View Full Version : 21: HTGAHIG
Azimuth
22-12-2008, 02:22 PM
Opened on behalf of AndrewJ. Because I'm magnanimous and stuff.
AndrewJ
22-12-2008, 02:40 PM
Thanks oh being of great mind and heart - according to Wikipedia anyway.
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This is my first proper game that I'm developing. It's called How to Get A Head in Gaming (title subject to change.) Anyone remember the Robot Head puzzle from the Castle of Doctor Brain?* Well, this is a remake. Sort of. If someone could please be so kind as to post/PM Game.Dev's preferred hosting site, you could download and comment (PLEASE comment) on the code behind it. My target platform is devices running Windows Mobile 5 and up, Compact Framework 3.5. The first version will take advantage of their touchscreen, but future versions may be usuable on smartphones (PDAs == touchscreen, Smartphones == non-touchscreen) Possible future developments include multiple levels of mazes (3D mazes) more items, more arms, more heads, (possibly) enemies and the things that might go with that (weapons, shields) and maybe the ability to change instructions during maze traversals - think of it as a sort of debugger for the robot heads.
* Don't know what I'm talking about? Check these out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Brain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_Dr._Brain
http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/49/Castle+of+Dr.+Brain.html (Yes this is a legal download)
http://www.gamesover.com/walkthroughs/Castle%20Of%20Dr_%20Brain%20solution.htm - Search for "How can I get through the robot maze?"
liquid.silver
26-12-2008, 05:39 PM
well you can use filecloset: http://www.gamedev.za.net/filecloset/
or recently i've started using drop.io and been pleasantly surprised: http://drop.io
sounds like this isn't your first time developing for a mobile platform. should be interesting to see what you make.
AndrewJ
06-01-2009, 03:44 PM
Hey liquid. Thanks for replying. Unfortunately family time overrode my dev time this Christmas, but I'll keep plugging away at the game anyway.
Oh, and I might be preaching to the converted here but I learnt a few lessons with this (my first game since TicTacToe at varsity) like when lots of people recommend a design document to help one stay focused, it might be a good idea to listen to them! I got really carried away with the back end of the project (I'm using a back end project, WM project and a Windows App project in my solution) and over engineered it because I kept thinking about "future versions." Oi yoi yoi.
I'm using Drop IO seeing as filecloset has been cracked...
dislekcia
06-01-2009, 05:26 PM
Oh, and I might be preaching to the converted here but I learnt a few lessons with this (my first game since TicTacToe at varsity) like when lots of people recommend a design document to help one stay focused, it might be a good idea to listen to them! I got really carried away with the back end of the project (I'm using a back end project, WM project and a Windows App project in my solution) and over engineered it because I kept thinking about "future versions." Oi yoi yoi..
Yup :) That tends to happen pretty easily. It's a good lesson to learn as early as possible, especially if you learn it by getting something playable out there!
AndrewJ
21-01-2009, 09:37 AM
This is related to http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=9382 Sorry for not creating a new thread about this but I don't have the rights to.
What are some best/good practices for loading and saving levels? I assume this is dependant on the architecture that one is using for the objects that the level is made up out of. Am I correct in this assumption? Please note that I'm not using GM or the XNA framework, this is just pure, normal (well, windows mobile based) C#. What are good ways to make getting the data needed easy and quick - quick code-wise and processor-wise? Just make sure that the relevant objects are Serializable?
Thanks.
AndrewJ
27-01-2009, 02:23 PM
I was working on the sprites last night. Is there anyone here willing to expose themselves to a possible mental health hazard and have a look/lend a helping hand with the sprites?
Fengol
27-01-2009, 02:33 PM
Do you have a link of your game for download?
AndrewJ
27-01-2009, 04:32 PM
Not yet dude. My inet's been down at home. Will upload Thurs/Fri evening though.
AndrewJ
30-01-2009, 11:11 AM
http://drop.io/GDILord
The seemingly random assortment of letters required is "gamedev", excluding quotes.
The file is "How To Get A Head In Gaming.7z"
This is my entire VS2008 solution, images included. I put the images in the Images subdirectory of the core project instead of the WM project by mistake. This will be corrected. These are just a few of the images that I worked on, I still need to work on the chassis and head images.
I'll keep the file updated as best I can as I go along.
Kensei
30-01-2009, 03:23 PM
if only I had Visual Studio 2008 and not use Visual Studio Express :(
Any chance of making an executable, Andrew?
AndrewJ
30-01-2009, 11:01 PM
Sorry girl but an executable won't help you right now. What does VSExpressEdition say when you try to open the sln? "J00 5|_|uxxxxor c05 j0O d0|\|7 |-|45 |3|_|y fr0|\/| |_|5!!111!!!oneone!11!"? Try opening just the "Core" project and see how that goes. You could also try and create a new solution, then compare that sln with my sln using a tool like WinMerge (http://winmerge.org/) and then edit mine accordingly.
Kensei
30-01-2009, 11:21 PM
"The project file '<path to file>\HTGAHIG_WM\HTAGAHIG_WM.csproj' cannot be opened
The project type is not supported by this installation.
I'll try your suggestion tomorrow :p Busy working on my own game now
AndrewJ
30-01-2009, 11:36 PM
Cool.
AndrewJ
03-05-2009, 12:07 AM
From here (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showpost.php?p=210462&postcount=25):
Please check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjacksonza/3462608278/ for my screenshot. The R is a placeholder for the robot head image and the A a placeholder for the Arm attachment image. The red is where I was testing which parts of the control were rendering properly and which parts not. The squares are going to be the tiles of the maze. Comments?
Edit: Aah, the joys of getting the image URL. (Rushing, on the way home now, boss is hurrying me up ;-)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3516/3462608278_3452e4934e_o_d.png
Expect a proper update soon...
dislekcia
03-05-2009, 01:51 AM
I'm afraid I still don't understand what that screenshot is all about... What am I looking at?
AndrewJ
04-05-2009, 12:48 AM
Fullsized screenshot available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjacksonza/3498839164/
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3313/3498839164_3880632c3b.jpg
The grid is where the maze tiles, starting position, items and goal are going to be. The red is just debug info because I'm trying to get the tiles to scale properly. Similarly, the dotted rectangle below the grid is for debug purposes.
The "R" is a placeholder for the image of the selected robot head. The player can tap it will be shown the Robot Head Selection screen. (one head does exactly what you tell it to do, one head does the opposite of what you tell it to do, and the third head obeys/disobeys every second command. The player won't know which one is which)
The "A" is a placeholder for the image of the selected arm. The player can tap it will be shown the Arm Selection screen. (different arms for different objects*)
The player taps the arrows on the right hand side to add commands to the command list. There will also be delete, clear and execute buttons. I still need to play around with the button layout.
The listbox (intentionally left with "listbox1" as the text for now) will display the list of commands to execute.
I think "Main Menu" is kinda self explanatory... ;-)
*Arms: "MagneticMetallic" - This arm can pick up small metal objects (e.g. the something or other from within The Castle of Dr. Brain - I can't remember what this one is :")
"ClawHeavy" - This arm can pick up large heavy objects (e.g. the book from within The Castle of Dr. Brain)
"SuckerSmooth" - This arm can pick up smooth objects that the Magnetic or Claw arms would damage (e.g. the floppy disk [Yeah baby! I'm talkin' old skool 5.25" black floppies! Yeah, black ones, not red, not white, not green, BLACK ones! Once you go black, you never go back!] from within The Castle of Dr. Brain)
Does that help, dis?
dislekcia
04-05-2009, 10:42 AM
Any particular reason you're sacrificing a ton of screen real estate for the R, A and listbox? Is the player going to need to swap those out that often, or can you have a Robot parts/inventory screen pop up when the player clicks on a representation of the robot in the top left or something? That way you have a lot more room for the maze. I'm assuming you're going to be doing pop up screens for the robot programming anyway.
AndrewJ
04-05-2009, 02:46 PM
Not really. The player would press the direction and action buttons to add those instructions to the list of commands displayed on the screen. I think that having the list on screen all the time would help the player keep track of the intended path through the maze.
I think that having the currently selected robot head and arm would add aesthetic appeal to the game.
AndrewJ
05-05-2009, 05:06 PM
"This is not the post you're looking for." This is just so I can keep stuff relating to my baby game in one place.
I understood the concept of my mobile game entry for Competition 21 (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=9027), I knew what I wanted it to feel like, I knew what I wanted it to look like, but I didn't know how to rapid prototype it. dis, how would you have rapid prototyped a mobile game for which one had to create the engine from scratch? I didn't want to use something like GameMaker because I didn't know how to use it and because I thought (wrongly, I now know) that to prototype a mobile game on a system like GM would be, well, just plain wrong.
What you felt is simply a disconnect between the understanding you had of your game system and the ability you had to translate that into support systems. In your situation I'd have separated the game from the engine that needed doing, made sure the game ran and worked first, then drawn up a list of exactly what the engine needed to do and built it piece by piece (doing research as needed on specific subsystems or solutions) until it could support the game. The first part is a constraint-definition exercise, the second part is a pure programming exercise - not very different from a "normal" coding job. (That "normal" angle is probably why many people don't do it that way, they want to make the building of the game fun and entertaining coding)
Have you tried paper prototyping before you hit some sort of rapid framework? Use whatever you know that's simple to use and gives you results, even if you have to be there when other people play to interpret the rules. I know people that prototype game concepts in HTML ;)
For Mathstermind we first did a rapid prototyping session on paper, toying with different maths-based gameplay ideas. Then we moved on to a GM prototype that we kept polishing and throwing at user testing sessions until the game worked the way we wanted it to. Then I sat down and wrote everything we needed to support the game logic in Flash Lite and built the game on top of that... That was the first time I'd used Flash and the first time I'd worked for a phone, so I learned a ton and had to figure out new ways to implement certain things (our tree-based puzzle generator kept running out of memory, for instance). But because I knew exactly what the game system was, I could focus on getting the support implementation right without having to make the game work at the same time.
I created (and am still busy with) my engine first so that I could use it not only for Windows Mobile, but for whatever front end I wanted. However, I am making progress on my MW UI. (now, just to tell Real Life to chill for a bit so that I can work on my game... :-)
Overall, despite what I did with my Mad Robot Maze project, I still agree with dis, prototype your work - experience counts a little bit sometimes...
I would ask you a simple question: Do you know what a general game needs, in terms of support systems? The best way to gain the understanding you need to be able to implement support systems (at least, the best way I've found so far) is to build games on other people's support systems... Sure, sometimes you hit snags and can't do what you want, but that's when you learn the most about different implementations.
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