Category: Geek / Technical

LD24: Another LD Casualty! #LD48

Post author By Gianfranco Berardi
Post date 8/25/2012

I went to take a shower, and in my haste to dry off and get back to work as quickly as possible, I hit my knee against the counter. Apparently not the first injury of this LD, and probably not the last.

Wanna see? Warning: I was naked when I took this picture.

It hurt a lot when it happened. It’s not bleeding profusely, but I see it is going to leave a bruise.

But it won’t stop me. I will carry on. I will develop a game.

But I worry how much of a mess I’ll be by the time this is all over. Between my hip/back tightness and this knee, what’s next? Lunch is in a few hours…

Anyway, before that shower, I created a background for my game.

Oh, that’s right. My idea: a simple side-scrolling shooter, where the enemies change movement, attacks, armor, and size as the waves start. Essentially, the evolution is in how those elements change in random ways. I’m also thinking that if you defeat an entire wave, you should get the chance to evolve as well.

So I’m not sure if I should go with organic characters or machines. A player-controlled tank means less animation, but then, why not just set the game in space? Whatever. This game is on the ground. A grassy ground.

Game Design Game Development Geek / Technical Linux Game Development Personal Development

LD24: Breakfast the First! #LD48

Post author By Gianfranco Berardi
Post date 8/25/2012

OJ and a mixed cereal. One cereal has a lot of protein and fiber. The other has a lot of B6, B12, and iron.

My wife suggested the idea of “Evolving Doors”, which I think is brilliant because (1) it suggests a game play mechanic of choosing to go through doors to evolve and (2) it makes for an excellent play on words.

Game Design Game Development Geek / Technical Linux Game Development Personal Development

LD24: Slept On It #LD48

Post author By Gianfranco Berardi
Post date 8/25/2012

Before I went to bed, I started working on getting a skeleton project up and running.

I know. I know. It’s supposed to be one of my pre-compo checklist items: “Is your build environment working? I’m using CMake, and I should probably prepare an LD24 project beforehand so I’m not wasting time trying to get the build scripts to work when I could have a buildable project with a blank window from the start.”

Well, I didn’t. So I spent the first few hours getting a window up. Basically, I took existing scaffolding code (a basic Game class, Command/Event interfaces, stuff like that) and slapped it together as minimally as possible until it could build successfully and leave me with a window that shows a title screen and can exit properly.

The title is…evolving.

But the actual game design? Still only ideas right now.

I figured that a lot of people might try to make a Spore clone. I’ve seen quite a few screenshots with little primordial oozes as playable characters, and presumably you gain abilities, appendages, and interact with other units that might be more or less evolved than you. While I’m excited to play some of these games, I’m not sure Yet-Another-Variation would be interesting to work on.

I like the idea of an evolving landscape. A tile-based world that starts out with only one kind of tile with certain attributes, but as you explore it, you come across evolved tiles which might have new attributes or changes to existing ones that might impact movement, health, sight, sound, etc. And if I do it right, no two play sessions will be the same.

In terms of engineering, experimenting with neural networks might be fun. Maybe let the player pick a trait, and then have the system go through a few iterations to find out how healthy it is compared to others. On the other hand, that sounds like a lot of uncertainty and an unfinished compo entry.

Anyway, I’ll think about it some more over breakfast.

Game Design Game Development Geek / Technical Linux Game Development Personal Development

LD24: Evolution Actually Made it! #LD48

Post author By Gianfranco Berardi
Post date 8/24/2012

So, the theme was announced, and it’s Evolution.

Now, Evolution is the theme that was the Susan Lucci of Ludum Dare themes. It always made it to the final round of theme voting and always lost out.

Until today.

And somehow, I’m unprepared for it. Out of all of this LD’s themes, Evolution was the one I hadn’t given much thought to. And I even voted for it!

I’m a little worried about this compo. This morning, I woke up with pain in my hip and back. Walking is awkward, standing is difficult, and sitting seems to make it worse. I don’t know how much time I will be able to dedicate this weekend if I can’t be in front of the computer.

But I’m sure as the weekend evolvess (see what I did there?), things will come together. I’m going to spend the first few moments just thinking about potential design approaches.

Good luck, Ludum Dare participants!

Game Development Geek / Technical

Pre-Compo Checklist for Ludum Dare #LD48

Post author By Gianfranco Berardi
Post date 8/24/2012
4 Comments on Pre-Compo Checklist for Ludum Dare #LD48

I realized that the last time I participated in Ludum Dare was LD #20, with the theme “It’s Dangerous to Go Alone, Take This”, and today I have a completely different laptop running a newer version of Ubuntu with the Unity desktop (not to be confused with Unity 3D, the game engine).

On the old laptop, I had a checklist of things to do before the theme is announced. There’s no sense is using up precious competition time on things you could have prepared for. Unfortunately I have to recreate my checklist since it was one of the things I didn’t back up.

For instance:

Is SFXR installed so you can easily make sound effects?
On that note, do you have Audacity installed to modify them? Is it working correctly?
Do you have all of the libraries and tools you need, such as libSDL?
Is your build environment working? I’m using CMake, and I should probably prepare an LD24 project beforehand so I’m not wasting time trying to get the build scripts to work when I could have a buildable project with a blank window from the start.
Have you purchased groceries? I’ve got peanut butter, bread, raisins, bananas, and pickles, so I’m set.
Does your timelapse software work? In my case, I needed to install scrot, and double-check that my Makefile script still lets me capture screens and turn them into a timelapse video.
Speaking of timelapse, did you disable power-saving on the monitor so that the timelapse screen captures will continue to work even if you take a break for eating or sleeping?

What’s your pre-LD checklist?

Game Development Geek / Technical

Flipcode Is Back?

Post author By Gianfranco Berardi
Post date 8/23/2012

Thanks to a post by Jetro Lauha on Google+, I learned that Flipcode is back.

If you remember back over 10 years ago, the Internet was dominated by a couple of game development website. One was GameDev.net, still going strong after all of these years, and the other was Flipcode.

Both had an archive of articles, but Flipcode focused almost entirely on the technical side of game development. It even had an Image of the Day, which included Telltale Game’s first project, Telltale Texas Hold’em, AIGameDev.com’s editor Alex Champandard’s voxel engine demo, Sol/Jari Komppa’s shadow contest entry, and hamumu/Mike Hommel’s first foray into 16-bit color. There’s even something by Jetro Lauha. B-) I wish I had submitted something of my own so I could be nostalgic about it today.

Unfortunately, in 2005, Flipcode shut down. The closure note said:

I realize this announcement may be a disappointment to many, but I feel I’ve done all I can with this site to serve the game development community over the years. The industry is changing rapidly, as is the face of the web. There are plenty of other game development resources out there (of all shapes and sizes), and more are sure to pop up. I genuinely hope you enjoyed your stay at flipCode, and wish you the best of luck with your future adventures.

The article archives were left up, which is good because they remained useful references for years if you were interested in graphics programming and example source code for topics such as surface subdivision, encoders, and resource managers.

Yesterday, there was a message by Flipcode’s founder, Kurt, that the site was being brought back. It already has some updates, although it seems to be primarily links to other sites and news.

To be honest, I expected other sites to fill the void after its closure. And while I’ve seen a few sites step up, I haven’t seen the same raw spirit I saw in flipcode and its community. *That’s* what this ‘reboot’ stuff is all about. At the moment I’m in a position where I hope to put in the time to rebuild a site that’s worthy of the name. And once the ball gets rolling, I’d love to establish a small team to ensure the site has a bright future, always capable of adapting to changing times– something I should’ve done the first time around.

…

flipcode has always been about the community. The site itself is essentially just a tool to help organize and coordinate content, around which a community can thrive and amazing things can emerge. In the coming weeks and months, I expect to be rebuilding the familiar, core features (such as forums, IOTD, etc), while still exploring some cool new directions for the site. I expect to soon be tweeting about progress, as well as potentially blogging. But most importantly, I’d love to hear what you think about this whole mess.

Over the last few years, there’s been a couple of times when I’ve checked on the site to make sure it was still up. That the site is going to be updated again is very good news indeed. Welcome back, Flipcode!

Game Development Geek / Technical Linux Game Development Personal Development

Ludum Dare #24: Are You In?

Post author By Gianfranco Berardi
Post date 8/21/2012
4 Comments on Ludum Dare #24: Are You In?

August 24-27 is Ludum Dare #24. Ludum Dare is a 48-hour solo game development competition. It’s also a 72-hour game jam where the rules about tools, team sizes, and distribution are a bit more lax.

I realized that the last time I participated in a compo was Ludum Dare #20. It’s been too long.

I’m not sure if I will be working in C++ with libSDL or if I will be using Stencyl, which I used successfully during the 2011 Meaningful Game Play Game Jam to create two prototypes. I’d love to try out Unity, but according to the developers, they “currently have no plans or commitments to port the editor to Linux.”

Theme voting is happening right now. Friday night is the announcement of the theme and the kick-off of both the compo and jam. Are you in?

Games Geek / Technical

The Localization of Zelda

Post author By Gianfranco Berardi
Post date 8/15/2012

Thanks to a Google+ post by Brian Green, I spent part of last night reading through Legends of Localization: The Legend of Zelda.

It’s a fascinating breakdown of the differences between the NES and Famicon Disk System versions of The Legend of Zelda. I had no idea that that the Famicon had a microphone on the second controller or that the audio capabilities of the systems were so different.

I also realized that it has been so long since I have played the game that I’ve forgotten some of the strange text and secrets.

The author has done a few other comparisons, including Earthbound, Super Mario Bros, and Final Fantasy IV, or as those of us who grew up in the US called it, Final Fantasy II.

Game Design Game Development Geek / Technical

A New Direction for “Stop That Hero!”

Post author By Gianfranco Berardi
Post date 4/1/2012
1 Comment on A New Direction for “Stop That Hero!”

As much as Stop That Hero! has
provided me with a great opportunity and learning experience,
recent events have led me to seriously invest time
in a much needed redesign. As a casual strategy game, the game
left players with a fun and exciting way to be evil and have
fun at the same time. Still, I’ve received feedback
over the months that have led me to question some of the
original design decisions I’ve made, some of which might be
leaving money on the table, so to speak.

So, the good news is that I’m taking all of the great stuff I’ve
done so far, and I’m going to recreate “Stop That Hero!” as an FPS.
As a strategy game, I find the game enjoyable, but the masses seem to
yearn for something a bit more visceral.

“Stop That Hero!: Reloaded!” puts you in the role of the hero,
fighting off the minions of an evil villain bent on taking over
the world. With the roles reversed in this new design, I think it
can be much more enjoyable and easier for fans to relate to the characters.

It will feature multiple weapons, urban and jungle environments, an
innovative cover system, and customizable uniforms for you and
members of your elite squad of minion-hunting friends (multiplayer content,
including special hats, exclusively available as DLC).

I don’t want to give too much away, but I am excited about this
new direction for “Stop That Hero!” For now, I’ll leave you with this
mock-up to give you a taste of what to expect:

STH: Reloaded mock up. I had to use my niece's toy since I didn't have a gun or banana handy.

Game Development Geek / Technical Marketing/Business Personal Development

GDC Badge Pro Tips

While I won’t be going to the Game Developers Conference this year, I thought I would share some tips for making the most of your GDC 2012 badge and holder. These tips are especially important for people who will be attending their first GDC, such as some of the fantastic students I met when I spoke at the University of Iowa last Friday.

Feel free to share this post. And thanks, Ian Schreiber, for these tips when I attended my first GDC last year!