The other problem I had was that the tribbles spawned 'in' my walls, which caused them to get stuck.

I'll do a little tweaking :) Thanks for the advice

Thaumaturge
28-02-2008, 11:36 PM
In case it saves you some time, I think that the following should be correct. ^_^

(Note that the tribble-related elements may change a little, depending on the position of the origin point within the tribble sprite; I have presumed an origin in the centre of the sprite.)

x = random(room_width - 2*wall_width - right_panel_width - tribble_width) + wall_width + tribble_width/2;
y = random(room_height - 2*wall_height - tribble_height) + wall_height + tribble_height/2;

Kensei
29-02-2008, 02:31 AM
Allllrrrighty guys.

My, hopefully, final version of TTT is up Final version (http://www.gamedev.za.net/filecloset/download.php?id=352)

Rather than give a half baked solution or risk not finishing, I have opted for the game to last precisely 2 minutes. This can be scaled into more time, if I (heh heh) had more time myself.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think of my first official game entry into Game.Dev.

::looks at the time:: Oops, I hate it when I do that... curse my selective nocturnal habits :D

Thaumaturge
29-02-2008, 03:00 AM
Heh, don't worry, you're not the only nocturnal person around here, it seems. I'm usually up at least this late, and I've seen others about at times as well. ;P

I've downloaded the game, and intend on trying it presently. ^_^

[edit]

Heheh, I love the star Trek references. "Lieutenant Oo-who-rah"? That is bad. I love it!

I notice that we are given a trusting "Fayz-A" - I'm glad that it thinks so highly of its users. :P

I'm glad to see that you came up with a workable solution to your boss-tribble trouble (that of him escaping).

Overall, I really like this! It came out well, I think. ^_^

Kensei
03-03-2008, 01:03 AM
Okay, I lied, this is now the final release for competition 17 TTT Final cut (http://www.gamedev.za.net/filecloset/download.php?id=374)

Things I added:

- More random generation of tribbles
- Powerup!!!

And for Gazza_N, explosions