It's competition time!

General discussion for topics related to the FreeBASIC project or its community.
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Lachie Dazdarian
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Post by Lachie Dazdarian »

aleofjax, your game plays much better now. I still have problems with the gameplay.

I just think the squids spawn too slow. I need to wait quite a bit for the squid of the desired color to appear. And the blue squid is barely visible in the water. Is this part of the gameplay?

I still didn't collide with any rocks or felt them as the part of the gameplay. Not sure if I like the idea of them in the first place. I would personaly try to devise hazards and ways of losing the game on a different way. I don't know. More squids, some moving hazard that chases you.

Love the splash effect.
ciw1973
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Post by ciw1973 »

Well, inspiration finally struck about 10 minutes ago, and I have an idea for my game.

I now need to decide if I should bother using OpenGL or HGE, as whilst I could easy code it just in vanilla FreeBASIC, assuming I finish in time I'll want to add some additional eye candy, and using OpenGL or HGE would give me a lot more options.
notthecheatr
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Post by notthecheatr »

The requirement not to use Draw String is somewhat annoying:

(a)It's not that hard to write code for drawing the characters provided - it doesn't really add any challenge, except for newbies, who would not be able to do it at all.
(b)It means everything is in ALL CAPS. Perhaps this is your intention, but I don't think I'm the only one here who doesn't like ALL CAPS. I would sooner have it all small than ALL CAPS.

But I guess I'll manage, anyways.
Ryan
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Post by Ryan »

ciw1973 wrote:... and using OpenGL or HGE would give me a lot more options.
I've never used HGE on a project before but played with it a few days before the competition started. I'm using it on my entry and am absolutely loving it! I'll probably use it for future projects, too. So... my vote is to go with HGE. ; )

EDIT: The effects don't show up to well in this video, but I was able to capture a simple demo w/ KristopherWindsor's screen capture utility. You should be able to see a movement trail on my ship and some particles flying out of the expanded "explosion" tiles from the tileset.

http://www.bywombats.com/files/demo_video1.avi

I'll try to get a demo out once you can actually kill the baddies. ^_^
KristopherWindsor
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Post by KristopherWindsor »

I just started to code, and I started with this image loader, which others may want to use if they have not started yet. It is free to use and / or modify.

Code: Select all

' [name withheld by owner :-P]! v1.0
' (C) 2007 i-TECH and Kristopher Windsor (but this is actually free to use)

#include once "fbgfx.bi"

Const screenx = 800, screeny = 600

Dim Shared As fb.image Ptr graphics(1 To 128)


Sub start
  Dim As Integer a, b, c, d, e, sx, sy, fx, fy
  Dim As fb.image Ptr original_image
  
  Screenres screenx, screeny, 32
  
  original_image = imagecreate(128, 64)
  Bload "graphics/graphics.bmp", original_image
  
  For a = 0 To 15
    For b = 0 To 7
      c = b * 16 + a + 1
      graphics(c) = imagecreate(32, 32)
      sx = a * 8
      sy = b * 8
      For d = 0 To 31
        For e = 0 To 31
          fx = Int(d / 4) + sx
          fy = Int(e / 4) + sy
          Pset graphics(c), (d, e), Point(fx, fy, original_image)
        Next e
      Next d
    Next b
  Next a
  
  imagedestroy(original_image)
End Sub

Sub finish
  For a As Integer = 1 To 128
    imagedestroy(graphics(a))
  Next a
End Sub

start

Dim As Integer a, b, c

For a = 0 To 15
  For b = 0 To 7
    c = b * 16 + a + 1
    Put (a * 33, b * 33), graphics(c), Pset
  Next b
Next a
Sleep

finish
Ryan wrote:Just in case anyone hasn't figured it out yet, the tiles from the graphics file make up a character set... if you start counting from the top left corner going right, the letters and punctuation marks and all will match up to their asc() values. To print text to the screen, you can simply load all the characters into an array w/ the indexes being their number and then loop through a string and put the tile to the screen that corresponds w/ each character's upper cased ascii value.
Thanks for mentioning this. I might have made this a lot more difficult than it has to be. :-)

- Author of Macro Keys
ciw1973
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Post by ciw1973 »

notthecheatr wrote:(a)It's not that hard to write code for drawing the characters provided - it doesn't really add any challenge, except for newbies, who would not be able to do it at all.
Using font characters stored in a bitmap is very easy to do, and is in fact identical to displaying *any* of the other graphics on the screen. If you can do one, you can do the other, and treating font characters like any other object on the screen opens up all sorts of possiblities.

It's how we used to have to do it back in the Amiga days (obviously it was much easier on the C64) and I feel it will get people thinking about graphics at a lower level than they would otherwise. It is pretty much essential for anyone starting out to understand these things. If they don't, then so many other things further along the road are going to be very confusing.

notthecheatr wrote:(b)It means everything is in ALL CAPS. Perhaps this is your intention, but I don't think I'm the only one here who doesn't like ALL CAPS. I would sooner have it all small than ALL CAPS.
This was very much intentional, with the idea being that the games should have a 1980s feel to them. Like most games from that era, space invaders didn't use lower case characters.

As you can see, there is actually room in the character set for the lower case characters, but I've deliberately left them blank.
aleofjax
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Post by aleofjax »

Hey all, I've updated my game. Just some minor changes:

*Changed the water color to make the blue jellies easier to see
*Added more jellies (now = current level + 2)
*Improved the orange alien's throwing routine. Feels more natural now.
*The crab can now jump out of the water. note: you cannot control his trajectory through the air!
*made some more minor tweaks

The preformance still drags a little on the higher levels, I'll try to deal with that if I have time. And as for a moving hazard: Trust me, on the higher levels, the last thing that you need is more to think about!

@ Lachie: Can you be more specific about not colliding with the rocks? Do you mean the crab, the jellies, or both? It works great for me.

http://www.mediafire.com/?8oympzmtz90

edit: updated - had it set to start on level 13!
Last edited by aleofjax on Nov 07, 2007 21:47, edited 1 time in total.
ciw1973
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Post by ciw1973 »

Ryan wrote:
ciw1973 wrote:... and using OpenGL or HGE would give me a lot more options.
I've never used HGE on a project before but played with it a few days before the competition started. I'm using it on my entry and am absolutely loving it! I'll probably use it for future projects, too. So... my vote is to go with HGE. ; )
Yeah, it's a truly wonderful library, but there are two reasons why I'd consider OpenGL instead:

The first is that OpenGL is multi-platform, which is something I place a good deal of importance upon.

The second is that a FreeBASIC OpenGL application doesn't require any additional DLLs, which is also something that I consider a big plus.

But HGE's just so damn nice and it gives you so much out of the box, that it's a real fight not to use it.

I've yet to do anything more that sketch out my game ideas on paper, so I'm still undecided which of the two I'll be using if any.
Lachie Dazdarian
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Post by Lachie Dazdarian »

Cool clip Ryan. It looks like something that will be fun to play.

Eh, the more I see and hear of other entries the more I'm sure I'll seriously bomb-out in this compo. I think I went in a completely wrong direction, but it's too late to do something about it.

aleofjax, I only meant that I didn't feel the rocks as a thread in the first two levels so they didn't appear to be relevant to the gameplay. But I'm sure this changes in later levels.

Also, can I use your setColor function slightly altered in my program? It's something I would probably think of myself, but since I peeked into your code before, no sense in pretending I don't have short-term memory.
aleofjax
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Post by aleofjax »

If anyone downloaded my last update, you may have noticed a LOT of jellyfish. I had it set on level 13 to test it, and forgot to change it back. The link is updated now, or you can just change line 53 and recompile
KristopherWindsor
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Post by KristopherWindsor »

Lachie Dazdarian wrote:The more I see and hear of other entries the more I'm sure I'll seriously bomb-out in this compo. I think I went in a completely wrong direction, but it's too late to do something about it.
That's how I feel, except, it's not too late for me. :-P

- Author of Macro Keys
duke4e
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Post by duke4e »

Just a little update about my project.

-engine is finished
-most of the hard stuff with importing graphics is done
-game awesomly playable and fun!

todo:
-procedural effects on sprites
-level editor
-buy screen
-highscores

Now, some questions (just to make it sure):
1. Can I additionaly use procedural graphics (compo gfx + my procedural gfx)
2. Can I "procedurally enhance" sprites
3. You said mods are allowed (mods as tracker music)?
3.1 If yes, is "free downloadable music content (mods)" allowed?
ciw1973
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Post by ciw1973 »

duke4e wrote:1. Can I additionaly use procedural graphics (compo gfx + my procedural gfx)
You certain can, but the main objects in your game should be taken from the original graphics.

duke4e wrote:2. Can I "procedurally enhance" sprites
Again, no problem with that at all, but they should still be recognisable as the original graphics.

duke4e wrote:3. You said mods are allowed (mods as tracker music)?
Yeah, I mean tracker files, but you can only use the sounds provided.

duke4e wrote:3.1 If yes, is "free downloadable music content (mods)" allowed?
As you can only use the sounds provided, you won't be able to use existing MODs found on the internet.
duke4e
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Post by duke4e »

ciw1973 wrote:
duke4e wrote:2. Can I "procedurally enhance" sprites
Again, no problem with that at all, but they should still be recognisable as the original graphics.
So, rescale + texturized is ok?
ciw1973 wrote:
duke4e wrote:3. You said mods are allowed (mods as tracker music)?
Yeah, I mean tracker files, but you can only use the sounds provided.
duke4e wrote:3.1 If yes, is "free downloadable music content (mods)" allowed?
As you can only use the sounds provided, you won't be able to use existing MODs found on the internet.
So what you're saying is that mods can only be used for midi information/notes, while provided sounds are ONLY sounds that can be used (including for music).

Too bad, it whould be cool if we could use some music files :)
vdecampo
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Post by vdecampo »

GAME UPDATE

FreeBasic Compo Entry - "Vandris Escape"

Preliminary (Completed)
-Load/Scale/Parse Sprites
-Collision/Rotation
-Sprite Rendering

Game Functions (Completed)
-Title Screen
-Help
-Basic Game Play
-Game Over

To Do
-Hi Score
-Increasing Difficulty

I hoping to have this wrapped up by this weekend.

Cheers
-Vince
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