Tests!

This week:
Monday: Greek gods test (English)
Tuesday: 7.1 reading test (History), vocabulary test (English)
Wednesday: Short story test (English)
Thursday: 7.2 reading test (History), vocab test (German), health test (health)
Friday: Analogies test (English), 7.3 reading test (History)

Yup, at least one test a day. Not too bad, as weeks go. Right now 95% of my time is spent with school, sleeping, homework, orchestra and Castlevania. The remaining 5% is spent on the internet and reading, or doing something with my friends.

Hopefully this explains why I haven't been very active on this blog.

Cyber Odyssey Preview Video

I decided to whip up a little preview of Cyber Odyssey, even though it is far from done. It doesn't have audio (which is overrated anyway), and the quality isn't fantastic, but if you're wondering what the heck this game is about I would appreciate it if you checked it out.
Preview Video

New Site

Well, after a ton of hard work, I've got my site set up, at ninjutsu.co.nr. I learned a lot about web design, but any feedback would be appreciated. I also set this blog up with my website, but I still have to make it look like the rest of the site, which will probably take a while. If you have any links to my blog as my homepage, I would appreciate it if you changed it to the link above.

Bump Mapping

Lately I've been looking at bump mapping, a technique which adds actual 3d texture to something. You can see an example I made here:















After playing System Shock 2 and Half Life 2 I'm really inspired to make a 3d game. However, I am terrible at making, animating, and texturing people or creatures. Environments are more towards my strong suit. I'm also trying to wait until I finish my current project.


Edit:
Here's one that looks much better:

Waking up early

For some reason, I have a weird tendency to wake up rather early. Usually 5:00 nowadays, but a year ago it used to be 4:30. I just don't like sleeping in. It seems like a big waste of time to me. I always feel like I have to be getting something accomplished (even if it's something like writing a blog post, or reading a book).
I usually go to bed at about 10:00, so I probably don't get enough sleep, though I usually fall on the couch and don't get up for a while in the middle of the day.

Anyway, I look forward to the pill you can take that will let you stay up 24/7.

Twitter?

Today I just got a twitter. I've been hesitant to get one so far, because I haven't really seen much point in it, but I decided I should at least try it out. So far I'm noticing a rather alarming lack of options for customizing the layout. You can only change some of the colors, you can only place your background image in the top left corner, and all kinds of other limitations that just seem lazy on the part of the creators of twitter.
You can check it out at twitter.com/ninjutsu63.

Enemy AI

I notice that a lot of people seem to have trouble coming up with some good AI for their games. I have trouble with this as well, so I thought I would detail the process I performed when I created an enemy AI for my platform-shooter.
First, I wrote down the basic things I wanted the AI to do. That came up with something like this:

-Patrol an area when idle
-Be able to 'spot' the player, and give chase
-Be able to try and shoot the player is in range
-Be able to jump over and onto obstacles

Listing it out like this provides you with some guidelines, which is much better than simply thrashing out some code without a clear idea of what you want.

The next step is to write out the basic idea of your code. This might be pseudo-code, or just normal code. A simplified version of my code might look like this:

//if we are in idle mode
if state=0 {
//look for the player. if we find him, transition into alert mode
//patrol an area x pixels wide
//if an obstacle is encountered, jump
}
//if we have spotted the player and gone into alert mode
else if state=1 {
//if the player is out of range, go back to idle mode
//go towards the player
//try and shoot the player
//if an obstacle is encountered, jump
}

As you can see, this is very simple, but gives you a good outline of what you are trying to accomplish. From here, you can write your basic code. Chances are, it won't work perfectly the first time you try it out, which is where iteration comes into play. Just test out the AI, and when it does something unrealistic or stupid (like walking into walls, or shooting in the wrong direction), figure out what it should be doing (jumping over the wall, shooting the other way), and fix that in the code.

With enough iteration, you should get a good code that works about how you wanted. You might find it doesn't exactly match up with your original guidelines, but often times it is even better than what you predicted.

Fun fact: At one point in my AI development, that enemies could actually jump onto each other, and would stack themselves up to get at me. It was pretty entertaining to watch.

Progress on the new game

So, my new game is a sort of platform shooter. So far I've got a basic engine almost done. So far it has the following features:

-Movement (including slopes)
-Animations for walking, jumping, etc...
-Variable Jumping
-Shooting
-A system which draws each part of the player's sprite (head, body, legs) separately, so that if the player gets a new helmet I can just switch the head sprite very easily

Anyway, I'll be on vacation for the next week, so don't expect my presence online.

What I've been Listening too

Over the last few weeks I've been listening to lots of different music. Here are some of my favorite songs:

-Future, and It Doesn't Work, by Starscream. These songs just scream out pure awesome, and it's some of the best chiptunes music I've heard.
-The music from Iji is great. My favorite song is probably Tor. After trying to beat that guy time and time again on the hardest difficulty, you would think I might get tired of the song, but I still get awesome chills every time I listen to it.
-The Flight of The Conchords have some hilarious music. This is one of my favorites.
-I also love the Decemberists. I can't stop listening to them. One of my favorite songs is 16 Military Wives.
-Stairway to Heaven. A little unknown song which is surprisingly awesome. It's by Led Zeppelin.

Theme Update

I decided to redesign this blog, and I have to say I think it looks quite a bit better. The old look was rather ugly, I'll admit. Lately I've been helping my brother in doing some web design for community service, and I've been using css a lot recently. This blog was a perfect chance to test my skills.

Please, let me know your opinions on the new theme, and whether you have any problems or suggestions. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to read my ramblings!

Today

Today I started production on a new game I've had planned for a long time. It's looking pretty good.

I also picked up three new SNES games yesterday, for a pretty good price.
Shadow Run, which is interesting so far, although the controls are far from perfect.
Super Mario RPG Legend of the 7 Stars, which also looks good so far, although my SNES decided to mess up after I hadn't saved for a while.
Also, Super Metroid. I haven't played it before, but I've heard great things about it. So far it's been great.

Even though I have a Wii and all of that virtual console stuff, I still like playing games on my old SNES. It kind of feels like cheating on the Wii, and a lot of the time it's more expensive.

Yay

My game, Agent won second place in the GameCOG competition, which was pretty much what I had expected. I've found that working with a deadline is actually very helpful.

New Game

Info
Agent is a third person shooter created for Gamecog's second competition. The goal of each level is to find a briefcase. Once you find it, you will be awarded points depending on your speed, accuracy, and whether or not you got hit at all.
Once you complete a level, you will unlock the next level in line.

Core Information
Title: Agent
Genre/Category: Third Person Shooter
Download Size: 6.6 MB
Game File-Type: ZIP (make sure to extract all files)
Resolution: No Change, Windowed
Current Version: v.1
Written In: GM7 Registered with the Ultimate 3d DLL

Screenshots:


Download Links:

Mirror 1
Direct Link
Mirror 2
Box.net

Other:
Thanks to everyone that plays this game. It is currently unfinished, and I hope to add a lot more content. Any feedback you have would be great! :)

Credits:
Everything (music, sounds, models, textures, programming, design, etc...): ninjutsu63

Finals

Well, I've just finished up with my final exams. They were pretty easy. I was only really worried about my finals for Spanish and Math. Luckily they both went well. While I got a B on the Spanish one, I still have an A for a final grade, and though I haven't gotten a score for it yet, the Math final was pretty easy. I figured out I only needed to get 28/50 questions correct to get an A. It was also multiple choice, so I could figure out quite a few of the problems just by looking at the question and the answers.

In other news, lately I've become obsessed with the Metal Gear Solid games. I first got interested when I played MGS4 at a friend's house, and now I've played through most of the series. The story is great, even though it is rather convoluted, and rather hard to follow at first. I'm certainly looking forward to the new metal gear solid games announced at E3, Rising and Peace Walker (even though I don't have a PSP).

JRPGs #1

RPGs are an interesting genre, because it can encompass so many different things. However, the kind of RPG I've been most interested in are Japanese RPGs, or just JRPGs. JRPGs have almost become their own sub-genre, because of their distinctive features. So what exactly are these features that make them unique?

1. Story takes the forefront. Often, JRPGs have a very linear storyline that progresses in a 'string of pearls' pattern. A cutscene or story moment will explain what's going on and make the player's next objective clear. Then, the player will go somewhere else, where the next cutscene awaits to tell them where to go next. The cutscenes are the pearls, and the gameplay is the string connecting them.
2. A focus on upgrading your character(s). Usually, you can level up and gain equipment and money by killing monsters. You can use new abilities from levelling up and new equipment to defeat even more monsters, and advance the story.
3. Random Battles are a prime staple of JRPGs. These usually occur randomly when the player is walking around on the world map, or when the player runs into an indicator of a monster on the world map. In either case, the player is taken to a different screen, where a battle is carried out, usually using some variation on a turn based fighting system.

Unfortunately, making a game that follows this guideline seems rather limiting, and for that reason many people complain about how all JRPGs are the same. I want to disagree, but these people are not far off. This begs the question of why so many people are ready to come back for more. I don't know exactly, but I wish I did. Is it the great stories they have to tell? The comfort in buying something that you will already be familiar with?
Whatever it is, hopefully I'll be able to trigger that primal urge with Urban Odyssey.

Urban Odyssey

I just thought I'd quickly post about a preview trailer on the RPG I'm working on. Check it out here:

Busy busy busy...

I haven't had a lot of time to spend writing on this blog, for several reason:

1. I've been bust with school. I'm working on several big projects, like a big presentation comparing warfare during the Civil War and modern times (I might even manage to fit in the classic Fallout line "War. War never changes). I also have a big Spanish final project, which is a sort of autobiography written entirely in Spanish.
2. I've been busy with music. I play in an orchestra at school, and we've had several concerts lately. I also have an upcoming solo cello recital. I also play piano, and I've had several adjudicated events lately. Luckily I managed to do very well on all of them. I'm also trying to learn Death On Two Legs (by Queen) on the piano. Don't ask why.
   
3. Normall I'm not really into webcomics, but I managed to read through every single strip of Questionable Content. You should check it out, it's actually pretty funny.

(Hopefully) more later!

RPG Update

Hey. Remember that 3d game I was making? I've been working on it, and made quite some progress. There are several changes in its design.
First, it's going to be an RPG. The name will no longer be City Scoundrel, but the game will probably still be focused on an urban setting.
The game will have a Final Fantasy style combat system, although I'd relate the general feel of the game more to Earthbound (in both style and gameplay).

Here's some screenshots:



The new re-textured character. The earlier model with the suit just didn't fit the game. Hopefully this will do a better job.



The Final Fantasy style combat menu.



Torching a zombie.

More info can be found on Gamecog.

Annoying Forum Habbit #83

I absolutely can not stand it when people use a centered alignment on most, or all of a post on the Game Maker Community (or any other forum).
First of all, it's simply harder to read, because our eye has to find the beginning of each new line, whereas a normal left alignment has a clear start to each line.
Because of that, it's incredibly amateur, sort of like making your whole post bold, or some crazy font. Doing this doesn't make you cool, it just makes your post harder to take seriously.

Argh, can you see what I mean?
Tell me the truth, this is way harder to read.
Seriously, is this supposed to be some sort of poem?
Posting like this simply makes me go insane.

But enough with my ranting. Progress on my games has been going great. I'm spending the weekend catching up on some exercising, finishing up my math homework, and programming, as well as playing another awesome freeware game made with gamemaker, by the name of Gang Garrison 2. It's a remake (or, according to the manual, a demake) of Team Fortress 2, in a great retro platformer style. It's all online, and unlike many online games made with gamemaker, you can find a consistent amount of players online. Sometimes you can even fight matches with up to 25 players! It's a very impressive little game that I'd recommend you to play.

City Scoundrel

I know there are health hazards (physical and mental!) when you start programming two games at once. However, I did it. I started a new game, by the name of City Scoundrel. Not that I've give up work on Island. I'm trying to keep my work time fairly balanced.
So what is City Scoundrel about? Well, you'll have to see for yourself.

Here's our lovely scoundrel after whom the game was named. He is the protagonist of the game, standing in the lovely peaceful city street.


Then...



OH NO! Zombies!


Well, it's not Shakespeare to tell you the truth. I'm going for a more simple game. Look out for more info soon!

Island Devblog 3... and then some

Finally, I've got a pro version of gamemaker up and running on my computer. Now I see why so many people dislike Vista. So I've had some time to work on Island. I've got the basic mechanics of walking and shooting down, as well as a couple basic enemies. Now I'm working on the more advanced gameplay mechanics such as NPC interaction (conversation, bartering, etc...) and survival mechanics (hunger, thirst, exhaustion, disease, etc...).
Here's an early screenshot:





















I've also been playing the addictive freeware game Spelunky, which is amazingly addictive. I highly recommend it if you've got some time to spare.
Also, I'll be going on vacation for the next few days, so don't be surprised if I don't respond to communications. See you soon!

Island Devblog 2

I'm still waiting on that pro-version of gamemaker unfortunately. In the meantime, I've been creating some graphics and artwork for Island. I've been having some great fun designing some sprites, animations and tilesets. I also created this rough map of the island from which the game gets its name. While it didn't come out perfectly, it's a nice sketch of the general terrain. Yes, those green splotches are forests.

Island Devblog 1

Island is the game I am currently working on. It will be a top down open world game, where you play as person stranded upon an island. Three tribe-like factions live upon the island. You will have to trade with these factions to get a chance for water, food, equipment, and a small chance of escaping the island.

One of my main influences when designing the game, was the original Fallout. It's one of my favorite games. I was inspired by its open world setting, which made you make choices, many of which fell in the gray area between good and evil. It's atmosphere was also spot on. I can only hope my game will have some of those qualities.

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten as much time to work on it as I'd like, as my computer died. Now, I've built a new computer, but haven't been able to activate gamemaker's pro functions yet.

In the meantime, here's a character in the game:

Blog Started

Hey there. I thought I'd create a blog like every other person who thinks they are somehow more important than everyone else in the world. Mine will provide you with my random thoughts, and serve as a sort of development blog for some of my upcoming projects. If I find the time, I might even write up some reviews for some indie games, especially those created with the software gamemaker.

Well, enjoy. Be sure to contact me about that new game you're working on, or post a comment on one of my upcoming posts. My email is ninjutsu63@gmail.com.