"His Dark Majesty"

[ilmenit]

"His Dark Majesty" is a game written in C (CC65+asm). It is a turn-based tactics video game inspired by "Advance Wars" and "Reign of Swords" (Iphone). All the AI "engine" and battle system is already done. Now I'm working on the GUI and the gfx side.

 

A little demo is available here: http://www.alamak0ta.republika.pl/hdm_demo1.zip

In the Atari version you can watch two computer players fighting each other.

Currently it's totally unoptimized, but premature optimization is the root of all evil

Run it rather in 'Full Speed' emulator.

 

Because of C language I was able to compile a Windows version easily with a basic map editor.

It's included in the archive. It also allows you to play against computer or other player and to create new maps.

 

I'm looking for help with this project. The list of wishes for help is a long one

- programming (C or asm)

- graphics

- sounds (I have no idea about Pokey programming)

- music

- plot/campaign/story

- language (I'm not a native English speaker)

- maps (interesting maps are a must! Try the editor to make one!)

- ideas for "economy" and resources - how to buy units and improve your army (outside the battle field).

 

I'm aiming for the standard 8bit Atari witk 64KB memory (max. 128KB)

 

regards,

Jakub

Edited July 8, 2009 by ilmenit

[ilmenit]

Screenshot:

 

Map editor:

[GroovyBee]

You might consider using Tile Studio to design your game's levels. At least they'll look like levels in the game then. ASCII characters are hard to visualise as trees, water etc.

[ClassicTom]

Nice to see people keeping the torch burning for the 8 bits, your work is appreciated.

Edited July 9, 2009 by ClassicTom

[ilmenit]

You might consider using Tile Studio to design your game's levels. At least they'll look like levels in the game then. ASCII characters are hard to visualise as trees, water etc.

 

Tile Studio doesn't allow to edit multi-layer maps. I need at least two layers - one for terrain and one for units.

[GroovyBee]

Tile Studio doesn't allow to edit multi-layer maps. I need at least two layers - one for terrain and one for units.

It supports back, mid and front layers. Pick any two of those and it should work out OK.

[ilmenit]

Tile Studio doesn't allow to edit multi-layer maps. I need at least two layers - one for terrain and one for units.

It supports back, mid and front layers. Pick any two of those and it should work out OK.

 

Progress report:

 

Atari executable demo (AI vs AI):

hdm.zip

[Heaven/TQA]

that's cool!!! I love it... how did you do the line of sight?

[ilmenit]

It's what I call a "diamond shaped" pathfinding, which works quite well on a short distance and no diagonal movement.

 

I draw a diamond shaped spiral using 4 lines for each distance.

Starting from 'S' the drawn points look like on the picture:

 

   9
 A38
B4S27
 C16F
  5E
  D

 

The currently drawn line is a north-east line (DEF). With each direction I have linked the direction to look for the previous cost.

For north-east line the direction cost is at north and west (f.e. for 'E' the cost is lower value of '5' and '6' - min(prev1,prev2)).

 

For each cell I calculate a destination cost as a sum of current cost and min(prev1, prev2).

Example:

Cost table of terrain (we are going from 'S'tart to 'E'nd):

S311
1111
2111
2111
2111
 E

As a result we get the diamond shaped calculation of movement cost:

S345
1234
3345
5456
 E

 

The best path is described by decreasing values starting from 'E'.

 

If you are interested in in FOV forblocking cells only, without pathfinding, then take a look at algorithm from my other game:

void ViewSegment(signed char dx,signed char dy)
{
       register unsigned char p,r;
       register unsigned char x,y;
       register unsigned char start;

       // 1. Horizontal
       start=player_x;
       for (p=0;p<FOV_RANGE;++p)
       {
               x=start;
               y=player_y;
               start+=dx;
               if (MapGetCell(x,y)==CELL_WALL)
               {
                       ShowFovCell(x,y);
                       break;
               }
               for (r=p;r<FOV_RANGE;++r)
               {
                       ShowFovCell(x,y);
                       if (MapGetCell(x,y)==CELL_WALL)
                               break;
                       x+=dx;
                       y+=dy;
               }
       }
       // 2. Vertical
       start=player_y;
       for (p=0;p<FOV_RANGE;++p)
       {
               y=start;
               x=player_x;
               start+=dy;
               if (MapGetCell(x,y)==CELL_WALL)
               {
                       ShowFovCell(x,y);
                       break;
               }
               for (r=p;r<FOV_RANGE;++r)
               {
                       ShowFovCell(x,y);
                       if (MapGetCell(x,y)==CELL_WALL)
                               break;
                       x+=dx;
                       y+=dy;
               }
       }

}

void PlayerFov()
{
       ViewSegment(1,1);
       ViewSegment(1,-1);
       ViewSegment(-1,-1);
       ViewSegment(-1,1);

}

 

FOV Demo (Windows)

 

The Atari version (very slow and unoptimized): link