[WiP] Isometric Game

Hey Hey

For some days (well, weeks with some time days doing nothing) I
am working on a game which has no game yet. Some of you may
already saw screenshots on twitter/this forum/facebook, but this
will be my official development thread with newest information,
screenshots and the chance for you to comment and criticize my
project. I am open for ideas, so don't be shy

The project is inspired by a game from Ludum Dare but it
is not a copy.

---

Already implemented:

• Isometric Engine
  • Rendering
  • Events
  • Collision("physics")
• Level Change
• Moveable Block

Being implemented at the moment:

• Editor
• Player
• Needle/Killer Tile
• Pressure Plates

Going to be implented:

• More tiles!
  • Auto-Move Tiles
  • Lazers!
• Menu
• AI

---

Screenshots

A test level - graphics are wip.


The 3D Collisionlevel.


The editor - new version!

---

Known problems:

• only 2 scale-sizes
• pointer problem -> unkown main-while stop

---

Thank you for your attention and best regards,
ReiAyanami

I've seen shots of this on Screenshot Saturday (were, for some reason, my screenshots don't appear anymore)!

It looks nice, and I guess most of your work so far has been spent on the whole isometric viewpoint & collision-thing?


Care to share a bit more about the actual game? What game were you inspired by, and what do you plan on doing? So far, there's not much "game" to comment on.

Yes, you are right. I've spent the whole time in creating the graphics and the
whole 3D->2D rendering thing and the collision.

I hate to say it, but my actual player code doesnt even use 3D collision
checking...

Well, I cannot find the original game (seriously, i searched for 10 minuts now...)


I plan to make the story not a boring "save the princess" one, but a "what?
where am i? what should i do?"-one. There will be stupid around-running ai's,
that cannot be directly killed by the player, but the player can move boxes so
that these ai's decide to run into death fields. (I noted somethings that I
will be doing above)

Also, I plan to keep the style for the "normal" part in a black/white style, so
that I can use a colored part for special things.

Actually you can just run around and move a box, with which you can disable the
death field and nothing else. I am reworking the event code now to make
everything more stable.

Even though my sorting alghorytm might not be the best, the game runs with
(maxed)60fps/(unmaxed)500fps.


Yay, a comment (:

Seeing the 3D room, i htink you have the same problem as some of us.
A8 lightening don't allow to have "glued" 3D models with same light color at snapped vertex

I've seen complex 3D tiles glued perfectly on Unity3D and they had light, normal map and no visible seam at all !!

ratchet, that's the collision map. The real game looks like the first picture.

Yup, the real game is in 2D and made from 2D sprites

glad to see you found your solution. did the vec_for_screen help at all?

@ratchet, well, the other two answered it (:

@lostclimate Yep, the vec_to_screen function helps alot, its great that the
update came that fast (:


I am working right now to get the new event/move system done, its already
smoother, but has some bugs ):

Heyhey, here is a short video showing the player moving a box and disabling a
trap. As already said, I rewrote all the IsoEngine code, and I am nearly done

The video looks a bit laggy, but I dont really know why...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU3Ml0QioeI

Best regards,
ReiAyanami

I find the player a little hard to identify with ^^
though this might be wanted...

still great work will jumping onto those blocks be possible?
might make the game a little more dynamic

Thanks, yeah, the player was graphic is still wip (There were two options for making him more visible => round or triangle-alike)

I thought about jumping, but I would need more higher or new lower blocks to make the leavels not too easy. Higher blocks would have the visibilty problem (player behind), and lower blocks look odd (they are already not really high, compared to the player). But I will think about that option


Also, I edited the initial post and updated the ToDo list. Level Changes are now working, and there is also a "You died"-message.

Regards,
Rei

Because I do not get any comments, I am just going to post

Here is a new shot from the Editor - thanks to Felix Queißner! (Richi007)!


Also, there are new pressure plates, that can be activated via blocks and by
the player himself. Those plates activate other things, move things or the like.

I am rewriting some render stuff, because it got a bit messy so that i just
cant find a bug (main-while dies for unkown reasons without error)..


When all the "engine" stuff is done, and I got some tutorial levels working, I
am going to get the project to 8bitfunding, maybe I can get some money for
music/character artists/level design (got ideas myself, but I dont think I am
/that/ creative)


Regards,
Rei
[First post updated]

That tends to happen to me too. It's hard to debug Gamestudio applications, scheduler bugs with wait() are hard to weed out.

What is your solution to that?

Maybe its not the worst to rewrite my code (speed/style), but thats not a real option for that =/

Using as few wait() instructions as possible is a good start. But another way is to control all of your entities yourself with a linked list or some other setup. That's a bit of a pain to set up, though...

Actually my code has like 4(?) waits
>> One in the main, and 3 in events (Own event system/handling)

Hnmn..

Okay, found the problem.

Also, using a lot more waits now, it just became to complicated using one with all that events etcetc...

However, there is a ingame console now, that allows to call functions, change and get vars. (More functions are possible via LC_addFunction(...))




Edit: There are also Laser now, which are not looking so good atm...

Edit2: I totally forgot : There is a "stupid" (< wanted) AI now, which just runs in circles (when it detectes a wall it turns)

Looks pretty good (the video too), but I think you should add different gray tones on the sides of the blocks for a better depth perception.

Cool console. Is that a plugin? Where did you get it?

As for AI, there is a nice, simple tutorial on a 2D grid implementation of the A* algorithm here:
http://www.policyalmanac.org/games/aStarTutorial.htm

But in my opinion, the AI in this game should be very simple and predictable. Your current AI doesn't sound bad for a game like this.


Yeah, you really should do that.

In the "first" version all tiles had that shading, but I removed it because it looked not really clean, but I was going to redo them anyway (or, better, find a graphic artist who does pixel-art)

The console is self-written

I already got a working A* Pathfinding here(written sometime ago by this tutorial), but as you said, a simple run-around ai is easier to understand.

Heyo Guys,

first of all, sorry for the double post, but I hate to append something to a post from the day before with a totally different content.


I would like to know, if you think if it would be a good idea to make a website for the game (first on my website - marianfrische.com) because I think I would need one for 8BitFunding... I want to invest any founded money into graphics/sounds/music

Or do you think, that the state of the "game" (i know, i know) is not good enough for a website?

Okay.. re-done the editor. Now with Isometric preview.



Finally I found a got solution for the color style problem (:
(Story ftw)

Also, some more new tiles will be implemented soon (:

Unless you are working with a team and you need your own "internet HQ" for collaboration purposes, I wouldn't bother with a website at this point.

EDIT: IMO the name "IsoEdit" isn't a very good name for your editor. That name makes it sound like the program edits CD images.

Okay, so no website (:


The name IsoEdit/Isometric Game are just there, because I had no idea. In my gdd the project is named Missing Colors atm.

His GDD, yeah

Ha, I just added content to it !

^^

Also, final editor shot:

I rewrote the "engine" in C++ in form of a Gamestudio Plugin - Classes are amazing for this type of game

There are also colors now, the story has evolved more (on paper!) and I am quite happy (:


still, this project is on hold for a few weeks because of a idea I just had today, I want to try...