The Forgotten Planet

Got empoyed to program a game for Android!

2012-01-26T19:55:00.000-08:00

Hi Guys!

Yesterday I got employed to program a game for Android. This means that The Forgotten Planet will move forward at a slower pace during the upcoming months.

So if you don't see updates as frequent as before, you know why.

Until next blogpost

SolarStrings

Bug Fixing is going good!

2012-01-22T08:06:00.000-08:00

Hi Guys and Ladies (if any lady happens to follow my blog that is ^^)

This month has been great code wise so far! There is no Youtube Video this time either, since all work has been "under the hood", fixing, rewriting and tweaking things.

Network Code Re-Design.... Again!

I decided to re-design the network code for......... the 3rd time! I really haven't coded much network stuff before starting with this game. I did some small simple upd & TCP/IP tests, but nothing near of how to handle enemies, player positions and all the other nice stuff in an efficient way & make sure it runs smoothly enough over the net without to much latency.

So why did I decide rewrite the network code again? Simply because I noticed that some of the bugs I had could only be solved by making a more efficient way to construct and handle the network packages.

To make a long story short, 2player co-op network is running smoothly now. I'm only about 50% done, since I'm converting the old network code to the new one. But the important thing is: It runs faster, much more stable & It's now a lot easier for me to add or change the package structure.

Immediately when the first pieces of the new network code was in place, a couple of bugs just solved themselves right away, as I had expected.

Converting the rest code will take a couple of more days (doing this in-between work, family, training & friends).

New Art

My graphics artist completed the first "crawler" enemy this week, which I have not had the time to put in-game yet, since fixing bugs is 1st priority this month.

To sum things up: Things are moving steady towards Tech Demo 2, so in a couple of months you'll be able to try it out yourself!

Until next blogpost

SolarStrings

Bug fixing month!

2012-01-08T00:24:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!
Today, there's no nice youtube video for you, just informing you of what I'm up to.

This month is dedicated to fixing bugs and tweaking things to behave as I want to. There has been a couple of bugs lying around for to long, which needs fixing before the release of Tech Demo 2. I've managed to get rid of the most "nasty" ones I had, which is good, but there are still more in the "soup" which needs extermination.

The first boss AI is coming around nicely as well, there are only a few things to tweak then I'm satisfied. I'll be "hiding" him from you until you encounter him in Tech Demo 2 :).

My Graphics Artist is working on finishing the last enemies and the background for Tech Demo 2.

So to sum it up, here's what's left before release:

Menu Redesign
15+ rooms to explore
Sound effects for the main character & the enemies
Eliminate the last bugs
First Boss Graphics

Until Next Blogpost
SolarStrings

New Water Movement!

2011-12-15T07:25:00.000-08:00

Hello Again!

I've just finished the new water movement for the game. The previous one was adapted to the old frame based code, and is now rewritten and working properly again.

I've played around a little with the network code as well, and changed a few things around and fixed so that the player and enemies can have up to 100 (0-99) different states instead of 10 (0-9). My Graphics Artist is creating great animations, and some of them had actions I had not thought of, which lead to adding more states for the enemies and the player.

And the real reason you stepped by, the YouTube video:

Until next blogpost!

SolarStrings

Favorite Tiles & Far View scrolling implemented!

2011-12-13T09:38:00.000-08:00

Hello!

There has not been much progress in a couple of weeks, but now I'm back on track and have made some progress on different parts of the game.

First of all I added the "Far View" option to the parallax background scrolling, which means: Enable Far View, and all the backgrounds scroll slower. A friend of mine noticed that the backgrounds were scrolling to fast, compared to what they displayed, so I added this Feature to the Level Editor, and the Game.

Secondly, I added favorite tiles to the Level Editor as well. By right clicking on a tile in the "tile page" screen, the tile is added to the favorite list, which is accessible by clicking on the "favorite tiles" button in the main view. This speeds up level creation a bit.

You see the favorite tile box on the right side in the image below.

Until next blogpost!

SolarStrings

New Enemy Graphics!

2011-11-27T20:32:00.000-08:00

Hello!

This weekend I hosted DreamCode Winter 2011, where 11 inde game developers got together and we had tons of fun coding and showing our games to each other.

During this weekend I finished the Sound FX section in the world builder and also put some new graphics into the game. I have not received all animations for the enemies, but that will come soon :).

If you wonder why there's no "flashy" damage showing off on the main character, it's because there is no "take-damage" animation for the main player yet, so you'll see him aiming his gun in some direction instead

And the reason why you really stopped by, the youtube video:

Until next post!

SolarStrings

New Character + Multiplayer test

2011-11-10T11:30:00.000-08:00

Hello!

I was thinking about waiting until I had all the main character animations in place until making a new blogpost, but thought... It can't hurt to show him off a bit earlier.
There is two animations coming in soon: spin jump & running animation without shooting.

I'm currently working on fixing the the main character & other stuff running as it should in multiplayer. I have a few things to add, and also a couple of things to add timers to. Since switching from frame-based rendering to time-based rendering, I still have not tied up all the loose ends. But, what matters is that the project is going forward, and more things are being added and fixed with time!

One example of a loose end for example is that the enemy death animation is not displayed when the other player killed it. This is old network code not sending the right state. However, these things are quickly fixed!

And the real reason why you came here: The YouTube Video:

Until Next Post!

SolarStrings

Memory Leak fixes & Tech Demo 2 info

2011-10-20T07:59:00.000-07:00

Hi!

I've been coding on many different things for the game these last days, and while I'm testing different stuff I sometimes forget that things get "messy" and that memory leaks appear because of forgetting to free up allocated memory that no longer is in use. Anyway, to get to bottom of things I had to do some code cleanup, and then found the nasty little buggers that was crawling around the system every frame, allocating more memory.

I took me about an hour to get things sorted out and up and running without leaking memory.

I'm now working on adding "Unit/Entity Sound" for the world builder, so that my sound/musician, Josef Falkensköld, easily can add sounds to enemies/objects and other stuff in the game.

Adding sounds to units/entities will be very easy. First he selects which unit/entity to add sound to, then click the "SoundFX" button to bring up the interface for adding sounds. On the top there will be a row with buttons with sound descriptions on them: "Attack, die, jump, move" etc. He then clicks on one of them and a directory listing will come up where he can browse for the sound he wants to use, click on it, and "wham", that sound is rigged. The sound effect he rigged, will play when that action triggers in the game.

When clicking on one of the sound buttons in the editor, for example attack, the assigned sound for attack will be played. The name of the selected sound will also be displayed on screen.

Tech Demo 2:

It takes time to write your own game editor / engine and get all things working as you want. The engine & editor has come a long way, and I'm now thinking about releasing "Tech Demo 2" in the near future. I'm not going to put up any date of when it will be released, but by following the blog, you can tell when it draws near.

The following will be included in Tech Demo 2:

2 Player CO-OP, using the new working networkcode
Main character graphics
New main menu look
Enemy graphics (Crawler, Stomper, Floater, Creep)
Beautiful parallax scrolling background of the surface area
15+ rooms to explore.
The first boss
The first "Surface Music" track by Falkensköld
Sound effects for the main character, enemies and other elements in the tech demo - by Falkensköld

Here's a preview of what the main character will look like!

Until next blogpost!

SolarStrings

Passage Blocker!

2011-10-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

Hello again!

Today I decided to code the "passage blocker" that hinders the player from going back from a boss fight. It can also be used to block the player and push him to find a new way around in the game world.

The passage blocker can be triggered to self-destruct, once a boss on the same map is killed.

And the reason you really stopped by, the Youtube video:

Still lots of placeholder graphics, real graphics will come later.

See you next post!

SolarStrings

Prallax Scrolling Backgrounds!

2011-10-10T20:07:00.000-07:00

Hello again!

My graphic artist asked me if we were going to have parallax scrolling backgrounds in the game. This was before I made the 3.5 times speed increase of the game. Back then I thought: Let's try. But after the speed increase of the game engine, this became mandatory for me.

So after some good work in early mornings, in-between family quality time, and work I managed to put together the Parallax scrolling in two days!

The backgrounds are of course placeholder stuff until my graphic artist sends me the finished stuff!

And the real reason you came by: The YouTube Video

Until next post!

SolarStrings

Huge Performance Increase!

2011-10-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

Hi!

I noticed this morning that I had not set the "SDL_RLEACCEL" flag on the background surface. This stands for "run length encoding acceleration", and usually gives a good performance increase. However, in this case it was a HUGE difference.

Before the fix, the game was running in about 134-137 frames/second (on my computer). Now it runs with 475-520 frames / second, depending on how many tiles that has to be drawn on screen. More graphics on screen = less fps, naturally.

The game speed gained is about 3.5 - 3.7 faster!! Not bad at all :)

So remember to go over old code you've written sometimes and make sure things have been set up properly.

For the SDL interested ones, this is how you set it up:
SDL_SetAlpha(Your_SDL_Surface_Here,SDL_SRCALPHA|SDL_RLEACCEL,255);

Until next post!

SolarStrings

Frame Based Rendering -> Time Based Rendering

2011-10-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

Hello!

I decided to take a break from the AI coding and focus on one of the things that has been on my TODO list for some time: Change the game from frame based rendering to time based rendering.

What is frame based rendering?

Frame based rendering works in the following way:

First you lock the game to how many frames / second it shall run in, say 60 FPS.
Then you let X number of frames pass before you do something.
This will limit to game to not run any faster than 60 frames / second, and some older computers might not be able to handle the game.

What is time based rendering?

You set timers for everything that needs updating. For example: Move enemy, Input from the user for moving the player, update gravity on objects etc.

The game is no longer needed to run at a locked speed (60 FPS). The game will run with as fast as you computer can handle. On todays computers the game will run in around 90-150 frames / sec.

Since everything is time based, things will run at the same speed even down to 30 frames / sec, and still look fluent on older PC's.

Progress:

I'm now 99% done with the conversion to Time Based Rendering, I only have some minor things to tweak (set the right millisecond delay on things) and I'm done.

See you next post!

SolarStrings

Stomper AI

2011-09-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

Hello!

I've done some more AI coding, and finished the "Stomper AI" this morning.
This is the 7th AI I coded for the game. I'm thinking about having 10-15 AI, so only a couple of more to go :)

And, what you really came here for: the YouTube video:

As you clearly can see, the enemy is placeholder, the real graphics will come later. This is only to show you what the different AI patterns look like.

Until next post!

SolarStrings

New AI: Suicide Floater

2011-09-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

Hi Guys, and Ladies!

OK!, I'm back with a new enemy AI, the "Suicide Floater".

If the player comes close to the floater, it homes in on the player and attacks.
In the video, I've slowed down the enemy so you better can see what happens. You also get a view of the "Spiked balls" that uses an old AI that i wrote called "jump n run".

Here's the youtube video:

Notice :Most of the enemies are placeholders drawn real quick by me to have something to test with. The graphics will be replaced later. This is only to show you the different AI patterns that will be used in game.
Until next blogpost

SolarStrings

Lurker AI

2011-09-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

As you've probably noticed, I'm writing the different enemy AI for the game. I started with what I thought would the hardest one to implement: "the crawler", and now I'm creating the other "easier" ones.

This morning I finished the "Lurker" AI. The ememy lies in wait for its prey, and once it walks under it, it strikes, falling down upon its victim.

As you can see, the graphics is placeholder and non-animated. I simply drew a quick sprite in GIMP and threw it in. The real graphics will come later. This video is only showing how the enemy AI works.

Here's the youtube video:

And, now it's time to go to work!

Until next blogpost!

SolarStrings

New Enemy AI System

2011-09-22T08:45:00.000-07:00

Hi!

I've coded away in-between all things going on (flu, work & daily family life), and I've now completed my new enemy AI system. The new system allows me to switch AI on enemies. This will greatly remove lots of extra coding for bosses, I will simply switch AI and let them do something else.

Also, I completed the 4th AI for the game now: The Crawler, which follows walls.

Here's the YouTube video to quench your thirst for more updates on this game

Until Next blogpost!

SolarStrings

Sprite Rotater Program!

2011-08-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

Hi Guys!

I was working on sprite rotations for the game, and thought: Let's see if there's something interesting on the internet.

I found an interesting program written by XenoWhirl called "RotSprite".
It produced the best rotated images I've seen so far. The only problem was: No Source Code!

He did describe a little of how the algorithm works:

http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=8848&st=15&p=159754&#entry159754

To most of us, "the more detailed version" is a lot of "mumbo-jumbo" (Lots of extra calculations and math and.... stuff) so I decided to try a more simple aproach to it and see what results I could produce.

And Lo And Behold! I came up with something very similar with good results:

YouTube Video:

As you all know! "Sharing is Caring!" Therefore I'm now releasing the Source Code & the Binaries for Linux & Windows of this algorithm and the program!

Updates will come with time, but for now you can give it a go!

You can download The sprite rotater with binary + Source on the menu to the right.

Until next blogpost!

SolarStrings

New Sprite / Entity Importer!

2011-08-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Recently I've been working on the tool to create sprites within the Map Editor (will be renamed to world creator soon), and today I'm releasing a video showing you what it can do.

I have been clumsy naming the stuff "Unit", instead off "Entity", but done is done, and can be changed ;).

Earlier I had the sprites hard-coded for the game and had to write lots of lines of code just to add a new entity to the game (object, enemy etc). I decided to change this and wrote the Entity Importer. Now it only takes a few minutes to import a new entity to the game, set its properties, create its animations and place it in the game world.

And the reason you really stopped by: The YouTube Video:

Until next post!

SolarStrings

New Tile Animation System!

2011-07-20T00:33:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Early on in the development I hardcoded a few tile animations, meaning that if I want to add one more, I had to do it in code, which would take 5-10 minutes / animation.

I therefore decided to create a tile animation system that was integrated with the map editor for the game.

The only limitation with the new system is that the tile animations have to be in one row in the .png image, but that's not really a problem.

The system can load in tiles that are stored with grid, or without grid in the .png file.

Here's the YouTube Video:

Until next blogpost!

SolarStrings

Item & Energy drops from enemies working!

2011-07-15T22:54:00.000-07:00

Hello again!

This morning I finished the "Enemy Drop" system. When the player shoots an enemy it can drop either energy or an item.

Not really much more to say ^^.

And the YouTube Video:

Until next post!

SolarStrings

Next Probe Feature Completed: Probe Drill

2011-07-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

New Probe Feature: Probe Drill

Today I completed the next probe feature: Probe Drill. Well.... almost at least ;), got to throw in materials to "mine" for as well. The probe drill mode will be used to mine materials (will be visible on walls) and to find hidden passages and secrets like i show in the YouTube video.

As you can see in the video, a new tile set is in the making. I will receive more tiles from the pixel artist I hired this week, so the videos will look better and better with each post ^^.

Next up is adding: Enemy drop & materials to drill for in the walls. (might add a few more things as well.)

And, the reason you really came by (as usual), the YouTube Video:

(note: The drilling has been modified after this movie was made, it now behaves more like a drill, and has a "resistance" feeling when drilling through the blocks, instead of cutting right through them).

Until Next post....

SolarStrings

New Probe Feature: Projectile

2011-06-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

Hello again!

I'm now focusing more on the forgotten planet and getting lots of things done.

The probe mode: "Protection", has been updated and the probe now rotates around the player in this mode, following the player.

I also coded the first Feature for the protection mode which is :Projectile.

The probe fires when the player fires.

Next up will be to program the next probe feature.

And the reason you really came here.... The youtube video:

Until next post!

SolarStrings

Pixel Artist Hired!

2011-06-25T04:43:00.000-07:00

Hello!

I have hired a pixel artist that will do tiles and enemies for the game!

You can check out some of his art here: Artist Portfolio

We are aiming to create graphics with similar quality to Metroid Fusion / Zero Mission.

Until next post!

SolarStrings

The Forgotten Planet - New Network Code!

2011-06-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

New Network Code!

Hello everyone!

Sorry for not posting in a looong time. I've been busy with life: Family, Job, Friends and tons of fun stuff IRL.

The old network code was buggy and did not work properly so I decided to rewrite the whole thing. After cleaning up most of the code and changing how I did things It started to work In Linux! But! As usual... windows didn't like my network code... so I had to rewrite some stuff again! Took me a while and the result is slower loading between rooms for players, but at least now it works!
Players won't be to sad waiting about 3-4 sec while the room and unit data is sent from the other player when entering his room.

I also managed to speed up the enemy data between players, so enemy movement is much more smooth now.

And the reason you really came by:

The Youtube Video

Until Next Post!

SolarStrings

Gameplay up and running on the Android "mini-game" we're making.

2011-04-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

Hello again!

Today I have gameplay up and running on our mini-game for Android (I want to give spoilers, but you'll have to wait until we release it soon(TM) ). There are a few more things to add to perfect the gameplay, but nevertheless, it's playable!

Next up after that is writing the highscore table and fix the "name input" for it.

And after that it's Alpha/Beta testing (should not take long) and we'll put it out on Android Market.

SolarStrings

SDL Android Port Configure Menu removal when app starts.

2011-04-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

Hello again!

While working on the game for Android I realized that the config menu that pops up when you boot the application is annoying since the user have to scroll down on the menu and press the "ok" button in order to get in-game.

I went in to the java code and disabled it.

Here's how you can do it too:

How to disable the startup config menu:

1. Open up MainActivity.java

Find these two lines and comment them just like I've done here

        //_layout2.addView(_btn);

        //_layout.addView(_layout2);

Save & close file.

2. Open up Settings.java

Insert these two lines above the builder.setSingleChoiceItems section.

        Save(p);
        p.startDownloader();

Now comment the whole builder section:

/*builder.setSingleChoiceItems(items.toArray(new CharSequence[0]), MainMenuLastSelected, new DialogInterface.OnClickListener()
.
.
.
.

    if( item == selected )
    {
        Save(p);
        p.startDownloader();
    }
}
});*/

Find the "alert.show();" line just under the builderSingeChoiceItems section and comment it:

//alert.show();

Save and close file.

3. (Optional) Open up globals.java and hardcode the values you want for the device like:

public static boolean AppUsesMouse = true; //false;

etc.

Also remember that you can set these values in your AndroidAppSettings.cfg file.

I hardcoded the values too to be on the safe side, in case I forgot to add a value in the .cfg file.

Now your ready to build and run your application without the config menu.

Until next post!

SolarStrings

Working on speeding up things on the Android.

2011-02-25T05:54:00.000-08:00

Hello again!

Programming for the Android is really fun and a challenge!

At the moment we, (me and 2 other nice swedish guys) are making a mini game where I explore how I can get the best performance on Android 2.2. The game will be released on the android market once completed. (No spoilers available!).

For starters I have managed to get 160 objects moving on the screen and have between 40-45 fps. I will continue to explore how to speed things up.

Until next post!

The Forgotten Planet Running on Android 2.2!

2011-02-10T11:38:00.000-08:00

Hi Guys.

Today I managed to build The Forgotten Planet for Android 2.2.
All network code was removed in order to get the game up and running.

The first step has been made: The game runs, but very slow! The code is far from optimized for the android platform and I will now experiment and look for different solutions how I can get the game up to speed.

I'm having like 2-3 FPS in-game in this video:

Until next blog!

SolarStrings

SDL 1.2 Running on my Android 2.2 Phone!

2011-02-07T07:16:00.000-08:00

Hi Guys!

Lately I've discovered that you can run SDL games on your android phone!
So guess what I've been up to?....

Yes, you're right!, I've been trying to get SDL running on my Android phone, and today I finally got it working!

Porting The Forgotten Planet to the android phone will soon start, but there will only be single player on the phone, since SDL_net has not yet been ported to Android (as far as I know).

Here is a video of the first successful SDL compilation I've done for the android:

Many thanks to: Pelya who has ported SDL 1.2 & SDL 1.3 to Android.

Click -> Link to Peleya's SDL port

Until Next blog post

SolarStrings

Tech Demo Release!

2011-01-27T08:19:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

Here's what you've been waiting for! The first "The Forgotten Planet Tech Demo".

I've been working on solving a stupid bug that only happens on the windows client (As usual windows sucks, and Linux rules when it comes to handling stuff you've coded). But since I've promised to relase a tech demo last week, and we're past that already, I've decided to relase the tech demo with the bug anyway.

The bug occurs when: Host walks in to the clients room for the third time in a row. BOOM, client dies. Anyhow you can still try out the four rooms, probe bombing and jumping on the probe in hover platform mode.

See if you can exploit the probe and fly on it! (Yes it's possible, but collisions are not proper then and you might fall outside the map :P. I left it in there for fun. (It's still something I'm working on which will be in-game later on).

Download Here: The Forgotten Planet Tech Demo

Both linux & windows executables are inside. You can also run the game with wine in linux (in case you don't know how to set up things).

I will now start to clean up and rewrite the network code to make sure this kind of problem won't occur again (as easily)

Until next blogpost!

SolarStrings

Building the 4 Tech Demo rooms, then release!

2011-01-14T22:32:00.000-08:00

Hi again!

Good news!

The ugly cockroach that was creeping around in the system has been exterminated!

Next up is designing the 4 Tech Demo rooms and do some extra bug testing to make sure things are ok. My good friend "valpskott" is going to design 2 of the rooms, and I'll be doing the other two.

The Tech Demo should be out sometime next week!

Until Next Blogpost with the Tech Demo Release!

SolarStrings

Fixing the last (known) bugs before release!

2011-01-13T09:04:00.000-08:00

Hi again!

Just wanted to give you a small update and tell you that the last bugs are being squashed at the moment. There is one little tricky cockroach running around in the code and I think I've found him. I'm currently exterminating him with some debugging and should be ready to release the Tech Demo soon(TM)!

Until next blogpost!

SolarStrings

Still working on it!

2011-01-04T09:29:00.000-08:00

Hello again!

Sorry for yet another delay, I've been busy working and just happened to try out a new game (tip for game developers: Never do that!!) so as you might have figured out, i've been a little distracted lately.

Anyway,things have not been standing still. I fixed a few bugs both in the game engine and the Map Editor.

I'm now going to add a new feature to the map builder: "Room number." I'm changing the approach I have on sending room data between the players, and figured I wanted compare room numbers instead of a text string with the name of the map. This will also solve another bug i'm having in the code.

Enough talking, back to coding!

SolarStrings

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

2010-12-23T00:16:00.000-08:00

Hi!

First of all! Merry Christmas to you all!

At the moment I'm at my wife's parents place to celebrate x.-mas. I'm about 400 km from my puter, so there will be no coding for about 4 days. I'm hoping to get the Tech Demo completed before new year, but it all depends on how many bugs I have to take care of.

The last things to do before the first Tech Demo is complete:

If host enteres client's room: 1. Ask for all changes made on the map and receive them. 2. Receive all the enemy data. 3. Take over the controll of the enemies.
If host or client leaves the room: Client takes over the control of the enemies and both client and host stop sending in-game data.
If client enters host's room: ask for all changes made on the map, and receive all the enemy data.
Fix a few flags that are not reset when client leaves the game and reconnects. (Minor bug)
Create the 4 Tech Demo rooms.
Add a customize keyboard button for the in-game menu.
Look for bugs and fix them.

Until next blogpost.

SolarStrings

TechDemo Teaser video!

2010-12-17T08:04:00.000-08:00

Hi!

Here you have the first teaser video of the tech demo!

Here I'm playing with "Valpskott", a good friend of mine.
All Music in the video is composed by: Josef Falkensköld (www.falconshield.com)

There is still a couple of bugs here and there to sort out so you have to wait some more before I release it. This is the first video with only my screen, I will post one more later on with both screens side by side.

Until next blogpost

SolarStrings

Working on the first tech-demo release!

2010-12-07T10:52:00.000-08:00

Tech Demo in the making!

Hello again!

I've started working on the first tech demo release for you! You've waited long enough to get your hands on playing some of the stuff you see!

The tech demo will include the following:

4 rooms to walk around in and explore
Try out the two programmed probe abilities (bombs and hover platform)
2 player co-op - Play with your best friend over Internet or LAN
Play with Gamepad or keyboard
Some enemies to shoot!

In this coming tech demo release the probe abilities is unlocked, but in the next tech demo you will have to find the right enemies and hope for a "tech-drop" from them in order to research and build the different probe abilities. Enemies will also drop materials which you need in order to build the new ability you researched.

This is just a "teaser" post for you so you know what's coming soon.

I have some network programming to do, handling players in different rooms and lots of testing too, so it could take up to 1-2 weeks before I release the tech demo so stay tuned! (I'll probably post another in-between thingy reporting how things go).

Until next blogpost!

SolarStrings

Next Probe Ability: Hover Platform

2010-11-27T21:56:00.000-08:00

Hello again!

These last days have been filled with more packing and cleaning of the apartment + work and family so there has not been much time left for coding, but I still managed to squeeze in a few hours here and there on the project resulting in todays blogpost.

The Hover Platform

The hover platform is the next ability for the probe's explore mode. It is used in order to reach places where you could not jump up before. At first I made it possible to fly around while standing on the probe, but I soon realized: When the player research and build the hover platform, they will be able to reach everything in the game, and thus removing a lot of puzzle ability to the game. So in sake of making things challenging for the player I decided to remove the flying mode.

Here's the youtube video showing of the hover platform:

Until next post!

SolarStrings

Secret Revealed!

2010-11-18T05:01:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

First of all, sorry that I have not posted in a while. At the moment we're packing down our apartment and moving to a new larger one, so most of my time has been going into packing down stuff into boxes. Also I've been working as usual and taking care of my family. With that said, let's move on to why you're really here ;).

Today I'm revealing some of the "secret" stuff I've been working on. However I will only reveal that which I have programmed, so you have to wait for the next blog where I will unlock the next feature of: "The Probe".

The Probe.

We did not want to do a Metroid copy with the "morhpball" thing, so we used our innovative brains/skills and came up with what we call. "The Probe".

The Probe is a small flying object that the player can have either in Protect mode, or Explore mode.

Explore Mode

In explore mode the player can control the probe and fly around with it to scout the surroundings. In this mode the probe can do a lot of different things, but I'm only revealing one of those aspects today: Lay bombs.

Protect Mode

In this mode the probe rotates around the player and act as a small shield (32x32 pixels) and will absorb the projectiles it collides with. This mode also have some nice extra features which will be uncovered later.

Youtube Video

As you can see (in the video), the map is still W.I.P, so forgive me for being lazy with the map creation :P.

Until next post!

Mapbuilder Update!

2010-11-08T01:20:00.000-08:00

Hello again!

For starters: This is not the "secret" stuff we're working on, this is just a mapbuilder update ;).

Changes in the editor:

Resolution is now 1024x704 pixels (704 because it has to fit on my friends laptop screen :P)
New "shiny" interface (thanks to: Valpskott)
Minimap
Export Png
Select tile color for minimap

Here's the video:

Until next blog!

SolarStrings

Take in-game screenshots and export map as png!

2010-11-05T04:43:00.000-07:00

Hello again!

At the moment I'm working on the "secret" stuff that will be released later on, but before that time comes I need to "feed" you with some kind of update so you know the game is progressing forward.

For starters I've smashed some bugs and fixed a few things:

New collision code for the player to the world is completed
The enemy AI bug is fixed (the shellbiter had a problem)
Added .png export support

As the topic says, it is now possible to take screenshots and export the whole map in the map editor as a .png.

Here's the temporary map you've seen in all the videos:

Now I need to get back and finish the p...... ehrm.... code :D

Until next post!

SolarStrings

crouching!

2010-11-01T07:23:00.000-07:00

Hello again!

This past weekend was great! I solved many things in the code and added some features, one of them being: crouching.
Also a good friend of mine is helping me with feedback with game ideas for the game. This weekend we had a "breakthrough" with a unique feature for the game. We were discussing the famous "morphball" thingy and..... the rest is secret until revealed in a youtube video :P.

As most of you probably already have figured out, this game is inspired by metroid, however we're making our own game with its own "feel" and special "touch" and we hope that you'll like the "flavor" of it when the first tech demo is released. There is so many things I want to tell you right away here and now!. But... I'm restraining myself and will only release bits and pieces here as the development goes forward.

Enough of my "rabbling"... Here's teh U-tubee widdzeo:

Until next time you visit here ;)

SolarStrings

Walking between maps & Background scroll fix!

2010-10-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

Hey again!

This last week I've had less time to work on the game, however some progress has been made!

What's new:

Fixed the background scrolling
Fixed the portal bug
Reduced the character collision size against the world
Jumping/Falling down into a new map works properly now

What's next up on the Bug / Features list?

New collision code for the player to the world (some additions to the one I have at the moment)
Fixing an enemy AI bug
Crouching! We want to be able to sit down and shoot tiles / enemies
Bombs! Blow away certain blocks
Stuff.....
Some more stuff after that
A new video and blog entry here!

Previous post did not have a youtube video, however this one do!

Until next post!

SolarStrings

Killing Bugs & correcting things!

2010-10-22T01:11:00.000-07:00

If you're wondering why there has been no videos lately it's because I'm fixing bugs in the code and correcting features.

So far these bugs have been adressed:

When shooting a projectile outside of the screen it was killed instantly. So if you jumped up (outside the screen) and tried to fire down the shot was killed. The fix was simple: Change the boundaries for the shots to die 150 pixels outside of the screen.
Sprite's now have a "x_correction_right" and "x_correction_left" that makes their bounding box less wide, which results in world collisions being more realistic. This was a bit trickier to get working properly due to some faults in the already written code. It sure is good to go through things again and correct them mistakes you have made earlier.

Currently I'm working on fixing the following bugs:

Proper 8-way background scrolling. It's 95% good now, but if the player jumps on the same place and collides with a "roof" the background slowly moves down. This is more of a "correction" thing than a bug.
Fix the portal bug. Portals are places the the edges of the map so if a player walks on one it activates. When the player then leaves the screen the new map is loaded. However if you leave the screen somewhere else it will load the last portal map that you walked on.
Co-op player animation is not slowed down if he/she walks in water
There is no yes/no question in the Map editor if you want to overwrite a map. I've clicked wrong a few times so it's time to add one!

Until next post!

SolarStrings

New musican has joined!

2010-10-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Today we welcome a new member to the "The Forgotten Planet" team! Have you noticed the new menu music in the last video? The new menu track is made by Josef Falkensköld ( http://falconshield.com )

Each new piece of music that I listen to from him is like opening a new christmas gift! Personally I love the music he makes!

Today Josef's homepage is added to the "Recommended links" section!

Back to coding!

SolarStrings

Menu Options Complete!

2010-10-16T00:26:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Today I finished the menu options for the game. The only thing left was the Gamepad Settins.

Changes:

I added a "Default Settings" button to the Gamepad and keyboard settings.

Removed the Master volume meter in the Audio settings as I told you I would in the earlier post.

Next up is to start adressing some bugs I have on my TODO list.

I don't change the video resolution in this video since you've seen it before. Here's the Youtube video:

Have a good one!

Until next post!

SolarStrings

Audio and Keyboard Settings!

2010-10-12T12:15:00.000-07:00

Hello!

It's been a couple of days since I posted anything. I have been busy working, taking care of our lovely daughter (4 months) visiting friends, playing keyboard / piano and other fun stuff so coding on the game have not been priority number one lately. But! I've still been working on it! ^^

Today I finished the customize keyboard settings, and earlier on I fixed the Audio settings. The Audio settings is not complete since SDL_Mixer separates the Music Volume and Chunk volumes so the master volume only applies to the sound effects, so I'll probably remove the Master Volume meter and only have 3 sliders for Music, Sound Volume and Voice Volume.

Anyways, you did not come here to just read all of these lines... you want that "goot lookingk" Youtube video aswell! The first 15 seconds you get to listen to the "nice?" soundtrack, then I move into the menus.

Until next post!

SolarStrings

Video Settings Complete!

2010-10-05T11:27:00.000-07:00

Hello again!

Today I finished the video settings. I've been busy working and spending time with friends and family so things have been moving slower than usual.

I have some good news for you, the game window can be resized so you're able to play the game in any size you want. However if the computer is old the game might be unplayable with a scaled window. The scaler is using the CPU to scale the graphics so if the game runs slow on a machine 640x480 Fullscreen mode is the best. (It's always the best!)

Anyways, here' the latest Youtube Video for you!

Until next post!

SolarStrings

Video Resolutions!

2010-10-02T05:16:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Today I started working on the Options settings for the game.

First up on the list is the the video settings. The first thing I had to try was running the game in FULL HD (1920x1080 pixels) and it's working good! (at least on my quad core 2.4 GHZ puter with a RADEON HD 4850 under linux).

The higher resolutions will only be available in windowed mode since there is no reason to run the game in fullscreen mode with stretched pixels. Stretching the screen costs performance so if the game demo (when released) runs slow on your computer switch back to 640x480 which is the native resolution.

Now! Before you complain: I'm saying wrong in the video "1900x1200 pixels" which should have been 1920x1080. Ok, continue reading now!

And the reason you really came here for: The youtube video!

As I say in the video: Until next blog!

SolarStrings

Counter Reset

2010-09-29T03:39:00.000-07:00

Just found out the visitor counter was increasing on page reloads which is cheating. I created a new counter and set it back to 1000 to compensate for the wrong counter hits.

The counter is only increased by a unique visit (6 hours must have passed since the last visit). My IP is also blocked from recording visits on the page.

Back to coding!

SolarStrings

New Multiplayer Lobby!

2010-09-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

Hello!

These last days I've been working on the network lobby, making it more simple for players to connect. I also fixed a few bugs that were lingering here and there.

The interesting part is that I've coded all the stuff in linux so now I have to reboot into windows and compile the game and make sure that there are no windows-specific bugs. If there are I have to smash them as well ;)

Here's the youtube video with the new Multiplayer Lobby and some multiplayer footage of the destructible tiles.

Until next post!

SolarStrings

Destructible Tiles

2010-09-23T22:57:00.000-07:00

Hello!

I'm back again, this time I don't have so much new "visual" stuff since I've been working on fixing bugs in the code. But!... I do have a little video of destructible tiles. Nothing fancy but it's needed in order to create secret passages and fun stuff like that.

Things that have been fixed:

Player jump is controlled to how long you hold the jump button down.
Projectiles that was sent over LAN/Internet did not get the right widht & height which displaced the impact positions.
Sometimes the projectile collision tile test returned an invalid tile resulting in segmention fault.
Host sends enemy data more often and less interpolation is used. This is acceptable for a 2player co-op game, but nor for a multiplayer online game.

And finally, what you really came here for:

Destructable tiles works over LAN / Internet play as well.

See you next post

SolarStrings

2-player co-op getting closer!

2010-09-18T03:04:00.000-07:00

Hello!

These last days I've not had much time to code, but I have been able to squeeze in about 30-40 minutes every morning and about 1-2 hours later during the day.

Today I have a little YouTube video for you showing the early stages of the multiplayer action. This time I'm playing on the same screen in linux. When things work more smoothly I'll record a new video when I'm playing with one of my friends.

What works so far:

The Host sends frequent data of the enemies position, direction, state and life. In between the client interpolates and moves the enemies according to the state that was received.
Both Client and Host send the players position, direction and state very frequent so that there is no LAG. The package is 15 bytes, which means that if we sent the package 30 times / sec it would only be 450 bytes. (1 kb = 1024 bytes), so there is practically no bandwidth taken even if we wanted to send the package 60 times / sec (900 bytes)
If Client or Host presses the shoot button, a small package (14 bytes) is sent with the start x,y position, direction and identity (fireball, iceshot etc) of the shot. When the package is received the shot is activated and handled locally.
Whenever the Client attacks an enemy, a small package is sent to Host with the enemies life and state.

There is still a lot of tweaking to do to optimize the network data.

There is also some "bugs" left to take care of. As you could see in the movie I have not yet fixed the "damaged state" on the player. It is not canceled until you move the character.

And here you have the YouTube Video: (Watch in FULL HD)

See you next post!

Progress on the Multiplayer code!

2010-09-14T11:51:00.000-07:00

Hi!

I'm back again with a small update for you. Today is only text, but in stead of a long "no-news" break with no info at all I'm giving you some "in-the-middle-info".
In other words.... No YouTube video for you toda, but soon there should be one with 2-players running around on the screen shooting things together

I have bug tested the connection code a lot with some friends, and I'm just about done with that part. Today I started working on the player data package sending / receiving, and it works as it should. As of now I have a nice debug string on the screen displaying The Team player's:

X & y position
State
Direction

What's left now is:

an "entity-package" that sends all entities x,y position, direction and state. In between the packages the client will interpolate the position of the entities so things will look about 95-100% the same on both screens. (The Host computer sends this data)
a projectile package that send the projectiles x,y position and direction
applying the packages data to graphics on the screen
probably fix some "unexpected" things that will "pop" up during coding.

I'm planning to have coded this within the week and will then throw you a youtube video.

Once Björn is ready with the "basic" character design I'll release a little "Tech-Demo". Nothing fancy just running around shooting some stuff together, walking around in some rooms... Don't ask for a date for this, it will be ready when it's ready. Until then: continue to watch the YouTube videos and follow the game creation process.

See you next post!

SolarStrings

Fist in-game chat over Internet!

2010-09-09T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hello!

I've been busy these last days with a lot of wonderful friends which have visited or been visited by us.

The last days I've been working a bit here and there on the 2-Player co-op code and today I show you the first in-game chat ever in the multiplayer "lobby".

Today I recorded the game in windows with CamStudio 2.00. In Ubuntu linux I use gtkrecordmydesktop to record the screen.

When you click multiplayer, you get to select if you want to host or join a game. If you want to host, you only have to type in the port number you want to listen to. This is the best way since many have a port forwarded in their router that they can use and this way you don't have to forward a new one! If you select join game you have to type in the IP adress you want to connect to, and then the port number.

As usual I have a YouTube video for you. Here you see my good friend Simon from the northern part of Sweden connecting to me and we have the first ever in-game chat in The Forgotten Planet Multiplayer "lobby".

Click to watch: The Lost Planet - Chat over Internet.

Until next post!

SolarStrings

New Tiles (W.I.P)

2010-09-06T04:38:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Today I received the first tiles from Bobwax. Immediately I threw them into the Map builder and re-designed the level you've seen before in the other videos. The tiles are still work in progress so everything is not fitting together to 100%, and there are still many more tiles to come.

Today I will focus some more on the multiplayer part of the game. The Demo that will be released (Within a month or two) will have 2-player co-op so you and your friend can play over LAN / Internet.

As usual I made a youtube video for you to watch. In this video you also see the "hit" effect on the enemies which I was talking about in the last post.

At the moment I'm not recording the music & sound in the videos, this is because I don't have sound effects done for the enemies and such. You will also be bored with the same soundtrack playing over and over and over again in all the videos.

Click here: Youtube video showing the new (w.i.p) tileset.

Until I blog again!

SolarStrings

Map Builder video!

2010-09-05T03:14:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Today I added music selection to my map builder, and fixed some minor bugs that was lurking around. In the game engine I fixed so that music will continue playing when loading a new map within the same kind of area in the game. It would be a bit annoying if the music started all over in the middle of the song when moving within a similar area.

I also decided to show you the map editor and its features.

Link to the youtube video: The Forgotten Planet - Map Builder

(For some reason the video had some extra 10 minutes of zero length, so youtube complaied about the video being to long... Anyways that's fixed now)

Until next post!

SolarStrings

Minor update.

2010-09-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

Hey again!

Today I had prety much no time to program on the game at all. But the final sprites for the ShellBiter was completed, so I added the death animation for the Shellbiter to the game.

I also changed the enemy code when being hit. The best effect is to draw the sprite completely white when the projectile hits them, and this was added today. I still have some tweaking to do but It's nothing major and will be corrected with a few short moments with the code.

Today I skip the youtube video part, since it was such a small update.

Until next post!

SolarStrings

New Enemy: The ShellBiter!

2010-08-31T12:30:00.000-07:00

I can't believe myself to day: Triple Posting!!

First some very nice news!

A very talented Pixel artist has joined the project: "Bobwax"

Please pay a visit to his homepage:http://www.bjornsilfverberg.se/

He gave me a very nice good looking animated sprite for the game, and I could not just sit back and relax. It took some time, blood sweat and tears, but now I have the critter in-game.

Process to get an enemy in-game:
1. Edit the sprite-sheet to fit my game engines format of reading in sprites fast.
2. Insert the sprite into my map editor
3. Insert the sprite into the game engine
4. Code the AI for it
5. Bugtest
6. Bugtest some more

And here I am somewhat finished with it. Will insert a delay on the attack for it tomorrow, but I wanted to get this out to you today.

Youtube video: New Enemy - ShellBiter

Until next post!

SolarStrings

TCP/IP non-blocking working now!

2010-08-31T02:06:00.000-07:00

Today Is another "double-post" day!

After a few hours of researching and trying out different things I got SDL_Net TCP/IP to work non-blocking. This means I can now hurry onward to start coding the two-player co-op experience!

Here's the first working non-blocking TCP/IP video. Only console, but proves it's working!

Click to watch: The Forgotten Planet - TCP/IP non-blocking video

SolarStrings

2-Player co-op on the way!

2010-08-30T23:07:00.000-07:00

Hello Again!

Today I have some good news for you!

That "Multiplayer" word glowing in the main menu means that The Forgotten Planet will have 2-player co-op mode. You will be able play over Internet & LAN. And to make things even more fun the co-op mode will have a completely different game world!

Earlier I used UDP for a metroid clone I was working on, and it worked prety well. But UDP is a bit "overkill" for just 2-player, so this time I've decided to try with TCP/IP instead.

As you probably have guesses by now I've started working on the networking part for the game. At the moment I'm testing if I can get TCP/IP non-blocking with SDL_net and I think I have found a solution. If I somehow against all odds fail, I'll fall back on UDP which by default is Non-Blocking in SDL_net.

Anyways back to TCP/IP coding!

See you next post!

SolarStrings

Main Menu + Music

2010-08-30T03:52:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Today I started working on the main menu of the game. Figured that glowing menu selection was cool, so I fired up my GIMP and did some Image manipulation.

Screenshot of the main menu (click image to view full-size):

And the Youtube video with the menu and its sound track:

Click for Youtube video of the Main Menu

Until next post!

SolarStrings

GamePad Support!

2010-08-27T23:51:00.000-07:00

A new day with headache and a clogged nose! - Yes I have a cold!

Today I started working on the Gamepad / Joystick support and so far I have the buttons "hard-coded". Next step will be to write the Customize Keyboard and GamePad options so the player can choose which keys / buttons he / she want to use to control our main character.

Here's a Youtube Video of me playing using my GamePad:
Click here -> Youtube video Gamepad Support

(Yes, Enemy - Player collision test is turned off atm, that's why I don't take any damage from enemies in this video.)

See you next post!

SolarStrings

Let there be sound, and there was sound!

2010-08-25T11:20:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Yesterday I added the SDL mixer library to the game project. It makes playing sounds and music very simple. In only a couple of minutes I had the first .wav file playing and another 10 minutes and music was playing from my speakers as well. Now I can start working on the various sound effects for the game.

After some googling I found out how to record the internal sound with gtkrecordmydesktop, so here's the youtube video with music and sound in-game.

Click to watch the Youtube Video:Music & Sound in-game

I must say that it feels good to get sound in-game early instead of late in the game creation process. Now I have to focus on designing sound effects for enemies, surroundings, explosions etc etc... when I throw them into the game.

Until next post!

SolarStrings

Target OS for The Forgotten Planet?

2010-08-23T07:12:00.000-07:00

2nd post for today!

Today I post twise which does not happen to often.
I'm starting to receive questions about what OS you can run The Forgotten Planet on, so I figured I would clarify a few things.

What OS can you run The Forgotten Planet on now?

At the moment The Forgotten Planet runs on both Linux & windows.
I'm thinking about porting the game to XNA (XBOX360) later, but we'll see what happens (nothing 100% decided yet).

What are you creating the game in?

I'm programming the game with C using SDL ( http://www.libsdl.org/ ) which makes it easy to compile and run the game on both windows and linux without changing one single line of code.

Next project (whenever that might be in the far distant future) will be made with OpenGL + SDL, written in C++.

SolarStrings

Rotozoomer!

2010-08-23T06:29:00.000-07:00

Hello again!

A few days ago I started playing around with rotating images, and today I got it to work properly.

Here is a Link to the youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9-UdIA3yxk

This will be used for enemies, bosses and other fun stuff that we want to rotate.

Until next post!

SolarStrings

Youtube Channel!

2010-08-20T22:20:00.000-07:00

Today I created a youtube channel for The Forgotten Planet.

Link to youtube: The Forgotten Planet on Youtube

Rough Sketch

Also, here is a rough sketch of the different areas in the game:
(Click the image if you want to see it in full-size)

See you next post!

SolarStrings

Small Update

2010-08-14T05:56:00.000-07:00

Hi Again!

I'm back with some small news, nothing fancy since I'm working "under the hood" on the game engine, fixing bugs and speeding up things. This means no nice screen-shots or videos this time.

Today I focused on fixing a bug with the collision code. Sometimes when an enemy jumped on a slope it fell through. This annoyed me so I decided to focus on the bug and after a few hours (yes a few hours, this one was hiding deep down between them lines), but I finally found the bugger and took him out with my bugxtinator.

Game documentation

I Also started documenting down the ideas I have for the different areas in game.
Here is a "sneak-peak" of a few areas in the game:

Surface

This is where the game starts. The aliens have just crash landed on the planet surface and try to use their long-space-communication equipment, and find out that it does not work due to being jammed by the planetary automated defense system.

Ancient Ruins

This is the area of the game where the player will find the remnants of the advanced civilization that once lived here and also built the planetary defense system.

Hovering Islands

Once the player has built a "mini-craft" he can use it to fly up and explore these Islands.

Crystal Caves

A dark place filled with crystals which grow out from the walls. The crystals are power sources which the player need to collect in order to repair the ship. The more crystals the player pick, the darker the area becomes since they are the only light source down there. However, with the right materials the player can build a ball of light which follows him where he goes, lighting up dark places.

This was only a small "preview" of what is to come.

See you next post

SolarStrings

New enemy & water movement.

2010-08-10T09:57:00.000-07:00

Hi!

Progress on the game is going smooth. I Talked with my pixel artist yesterday, and he showed me some progress on the alien game sprite, and I got a glimpse of the nice alien gun which will fire them nice "projectiles of death" (Skype video chat).

Art!

Here is a w.i.p sprite of one of the two aliens that crash lands which you will be able to play.

I have started to make friends with a nice guy that will move to the city where I live (Eksjö, sweden). He has great talent for painting miniature models for games like Warhammer 40k etc.

He has offered to paint backgrounds for the game, which I'm eagerly waiting to see!

Here's a link to his blog:

http://mytinythings.blogspot.com/

What's new since last post?

Earlier this week I added a water surface tile animation which I place upon the first water tile animation I crated, making the water look more real.

Today I added two things, water movement to the player and a new simple enemy AI.

Water movement:

As soon as the player steps down into the water, the movements become "sluggish".

Enemy AI:

The enemy is of the most simple kind, it bumps between two walls, going forth and back in en endless loop, until the player kills it.

Video of the new stuff:

Or download directly from here (higher quality, 4MB):

Download new enemy and water movement avi

See you next post!

SolarStrings

The Forgotten Planet - Story.

2010-08-06T23:22:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Today I decided to start blogging about the game I'm making: "The Forgotten Planet"

The best place to start would be the question:

"What is the game about?"

Two aliens are on a mission from their home world to find a new planet to colonize. They are out exploring a new solar system when the ship scanner beeps: Possible new colonize able planet found. Immediately they pilot their ship towards the planet. However, once they enter the orbit of the planet, the automated planetary defense system shoots them down, and they crash land. Once down on the planet, they discover that their “long-space-communication” does not work from the planet.

The goal of the game:

The two aliens must now:

1. Find materials which they use to repair the ship with.

This will be a fun event in the game with a menu where you combine gathered materials to:

- Repair / build a part to the ship
- Upgrade / build a new weapon/item
- Upgrade armor

2. Close down the “planetary automated defense system in order to not get shot down, and to get out to space to deliver the good news to their home world: “We've found a new planet to colonize”.

I've been programming on the intro, and I'm about 30% done:

View Intro

What kind of game is The Forgotten Planet?

The forgotten planet is a 2D platform game where the game world will be free to explore: Go where you want, do what you want etc. Building new weapons/items will unlock new areas to explore, where enemies and bosses wait for your arrival, as you seek materials both rare and common which you need in order to repair your ship.

Here is a early in-game video (some borrowed sprites & tiles except from the alien & the fireball you see on screen):

View Early Gameplay

See you next post!

SolarStrings