18 replies to this topic

[Random Terrain]

Some of you might have seen that I will probably have no cable TV or Internet connection from October 22 until some time in November. Since I'll have fewer distractions, there will be no more excuses, but just in case, I'm posting the name of my maze-style game:

Bloober and the Gnarl

Now I'll have to post something when I come back. It might be first draft quality, but at least it will be something. The condition it's in right now might be considered embarrassing beta. You can move Bloober around and the Gnarl roams the maze and will chase Bloober if he sees him, but I still need to figure out the rest.

These are my thoughts about the game so far. The Gnarl roams around the maze and has no idea Bloober is there, but once he sees Bloober for the first time and chases him, the Gnarl will have Bloober's scent (he'll switch from roam mode to hunt mode). The game will then become a little harder. My idea is that Bloober will always be evading. He won't eat a power pellet and munch on the Gnarl. The Gnarl won't even munch on Bloober, he'll just drain his energy if he touches him. A bonus item will pop up in a random spot at certain times and if Bloober can get to it, he'll regain some energy. The score will probably increase by a certain multiplier amount as long as Bloober avoids the Gnarl, but as soon as the Gnarl sees Bloober, the multiplier will decrease by one and that means the score won't tick up as fast. When Bloober gets that bonus item I mentioned, his energy will increase, but getting 3 bonus items will increase the multiplier too. Now that I've typed that out, it's starting to sound like something I might want to play more than once.

Look for a rough version of Bloober and the Gnarl right here in a few weeks. I'm not going to worry about a title screen or an attract mode at this time. I can work on that stuff later.

[MausGames]

Do you have any mockups of potential maze styles? Will they be single or multi-screen? Will this game be using the SuperChip?

[RevEng]

Looking forward to it RT! It sounds like an original!!!

[Random Terrain]

MausGames, on Wed Oct 14, 2009 4:15 PM, said:

Do you have any mockups of potential maze styles? Will they be single or multi-screen? Will this game be using the SuperChip?

The maze will pretty much look like this:

http://www.atariage....ndom-maze-demo/

I'm trying different colors to see which looks best.

RevEng, on Wed Oct 14, 2009 4:19 PM, said:

Looking forward to it RT! It sounds like an original!!!

Thanks.

Edited by Random Terrain, Thu Oct 15, 2009 9:14 AM.

[Random Terrain]

I have some bad news. We got a little unexpected money, so we're not going to lose phone/Internet/cable TV. Although the distractions won't be removed, I'm still going to spend most of my time from October 22 until the first week of November getting this game finished enough to be seen by the public.

[accousticguitar]

Looking forward to it.

[RevEng]

Random Terrain, on Tue Oct 20, 2009 1:02 PM, said:

I have some bad news. We got a little unexpected money, so we're not going to lose phone/Internet/cable TV.[...]

I'm sorry to hear that. My family and I will pray for you to lose your phone/Internet/cable next week.

Keep the faith!

[MausGames]

I was wondering why you chose not to use PF0 to widen the resolution; or did you? You should consider keeping a development blog here at AA. How come you don't seem too interested in sharing the dev process?

[Random Terrain]

MausGames, on Tue Oct 20, 2009 7:03 PM, said:

I was wondering why you chose not to use PF0 to widen the resolution . . .

I either didn't know you could do that or I forgot. I thought PF0 just added a border? Every time I'm away from bB for a while, I have to relearn almost everything.

MausGames, on Tue Oct 20, 2009 7:03 PM, said:

You should consider keeping a development blog here at AA. How come you don't seem too interested in sharing the dev process?

Don't think I could do that. I have the Spock's Brain problem:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zKDQfVbWqc&fmt=18#t=2m39s


(McCoy gets increased surgical knowledge to restore Spock's Brain, but that knowledge fades away before he can finish.)

I don't know what's possible until I try it, so writing a 20 page design document is kind of useless. I have no clue what I'm doing, but I'll get a flash of how to do something, type it in and be amazed that it works. It's like somebody else did it. Then the flashes dry up and I'm supposed to fill in the blanks. But how? It's like asking a puppy to do your taxes.

To have a development blog, you have to know what you're doing, move from one logical step to the next, and be able to put into words what you did or are going to do next. I just wait for the gods to hit me with the next download from above and fumble around the rest of the time. Since I only understand what I'm doing for a short time during one of these Spock's Brain moments, if I take the time to describe what I'm doing, the code will evaporate, so I just have to keep typing in the code. When the Spock's Brain moment is over, it's kind of hard to explain what I did since I usually don't understand it myself.

One thing I need to remember when I'm fumbling around is that doing any work with the game code seems to increase the possibility that I'll have more Spock's Brain downloads. That's why I wrote this quote for myself and anyone else it might work for:

Quote

Woody Allen said "Eighty percent of success is showing up." That seems to apply to just about everything, including programming. Even if you barely know what you're doing, there is some kind of magic in 'showing up'. All you have to do is work on your program. That simple action can have an almost supernatural effect. Your subconscious mind will bubble like boiling water and amazing things will happen.

~Duane Alan Hahn

Edited by Random Terrain, Tue Apr 12, 2011 6:11 PM.

[MausGames]

You can turn on the inside columns of PF0 to use as left and right borders, instead of having to use the first and last columns of your useable playfield. It only increases your resolution by 2, but every bit helps I think. You can also set the playfieldpos variable to allow you to use one row of playfield for the top and bottom borders, but they'll only be half the height of normal pf pixels. I understand what you meant about your Spock's brain problem, it makes sense. I'm not really interested in your dev process, but I'm sure a lot of people would be. The main reason I asked is because I'd enjoy seeing all of your wip bins, even quick experiments. I think if you usually posted those it would add a lot to the bB forum, even if you didn't explain much about them.

Edited by MausGames, Tue Oct 20, 2009 8:29 PM.

[atari2600land]

This sounds kind of like the top secret game I have been working on off and on since December of last year, although the enemy would always be chasing you instead of moving around randomly (I think it would be easier to program.) I'm still not ready to release a binary form of the game, but here's a screenshot. I jokingly put in the alien from Alien Greed, cartridges, and a yellow enemy which would look like Pac-Man once it's finished. It too uses a random-maze generator. But that's OK, you can continue working on your game and me on mine.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[accousticguitar]

MausGames, on Tue Oct 20, 2009 8:27 PM, said:

You can also set the playfieldpos variable to allow you to use one row of playfield for the top and bottom borders, but they'll only be half the height of normal pf pixels.

How do you do that? I'm working on an 8k superchip game that has blank space above and below the playfield. It would be nice if I could fill that in.

[Random Terrain]

atari2600land, on Tue Oct 20, 2009 10:34 PM, said:

This sounds kind of like the top secret game I have been working on off and on since December of last year, although the enemy would always be chasing you instead of moving around randomly (I think it would be easier to program.) I'm still not ready to release a binary form of the game, but here's a screenshot. I jokingly put in the alien from Alien Greed, cartridges, and a yellow enemy which would look like Pac-Man once it's finished. It too uses a random-maze generator. But that's OK, you can continue working on your game and me on mine.

I started working on mine off and on in September of 2008, so I win! You must stop work immediately or I'll sue you for trying to steal my brainwaves! Where's my aluminum foil hat? I need my hat!

OK, since we're sharing our super-duper secret stuff, I won't make you guys wait until I add sounds and other stuff. I haven't even found the right color for the maze, but here is my rough, rough, rough, rough draft:

 bloober_and_the_gnarl_2009y_10m_21d_0051t.bin   32K   133 downloads


Hold the fire button to make Bloober go faster. Hit the reset switch for a new maze. Remember, there's no game here yet.

[atari2600land]

Hey, yours is better than mine! Here's what I have to show. The enemy doesn't move yet. Hit the select switch for a level editor.

Attached Files

•  secret1.bas.bin   8K   99 downloads

[Random Terrain]

OK, I've posted an early, extremely unfinished version of Bloober and the Gnarl and loosely described how the game will play. Posting about it helped me figure out some things and lit a small fire under my butt. I really want to get this game finished, but I need to do something else first (before the 'burning desire' fades away) that will help me with this game and others:

http://www.atariage....useover-sounds/

I'm going to add real Atari 2600 mouseover sounds to the batari Basic Music and Sound Page. I need some opinions about that, so I'll create new poll. (Figured out I'll need to have a separate page made just for playing the sounds, so no need for a poll.)

So the script has changed. I'm going to try to get this sound page stuff done by the first week of November, then get back to working on Bloober and the Gnarl.

Edited by Random Terrain, Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:19 PM.

[jrok]

Random Terrain, on Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:07 PM, said:

I haven't even found the right color for the maze...

That's an easy choice.... "random."

Random Terrain, on Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:07 PM, said:

Hold the fire button to make Bloober go faster. Hit the reset switch for a new maze. Remember, there's no game here yet.

I remember the random maze generator you made awhile back. Are these randomly drawn, or does it select from a set number of mazes? Or is it more that random quadrants are selected and assembled? Anyway, nice start.

Jarod.

[Random Terrain]

jrok, on Wed Oct 28, 2009 5:07 PM, said:

I remember the random maze generator you made awhile back. Are these randomly drawn, or does it select from a set number of mazes? Or is it more that random quadrants are selected and assembled? Anyway, nice start.

The maze has three sections (middle, top, and bottom) and each section is made up of one of seven randomly selected pieces. Some pieces of the top and bottom sections can affect the middle section, so that mixes it up a bit. It's a messy version of controlled randomness.

Edited by Random Terrain, Thu Oct 29, 2009 5:49 AM.

[yuppicide]

I'll be honest.. the first time I wasn't expecting him to change red and charge at me. Scared me for a second.

[Random Terrain]

yuppicide, on Sat Nov 7, 2009 9:35 PM, said:

I'll be honest.. the first time I wasn't expecting him to change red and charge at me. Scared me for a second.

Just wait until I find the right sound to go with it. I think a screaming type of sound might be best.