Counter Reset

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!

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

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!

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!

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!

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)

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!

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.

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